From: rrperkin@gmail.com

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


--- Internet Rex 2.31
 * Origin: Deep Thought (1:2320/101)