who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Thinking about a Narnia fic I might write (ought to write: I need to remember how to deal with aggravation through writing fic rather than pulling my hair out and plotting to stab people) involving Lucy stealing an ambulance in the middle of an air raid, so I'm showing a real lack of commitment to getting work done researching Blitz records. So far, most of what I'm turning up on the bombing information is limited to the official dates of the Blitz, 7 September 1940 to 10 May 1941. I'm sort of assuming that the evacuation that took the Pevensies out of London was not the false alarm one of 1939, but over the period of the heaviest bombing, but I'm wondering when they might have returned. It seems that in February 1941, there was the highest number of evacuees from London (about 1.37 million), which had come down to 1 million by September.

It would be best to set the story during the summer of 1941, and some articles seem to indicate that there was occasional bombing happening during that time, but I can't find an actual list of dates and locations ANYWHERE. Though I suppose I could just make the chaos happen from an unexploded bomb rather than from one falling from the sky, but still.

Though this comprehensive list of bombs from 7 September 1940 is fascinating and somewhat overwhelming.

I mean, the easy way out is to just set it in 1943 or so when Hitler was dropping doodlebugs, I guess, but I didn't want it to take place too long after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Anybody else happen to have any useful links?

I also came across this poster, also known as The Time Lucy and Susan Had To Sit on Peter So He Didn't Completely Lose It At A Firefighter And Get Everyone Bound And Gagged And Left In A Tube Station.

Am back from vacation. Am exhausted. Am thinking of laundry sitting all night in dryer getting wrinkly because I was too tired to deal with it. Am marathoning Big Bang Theory just because, and I need good icons for it, because now I have more icon space.

Am really glad it’s Friday and I can maybe sleep all weekend. Not really. But it’s a nice thought.

As you know, I’m editing for a medical journal these days, so I’m using my office time and work resources responsibly by giggling over letters to the editor that use phrases like OVER TEN THOUSAND HUMAN SKELETONS, as well as using PubMed's Citation Matcher from the NIH library to look up articles Alex Drake would have been searching to use as references for any articles she might write on Sam Tyler’s case. I’ve determined the best journal to attempt to publish such a report in would be Neurocase: case studies in neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and behavioural neurology, since it features individual case studies and Alex would have a difficult time putting together a cohort of patients and healthy controls to more specifically examine the occurrence of going back in time when hit by a car.

Or getting such a study approved of by local ethics committees and the Declaration of Helsinki. Still, I’d like to see that table of values.

1) ANYBODY ELSE READY FOR TRUE BLOOD TO COME BACK? I am. But I keep seeing this main promotional image and thinking damn, Anna Paquin, must be awkward to have to pose like that with the boyfriend you have sex with anyway for all the world to see. You know? (Also, the pic is kinda hot. But I didn't say that. Because vampires = MOST OBVIOUS SEXUAL METAPHOR EVAR.)



2) In other news, I've been utterly devouring the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. Delightful new spin on Sherlock Holmes, as, years after his career on Baker Street, he meets a young woman in the Sussex downs that proves to be more than an equal in the business of deduction. The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first, and wholly magnificent from beginning to end.

3) I keep seeing bumper stickers on people's cars that say '13.1' and I've even seen some for multiples like 26.2. Anybody know why this is and what this is about? (I also am very mildly curious who John Galt is or why a McCain/Palin sticker shows the owner in support of 'Mac 'n' Momma' but I suppose some things are just eternal mysteries.)

4) I miss research and Learning Things. So I'm thinking of starting a comm for short just-for-fun research projects- you know, the sort of topics you always felt like you wanted to take a look at while in class and never had the time? Still might not have the time, but would anybody have any interest in joining me? There used to be a real trend of Eccentrics and polymaths and people who were amateur experts in a host of topics and I think we should have a club and do that. Sound cool? (Serious Research Projects also invited to participate.) So let me know if you feel like watching or joining or doing that.



5) There's mint chocolate chip ice cream int he freezer and I am so going for it NOW. And I may start catching up on Ashes to Ashes tonight. WIN.

(My goal: to focus on happy things and keep my mind occupied and not on this failed job market or how my dreams of further education and moving to England are impossible. Check!)