In the newspaper today there was an article about University of Arizona graduates staying in Tucson to work or open businesses. There wasn't anything particularly spectacular said about them, but more just gratitude and the author explaining why it was nice they chose to stay in or return to this city. Yay validation!

In talks with Ms. Connie, it came up that Stephen King sometimes has his characters become maimed in the course of the given story. My first response to this has usually been to be profoundly disturbed; say, for example, the gunslinger losing vital-to-his-existence-as-a-gunslinger fingers in the Dark Tower epic. The only explanation I've been able to come up with for this feeling is some sense of unfairness, but that's not really an explanation at all, and the rest of it is beyond me as of yet. The rejoinder to all that, courtesy of the same lovely gal who provided me with a copy of the second Dark Tower novel, is that in those characters being maimed, their story becomes less about what they do, and more about who they are in response to it. Ten points, to her, and to King for using it that way! Still haven't quite figured out why it initially bothered me so much, though.

Dry, but a straighter and simpler answer to questions about extended family relationships than I've ever gotten

I always try to maintain a little background project-helper program thingie on my computer, though sometimes the project finishes and a new one is hard to find - so, here's one! (it even works on Macs, a nice plus not often found with them)