Avoid the internet, HP fans

There's irony in my title, huh? You're visiting the internet in order to read this. Avoid the internet after you finish reading this post. All kinds of killjoys are trying to ruin the intense surprise and enjoyment that comes with reading a Harry Potter book. There are spoilers everywhere. And no, you can't just avoid them my staying away from Harry Potter related sites. Here's an example:

A couple of years ago before I began reading Harry Potter books at all, I started getting heavy into Myspace. Most of the students at my church had accounts and invited me to join, so I obliged. One of my friends created a Myspace page and added me as a friend. In her Top 8 was one of her friends whose screen name was "BLANK kills BLANK" (substitute blank for the name of two primary characters in Book 6). Again, I had never read Harry Potter books at that point; this was about a year before I read Book One.

Of course, by the time I picked up Book One and began reading, it didn't take long before I learned of both characters mentioned on my friend's myspace page, and I remembered instantly. Talk about being TICKED!

So if you don't think it's that serious, haphazardly click and drag away as much as you like. But for the rest of you HP book fans reading this, don't say that I didn't warn you. :-)

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

I had a great day today! I got to hangout with the kids for a few hours longer than normal this morning. The weather is really nice in the mornings. I wouldn't know this because I'm usually holed up my cube at the bottom of my work building. If you know me well, you know that I love my job, but I'm just saying. Right now I'm inside of Atlanta Bread Company surfing and typing away. The interior of this place is SO cheery. Makes me wonder what it would (or will) be like to be able to dial in and work from a place that this more often. Just a fleeting thought.

I made it to the 12:10pm showing this afternoon as I planned! I had a great time. The crowd in the theater was my kind of crowd. Everyone was thoroughly engrossed in the movie and completely silent the entire time. I need a "Silence is Golden" t-shirt. There were a few times that we giggled or shrieked quietly, but otherwise this movie experience was amazing (and a rarity)! I'm sitting here trying to organize all of my thoughts about what I've just seen.

There were plot-holes a'plenty people! If you have never read the books, you will not even notice, let alone care about all of the story lines that Rowling covered brilliantly that go completely unmentioned in the movie. If the words Hufflepuff, whomping willow, or Dumbledore don't mean anything to you, quietly exit at the side and rear doors of the cabin please. For the rest of you, here's all that comes to mind immediately:

No mention of Ron being the Gryffindor prefect. It's been about a year since I read the book so I barely remembered this until reading another website a little earlier.

Percy Weasley is present, of course, but NO mention of his voluntary estrangement from his family. If I only watched the films, I would be quite curious as to why the uptight, yet encouraging Percy was now taking Minister Fudge's side over Harry and his friends (including Percy's own brother and sister!)

Hagrid is present for all of, like, 10 seconds. Listen, I understand that there's no way to cover the entire 900 or so pages in 2 hours and 20 minutes, so it made sense to me to gloss over this one. Still, it would have been nice to see a little more of Hagrid and hear at least a mention of his continued relationship with Olympe Maxime.

Mr. Weasley's attack was glossed over as well. I'm forgiving of that though; at least it got a mention.

No Quidditch this time. Very disappointing, as Ron’s position as keeper didn't get covered on film at all.

Also, in the book Cho Chang's friend (Marietta Edgecombe) was the person who spilled the beans against Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge and the "Inquisitors". The movie gives us Cho Chang herself as the rat. I guess the writers felt it'd be a waste to spend too much time covering an entirely new character that won't be developed very much throughout the series.

And the number one most irritating element of the book left out of the movie is...drum roll please...barely any mention of the prophecy!! The prophecy only gets mentioned near the end of the film at the climax. The movie does not go into who made the prophecy. Also neglected is the fact that Neville is a strong consideration of who the prophecy is actually about! Neville is focused on in the movie mostly to show how vast his improvement becomes, but based on the movie alone you'd think this was mostly due to vindictive feelings toward Bellatrix Lestrange and her role in his parents' deaths.

Despite my whining, this was a nice refresher for Book 6, which no, I STILL have not even begun reading! Yes, I know I only have 9 days. Leave me alone.

Summer Solstice thoughts

We're at the midway point. Plenty of markers for this special day...

Today is the longest day of the year. If you go outside at 9:15 pm tonight, it will still be bright enough for you to get in a good run or walk the dogs.

The first day of summer. This is a big deal to me only because my company observes a policy known as "Employee Summer Fridays" in which everyone leaves by 3pm every Friday during the summer. If you aren't able to leave by 3pm, you get the time back to use for PTO. But more importantly, we also have ice cream parties every other Friday during the summer. Yes, I am 8 years old.

30 days left until the release of "...Deathly Hallows" I've already pre-ordered my copy of the new Harry Potter via Amazon. That means that I have 30 days beginning today to finish "...Half-Blood Prince". I've been waiting to read it because I've heard that the ending is intense, and I didn't want to have to wait forever for Book 7 to come out once I finished.

I wish everyone a pool-hopping, BBQ attending, shorts-wearing, frozen-lemonade drinking, 311-concert crashing, happy, safe summer!! :-)