More Thoughts About Seeing Deathly Hallows

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I have more thoughts about Harry Potter- some stuff I thought was weird, some stuff I wish were included, some stuff I wish were done differently, and some other stuff that I liked about the movie.

  • Why did George have 2 ears?  He should only have one, because the ear that got cursed off wasn’t able to be fixed.  Did he magically get a prosthetic ear or something?
  • Cho Chang: First, she was hiding in the room of requirement, and then she was a student in the Great Hall.  There are two things wrong with this.  One, she should have graduated from Hogwarts, so why is still a student?  Two, if she’s a student, then why would she need to hide in the room of requirement?  It makes no sense.
  • I wished that Harry killed Voldemort in front of an audience.  There was also no celebration either, which was sad.  Harry takes down one of the most evil wizards of all time, and no one seems to care?  How did Harry explain that to everyone?  “Oh, hey guys, I killed Voldemort.  I’m pretty sure he’s dead because he just vaporized.”  The movie was just over two hours, I’m pretty sure they could’ve worked a celebration in there.
  • As much as I loved the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix, I expected it to be a lot more epic.  It was still really cool, and I loved how Mrs. Weasley got all don’t-mess-with-Mama-Weasley-or-else. 
  • I loved the soundtrack: it didn’t overpower the movie at all.  In fact, it added a lot to the movie.  I loved hearing Hedwig’s Theme and Harry’s Wondrous World a lot.  And the music definitely added a sense of urgency to all of the battle scenes. 
  • Breaking into Gringott’s and then riding away on the dragon was a fun scene to watch.
  • One thing I thought was really cool was showing how destroying the horcruxes affected both Voldemort and Harry.  And when Harry went to the forest- the scene with him, Ron and Hermione was really touching. 
  • More thoughts on the epilogue (aka, the 19 years later bit): I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought it was really well-done.  And honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the epilogue when I read the book…but now I don’t mind as much.  Seeing Harry just be a normal guy, and passing the torch to the next generation was pretty touching.
  • Why didn’t Harry fix his wand with the elder wand?  I suppose they could have filmed it and then it didn’t make the final cut, but again, it is something they could have added without worrying about the length of the movie.
  • Another scene I wished they included was Harry going into Dumbledore’s office.  Would’ve been nice to see Harry talking to Dumbledore’s portrait.
  • I loved Neville’s speech to Voldemort, but I kinda wished that it was a little more like the one in the book.  I definitely expected it to be more in line with the book, but it still made me cry! 
  • Speaking of the chaos of the battle, what was going on with the Slytherins being banished to the dungeons, but none of the younger students being escorted to safety?  Yeah, Voldemort doesn’t care if he kills an 11 or 12 year old (he did try to kill a 1 year old, after all), but really?  Was there no one to escort them to safety? 

Seeing it a second time was amazing!  I still loved it, and I still laughed and cried.  I think it’s one of my top favorite movies in the entire series.

Harry Potter Movie Review!

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First off, this post has lots of spoilers about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so if you haven’t seen it and don’t want it to be ruined, don’t read this post!   But since it’s been a week, you should have seen it by now!  If you haven’t, go see it!

I wanted to do a review on Friday or Saturday, but I figured I’d give people a few days (or a week) before reviewing it since not everyone likes to see it the first day or two. 

Overall, I loved it, and thought it did the book justice.  There were a few things that I wished were in the movie (like Percy making up with his family) but overall, I thought it worked out rather well.  I thought it was not only a great movie, but a really good adaptation as well. 

Here’s a few of my favorite things from the move:

  1. Snape’s memories: I thought it was really well done, and I couldn’t help but start crying.  The scene that did me in was the part where he was holding Lily and crying.  Reading it was completely different than actually seeing it on the screen, and it really made Snape’s feelings for Lily come to life. 
  2. The scene with Harry, his parents, Sirius, and Lupin in the forest: that made me cry as well, especially when Harry asked Lily if she would stay with him, and she said always.  It was also really well-done.
  3. And we have a tie between Neville, McGonagall and the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix.  “Not my daughter, you bitch!” is one of the most memorable lines from the entire series.  I always pictured it as being yelled across the great hall, but either way, it was a great line, and I wan’t disappointed.  As for McGonagall, I knew she was a stern, yet caring professor, but I was always sort of indifferent to her.  Until this movie!  Her duel with Snape was amazing, and two of my other favorite lines in the movie came from her.  When she was excited about bringing the statues and suits of armour to life, and told Mrs. Weasley that she always wanted to do that spell was hilarious.  It made her seem like one of the very students she taught.  Overall, I saw her in a completely different way.  My other favorite line was when she told Neville to have Seamus do some pyrotechnics, as he had an aptitude for it.  And of course, Neville!  I can’t review Part 2 and leave Neville out of it!  He was awesome, and the change between the Sorcerer’s Stone and Deathly Hallows was unbelievable.  My favorite Neville moment was when he cut off Nagini’s head, closely by his speech to Voldemort. 

The battle was a lot more disorganized than I expected it to be, but considering it was a battle, and they were fighting for their lives, I would expect it to be chaotic.  I do wish there was a celebration after Voldemort died, but clearly, I can’t change that part of the movie.   

And of course, I need to mention the epilogue!  The audience definitely had this whole “oh, here we go,” vibe when the 19 years later popped up on the screen.  Honestly, I didn’t mind the epilogue, which surprised me, because I wasn’t a fan of the epilogue when I read the book.  They did cut a lot from it, only focusing on Harry talking with Albus about being in Slytherin, and then ends with Harry, Ron and Hermione watching their kids go to Hogwarts.

This review is getting pretty lengthy, so I think I’ll end it here…there are a few other things I wanted to mention about the movie, so I think I’ll do that tomorrow.

Let’s Talk About…Camp!

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It’s been a while since I’ve talk about camp, so I thought today would be a good time for that.  I’m about 8oo words behind, and I’m starting to get a little bored with my novel.  I ended up doing a couple flash fictions, and that seemed to help a little.  Plus, throwing in a couple members of the team disappearing seemed to kick-start it…at least for the moment, but I feel like that’s going to be wrapped up soon. 

My other writing is going okay, but very slowly at the moment.  It’s been a relief to work on something else this week.  I haven’t worked on any of my plot bunnies, and while I keep telling myself that I’m going to work on them, I don’t.  I’ll have to get around to that soon, since time is going by really fast, and November will be here before we know it!

I’ve been reading, although not as much as I have been.  Hopefully, I’ll have a few book reviews in the next few days.  For some reason, I’m just not that into the books I’ve checked out. 

I think that wraps up camp and everything, so I’ll leave you with my wordcount: 35,8633!

Harry Potter Round-up!

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Today’s Harry Potter related post will be about some of my favorite Harry Potter things!

  • The Last Muggle: It’s a great blog, about this girl reading the Harry Potter series for the very first time.  I haven’t read all the way back to the beginning, but she shares her predictions about the books, and all sorts of other thoughts about Harry Potter.
  • The Harry Potter Lexicon: It has everything you need to know about the world of Harry Potter.  From magical beasts to the characters we know and love, and everything in between, it’s a great resource, and helped me out a lot back in November.
  • The Harry Potter Companion: Another really cool website!  It has really cool artwork, and covers the Harry Potter series chapter-by-chapter.  Plus, there are essays to read.
  • Mugglenet: It’s one of several sites devoted to Harry Potter, and the news surrounding the books, movies, and (I think) the videogames.
  • Potter Puppet Pals: I’ve only seen The Mysterious Ticking Noise and Wizard Swears, both of which are hilarious, and the 2 videos that introduced me to Potter Puppet Pals. Maybe I should watch those other videos.
  • Starkid Potter: They are the geniuses behind A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel.  The soundtracks are amazing, and there are so many great lines (Daddy, I have mastered the use of the potty!), plus they’re hilarious.  How can you not love the scarf of sexual preference, or Draco rolling around on the floor?
  • Fanfiction: I like fanfiction, and I am not ashamed to admit it.  I’ve said before that Harry Potter fanfiction is the first thing I wrote, and I still write it.  I don’t read it as much as I used to, but I love seeing the different ideas fans come up with and ways people were inspired by the books.  Yes, there are some not-so-good stories out there, and yes, you have to sift through that to find the things you like, but I’m fan (of fanfiction, heeheehee).
  • Wizard Rock: I know I’ve beaten wrock over your heads, but I’m growing to love it more and more.  I love the creativity of it, and it’s very good at calming me down.  Plus, it’s fun to listen to, and whenever I listen to it, I wanted to start singing and dancing.  In fact, as I write this, I’m listen to Oliver Boyd and The Remembralls.  And it’s so hard to not love wrock when the genre as a whole has done several compilation albums for charity!

So, I’ve mentioned wizard rock a lot, and some are probably really familiar to HP fans, but I hope you find something new and interesting to look at!

More Random Thoughts About Harry Potter

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There’s a few more things I’ve wondered about the Harry Potter series, so I thought I’d share those today!

  • To J.K. Rowling: did you really need to name Harry’s kids James Sirius, Lily Luna and Albus Severus?  That is so cliche, and something I totally expected.  I get Harry would want to honor his parents and Sirius, and even Dumbledore, but Snape and Luna were slightly unexpected, so she gets some points for that.  I think I figured she would do that around book 5, and I hoped I would be wrong.  Clearly, I wasn’t.
  • Why on earth were Harry’s eyes (and looking like his dad) so darn important?  Maybe it was just a connection factor, like she wanted people to be reminded of what had happened to his parents.  But it seemed like it was a lot more important than it really was.
  • What exactly did Harry’s parents do after graduating from Hogwart’s?  Where they full-time Order members or did they have a job outside of that?  If they did have jobs, what were they?
  • If someone is an animagus, is that animal different from their patronus, or is it the same?  Can they be the same, or do they have to be different?  We know your Patronus can change, is it at all possible for the form of your animagus to change? 
  • Did Harry ever get another owl after Hedwig died?  If so, what did he name it? 
  • We know Hermione got 10 outstanding’s for her owls, and only one class is unnamed.  What is this unnamed class?  And for that matter, are there more classes than what’s been mentioned in the book?  That would certainly be interesting, and I wonder what other subjects there could possibly be.  It would have to be one of the elective classes, of course, because if it were one of the main subjects, we probably would have heard about it.
  • Did using the time-turner age Hermione at all?  I know I’ve seen it pop up in a few fanfics…would we have heard about it if it did, or did it have no effect on her? 
  • Did George really need to marry Fred’s ex-girlfriend?  I get naming his son after him, so that wasn’t a big surprise, but really?  Of all the people you could have fallen in love with, it had to be Angelina?  Whatever floats your boat, I guess…
  • I mentioned the other day that someone comes to speak to the muggle-born students when it’s time for their Hogwarts letter to come.  Why is there no wizarding studies?  I know an education at Hogwarts is the equivalent would be an education in the wizarding world, but there have to be a few different traditions and such in the wizarding world.  Say McGonagall went to talk to Hermione about her Hogwart’s letter.  Did McGonagall go over the transition to the wizarding world, and some of the basic traditions and stuff?  Or is it something they’re thrown into?

I think that’s about it, if I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to do another post on it!

It All Comes Back To Harry Potter

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For me, I owe a lot to Harry Potter.  It’s the one series I can read over and over, and never get tired of, it’s the example I use for so many things, and most of all, the very first thing Iwrote on my own, besides journal entries, was a Harry Potter fanfiction.

The fact that Harry Potter inspired me to start writing on my own is amazing!  Would I have started writing my own novels regardless?  Maybe, but it might have taken me a lot longer if it weren’t for Harry Potter.  Writing fanfiction gave me the confidence to come up with my own novels and commit to the the screen.  The more I write, the better I get at writing, but writing Harry Potter fanfiction let me write, and just focus on my writing.

Hogwarts is one of the very few places I can escape to when I need a break from the real world.  It’s comforting to know that Hogwarts is always there when I need it.  And if I ever have kids, Harry Potter is one of the stories I’m going to share with them.

Here’s a great video for everyone: It’s from the London Premiere of Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and it’s speeches from Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and J.K. Rowling.  I started crying during Emma’s speech and completely starting bawling during J.K. Rowling’s speech.  Watch it now!  You know you want to!

Random Thoughts About The Harry Potter Series

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Since the last movie came out, a few things about the series have wandered their way into my head.  The movie review will come sometime this week, once I’ve seen the movie for a second time.  So, onto the things I’ve wondered.

  • Why didn’t Mrs. Weasley get a job?  Seriously, this randomly popped into my head over the weekeend.  The Weasley’s are known for being poor, and if money was such an issue, why didn’t Mrs. Weasley go to work?  I get that she has 7 kids to raise, and so it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for her to get a job, but once Ginny went off to Hogwarts, why not go to work?  It’s very odd, especially since she seems to be a stay-at-home mom.  Granted, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but you really do have to wonder…
  • Getting a job as a teacher: How exactly does this work in the wizarding world?  It seems like a position for life- once you get a teaching position, it’s yours until you die or retire.  I’m curious as to how one would go about being a professor.  You clearly need to have a pretty decent knowledge of the subject you want to teach, but exactly how long do you need to study, say, transfiguration, before you can teach it?  Do you get a job where you use potions or charms or whatever on a regular basis, and then go into teaching?  This is really random, and something I can probably figure out myself, but still, I find it rather interesting.  As for substitute teaching, Snape did teach a DADA class during PoA, and Professor Grubbly-Plank filled in for Hagrid several times, so is there a pool of teachers they can choose from?  Calling in sick clearly isn’t an issue, since a lot of the problems can be solved by magic, but when it can’t, how do they know who to choose as a substitute? 
  • Speaking of school, we’ve only heard of a handful of other schools, the most notable being Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.  There’s a school in the U.S., and Bill wrote to a friend in Brazil, so there’s a school there, but it would seem like there aren’t very many wizarding schools.  It does make sense there aren’t many, as the wizarding population is a lot smaller than the muggle one.  I’d like to know more about the different wizarding schools, like how many are in Europe, and the differences between the different schools.
  • I’m also curious about the muggle-born students.  We know someone comes to speak to them and their families when they get their letter, and I would assume that the person sent to the muggle-born students would should them to Diagon Alley, explain the monetary system, and help them with their school supplies.  The thing I wonder about is the paper-trail.  It can be explained by their families as going away to boarding school, but are there records of their grades and such for the muggle world?  I don’t know why there would be, because why would a student want to go back to the muggle world after knowing about magic?  But if they were to be expelled and have their wand snapped, or sent back to the muggle world for whatever reason, how would they prove that they had an education?  Hogwarts doesn’t exist to most of Britain, so they’d have a tough time explaining transfiguration and potions to the muggles.

That’s all I managed to think of, but I know there’s a lot more that I forgot to mention!  I’m sure I’ll think of them later, so I may have to do another post on this.

Yesterday…

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Yesterday was an odd writing day for me.  I didn’t really want to write, but I told myself I had to write something…I just wasn’t feeling it, and I don’t know why!

Yesterday was not a catching up kind of day, and since I’m already behind, I didn’t want to add to that if at all possible.  I’m not sure when I’ll catch up, but I will at some point during the month. 

As for my actual wordcount, I’m at 26,151, so if I’m going to get to 50,000 words this month, I need to write at least 1,703 words a day.  I can manage that, my only problem right now is actually writing.

I’ve been in a fan-fiction mood the last few days, so I’ve been reading a fair amount of it.  I’m not so much looking for new stories as I am reading a lot of the stories I loved when I first started reading fanfiction.  And I’ve been listening to the HP soundtracks a lot as well as listening to a lot of wizard rock.  I’m definitely feeling nostalgic, which I think explains a lot of it…and I’m thinking about doing a bunch of Harry Potter related posts this week.  I’m definitely going to do a review of the movie this week, but I’ll make sure to put up a spoiler alert when I do. 

I have a bunch of books to read, so that’ll keep me busy, and today, I’m going to see Harry Potter again!  That movie review might come sooner than you think… 

I suppose I should get some sleep, and hopefully, I’ll manage to get somewhat caught up on my reading and writing today.

Giada’s Family Dinners

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Book: Giada’s Family Dinner’s by Giada De Laurentiis

Pages and Format: 254/Hardcover

What I Thought: This was another cookbook I checked out from the library, and like Everyday Italian, I didn’t get a chance to make everything I wanted to. 

This one was geared more towards family dinners and entertaining, so the servings were slighter bigger than they were in Everyday Italian.  Like Everyday Italian, there were a lot of fresh herbs and veggies, and were pretty simple. 

The only complaint I had was that a couple of the ingredients were what I considered to be expensive.  Example: Fontina Cheese.  I first looked at the cheese section, and found a little block of it for like, $10, but found a different brand of it in the deli section for around half that price.  I like cheese and all but $10 for a little block of cheese…it’s not my thing.  Overall, though, I did like it, and it’s something that I plan to buy at some point. 

It was easy to follow, organized well, and had some good recipes in it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 because it’s geared towards groups, and I’m cooking for one.

Halfway There!

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I’ve reached the halfway mark!  At least in terms of wordcount.  It was very exciting, and I definitely need to start wrapping things up.  I have a definite idea in mind now for it.  It’s strange how everything becomes more clear after the halfway point.  Currently, I’m at 25,069, so while I’m not caught up, I will be soon! 

As for my other writing, I did work on a couple characters, as well as doing my other projects for the week.  I definitely like splitting them up over 2 or 3 days, as opposed to one each day.  Once I start writing, I want to keep going with something, so that’s what I’m going to stick with.  It is working, and since I’m all about doing what works these days, I should definitely do that.  I’m definitely hoping to have a rough draft finished for Turning Point, the Giant Prehistoric Chicken, and my NCIS fanfic by November  Maybe even one or two of my HP fanfics, depending on how much I write for them.  It’s weird, but exciting at the same time.

That’s about it, so have a great day!