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

Hello Peanut. I hope your break helps you with the life changes and the stack of little things. Lots of perculiar .

I've just realised this is post 4242. So it ought to be the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Twice.

But all I can think of is the housewife's code:
'If it moves, feed it. If it doesn't move, clean it.'

heheh post 4242 is the answer to everything, twice. .

The Answer Answer to Everything Everything!

Including the housewife's code. If it moves, feed it twice, if it doesn't move, clean it twice.

Or not.



Exit pursued by mvp.



I've been gadding about. Been down in Cornwall with my niece and a family friend. Really magic.

While we were there, a huge cruise ship sailed into Fowey harbour. A couple of tugs met it out at sea and towed it in backwards.

What is the curious excitement and anticipation of watching ferries and ships? Or even being on them. The land and sea. Watching the land disappear, and then coming into view. Watching a ship in the distance coming into view.



I have photos of things, many things, all of which are pending. I am a pending situation. My life de-pends on pending.

Perhaps this week I will catch up, and evolve from pending to .. what's the opposite of pending?



All my spare moments, when not gadding about, have been absorbed by the analogue synth, upon which I am learning to express the pattern of moment, to startle the flies and the ladybirds.

No humans have yet been subjected to my creations. I value my friends.

I am exceptionally and ecstatically excited because of ESP.

Yes! ESP! Extra Sensory Perception of course, but in synth language, ESP means External Signal Processing.

And as far as I can see, the two are the same thing. Sort of. Almost. It's very poetic.

I saw a nighthawk* Saturday night, exactly at nightfall, swooping about, scooping up insects.

Also three bats, with more every night since.

Apparently the bat population is beginning to recover after the fungal epidemic that reduced their numbers to nil.




*A small (for a raptor) night-flying bird that apparently hunts insects the same way bats do, given the similarly erratic way its constantly changing course to intercept insects, about 10"/25cm from beak to tail-tip, with patterned light brown and pale beiges markings on its feathers and golden eyes.

I'm glad the bats are returning. They are great at getting rid of those blood-suckers. Nighthawks sound interesting too.

http://www.birdzilla.com/birds/common-nighthawk/description.html

There's a controversy as to whether they use echolocation to find their insect prey in flight.

Though the nighthawk is considerably larger than most bats, their darting patterns of flight in pursuit of insects is identical to that of bats, in the same lighting conditions,so I find it hard to credit that they don't.

Interesting! I've never heard of a nighthawk. Just shows, one learns something new every day.

In fact, I learn something new every second. I'm learning a lot about analogue synth right now. I'm even taking photos of my synth and sending them to Mister D for . My friends will eventually have to make tea appointments with imaginary Aunts just to get away from me. .

I would talk about something else, but I'm obsessed right now. Although it's good to think about nighthawks.

I could go and play Song of the Nighthawk on my synth. Oh no! They will have to fly away to have tea with imaginary Aunts.

I don't think birdies have imaginary Aunts, or even real ones.



A UK Bank Holiday it is! Another one. T'was the Eurovision Song Contest last night, another glorious kitsch fest, although I only watched the voting. Well done Sweden!

We've just come back from another trip to France. No nighthawks there, but the long-eared owl sat in our tree again, we had a nightingale singing in our garden, a hoopoe walking down our drive, and a snake in our grass. It might have been a green whip snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_whip_snake#/media/File:Hierophis_viridiflavus.jpg
But it wasn't hanging around long enough for me to see.

Hullo mvp! Your France trip sounds like it was full of wonders from the natural world. A hoopoe? Walking down the drive? What??? Were you folks on that French wine again? heheh. I didn't think you got hoopoes in France.

The green whip snake sounds a bit snaky for my liking, but then it would be snaky because it's a snake. And I guess I'll allow it to be snaky, and anyway it might say that I'm waaay too humany for its liking.

I've been deeply obsessed with my music, the analogue synth briefly stole my soul, but I think it might have given it back now, not sure.

(Checks soul. Hmm. Not sure, soul still looks a bit weird, kind of luminous, with neon green veins).

I think it's to do with turning 60, I felt the need to ruin my recording machine with my sonic scatterings.

Have swum in the sea a few times recently. Well, I say swum, it's more like a run in, eeeee ow yow yoooopy doooopy, scare the jellyfish, sorry jellyfish, you shouldn't have to see me naked but you just did, I hope you recover. I might not recover from the cold, but hey, we'll work it out in the afterlife.

Is it swum or swam?

The word swum looks a bit strange. Perhaps because it's late at night, in fact it's twenty to one, ohmigod I must sleep.

I had this magic dream last night about this friendly old gentleman called Mr Fault, who worked at a railway station, helping people get on the right train. He was so nice. Funny name, eh, Mr. Fault.

When I woke up I was bereft that Mr Fault was only a dream, I wanted to go and talk about trains with him. Perhaps I'll meet him again in my dreams tonight, but I doubt it.

I never have been able to request a dream. Some people have the ability. If I ask for a dream about, say, an omelette, I will tend to have a dream about being chased out of a pizza cafe by an annoying elf.

Actually, I've never ever dreamt about an elf. I am glad about this.

I do like omelettes though. In fact they are my favourite food at the moment.

Am I rambling? I think I must sleep.

Swimming in the nude off the coast of England? You're lucky you didn't freeze. You could do with lots of Perculiar to warm you up.

We've often seen and heard hoopoes in France, but never so close before. The RSPB says we sometimes get them in the UK but I haven't seen them here. http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/h/hoopoe/

People, I want copy for .

CC, I've got pics from you through 22 June. Please take some snaps by the end of June.

Poems. Stories. Humorous anecdotes, or scary ones, about 'science fiction meets RL'. Or what you hate about technology.

Interesting, about the hoopoe.

I saw a couple of goldfinches the other day, I think. Are they the ones with the red head and the gold streak on their wings?



Hullo Mister D my friend. Hah! I was just thinking that it's time to return to my laptop, and infest hootoo with my vast and infinite wisdom. . Apart from the fact that you might regret your request, hahah, because my next project will hopefully involve a lot of photos of synths, and some quite stupid dialogue, but there we go.



I hope that everyone is well and enjoying summertime!

I was thinking of writing a story drawing on 1984's vision of Big Brother and the modern surveillance society. I don't want to be arrested or sued for libel though.

If everything's documented, you won't be. Wait...

I just read something about that.

http://www.tested.com/tech/concepts/460223-futurists-were-right-10-predictions-made-sci-fi-writers-came-true/item/surveillance-state/


'Fast forward to the 21st century and there are over 32 closed circuit television cameras within 200 yards of the house Orwell wrote his book.'

I looked that up for a forthcoming Post quiz.

That's the nice thing about living here in northern South Africa! I'm genuinely off the radar of the Illuminati/Whoever is ruling the world. Hardly any cameras over here! And I rarely travel with my cellphone ... and it's such an ancient clunky model I don't think anybody will be able to do anything with it. I can disappear with great ease if necessary ....

I suppose people do disappear in Britain. Homeless people, immigrants...people who might not be missed. But if you're a member of our 'civilised' society and have a mobile phone, a computer, a bank account, you'll be found. Probably.

Interesting.



We sometimes go out and about with pocket sized four track recorder, to catch the sounds of birds and urban sounds, to include in music tracks.

The other evening we were out walking. I was holding the mic up to the outside vent of a boiler room of the Council building near us (which is attached to a lovely park). There was the low deep hum of the boiler, and the husband was harmonising with it, and there were distant blackbird sounds.

Anyway, I realised later that the CCTV was watching us.



I was talking to someone about this, and he said that he had read about a musician who went around recording the music of trees and plants. However, that would have been in the country, perhaps, away from the camera eye.



Reminds me of the DVD I have about the Grateful Dead. When they were recording one of their first albums, Anthem of the Sun, they spent a lot of time in the studio trying to reproduce the 'sound of thick air'.

Of course, as Phil Lesh (band member) observed, Stockhausen had already paved the way for such experiments.

Which is too intelligent for me, because I don't know as much about Stockhausen as I should.



I wonder what CCTV cameras sound like?

PS Mister D, some Perculiar Piccies sent to you in the middle of the night, last night.



Will work on some more. One day I will get you those Brightling photos, ahhh one day. For now, you're stuck with henges, pepperpots, synths, electric lights, insects, and the music of the honeysuckle.

(Post Ed regrets everything).

Not at all. I'll get a gander as soon as I've caught up with this week.