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

So, in a fit of boredom I finally get round to writing my first h2g2 journal entry. After the all the good intentions, now I actuall get here I'm struck by the question "What do I write"?

Maybe, as this is my first time, I ought to say a little about myself. My name is Edward Harrison (Ed to almost everybody except my parents) and I'm a 26 year old who originally hails from South East London.

The majority of my life was spent living on the top of Shooters Hill (5 Shrewsbury Lane, for any future historians) with my parents (Jill & Peter), occassionally my brother (Robert) and, through the years, a number of wonderful cats (Whisky, Pussy, Fleekie, Harvey and Purdy).

Having initially schooled at Christ Church Primary school, Shooters Hill, I then went to Colfe's School Lee until I was 18. After a reasonably worthless "gap year" I travelled North to the University of St. Andrews where after four years of toil I obtained a degree in Computer Science.

I left St. Andrews and started working for a Software firm called Data Connection and that is where I am now - living and based in Enfield (having made the major move from South to North London). Although unmarried I do live with a wonderful woman called Gemma who has been my partner for over 18 months at time of writing.

So, that's who I am.

I guess any readers may be wondering why I have bothered writing this stuff (I'm sure you're not that interested...). I guess the reason is because of something I watched on TV a couple of weeks ago. Sad as it no doubt sounds, this entry is dedicated to an episode of Star Trek Voyager!

Let me explain - the episode in question (I think it was called 11:59pm or something) showed the story of one of the character's ancestors. The character in question (Capt. Janeway if you're interested) knew that her ancestor was an important engineer involved in some famous architectural and scientific project. Throughout the course of the story it turned out that the ancestor, whilst being involved in the project concerned, had had a much less important role to play that Janeway had been led to believe.

All very well. The thing that struck me was the difficulty Janeway and her crew had in finding information on this ancestor. It seemed almost impossible to get anything on her from the archives - a news cutting here, a birth certificate there, but no real idea of who she was or what she was doing.

So - in order to avoid such a fate I thought I'd try and make at least a small mark on the world. Whether h2g2 will survive in 300 years time is not in my hands, but if it does, it would be nice to know that historians (and our descendants?) can catch a glimpse of life at the end of the 20th century and, more importantly, can begin to know some of the people who lived then.

I can't guarantee how often I will post journal entries and certainly can't promise they will always (ever?) be interesting. But, if anyone is reading this in many years time, I welcome you - and thank you for showing such an interest in my life.