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

Hope you don;t mind me elbowing in. Yes, I noticed the light was a bit lower tonight on the way home.

But 'nature declining'? I know what you mean but I love Autumn it makes my feel more alive with the bright crisp, sharp smelling mornings, the beautiful Autumnal colours that, for me, are more noticable and brilliant than the summers greem and odd'other flowery colour' colour scheme.

And, gosh, your films, you certianly go for the depressing ones: I suggest you watch Ghostbusters, Whisky Galore, The LadyKillers and Topkapi for some hilarious jape-ry.

Yes 3dots you're very welcome to elbow your way in, anytime.

I do also very much like much more cheerful films as well. And I like those crisp clear mornings of Autumn as well, and in winter. But it's these bloody leaden skies we've had for weeks and weeks here in London that get me. And yes I do like the 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' thing as well. I like the real transition periods like spring and autumn much more than summer and winter. They are about change and transition. But this whole 'daylength' effect is something other than that. I'm wondering if it's some kind of biological effect that affects everyone to some degree, whether or not it's noticed, (just a guess), but it's often more pronounced in people with clinical mood disorder problems.

You are probably right it affects people with mood disorder problems more as they have a head start on the rest of us.

The bipolar subject came up at work today and a friend who builds and plays ukuleles told me a guy in a semi-pro uke duo used to suffer wuite badly until he started playing the uke and now he's off all his medication.

Buy a Uke!

Here they are. Have a scoot through their vids they are excellent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdk1drdNNLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pdPB1-UTgs&feature=related

Britney done by two skin headed 6foot blokes...

Hmmm, buy a ukulele or take my medication? Being a responsible person, I wonder which I'll do?

But yeh, I agree I should watch some happy movies.

Then there is this onehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/go/dna/h2g2/brunel/F134192/ext/_auto/-/http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eo68vlnOiYI

This is my idea of something a bit daftly optimistic. Stuff the cynics. London 2012 Olympics promo film.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6wuEQ7hcQ

And yes on another optimistic note, I do hope Obama lives up to things. (I know you're a fan JEllen). I'll be honest from I've seen of him, I do still have reservations. But I'll be rooting for him. I do so want to believe...

Yes 3dots I love the Ukele. I have one actually, a banjo type one with George Fornby's picture on it. It belonged to my uncle who died years ago in a motorbike accident. I haven't the first clue how to play it though...but it's beautiful. But like JEllen I will still keep taking the 'mood stabilizer' meds. Seriously 3dots, for many of us, without those specific meds, psychosis is a real possibility. We've been there. Maybe for not all bipolars, I don't know? But for me it defo is.

Well, the video ticked all the boxes: over-exposed shoots, tight field of focus wth wuick focus change, tightly cropped shots, all inclusive shots of many colour of person, celebrities.

Still doesn't rock my boat. Anything that has a logo that looks like Lisa Simpson gving a bloke a blowjob is onto a loser.

Re: Obama. Straight cut and paste below of something I sent to an American friend yesterday:

"It very interesting watching the Democratic Party screw up another election this year. I watch 'The Daily Show with John Stewart' which is on the Comedy Channel in the US and is shown a day later over here. It's a satirical news show which seems to be able to get senators etc on as the progamme reaches the young demographic.

It seems to me that Hillary Clinton just wants the power and doesn't care about 'the party' at all. She has got her female & gay followers who seem to think she is the second coming and now she has been defeated by some up-start nearly-black guy they are thinking about voting for McCain. Crazy. Especially when she wass trying the Bush tactic of getting votes counted from a state that Obama didn't stand in the Primaries in.

Now that McCain has an all American NRA card-carrying anti-abortionist, anti-athiest, 'married to an oil exec' mother from some hick snowy town, Obama's stuffed.

Even Hillarys speech this week wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

I am thining about putting a bet on McCain getting in this time and Hillary waltzing in in 2012.

Hillary is so power hungry that she would prefer to have a republican in chrage for another 4years than Obama as she wouldn;t get the chance in 2012 to get into the White House. She needs an 'I told you so' event of McCain getting in"

People are now saying that McCain could have messed up as he has been attcking Obamas inexperience but now he has an experiecend person on his team. However, she's the running mate I do not think the US electorate will link young and president together like they may do with Obama.

Playing Ukes is easy. Ther are plenty of websites that can show you the chords. If you have never played guitar it will be more difficult. Well, worth having a go it amazing how many women play ukes.

>Anything that has a logo that looks like Lisa Simpson gving a bloke a blowjob is onto a loser.<

Yes well that's what I like about it.. Oh come on, you know very well whatever damn thing we'd come up with, within 5 seconds people would be taking the p*ss out of it, and reading all sorts into it. Isn't that what we Brits do best? So why not come up with a logo that can be so cheekily parodied... I love it.

And the reason I like that film is that it is very clever in presenting the Olympics in a Brit way of it being something for *ordinary people*..'you could be so many people'...'out of the ordinary' etc. And it's touching in its wit but also *apparent* innocence. A kind of 'knowing' silliness that very much appeals to me. So there...

And I don't like you dissing Hillary. I've got a thing for her, actually. Of course she's power hungry. *All* top politicians are. Everyone knows that. But not enough at the end of the day, or she would have dumped Bill. So that she's not power hungry enough, is probably what really did for her. Not dumping Bill gives the impression of weakness, lack of ruthlessness, and not believing she could ever really be her own person. I can't see her ever coming back now, after such a big error of judgement.

Had she dumped Bill she wouldn't have even had a sniff of the nomination...a hint of divorce or separation? Never going to happen.

And please, don;t think I am just 'dissing' Hillary...I haven;t even started on Osama...sorry Obama...I just don't want 4more years of republicans trying to screw the world...at least the democrats shouldn't screw it up so badly.

Calling him Osama is a bit of a cheap shot really.



How goes it Effers? I've found a neat add-on to Firefox called Stumble Upon. It learns my tastes and suggests new websites to me. I like it A LOT.

Well, you didn't see John Oliver on 'The Daily SHow With John Stewart' last week chanting 'Osama' in the very centre of the Democrat Conference with people going 'No! it's O*B*ama.

Don't be so touchy.

Friday 29th August episode. Watch it all but if you can't get 5minutes in to see Oliver at the Rally...Osama..woops...Osama...woops.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=183517

JEllenJ42: Kudos to you. A lady who hasn't been sucked in by the Hillary all-women together card.

What's your take on Palin?

Palin scares me! Did you know she approves of teaching Creationism in schools? *shudder* She's vastly underqualified.

> A lady who hasn't been sucked in by the Hillary all-women together card.<

Are there some? I'm presuming from your comment there are likely to be some, somewhere. Sounds a bit ridiculous for a top politician to try to push that card, even if they actually were, and not just being accused of that, as it's the kind of cheap shot remark frequently thrown at politicians. And such a card would just put the backs up of 50% of the population. Of course any person who is in a certain position that doesn't fit the conventional stereotype of what a 'president' is, eg they are black or they are a woman is going to be subject to having that kind of cr@p bandied about, in connection with them. That's reality in thee nasty world of politics. It's an easy, and I would say, because it's lazy thinking, that can just be inserted into any form of conversation to create a certain effect. I'm sure there are probably are some 'ladies' who would allow that concept to be *really important*, in their thinking. It's just I've never come across any personally, or heard of any, that my assessement of things would suggest was anything other than a 'sound bite' description.

Hi y'all.

Hi JEllen. How goes it? I don't really know, is the honest answer.

I'm basically behind Obama too now, because I mostly support the Democrats for ideological reasons, and he's their candidate. And for purely personal reasons, it'll be a relief not having to hear so much 'anti-American' stuff based purely on the fact of the having a Republican president, particularly after the one of the last 8 years.

Affectionate teasing of cousins across the Atlantic is the default, which it'll be good to get back to.

Hope you are ok.

simpost

Had a sleepless night. Of course, I'll catch up on sleep during the day, but it is most annoying.

Effers;<> A lady who hasn't been sucked in by the Hillary all-women together card.<

Are there some? I'm presuming from your comment there are likely to be some, somewhere.>

Based on the coverage I saw of the Primaries, sadly, there are.

My comment may have been badly worded - heck...it was a compliment!!! It does seem some would rather vote for McCain than Obama which is putting personality before party politics.

They did a nice skit on The Daily Show last week when their female 'correspondant' basically said yup, us women we vote with our vaginas not our heads which is why I'm voting McCain because he's got a vagina behind him. Yes, it's satire but satire always feeds off what is out there and their people have been out there seeing whats been happening in all the Primaries. They are at the Republican Convention next week which is going to be interesting watching. Because thier Primiries were over so quickly I didn't get to see much of them but it seems to be 'God and guns' again.

I do not mean to tar women with the same brush at all and it will not be the majority but it has been seen to be a geniune possibility and it's worrying.

As a someone who lives on Earth, whoever gets into the White House is very important to me. I don't care what their health care, tax or immigration policies are I just want to know whether they are going to try and make the world a bit safer after Bush and Bliar screwing it up over the past 7 years.

But Hillary did give us a new word: 'mispeaking' over the account of her dodging sniper fire in Basnia a decade ago.



The big thing about this Primary was that we would get the first black or woman president this year due to the Hillary and Obama. It would have been interesting to see the dynamics of the Primaries if it had a been 'just another' white guy running for president against either Hillary or Obama. That would have been just one camp going for 'the first woman/black dude' in the White House.

Hopefully, JEllen will be able to give some more local insight into what's happening over there.