Seas the Day

One of my oldest and dearest friends--Amy Miller--who emigrated to England some years ago with some strange guy she met* is now a curator at the National Maritime Museum in London, and was interviewed on BBC Radio about the origin of the phrase "seven seas."

To hear her wax philosophic about Pliny the Elder, the Ancient Sumerians, and other maritime arcana, go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/questionsquestions.shtml. Above the picture of the presenter you will see a bluebar saying LISTEN AGAIN. Click on the red text and you will be able to listen to the program. Amy comes on around the 20-minute mark.

Now I feel like putting on the classic Echo & the Bunnymen track "Seven Seas."



*Actually, it was her husband, Steven Hodges, one of my best friends from college. They now have two children and a dwindling collection of cats.

So-Duh

Say what?

Coca-Cola and L'Oréal are partnering to create a new health-and-beauty beverage to launch in 2008, sources said.

Currently called Lumaé, the nutraceutical drink was trademarked as a tea-based ready-to-drink beverage by Coca-Cola's Beverage Partners Worldwide division. The drink, which is still in the early stages of development, is expected to contain ingredients that will help women care for their skin, per a source.

Hmm...can caffeine be absorbed subcutaneously?

Wait..."nutraceutical"? Huh?

A Tolkien of My Extreme

Goofy headline of the week (from Salon):

Why can't gay dwarves get married in Middle-earth?

A pressing issue indeed.

Reading Railroad

Pursuant to a previous post, here is the latest rundown of what I have been reading (boy, I love not having cable TV!).


Something in the Air
Marc Fisher
Read: Mar. 2007
Non-Fiction

Well-researched history of modern radio (that is, since the advent of TV). It had been said that TV would kill radio, and while the old radio dramas and comedies went visual, that led radio to evolve into a music delivery medium. Interestingly, at first no one thought that playing records would catch on (at first, radio music was played by live bands) but they were, um, proved wrong. Much of the book describes how radio has off and on evolved into a creative medium, beloved by its listeners and, inevitably, fell prey to consultants, researchers, and bland programming, turning people away in droves. Always, radio's pioneers have been those who listened to folks like Jean Shepherd or Cousin Brucie "with their transistor radios under their pillows at night." Freeform rock radio of the 1960s and early 70s gave way to the automated stations of the late 70s, 80s, and 90s. It seems incomplete in parts; L.A.'s KMET is mentioned once in passing, and they were a big influence on freeform rock radio. Still, an interesting and educational read--sure to get make anyone who has ever really loved radio peeved and nostalgic.

Then We Came to the End
Joshua Ferris
Read: Mar. 2007
Fiction

A wonderful first novel, detailing the lives of the denizens of a successful ad agency in the dot-com boom time and its aftermath of layoffs and paranoia. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the book's language and to realize that the narrative voice is the plural "us", that is, the collective whole of the ad agency. It's a technique that has been much-remarked on in reviews, and as a narrative technique is works extremely well. The characters are realistic and funny, and the ridiculousness of office life is well-expressed. I highly recommend this book and can't wait for Ferris' next book.

The Black Dahlia
James Ellroy
Read: Mar. 2007
Fiction

I read this shortly after seeing the OK-but-not-great Brian DePalma movie and was eager to figure out just what was going on. The book was good, but the "hard-boiled" vernacular got a bit grating. I have no idea if people actually talked that way in the 1940s, but, if so, perhaps it's the first time I was glad I lived in the time I now live in. Anyway, it has a lot more psychological depth than other mystery thrillers and the new Afterword by the author explains the genesis of the story. All in all, not a bad book, but I’m not eager to seek out more Ellroy.

Boomsday
Christopher Buckley
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

Boomsday, the latest satirical novel from scion of William F. Buckley, is a return to form after his disappointing Florence of Arabia. Boomsday is about a 30-year-old blogger named Cassandra Devine, who is teed off about the impending insolvency [sic] of Social Security caused by the looming senescence of the Baby Boom generation. Thus, her Swift-ian "Modest Proposal" is to give tax breaks to elderly Boomers who kill themselves (or "transition," as it is euphemistically called). While I don’t grant the premise of the novel, it is a very funny political satire and shows that Buckley's wit has not dulled one whit, lampooning as he does the political process, thinly veiled political figures on the left and right, generational politics, the religious right, and electioneering. Boomsday is up there with Buckley's earlier Thank You for Smoking and Little Green Men, my two favorites of his.

After the death of Kurt Vonnegut, I embarked on a reread of his novels in order:

Player Piano
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A reread of Vonnegut's first (1952) novel (I first read it circa. 1986). As a first novel, it's a great work, but pales in comparison to Vonnegut's later novels. It is set in the not-too-distant future in the Upstate New York city of Ilium (Troy, anyone?). In this dystopian future, most of the work is done by machines, and the machines tell everyone what they are best suited for. IQ tests are everything (students panic over them like they were SATs) and those who have substandard IQs are relegated to either the Army or a variety of demeaning public works positions. Engineers and managers sit atop the socioeconomic pyramid and yet must play by the silly rules of corporate life--asskissing and not saying the wrong thing and "toeing the line," lest they be perceived as a "saboteur." In Ilium, Dr. Paul Proteus sits atop the pyramid, but begins to question the whole system and falls in with a group of saboteurs who seek to foment revolution, destroy the machines, and restore dignity to mankind. Being Vonnegut's first novel, it lacks his trademark humor and narrative voice (the tone is very dry and matter-of-fact throughout), but is still very sarcastic and funny, especially his depiction of a corporate retreat. Although the basic plot of Player Piano has been done to death over the years (many "Twilight Zone" episodes, for example, would concern themselves with successful careerpersons who question the validity of the rat race, but Vonnegut's vision still holds up, methinks. I would have to describe Player Piano as a very good novel, but only a somewhat good Vonnegut novel. In his collection of essays, Palm Sunday, Vonnegut himself graded all his novels and gave Player Piano a B. I would concur.

The Sirens of Titan
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A reread of Vonnegut's second (1959) novel (I first read it circa. 1986) and Sirens of Titan is the first truly great Vonnegut book. Winston Niles Rumfoord, a wealthy Newporter, blasts off in a private spaceship (shades of Richard Branson, methinks) and encounters a chrono-synclasic infundibula, a space-time phenomenon that causes him (and his dog) to travel through space as a wave function, materializing at regular intervals on Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. Rumfoord uses his newfound ability (and his ability to see the future) to control the fates of humans--in particular, he uses his resources to kidnap thousands of humans, take them to Mars, and brainwash them into training as the Army of Mars and launching an ill-fated invasion of Earth. One of Rumfoord's pawns is Malachi Constant, a billionaire, a buffoon, and the luckiest human on Earth. However, it turns out that Rumfoord himself (indeed, all of humanity) have themselves been the unwitting pawns of a super race of beings from the planet Tralfamadore (of whom more in Slaughterhouse-Five). The Sirens of Titan, only Vonnegut's second novel, features the narrative voice we all know and love. The plot is full of twists and turns and it's virtually impossible to tell were it's going. It's also insanely funny, as well as moving, heartbreaking, and full of Vonnegut's takes on the follies (and virtues) of mankind. One of Vonnegut's best books. In Palm Sunday, he rated it an A. I rate in A+.

Mother Night
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A second reread of Vonnegut's third (1961) novel (I first read it circa. 1986 and again in the late 1990s when the movie version came out). It is somewhat unusual in the Vonnegut canon in that is has absolutely no science or science-fiction elements. Mother Night is subtitled "The Confessions of Howard W. Campbell, Jr.," a playwright who emigrated to Germany between the wars. When World War II breaks out, he is recruited by an American military officer to spy on the Nazi regime and send coded messages via a pro-Nazi radio program. Campbell does not sympathize with the Nazis; he has no particular political leanings whatsoever, and is content to maintain loyalty solely to he and his wife Helga's "nation of two"--until she disappears during the war and is presumed dead. He goes along with the Government's plan. Unfortunately, after the war, no one knew he was actually an American spy and he is vilified by the world as a former Nazi. Campbell returns to the U.S. in seeming anonymity, until he is sought out and exposed by some new "friends"--neo-Nazis who have, to his chagrin, taken him to be their role model. The moral of the book, stated at the outset, is "We are what we pretend to be, so we had better be careful about what we pretend to be." What is the nature of morality and personal responsibility--and are good intentions ever enough? Campbell says at one point (and this should be tattooed on the forehead of anyone in talk radio today): "I had hoped, as a broadcaster, to be merely ludicrous, but this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate." It's a short but brilliant novel. In Palm Sunday, Vonnegut rated it an A. I agree. There was a movie made of it in 1996 starring Nick Nolte which, as I recall, was pretty faithful to the book.

Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A reread of Vonnegut's fourth (1963) novel. Only slightly less freewheeling as The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle is the first "full-fledged" Vonnegut novel. It is a wild ride that begins with a writer starting to research a biography about Felix Hoenikker, a (fictional) father of the atom bomb and ends with the writer accidentally becoming President of a small island nation in the Caribbean. In between, he is introduced to the odd Hoenikker family (including the vengeful midget son Newt who is obsessed with the children's string game cat's cradle--"Where's the damn cat? Where's the damn cradle?"), learns of Dr. Hoenikker's other doomsday weapon: ice-nine (a type of ice that has a much much higher melting point than regular ice and, if it were to be let loose, would end the world as we know it), and discovers a religion called Bokonism that is founded (overtly, that is) on "foma," or lies. Cat's Cradle is a wickedly sharp satire of human nature, politics, science, and religion. The book was also accepted as Vonnegut Masters thesis in anthropology by the University of Chicago. Definitely one of the best Vonnegut novels. It is also the fist book to include bits of "conceptual continuity" (to use Frank Zappa's phrase; that is, recurring characters (the Rumfoord family from Sirens of Titan) and places (Ilium, NY) from Player Piano.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A reread of Vonnegut's fifth (1965) novel. Eliot Rosewater is the scion of a rich and powerful family. Eliot's father is a Senator and Rosewater County, Indiana, was named after the family. The Rosewater Foundation was set up to allow successive generations of Rosewaters to live their well-heeled lives. Trouble is, Eliot decides to set himself up in unprepossessing digs in the heart of Rosewater County and use the money to help the down-and-out of his eponymous county. Naturally, his family thinks he's insane and his father seeks to have him committed and a young, ambitious lawyer seeks to also prove that Eliot is insane so a middle-class Rhode Island-based offshoot of the Rosewater family can get the money. Eliot Rosewater isn't the Christ figure he may seem (he is an alcoholic), but his baptismal speech over the birth of twins--"There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind"--sums up Eliot's philosophy. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater also includes more conceptual continuity; Rosewater's favorite author is Kilgore Trout, etc. A bit heavy-handed, perhaps, but this is one of Vonnegut's most acidly satirical novels, dealing as it does with money, greed, hypocrisy, and human nature.

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Read: Apr. 2007
Fiction

A reread of Vonnegut's sixth (1968) novel, the breakthrough book that made his reputation. It has typically been classified as an "antiwar" book (well, only a $^%$# moron would write a pro-war book), and it's easy to get that impression, but the war sections are more or less "telling it like it is," in that much of it comprises Vonnegut's own experiences as a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II. However, the true protagonist of the book is the hapless Billy Pilgrim who, we are told at the outset, "has become unstuck in time." That is, he experiences the events of his life in random order, zipping back and forth from childhood, to his experiences in WWII, to his life as a successful optometrist in Ilium, NY, to his being kidnapped by aliens from Tralfamadore (them again!) and placed in a human zoo. Slaughterhouse-Five (the title comes from the place where the POWs were housed in Dresden and where Billy Pilgrim--and Vonnegut (his own character makes a couple of cameos)--waited out the Allied bombing) also introduces us to the phrase that led just about every obit of Vonnegut--"So it goes." This refrain occurs whenever someone in the book dies and is meant to reflect the Tralfamadorian philosophy about death and time; that is, they see time all at once, not as a sequence of moments, so a person isn't really dead since they are alive at all the moments in the past. "So it goes" is merely the blase acceptance of death. Slaughterhouse-Five is a wry satire, the culmination of everything Vonnegut has written up to that point (it also has more conceptual continuity, in that Kilgore Trout returns, Eliot Rosewater is a character, and Howard W. Campbell, Jr.--from Mother Night--makes a cameo, as well). There was also a not-bad-from-what-I-recall movie made of it in 1972 directed by George Roy Hill.

Buzz Off

What's up with this?

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.
...
So far, colony collapse disorder has been found in 27 states, according to Bee Alert Technology Inc., a company monitoring the problem. A recent survey of 13 states by the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that 26 percent of beekeepers had lost half of their bee colonies between September and March.

Lest anyone ask "who cares?" well, we should:

Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s, even as the crops that rely on them, such as California almonds, have grown. In October, at about the time that beekeepers were experiencing huge bee losses, a study by the National Academy of Sciences questioned whether American agriculture was relying too heavily on one type of pollinator, the honeybee.

Wait, I was taking this seriously until one goofy line crept in:

Bee colonies have been under stress in recent years as more beekeepers have resorted to crisscrossing the country with 18-wheel trucks full of bees in search of pollination work.

Ah, the good old "dangling modifier": "bees in search of pollination work." Do they swarm on roadsides, with teeny tiny signs around their necks that read "Will pollinate for food?" I assume the writer meant that the beekeepers were looking for pollination work (not that that's any less goofy).

These bees may suffer from a diet that includes artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy drinks and power bars. In several states, suburban sprawl has limited the bees’ natural forage areas.

Giving bees Red Bull is never a good idea either; maybe that was what caused the so-called "killer bees."

There Goes the Neighborhood

Listen:

Astronomers have found a more-or-less Earth-like planet orbiting close to the red-dwarf star Gliese 581 (in the constellation Libra):

The newfound planet has a minimum mass just five times that of Earth and a diameter perhaps 50% larger, meaning gravity at the surface would be about twice as strong.

This "super-Earth" circles the star Gliese 581 every 13 days at a distance of just 11 million kilometers (7 million miles). That's just 7% of the Earth-Sun distance, and if the host star were truly Sunlike the planet would be broiling hot. But Gleise 581 is a red dwarf (spectral type M3), considerably smaller, cooler, and dimmer than the Sun.

This means the new planet orbits within the star's "habitable zone." According to Stéphane Udry, who led the discovery team, its mean temperature is probably between 0° and 40° Celsius (30° and 100° F), so any water on its surface would be liquid. Moreover, notes Udry, "Models predict that the planet should be either rocky — like our Earth — or fully covered with oceans."

Gliese 581 is 20.5 light years away from Earth. This means that if you were in a starship traveling at the speed of light and you left on the 5:15 today out of Albany/Rensselaer, you would get there just before New Year 2028--although I hear that, if life is discovered, they will build a toll road that will shave one hour off the trip.

If there is life on this planet, let's hope it's intelligent life. My litmus test would be if they have cellphones or not. If yes, let's keep the heck away from it.

Zap!

Our favo[u]rite British gizmo reviewer, Dr. Ashen, is back (via Gizmodo) with a review of the Megacrisper, a little device for making crisps (i.e., potato chips) in the microwave.
He's got some production values this time, a step up from his previous reviews of a piece of shite mp4 player or a laser pen.

Generation Gap

I was in a bar in Albany last night waiting for a friend to show up and I was reading the New York Times online on my BlackBerry. Meanwhile, a 20-something guy sitting next to me was reading a print newspaper. Hah! Tell me I'm over-the-hill...

Like Shreds Through the Paper Shredder...

The days of our lives:

Susanna Hertrich’s Chrono_Shredder will have one of two effects: make one infinitely more productive, or spiraling into a pit of shame and self-persecution. As one piece in a series of “fictional” products designed to be useful for “human hibernation”, the Chrono_Shredder, well, continually shreds a calendar over a 365-day period, allowing the owner to not only tangibly judge the time passed, but also reflect upon their human waste and consumption.

Love Shack

From The Onion:

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business

Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.

"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."
...
"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."
...
"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"
...
"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."

Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."

All Quiet on the Western Font?

Well, then: I suspect this is more tongue-in-cheek than it comes off, but a couple of graphic designers are seeking to ban the use of the font Comic Sans, that bane of PowerPoint presentations:

My wife Holly and I are both graphic designers, and when we realized that we shared a common disgust for inappropriate Comic Sans usage we decided that rather than just complain about it we should take action.
...
In short, it's just not safe for unregulated public use. It should be handled like controlled substances or firearms, and should be used only by licensed professionals in very specific settings. Since we can't have it that way, I'm afraid it should be banned altogether.

Ah. True, I am not a fan of the font but as for launching a campaign to eradicate it, well, I guess I have a life...

Back Talk

Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan and Sir Mix-a-Lot (it would be an eclectic person indeed who fell into both camps) may enjoy this cheeky operetta-style version of "Baby Got Back" more or less synced with a sequence from "The Pirates of Penzance."

VoIP: The Dork Side

So I was in Boston at the On Demand Expo yesterday and I was wandering down the hallway past the meeting rooms, where folks were glued to cellphones (oh, how pleasant life was before them!). One person was apparently using VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and lacked the proper accoutrements, as he was holding his laptop computer up to his head, listening with a very short pair of iPod headphones and talking into the PC's built-in mike. It looked massively dorky. I wonder if the computer's microphone was sensitive enough to have picked up my laughter as I walked by.

The Bird's

Back in 2005, one of my favorite albums of the year was The Mysterious Production of Eggs by Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird (violin, guitar, xylophone, and other things, as well as award-winning whistling). (I had blogged about it here.) His new album is called Armchair Apocrypha and even if it is not as brilliant as MPOE, I still have not stopped playing it for the past three weeks. The album opens with a meditation on a "Fiery Crash" that frequent flyers make prior to boarding a silver glemaing death machine--I mean a plane. But then maybe that was just me... "Imitosis," my favorite track, began life as the song "I" on Bird's 2003 album Weather Systems, here expanded, and for the better. Throughout, there is Bird's odd yet compelling and thoughtful lyrics and some of the best music you're not likely to hear on the radio. Mi hermano and I have tickets to see Bird on Boston next month and I cannot wait.

Bird appeared on Letterman last week, performing the song "Plasticities." It is presented herewith.

I Knew They Wouldn't Last

Says Business Week:

The world's oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi, in operation under the founders' descendants since 578, succumbed to excess debt and an unfavorable business climate in 2006.

How do you make a family business last for 14 centuries? Kongo Gumi's case suggests that it's a good idea to operate in a stable industry. Few industries could be less flighty than Buddhist temple construction. The belief system has survived for thousands of years and has many millions of adherents.

So what did them in?

Despite its incredible history, it was a set of ordinary circumstances that brought Kongo Gumi down at last. Two factors were primarily responsible. First, during the 1980s bubble economy in Japan, the company borrowed heavily to invest in real estate. After the bubble burst in the 1992-93 recession, the assets secured by Kongo Gumi's debt shrank in value. Second, social changes in Japan brought about declining contributions to temples. As a result, demand for Kongo Gumi's temple-building services dropped sharply beginning in 1998.

The Kindness of Strangers

This June, the guitarist--Alan Morse--for one of the best (and one of my favorite) neo-progressive rock bands working today (Spock's Beard) is embarking on 545-mile bike ride as part of AIDS/LifeCycle, a 7-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money to make a world of difference in the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. The event is cosponsored by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. For more information and/or to support Alan by making a donation, visit his AIDS/LifeCycle site here.

So It Goes

Listen:

One of my all-time favorite writers has died. From the New York Times:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84....

Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz.

Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.

Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?

He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”

Not all Mr. Vonnegut’s themes were metaphysical. With a blend of vernacular writing, science fiction, jokes and philosophy, he also wrote about the banalities of consumer culture, for example, or the destruction of the environment.

I discovered Vonnegut in college and over the course of one summer read all of his novels (up to that point). Slaughterhouse-Five and Cats Cradle get all the attention (and deservedly), but Galapagos was always one of my personal favorites of his. We will miss you, Kurt.

Time to go back and reread...

Hare-Raising Adventures

The niece Lucy came to visit for Easter weekend. I take full responsibility for the bunny suit, as well as the repercussions headed my way in about 12 years...

Mal Content

Tom Robbins (I think) once mentioned in a novel that a person's personality ccould be determined by which Beatle you liked the best (I always preferred John, make of that what you will) but this Internet quiz uses the characters in the brilliant-but-cancelled TV series Firefly (and subsequent movie Serenity) to gauge a person's personal traits. Apparently, I am Mal Reynolds. Damn. I was hoping to be a Reaver.

Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 65% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 55% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 50% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 45% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 45% A Reaver (Cannibal) 35% River (Stowaway) 30% Inara Serra (Companion) 25% Alliance 20% Wash (Ship Pilot) 20% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 10%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz