Friday, July 27, 2007

To boldly go where everyone has gone before

Update!
I missed out Tom Riddle's diary in the first version of my post, as many people have reminded me, so I've updated and added it in.
_________________________________________________________

Everyone I know who's into Harry Potter has read, discussed, forum-ed, blogged, and whatnot about the book.. Just jumping on the bandwagon here!

I can't believe there's anyone out there who is into Harry Potter who hasn't read HP7 yet, so might as well go ahead and blog out some spoilers.

I did not like:
- Don't see the point of Charity Burbage's murder. Hello, who has even heard of her before HP7?
- Kreacher's conversion was too fast and too complete to be believable. Rather like a deus ex machina character, he suddenly is able to give Harry the key to finding the locket.
- What does Umbridge want with it anyway??
- Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem was entirely too conveniently found and destroyed.
- Suddenly the entire novel revolves around the Deathly Hallows, which have never been mentioned before! And if Marvolo's ring was the Stone, how come Voldemort didn't realise that when he made it into a Horcurx?
- How come Voldemort can't sense Harry spying on him killing Snape in the Shrieking Shack? He was able to sense him easily enough before.. And Harry accesses Voldemort's mind without Voldemort himself knowing or trying to make use of that connecttion to "plant" images in his mind?
- And the fact that wands that have been won from their owner now recognize new "ownership" - if that was true, wouldn't wands have changed owners multiple times during every DA session (Expelliarmus!)? And if it applied only to the Elder Wand, well, Harry won Draco's own wand from him, and not the Elder Wand.
- Too many (seemingly) random deaths.. Lupin I understand, last of the Marauders, but why Dobby, Fred, Tonks, etc? It somehow feels like the names were picked out of a "lucky draw" containing all the remaining characters!

I like:
- Snape's loyalty. Beautifully shown in the form of his doe Patronus. Finally providing the plausible reason why he both loathes and tries to protect Harry - father's face, mother's eyes. Finally it's revealed as important why Harry has his mother's eyes.
- Love. Not the sappy puppy love kind of love, but the self-sacrificial love that Harry finally proves to have.
From beyondhogwarts.com:
The most important part of the prophecy was that LOVE was the weapon that would ultimately defeat Voldemort, and i had always wondered how Ms.Rowling would execute this most extraordinary concept. I think it's absolutely brilliant how she did it. Snape's LOVE for Lily redeemed and protected him from going back to being evil, Regulus' LOVE for Kreacher redeeming him from the same, Dumbledore's LOVE for his family redeeming him from corruption, the Malfoys' LOVE for their son eclipsing their lust for power, and the LOVE shared by Harry and his friends and families so strong that they will gladly die as Lily Potter did--to give the others protection through their sacrifice. LOVE as the ultimate weapon against evil and all its' temptations. An excellent way to teach a modern generation about one of life's most important lessons.
- That friends like Neville, Ron and Hermione got some of the limelight too - I thought it was rather cool that each Horcrux was destroyed by a different person rather than all being single-handedly done by Harry alone.
1. Tom Riddle's diary - Harry
2. Marvolo's Ring - Dumbledore
3. Slytherin's Locket - Ron
4. Hufflepuff's Cup - Hermione
5. Ravenclaw's Diadem - Crabbe
6. Nagini - Neville
7. Harry - Voldemort
8. Voldemort himself - Harry.

(oo what a hard-to-please reader I am..)

Nonetheless, it was a great ending to a great series, I stayed up until 2am to devour the book! (a super rare occurence for me nowadays) and on a weeknight no less.. Now I can go back to my book-lessly boring life and wait for the next series to come along and fascinate me.. JKR joins my list of "all time favourite series writers" together with Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern), David Eddings (The Belgariad etc), Piers Anthony (Xanth), Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time).. ahh.

Friday, July 20, 2007

It's the same everywhere

Act 1, Scene 1.

Ming’s room, ulugamalated Yew Tee.

Mum : Do you want X.

Ming : No thank you.


(5 minutes later)

Mum : Do you want X.

Ming : No thank you.

Mum : Really.

Ming : No thank you very much.

Mum : Why not?

Ming : I just don’t want it, OK?

(5 minutes later)

Mum : Here’s X (places X on table).

Ming : But I said I didn’t want it!

Mum : Well I want you to have it. And I already made it and brought it here! Take it, you should appreciate my effort. (stomps off huffily)

Ming : … OK, whatever. (defeated).

[and we all wonder why ming is fat.]

Act 2, Scene 1.

Two places, Yew Tee and Upper Thomson. Dialogue takes place via sms.

Mum : Do you want X.

Ming : No thank you.

Mum : Do you want X.

Ming : No thank you.

Mum : Really.

Ming : No thank you very much.

(10 minutes and a barrage of 10 smses later in which the level of Huffiness is becoming More and More Apparent in Mum’s tone)

Ming : … OK, whatever. (defeated)

Couple this with the deadly emotional blackmail missives of

“why-didn’t-you-reply-my-sms-I-was-so-worried-about-you”, “can’t-you-just-leave-your-meeting/service/class-to-return-my-call”, which leads to

“you-don’t-want-to-listen-to-me-anymore” and finally the dreaded

“you-don’t-love-me-anymore”,


Or how about the circular tirade of “you’re-not-happy-right”, “tell-me-why-you’re-not-happy”, and “am-I-wrong-in-giving-you-this?” “so-why-are-you-not-happy”

and you see why it always ends on defeat in my part.

Sometimes I wish I’d never taught my mother how to sms.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Reserve Is

Dear MoD has reserved my husband for reservist for three weeks in September, spanning both his birthday and mine.

Boo..

Friday, July 13, 2007

Pass the chocolate

Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms:

250


Harper's Index, October 1989

Thursday, July 12, 2007

G!

1. Army hat and green/brown clothing (in honour of the obsession with all things camp, army, and outdoors)
2. Spiky hair aka trying-hard-to-be-cool-hairstyle
3. Severe dark rings which disappear behind
4. Snazzy specs!
5. Stubble from a day out (ugh)
6. Camera-toting ("It's my ricebowl, OK!")
7. Burger-chomping,
8. Beer-guzzling,
9. and wine-swigging man!
10. And a lightsaber to up the Star-Wars-coolness quotient. Heh.

SouthPark Studios, how I love you..

Me!

1. Purple hair - You know purple HAD to appear somewhere!
2. Princess tiara - Because that's what I am. Hmphffff. Flbbbtttt.
3. Bloodshot eyes with dark rings
4. Large aviator shades to hide abovementioned bloodshot-eyes-etc etc
5. Sweat, blood and tears streaming down face
6. As I attempt to be a superwoman and juggle so, so many things.
7. Quandary - Should I be the angel or the devil?
8. Devil wins! as evidenced by the copious amounts of weaponry (look! a lightsaber! muaahaahahahahahaha) to use on unsuspecting students and the Burning Fires of Hell to shove the NEXT person who attempts to write rubbish on their exam scripts!!!

Fun courtesy of SouthPark Studios

ehehehehehehehehehe.

Glaring holes!!

visited 27 countries (12%)

create your own visited country map


Somebody bring me travelling soon!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I am happy I did all the good that I know to do.

No matter the outcome.

No matter the frustration of seeing so many unknowingly slip away.

I am convinced that we have tried our best and utmost, and God is still in control.


"At the end, I know all was done in the name of love and

I am happy I did all the good that I know to do."
- Ogugua Ezekwesili

STOP TALKING TO ME!!!

In Major, Large, Loud,

CAPITAL LETTERS!!!!

I am Not Free.


Now, Go Away!!!



whimper.

Have a Happy Mycological Christmas!

Yesterday, at Roger's house:

A Christmas tree, complete with decorations and lights!

(No, that's not the tree in his house. Duh! Can't you see gifts under the tree? Whereas if if was in Roger's house, we would have snatched the presents up le. For illustration purposes only.)

HM: Er, wasn't Christmas over a long time ago? It's July le.
Rac: Ah! But that means Christmas is coming again soon!

Talk about the pessimist versus the optimist.

But I'm seriously deluged in Christmas-mood already. I can't wait for the season to be here! Today, I was even humming Christmas carols -ahemprovidingsoothing-background-musicahem- in class while my students were copying.

Let's count in this way:
It's Wednesday of Week 3 of Term 3!
Woo!
So 6.5 weeks more to the September Holidays!!
Woo!
Let's minus the 0.5 week for National Day Holidays!!!
Woo!
And then a week of holidays!!!!
Woo!
And then another 6 weeks before the JC2 students are dismissed for study break!!!!!

Which will, by then, bring us right to the middle of..
October!

Oh.




Right.


Entertain yourselves with some mycological fun, then, and by the time the Real Thing rolls around, we'll be well equipped in setting up our Christmas Mushrooms.