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

Everybody's got to have a hobby...

I have to admit I'd never consider getting my tongue pierced - I think the stud/bar/whatever goes in there (excuse ignorance...) would drive me completely nuts!

How do people not get driven completely nuts by it? I assume they must get used to it or something.

He sounds a pretty frood, actually!

But I'm irresistibly reminded of someone who used to play viola when I was a violinist (many moons ago - back in the eighties) who used to have all his hair sticking up and held in place with what must have been entire can-loads of hairspray (I don't think anyone told him about sugar water), and it used to help pass the time watching his hair very slowly falling back down again...

Then again, I was watching a programme on UK telly recently called 'I love 1977' which referred to the time when Punk first began to emerge - and there was someone with his head on an ironing board *ironing* his hair into a mohican! Boy - people are prepared to suffer for their art!

yeah... I can't deal with the mouth piercings... last time I was out with Sam, I kept on looking at him thinking, "If I were so inclined, how would one go about kissing someone with his lip pierced? Do you just go for it, or do you go for the other side of the mouth? I don't think he thought this through..."

I was actually considering doing dreadlocks... but I passed... somethimes I'm such a little rockstar, but then there are days full of curls, braids, and frilly things, and I would resent the dreads. Lol.

Remember Flocks of Seagulls haircuts? Lol.

Y.S.

Flock of Seagulls? Yeurgh!

I have to admit in a phase of fourteen year old desperation to be 'fashionable' I had a rat's tail.

That is deeply, deeply sad - not just because I had one, but because I decided to have one! All I got was people yanking it to get my attention. It didn't stay long.

I was all about dying my hair with koolaid and braiding things into it!

Y.S.

I forgot the other thing - I had my hair permed for a time (after the rat's tail debacle). That was before perms were good for your hair and I looked like a poodle afterwards . I even had it done again - but after another few months of frizz realised it wasn't for me.

I keep it nice and short - and do nothing more drastic now than occasionally colour it with a hair toner.

I'm not very adventurous with my hair - I'm scared I might make it fall out or something - or at the very least look very, very silly...

Yeah, I was a redhead for like 2 years, and found out that the only hairdye that didn't ravage my tresses was henna. Yay! I'm currently growing out my last attempt at stripping the red out... looking more like myself. I did the poodle perm too... except my hair is so tragically straight, it only lasted like 2 days! When I lose enough weight to ditch the double chin again I will get my cute short haircut back.

I think I need a new fiddle book, this one is like a century old and translated out of German. Amusing, but not too practical. I got it for a quarter though! I'm having trouble angling my bow on the G string (tee-hee... G string! Ahem. Sorry. ) and it gets caught on the body of the violin and that's not good. But I'm getting better! Still waiting my tuning pipe to get mailed down.

I love henna! The Body Shop does a 'henna cream shampoo' which you can use to give yourself red highlights - and boy it makes your hair feel good! The only problem is that it smells really . I haven't used it for a while because it's not really for 'cleaning' your hair - more for conditioning it (and adding nice red highlights of course).

At least you only paid a quarter for the book - it doesn't sound all that practical!

Do you think you're swinging your bow too far over? Or is it happening regardless of what you do? If you find it happening a lot, perhaps it's the height of the bridge?

I used to have a pitch pipe - and I found it useful. I don't need it now though - I use a tuning fork to get the 'A' and then tune by ear. Some people I know use electronic tuners - but I've never got round to trying one myself - maybe that's the next toy I buy myself!

I dunno about violas...but electric tuners are the greatest friend of guitar players since the invention of the pick. my computer has shorted out, so it takes forever to type anything...so I'll have to catch up with you later.

That's alright - the database forgot who I was yesterday lunchtime and locked me out of HooToo completely. I couldn't log back in again for the rest of the day.

But I'm back now.

Yeah... that was a big problem with the servers... I kinda missed out on it because of all the computer problems, but the ACE forum was buzzing about it for days.
y.s.

I got in okay this morning though.

I'm a bit peeved this morning as I appear to be just starting a cold. which is a major pain as I've got two concerts on at the end of the week.

Needless to say I am dousing it thoroughly with honey and lemon tea and the Echinacea Tincture has come out. I hope I can get rid of it. I really don't want to be doing Gershwin with a drippy nose...

Yeah... that would be no fun... snot and the music of love, quite a combo

Never mind. At least I've got the day off on Friday. I can have a good in the morning if I want to!

Well, I hope you feel better!

Y.S.

It seems to be working - I'm not all drippy and nose-blowey and bleagh. So fingers crossed!

Mind you, I'm really looking forward to our next concert - we're doing Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - and that is *sooooooooooooo* lovely.

So, how many hours do you end up practicing in a week... do you keep your chops up at home as well?

I'm progressing oh so very slowly... I think I may end up taking lessons this summer to kick my rear into gear...

Playing the girl's retreat at the school this sabbath, me on guitar, a student on piano... should be interesting... I do okay playing with keyboardists, but pianists and I have been known to butt heads... should go okay, though.

Glad to hear your doing better!

Alas, practicing is something that has fallen by the wayside since I've been working.

Since I rehearse with the orchestras between two and three days a week (depending on whether we've got a rehearsal on Thursday nights) I often only have two evenings a week when I'm not out playing - so actually practicing is something that doesn't happen very often.

I'm also a bit allergic to playing in the house as I don't like being listened to when I'm practicing so I use a practice mute. I think my parents would have been amazed when I went to see my repairer to try and get my chinrest/shoulder-rest setup changed round, as I was in one of the 'try out' rooms and making a huge amount of noise - which wasn't half bad either!

I could do with some lessons as well, I think - just to bump up my technique. The trouble is, I just don't have enough time to practice to a level that would make it worth the teacher's while.

Never mind - it's an odd sensation, being at a rehearsal and knowing there are parts of the music that only I can play (or maybe only I am brave enough to hack out loudly). I wasn't there last week, and apparently it really showed!

Well, at least you are playing, and good enough to be noticed, even in your absence.

I just got like 15 hours of sleep after only about 1 hour of sleep a night all week, making me a little woozy, actually!

So how do you find time for the Guide with a schedule like that?

We have an internet connection at w*rk, and we're allowed to surf outside work time. It's only just gone seven o'clock in the morning here in the UK, so this isn't exactly 'work' time.

I sometimes visit during my lunch hour as well as we are actually required to take a lunch break. That doesn't count as work time either, so I can surf then as well.

Any visits to the Web during 'work' time must be 'work' related. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find a way of making H2G2 related to my work...

Lol... where do you w**k? (I know I've asked this...)