Pick-a-little, talk-a-little, pick-pick-pick

A few random updates that I cannot fit into a big, meaningful post:

• I'm working on revising my fantasy novel (which is actually part of a trilogy). I've been working on this for most of the summer. I learned a lot about plotting from rereading Harry Potter, and am working on an html document that is a map of my world where I can click on places with plot points and it will bring up impulse images that relate to each one, etc. (This came out of wanting a visual way to plot, but not having a printer or easy access to a Walgreens Photo Center.) I've been rewatching LOTR, which has taught me a lot about worldbuilding. I have realized exactly how much of a sucker I am for the old wizard/young adventurer relationship. It's Gandalf/Frodo, and Dumbledore/Harry, and I fall for it so easily. I'm sure this is because it's based on a specific kind of mentor/mentee love that has affected my life deeply. (And, yes, for the two years I spent hanging out in one of my teacher's offices, I did occasionally glimpse a magic wand or mirror. This is truth.) I'm trying to avoid putting in a wizard who explains it all, because I've seen it done badly (coughEragoncough), but I'm working on a way to include this relationship non-obviously.
• Andrew, Courtney and I hung out the other day, which was the geekiest assortment of people on summer staff. Seriously, get Andrew and I comparing iPods and it becomes about who has more Palestrina and that's just ridiculous. We watched Fellowship of the Ring and ate biscuits with elderberry jam. I have the coolest friends ever. ("In the fires of Mount Doom, there were biscuits forged!")
• When Courtney and I were walking back from watching FOTR (and there's very little that's more fun than walking along a mountain after watching LOTR), we stopped and looked at the sky. There were more stars than I'd ever seen. She told me I needed to to come to her house in Arkansas, where you can see the Milky Way every night. When I told her I'd never seen the Milky Way, her heart broke. There is so much to see and experience in the world. I love that.
• Continuing in the "I have the coolest friends ever" vein, one of my good friends in New York (who goes to Columbia, we met through Sweeney) just got a turtle and named it Duchamp.
• I got a Facebook message from one of my friends at NYU about starting a prayer initiative at Tisch, for those of us who want to get together and pray and fellowship. Beautiful.
• I used my voice and speech skills micing someone yesterday for worship. I'd noticed in past worship services, this particular person has a tendency to speak past his amount of breath, making his voice significantly quieter and much less full. I kept this in mind yesterday and was able to mix him so that he could still be heard. Yessss.
  

It's still enormously beautiful here.