Tag Archives: awesomeness

My To-Read List Is Out Of Control

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I love Goodreads.  I really do.  With all the reading I’ve done this year, it’s come in handy.  I love reading, but as much as I love reading, I decided that next year, I would set a lower goal for myself in terms of reading.  Like 50 to 75 books. 

And then I started exploring their recommendation section.  It reccomends books based on what you’ve added and based on similar books that other people have added.  I had a handful of books on my to-read list…like 4 books, so literally, a handful of books. 

Now I have over 200!  226 to be exact.  It’s ridiculous!  But I’m always looking for new books to read, and considering that it’s based on books I’ve added and rated, I’m sure that I’ve found a bunch of books that I’ll really like.  I’m definitely going to start working on that list, since some of the books I’ve requested having a long waiting list, and I’m going to need books to read while waiting for them. 

I definitely have 2 years of reading material, and that’s if I stick with the 100 book per year goal.  And now, I’m considering it just to make it through that list. 

I mainly use Goodreads to keep track of what I’ve read, am reading, and want t0 (or going to) read, and what I’ve rated it.  And it keeps tracks of when I’ve read something too, provided I add in the dates.  But I really like the recommendation feature, and it refreshes as you add books, so I’m sure I’ll find even more books to read. 

They have all kinds of lists of books, and in answer to the question you may be asking yourself, I found some books there too!  I haven’t looked it all too much, because it’s a little overwhelming, and I pretty much ignore the groups, quizzes, and trivia sections, but I find the giveaway section really cool.

Seriously, I love the giveaway area.  Let me tell you why I love this part of the website.  Publishers list books that they give away for free.  You can enter to win a copy of these books.  I entered a few, because those books look really interesting, and if I can potentially win a free copy of it…

So a couple days, I was checking my email…and to my surprise, I won a free copy of a book called Wildflower Hill!  It’ll arrive in the next 4 to 6 weeks, but I’m really excited, since I don’t win anything.  I’m looking foward to it’s arrival, that’s for sure. 

But 226 books!  226!  That’s a lot of books to read!  But there is a good thing about having such a long list.  I’ll always have something to read, since, you know, I have a really long list of books to choose from.

In My Headphones

Posted in Music by

I feel like talking about music, so that’s what I’m going to talk about.  I have some new music I’ve been listening to, so I’m sharing some of the songs I’ve been playing on repeat. 

  • Just A Kiss by Lady Antebellum: I’ve become obsessed with this song over the weekend!  I heard on the radio, and even though I missed part of the song, I still fell in love with the song.  I was hoping the dj would have mentioned who the artist was, since I didn’t know who it was.  It didn’t matter, though, since I guessed (correctly) that it was Lady Antebellum. 
  • Mischief Managed by Oliver Boyd And The Remembralls: I love this song, and I love listening to it over and over.  It’s all about the Marauder’s Map, and I like Oliver Boyd And The Remembralls because it’s not obvious that the songs are about Harry Potter!  It’s a really fun song.
  • Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix Soundtrack: I checked it out from the library, and I like it.  It’s a mix of really dramatic and really fun, but Fireworks and Dumbledore’s Army are my 2 favorite songs. 
  • May It Be: It’s from the Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring soundtrack, which I checked out from the library just so I could listen to this song.  I haven’t listened to the rest of it yet, but I’m definitely going to do that.
  • Wrock: I’ve been listening to it a lot lately…I’ve been in a wizard rock kind of mood.  Gred and Forge, Draco and The Malfoys, and The Whomping Willows have been in heavy rotation.  And of course, Oliver Boyd And The Remembralls.  I definitely need to work in Harry And The Potters, since it’s been a while since I’ve listened to them.  I’ve been listening to Accio-Potter Wizard Radio too, to get my fix.  According to their website, though, they’re not going to be doing any more episodes, which makes me sad.  At least I can listen to the episodes they did do, over and over again.

With all the podcast listening I’ve been doing, it’s a wonder I manage to listen to any music…maybe I need to find some music podcasts to listen to.

More Podcast Talk

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I went look for some more podcasts over the weekend.  I got caught up on the one’s I listening to, and found a ton of new podcasts to listen to.  Some I found at iTunes, but there were a bunch I found over at Pride48, which had their 48 hour marathon event.  I guess they have it every year, and since some of the podcasts I listen to were participating, I thought I’d listen this year.

I had heard of some of the podcasts before, but never listened to, so I downloaded those.  And there were a bunch I downloaded that I had never heard of.  I’ve listened to a few of them, and I’ve definitely found some new podcasts to listen to.  There are definitely a few that I tried listening to months ago but couldn’t get into.  I think I’m going to give them another listen, because I definitely have a few podcasts that I tried listening to, deleted, and then listened again…and liked them.

Back to Pride48, though.  It was really fun listening, especially since all of the Vegas shows were live, in front of an audience.  There were quite a few shows that weren’t broadcast from Vegas, but overall, it was really fun.  It made me wish I was there, but that really wasn’t an option this year.  And I don’t know if a non-podcaster can attend anyway….maybe if I start podcasting, I’ll be able to go next year, even if I don’t do the live show thing.  And hanging out in the chatroom was really fun!  I mostly lurked, but every once in a while, I commented on something.  I can’t wait for next year!

Anyway, I have lots of potential new podcasts to try out, and maybe some of them will stick.  I’ll probably post some kind of podcast update when I get through everything.

I Got In!

Posted in Harry Potter by

Yesterday was monumental…I got my Pottermore welcome letter!  I was checking my email (one of them, I have 2), and I was surprised to find an email from Pottermore.  I completely forgot that I had originally registered with my yahoo email; there were some weird issues going on the first day with Yahoo, and felt confused as to why I hadn’t gotten after an hour.  So I signed up with my gmail, got that confirmation email, and impatiently waited for my welcome email.  So imagine my surprise when I got my pottermore welcome letter!

I jumped up and down screaming, and calmed down long enough to log in.  I still wasn’t sure what to expect, but you go through the entire book chapter-by-chapter.  Within each chapter are “moments.”  And within the moments, you can collect items and galleons and you can click different things to learn more about the characters and places.

I’m really impressed with all the art: it’s beautiful, and whoever worked on the art did a fantastic job.  I have my wand, Cypress, 11 inches, Phoenix feather core, slightly springy.  I have a cat, and most importantly…

I’m a Hufflepuff!

I was hoping to be in Hufflepuff, and failing that, Ravenclaw would have been my second choice.  Gryffindor would have been disappointing, and Slytherin would have been a shock.  It’s nice to know that the House I feel the strongest attachment to is the house I ended up in.

For both the wand and the sorting, you answer a bunch of questions.  For the wand, I remember there being a question about my height and my eye color, and a few other random questions that I don’t remember.  For the sorting, some of the answers, you could pinpoint to certain houses, but there were others that were super random and you couldn’t attach them to any of the houses.  Or at least, I couldn’t.

It wasn’t as interactive as I thought, and certainly not in the way I was expecting.  The story itself (Philosopher’s Stone) wasn’t very interactive, but the wizard’s duel part seems to be pretty interactive.  And you get to make potions and practice spells!  And the common room and Great Hall seem to be a mix between Facebook and Twitter, although I’d say that it leans more towards facebook.  Some of the pages are a little awkward, which I’m hoping they change for the next 6 books.

I think that’s it for now, so have a great weekend!

Ready For Another Session!

Posted in Camp NaNo, Harry Potter by

I have a very vague idea for my August novel, so I’m just going to write and see what happens.  It’ll be fun, I think, as long as I don’t get bored or anything.  Even if I do get bored, I have a list of back-ups.  And this month, we get to be a part of cabins, which seem to be a more toned down form of the NaNo forums. 

I’m currently at 3,888 words, and I’m having no problem keeping things moving.  I doubt it’ll last very long, but if I can keep up this pace, I should be good for the rest of the week!

And Pottermore!  I got in!  On the first day!  I checked it sometime after midnight, and the clue was up, so I figured it out and got my registration email, and validated!  Now I’m waiting for the welcome email, which will come sometime this summer.  I can’t believe I finally got my letter to Hogwarts!  I’ve seen some sneak peaks of Pottermore, and it looks amazing!  I’m seriously excited about Pottermore!  I even did a happy dance after registering, and I did another one after I validated!  I’m pretty sure I’ll be talking it about it once I get my welcome letter.  I’m really excited, can you tell by all the exclamation points?  I even love my username, which is SpiritCharm15, so if anyone’s going to be doing Pottermore at some point, look me up!

I think that’s it, so have a great day!

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!

Posted in General, Harry Potter by

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.

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!

It All Comes Back To Harry Potter

Posted in Books, Harry Potter by

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!

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

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Book: Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Pages And Format: 309, Paperback

My Thoughts: This was the book that started my obsession love with Harry Potter.  In The Sorcerer’s Stone (aka Philospher’s Stone everywhere else in the world), Harry Potter turns eleven, and learns he’s a wizard.  He goes to Diagon Alley, and travels to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. 

For a debut book, it’s really good!  Plus, we get introduced to a lot of the major characters, life at Hogwarts and Quidditch.  My love of the Weasley twins definitely started when they joked about sending a toilet seat back home, and I love that they’re so funny! 

Every time I read Sorcerer’s Stone, I’m reminded of how magical the books are, and what made me fall in love with them.  At random intervals, I imagine one of the actors saying one of the lines.  And what’s weird is that I don’t really imagine the people and places from the movies when I read the books.  Maybe it’s because I became a fan after the 1st movie came out, and so I had plenty of time to read the first 4 books before the 2nd one came out. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.  Not the best thing ever, but for a debut book, and for the book that changed my life, it’s really good.  Harry Potter will always be a part of my life.