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

...is it Irish?

Yes, it's pronounced A-o-vel. Ancient Gaelic, I don't recall what it means. Although I answer to it as readily as my given name, it's my SCA name (you can do a search on SCA here and find out more).
Thanks

Ancient Gaelic?? You're american, aren't you?? Or foreign (not Irish) anyway...

What eeez theez SCA of which you speeeek?? Where I come from, we have no SCA's...

People in Ireland never really use the word Gaelic unless it's referring to some sports or something. Otherwise, we say things like "Ancient Irish".

You know something? I just KNOW that you're going to turn out to be irish or something and I'm going to have to cry and beat myself for being so superior or something... It always happens..but I like the beatings...aheh aheh...

Thank you, I stand (or sit) corrected, ancient Irish. Please don't go and beat your head (unless you really want to...... ), I am primarily Irish, but I do have to admit some British snuck in ( and my mother likes to say there is a dash of Norwegian too, I keep looking for the dashes, they all look like freckles to me).
To try and describe the SCA..... I couldn't really do it justice. We study the middle ages (nicer aspects) by recreating them. Armour, arts, cooking, costuming etc. But like I said I can't do it justice so if you are curious check out the organizatins home page. http://www.sca.org/ or the European branch http://www.users.wineasy.se/gilliam/
My family and I are going on holiday to the Oregon coast. Be back in a week

Nah, the beating of my head is a special event...oh dear...that sounds very dodgy!

Aaaanyhoo, primarily Irish. Now, were you born in Ireland or america? Or britain?? Just curious...I won't berate you again I promise! It's all so bad! I went to america last year for the summer and met lots of people that said things like:

Them: "I'm Irish..."
Us: "Were you born in Ireland??"
Them: "no..."
Us: "Then you're american!"

So it was all a bit strange to see that people considered themselves from somewhere else to where they were born just because of their ancestors. I'm Irish because I was born here. And that's that. I have no real notion of where my dad's side of the family comes from, but my mother's side can be traced back for a few centuries, and those guys were pirates! Which is cool!

Oh yeah, another thing that someone said to us in the states was that their grandma was from Ireland.

Us: "really?? Where in Ireland??"
Them: "Edinburgh!"
Us: "Ummm...that's scotland."
Them: "Yeah, but it's real close..."
Us: "It's a different country."

etc...you get the idea of where these nasty opinions of mine come from. Just the stupid minority (or is it majority, I don't know...)

have a fun holliers!

j

Just thought I should reply for the sake of all Americans. I spent three years in Birmingham, England because most of the people couldn't identify my midwestern accent, I kept being asked if I was Canadian. It took awhile but I finally found out why. The gentle people asking didn't want to insult me if I was Canadian by asking if I was American.

Point well taken. I am American, with an Irish heritage. And I can not honustly tell you which part of Ireland my family came from.
I'm a bit appalled at our ( Americans) lack of sense of history/heritage. I can only trace my family (and then only one branch) back to the 1700's, when they immigrated from Ireland. I used to work with a fellow who moved to the states from somewhere just outside of London. He and I would have long discussions about why it is that Americans seem to have forgotten all of their heritage. Trevor can trace his family to the 5th century. It's my theory (a, 'for what it's worth') that since people immigrated to the states to get away from something (whether thier families, or oppression or whatever) they forgot everything from before that point. To me that is a real shame and a definite loss.

Okay, I admit it I occasionally partake in a bit of head banging myself.

Had a blast in Oregon. Went out on the ocean, and saw lots of grey whales (which have recently been taken off the endangered species list). Played in tide pools, got caught off guard by waves, brought home driftwood and agates and generally wore ourselves out.

PS, I just started a conversation in 'ask h2g2' about why Americans seem to lack a sense of history. http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=19585&thread=22311

I've posted a reply to the 'Ask h2g2' conversation, but I'll just repeat one thing. Are you sure about that 'tracing ancestry back to the 5th century'. It sounds highly unlikely to me.

The SCA sounds a bit like an English organisation called 'The Sealed Knot' who specialise in re-creating / re-enacting English Civil War battles. There are other groups that do old crafts, etc., and battles from other eras, but the Sealed Knot is probably the best known.

Yeah, I would've thought that 5th century is a bit pushing it...I mean, OK 1800 is really good, but 5th century...whoa! That was a bit b4 most people can ever get to. I think that I can get my mom's side back about 4 or 5 generations, and that's REALLY good apparently.

You could try http://www.ireland.com and look at their dealings on the subject.

Anyway, I can imagine people wanting to get the hell out of this country and forget about it and all it's rain and rain and more rain. Whoever said that it can't rain all the time had never been to Ireland. This summer was an exception though...

When I was in America, we were always asked if we were austrailian. We assumed that was just because they had never heard Ozzies before, but then we were told by one of our spanish friends that she was also being asked that all the time, so I dunno...never understand these americans.

And they all think that Irish is similar to English for some reason...which it isn't. But then again, so do lots of english people too. But Irish language is the one thing that we have so that we can talk in other countries and not be understood at all!!

A propos of the Irish from Edinburgh.

Apparently a group of people called the Scoti emigrated from Ireland to Scotland hundreds of years ago, hence the name Scotland. So those Scots who regard themselves as Irish are ultimately right - if you go back to Adam and Eve, that is!

Well maybe Trevor was pulling my leg, but I do think that Americans lack the sense of history that peoples from other countries have.
If we go back to Adam and Eve, I guess we are all related.

I guess that tracing my father's father back to 1700 is pretty good. I can't take the claim, some industrious relative .

Well, I don't understand us Americans either. Maybe some of American's assumptions come from movies ("Muffy, it must be real, it's in a movie" ). Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, Sean Connery as Russian (although he did a better Russian accent than Costner did British).

We have an American version of Sealed Knot. They recreate the American Civil war (American Civil War Historical Re-enactment Society). They are a bit more hmmmm, fastidious about their re-enacting than the SCA. They recreate the costumes so well that they are often used as extra's in movies.

As far as America's portrayal of history is concerned, most non-Americans think it sucks (a lot of British certainly do!). For example, many years ago (about 40), a British studio did a film about Nell Gwyn, a famous mistress of King Charles II. The American censors wanted the ending changed so that she married the King, which never happened. In the end, the ending was re-worked to show Nell ending her life poor and in the gutter, which also never happened. The Costner version of Robin Hood had the Sheriff of Nottingham planning to take over the throne, with no reference to Prince John (King Richard's brother), or how they were going to get rid of him. I could go on, but I won't.

I also understand that an American film is planned/being made about the Enigma cypher machine which was crucial to cracking German coded messages during the Second World War. I understand that, in this film, the Americans are shown as responsible for stealing an Enigma machine and most of the decyphering work. This really sucks. Most of the Enigma work was done in England, and the Americans didn't get involved until '41 or '42.

PS I am a big Connery fan, but there is no way that he could be described as having done a Russian accent in Hunt for Red October. Connery always sounds Scottish, bless him.

Well, Scottish people saying that they are Irish is fine by me. I like Scots. They're always fun to play with.

As for the scottish/russian accent, I agree that there wasn't much there, but who cares?!?!? It was Sean!! He's always great in stuff.

But as George Orwell pointed out, them with the biggest army writes the history books, and to be honest, American cinema does that quite a lot. I mean, did you see Braveheart?? Historical accuracy out the window. But it's not to write it to suit them much of the time, it's for entertainment value! For instance, I met a scottish girl who was from Lannarch (William Wallace's birthplace) and she had refused to see Braveheart when it came out first because it was wildly inaccurate. But when she did eventually see it, she loved it. As a movie anyway. So...there's not really much harm in their portrayal of history if they make it more fun...I think.

And I think that Irish history sucks quite a bit too, not ancient stuff coz that's great shit, just the PIRA and all that shower of w**kers who still kill people! They're a shower of neanderthals the lot of them! And for some reason, lots of americans still support what is mostly a lost cause (getting the counties back that is, not the peace bit, that's good).

I still think that Sean's Russian accent was far better than Costner's British one. I agree, he's marvolous. I'd wouldn't mind playing with that Scot some .

You mean to tell me that Costner's Robin Hood tried to portray anything (other than he needed a vacation?)
Ever see Patrick Bergin's Robin Hood? Came out at the same time as Costner's.

Anyway, the point, I'm thinking, about movies, is to make money, well from the producer's stand point. I saw Braveheart too, and knew that it was inaccurate, but I too liked it (except for the lack of editing continuity, hmmm another forum?). You are right though about bending to the "critics", and especially American critics. Many movies, not just historical ones, get thier endings changed away from what the director wanted just because the critics or test audience didn't like it. I'm glad that director's (or the film companies or who ever is behind it) are getting thier films re-released in the format they wanted originally.

Irish don't have the patent on crazy w**ker's killing people. Every country has them. If I left America and my ancestors were some of the ones involved with atrocities in Viet Nam, guess I'd forget about them pretty quickly.

A bit of trivia. Did you know that no country with a McDonalds in it has gone to war with another country with a McDonalds in it? Just what do they put in those big Macs?

Is that McDonalds thing restricted to when they didn't have a McDonalds in the country and some of them do now?? Because I'm pretty sure that it could be said that Ireland WAS at war with England sometime and they both have Makkers in them.

As for the crazy b**tards killing people, at least you guys have the decency to be crazy all the time and then just snap and do it randomly. I'm not saying that it's good, I'm just saying that it's different to the guys over here actually trying to justify it and saying that it's right to do. Perfectly normal family people otherwise. They just see it as a higher cause or some crap.

Costner's Robin Hood was fun...OK, his accent was (probably) crap (I don't remember because it was a while ago since I saw it and I didn't really notice) and it also had....damn....can't remember name....too early in morning....bad guy in it....with the "spoon" line...."it's dull, it'll hurt!!"....ah, bugger! I can't remember! I think that it's a rick, but you know who I mean. Die hard bloke!

Oooohhh...Die Hard, gotta put that in my fave films thing on my page!

Anyway, best ending to a movie (I think) has got to be Fallen. It's a great ending...

The actor you're thinking of is Alan Rickman, who does excellent villains (as opposed to mere 'bad guys'). Yes, he is the best thing about Costner's Robin Hood. I love the bit when he goes down to see the witch, stabs at various things on her table, and she just says 'Something vexes thee?' Wonderful!

When it comes to countries with MacDonald's not warring with each other, Aobheil must be referring to the current situation. Both Germany and Russia have MacDonald's and they fought each other in the Second World War.

BTW if you have a habit of spotting things wrong in films (like I do), try http://www.nitpickers.com. You can submit your own nitpicks and, if you register as a nitpicker, comment on other people's (sometimes they get things wrong). I've been a registered nitpicker for about 6 months and I've submitted about 40 nitpicks in that time. Guess I'm just a deeply sad individual!

Whoa! Nitpickers?? Really?? Hmmmm...I usually don't do that, but I'll give it a shot maybe. I don't have all that much time now to be doing stuff like that though...so hmmmm...

Are you under the same name on that site as you are here??? God! I'm tired and hungover and rambling. Also, the States went to war with Germany and Japan and England went to war with germany too and they all have makkers there.

But I don't like McDonalds myself...BK is much nicer. Hmmmm....I could do an article on the comparisons or something...

Ah, hell with it, I'm going to register as a nitpicker now...ciao

As you may have found out by now, registered nitpickers have numbers, although you can pick the name that you are listed under. I'm registered as number 1739, in case you want to check what films I've been watching / nitpicking.

ah, thanks, as I didn't know your name anyway...

I've been drinking, but not enough...last night too...I love them darn college free drinks thingys...

Anderson Consulting are great!! As are the UCD Rifle Club!! (both of them with free drinks tonite!)

Rifle one isn't on for another 1/2 hour...so I'll be there...