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

Yeah, I copied the burning cars thing out of this conversation's blog. Being a lazy type. Nothing much has happened since then.

Tumnus and Lucy were definitely great together. I really hope they make Prince Caspian, because the characters of Edmund and Lucy are developed a lot (Peter and Susan aren't in it). Edmund gets an awful lot nicer; he really is a jerk in LWW.

I've never seen the whole of Schindler's List, but I've seen a clip from the end of it that was really powerful. Also, I like the theme tune. And yes, he was in Batman Begins, I forgot about that. Possibly I edited the film out of my memory because I thought it was so bad. Somehow evil masterminds don't sound so intimidating when they have Ballymena accents. Now Christopher Lee, he's got a fantastic evil mastermind voice.

John le Messurier - I know he was Seargent Wilson from Dad's Army, being a sad type who actually watches that kind of show. I also know Matt le Tissier, because I used to live near Southampton.

I'm not going to Stars in their Eyes cos I'm broke. It's always really good though. I can play poker, but not very well. I nearly won in Cambridge, until the guys started cheating. Usually we play Cheat or Jack Change It. Once we used Maltesers as poker chips, but that kind of failed because everyone just started eating them.

i forgot peter and susan weren't in Prince Caspian. ed is a bit of a jerk in LWW with the betrayal and stuff isn't he. but wasn't he under a spell because he ate the turkish delight or something? what's the order of the stories? magician's nephew is the prequal, the LWW, then caspian, then dawn treader isn't it? and horse and his boy, and the last battle. but i'm sure there's another one that i've forgotten...

i thought batman begins was a good film. "Somehow evil masterminds don't sound so intimidating when they have Ballymena accents" and i don't really get what a ballymena accent is. what's christopher lee a bad guy in?

John le Messurier, yeah he was and he was also the wise old bird in hitckhiker's and bilbo in LOTR.

shame about being broke. how come you have to pay to go? we don't have to pay for our shows and stuff, and if we do it's only about £1 most of the time. the most expensive one we have is the jazz concert which was a few weeks ago. there was the school jazz band, the sort of elite band with 3 musicians and 2 singers who came on while everyone was getting their food, and the teachers band with a guest singer from london who was really good. apparently to go to something like that in london would cost about £50 so seeing that for a fiver wasn't too bad. did a bit of dancing at the back too with some students and 2 absolutely mad teachers.

It's Magician's Nephew, LWW, Horse and Boy, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, Last Battle. I think. Yeah he was under a spell from the magical Turkish Delight but he wasn't that nice before that either. He was OK at the end though, after Aslan saved him.
Everyone else I've talked to loved Batman Begins. Ah well, I'll just be weird.
A Ballymena accent is kind of hard to explain. It's like a really, really, really thick Northern Irish accent that's almost impossible to understand and is usually associated with sheep farmers and other simple country folk.
Christopher Lee was Saruman in LOTR and Count Dooku in Star Wars. He's class.
Stars in their Eyes is £6, not that much but more than I have. You have to pay cos it's a fundraiser for the hockey team's tour. Otherwise it wouldn't happen. I already have to pay for a non-uniform day to raise money for a school trip to Romania. The jazz concert sounds cool; we used to have a jazz band but the teacher who did it left. He also did the Debating Society so now we have no Debating Society. There's a German Debating Society though, I'm in it instead.

what happens in the Silver Chair? that one's completely skipped my memory.
being weird is good. and 'Begins' is better than '...And Robin'. *shudder*
i didn't notice the evil guy in begins talking in an irish accent. i thought he was ok as a calm but wary baddie.
most of our stuff is fund raising, practically all of it actually except some of the octagon concerts which are normally quite small (the Octagon is the larger room in our music school which has 8 walls). most of the stuff done in the theatre is fund raising, although i'm not sure about the concerts that the students play in. and the devised pieces for people's drama courses are free too.
are you going on any trips? i've got one in the summer to India to build a house for a poor family which we're funding ourselved through school events like raffles and stuff. there's another one in the summer too which is a biology trip to south africa to do a week in the bush and then a week diving. i really wanted to go but i can't afford it. plus it's already been decided who's going i think. i'm also going skiing next half term so i've probably got enough trips on. (god i must sound really rich to you.)
we have a debating team which one of my friends is on. she's amazing at arguing so i guess she's pretty good at debating too. and she does german, though not at the same time. we have a general knowledge team too, but i'm not sure what that achieves in the long term.

In the Silver Chair Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum go to save Prince Rilian from an evil queen. There are giants in it too. It wouldn't be my favourite one.
I've never seen Batman and Robin. But I thought the first Spiderman was pretty abysmal. Our English teacher was going to let us watch it in school today, but we said we'd rather play cards. I won every single game of poker; if we'd been playing for money I'd have made a fortune. I also won most of the Cheat, but I lost rather abysmally at Jack Change It. One of the guys who'd been on an exchange trip to France taught us this really cool French card game. It got really noisy, and loads of teachers came in to complain. AND NOW WE'RE OFF FOR CHRISTMAS! WOOOHOOO!
You wouldn't notice Liam Neeson's accent because it isn't very strong. It's just a kind of twang.
I'm not going on any trips with school; there is a ski trip, but no-one I know is going. I applied for School Aid Romania, which is where we go and work in Romanian orphanages for a week, but I didn't get in. I'll probably go on a German exchange trip next year. And there's a politics trip, which is - wait for it - a day in Dublin. Hooray. But Cambridge made up for it. (The guys who had been on the Cambridge trip ended up winning Stars in their Eyes, but I didn't get to see them.) Apart from that I really wanted to go on a missions trip to Spain with church to work with kids in Madrid. But apparently I can't go because we've already booked our holidays in the summer, which is a bit frustrating.
IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS! I'M SO EXCITED!
I don't think it'll snow though. Sorry, that was just an excuse to get that smiley in.

Puddleglum? his parents must have hated him.
*gasp* watch what you say about Spiderman! he only happens to be my all time favourite comic book character! the first one's not nearly as good as the second but i wouldn't go so far as to call it abismal. i can't wait for Spiderman 3 and Xmen 3! they are going to be so good!!!
i'm not that good at poker but that might have been due to the people i was playing with last time. is Cheat like the bullshit game they play in 'how to lose a guy in 10 days'? when you say i've got this and that and they say whether you're lying or not? i've played something like that anyway. never heard of Jack Change It.
christmas holidays aren't all they're cracked up to be. i'm pretty bored at the moment.
sounds like there's wuite a lot of trips there. i don't know how many my school does but there's loads of CCF ones that i can't go on because i quit the marine section. best thing i've ever done i have to say.
i really should be more excited but i guess i've grown up too fast for christmas. snow would be rather cool. today is my parents 21st wedding anniversary and they're out in town at the moment. have the house to myself which is annoying because i really need to do some work. although as you can see i'm on here which isn't working. go me.
oh, oh, they've got a new dvd player thingy too so now the old dvd and video are going into my room! score!

Puddleglum was a Marsh Wiggle; I think they all had names like that.
OK Spiderman might not have been that bad, I watched it at a friend's house at about three in the morning and I fell asleep halfway through, but that might have been because of the time and not the film.
Never seen How to lose a guy in 10 days. Cheat is where you say something like 'Double six' and put down a six and a four and the others have to work out whether you're lying or not. It got very violent. Jack Change It is where you just put down cards in the same suit, but there are trick cards like Jack changes the suit and Ace is the next person picks up five cards. I think it's a bit like Uno.
No idea what CCF is, but the marine section sounds... interesting.
Ditto for me, my parents are out at work and little bro is in bed, so I'm meant to be revising. Ha. It's the first day of the holidays, for goodness sake! Although I'm gonna have to dust the house sometime today.
Anyway, I'd better go and have breakfast. Bye!
(You're gonna be really sick of this smiley soon)

yes. thank you. me and Spiderman forgive you.
about 'how to lose a guy in 10 days', don't see it. i have no idea why i did and it was rubbish. total chick flick and no nudity or anything.*glum*
yeah that's what they were playing. i know Cheat. i've played a variation of that Uno type game too but i think it worked a little differently like most of the versions do. (isn't it great that as soon as someone says Uno type game everyone instantly knows what's going on?)
the CCF is the Combined Cadet Force which is like a mini military thing most schools in england have (i think). we have an army, navy and marine section and we used to have RAF too but that shut down. basically they teach you drills and marching and weapon handling and stuff and there are adventure training camps in the holidays and stuff. it's ok if you're into that sort of thing but i really wasn't, especially since i got into the marines somehow which is the hardcore section where we had the image but didn't actually do anything, which was just how we liked it. anyway after a term of FA it got taken over by the keen head of the army who turned it into a super serious you-will-all-be-in-the-marines-for-real-when-you-leave-school type section which is far too keen for me. so i quit and now i do music which is basically nothing.
i've been meant to be revising for the whole holidays. i've done hardly anything and i had a guilt trip today because i can't be bothered and i'm going to let myself down and blah blah etc. it's not really because i'm not working, it's because i'm not doing ANYTHING. even the getting up at 10.30 doesn't feel so good anymore.
have fun dusting your house. *waves*
(why don't they have a waving smiley?)
p.s. i rather like but when used too much even can get a little boring.

OK, will be retired until it snows. Hopefully soon! *Breaks into song: "IIII'm dreeeeaaming of a whiiiiiite Chriiiistmaaaas..."*
The CCF sounds... worrying. All these headmasters training their own private armies. Although I can see why we don't have it over here, there are enough organisations giving kids guns without the government doing it too. My cousin in New Zealand is in some kind of junior air force thing, and one of my friends wants to join the RAF. Whatever you're into, but I think I would do music too. If I had one modicum of musical talent, that is. My elderly relatives have requested that I play Christmas carols for them when we visit on Boxing Day , so I've been trying desperately to learn some on the keyboard. I think if I play Joy to the World one more time, someone in my house is going to have a nervous breakdown.
Haha, I have spent the afternoon revising history so I am guilt free! Wow, that big happy smiley feels good. I'm not doing any more now till next week.
Hey, we've been clearing out the attic and I found a tin box of old coins, and half of them are from Jersey! Isn't that cool? There's one from 1945 celebrating its liberation from the Germans. I got very excited about that. There are some florins with Queen Victoria on them too.
Anyway in case I don't get to post tomorrow, have a great Christmas! Wow, it's so exciting!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

"the hiiiiiiiiilllls are aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive, with the soooound of mmmuuuuuuuuuuuuusic!"
*blinks*
that's not really appropriate here is it? um... sorry.
that's what i always think. are they trying to subconsciously drag us into the army for future wars? scary. music is good though because it's the only solid practice time i have other than my lessons and some afternoon activity slots i have now that the musical's finished.
i wish i could play the piano as well as the sax. mainly because it's a really cool instrument but also because i was watching pretty woman with some people and one of the girls said that a guy playing the piano was really attractive. although i tried on a keyboard doing that really easy one that everyone does, i think it's chopsticks or something, and realised i am physically unable to separate the 2 sides on my brain and let my hands do 2 different things at the same time.
i did a while doing some english this morning but i didn't get very much done. was ok though because i don't feel as guilty now as i did. was looking forward to going out for a meal with friends tonight though because since getting back i've been a bit of a loner but it's cancelled because everyone has 'bl**dy drinks parties' according to the guy organising it
i had my first photo shoot today, was really fun. my brothers and i are doing this thing to get some photos of us for our parents (i may have mentioned this already, can't remember) and we went today after ages of deciding what to wear (i could not hack it if i was a girl i'm telling you!) and we went down and had this shoot and it was really cool. loads of poses and stuff and the photographer was really cool and not awkward or anything. he loved my little brother though, thought he was the business. he (my bro) is waiting for a call from Ralph Lauren any minute now. the best thing is now i might actually have a photo of myself that i don't think i look horrible in. they're airbrushing them and everything!! yay!
that's really weird about the coins. jersey ones are cool though. i have a collection at school that i found in my wallet and saved so i wouldn't spend them. although some places over there don't let you use jersey money anyway. b*st*rds. i did use a jersey tenner to pay in a milkshake place in london once though and the guy must have thought it wsa a 20 because he gave the right change plus £10 extra. that was a rather nice thing to discover whilst walking along the river afterwards.
if i don't post (unlikely but hey) then you have a good Christmas too. hope to hear from you before the new year! happy christmas luv me.

Well, turns out that I am on after all, surprise surprise.

I can't play two different things with two different hands either! Every time I try, my left hand ends up doing the same thing as my right hand. I've given up, and now I only play tunes that only rewuire one hand.

The photoshoot thing sounds fun! We did that a few years ago and the photo is on our kitchen wall, absolutely huge, and it's a really awful photo of me. My hair is cut so short I look like a boy, and I have this kind of lopsided grin that makes me look mentally unstable.

This is really weird, but did you say you went to school in Taunton? Because we've just got one of those Christmas letters people stick inside cards, from a family we haven't seen for about twelve years, and their kids go to school in Taunton. Freaky coincidence, or something far more sinister? Their names are Ben and Lizzie Gray (Ben left last year to go to uni). You don't happen to know them?

In England they don't take Northern Ireland banknotes, which is really annoying. Every time you go over you have to change to Bank of England notes, it's like a whole different currency or something. Darn English people. This one time I forgot to change my money and the shops wouldn't take Northern Irish notes, so I had no money.

But anyway, it's the season of good will etc etc so I extend the hand of friendship to all English people. I will have to sign off now or my lemon meringue pie will be a heap of smoking charcoal, and it's the only thing I've cooked for Christmas dinner. So in case I don't hear from you again today happy Christmas!
*Wanders off singing "Ooooh tiiiidiiings of coooomfoooort and joooooy" until fire alarm goes off*

my parents and grannies just watched the video of the musical. i sound so weird on tape! i genuinely thought it was someone else's voice. i really didn't want to watch it because i'd think it wasn't really that good and that would spoil what it felt like to do it.

i did one picture in the solo bit where i raised my eyebrow which will probably make me look like some sex-crazed nympho-maniac or something along those lines. (don't ask me what a nympho-maniac is because i don't know.)

yeah i go to school in Taunton. i'm at King's College there but i don't know of anyone by those names. there is teacher here called Mr Gray. he teaches my physics. i'm starting to think there's something going on here. Jersey money in your house, relatives where i go to school... i sense something weird going to happen. these things always happen in threes.

*extends hand of friendship and good will to Ireland. doesn't quite reach so settles for scratching himself instead. ah that's better.*

i've done nothing all day. i feel so lazy. my brother and his girlfriend made cookies which were ok but they didn't put that much effort in because it was ready made cookie mix stuff. still good though. they're planning to co shopping tonight. how insane is that? christmas shopping of christmas eve?! must be mad.

i was just trying to think of a song to put here and since 'walking in the air' has just come on i'll use that one.
"we're walking in the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair, we're floating in the moooooooooonlit skaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy..."

This is the third time I've tried replying to you, and I keep having to go do something in the middle of typing. If my parents realise I'm not revising, I'll hit Post anyway and you'll only get half a reply.
These people were at Queen's, if that means anything to you. It is a bit weird - maybe we'll turn out to be cousins or something.
Lemon meringue pie turned out fine, hooray. Christmas (or Ping, if you will) was great. I got a big beanbag to sit on and a Chronicles of Narnia limited edition book, and some money so I might buy an MP3 player if I can find a decent one cheaply enough. My dad got a Scalextric (is that spelt right?) set so we've been playing with it all day yesterday. And I got one of those annoying Bop It! things which has been driving everyone nuts.
Anyway I'm meant to be revising so I'd better go. Hope your Chr... I mean, Ping, was fantastic! I'm away at my granny's from tomorrow to Friday so I might not be on again for a while. So, Happy Day After Boxing Day!

Queens. that's scary. that's only about 10 minutes away from my school which is Kings. i know some people who know people who go there so maybe i have some connection with them. well i already do because i know you who knows them.
i got a binary watch (that no one else can tell the time on), a pc game which i have to take back because it's an online game that, despite buying the cds for £20, i still have to pay an online fee to play and i have to register a credit card to get the free month of play, so that's rather annoying. it looked really good as well, it's called City of Heroes and you sign on and create a super hero and go around doing super stuff. i can do that on here for free anyway in my society so i'm not complaining. much...
also got a nice jumper which i've just taken off because it's rather hot in here.
i think Scalextric is probably the right spelling. i don't play with that much. i'm more into model trains that whizzy cars, but some of the bigger ones are pretty cool.
Bop It! things are cool. my cousin had one that i got really good on and a girl at school had a mini keyring one that we were all playing in out DT lessons.
i tried revising for the first time in a while today. i did a page of maths because that's the easiest one and then i gave up and went to play on my new racing game. Ping! Happy Christmas! Joyeaux Noel! whatever takes your fancy!
hope your granny's ok. have a good 12 days.

Frohe Weihnachten! (I do German)
I don't really know these people, because I haven't seen them since we moved here which was when I was three. But if you see them, you could say, "Hey! You don't know me but I know someone who you don't know that you know but you used to know her when you were little! She goes by the nom de plume Black Pepper. Is that conjuring up any childhood memories? Hmm?" Or not. <- I don't know what this smiley is meant to be, but I use it as a generic freaked out smiley.
I saw the binary watch on 3N and was so impressed I posted about it on another forum. No-one replied though, I think I freaked them out.
You're a superhero? Wow! I suppose if you're not at home most of the time you can go and do super stuff without your parents saying, "Where do you think you're going at this time of night? And what on earth are you wearing?" Roll on uni... when I can do mad stuff whenever I like!
There's a model railway club in school. It's one of the Three Geeky Clubs along with the chess club and the debating society. There seems to be some kind of unwritten rule that you can only belong to one (I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but there aren't any chess-loving model train enthusiasts who debate. There must only be a certain level of geekiness anyone can stand.) Since I'm in the debating society, I've never been to the MRC to see if it really is geeky or not, but I gather they spend their time making models of all Northern Ireland's old railways.
12 days? It's twelve days till Poets? (I know, I said F****y last post, what sort of Thingite am I?) Anyway, it's only 3 days as far as I can tell. Or maybe I've completely missed some kind of subtle humour. Ah well. Be back soon.

ok, if i run into some who's second name is Gray and i remember all that i'll say it. and about the , they need some more smileys.
the watch is so cool, but sometimes when i'm tired i look at it and think oh god. it's easy to read but it's just that i have to press the button to get the lights to turn on and that means i have to move both of my arms rather than just one.
yeah, i'm a hero. not that super because most of the stuff i do is through technology but that still counts. i'm sure i've pestered you to join my society before now so i'll not bother asking you to go to U1654545 and check it out.
what do you mean geeky? model railways are not geeky they are cool! they allow you to be god (or at most a railway controller) in your own little world. and some of them have faces and i used to watch them on television when i was younger.
when i said 12 days i meant enjoy the 12 days of christmas which at the time of writing i thought were between christmas and new year. silly me. when are they technically? anyway enjoy the limbo period between the 2. there isn't really much to do in that time is there?

Am on granny's computer and am not meant to be using it so can't reply to your post. Just came on quickly to let you know Graeme Le Saux is on Mastermind tonight and his specialist subject is Jersey. Gotta go, will write more tonight when I'm back home.

wow, hows that for freakish coincidence? hope you learned something.

Um... I missed it. Sorry! I was in the car at the time. I'm sure it was great though. With a subject like that, how could you go wrong?
I can't live without my watch. I don't know how some people survive without one. I think if I was marooned on a desert island and only allowed three things, I would take my watch, my camera and an internet-connected laptop. I never move without my camera either; I would take it to school every day if I wasn't worried about it being nicked.
The debating society isn't geeky either, and I'm sure chess isn't. It's just the perception people have. Like when they announce in assembly that the model railway club isn't on everyone groans in mock disappointment. Thomas the Tank Engine was cool though.
The 12 days of Christmas are from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night, the 5th January. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) It is a weird kind of limbo. Christmas is over but there's still New Year so you can put off having to think about school. Are you doing anything for New Year's? All my friends are going to a party but I can't get a lift. Plus I've got a cold. <- This is meant to be 'envy', but I think it does pretty well for 'ill' too. Smileys have to work for their money here!
I haven't seen your society before but I will look at it. I can't now though cos little bro wants the computer. Better go.

i caught it. he was really good on the Jersey questions and i knew most of them too. and he won overall as well. go Jersey!
my watch broke for a while last year and i almost lost my mind. i had to carry my phone around with me to tell the time on. as for the desert island situation, if the internet laptop worked it would be more of a holiday than being marooned because you could just ask for someone to came and pick you up.
chess might be geeky, not sure, don't know much about it, but debating sure isn't because you need real guts for that. my house master wants me to do house debating next year. when he told me i nearly wet myself. and yes, Thomas the Tank Engine was well cool!
Wikipedia, was there not an entry on here about it? those wikis, think they're so great.
i was so proud of myself almost because i did my essay today. ballsed it up though, took too long and wrote what was quite frankly a load of cr*p.
on New Year's eve i'm going to one of my friend's house for a party, but i don't know how good it's going to be because there'll be him and me and no-one else our age. free bar though.
oh my god, it was so funny last night! there was a 'drinks and nibbles party' at my neighbour's house and we went and there were some people from my old school who we were talking to in their conservatory which happened to be where the beer was. anyway my brother and they guy who's house it is drank a *little* bit much and were rather ill. absolutely hillarious until i got him home and he started being ill. and i was in a room with him because my grandma was in his room, so it went from funny to rather annoying. he didn't even get a hangover this morning the b*st*rd. i think that's a gene in my family because none of us seem to get hangovers although i felt rather sh*tty once after a night on the vodka.
hope the cold's better now.<- bunch of tissues.