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

Hi! I was just posting with you on the DB topic page, and came by to look at your space (not much point in looking at mine, there isn't much there). We seem to have a lot in common, and one major thing NOT in common, which is that we live on opposite ends of the earth.

Actually not much in common anyway, we were born a year apart, are both in love with David Bowie, and like to read and write above all else. Oh, obviously Hitchhiker's Guide and H2G2 and all that. And looking at your journal entries it seems you haven't been on for a while, and neither have I! Ha! A lot in common, I knew it! I haven't been really active on here since I was like, I don't know, 14. It's been ages. Still a great place though.

So, tell me about yourself. Have you always lived in Thailand? Are you in school, out of school, never been to school? Any other boring hum drum facts? Your feelings on orange fanta and cat-flaps?

By the way, cause I have to tell someone, I just discovered that they finally added the !!!! I was campaigning for that too! Yay! Pops some belated


Athena

Hi!

s forever!!!

Anyway... where to start? I was born in Hong Kong and moved here when I was three. I've almost finished school, and I'll be going to uni in the UK next year, probably Edinburgh, to read English. Orange fanta... well, Thai orange fanta is completely different from orange fanta in the rest of the world, it's a lot sweeter and knowing Thai drinks they probably throw in some amphetamine-type substances for good measure. And cat-flaps are always useful. Well, they are if you have four cats at any rate, which I do...

Haha, my space is very dated! I wrote it all in my GCSE days, when I thought quantum mechanincs and soft drinks were the height of coolness. I'll rewrite it at some point in the future. Possibly.

And yourself? Where has life taken you so far?

On a random tangent, I was considering giving myself a Greek name (I like adding bits to my full name, I don't know why! I just want a long, cool-sounding name), and Athena was one of the ones I liked. As well as Sophia and Persephone. I used to be very into Greek mythology- I named my acoustic guitar Terpsichore, after one of the muses. Anyway. I played Athena in a school play recently, it was fun...

And last but anything but least, David Bowie... ah, he's just fantastic. What's your favourite song/album? My favourite album changes from Ziggy to Aladdin on a weekly basis. And the others are brilliant too...

see you around

I guess my favorite album would be Heathen, though it is really a tough call, and I love everything! My favorite song (right now) is the version of Conversation Piece released on the Heathen bonus album. I have been also listening to Station to Station and hours quite a bit recently. Love it all!

I think having a Greek name is fun, I quite like my name. And it is my real name. what is yours? Assuming, of course, that it isn't really Schrödinger's Cat-flap? Which, don't get me wrong, would be an awesome name.

My life hasn't taken me terribly far: yet. I fully intend for it too. I would really like to visit Thailand for one thing, and I hope that that can be my next big trip. I live in the USA, (but before I get any nasty labels, let me just say that I am about as far from the US's mainstream consumerism pro-war culture as it is possible to get with out physically leaving). I was born in the mid bit of America, which is full of boring pigs and corn and not much else, but recently moved out to the Southern Atlantic coast which has been a huge improvement. I have been to Europe a few times, and some other countries not quite so far a field. The farthest I have managed to get is Fiji, which is really pretty far. Of all the places I have been I most want to live in England, and am absolutely jealous of you going there for university! I am also graduating this year, but will probably be going to university in either New York, Los Angeles, or Portland. Still America, but nice places.

Well that is probably enough to be getting on with!

s and all the other good things...

My real name is Victoria, which is terribly boring and British. I also have a Thai name: Surya, which means sun.

I love America! Well, bits of it. I don't particularly like the government. I love travelling but I'd never been to the US til last July, when I spent a week in Washington and a week in New York. I ADORE New York. It's just awesome. I sort of want to live there one day, except it means paying taxes to the US govt. Other than that I'd live in London, or somewhere in Asia- maybe Japan. I've never been there but it seems cool...
Which state do you live in now? I really want to go back to the states at some point and explore the rest of it. Where are the good places to go?

Argh, I've had a week off school and I have to go back tomorrow. Absolutely dreading it...

I live in Florida, which is nice because I live right near the beach which is sandy and lovely and warm enough to swim. We got quite battered by hurricanes last fall however, so it isn't quite as paradise like as it was. My favorite places in the US, (so far, I haven't been everywhere) are on the West coast. California with San Francisco, Washington with Seattle, and Oregon with Portland. The Pacific is colder though, and not so good for swimming. Hawaii is nice too of course, but rather inaccessible. New York is great, but I would so rather live in London. Wish we could swap universities. Japan is somewhere I really want to see too...

Good luck going back to school, that is the worst! I am absolutely convinced uni will be better. If not I might have to do something dastardly...



btw, I love Thai food! I am so jealous that you get to eat it all the time. The only think that could be considered authentic American is like, the hamburger. I don't even eat meat! I could live of Tom Kha Gi. (I am sure I am butchering that spelling, but I hope you know what I mean, well, you probably don't...)

I was just reading the David Bowie threads, and you mentioned some really cool pants you made. I have been planning various versions of some glam rock-esque pants, and I just wondered more specifically what yours looked like. Do you have a pic or anything? They sound really groovy.

Ok, what I did was, I bought some glittery pink velvet and some plain blue jeans, then I unpicked the stitching on the seam of the jeans (on the outer side of the leg) up to about the knee, and sewed two triangles of the velvet into the space left on each side, to make the jeans into flares. I don't know how well I've described that- hopefully you can visualise it! My parents just said "that's so dated. why would ANYONE want to go back to the 70s?" Oh, if only!
Anyway, I found a pink David Bowie T shirt the other day, which is great, coz now I have a whole outfit .

Sorry about the lack of response from me over the last few days, I've got my English oral on monday and I'm determined to get the highest grade possible so I'm burying myself in studying right now...

Oh! I do know what you mean! In fact I have done that with jeans before. I like 60s/70s clothes better than any other styles. My mom was quite a hippy, so she is perfectly happy if I wear bell-bottoms and such! I have always wished I was born in the 60s.

Sounds like a great outfit, I have a bunch of David Bowie shirts (every time I see one I have to buy it-- no matter how broke I am) but I don't have any really groovy pants to wear with them. Just regular bell-bottom jeans. There are lots of cool David Bowie shirts at davidbowie.com, I have a black shirt from there and a Reality sweater which I wear all the time. When I went to Italy a few months ago it was a lot colder than I expected so I hadn't brought very many warm clothes. I ended up wearing that sweater almost every day and sleeping in it too! Okay, I think I have rambled about my David Bowie wardrobe enough for one posting!

I am surprised that you are being tested in English, you seem so fluent that I thought it must have been one of your native languages! I am sure you will get the highest grade possible. I wish I was that fluent in a second language. *sigh* The American school system is so incredibly bad, especially in languages. All they expect is for you to do 3-4 years in French or Spanish. And nobody ever gets fluent in those years! The teachers don't even speak the new language in class. It is all taught in English! One of the things I plan to do in the future is become completely fluent in at least two other languages. All I know right now is some French, a little Spanish, and even less Italian.

Good luck on your test!

So how did the test go? I just had a Spanish test today, and I think it went pretty well. It was written test though, so not as hard, and not a final!

I think it went well... my teacher seemed impressed. I have a french oral tomorrow! Aiiiiiiiii! Anyway, haha, English IS my first language, French and Thai are second languages. The oral wasn't testing my English language skills, it was in English lit- I had to talk about poetry and symbolism and other fun stuff...

Oh my God!!! Look at this!!! http://www.thefilmfactory.co.uk/getmeout/

Drools with at all Brits. Wow!!! I want to do that. I entered even though I am American, I gave my brother's address in England. Don't think it will work and you have to be selected anyway, but hey! worth a shot.

That is SO cool! I wish I could do it! But yeah I guess you have to live in the UK... (oh well, at least I'll be there next year...)
I'm really psyched about the Hitchhiker movie, though I'll proably be watching it by myself as most of my friends are literary snobs who sneer at anything remotely science-fictiony...

Isn't dreadful? Except for me the problem is getting my friends to read at all. Some of them have read it, and of course everyone who reads it likes it! But I don't think they see the true brilliance of it... I Had the same problem with The Lord of the Rings. People going "oh yeah, that was a really good MOVIE". I won't mind if they do that with h2g2 though, it lends itself to appreciation in any media.

I would really like to see it when it comes out in England, where everyone is a die hard fan. Don't think I will be able to get there again any time soon though. Well maybe I could hitchhike?

I'd love to see it in England! I dont even know if it's coming out here, and if it does it'll take forever. We should both hitchhike there and watch it! As long as we have our towels, what could go wrong?

That would be great fun. The only thing that comes to mind as something that might go wrong is the fact that England is an island... If only it were slightly easier to hitchhike across the Atlantic I would be starting out tonight! Have you been there before? We might have already covered this, but I am too lazy to go check back through the posts...

Oh, and have you seen the previews??? They are very funny. You need really high speed, which I don't have, but I watched them at a friend's house. I hope the movie comes out in theaters for you, it would be much better to see it in one.

Do you know what college you are going to go to in the UK yet? I am starting to hear back from places I applied to, I think it is going to be a hard decision. No matter where I go I will spend a year or semester doing a student exchange in England though, and then we can get our s out and hitchhike somewhere!

There really should be a smiley to go with the smiley! I little yellow guy with his electronic thumb out...

Hello there! Sorry for vanishing like that, there were these evil little things called exams that reared their ugly heads and dragged me away... anyway I'm back now.

Yes, I have seen the previews, but the film isn't out over here yet- I think it already is over there, right? If so, have you seen it? a;lgjkhsl;aghljghjhg I need it to come out RIGHT NOW. grrrrrrrrrrzzaghasjl;h.

Dum de dum, what else? Ah, yes, I'm probably going to Warwick uni which has the awesomest english lit. course ever. And yes, I have been to England- I kind of go there every year...

Nrghf I need some breakfast. I shall return...

Oh I am so jealous! I wish I kind of went there every year!!!

So you want to major in English lit? That's cool. I am probably going to do something with English in the title too. When does college start for you? Mine starts in late August, around the 24th I think. There are orientation trips before that though, like back-packing and stuff, so that you get to know everyone I guess. I can't remember if I told you where I am going or not... I am going to a place called Reed in Portland Oregon (USA). It is a very cool private college, and I am quite excited! Hmm, just remembered, don't they say the opposite for public/private schools in America and England? Do you know what I mean? Oh dear. Here private means that you have to apply to be admitted, they are very selective with applications, and then you have to pay them a ridiculously large sum to go there. Does that tally with your definition of a private school?

I most definitely did see the h2g2 movie! It was fabulous. Of course you can't expect the book, since this is a new incarnation of the story, just as the book was a new incarnation of the radio series. There were a lot of excellent changes, (like combine Trillian and Fenchurch, don't worry! you realize that right away), and a few that I found so/so. Over all it was brilliant. The best part for me was the spot on casting. Everyone was PERFECT! Even the vogons. I really need to see it a 3rd time though, before it leaves theatres. I hope it comes out for you soon!

Oooh I can't wait to see it!!!!! They've put posters up in the cinemas now so it should be out soon. In fact they're already selling pirated DVDs of it in the street markets but I need to see it on the big screen...

Anyway, your description of a private school is pretty much what I would define it as, so yeah. My uni starts at the end of September, which gives me time to read everything on their reading list, which will no doubt be very long. How does the application process work over there? In the UK you have to choose your course when you apply. Can you choose when you get there?

HEY!!!

I am so sorry that I haven't written for so long, I have been kind of busy this Summer. I went out to Seattle for my cousin's wedding reception, then I went to Iowa to visit some old friends and family (that is where I am originally from). Now I am in Portland going to Reed! Classes start tomorrow. I am very excited! I am taking Humanities 110, which is a really incredible Greek and Roman humanities course that all freshmen take, intro to linguistics, French year 2 (I miraculously passed the placement test!), and fencing. When will you be going to England for university?

I really want to keep in touch. If you send me your email I can write you like that. Mine is [email protected], if you use msn messenger my email for that is [email protected]. Can't wait to hear from you!


Athena

Greek and Roman humanities!!!! Fencing!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm in England already, on holiday, uni starts on the 25th of September so I've got a while...

My current email is googoogjoob @ gmail.com - though I might get a new one at uni, and my msn is ryver_styx @ hotmail.com (but until I go to uni I'm using my grandparents' computer and they won't let me download msn so I wont be on for a while.)