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

A big hello from me over in South Africa and also my new home here on BBC h2g2, under a new and improved name also. Yup, I wuz evicted. I have to set up anew. My old site will never work again. But I'll start anew. We'll have to make a plan about pictures, won't we? But I am so glad to find you here, I've lost so many of my old friends and don't know where to find them. Do you have any idea where Wazungu is located? Or Bran, or Walter? I don't remember their addresses, and the links that used to connect me to them are no longer functional!

Anyways let's hope for the best. Your entries are still there, that's great. My unofficial ones have been ruined and I'm not even able to repair them. Oh well.

Talk soon!
The Case M2

My dear Case! How really nice to see you again. I had a hunt around earlier but everything was so slow and eventually I just kept getting "page cannot be displayed" messages. I've managed to leave messages for several old friends before losing it. I expect they'll all trickle back in their own time. I certainly hope so.

What was the problem with your page? I imagine it was written in HTML or Java, was it? I know Wumbeevil's page has melted down into code because of that. They no longer support it. Everything has to be in GuideML or plain text I think. I expect there'll be some connected site that will host images for us, eventually. Most of the pictures have disappeared from my page too and I miss them - particularly my lovely salamander that Amy made specially for me. It's bound to take a little while to get back to normal - but at least we're back in!

Speak to you soon Case.

Sal same as before

Hi Sal!!! I've just been over the House Rules, and I think I'll be able to rig something up concerning pictures and so on. But I must say, some of the new rules are pretty restrictive, and a few fellas I used to chat too are going to be more or less dead. I'm thinking of a few guys with fairly original ideas about drugs, or about sex, and so on, and at least one kid who didn't mind speaking his mind about stuff in his life. Their mouths are shut now, I wonder what they will find to say now that they can't talk about their favourite subjects in their preferred manner any more. I predict many new code words and lots of bewildered moderators.

And what's this about the language? What's gonna happen to Trillian's Child and her Germania business? And I wanted to put in lots of Afrikaans stuff! Enforced censorship is going to lead to the online extermination of minority languages! That's virtual genocide!

My old page is extinct because of a lost password, and my old entries have been gibberified because they were in HTML and linked to off-site pictures that were pretty much the backbones of the entries.

I am also really upset that we can't put links in forum entries any more. That was one of the most educational and enriching aspects of the old site for me, and a few of us were being rather liberal and creative in that direction in quite a number of forums that I used to be actively involved in.

Seems we'll have to set up lots of stuff off-site, and create link entries. Well, that's the BBC's loss, can't be helped.


Hmmmm... why isn't there a smiley?

I know it seems a bit restrictive Case, but don't panic. A number of people have been chatting about this elsewhere on the site. I think if you click the help button at the top of the page and look on the various feedback fora, you'll find a few imaginative solutions, like having an guide entry page full of your favourite URLs then you can direct people to that page to find the address. I think that's allowed. Also, the language thing is short term. It's not a genocidal move, it's just that all entries and posts are going to be moderated (looked at) and currently, they haven't got enough multilingual moderators. I think they just want to make sure that nobody can put offensive posts in that can get by the eagle eyes the bbc (big brother censor). I feel confident that things will mellow once we've had time to settle in.

Maybe those liberal minded folks who feel they can't say what they want here can go to the places we've been hanging out while h2g2's been down: yahoo and ezboard. I don't mean full time - just to say what can't be said here (if indeed it can't be said here). Speaking of which, did you decide to give our temporary refuge at yahoo a miss? There were almost 1000 of us there by the time the bbc let us back in here.

I must sleep now. Speak to you later.
Sal

No prob, enjoy the sleep. Yahoo didn't want to let me in, for some reason or other - goodness knows, I tried. See ya later.

Oh oh oh - I almost forgot to say I couldn't get in because of the password thing earlier. If you leave a request message for Mark Moxon, he'll email you your old password or issue a new one so you can get at your old page.

That's it - eyes refuse to stay open a moment longer. Night night.
Sal

Are you also in the habit of being online during the dead hours? I am actually running into health and wellbeing trouble as a result of that. It is 3:33 in the morning right now over here, and on the first night h2g2 came back I was online from midnight until seven o' clock the next morning. Currently I am experiencing great trouble sleeping during the day, attended by such symptoms as headaches, weariness and disorientation!

Tell me, do you perhaps know if Wazungu has yet returned, or not? I miss our forum discussions over at the Waterhole. Imagine, all those animals and other pictures will now be gone.

Yes, I am a bit undisciplined about packing it in Case. What usually drives me is the pain in my back. When that really kicks in, I have no choice but to collapse in an untidy heap somewhere. Actually, Kat sent me an article about how a knackered body clock can cause all sorts of health problems - including arthritis and even chronic fatigue syndrome. I'll have to see if I can find it. If not perhaps I can ask Kat if she still has it. It was very interesting.

I don't think Wazungu's back yet. I left her a message but I've had no reply so far. Her page was a thing of wonder. She'll be so upset when she sees what's happened to it. I hope that's not keeping her away. I miss the waterhole too.

Sal

Are you there Case?

The excellent Kat has sent me that info about health probs caused by a mixed up body clock, again. It's scanned. If you have a spare email address you use for such things, let me know what it is. You can send it to [email protected] if you have one, and I'll send the files on to you.

Bran's about now. Spect he'd be pleased to hear from you. He's been unable to reach Walter by email and wonders if he might be on holiday in England. Still no word from Wazungu.

Speak to you later.

Sal

Hello! That's a very kind offer of yours - I will send you an email, it might be interesting if we can swap info a bit. But my sleeping patterns are coming together again now. What I've been doing is this: before going to sleep I visualise objects, scenes, positive images that put me in a good mood. Then I fall asleep rather quickly and sleep soundly until about sunrise. I also have lots of dreams. After waking up I then try to remember my dreams. This I do because I am interested in lucid dreaming, where you "wake up" in the middle of a dream, but you remain in the dreamworld and can actually influence the course of the dream, which is great fun. I have had a number of lucid dreams, but long ago; I wanna have some more. Dream recall is an important factor. But to get back to the sleeping: because I now look forward to my sleep-time I find it easier to get in bed early, usually by around 11 o'clock at night. And the visualisation, and the dreaming, and the dream recall, all seem to have a very beneficial effect on my mood and this helps me sleep better.

I find all of this quite fascinating and I am trying to encourage people over here to pay more attention to dreaming, because I believe they can contribute in many ways to a person's quality of life.

I'll be seeking out Bran, thank's a lot. Boy, I hope Wazungu turns up soon.

All the best,
Case

Pleased to hear you're beginning to sleep well again. Sounds as though you've taken control of the situation. Well done! Very positive. Interesting methods too. It must feel very empowering to find something that works so well for you.

You know they say you remember dreams when you wake up during them and, that people who say they don't dream do, but they just don't wake up during their dreams? Doesn't that seem odd to you? I remember my dreams when I wake up. Sometimes I can remember 3 or 4 that I've had during the course of the night, whether I woke up or not. And it seems strange that some people just never even accidentally get woken up while dreaming. Seems to me the theory about only remembering dreams if you wake during them is a bit flawed.

Feel free to email me. I'm off to put some rotten news in my goo diary now. They're burying foot and mouth infected sheep in a landfill site just down the road from where I live - just the next village.

I hope our chums will be back soon too. Did you say Hi to Bran?

Speak to you soon.

Sal

That theory about remembering dreams only when you "wake up" in them is hogwash. Like I said, it has only happened to me a few times that I have woken up in my dreams, but I remember a great many dreams in which I did not wake up, for instance, about four last night, and seven a night about a week ago - in none of them did I "wake up". "Waking up" means becoming aware that you are asleep and that you are dreaming. The overwhelming majority of the time that doesn't happen - in fact, for many people it never happens. But dream recall is important for becoming lucid for this reason (roughly): your everyday memory still functions while you dream - you remember some aspects of your waking life. If, in your waking life, you make a point of remembering your dreams - in other words, you become "attentive" to your dreams in your waking life - it becomes more likely that while dreaming you will become attentive to the fact that you are dreaming. Then you have "woken up" and can perhaps influence the dream, or, at the very least, take in a lot more information about the dreamworld.

No, I haven't seen Bran yet, I haven't been online very much lately. I'll see if I can find a chance today!

See ya,
The Case