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

i was going to go into the thing about marriage and stem cells and stuff but then i realised i had a lesson in about 2 minutes so had to dash off.
stem cell research isn't all about designer babies. that's only the part of it people complain about and i don't think that happens at the moment anyway. using stem cell research they're trying to be able to grow whole organs for transplants. say if someone needed a new heart or a kidney then using stem cells which haven't differentiated into a cell for a specific function the sciencey people can make the cells grow into a heart or a kidney to use in the transplant. it's not growing a whole baby and pinching the organ. so that side of it, if they get it to work properly, i think is a good idea, but designer babies i think is rather sick. that's pre-natal vanity, like plastic surgery before you're even a foetus.
abortion i can see the point of but that doesn't mean i like it. i see that it's other people's lives and leave them to it. no point getting involved really. plus i saw an episode of Spooks i think it was where there were these religious people who attacked people who worked in abortion clinics. they said they were fighting for the lives of babies when at the same time they were committing adultery and murder to achieve their goals. slight hypocricy there.
i don't like marriage because it makes an entire relationship seem like a means to an end. like the marriage is the bit you're working for and until you get it you're not satisfied and when you do that's it. i realise that for many people it's not like that, but i think gay marriages are a bit pointless. heterosexual marriages i can understand if you want children because having them out of wedlock is shocking to some people (though in this day and age not very many people), but i just don't think there's any point in homosexuals marrying. it's about the people in the relationship, not whether or not you've had a ceremony to show how much you love each other. if you're not satisfied with being with someone when you aren't married then it's obviously a relationship that isn't going to work even if you do eventually get married. in the case of many homosexual couples who are going to be getting married now the law's changed i think they're only doing it because now they can. it's a novelty thing that they haven't been able to do before, and that blinds them to the fact that afterwards their lives are going to be just the same as they were before. and that's the same with heterosexual people. look at Ross from Friends. he had something like 4 wives, mainly because he rushed into the relationship and then it fell apart around him.
i'm not saying that i'd never get married, but if i was going to i would want to have been together with the other person for probably 3 years at a minimum, and i'd want to have lived together for a while. marriage is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong, but if you rush it it'll go horribly wrong almost every time.
have you ever been ing? it really is rather fun. i'm going at easter with my house ski trip and i'm really looking forward to it.
(the coolest thing about that smiley has got to be his little bobble hat. it looks so cool!!)

Hey, sorry I haven't replied before now! I've tried at least three times but I keep getting kicked off the computer before I finish it.
I don't really know much about stem cell research apart from the bit about growing babies just to get their cells, which I think is a bit off. And designer babies are just sick. I heard about a religious group in America who murdered a doctor carrying out abortions - that's completely hypocritical and I hope they weren't claiming to be Christians because it completely goes against Christianity.
I don't think most people see marriage as an end to have a relationship for. It's just a guarantee that your relationship is going to last a lifetime. Well, in theory - that doesn't really work any more so it is a bit pointless if you just rush marriages and get divorces.
I've never been ing. But I'd like to at some point. Even though I'd probably be terrible at it. The bobble hat is very cool!
i'm a bit annoyed because I thought I was going to be able to go to the Northern Ireland premiere of the Narnia film and I've been so excited for days and telling everyone about it, and now it's just turned out I can't.

sorry about the film. i want to see that at some point it looks good.
that thing about the religious people murdering an abortion doctor is a bit like muslim terrorists. they do things that are against muslim fundamentals and other muslims completely reject what they are saying, like you not liking abortion but also not liking people who kill people who do abortions. Man is hypocritical by nature.
yesterday in out PSE lesson (like sex education and stuff) i learned what gay 'marriages' are really about. previously i thought (as you can tell) that they weren't a good idea, but now i think that there's a point to the 'civil partnerships' thing, which is what the gay 'marriages' really are. say you have a heterosexual couple who have been married for 20 years and a homosexual couple who have been together for the same amount of time, if one of the partners in the heterosexual couple dies then the other, by law, inherits the house etc, but if one of the partners in the heterosexual couple dies then the other one, unless specifically stated in the deceased person's will, gets nothing and it all goes to the deceased person's family. so effectively if Elton John died now his partner will have no legal claim to anything, the house, the money, nothing. the new law which allows 'civil partnerships' between homosexuals is basically a thing where 2 people who are together can go and register the fact that they are together, giving them the same legal claims upon the death of one partner that married couples have. this can be done, as it can with heterosexual couples, by simple going down to your local town hall or wherever and signing a register and some forms. no ceremony or anything. of course many heterosexuals, and now homosexuals, will want a ceremony but that's just personal preferance really.
so i'm no longer against gay marriages. just so you know.
about the skiing, the first year i went i was in the beginner-beginner-never-skied-before group. the next year i was in the same group. i've been over 10 times and i still can't do anything more fancy than ski quite fast and get down the mountain, so i'm not much of a jumper, which is fine for me thank you very much.
i've come to the conclusion that most of the time people disagree with stuff because they don't know about it. most stuff that i've thought was bad that i've then learnt about i've come to think that it's not actually that bad, the above being an example.

I GOT THE TICKET AFTER ALL!
I can't find a smiley that looks happy enough, but you get the idea.
WOW! I'm so excited!
I'm too excited to reply to your deeply thoughtful post; every few seconds Aslan pops into my head and my train of thought scoots off to Narnia. I will reply to it later...
I'M GOING TO SEE NARNIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow!

good for you.
hope you enj... scrub that, of course you'll enjoy it, it's NARNIA!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
an a side note i'm going home today finally! yay! Christmas holidays with only a little bit too much work. are you still at school now? when do you break up?
now i'm not going to say anything until you reply to my deep and meaningful post. so there.

It was amazing! I loved it! You'll have to go and see it! I got to meet the director and everything, and I got his autograph, and I was standing right beside Mary McAleese at one point, and they gave out free popcorn! But it's the best film I've seen for ages! I'm going again, as soon as I can convince someone to come and watch it with me.
Yeah I know what you mean about the civil partnerships thing, but (ooh, write me down as an intolerant Bible-basher and kick me off the forum for political-incorrectness) - deep breath - I think homosexuality is wrong in the first place. At least, that's what the Bible says.
Darn you English schools, I'm not off until the Wednesday before Christmas! But then we get ages in the summer and you don't, haha. Anyway I still have a week and a half to go and I'm meant to be writing an essay at the minute (story of my life). So I'd better go. Enjoy your freedom!

film sounds good. who's Mary McAleese? was this some magic VIP ticket you had or something? meeting the director and everything sounds a bit red carpet. hmmm... or maybe you're really some celebrity who got to join them in the VIP lounge. how do i know you're not really...umm... some famous northern irelander?


"at least, that's what the bible says."
i'm trying very hard not to let my opinion of you lessen. this is one of the reasons why i am sometimes intolerant of religion, because people take what's 'written' literally. people let themselves and their views be dictated to them by some old out-of-date piece of literature. when i read your posting i was fine up until you said you felt that way because of the bible. if you'd thought that because of your own reasoning or experiences then i wouldn't mind but it's because you were influenced by the bible that i'm annoyed now, and even more so that you add that on at the end as if you think that's going to make it alright.

i don't know any homosexuals myself and i'm not taking influences about them from anything so i'm going to look upon them as normal people with different tastes until one comes along and proved me wrong. i will then make up my own opinion because i know how hard it must be because the people at my school thought i was camp and made fun of me for 'being gay' even though i wasn't, and it wasn't a fun experience. it still happens a bit and i realise from that how unpleasant it is to be picked of for something stupid like that and even though i'm not gay it hurt because of how nasty people can be. i don't want to ever be that nasty to someone by making unfounded judgements or anything like that, and even if there's someone i don't like around i'd rather walk away that be nasty. it's never necessary, despite what anyone's views are.

i realise the above might seem a little unfair to you because you've not done anything apart from said you don't like homosecuality. i'm not really sure where it all came from. it just sort of came out. i'm not going to hold it against you though and i'm not going to kick you off the forum either. you're one of the people i've connected with most on here and i don't want to have a major fall out over this.


on a lighter note, i'm at home and you're not. although i've got so much revision to do because i have modular exams as soon as i get back.

bye. please write back.

Mary McAleese is the Irish President. Don't worry, most people haven't heard of her here either (by here I mean Northern Ireland). She doesn't do much, I think she's a bit like the Queen but less famous. I'm not sure how you become President because it isn't heriditary (I wonder if that's spelt right.)

I'm not a celebrity (yet) . Although for all you know I could be Tony Blair. Or you could be. And I'm sure there are some famous Northern Irelanders... um... ... oooh! George Best! And CS Lewis of course. But neither of them are alive any more. Oh well.


OK, sorry I offended you. I don't really want to fall out either. But you've got to understand that I believe the Bible is the word of God, not some old out-of-date book, so if it says something I believe it's true. I understand that if you think it's a book people made up, being influenced by it sounds pretty stupid. But I think it was written by God and that's a pretty good reason for taking your ideas from it. So that's why I believe homosexuality is wrong, because I believe God says it's wrong.

But the Bible also says not to judge people but to love them so I'm not going to judge people because they're homosexual, I try to treat them as I would anyone else. I know what you mean about getting a hard time with people calling you gay because one of my friends in school is pretty camp and he gets that all the time. I hope I never do anything like that and I hope I never treat the homosexual people I know differently to anyone else. I also hope I haven't offended you.


Grr. I too have exams when I go back, and I haven’t started revising. Eek. So much work… haven’t started the essay I was planning to start the other night. Aaargh. And I have loads of other stuff I’m meant to be doing… too busy! *Bangs head off table* Let us off school, for pity’s sake!

an Irish President. whooda thunkit? hereditary seems to be the right spelling according to Word.

i'm not a proper celebrity yet although i'm apparently quite well known at school now for the musical, and my aunt (who is absolutely bonkers and Irish too ) asked me for an autograph tonight. also my granny watched the video of me so after her next bridge evening (some card game or other) all the old people on the island will know about it.


no, i wouldn't say offended, more mildly annoyed at the time. i'm ok now though.

the thing about homosexuality though is that it's not a choice. people don't choose to be attracted to people of the same sex, the only choice is whether to admit to it and move on with their lives or keep it hidden and (excuse the cliche) live a lie. it's a biological thing. people are born gay and i don't care what fundamentalists disagree because they are wrong if they do and that's an absolute. i saw a program a while ago about this gay guy who didn't want to be gay anymore because he wanted a family and he went on one of these courses to 'convert' people and it turned out to be nothing but a group of south american bible bashers going on about how evil homosexuality was. he hated it and couldn't go through with it even though he didn't want to be gay anymore.

i have great admiration for homosexuals who've come out despite harsh public reactions and lived their lives like normal people. the thing is many of them are very nice people, and most of the ones of tv are hilarious! just look at graham norton, he's queer as a coot but he has a wonderful show and is very funny and gets on well with the guests.

i just read that last bit back to myself and now i'm getting rather worried. i think i'd better finish this point quickly and then go and do something manly. ooo, sports personality of the year's on.


i told myself that i'd do lots of work these holidays for my exams. so far i've done nothing. it's so hard to get up in the mornings and do anything. it's not fair! damn my feeble will power!

You checked the spelling on Word? Wow, finally someone who's more pedantic than me! I looked it up, and apparently anyone can run for President as long as they're nominated by a load of city councils, and then there's a vote. And I've just discovered UK citizens living in Ireland can vote in Irish elections too, which is weird but cool.

Wow, I can say I knew you before you were famous! Maybe I can write your biography. I still haven't thought of any famous Northern Irish people still alive. Hmm... have you heard of Johnny Adair?


I don't really know much about it but I have heard the theory that people are born gay. The way I see it, the Bible never says that being homosexual is wrong, it says that practising homosexuality is wrong. It's like being tempted to do something wrong is different to actually doing it. But I've really not much idea what I'm talking about so I could be totally wrong there.

I hate it when Christians do that to other people - like I went to this local church once and the pastor spent most of the time completely slagging off Muslims and saying how sinful they are. It really annoyed me, because I thought what if there's a Muslim here? Is he gonna think: "Wow, Christianity is great! I want to be a Christian!" or think: "Who are these people? I thought they were meant to love each other! There's no way I want to be someone like that!" and never come back to a church in his life? The Bible says not to judge anyone on anything, but to love everyone, so when Christians do that to other people, they're not being Christ-like. I mean, Jesus talked to prostitutes and he didn't condemn them for their sins.

OK, rant over.


I still haven't started this essay, and it's 2000 words and in for Wednesday, and I'm out tomorrow night. Darn! I hate Robert Frost's darn poetry. AAAAAARRRGGGHHH... I HATE ENGLISH LIT... I HATE ESSAYS... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH...

yes, i checked it on Word. why is that pedantic? i know what this word means but i can't remember it right now. anyone can run for president eh? well even world dominators have to start somewhere. so where is this 'Irish' you speak of?

Johnny Adair? no sorry. i asked my parents about that and the only person they could think of was George Best.


that's a point actually, the thing about it being wrong to practice it rather that be it. but people are so obsessed with it that even if you're a celibate homosexual, like these people who are trying to be priests, get turned away and shunned by the church. i mean, if they don't act upon it then how are they different from the celibate heterosexual priests?

in the words of some comedian who i can't remember his name, "how has it got to the stage that the people who never have sex are telling the people who do have sex how to have sex?" i thought that summed up whatever he was saying rather well. just can't remember what it was...

it's ok to rant in here. i've been doing it a lot recently and for that i appologise. i guess it's easier to say stuff like that on here that out loud to people. anyway i do agree with you on that thing you said about the pastor talking about the Muslims. humans are pretty hypocritical. what you said about the bible being the word of god, i wouldn't mind it if people followed what it said if they kept in line with all of it rather than the bits that suited them. like that pastor. if he followed the whole of it he would realise it's not his place to condemn. only god can do that. i think the bible and religion in general is a good idea that we've just done really badly.



you'll be fine. just sit down, lock yourself in a room, deprive yourself of sleep and food and a toilet and get someone to sit outside and not let you out no matter how much you beg. then it'll be easy. if it makes you feel any better i just tried to start some maths and gave up because i couldn't. and now i have no chance of doing it because i'm on here and on msn now and it doesn't look like i'm going to be off for a while. ah the wonders of procrastination.

A pedant is someone who's obsessed with little details, like spelling. I know the word because I get called it so often that (being a pedant) I looked it up.

Mwahaha, I seem to remember I had a plot to invade the Channel Islands a while ago. Maybe we could work out some kind of deal? Although I'm now going for Scandinavia. Any interests there?

It's probably a good thing you've never heard of Johnny Adair, he's a terrorist. He was in the UDA I think it was but they kicked him out and he wreaked havoc on them for a while. But then they got the better of him and he ran away to England. I think he's living in Leeds or somewhere at the minute. But now there's this law for amnesty for on-the-run terrorists he'll probably get back into Northern Ireland. Crazy.


I think it would be OK to let celibate homosexuals become priests, but I'm not a big expert on it and my church doesn't even have priests. I wonder if it's got anything to do with the whole child abuse thing. I think they're thinking of taking away the rule that priests have to be celibate (I know, it seems a pretty stupid rule to me too) but if that was the case it probably wouldn't apply to homosexuals.

And I agree with you about the religion thing. People go way off course when they think they can only do bits of the Bible. Like the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition and stuff, where people thought it was OK to murder if you were doing it for God even though the Bible says "Do not kill". Some people just manipulate religion for their own ends.


You're going to laugh, I'm still meant to be writing this essay. I'm going out to a Bible study in fifteen minutes and there's absolutely no way I'll get it done. And yet I still sit on hootoo, procrastinating as though my life depended on it... Plus I have a speech to write for a German debating competition that I was meant to have done two weeks ago. But it's extra-curricular so they can't really make me. Oh yeah and I'm writing a short story for one of my friends for Christmas and it's not going to be done in time for getting off school. Roll on next Wednesday, one week to go! Darn darn darn, it's half six already - aaaargh... and I've just remembered I have journalism coursework for tomorrow that I left in school. My life gets more crowded by the minute. Aaaaaargh.

well then i'm a well and truly a pedant. i'm always looking up words i don't know.

can't say i've got any great interest in scandinavia but if you're going anywhere near Kreplekistan i might tag along.


"I think it would be OK to let celibate homosexuals become priests"
yeah but the top priests and bishops are so set in their ways that they'd never allow it.
"I wonder if it's got anything to do with the whole child abuse thing"
child abusers are predominantly heterosexual, and sexual preferance does not influence whether or not someone molests children anyway. that's just a pathetic excuse.
"I think they're thinking of taking away the rule that priests have to be celibate "
i doubt they'd do that any time soon.
oh, and all that about the inquisition and stuff, i totally agree.
<--i'm sure we've probably exhausted this.

if you're reading this and you haven't done your essay yet then GO AND DO IT!!!! seriously, you'll hate yourself if you don't. i know because i haven't done much work yet these holidays and i know i really should because i have exams as soon as i get back! go and do some work!!!

how did i forget to mention this!? i saw narnia today!! LOVED IT!!
great acting, great script adaptation, loved Mr Tumnus! and the beavers, they were so good!
although i'd forgotten that santa was in it. that was a bit of a surprise.
loved the whole thing, and there was a proper train in it! a proper steam one and everything!

It was fantastic! I'm going to see it again tomorrow!
I knew about Santa, I was really scared in case they ruined the whole film with this corporate, red-suited jolly chap swigging Coca-Cola, but I think they did him very well. As for Mr Tumnus, he looks like one of my friends (who has just started growing a beard) so we're calling him Mr Tumnus now.

I do that with words I don't know. Except then I don't know how to pronouce them. I was laughed at yesterday for pronouncing 'poignant' 'pwagnant' instead of 'ponyant'.


I know, it's a bit sad the way some churches don't like changing anything. Like "It's been round for five hundred years so it must be good!" Yeah, but it's not exactly relevant any more.
And we do seem to have rather exhausted the serious point.


It's DONE! WOOHOO! *Does happy dance* And so's the journalism and the German debate speech! Hooray!

Sorry, gotta go for tea, will return soon with a funny anecdote.

i still don't know what an anecdote is. or what the phrase 'tongue in cheek' means despite having it explained to me countless times.

i thought poignant was pronounced more like poyn(y)ant than ponyant because that looks like it should be pon-yant. (that (y) was because there's a very soft nasal sound after the n which is hard to get across in type.)

the good thing about santa was they never said his name. they wouldn't say santa obviously because that's a corporate or american name but they didn't say father christmas either which i thought was rather clever. Mr Tumnus was so good! i was sure i recognised him at one point and i thought he could be Martin Freeman ala hitchhiker's and the Office but he wasn't, just reminded me a little of him. i looked for his name at the end but whatever it was it didn't stick in my mind. and who was the voice of Aslan again? it was someone famous who i knew of but didn't know what he'd been in.


people who cling onto things that are old just because they are old are afraid of change. that's rather obvious and not really relevant but i can't think of much else to add to this serious point. this might be a good point to end it. what do you think?


finally. i still have loads of work to do and i just got stuck simultaniously on to different maths papers, one of which i deffinately have a module in in january and the other i can do if i feel up to it (how lame is that). i haven't done much maths though, or physics, no biology and one piddly little thing whatever it was for english. i'm a failiure when it comes to self motivation. i can barely manage getting myself out of bed in the morning let alone doing school work in the holidays.

An anecdote is a short, amusing story. Mine is as follows:
We were kicked out of our common room today cos the guys were playing rugby in it and we were told we'd be kicked out if they kept on doing it, but they did stop and we were kicked out anyway. So one of the guys went and complained to the teacher (who has a really short temper) and soon they were standing in the middle of the corridor screaming at each other. Then the teacher started pointing at the guy, which is apparently threatening behaviour and now he's thinking of suing the teacher.
Sorry, that doesn't sound that amusing, but it's the most exciting thing that's happened since they burnt the cars round here.

Tongue in cheek is kind of like something that's funny but pretending to be serious, because you're putting your tongue in your cheek to stop yourself laughing and spoiling it. I think.

I think your pronunciation of poignant is right. Mine was kind of 'heavily accented Norn Iron poignant-hey'. (Putting -hey on the end of words is a joke made about people from round here, because we're all apparently sheep farmers-hey.)

Mr Tumnus was James McAvoy - he was fantastic. And Aslan was Liam Neeson, and HE'S FROM NORTHERN IRELAND so there! He comes from Ballymena-hey, which you've never heard of but whose accents are far far worse than ours. Hey.




I have no more school work until January (I have mocks too, but no modules, thank goodness). So I'm just ignoring it all till then.

ah, nice anecdote. although if that person sues the teacher for pointing threateningly i will officially hate him/her. i have thought many times about starting a petition against people who sue people for stupid things like a)that, b)suing MacDonald's for burning yourself on coffee that you 'didn't realise was hot' , c)dammit what's the other one... i know there is one i just can't remember it. shame cos it was good too.

what did you mean by 'burnt the cars around here'? i'm getting rather worried about where you go to school now.

finally! an explanation of tongue in cheek that i understand! thank you!

James McAvoy was great. loved him doing th musical flute thingy which 'probaboy won't sound anything like the normal lullabies'. yes, Liam Neeson was the name. what's he from? and what's James McAvoy from too, i'm sure i recognise him.

"and HE'S FROM NORTHERN IRELAND so there!"
*waves a tiny streamer in the air* good for you.

still not working.

Yeah, the whole suing thing is getting a bit ridiculous. I don't think he will actually sue the teacher, it was just hilarious because he could if he wanted to and the teacher knew that.

About the burning cars thing, that was way back in September. Being a lazy type, I'll just copy and paste what I wrote then:
"Anyway, my life has suddenly become very exciting indeed... I don't know if you've heard about the rioting in Northern Ireland on the news (if you've been out of it all weekend you probably haven't). Anyway there were guys with balaclavas running down my street all last night, and one of my friend's mums had a gun put to her head and told to get out of her car. We kept hearing gunshots and you could see the smoke from where they were burning out cars and shops - the wrecked cars are still there and the place is an absolute mess of glass, bricks and ammo. We were let out of school early today so we could get home before the UVF set up the roadblocks again. So it's all a bit worrying over here."

Good times.

I've no idea what James McAvoy was in. He was great though. The scenes with him and Lucy were excellent, I thought she was really good.

Liam Neeson (*waves flag of national pride*) was in Schindler's List, and he was Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars Episode 1. Wow, I haven't felt as proud to be Northern Irish since we beat England at football. CS Lewis comes from here! Go us!

Aaah lack of work... it feels so good... I didn't get up until half ten this morning which is some kind of record for me. Only one proper day left of school, cos Tuesday is our Stars in Their Eyes competition. Almost everyone is going, and anyone who isn't (including me) sits in the common room and plays cards (no gambling though ).

about the burning cars thing, i think i've read that before on your journal or something. sounds rather intense. hope everything's sorted out a bit since then.

the first Tumnus and Lucy scene was brilliant. loved it! he was so natural and she was excellent for a little girl. out of the children i thought the weakest was edmund but he was still very good, there was just a bit near the beginning when he was a little awkward.

i knew Liam Neeson was in Schindler's List because someone told me (never seen it, don't really want to) but the star wars thing is news to me. was he in batman begins too? somehow the evil ninja guy in that reminds me of the star wars guy.

as for national pride i can't think off have of any famous people who came from here but Tom Voice of the england rugby team went to my school in taunton.

for famous isladers here's some names i just got from my guide entry on the channel islands.
Fraser Waters, england rugby
Graham Le Saux, chelsea and england football
Matthew Le Tissier, southampton football club
John Le Messurier, actor
(television, Dad's Army, radio, LOTR and hitchhiker's)
and Jambo the gorilla.
entry here --> A6959208 (just in case you were interested)

school stars in their eyes. nice. how come you're not going? have you ever played poker? i played loads over the exeat weekend. used poker chips so it was like gambling but we didn't use any real money so i think that's ok.