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

The loft hatch is being sorted out on the 8th March, so next Wednesday. Which isn't too long, but does mean we definitely won't be able to get everything into the loft by the end of the 12th, so that's another month's rent of the storage unit, which is annoying.

I'm definitely enjoying the new chair, thanks .

This week we had a very bizarre issue with applicants. Funny how it's always the things you could never think up that cause issues, such as applicants can't be bothered to tick the right boxes and so just select the top option. We had twins apply apparently, only for these twins, who are from California, to have the same name. Which is weird, and who could have predicted? But essentially two people applying for the same course and same date of birth and same name resulted in minor data breach with the system constantly assuming that it was the same applicant with a duplicate application rather than two people. Who apparently also share the very same name with their next of kin, their mother. But the admissions part of SITS is Blueprints and can't be changed by Solent - and Tribal hadn't realised that the trouble with making record systems that can't be customised by their customers is that it generates lots of extra work for them, so for instance when a spelling error has been made, we can't correct it as it is encrypted, so for even the smallest thing we have to raise it through Tribal, which their customer support hasn't had to do before and only their sales team so far have any experience or knowledge of Blueprints in any case. I still gather that their Blueprints launch hasn't been as successful as they had hoped as none of their existing customers want to give up their customisation, surprisingly enough.

For parkrun I volunteered instead of running. When I volunteered all the roles I've not done before had already been taken, and ideally I would have liked to have had a chance to do finish tokens as I'd not done that yet, but doesn't hurt to help out in any capacity and was happy to be marshalling. This morning when I arrived today's run director was wondering whether she'd be able to do both finish tokens and the run director tasks, and as I arrived asked if I'd be happy to do finish tokens instead of marshalling, to which I readily agreed - so while I didn't run I've ticked finish tokens off the to do list, so that's an achievement of sorts.

Now I'll be spending the weekend doodling - as I'm in the last 20 pages of the book it is time for me to be building up to a climax while resolving all the outstanding plot threads while teasing ahead the next book - whatever that'll be about. That's always fun, especially as with the doodling I can't really make too many changes or edit what I've already drawn and it is all very much made up as I go along, and not the way I expect. Though I must admit I did make changes as the plot required a character to desperately want to meet the Pope, but as they'd met earlier and they weren't fussed it didn't make any sense, unless they hadn't met earlier, so I did use Photoresourcecentre to change a character for another, which was annoying as they were stood in front of the Koan at the time...

Anyway, enjoy the work on the second book, and birdwatching if you're able!

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Glad the new chair is going well so far I thought there would be a good gif of someone in an office chair, but couldn't find what I was looking for - a cross between http://giphy.com/gifs/chair-8vJcTuZHB7U8U and http://giphy.com/gifs/fallontonight-spin-chair-dr-evil-PPi5c8l8WDY7if1L8z

Wow, that is fascinating system testing... Also fascinating that the system is so 'out of the box' that customer support have to do such things for you... I'm still struggling to get hold of our IT Team - the meeting that was rescheduled for today has been cancelled again... They are keen on 'out of the box' rather than customisable, but there's definitely a happy medium between IT company managed and client flexible...

Congratulations on ticking off another volunteer role at parkrun - that was serendipitous

Well done with the photoresourcecentring. I hope your book work went well this weekend Mine did - Volume Two is now online, and Volume Three is taking shape I also had an excellent birding session, as the weather was better than expected so the paths weren't muddy (there will be mud today, as it has rained all morning). I added a good number of species to my year list, and also added one to my overall list - a flock of Redpolls flew past and perched in trees for a few seconds as they went by, so I managed to take a couple of photos

Happy British Pie Week! I do like a good pie, but I seem to be the only person I know who does, alas… I'd like to return to the pie shop that I last went to before Covid, but haven't found anyone else interested in commemorating this event.

And well done on getting a new one for the overall list - definitely getting closer to 140.

Funnily enough the latest episode of 'The Mandalorian' featured a scene in which Grogu aka 'Baby Yoda' was in the background spinning in an office chair, presumably using the Force to keep it spinning.

Good luck with getting the IT department pinned down and I hope one day you'll get it all sorted.

Yes, it was rather serendipitous. I also plan to tick off another role, the more recent one of 'parkwalker', this week. That's the role of just walking around the course and chatting to anyone who also just wants to enjoy a walk and chat outside with no pressure of trying to get a good time, but simply have a good time – and possibly take steps towards having a more active lifestyle. I've heard several times that in South Africa walking parkrun is extremely common, but curiously not elsewhere.

I did indeed have quite a productive doodling weekend, so I'm up to page 84 done – not sure what the ending will be, or how to get to it, but still making it up as I go along and hoping for the best, and assume that my subconscious knows how it will all tie together. That usually works. One day I may even put some of my childhood stories and/or comics on Trello too.

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Happy British Pie Week to you! I do like a good pie, but it is one of those foods that talks to me about scary things, so I very rarely get one. The most recent time was in Burton Mere when they had run out of sandwiches, but a cold pie isn't as nice as a freshly-baked one. Maybe the pie shop staff will commemorate with you if you go anyway

Aha! Baby Yoda in an office chair is much more what I was looking for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKlHTUDAX5I

That is an interesting role of parkwalker - a bit like tailwalker, but more interactive Sounds good indeed, as a 5k walk is good exercise in itself, especially for people who are not used to it, and as I think we've said before, chatting about random things is beneficial as well

Impressive that your book is nearly there - good luck to you and your characters in working out the ending Would be good to see your other stories - funny looking back, like with my Troublesome Trowel My next book is going to be longer than the other two, but that's because I've included some of the conversations as well as the Entries themselves - our April Fools made me laugh re-reading them

I started writing a reply to you yesterday but my walked across the laptop and turned off my ability to use the keyboard or mouse so I had to restart without saving and now I can't remember what I wrote yesterday.

It would be interesting to see what the conversations about the entries are too. As we're paying for an additional month's rent on the storage unit I'm afraid I'll wait until next pay day now, but I'll have a look eventually, honest! Oh and I meant Lulu not Trello with regards , but I assume you knew that.

The electrician is here to move wires and the upstairs hall light. He's been very vocal in criticising our wiring and said our fuse box doesn't meet modern standards.

I think it is important to get a decent pie, and not the cheap ones, so you can be confident in what you are eating. I must confess I do want a pie to be surrounded by pastry - unless you're a shepherd, it is pastry that makes a pie a pie.

The role of parkwalker is to encourage people to go to parkrun who are put off by the word 'run' and to try and say that it is inclusive, you don't have to be able to run to participate but simply want to come out, do a bit of exercise, have a chat and meet friends and/or new people, be part of the community. All the things that the clipping you sent me emphasised.

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Ah, that was bad luck with the computer - amazing what can do

Not a problem about the books indeed - your house takes priority I still have a couple more volumes to work on, and might try to produce an omni as well. I guessed Trello was a typo, yes - not easy keeping track of all these computer systems Glad the electrician arrived, although it is difficult when tradespeople do the stereotypical criticism of other people's work... I hope the job is completed now

Yes indeed if you're going to have a pie, it should be a decent pie - 'Grimsby' is my family's favourite word from The Meaning of Liff as we don't like it when we encounter Grimsbys Yes, pie shops are pastry pie shops Cottage Pie and Shepherd's Pie less often speak to me of scary things, but the last Cottage Pie I had didn't have much flavour to speak of either, so there's a happy medium somewhere...

Yes indeed the philosophy of parkrun is great, as the article said, and parkwalk should help even more people to join the community

A moment this afternoon at work - the meeting finally went ahead and someone else said something I've been saying for months, and the IT team understood at last! They have therefore agreed that what I was asking for isn't unreasonable after all, so more of my project is going to be used The powers that be don't make it easy...

We had a flurry of snow here this afternoon but most of it melted before it hit the ground, so it's all gone now. Still quite chilly outside but warm enough indoors

Yes, we have a loft now which has a proper floor and we can start putting things in and storing. The loft hatch is much, much bigger than the tiny previous one and has a built-in ladder too, so should be easier. And the new wooden one might even be able to be climbed barefoot without digging in, which is an added bonus So far only a is up there now, but that will be changing very soon.

We had a flurry of snow yesterday morning but nothing that settled on anything other than roofs and car roofs, alas... I couldn't go outside my room really yesterday as the hallway was blocked with the workmen, who were here from 9am to about 7pm. My son has a life-size cardboard cutout of Michael Myers which made a couple of them jump.
They did leave the front door open for most of the day, which was both cold and worrying as we don't want the going that way - but they both spent much of the day indoors hiding, not wanting to go out in the weather or go near the noisy strangers. Won't be long before Ollie climbs up the ladder as she does love climbing.

Glad your IT team finally understood. Yes, often one step forward and two steps back - and I'm glad that your project is playing its part finally after all.

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Excellent news that the loft, hatch and ladder are now ready The built-in ladder sounds much easier indeed Good luck with the storing Glad were OK as the weather wasn't conducive to going out.

We had quite a heavy snowfall this morning, so I made a family of snowpeople at lunchtime - my ramp was impressively thick with snow, even though the snow that fell on the ground around it melted quite quickly. Not sure what the weather is like just now - seems like sleet, but could be icy on the ground, so I'm glad to be indoors

I managed to finish the online training session today, but the quizzes were definitely not fun - one of the questions was: 'Where do you find the items that you have hidden from the Report?' Answer: In the Report so I got that wrong... Luckily it didn't matter because I got enough points to count the course as completed Tomorrow I shall attempt to put the learning into practice

I remember what I wrote now! Page 76 contains the words 'Galileo', 'Bohemian' and 'Rhapsody' in that order I've now drawn about page 88? So not too many pages left and a lot to fit in to make the story end if I still want it to stop on page 100.

I'm very jealous of your - nothing settled here alas and normal weather resumes, slightly colder than average.

Yesterday we had a shambles of a training session in which Tribal were trying to sell us their Anonymisation extension, which didn't work, even if it did work wouldn't work with Blueprints, in any case technically counts as pseudonymisation not anonymisation and they used both spellings 'anonymisation' and 'anonimisation' on the same screens in places, which seems inconsistent. So not the best first impression to be honest.

There was a charming news story about a university giving a degree 81 years late, so Solent's not the worst uni in the country after all: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64905221

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"Page 76 contains the words 'Galileo', 'Bohemian' and 'Rhapsody' in that order" - Aha! Good luck with your character and story wrangling

Ah, that is a shame nothing settled around yours. The sleet that we had at 10pm turned into proper snow after midnight, so I woke up to an even thicker snow blanket on my ramp, but sadly it all melted before lunchtime, so I didn't get chance to rebuild my snowpeople.

Yikes, that is a shambles of training... Not always easy for companies to make a good impression, but seemingly simple things like understanding their own product would be a good start... The training module I did today didn't have a quiz at all, so that was hard going... Even an annoying quiz is something to break up the monotony of video after video after video... I'm enjoying it, though - collecting lots of certificates

That is a lovely story - finally getting the degree after 81 years is impressive. My uni did that for its DipEd students in 2018/19, so an acquaintance of mine got a degree only 55 years late

I hope you all have a good weekend, and I hope your back is improving thanks to the chair I hope to get Book 3 finished and uploaded, as it is nearly there

Hope you had a good weekend, even if you lost the snowpeople .

Alas, there aren't any quizzes or certificates in the training we've been doing - which largely involves watching the training sessions that previous people have had as that is cheaper than the uni paying for the training to take place again. Sadly that means that we don't have access to the train environments to do what we are told about in practice and nor do we have the handouts, both of which I feel would have made the training more effective.

Much of our time is currently being taken up with moving things from storage to the loft, but I did successfully complete parkrun as parkwalker. I almost got lapped by the tail walker, who is supposed to be at the very back. What happened was that I was with an elderly lady who had never been to parkrun before and was trying to walk around the mud, got as far as the first bench and sat down for a couple of minutes, then walked to the next bench and sat down for a couple of minutes. I waited, the tail walker didn't and just walked round at their walking pace, which was much faster than the lady's. Still, she managed one lap before having enough, and then I had to jog for a lap and a half to catch up with the tail walker, which I just managed to do as I finished.

Hope you had a great weekend.

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Yes, I did have a good weekend, as the weather was better than expected on Sunday. I started off with a walk along a footpath by the coast and met three people I know, which was coincidental. Then I popped into Burton Mere on the way back and a water rail showed up, so that was a great one to add to the list

I thought of you on Saturday as I went to a charity shop. I was fascinated to see that there were two copies of each of two relatively obscure films in different places - I can imagine you would have sorted that out promptly They were well above my head, otherwise I would have been tempted to do some alphabetical sorting myself. I wasn't tempted by any of the items, though.

I watched Farmageddon that I picked up from a charity shop a while ago - very cute film Plenty of background details to look out for indeed - I particularly liked the Tardis toilet at the theme park The DVD was a bit odd, though - it wouldn't work in the TV, and when I put it in the computer it said it had no region I manually set it as Region 2 and then it worked, thankfully.

I also got book three uploaded, so that was pleasing I have enough Entries for Volume Four, so I've started working on that

That is a shame you don't even get a certificate for your efforts - that does sound like 'how not to train people'... Hands on is very important when working with software - I'm lucky with mine that it includes sample files. I'm learning more from clicking different buttons and seeing what happens than I do from just watching the expert doing sample tasks... Very disappointing not to even have the handouts for your training - sounds like false economy there...

Glad you had a good parkwalk/run That was ambitious of the lady to try a 5k walk in muddy conditions as well... At least she managed one lap Reminds me of the 5k charity walk I did - for a while I was behind someone using two walking sticks, but they also had to stop after the first loop. A shame that the tailwalker didn't realise you were at the tail, but glad you were able to do a bit of a jog to catch up.

Weirdly warm weather today after the freezing conditions of Friday, but I managed to avoid the heavy downpour. A frost is forecast overnight, but any snow is unlikely to last beyond sunrise. I hope you haven't had too much wind and rain

Glad to hear that you had a good weekend and enjoyed a good coincidence by who you saw. I had a similar experience during lockdown when I went for a run with my one exercise buddy and bumped into 4 people I knew from Solent . So went from having seen no-one I'd worked with for months on end to lots all on the same day.

Yep, arranging the DVDs is definitely something I'd be tempted to do, always gives a feeling of satisfaction. Only last week I put two CDs by the same artist next to each other in the BritishFoundation, if truth be told.

I do enjoy Farmageddon, strange that your DVD player didn't like it Did your copy have the standard BBFC rating and was a British & Irish disc, not a region 1 one? I've a few US DVDs I've bought secondhand and can't play. They're in the loft now, as we've managed to put about half of what was in storage in it and have plenty of room for the rest, so that's looking positive. Very pleased with the loft so far. Did I say that I was considering investigating the possibility of a sun tunnel or light pipe?

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Yes, very strange meeting people randomly - I imagine if we had arranged to meet, we wouldn't have been able to find each other

I did have a strange meeting last night - a public meeting about a venue I visit occasionally, which I decided to attend in case my input could be useful in improving access. However, I couldn't find the advert, so all I knew was that a room had been booked from 7pm. At 7.10pm I finally found the advert (on the door of the room) confirming that the meeting started at 7pm... Someone heard me in the corridor and opened the door. The chairperson asked if I was a member of the public - before I could answer, someone said, 'No' and made a big fuss about how I was too well-known to count as an independent member of the public Luckily the chairperson settled things down so I was invited to speak and people agreed that what I said was useful, but I can't say I enjoyed the experience... The advert was displayed in a place second only to the proverbial locked filing cabinet in the basement, so it's no wonder no other 'members of the public' turned up...

It was strange about the Farmageddon DVD - It did have PAL and Region 2 on the cover, so it seemed fine, but the disc itself must have had some problem on it... Not the most comfortable watching it on the computer, but at least it worked

Glad your loft work is going well so far I'm not sure if you did mention a light pipe - sounds intriguing Is that like fibre optic to create lamps powered by sunlight rather than a lightbulb? Sounds good to bring more natural light into the home

That is a very weird meeting - almost seems that they didn't want any public input? Sorry to hear that apparently you don't count as a member of the public - not sure what that exactly means. If you aren't a member of the public at a venue you go to sometimes, what exactly are you? If you had a specific role such as Employee or Governor, that would be fair enough - but if you're not in that sort of category, did they think you were a leopard? Almost a backhanded compliment - no wonder you felt

The sun tunnel/light pip is a bit like a fibre optic, but on a larger scale. So assume either a fixed pipe of flexible cable with a diameter of, for instance, a foot, with a highly reflective inside. So one end is outside your roof, often domed to capture the maximum light or sometimes flat too, with the other end on the ceiling of the room (in our case hallway) where you'd like to have natural light.

I've got a dilemma of being invited by two different people now to go to two different parkruns with them on Saturday.

Latest update: drawn 93 pages, polished 85.

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Yes, it was strange - last year they made an announcement that they were sad no members of the public turned up for the public meeting, but I think they were secretly glad - I did feel as though I interrupted their party this year... Them thinking I was a leopard would explain a lot, yes - a few people looked a bit scared when I entered the room... I guess it was a backhanded compliment, but yes I'm not a committee member, so I was definitely a member of the public in that sense. I have met 7 out of 11 people in the room on other occasions, but it would have been unfair if they had said that made me ineligible to talk about my experience of wheelchair access in the building! I think they were a bit scared about what I might say, but I was glad to report it was mostly positive, and I suggested just a couple of things that could be improved

"So assume either a fixed pipe of flexible cable with a diameter of, for instance, a foot, with a highly reflective inside." Aha! Sounds neat indeed - good luck with that

Ah, that is a dilemma that you can't be in two parkruns at once... I hope you have a good run on Saturday wherever you end up

Wow, your book is progressing well I hope your characters are behaving themselves as you approach the final few pages of the story My third was similar size to the others after all (around 170 pages) and now I am working on a group that is potentially too many for one volume but not enough for two! I'll see how it looks after I've tidied the formatting, anyway - I'm up to page 50

Ah, had they said that for more of a tick box exercise than really wanting public input? After all, would a public opinion count more than their own? Hopefully they'll take your input in the spirit in which it was offered and be able to build on what you have said.

Finding light pipe people seems a bit more of a struggle than I thought as I tried to contact different companies that said they did it, but one seems to have directed me to other companies that don't mention light pipes/sun tunnels on their websites, which isn't a great start, and another phoned to say I should expect a phone call (but the phone call I was having wasn't the phone call). So we'll see how things go. It may well turn out to be more expensive than we're willing to pay for the benefit of having as much light as a lightbulb in the hall, as just leaving a light on will be cheaper, but ideally I would like natural light.

That's a very solid amount of work for your volumes. Hopefully with my doodling the characters will behave and not try to get too much attention - a scene which I thought would easily take a page has just taken up 3, so that happens sometimes. I actually will have the main characters involved in the finale for once, so that's something. Will almost make up for them being missing for most of the book (especially having taken a day off right at the start). And another character turned up for a cameo despite officially being on honeymoon. It often is like herding s.

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I found out what kind of leopard I was at the meeting - yesterday my mum met the person who made a fuss - they thought I wasn't a member of the public because even though I'm not a committee member, my mum was a committee member three years ago I think that's a bit of a stretch... Yes, I am hopeful they found my comments useful, no matter what they thought my status was

Sorry the light pipe is not as easy as it sounded Very strange to be passed around to different companies, and the phone call about the phone call is also strange Good luck with it

Glad you're just about managing to sort your characters out My volume four has shaped up to be 200 pages, which sounds OK - just have to see what Lulu makes of it I've got a bit more polishing to do, but I am indeed pleased with the solid amount of work that the volumes represent

I hope you have a good weekend and have a good parkrun. My sister plans to visit on Sunday

I suppose that's a bit understandable why you were considered a leopard – if they thought you were there to be your mum in disguise and say that anything they've done different to when your mum was on the committee is wrong, or express any views she has purportedly as an independent member of the public. Possible but a paranoid perspective.

I didn't do much doodling – now on 96 pages drawn and 88 polished, so near the end and not sure I have enough pages left for the story to be tied up neatly by the end, but that's nothing new. Might potentially be getting it finished by the end of the week?

In the end I did Southsea parkrun – and managed to run it all without difficulty. Very slow – a flat course I did in 34 minutes – but I ran it all. One of my friends ran 15 miles there that morning and then did the parkrun, timing it almost perfectly and starting a few minutes after the official course time. He managed to finish just behind me too.

Yesterday morning I volunteered for t-shirt distribution duty for the Eastleigh 10K. Turns out only 92 people ran Eastleigh parkun on Saturday, wanting to rest before the 10k. There were almost more marshals than runners. Parkrun asks people to volunteer 3 times a year, but it is notable that those 3 times tend to be the day before the Eastleigh 10k, the day before the Southampton 10k/Half/Marathon and the day before the Great South Run…

We also went to the cinema and saw 'Shazaam! Fury of the Gods' yesterday, with it being my son's birthday today. He's 15.

Glad you had a family weekend too, with your sister round. Did you go spotting?

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Yeah - my mum was not popular with the previous chairperson - he nicknamed her 'bogrolls' because she was meticulous in ensuring there was toilet paper in all the facilities whenever public meetings took place. Possible paranoid perspective indeed, but hopefully I put their minds at rest a bit, as I didn't mention anything that wasn't within my personal experience.

Wow, that is nearly there with your book - good luck with finding a suitable ending My book work went well - Lulu liked Volume Four, so it is now published and I have ordered copies of all four I'll see what they look like and then will be able to decide about how to do the Omnibus Edition

Well done for getting round parkrun without difficulty That's as much of an achievement for you as for your friend doing 15miles+5k That's good that volunteering is part of parkrun as well as actual running, but difficult indeed if there are days with not enough marshals, and days with more marshals than runners...

Glad your son had a good birthday. I saw a trailer for 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' - looked very amusing!

I didn't manage to fit in any birdwatching, but I did go to see a Crinkle Crankle Wall on Saturday - I did a school trip there when I was about 5, and found it again when I was about 25, and this year I found out it was just behind a new mini supermarket that has been built, so I revisited it again We had a good family lunch out for Mother's Day - it was a good afternoon of catching up and sorting out odd jobs for mum