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Plus ca change...
4 Weeks Ago

I've not been around here a lot for the past year. The only reason I'm back is because someone wanted to reprint one of my articles for a book, which was nice, and my account needed to be re-activated. I asked for a copy of the book as my 'fee'.

So, I come back to find that h2g2 is still functioning mainly as a social club/DNA fan club. If I put on my licence payer's hat, I would find it very difficult to justify why most of the input on the site devoted to this. The BBC should ban every conversation that has nothing to do with the EG and the Edited Guide, and let h2g2 concentrate upon what it does best.

If people want to indulge in idle chatter, they can always put links to blogs, Facebook & MySpace on their Personal Spaces which, let's face it, are far better suited to this kind of discussion than the creaky facilties that h2g2 provides. The world has moved on, and there are far better places for idle chatter than here, but h2g2 hasn't realised this. If h2g2 actually grasped the nettle and ceased this kind of hosting, then those of us who enjoyed factual writing for its own sake could do it knowing that it was now an object of first importance.

(23 replies, Latest reply: Yesterday)

No Smileys Please, by request of the Family
May 13, 2008

I got a 'phone call this weekend, to tell me that my mum's cousin, G, had been killed. He was a much loved father and a very intelligent man who could charm the birds from the trees with his conversation. He was 70 but he was a ridiculously fit man who could pass for one 20 years his junior. He cycled around his village in Northampton every day. He went out to visit his friend Friday evening and never came back. They found him by the side of the road, with massive head injuries and a mangled bicycle.

Somebody somewhere took an unacceptable risk, whether driving too fast for their own reactions or under the influence of drink. But they went and selfishly did it all the same knowing that one day there'd be consequences. And they couldn't even be bothered to stop afterwards.

(6 replies, Latest reply: May 14, 2008)

Sacred Cows
May 4, 2008

It's not often nowadays I feel inclined to comment here, but seeing as I don't really have anywhere else, I just want to say how sick to the back bloody teeth I am getting of a particular exercise in modern myth making.

First this: http://momentum.control.substance001.com/

Then this: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/12/hey-its-another-joy.html

Now I found out that Great Lives http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/greatlives/index.shtml is going to feature an edition on Ian Curtis.

For Chrissakes! Ian Curtis did NOT lead a 'great life' by any stretch of the imagination. He was a depressed and lonely man who headed up a band with a name that had distasteful Nazi overtones and that specialised in miserabilist, dreary music, one song sounding just the same as another (Humph, where are you when we need you?). If he affected peoples' lives in any way it was to dupe other sad individuals coccooned in their bedsits that their solipsism had some meaning in the grand scheme of things. I hope Matthew Parris really puts the boot in.

New Order's music is a load of crap too. And the name stinks.

(4 replies, Latest reply: May 7, 2008)

Pity...
Mar 8, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7284697.stm

(2 replies, Latest reply: Apr 23, 2009)

An Overlong Goodbye
Mar 4, 2008

I've come to the conclusion that, after racking my brains, I really can't think of anything to write for h2g2 anymore. Or probably more accurately, those things I can think of to write about, I simply cannot be bothered to address.

I've tried to leave here several times already but have always been brought back by God only knows what. I expect it's that, despite my best efforts, I have made quite a few friends since I've been here. I've also made several enemies no doubts, but I really couldn't give a stuff about them or what they think of me, to be honest. I do however value the opinion of my friends so I don't want them thinking that somebody has done something to upset me and I've gone on in a huff. That's not true. I'm simply Entried-out.

My departure has been a drawn-out affair. First I stopped Scouting. Then I pretty much stopped writing - factual stuff, that is. I wrote a few opinion pieces lately, but who the hell wants to *really* read opinion when there's so much of it on the Web anyhow nowadays? It's just adding to the cacophany of competing voices. If I could really make a difference here then it would be upholding Douglas Adams' original vision for h2g2. I still think that's viable, if the right people write for it.

Anyway, I've done my bit and more, I think. Time to step into the shadow, and without a word of complaint. Good luck to you all. If you value things about me than my writing, then you can contact me on the email address on my home page.


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(12 replies, Latest reply: Mar 10, 2008)