There are search engines and browsers, but they are not the same thing.

The browser is the program you open (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome) to browse the web in.  It has a bar toward the top with “http://” starting out a string of text, usually with .com or .php at the end.  You can set your home page (what pops up when you open your browser) through the “tools” or “options” menu.

A search engine is a website (Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing, Ask).  You can browse to it and use it to search the web, but it is not a “browser.”

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For the time being, you can watch the new version of Jane Austen’s Emma on YouTube until someone reports it and it gets taken down.

I own the Kate Beckinsale version (also on YouTube, though the video quality is rougher) and prefer Kate’s portrayal simply because her facial expressions aren’t as exaggerated. She also has much better posture.

The 2009 version is good, and everyone does a great job (I particularly like that they made Emma insecure about how little she gets out in the world), but I just prefer the Kate Beckinsale one. It’s part personal taste (if you enjoy your leading ladies lively and haphazard, the 2009 version is for you), and partly that I enjoyed the book and the 2009 version takes a few liberties with showing scenes that are only alluded to. The Beckinsale version keeps to the book more strictly and has an overall more authentic feel.

Also, I don’t think “Dumbledore” when I look at her father. (Yes, Dumbledore is in the 2009 one. He does much better at this role than his portrayal of Dumbledore, though.)

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My character database is huge.  And a mess.  I’m trying to keep track of how old everyone is in any particular story so that I don’t make a huge mistake and call someone a teenager when they’re supposed to be in their thirties, but this effort requires coordination of character birthdays, event dates, and who is connected to whom.

It’s a bit overwhelming.  I’m currently making a character tree in Photoshop, just to get everyone’s affiliations down in a visual way.  So far, I have 62 characters on the map.  Around 15 of those never even show up anywhere, and another 10 only have bit parts.

My main concern is keeping track of character’s ages in relation to each other and events. I’m awful at math, and I’m terrified of getting anyone’s age off by even a day. Silly, I know, but true.

It’s just that I want something that will keep everything in order even while I’m switching everything around.

I started looking into Timeline software with calendar options. Bee Docs looks good except that it’s for Macs. They recommend SmartDraw for Windows, though they don’t market it to writers like Bee Docs does. (I do like that you can make images of your info just by asking the program to.)

The thing is, those programs aren’t precisely for writers, though writers can use them. Programs that are for writers seem to be all about strict boxes you put your text in or offering active “word counters” (or even offering a new word processor — which I wouldn’t trust as far as a random executable file in my email) instead of allowing the user to choose their own options. Frankly, I just care about keeping all my ideas straight so I don’t make mistakes. Organizing. That’s what I need.

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Dr. Elliott once said in the midst of his English lit lecture:

“If you ever write a book and want to wrench your reader’s heartstrings, create a family and then tear it apart.”

I guess the best description of me in high school could be pulled from the INFJ personality profile:

“INFJs have a rich, vivid inner life, which they may be reluctant to share with those around them. […] [T]hey are guarded in expressing their own feelings, especially to new people, and so tend to establish close relationships slowly. INFJs tend to be easily hurt, though they may not reveal this except to their closest companions.”

I’ve always been very reserved — sometimes perceived as standoffish or uncaring — due to extreme emotional vulnerability. The people who most often recognized me behind my reserve (before I ever said a word to them) tended to be other introverts. The best (though not the only) example would be my friend Dee. She approached me softly and unexpectedly in gym freshman year and I felt an instinctive understanding with her. I saw some of my own shyness in her, but she’d reached out in her own quiet way and made it easy for me to feel safe. I believe she knew how to get past my reserve simply because she knew what it was like to be afraid of opening up.

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