One more day teaching elementary music.  I was supposed to be done last week, but someone else in the music teacher's family died.  Inconvenient, what?  Turns out this lady was a fairly important public figure with a lot of connections.  I did not realize this until I showed up to play piano at the wake and discovered that the room was stuffed full ( Read more... )

1. Yet More Merlin

I finished the first season a few days ago.  I'm not entirely happy with how it ended - I was hoping Morgana would split from Uther, and I was hoping Merlin would have a traumatic "oh god I've lost my mentor, and now I will go beserk with fury before shutting down in despair, which will force Arthur to recognize me as a human ( Read more... )

Merlin is really growing on me.  Now that I've gotten used to the deviations from the usual legends, I'm really enjoying the character development.  Merlin himself is pretty static.  He reminds me of Bertie Wooster - an adorable boy who good-heartedly tries to help his friends, but whose best efforts invariably cause more problems than solutions.  ( Read more... )

I.  Merlin Is Pretty

I've been watching a few episodes of the BBC show Merlin.  It wreaks havoc with the traditional mythology. Arthur is recognized as Uther Pendragon's legitimate son; Arthur is an arrogant bastard (in the figurative sense, not the literal sense given the fact that he's recognized as the legitimate son and heir, but his character ( Read more... )

I have trouble writing newsletters.  This is unfortunate, because I write a lot of newsletters.  I write a monthly newsletter for my studio and one for my Toastmasters club.  This year I will be adding a quasi-monthly newsletter for my Toastmasters area, my music club, and my mom's weird cult/organization/club-thing.
( I write like a pretentious teenage who just discovered surreal comedy )

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that there was a crack in my living room ceiling.  By crack, I mean a deep gash that went across the way across the ceiling.  So, like a good citizen, I reported it to the apartment complex office and asked them to send someone to look at it and check its safety.  Then I went to Tulsa to hang out with qfish (which was ( Read more... )

Thanks to my attention-grabbing antics at the Toastmasters Conference (and the workaholic diligence of our public relations officer), you can admire my red-ish hair.  As you can see, it only looks red in strong light.  And as you can see, any event can be fun if you're willing to look like an idiot.

http://www.oktoastmasters.org/goodnews/2009-05-15% ( Read more... )

My dyed hair is not nearly as dramatic as I expected.  The top of my hair looks red in the proper light, and the back of my hair almost looks purple in twilight.  Otherwise, it's just a little darker, because the dye ate my blond highlights.  Still, I'm fairly happy with it.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really show up in pictures.  Ah well, your loss ( Read more... )

Tomorrow I'm dying my hair red.  Not bright red, as I originally planned, because I would have to bleach my hair first, and I am reluctant to do that - especially on my attempt to mess with hair product.  I'd probably end up burning my skin or something equally awful.  I'm not terribly excited about dying my hair, because taking the dogs for walks ( Read more... )

1. Duncan was lot more light-hearted and likeable before Tessa died.  I like him better when he cracks jokes than when he broods.

2. Tessa is a lot cooler than I remember. My main impression of her as a teenager was that she was blonde and French and occasionally difficult to understand because she emphasized the wrong word in a sentence (which I ( Read more... )