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

Prague is the most beautiful city ever! I loved it, and I have to go back there again....... *starts plotting*
How're you, btw?

Hi Princess! Welcome Home!
I see that Prague has "caught" you like it got to me. Isn't it a fantastic place?

You picked a fun time to go! Did any of the demonstrations get in your way? The place isn't usually like that.
When you get your breath back, and you've caught up on 1,000s of back postings ... tell me all about it ... the favourite bits ..

You'll probably see that the Uni. here is starting to rev up - MM is getting it on a formal footing - I'm looking forward to that. The Baroque Music articles are about ready.

Great to hear from you again. Talk with you soon.

Well... I was actually a part of one demonstration, but a small peaceful one, and I left the city before the violence broke out.

But its so beautiful! I allowed a day for the castle as you suggested, and I was overawed... its a lovely town, although that architect who's name I've momentarily forgotten *did* take classicism to its absolute limits! I took quite a few photos ... I'll have to give you the url when they make their way online...
I loved the old town, too, but I kept getting lost. It was ridiculous, I'd think, right, I'd like to go to Charles bridge, please. And this time I don't want to have my head buried in the streetmap... so I'd try to follow the signs, and wind up somewhere *completely* different. lol... that is one amazing bridge, though....

The other thing that really impressed me was the public transport system. Would that we had one like that back in this country....

I'm so happy that you liked the place. It's about the only example (in that part of Europe) of a city with 800 years of consecutive architecture. All the others got bombed in WW2. Yes - do tell when you "publish" the photos - I'll have a nostalgia session with them .

I'm looking forward to hearing more from the Italics about the Uni. ... itching to get the baroque music articles into the system! Because of all your help with the main article and the Vivaldi ... is it OK if I name you as co-author for them?

cool... I can get them back from the chemist tomorrow....

& I'd be honoured to be listed as co-author Thanks very much.

OK - soon as they get moved to the Uni (or wherever MM wants them) - it's a deal. They wouldn't have been half so good without your help.

Thanks again

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Thanks, Princess - what great photographs! You certainly had a terrific apartment - THE best location . Also, well done with the demonstration - I'm glad your contribution managed to stay peaceful ... Peaceful may not get the headlines, but nobody needs the wrong sort of headlines - good work.

I'll go back to your site - I will probably ask for a couple of pics .... taking my time looking first, though, otherwise I'd order all of 'em! .

Change of subject - the music articles .... you don't happen to have a tame sub-editor handy do you? I need to acquire one (as part of the rules of the Uni system). The only musician + sub. is loonytunes, but he's too busy at the moment. If you have any suggestions, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks again for the pictures - gave the day a good start!

tame subbie? Not really... for proof reading you'd do best to ask fragilis, but... *shrugs* they should categorise the subeditors.

I'm glad you like my pictures! I'm amazed so many turned out well... Don't forget to hunt out and sign the guestbook...

Hi,

Last night, on Aussie TV, there was a 20-minute piece about the protest group you were with in Prague. For a change, it wasn't the usual "thugs vs IMF" item. It explained about the group and their intentions, with several interviews, and later detailed how other (anarchist) groups had caused things to turn violent. Nice to get a bit of balance, for a change.

...and apart from the education ... I'm sure I saw you for a couple of seconds - walking, near the front of the "crosses", just behind the band ... partly hidden behind your cross, but I'm fairly sure. So there - your first? moment of international stardom.

*is completely dumbstruck*

yep, that would have been me... thats where I was in the procession...

my life! *faints*

Oh dear!

*Lifts J onto convenient sofa, prepares tea and cakes, in the hope that the aroma will revive her*

*eyes flutter open*

wwhere am I? wh..what happened....

mmm... something smells nice...

Whew! Welcome back - you had me worried for a minute, there.
Small universe, isn't it? Right - tea and refreshments first ... then tell me what else your group did - the TV piece only went as far as the press conference with the group after the first lot of anarchist violence. Did that stop you from achieving come of your aims, or were you able to follow through?
Cake? I recommend the orange and poppy seed ...

Well we didn't do very much, our demonstration was centered around the sunday, and a lot of people just came for the day... Ann Pettifor, president of Jubilee 2000 got to talk with the leaders of the imf/world bank thanks to Vaclav Havel, on the Saturday. She said that that went well; Although they didn't have anything concrete to say- apparently they just wanted to make it known that they're human beings who don't like suffereing; everyone could see that they were next to useless, with the amount of media there.
It looks like you saw parts of the march on telly and from my photos....
After that things wound down some, there was a public forum running all week discussing debt and trade related issues, but i didn't go to that since I had to leave the country on the day of the S26/INPEG demonstration.

mmmm... orange and poppy seed... yes please!

Right - thanks for the briefing .. I think the approach is right - even if it doesn't achieve immediate results, you've got to keep the ideas politely "in the face" of the grey suits, or they'll not even make token gestures.

*Offers more cake ...*

One of the advantages of having a playwright as President - he's fairly human. He wrote some good short stories as well ... I think I've seen some in translation. BTW - went and had anothe lookat your photos ... managed to pick only a couple. Do you develop & print your own B&W ones? (It's too hard to get the chemicals here)

No I don't develope things (yet) But I buy hard to come by black and white APS film, so its processed like colour, but isn't... my friends dad is a photographer, though, and he does...

*accepts the cake*

I think that one thing j2k has done is woken the African governments up to the fact that there is something that can be done for their plight if they work together...

That's promising - signs of some momentum building up. ... It's going to take years, isn't it? ... and such a lot of opposite momentum to get rid of first.

Well, you were there at the start. Sorry - great stuff!

Hmmm ... B&W film through a colour process ... mind you, that's beyond the scope of the average bathroom darkroom Pity - I often prefer B&W - you can get a lot more expression and texture from it.

Sorry - must dash - I have to go off-line soon, and I want to make some tiny changes to those music articles today. See you soon. Keep well, Princess ... and do finish the cake, if you so wish. I'll bring more

BCNU

Well I love B&W too, but film is hard to come by, and I don't have the knowhow to develop myself, yet, I believe I get to do some in a few weeks time in Laboratory...

It is going to take years for the Jubilee to finally happen. J2k's madate (its a coalition of various organisations) was to eliminate 3rd world debt by the end of 2000. I don't believe anyone really thought that would happen, but it has brought debt as an issue right to the forefront of a lot of political agendas.
Now J2k has to look back and see what went well, what went wrong, and where to go from here. It seems like debt is not enough- free trade is a big issue- whether or not its the right answer for these heavily indebted poor countries, but there's a lot to think about. And It will take time. But the question isn't, "can we make a difference" but "how do we make a difference" - 19000 children die each day, so its not like we have a choice, for their sakes.

*happily munches cake*

Developing B&W isn't hard (not as hard as getting the film in the first place). It's a lot less temperature sensitive than colour. All it takes is two processes; develop (to oxidise light-activated silver atoms into black silver oxide) and fix (lock them onto the film base) with rinsing at every stage.

Because you're not frightened about the result having to look totally realistic (like you are with colour), you can do a lot with textures. Faster films are more grainy, and that can be an interesting effect in its own right. Then you can use different "hardnesses" of paper ... ("hard" means high contrast, so a hard paper prints all B & W and no greys). Between those two variables you can get a lot of effects ... and that's before you mess about with mattes & vignettes.

So take the chance if you get it in a Lab. The College probably has a photo society with darkrooms?

*Sets out selection of fairly simple home-made cakes ... cup-cake sponge, with centre dug out, then assorted fillings (whatever was on shelf and in fridge)*

Yes, I'm feeling suitably "guilty" about internationalisation, so I daren't go out and buy anything today ...