On Horcruxes

Listen, I know it's not ok for me to blog only about Harry Potter, but I can't help it.  I saw the movie again tonight and I want to talk about it a little more.  So far of the three times I've seen it the first was the best, the second was good, and the third was almost as good as the first.

Completely unrelated sidenote: is that comma I used before "and the third" what is known as the Oxford comma and according to the Oxford style bible or whatever the heck it is isn't even supposed to be used anymore? I'm not a grammar/usage person so I don't really know.

Back to Harry Potter.  Most of this is about Horcruxes but I do want to say to unrelated things.  One is that Cho Chang finally learned how not to be such an obnoxious uptalker (in the other movies EVERY sentence she said sounded like a question).  Also, I'm in love with the tiny Slytherin boy in the great hall scene.

Now, about horcruxes.  I just want the destruction of all of them to be more dramatic like the locket.  Did I say this already? I think maybe I did so I guess I'll shut up.  It just seemed like they were all easy apart from the locket.  I read or heard this next thing somewhere and would love to hear your thoughts.  Basilisk fangs/venom can destroy horcruxes.  Why, then, did Harry not get destroyed in the chamber when he was bitten?  Ok, sorry. I'm way too into this.  Tell me to stop.

Oh by the way if you have a Muvico theater near you go to the 21 and up movie.  Leather chairs, food delivered to your seat, super comfortable and amazing.  Also, you should get some amazing family members like mine (I'm talking Mom and Laurel taking me on a Harry Potter date tonight).  Also, inappropriate confession (second of the week, yes?) why does Harry look best in the inappropriate fan art of him and Draco together?  I don't like the art because it's weird and that's so not what happened or would happen but Harry looks freaking great (see the pictures Conan showed Tom Felton when he was on the show the other day if you want to know what I'm talking about.  I'm not putting it here).

Because I don't have any good pictures to put here because I'm a bad blogger, please go here and enjoy all these moment appropriate gifs.  As Stefanie said, "Somebody on the internet totally gets me."

Note: I need to make clear that Sarah linked me originally to that site with all the gifs.  Props to her for always finding great Harry Potter things and making me consider joining Pinterest because all her Harry Potter pins make me cry and I definitely can't have another internet thing to do and obsess over and even the titles of Brittany's boards that she mentioned in her blog make me want to go there. (Oh my gosh most disjointed run-on sentence ever). 

Other HP and the DH pt 2 Thoughts

The title explains the purpose of this post.

- As Brittany pointed out I forgot to mention the awkward Voldemort/Draco hug.

- Why didn't the treasure in Bellatrix's vault burn them as it multiplied?

- I loved that the filmmakers chose to show the sword disappearing from Griphook's dead hand.

- Freaking a the dragon scene was awesome, thank you.

- Why does Daniel Radcliffe almost always have a mullet as Harry Potter but decently attractive hair other times?  This bothers me.  Also, WHY IS HE SO PALE?

- Ginny Weasley is gorgeous and I don't care what you say, but you are not Hermione.  I sometimes get bothered by people who dress up as Hermione because I'm so her in my mind that I get protective.

- I love when Aberforth comes out and does his patronus and totally owns a ton of dementors.

- Why are patronuses (patroni?) not animals for the most part in these movies? (sidenote: expecto patronads)

I'm going to see the movie again tomorrow. Take three. (I didn't get to go and have amorentia because of scheduling conflicts - sad).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

I guess it's time to face the music and blog about the movie.  I really was trying to avoid it, but Niccole specifically requested (via comment on Sarah's blog) my opinions and who am I to turn down a chance to voice my opinion?  You can call me a copycat if you want, but I'm going to go short bullet point style because it's easiest and I can jump around as thoughts come to me.

- I haven't sobbed yet.  I feel sad but the first time I was too hyped up on caffeine and the second time I was trying to get over throwing up a cheese dog.  TMI? Yes, I think so.  I feel sad and I feel the Harry shaped hole in my life, but I have yet to cry my eyes out during the movie (though I did tear up repeatedly both times).

-Not helpful: my dad comparing my sadness to his as a kid when the took Roadrunner off the air.  Thanks for minimizing my pain, dad.

- Only slightly related: Hopefully I'm going to Alamo Drafthouse with my sister when I go home to see the movie and eat the Harry Potter themed food including Amorentia.  I'll update you.

- The beginning was perfect.  I loved how there weren't logos or sound effects it just went straight from trailer into Harry Potter.

- Oh my gosh all action all the time! I was afraid of falling asleep during the movie the first time (because really, movies make me sleepy) but I needn't have worried because you'd have to be dead to sleep.  I suppose it's time to get specific.

- First thing that bothered me: Why didn't Harry fix his wand?  Is he just all of a sudden ok with having Draco's wand?  I think not.  Dear Harry, fix the stupid pheonix and holly wand so you can be Harry Potter.

- I thought Daniel Radcliffe rocked the epilogue.  The others did well, but he rocked it.

- One friend blogged that the way Naigini attacked Snape repeatedly was too graphic and violent, I thought it was appropriately so.

- I could have done with more verbal spells.  I wanted Harry to have that final expelliarmus.  I also wanted Harry to get to explain to Voldemort why and how he was wrong and why his plan failed and to rub in his humanity by calling him Tom.  Also, I wasn't a fan of the blowing away in the wind of Voldemort as he died.  It made me think of the dust storm Quirrel/Voldemort for Sorcerer's Stone in which case he wasn't really dead.

- I've never been a huge Snape fan, but this movie made me a believer out of me.  I still think he's mostly evil and self-interested, but the movie redeemed him a little.

- Why in the world did his memories come out of his tears?  Weird.  Also, the pensieve was all strange this time.

- I know I'm coming across ultra-critical right now, but I LOVED this movie.  I'm ready to see it for the third time.  One thing I loved: Harry hiding among the students in the Great Hall then confronting Snape.  I thought it was very stunning.

- The twins crying and having their moment on the roof is so tender to me, but why didn't we address Fred being dead a little more directly?

- Where did Blaise Zabini disappear to?

- Also, what happened to the Hallows story line?  If you read the book you know Harry's cloak is THE invisibility cloak, but that wasn't addressed.  In fact, the whole uniting the Hallows plot didn't even exist.

- Ditto Dumbledore's past.  I was wondering if they would make it seem like he loved Gridewald (which didn't come across in the book).

- Why does my dad (and apparently other people) think they wanted the audience to believe that Snape was Harry's dad?  How dare you sully the name of Lilly Potter that way.

- Going into the forest scene?  Oh my gosh I was going to die.  All the people he loved were there and his momma and his dad and it was so precious.  I wish he had hugged Ron before he left.

- Thank you movie makers for giving us a look into the Chamber of Secrets for horcrux destruction.

- My friend Sam is a hater and blogged about it.  It's depressing.  He basically called out everybody having a sad heart over the end of their childhood and dresser-uppers and said JKR isn't that great of a writer.  Rant over on that.

- I loved the Snape flashbacks, but I wanted a little more.  I think I want a lot because I'm such a fan of the books.

- Like Sarah, Hermione as Bellatrix was amazingly done.  Helena Bonham Carter is pure genius and so scary.

- McGonagall is such a BAMF.  She was funny and also amazing and hardcore.  Loved when she called the statues to protect Hogwarts.  Also loved Seamus.

- I don't know what else to say right now.  I have an opinion on pretty much every part so if you have a specific question please ask.

Sidenote: most overused costumes are Luna and Trelawney.

P.S. This is my 199th post.  I didn't do anything for 100, what should I do for 200?

It's That Important

I need to explain to you what Harry Potter means to me and why it's so important.  Because it is.  You can say that to you Harry is just a character in a book, but I grew up with Harry and I love Harry.  For a pretty good summation of my feelings about the end of it all, read this article.

When I was in fifth grade all the posters for the book fair at school had the cover of Sorcerer's Stone on them.  I thought it was all stupid.  A few of my friends told me to read the books and I pretty openly mocked the idea.  What could be so great about a kid who finds out he's a wizard then goes to magic school?  Dumb.  A few weeks (maybe months?) later I finally decided to read the books.  Our small school library only had one copy of each of the [then three] books and there weren't any copies of the first, so I started with Chamber of Secrets and loved it.  Within the week I was reading Prisoner of Azkaban and finally Sorcerer's Stone.  After I finished, I started them again.  In those early days number two was my favorite because it terrified the living daylights out of me.  I read them all repeatedly, but that one over and over again.

My mom worked at Wal-Mart when the fourth one was coming out.  She brought me some of the buttons that they wore to promote the release of Goblet of Fire.  I could hardly stand it when she would come home and tell me stories of walking past the readied display case of books.  Over and over I begged her to steal me one.  Before long my first experience with a midnight release arrived.  Perhaps it was just our small Wal-Mart, but there really was just one display case of books, nothing compared to the precariously stacked pallets that came later.  I remember being livid as an older lady stepped in front of me to take the first book.

And thus my obsession continued.  The first movie was the first movie I ever bought tickets for in advance.  I dressed up as Hermione as often as possible.  When I was a senior in high school (or I guess the summer just after) and the last book came out I got up at five am to stand in line to get a wristband to stand in line.  We were back at Border's by noon.  Luckily when I came to college I was able to find friends that also loved Harry Potter.  My very first roommate (Sarah) was just as obsessed as I was.

No joke when I was a kid I used to pray that I wouldn't die before the final book was released because I had to know how the story ended.  After I finished book seven I figured I could die anytime.  I am not exaggerating.  This actually happened.

And so tonight, it all ends.  The last movie is released and, as many have said, an era ends.  I grew up with Harry.  I am a part of the Harry Potter generation.  It's been a part of me for so long.  I choose to end with a quote from JK Rowling herself.  She summed up what we all needed when she said, "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

You are probably aware of how I usually like to include pictures in my posts, but this is too personal.  I don't want to just throw in pictures willy-nilly.  I want what this means to stand for itself. 

Dying and Crying

This is making me die and cry and be sad and get goosebumps.  Enjoy.

MTV Movie Awards

I was going to write a long ranty post about the MTV Movie Awards, but the whole idea was exhausting. I'll just say three things.

1) Apparently children are the only ones that know how to give appropriate acceptance speeches.

2) Don't be high at awards shows because it seems to scream "I'm a deplorable human being!"

3) Potty and sex humor for cheap laughs get on my nerves.

Man, even that was tiring.

Hypocrites

Today in Sunday School we talked about hypocrites.  That's right, despite the fact that I look like I'm paying absolutely no attention and I'm playing Word Warp (which is like Text Twist) on my phone, I'm listening.  The teacher (Erin?) asked us what we thought of when we considered hypocrites.  I didn't contribute, but there is something I thought then and was shown to be applicable later that evening.  To me not being a hypocrite often means not being someone different at church than you are in life.

You know what, I'm going to be me no matter what.  Just because it's Sunday I'm not going to start putting on airs.  If there's a movie that I'd watch any other day of the week and I'm a person who watches movies on Sunday (I understand that some people choose not to watch movies or tv on Sunday as a way of keeping the Sabbath day holy and I completely respect that choice) my movie choice isn't going to be different.  I'm the same person on Sunday as any other day of the week and I'm not going to put on a show.

Example.  Tonight at mix and mingle (alternately called snack and mack or grab a cookie take a lookie) Sam started talking about the movie Sixteen Candles.  I've never seen it, but I have a copy on VHS so I figured I'd watch it.  I expressed the same and someone in the ward stated rather huffily, "Well, that's a great movie to watch on a Sunday." Get over it girl.  Sunday doesn't make me pretend to be someone I'm not.

Stomp the Yard

I'm watching the second Stomp the Yard movie. The title has something to do with homecoming. I haven't see the first, but was hoping to get a good dose of some great stepping. I'm just not overly impressed (albeit, I'm only a bit into the movie). Maybe that's what happens when your high school wins all kinds of national accolades for step team (including the contest held in honor of the first Stomp the Yard movie in which they competed against high school and college teams and won). Here's an article and video. The video seems to be slow to load, but it's worth it.

Epic Dancing

P.S. Why can I mostly only think of the haka right now?

P.P.S. These guys are way more awesome than the Cougarettes.

[edit: There was a white Mormon boy on the step team my sophomore year.]

Goings On

-Tori does not have cystic fibrosis.

-I'm addicted to kitchen gadgets.

-I spent New Year's Eve on my couch alone and didn't mind.

-It gave me great joy to pick up the Alvey children from the airport today. Maybe I missed Sarah, nbd.

-Time to stop being attracted to Jackson Rathbone in Beautiful People. He's kind of a privileged pretentious jerk with a heart that I love anyway. So what if I've watched 8 episodes in the last two days. Stop judging me IMMEDIATELY.

-I saw Tron today. There were issues, there was a bangin' soundtrack, and there was this guy. Attractive.

- Gabe cried when he found out I had to go back to school. He said why did I have to go back to my school and offered to let me go to his instead. Heather took this picture.

-Student teaching starts tomorrow and I'm FREAKING out.

-Finally took some time to do DC a little while I was home. At the National Gallery of Art I saw this picture and it was my favorite for several reasons. It's called Mountaineers by Arthur Bowen Davies.

-When I got back to the Metro station in Springfield I realized that I hadn't paid attention to where I parked and spent at least 30 solid minutes wandering the parking garage looking for my car. When my mom called she told me to be careful because bad things happen in parking garages on Criminal Mind. That was comforting.

-It's freaking cold here in Provo. It shocked me a little when I got back, if I'm being honest.

Love Triangles

Anyone that ever reads this blog ever knows that I love to read. I'll give pretty much anything a try at least once, but.... I hate reading about love triangles. I hate watching movies about love triangles. That's not to say that I don't like the books or movies or whatever in and of themselves, but love triangles stress me out.



It seems like no matter what happens in the story and even if it has a happy ending then somebody is left sad and I still have a little ache in my heart and I hate that. I like a clean happy ending or whatever, not a messy achy sad thing. That's for real life.

P.S. I don't normally like little anime type drawings, but this is the best I could find of the three of them all together, so whatevs.

Thanksgiving and Etc.

Caroline and I are watching The Derby Stallion right now. It's awful. I'm not just saying that. It seems like a Lifetime movie that was made in 1993, not something that was made in 2005. Confession: Zac Efron is still attractive in this movie.

I wish I had a header for my blog. Maybe with some pictures or something with me and my friends or who knows, but I wish I had one.

I was lucky enough to have a great friend (Britt) offer me a place to go for Thanksgiving. At first I thought that maybe I would just stay home by myself and chill and possibly grab some Denny's for dinner. Then I realized that that would be supremely depressing and went to Britt's Mom's house with her and Kyle and her old roommate Nadia. Turned out to be such a fun time. It's so kind that there are people who will let other people invade on their family time for the holidays.

Caroline (she's been staying with me for the past couple days) went Black Friday shopping with me at midnight. It was crazy and she was such a good sport and I bought a tv online and some movies and a crockpot and a little food processor and it was awesome. I've also been doing some online shopping with the amazon.com deals and stuff.

I miss my family right now. They're crazy and obnoxious and irritating as all get out, but they're my family and I love and miss them.

Tomorrow is the Holy War. I'm SO pumped. I made two dozen chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (even though one dozen got eaten tonight) and two crockpots full of taco soup. Good football needs good food. Also, BYU basketball almost gave me a heart attack today, but we won and then I just had palpitations.

The Dark Knight

Well reader, I finally did it. I watched the Dark Knight. I was terrified to watch it because Batman Begins gave me nightmares, but I'd heard so much hullaballo about the dang thing that I sat down and watched it (with promises from Sarah that if I got too freaked out we could turn it off and she wouldn't make fun of me). I didn't really get scared. I don't like clowns so that bothered me a little, but I didn't really get freaked out. Some of the actions were a little...graphic for me. I have two general things I'd like to comment on though. Why do people quote the "Want to know how I got these scars?" line? It's a catchphrase of the Joker's and I understand that, but seriously, it's disgusting. Both stories he tells (particularly the first) are horrific and I don't like that people quote that ALL THE TIME. Secondly, I like the idea of social experimentation. I find it fascinating to see what people will do, but there's a limit. Sometimes, even here in the real world, these limits get tested. I don't remember the name of the guy who conducted the study (but if anyone is interested, drop me a line and I will make sure to find it for you), but he wanted to see what putting people (who are generally good) in a position of power (that of a jailer) does to them. So, he put out an ad and found a group of college age boys, in good health, willing to participate. Some were made jail guards and some prisoners and were to role play. The experiment was to last six weeks. If I recall correctly, the project had to be shut down after less than two weeks because of how horrific the actions had gotten. This is a real world example that goes too far. I think the use of the idea of social experimentation in the Dark Knight was very good. It makes the viewer question what they would do in the situation and what is good. That being said, overall I found the movie good enough, but I still don't understand quite why everyone loved it SO much.

A sidenote: If you enjoyed this movie, I am in no way condemning you or putting you down. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.