As per usual, it’s 3 AM and I’m up. Working from home seriously screws with your sleep schedule.

But I am very close to launching my newest site.

ANYWAY: As of per late, I have noticed a marked increase in traffic to my Hitchhiker’s quotes page. Which does my heart no end of good.

So I get to have a Hitchhiker’s rant.

In high school, I read Hitchhiker’s for a book report or something equally dorky. And fell in love. So I bought every Hitchhiker’s book I could find. I have maybe 4. Including the complete (increasingly ill-named) trilogy and the Illustrated version with a nice shiny cover. Plus I had a role-playing game for Macs that disappeared somewhere along the way. I always got killed on the Vogon ship.

If you’ve never read it, I recommend it. It’s the most brilliant book ever. The humor has such a subtle brilliance that I would read it every year just to discover nuances that I had missed originally. It’s my favoritest book ever.

The author, Douglas Adams, continued to write books after he finished the HHGttG series. But there was just something about the first book that was just sheer genius.

The reason for the increased traffic and for my thinking about the genius that is Douglas Adams is because for the past few years, rumors and innuendo have swirled around regarding a Hitchhiker’s movie. They originally had a BBC radio show with the story, then the book, then a BBC television series. So there have been many incarnations of the book/radio show/TV show.

But finally rumors of a movie.

Sadly, Douglas Adams passed away a year or so ago, so he never got to see the movie, but I always heard rumors that he was on set for some of the shooting.

I’m prattling on about this because 1) I adore this book and 2) as of Monday I saw a movie trailer for the movie. I about lost it. I’m so excited.

A few observations:

• Arthur Dent: looks as I would expect him to.
• Ford Prefect: I hope they explain the joke behind his name. Adams always was worried that it was lost on American readers.
•Zaphod: Not what I envisioned. Although a friend who is a big fan (or bigger fan) than I said that was exactly what he pictured. It bothered me at first that his second head wasn’t always apparently visible, but in terms of making it look semi-real, probably the best plan. And he still has three arms. nicely played.
• Marvin wasn’t what I would have pictured, but come to think about it I’m not sure what I pictured. So I like it.
• Slartibartfast has always been a favorite character:

He continued: “I should warn you that the chamber we are about to
pass into does not literally exist within our planet. It is a little too … large. We are about to pass through a gateway into a vast tract of hyperspace. It may disturb you.”

Arthur made nervous noises.

Slartibartfast touched a button and added, not entirely reassuringly, “It scares the willies out of me. Hold tight.”

I’ll stop.