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

It was a very funny title for the posting.

Yes I do think you should have a nicname - how about Nic O'Tine - sort of an Irish thing!!

I've been collecting DVD's for almost two years now. I've watched every one of them, as opposed to some of my coworkers (one of them has well over two hundred DVD's, but he buys them 8-15 at a time and most of them are still in the wrapping). Until I got Pokemon, I was watching about a movie each night. Now I'm fast approaching the end of Star Ocean (after racking up over 80 hours of game play thus far). This is what happens to single geeks when they don't have internet at home.

Don't know if I like the name "Nic O'Tine". Maybe it's just not stupid enough for my liking. I mean, if I was going for something Irish, I could choose something like "Mug O'Beer", or "Lipe O'Suction" (OK, maybe not). Blast, I can't think of a name I like. There's no rush, so I'll leave it until I think of something.

Well, I'm off to Whistler tomorrow morning for four days of fun and sun, tennis, canoeing, and going to Whistler Village for coffee at Starbuck's. Naturally, I'll be bringing my laptop so I can play with perl. I'll also be bringing my gameboy and link cable so I can trade with my nephew and finally acquire all 150 glorious Pokemon.

Since I won't be posting here for four days, you could check out my home page, if you like. I posted a story I wrote about my adventures in Antigua back in 1993/94. It's a bit long (I wrote most of it during the four months I was down there), but if you're interested, my home page is at http://krokus.starnetc.com/~dschebek.

Don't mind Krokus. She's my dog. Well, she used to be my dog; she died about a year ago, but she continues to enjoy a virtual existence on the internet. In fact, she seems to have taken control of my home page.

If I don't hear back before I leave, I'll be typin' atcha on monday.

...included the period at the end of the sentence as part of the link.

Here's a link that works, unless H2G2 mucks about with it in some unforseen way...

http://krokus.starnetc.com/~dschebek

There, no period on the end.

Enjoy your vacation!

Well, that was fun. Unfortunately, the weather turned lousy so I had to cut it short by one day.

Ah, to get away from the city and it's emergency vehicles, car alarms, and screaming, dunken people coming out of night clubs at 2:00am. Nothing at night but silence and shooting stars that you can actually see.

Well I went down to a friend's ramshackle cabin on a small island on the upper reaches of the Thames and spent a very very hot couple of days with my feet dangling in the river, as little fish swam around and nibbled my toes. Blissful. I hate being back.

So how are you?

I just happened to return on the night of the Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire (fireworks show with music). Over 300,000 people where there, apparently, and so I had to try and sleep whilst outside my window, literally thousands of people were milling about screaming and yelling, throwing up, and urinating on everything (I'm not kidding - I'm sure they had toilet facilities at the site of the show, but not blocks away where I live). Of course, there were also lots of emergency vehicles and buses. All in all, it could have been a more pleasant evening.

Man, am I ever getting sick of living in the city. When I buy a house, it's going to be in the bloody suburbs.

I still miss the night sky at Whistler, and being able to lie in bed in utter silence. Ahhh, can't wait to do this again next year.

and move to the Alaskan border - you know it makes sense. It will be so cold that smoking will be a waste of energy and you will be forced to give up thereby killing two birds with one stone.

Ooo, I couldn't do that. I hate the cold. But you've got the right idea, though. I'd LOOOOVE to be able to just work from home. But I've got no choice but to continue going to and from work each day. The downside to working at home is that it would eat into my game-playing time. And we can't have that, can we?

My diabolical experiment tried not wearing his patch. Apparently, he freaked out, but not as badly as I'd hoped for.

BTW, how are you adding those smiley images into your messages? Mine just come out as basic emoticons, but yours are little pictures. What's your secret?

No seriously if you do colon, dash and then close brackets without any spaces in between, you get a smiley face. Watch

Well, I'll be a colon followed by a dash and a parenthesis.

I meant to ask about your trip to your friend's "ramshackle" cabin. Were fish actually nibbling your toes, or is that just an expression? I've been swimming in the past and the only fish I ever saw that showed any interest in nibbling my toes was a bloody barracuda. All the other ones just swam around aimlessly or got eaten by the barracuda. Hey, these things are fun.

I don't think there are many barracuda in the Thames at least I hope not. The big fish stayed away but the smaller ones really do nibble your toes. I think that they wanted to be fed with stale bread. Or they worked out that this was quite a safe place to be. The was a very small perch who stayed with me all afternoon - bless him.

Hmmm. So they really do nibble your toes. I'm assuming that you named the perch. It's the least you could've done for his devotion.

Oh, by the way, I tried changing my nickname here, and it won't let me change it. I clicked on "My Details", then I change my nickname, then I clicked on "Update", and then I went back to "My Home" and it was still the same old nickname. When I clicked on "My Details" again, it was still the same old password. I posted this problem on the "Don't Panic" section yesterday, but nobody's answered it yet. Fooey.

what are you going to go for.

Incidentally your story about Antigua - v.funny!

Oh, I thought you might go for one of those really "out-there" names like "Perchy" or something.

I just couldn't think of a nickname, so I tried changing it to Nick O'Teen, much like your original suggestion. But I can't.

You read the whole Antigua thing? I have other tales of high adventure from Antigua that I didn't include in that chronicle, but I keep forgetting about many of them (which I feared would happen, which is why I wrote the silly thing in the first place). Like the nightclub story, for example. But that was sort of a racial tension kind of situation and, although that's the way things were, it's not terribly PC.

Of course, that was back in late '93. I'm sure things have improved down there since that time. However, it's likely that many of the locals there don't care much for tourists. I probably would, too, if tourism was pretty much the only resource left after the sugar industry fell apart.

Well I did not want to get too attached to him you see - it was a very transient relationship

Well, the company had its big four year anniversary party last night, and I couldn't make it. It was quite the "do". Black tie, two floors of a hotel (above the 30th floor) overlooking the finale of the Symphony of Fire out on the water, virtual casino, lots of booze, food from three different countries, the whole lot. Being a programmer, of course, I don't have a suit, and being so close to payday, I didn't have any money to spare to rent a tux. Ah well, at least I'm not hung over this morning.

Excuses Excuses Excuses - what did you do instead?

Aside from money? I have no excuses. I pretty much stayed at home all that evening. Gosh, that sure does sound pathetic.

Oh well, I'll be certain to make it to the next company thrashing.

Yes I will hold you to that - never miss out on an opportunity to blackmail your colleagues!