Where the Golden Snidget Soars

NaNoWriMo and Fanficiton

2007-09-30T13:56:00.000-04:00

So, anyone else looking forward to November? I've decided that after planning (in a rather desperate sort of fashion) my own novel since March, I was going to really haul ass and try to wrap it up this month so I can write a really crappy first draft of it for NaNoWriMo. Can I write 50,000 words in a month? I dunno. I guess we'll see, won't we? My biggest problem is that I'm a perfectionist and I can't stand to write something I don't think is my best. That is why this should be a help for me - I've been second guessing myself so much through this whole planning process I'm just not getting much done. This will be the perfect chance to just go for it. After all, I need to follow my own advice, the same advice I give to everyone I tutor in creative writing - come to me with a first draft because we can't improve on something that isn't there.
If anyone is interested in writing a quantity-over-quality novel in a month, the link is here. Sign ups start tomorrow. Last year I didn't stumble face first into the website until partway through the month and couldn't think of beginning then, so I just stuck around and offered others advice and encouragement. It's a really fun time even if you don't think you can write that much. So come on and check it out - I hope to see you there.

On another note, I recently finished Lily's Decision and rewrote Crept Upon, which can both be found by searching for me, "Mrs. Phineas Nigellus," or either title at Fanfiction.net or Mnet FF (links on the sidebar). I'm still working on Crept Upon, The Toad's Comeuppance, Imperius My Heart, Pizza Headline, and James Potter: The Untold Story, however I took them all down for revision and some replotting and they probably won't make it back up for a while. My plan is that after the CrappyDraft of my novel, as I'm coming to call it, in November, I'm going to taking the first part of December off and just let it stew until Christmas break when I'll go back to it. Maybe that will be the perfect time (if there is any time, that is) to go back and revamp/add to some fanfiction. But it's on hiatus for now.

Aaaand We're Back

2007-09-30T13:27:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I don't feel that bad about my four + month hiatus. And I don't feel that bad that I never finished my NYC scrapbook postings. Suffice it to say that I had a good time. I mean, it isn't like I have such a huge following for this blog that I've disappointed/pissed people off by not posting. Incidentally, thank you to Venessa for commenting and causing a little notice to be sent to my inbox, inadvertently reminding me that I had a blog.

I'm going to try to update this as much as I can today. There's been a lot of new music/books in the past few months to add and several blogs have gone stale or need to be added. Come to think if it, I'm kind of upset with myself that I missed several good bitching opportunities in my absence. Ah well. More to come later.

NYC Part 6 - Good Night Nurse

2007-05-17T16:58:00.000-04:00

When we got back to the hotel that night two of us showered and the other two of us changed (I immediately donned my Mary shirt). After watching GoF for the third time (YES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HARRY POTTER FOLLOWED ME TO NYC AND BACK), we watched a little Cash Cab and decided to call it a night. Small problem - there were two beds and four girls to a room and my friend happened to have a cold. I didn't think much of it until much later on that night when I still couldn't get to sleep for all the gurgling, gushing, sniffing, moaning, and gulping coming from the other side of the bed. I did my best to tune it out until she turned over and began coughing - right in my face. Now, it was only our first day in NYC and I didn't want to be sick for the rest of the trip so, grudgingly, I took my pillow and laid down on the floor next to the bed. It was a pretty tight squeeze and I was right up against the heater, which was off its hinges on one side and consequently made a loud boom every time I shifted. But there was a problem: the heater was off its hinges. Yes, I know, but there was something worse than potentially waking up my roomies: because the heater wasn't tight, it was horribly drafty on the floor and I got cold fast. Luckily for me, the occupants of the other bed had both brought their own blankets and had thrown the ones the hotel had provided onto the floor. Thankfully, I got up to retrieve them (clash, clank, boom) and curled up under the comforter. Granted, I'm sure neither the floor nor the blanket were exactly the cleanest things in the room, but I woke up the next morning without any filth stains on my clothes and only minimally stiff. Jess awoke fully refreshed and insisted she had no recollection of the night before, and I spent the next day getting told by her friends and family that I should have just pushed her off. Anyway, I was the first one in the shower that morning and let me tell you - it wasn't so much about getting clean but you were practically waging war on the thing. The water went directly from scalding hot to icy cold, with literally no time in between. And I'm not talking about really-hot-bearable to really-chilly-bearable. It was turn-your-skin-red burning to finger-tips-turn-blue cold. At any rate, I made it through just in time for our chaperone to arrive bearing breakfast. She had bought us all bagels from a street vender except for Dani, who is allergic to nuts and could possibly have died. (They were damn good, too.) But moving past that, we donned our ugly black choir skirts and prepared for Cathedral Day. A day I looked forward to not so much for the cathedrals, but for the meeting up with the other choir/choir director (aka, the non-freshman choir containing most of my friends and the preferable choir director). But that, of course, is our next installment! (The suspense is unbearable, I know.)

Oh geez, that's one heck of a paragraph, ain't it?

NYC Part 5 - Dinner and Mary Poppins

2007-05-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

After seeing Ground Zero, we took a bus ride through Times Square to get to our restaurant for dinner.Yes, that is LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL which I totally want to see ohmigod, but there's another story. We dined at Ellen's Stardust Diner (below) where the waiters/waitresses all sing to you as you eat. It was kind of a 50s themed restaurant so the songs were old. My friend Jessi and I almost began having convulsions at the table when they sang Crazy Little Thing Called Love (we were both having flashbacks to 7th grade when our chorus director, Mr. Steves, made us sing and dance to that song in Pop Vocals). But the food was pretty good, minus the ice cream that Jessi decided not to eat at all and after forty minutes it was completely melted and still in the same shape. Needless to say, I regreted eating mine.

(You can just make out "Ellen's Stardust" under the Mamma Mia! sign and the "UST" of Stardust on the far left)

After dinner, we went to our hotel for the first time: Hotel Edison, just outside Times Square. And I mean, like, walk half a block down the street and you're IN Times Square close. Then we changed for the musical we were supposed to see that night. Here are my roomies and me in our beautiful Broadway clothes:

Then: off to Mary Poppins! This was my favorite part of the trip. I'm obviously a music/drama geek and this was my first opportunity to see a professional show live. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Gavin Lee as Bert was simply spectacular, I can honestly say the best I've ever seen. There was this one part where he was literally dancing upside down on the ceiling. He walked right up the wall and then: bam. There he was. Dancing. On the ceiling. Yup. Other than that, my favorite scenes were the chimney sweeps (an incredible dance number) and the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song. There were all these flashy lights and vibrant colors and (my favorite part) they actually mimed out every letter in the word extremely fast - especially Bert. It's such a talent! I'd love to learn to do it. (You know, like cheerleader-give-me-an-A style.) I bought a supercali... t-shirt, only it had the whole word. One of my friends, Joan, bought Mary's umbrella (for forty bucks!) and had a ball with it on the bus ride back. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life and I hope I get a chance to see uber more musicals. The only complaint I found with it was I didn't agree with Ashley Brown as Mary and I thought the little girl was a snot. But overall very well choregraphed and cast and acted and everthing.

Now tell me, how do you get a job in NYC as a Broadway musical reviewer? ;D

Characters Really Do Come True

2007-05-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

I've recently put all of my fanfics on hold and begun my own writing project. This is mainly because although fanfics are fun, I tend to write those more for practice than for characters, which are what drew me to writing in the first place. In my opinion, a story containing characters should not be written, some characters should be written with a story. That is difficult to do with someone else's characters, especially when there are already established plots. I have lists and lists of just characters and it's exciting to me to start a new story - it's almost like casting a show, choosing which characters could fit in where. Most of my characters are either blends of many people or one person who is used as a sort of frame. I began this project with two characters: one a blend, Mathew, and one a frame, Lila. I knew that these characters were inseparable friends and this was the original premise of my story. From there blossomed family and friends, professions and coworkers, plots and subplots. This was back in March. It wasn't until quite a bit later that I realized that one of the real people who inspired Mathew (in his case, there were about six) also had an extremely close female friend. Not thinking much of it, I moved along with the backstory, in which Mathew was forced to move away from Lila long before the story began, but was able to keep in contact with her by frequently coming to visit/stay at her house, his parents neither knowing nor caring. Well, it was just this weekend that I learned that the real guy is being forced to move away this summer and that his friend's mother had offered him to come live with them so he could stay in school here. How would you like to have gone to the same school district your whole life and be forced to move senior year? That is beyond sucking, let me tell you. Unfortunately, his mother is not allowing him to stay because it will be the last year she spends with him before he goes off to college. But the parallels here really struck me, all the same. I wish him good luck and hope he has as much good fortune as my Mathew does.
Come visit whenever you can, you'll be missed!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

2007-05-05T21:53:00.000-04:00

I just got back from seeing my high school's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I love plays and musicals with everything I am and look forward to these each time they run. I used to be in them and I'll hopefully be able to audition for the upcoming musical. But being in the audience always leaves me sad and longing for being up there with them, singing the songs and laughing the laughs they do. I think if they didn't have curtain call at the end it wouldn't hit me quite so hard, but I'm always left to ponder it on the dark ride home, watching lights stream past the windows of the car. Tonight a good friend of mine, Dani, played the sort-of lead, Puck. She is as good a person as she is talented an actress, and I've always admired her skills. Everyone knows she's fantastic and that she really loves what she does, but whenever you ask her whether she's going to be a stage actress after high school she hems and haws and changes the subject. During the bows tonight I only had to look at her to see the passion in her face and a rare exhiliration there you only see when she's on stage. As a bystander I can't imagine how I could do anything else with my life when I've found something I was so talented at and passionate for. There's always something about her when you meet her on the street, like she's dying to say something but can't quite find the words. But when she's on stage she becomes an entirely different person, free and excited and happy. Out of all my friends, she's the one person I really hope I never lose touch with because I know she's got it in her and I'd love to see where she goes.

Good luck, babe.

Poetry Month

2007-04-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

April is poetry month. I've never really been much of a poetry person (although Shel Silverstein is the man) neither to read nor to write. Yes, I've written a few poems here and there and adored a few poems here and there, but really my only connection with poetry is song lyrics, which I adore. Lyrics are just as much of a song to me as the vocalist or the music: this is why I can't stand commenting on a song that is playing on the radio and having my mother reply, "Oh, really? I wasn't listening to the lyrics..." Maybe next year I'll do an everyday post thing with lyrics. I know a lot of bloggers have been doing this with poetry but I frankly don't like enough poems. We'll see, but for now with two days left in April I'll content myself with posting a poem I do like:

If music be the food of love,
Sing on till I am fill'd with joy;
For then my list'ning soul you move
To pleasures that can never cloy.
Your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare
That you are music ev'rywhere.
Pleasures invade both eye and ear,
So fierce the transports are, they wound,
And all my senses feasted are,
Tho' yet the treat is only sound,
Sure I must perish by your charms,
Unless you save me in your arms.
-Colonel Henry Hevingham
(By the way, part of this one was made into a song. I've met the composer, Emily John, twice now and her music is beautiful. More about her later, but check it out. It's called Sing On.)

Other poems I like are just about everything by Shel Silverstein and a few by Jewel, though both of those books are staring at me mockingly across the room, taunting me to come all the way over and retrieve them. So I won't. Ha.

Daemons

2007-04-28T15:45:00.000-04:00

I'm going to admit here and now that I've only ever *started* Philip Pullman's series, though I promise it is on the list. (The neverending, excruciatingly long one.) But I took the test on the new movie site to see what mine would be anyway. Or, rather, I wanted to see if I got one of the THREE main ones everyone else seems to be getting. I did:

NYC Part 4 - Battery Park and Ground Zero

2007-04-24T19:30:00.001-04:00

We landed at Battery Park when we got off the final ferry for the final time. This was one of those times that was just literally picturesque:

Leave it to Leaha to want to get her picture taken with the psycho guy who thinks he's the Statue of Liberty. I think it rather heightens the effect that I had to take the picture amid a sea of newly purchased styrofoam libery hats. lmao

We then literally ran off to Ground Zero ("The buses are waiting!" my chorus director wailed.) in order to see a whole lot of green tarp blocking our view of anything that might be interesting. And the buses weren't there. But we were still able to get pictures by reaching up over the tarp (in the case of the guys and girls whom the guys liked) or through small holes. I went the small hole route but my camera didn't have zoom so it probably would have been better to take Rob up on his offer. Ahh well.
I promise that soon these posts will be less tourist-y and more inside the head of a teenager-y because it's been sort of a drag until now. Next should be better.

NYC Part 3 - Ellis Island and Lady Liberty

2007-04-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

...like Ellis Island:And we approach-eth:

It was very cold out on the back of the boat so we quickly came back inside. However, by the time we got close enough to the Statue of Liberty for pictures, the fumes from the engine were getting quite bad. So although we went back outside again, we all had headaches and were rather dizzy and more than one of us nearly toppled over the railing as a result. But she was that awesome that it took our minds off of it for a moment:

This is a much better picture, except for the sidewaysness, of course. But gimme a break. She's, you know, tall.

My chorus director made us sing our harmonizing version of the National Anthem at her feet and then we were left to wander for a bit. We were able to get in this picture just as it was beginning to sprinkle and by the time all five cameras had been used the rain was sluicing down everywhere. What did we do? Go to the gift shop, of course! I ended up buying a golden key that said "The Statue of Liberty" in green sparkles with the statue itself glittering near the top.

And by the way, I have no idea who that random lady in the white coat is.

NYC Part Two - The Arrival

2007-04-24T19:03:00.000-04:00

So to begin this series of short posts (literally - only five pictures to a post) is my arrival in NYC. Actually, this station could arguably be in NJ, but considering Lady Liberty herself is technically theirs I don't see why it matters much.

This place is so gorgeous inside. It seems to go on forever. This photo does not even begin to convey:

This is the outside through the back door where we had to wait in line for about forty minutes to get through the security checkpoint. Luckily, even the nurse with her epipens passed. ;P

After a long while, we finally boarded the ferry that would take us out to the islands. After an even longer while, the ferry actually began moving. It was warm inside (we were on the first floor) and there was a concessions stand/gift shop be the staircase. After it got going and we all had gained our sealegs, we walked out the back of the ferry where there was only a low railing keeping you from the icy harbor waters (and all the junk floating in them). It was very good for pictures, however. This is the same station as we were leaving it:

But in the distance much more exciting things were approaching...

NYC Part 1 - Intro

2007-04-24T15:33:00.000-04:00

I just recently returned from New York City with my chorus (first trip - whoot!) and have decided to post a series about my experiences there. The posts probably won't be as raw and emotional as I had originally hoped, considering the fact that I got back home Saturday evening and have been desperately trying to block out the whole thing since then in order to retain my sanity (it will become apparent why later). But I'll try to go into as much detail as possible and go chronologically so things can be followed. Ha. Like anyone's reading this anyway.

I'll wait and start a new post later about our trip to the Statue of Liberty, which we went to first, but I want to get my picture CD so I can add visuals. Muahahaha.

Cover Art!

2007-03-29T12:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, as is apparent, we received the cover art for the final friggin Harry Potter book. Yes, I'm flipping out, but I might as well give a review while I'm in the mindset. My first reaction to the US children's cover was: How ugly! I'm not exactly an orange/yellow person and much preferred the calmer greens and blues of the last two. However, I'm excited to see a cover that's actually in color, as opposed to OotP and HBP which were all different tones of one color. I was also surprised that the relative plainess of the cover - it shows only Harry with some colloseum-esque structure behind him and the sky. The other covers all featured either another character (HBP), extremely detailed background (OotP), or the 'montage' effect of the first four books. This is just Harry reaching (wearing a suspicous amulet looking thing and seemingly absent a scar, but nonetheless...). I do, however, have a theory on the color...could it be that these orange skies place Harry in the Underworld like some people predict? Orange skies are the stereotypical color (or at least in the scifi I've read) and so many clues point to the Underworld or hero's journey (Fluffy, anyone?). But more about that later.

On to the second cover (and I'm discussing these in the order I saw them, so my thought process may make sense): the UK children's edition. My analysis here is moving left to right, because this is the way I first viewed it seeing as how the mnet version is so damn big. To start: holy mama, is that a basilisk egg? Tell me it's not a basilisk egg...or could Nagini be having children??? That is one scary thought, I must admit. It is, however, the one thing on the cover that isn't really obvious what it could be, interestingly. Moving one step to the right, we see a castle that is presumably Hogwarts with a moon above it. Assuming this is Hogwarts and not some other house (which is exciting to ponder, but I'd rather like the assurance that we'll be seeing old hoggy warty again), this panel is pretty straightforward. Except of course for the fact that there is this cloud formation that looks disturbingly like Grawp's head, but I'll let it go for now. Third panel: spine. The only picture here is a triangle with a median drawn and a circle inscribed in it (oh lordy, there goes the math dork in me). This doesn't immediately jump out at me as a symbol for anything in particular, but I'm sure it means something, symbolically speaking. Remember, of course, that this is the same place where Gaunt's ring sat on the HBP cover. In conclusion, I dunno what it means. :) Next, we find panel four. This is my favorite panel of all the covers of all the books. Here we see Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the process of toppling into/out of a pile of treasure. The treasure contains coins, goblets, jewelry, gems, suits of armor, and something that looks suspiciously like Hufflepuff's cup, but it could be something else entirely. ;P Taking a closer look at Harry, we also see revealed a miniature hand on his shoulder, a protruding bat-like ear, and a tiny fist flailing about a sword. This is makes me excited for two reasons: a) THAT BETTER BE DOBBY AND NOT KREACHER I LOVE DOBBY OMG SMOOCHES!!! and b) Tell me he isn't holding Gryffindor's sword! Okay, true, if it's small enough for Dobby to handle it looks rather tiny to be the one Harry pulled out of the sorting hat in CoS. BUT if you think about it, Harry was only twelve in that book and he is depicted as age 17 here, obviously larger. Also, how many friggin swords in one series can be covered in rubies? And finally, the third thing that makes me so excited I want to burst. Playing off my theory above, the background to this entire scene as a stone archway - gee, where have we seen one of those babies before? - gateway to the Underworld, anyone? - through which we see (you guessed it) more of that ding dang orange sky. This scene is especially intriguing because they appear to be falling through the arch. Referring back to the US children's edition, Harry is standing inside a structure made out of arches under an orange sky. Yes. Yes. Mmhmm. Yes. Finally, Prongs resides in the last frame. Well, more specifically, Harry's Patronus resides in the last frame. Not sure what that means.

The UK adult cover is pretty straightforward - Slytherin's locket. Rather different from how I pictured it, but clearly so all the same.

Finally, we've got the expanded view of the US children's cover. So, before I get into what the scene actually depicts, I must add - curtains. Harry and Voldemort are in a round structure filled with arches under an orange sky framed by curtains. Nuff said. So they both seem to be reaching for something....I only hope it isn't the final Horcrux, launched into the air after sissy fiht between Harry and LV - that would be so cliched I might cry just from the stupidity of it. Also, is that Voldemort falling backwards (dead) or is it just the angle of the picture that makes it look that way? Either way, I hope that crowd of people behind them isn't all Death Eaters, cause that would suck for Harry. Arthur Levine said it was "a very interesting scene" or something like that. Can't wait, seriously.

Now, even more importantly, for the blurbs. "Harry has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task: that of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Never has Harry felt so alone, or faced a future so full of shadows. But Harry must somehow find within himself the strength to complete the task he has been given. He must leave the warmth, safety, and companionship of The Burrow and follow without fear or hesitation the inexorable path laid out for him! In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectactular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited. The spellbinding, richly woven narrative, which plunges, twists and turns at a breathtaking pace, confirms the author as a mistress of storytelling, whose books will be read, reread and read again."
and:
"Harry is waiting in Privet Drive. The Order of the Phoenix is coming to escort him safely away without Voldemort and his supporters knowing if they can. But what will Harry do then? How can he fulfil the momentous and seemingly impossible task that Professor Dumbledore has left him with?"
These don't tell us more than we really already knew, but it's exciting because I don't think they were released last time until much nearer the book, were they?

Okay, much too much for now, but I absolutely cannot wait for July 21st. Only 113 days left!

Miscellaneous

2007-03-25T13:26:00.000-04:00

There have been a lot of blog posts I've been meaning to make lately...I've recently participated in All-County Chorus for Monroe County (March 16-17), been to the most heartbreaking and inspiring Rachel's Challenge assembly I think it is possible to have (and had many thoughts about that - the whole post there would have probably been pages long), and St Paddy's day, of course. But because of the worst schedule this month ever, I just didn't get around to it. And for that I apologize. The Rachel's Challenge post still might happen (abbreviated, of course) and possibly some old-fashioned bitching about choir directors, but I can't say when. Soon, maybe.

In other news, I just did an english project which is the diary of Albert de Morcerf from The Count of Monte Cristo and I'm going to try and find a fanfic place to post it. I'll put the link on here if I do.

Peeps, yo!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T20:49:00.000-05:00

SuperJen to the Rescue?

2007-02-11T14:06:00.000-05:00

Er... *grins uncomfortably* This one might require a slight disclaimer before we proceed.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to offend or criticize anyone involved in the production of Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes' Full Series, it is merely a statement of frustration and disappointment in my own personal experience as a reader of the books.

Right. So continuing on...

I have recently read the first five books of the Full Series written by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes and have frankly found much of it appalling. Although the plots are passable and I adore the quirky characters, I find myself so distracted by the spelling, grammar, and continuity errors that I can hardly enjoy the books for what they should be. Let's begin with the names of the characters themselves. A tall, thin, rather flaky (but lovingly so), red-headed character is named Deedee. It's not until book number four that she is abruptly changed to Dee Dee without cause or explanation. Are you telling my that between two - count them, two - authors and at least one editor (Jen Enderlin is credited in various spots) not one of them caught the fact that one of the main characters suddenly changed the spelling of her name four books in? Likewise, 'Jamie' changed to 'Jaime' for a page (and she WAS the main character). Also, there are several places where characters or there relationships are confused. For example, in the second book (Full Tilt) Deedee is introduced by the 'narrator' as Max's cousin, when, in fact, they are siblings, and in Full Bloom Jamie has a line before she enters the scene and it is clear later that it should have been Annie talking. Throughout the series so far, I've seen numerous out-of-place commas (which, admittedly, aren't the end of the world and detract very little from the book overall) and counted at least five misplaced or entirely absent quotation marks (which I find, on the contrary, very irksome). And as one last complaint before I blaze into wrapup, I'm two-thirds through Full Bloom (since I read it several years ago) and more than ready to go at my neck with a pickax if another character gets a cup of coffee. We know you authors like coffee, for the love of Pete, you don't need to keep telling us.
So, this brings into question the abilities of Jen Enderlin as an editor. Or, it would if I could find a damn thing wrong with any of the Stephanie Plum books or other short romances Evanovich has released. The only new thing I can see in the equation is Charlotte Hughes, but certainly six eyes are better than four in cases like these? I just don't understand how such a potentially good series of books could go horribly wrong just from errors that should have worked out way before editing (or in editing at least). Perhaps I'm just a nitpicky or exceptionally perceptive reader, but I'm inclined to doubt it. I mean, I'm a teenager, for chrissake. You'd think several grown, trained adults would do a better job than me?

Long Days

2007-02-01T17:28:00.000-05:00

So...as for the Regents, I achieved a 95% (with the ridiculously huge curve, I might add). My math teacher was fuming because the test was so simple ("A sixth grader could pass it!") and that they still gave a 23 point (yes, 23) point curve. Meaning someone who scored a 42 could still pass. In the words of my teacher, "I wish they'd start giving a test that actually assesses if you have any mathmatical knowledge whatsoever." I'm just glad I passed.

In other news, we've obviously received the release date for Deathly Hallows and I have to say that I'm mad as hell. To begin with, let's look at the actual mode of releasing it. Jo put it in the news section on her site, completely disregarding the RoR door we've all become accustomed to seeing open at times of great news. Apart from being so exciting that the door is open in itself, it's fun to try to puzzle your way through. Then, when you finally do (or try for a while and cheat, which I wholeheartedly admit to doing) you feel such a sense of accomplishment that it makes whatever tidbit you receive so much more meaningful. In fact, if both Scholastic and Bloomsbury hadn't posted similar, I would have written it off as another hoax. Even looking at the news post itself, it lacks the humor/personality which is common to all Jo's writings. It was a mere stating of facts. Personally, I found it very anticlimatic. I mean, come on, it's the last book! After this it's over, done, none will come after! One would think something special would surround the release of the release date. If I'm not mistaken, we got a door opening for HBP.
Next, let's consider the release date itself. A mere week after the movie release, we get the book. If that's not crowding, nothing is. It's one thing to have "the summer of Potter" which many people have been predicting, but quite another to squish all these parties/releases/press events into two little weeks. I myself won't have the trouble of the exhaustion the fansite workers and JK herself will suffer, but even for the normal fan this is quite a lot. If the man in charge of these things worked for me he'd be fired. Bam. The poor overload of news and visitors this summer on these fansites...I hope both the servers and employees can take it. :)

Oh, and MuggleCast? Why do transcribers have to be 16?

Yikes!

2007-01-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

Ohmigod. I am taking the Math A freaking REGENTS EXAM Thursday. As in: two days from today. Yahh! So far I've gotten a 78%, 82%, and 92% on the practices (in that order) so this hopefully means I'll get my 80 (though an 85 would be better) on it so I don't cry. I'm really flipping out. Really.

Oh, and I am totally getting Niki's tattoo from Heroes when I turn eighteen. Totally. I mean, TELL ME that episode didn't rock last night.

2007 Calendar

2007-01-01T20:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, this may not be a calendar per se, but it's chronologically my goals (I ditched the 'events' part -it's too hard to tell) so it'll be more like a list.
We'll begin with some OVERALL GOALS FOR THE YEAR:
1) Keep a postive outlook.
2) Improve posture.

JANUARY:
1) Finish Lily's Decision.
-After the queue reopens I can submit chapter four: The Yule Ball. Which means there's only one more chapter left, which I still have to write (from scratch).
2) Pass Math Regents.
3) Finish PotterCast Episode 52.
4) Lose at least five pounds by the end of the month.

FEBRUARY:
1) Rewrite 'The Confrontation' in Crept Upon. Possibly add more to it.
2) Actually plan out the rest of Crept Upon.
-This was originally going to be one of those neverending go with the flow fics but I'll admit that not only has it gotten away from me, it's entirely left me in the dust.
3) Finish PotterCast Episode 68.
4) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

MARCH:
1) Finish Crept Upon, no matter how much time it takes/if there's any left.
2) Be FESTIVE for your favorite holiday, Lynne. No more 'I forgots.'
3) Plan which fics you want to continue. Delete the rest.
4) Get through area of writers block on The Toad's Comeuppance.
5) Try to finish first chapter of The Toad's Comeuppance, but don't sweat it if this doesn't happen.
6) Get ENTIRELY CAUGHT UP on PotterCast. Yay! Finally!
7) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

APRIL:
1) Finish the first chapter of The Toad's Comeuppance if you haven't.
2) Finish the plan for The Toad's Comeuppance.
3) It's yo b-day, gurl, have you some FUN!
4) Go to NYC with Chorus. Don't kill chorus director, nor roomates. Make them think you're crazy by chanting sorting hat songs under your breath. Secretly scour the streets for Melissa Anelli. Always carry pen and paper. (Bring TTC and iPod)
5) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

MAY:
1) Work on The Toad's Comeuppance.
2) Take a look at Collision Course.
3) Work on typing CoS.
4) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

JUNE:
1) Work on The Toad's Comeuppance. Try to come close to the end.
2) Pass all the Regents without having a nervous breakdown.
3) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

JULY:
1) Finish The Toad's Comeuppance.
2) Begin to plan novel in greater depth.
3) Attend OotP in theatres!
4) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

AUGUST:
1) Plan novel in depth. Freehand, please.
2) Distract yourself from the fact you AREN'T ATTENDING PROPHECY.
3) Look for any outlet at all that you can get into the Fandom.
4) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

SEPTEMBER:
1) Plan novel in depth.
2) Get involved in Banned Books Week. More importantly, get SCHOOL involved in Banned Books Week.
3) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

OCTOBER:
1) Plan novel in depth.
2) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

NOVEMBER:
1) Finish planning novel (if you can).
2) Participate in NANOWRIMO. Try to use this to write either a condensed pre-first draft version of novel or some small story that's been festering.
3) Lose five pounds by the end of the month.

DECEMBER:
1) Start writing novel!!
2) Lose your last five pounds!
3) Ring in the New Year in Style!!

Let's see how much I can follow this. I'll do monthly wrapups like I said before...hopefully I'll be able to follow my 2007 plan!

Amendments

2007-01-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Considering it's still New Years and everyone knows you can change/add resolutions until the second (that's when the year officially starts, anyway), I'm going to. Adding a corollary to #4: I don't necessarily expect to get a job at any of the sites considering I know nothing about websites, I just want to participate in more things - listener rebuttals, sending in theories, news, entering contests, going for jobs I think I can do (i.e. transcriber). I actually did apply for the Writing Services Team for Project Legilimensia, but it's been over a month and I haven't heard back, so I guess they don't want me. Ah, poop on them. ;P

Now, for my addition. It's not a big thing (like writing a novel or losing sixty pounds) but I've actually been meaning to do it for a while: improve my posture. Come to think of it, this is the start of a new era in my life. A thinner, smarter, more accomplished (and god can only pray organized) me. I think I'll try to make up a calendar later of something I can each month. (including expected highlights/major events) Then at the end of every month I'll do a wrapup of everything good that happened that shouldn't have, everything bad that happened that shouldn't have, and everything expected that did. This will hopefully help me to keep on track with my goals.

New Years Resolutions

2007-01-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about resolutions this year while waiting for the ball to drop, and I thought of a few. First of all, I'm resolving to lose five pounds a month, every month. If I do, then I'll be down where I need to be by next new years, which will be a good thing. Second, I need to get caught up on PotterCast this year. Really bad. By '08 I will be totally caught up on all my podcasts, come to think of it. That's much more like it. Third, I want to finish all my current fanfics because they've been hanging in limbo for almost two years now, for some. Either that, or decide to officially delete and be over with some of the worse ideas. Fourth, (and this one probably won't happen until summer) I'm resolving to get more involved in HP. I know that may sound impossible, but it's not. :) What I mean is, get more involved in the fandom, like, find a job to do at Leaky or Mugglenet or Veritaserum or something like that. It's time - I've been salivating over the staff for close to three years and I'm going to go insane soon. Fifth, and finally, 2007 will be the year I start seriously working on my novel. I have the basic idea of it, but there's a lot of planning and pinning down I need to do before I start to write (as in, ALL of the planning and pinning down) and I think it's high time I started.

And WHOOT to my first blog post of 2007!

Christmas Bliss

2006-12-28T16:24:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Not much happened this Christmas of note, but I feel obligated to blog about it anyway. So, I'll have to content myself with simply listing the gifts I received (which were all wonderful, by the way) which is rather boring to anyone reading this, if anyone's reading this, I'm afraid. But ah, we'll start at the start. From my parents came: an 80GB iPod which I have not yet let out of my sight, including a knubby green rubberized 'grass protector' case (which rocks) and glow in the dark 'vines' style scrollwheel protector; Mugglenet's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? (*cough* atrocious grammar *cough*) - I think that's the longest and most painfully never ending title in the History of a book, though the WWP series comes a close second; a genuine Alivans keychain bloodwood wand, complete with shiny gold pouch and certificate of authenticity; a bag of Lindor white chocolate truffles that are simply fabulous; and a ten pack of lip balms with flavors such as Reeses, Jelly Belly Cotton Candy, Hershey's, York Peppermint Patty, Sugar Daddy caramel, Bubble Yum, Twinkies, Cinnabon, and others. My dad got me an iTunes gift card with which I bought "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" by Jason Mraz, "It's the End of the Road" by Matt Goss, "Suddenly I See" and "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall, "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne, "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morrisette, "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia, "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by LeAnn Rimes, "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar, "If You Could Only See" by Tonic, "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" by Fuel, "Let This Go" by 112, "I Try" by Macy Gray, "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla, and "Through Glass" by Stone Sour, all of which I should have bought ages ago but just haven't gotten around to it. One aunt got me a red faux suede photo album and from another I received a Barnes and Noble Gift card which yielded: The Riddles of Epsilon by Christine Morton-Shaw, The Recruit, The Dealer, and Maximum Security, the first three in a series by Robert Muchamore, and Mind Games by Michael Powell which I've already managed to finish - it is a nice little book about the way the human mind works and subconcious behavior, but I'm sad to say that none of the information was very original and indeed I had read most of it in other books of the like, though it was a nice compilation.

On top of all the new books I bought, I'm currently rereading Narnia (it's amazing how much different the story is when you're a teenager as opposed to when you're 8 or 9) and desperately trying to organize my writing in a way that I can make some kind of update to something (hopefully Lily's Decision) before my vacation ends and I have to make up all the work I missed because I was out sick for a week, AND do the 30-page religions project for World that I'll hopefully wangle and extension on. So needless to say, blog-posting probably will not be in my top ten list of things to do for a while, so I probably won't be back unless something HUGE happens until the weekend after New Years. Actually, speaking of New Years, I'll probably do a post that night. Fingers crossed that Ryan Seacrest will be cohosting the Dick Clark special again. :D

JK Rowling Broke the Internet

2006-12-21T12:30:00.000-05:00

It's true: Mugglenet is the only major fansite still up. She killed Leaky and HPANA... What are we going to do with this woman?

Deep Breath...

2006-12-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At once, it sounds so much more serious than the somewhat playful Half-Blood Prince, which was the title we received two years ago around this time. 'Deathly' means 'of or pertaining to death; deadly,' and 'Hallows' means 'to set apart; to make holy.' So it can be assumed that this title references "one who is made holy in death." However, for this to happen, there has to, of course, be a death. My mind immediately jumped to Harry (he's already somewhat holy, and many predict his death) but then common sense sunk in: Jo wouldn't make the title Harry Potter and Harry Potter, just as he couldn't have been the Half-Blood Prince. Looking back among the titles, their subject matter has gotten more and more important as the books went on: Order of the Phoenix is crucial to the fight against Voldemort, Snape's loyalty is quite possibly even more crucial to the fight against Voldemort, which leaves, of course, that's right, Voldemort. I'm not saying that Voldemort will be made holy in the religious sense of the word, as there is little chance of him fleeing to the light side. However, if he does die (which many people hope and predict) he and his actions will certainly be immortalized in the hearts and society of their culture, going back to the second meaning of Hallows: to set apart. There is no doubt in my mind now that Voldemort will die, whether or not Harry goes with him. This title has all the mystery, suspense, and theorizing potential any fan could have hoped for as the conclusion to this septology. Plus, it sounds cool. ;P

HARRY POTTER BOOK 7 TITLE REVEALED!

2006-12-21T12:02:00.000-05:00

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S FINALLY HERE! THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!
HERE IT IS:

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis by moi once I've calmed down a notch.

And the verdict is...

2006-12-09T11:11:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy, I never thought I would do as well as I did. Out of the fifty-one people who took the test, four got in the nineties, twelve got in the eighties, twenty some are in the seventies, and the rest failed. So overall I'm pretty happy. Wanna know what I got?

!!!!!!!*****83%*****!!!!!!!
YES!!!

Holiday Concerts

2006-12-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

The holidays are here once again. What this means for me is oodles of concerts to perform and attend and they've already begun. Last Thursday TQ and MV sang at the local hospital for the tree lighting - it was a disaster, to say the least. My director couldn't be there so we were all on our own. The first song went fine - the girl playing the pitch pipe even got that little problem worked out so she didn't have to play an A flat just to get a G. The second song started fine. It was a version of Deck the Hall that went verse, interlude, verse, interlude, verse, ending. We started the first verse perfectly, and then stopped. Just stopped. All of us. At the same time. It was pretty embarrassing, but we were able to laugh it off and continue. On the third song, we skipped a verse entirely but there was no awkward pause and I don't think many people noticed. The worst part of the whole thing was that MV was standing at the bottom of the stairs absolutely dying with laughter. Do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face when twenty of your friends are laughing? So anyway, MV sang (they were slightly off on a few intros, but overall did much better than we) and all of us were ushered outside for the tree lighting. In the pouring rain. We were in our performing costumes (thin burgundy and navy dresses for the girls, dress shirts and slacks for the guys) and it was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g. We were all kind of huddled together and sang through our first couple carols before the crowd began to take pity on the group of shivering teenagers and started handing over umbrellas. By then, is was too late, though - the little paper booklets we were supposed to be reading our words from were ruined, so we proceeded to wing the second and third verses of popular carols: Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World, etc. The unbrellas helped a little bit, but we only ended up with about eight umbrellas for somewhere near forty people and if you've ever used an umbrella you know that an umbrella will only keep two people dry at a time. Which made us all clump tighter, of course, but all the umbrellas really accomplished was to get the people half-standing under them wetter, so we cut our caroling short and dashed inside for the refreshments.

Last night we participated in our neighborhood's Candlelight Walk, were we stood on a porch and sang while people walked around town with candles listening. Our director was there so we did much better; however, we ran out of carols too soon and ended up singing Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway to end the evening - very Christmas-y, I know.

We have the Christmas jazz concert for Triple tomorrow night, the Chorus concert next Tuesday, and the Choir concert the Tuesday after that. There's also a trip the mall, nursing home, and Christmas party coming up, so December should be very busy for me.

While we're in the cheer of the holidays, let me post an old carol from around the Potterverse (sometime last year, I believe). To the tune of Jingle Bells, now!:

Dashing through the snow, in a thestral open sleigh, over the lake we go, laughing all the way,
We see a rope clothesline, on it we see an ugly pair of graying underwear that we know belong to Snape!
Oh, jingle bells, Malfoy smells, Hagrid's got an itch, Ron is mad, Hermione's sad, and Harry caught the Snitch!

Merry Christmas!

AP World Test

2006-12-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, so maybe I'm feeling a tad guiltier than I admitted earlier. Or I could just be stressing over this test. Possibly a little bit of both. Anyway, we're having our first AP World test on Wednesday and I am freaking out. We're getting tested on everything we've learned so far this year (three months worth of material) in one mega-test. This wouldn't be so bad, except that his tests are sooo hard: it's a two year course and all of my friends in the sophomore year strive to get seventies. And these are honors kids. I've only failed one test in my life (which was totally unfair because I was out sick the entire unit and he made me take it anyway) and I'm not prepared to start now and bring down my GPA. It sucks that my school doesn't do ranking anymore, but it's still important for colleges and stuff. We have to study the Neolithic Revolution, China, India, Egypt, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Rome, Greece, the Punic Wars, and the Peloponnesian Wars, and write an essay on the status of women in all these civilizations due Monday (including a 38 page reading to go along with it). I know this is an AP, but he's seriously killing us this week. Bah!

Btw, it was a health test I failed in seventh grade with a 47%.

I am so untechnological...

2006-12-02T19:14:00.000-05:00

There's really isn't much more to it than that. I just added my blog to the Leaky Mug Blogs page and they asked me to put this little code thing in my blog. Well, I went into the little template thing and kept sticking it places but damned if I know how to make it show up. So I'll post it here for now:

Check out Leakymug.com/blogs for more blogs about the Harry Potter convention Lumos!

Oh, and I don't feel guilty about not updating for a long time because I'm the only person who knows this blog exists. Which is the only reason I'm really not trying to change that.

Dawwwwlish

2006-11-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

As loyal Potterheads will already know, John recently set a challenge to make a movie trailer involving Dawlish...there are three so far but this is my favorite one:

I laughed SO HARD last night...
(that's partly because I haven't listened to episode and TOTALLY didn't see it coming...silly me...)

Spawning Day

2006-11-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

There is a cute little creek running past my house that really has no purpose whatsoever; it comes from Lake Ontario and empties into the drainage ditch in front of my house. Today, however, my dad noticed something strange: there was a close to four foot long trout struggling to get upstream. He immediately called my mom and I and we rushed out to see. We soon saw what he did not; there was actually a total of five ginormous trout in our tiny, shallow little creek. We stood and watched for about an hour until they began to seem a little weary. My dad soon remembered that trout die after they spawn and my mom couldn't bear to watch them die in front of her, so we trudged back to the house. However, it was a very cool thing to watch. I've never seen fish that big! It truly was an amazing thing and I wish it would happen more than once a year (not that I have ever seen it before). So I hereby dedicate this blog entry to the five fish carcasses in the drainage ditch across the street. May you rest in peace.

Bomb Threats Galore

2006-11-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

In all the Halloween excitement, I realized I left out a little something: the bomb threats our school has been receiving the past few days. Apparently some stupid kid keeps trying to get out of school (it's working) by calling in to say there is a bomb in one of the toilets. Last time I use public restrooms. Anyway, I missed bio and TQ rehearsal because of it and it's frankly getting annoying. There have been two so far: the first, we piled four to seat on buses that barely hold two in a seat and drove about ten feet away from the school and stopped - sat there for about a half an hour. That was during bio. The second time was after school and there weren't as many kids in the building so they just walked us to the top of the hill - in the forty degree weather - to stand for almost an hour. All the play kids and most of the choirs were there so we huddled together and sung for most of the time. What the police must have thought, right? Our school might be about to blow into a billion itty bitty pieces and we're belting out Breakaway and Behind These Hazel Eyes in harmonies and singing Christmas carols in rounds. There's the Brockport Drama Department for you (even a few of the musically inclined teachers joined us). That's right, ladies and gentlemen: the days of silent fire drills are now over - Rudolph is all the rage!
Really, the only thing that truly ticked my off about the whole thing was that after two bomb threats, we didn't even make the local news. You'd think they'd at least mention it, even if they didn't have full coverage. When we discussed this in ap world my teacher said it was probably because it was so common these days that it wasn't really news if they didn't find anything and no one was killed/arrested/blown up. That's just sad. I'm sorry, but when bomb threats on children don't even make the news anymore...if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times:

What the hell is this world coming to?

Halloween Follow-Up

2006-11-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

So...there were some cool costumes at school yesterday...a troupe of Pac-men, the KFC Slasher, a geisha girl, a banana - but by far the creepiest was the Johnny Depp-style Willy Wonka. That dude was seriously terrifying. I mean, I had nightmares about the one in the movie for months, but to actually come face-to-face with one...*shivers*

On a better note, my mom made me the cutest Harry Potter themed card. It had a picture of Dobby next to to phrase "Not one of Santa's elves" but she had photoshopped Mr. Weasley's head onto Dobby's body! Mr. Weasley is my favorite character, in case you were wondering.

I just started a new writing piece called "Collision Course" which will probably never make it to the internet, but maybe I'll post it here. I don't know.

The Most Boring Halloween on the Face of the Planet (but I'm cool with it, really)

2006-10-31T15:43:00.000-05:00

Well, the title pretty much says it all. I'm not going trick-or-treating, there's never anyone to pass out candy to, and my costume is nonexistant (though I was telling people who asked at school that I was a sick teenager determined to infect anyone who made a wisecrack about her costume). And that was true - I was horribly sick all weekend and missed yesterday, which was thankfully only two classes. What I'll probably end up doing tonight is eating pizza with my parents (our Halloween tradition, whoopee), showering, hopping on some RPG sites for the evening, and eating as much candy as I can without throwing up (hell, maybe I will throw up - then I can eat more without being as guilty). I was going to listen to MuggleCast, but the promised episode is as of yet unreleased. Hey Andrew, get your butt in gear, will ya? Christ, now I'm talking to people who aren't even there. My fever must be coming back.

Speaking of RPG sites, I'd like to take a moment to recommend a few to anyone with a lot of time on their hands. Their names are Hogwarts Live and the Room of Requirement which are essentially the same thing (I believe they share a founder? They are almost exact...) and they aren't the typical roleplays - your type stuff in and other people respond, it's almost like a journey game where you have money and a job and even a bladder (which is annoying and expensive to accomodate, but whatever) and you fight forest creatures and eventually Voldemort (the Green Dragon) to gain ranks. The only major difference between them is that RoR is a much smaller community and stricter with rules. It's probably newer. But check them out - I'm had accounts at both places over the past three years and they're definitely addicting.

Without You

2006-10-25T16:47:00.000-04:00

I recently finished the book Without You written by the one and only Anthony Rapp. It was very insightful into theatre and RENT in particular, which is what encouraged me to pick up the book in the first place. His personal life was actually more interesting than I thought it would be - I've never been big on biographies - but I would not recommend it to children/teenagers (yeah, I realize I'm a teenager, kay?) for excessive swearing and pretty heavy sexual content. I mean, it's not porn, but there are few scenes that probably aren't the cleanest.

But more onto Anthony Rapp himself, I like that he wrote this because now I respect him not only as a fabulous actor/singer, but also as a writer. Some celebrities write their memoirs and you fall asleep halfway through the introduction. However, this was very well written and full of the best thing a writer can do - adjectives. I love adjectives, you would not even believe. When I got to the acknowledgements in the end, I read them for the hell of it to see if I recognized any names either from the book or real life. I thought it was cool he gave props to Melissa Anelli - queen of PotterCast) because it was almost like reading a clash of two worlds. My two obsessions - Harry Potter and RENT - came into one and I was frankly a little disconcerted. (Actually, there's a lot more to this story but it's taking up about six pages on my hard drive right now and I didn't want to crash this bog for trying to post it here - maybe I will someday, though).

Bottom line, I recommend this book to any RENT fans who want to learn more about Jonathan Larson or how RENT came to be (or Anthony Rapp, of course). It's very well written and the connections he makes are very insightful. Well done!

TV Shows

2006-10-17T16:57:00.000-04:00

Two nights in a row I spent staring at my tv screen in disbelief. First: 7th Heaven. I ask you - what is wrong with Eric??? I must know!!! What could possibly be worse than heart surgery? My heart stopped when Eric asked the doctor is he needed heart surgery again and the doctor replied: "I wish it were that." And now Eric is acting like he's going to die. I said this to my mom and she bluntly answered: "Well, they're on their seventh season, hon. They're probably looking for a way to kill him off so they can end the damn thing." Thanks, mom. But on to the finer points of the show:

1) I've been watching 7th Heaven since I was nine and I've probably seen all the episodes multiple times. So, as sad as it was for me to watch the 'final season' of 7th Heaven, I was relieved at the same time. You've gotta admit, past couple years the show has really deteriorated in both dialogue and plot. How many sets of twins can you friggin have in one family? Anyway, it struck me during this past episode that they are down to only three main characters: Lucy, Kevin, and Eric, one of which was not on the show when it began (I'm not counting Sam and David, here). They even had to bring back Ben just to have a plot. Grr.
2) Speaking of Ben, wasn't he totally hilarious? Between the birthday cake ("I want red velvet."), hitting on Miss Margo (that was her name?), and - er - 'walking in' on Kevin and Lucy, that's the first time I've laughed at that show in years. Okay, admittedly, the whole Kevin-ignoring-Eric thing was pretty funny, too.
3) Although I did laugh quite a bit, there was the (as my mom and I call them) 'major lecture' of the episode, and this one was correspondingly huger. I was screaming at Eric "Just shut up! Shut up! They know! You don't need to tell them!" It was soooo boring and it went on simply forever. At least it wasn't on god this time, I guess.

Also, another show: Heroes. *squeals* Okay, so Hiro went back in time to tell Peter WHAT!?!?!? Did Claire really kill that guy who raped and killed her? What ever went on with Matt - they didn't really clear that up? Will Nathan ever just freaking wake up? Bah! I want Mohinder to believe them, really I do. How will they ever fulfill their destiny without his help? And - I never understood - did Issac OD or did he just pass out? Oh god, I can't wait until Monday!

Snow on October 12

2006-10-13T16:49:00.000-04:00

That's right: New York state got slammed with almost half a foot of the fluffy white stuff last night. Some places got more, but we were lucky in that respect. However, I was (once again) cursed with the only school in the entire county that didn't close. None of us could believe it! And, you know, I lost power at home so I kinda figured school wouldn't be so bad today; at least it would be warm. But when we arrived this morning it was only to find that the school didn't have power either. And yet we were still expected to go. In the dark. The cold. Everyone was sure they would send us home after second period; technically if school is in session for half a day we don't have to make it up: but we didn't. We stayed all day - my friend and I even longer because we were the only two to show up for Triple Quartet rehearsal. So there was my day in a nutshell - luckily, my house was one of the first to regain power when some are expected to be out until the end of next week. So I'm sitting at home generally relishing in the fact that it is Friday and I don't have to do homework. Whoopee.

New MuggleCast.com

2006-10-12T15:41:00.000-04:00

Has anyone checked out the new mugglecast.com? It's so much better than the last version; the iPod thing seemed like a good idea, but it just didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, not to mention how annoying that mini scroller thing was. This new site is awesome (and very purple)! Other than the color, the thing I like the most about it is the *cough*PotterCast-like*cough* blog they installed on the front page. It's nice to see that different members are using it, too; I was afraid that only Andrew and Ben would post (because we all know how great Ben is at posting on blogs *eyeroll*), but we've already seen posts from Laura and Micah. Go Mugglecast!

I apologize for not posting a lot lately, it's just that I've had tons of homework. However, the sci mid-term and math project are both over with now, so I should have more time. While I'm on here, I might as well take a moment to complain about how NO ONE should be forced to take phys ed. We had to speedwalk almost two miles today and I'll be damned if I didn't get horribly windburned. Windburned, for god sakes! The actually walking wasn't even hard!

Another educational/medical disaster not-quite-so averted

2006-10-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's true. Yet ANOTHER one of my teachers has landed in the hosptial, though a different teacher for a very different reason. Did you know that high blood pressure kills over 50,000 people every year in America alone? The English teacher I had last year suffers from this among other things and yesterday I had to watch them carry her out of school in a stretcher. I don't think that any lasting harm will be done, but the information I've been able to scrounge is scarce. The only thing her students know is that she'll probably be out for most of next week. I remember when I had her last year she was out for almost three weeks after passing out in the stairwell. This is all very hard for us kids because she is the kind of teacher you can't help but adore, but with such little information all any of us could hope to do is put her in our thoughts and prayers.

It seems like medical disasters are coming thick and fast at Brockport High (adding to the total a girl I used to be friends with who passed out during science class last week and still isn't back at school). It isn't even Friday the 13th yet, people, what gives?!

W.O.M.B.A.T. Results Deilvered!

2006-10-06T13:33:00.000-04:00

Very psyched today...the W.O.M.B.A.T. results have been delivered! I was really worried, but I scraped my second Exceeds Expectations and couldn't be happier. I was rather disappointed, though, that there will only be one more W.O.M.B.A.T. left. Hopefully we won't have to wait another six months to see it (that would stink to the third degree). Congrats to everyone else who took them and passed and can't wait to see the next round!

Go, Blue Devils, Go!

2006-10-05T16:06:00.000-04:00

This week was homecoming week. Whoot. Today was the finale/Pep rally because we don't have school tomorrow (that sucks to have to have homecoming on a four day week, but I can definitely live with the whole four day weekend thing). Had much fun with face paint and mascots and school spirit abound. Juniors won the hall-decorating contest by bounds, though the seniors won most of the events in the Pep Rally (they always do). Freshmen, I'm proud to say, lost spectacularly to everyone in everything and got the crappy seats to boot. It was fun anyway though, much better than h l env that I would have had to go to otherwise. We were seated by grade which was unfortunate for me because almost all of my friends are sophomores or juniors and I kept getting booed for cheering them on in the relays. I did get to stand with two guys (one of them, Jake, in the video below) and they didn't notice me putting the string confetti all over their backs until the end (Jake laughed, Aaron still isn't speaking to me). What made it the best though, is that two of my best friends won Homecoming King and Queen for the freshmen year. We were all so proud of them!

In Potter news, we have a few new developments today:
1) The W.O.M.B.A.T. results are in the mail! We all know what that means...
2) It was finally confirmed that Evanna Lynch did, indeed, make those rockin' radishes. Isn't she just the most awesome person!?
3) PotterCast is finally officially annoyed with the world for not capitalizing the C, which I've hated for the longest. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, go here.

Oh, and one last rant before I sign off: this EXTREMELY annoying music teacher I had to deal with all through grade school finally retired last year. We literally threw a party. So image our surprise when upon walking into chorus rehearsal expecting to see the latest annoyance the OLD annoyance was standing there. She actually came out of retirement to sub in our choir for a day. She didn't know any of the music, kept calling people by the wrong name, and continually got mad at us for talking (I wanted to shout, "Not only are you an absolute SHREW, but you're a SUB on SPIRIT DAY running a class with OVER A HUNDRED TEENAGERS." Honestly, what did she expect?).

So I'm planning on trying to at least start the next chapter of either Crept Upon or Lily's Decision tonight, but it probably won't get finished.

EMO Jane and some geeks in my h eng class

2006-10-03T18:28:00.000-04:00

From experience I know I'm going to have to have an explanation to go along with this before I even think of posting it. So last year we were studying Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in h eng and our teacher gave us an assignment where we had to write about four different people in a love square to get us used to it so we could understand the play better. The story most people wrote up was pretty basic. And there was the group of class clowns: Jon, Cody, Noah, and Jake. Now, I've known these guys since kindergarten so it's second nature to me to write this off as just weird. I say this because I don't want anyone to be alarmed by it. BUT, having said that, we were in absolute HYSTERICS when these guys read it in front of our class last March. Now I guess they've decided to tape it, so here it is. Not fully done yet, but almost. And cross-dressing aside, these are the nicest guys you'll ever meet in the world.

Presenting: EMO Jane!

Poor Mrs. Rowcliffe never expected this when she gave the assignment.

Snapeward

2006-10-03T18:19:00.000-04:00

I know this is my third post tonight already, but I found this gem a while back and just had to post it. It's called 'Snapeward' from the lovely fan artist Makani, who is just awesome all around. Maybe you didn't laugh as hard as I did when you saw this, but Snape and Squidward are just about my favorite fictional characters of all time. I guess I just found our why. :P

A medical/educational disaster barely averted (somehow)

2006-10-03T17:54:00.000-04:00

We had TONS of science homework due today, little of which I actually completed, so imagine my delight when upon walking into h liv env today I saw a substitute sitting at the desk. Whoot! I was saved! My excitement, however, was short-lived. The sub proceeded to tell us that our not-so-young sci teacher had collapsed the earlier day after experiencing chest pains and was now in the hospital. Everyone immediately started griping about exams and lab papers and what not and I'm proud to say that I'm the only one who asked whether he was alright. The sub didn't know, said she was only a sub (and a phys ed teacher at that! who calls a phys ed teacher to run an honors bio class?), and that she didn't know when he would be back. Not satisfied with that, I called up my dad who works at the hospital and found out that not only did he not have a heart attack like many of us suspected, but he had been discharged this morning. Now I can go back to complaining about our microscope lab with a free conscience. ;)

I worked a little on my newest never-before-posted fic today, The Toad's Comeuppance, which is turning into a bigger project than I intended it to be. I'm almost done with the outline ('wow,' I can hear you saying, 'she actually made an outline for once') and then I can hopefully carry on and get it done before next summer. ;) There are only a few things left that I need to rough out and it *should* be smooth sailing. I also submitted the next chapter for Lily's Decision , 'Two Changes of Heart,' two days ago, so that one should be up soon.

Off to try and catch up on PotterCast, maybe listen to the new Leaky Mug and a RENT podcast or two. Ahh, the exciting life of a teenager.

PotterCast!

2006-10-03T15:31:00.000-04:00

Just checking in... I found this today about one of my favorite podcasts, PotterCast. I suppose by posting this I'm entering in the blog challenge, but considering I'm about fifty episodes behind I don't really know the rules. Okay, okay, don't shoot! I've downloaded every single episode since the beginning of the show but just haven't had time to listen. I'm beginning to really make progress now, though. Proud to be at episode 19!! Er...yeah. So anyway, I found this on the PotterCast website and figured I'd spam myself a bit and post it here. Hooray for PotterCast!

Click here for episodes and info; click here to subscribe via iTunes, and click here to use this banner on your space and win prizes!

Hello all, and welcome to this legendary event!

2006-10-01T18:54:00.000-04:00

Yay! The first post of my new blog...all this free space to fill up! I guess I'll start with an overview of what I plan to use this blog for.

Reason number one: I don't already have a hundred million things to occupy my time. Okay, okay. The real reason number one is so I can procrastinate from doing the hundred million things that occupy my time. I'll admit it.

Reason number two: I'm a fanfiction writer/original fiction writer and this is a half-assed attempt to get myself organized enough to actually finish a story for once. I'm beginning to think that my typing the words "The End" on anything I've written will be a sign of the apocalyse.

Reason number three: I'm boring you already so you can just imagine what my friends must think. They don't relish in my rants, opinions, and story ideas like I know you all will, right? *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* ;)

Reason number four: There is so much I like to analyze and discuss at depth and actually share with someone and if I do that with my friends I'll just get "Psst. Sarah? She's being weird again!"

Reason number five: I finally have an excuse to stop being boring.

So there's that, then. I'll try to post whenever I hear/see/think of something worth saying. God knows how often that will be.