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

okay.

et vive la différence, particulier! toujours!

hey kid, what's doin?

I like it when you talk dirty but I still don't know what you're saying.

I'm doing homework believe it or not.

do it well! counting on you.

how go the battles of the mind? who are you disagreeing with this semester? decided on a thesis yet - it's getting to be time. thinking of grad school I hope, far away or near to home? questions, questions, questions, challanges, arguments, abstractions ...!

To early to tell about the disagreements but I'm confident they'll find me even if I ain't looking just yet.

Grad school? Not sure really. There's a good chance the range has recovered enough from the drought that we can run more head and if that's true, well the elders ain't getting any younger so they'll probably need some help maybe at least for a couple years.

People are getting more and more scattered too so it's getting harder to stay together with stuff. People are moving into town or looking at lots and thinking about building houses. People are drifting a little maybe.

So then I need to think about putting my hands where my mouth is, about enduring and making kids and stuff. I've said before I ain't really comfortable in this academic environment and the attorney pushers are still pushing for law school, but I just can't get inspired about briefs and if it please the courts okay?

I can write or publish stories practically anywheres. I don't need a computer for that, but I do need contacts, agents or whatever, but who knows?

Right now I need to finish the bachelor's maybe and when it comes to me what else I need to do, I'll do it probably.

well just maybe I could help with the writing, not certain of it, but a classmate (from high school) is a respected writer at a very respected school. problem is it is far away from your home. as for law, it runs in my family, grandad, spouse, uncle, others; grandad did lots of good things in his small way in his small corner. you know what I do; though for the moment I'm taking a breather from getting hit squarely in the gut by shrub's economay. mom was and is a teacher; dad has never let go of his principals and has been thru several careers; sister works for an intenational agency working to rid us of at least a few horrible weapons; mom in law was a brilliant mind now lost to the ravages of illness, dad in law was an honorable mind who was good with his hands and wonderful at making things grow. there now you know a little more about me. so, yeah, you need to endure

Well you've always sounded like a very educated person and a concerned one as well. And I guess from your standpoint as a member of the human tribe you probably don't understand my discriminatory tendencies but there it is. So we'll get along somehow.

Thanks for the offer too of providing a good contact. I might need it someday but right now I got to concentrate on the tasks at hand which are sort of busyworkmaking I think but I don't make the rules.

Anyways, went with Steve to the tech summit today. What an eyeopener that was. These jerks are resurrecting the industrial paradigm for the information business. I shouldn't be surprised really but it sounded so callous. Sweatshops are proliferating into virtually every aspect of life including the lives of the heretofor leisure classes.

Steve was shaken too but he doesn't let on like I do. Besides he's already into it and sort of knows where the suits are taking it. Oh well.. time to regroup or recuperate or something. Anyone who wants to make a buck off the internet better get ready to go head to head with the leviathan.

after the promises I remember made in my childhood of far greater equality, fraternity and access it is difficult to digest the ever more Dickensian aspect of the here and now. For years my family and friends have been speaking of it and for years we have continued to do whatever we can however miniscule.

one thing I cherish from my growing up is the constant engagement of the mind, the endless discussions, the strongly held opinion, the high esteem in which principal were and continue to be held, the strength and bond of family and of friends who often became and remain to this day family, the extents of that unit which seemed in my young mind to strech into forever, the promise and the hope in the future, the alertness to the danger of the selfish and the greedy, ... I am truely thankful for the privilage.

That's a wonderful, beautiful vision you were privileged to grow up with. Too bad we've seen the bigness of it used to betray it so often. Still if vertical expansions can finally be accomplished without corresponding horizontal expansions, there might be hope for us all.

I do think your life, wingy, ain't all that bad and that you were and are cherished and valued in your family and amongst your friends. Sure, there were and will be close encounters of that certain kind.

Your growing up was well sheltered by those responsible for you.

You are right, I've got a bit of time on my hands .... Just the way it is at this point.

It's not that different than in the past actually. Did you ever wonder why whites who were "captured" and later "liberated" didn't usually appreciate the "liberated" part?

ah, rhetoric!! why do you think it was so Ana?

I think they enjoyed real freedom that's all, not the bogus stuff you got to guarantee with Magna Cartas or Bills of Rights.

And there's always been greater tolerance for individual diversity too. Like nobody bashed gays, they were not only tolerated but often honored. And nobody had to profess a certain creed. If people believed in what you were preaching they'd join you and if they didn't they'd ignore you, but you were free to believe anything you wanted and so were they. And that's still pretty much the case.

And you rarely had to deal with strangers living next door, quiet people, we just don't understand what got into them right? They didn't seem like murderers. Buh!!

There was an absence of coercion and except where alcohol's involved that's still true. Nobody in my family has ever laid a hand on me. I've always been treated with respect and love although sometimes we argue a little like most families do but once the heat's dissipated, everything's cool again, almost like a squall. There's hardly ever any grudges.

And there's always been joking around, poking fun and stuff, some of it pretty subtle and some a little more explicit but rarely malicious. Practical jokes aren't unheard of but they're very rare and the people who do them usually regret it later.

So it's just more comfortable I think, even when there's been deprivation it's not bad because if I'm hungry everybody's hungry, sort of like that so we share, we don't show out.

oh bloody hell ana, why did you move it all the yahoo, now I'm gonna need to register if I'm to say anything at all there!

and did you know the publisher of "Mother Jones" is a questionable sort; and the endless cookies don't get my support neither!

Some years ago the fellow hired Michael Moore (of BFC, Oscar fame) as editor. When Moore got a bit independent there was a nasty falling out the fall out from which - including showing the true colors of the power behind the mag (you might want to do a smidge of research on that) really turned me away from that publication ... well for the most part.

I'd really highly recommend "The Nation" or "In These Times" or "Counterpunch" for a really decent alternative view.

speaking of liberation, see if you can see "Dirty Pretty Things," eh; then, please, share your thoughts with me, okay!

yep, we like it like that!

so, what, if any, pjs happened to happen to you, then?

Well, it looked okay what I saw but like you said I should have researched more maybe. Looking for ties with the environmentalists really. It seems like practically the only thing that's even close to a common ground, literally.

What do you think of the Guerrilla News?

If you got a problem with Yahoo I don't know what we'll do. It seemed like a better thing technically for what we wanted to do with the site. And I don't need to worry about screwing it up or having to fix it when I do. So it's mainly a timesaver for me and right now that's sort of important that's all.

I got enough on my plate really.

Actually now that I think of it you can register just with an email account so you don't have to actually make up any Yahoo id or anything.