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

No I am not posting my novel in progress, but I might put another short story on soon.

Are you away at University? Is that why you do not live with Mum? Guess you go home for the holidays though.

I wont get much writing done next week with my grand daughters here but after that I will get back to it.

Best wishes
Carole

Here is a Geography lesson...

Yes, I am far, FAR, AWAY, at university. Well, let me describe the geography of Canada:

I go to the University of Laurentian in the city of Sudbury, in the province of Ontario. Look at...

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/region/ontario.html

...to get an idea of the scope of Ontario.

The length of Ontario is roughly 1200 miles. A mile is 1.6 kilometres. In Canada, the rule of measure is done in the French system of Metric. I can do the math, . So...

1200 miles
0.6
720.0 kilometres to be added to the original 1200

1200
+720
1920 kilometres (roughly)

The span of Ontario is 1920 kilometres.

My mom lives in Alberta, and that is two provinces over to the west of Ontario. So there is Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan AND THEN Alberta.

Check out the Map of Canada:
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/canada.html

The total meandering coast of Canada is 202 080 kilometres, which is 168 400 miles. Or, because I like to amuse myself with math ...

33680
0.6/202080
18
22
18
40
36
48
48
00

202 080
-33 680
168 400 kilometres

***I should be a teacher.***
***I could be insulting your intelligence but I don't know.***

[damned h2g2 better not present my equations askew]

>>Actually, I am doing this geography lesson
>>for myself as well as for you.

Alrighty, Manitoba is the western Neighbour of Ontario, and it is 200 miles (320 kilometres) across its southern border to the United States.

Then there's the province of Saskatchewan, which is roughly 250 miles (350 kilometres) across its middle. Saskatchewan is fat at its southern border to the United States.

And finally there is the home province of my mother, father and brother, which is ALBERTA.

Check out:
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/region/alberta.html
to see the layout of Alberta

Roughly 100 miles from the western border of Saskatchewan lays the city of Edmonton (The Central City of Alberta). My family lives there, and I live in Sudbury, Ontario, roughly 1325 miles from Edmonton or 2120 kilometres. England is definitely small compared to that distance. However, your son is separated by a far greater distance from you (he being in Australia) than I am from my own family in Edmonton, Alberta.

I miss my mom, my brother and dad. I am not as close to my dad as I am to my mother. Him and I are too alike to the point that we repulse each other. I have to frequently not debate with him because he will just perseverate and so will I in an opinion. We are called stubborn. However, I love all of my family.

I will tell you about what I do at university in my next message. This message is already long enough.

READ THIS INSTEAD. I had to repost for the sake of showing math figures well.

Here is a geography lesson...

Yes, I am far, FAR, AWAY, at university. Well, let me describe the geography of Canada:

I go to the University of Laurentian in the city of Sudbury, in the province of Ontario. Look at...

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/region/ontario.html

...to get an idea of the scope of Ontario.

The length of Ontario is roughly 1200 miles. A mile is 1.6 kilometres. In Canada, the rule of measure is done in the French system of Metric. I can do the math, . So...

1200 miles
x0.6
720.0 kilometres to be added to the original 1200

1200
+720
1920 kilometres (roughly)

The span of Ontario is 1920 kilometres.

My mom lives in Alberta, and that is two provinces over to the west of Ontario. So there is Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan AND THEN Alberta.

Check out the Map of Canada:
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/canada.html

The total meandering coast of Canada is 202 080 kilometres, which is 168 400 miles. Or, because I like to amuse myself with math ...

*****33680
0.6/202080
****18
*****22
*****18
******40
******36
*******48
*******48
********00

202 080
-33 680
168 400 kilometres

***I should be a teacher.***
***I could be insulting your intelligence but I don't know.***

[h2g2 did show the math figures askew in my first message,
but not in this one! ]

>>Actually, I am doing this geography lesson
>>for myself as well as for you.

Alrighty, Manitoba is the western Neighbour of Ontario, and it is 200 miles (320 kilometres) across its southern border to the United States.

Then there's the province of Saskatchewan, which is roughly 250 miles (350 kilometres) across its middle. Saskatchewan is fat at its southern border to the United States.

And finally there is the home province of my mother, father and brother, which is ALBERTA.

Check out:
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/region/alberta.html
to see the layout of Alberta

Roughly 100 miles from the western border of Saskatchewan lays the city of Edmonton (The Central City of Alberta). My family lives there, and I live in Sudbury, Ontario, roughly 1325 miles from Edmonton or 2120 kilometres. England is definitely small compared to that distance. However, your son is separated by a far greater distance from you (he being in Australia) than I am from my own family in Edmonton, Alberta.

I miss my mom, my brother and dad. I am not as close to my dad as I am to my mother. Him and I are too alike to the point that we repulse each other. I have to frequently not debate with him because he will just perseverate and so will I in an opinion. We are called stubborn. However, I love all of my family.

I will tell you about what I do at university in my next message. This message is already long enough.

***here is somewhat of a long email***

h2g2 is disagreeing with me

*Grrr*

Well, I believe that you get the idea of what my math figures show.

Now about Leiann at University:

I am taking both 2nd year and 3rd history courses. I have just turned 24, and I should be 22 at this level. However, I started elementary school when I was 6 because I didn't talk until I was 5. I then, after highschool graduation, took a year off (but first did a semester in College in January 2001). I then enrolled at university at the University of Windsor in southern Ontario in the fall of 2002. You can look at the Map of Ontario to see where Windsor is located.

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/region/ontario.html

Well, these details may be boring to you with not enough glory in them, however, I will get to more entertaining points soon enough.

I transferred to Laurentian in Sudbury in January 2004, and I have been here since. I am taking wonderful! history as my degree, and I suffer from severe doubt on some occasions wondering if this degree would really matter in the world of work. But I plan to be a scholar and, hopefully, a useful scholar as my job in the World of Work.

I was a professional slacker in highschool with little confidence and ambition. But! ...I got major confidence and ambition after the year I graduated in 2000.

In highschool, I got a boyfriend. He was what mattered to me, and I was silly to believe this. I only made myself into an accessory in his life and not a person who could really do anything except amuse him like a dancing monkey. I am bitter about my past relationship with him because I know that I REALLY wasted my time. However, I did get a good lesson from wasting my time with him: I will never do that again. While I was with that boyfriend I became stupid, and now I am at my full working capacity in university!

In university I had to change one of my values: I had to give up FIRST wanting a husband and a family of my own.

I could frustrate myself looking for a guy to be my boyfriend (to court), but I can't let my schoolwork be neglected.

*Sigh* the time is not right. Yeah rightttt, I believe in timing.
Reality happens as you make it.
However, timing happens anyway and I have to deal with the circumstances as they happen.

***Well, my next email will be jolly as usual ***

At university, I am happy doing my schoolwork. But I am miserablely wondering if I am a loser because I don't have a boyfriend or an engaged boyfriend. I shouldn't compete with other women because that is an unnecessary bother. There are women my age who are getting married -- or at 22, and some of them are married with babies of their own. I am looking at an old world within this current world of women going to university, and this old world is a stark contrast. I am a New World Woman and I won't drop dead from childbirth or because of my husband, but I will drop dead because I am a surrogate man doing the math to get a career and to keep that good job.

Alrighty you have read enough of that. I will be writing my ghost story, and that will be funny and entertaining! I do rant, but I try to make a satire. So the ghost story will be a satire about my life, however, there is a happy conclusion. The ending will be surprising.

Have fun with your family this weekend!

Oh, try to get a story out onto h2g2. You can do it.

Dear Leiann,

Thank you for that geography lesson. I have to say it was not my best subject at school. I think because the teacher made it soooo boring. I really do think that teachers can make or break you don't you? Obviously teachers are much better nowadays than they were when I was at achool. Then we were scared of them - they could hit you as they pleased and some were sadistic bullies. Imagine the fear in a little five year old child away from Mum for the first time witnessing other children being hit with a stick or a slipper and fearing that it might be your turn next. Is it any wonder we didn't learn?

Having said all that though - at least the kids in my day left school being able to read and write and spell properly. That is not always the case now - not in England anyway.

I see from the map that you are some way from your Mum - I know Canada is a huge country so although it is just a couple of Provinces away that is a vast distance.

It was interesting to see a London on the map and Sudbury is a place here in England (in Suffolk). I know the early settlers took their place names from England in all the colonies - it is the same in America and Australia. I didn't notice Coburg on the map of Ontario. My husband has a cousin who lives there. He keeps asking us to visit him - maybe we will one day. This fall we are planning to go and see my brother who lives in Virginia.

From being a child who was thought to be autistic you have certainly proved everyone wrong. You seem to be doing really well at University and I wish you every success. Leave all thoughts of marriage and kids to one side until you have achieved what you want to do. Once you get bogged down in that life you would never get out again believe me.

I don't regret my life at all, of course. I had Chris when I was 21 and Lesley at 23. I was never really academic although (with the right teachers!) I probably could have done better. But coming from a one parent family (my father died when I was 8) I had to leave school at 15 in order to help my mother. So I became a secretary, got married, had children and as soon as they were old enough went to work and was a secretary till I retired. But I always wrote stories and now perhaps I will get more published. When I have time - because I am still running the B&B here in Devon - and that is very time consuming. It does let me meet lots of people though, who sometimes are used as characters in my "fiction".

Well, keep up the studies - I know you will do well.

Best wishes
Carole

Greetings Carole ,

************************************************************************
I just started writing a story in this message.

I say that I won't be writing long messages, but then I think of things to talk about that I think are entertaining. And since you let me talk about things that I think are interesting, I end up writing long messages.

Okay, in this message, I started telling a story about a British Soldier named John Browne.
Hmmm, I might as well write about him and Edward Styles in my ghost story.
Hmmm, oh what the crap, I might as well write about John Browne separately and his love affair with a French Canadian sweet woman.
Dammit, I have stuff in my head that I only have one library clerk to sort and get out. A metaphor for my mind is a library and one library clerk to sort the material and get it presented. So, I have to do one thing at a time.

Alrighty...

I have a real fascination and knowledge of 18th century European history and politics. I must be somewhat insane because I think, due to my fascination and because I really guess well about the motives of the politics of that time, I did live in that time in a previous life.
************************************************************************

Now, about Sudbury, Ontario:

I discovered that Sudbury was a place name in England, and so I knew that (after the British Conquest of New France, Canada, in 1759) A FEW towns were established in Southern and Northern Ontario, and were named after towns and cities in England. London, Ontario, for instance, was established (including naming the river that runs through it as the THAMES) to be the London, England, of British North America.

Alrighty, a History Lesson for you about the immediate consequences after the British Conquest:

But even though Canada was officially given over by France to England, the French presence of colonists never converted to being English. Why this is so is because the British administrators of Canada were worried of the revolt that was stirring in the south, or they were concerned with the prelude to the 13 colonies' War of Independence. So the new French Canadian British citizens were allowed to keep their culture and their language in exchange for their unremitting loyalty to England. The French Canadians agreed since they were worried for a different reason: They were worried of being expelled from their homesteads by the British, like the case of the French Acadians in Nova Scotia who claimed neutrality. The French Canadians prefered to keep their homes, and so they didn't want to take chances and join the American situation to the south. As part of their show of loyalty, the French Canadians let their daughters marry British soldiers who prefered to stay in Canada.

Now I will tell you a story.

Well, I will tell you that several British soldiers, who stayed to be the military police while Canada was being established as "British" in its government, liked and enjoyed the company of the resident French Canadians very much. Many British soldiers did come from poor backgrounds, and their service in the army merited them good meals and a duty ascribed with honour, which was better than being poor. So, MANY bachelor British soldiers wanted to remain and marry the daughters of French Canadian farmers because the future of being a farmer with a good wife and his own land was much better than being a career soldier. There were sooo many cases of romance, and it is unforunate that we, the posterity, can *only* see the motives of economic material betterment rather than the guts of risk-taking for a future with true love and happiness it in.

You may think that those British soldiers were trying to bargain for easy material betterment, but the real case was that a soldier had to become a hard-working farmer if he did marry the French Canadian daughter. Most often, the British soldiers were marrying for love and a hard-working Canadian future.

Here's the story of a British soldier:

Well this is a composit character, but with underlying truth.

[read in next message,
because I have to keep my posts not insanely long]

About the British soldier of the 18th century:

A British soldier wasn't from a farmer background most often because England didn't need/nor have hundreds of cultivating families with farm boys. There were yeoman families, but not many because 1) the geographical size of England was small, and 2) England had a major importing trade because of its colonies. So, a typical British soldier came from a family who was poor or from a family who couldn't afford to have all their sons trained as craftsmen.

Now, I will talk about John :

John Browne (I like that name ) fought against the French Imperial soldiers when he was sieging forts in Canada. He had been in the army for some time now, he was already 23, and he was doing well. French Canadian men did make ambushes against the British Regulars, however, the fighting was mostly done with British soldiers versing Imperial French Regulars from France. The "habitant" French Canadians fought in the Native-American-way (what you would call *Indian*), and the commissioned French General Montcalm abhorred this non-European conduct of war. So the French habitants were discouraged, and instead kept to defending their homesteads. Meanwhile, John Browne no longer was bothered to think of ambushing French Canadians (he didn't have to worry about their hitting, their running and their surprise return) but he concentrated on the sieging and claiming of Canadian forts. As well, after he claimed a fort, he had to endure a siege by the French Imperial Army.

Now you can see that British Soldiers and French Canadians, by the politics of the time, did not come to real literal nor metaphorical blows. The point of the war to gain Canada was to take all of the Canadian forts through chess moves. FINALLY, in 1759 (after the Fort of Quebec City was taken), Canada was won over by the British government because France decided that Canada was no real loss, and what mattered to France was that French Martinique was to be gained back into French Hands in exchange for Canada on the bargaining table.

The British army won, but the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 wasn't "officially" over. Canada had to be occupied by a military police force. So, for about 4 years after the capture of Quebec city, the British government established the British administration of Canada.

John was billeted with a French Canadian family.
Many soldiers were billeted alone, or in pairs, or in a group at a French Canadian homestead.
For three years, John was billeted separately with a French Canadian family whose last name was Prevost. He got to know the 22-year-old daughter named Aida.
Well, from there on until 1763, he liked Aida and her family. He thought of marrying Aida because her family was willing and he could decommission himself after the police service was no longer required. But if he became a farmer he would have to cope in a whole new world and do something he had never done before in this brave new world.
He loved Aida, and so he chose to marry her as a brave man instead of wondering.

And so, stories of romance (like this brief description) are rarely portrayed in the books of military and political history. But I only said rarely.

I might as well write more about John Browne (but not right here ).

Could you tell me what B&B stands for again?

Thanks for the advice about doing my schoolwork and not worrying about affairs of the heart, marriage and that "noise".

Well, fortunately, I have commited myself to academics. Yesterday, when I was giving you the geography lesson, I taught myself which no teacher, in highschool, could do: I taught myself how to do fractions and to convert Imperial measurement to that of Metric, and Metric to that of Imperial.

In highschool, I had only one impressive teacher -- well, two actually -- and this man said that all of us (as in, WE, the students) or most of us would not be footnotes in History Textbooks. I agree with him, but I think that most military and political history textbooks obviously don't have stories like that of *yours* and *mine* as a footnote.

I say that I will write my own history book.

You are right about teachers either making or breaking a student's interest. I have met a teacher or two who thought that I was deficient because I lacked confidence in my handwriting ability and confidence in doing math at the highschool level. Now I have proven them wrong since I'm determined to not be deficient. However, my handwriting is still chicken scratch CRAP to look at.

I can write, but my handwriting looks like that done by a Roman who writes in bold letters or like that of an Arab writing in arabic. I can write legibly, but I am shy about showing it off.

Now, you may have experienced the teacher's frightening presence. But the reverse is true for the teacher in this day and age of schools in Canada and abroad. The student is now unruly since the teacher can only send the student to detention, suspend or expel the student for bad behaviour. Most students, who value their academic credit/and standing, won't get in trouble. However, there are those who don't go to school for an education but to rule it. Also teachers are viewed with suspicion as though they are discreet sex predators who would bargain for sex with a student when no one is looking. The teacher now has every right to be afraid of going to school! The teacher is now afraid of violence from the student because the students who wish to rule the school simply go to school to challenge the teacher. Troublemaking students can be expelled, but then there would be a class of troublemaking teenagers roaming the streets who would then mature as a class of criminals. The social problem of discipline has to be instilled kindly when the student is still young. Well, I believe in discipline because I actually try to get along with others in society instead of being a nihilist. If I were a Simpson's character, I would be Lisa Simpson even though I like Bart.

Thank you for the wishes.

Wow, where can I start! Thanks Leiann for the history lesson of Canada. Your story of John Browne is promising I think (though Queen Victoria's famous servant (some say also lover) was called John Brown).

As you say the roles are reversed now and it is the teachers who are afraid to go to school. In all things we seem to go from one extreme to the other - we need to find some middle ground for the sake of all concerned.

B&B means Bed and Breakfast - it is a small guest house where people come and stay - we have three letting bedrooms (i.e. we can take six people at a time). They pay and we let them sleep in the beds and give them a hearty English breakfast in the morning. It is like a hotel really except that we are not licenced to sell drinks and we have no retaurant to serve dinners. Perhaps you don't have B&Bs in Canada. They do in America and in Australia and in South Africa. It is a fun way to earn a living - we meet nice people (though some not so nice) and we can decide when we want to work. It beats working for someone else and being tied to their working patterns and holiday dates. It is hard work - always the house has to be tidy and clean and when they leave I have all the washing of bed linen and towels to do. But, as I said, it is better than working for someone else.

I must go now - my grand daughters will soon be arriving
Speak soon - though I may not have much time this coming week. But I will not forget you - be sure of that!

Carole

Ohhh, B&B means bed and breakfast.

Carole, certainly there are bed and breakfast homes in Canada. Oh, I don't have pictures, however, this summer I will be taking photos of where I will be in the Canadian Rockies (the rocky mountain range that goes from Alaska along the western Border of Alberta, and through Montana down to Mexico).
I can then, after the summer, show you pictures of those bed and breakfast places in Banff, Alberta.

The house that I told you about, which is suspected of being haunted by a ghost or ghosts, is NOW a bed and breakfast place.
I used to call it the Red House. It's still there in Canmore, Alberta, which is a 15 kilometre (9 miles) drive from Banff. Now the house is called the Amble Inn, and I wouldn't stay there. I bet the guests have experienced some level of creepiness in that house. They should stay away.

When my aunt Cynthia was staying in the Red House, she dreamt of a Snake Indian (Native American) coming in through my bedroom window on the Second Floor, and she tried to close the window to keep the warrior out. The Snake Tribe travelled in and out of the Bow Valley in which Canmore and Banff are today situated. This band didn't appreciate white settlers moving in and taking over the Bow Valley. There may be perhaps native burial grounds in both Banff and Canmore. Perhaps the Red House is built on a burial ground, but would that make a difference? What is suspected is that there is a electromagnetic field of higher density in the place and surrounding the place of the Red House, and the sensitive person feels a presence/or haunting there because of this field.

Now about what you earlier said about teachers:

You are right that people's response shouldn't swing from one extreme to another. I agree with you.

I don't know if you've heard of this Historian, but I will tell you anyway.

Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel put this forward:

Thesis: An idea, way of doing things exists. For example, teachers use corporal punishment to discipline students.

Antithesis: A disagreeing idea, way or doing things happens in response. For example, the teachers were eventually considered to be abusive, and so corporal punishment was stopped.

Synthesis: A compromise happens, or a balanced combination of the conflicting ideas happens (or people follow the middle ground). For example, (lets hope that) the teachers are the authority, neither a tyrant nor lax, and the students listen and they are neither abused nor unruly.

...and the synthesis then becomes the new way or thesis. However, the cycle continues.

Hegel put forth that History and Progress is the way of conflict or war. Well, he is right. But "life as war" never changes but only the battles or disagreeing ideas change. Would you, if you lived as different people throughout history, like to live in a fight all the time? There are breaks of peace in between the battles of war, but History and Progress is a ceaseless war/and conflict. The constant conflict makes life hell. War is humanity's suicide in progress -- that is what I say.

Well, I will keep this message not-so-long. I will type another.

Have a good time with your granddaughters.

Oh, I haven't started writing my ghost story yet because I am jittery. I have to start the work.

Start writing your novel. I will be curious to read it because I like reading about English happenings, comings and goings.

Write to me when you're back online.

Here is some news for you:

I have decided to scrap my "Serenity" story because it is insanely looong to write. I will write my ghost story instead.

I feel that my "Serenity" story is good since it helped and entertained me when I was having problems in this current world. But, I don't want to type it out now. I feel that it's silly nostalgia.

I say that I will be writing my ghost story but, right now, I am working on my schoolwork.

Also, I have undoubtedly decided to scrap my hopes of ever being married and having kids. Instead (well, according to my opinion right now) I am fully committing myself to becoming an academic.

I asked my mom if people could succeed doing and balancing two very different things at the same time. She told me, "No. Most people do seem like they balance two different things well at the same time. [For example: A Career and being a full-time Parent.] But really they don't succeed at doing both effectively, or they really become ineffective taking care of one of their things that they are doing." I am comforted by her answer. While she was doing her Master's Degree, or her Thesis at university, she became pregnant with me in her second year and she subsequently dropped out of the Master's Programme because of me. It is only last year, when I am in university, that she has resumed to finish her Master's Degree. This is only one telling example of what she meant.

I am really going to specialize, and so I need to train well. I won't be able to afford being concerned with marrying and having kids of my own. I won't be able to be a full-time parent, and I feel that kids need a full-time mom or one that would be better than I can imagine myself as while having a career and children at the same time.

Bye for now.

tell me about how your time with your granddaughters fared