And There Was Much Rejoicing

[rj_anderson]

I've found a new name for the hero in Touching Indigo now, after days of searching through baby name books and sites, the telephone directory, and eventually in despair, the thesaurus:

Dr. Sebastian Faraday.

I started out with "Faraway" as a quirky and almost-but-not-quite-right surname, but then I thought, "Wasn't there a scientist named Faraday?" so I looked him up this morning and Michael Faraday is my new hero. In addition to being "the best experimentalist in the history of science", he said stuff like this:

• "Nothing is too wonderful to be true."


• "Work. Finish. Publish."


• "The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly."


And best of all:


• "Speculations [about the hereafter]? I have none. I am resting on certainties. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

*fangirls him shamelessly*

I also managed to convince another character who was being stubborn to change her name, so now Thea can stay Thea and it doesn't clash with any of the other main character names. Now I just have to name my villain... but he doesn't appear to care very much what I call him, as long as it's reasonably dignified.

Comments

[sunsethill.livejournal.com]

I like it. And, yes, Michael Faraday was an amazing man. And I'm really glad that Thea can stay Thea. It has always fitted her well, IMHO. Poor names are always a clunker to me, and I must say that I never thought "Oh, synaesthesia--Thea, how lame!" ;-)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Faraday makes a good hero. :)

And boy do I ever need to work on that third one....

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

*headshakes* And getting everything into a comment instead of hitting "post" and going "Wait--!" would be nice too, but somewhat less important all told than developing equanimity.

I'm glad you found good replacement names and that Thea can stay Thea. Though I didn't think Tristram was actually a problem, honestly!

[sannalim.livejournal.com]

I need to work on that second one... *sigh*

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

So do I. The tendency to go off the rails way too easily is probably at least on a par with it, though.

I am not nearly as diligent as I should be, which I need to work on -- but I know (or at least I think, most of the time) that I can get things done when I tackle them with sufficient sense and energy. (Now I need to convince myself that I would do a lot better job on them and accomplish more with less stress if I did this tackling sooner, and on a more regular basis. There's also some focus and prioritizing work to be done, but that's the basic thing.)

But taking things quietly.... *wince* I seem to fly off the handle all too easily at even very small things, which does not seem to bode well for my ability to handle larger problems. And whereas procrastination and/or laziness is something I can generally see while I'm doing it, and something where I've at least sometimes demonstrated I'm capable of getting it right, I usually think about the fact that I'm overreacting after I've already done it. Plus, it's hard to remember examples of doing this one right. Not freaking out over something minor is just not a memorable experience. I mean, it probably shouldn't be, but still....

My PI once told me about an incident where she and her husband had a flight delayed by several hours, and while of course they were annoyed, they went up to some spot with a view, shared a bottle of wine, and watched the sun come up. Pretty much had a ball.

This is the sort of attitude I would like to cultivate. Not the specifics, particularly, but the ability not only to deal with problems that aren't really disasters, but to find opportunities in them.

(Hmm. I seem to recall that I coped okay when I had a flight canceled on me once. I think I panicked briefly and then progressed to intermittently grouchy while waiting in line, but I don't think I was overly shrill at anyone, and I did enjoy the ride to another airport that was still sending flights to my destination. So I do have a decent example, yay?)

So. I need to develop a more productive routine and then stay pleasant when my plans or expectations get disrupted. This is daunting but I suspect many other things in life would be less so if I succeed. ;)

[kerravonsen]

One thing that taught me patience was a period where my work was sending me interstate a lot to work with one of our clients, an airline. Because this was consultant work with them, they gave us free tickets, with a catch; they were basically standby tickets. Getting there was fine, but there were many times when getting back consisted of waiting for a flight to come along which had a free seat. I think it was partly because I would be coming back on a Friday evening, when the flights tended to be full. And when there were disruptions, then it was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting! The worst occassion was when I'd gone up for a meeting on a Friday morning, and I got back to the airport at about 1:30pm, and there was a bad disruption, and I was sitting there in the standby lounge until 8:30pm! The thing was, since flights were every half hour, and we were called in the 15 minutes before the flight left, it meant that I couldn't go off and enjoy myself, I just had to wait there, in case I was called. I'd read a book for 15 minutes, then listen for my name to be called, then read for 15 minutes, and so on...

That is guaranteed to instill patience in one.

[sannalim.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found a name for your character that suits him. I like the sound of it, too.

And yeah, Michael Faraday was pretty cool.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Faraday's complete works. I find them slow going, but there are moments of genius, certainly.

I also have a character in the third novel of the Merchant trilogy named Sebastian. Perhaps they should cagematch?

[ljrags.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I like it :)

[kerravonsen]

Sebastian sounds... nicely old-fashioned and kind of ponderous, which I think would suit him.
And fun pun on "Faraway" and "Faraday"! 8-)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

...Heh. Hadn't even thought about it, but now she's got a time-travel joke in there too.

Faraday

[(Anonymous)]

I tend to use the expression "Faraday Shield" a lot at work. Then again, I work in a very geeky environment. Then again, "Faraday Shield" isn't such a bad name for a character. 8-)

Regards,
Shawn