Hi there!

I hope y'all are doing well. 

Years ago, I was an active participant here, getting under the skin of the
regulars on non-B5 topics and letting them get under mine. I still think
about that as my life and opinions have evolved. It's nice to see that many
of the regulars here are still regulars. 

Having said that, I have a story! (Yay!)

My oldest daughter is about to enter University studies. She intends to
pursue studies in Fine Arts and Animation, with the hope of working on
Pixar or Laika or Big Idea or DreamWorks. Stuff of dreams. She's selected
Brigham Young University. A fine exemplar of an ambitious young American
woman, and I'm very happy with her for it. 

Around nine years ago I remembered "Signs and Portents" and
interviewed her. She seemed indecisive about some things.

"What do you want?"

"Huh?"

"Simple question, Rachael. What do you want?"

"Leave me alone."

"OK. But first, please, tell me what you want."

"No!"

"What do you want?"

"For you to leave me alone!"

"Is that all? What do you want?"

"NOTHING!"

I smiled, concluded that she wanted solitude, and went away. We repeated
the exercise occasionally, and did the "Who Are You?" sequence
weeks later. She asked me later, "Why the torture?" and I
replied, "I want you to think about who you are, and what you want.
That's all. I got the idea from a guy with a Psychology degree." That
was food-enough-for-thought to her and to her credit, the basic questions
are clearly now a part of her introspection. 

We are going through the first-season B5 episodes with my three daughters
this month. For Rachael, the eps are a distant childhood memory, but as
we've watched them together, she keeps exclaiming "I remember THAT!
"PROTECT!" from "Infection", and other such campy
things. Mostly, she notices that the season one FX can be rendered today in
near real-time on her tablet PC. And she's now told us that she used to
sneak in and watch

We got to "Signs and Portents" two nights ago. It was like the
day a kid discovers the scope and truth of "Santa Claus", only
this time it was on the face of a near-adult young woman. Maturity informs
the scoping. Yes.

Priceless. For a moment of perfect beauty, during the Morden interviews,
the Rachael Show was the best thing on display in that room. 

She's also a marvelous sketch artist, eats manga for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner, and loves to cosplay. In short, we've raised One of You, and I
couldn't be happier about it. 

Rob Perkins
--- SBBSecho 2.20-Win32