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

Hello Awix... me missed out conversations very much... so me thought me would start a new one on your very own home page... do you like the title??? Me had to look it up in a dictionary... ~snigger~

How was your christmas and new year???

Huggles... Greebs... xxx

I'm in favour of a private consversation between two intellectual giants - all we need to do is find two intellectual giants.

Xmas and New Year were... well, see, it's been a funny year - funny's probably a very bad word for it, actually, in that we lost (wretched euphemism) my great-uncle, my grandmother, and my cousin all in one year, and so we decided against doing the big family party thing as usual as there's no way it could be the same without them all. So things were different for that reason.

To be honest I'm not an enormous fan of the festive season as the nationwide hype is that this is a time for Friends and Family and Other Loved Ones and it's the best time of the year, it's going to be great! And when it isn't either of those things, when it's a bit of an anticlimax, and you're not overly endowed with friends or family or other loved ones, well, it's bound to be a bit disappointing (not to say depressing).

I normally roll into the new year with the blues, it's a regular thing with me of late. But the old routine has an oddly numbing quality and within about three hours of being back at work on the 2nd of Jan I was quite mellowed out again. Weird.

And I do find myself uncharacteristically cheerful just now. Possibly because I'm writing again, and it's going down quite well with the people who are reading it (well no complaints so far). This has nothing to do with Xmas and New Year, of course, I just wanted to finish on a positive note...

Ohhhhh... me so sorry to hear all about your sadness... me had something similar last year... it seemed at one point that everytime me came home from a weekend away there was a message awaiting me on my answer machine... it got to the point that me didn't want to pick up my messages... so me does know in a way how you must feel.. though me has to admit... the uncle and cousin that passed away... were not close as such... me has a strange family... though me was particularily sorry for my cousins family... she was not old... and she had such a hard life... with cancer...

If most of us are honest about christmas... tis not the jolly time we all make out it is... there's a lot of thinking done... and lots of people are missed... though to be honest a couple of years ago me spent christmas on my own and was fine with it... no hassles... and no PILES of washing up to do...

Saying that me enjoyed christmas this year... me got a DVD player... so me can watch all my fav films in glorious... er.. DVD... ~grin~

So far have watched Shrek... which me loved... and The Mummy Returns... which me also liked... but me had seen that one at the cinema... me also watched one of my older films Hackers... which me likes the more me watches it... didn't realise it had Lara Croft in... ~grin~... but after me watched this it broke my DVD player and so me had to go out and get a new one... bought it from Asda... who do a rather nice three year warrenty on it... so they just replaced it... no fuss or hassle... yay for Asda...

Watched Chicken Run for the first time on video yesterday... now thats a good film... made me laugh... just a little... would of been better with addition of a few cats... but me supposes you can't have everything... ~Greebo gives Chicken Run the thumbs up~

Loves ya... huggles Greebs... xxx

P.S.
err... those two intellectual giants are us you know.... ~grin~

Oh... right...

I thought I'd been given a DVD player when me ma said she couldn't carry my present in the room by herself... turned out to be a self-assembly CD rack. Which I really needed, so no complaints there...

I'm afraid I'm not one of those people won over by Angelina Jolie. I don't think I've actually seen any of her films all the way through except for Original Sin which was hilariously awful.

What else have I seen lately? Erm, LOTR, twice... Jason and the Argonauts... Pleasantville... the long version of The Wicker Man.. and this morning I rewatched a Canadian low-budget movie called Roadkill for the column (after revisiting my past for the unexpectedly popular Adventures in Cinema memoir I'm inflicting on the readership, I was in the mood for something really lo-fi and it was either that or Clerks). It's not nearly as good as I remember it being.

A friend of mine in the States was watching Chicken Run at the theatre when the camera broke and melted the film (he claims to have said to the manager 'You just fried Chicken Run' - sadly he lives in Maine, not Kentucky), and he emailed me to ask what happened in the last half an hour. Well, I said, the chickens turn the shed into a giant ornithopter and pedal their way to freedom after an axe fight with the farmer's wife. He wrote back and asked to know what the real ending was. I liked it a lot, it was released at about the time my first approved entry got accepted and we had a big debate over whether fully animated films like that are in a separate genre to the live-action mix stuff Ray Harryhausen specialised in. (Listen to me coming the old soldier... dearie me...)

~big grin~... you definately know how to put a smile on a young girls face early in the morning... you write very well you know... me really enjoys reading what you have to say... hmm.. yes indeedy...

Me watched part of Jack the Giant Killer over christmas... tis amazing really how they come up with some of those effects... me loved the small doll in a bottle to represent distance scene's of the leprecaun... er... me can't spell that... you know... a magical irish folk type person...

Also taped both parts of The Lost World... was that what the bog dino thing was over Christmas...damn tape broke... and me didn't get to see it... ~growling grin~ sounded good though...

Me got a DVD player cause the one in my computer was rubbish... but the copmputer went and my new one plays DVD's really well... so me got 2 DVD players now... ~grin~... me so lucky...

huggles Greebs.. xx

There's DVD in this very PC but I don't fancy sitting staring at the monitor for 2-hours+ is all...

I did enjoy Lost World (my piece in the post doesn't perhaps make that clear enough), I'd've just preferred the BBC to respect the original text a bit more. Ho well... (Glad you like the writing style, my boss at work says reading too much of it makes her lose the will to live.)

Ooh my life! I've got such a busy week this week, I've got *three* Post things to get written, some tiny goblins to paint, and all sorts... however will I cope? Must dash...

Oh lucky you to be so busy... ~grin~... me won't keep prattling on at you then... ho hmmm... ~Greebo wonders what she should do now????~

Come back Greebs! Tis always a pleasure, never a chore to spend chattin' time with a clubbable cat. I'm not as busy as all that, i was just stuck for an 'out' line in that last post.

Two of the three bits are off with Shazz now and me tiny goblins are done (they carried me to another magnificent defeat this evening) and so I'm much more mellowed out. For a while I was worried I'd overstretched my writing muscles but they seem fine now, no trace of the dreaded block.

How does the standard Greebo day go then anyway? Much lazin' and sugar-coated confectionary? Or would you have to kill me before you could say?

Me not gone anywear... ~grin~... what are you painting Goblins for? me just wondering here...

Aha, as recounted in my journal I have decided to build up my moral fibre by endeavouring to become good at a game called Warhammer (after many years of being sucky and choosing to play other games that I'm good at instead). And for this game one requires painted Goblins. (Not necessarily goblins, but those are the playing pieces I have the largest selection of.) I'm still at the grit-your-teeth-and-take-the-pain stage, and it's not even as if my regular opponent is particularly good...

Ah... me see's now... have you ever by chance played Magic the Gathering?

I am aware of it but have never partaken. The Awix hierarchy of virtue vis-a-vis fantasy gaming runs as follows:

Top of the tree is role-playing as your outlay can be fairly minimal and it's almost pure imagination, shared dreaming, and when the group you're in works there's nothing better. Alas circumstances prevent me from indulging in this right now...

... and so I do the wargaming thing which isn't quite so imaginative but still allows me to be creative in terms of painting and army design and what have you. It's more expensive but you always know what you're buying.

And below this comes card gaming as there's no real creative element to it beyong strategy and deck design, and the purchasing process feels, to me, to be weighted slightly too much in favour of the manufacturers (having to buy packs and packs and never being quite sure what you're going to get).

I know I'm in the minority, but that's nothing new... why do you ask? Are you a CCGer?

Nooo.... me has played a few times... ~grin~.. not really got into it as such... me is really enjoying the game Lord Of The Rings at the moment... got it for christmas... sort of... its a co-operative game whcih makes it more fun... as you all play together rather than against each other.... have you played it???

Don't think I know that one. The store I regularly game in have got the license to do LOTR games and figures and they've been doing a big push on them... but it doesn't sound like that's the game that you've been playing. Their game is the usual mixture of low cunning and high fantasy and gallons of blood.

No me not think that is the game either... ~grin~... oh well... me supposes there will be several versions out cashing in on the film... which me has still yet to see... ~Greebo shakes head~

On another note... me has been doing some graphic images for one of The Discover Dogs stands at Crufts... me has been having much fun... got a new graphics package which is rather nice... even if me does say so myself. Shame that the PTB doesn't let people put there own graphics on their home pages... me could have a right good time now... ~Greebo sighs~

Me does understand.. sort of... but me can't sometimes get over the feeling that H2G2 treats us all a little like children now... unable to say or do things without being censored... it used to be so much more fun around here before...

Oh... sorry... just getting a little nostalgic for the old times... ~sad grin~

I know what you mean, even though the vast majority of my time here has been under the BBC regime (don't let the low U-number fool you). Fatuous though it is to say it, it's not a choice been perfect-H2G2 and BBC-H2G2 but one between BBC-H2G2 and no H2G2 at all...

Oooh, you've got me on a downer now and no mistake. I wish I'd spent more time here pre-the great buy-out. I can see the BBC's point regarding content and what have you, that's the annoying thing about being a reasonable fair-minded adult.

Oh dear, what a miserable pair we make...

~Greebo grabs Awix and hugs him tightly~... Me thinks we make quite a handsome couple ~grin~... Now cheer up... and tell me what colour you are painting your goblins...

Green - duh! Well, actually, a fair comment, I did them a lovely shade of camo green - not a terribly thorough job, just enough to get them match-ready. The really tiny goblins may get dropped from the team sheet as they've not done too much so far (then again nothing's done too much in the last two games unless you count running off in a complete tizz at the first sign of the enemy... tell a lie, my kamikaze goblin nutters haven't done too badly but that's pure luck and the only real good fortune I've had...).

I've got all the gobbos I need right now and so I'm spending some time on my Space Elves (different game). They're mainly going a sort of mottled blue with occasional bits of bone white or golden yellow.

Hmm... do you ever paint anything bigger... if me had your email address... me could send you a picture of a couple of discworld stuff me painted... ~proud grin~

Well, most of my stuff is 25mm scale (ie a model of a (?) normal person would stand 25mm tall) so the only big stuff is things like a giant, a Queen Alien, and Ents (which I mainly use to play an American Football style game, oddly enough) and wotnot which are bigger to scale... if that makes any sense... (scratches head). The Space Elves will be bought a couple of hovercraft if they're good but not an enormous amount of finesse involved in painting them. I thought about buying the Balrog model that's about to come out, that's pretty good, but it's also a big let down compared to how good and accurate the rest of the company's LOTR stuff has been...

Plus any big monsters in my armies tend to have a very short life expectancy the way the last few games have gone... St Sebastian impressions all round... so it's hardly an incentive to buy 'em...