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

I did get news on the project - it hadn't been considered this Wednesday, even though I had said to my boss's boss that the deadline is next Wednesday Yesterday someone else told my boss's boss that the deadline is next Wednesday, and now he's gone to panic stations to make sure the project is considered in time

People have already started asking what's happening on 1 August and even my boss is asking... I'd gladly say, but I don't even know... Frustrating, but is wise words - I have evidence of my efforts since May to try to get everything sorted in advance, and it doesn't matter if everything isn't 100% ready on 1 August as there is a window of opportunity for data returns, so we'll get there whatever is decided Annoying when the powers that be make things more difficult than they could have been, though, as you well know

Congratulations on running round in circles and getting an RR10 league place for 6 runs Congratulations on getting an improved time, too I went to wheelchair basketball again and touched the ball a couple of times when it rolled towards me on the sidelines, which is more than I did last week. My main role this week was sports photographer rather than anything more energetic, though, so that suited me

That is strange about waking up and smelling maple syrup, but it does sound like it is likely to do with what you ate, like with asparagus etc

I listened to the second episode of Cabin Pressure this evening and enjoyed it - very funny about John Finnemore's character learning to read people and the classic joke about 'Is there a doctor on board?' when the answer is 'Yes but not ' always amuses me

I hope your father-in-law is getting on OK with everything. I hope you all have a good weekend

Good luck with the project - so has the actual decision been made? Or just panicking?

I had a meeting with my forthcoming Head, who has finally realised I exist and started copying me in on e-mails concerning the 'realignment, not restructure - everyone's job is changing but if we call it a realignment we don't have to inform HR (P&D) or the Unions, honest'. So he's basically said that as I don't have a job to go to at the moment, would I like to stay in my current role for a couple more weeks?
The trouble with having a spontaneous realignment that involves 30 members of staff having to apply for jobs, particularly in August, is that it requires people to apply for jobs and be interviewed when on their holiday. And he does expect people to turn up in person and be interviewed when they have time off, which as at least one person in the office has a cruise on the proposed interview date, doesn't seem fair.

And my father-in-law's move is still up in the air.

I'm looking forward to life becoming dull and predictable again.

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Thank you Nope, no decision yet, just panicking After ruminating overnight, I'm planning to see if someone can make an executive decision on Monday rather than waiting for the executive committee meeting on Wednesday - it would be better to give everyone a few days' notice rather than a few hours, but we shall see Shocking that your team hasn't been given enough notice so holidays have already been booked (in accordance with what you're all entitled to...) Glad you've had some communication about the next couple of weeks at last, albeit by default... Good luck with it all

Supermarket shopping was OK today - some items not in stock, but not too bad. I had a chat with my favourite member of staff It was a good place to play the Yellow Car game, too Mum and I spotted one in the car park behind the charity shop, and then another two in the supermarket car park I listened to another couple of Cabin Pressure episodes this evening - John Finnemore is indeed 'brilliant' as Arthur

Mum's enjoying the Yellow Car game - we played it again today I had the idea to go to the Dee Estuary, and there were a couple of road closures, so we did a bit of a tour of the area. The weather was rather too hot for the birds so there weren't many out and about. Also the prom was exceedingly busy with people queuing outside the icecream shop. Thus the trip wasn't quite what I had in mind

This evening we watched the Lancaster Bomber ED603 documentary. Very good indeed. Good mix of educational footage and footage from the recovery programme. Excellent selection of contributions from your dad - very poignant. Also poignant was the footage from the Cofferdam as the boat carrying you and the other family members approached - I appreciated that very much thanks to having seen your photos of the approach to the Cofferdam. Also good that Guy Martin did a follow-up two months later to confirm that the recovery had achieved what it set out to do

Thanks for the screenshots of AI text on your cartoons - very funny! I think I can see by squinting how the AI might think the building is a bus and so by AI logic the lollipop Stop sign must be a bus stop, but even squinting doesn't disguise the scene of people running (not just 'a person')... If they were all similar people, I guess the scene might be interpreted as three snapshots of the same person running, but even the clothes are different, never mind the faces

I'm really sorry - I posted a response, but it doesn't seem to have stuck and instead has vanished into the ether. I know I wished you good luck with work and that the decision is finally made.

I know I also picked up on your comments about the wheelchair basketball, and that I think I'd also be happiest in the role of photographer. I don't know much about basketball, either the wheelchair or non-wheelchair varieties. We had to play it at school where it came across very much as a sport like a group of teenagers in a free-session in a swimming pool - the umpire or referee or whoever they're called is always someone blowing a whistle, but no-one knows who is being blown at nor why. I definitely asked if there's dribbling involved, as that presumably is quite difficult if you are in a chair (though sport is often difficult) and I'd be worried about my arm getting knocked by the other chairs zooming around.

I'm glad you are both enjoying the yellow car game - it is a game that just keeps giving on any journey or whenever you're out and about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ulfCpEKnE
And definitely good news that you are enjoying 'Cabin Pressure'. It is, as Arthur would say, 'Brilliant'. Even more enjoyable than s.

I'm glad you enjoyed the documentary, and it was much better than I was expecting and Dad came across well. It definitely brought back emotional memories for both my son and I. So at the moment we're still awaiting news of what will happen with my cousin's remains, but it was good to learn a little more and things we didn’t know before.
Did I say that I picked up a by Guy Martin a little while ago? I didn't realise that he had been a motorcycle journalist writing for motorbike magazines, and so has been writing a series of autobiographies on what he has been up to. So I wonder whether his next one will include a little about ED603?

Sorry about the cartoons - had the previous post saved, you would have had a bit of preparation and context about them. Essentially I've been working on the public version of the next and thought I'd share some of the images. There's going to be a different frontispiece, as it won't include the page which features the character of SC being a blackleg strike breaker, so I can include the earlier drawing on that page combined with the lollipop lady as a frontispiece. The other image is an excerpt of one of the four new pages.
Without the 14 SC pages, only 1 of which being strike-based, the new version of the is very heavily strike-based, and I've tweaked the order slightly too. Maybe it works better, I'm not sure whether the previous book came across as too bitter or resentful by focussing heavily on the bully, and so is in many ways a low-point and you could legitimately say it is poor behaviour and questionable judgement on my part. Even if it was very cathartic and therapeutic to draw.

This is a week of leaving dos, so it has been very emotional in the office.

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Ah, sorry that another post went into the ether... I'm getting lots of timeout errors, but generally my conversations list has been working OK

No decisions yet but a decision will be made one way or another tomorrow as it's the last day of the month

I can imagine it is emotional for you all this week We're fortunate not to have had that much disruption, but a few people on temporary contracts didn't get renewals so we said goodbyes today.

"like a group of teenagers in a free-session in a swimming pool" - that's an apt description of my experience so far... The coach mentioned something about dribbling to one of the new players, but I couldn't quite hear because I was on the sidelines - I think the rule is that wheelchair players can carry the ball for two pushes and then they have to bounce the ball once and then they can carry it again. There are also some rules about not deliberately crashing into other players (as it isn't wheelchair rugby) but accidental knocks did happen quite often while everyone was zooming round (and one of the players had to take time out when the ball accidentally slammed into their chest). Definitely more physically dangerous than I thought, so photographer was much better

I didn't know Guy Martin had been writing a series of autobiographies - makes sense, though, as he has a lot to write about (eg the Isle of Man TT race when he crashed and rolled down the hill). Highly possible that his involvement with the recovery mission will feature in future.

Aha - thank you for the context of the cartoons - glad is progressing well, with the strike theme. The SC cartoons definitely have their place in a book, as they are relatable, but like I put my Career Curiosities bullying scenes in a book but not in we can be selective for different audiences (and benefit from the "cathartic and therapeutic" drawing indeed).

Thank you for the Yellow Car video - brilliant! I listened to the last episode of the first series this evening, as it happens - hilarious about enjoying - great sound effects! Poignant, too, as we learned more about the crew

It's the end of the year and the last day for many people who were told they had to leave by the end of July. Which apparently wasn't strictly legal as staff are supposed to have the option of 12 weeks' notice when taking voluntary redundancy or they face extra taxation, when Solent forced people to be voluntarily redundant without the chance of working 12 weeks.
I know of 4 in person leaving dos today and been to one online. It is also my last day in my current role - I've had a leaving e-card sent to me today, which almost everyone in my team signed. No surprises or prizes for guessing who the missing signatory was - though to be fair I think the song famously covered by Ronan Keating expresses my sentiments exactly with the words, 'You say it best when you say nothing at all'.

Glad you're still enjoying 'Cabin Pressure' - it really is brilliant. I don't know if I said before, if in doubt follow alphabetical order. I think for some reason a couple of episodes were initially broadcast out of order, but the way that they were written was for the episodes to be alphabetical, which makes sense as that way the first episode of the second series picks up from the last episode of the first series.

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Hmm, that is disappointing but probably not surprising that proper process doesn't appear to have been followed...

Yes, I can imagine you don't miss certain signatures... That's lovely that you received an e-card so people are thinking of you while teams are dispersed.

My news is that I got a decision and it went in my favour. Bittersweet, as it now means hard work under more pressure than if the decision had been made a couple of months ago, but pleasing to make a difference (I knew the other guy's project was expensive, but I found out today the cost was almost double what I thought, so mine is even better value for money in comparison). Many of my colleagues are pleased by the news, too, as they preferred my project when they were shown the options

I nearly had trouble getting to the meeting where the decision was made, because the road to the building was closed and I only found out when I got there. I had been a bit early, thankfully - after driving round to find an alternative parking space (yellow car), and running up a hill to get to the building from the other side, I was just in time

Thanks for the tip about the Cabin Pressure alphabetical order - I see H was labelled as series 2 episode 1, but I listened to G this evening and enjoyed how it picked up where F left off The Derby toilet race was particularly brilliant laugh out loud funny The order of episodes in BoB is even more confusing, as T to Z appears after F, then we have Q, P, N, O, R, S. No M that I could find

Excellent news about the project, even if it really has been left to the last minute. Good luck with getting it implemented in the time available!

It's my first day as Employee Without Portfolio, though fortunately on holiday and I'm spending the first day of my time off applying for my job... Hmm...

Yesterday after work there were two leaving dos I could go to, and I went to one for someone I'd worked closely with about ten years ago - but because of the layout of the benches I wasn't really able to get close to where she was sat and didn't really know the other people there, who were largely talking to each about work in departments I'm not in and people I don't know, so after about 45 minutes I left. I'd shown my face and wished her well, which was the main thing.

As I had some time before my train and the pub was on the way I popped into the other leaving do, and the academic there who I've vaguely known since I started seemed delighted to see me, as soon as I'd walked in he'd insisted on buying me a drink and there were people I knew, some I've worked closely with recently, one person whose leaving do I'd been to the day before, and someone who years ago had been head of Quality at Solent and now had an impressive Quality title at the university up the road (I'm not sure if they have centralised or decentralised Quality offices). As it is a Quality role that I'm applying for I definitely took the opportunity to speak to her and pick up some hints and tips of things to say on an application or in an interview. So actually I was really pleased to have left the other leaving do early. (I left and came home, though, when most of the people I knew decided to head from the second leaving do to the first one).

With Cabin Pressure, I think 'M' was the Christmas Special, so if there's one with Christmas in the title, that'll be it. Very unhelpful order, though - especially as Z is definitely the last episode and so listening that way wouldn't make sense...

If BoB doesn't have it, try Archive: http://archive.org/search?query=cabin+pressure

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I received more positive feedback today, so that is morale-boosting Just a tricky bit that the IT team are worried about the project, and thinking it is more IT-resource intensive than I think it is - we'll have a conversation and hopefully sort that out next week

Glad the leaving dos worked out well by serendipity Excellent that you got to do some networking as well

Aha, yes that makes sense that M is the Christmas episode - I've found that one in BoB as well, so that's good

I haven't done any crochet for the last couple of days, though, as I've been busy preparing for the Horticultural Show Not as many exhibits as last year, but they are expecting plenty of flower arrangements, so it should look good tomorrow

I hope you all have a good weekend

Good luck with the project - are you now at the stage where now it isn't just in your head (and in your proposal) and more people are actively involved, it is getting slightly out of your total control?

I wasn't entirely sure whether you meant BoB had I-M, even if you found ChristMas.

The weekend has been going well so far - yesterday was my daughter's 14th birthday, which went well and she now has a new mountain of cuddly toys to go with her continental shelf's worth of already owned cuddly toys.

Good luck with the Horticultural Show.

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Yes, that's right - I prepared a pilot of the project to put forward for approval, so now it is to be rolled out to all departments some are saying 'yay' and some are saying 'scary'. I think the IT team are worried because they have skills to build things from scratch, whereas I've built something from the IT equivalent of Lego and now they're not sure we should be using Lego, even though they gave everyone in the organisation the Lego in the first place... I'm hopeful that a conversation will sort it out, because I'm not the only one using the Lego (Microsoft products)

Here is the alphabet according to BoB:

A B C D E F M T U V W X Y Z Q P N O R S H G I J K L

Glad your daughter had a good birthday

The Horticultural Show did look good and all the behind-the-scenes work went well I won some prizes and was very pleased to win the photography class again Good show

Excellent news on your prize winning - well done

I'm impressed you have an IT team with the skills to build things from scratch. We were supposed to have one of those, which in my former job I knew about. And as for SITS developing, there were supposed to be representatives in each department who would look at developing and taking responsibilities for their areas. Admissions have, Registry's team leaders refused to speak to anyone trying to train them and avoided going to any training session (and have since been given huge promotions) and Finance learnt how to do it, but are now refusing to, which means that one member of my former team has pretty much dedicated his entire time to doing the work that Finance should be doing but aren't, so any other development work needed isn't being done.
But that's none of my business now.

Strange that BoB has struggled with the alphabet so much - were there repeats they recorded in between - so for example they recorded the first series and then the third series, and then a repeat of the second? Or something along those lines? I would say that no matter what BoB says, stick to alphabetical order.

Today's been a quiet day. I like quiet days. Although tomorrow I'm hoping to take my son hunting, but he isn't very good at waking up.

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Thank you Yes, it was good fun - I enjoyed doing some flower arranging, but not too much, so it wasn't too difficult to clear up afterwards (as my sister wasn't able to visit this time as she was working). My printer mostly behaved itself, too - I was in charge of preparing the trophy presentation speech, and that printed fine (unlike last year when I had to save it to a camera memory card, and print it from the printer directly because the printer and the computer were refusing to speak to each other). A bit more trouble with the spreadsheet of results, but we got there - initially it printed as pale blue, then when I changed the printing to black and white it printed as invisible. Third time lucky - I saved the spreadsheet as a PDF and it printed as black text

Mum and I had a fairly quiet day yesterday, too, mainly tidying up after the show. We did go out for lunch, and were sadly disappointed with a cafe we used to enjoy - its food hygiene rating has gone down to 3, the meal was a bit soggy because the plate must have been wet before the food was put on it, and the was lukewarm because the hot water urn broke (luckily they had a kettle so they could brew us a proper pot of tea, so that made up for things a bit). We did a bit of food shopping, as well, as we had been busy on Saturday

That's good that your Admissions team have taken the appropriate responsibility, but disappointing about Registry... Here it was the other way round - Registry took responsibility, but Admissions arranged for the IT Team to create a bespoke system that linked in with SITS. Not my responsibility now, either. I made some progress with my project today, but I'm still waiting for other people to do their bit...

I hope you had a good day hunting

I checked BoB and see A to F was recorded in 2011 (from a repeat on BBC7), and then G to L was recorded in 2020 (from a repeat on BBC4 Extra, aka BBC7), so that explains the ordering. M to Z was recorded in 2017/18. I listened to H this evening - the song 'When I'm 63' was

Sounds like the printer continues to be temperamental - or at least having an artistic temperament - but glad you managed to overcome the unexpected challenges and enjoy yourself after all.

I see you successfully found my photos of the hunt I went on with my son. In the end we walked 10 miles and found all 70 lighthouses located around Southampton - including the annoying one located all on its own at the stadium, miles from any of the others, causing a massive detour as otherwise they were largely located along two parallel roads.
This year they also have some on the Island, in the towns of Cowes and East Cowes, so I'll be ticking those off soon.

In other news I have two interviews for my upcoming current job, not sure interviews and job applications is the best way to spend a summer break, but there we go.

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yes the printer is artistic temperamental - definitely prefers images to text

I semi-successfully found images of - I was enjoying it, then malfunctioned again... I had the arrow to move to the next picture this time, but the 'like' button disappeared. I left it for a bit and look forward to exploring again later That is excellent that you and your son managed to find all 70 and did the walk to stadium as well Good to see you found a Zebra , too - I enjoyed seeing those (8 years ago...).

That does seem like a waste of time and resources to make you do job applications and two interviews during the summer break Could be a tactic to encourage more people to try to find somewhere less stressful to work... Good luck with it all

I didn't manage to get my project sorted out today as the people I need to speak to are now on annual leave until next week... Luckily there's some contingency in the project plan ...

is indeed - I got the 'like' button back, then it said 'this image has been removed' before showing me the image. Now I'm getting the problem with no arrows again, but luckily 'refresh' still works as I'm not using the popup window thingy...

Worth the effort, though - great to see your catalogue of and the mini ones decorated by local schools - skill

I see the tagging feature is funny, too - your son has been tagged with the name of a guy who did that charity press-up challenge we did the other year

Part of me wonders whether nowadays is geared more towards phone browsing use rather than PCs, as I agree that it does seem to struggle with basics, such as looking at photographs. Which I had thought was exactly what it had been designed to do from the start.

Yep, we spotted a zebra - as they were auctioned off to raise money for charity, I know that the uni has one and the one we spotted is in the library. I imagine that a or two may end up on public display somewhere, I suppose it depends how much they fetch in the auction. It'd be funny if the coin-decorated one went for less than the cash value of the coins.

I'm still a tad nervous ahead of my interview on Friday, which is the one I want rather than the lesser role on Tuesday. I still have the decision to make of either undertaking the interview online or in person...

I did have a question about AI art, specifically, who owns the copyright for it? As a teenager I wrote a few s using words and wondered about using AI to create cover art.

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Highly possible that something is going on with website and app, so neither works quite as expected (another of my friends frequently posts about how the app doesn't work well with links to news articles)... Photo sharing should be a basic function for a book about faces indeed...

It is good how the trails become public artworks in future - there are a few Superlambananas still around in Liverpool and Wirral after the trail in 2008 or so, and it's always good to spot one

Good question about AI art - when h2g2 published the A Crime Has Been Committed omnibus, AI-generated images were able to be used according to the terms of the software - a note was included in the Introduction to state that AI software had been used.

Also a good question about interviews online or in person... Interesting to ponder my experience with project pitches. 2022 was online and went OK - I felt more comfortable in some ways because I was in control of my rectangle, but discussion with different people was more challenging, managing interruptions, etc. 2024 was in person and also went OK - I felt less comfortable in some ways because I wasn't in control of the view of me (I needed to stretch one of my legs and the VC could probably see my foot through the table ) but I felt more comfortable speaking directly to the VC, or to whoever asked a question...

All the very best for your interview tomorrow You've gained many many skills and much much knowledge in all the different areas you've worked, so I'm hopeful that things will turn out as you hope