I wish I had something great to write about today, but I don't. I thought I ought to write something, though, seeing as how it's now been a full week.

I'm going to the Utah Shakespearean Festival this weekend, by myself. I kind of wish that I had someone to go with me, but they're playing two of my very favorite shows, and I decided it was just too good to pass up. Thursday I'll be seeing Much Ado about Nothing, and on Friday I'll watch 1776, one of my favorite musicals. I'm very excited. After that I'll spend the night at home on Friday, and then I'll go to Idaho the next day for Alyce Colleen's baby blessing. I may spend most of Monday there, too, and have a little picnic with my family or something of the sort.

I never quite finished Pyle's Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, but I was close enough. All that's left now is the chase by King Henry, and then the big fight with Guy of Gisbourne. Not my favorite parts of the story, so I decided to put it down for the time being. Instead I started a re-reading of Dickens' Great Expectations, which has always been one of my favorite novels, since I first read it. I stayed up until about 2:30 last night and read through chapter four or five, I was so into it. He has a great way with getting a reader's attention, Dickens has.

So that's mostly it for now. Hopefully I'll have something just a little more interesting to write about soon enough. I'll let you know then.

Well, I had thought that I would write something today about Peirce and literature (plot, character, etc.). But, after church, I am really tired, and so I think I'll go read some Robin Hood and take a short nap. Hopefully. Since I got back from my mission, my naps tend to be ... not-so-short, shall we say?

My talk went well in church today. Or, to be more specific, several people seemed to enjoy it more than I did (or would have, had I been in the congregation). To be fair, it really wasn't bad, but I wasn't satisfied with it. I hadn't prepared as well or as much as I thought I should, and that made it difficult to deal with. But, like I said, it went just fine. I talked a bit about Aigues-Mortes in southern France, and lots of people seemed to enjoy that. It was quite a good analogy, if I do say so myself.

Whew!

My roommate and I recently received news that we would be getting two new roommmates for the coming school year. We were both a little apprehensive about this, since it's just been the two of us this summer, and we've been having a great time in our own rooms and what not. Well, we were also told that the first of these new rommates would be moving in today. Katie isn't here right now, as she's visiting family in Ohio, and I was looking forward in a way to having two weeks by myself. But instead I had to move out of my room and into Katie's (just so that neither of us would have to room with a complete stranger), and now I have a new roommate to get used to before Katie comes back. I wish she were here, as she's so much better at getting to know new people than I am. Anyway, Holly (our newest roommate) just finished moving in. When she first opened the door to the apartment and saw me sitting on the living room floor eating pizza and watcing TV during my 'lunch break,' I looked at her and immediately said, "You're wearing a Hogwarts shirt! Are you a Gryffindor?" "All the way," she replied. So I told her, "So am I, and so's Katie." I knew right then that things wouldn't be as hard as they could have been. Now, though, I just hope to never find out that she's an H/H-er.

It turns out that Holly is actually registered at the U of U (but she's not taking classes there yet, or something ... I haven't quite figured this out yet). She's 20 and just graduated from Snow College, where she majored in Theater. She ended up here in Provo because she works in Orem and will most likely be playing a part in a play at Snow College this fall (that's in St. George). So Provo ended up being kind of a central area for her. She seems really nice so far. She's got a very analytical mind from what I've seen of her so far (which, of course, is great!). She reminds me just a little bit of my old roommate Jody from my Ricks College days. I think we'll get along just fine.

In other news, I have to give talk tomorrow in sacrament meeting on "the living prophet: our watchman on the tower." I haven't even started it yet, although I do think that I have a few ideas to work from.

Last night I bought some oil color pencils, which are just colored pencils that used kind of an oil-based lead, and you can then spread the color around with a wet cotton swab to fill in the areas around it. I'm toying with coloring some of Pyle's RH illustrations and framing them for my wall. Last night I "practiced" with his picture of Will Scarlet. It turned out pretty good, and I'm very happy with the colors.

In my reading last night, Robin met Friar Tuck (the "curtal friar of Fountain Abbey"), whom he is planning to enlist to his services so that he can marry Allan a Dale to his true love (Ellen a Dale :) ), whom he met the night before. Nothing especially new here (especially if you've read The Outlaws of Sherwood before), but it's just so fun nonetheless. Pyle's Robin is somewhat self-centered and egocentric, but not too much. And in fact, that's OK because Pyle's Robin is also very orange (in Peircean theory), which is exactly what he should be. Maybe my next blog will be about the personality types or about the Peircean theory in plot. That will help me explain better what bothers me about McKinley's Robin, and why Pyle's Robin works so much better for me.

I'd just like you all to know ...

that I spent the entire day today working with groups of words that LDS missionaries use. We've been working for a long time on making these word groups for the computer program that I help develop for my job. In fact, we've spent the better part of the last two months working on them. We had originally split them up into three big categories, and three of us worked on them and had them QCed and everything. We've just recently gotten to the point where we really needed to combine all three lists and coordinate our work with each other. So, since I'm affectionately known around here as the formatting expert, the task fell to me to combine the lists of word groups and organize it. It took all day. And I'm not quite done yet, either. I found TONS of duplicate word groups, that had the same title but different words in them. It took a while coordinating all of that. Wow. For a linguist, I never really thought that I could detest words so thoroughly.

I'd also like to draw your attention to the link at the bottom of my sidebar to Google Sets. I just love this site. It takes the words that you enter and then uses some kind of algorithm (or something) to figure what other words are likely to be in the same set as it. Try something like "ash," "poplar," and "birch." Or, for something really fun, try "Harry," "Ron," and "Hermione" or "Frodo," "Sam," "Merry," and "Pippin." Great, huh? I tell you -- you give this to a linguist, and just watch them go crazy! (As we can well testify here at my work, where we have quite a few linguists gathered together in one room.)

SCA

So I'm thinking of things that I can do during the fall and winter seasons to keep me entertained, since I otherwise will only be working. I've never before spent a whole fall and winter season together not going to school. Except on my mission, but that'a different story. A long one.

Anyway, I've been looking into the Society for Creative Anachronism. They are an international group dedicated to researching and re-creating the happier aspects of the Middle Ages. I would love to learn fletching, lacework, and illuminated writing. I have located the local chapter (the College of Arrow's Flight), and the person in charge of it, and I just need to call him and see about coming to a meeting to answer a few of my questions. I'm kind of afraid it might turn out to be a whole bunch of really obsessive and odd people. But then, I can be kind of obsessive ... and rather odd. So maybe it will work out. I'll have to do some more research on it. Another thing about it is that I don't have anyone else to go to it with me, and that always makes me nervous. I tend to not do so well in large groups where I don't know anyone else. But it's probably time for me to bite the bullet, and be brave, and just do it!

My obsession with Robin Hood continues. I'm really enjoying the Howard Pyle version. I read it once before in high school, but had forgotten a lot of it. He's very good. The only thing is that Marian is mentioned, I think, once. He saw Robin Hood as an adventure story, with very little to do with romance. Which is just a shame, I verily believe.

My Niece

Her name is Alyce Colleen Wilkins. She was born at 7:38 am (Mountian Time, of course), in Idaho Falls, ID. Weight: 7 lbs. even. Length: 20 inches. I'm very excited to see her this weekend. It will be so great to have a newborn around again. *sigh of great happiness*

YAY! As of this morning, I have a brand new niece. This makes nine nieces and nephews in all for me, and she's the fourth niece. We're very excited. It's my brother and sister-in-law's, and it's their first. They decided they didn't want to know whether it was a boy or a girl, so we were all making guesses as to what they would have. I was just sure it was going to be a boy, and I guess I was wrong, huh? I'm still very excited, though! Especially since I'll be going home this very weekend for my cousin's wedding reception, so I'll be able to see her right away. I haven't heard yet what her name is, but I know they were planning to name her after our grandma and my sister-in-law's grandma. I can't remember what her grandma's name was, but I know that either the first or middle name was supposed to be Alyce, as that was my paternal grandmother's name.

Yippee!

I finally gave in. Yes, my friends, I bought the soundtrack from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I wasn't going to, but in the end I couldn't resist the pull of phoenix song. Let me just say that it was worth all fourteen dollars AND ninety-nine cents just to have the satisfaction of being able to listen to Fawkes the Phoenix whenever I feel like it. *sigh of deep satisfaction* In fact, last night I went for a short run, and I listend to Fawkes on repeat the whole time. It was highly satisfying, as well as invigorating!