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

Hello! Just to let all my friends know, I am alive, I'm not dead, or lost down the loo or anything silly like that. Been crazy busy in work trying to purify my diamantane compound only to find out that due to some stupid oversight (not my fault) I'd wasted a weeks work cos it was already pure... Grrrr
Aaaaanyhoo, hope you're all ok and happy as me now I'm eating chocolate again! Yay!
Take care all,
Siren

Good to know that all is well with you. I thought you might have been on holiday

Just rotten old work getting in the way?

Take care

Wulfric

I wish I was on holiday.... Not just work getting in the way though... Kinda lack of money too. Nice to hear from you though mate. How's things with you? That leviathal voices thingy was really inciteful... Sounds like you might be getting a bit cynical in your old age there
Anyhoo, got more recrystallisations to do, so.... and lunch is nearly over... Dammit...
Take care

Siren

It's nice to hear from you too

We're fine - busy at work but that's life though.

Cynical? Me? Sometimes silly little things annoy me and I find the best way to exorcise those little demons is to write them down - and exaggerate somewhat! It's good for the soul.

"Speak" soon, take care

Wulfric

Exaggerating is good, I do it all the time... Although, it seems to suit a particular sense of humour.... I mean, I've just started going out with my friend and some of her mates that she's known for ages. Problem is I tend to exaggerate, use sarcasm and backwards meanings, which they don't understand at all, as they are really serious and take everything I say at face value... Which means all my witty jokes go down like lead balloons.... and tends to make me feel really stoopid and about "this" big *indicates a weeny bit with thumb and forefinger*
Still, what can you do?.....
*sigh*
I wish things would pick up again, I'm feeling kinda stuck in a little black cloud mode see.... Any suggestions for cheering myself up? Without the use of alcohol in a public house establishment? (Too expensive)
Hope work isn't getting ya too down
Take care

Hello

I know what you mean - there are people who don't understand my sense of humour, unbelievable but true! I've always used exaggeration, sarcasm, and the surreal as that is my sense of humour as well. I guess our sense of humour is just too sophisticated and cultured for a lot of people to understand My jokes also just whizz over people's heads, especially at work - oh how the day drags...

What can you do? Persevere with a stout heart and strong mind and with pity in your heart for those unfortunate enough not to be blessed with a superior sense of humour

What seems to be the trouble? Anything you want to talk about? As you know this is a whinge-allowed area.

When I got down and that irksome little black cloud (usually with small forked lightning flashing around it) hovered over my head I usually cheered myself up by putting on a really stupid record (such as Spike Jones or the Bonzo Dog Band) or digging out some old comedy video and loosing myself in that for a while. I found that it usually worked, but I guess we're all different and need different things to help. Talking to someone can sometimes help, depending on what the problem is, if that is a viable option. Not very helpful I'm afraid

The best bet is probably dig out a video, get a couple of bars of chocolate (mammoth-size), drinking lots of tea/coffee and forcing yourself to laugh at the film (obviously a comedy or a horror!). Forced laughter can often become real laughter and that is really good for the mind and soul. Here endeth the lesson in the bleeding obvious!

Take care of yourself,

Wulfric

I think I'll just have to educate everyone I meet in how to understand my refined sense of humour, after all, it'd make my life a bit easier if everyone understood my jokes and laughed - I'd be the best stand up in the world if they did!
I mean how can you not undertsand "WOW! Check out the speed on that guy!" for someone going REALLY slowly? And everyone should use "NEED" for something pointless and or annoying... Ah well...
My little black cloud is just still connected to my relationship failure... Plus my cat died not so long ago... He was great, one of the bestest cats I ever had. A right little sweetie. And I'm about to start a really daunting part of my life. So all in all I'm feeling kinda.... lost I guess.
I will try the video theory cheers... Watch LOTR 1 last night did a bit of good to loose myself in a fantasy realm for a while, maybe I should plunge myself back into finishing my books....
Anyhoo, gotta go, I have lunch to eat before I have to get back to the lab.
Take care cheers for putting up with my insane babblings...

I think I'll just have to educate everyone I meet in how to understand my refined sense of humour, after all, it'd make my life a bit easier if everyone understood my jokes and laughed - I'd be the best stand up in the world if they did!
I mean how can you not undertsand "WOW! Check out the speed on that guy!" for someone going REALLY slowly? And everyone should use "NEED" for something pointless and or annoying... Ah well...
My little black cloud is just still connected to my relationship failure... Plus my cat died not so long ago... He was great, one of the bestest cats I ever had. A right little sweetie. And I'm about to start a really daunting part of my life. So all in all I'm feeling kinda.... lost I guess.
I will try the video theory cheers... Watch LOTR 1 last night did a bit of good to loose myself in a fantasy realm for a while, maybe I should plunge myself back into finishing my books....
Anyhoo, gotta go, I have lunch to eat before I have to get back to the lab.
Take care cheers for putting up with my insane babblings...

Good luck on the educating front. It would be nice if everyone understand your humour and laughed at all your jokes, but after a while you'd start thinking that you are surrounded by sycophants and would start getting paranoid. Oo er!

LOTR1 is good, isn't it? We watched a couple of weeks ago on DVD and and are now waiting TTT which should come out next week. It's not often a film is as good as a book, but I think LOTR1 almost achieves it.

to hear about your cat. Care to share what is the daunting thing about to happen, unless it's private of course.

Work beckons so I'll talk later.

Take care and your babblings are not insane, babblings yes but not mad.

Wulfric

LOTR is good , I slightly overwatched TTT however, still I'll end up watching it again anyway..

Shame about the cat

Great about the chocolate however , I get all my food paid for at work, and they have very nice chocolate doughnuts , they've been dissappearing quite fast...

I never read the book for LOTR, I am writing a fantasy of my own and didn't want to have read Tolkein and then written my book, I just wanted to my fantasy to come from inside without every being touched or influenced by J.R.R. but as someone pointed out once, I read Raymond Feist who probably has read LOTR, which means indirectly I would still be "tainted" by it. So I gave in and watched the film. Which was bloody good! I'm waiting til they all come aout and they release one big bugger off DVD boxset. That'd be good, LOTR marathon baby! Oh yes
Daunting thing is my MPhil, it's really scaring me. I have to work completely under my own initiative and work things out for myself, which is kinda like a job, which scared me enough as it was.... I don't like it I dunno why it scares me so much, cos it's not like it's life threstening or anything, oh well... I'm just weird I guess.
And everyone laughing at my jokes all the time would be really creepy, but one good one every now and again would be cool....
Suprisingly, now I have come off my chocolate fast and polished off my galaxy bars, I'm not eating half as much as I used to... I guess my body got used to not having any and has adapted....
Ooooohhh, anyone tried that new Catre d'Or fruit 'n' fresh stuff, oh that's lush! Yummmm
Anyhoo, gotta go add some more AlCl3 to my pentane and 2,2-dichloronorbornane mixture...
Take care peeps

Tolkien can be detected in most fantasy works but I suppose that's what happens when you're one of the first to write a modern fantasy novel! So, you're writing a fantasy of your own? How's it going? Do you find it easy to write or difficult and can usually think of a dozen other things to be doing instead?

I'm writing a book myself - some would call it science fiction but others would insist it be called a science opera or epic or whatever. Personally I couldn't care less what they call it! At the moment I'm working out all the background details - system of government, language, religion, social structure, and so on. Long work but that kind of thing gives a book a backbone and believability even if you don't use 90% of it. It also gives characters their motivation and a logic for the way they do things.

Not having done a MPhil I wouldn't know how daunting it is but I can imagine - A levels were bad enough and after nearly 17 years I wouldn't want to sit through any more exams. But I suppose the best thing is not to let it worry you (far easier to say than do) - you obviously have an ability (or gift) for this branch of science. I'd love to be able to understand science (especially physics) but I haven't got a brain which can process all the complex mathematical data I'd need to understand - as soon as it sees an equation it runs away and hides in a dark place wimpering slightly. Sad really. Anyhow, I wish you all the luck with it.

You're not weird, it's the rest of the world that's odd. That's how I look at things Anyway, what's weird? It's like how do you define normality when everyone is individual and has their own quirks and eccentricities? We all see the world differently, or more accurately perhaps, our brains process the information the eyes transmit in many different ways.

I've never heard of "Catre d'Or fruit 'n' fresh stuff". I'm guessing that it is some sort of chocolate, or something.

I'm off now as well - it's nearly 2 in the morning and my brain stopped working about an hour ago.

Take it easy,

Wulfric

To be honest, I haven't written that much... I started it but since I've been in uni I haven't really had the time or inclination to, but when I was writing it I found it really easy... The words just seemed to tumble out of my head from some hidden reservoir in my head and onto the computer! The only bit that ever caused me a problem was thinking of names, I'd be stumped for days!
I've also been writing a thriller, which I've been concentrating on more recently...
I have the utmost respect for your method of working... I've written lemme see.... Ummm, the beginning bits of three chapters and the only notes I've made is a page of A5 basic plot of what's going to happen. I'm crap at backgraound planning, I find it sooo tedious... Probably means I'll have really bad continuity thingys later on, but hey... I have a feel of the characters, who they are where they came from etc in my head and until I get further along, it will suffice.
ooooh I hate maths too, my brain hears the word "maths" and goes on strike.... Does a similar thing with organic chemistry... Heh.
That's one good thing about my MPhil, NO EXAMS!!!! Woo hooo! I just have to write a thesis and have a viva... Erk!
Oh well, NO EXAMS!
Suprisingly for me, Carte d-Or fruity thing is ice cream! Not chocolate! But I highly recommend the stuff, yum! especially the red fruit one, which at the mo is on offer down tesco! Yay!
Anyways, I have to go I'm afraid, I've left my petrol and diamantane stirring at 50oC and I'd better go check it hasn't exploded or anything....
Take care,
Good luck with your book,

I'll have to recommend that ice cream to the wife - she just loves ice cream in all shapes and flavours. We'll be going shopping this weekend at Tesco so guess what will end up in the trolley.

Writing out background stuff, most of which won't be used, is tedious (not to mention boring ) work but should give my characters a logical and consistant way of behaving.

No exams?!? How lucky are you then? You want to be careful of a Viva - they lurk around corners in the dark waiting for unsuspecting souls and leap out and go "kerflibble" at them. Nasty.

I know what you mean about the petrol and diamantane (50ºC an absolute must). It's a real bugger when I forget to add the jasmine rice and basil leaves and the whole thing just gets ruined

Well, I hope you have a nice relaxing weekend filled only with fun things.

Take care,

I do hope wifey (?!!! will she kill you for calling her that??) enjoyed the ice-cream if she got it?.... I love ice cream too, one of the bestest inventions everer... *eating a tub of afore-mentioned carte d'or* yum
I did character profiles for the thriller I'm writing cos I wanted to know my characters inside out. As they are real people they need to be believable and I needed to make sure they were... Fantasy you can get away with a hell of alot more, who's to say the grass can't be blue?
No exams - I know I'm hellish lucky and it also carries more "clout" in industry as you have nothing but lab experience and working under your own motivation and initiative....
I've never had a viva go "kerflibble" at me thankfully.... Are they bad ones the kerflibble ones? (I love that word!)
My weekend has been kinda weird so far. Today flew by. I went into Cardiff ("town" to me) and bought some cool beads to put in my hair, went to the local martial arts supplies shop and had a look at tai chi swords, but they only had one and it wasn't overly nice so... I'll have to look elsewhere. Then I embarrassed myself in a pub by going to pieces and everything's been kinda on a downer since then...
On a lighter note, saw pirates of the caribbean on thursday.
OH! IT WAS GREAT!!!!! For the record, Johnny Depp was QUALITY!!! So funny! I was in stiches! And I kinda thought Orlando Bloom was dishy before, but in this! Cwoarrr! Mind you though, might just have been the pirate shirt he wore... I have a thing for men in pirate shirts... *snaps back to present* sorry, too much info there I'm waffling in a bad way.... heh
So, I hope you have a good weekend... Take care

The bestest waffler in the land....
P.S. isn't waffling some kind of medieval fencing???

I'm still doing my characters - backgrounds, relationships, stuff like that. It seems to be taking me longer than I expected but that is the way of things I suppose.

Kerflibble Viva's are not the worst - it's the Ibble-Scrufloog Viva's that are the worst - nasty buggers they are. The less said about them the better.

Went to pieces in a pub - I've done that, not fun and can be messy. As I've said before, feel free to offload. I'd give you my email address but unfortunately my computer at home has died completely and it will be a while before we get a new one

You do tai chi? Remind me not to upset you then!

I've heard other people say Pirates of the Carib. is good. I've yet to see it. Johnny Depp usually appears in odd films, but I like him as an actor. We watched The Two Towers the other day - very well done.

Don't tell me - give you a man with a pirate's shirt, peg-leg and parrot and you turn to jelly and sit wibbling on the floor. I know your sort ... throw in a hook and my God there'll be no stopping you

Our weekend was quiet. Had to go to a funeral yesterday for Fi's friend who was killed in a car crash last month. Rather sad affair - always is but especially when the person was your age.

You could waffle the legs off a donkey (but could you persuade it to go for a walk afterwards. Somehow it wouldn't surprise me if you could!) But waffling is fun. And yes, it was some sort of mediæval fencing - the process was invented by Alain de Tichmus and a certain Thomas de Walisch

Take care and try not to worry.

PS. The wife won't kill me for calling her wifey (I don't think she will, anyway).

Righty ho then, shan't mention any viva again - EVER! They're all nasty....
I would offload, but I'd probably end up being here all day then... And you'd be thoroughly sick of me by the end of it...
I'm sorry your computer died.... Mine throws the occasional wobbly, but has never given up the ghost completely, too stubborn - like me! Heh... Hangs on by a thread of sheer will power and dug in nails.
I do do tai chi, but as it's a slow, relaxing type of martial art I think you could drink a pint, watch TTT, get changed into running stuff, pull a road runner type face at me and be two miles down the road before I got within a foot of you!
You must go see Pirates! (I should be getting comission from the number of people I've sent to see it!) It's a brilliant film and Johnny Depp is sheer quality in it. Honestly, I really recommend it. The advert was right - if there is one film you see this summer, make it this!
As for the whole pirate look, I know.... I know... It's the parrot that does it for me - Fwoargh!
Sorry about the funeral, they're never good...
I could waffle the hind legs off a donkey I'm sure, though I don't think the donkey would appreciate it, especially if I expected him to walk afterwards, poor thing...
Yay! I was right about the waffling! I think you made those names up though.... Unless Alan Titchmarsh had relatives in the way-back-when who also happened to be gardners, maybe that's where he got it from.... ?
Will take care as best I can.
You take care too and be careful not to let wifey hear you call her wifey.... (Just in case)

Hello you.

Ah, so Tai Chi is that slow-motion one where you end up looking like Inspector Clouseau fighting Cato (if you remember those Pink Panther films).

So the Pirate of C is okay then. I am guessing from you subtle hints of course . Well buckle my swash and hoist the mainstay, crack open the rum and splice the something-or-other, I guess we'll have to go and see it at some point when opportunity arises whilst shouting "har har me mateys".

I bet you drooled over Captain Pugwash when you were younger (if you don't remember him then I am showing my age!)

You might be right about the names, although I couldn't possible comment

If you do want to offload - do it in episodic style (this is a mere suggestion and can be rightfully ignored!) I shall not get sick of you - honest.

Well, I'd better get on with some work, I suppose . Do take care and I'll write later.

I do remember the films, but only very vaguely....
I won't mention the PotC again... Honest
And captain pugwash was soooo dirty! I mean, Sea-man Staynes or whatever and cabin boy Jim... or was it roger? Never read them when I was little....
I don't particularly want to unload on here... What with this not being private and all... I suppose... Auf Deutsch.... God that'd take me ages and I'd need to get my dictionary...
Hmmm, don't think I'll do that now...
Take care
I'm off to get back to my film before the adverts finish!

Don't forget Master Bates. And it was Roger the Cabin Boy!!
To think they exposed us innocent children to such depravity - still, I turned out normal

Sie konnten es auf Deutsch versuchen, aber das Problem ist andere deutsche Lautsprecher (Eingeborener oder anders) würde in der Lagesein, es zu lesen!

Was it a good film? The one you were watching when you typed your reply.

Take care