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

I imagine that the reason they shear the sheep in winter is cuz thats when the fleece is htickest.
my fingers are coooold! I'lm typingthis in the winter in middle of street just to take advantage of the free wireless.
Tiger is sitting next to me, staring at a bunch of dancing Breslovers. (A branch of a sect of a section of Judaism, who seem to think that the main point in life is to be happy and always keep G-d in mind, which is fine, and it keeps us entertained since they tend to be happy while dancing in the streets giving out pamphlets.)
Happy Christmas.
Enjoy the food, the gifts, and read "Hogfather" by Terry Pratchett. Its all about the true spirit of Christmas. (According to Death, anyway.)

here's tiger
YUp, it's me, the one and only. There's this new program called 'unwire jerusalem' that provides free wireless internet at certain places. We've found on of the places. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free broadband!!! leo really said everything I had to say, being as I'm here telling her to say it.

But receive some gifts for me, and happy holidays.

And here's some hanukah gelt

(from Leo, )
{Ps, she did NOT tell me what to say, I merely read her mind!

tiger:; prove it

Leo: i can read in your mind that right now you are thinking that i cnat really read your mind.
Tiger: no I'm not, and stop trying to grab the comoputer away!
Leo: It's mine!
OK, anyway, your vacation is only 6 weeks, right?
What do you do on the farm anyway, just be the famers daughter?
Do you get bored being out in middle of nowhere? Or does cleaning the house heep you busy? ?

Cool! Free broadband! I wish they would do "Unwire Rural Australia"... that would be very awesome.
I've read two of Pratchett's books ("Pyramids" and "Masquerade"), but I'll keep an eye out for "Hogfather". I almost met him at a book signing once, but my friend and I were about fifteen minutes too late and he'd already left. I don't know if he'll ever be in Australia again.

I can just picture you both sitting on a cold street in Jerusalem, balancing the laptop on your knees and being surrounded by the Breslovers. They sound a bit like the Hare Krishna (although with different beliefs) who I've often seen parading the streets of Melbourne in traditional garb and banging drums and singing or chanting. I got them on video once.

Thanks for the and the ... and I received some books and CDs for Christmas. Have a from me, even though it's a little late and you don't celebrate Christmas.

My vacation, for some reason, is 7 weeks long, although it is usually 6. Must have finished a week early or something...? I go back to school around the 27th of January.

Yeah - I don't really do much around the farm, but in the house I do all the ordinary chores like pegging out washing and washing the dishes... that sort of thing. My sisters do some farm work though. I don't like it that much because it's smelly and dirty, but there you go. So is cleaning toilets, although it's a little different to rounding up sheep. I do get bored out here though, although books, my beloved music and the Internet have kept me going. I'm getting lonely now, because all of my friends from home are away on holiday in other places, so I'll have to wait until next year to see them. Oh well...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

My wool sweater says it shrinks if I wash it in warm water. Do your sheep shrink after it rains?
I've never even heard of those two Pratchetts. Can I reccomend "Monstrous Regiment" and "Hogfather" highly?
You got it basically right except its not a street, its a pedestrian mall, and we weren't surrounded by them physically, just sort of surrounded by their precense.
whoops, I promised to wake up my roommate 15 minutes ago. gtg.

*takes notes* Monstrous Regiment... Hogfather... got it.

I don't think the sheep shrink because of all the lanolin in their wool (it's this oily stuff and it stinks to high heaven (it's what makes the sheep smell). They take it out when they use wool for commercial purposes like making clothes and stuff.). It must be very uncomfortable for the sheep if they do shrink, but I've never seen one shrink before and I've lived on this farm my whole life...

*sighs* Roommates - you gotta love them. I'm worried about two of mine who are at home in Indonesia - I emailed and SMSed to ask whether they were okay after the tsunami and there's been no reply. They live in Jakarta - do you know if the tsunami hit Jakarta? I'd say there's a fair bet it didn't because it's on the wrong side of Indonesia (right island, though), but I'm still worried about them.

The whole tsunami thing has got to be the biggest cause fo deatht this year. All our teachers begin class talking, and as the periods compile, the number of dead grows.

My roomates are just slightly infuriating. Things that you never pay attention to at home are such a big deal with three other people inthe room. Windows and doors and lights should only be made with one option.

Leo's and mine school is makinga play...which is why we haven't been able to write lately...too busy.

Good luck withthe sheep.

Baaaaa.

I guess the farmer's daughter would konw about shrinking sheep.
How often do your freinds usually check their email anyway?
Jakarta... hold on while i check.
All the releif meetings are being held in Jakarta. Sounds like it must be in good repair.

Its weird... here, since we dont really get to listen to the news that much, we dont know much about the tsunami. I think its horrible- so many people died just like *that*. (no proper smiley). Its got to be worse in you know somebody there. Since we're all relegious here- why do you think G-d did it? I mean, that is deliberate .

but about roommates... I have stories to fill books. I could fill a full chapter with just alarm clocks, and go on from there to taste in music.
(one of my roommates thinks that the only music worth listening to is middle eastern stuff. Think: nasal, with a lot of a-a-a-ah in every word they can stick it in.)

Have you ever heard of Armenians? Just wondering. I'm thinking of doing an entry on them, and wondering if anyone even knows who they are.

ismidnightgone?
i cant type with iut my right ointer funger!

Sorry I haven't written in ages, you two!!
I've missed h2g2, but the Net connection at home was just too slow to keep up with the site. Now I'm back at school with this marvellous broadband, so I can catch up with everyone here again!!

I don't know about my Indonesian roommates, but the school should have been notified if they had been taken by the tsunami and I don't think they have. Jakarta itself seems to be in pretty good nick though, so I've got my fingers and my eyes and my toes crossed hoping that they're okay. I'll find out on Monday when we're all supposed to be back. (I came back early to help the new overseas students settle in to the country... they have an orientation program for a few days and were looking for volunteers, so I signed myself up. It's been great so far.)

By the way, they've given me my own room this year at school for some reason... Year 10s don't normally get that, so I feel lucky, although I'll have no cantankerous/eccentric-roommate stories to share with you...

I think that God might have sent the tsunami as a wake-up call... the world is becoming more possessive and greedy, and I think this has really united us all as every country has lost someone (Australia lost about 100 people I think) and we're all pitching in to help, donating money and sending doctors and food and medical supplies. Australia held a really big concert to raise money for it - it was broadcast on all the channels and there were many celebrities performing and even more in the phone-answering room where you could ring a special hotline and donate money... it was guaranteed a celebrity would answer. People said they would donate large sums of money for different things - seeing celebrities kiss other celebrities, or sing a song, do a dance or anything at all. We raised $15m that night.
I don't know why God thought that so many people should die, although if you take the Bible literally, he killed almost all the world's greedy and self-centred population off a few thousand years ago, leaving only Noah, his family and the animals. But He has His reasons... and at those we can only guess.

I could be wrong, but it's just an idea.

*hug*

You may be right about that- it usually takes big disasters to shake people out of their little cacoon of "me".
Thanks.
back.
I've got a roommate story for you...
I've got a roommate who's obsessive compulsive about her appearances. She adjusts her PJs in the mirror and makes sure her hair lays right before going to sleep. She wont go out of our room with her shirt unticked, and the mirror may as well have her name on it.
Thursdays I go help a one armed lady prep for Shabbat, and I was sitting there peeling a pear and thinking about how so many people go around saying things like, "Since I began working with ____ kind of people I've began appreciating the ______ that I have so much more," and wondering why I wasnt walking around appreciating both my arms. Then I gave the pear a good whack with the peeler and took off half the skin on the side of my nail on my pointer finger too. It was bleeding badly so I bandaged it up and finished up my work and wnt back to the dorm to check it out.
Here's where the roommate comes in. I'm trying ti remove the y tape and y gauze from around my wound, and its all very gorey looking and the garbage can is in front of the mirror. So I go over there to peel off the y bandages and throw them out. Says my roomate,
"Can you move away? I'm trying to use the mirror."
"I'm in middle of a mini-crisis, if you cant tell. I lost half of myf inger tip this afternoon."
"Very nice. But I need the mirror! Can you take care of your gross finger somewhere else?"

Which is why m,y typing is worse than usual. I have one finger bandgaed up and useless.
Ever try spraying deoderant without that finger?

YOUR OWN ROOM? Wow! Jealousy sets in.
is 10th year like tenth grade by us Merkins?

Hey - I'm so sorry I haven't been online in so long!! It shows you the toll my schoolwork is taking on me...

I hope you're finger is okay by now - man, your roommate sounds a bit strange... Do you ever get to change roommates? At our school we do, every semester, so by the end of this year I'll probably be sharing with someone again. But it's okay, because I like having roommates around as much as I don't like them there (if that makes sense...).

What's been happening over there in Israel lately? Australia's been the usual, I think, but there hasn't been much on the news about your country like there normally is, probably because the tsunami completely overshadowed everything and it still is.

I got voted Class Captain for some reason this term... that's never happened to me before. Well, I was pleased, if a little suprised, but it's cool. And I don't know what Year 10 is equivalent to in your grades - it's our eleventh year of school, and people in Year 10 are usually about 15 or 16 years old. What does that translate to?

I'd better go now, because I have to go to class...

Midnight

That would make year ten translate to tenth grade...miraculous, no?

YOu haven' been hearing much about israel because not much is going on. Arafat is dead, so he's not paying families twenty five thousand dollars to convince their child to blow him or herself up, so there are fewer people willing to do it. The Israeli security people have caught two attempting terrorists in the last three weeks, and hav ereleased hundreds of terrorists from jail as a 'gesture of peace.' You get some iteresting footage there, of prisoners spitting on the soldiers that are seting them free and so on.

The israeli government has decided to pull out of gush katif and shomron..cauzing tons of controversy and demonstrations. Poeple will be losing their homes, their lives, and everythign they've worked for for decades to either destruction or people that hate their guts. Let's just say it's not a popular decision.

What exactly does a class captain do? Is it like student goverment, which we have here? Congratulations on being chosen.

I have a poor friend waiting here to go on errands with me...got to go...

hello, long time no speak. haven't seen you around, wondered if you dropped off... finally searched you out to drop a line. Here it is:

_______________________________________________________________

*takes line and reels it in*
Hi!
I haven't dropped off quite yet... how are things going for you?
Australia's doing pretty well, my own life is going pretty well too. Except I miss my boyfriend. But then again, I'm pathetically in love with him and I haven't seen him for about three weeks now, so you must excuse me. I'll talk about something else now.
Hmm - there hasn't really been much happening here, I'll admit. Just school, homework, the occasional op-shopping trip into the city, going home for the holidays back to the countryside and coming back here again to repeat the whole process. The biggest thing happening right now is that tomorrow we're going on a Geography excursion to look at some penguins in their natural habitat. It should be good fun because it's quite a tourist-y spot and there'll be real, live penguins. Hopefully cute, real, live penguins.
In Religion class we had to write this essay on our beliefs, so my friend and I were sitting there in class and suddenly she leans over and says to me "How about I freak him out?"
And then she began writing all these things like "I used to believe in Satan but thanks to your wonderful religion class I've managed to turn my back on my evil ways and follow the right path". There was another part of her essay where she alleged that she was a lesbian (she's not). I can't believe she's actually going to hand it in, but that's the kind of person she is. I wonder what the RE teacher will say.
Anyway - how IS life for you right now? I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted on this thread... I feel really bad...
Please reply when you can,

Midnight

Heya. Where’s your boyfreind, at home? If yes, that’s pretty tough. Australia has penguins in its natural habitat? I guess so. Only Aussieland could manage something like that. Pretty cool. Nothing happening here except I’m turning into a hitchhiker. I’ve begun thumbing rides around Israel to save on transportation. And the first two things I pack are a towel and a toothbrush. …I wrote a journal entry on towels- you probably got it. If not, then you’re not down as a friend, and I’ll remedy that immediately.
I hate those kinds of essays. We’ve got a four part report to do for one class, and the fourth part is ‘How did our learning Mesilas Yesharim [a sort of philosophy book on how to become the ultimate person, relegious-wise] change your life?’
(the answer actually is, I started reading it long before you started teaching me it, so nothing you taught changed me much. Anyway, step one in the book is so y difficult, that its basically impossible to get anywhere. Step one is to make a ‘cheshbon hanefesh’ every night. That literally translates into, accounting of the soul. Basically, go over everything you did that day, and decide if it was good or not, and then try to figure out how to do better next time. Its like those diets that make you write down everything you eat- once you’re aware of it, you can fix it. But yeah- did you every try something like that? Its easier to go over everything you ate than to do an accounting on everything you’ve done. So basically, little ol’ me hasn’t got past step one, so there hasn’t been much of a change in my life. However, the final step is said to bring one to a level of prophesy, so maybe I’ll take a leaf out of your friend’s book and claim I’ve advanced so far that I’ve begun predicting the future. Think he’ll like that? And this parentheses has gone on way too long, so I’ll end it here.)
Vacation is over too. Passover vacation just was, and half the place went home for the holiday. I stayed and tramped the country. Now they are all back, and its back to the grind. Drat.

No - I don't think I got your entry on towels... I'm going to read it, though. One of my friends at school said that one day soon will be National Towel Day or something, so all the Hitchhiker fans at my school are going to carry towels around with us the whole day.
No, my boyfriend's not at home - he lives about three suburbs away from my school in the city, which is really frustrating because my parents have made all these rules about when I can see him and when I can't... but I'm seeing him today. I also saw him last night for the first time in about three weeks - we'd planned to meet up after school. He spotted me from about 300 metres away and sprinted all the way toward me, and when he got to me he enveloped me in a hug which lasted for several seconds. It was great.
We didn't get to see any penguins the other day but I still managed to have a really good time. My classmates and I took heaps of photos and spent the day drinking coffee and doing our work as quickly as possible so we could spend more time looking at stuff in shops (which, being us, wasn't clothes like most of the other girls in my year level were spending their time looking at, but stuff like badges and signs with funny sayings on them and seeing how many pairs of sunglasses we could find that made us look like Neo from the Matrix). It rained for the better part of the day, but I didn't care. In my opinion it just added to the atmosphere.
My friend and I handed in our Religion assignments yesterday... I don't know what our RE teacher will think of them, but my friend will probably get sent to the counsellor or something. It was so funny watching her write it - if you want I'll get her permission and send you a copy
~ Midnight

fun fun fun. A feild trip that turns out to be shopping expedition?
Jealous. OK, next week I'm off to Hebron to attempt to get killed. That has got to be at least as entertaining, right?
essay: sure why not. I didn't have the guts to profess to profecy, so I handed in some trash or another. ITs ok,the teacher likes me.
Thats the worst place for a boyfreind to be- close enough, but just out of reach. my sympathies. Its probably awful. (wouldn't know, never had one.)

Good luck in Hebron. Don't get killed, okay? I'd miss our conversations.
That's the same with my essay - I didn't have the guts to be so outrageous, so I just handed in some sentimental claptrap about making the world a better place or something. I think we get them back today. It should be interesting to see how my friend went.
Yesterday was the four-month anniversary of my boyfriend and I... I couldn't believe it. It doesn't seem all that long, but for most teenagers our age, the average time spent in a relationship with one person is about two weeks. So we were pretty happy with ourselves. And it was HE that reminded me, too - he updated his LiveJournal that morning saying how he loved me and he hoped we'd be dating for a long time to come.
Hopefully I'm going to see him this weekend. And when you do fall in love, it'll be great. Difficult at times, but generally really good.

Where did you go on your feild trip?

Sorry I havent' been posting, I went home to america for passover and barely had a moment to my self the entire time.

Leo, ha. That's all I can say. Ha. The rabbi likes you so much you could write the sky is blue twelve hundred times and get perfect score...what was it he said?.....a 'certain elegance in writing style?'

I had to muck about in the actual book. It's written by a cabbalist...an irrepressible, wildly famous cabbalist, and can be really interesting if you don't have the rabbi talking about it in a monotone for fifty minutes straight. He used to be a proffesor in a large cololege inlondon...starts with an H.....ah, I can't remember which.

What kinds of restrictions do you have on you and why?


see ya

We went to this place called Phillip Island for our field trip - right down the bottom of mainland Australia. It was great.

Ha! "The sky is blue!" I should try that one day... that would be awesome. I should see what the teachers say. Imagine this:
"Excuse me, sir, but could you please check my essay?"
I find that rather funny... especially when I imagine approaching some of my teachers with that question.
We still haven't got our RE essays back yet. You know the latest brain buster he set us? Writing a twelve-line poem on Martin Luther King. We got that back today: A+, easy as pie.

My parent's restrictions go something like: "You may only see him in person once a fortnight, and then only for a few hours at a time. You may only speak to him on the telephone at weekends, and only after you have finished all your study. You must make sure to do other activites with those nice girls you go to school with instead of spending all your time with your boyfriend. You may not see him after school during the week..." etc etc etc. It's just parental boundaries - they're concerned he's either going to interfere with my studies or my extended social life or both. He's not. And to tell you truth, I haven't heeded a single one of those rules... *blushes sheepishly*

Good. Parental rules like that are meant to be broken.

What's phillip island like? What's there to see? What did you do there?

School is jsut thindering to a full stop here, but not before putting on a last burst of extremely hard finals on the material we've all forgotten.


I can think of several funny poems about Martin Luther King. Sounds like fun.


Leo and I are taking a week long trip to London in June. Any suggestions where we should go? We're staying at mutual relatives in Golder's green.