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

Glad the trains enabled you to get to Bournemouth and glad your journey to Yorkshire was fine Sorry the wet weather moved up north with you - the rain showers here yesterday were impressive, and we even had a couple of hailstorms! Not quite so wet today, but still comparatively chilly I hope you find good things to do to get out and about

Glad the find and replace in one hit went well for you - very satisfying to see so many Entries restored to the Edited Guide Looks like almost all of the 'low hanging fruit' has now been dealt with. That's a goodly chunk of the

Yes indeed all sorts of emotions about the process... The Edited Guide is something we can do something about, but h2g2 is more than just that, so it is a big loss even though it could have been worse... It was discussed at the last meeting, and ideas have been identified. However, ideas have been identified regularly since 2011 so the risk level is definitely high...

Robbie said in response to my e-mail about frustrations: "I really really feel for you and indeed on behalf of Douglas and the Guide - D would have been so moved by such care and dedication. Small comfort but true.."

And another crumb of comfort appeared in my e-mail inbox today - thank you for 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' In return I'm disappointed that your 500 Entries badge isn't showing up yet, but at least it is in the image database so it is half way there

The weather hasn't been too good so far, so we've not gone anywhere new - and the children are still reluctant to go out anywhere. We did go to the Thackery Medical Museum and hope to take our free ticket to the zoo today, before that expires.
My father-in-law has announced he has decided to downsize and move house, which isn't surprising, and his house will be on the market soon. The children are excited as they are being given a television each (he owns four) and I am being given his record collection. So the next time we're up we may not be here. He wants to move closer to my brother-in-law, unfortunately his wife keeps changing his mind over where she wants to live...
Not sure how much room we'll have in the car on the way back.

Yes, as you say that's most of the 'low hanging fruit' dealt with - all my entries are back in the Edited Guide except 'Wet Leg' and the couple of entries that hadn't quite made it that far, but had been recommended. With the rest that can be put back into Peer Review in a pre-edited state, I'm not sure what we'll do. It would seem unfair to expect the same subs to subedit all the entries they had originally subbed, as that could be a vast number, but on the other hand sometimes you may really want to sub particular entries so it wouldn't necessarily be fair to not give the original sub a chance. Mind you it all depends on how many of the entries can be returned to Peer Review.

I can live without the 500 badge, so that's not a big issue - though it is certainly nice to have.

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Yes, shame about the weather for this week. Very windy here - last night I windsurfed up a hill and then struggled to get back down the hill as the force of the wind was stronger than the force of gravity... I hope you all enjoy the zoo today

That does make sense for your father in law to downsize and move closer to one of his children. Impressive that there are four televisions! The car will be well filled with useful presents indeed

Funny with all the emotions about h2g2 indeed - the 500 badge means more to me now, as it is something I can give to you in return for the Entries you gave to me, plus it was a challenge for me to make it for you in the first place. At least it's in the database, anyway, so that's something for now (weirdly I can't find the 200 badge in the database, but it displays on your page, whereas the 500 badge displays in the database but not on your page )

Yeah, with the pre-edited versions, it might depend on what the numbers look like as to what the original subs can do... Some DG/GB Entries have been restored already and I have a few that I subbed that I can look at again (eg the Karl Jenkins), but there's still a sizeable chunk of the left to look at

Yay! Your badge is there The just came to me while I was making that the two badges must be in different databases, so I found the correct one

Cheers

Probably a daft question, but there aren't 2 years' worth of h2g2 entries and conversations in that database, are there?

I doubt we'll get everything in the car, so we'll have to see what happens on our return and what we can carry.

Today we had a very wet and windy day out at the zoo - which was probably perfect weather for the polar bears! I can't remember the last time I uploaded photos on , so I might do that in a bit. The dinosaurs that were only supposed to be there for a month last summer were still there, funnily enough...

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Sadly not - looks like there are three different image databases (one for blobs, one for named images and one for h2g2 images) but only the h2g2 image database can be updated now so there's no new data hiding in the other ones...

Glad you managed to get to the zoo even though it was wet and windy. This afternoon has been lovely here, but now the rain has started again! Fascinating that the dinosaurs are still there even though they were only supposed to be there for a month - I hope that means they are still popular with visitors Great to see your photos Not sure I've seen a photo of since he was a kitten - he's grown up very handsome

I didn't expect it to but didn't hurt to ask. I'm almost back to where I was in April with regards Edited entries, both mine and those I've edited.

I made the mistake of walking around the zoo in shorts and t-shirt - sadly before coming up I took my nice, warm gloves out of my backpack, thinking it is April and I wouldn't need them any more.

I did enjoy seeing the zoo on a far quieter day than before. One thing I did think odd is that the zoo maps we were given go into great detail over what is sold in all the shops, but largely overlook most of the zoo's animals except maybe the top ten. I guess that they want people to download the app instead of having a useful guide in their hands.
http://www.yorkshirewildlifepark.com/plan-your-visit/park-map/
It still is useless for trying to work out where in the park the concert venue is...

Tomorrow we'll be off to visit the grave as it is a year since my mother-in-law passed away, so that'll be strange.

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Yeah, it is fascinating what is squirreled away in odd corners of h2g2, but sadly there is no tinfoil-wrapped room to protect against tech team malfunctions... It is helpful to keep busy with restoring Entries, but it is frustrating etc that we don't currently have a front page to put Entries like James Bond films on... I sent a message on 12 March and haven't received a reply, but then again the artists e-mail was to be fixed in December, and I guess it wasn't specified which December...

Wow, I can imagine that was without winter clothes at the zoo - unexpected in April indeed. Glad it was an experience to visit on a quieter day That map is definitely geared more towards advertising than animals - there are silhouettes of some animals, but I'm not sure I can guess what is what... Fascinating how similar the layout is to Chester Zoo, with the two halves, the indoor picnic area on the left and the extra zone in the top right hand corner The entrance to Chester Zoo is in the middle rather than in the corner, though, so we get to enjoy the elephants much more quickly

Best wishes to you and your family for tomorrow

Ah yes - just how the Great War would be over by Christmas and it ended on 11th November - 4 years later... I didn't realise that the front page is down long-term too.

When we first went to the zoo they only had the half on the left - but even then had several craft shops around their old entry (which is now a shop and school party entrance). The new shops seem to be more corporate, so not sure what happened to the craft ones. They might still be there, I suppose, only without the footfall they had of people going to the zoo. The new half is quite empty of animals, but does have a large lake in the middle. I'll try to put pictures of the zoo on today.

Today went quite well - first time I've been to the grave since the stone had my mother-in-law's name engraved on it. My father-in-law asked us to pose for a family photo by the tombstone, which we did but I'm not sure how to react to.

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Yeah, I don't know what's going on with the front page just now, but I do know I reported the array_shift() error message on 8 April 2021, and I'm sure that's when the weird login problem started, where it looks like you're not logged in but then you go to goo/alabaster/brunel and you are logged in... I also found my note that the 'Featured Entries not available' error message appeared in April 2019 and took 6 weeks to be fixed, so maybe I'll receive a reply in the next couple of weeks...

I can imagine you weren't sure how to react, but glad the day went quite well with a family gathering

Excellent seeing your photos of the Zoo Interesting that there used to be craft shops at the other end of the park - I see there is a Wool Den by the new entrance, but overall the shopping area does look more corporate...

I had haircut success today Not easy to understand the codes, as Dave Gorman found out - previously I learned 'clippers only' is clippers only, and 'wet cut' is scissors only, so this time I selected 'cut and finish' and that was clippers and scissors The 'finish' was a bit of an anticlimax (just a quick blast of the hairdryer) but I'm very satisfied with the cut

Another thing I'm satisfied with today is my Miscellany omnibus - it is what I had in mind Fete of Eve Eel also arrived, so I look forward to reading that

Ooh, when I get home I'll order a copy - does the £20 one contain everything?

We're about to head back home. So we didn't go far or do much as it rained so much. Yesterday I went to Penistone parkrun (pronounced like 'Penic(illin)-tun' and had an unusual first time briefing in which it was emphasised that it was important tradition to take a selfie with the course flag with the last four letters obscured, and that doing so would give you good luck and/or 'a good time'. I assume they are referring to speed, as I finished one second faster than last week.

I've cracked on with doing a bit of preparing old cartoons for publication - not the main cartoons I drew but the supporting ones between the larger stories. Funny how completely different my handwriting is from 30 years ago...

I think the zoo is trying to take advantage of what is considered to be a big investment in Doncaster. When we first went the entry was along a long, country lane. Since then there'd been a big push to develop what was Doncaster/Sheffield Airport aka Robin Hood Airport, and it has had a brand new dual carriageway, the Great Yorkshire Way, built to connect it to the motorway, and the zoo's new entrance is close to that. So perhaps they assume that all the international traffic will want to pop into their corporate shopping zone soon after landing?
Not sure how successful that strategy will be as while, on the one hand, Doncaster was granted city status last year, presumably marking Doncaster as an up-and-coming area, the airport promptly closed last November as no-one wanted to fly there.

Glad you're happy with your haircut! Anyway, gotta dash.

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Hope you had a good journey back

Glad you had a good parkrun - I liked your selfie with the course flag Glad you got to do your NENDY as well - your next NENDY must be getting quite far away now

Glad things are progressing with your old cartoons Interesting to contemplate handwriting from 30 years ago - it was about 33 years ago that a supply teacher in school made me change my handwriting for some unknown reason (given that she was only there for a few weeks so it made no difference to her whether my handwriting had loops in it or not ). I notice my handwriting has more loops in it now, somewhat going back to how it was 34 years ago, so that is pleasing

The £20 omnibus contains almost everything that is in the four separate volumes - just three recipes and two computer-related Flea Market rescues that are missing - so it is a pleasing selection

That makes sense about the zoo trying to attract tourists via shopping to supplement their income from zoo visits. Shame about the mixed fortunes of the area indeed...

I had a good day yesterday - I discovered the Port Sunlight Experience. The Port Sunlight Museum A87831778 has expanded into 3 different venues, and the walking tour has been upgraded. I was expecting to spend a couple of hours there, but ended up spending the whole afternoon

Ah - you were loopy? I had the opposite problem - my handwriting 30+ years ago when written at speed had virtually vertical lines for letters f, r and t, and the top of the g wasn't always fully formed making them look not dissimilar from y. When doodling I wouldn't say I used my handwriting as the block capitals are intended to be legible.

I must admit I'm tempted to draw a page or two in the old style, for old time's sake. I'd be drawing on A4 which would make the biggest challenge trying to keep the off the paper so they don't cover it in dirty and hair. Maxy in particular is malting snowstorms at the moment.

Glad to hear you had a good weekend and that the Port Sunlight Museum is doing well with more to see and do.

I'm about to head out, so catch you later.

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Hope you had a good evening I'm off out tonight

That is interesting about your handwriting - I was loopy indeed, so f was the letter the teacher made me change the most, and then it became too similar to t... I consciously changed that in high school, but the loops have organically reappeared! I'm not entirely sure my capital letters are fully legible, but at least they don't blend into each other like eg rs does I type more than handwrite these days, so that does make a difference...

Also interesting that your cartoons were on A4 - are they still in panels, or are they much larger? A challenge to avoid attention from indeed. I like the phrase "malting snowstorms" - I can visualise that!

I used to use a different ruler and drew three strips the width of the ruler (about 4.3cm) across the page, and subdivide each strip into 7 drawings with only a line between each drawing - only adding a gap if the scene changed - to have usually 21 drawings each page. My current ruler is 5.3cm wide to give slightly bigger square panels.

The biggest difference is that in my earlier drawings I drew the speech bubbles before writing the dialogue, which means that in places the bubble is HUGE compared to the words inside it, while in other places the writing is barely contained.

Hope you have a great night out tonight. I must admit I've found my old ruler and clutch pencils that I used to use to draw, so I am very tempted to give playing with old characters a try...

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Ah I can visualise that. Yes, tricky with speech bubbles - definitely easier to add them in once the text has been written... Would be interesting indeed for you to use your old tools to produce a new cartoon

Yes it was a good evening - a whistle-stop presentation about Hever Castle, Chartwell and Sissinghurst

I also discovered yesterday that a pavement pothole I reported last month has had a white circle drawn round it Going by previous experience, it should be fixed in a couple of months, just after the white spray paint has all faded away

Of the three I've been to Hever Castle, but Kent isn't the easiest place for us to get to. I'm glad you enjoyed the evening - are you planning on a trip to Kent in the near future?

(I can't see the keyboard as I type this as I have on the desk blocking the view, so I'm seeing how well I get on without.)

I've enjoyed listening to the clips from the recently discovered Beatles school performance in April 1963 - hopefully that'll be released after cleaned up, though I suppose it depends on who gets the copyright.

Is the pothole somewhere you go often? Is it where you regularly cross a road? I can imagine how frustrating that would be - I particularly remember the pothole that threw me off my bike that the cyclepath closure diverted me into. At least this time of year theoretically should make it easier to see.

I did my first RR10 of the year yesterday.

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And we had post today - including a ripped envelope that contained a note from you and two tea bags - thank you for those, hope there wasn't anything else in the envelope (but from the 'tea for two' comment I assume not). So big thank you!

Today I plan to look at my expanded record collection.

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Yay! Glad the mail arrived at last. I had hoped it would arrive on Monday, being First Class, but it sounds like the poor envelope had a Third Class experience at best... Yes, all contents present and correct, so that's a relief

Glad you got to go out for a run yesterday, and I guess you will enjoy exploring your expanded record collection. I went to an online lecture about Villette yesterday, which was interesting - focused on the theatre, as Lucy takes part in a school play and later attends a play within the novel. Also included discussion about the genre of autobiography - autobiographies are generally written as though it is how events unfolded at the time, but they are written after the fact so the present can influence the past.

I see online that Jinkx Monsoon is to be a Doctor Who Enemy I've followed Jinkx on Facebook since 2016 or so, so this is intriguing news

Interesting about Beatles school performance - will be interesting to see what they do with that indeed Reminds me there is a song called Little Freddie Goes to School, which was funny to listen to!

The pothole is in front of the venue where various meetings are held, so I encounter it a couple of times a month. It is tricky to see, so I fell into it once but thankfully wasn't thrown out of my wheelchair - that's nasty about the one on the cycle path diversion... There is enough room to go round the pothole now I know it is there, but it will be good for it to be fixed so that other people don't fall into it by accident

I guessed you might have been to Hever Castle as I could see from the presentation that there is so much history there I would like to go to Sissinghurst, as I read various books by and about Vita Sackville-West and the Bloomsbury Set a few years ago, but Kent isn't the easiest place to get to indeed.

Congratulations on your touch-typing skills with on keyboard

Post is probably a bit disrupted with bank holidays...? Sorry it took longer to arrive than you would have thought with a first class stamp.

As my father-in-law plans to move house and downsize, he his given me his record collection and record player, which effectively meant that my record collection has trebled in size. Here's a question - before, I had 14 different Beatles records. My father-in-law has given me his 13 Beatles records, so how many different Beatles records do you think I have now? (With the simplest definition of 'different', meaning records of the same title, so mono and stereo versions of, say, 'Please Please Me' or with different matrix numbers would still count as the same record).

Jinkx has quite a costume, so it'll be intriguing to see how menacing a threat and what the story is.
I don't know 'Little Freddie Goes To School' so I'll listen out for that.

Do you have weekend plans? We haven't really.

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