Tag Archives: awesomeness

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

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Book: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Publishing Info: Published by Scholastic, Inc.; 435 pages; Paperback

Goodreads Summary: For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who’s forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard “accidentally” causes the Dursleys’ dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.

As it turns out, Harry isn’t punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black–an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban–is on the loose. Not only that, but he’s after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry’s very heart when others are unaffected? 

I know a lot of people have said this, but Prisoner Of Azkaban is my favorite Harry Potter book.  I just love the storyline, and so many things that happen in the rest of the series are set in motion in this book.

We get to meet Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew in this book, and they are a connection to Harry’s parents because they were all best friends.  Until Pettigrew turned traitor and gave up James and Lily to Voldemort.

There are so many things I love about Prisoner Of Azkaban- the Marauder’s Map (and learning who the Marauders are!), the time turners, Hagrid teaching Care Of Magical Creatures, and the introduction of Trelawney.

Random Movie Sidenote: I loved Emma Thompson as Trelawney.

Back to the book, though.  You really start to see a lot of the characters start to grow up- or even see them in a different way.  It’s no wonder Snape didn’t trust Lupin, because of the prank that Sirius did.

Overall, it gets a 5 out of 5.  It’s my favorite, and one of the strongest books in the series.

An Inspirational And Uplifting Playlist

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I didn’t listen to anything new last week, mainly because I was trying to catch up on podcasts.

Instead, I will be sharing some songs that are on my inspirational/uplifting podcast, one that has an astounding 85 songs.  It usually puts me in a good mood whenever I need some cheering up, or whenever I feel inspired or happy.

  • So Small by Carrie Underwood: I love this song, and it deserves its spot on the playlist.  I can’t put my finger on why it puts me in a good mood, but it does.
  • You Gotta Be by Des’ree: It always cheers me up, and I always feel like things will be okay.
  • Walk You Home by Karmina: This song is good at reminding me that it’s okay to ask for help sometimes.
  • Lovely by Sara Haze: When I’m being hard on myself, this is one of the first songs I go to.  It’s a good reminder that I’m fine the way I am and that I don’t need to change myself to make other people happy.
  • I Don’t Want To Be by Gavin DeGraw: Another favorite for when I’m hard on myself.  Basically, I like it for the same reason for the I like Lovely.

I think that wraps it up for today, so have a great day!

T.V. Time

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It’s been a while since I talked about t.v., so I suppose it’s time to talk about it. 

Well, stuff is back on now. 

Mostly.

I watched the season finale of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  I used to watch it all the time, and then watched it sporadically.  But just when I got used to watching it again, it goes off the air!  I was surprised that I wasn’t crying, but then the last few minutes, with the old clips happened, and I was crying.  I’m sad, but they had a good run.

And for some reason, I felt the need to watch American Idol this week.  I have no idea why, since the last time I watched it was when the pants on the ground guy auditioned.  But my grandma was watching it, and I wanted to be with my grandma, so I watched it with her. 

I missed Once Upon A Time, because I forgot it was on.  And promptly remembered that it was one after it was over.  Because that is how things work.  I’m slightly annoyed that they showed a new episode of NCIS, only to take a break for a few week.  And I still need to catch up on Revenge and Person Of Interest.  For some reason, it’s getting harder and harder to remember to watch them.

I honestly can’t think of anything else, other than I’m excited that House is coming back on Monday with a new episode.  Have a great weekend!

Musical Lists

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I managed to come up with 2 lists, plus some honorable mentions.  One’s music-related and the other is podcast related, so enjoy!

My 5 Favorite Songs From 2011:

  1. Lights by Ellie Goulding.  I love this song.  It’s catchy and indie, pop and electronic all at the same time!
  2. Lily’s Theme from the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 Soundtrack.  It’s haunting, yet hopeful.  And the scene at the very beginning of the movie, with Snape looking over the school, with the dementors around the school?  Lily’s Theme fits it so well.  Come to think of it, a lot of the songs have a lot of the same elements…
  3. Heartbeat by The Fray.  I love The Fray!  And for some reason, I love this song.  It makes me feel happy.
  4. Safe And Sound by Taylor Swift, with The Civil Wars.  This song is HAUNTING.  It’s from the Hunger Games soundtrack, and the song fits it so well.
  5. Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People.  I always want to sing along to it, and it’s such a good song!

An honorable mention goes to the rest of the HP and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 soundtrack.  Courtyard Apocalypse, Snape’s Demise, Severus and Lily, Harry Surrenders, and Procession are some of my other favorites from that soundtrack.

My 5 Favorite Podcasts:

  1. Greetings From Nowhere.  This was one of the first podcasts I listened to, and it’s fun listening to Christina and Nicole talk about their lives in Nowhere.  It makes me laugh and I keep finding that I jump right into the conversation.
  2. Tudor Talk: This was another podcast that introduced me to the lovely world of podcasting, and I love that it’s about the Tudors.  Tudor England is one of my favorite periods, so I get to hear about different movies, the t.v. show and books that are related to Tudor England.
  3. The History Chicks is another favorite podcast.  Every episode is about a real or fictional woman from history, and the hosts (Susan and Beckett) do the research and condense everything into an hour-long episode.
  4. Game Night Guys.  This is hosted by 2 guys who like board games.  They play a different game each week, explaining the rules and then making up their own.  One of them left, though, but another board-game loving friend joined the show as a co-host.  It’s still fun to listen to.
  5. The Gilmore Girls Re-watch Podcast is another favorite.  Every week recaps an episode of Gilmore Girls, and it’s fun to watch the episode right before listening.

Honorable mentions for favorite podcasts go to Cocktails and Creampuffs, Accio-Potter Wizard Radio, Hello Nessa, the Joy The Baker podcast and Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap.

Laugh Until You Cry!

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I have been reading Cake Wrecks a lot over the last few days.  It’s absolutely hysterical- funny pictures combined with even funnier commentary means that I have laughed until I’ve started crying.

Half the time I don’t know if I should be horrified, confused, or laugh.  Or possibly all three.  It’s been known to happen.  If I ever need a good laugh, Cake Wrecks is definitely at the top of my list.  It’s rare that I laugh ’til I cry, but Cake Wrecks manages to do this rather frequently.

Also on my list is Doctor Grumpy!  It’s a blog written by a doctor, who blogs about funny headlines and news stories and weird products out in the world, but mostly it’s about life as a doctor and the funny/bizarre/annoying patients he encounters.

And Doctor Grumpy led me to This Is Not Artisan.  Basically, this woman posts about different processed foods that have “artisan” on the label, and points out how they’re not really artisan.  I know that description doesn’t sound like it would be funny, but it is a lot funnier than it sounds.  Seriously, go check it out.  With things like artisan Tostitos (the very first post) and Artisan Cola Soda Syrup (one of the more recent posts), how can you not be baffled by the things that have artisan slapped on?

Somehow, things always seem to be better when I’m crying because I’m laughing!

I Love Home Fries

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I am a fan of the Home Fries network.  It was started by Joy the Baker and they have a few different ones. 

Joy is doing a couple podcasts- one with Tracey from shutterbean where they talk about random stuff and the other is Joy interviewing different food bloggers and various other people.  Like Aarti from the Food Network and the lady who started the Cake Spy website.  At one point, I was listening to the Table Set, which is about entertaining and dinner parties and The Crush is about wine.  I’m not quite sure why I stopped, so maybe I need to give them another listen. 

It’s fun to hear her stories and thoughts on stuff and her conversations with Tracey!  And I’m curious as to who else she’ll be talking with on We’re About To Be Friends.  I laugh, and find myself jumping in on the conversation sometimes.  Come to think of it, I do that with a lot of podcasts I listen to…

Anyway, Home Fries has some interesting podcasts, and they’re what I’m listening to right now!

Thanksgiving

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Today is Thanksgiving, and last year I wrote about things I was thankful for in terms of writing.  This year, it will be a much more general list!

  • I know this is cliché this time of year, but I’m healthy and alive and stuff.  Especially if I keep my fingers out of sharp objects.  Good health is good!
  • Here’s another cliché know some pretty cool people, and I’m glad I know them! 
  • NaNo: as much as I am struggling this year, I have met some of the cool people above through NaNo.  I wrote a lot more this year than I have in the past few years, and it is because of NaNo last year. 
  • That I’ve discovered a love of baking, cooking, and crochet.  I’m learning how to crochet, and it was a little slow-going at first, but I’m getting the hang of it.  I love being all crafty and domestic! 

That’s all for now, since I need to go make some mashed potatoes and finish baking that apple pie.  Have a great thanksgiving and a great weekend!

And It Begins

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NaNo is off to a roaring start this year!  I had a lot of fun at the midnight kick-off, and I was really glad that I reserved a couple tables, since it was busy at our party location! 

I’ve only worked on one novel so far, my mermaid one, and wrote for about an hour at the kick-off.  Actually, that’s what I’m doing right now…writing a blog post at the kick-off.  At least it’s NaNo-related! 

There’s not much to report right now, other than my word count is currently at 1,230 words. 

This is definitely going to be a short post, since there’s really not much to report right now, and I’ll definitely have more of an update tomorrow morning.

November feels as normal as it’ll ever be!

The Official Survival Kit For NaNo

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I’m really becoming a big fan of the NaNo Survival Kit.  It’s different for everyone, but I like having an assortment of things that help me get through the month. 

  • Something to listen to: Whether it’s t.v., music or podcasts, I need to have something to listen to when I’m writing.  It provides inspiration, and sometimes distracting when I feel the need to sing along. 
  • My binder!  I believe this is the first time I’ve mentioned my binder in preparation for NaNo…and I may talk about that on Halloween.  But for me, it has all my characters and plot ideas, plus other useful stuff like names I like.  It has everything I need, complete with index cards, post-its, and pens and sharpies in various colors.  If I need to refer to something, it’s probably in that binder.
  • Food: I’ve going to gloss over food, since I talked about that yesterday.  It’s there and it’s important.  Writing when hungry is not good.
  • I have a writing hat!  It’s this green headpiece kinda thing.  I think I’ll have to post a picture of it…it’s green ribbon, in a circle, with more green ribbon that hangs down from it.  Something a fairie would wear.  I have worn faerie wings in the past, and I think I may need to start wearing them again.  But not in public, because that might look weird.  But then again, who cares about looking weird?
  • A computer wins the obvious award.
  • A flash drive, and any possible way to back up your work.  I’ll be using a combination of my flash drive, dropbox and email to save my work.  And a text file plus Word.  I might be working on multiple computers, and weird things sometimes happen when I save stuff on my flash drive.  At least in Word.  I am not taking any chances, and I will back up obsessively if I have to. 
  • Random things like Pandora, Spotify, Q10 and Write or Die also help me get through NaNo.  Stuff to listen to, and writing software that minimizes distractions and keeps me writing?  That’s pretty cool in my book!
  • Write-ins and the NaNo website: There are some pretty supportive people in NaNo-land, and knowing there are people who will mock me for not finishing my novels is a big help.  Write-ins are helpful too, and I’ll be at a lot of write-ins this year!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about my back-up plot!

A Very Happy Birthday

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Today is a very special birthday.  Not mine.  Nope.  Not my birthday.

It is the one year anniversary of my blog!  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a year.  When I started my blog a year ago, I had no idea where it would take me.  I was honestly planning to blog just during NaNo, but I liked it so much that I wanted to keep blogging.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite posts of the last year, in no particular order.

  • Of course, my very first post.  A year and 300+ posts later…I still can’t believe it!  Who knew I’d still be at this?
  • My first NaNo post makes the list.  After all, if it weren’t for NaNo and my ridiculous idea of wanting to chronicle 3 novels, I probably wouldn’t be here.
  • Another NaNo post, where I write about the things that randomly ended up in my novels.
  • And one more NaNo post, with hilarious typos.
  • Actually, this is the last NaNo post I’m going to have: a general wrap-up.
  • The 100 book challenge.  I  am a mere 2 books away, and I’m sure I’ll keep reading anyway.  I wonder how many I can read next year?
  • An open letter to my muse.  It’s entertaining.
  • My finger!  How could we forget about the time that I thought it would be a good idea to stick my finger in a vegetable slicer?  Goodness, I’m never doing that again!
  • Month one of Camp NaNo.  It’s my winning post.  And month 2 of Camp NaNo.
  • Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was a pretty big event.  My feelings, Part One And Part Two, as well as Part One And Part Two of my movie review.
  • And my final favorite post, where I talk about getting into Pottermore.

There are so many other posts I wanted to share, but I think those mentioned above are my favorites.  I skimmed over a years worth of blog posts, and I talked more about writing than I thought I did.  Hopefully I can get back into that once I start talking about NaNo again.  It’s been fun, and I’m hoping that I’ll have another great year of blogging!