Jessica, what role is that?

Julie Mao from Leviathan Wakes. Conversation is happening in a Goodreads "What would you cast in the movie" thread, and people are falling over themselves to avoid suggesting actual Chinese actresses. (And no, dude, saying that lastname Mao could look "white or any other ethnicity" is not good enough. Not if all your "any other ethnicity" actor picks ARE WHITE.)

Anderson Cooper has the Dyson guy on, because apparently he just bought one of the vacuums, and now he loves to vacuum. Adorable.

At least my apartment broker just texted me asking if the building management lady had called me back about signing the lease, which she hasn't. He offered to nudge her. AT LEAST SOME PEOPLE ARE OK.

Wait- I missed Jesse getting yelled at! What happened?

I got caught up in Hiro Protagonist casting, because a guy named Hiro is clearly Japanese

And his avatar is a samurai, and I'm pretty sure at one point Stephenson explicitly says that he's Japanese, or maybe that his mother was Japanese. I didn't think there was a lot of room for misinterpretation there.

In real life, names don't tell you much, but when a fictional character's last name is Mao, I assume the authors are trying to tell me something about her nationality.

Hiro Protagonist is actually half Korean half black. I don't think it's actually an argument worth having once someone quotes the book at you, and it's never poor form to quote the book when your casting, even if you're "just" playing casting "games", because most of us will never do more. Why the fuck get mad at someone for using rules?

Wait- I missed Jesse getting yelled at! What happened?

I met the meanest higher-up here for the first time last night, so of course she yelled at me....about things I had no control over. It was slightly upsetting in the moment, but doesn't actually matter, and really the issues weren't my fault at all. So whatever.

In better news, I am super excited about Downton Abbey getting all the Emmy nominations! It's the only broadcast show nominated for Drama Series AND has at least one person in all of the acting categories!

Hiro Protagonist is actually half Korean half black

I should reread that book. Not just for this, but in general.

The person arguing with me (I maintain I wasn't arguing with him, since I had nothing to argue about--the stuff in the book is the stuff in the book--he can pay attention or not) was saying that first names, even into the future, are an excellent indicator of race. I asked if they may be a better (though fallible) indicator of ethnicity. Since his answer was "same thing!" I could walk away knowing my blood pressure was better this way. Like, seriously, why tell a black chick with a Hispanic/Israeli/Irish name and at least three Natashas on her mother's side that you can divine anything from first names--and use Natasha as your example?

In fact, rather than the pageview article everyone was reporting on yesterday like it had already had an effect on all the babies named in 2012, I'd love to see a chart of naming trends in ethnicities. Who wants to call their kid Arya? Just white Anglo Americans? Who?