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

No I mean Programme and autumn and courgette and flavour and foetus and Pyjama's, I could go on here

Aieeeeeee! British Spelling! Keep away!

Amerikan speling runn awaie runn awaaie

I can be a good ol American too, I make a mean Apple Pie

Let's not forget fibre and metre and centre (meter and center are different things, fiber is as real as cellulite, ie not)

I thought there was to be a Fansci meeting today, but there wasn't. I guess it hasn't started yet, but I waited around for several unnecessary hours, which was irritating.

Tomorrow I have my first chemistry practical, and I have heard we will be making chlorine gas, which dissolves everything except for stainless steel.

I had my first Tae Kwon Do class yesterday and there is another one tomorrow. A week from tomorrow there is a club night out so we can all get to know each other, and the woman I fancy is doing TKD as well, so this may be the time to make my move.

On the next three Tuesdays I have a series of mandatory computer classes. I probably won't learn anything, but I might, and anyway I do like computers...

We didn't get any free cups, but all the flyers and leaflets that were given out should be great for starting fires!

Some more weird spellings: sulfur (should be sulphur) and cesium (should be caesium). My chemistry book also talks about something called 'aluminum,' which occupies the same slot as aluminium in the periodic table. What's up with that?

Anyway, I finally got my college email sorted out, and there have been a few interesting developments in the labs. For chemistry, we got to burn stuff and react metals with acids. The reaction of magnesium with hydrochloric acid was quite spectacular. Also, it is quite a bad idea to look directly into flaming sulphur.

In physics, we did an experiment involving a pendulum to figure out g (which is acceleration due to gravity, about 9.81 m/s). The proceedure involved graphs, both hand-drawn and done on computer. For a couple of reasons, a hand-drawn graph ends up being slightly estimated, whereas a computer graph is theoretically perfectly accurate. However, my handrawn graph and simple calculations actually gave a more accurate answer for g. Hmm...

Actually, my first answer for g was 1.57, which is way off. Then I realized that I was supposed to divide by 25, not multiply by it. When I did it properly, I got 986.78, which if true, would make rain lethal...then I realized it was in centimetres. When this was translated into metres, it turned out I was fairly accurate

Not much else to report ATM.

Sounds like you're having fun

We try to keep away from american spellings over here... "we done speak good england."
Autumn, courgette, flavour, foetus, pyjamas, fibre, metre, centre, sulphur, and aluminium are all fine and dandy. Not sure how caesium should be spelt; I've only ever heard the word before, but I imagine it's the same as british spelling.
Sounds like it's only program and kilogram we use the american spelling.


"I blame the parents."

Today a fire alarm went off in the library, but no-one was hurt. I think it was just an alarm going off by accident.

In chemistry lab yesterday, my benchmate and I managed to misinterpret every single instruction and do every experiment wrong! Still, we got it right in the end. In a couple of cases, the experiment did not conform with what the manual said, but we were told to say it did anyway. What ever happened to reporting what you see, not what you think you should see?

Yesterday after Tae Kwon Do there was a get-together in a local bar where we had a competition. Each person was given a raffle ticket, and there were three people with each number (I got lucky seven). If you found the other two people with the same number and found out stuff about them, eahc of ye got a coupon for a discount beer. . I don't usually drink, though I had a sip of one cocktail and gagged. I also had a little whiskey and did not gag. I was called a lunatic and a brave man that night.

One of the women there decided to mix w white cocktail with traces on a blue one and about a centimetre high of Guinness . It looked like liquid s***. She said it was actually nice, and one of my friends agreed. Then an instructor tried it and said it tasted like evil. I suspect it did.

We were supposed to get free passes into a local nightclub that night, but we did not as someone messed up. We ended up queueing for ages and when it looked like we'd have to pay, I left. After all, students aren't supposed to pay for anything... It was probably a good thing too. I could barely get out of bed the next morning, which is why it was fortunate that my lectures did not start until 10.

And now it seems that half th clubs and socs I'm in meet on Wednesday at 7, which is when TKD is on. Descisions, descisions.

Fire alarms used to go off all the time in my dorm- usually at 2 AM or some other ungodly hour. We would all be standing outside, in some cases in three feet of snow! On one occasion that I remember with fondness, one very hot guy came out wearing only a towel and a pair of flip flops!

Probably the only good reason to have a fire drill at 2am in the middle of winter!

When a fire alarm goes off over here, we're all supposed to assemble at a particular point, but this varies depending on where you are, and I only know where two of them are (there are at least 23 of them).

Unfortunately, as my home is quite close to college, I am still living with my family, though my parents said they would pay my rent......Though my dad also mentioned something about Christmas tests. Maybe if I do well I can finally get a place of my own...

There aren't really dorms in Ireland, though there are various forms of student accomodation. Digs are just like living at home, but with total strangers. You get all your meals prepared, and food is covered by rent. Then there are apartments and stuff that might offer student rates, but I don't think these are as good. On the other hand, you can eat whatever and whenever you want.

So anyway, I still haven't burned down the college, hence I must be doing something right!

sorry, just got over here
Congrats on surviving the first however-long-it's-been at college.

I didn't go to uni/college/whatever, but I remember fondly the firedrills when I was in the Army. I suspect that the really "hottest" guys came out dressed only in their shreddies on purpose, and it was always hilarious to see the movement between the men's & women's accommodation so that everyone appeared to be coming out of the right one.

Luckily for me, or strangely coincidental worthy of Twilight Zone music, each time I was involved in a fire drill I was either on nights or on guard, so I was always fully dressed (and often running round with a fire cart). On one occasion it was a real fire, but I wasn't on guard that night, so I didn't get to play firefighter.

Well, today I lost all respect for Socialism. There were some socialists handing out propaganda, as any political group does, but they had exclamation marks after every single point! As you can imagine, this was quite annoying! And immature! Abolishing the Leaving Cert is a good idea, but many of their other aims are not - for example, free abortions on demand? Over my dead body. Opposing the Good Friday Peace Agreement? OK even if it is part of some capitalist conspiracy to keep the 'working class' from bothering the 'ruling class,' you have to admit that anythin which stops people killing each other is good. And opposing the EU? What's up with that?

Tommorrow is the first hands-on experience for the Social Action Movement society; there was one last Tuesday, but it clashed with my computer 'class.' There's also a chocolate tasting evening...

chocolate

All hand made, and very delicious! Unfortunately, it ran out pretty soon, but I still got quite a bit...

You know the way little kids are said to be wild and destructive and anarchic and uncontrollable and basically more potent weapons of mass destruction than the ones Saddam Husein doesn't have? Well, it's all a lie. The ones I worked with were nice and quiet - in short, good kids!

Oh, we also chose our class reps. For maths, we just shouted out the name of a whoever we wanted, and the first person the professor heard got the position. The guy who was picked wasn't even in...

For biology the prof wanted someone to come up to the front, and I was too slow. My friend got elected rep for physics, and is now planning a beach party for after Christmas. At this, I may end up BBQing. There was also talk of a wet briefs contest for men, though I am pretty sure that remark was in jest.

In non-college related news, SAMHAIN IS SCARY AGAIN! Yes, after years of annoying happy cute 'Hallowe'en' decorations, retailers are finally going back to scary, grotesque products for October 31st. Yay! Also, to make things even sweeter, I have yet to see any ad or special offer for Christmas.

And remeber that tak kwon do night out I mentioned a while ago? I found the pictures, they are at http://www.nuigalwaytkd.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album16&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php . I am in page 2, middle row, left picture [my head's in the bottom left corner] and my hand can be seen on page 5, middle row, right picture.

Today I finally managed to ask a girl out. We're going to the afters of the science ball, which mean we get the craic and the good stuff for less than the full fee, and I don't have to dance! It's all good.

We also got some very interesting information about sex in a rcent biology lecture, but I can't remeber the details now. I'll post them next time I'm on.