I just started watching season 3 of BBC's Robin Hood, and I can't help pondering who I would be in the Robin Hood world. This is not so much a desire to Mary Sue myself as it is a not-so-idle curiosity about the sort of person I would've been in that environment. Would I be lady or peasant? Scholar, homebody, or warrior? How would I feel about the state of England---or would I care at all?

After an enormously entertaining conversation with my dad and Elessar this past weekend, I know I'd be an archer, should I choose to take up arms against the Sheriff of Nottingham. And I suspect, considering my reluctance to be helpless without a bow, that I'd probably be pretty skilled at sticking people with daggers.

I am such a writer....

Anyone else want to ponder with me? Create a Robin Hood alter-ego?

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I can't believe how good Burn Notice is. Every time I think the show reaches a pinnacle of awesomeness, it surpasses itself. And Jeffrey Donovan...dude, it was worth losing you on Touching Evil to watch you kick ass in/as this role.

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I am pondering the quandry that is women's undergarments. ( And so I cut for too much information...and possible vulgarity? )

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Just as I'm starting to adjust to the quirks of the position, the staff, the organization---just as I'm starting to feel I can really contribute something---it looks as though I'll probably lose this job. Criminy, I'm tired.

And so we come to the end. I'm a little relieved this year, actually. Not that it wasn't fun, but with everything going on this week, I didn't get to enjoy the Week of the Killer Quizzes as much as I usually do. Although I will say that I had a lot more fun today than I did earlier this week. Shall we, Sev? ::gramophone starts a crackling waltz:: ( I think we shall. )

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I'm trying to teach Sev some flamenco steps. We had a flamenco dancer come to the library today and teach the kids, and us, a little about the dance, and by the end of the program, we were all rattling castanets and shaking our hips and twirling our hands and arms and shouting, "Olé!" Tremendous fun!

Needless to say, Sev is not interested.

You know what, Sev? ::clatter of castanets:: You're a wet blanket. No one likes a wet blanket. They're all damp and stuff. ( I hope you didn't get the parchments wet. )

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Sev and I have gone to visit the invalid, although I don't believe said invalid knew Sev was there. Actually, Elessar had friends visiting, and they were having a pretty good time, so I'm not sure he really knew I was there, either. Which is perfectly all right with me: I'd rather he enjoy his enforced bedrest as much as possible.

He was still in pain, of course, and suffering from the constant exhaustion and lethargy to be expected from slow healing and painkillers. But he is healing, and should start physical therapy within the next week or so. I got to see a sketch of the broken bones that the doctor had drawn. Remarkably, his growth plate had fused just days before the break, so he avoided some rather serious, long-lasting ramifications. And the injury isn't expected to keep him from getting into West Point...it'll just ruin most of his summer. Yay.

At long last, Sev and I feel we can actually enjoy what's left of the Week of the Killer Quizzes. So we've got fruity drinks with little umbrellas, sunny sky, and parchment airplanes.

( ::zoom! go the airplanes:: )

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This must be the week for the weird and unexpected. First the startling advent of the Week of the Killer Quizzes, then Elessar breaks his leg, and now a near brush with an actual tornado. ::snort from corner:: Yes, Sev, I'm over-dramatizing a little: the tornado veered to the north shortly before it was due to pass through my area. But I was still librarian-in-charge while the storm raged---yes, *raged*---outside the branch, and I did get to prepare for a worst case scenario.

At any rate, the weather's a little quieter now, so there's nothing to keep us from getting to the quizzes. Right? No glow-in-the-dark ink on black parchment tonight, I'm afraid. ::grumble and ringing of glass against glass::

( What? I thought it was a very worthwhile experiment.... )

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My brother is in the hospital with a badly broken leg and has been since last night. He was working at a nearby Boy Scout ranch, helping a bunch of other boys move a 300 lb. log off a trailer when one of the other boys found himself stuck in a dangerous spot. In the process of helping this other boy, he and the other scouts had to drop the log and jump off the trailer, but the log hit Elessar in the back just as he was kneeling to hop down, and the added weight twisted his leg underneath him. So he ended up with broken ankle bones, a broken growth plate and tibia, and a fractured fibula. They took him in for surgery this afternoon and managed to pin everything in place, and it looks as though he'll be all right, but it's been a rather anxious day, to say the least.

I don't ever really forget how much I love my brother and sisters, but something like this brings home how much hope I hold in them, how much I want to see them grow up and find joy and show everyone how remarkable I know they are. And in something like this, it seems almost dangerous to hope---as though the strength of one's hope can only be balanced by its shattering. Not exactly an optimistic attitude, I suppose, but then we did just discover I'm Mixolydian Mode.

On that note, shall we move on to today's quizzes? Sev has sheets of black parchment just for the occasion and even managed to mix up a batch of glow-in-the-dark ink with which to write. Of course, it's invisible in regular light, so we'll see how well he did....

( ::whoosh of candle-killing wind:: )

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Sev is pouring us a couple of fingers of tequila to toast Kenny Rankin's memory, so once again it's just me here to gather all the parchment bits together. I was at least a little better prepared today, if rather more busy. Work, work, pineapple upside-down cake, work, vacuuming, and then---at last!---quizzes.

( On to the music, the movies, the...ghosts? )

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It's the Week of the Killer Quizzes again---wow. Kinda snuck up on me this year. And Sev is busy doing laundry so he's not even around to fulfill his usual parchment duties. Bother. Well, let me go ahead and get some these quizzes together and we'll see if I can manage to be a little better prepared tomorrow.

( Okay...so this one...and this...and, oh, this one'll work! )

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I'm exhausted. But rather proud of myself. Today was a very, very hard day at work. My assistant manager was out sick and my manager only in the branch for a couple hours in the morning, which left one of my coworkers and me manning the information desk for most of the day. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but with school being out and one of the nearby branches closed due to air conditioning troubles, we were completely swamped.

I had kids running around trying to sign up for the summer reading program; customers from the other branch complaining because they're certain *their* branch wouldn't charge them a dollar for an overdue book; our own usual customer strangeness; deadline-sensitive work of my own to complete; lunches to work around; staff leaving early; and five unexpected volunteers to put to work.

The whole day felt like a monstrous juggling act, where I was flitting from one project and mode of thinking to another, constantly shifting gears, trying to stay aware of not only myself and the customers but my coworkers and the general sense of the building. I'm really not a great multitasker---I'm bad at prioritizing---but today I managed to stay on top of everything. And I smiled through it all. Genuinely. I was actually in a great mood.

I'm sure none of my coworkers thought anything of how smoothly today went, and maybe they have the right perspective. But I feel supremely aware of all the moments where things could have gone wrong and didn't because I was taking care of them.

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(One): I want to be stargazing in the Coconino National Forest right now.
(Two): I think I'm really beginning to hate Facebook.

I've been playing around at the Speech Accent Archive, listening to English speakers from all over the world recite the same paragraph over and over again. It's especially entertaining trying to decide which of the American recordings I sound the most like. Of course, my ability to hear my own pronunciation is limited to say the least, but so far it sounds as though the Idaho recording is the closest. Weird, since I've never lived anywhere close to Idaho. Maybe the sum of all my geographical experiences---Southwest, Midwest, South, Ireland---somehow equals out to Idaho. I'll have to remember this should Idaho ever become a Terrorist State in need of Infiltration.

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...Especially if you're considering creating your own website or have connections in various fandoms. Here's the story---and this is going to be long, so I apologize in advance: I run an X-Files message board and have for over 8 years now. It's a tiny little message board, but it's peopled by some amazingly talented writers and exquisitely cultured readers, if I do say so myself. Recently it's come to their attention that Geocities, Yahoo!'s free site host, is shutting down. Not just going paid-only, but shutting down completely. Since many of the writers in the X-Files fandom host their fanfic on Geocities sites, this is A Very Bad Thing.

Enter one of the aforementioned amazingly talented writers: Xochiluvr. Who is also an amazingly talented webhost and all-around kick-ass guy. He's bent over backwards to find a way to host all of these soon-to-be-homeless sites through his own web service Surfacing.Website. Which is great all on its own, but really freaking fantastic when you consider what he's hoping to do with these free sites.

And this is where you come in. He wants Surfacing.Website to be the new *free* site location for art and artists, writers and designers. Not just X-Files artists and writers and designers, but those in all fandoms and those who create original works. So if you have any interest in creating a website to share your talent, please take a look at either the original post on my message board or Surfacing.Website, itself. And even if you don't intend to create a website of your own, please consider sharing this in your favorite fandoms or with other artists who might benefit from the information.

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them, although I am not exactly as technically savvy as I'd like to be. I can definitely say, though, that I've known Xochiluvr for as long as I've been running this message board, and he is unfailingly ethical. (And entertaining and pervy, but that's several stories for another time.)

I've spent today doing very little more than watching TV and reading, which is not precisely newsworthy, I know. But in both the book I was reading and one of the shows I watched, I stumbled on a description of quantum mechanics. That's not precisely newsworthy, either, except that the words used in both book and show were almost exactly the same:

"Matter is energy waiting to happen."
"The human body has enough energy to explode five hydrogen bombs."
"Most of us just aren't very good at releasing [that energy]."

It's quite possible, of course, that both the author of the book and the writers on the show were copying from the same beginners' guide to quantum mechanics, but the peculiar thing about quantum theory is that there's room within it for the metaphysical: specifically, in this case, synchronicity. Or, as some like to call it, All That Law of Attraction Crap.

I'm really not a believer in the Law of Attraction or related theories, but a coincidence like this does make me wonder. Are you trying to tell me something, universe? Are you ticked off that I don't think you're sending me messages? Or do you simply believe I should leave my librarian life behind to become a quantum physicist?

And how does Repo! The Genetic Opera fit in? I spent part of the day watching that, too....

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If I were a doctor, I'd have to see about working for Nascar: "Hmm...broken ribs, you say? Then the question is to tape or not to tape. Let me just calculate the forces of accleration and possible crashing in both scenarios...yes...carry the two...no. No, in this instance, I would recommend that we *not* tape the ribs. Best of luck in the race!"

The SciFi Channel is changing its name. Yes, they want to make it completely clear that they're not just for geeks. Never mind that being a geek in this day and age is actually rather admirable. Or that, you know, geeks actually *are* their demographic. No, they've decided to rename themselves the SyFy Channel. Which, on top of being one of the most pointless name changes in history---it's the *same* *name*---has the added benefit of making them look completely illiterate.

Alas, it's probably far too late to pressure them into abandoning this course of action. But we can still laugh at them. And apparently come up with 25 Other Names the SciFi Channel Could Rebrand With. (I think #3 might be my favorite.)

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I want to be warm. I want summer. I want hot, sunlit weather and the sound of chirruping frogs and evenings that bleed light into the night sky. I want to dabble my toes in a stream and to hear bees droning and to see leaves and *green* again. It's March in Texas---where is my warmth?!?

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For once I'm in a writing mood. It might be the melancholy grey of the day or that I heard "Penny Lane" on the radio this morning, but all I want to do today is sit in my (freezing cold) apartment and spin words. And so---of course---I'm stuck here at work. Where, even if I write a little, I can't quite manage to escape the guilty sense that I ought to be doing what I'm paid to do. And where, even if I write a little, I'm constantly distracted by customers and coworkers. Alas. I shall simply have to hope that tomorrow's day off proves as grey and writerly as today.

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