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

I just had fun but I decided to post nevertheless for the simple reason that I happen to be ... er - me!

Well, suppose it would be nicer if somebody else but me would post into my forum, about "fun" or just "life, the universe, and everything"...

Have a go!

I think you will find this place a lot of fun - There are a lot of partis going on - try joining in

This link will let you know who is on line
http://www.h2g2.com/users.cgi

Try the Aces page you'll find lots of links from the front page
http://www.h2g2.com

Newcomers tend to hang out in the Aroma Cafe - you'll find a lot of more established h2g2'ers hang out there too.

You can click on my name above and it will send you to my page.
Happy Postings
vegiman

hey thx!

You have stumbled on the best place to have fun anywhere! We all have fun in h2g2!
Do drop by anytime and say hello
shazzPRME

Oooo Shazz I will have fun with you any time - but I need long arms to dance with you now

So true Veggie
Maybe the next get-together will suit you better... then we can have that dance after all
shazzPRME

Definately a fun place and when things aren't so fun there are always plenty of hugs once you get yo know people.

DD (who has had a reasonably fun day today)

Hey Menschenfresser
Where are you - not out IRL having fun are you
vegiman

Hi .... from your name, i was wondering if you were from Germany .... however, if not, would you kindly explain what Menschenfresser means on Betelgeuze or whereever you come from

no, not at all!
I'm supposed to be working for my oncoming examinations but as a matter of fact I spend the whole day today right here
as it seems like you

Hi Darwinist!

No, I'm neither from Germany (relieving? *g*) nor from Betelgeuze, but your guess wasn't that wrong since the nick IS German
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy would explain it like this:
"A Menschenfresser is a person who has decided that for better balance of the nutritional value of his food or simply for better taste (one of those is much more likely) to add carbon-based ape-descendand life forms to his menu. This is having a beneficial effect on stamina (or is it the chase? ;o), reactions (they tend to run away, after all), strength (they tend not only to run away) and intelligence (there's absolutely *NO* explanation for that) - ah, and appetite as well
Maybe just try it out but let my nick be as unique as it is now
Somehow I'm realizing that somewhere I slipped out of the guide entry without noticing but it is reassuring to see the positive effects, I just gave myself the idea of working a bit on this and submitting as a real entry - this one is most certainly missing ;o)

btw: where r u from?

cya,
menschenfresser

well ... I haven't tried since I stopped biting my nails, which was a long time ago, and I didn't really like the taste .... also, going to the supermarket is quite enough food-chasing for me. Still, I congratulate on your considerations about your choice of food. Being a food chemist myself I'm glad to hear that somebody cares about what he ingests. (Also that leaves me free to just eat everything I come across, though, in compliance with one of my favourite passages in h2g2 I do not eat anything that moves). But be careful: most people I know do not have a list of ingredients printed on them, also, you can't expect them to be honest if asked about their fat content, not to speak of their cholesterol level. Actually, you should eat only the ones you can't catch, if eat them you must.

And, yes, I am German, and I saw on that list (found it already?) that you were new today with a German name, and as everybody is really nice here, I thought, I'd just step in for a short hello and offer you a share of my 3 (!) day-experience here.

High!

*lol* yes but the beneficial effect increases with the effort it takes to catch them and fot the last effect there is no reason anyway
Basically I stick to the principle: If (s)he can run fast there can't be a reason why I shouldn't any longer after I digested him/her.
Unfortunately this doesn't work that well in the modern world any longer, but what does?

thank you for adding 200% to my experience

but would you also remove some % of my confusion please?
> if you are German why don't we simply SPEAK German ;o) and
> WHY do I have to explain you what my nick means???

can't await your answer (in E or German ;o)

Menschenfresser

here are the percentage enhancing answers:
1) But I do speakt (write) German. I've got an Babblet (Babel Fishh Applet) installed which does all the translations. You read the language that your subconcious expects. This Babblet is also responsible for any mistakes, and people tell me that it sometimes adds some rather sarcastic touch to the conversation, which is of course completely unintentional. Also, to some readers it sound a bit arrogant, but that is because it has too many Gold Fish in the family. If you have reason to complain, just tell me and I will tell him to behave, after all you're not a Fischfresser.
2) You didn't have to. I didn't even ask for it. But it's always nice to introduce oneself with the story of his name. I'll never ask you if I can have a bite off any sandwiches you carry, though.

Hi!

the percentage rather decreased, though

2) ok I got you wrong then but "would you kindly explain what Menschenfresser means" is kinda misleading, isn't it?
1)Ah which version do you use? seems to be working pretty well Last time I tried out the BabelFish it startet my homepage like this, "It makes happy me that you my HP as 843. found!"
I'll spare you what it did to the rest but I suppose my Fish had some kind of mental illness because the hp sounded quite ok in German

oh, would YOU be so nice to introduce yourself then?
und eine Aussprachanleitung wäre nicht schlecht

schöne Grüße,
Menschenfresser

Hi,

you are right, it is definitely misleading, but I was actually thinking about the passage in HHGG, where the advertising lettering for the Sirius Kybernetics Company or something half crashed through some building and the upper half of these letters mean something like "stick your head into a pig" and are illuminated only on special holidays. Nattürlich weiß ich was Menschenfresser auf deutsch heißt .
As to you Babel Fish ... how do you use it? Putting it in your ear only works well when speaking. In order do have it work on the computer you need a Babel Fish Board™ installed. This is not done very often because many people feel uncomfortable with the 50 l fish tank in their computer casing and are afraid that they will eventually have a breakdown with all the water spilling out.

You can find an explanation of CyyStCyr here http://www.h2g2.com/A347186
oder geh gleich zu meiner Page, weil dort auch eine Einladung zu meiner Party zu finden ist.

und bevor du dir die Zunge brichst, sag einfach Cyy, as in cyber

Gruß zurück,

Cyy

Hi,

yeah, and by now I'm used to having permantently to explain my nick to non-German speaking chatters and as I can't do that satisfactory neither on German nor on English (nor any other language I'm happy I'm not living on Betelgeuse 5 'cause I'd be most probably called Ix or Ypsilon or Zed or sth like that

As far as the BabelFish is concerned I do not use a personal edition as you do, I just went to http://www.altavista.com where they are trying to enhance their BabelFish translation program for several years by now but without any appearent success...

btw, you are translating on a professional basis?
E to G (and vice versa) I suppose?

ok, I'll try to do some work now,

cya,
Menschenfresser

no, I am not a professional translator, I am neither trained for this nor skilled enough. But I came across the odd job here and there doing translations mostly from English to German and very rough ones from German to English. I used to earn a little money here and there during my studies, but I always told everybody I was not a professional so they could not expect really good results. But most of the time they just wanted to know what some text was saying. At the moment I am working (or rather not working) on some poems I have to translate to German for a friend ... I really hate it, but it will probably not be worse than what any translator would do for a lot of money, if you count out the really good ones who are probably even more expensive. I seem to stuble into these things .

well, as far as the HHGG is concerned quite a lot of people could have done a better job and you'd be definitely skilled enough

may I ask you what you studied? it's just of some kind of personal interest, you know..

poems are though, especially if they should remain such
I wish you good luck,

and go on "working" on h2g2

mfg
mf

I studied what I hope is translated as Food Chemistry (Lebensmittelchemie) ... as I have written in some other place I turned a cold shoulder on arts and languages after my first year at university.

As for the poems, I couldn't hope for them to rhyme in German and carry both the meaning and the mood, so I go for meaning and mood and kind of beautiful verse and try to stay in the rhythm scheme .... which is difficult enough. And did I already say I hate it?

Once you know your words in English, there's one thing that makes you a translator .... a good knowledge and some ability to write in German. Of course, even being well read everybody who is not a native speaker will miss some of the meanings, but I can't help that.