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Birmingham Mini-Meet
Apr 16, 2009

Even though Rich the Rhino isn't coming, the Birmingham Mini-Meet is still on for Saturday 25th April - from 1pm at the Starbucks near the Sea Life Centre (by New Street Station), AND h2g2 Prez Hypatia will be there!

If you think you can make it, drop in here A44851836 and let us know

(15 replies, Latest reply: Apr 20, 2009)

Retiring
Feb 5, 2009

Well, it's time I shuffled away from h2g2. I've written 100 Solo EG Entries (and countless others - well, not countless, but a fair few).

I said a while back that once 100 was met, I'd stop writing for hootoo. Then I got dragged back in (I blame Rich - but not in a bad way).

But I'm not enjoying this any more, so I need to retire from h2g2 or I'll end up resenting it, and I've had such a good time here, and 'met' some interesting people so I really don't want that.

So farewell h2g2, I'll be in and out and might still Scavenge the odd Entry here and there, perhaps polish things up for the UG, but for now it's au revoir.

to all my friends.

to the Italics (Nat in particular).

and

to everyone else.

(13 replies, Latest reply: Feb 11, 2009)

Shovelling the Walk
Feb 4, 2009

I was reminded today of an old Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown was going around the neighbourhood houses asking if he could 'Shovel the Walk?'. When I first read it, back in Oz, it jarred with me a little.

Today though, I shovelled my 'walk'!

For the first time ever. And while it was hard work, and the ice needing breaking up as I got deeper, it was satisfying.

So, any hootooers out there:

Shovel Your Walk?

(5 replies, Latest reply: Feb 8, 2009)

Snow Pics
Feb 4, 2009

My pic of my workplace made the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/con...snow_february_2009_gallery.shtml?88



Ahh, grand this fame thing innit?

(8 replies, Latest reply: Feb 5, 2009)

The Stretcher
Jan 29, 2009

For those who aren't aware, there's a 'competition' running on h2g2 cooked up by The Post or more accurately, Skankyrich.

It's a writing comp as such, and I (perhaps a tad foolishly) put my name down for it.

It runs a little like X-Factor, or Strictly Come Dancing, or Pop Idol, if you like - with three judges (Skanky, MS GB and Pinniped) judging work that is submitted under specific guidelines, with h2g2 users voting for their favourites.

There are 14 brave souls on this quest, and the first round went off very well: A45546744 after introductions were made we all had to write an Entry using the word 'shell' as inspiration.

And this was my effort: A45688918 Using a Shell to Hear the Sea

The judges did there bit, and the next issue of the Post had the Stretcher results: A46143948

And it looks like I was pretty well rumbled!

Pin and Skanky caught me out. I enjoyed writing the Entry very much, but it only took me a couple of hours, with some brief research on the net and in me science type books at home. I didn't Stretch myself at all really, and just had fun. So I guess it showed. A nice way to ease into the aspects of the game.

But the next challenge caught me un-awares. Like a teddy bear.

To write about a subject that got the 'unwashed masses emotionally overblown' in as much, and write it for the Edited Guide - so it had to go into PR. Yowsers!

For four days of the week-long deadline to write something my brain thought and thought.

Chewing gum, that's a pain in the arse, what about that? I could write about the ban in Singapore and how it gets caught in your hair, or how you always find it under your seat. But there was an EG Entry about it already.

What about how pensioners expect you to be polite, but when they have no manners it's okay? Perhaps hard to be balanced in my argument there?

Then a friend came to my aid. He popped around on the Saturday night, and low and behold he had an e-cigarette. An electronic cigarette you put liquid nicotine in and 'smoke' - without smoke. He said it was great because he could now smoke in the pub again.

So it hit me!

A46345502 The English Smoking Ban of 2007

I wrote it up, and am reasonably pleased with my effort, but I feel it's more like an essay I would have written during my nurse training, and isn't quite 'hootoo' enough for my liking, or perhaps doesn't have much of my own 'voice' abut it.

We'll see. It seems to be going down okay in Peer Review. Will have to wait a week now to read what the Stretcher judges thought of it!

(10 replies, Latest reply: Feb 5, 2009)