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

Hey, that's fine cos I've got my bicycle outside...

I was born in Cambridge, lived in a village near Cambridge until I left home at 18, then moved back to a house just off Cherry Hinton Rd, for a bit, also I frequently go back cos my Mum lives in Cherry Hinton.

why?

I lived in Cambridge, and then later Trumpington.

Are you from the Cambridge area, or did you go college there?

not that those are the only two options!

I'm from Brighton originaly, but ended up in Cambridage (via a circuitous route), living with a bunch of delinquent students and then, later, with a hussy.

Two types of person that are hard to avoid when living in Cambridge

so what exactly is spawncam then?

if your site is under reconstruction, does that mean your previous page was unreconstructed?

Please, no Eng. Lit. gags here. Or at least work in a 'post' somewhere.
Spawncam is coming in spring, when the frogs spawn in the pond, and I hoik out a glob and stick it in a fish-tank next to a web-cam. This may sound deadly dull, but I'm mainly doing it so at the end I'll have about 90 still shots, which I can then stick through an animator, speeding the whole thing up.
Still sounds dull, now I read it.

Doesn't sound dull at all! But it occurs to me: it'd look even cooler if you speeded up the sequence, then ran it backwards

!macnwapS
Is that what you meant>?

maybe a little faster than that

I tried it faster but it still looked the same.
I've got a new piece in Peer revue at the moment - it's on the ichthyosaurs of Street. Be much obliged if you could pop over there sometime and give me your honest opinion. It's quite long though. . .about the right length to print off and take to your next bog-break. . .

okeydoke. I'll take it with me on the course I'm going on next week. It'll be something to do on the ferry, and a handy distraction on those long, long days at the field centre when I'm expected to learn stuff and sound intelligent despite having got up at 7am.

Tell me more.

I'm booked in for a training course on grazing and grassland management, at Losehill Hall. We don't get to go on courses very often, so I suppose I should make the most of it. I'll be worriting about the house (will it flood again?), and trying to cope with the ridiculously long working day that training centres always seem to have. Hopeless to expect an idle slapper like me to start something at 9am and still be daisy fresh 'n' yearnin for a learnin at 9 in the evening.

Still, at least it gets me off the rock for a bit...

Have a good time (late posting)

Happy Halloween!

I had a good time. The food at Losehill Hall is incredible, the surrounding countryside very impressive (tho not as good as the Isle of Man, of course ) and the course was useful.

Got home to find the mains water flatly refuses to flow through my pipes - possibly due to a blocked filter in the central heating boiler. Hmm. Welcome back.

Phew! Nearly finished looking at the article on ichthyosaurs...
just gimme another week or so

It wasn't that long! (...or was it?). Glad to hear you enjoyed your course. It sounds like you ate well, and that's the main thing. Are you a working botanist? I have no idea what the job market would be like for your profession. Do you have hot water yet? Is there ever going to be an end to these questions?

Moved into the new house on the 2nd. Getting settled now, but haven't seen any frogs yet. I hope they weren't there for show, perhaps they were just a hook to get me interested. Long-shot strategy though. . .
Frogbit.
ps - the ichthyosaur thing has changed again. Ha ha ha ha.

*has entertaining visions of estate agent cunningly planting frogs in garden prior to showing round prospective buyers*

Hope the dust is starting to settle after the move. I sympathise as I've moved a lot in the last few years. My pets are used to loads of moving about, esp. as I used to lead an itinerant life on a boat... my large and demanding family of books, however, don't take so kindly to being rehoused.

I've had a suitably picky look through the ichthyosaur article. Don't be offended by the list of criticism, I think it's great. Mind you, I now know more about fishy dinosaurs than I ever thought possible, or indeed necessary. And why do I feel an urge to wipe the screen every time I mentally pronounce "ichthyosaur"? Why couldn't you have chosen something with more keyboard pronounceability? Like "ferns" or "horsetails"

Which brings me to botany. The reason you probably haven't heard much about professional botanists is partly due to our preternatural ability to blend in with the surroundings ("hair by Swampy Ltd, clothes by Sue Ryder") and partly due to the fact that there aren't very many of us. Some consultancies have a variety of botanical specialists, there are some lecturers in botanical subjects, and one or two big companies have plant specialists (eg. for agrochemical research). Other than that it's mostly statutory organisations, either for forestry or agriculture, or for wildlife bodies such as JNCC/English Nature etc. The Isle of Man happens to have a botanist and a zoologist in the Wildlife Office, but don't get too excited: there's only four of us in total, doing all the kinds of things that a range of agencies do in the UK, hence we each do a wider range of things than just botany etc. I'm actually an ecologist by training. I specialise in plants because, in general, they're the only things that can't outrun me

After a row with an obnoxious heating engineer, and several hours of banging and swearing by two plumbers whose jeans defied gravity to such an extent that, had I a suitably scientific frame of mind, I could quite easily have deduced their eating habits, but you wouldn't, trust me on this, my water supply is restored and Sea Bean Cottage has functional radiators once more. I also - woohooo!! -have both a cooker and a sink, with taps and everything

The plumbers informed me that the very ancient non-return valve on the rising main, which had blocked with gunge (thanks guys - I'll just sit here in a cold sweat, wondering what the f*ck it was that I've been drinking all these months) is now technically illegal. Well, they should know: so are their clothes

I'm not offended. I'm flattered, really, that people take the time out to read such a long article, more than once.
The dust *is* starting to settle, as should we. Lottie (my daughter) is 2 in Feb and this is her 3rd home.
Where did you live in a boat, on the Cam? If so, did any of the lusty rowers try to puncture your hull?
Wipe the screen? You could just try typing it instead of saying it at the same time. (ps Do you have a 21" screen? I think you do).
Your job sounds pretty good.
Your fitter sound awful. In a cold sweat wondering what the f**k you've been drinking all this time? It's sludge, isn' it?
Goodnight. As you can probably tell, it's time for bed.