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

Hi Androyd,

Nice of you to drop back in on us. Had to come here, not that every word we type is not watched, mind you, to say this.

We (actually a lot - a LOT - of kids) wrote a very long poem and posted it in our journal about 3 hours ago. It was about leaving or staying, and trying our best, because Things have been giving the kids flashbacks. It is gone. We went to edit the last entry in the queue, got back to home space, and it is GONE!

No House Rules were violated. It was a poem for chrissakes! Do they normally censor journals? Do they normally censor poetry? THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!

HELP!

Auntie, who is ballistic

Hey, Androyd!

Mikey the Humming Mouse came to the rescue, so we're okay. Thought I better let you know. Deballistified.

Auntie, for LeKZ

I am mystified, firstly by the fact that your poem doesn't appear to be back up and secondly that Peta says it is.

I wonder if I'll get a load of other people jumping into my perfectly friendly conversation over on this thread.

Actually, we ended up removing it. Just can't keep antagonising people like that. Besides, it made us a little too vulnerable. It was written by a group of kids, the schoolies, who've been having flashbacks over this whole experience. It was very stream of consciousness. We're might stick it in a Guide entry and call it Self Talk 1. The intelligence of doing that is being hotly debated right now.


Sara, covering for Auntie, while she calms down from the fiendly empathic ace**** who's been pushing her buttons.

Actually, we do *try*, consciously, to be consistent whenever possible. It is possible, as long as we do not end up under too much stress. That's when the Job Descriptions, like Protector, start being significant. Arpeggio can still write positive, upbeat, critiques of PR entries, and I can still keep a level head, but under this much stress, it is hard for the Protectors not to get in the way, to try to deflect stuff before it hits us.

Yeah, the title might actually keep this friendly! I'll have to remember to keep my threads happy by not calling them 'Welcome' or anything at all agreeable.

Cheers,
Sara, for LeKZ

SO its the protectors who step in aggressively? To protect the rest of you from harm? Perhaps you should view h2g2 as something a bit like LeKZ - we are collectively a multiple personality perhaps that's why you are drawn to us? Think of the moderators as being our own Protectors so try not to get too steamed up when they are overprotective. If they get it wrong this whole thing could get closed down. I have done much soul searching over whether to be associated with an entity which is subject to such 'moderation' or censorship as it technically is called in the real world. In the event I believe that the idea is worth perservering with for now although if they don't start lightening up I'll guess I'll have to find some other way of passing time.... I would really like to see your poem, could you post it on your meta-site perhaps, although its natural place should be on h2g2 if its about us.

Ok we said it was ok for the biguns to put it up just not to call a lot of attention to it. Like if you read it please don't put a comment there, make a new thread or put it here, please.

Marta (I'm 7) for the schoolies

Yes, it's the Protectors who get pixxed off, when people say things that make us feel abused again. We do not actually have as much of a problem with Nice Moderator as some people do. It is the inconsistency we perceive in what does and does not get called a 'problem' that is a problem.

The problem with censorship is XXXXXXXX.

We've seen how unmoderated, unfacilitated bbs go, and that is ugglee. So, we don't mind moderation, because the House Rules are very clear. We just wish they applied them in a way that does not seem quite so arbitrary. And that could be us, not them.

We *only* get aggressive if we've been aggressed upon, first. We can get annoyed, but that is not the same thing. That This Is an Outrage is our temper, actually lost, but no loss of control, because we did, in fact, manage to stay within House Rules (barely). If we went really apeshxt, we'd get offline, at once.

We know when we are being nasty, or rude, or inflammatory. Most of the time if we say it, it is because the point we want to make seems to mitigate the way we say it, to us. By and large, even Protectors would much rather have fun than defend ourself.

Auntie, whose main regret is signing Arpeggio's name to that piece of nasty -- not that we are not still waiting (and may wait forever) for that apology...

Marta - thank you all for the poem.

Parts of it made me cry - it reminded me of my son got bullied at school for 6 years because he was 'too clever'.He was 7 when it started. Still thats over now hopefully and he knows not to appear too smart now.

Not all teachers tolerate bullying but I know it was a teacher who started the bullying of my son.

Auntie - to answer your question on another thread I am a teacher who is the co-ordinator of a large nursery unit - teaching 3 and 4 year olds. I manage 8 staff and mentor a wide variety of students of varying degrees of age and aptitude. The school is in a deprived inner city area of London. We have up to 180 children every day and some of them are clearly being abused - being able to do anything about it is another matter. If we initiate a conversation in any way then anything said cannot be used as evidence so unless children are a) clearly marked and preferably accuse someone or b) repeatedly make allegations against someone, then we report to social services who may or may not respond. Quite how a 3 or four year old with little or no English is going to make a disclosure I fail to understand, but if we don't follow guidelines to the letter, then no action is taken. So does that make me an accomplice to the abuse? For those children we try to provide a 'safe haven' and make an extra special effort to build their self-esteem.
So you see the goings on here are really not that important to me and I'm fairly confident that there is nothing that can be said to get me too upset. Thats why you should be free to shout at me if you need to.
I can take it.
I get shouted at in real life.

Hi. It's me Marta again. Boy, we sure understand about your son. See, the way they do school here in the States, they start them in Nursery school at 4, or even PlaySchool which is more like Day Care at 2. They've got Kindergarten at 5. Then you start regular school at 6 and the classes' names just start with 1st Grade and go up through your diploma = A Level I think, 12th Grade is when you're 18.

We could read, and write, and do maths, and spell, and all that already when the body was 4. The parents brought us to the States when the body was 4 (Dec 1965). They didn't send us to Nursery School or Kindergarten because that would have been ridiculous and those grades aren't required. They had to send us to school when the body was almost 6 (birthday's in Oct, so we would have been a little young anyway). They teach the alphabet in 1st grade, and maybe 2+2 but nothing serious at all. There was no question of putting us in there it just would never have worked. So they tried 2nd, with the 7 year olds. That lasted not even a month. Then that school had a class for advanced 2nd and slow 3rd graders. The slow 3rd graders some of who were doing the year again, were 8 and 9 and did not like having to be in a class with 7 year olds, let alone a fat, foreign, funny-looking just turned 6 kid with an accent, who had hair down to her knees, couldn't play sports, and was still ahead of the whole class. They tortured us.

The school was 'progressive' which in 1967 meant it was a total funny farm. It was a private school, which means 'paid for' in the States. But it was not selective. It was a place where rich white people who had not very smart or well behaved kids could send their kids, to keep them away from the public (free) schools. Either they didn't want their kids in public school because they didn't like black people and puerto rican people, or they didn't because the NYC public schools are like where you teach and maybe always will be, only probably more violent.

We were little for our age, and two and a half grades accelerated (which is criminal) and we spent grades 2-3, 4 and 5 at that school so miserable and terrified all the time. The older, dumber girls beat us up in the girls' locker room all the time and did practical 'jokes' on us -- that's why there's alters from school it was so traumatic.

In 5th grade one time we came out after a really miserable day and said we're never going back there. The maybe one thing the parents did right was get us into a different school. We ended up at a very posh girls' school - think Eton and you have the idea, only day school - where the person in charge of grades 5-8 ages 10-14 said, you can't put her in the 6th grade here, those girls are already dating boys. She's not even 10 yet. So we did 5th grade again which probably saved our life. Now we were only a year and some accelerated.

These girls were so richer and more snobbish than thou I can't even describe it. Heiresses, like Caroline Kennedy went there. (She's really nice, though). We were still picked last always for sports and stuff, and had no friends. It was traumatic in a different way. We're pretty scared of boys from the 1st school it was like Lord of the Flies there. Girls can be hateful, but this school was really selective. Nobody ever liked us, and later the group that took over from us schoolies became the only serious punker in the history of that school which is funny, we think. That would be in 1977 or so, when the body was 16 and absolutely everything was so out of control at home.

You're allowed to drop out at 16, but there's no O-levels type of thing. If you drop out, you dropped out. You can take something called the Graduate Equivalency Diploma test, which if you pass it, it's considered the same as graduating from your local public school (only it's not really, not with employers or colleges that are picky). There's 2 more years of regular school after 16, then you go to 'college' which is 4 years for a BA and is the same as uni I think.

By then, nobody cared. We cared, but they'd smushed us because we were such a social retard. They went punk and kicked us down the metaphorical stairs and used drugs and we couldn't even peek out any more because we were such a loser. That's called 'internal perping' from perpetrator of a crime.

Gosh your social services systems worse than ours! No, you're not an accessory if your hands are tied by the system. The laws here vary practically by county or city. You've at least got a standard set.

Still, that's why our biguns didn't become a social worker... to much burn out from all the things the system doesn't let you do. It takes a lot of guts and determined and making up your mind that this is really important to do what you do. Everybody's glad you help disadvantaged kids because there are so many. We just happen to be a really really advantaged kid whose parents may have been rich but they were no good. What do you get when you cross sociopathic with oblivious? Us.

I've been talking and talking but thank you for listenting and being so much help today. We're going to make them feed us already. If us kids don't insist, they don't eat.

ttyl
Marta for all the schoolies

Marta are there any three or four year olds in there? - perhaps I could talk to them, maybe you could tell them what I'm posting and get them to tel you what they want to say, since I guess they can't read or write. Or can they? Would any of you mind?

We got more 3s and 4s than you could ever imagine like whole cities full! 2s and 1s and babies too. Yeah, most of them can read. Didn't you see Pat is 4 and Pat put up us kids's site? Pat's a Protector though but sure, they say no problem,and the ones that don't speak English we'll translate like always.

Marta

Welll in that case I'd like to say hi! to of of you. My names Andy, and you'd know me straight away if you saw me 'cos I wear a big yellow watch round my neck. DO any of you want to tell me your names?

ok mosiuer andy, but its 3 in de mornen heer so we b kwik ok im benjamin im 3 i no inglish gud n de biguns showd us how 2 usz de butins wif de letrs on um im fum de lil lef sid kidz groop n weer urly mmc kidz but we al beter u cn alws sa benjamin fum lil lef sid kidz weer 2 n 3 n ders bowt 600 2s n 550 3s heer just in r groop if u want tak 2 us

Hi Mr Andy this is Pat Im 4 and Im the Kid Pertecker here along with StellaLunaGeorge that are 4, 3, 2. Anything you say to me if you tell me to pass it on to the Peoples Republic of Children Ill do that. Were a independint sub govermant here and usally Im spokeskid. The PRC ofishuly gos to 13. I dono wat you wana no, so I gota wait for queschuns.

salu m andy, est-ce que vou parlai fransai I have to write for them because of Nice Moderator and the language thing -- they, and I are the C-Girls, they are my 33 little sisters. They are 2 and 3, and the twos speak English, but don't read and write so well, and the threes all speak French and some of them can read simple English, but they can't write it at all. I'm Penny, and I'm 10. I'm their primary caregiver, but that's okay with me.

Hullo Mr Andy,
My name is Jani. I am four. I am the eldest child of the Littlest, who are 6 months to 1 and three quarters. I have a friend who is a small elephant named Hathni. She is not a baby, she is just small.

We have to go to sleep now, but if you have questions, just ask, and whoever wants to answer will do that. Okay?

Good day to you, and nighty night for us.

Penny des C-Filles for LeKZ

im trinka im 3 and i wantid my own letr so her it is im part of hom sa kids groop but we dont wory bowt it no mor

wy yu wer a wach on yu nek for

Hi trinka, iwear a watch on my neck so I can know what the time is - don't wear one on my wrist 'cos I keep taking them off and losing them

I don't know what hom sa kids groop is? What is it? I'm glad you don't worry any more.

Groups of kids: Agency Programmees
lil lef sid kidz (Little Left-Side Kids) ages 2-3
All others ages 4-7 are just MMC kids + many MMC adults
(primarily or exclusively Francophone)

Home Sexual Abuse (exclusively incest) Group ages 3-19

C-Girls (father + women perps/orgies): ages 2-3, +1 10 yr old, 1 adult
(2s bilingual British English/French, 3s Francophone)

Former child prostitutes (eX Working Girls) ages: 8-adult

Littlest (incest and mind-control): 6mos-1 3/4 yrs +1 4year old + many adults (who are often called 'Zonies', or parts of the 'Clone Zone' and are all British)
(Trilingual British English/Hindi/French)

Schoolies: 6-14 +1 adult (and many other adults, overlap w/MMC, Homies, etc)(Bilingual American English/French)

Too Cool for School: 15-17 (all psych inpatient Inside, langs same+ Spanish)

Pat's Kids: infant-2 mostly fragments, infant incest (but no mind-control) kids (Baby, some Hindi, some American English)

Little Pneumonia Babies: 6 weeks (vocalise and look around)

Bigger Pneumonia Babies, AKA The Twos: 2, duh (American English; they re-learnt how to speak after they stopped being in a coma, which was only a few years ago -- they are mischief!)

'The Unshrivels'- infant - 7 years Group sex/orgy, kid-swapping and porn films, very fragmental (Baby, American English, but they don't have much to say...

'Homies'- infant - adult, primarily maternal emotional abuse, (Baby, British English up to 6, American English over 6/Hindi/ school French)

Lots of individuals who are not part of larger groups, of course, also sub-groups. Groups who are products of the same, or very similar events tend to think of themselves as 'families', especially if the group is fewer than about 40 in number.

Now you know.

Penny des C-Filles, 10

Thank you for all that, now I know a little bit more about who I am talking to .

Trinka - I have had my yellow watch for a long time - at least 10 years. The ones I wore on my wrist all seemed to want to run away after about six months. Perhaps I have unpleasant wrists

To all kids

I want to tell you a bit of a sad story and see if you can help me. Where I work there was a lovely wooden house just especially the right size for 3 and 4 year olds to play in. It had blue and yellow walls and a red roof and a door and three windows. The children all loved playing in it. It has been there a long time - 7 years. On Sunday night someone climbed over the fence around the school and burnt the house down. I don't know who or why. The children are all very sad and don't understand why someone would do that who doesn't know them. There seems to be no real reason anyway. What I wanted to ask is this: Should I try and get the house replaced as much like before as possible( although this may be hard to do) or should I use this as an opportunity to put in something completely different? Since I'm talking to a lot of you already I just thought I'd ask. I hoe you don't mind.

don b so sily ask u kkids dat it was dem hous tel wat u cood do difnt an askk is it betr difern or lik ol 1 dat bery meen but we cant fink aboet it is de badest ting

leon

_______________________________________

Sory Mr Andy. This is Stella of StellaLunaGeorge (just like Animaniacs, only weerder). We had to edit a whole lot out of the story because we have a lot of lil lef sid 3 kidz who have really bad stuf about f-r- we dont even let them see the word.

thats horbel and they shuold cachum and throw um in the oshun and let the sharks get um rekin kidiz playhousiz wata monstew it was tinagers i jist bet thot lota lafs spoil lilunses fun hop they nevr hav no fun agin in ther hol lifs and liv t be 200 an alwys miserbl. george

That would be my little brother George, who doesnt have any anger isues at all. Not him.

We agree with Leon (pronnonced the French way but I dont no how to do axents on the puter. We cn tel you wat we think but you shud ask the kids that it was ther hous, not us.

wed want new improvd stronger beter sayfer biger but the sam disine and colers me benjamin but its not ar hows is it

This would be a consenses Mr Andy, its not up to us cos its not ours.

Stella

I understand its not your house but many many of the children in my nursery do not speak English, and they can't really tell me what they want. Of course I ask the ones who who do speak but mostly right now they just want their old house back. I don't think it was teenagers because the house has been there 7 years - why wait 7 years to burn it? Anyway I won't mention the f word again when talking to kids, I didn't realise it was upsetting. Thank you Leon thank you everyone - but I need to do some more figuring. I am just sad that there are such selfish horrible people in the world.

Why to wait seven years do it now. It could be zey ar new or just wimzy why do de teenager do anysing?

Well we are som olders ones boys we have sink about and it is probably more better to get back for zem soon not so much to worry about how she look? Is important, she was dere house you get ze sooner maybe not wait but make sure is all fiberglas and noninflammables.

Solomon, pour les Six(ages 6-7)
Adam
Ezekiel
Avram
Moishe
Yeh'osef

Sorry about the delay, I've just got a superduper new computer and it's taken me a while to sort myself out again.

Thank you for your suggestion. We are going to wait until afer the summer holiday and then take the time to investigate buying a commercial playhouse and whether we can get some thing to help stop it burning. I think it was someone in particular who had a grudge against the school.

We will NOT let ignorant people win - so we will just keep replacing the house however much they try to destroy it. It is so important for all my friends in nursery to have somewhere they can play.