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

"I just deciding whether to put down roots or not?", are you a tree or some kind of plant?

Snowman

Are you a snowman?

Of course he is. Just like I'm an .

By the way, welcome to h2g2! If you want to contribute to the Guide, follow this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Contribute

Learn how to write smileys (, , , , , , et cetera):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Smiley

It never hurts to learn GuideML (save the occasional headache):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/GuideML-Clinic

If you have any questions, post them here (just reply to this posting and I'll receive a kind of alert on my personal space) or at the ACE's homepage. They're kind and helpful.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A214796

See you around!

Nice to get a welcome...thank you....so many questions...where to start...what is this thing exactly?

If you mean h2g2, here's the best answer I can think of: h2g2 is short for "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (= "hhgg" = "h2g2"). It was invented by the late () Douglas Adams in his aptly named book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". The Guide, as it is often fondly referred to, is in the book a wireless device that connects to a server and retreives information about virtually anything a hitchhiker needs to know about the galaxy. Out of this idea, h2g2 was born.

This Guide is the Earth edition, which means it only deals with Earth and its immediate (sort of) surroundings. You can read about almost anything here. Just type anything in that text box over there and press the "Search h2g2" button next to it; you'll see a list of Entries (articles) in which the entered text (or part of it) appears. You can contribute to the Guide by writing new Entries.

When you've written an Entry and feel that it's all done, you can submit it for review:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/PeerReview

Fellow Researchers (h2g2 users) will hopefully discuss your Entry and either suggest changes or simply praise your Entry because of the sheer genious of it. It can then be Recommended by a Scout (h2g2 users that scour the Guide, picking out the best Entries) and Edited by a Sub-Editor (h2g2 users that correct spelling errors, fixes the layout of the Entry etc) and then finally added to the Edited Guide. It's nice to get your Entry Edited, it feels like you're somehow officially a real Researcher who has really contributed to the vast knowledge base that is h2g2. That's what h2g2 is, sort of an odd dictionary/thesaurus/knowledge base combo. Help us build it.

Read Douglas Adams' welcome message:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Welcome-DNA

Thanks for that, I see from your homepage that you like Nik Kershaw? He was in the year below me at secondary school and I worked with him for a year in the local dole office. Any scurrilous gossip you want to know?

You're fing kidding me, right?! If that's true, you should definitely write an Entry about him; you've had first-hand experience for cryin' out loud!

As for the gossip -- of course! Lay it on me!

No its true - I even tried to persuade him to join a band in Aylesbury but at the time he didn't want to leave his home - certainly not with the two deranged lunatics who were trying to persuade him!!!
Errr... He first gigs were with a school band and they used to do covers of Bowie songs - glam rock was big in those days. I seem to remember 'Queen Bitch' amongst others.
I also know what motivated him to become a famous (ish) musician.....but you'll have to do a lot more begging before I reveal that little titbit - funny though it is. I lost touch with him in 1977/78 and the next thing I knew was in 1983 and he had a hit!!
He was certainly very single minded about his guitar playing and merely did the job to fund his purchasing of various bits of guitar technology. I certainly remeber on one occassion when he told a difficult claimant over the phone: 'Write to Michael Foot (then minister for the department)if you don't like' - around three weeks later he was called into the manager's office and given a right b*****king and handed a letter of complaint which had been intialled and actioned by evey chain of command in the ministry from Michael Foot downwards and I guess the telling off gathered force with every level it descended until it landed fairly and squarely on his head.
As he said - he didn't think the claimant in question was actually together enough to bother. He certainly never said anything like that again. As I recall he was one of the first to be trained in the use of the then new computer system for paying giro cheques.

You have done anything about your intro yet

Snowman

What is it to do with you?

I'm sorry didn't mean to bark up the wrong tree.

Snowman