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

Well, they let me back in.
Thanks, Slants. Assuming there still are Slants.
(Thinks: It might be a bit late to apologise to Jimster).

A lot has changed, some of it even in RL. The old git in Sheffield is even older, and now retired. He’s doing a part-time MA in Creative Writing. What a joke. The Wendell is still imperious, and rather nice to have around, if I’m honest.
Ancient Brit, sadly, is gone but not forgotten. (It’s the gone part that’s sad, in case of any ambiguity).

I don’t suppose there are many left who remember me.
But in case there is anyone, I have no idea where Alberta or Orchid or the Speak-Your-Weight-Machine went. Or for that matter a long list of slightly more real characters, such as Waz, Jo(r)dan, Trout, boots, Hyp, ~jwf~, Felonious Monk, GB, skankyrich etc, etc.

I guess someone might turn up. Given the general state of affairs, I should probably make an effort to be civil to them.

Sorry to hear about your dad. I miss his comments.

Thanks.
To be honest, I don’t know how active he was on Hootoo (do we still call it that?) after about 2013. He never talked about it.
There are a couple of things he wrote that I found on his computer that I’d like to post somewhere. Probably not immediately though. I don’t want to get myself Modded too soon!
Forgive me for not recognising your name. Have you de-avatared maybe? Or am I just being rude?

No, it's been a long time!

I imagine AB lost interest when hootoo was cast adrift by the BBC.

Probably. Not that he had much time for the Beeb.

Hi! I certainly remember you

I also have a changed life, every departed person who means something to you changes us. We absorb their memory. In part, we become them. I lost my partner Ian and my mother within two months, 2 years ago. I thought I would buckle under the weight of the searing grief. Two years on I have a full-time job in my local church and a partner I adore. I don't recall ever being so happy in my life - and I turn 64 next month. Life just gets better and better. I don't have much time for Hootoo (yes, we still call it that) but believe me, my Hootoo friends remain in my thoughts and I wish you and the Wedell well. I'm so sorry about your Dad my parents may be gone physically but they're part of me now. I still talk to them and to the grandchildren/great-grandchildren about them.

Much love from GB

Hi GB
I’m glad you’re still here.
I’m sorry to hear about your own losses too, but I’m also pretty determined that we don’t make bereavement our subject. You helped me a lot some time ago with such things, but I think the best of our dealings have had different roots.
(I see now that the Curse of Autocorrection decided that the Weddell should be the Wendell back at Post#1. The long list of stuff I need to remember how to do thereby gets the additions of How To Edit Your Journal and How To Turn Off Autocorrection).
My Mum is still living in Scunny, just about managing in the old family home, and fuelled, as ever, by a resolve that borders on bloody-mindedness. A couple of years ago, I worked a lot in Hull (and even learned to temper my contempt for the place) and there were very many crossings of That Bridge. My eastward limit these days, though, is Mum and she is really my sole reason for heading that way. The kids are West and a little way South. For the most part, though, are forays these days are over dog-walking range and quite often no further than the garden. It’s all good though. I am so glad that life has steadied down, and that we now have time to do things together. Now if only we could agree about what those things those should be...
Big hugs to you too
Pin

I’ve just been reminded that there never were editing facilities in Convos.
The functionality of hootoo was limited in 1999, and only got further behind.
Thought: I used to have a lot of fun with the Spell-Checker, and especially with GoldSpeech. Maybe they could be resurrected...
Probably not here though. The Seal was always about an audience, and finding one here is a gloomier prospect than ever.

Two beercan teen nude...

Hi Piniped.

Having only just checked in here after many years of absence, it's nice to see another hootoo stalwart back.
Sorry about AB --we had a few exchanges on Twitter -- but then I am on Twitter as often as I'm on h2g2, so I never realized.

As for how the site works: I'm currently trying to re-familiarize myself with guide ml and stuff. Amazing, how much stuff you can forget within a relatively short span of time.

*leaves missing n*

Wo Bel
h2g2 always had something of the writing museum about it, evident right from my first days.
The first time round, I had the wrong idea. I thought it might be the way to get my writing noticed, and by the BBC no less.
These days I’m not so arrogant (not in that way at least!) and just enjoy writing, and I hope I can enjoy myself here again. Maybe the community is a bit depleted, but perhaps there are old friends lurking too. If only they sort the skins out, there’s hope.
Thanks too for the kind words about Dad.
Pin

I've always been in brunel, and at least that works. I never got used to pliny, not even when I was the Post editor.

Still, if I hadn't saved my bookmarks across PCs, I'd never have managed to return, cause only the old skins work.

Interesting what you say about your former motivation to write. Sure, getting published by a BBC website had a certain appeal, but for me, the whole writing business was a challenge in the first place. The 'jewel in the crown' was my one story that got published in the UG. After all, everybody got their entry published in the EG sooner or later, but the UG was the ultimate challenge.

Three weeks in, and it’s certainly lonely.
Talk to me, somebody!
The Post seems to be a more coherent hub than Peer Review these days.
There is activity around particular convos, visible from the accidentally-quarantined Front Page, but it can only be reached after painstaking resort to the search function. There is no spontaneity about lurking any more. If I were a cynic (Heaven forefend), I might conclude that h2g2 has been reduced to a straggle of minimal cliques.
The Pliny situation is the most worrying aspect. When such a crippling infrastructural failure goes unfixed for months, it can only mean that the community is squatting in a derelict website, lacking the means and skills to maintain it.
“Can only” is a bit presumptious, though. Maybe there’s another explanation? I hope so.

Which skin do you use, Pinn? Alabaster? I had saved some links, one of which is the info page.

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/info

From there you can see the latest conversations, newest created entries, and you can , too.

That’s what I needed Bel!
Thanx!

Here’s the original vanished journal entry, found in GB’s space. Replying there will probably return it to my space?

And it did! (Sorry to confuse you GB. We’re Debugging...)

Pinniped, you squidgy old sea mammal!

Good to see you back in here. I, too, am making a return, after a decade of silence due to an ex-spouse who frowned upon... Never mind. She's X. That means I can reconnect with People (and critters such as You) whenever I darn well please.

I'm heartened to see you've not lost all your writerly skills, the same wit and wisdom that used to make me laugh out loud, stop and think more circumspectly, then nod in empathy.

I'll post some more to you and to HooToo as time and opportunity permit. Just know that, in my mind, you were a "fixture" here, and I'm glad you're back!

B4thisgets2longwinded&losesitsheartfeltgreetings

Welcome back...I was gone 12 years...all my friends except Cactuscafe and Dmitri have left the building...Time is fleeting...I was Prodigal Firecloud for awhile...isolating with Mrs. Phred in Florida and drawn back in the hope of faux socialization...

Great to have you back....

Prodigal Salmonid: I've been having lanyard issues of late, the most recent of which involved guacamole.