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

Hi CYBERHUMAN!

It's good to hear from you! That study of 'Twelfth Night' would weary even the staunchest of Shakespeare's hard core fans! I the play and have acted in it, but analysing it as a requisite would probably do me in! You do have my heartfelt sympathy...

Is your cold all better? I do hope so.
I got my flu shot last Friday and I feel just a bit off my stride. The funny thing with those flu vaccines is that there's no guarantee that the flu bug that you might contract will be covered by the vaccine that you got immunized with to hopefully prevent it!

I'm shy about public journaling, frankly. I don't like a lot of attention given to my circumstance du jour. I tend to be too sincere and candid for my own good. I also bore myself silly reading about myself as well. A high cringe level would ensue ...
When my RL friends read my postings here, they advised me to take on a different persona because too much of the real me kept coming out loud and clear. Having had problems of being stalked in RL, I can see my friend's concern and guarding tendencies. They just want to keep me safe. So I do keep to basic outlines regarding my personal background descriptions. If I journaled, because of my innate tendency to be too truthful, I feel that I'd be conflicted about not sharing the whole story(however slight an omission might be needed).

Like you, I'll stick to occasional journal entries for now.
You're absloutely right regarding the quality of friends winning out over quantity. I'll keep referring to that when faced with a decision to add to my friends list.

What a coincidence, I have a dentists appointment tomorrow too. Just a check up. I hope nothing more!

My cold is much better now thank you and my white blood cells are making slow but steady progress in fighting the cold virus. I keep saying to them, "One more charge lads, and we'll beat this enemy!"

You'll have nothing to worry about at the dentist tomorrow. I'm sure your teeth are in perfect condition. My teeth have had nothing done to them in eighteen years of their existence, as I very rarely eat sweets and didn't even know what sweets were until I was about five years old! I don't even like the vast majority of sweets anyway, except good old !!! *That should be a big, toothy grin!*

Anyway, I'm off to bed now as I have to be in college early tomorrow so I shall say goodnight and speak to you again tomorrow sometime! Goodnight and sweet dreams!

Glad to hear you're feeling much better!

No sweets until you were five years old? Amazing! I don't know how your mum managed that.
We can exchange dental stories tomorrow.

You'd better head off to recharge! Goodnight!
Have a very restful sleep and sweet cybernetic dreams!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today? I'm very good and have been relaxing for most of the day since Wednesday is always my day off from college, which has been very nice! I have a very early start tomorrow morning however as my double lecture at college is from 9.00 to 11.00, so I will be in need of quite an early night tonight! At least after tomorrow I only have one lecture from 2.15 to 3.15 on Friday afternoon, which isn't so bad, so I can't really complain about it.

My dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon went very well and my teeth were given a clean bill of health. My next appointment is going to be in May 2006, so I'm glad that that's all out of the way for another six months or so! My mum managed to keep me off sweets until I was about five years old because I never really showed any interest in them until I was about that age, so she just never tried making me eat them, which I think is very sensible of her. Even when I did start to eat them, I never really liked them all that much, so I've never really grown up eating loads of sweets. Unlike a lot of children these days, who have several fillings in their mouth by the time they're about eight years old! The only dental treatment I've ever had was about four years ago when I had two baby teeth at the sides of my mouth taken out because the adult teeth above them were not coming through the gums properly, so I had an injection in the gums above each tooth and then they were pulled out with a pair of dentist's pliers! My mum told me the injections wouldn't hurt, but they hurt a lot! I have no fillings and all my teeth are completely natural and untouched by dental treatment!

Anyway, I've given you more than enough information and amusement there to digest for now. Incase I've gone to bed before you get round to replying, since I have a very early start in the morning, I shall say goodnight now and hopefully speak to you again tomorrow sometime! Goodnight my dear friend and sweet dreams!

Good Evening CYBERHUMAN!

How are you tonight?
Looking at the clock, I presume you are at tea about now. I've just finished preparing lunch, which just happens to usually coincide with your evening tea hour. So, I thought this would be a good time to sit down and finally post a reply to you!
I didn't get to do this earlier. Late last night the h2g2 servers were acting up like the dickens(with apologies to Charles and his family). I already lined up a message to you to post and eventually the transaction timed out.Silly me, I pressed the wrong button somewhere and lost the message irretrievably.

You were right about not having anything to worry about at my dental appointment the other day. I had much the same result as you and was given a clean bill of dental health and a reminder not to chew on ice if I could. I cracked a molar last year crunching on an ice cube and my dentist won't let me forget what a silly git I can be at times.
Your account of having those two teeth removed sounded horrendous.
I just squirm these days when a dentist says "...this won't hurt a bit" or "this will only cause a slight pinch...". The actual pain of a procedure is much less of a trauma for me than the anticipation of it!

Let's see...oh yes! I had a bit of a neighbourhood incident after I posted to you last Tuesday. A neighbour was trimming a hedge with one of those small chainsaw-like devices and suddenly he slipped and the saw took out a good chunk of his lower leg. His 8 year old son came running to my house for help(he said he could smell cookies baking and knew I'd be there) and I attended to his bleeding father while I gave him my mobile phone to contact emergency services. I then enlisted the aid of soon gathering neighbours to give me towels after I had taken off my blouse to tie as a tourniquet below the injured man's knee. After 15(!) minutes of compression to lessen the copious bleeding, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics thought at first that I was an accident victim too because I was so soaked with blood.
After 4 hours of surgery to repair blood vessels and the like, my neighbour came out of the hospital today and I finally gave him the cookies I was meaning to bring to him on the day of his accident.

Today was an ordinary day, thank goodness.
Just ballet class and a rehearsal with my piano accompanist this morning. The winds are whipping things up again here and the temperature hit 31C yesterday. Today, so far, has gotten to 28C.
I'm looking forward to a relaxing and calm evening ahead which includes a highlight of chatting with you!

Hello Cynthesis!

It sounds like you had a rather eventful Tuesday with that horrendous incident, and I'm glad that the man was not injured more seriously than what he was, as chainsaws can be extremely dangerous if not handled safely or without the proper precautions being taken by the owner. Having seen the 1974 version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which even I have to describe as one of the most terrifying and gory horror films of all time, I am only too aware of the lethal side of a chainsaw and I'd be very concerned for anyone I knew who was using one, even with the proper knowledge of how to operate the chainsaw and the general precautions of using one. I hope that the man will be more careful in future when handling a chainsaw. I'm sure he'll make a full recovery though and will take the correct safety precautions next time he ever needs to use a chainsaw.

The weather over here has begun to deteriorate into the very depths of winter. Over the last couple of nights we have been having temperatures of -2C and -3C respectively, and the temperature during the day is now struggling to rise beyond 8C, which means that there is often large patches of ice on the roads and pavements, as well as frost on the car windscreens. The sky has now taken on a perpetual milky grey look, with just the faintest suggestion of golden sunlight poking through the dense clouds. Only three weeks ago we were seeing temperatures during the day of 18C and night temperatures of 9C! How the weather can turn so quickly! The heating wasn't on in my house three weeks ago, but now it is turned up full blast! My three cats keep coming inside every half an hour or so because they are getting quite chilly outside and they have taken to lying in front of the blazing hot radiators to warm up! This cold weather makes one think of the summer, and how it is many months before the summer comes back again.

I have only got a single lecture tomorrow afternoon, which will be nice, and then on Saturday morning I'm going to have a look around a potential university in Southampton, which I might end up going to in September 2006. That should be quite interesting I think, as I'm going to look at their BA (Hons) Screenwriting course.

Yes, I do remember 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and it was the bloodiest film I'd ever seen of that genre. It certainly was the grandaddy of all the other wannabe film gore fests, but I don't think anything has aproached the level of shock and surprise factor that it initiated.
Uh huh, that's what Tuesday's scene here in the neighbourhood reminded me of too. I can't forget the look on the faces of bystanders as they watched me plunge right in and get involved in the bloodbath. Some of them got a bit sick. The reality of it all didn't sink in with me until I went to have a shower to clean up.* from the shower scene from the film 'Psycho'*

Glad that's all behind me!

It was so warm (30C) today that I went swimming in the pool this afternoon. I'm still living in summer clothes at home because this really has been an extended summer this year. We had 3 teasingly hintful days of autumn weather the other week but that's about it. This is not unlike what we're used to during June or July.
I miss living in England on days like this. While you wax nostalgically about summer. I'm eagerly looking forward to some fine cool winter weather in a not too distant future, I hope.

Are you going to any other looks around at other universities besides Southhampton? I'm trying to remember which universities are situated there in the south. It's kind of exciting making the rounds of places where you're likely to spend the next 3 years of your life.
I did post graduate work at St. Hilda's, Oxford. I could have stayed a perpetual student there if I didn't have to return to the US like I did!

I'll speak with you again tomorrow I hope!
Have a good night's rest and some sweet dreams!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today?

Hi CYBERHUMAN!

It's good to hear from you.
Did you go to Southampton University this weekend?

I'm in the midst of entertaining unannounced guests at the moment. It's been a very busy weekend for me here! Fun, but busy!

I'll tell you in a post a little bit later on tonight, but I just wanted to say hello to you now while you're still up and about. I've missed you!

Hope everything's going very well with you!

*shrugs apologetically*

I went to have a look around Southampton University on Saturday morning and also received information from a lecturer who teaches the course that I want to study at university, which is BA (Hons) Screenwriting and encompasses writing for film, television and the stage, about the course, what it involves and how I can go about making myself look as appealing as possible to get accepted for the course.

I had to arrive at Southampton University at around 10.00 in the morning, so that meant going to bed early on Friday night and getting up at around 7.30 on the following morning. Fortunately I didn't oversleep too much and got up at 7.40 exactly, and I remember what time it was because I looked at my clock when I woke up, and then I went downstairs and had breakfast. I then had a wash and got dressed before leaving the house with my mum at just after 9.00, my dad picking us up in his car so we could drive to Southampton (about an hour away from where I live) and arrive at 10.00. So we drove up on the motorway and arrived in Southampton at precisely 10.00, which I thought was pretty good going seeing as it was just gone 9.00 when we left.

The university in Southampton is not a particularly large one, but at the same time it's not particularly small, being a medium-sized university. It has smooth creamy-coloured walls with lots of big windows in rows along them, and consists of several low rectangular buildings with flat roofs all boxed in quite close together, dating from around the 1960s with more modern additions at the rear of the university. It's on flat ground and there are few steps both internally and externally, unlike the university at Winchester that I went to see in October 2004, which has hundreds of steps both outside and inside. We went to the main reception at 10.00 and I had to sign a couple of forms confirming my presence at the open day where parents and students-to-be can come and look round the university and any courses that may be of interest to them. Then at 10.15 we went to a welcome lecture which was being conducted by a second year student (who had never done a lecture before, poor girl) and received information about what to expect or not expect at the university and student life in general. Unfortunately for me, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, my best friend Simon started at university in September and has already told me what was explained to us in the welcome lecture! Anyway, I listened and the lecture only went on until 11.00.

Then we were all hungry so we went and found the student café, which on the open day was available for parents as well as students, and had one of the best traditional English breakfasts I have ever eaten! Hash browns, fried bread, sausages, bacon, fried egg, onion rings, fried potatoes and baked beans all passed down swiftly into our stomachs! We left the café (feeling rather full) at 12.00 and then went to be spoken to by the lecturer who teaches the BA (Hons) Screenwriting course in one of the seminar rooms which had been converted into an open space with several cloth-covered desks and three chairs in front of each desk, the lecturers for each course sitting behind these desks and the parents and students sitting in the chairs opposite them. The lecturer, who is called Richard Hudson, explained to me and my parents about the course and what it involves.

In the first year of the Screenwriting course, students study how scripts for film, television and the theatre are written and are also given opportunities throughout the year to write their own scripts, which are then analysed by the lecturer and commented on on a one-to-one basis. In the second year of the course, students study individual professional scriptwriters and examine in intricate detail a few of their scripts, learning how the scripts are put together in draft form and then taken from the page to the screen or stage, and also analysing the various techniques and methods used by the scriptwriter to produce their scripts. Professional scriptwriters also appear as guest speakers in the lectures, so the students have an opportunity to "interrogate" them for an hour or so. In the third year, students have to get themselves into groups and are given the entire year to write the script for a film, play or TV drama/sitcom/soap opera programme. During this time, students are also shown how to edit scripts and are given a brief insight into directing and how their film, stage or TV script may be directed should it be accepted by a professional company. Once students have graduated, the scripts that they have written throughout the three years of the course are sent off to various companies to see if they can be accepted and produced in a professional manner! The lecturer also said that enthusiasm and commitment will be more likely to get you accepted on the course than what grades you have, and also Maths is not relevant to getting accepted to this course! The lecturer went up in my opinion when he said that he had no Maths qualifications himself! How cool is that?!

Anyway, we finished being spoken to by the lecturer at about 1.30 and then we left Southampton at around 1.45, finally arriving home at 2.40 as the afternoon traffic was less congested than the morning traffic had been.

I apologise for the length of this reply and I think I may have gone into too much detail with my description of going to the university open day!

I am extremely interested in this course as it encompasses all that I want to do in my life, and was impressed with the university itself. I only hope I am accepted so that I can start there in September 2006.

Unannounced guests eh? I'm sure you're the perfect host (or hostess, whichever it's meant to be) and they fully enjoy your delightful and interesting company. I missed you too by the way.

I'm off to bed now as it's 4.03 over here and I need some sleep. I have one lecture at college tomorrow afternoon from 2.15 to 3.15. I'll speak to you again tomorrow sometime! Goodnight!

Yes, it's quite late for you there!

My reply will take a while, so I'll say goodnight to you now...
and bid you sweet cybernetic dreams!
Sleep well!

No apologies are ever needed from you regarding the length of your replies.Ever.

I'll take whatever reply you have to fling my way anytime!

Seriously, whenever you've written a lot of detail, it's been because it was something that you were highly interested in or was very important to you. Your visit to the university in Southampton was important in regard to your future!

I'm so glad that you found it to your liking. Spending three years in intense study and gaining useful life experience at a place that you actually *like* is a fortunate thing. I know what a keen passion and talent you have for writing scripts so I'm strongly hoping that you'll find yourself accepted for 2006 there.

An hour away from your home is a manageable distance. Are you planning on living on campus, though? The layout of the campus sounds accessible and friendly enough, too. I know what you mean about universities with seemingly endless steps. Sometimes I wonder what some architects had against students to want to punish them so. Maybe something metaphorical about the challenges of higher learning...nah, I think the architects got their jollies knowing that the students would have to learn things the hard way.

What a good first impression the student cafe had upon you! I wonder if the breakfasts are consistently of that quantity and standard!
I love traditional English breakfasts so much that I had to make them my main meal of the day when I did indulge in them. They are sooooooo filling and good! That's one of the things I miss so much about the UK, the morning fry-ups!

Your introduction and overview of the Screenwriting course was admirably comprehensive. I never had that kind of explicit course description and plans at any of my introductory sessions. I was already accepted into the university and attended my first seminar when I got that kind of information! The course sounds absolutely compatible with your needs. The only comparable programmes of that kind that I know of are available at the University of Southern California and Columbia University in New York both of which are premier leaders in that field of study.
You were very lucky to have such a reassuring lecturer who took the time to let you know what was most important to gain admission into this course. I know how that Maths has been weighing on your mind. To know that it doesn't figure so predominantly in your way to get ahead with your future career dreams is a great relief when voiced by someone in the know!

Anyway, my weekend was spent horseback riding in the hills and enjoying the autumn colour that is in brilliantly full display.It's still quite warm here in California(28-32C) and wildfires to the south of me were whipped up by the strong winds that have been blowing for the past 5 days.

I had two sets of unannounced guests today and had been running to and fro trying to attend to them.*sigh* They just left now and it's 11:50PM!

Well, it's always nice to get caught up with one another.
I hope to speak with you again quite soon!
Have a lovely day cyborg warrior!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today my dear friend?

Hi CYBERHUMAN!

I'm just fine, thanks very much!

I had a ballet class and a rehearsal earlier today.
So now I'm recovering from that while checking out what's happening here on h2g2.

The fires to the south of me have finally been contained.
There's a great feeling of relief all around these parts now.

I hear it's been quite cold all across the UK.
It's actually getting cooler here. 26C today.
Did I hear mirthless laughter somewhere just now


What have you been up to today?

I have not been up to very much today, apart from going into college for one lecture this afternoon, which was rather dull as we were just watching the video of "Twelfth Night" for an entire hour, which was an excellent production but one that didn't really grab my interest. Anyway, I have been spending the rest of the day just relaxing and chilling out, which has been very nice! Tomorrow I have a double lecture, which will hopefully be more interesting than the one today.

The temperature during the day seems to have settled down now to between 7C and 10C, so although it's rather cold and frosty we are at least seeing a period of stability in our country's weather. I think it would be worse if it was changing constantly, for example going from 7C one day to a whopping 20C the next. It's just so cold outside at the moment, with lots of frost around and ice on the ground. At least in California it's still almost summer-like as regards the temperature!

I'm glad that the fires have now been contained and your house is not in danger of being burned down!

Anyway, I'm off to bed now as it's 1.43 in the morning here and I have to get up by 9.30 in the morning to go to college. So I shall say goodnight and speak to you tomorrow! Goodnight!

How much more of 'Twelfth Night' can a cyborg take?

The weather here is ridiculously warm, most people that I talk to in the UK can't relate to it. I'm all for a touch of winter, but when that will make its arrival, I have no idea. Usually we have much cooler weather by the time Thanksgiving day rolls around. Thanksgiving is this Thursday and the ski resorts in the mountains are going to have to stay closed.

Hope to see you a bit tomorrow!
Good night and Sweet dreams to you!

Hello Cynthesis!

How are you today?

Hello CYBERHUMAN!

I'm fine, thank you! How are you doing?

I've been busy with preparations for the Thanksgiving Day holiday over here. I'll be serving a big dinner for 14 at my home and also helping to serve 3oo guests at a homeless shelter where I regularly volunteer as a guest chef . We're talking about a whole lot of turkeys to be roasted by Thursday! Not to mention all the pumpkin, pecan and apple pies, and the rest of the traditional side dishes commonly served.

I was going to pop over to the party at lil's but then I noticed I had to read a lot of backlog on my PS from other threads before I could possibly post anywhere soon. That's what I get for being away for the major portion of the day!

Hope your day went well!

My day has been very dull and uninteresting I'm afraid, as I had a double lecture at college from 11.20 to 1.20 and then had to go for a physio appointment which did not begin until 2.30 and lasted a full forty-five minutes. I'm sure my physiotherapist delighted in using the opportunity to "torture" me with exercises designed to build up the strength in my leg and keep all the muscles nicely stretched and loose. I know it's beneficial for the general mobility and strength of my leg but it didn't half hurt at the time! So as you can imagine, I'm pretty exhausted physically tonight!

Anyway, it's Wednesday now so I shall be having my usual day off from college, which will be very nice indeed as I shall be able to relax and chill out for the whole day and prepare myself for my one lecture on Thursday morning! After that, I don't have to go to college again until the following Tuesday, so I get a nice four day weekend!

The weather over here is to take a turn for the worst on Friday, according to the weather forecasts that I have seen on TV today. Apparently the temperature, which is only a rather pitiful but constant 7C at the moment, is to drop to a chilling -3C! The weather forecasters say that the pipes leading out from our houses are in danger of freezing and bursting, while we can expect snow to fall in southern Britain (where I live) on Friday evening and cars to be literally frozen over. My mum has already said, half-jokingly, that we're going to hibernate on Friday as I have no college to go to during the day! I shall be half-dreading the weather on Friday, because of it being so nail-bitingly cold, and half-looking forward to the weather on Friday, because I haven't seen snow since I was about six years old, which was twelve years ago! We've had the old 'slush,' i.e. watery snow, in recent years, but not proper semi-solid snow like you imagine snow to be. So it will be exciting in a way to have snow descending on us here in southern Britain.