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Watching a hamster in an exercise ball chase a bemused cat down the hall? Funniest. Thing. Ever. It's been proven that Casper isn't the brightest crayon in the box but he's cute in his dorkiness. Maybe I should've called him Roger.

Hamster doesn't bite. Clearly cousin is some level of incompetent given that I haven't handled a hamster in years, yet managed the not getting bitten thing just fine with patience and a couple of internet tips. That or it was sheer terror of my two small second cousins who terrify *me*, so I can't really blame her. If I was a hamster, I'd bite them too.

Musings on literature and Dark Lords called Bob.

Flicking through Tamora Pierce's In the Hand of the Goddess this morning, was struck by a thought; the bad guy's called Roger and all I remember from my first reading -- way, way back, before I'd so much as heard of tennis tournaments other than Wimbledon, never mind a guy called Federer -- is that I disliked him instantly. Not based on the way he was written although let's face it, the bad guy in fantasy is usually so obvious he may as well have a neon sign flashing "EVIL! EVIL!" in the text. No, I disliked him because I didn't like the name. I've never known a Roger in real life at all, there's no particular trauma or bad connotations to it for me, I just didn't *like* it. I remember reflecting at the time that it was the perfect name for a bad guy.

Obviously I got over that particular opinion. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing particulary evil about Roger Federer. I mean, I'd quite happily bet my entire book collection on him not torturing small kittens or plotting bodily harm against the rest of the locker room in his spare time. Except -- if he's not evil, what's the deal with our theory that he's the Devil? I can't imagine us coming with the same theory for Andy Roddick, purely because the Devil being called 'Andy'?! Yeah, like that'll happen.

Even better, why did I recently find during some idle magazine flicking that an archaic name for the Devil is Old Rodger? See, there's no way for my twelve-year-old self, hating Pierce's 'Roger', to have known that. It took me completely by surprise (though that quickly wore off enough for me to gleefully text the 'proof' to lossi.) What I'm saying is; is there something about the *name* Roger that suggests evil? Is the reason I spent the entirety of Northern Lights in a love-hate-indifferent relationship to the character Roger because, for me, the name *couldn't* belong to one of the good guys?

'Roger' is just an example, because it's the one that started me wondering this morning. Would a bad guy called Luke be quite as scary as one called, say, Vandemar? Why did Voldemort *really* rename himself from 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' and would he have been as successful if he'd decided "To hell with it; I'll call myself Marvolo instead." Not exactly a name to strike terror into the masses. It's not to do with meanings either; I love etmology as much as anyone but considering 'Cameron' means 'bent nose', I doubt Cameron Diaz gets many people laughing at it on being introduced. It's more subconscious, social prejudicing that people probably wouldn't even be aware they were doing.

Prejudicing in fantasy literature on the basis of names. Maybe I should write a new dissertation proposal: "A Dark Lord Named Bob and Why it Wouldn't Work".

It kills me, *every* time.

I'd forgotten that, on the episode with the Carver, Hamster says jokingly of Jeremy "He is my partner and also my lover" in a phony Dutch accent. And then a moment later walks across to James complaining that he'll never be able to forget being squashed between Jeremy's thighs in a Dutch three-wheeler.

I wish I could slash this show. Wish it with a *passion*.

Un-related topic: I want to do this. *Stop* me.