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

Email sent. Actually, two. To the new address you sent over the weekend.

This is a) hilarious and b) has some of the most splendid depictions I've seen.

http://lolthulhu.com/

It's something else I can't view till I get home.

It'll be worth the wait.

I'm sure! It's just that sometimes, by the time I get the chance to actually check these things from home, I've forgotten all about them. I need to go back through this thread and check all of the links I've missed recently...

*post 666*

Gifts on their way presently.

I'd like to post yours on Saturday (don't think I can do international at the office), but one item might not arrive by then. I'd personally rather send what I have now and the last bit later...

Whatever's easiest, look forward to it

Do you know of a good freeware program to take bits out of movies?

Without my home computer in front of me, I'm not positive. Some of the software I have for audio/video is freeware and some is purchased, and I use them all for different things...

DVD Shrink (which you can Google and then safely download from mirrored web sites) has a re-authoring function, but I've been unable thus far to edit beyond entire chapters. I've actually got something in mind I want to edit a sequence out of myself, but it's been on the back burner indefinitely. I've also got a free program called VOB Blanker, but so far have only used it to convert PAL to NTSC, but it may have other functionality beyond that which I haven't discovered as of yet. It might be worth checking out their web site.

I'll try to have a look when I get home this evening and see if I can suggest/recommend something. I've got at least a dozen programs installed and if I remember correctly, about half were freeware.

Doing a first aid course today. Well, it gets me out of work.

Sounds like great fun. I've got an appointment with an ergonomist, myself- I need my chair adjusted again to accomodate my achey neck. I've got a small pile of work to finish up from yesterday, should occupy me for about another 30-45 minutes or so.

I'm having a serious motivational problem on account of the short week next week. Part of me wants to work like mad to make sure I am out of here by noon next Wednesday. Another part of me wants to fart around and procrastinate.

And I've still got to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to get to my parents house and fetch some things of mine (my mother has apparently rescinded an offer to store these things for me until I have a place that actually has storage space; some of the items have sentimental value and the rest surely can be dropped off an an eBay store for consignment...). The bitch knows fully well that it's budget season at my office and it'll be difficult for me to meet her arbitrary deadline. The up side to retrieving said things would be that I don't give her the satisfaction of claiming ownership of my stuff while at the same time eliminating the only obstacle to severing ALL contact on a permanent basis.

Given all you've told me about her, the short-term hassle has got to be worth it. You going down there for Thanksgiving or Christmas? If you could, you could enjoy Florida for a bit and be reunited with all that you care about (and your mum). After that it's over. Maybe it's like taking a really hard shit. Although, you said your dad was cool. Wouldn't it mean parting with him too? That would suck.

I've got to admit much as I love my auntie I'm glad I don't have to do Christmas with her and her daughters anymore. Apart, they're lovely. Together, I shouldn't be there, and that really comes over. Not a great way to spend Christmas. I'm utterly beholden to them, trapped out in the boondocks *and* I have to go outside to smoke.

First aid course was fun, pretty basic common-sense stuff and everyone passed - not as qualified first aiders, but certificated Appointed Persons for work purposes. Will help with my case for taking over next year. But the lady who ran the course was really fun - full of humour and weird stories of casualties she'd heard about. She brought the silliness out in everyone. She had some alarming stats, check this out - there's an American hospital with a resuscitation success record of 85%. The national average here - 3%. All because hardly anyone has a defibrilator outside the emergency services.

I won't be doing any holidays with them, no. Thanksgiving with my grandma and uncle, Christmas with the "in-laws". We've more or less decided after last year's "incident" we're staying home Xmas Eve and avoiding the bible-thumpers, and we'll visit Xmas Day.

If we did go down there and get the stuff, honestly, we'd stay exactly long enough to get the stuff and leave. Florida's not a particularly nice place to visit to begin with, and they live in the absolute boondocks. I really did think my dad was cool (other than allowing all the shit she put me through), but since he's moved down there, he seems to have decided his loyalties lie with her, rather than me.

So if we go down there, I imagine it'd have to be the weekend before New Year's: the office is closed for the holiday and I'm taking a vacation day that Monday. I guess we could fly down, rent a van, and drive back with it. Then we'll have to ask K's parents if we can keep it at their place till we can afford to buy something.

Who will you do Christmas with this year?

I say do it. You could stop off at Ellen's on your way back. And take shitloads of photos. Sorry about your dad.

Tom's parents have moved to New Zealand for a couple of years so I've got him coming around for drinks, movies and such. Last year he conveniently broke his ankle trying to be Chuck Norris so I went to him. We watched Mirrormask, which I'd given him. I had to smoke outside at his, too

The year before was a blast - I got invited to a hippy/muso commune in a gorgeous condo on the other side of town. There was so much booze and gange, a table for about 16, all the food in the world and lots of kids running around being kids. I was only invited as a friend of a friend but made totally welcome. In the evening they had a big lucky dip bag where everyone got to pick something out, then swap it for something they really wanted - I pulled out a big bar of chocolate, but was so bloated at that point I swapped it with a little girl for a pewter jug which now keeps my toothpaste and brush.

Want to talk about that "incident"?

It's hardly a big secret "incident"; rather an annoying thing that we've decided to avoid this year. The last few years K and I did both Xmas Eve and Xmas Day at his folks' place. His paternal grandmother (since deceased), his dad's sister, her husband, their two children (who are aged 29 and 26), K's sister, brother-in-law, nice and nephew. We stayed with the little ones while the rest went to church. So the uncle sent K a bizarre letter going on about how "odd" it was that K wouldn't want to go to church, demanding that he begin to do so at least weekly and insisting he read a bible and "pray" daily... that kind of craziness. The older cousin got married at the end of September and when she mailed our invitation, addressed it only to K. They're just creepy and we've decided to give them a wide berth this year.

How very Christian. Isn't it funny how the noun and the adjective are so regularly completely at odds with each other. Hope you guys have a better one this time around. You'll at least have some cheap DVDs from the UK. And a proper sixpence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixpence

in advance for the neat stuff. It's much appreciated.

We've planned to get some of the treats K's mom usually haves on Xmas Eve and stay home, watch "Campy Christmas Curiosities" (DVD collection of random "classic" children's holiday shorts that are all rather creepy/bizarre) and what have you. It'll be nice.

I'm actually a little more excited than may be warranted about having my own shiny sixpence. I'm such a .

That's cool, I thought you might appreciate it. There's an old coin shop across the road from the café I go to most days on the way home from work, and got inspired - they're really cheap to get hold of there. Along with the sixpence comes a farthing (¼p - from fourthling, originally a penny cut into quarters); a half-penny, a penny, a lovely pair of thrup'nies*, a shilling, two shillings (a florin) a half-crown and a crown. The whole lot cost a fiver.

They're pretty late ones, hence the cost; the crown was commemorative from the Queen's silver jubilee in '77 (when the Pistols released GSTQ). I once had a penny from 1801, but haven't seen any earlier than that outside a museum. They show up at boot sales sometimes, it's fun to dig around for real oldies, though they get pretty illegible.

Tom's coming round tomorrow night with movies and pizza; weather doesn't bode well so I told him to forego the camera.

*Rhyming slang - thrupenny bits -