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

It doesn't simplify things at all because no I have to come up with a completely new idea! I did consider making non-olympic tri-colour chainmail, but think they might cotton on to that one.

I'm not an alchie! (although one of our first patients after lunch was! She'd come into town at 10 for her 2 o'clock appointment...so just went to the pub until it was time! <shock&gt

okay, flyies, and at least toast sick would be nice...'specially with a bit of butter and homemade jam, yum yum yum.

Well, it's meant to be nice next week, but to be honest I'm stuck at work in the basement, so it won't make much difference to me!

Well, hopefully you'll be able to come up with a new, simple, longer lasting display! Think of it as designing the *next* one a bit sooner than anticipated...

Hmmm... I'd only say she was an alchie if the four hour pub visit in the middle of the day was premeditated... If she just got the time of her appointment wrong, it sounds like a perfectly legitimate way to while away a few hours!

If toast is toaster sick, would butter and jam be... erm... other excretions?

Oooh, a nice little dungeon is it? One of the computer rooms at school is in a basement. Obviously a converted store room - you have to go outside to get in to it! No proper ventilation/air conditioning, so it gets rather warm at times!

Hopefully, but at this point all I want to do this weekend is sleep and possibly paint part of my bedroom after decimating it looking for a 'decent' pair of shoes to wear for work (my normal ones got so wet during the rain on Wednesday that they were still wet the next day and had a lovely smell. Incidentally, I hate shoe shopping almost as much as I hate clothes shopping.)

Ah, I should have clarified, this particular alchie, is in fact a recovering alchie, so I think even she (when sober) would admit that going to the pub for 4 hours was a very bad idea.

Um, J, sorry to tell you this, but butter is made from an excretion already and jam is bodies!

I wouldn't say the dungeon was nice. It's cluttered and I can't even tidy it because if I did the two clutter bugs would never find anything they were working on. It's also freezing in winter and cold in summer which on hot days, I admit, makes it a bit of an oasis, but normally it refuses to heat up and you get frost bite. Still would rather be down there than at the front desk!

Weekends are certainly made for sleeping! I only have one 'decent' pair of shoes, and one decent pair of trainers. Any more than that is overkill! Can't say I'm much of a fan of clothes or shoe shopping either

Ah. Well, that does make a bit of a difference. Pub definitely sounds like a bad choice in that situation.

Not excreted by a toaster though! Silly-billy...

Oh I know that feeling! May be if you tidy one or two things at a time... slowly but surely, not changing too much at a time...

Been a bit of a busy day for me today - a bit of gardening (well, hacking away some rather overgrown plants!), and chipping a whole load of ice out of the freezer. Time for sleep now, methinks

Typically I didn't sleep well last night, not only did I dream about work but I woke up at five and couldn't get back to sleep!

I like shoes, but I have a high instep and high arches, so getting them isn't always easy. I have lots of Converse and I have a few pairs of heels, which are more for decoration than wearing since I fall over when I try to walk in them. Other than that I have an awful tendency of wearing a pair of ballet pumps exclusively for months until they fall apart...then for some mad reason I put them in my box under the bed and whine when I have no shoes to wear Today I'm going to throw away the duds, even though part of me is already going, "they're holy, but I love them!"

Apparently the also did work experience with us during school, so Pat was quite shocked to see her like that.

well, in toaster terms jam's probably blood and I dread to think what butter is!

See, I would tidy the office bit by bit - I even started too - but it really need to be mum and Sarah because there's SO much paperwork and it has to go in the right place or the accounts etc could get wrecked.

Gardening/hacking sounds fun. I've got carrots and peas starting to look like actual veggies, and potatoes and garlic I need to work out when to pull. But all the herbs and chilli plants have greenfly and I'm failing to get rid of them. So they're dying

Yesterday was a bit of a wash out, it was half two by the time I got back from work and so I admit to doing a bit of vegging out. It's been a long week, though at least I got the clinic written there, so I don't have to do that tomorrow Today, yeah, gonna try and tackle the mess that is my room or try and work out the veggie situation. But first (and maybe a bit of jammy toast!)

Awww... Hope you had a better night last night. I had a bit of a late one yesterday - I got round to reinstalling Windoze on the laptop. Well, starting it, anyway. These things always end up taking a lot longer than planned! Now I've got to work out how I can get the linux boot menu back, without having to reinstall ubuntu as well!

You're just awkward then Think about the six month rule - if you haven't used it in the last six months, and you can't see yourself needing it in the next six months, chuck it out!

Work experience... seems like that was such a long time ago!

I think that's about as far as we need to go with that...

Isn't it easier to make put the paperwork (certainly for accounting!) in the right place to start with? Or am I just making things to easy?

Hacking and pulling things up is fun for a while, but gets a tedious very quickly! There's still loads to do: I think it's going to need a bit of help to get through it all! Hope the veggies keep growing well - and you get enough sun for them! One way to get rid of greenfly is to spray the plants with water mixed with a little washing up liquid. I don't know why it works, but apparently it does!

Slept a little better last night, think I was still dreaming about work but at least I managed to sleep until 7 instead of 5...though it's still 45 minutes until my alarm goes off. (I got stuck sitting up waiting for my computer to run a tune-up on Saturday because as part of it it defrags...I know that's important to do, but I hate defragging my computer because it takes hours!)

I'm not being awkward! and shoes aren't a problem when you throw work into the equation. Work has been ruining my smart shoes because the carpet is rough where the filing cabinets are, so when I do the filing I end up rubbing the fronts of my shoes across the carpet, which scrapes them up so badly I've resorted to fixing them with a sharpie But you're right about the 6 month rule, though if I applied that to my clothes I'd end up with twelve tops, a few cardies/jumpers, two pairs of trousers and a weeks work of underwear and bras left in my drawers. Which might be streamlined, but would be incredibly boring.

I know, My last work experience outside of the opticians was as a teaching assistant at the end of high school - we did working with others, which involved helping out at the primary school. Though I suppose to the uni technically my job with Craig was work experience so that they would give me the day off of class to be there. Wish I was brave enough to go ask if he needed more help, I miss that job.

Yes, it is getting a bit gross.

you'd think it would be easier to put the paperwork in the right place but good intentions don't make up for the fact that generally mum gets dragged upstairs and doesn't get to do her stuff downstairs at the same time as chucking the paperwork into the office.

I tried water and washing up liquid and if anything they just multiplied quicker, I added vodka to that mix and they kept coming back, I washed the plants and squished the ones I could find, but they just kept getting worst. So I admit to resorting to chemicals. Sprayed them on yesterday morning and as far as I can see, they're now all dead. Hopefully. Sometimes trying to be green just doesn't work.

Incidentally, what is sunshine?

Ah, now that's one reason I like Norton - it does things like defragging in the background, or warns you when drives get too fragmented. Still takes a while to run if you reach that critical level, but not as long as it would if you forgot about it for months on end!

Yes you are If you did thin down your clothes to that level, think how much extra storage space (for ummm... useful stuff?) you'd have!

My work experience was with a computer company - turned out to be pretty boring though, as there wasn't a fat lot I could actually do! Most of the time I seemed to be downloading drivers for customers (before everyone had internet access! Remember that?!) At one stage I had to supervise an installation of Windows... must have been 95 I think, it was on about 20 floppy disks!

You mean she can't be in two places at once? Shocking...

Well, sometimes you just have to go with what works. Shame there aren't more ladybirds around to eat them all up!

Sunshine... you know, from that great flaming ball in the sky (when it decides to show itself!) That stuff that'll burn you if you get too much of it!

Yeah, have to say, the background defrag was nice, and AVG at least announced the fact that it was going to run searches and updates.

If I thinned down my clothes to that level I may have extra storage but I would also end up being very, very boring. Though, storage would be nice, 27 years of your belonging crammed into a 12x10ft box isn't exactly ideal. Oh to have enough money to have a place of ones own.

Floppy discs! Jesus you must be ancient I still use floppy discs every day. Humphrey (the field screener) still uses them, so I have a supply in the office. I still remember my very first experience with a computer, it was 1994, I was in Primary 4 (so I was 7 or 8) and we got an apple mac in our classroom to research a project to do with McGonagall and the Tay Bridge Disaster. I don't remember it making sense at all! Now I can even touch type!

I think if I had a super power I'd have the ability to create multiples of myself to do all the different things I needed too...though hopefully I'd be the one that was sleeping and doing as little as possible

I think my herbs are toast even though the greenfly seem to be gone, but two of my chilli pepper plants have finally gotten flower buds! So I have hopefully saved them so I'm happy. I like Chillies!

Oh! That's sunshine...no I don't think we have that in Scotland, at least not this year.

Mmmm, if you can hear your computer whirring away at something, you usually want to know what it's doing...

Yes, money can be a bit of a problem, especially at the moment. I reckon with more things going digital, you'll need even less space in the future

This computer's still got a floppy drive (not that it gets used any more - apart from a few important driver disks, I chucked all the old floppies a while ago). My first computer would have been an Oric Atmos (<./>http://www.48katmos.freeuk.com/whatisan.htm</.&gt - initially with a horrible green monitor, before we got a portable tv. I can remember spending ages typing programs in, learning BASIC. Not that I really understood what it was all doing, at that age, but it gave me a starting point!

Thing is, if you did manage to create multiple 'you's, how would you know which one 'you' were? If they were true clones, they'd *all* want to be the one doing as little as possible, so you'd end up having a huge argument with yourself and yourself and yourself...

Ah well, there's always next year. Can't say I've done that will with herbs either - can't remember what happened to them, but they did seem to die off pretty quickly. Good news on the chillies though!

Ah, maybe its all being saved up for next year?

Usually I just panic. Make sure that the fan is clear. Turn off all non-essential programs (making sure to save everything!). Then assume the worst until it turns out that it's just been running an update.

A digital wardrobe, now there's an idea. Could I be digitally slimmer too? And prettier? And smarter/talented? Oh no wait! That's what the internet's for! Anonymous chatting where no one has to know how minging you actually are!

Gosh, your computer really is an antique! You know, I can't have started on here that long after we got a computer. Certainly not that long after we got the net. I read the book for the first time in 1998 *does very slow maths in her head* yeah, we must have only got both around then! Big mistake!

I don't necessarily want to be the one doing as little as possible - that response is just because this week has been mental at work - I'd be quite content being the one sitting at her bench all day playing with bits of metal...though that one would need to be the one with out the "it's crap" hat on. The one with all the crap stuff should just be sitting in a corner rocking and being brought cups of

I hope next year is better, though I am entertained by the curly carrots I seem to have grown. There's only one herb that I've found easy to grow and that's chervil. I had seeds which were out of date by three years and they still germinated! And you cut it and it comes back again and again, freezes well and makes the best soup! It's my grans speciality. Also, I checked, I have three flowers on one of my chilli plants and I can't wait to see if they turn into chillies! Last time I tried to grown them Pepper - one of our cats - stripped it of all its leaves. I miss him but the house plants are much safer!

If the sun does save itself up for next year, I'll probably moan that it's too hot!

I tend to only use the PC for emails - so I know it's not being overloaded! Still gets horribly slow at times, when things are loading up in particular...

Didn't some clothes store experiment with a sort of digital wardrobe? Takes a picture of you, and shows you what you would/might look like in different outfits? Or am I just making that up?

It's not quite old enough to be an antique yet I remember we didn't get the internet 'til after I'd started uni - I used to have to drive over to the library to get on here. I think I first read HHG in 1993 (or some time round then), so I was already a fan by the time this place was born!

Awww Things won't always be the way they are.

Curly carrots? That must take a bit of practise! What's chervil like? I don't think I've ever had it? I tried sorrel for the first time the other week - I was amazed by how lemony it is! Ah, a very aptly named kitty then Did he ever try eating any of the chillies?

No wonder the Scots have a reputation for moaning about everything...

Yes, certain things do take longer than, ahem, others.

I don't know about that, I know they did a digital paper doll type wardrobe in Clueless back in the day, but I don't know if they ever took it out into the big wide world.

God, uni without the internet! I did so much research online for my courses, though wasting hours in the library in the jewellery/body modification sections was always fun. I actually miss spending time in there, it was such a great place, with so many great books and a great place to avoid tutors, especially as you could peer into all the studios I was in and our tutors office from there, which meant you could tell when they were gone

I started on h2g2, two years after I read it because my sister was obsessed and I crashed the party in typical annoying 14 year old sister way. The the obsession began. And now I'm back again

I know things won't always be crap, or at least I hope they won't - who can genuinely tell how things will turn out. It would just be nice to get settled with the work stuff and be earning enough to move out and you know, do the whole boyfriend, marriage, baby thing...seems like everyone I know is getting married and having kids (or businesses) and I can't even get a boyfriend or a job I like!

Anyway, yes, curly carrots. I think the roots got curled while I was transplanting them, so I'm not surprised. As for Chervil it is lovely, it looks kind of like flat parsley but has a kind of mild aniseed flavour. It's kind of difficult to describe, but it's nice I've never tried sorrel, I keep meaning too, but never have and yes Pepper was aptly named, but he never ate the chillies, he used to eat around them.

See, you English are always so mean about us Scots and we're lovely and generous, you're obviously jealous

Well, it may not be exactly what I was thinking of, but someone has done it! <./>http://vonbismark.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/von-bismark-wardrobe-launches-digital-clothes-in-a-physical-space/</.> I don't know if any (major) retailers have picked up the idea though.

Oh, we had the internet at uni If you went over to the computer labs, that is... I seem to remember some rather late nights, spent chatting with people on here! Back in those days, the conversation forums loaded the *whole* conversation so far, rather than splitting it into 20 post sections... Even with the university connection, the longer threads took quite a while to load!

You're back again... and we can't get rid of you

Tell me about it... most of my friends are married (and separated, in one case), several have got or are having kids... Although I still don't feel ready for any of that - there's too much stuff to do before you get bogged down with kids! Only problem is, I don't seem to be doing much of that stuff, even though I *can*

Ah, that makes a kind of sense, Did you manage to grow any in rude shapes? Maybe that should be your target for next season!

Jealous?! Of your lovely climate? You must be joking...

That is clever, but then again, it's not the same as trying clothes on. I can't imagine standing there with a piece of templated clothes put on you would be an accurate representation of fit etc. But I suppose if you worked through their collection you could limit your dressing room bundle to the items you know might look nice. I think I'd still hate that kind of shopping!

There were only half a dozen computers in DoJ's library, which was the uni's main art library, there were obviously more in the main library, but I think I stepped in there half a dozen times at most! Everyone just brought their laptops or went to the computer suites. Where, yeah, most people were just checking email and facebook. I would have been on here I dare say had I not vanished by then.

Watch it or I'll vanish again and block you from facebook! (Not that I'm ever on!)

Know that feeling. My single friends seem to be living the life of riley! It's jealousy mostly with the couples. I love that my friends are happy and in love and having babies and businesses, but it does make you feel crap about your own uselessness at those seemingly important milestones. I don't feel old enough for any of that either, I just...I know I want that stuff and I never seem to even get close. Then again, I was told in my final year of school by the guy I fancied and I thought liked me, that I was - and I quote - "unfanciable". That has kinda screwed me up big time. I know it seems pathetic, especially after all this time but seeing I've never been brimming over with confidence, it just made me shut off a bit more when it comes to men. I wouldn't know if I've ever had anyone interested because I basically rule out everything as soon as I meet someone. I put myself into the friend zone.

Anyway, I still hold out hope that one day all that stuff will come along, that or I'm becoming a cat lady.

I don't know if any of the carrots are rude shapes yet because they're still in the ground, but the curly one is kind of growing its way out of the soil, so that's why i know it's curly. Think i'll just sew them straight into the pot next year. Did discover something yesterday, i've managed to grow some busy lizzies and coleus in the cold frame. I'd half forgotten I planted them, but there they are and the lizzies have flower buds. They're only tiny but if I bring them in when it gets colder I could grown them on for next year. Which would be nice.

You're so mean to me and my country! It's lovely and I won't hear a word against it. You know the rule, I can be mean about it, but anyone else does and there'll be a fight!

I suppose it's as good as any other tool - useful up to a point. That point being the point where you start trying the clothes on, of course... Eventually it'll probably make it easier to do clothes shopping from home though, which can't be a bad thing!

I often went to (one of) the Unix labs on campus - they tended to be a bit quieter (since less people were comfortable with a non-Windows OS ), and the set-up seemed a bit more reliable. Still had to contend with a server going down every now and again.

You'd better blooming well not!

I wonder who Riley was...? I could look it up, but that would be far too easy School can be... 'interesting'... for oh so very many reasons. Not least of which is the overload of hormones... You'll find the right person sooner or later

Well, in case it's the latter option,

Is your curly carrot unscrewing itself out of the ground? There's nothing like a bit of planning ahead, even if it is unplanned. So to speak.

I'm not being mean! Just honest..

I think it would probably come into its own online. Being able to at least envisage the clothes on before you buy them, get them delivered, look crap in them and fail to send them back. Would certainly save some heart/wallet ache.

It was the CAD suite I liked. The jewellers shared it with interior design and that was it, so it was quiet. It was tiny in comparison and most of the IED students took 2+ computers at once for rendering, but it was better because you could do you dissertation course work whilst letting your CAD work render away in the background. (These, for 2004-8 were also some of the oldest computers on campus, but they did the trick.)

be nice and I won't!

Riley, I believe, was an incredibly lucky who's life never seemed to go wrong. The actual etymology is probably a bit more details http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-life-of-riley.html School was fine until about five minutes before/after it ended. The boy thing being before our formal and the friend thing after. Was kind of rubbish to end a good year the way it did.

Ach well, eventually (hopefully) a boy will come along, but frankly I could be miserable and worried about it never coming - which I have in the past - but worrying about it does no good. As the song says whatever will be will be.

I think it may very well be unscrewing itself from the ground!

You'd better run!

Well, the only problem I can see with your alternative method is the failing to send them back step... That'd still be a (potential) problem, wouldn't it?

I was lucky - I didn't have to do a dissertation I dread to think what I might have had to write it on, had I had to do one! For some reason coursework style things have never been my strong point

How's that for starters?

Ah, looks like he may never actually have existed then... No-one could be quite that lucky! I had a year a bit like that at uni. Except quite a bit of it didn't seem all that great, if I remember correctly...

Indeed, there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later (as a famous author once wrote). Or something like that.

Why don't you screw it back in then

What if a ran this way?

Yeah, have to admit I'mm guilty of missing that step - but then I don't buy online often, not because there's nothing to buy, but I'm 27 and still living with my parents, saving money's a good plan.

Lucky sod, how'd you wangle that? My dissertation is what brought me up to a first, my coursework was just outwith the marks, so my diss tipped me over. And I've written two, though one was shorted than the other. My undergrad one was on non-verbal communication, how we use accessories to show parts of our inner personality and whether or not you can successfully. (I obviously managed to explain it better than that at the time ) The Masters one was on a similar theme but based on how coloured dyslexia aids are unsuccessful because they draw unwelcome attention to a persons appearance. If I went back to do my PhD I'd have to find a way to work the psychology of image in, but then I'd have to work out what the hell to research!

okay, but no more Scottish cracks either or I'll use my triblet to cause some damage!

My problem's remembering. I've got a crap short term memory and an over active long term, means things that happened all that way back seem to stay stuck there. Uni for me was brilliant, as was college, I was really happy there, even if I was commuting and missed out on some of the night life.

No, no more driving myself mad...except that's a lie...I'll probably still do it.

I dug it back into the ground and it just popped back up. It obviously just wants to be free.

I think saving money's always going to be a good plan, no matter how old or what your living arrangements may be! You never know what (financial) emergencies may be just around the corner.

By choosing the right university The course may well have changed by now, but there was no compulsory dissertation. Some of the modules may have been assessed by projects or a dissertation (some of the 4th year modules certainly were, but they didn't concern me!) but most of it was from exams. And you could choose up to 50% non-maths modules, and still get a maths degree!

Scottish cracks... does that mean Hadrian's Wall needs repairing?

I didn't see that much of uni nightlife - wasn't really my thing. I did get to see Jools Holland (and his rhythm and blues orchestra!) at our freshers ball though! Even though other things meant I was in completely the wrong mood for it...

Don't drive yourself mad. Catch a bus instead!

Ah, if it popped back up it's not a screw, it's clearly a spring! Although that's usually onions, not carrots...