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

what's up?

Not too much; just been a trying week. Public announcement of pending office closure was on October 1, with concomitant protest from certain quarters. Most people have actually been very understanding, but I've been feeling worn out of an evening; been lurking a bit, but not posting, but I'm back now.

Had fifteen minutes of fame, too - was on local telly (for about five seconds), but missed it myself.

Will probably be a free agent come January.

How's yourself?

Noggin

nice to hear from you!

Me? Oh just the usual survival stuff - never quite enough classes, but that is too boring to talk about.

I have a friend from Toronto coming on Sunday. He'll be here for three weeks. Am looking forward to seeing him but feel a bit embarrassed that the last time he saw me I was much much thinner. Oh well, more of me to love?

So will you be working up until January then?

How do you feel about it all?

az

Yeah, I'll be working up until January; not sure about the exact date yet; there are 8 offices closing in the area, so it'll probably take a few weeks.

Now it's definitely on I'm quite looking forward to it, but the last six months or so have been a bit unsettling - it's the uncertainty; I'd guess I've probably been suffering a mild depression, but nothing too serious.

Noggin

It's really crap when things are uncertain and you don't know if you are coming or going. Well, as you say, at least now you know that things are settled and that you can plan to start a new life in January.

Any plans? I mean, other than coming to Spain for a holiday?

Mild depression, eh? How do you cope when that happens? Besides disappearing from h2g2. Are you feeling better now?

az

No definite plans, but at some point I'll have to think about getting a job. Still, no great hurry on that one.

I mainly cope by sleeping a lot. (As if I didn't anyway )

Oddly enough, I haven't been feeling miserable, just listless. It tends to take me that way, and I don't bother with things when I'm in that sort of mood.

Noggin

Just back from a short walk to the shops. Everything is closed tomorrow because it is . . . I can't remember the name of the holiday. Anyhow, had to go pick up a few things. And on my way home I turned into my street and there was the most enormous and beautiful full moon just hanging there like a painting. It looked quite unreal, perfectly positioned at the end of the street. It quite took my breath away, it did.

You sleep a lot? I normally don't sleep much. But this week I've had a really bad cold and it's been making me sleep tons. I'm talking nine hours straight and also afternoon naps! Amazing. I don't think I've ever slept so much in my entire life.

Speaking of bed and sleep I think I might head there soon. I'm presently reading Moby Dick (present from Blues - his favourite book) and I still have a ways to go. And so I think I shall climb into bed with cats and book and read for awhile.

Glad you're not feeling miserable. Keep well,

az

"My name is Ishmael." For some reason one of the most memorable of opening lines.

I've been reading Iain M. Banks myself. "Inversions" and currently "Look to Windward".

Noggin

It's an incredible opening line. For some reason, for years and years I was never able to read Moby Dick. Last time I tried was about ten years ago. Now I am enjoying it very much.

I've never read any Iain Banks - science fiction?

az

Yes, but more like a novel that happens to be set in the future, rather than the sort of space opera fare, that scifi so often is.

What makes a first line memorable, and how many can you actually remember?

Noggin

Oh one comes to mind that I quoted recently on the 'universal truths' thread. Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'

But I just posted that because it had the word 'universal' in it and I was just being a bit silly because . . . well, I often am.



az

your turn

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Noggin

Dang! I was just looking through Tolkien. Okay here's a good one:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .

Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities

"If music be the food of love, play on."

Noggin

shakespeare?

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice.

Okay, am cheating a bit maybe because that is not a 'classic' first line, but one I personally found quite fine and very memorable. From John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.

az

Shakespeare. But I can't remember which one. One of the comedies, I think.

And that's about all I can remember. Out of the thousands of books I must have read in my lifetime.

Noggin

What makes a first line memorable? It's ability to capture you with only a few words?

az

Of course there is always, 'once upon a time . . .'

And one of my personal favourites , 'It was a dark and stormy night. . .'



az

That rings a bell, but I can't place it.

"The bees of Death are big and black."

Noggin