h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello and welcome to the wonderful community of h2g2 , also called 'hootoo '
I am your <./>ACE</.> and have come to meet you and to greet you and to help you with your first steps on this site.
First things first :
, there's always somebody near to help you with whatever your problem might be. For example you can reply to this message and/or ask me a question by simply pressing the reply button. Or you can click on the name above this message, which will bring you directly to my Personal Space ( recommended ), where you can leave a message for me.

Here is the Welcome Message from DNA, the founder of the site: A157349

h2g2 is all about writing entries for the edited guide, and I'm fairly sure there'll be a topic YOU could write about, so why not give it a try?
Go here for more info: A53209
In case that's not your cup of tea, there's still the <./>writing-alternative</.> and the <./>Underguide</.> for creative writing, as well as <./>ThePost</.>.

Things you should know before you start :
This is an open forum, so everything you post can be read by everybody else, and you cannot delete it, nor can you correct it once it is sent. This is where the 'preview' button below your answering box comes in handy.
The only thing you can edit or delete, is any guide entry you create, which includes the introduction on your Personal Space.
So why not read the Guide to Netiquette on h2g2 at A901838 before you put your foot in? You're much less likely to accidentally upset somebody if you're familiar with the site's Netiquette. To give you an impression of how you may feel if you posted before thinking, take a look here: A11284193
If you reply to this message and tell me a bit about your interests, I can most certainly point you directly to the best places to go.

For more tips and insight you can read these pages:

h2g2 in a nutshell: A8468742

Hints and Links: A719840

and don't miss to read the <./>FrontPage</.>, and the aforementioned forums.
Take your time, have a look around the site, and enjoy yourself .
P.S. I'm certainly prone to having forgotten something vital to you, so please don't be shy, hit the reply button below this message.

Bel

Who could you possibly mean?
Thanx for your welcome message - I just don't know what to answer to that. Well, at least there now seem to be some issues we share...

Tell me about your knee, if you don't mind. My nephew is having trouble with his knee, it probably needs to be operated.

Oh, and most people don't reply to the welcome. Some do, either just saying 'thank you', or telling me something about themselves.

I've got the licence to beep at airports...
After hurting for several weeks my knee fractured, and the X-ray showed a tumor. So there is now some bone replaced by metal. So now I've got to learn walking anew. And of course there is still the need for chemo-therapy

Good grief, poor you.

Still, if they found out early enough to keep the cancer from spreading, I guess you're still lucky. I hope the chemo won't be too straining.

It has been so far - I had 4 cycles until now. At the moment I'm not so sure whether to carry on. It's just too depressing lying in bed at the hospital for a week, trying to recover from the chemo for one week and spending the next week looking forward to the next cycle. And then of course I'm against hi-tech medication... And then I feel better since I took the break and so it's not so easy finding the motivation to continue.

Yes, I can imagine that. On the other hand: what alternatives do you have?

Btw, your post about underpants and nuts: I think that's just typical German, I've never seen it referred to as nuts in English. It's balls or another other word starting with b and going on with ull and ending with ocks ( I'm not sure the profanity filter will let the word get through if I type it in one, and even if, it could still trigger some moderation) as far as I know.

So where do you keep your pistachios for a snack?
I wonder why I am convinced having read it somewhere though...

Well, there is an alternative: amputation
And of course enjoying life as long as possible. I don't think I'd really enjoy living just from one chemo to the next...

Well, if truth be told, I'd not keep any food in my knickers.

Did the doctors give you an outlook on how many more chemos you have to expect?

I'm glad you found hootoo, this is an amazing community, and the friends you'll find here will support you and give you strength in your hard times. If you are interested, you can join me and many of my friends in my journal here:

F127730?thread=3848857&latest=1

Don't try to read the nearly 40,000 posts we have ammassed within the year it has been going, although if you have the time and energy, why not. It's a lot of fun and friendly banter.

If you think that is not your cup of tea but like to write something, have a look at <./>ThePost</.>, maybe you can write something for us*?

There are many ways to get creative here, if you want.


*I am part of the team.

Oh, it was not a matter of finding it. It's just that I don't own a computer, so you had to wait for me to find out how to enter the net with my mobile phone...

Concerning the cancer - well, they say it's about half gone, so it'll be at least 4 more. But then you never know whether it will be back some day. So I'll have to get a CT at least twice a year...
I think I'd have prefered not to know about it.

Oh, and I think I'll wait a little before writing an article... It's early days yet.

Oh, so you've known about h2g2 before then?
Isn't it expensive to access via your mobile phone? And your posts don't look as if they were done on a mobile, either. Or are you in an internet cafe, or at work?
Can you work in between chemos?

Working is quite difficult at the moment. I mean I still can't walk properly and as a cycle messenger...

I learned about h2g2 when I bought "Salmon of doubt" as soon as it was published.

And it's not as expensive as I would have thought. I think the cost doesn't depend on how long you are online but on how much data you transfer. But then I have to recharge the battery twice a day...

I think the cost depends on your provider and sort of contract.

It was 'The Salmon of Doubt' that brought me here, but I only read it in 2003, so about a year after it was first published.
I've been a member of h2g2 ever since, though.

It's Aldi prepaid.

Btw - my experience in this kind of communication dates back to '88, although it was still on paper then; and it still is!

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say. I remember that in '88 we used to write letters, on paper.
With my parents, it's still 'proper' letters - or calling them, because they don' have internet.
For everybody else, it's mainly typing words on a keyboard which is connected to a PC.

In the late 80s there were all those free advertising papers and people used those to chat. Now we have to make do with our own papers.
> das-fragezeichen.de

My first son was born in 1988, I had no time to chat for years after that.
I'll check the website out when I get a minute, so I'll get an idea what you are talking about.

It's something like chatting in slo-mo. It's not really up to date though...

Oh, don't worry, I don't intend to join, I only had a brief look.

Well, it's not as if you could take a look at it for hours...
Unfortunately there are only about 10 people left. It's rather hard to get novices to join.