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

Hi.

I got to your PS through a search for the word 'duntish' (I'm still not sure of the connection).

Firstly, good work on the smiley line, and forwardly-challenged .

I had a strange compulsion to buzz you after finding a number of similarities, my favourite being your inexplicable use of the word RANDOM.

I don't know how many 6'3", would-be hippies with religious contemplations and anti-gym tendencies there are out there, but I think only a few of us could blend into the background.

Anyway, I just thought the find was random enough to warrant a mention.

Cheers!

i take it that you would describe yourself as a 6'3", would-be hippies with religious contemplations and anti-gym tendencies then. yay! i'm not alone!

i'm just trying to think of where on my page i put the word duntish. if it's not there then that's a surprise because i would have thought it would be.

randomness is good. it makes the world go round, unlike those penguins running around the south pole. they think they're so great...*mutter*...

*blinks*

sorry about that.

about your name, godisaheathen, is that because of some religious beliefs or something? feel free to discuss.

cheers for the message!

ha ha, I couldn't find 'duntish' either . there isn't a definition for duntish in HooToo at all, which I think is , since it was my favourite (and most used) definition.

I invented 'godisaheathen' years ago for my e-mail as a funny pun, since I was spending so much time thinking of it.

As a background (in case you're interested) I was born/raised Catholic, became agnostic at around age 14/15 and became an athiest last year (age 22). I inadvertently got caught up in the spiritual/interconected side of things in the year since then, and now call myself a 'spiritual athiest' (for lack of a better title).

My beliefs are now a kind of hybrid religious thing involving the "fundamental interconectedness of all things", which I believe incorporates the basics of all religions, fits in with quantum mechanics (from what I understand of it) and leaves out those pesky details that are the main cause of intolerance and war.



On a lighter note, leave those penguins alone ! They may be funny little waddling things but they've got ... I mean ... they're ... Hmmm ... No, I've got nothing. taunt them all you want.

There is a town in Tasmania (the forgotton part of Aus) called Penguin. When my mate and I were trekking through we stumbled upon it and were compelled to spend a night there. All of the bins in the main street (almost the only street) were designed like penguins, and there is a 3 1/2 metre high statue of a jovial looking waddle-monster as well. There is also a small colony nearby, so it's not based completely upon insanity.

found it! it's hidden in the speech bubble which is the badge of the random quotes guild. hover the mouse over it and it comes up. (you have no idea how much time i spent looking for that!)

spiritual and interconnected is the way forward. i would probably refer to myself as a spiritual atheist too but i think that god might exist, just that he's not as important as christianity makes out. basically he has his flock and the other gods have theirs. it's like small gods by terry pratchett. i just let him get on with his stuff and i get on with mine. i know it's a weird view but i don't have time to fully explain it now.

"My beliefs are now a kind of hybrid religious thing involving the "fundamental interconectedness of all things", which I believe incorporates the basics of all religions, fits in with quantum mechanics (from what I understand of it) and leaves out those pesky details that are the main cause of intolerance and war."

that's a good view to take. bit pick and mix but that's how all good things are made. just look at my ps! almost all the stuff was commandeered from other pages.

penguins. evil. especially the plastacine ones. watch this space.

That would have taken eons to find!

my use of the label 'athiest' is a very loose term, based on the lack of anything better. I dont believe in god *as such*. The main common factor a have taken from religions though is kind of in the form of the 'holy spirit' from catholicism. If you wittle away the crap, most religions (and even science!) have a variation of this entity/phenomenon as an underlying belief. This includes various movie concepts as well. From Qi (chi), gaia, the force, the interconnectedness in transcendental meditation, aboriginal dreamtime etc.

Quantum mechanics also demonstrates similar findings. The fundamentals of this are that essentially matter is made of energy (Einstein stated this in his infamous equation E = mc^2), which, obviously, has an effect on nearby energy fields. Another demonstration of this is through the recent 'string theories'. These I dont completely understand yet, but they seem cool anyway!

Me =

This theory is quintessentially the same as (and is basically stolen from) James Redfield's vision in The Celestine Prophecy.

The other thing I have learned from my religious musings is that keeping an open mind is highly underrated, and (despite what people say) is few and far between. I am completely prepared to have these theories altered or destroyed if a better one comes along. This is the main problem with religions, who hold onto prehistoric ideals and present conjecture and good storytelling as indisputable fact.

Thoughts anti-penguin man

*blinks* wow. that's a lot to take in in a few seconds.

whether or nor it's 'God' or the 'Holy Spirit' i think there's something out there. whether it controls our lives or meerely influences them by accident or the like i don't know, and i don't think it really matters. if christians want to believe in god i don't mind that. i just don't like it when they start converting people and torturing those who don't believe and outcasting anyone who disagrees or proves them wrong about something, like the world not being flat and not being orbited by the sun.

i learned about einstein's formula last year. wasn't supposed to but hey. string theories. can't say i've heard of them. i do physics now but i think i might have to give it up for next year as i can't stand the teacher. he's boring and offers no help when we're stuck. i'm supposed to be doing my coursework now researching stainless steel and why it's used in cutlery, but i can't find a picture of it's atomic structure! and i'm supposed to present it on saturday (it's tuesday today and it's not as long a time as you'd think). eventually i gave up and came on here instead.

"keeping an open mind is highly underrated"

do you mean that most people don't have a very open mind? if so then i agree. i hate trying to discuss something with someone who has their views set in stones that they then try and shove down your throat.

"This is the main problem with religions, who hold onto prehistoric ideals and present conjecture and good storytelling as indisputable fact."

couldn't have put it better myself.

don't get me wrong, i don't mind faith. it gives people hope and support, and it's done some wonderful things in its time, but it's time has been and gone and people who still go around saying non-christians are heathens and therefore are evil and should be hanged are a little behind the times.

oh, and about the penguins, check out what this says about pingu. A680681

Firstly, the reason you can't find the structure of stainless steel is probably because there are so many variations. There is no definate structure. A few good sites for info are http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/stainless+steel and http://www.worldstainless.org. If nothing else, try for 'surgical steel', which is pretty much what is used in cutlery. Sounds more like chemistry though.

I had a pretty good physics teacher. He was a bit but new his stuff. Thats a moot point though, as my studies are currently done in my spare time. As I said, Me = . As I see it, I've got a brain. It functions well. I should use it.

You're right, faith is a good thing when taken in moderation. And don't get me wrong, religion is as well, but only to an extent. It is a necessity to have a multitude of religious beliefs, to keep the various deities in line and make sure people have choice, and understand that beliefs are beliefs, not fact.

It's like the geocentric view centuries ago. If everyone says the earth is the centre of the universe, there isn't much reason to believe otherwise. What matters is how open people are to other possibilities when they arise. Luckily we are now to diverse to repeat events like the inquistion, where anyone with even the slightest deviation of belief was labelled a heretic and executed. We are a long way from peace and acceptance though. The fundamental cause for war is still religious beliefs.

People always move to an extreme. Few are still willing to consider the grey area. (insert black and white penguin joke here).

This is probably why Buddhism has become fairly prominent in the west. It provides a peaceful alternative to catholicism and its variations. I would like to live at a buddhist monastery for while. I think that would add a good perspective to life, the universe and everything.

I think my love for randomness and my hippie tendencies somewhat stem from the technicalites and confines of society and the basic onflux of human drama. Everyones life seems to revolve around their career, and I just don't understand it. Everyone always asks "so what do you do for a living?". I hate the concept of careers, but I've gotta go catch a train, so thats another discussion. Till then I'll just keep reminding myself that the world is round and it's not the centre of the universe

thanks for the links. those will probably be enough to save my bacon on this presentation.

my old physics teacher was cool. he was interesting and had somehow done something, either as part of a job or otherwise, which tied in with what we were studying. like talking about motion, 'oh, when i used to race mini's', radiation, 'when i was working at Hinkley Point' etc. anyway he was interesting and got me a top grade so i'm not gunna complain when we spend whole lessons talking about the mentality of the school cleaners, the recent show or concert that's happened at school, or just randomly start watching Countdown in the lessons. (that last one really did happen, i kid you not!)

my new physics teacher is boring and thus i can't think of anything nasty to write about him.

"as I said, Me = . As I see it, I've got a brain. It functions well. I should use it."

that's exactly how i feel sometimes. i was doing maths prep during a rehearsal the other day and someone said 'how can you do that now? maths is awful!' i don't think it is. i find it's something i can do so i do it to the best of my ability. the same as with a lot of stuff like work, music, sport and drama stuff. if you're not gunna use what you've got then why are you bothering to be there?

"People always move to an extreme. Few are still willing to consider the grey area. (insert black and white penguin joke here)."

ha! see, penguins are black and white, no grey on them! they promote extremist views! (that's all i could think of about penguins right now)

one thing i really don't get about Christianity is that they are all worshipping the same deity, they all read the Bible and they all call themselves Christian, but all the sub-divisions like catholic, protestans, methodist etc. seem to really not like each other and view other groups as being almost as 'bad' as people from another religion altogether! it's almost like they want to disagree for the sake of it.

about careers, it took me absolutely ages to settle myself in here at school, so in a career in the real world i'll probably be completely lost. people keep saying to us 'think about what you're going to do' and i don't know what i want to do. there are plenty of people who know that they want to do from childhood, and good for them, but i'm not one of them. there's plenty of stuff i could do, like my parents say i should be a lawyer because i argue well and it pays well, but i don't really have an urge to go and do that plus i don't think that a large salary is a good enough factor when deciding on a lifestyle. i want to enjoy myself and be challenged and have fun with what i do when i'm an adult. i don't know what that is yet though so i'm just going to live in the now and think about that when i get to it.

That seems to be the deal with physics teachers, they're smart to the point of; 1. insanity; 2. Boredom.


I'm currently earning money as a labourer and like to read on public transport or waiting for work to start. At least once a week, without fail, someone will pause and say "how can you just sit there and read?". I don't even have an answer any more, I just shrug my shoulders and keep reading. Whats the alternative, sit in silence or inane conversations? I'm sick of this view. People who can't/won't use their brains try to make others feel bad for using theirs. It used to stop me from reading in the company of people like that, but luckily I'm now over that phase.


An Irish friend of mine once explained conflict in Northern Ireland to me. As I understand it, A King (I think Henry the somethingth) wanted to divorce his wife, and formed a break-away religion to allow him to do this (I could be well off the mark here). This was the start of the protestant/church of England/irish catholic warfare, and the current state of events stems from other technicalities and the tendencies to form extremes.


About your career, don't worry about it, just go with the flow and use your intuition. Most people leave school not knowing what they want to do, and a large number of people still aren't sure at age 40.

I was never sure what kind of career I wanted until I realised that it was because there is no 1 thing I want to spend the rest of my life doing. I hate the whole concept of careers. Why should I dedicate my life to a means of earning money, when I should earn money as a means to dedicate myself to life.

I'm not, however, saying don't plan for the future or go to Uni (what stage of schooling are you in by the way?), but this is where you should follow your intuitions and judgement and follow the natural progression of 'where life takes you'.

When I was coming to the end of Year 12, I was no where near knowing what I should do next. Maths and science always came naturally to me, so it was a given that I would go to Uni to do something with that. The main reason for this is that it was expected of me (by parents and everyone else) but also so I could delay any thoughts of a career. So I selecteed a few courses that had a good name and took the first one that was offered to me. This was, I have been told, a very stupid way to go about things, but it turns out to be the best thing I have ever done. I never really cared about the course, just cruised through accepting any pass I managed to scrape (and did lots of ), but the people I met shaped, and continue to shape, my life in the most profound and inexplicable ways.

So I finished Uni and delayed the career thing by doing random jobs (such as working at a snow resort for a season - madness !) until I could sort my life out. About 7 months ago I travelled interstate, fairly deliberately to a place where I didn't know anyone. This was such a huge step for me, but paid off extremely well. I now know where I end and others begin, and have an extremely intimate and definitive knowledge of my mind (and, in a sense, my future) as seperate from both exaggeration and modesty. I also believe I have a nice blend of the serious and the . That brings us to now, this place and time, where I have plans to head back to Melbourne to await my next 'twist of fate'.


Well. These posts seem to be getting longer and more in depth every time . This one has taken forever to write. Luckily its a quiet doobry morning here. I am really enjoying these discussions.




Side Note. I did that birth date thing from your PS (mine is Dec 9). and the thing was suprisingly accurate;

"You are a born idealist, with more pet causes than you can count.
You prefer be around others, both when working and while relaxing.
Generous and giving, you believe you can change the world one person at a time.
You're open minded and tolerant. People feel like they can tell you anything.

Your strength: Your go-with-the-flow flexibility

Your weakness: Your flair for the over dramatic."

The only erroneous thing was the being around others thing, as I've always been more of an alone person. Other than that, it was very concise!

"People who can't/won't use their brains try to make others feel bad for using theirs."

another situation i had similar to your reading one was a rehearsal we had on thing for out musical (West Side Story). it was in the main dance scene at the gym and there's a bit where the gang i'm in, the Jets, run onto the stage while the Sharks are going off and do our dancing bit. it's a bit crazy but basically it involves twisting on the balls of your foot. you twist left, then right, then left again whilst kicking out your left foot and then right again. it's that 4 times and then kicking to the right for another 4. it sounds a little rubbish i know but at the speed we have to do it some people have difficulty not falling over. i can do this move properly so i do it properly in rehearsals. it turns out this was a something the others thought i shouldn't have done and that they found hillarious. the people behind me cracked up laughing at how i was doing it despite the fact i was doing it right, and when we were waiting in the wings for the next bit one of them came up to me and told me i was too keen. i felt like punching him then and there. i'd rather be keen in rehearsals and get good at the moves that pretend i'm not bothered and make a fool of myself on the night and let everyone else down. the guy who said it to me can't even do the moves himself! he just stands there and sticks his leg out on the kicks as if it's below him to make an effort and i get really annoyed with him because he then annoys me and goes on about how i mess up all the time when i'm trying to do my bits. i'm sorry i'm not perfect, but it's better to get it wrong now and learn from it than get it wrong in the performance.

about the Irish thing, the King you're thinking of is Henry VIII. he wanted to divorce his wife (Katherine i think) and set up his own church because the pope said he couldn't divorce her. you pretty much had it though.

i also think there's no 1 thing i want to do. that's why i'm reluctant to think about careers becuase whichever one i choose i can't do the others. that's why school is so good because there's lots of stuff here that is very different that people can do. i like to dabble in a little of everything and although i don't excell in much of it i still enjoy doing it. when people become adults they have less opportunities to do stuff like that.

i want to go to Cambridge (i'll probably study law or something there but it's basically so i can say 'i went to cambridge') but if i don't get in then i'm not going to go into a manic state of depresion about it. i'm in year 12 now which at my school is 6.1 or lower 6th. year 9 is 3rd form, don't know why it starts there i just does, then 4th form is year 10, 5th form year 11, year 12 is 6.1 and year 13 is 6.2 or upper 6th.

at the moment i'm doing maths, english, biology and physics which i find quite easy to understand. some people have said 'how can you do those subjects, they're all really hard!' but to me they're not. next year i think i'll drop physics if any because at the moment i'm getting more out of the other subjects, but that could change. if i drop one for next year it'll be either biology or physics because i want to carry on with maths and english.

"About 7 months ago I travelled interstate, fairly deliberately to a place where I didn't know anyone. This was such a huge step for me, but paid off extremely well."

was this because you wanted to see how you would cope in that sort of situation? i think i'm better with meeting new people now that i used to be because people i meet treat me a lot more normally that the people who met me a few years ago when i was basically a child in a 6 foot 2 teengaer's body and didn't know anything about life growing up. in my first year at this school i had a lot of growing up to do because all the other people here had been doing teenage stuff like going out with each other and having teenage booze parties and random stuff like that, whereas at my old school no-one really did anything like that in my year until probably the last term we were there. when i heard about these people here who had been out with people from age 10 i was like what the hell because when i was 10 i hadn't done anything like that. it was all new to me and it was rather difficult to adjust to at first.

right now i'm just going to go with it. it's working out pretty well for me at the moment despite how little free time i have with musicals and work etc. still, i like keeping busy. although i'm in a free period now which is probably why this posting is so long.

my birthdate thing was quite accurate about me but i've heard from other people who've done it that it doesn't work all the time.

if you go to that on my page there's a picture of cheese next to it which could contain something rather amusing.

I couldn't really cope with the lack of variety in Uni subjects. We did biology and chemistry, but had 2 'electives' per semester which were generally used for pschology or statistics etc. I took advantage of this opening and added astronomy one semester and AUSLAN (AUstralian Sign LANguage) in the other, just to mix it up.

I came here (to Perth - the world's most isolated city I'm told) to get out of my comfort zone. I was having fun in Melbourne, but was getting flustered and confused with my situation. I was just going along with everyone else, as I have done most of my life. I was unorganised and still a bit shy. On top of that, I had myriad questions which just weren't getting answers.

It worked, though most of the answers lead to more questions. That's what some of the stuff on my PS is about. I was wondering about interconectedness and quantum mechanics, which led me to the mind and (further into) religion. I find dreams perpetually interesting (especially the potential of lucid dreams) and am being astounded by the highly underestimated power the mind has over the body (psychosomatics).

About the most profound thing I've ever heard was said flippantly in a random class at uni, but I've never got it out of my head; Some people with schizophrenia have been found where one of their personalities suffers an allergic reaction to a substance, while another does not.

Nice cheese by the way! I've also updated my PS a lot over the last few days. Now its shiny!

i can see how the lack of veriation would make it boring.

where you describe yourself as unorganised and shy and going along with everyone else that sounds scarily like how i would describe myself.

i like interconnectedness and stuff like that but i hadn't thought much about psychosomatics until a few days ago, which in itself is another weird little coincidence.

we were talking about this guy who people used to dislike because he was an arrogant, unpleasant little oik, and someone in his house was telling the story of how he used nearly jumped out of a window when he was in 3rd form. he was on top of a bunk bead opening the window and saying 'i'm gunna do it guys' and stuff like that and one of the 6th formers came in to stop him. this 6th former was about 5'7" or something like that but he was muscley and according to the guy who was watching this 6th former jumped almost from standing up onto the bunk bed without helping himself up with his hands or anything. i said to the guy telling the story that he probably used his hands or put his foot on the wall or something but he said that he didn't and that it was the power of the mind when you have to do something, psychosomatics.

that schizophrenia thing is really interesting. it shows just how much power the mind has over the body.

just had a gander at your ps. yeah it's shiny, but it's not as bendy as i would have thought...(sorry, that was a rather badly adapted Bill Bailey joke)

that bunk story is a lot like what you hear about women lifting cars to save their kids and other similar stories. We are capable of a lot more than we think, it's just a matter of needs and urgency.

Psychosomatics seems to be an underdeveloped concept. It's evident in hypochondria, but this extends to people who (subconciously) make themselves sick, ie hypochondria, but with the actual illness itself, not just the symptoms. Often when I faked sick to get out of school or work, I would actually start feeling sick. There is a strong correlation between being happy and relaxed (must be both) and being healthy (free from sickness and disease). This, of course, doesn't apply to extreme diseases, but definately effects recovery time.

so you think that if people keep up a cheerful mindset they should be spared from minor ailments? if that's true i wish i could get happy. i'm a little bit under the weather now for reasons that i am about to go and discuss in a journal entry. feel free to wander over if your curiosity beckons you to.