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

Hi there!

Well, let's see - how do explain my intrusion into your space? Well, I remember you posting in a thread about a father wanting to know how to keep his two-year-old busy - and I got curious about your name.

See, one of my h2g2 friends goes by the name of Alchemilla Digitalis, so I wanted to check how came you had chosen digitalis too...

And then Feisor kept hinting about 'see, told you so'...

Unfortunately, I have no explanation for how I came across the <./>Askh2g2</.> thread to begin with, since I'm not subscribed to that.

Maybe it was quote of the day on the h2g2 front page?

Anyway, you strike me as a very interesting person, and I'm always on the look-out for those kind of people!

But before I continue, maybe I'd better introduce myself:

Female, 43, living in Stockholm, Sweden, been on h2g2 since June 2000 and am hopelessly addicted to it, like so many others.

Now, there's a place on h2g2 called Lil's Atelier (found at A304354) that I think you might be interested in (or not, for that case).

There's a bunch of regulars from very different parts of the world, with very different kind of jobs, and of very different ages.

Sometimes, we just talk about everyday things, and sometimes we have some very animated discussions.

But over the years, I've grown very fond of the other regulars, and it feels like 'home'.

In case you'd like to drop in,I guess it'd be like entering a pub you've never been to before, where everyone seems to know each other. But if you can manage to keep up with the backlog, it'll pay off in the end.

So, if you happen to have the time, I hope to see you around in our latest conversation thread:
<./>F38024?thread=4918074&latest=1</.>

Oh yes, forgot to tell you that most of us like to use a little role playing, describing our actions...

How nice to meet a new friend!! Whether I'm interesting or not is another matter. My nickname? Well, They gave it to me, as They said the one I'd picked had already been chosen. The 'digitalis' bit was mine, chosen because we'd had a foxglove year in the garden. I find that I get fixated on a particular plant each season. I've no idea why; I've had irises, geraniums, penstemon,heuchera among others, and the result hasn't been bad. It would be even better if the weeds knew when they weren't wanted. In another life I was a linguist; sadly my 'expertise' () doesn't include Swedish however, but I persuade myself that my modest German helps to read some words. Don't be offended. I would never say that to the Dutch!

Many words in the Swedish language are of Germanic origin, and some from French origin, and some from Norse origin - it's a right mess sometimes!

Everyone is interesting until proven the opposite, right?

I don't know if I can call myself an actual linguist, but I can make myself understood in a couple of languages, even though terribly ungrammaticly and with a rather limited vocabulary.

There was this time in Verona, when I tried to ask a little old lady selling yummie minipizzas at what time she closed.

I found out later that I had used the word for 'stop' rather than 'close' but it was close enough, and she rattled off a reply.

Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she firmly grabbed my hand, pulled me into the middle of the square where we could see the church tower, and then showed me with her hands 'when the big pointer is like this, and the little pointer is like that'.



I returned in time to get one of her mini-pizzas before she closed down.

Oh dear - I told my friends at Lil's Atelier that we *might* be having a guest, and now they're trying to tidy up their behaviour and sit up straight and... you get the picture...

So - eh - if you could drop in just to say hi I'd appreciate it - I didn't realize they'd put up such an effort - bless their hearts...

<./>F38024?thread=4918074&latest=1</.>

Aren't people lovely! I popped into Lil's and left a note under the mat, so they'll know I'd been, but I wasn't sure what to say, as the conversation was labelled American Politics, or something. Ooops, I thought, what have we here? So I made the odd comment and withdrew.
Thank you for 'passing me on'

Uhh... by the way, is it OK if I call you Lady HicDig? It's a bit late to ask now, I know, sorry....

Oh, American Politics are kept severly in a conversation thread of its own...

Hang on, I'll see if I can show you the multitude of threads at the Atelier...

severely, sorry

OK, here we are, all the threads hanging off the Atelier entry:

<./>F38024?showthread=4918074</.>

And you posted in the general, laid-back, talk-about-yourself or the weather or anything-that-comes-to-mind thread, so relax...

Oh, by the way, if you see anyone posting a [x] it means they're too busy to post right now but would like to bookmark the thread.

'I'm sure Titania has pointed out our main features already'

Uh-oh - did I? Most probably not, sorry *trying not to panick*

Ahem - when you have the time, maybe you could read <./>A304354</.>?

Sorry, but I've a hasty kind of person who acts so fast my mind can't keep up with me...

I'm, not I've

I wonder if Bill Gates /really/ wants Yahoo? I'm with BT who is closely related, and I was two thirds of the way through a hugely humorous, literary poetic post, when suddenly, like a bolt from the ISP, up comes this message 'Yahoo browser has encountered a prob....' how readily did I ''please tell Micrsoft about this problem' Whether I can reproduce the thread is hugely doubtful. 'Lady'? Why, I wonder. Does this mean that I appear to have Ideas Above My Station? Believe me, girls (and guys if absolutely necessary) my Station is a tiny halt off a tiny spur off the main line to Erewhon. As I'm currently using Firefox, my emergecy exit as 'twere, I doubt if I'll be able find a satisfactory Smiley, so you'll have to take them for granted. Hearty apologies, of course, but when Yahoo drives..I've now actually found my way back to the original conversation, and opened about seven new tabs, so I'd better do some serious house-keeping before FF crashes as well. Back tomorrow, ABW. Night all. (reminds me of the tabs I take in desperation. I s'pose they should remind me of..oh what the **. I'm off. CU)
Countess of Diggery/Digitally or whatever

I never tell Micro$**t about my browser related problems - I simply don't trust them to do anything useful with the info I send them.

I chose to call you 'lady' because of your style when posting replies to your ACE Feisor (yes, sorry, been lurking or otherwise I wouldn't know about you in the first place).

How do you feel about being called 'Lady DG'? It sounds rather to me...

'I was two thirds of the way through a hugely humorous, literary poetic post, when suddenly, like a bolt from the ISP, up comes this message'

OK, I think I need to introduce you to one of my favourite poems:

Oh bugger, where did I save that link?

*disappears for a moment*

http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=poem&poem=3653

Only really enjoyable if you've read the original:

http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=poem&poem=1446

Thanks for introducing me. I've not read a great deal of Poe, but I love the Raven, which seems kinky, I know, and the parody is an absolute masterpiece! Now pasted in Word and saved.
I have to ask, it's really rude, I know, but which is your first language? I 'need' to know whether Swedish has such a complicated system of inflections as German, because adjective endings were always my downfall. I suspect that a lot of Germans put them where they look best, but that doesn't help an exam candidate! I can get what I need,or at least I could in the days when I travelled - my Master is an everythingphobe, how we got together I'll never know. I even had to drag him to the Isle of Wight, for goodness sake. He is learning reluctantly to switch on the mopho, but only because he lost me last week when we separated.
Bye. HicDig

One of my many h2g2 titles, acquired through the years, is 'Muse of Confusion'. And one of the reasons for me being confused is that I was born and raised in Sweden (Swedish school, Swedish friends) by Finnish parents (Finnish spoken at home, Finnish Donald Duck magazines).

But my Swedish is definitely much better than my Finnish, especially when it comes to writing.

I've studied German, but after having tried studying Finnish during my college years, I must say Finnish grammar is thrice as complicated.

See, the Finnish language has postpositions instead of prepositions, hence the very long words. And then there are consonant 'umlauts'.

On the other hand, Finnish pronounciation is easy - you pronounce every single letter. There are no 'sh' or 'ch' words in Finnish.

Originally, the Finnish alphabet lacked letters such as c and z - those came along much later when borrowing foreign words.

Did you know Tolkien studied Finnish in order to be able to read the Finnish national epic 'Kalevala' in the original language?

Finnish is also believed to have been one of the languages that influenced Tolkien when he created the Elven language Quenya.

Ooops - sorry... *steps off Finnish soapbox*

I tend to get carried away a bit when it comes to Finland, Finnish and Kalevala....

Get back on that soap-box at ONCE!1 This was absolutely fascinating. I'm so naive (no umlauts here!!) that I assumed you had to be a native Eng speaker. I do hope nobody else reads this and laughs at me.
My father was a traveller in the textile (wool) industry and spent long months in Scandinavia. He adored Finland and was extremely fond of Sweden. I don't think he spoke either language particularly well, but he 'got by' as you might say.
I believe Finnish has something in common with both Basque and Hungarian. Is it that none are Indo-European languages? Or is it simply that they're all equally impossible for the foreigner to learn!
If only you didn't have to start as a child! I'd love to make an attempt, but there's the garden, the cleaning, the man-to-feed....not to mention the messageboards to read!!