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Hello, , and Welcome!

A cowboy resting his feet on his patio.

I've written this page in Classic Goo. It doesn't look too bad in other skins, but some things just don't work right. If you wish to see it as I wrote it and have everything work right, change over above. If you wish to switch back to whatever skin you started with, you have to know which skin you were in when you arrived. So use at  your own risk!

A robot posing as Rodin's 'Thinker'

We'll start with a little bit of information about me. I live in the Central Time Zone in the USA (GMT minus 6), in the state of North Dakota, home of the geographic center of the North American continent. I live in a small town, under 10,000 population. I'm old enough to have grown children and grandchildren1. I'm disabled (with lung problems and congestive heart failure) so I don't have a full-time job. I do, however, spend most of my time sitting for two of my grandsons and volunteering at a nearby school. Hobbies and activities include hunting and various of the shooting sports (T/C Contender for those in the know), various crafts, and reading. I'm a compulsive reader. Favorite authors include DNA (naturally), Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, O. Henry, and a lengthy list of Sci-Fi authors. I still enjoy Dr. Seuss with the grandchildren. Favorite edibles include black coffee2, green tea (Imperial Gunpowder), Golden Delicious apples, and popcorn. Oh, yes. Another thing we can't forget is music. Classical music!

A Chinese abacus

I have been asked how old I am. I'll tell you, but only as a mystery. You'll still have to figure it out. I was born on the same day of the year as St. Augustine, Whoopi Goldberg, and the author Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island). I was born in the same year as the authors Tom Clancy (Hunt for the Red October), and Salman Rushdie (Satanic Verses). The year I was born also gave us such inventions as the microwave oven and "Tupperware". Here are two more clues3 if you need them, but these are a giveaway. As far as the time of day goes, I just tell people that I was born four minutes after high noon and have been "out to lunch" ever since4.

I am on the staff5 of Sassy, a cat smiley - cat with an attitude. She's a DSH6, about half Siamese. The only way you can tell she has any Siamese in her is by her color. I think you would call her color a light seal point. She does not have the narrow features of the Siamese nor does she sound like a Siamese. She does, however, have the Siamese attitude. She is a very heavy7 cat. It seems she likes to jump up on the waterbed just at a time when I'm relaxing and usually manages to disturb me. Or she'll lay right in the middle of the hallway and then complain when I stumble over her. She is just ornery enough that I signed her up for her own place in the Cantankerous Cats' Corner in P.U.D.D.I.N.G.

Thought of the Week


A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
         * * Mark Twain * *

42isms:


         (2*0*5)+(9*4)+6 = 42
      ((2*0)!+5)*(9+4-6) = 42
       -(2*0)!+(5*9)+4-6 = 42
     (2+0)*((5*9)-(4*6)) = 42
DNA Style:

       If: 6 * 9 = 42
     Then: ((2*0)!+5) = 6  and  (-9+4!-6) = 9
Therefore: ((2*0)!+5) * (-9+4!-6) = 42

Societies, Activities, Clubs, Guilds, Etc.:


UnOfficial h2g2 Lurker


The H2G2 Philosophers GuildThe shape of a question mark with a few of the world's different gods shown within
Trying to answer all those questions about life


The symbol and figure of pi
h2g2 Maths Lab

Central US Researchers Group

ARS: I don't believe it!

United  Friends
of H2G2space

Random Quotes Guild

P. U. D. D. I. N. G.

Miscellaneous Items of Interest:


I am a KEEPER of Non-Absolute Numbers8, Sundogs , and The Thirteenth Day of the Month.

I have my BIRTHDAY listed on the All-New Researchers' Birthday Page.

I have my very own brick on THE WALL

I am listed in the h2g2 TIME ZONE TABLE.

Miscellaneous Links



Here is a fantastically useful link to: On-line Dictionaries, Thesauri, Style Guides, etc. (Thanks, Bels)

This link, here , is especially useful because it contains explanations to most of the jargon and acronyms that are peculiar to the H2G2 community.

Finally: H2G2 CODE


One more thing. I think I got this right.

----BEGIN H2G2 CODE BLOCK----
Version:1.1
RA Y++ N SG@ A>+ P-:-- L M(+)            \\|//
s- V>++ E- PR- p(+) a- B@ TV+            (o o)
r D T? nh? C+ m t@                  -o00o-(_)-o00o-
-----END H2G2 CODE BLOCK-----

My Garden. A place for relaxation and meditation.


Pigeons on a park benchA bonsai tree

Before you leave my space, I would like to leave you with a little story from Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast". It goes like this:


There was a presumptuous little self-important skipper of a coasting sloop, engaged in the dried-apple and kitchen-furniture trade, and he was always hailing every ship that came in sight. He did it just to hear himself talk and to air his small grandeur. One day a majestic Indiaman came ploughing by with course on course of canvas towering into the sky, her decks and yards swarming with sailors, her hull burdened to the Plimsoll line with a rich freightage of precious spices, lading the breezes with gracious and mysterious odors of the Orient. It was a noble spectacle! Of course, the little skipper popped into the shrouds and squeaked out a hail:

"Ship ahoy! What ship is that? And whence and whither?"

In a deep and thunderous bass the answer came back through the speaking trumpet:

"The Begum, of Bengal, one hundred and forty-two days out from Canton, homeward bound! What ship is that?"

Well, it just crushed that poor little creature's vanity flat, and he squeaked back most humbly:

"Only the Mary Ann, fourteen hours out from Boston, bound for Kittery Point, with nothing in particular!"

While looking around to see what everyone was doing for Personal Spaces, I came to feel a certain kinship with the skipper of that little sloop. How eloquently that single word, "only", expresses humility. After seeing the elegance, the artistic imagination, the style of other spaces, I can only hope my endeavors are adequate to the task.

1Four children and eleven grandchildren2My doctor says I can't drink it anymore: too much caffine. But I still can call it a favorite. 3The year that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and also the year of the (in)famous Roswell, New Mexico UFO incident. 4And yes, the abacus is a tongue-in-cheek joke. (I couldn't resist) 5Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. 6Domestic Short Hair7read: overweight8Such as the elusive recipriversexcluson.

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Raymond

Researcher U205946

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