HI MARK

I don't really have fun, spoiler-filled things to share -- I was just a weekly watcher from, like, the second season on. But I suppose I could ask if you thought the never-changing banner was because I got distracted and forgot to update it or because Michael would come back telenovela-style and I was secretly spoiling you?

Here's a (real) question: In a show chock full of surprises week to week, what was the most surprising thing about the show for you?

Um, let's see.... Oh! I remember there being some good interviews with Gina Rodriguez on the SAG-AFTRA YouTube channel -- at least I enjoyed them -- as well as one with the cast, if you want some longer stuff.

Gina Rodriguez, 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB-D18OyfB4
Gina Rodriguez, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa32yBY2ZGQ
Gina Rodriguez, 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAbbehUKM2M
JtV cast, 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s62zsxkSwBE

Okay, so I'm a week or two behind, I think, so this isn't about the episode, but! I have a story!

I'm a librarian working in an open-to-the-public branch (covid boo!), and we have a display themed around, "This season, all you need is love... and a good book," which is working out to be basically winter-themed romances. I've bent the theme a little (for example, Gingerbread Cookie Murder is a mystery, which people love, and is seasonal) mostly because it just gets to be a lot of the same looking book.

Anyway, in looking for a book to fill a hole, I was trying to think of something not quite on-the-nose, and for some reason, I thought of Snow Falling, the real-world counterpart to the in-show book Jane published. As my branch has a copy of the book, I though, there's 'snow' in the title and it's a romance, so sure, let's go with it. So I put it on the display shelves.

And friends, someone actually checked it out! I don't know if it was a random pick or if they were already a fan of the show (the cover says something about "as seen on Jane the Virgin"), but I'm just tickled that my somewhat random, somewhat MW-inspired pick actually got checked out

Now, if only my branch had Mark's books.... :D

I mean, I bet future mask usage will help cut down on the various concruds that hit folks.

Really silly comment, but, well....

This series features the Stillness, capital s and all. In the last month and a half, I've started listening to this singer/songwriter named Cerian. Her debut EP is called Caught in the Dark, and the title track has a recurring line about "in the stillness." So when I listen to the song, because of that line, I think of these books. And whenever I read about the Stillness, whether in the books or the reviews, I think of the song (and hear that repeated line).

Silly, right? (Also, go listen to the song; it's lovely!)

My not-silly thought is that I really appreciate revisiting this trilogy with Mark; it's definitely added to my appreciation of it. Plus, I don't think I fully tracked the full story before, reading each book as they came out but not rereading the previous one, and reading Mark's reviews solidified everything for me.

I know the schedule was put into the calendar real late, so maybe he already did reviews when I updated the calendar. Or perhaps he didn't check the calendar because it was late, and therefore missed it. Regardless, the interlude is (spoiler alert!) in the next review. Oh, and the calendar's updated, too.

I've got to say, to make sure her work and dedication is properly recognized, that Mark Reads Discworld would not have happened with nearly as much ease without the efforts of rukbat3.

Before the Discworld read began, Mark called for help from the community in splitting the books into sections. There was a lot of help at first, but trying to find a consistent way to determine good section lengths between different editions of the books was challenging. Still, there were attempts for most of the books, which was a good start, but ultimately proved to be not enough. (How I ended up ultimately organizing and finalizing all of it, when I'd only ever read the first five books and always read with, not ahead of, Mark, is still a mystery to me.)

After a while, though, it was mostly just me and rukbat3 looking at splits. And let me tell you, rukbat3 worked hard. While I split books primarily based on word count, rukbat3 would actually read the book (months before it was scheduled) in order to find section breaks that were dramatically satisfying. She'd offer alternate splits if she suspected a section was too long. And she was always happy to offer suggestions to me when I couldn't find a decent split somewhere.

So please, MReaders, join me in thanking rukbat3 for making splitting the Discworld so much better. She took a huge responsibility on herself and did such a spectacular job!

Yay, rukbat3!!

As a matter of fact, it is! In the menu, under About the Site, there's a page called Past Site Banners; you can find it there. (Or just click this link; that works, too.)

Thanks!

Sometimes I luck out with amazing promo images/art.

Apologies, but I gotta vent a little.

Not that any of this has come from out of the blue (obviously), but still.

This was supposed to be an awesome weekend for me, one that I've been looking forward to and planning since mid-September. I was supposed to see my favorite band, Keane, in concert in DC last night and in New York tonight (and in the non-COVID-19 universe, possibly meet them after the shows). So that already sucks.

And then yesterday, the branch manager called me in the morning and asked if I could meet her in the afternoon because she had something to share with me from the county that they asked be done in person. That's never gonna be good news, right? And it wasn't. Basically, all the part-time library employees (like me *waves*), as of the end of the pay period, are furloughed for the duration.

The good news is that it's just a furlough, which means I'll have my job when the library opens back up to the public. (Of course, I've been looking for a proper librarian position since graduation, but that's another issue.) The other good news is that I may be able to claim some unemployment, and I've got a decent financial buffer thanks to living with my dad and still having scholarship money left over from school. And it's not that I fault the decision -- it makes sense and is the responsible thing to do -- but dang it, this was supposed to be my awesome weekend, and it is decidedly not.

Okay, Mark, so there's part of me that just wants to go, like, 'So did you love it, or did you love it?' and that's not interesting, really, so here are a bunch of other questions. (Don't feel obliged to answer them all; I was just sort of spitballin' here.)

What surprised you the most about the show?
Who is your fourth favorite character?
Favorite moment or scene?
Favorite quote?
Favorite or most surprising guest star?
Most satisfying thing from the show?
The CGI -- good, bad, in between?
How do you think the show benefited from being written mostly by one person? How do you think it was hindered by that?
Would you recommend Babylon 5 to others?
Because you have oodles of free time, do you think you'll rewatch the show on your own?

And ultimately, how do you feel about your Babylon 5 experience?