I did it too!

For the record, we were in Iowa yesterday morning on the way home from the lake. I didn't get a copy of HP 7 in my hands until 8:30 am yesterday morning, and I was reading in the car while trying to keep the baby entertained as well. I finished about 5/6 of the book in the car, and then the rest after we let the poor B sleep in her own crib for an hour or so once we got home.

So, yeah. Can't spoil me either. :p

OotP Movie Musings

Thanks to my nephew, who consented to listen to the B over the baby monitor for three hours, we saw Order of the Phoenix last night.

Spoilers for the movie/book forward from this point. This is your final warning.

I'm not one of those "but it's not exactly like the book!" people. I'm really not. However, that being said, I think the movie left out one rather important thing. They never had Umbridge say that she was the one who set the Dementors on Harry while he was at his Aunt and Uncle's. That was a rather interesting thing in the book, since everyone would otherwise have naturally assumed that Voldie had done it after recruiting them to his side, but the fact that Umbridge did it really shone a light on the themes of governmental corruption and totalitarianism that were in the book. Sort of a proof that the "big bad" isn't the only bad.

It's slightly minor, but that's my only real complaint. (Well, the Dept. of Mysteries battle could have been longer, and Harry's time at Privet Drive, as always, could have been shorter, but that's also just my opinion.)

God, I hate the Dursleys.

You Know When An Actor Looks Familiar?

I just put it together. Doctor #10, David Tennant, looked so damn familiar to me and I couldn't place why. It just came to me while I was lying here unable to sleep (dammit).

He played Barty Crouch Junior in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! Honestly, anyone with a browser and access to IMDB could have figured this out, but I always try to place why the actor is familiar on my own before I consult the source of all sources.

Yikes! I hope he's less scary/creepy as the Doctor.

Our Date With Harry (no spoilers)

Our last big night out on the town before the baby comes has now passed. I know, I know. There's still forty-odd days (and I do mean the odd part) before that's likely to happen, but I'm already uncomfortable enough that I don't really enjoy trips away from the house anymore. I very soon will no longer be a very fun date, even though it's clear to all that I put out. (ha)

The movie itself (no spoilers, this is about the theater experience) was actually a much more laid back affair than it could have been. There was the typical big long line waiting to be let into the theater, but we got in it at just about the right time. We still got the seats in the general area we wanted and didn't have to wait in the line for more than 20 minutes. I commandeered a chair and none of the theater employees seemed too put out that I'd done it, especially as we put it back as soon as the line started to move.

As we went to the 7:00 showing, there were a fair number of rather young kids in the theater. I was wagering that the magic (pun not intended) of seeing "OMG it's Harry Freaking Potter" on the big screen would engross them to the point of rapt attention, and that was mostly true. The most annoying person in my immediate vicinity was the guy next to me, who kept getting Fred (or George, I suppose) mixed up with Ron, and asked his wife to clarify things about ten times during the movie. I blocked him out, as I'm really far too tired at this point to start some sort of pissing match in the theater.

I am now resolutely rejecting the reflex to discuss the movie. I know a lot of people haven't seen it at this point, as the theaters are pretty crowded and many of you probably don't have such a burning desire to see it that you have to brave the high population theater experience. I'll wait about a week and then post my thoughts, because I know you're all just on tenterhooks waiting to see what I think.

Like Floss for the Mind

So, CK's LWC and I were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban today and I remembered something I'd wondered about the last time I watched it.

You know when you see someone in a movie and you think, "What else have I seen them in?" I had that very familiar, universal moment when Mrs. Weasley was clucking over Harry in the pub near the beginning of the movie. It took a moment to place it, but I suddenly realized that she was probably Rita from Educating Rita. I meant to IMDB it, but I forgot to do it just then.

I finally remembered to check on it tonight, and as some of you may already be thinking, "How could she not know that was the same person?" I should tell you that she is indeed the same person.

Even though I was pretty sure I was right even before I checked, I still felt that tiny little moment of relief and triumph when I confirmed it. What is it that silly little things like that can make you feel so much more clear? It's like proof that your brain is still working, still finding connections and patterns.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (no spoilers)

No spoilers here. Just a reading update.

I picked up the book at 12:05 a.m., was home by 12:15. I planned to stay up until 1:00 or 2:00 at the latest.

At 2 in the morning, I did some quick math in my head and realized I was knocking out about 120 pages an hour. Some more quick math told me that I would probably finish the book around 5:00 a.m. if I decided to.

At that point, when I weighed how tired I was against how much I wanted to keep reading, I actually didn't feel that tired. Certainly, had I put the book down, I would merely have laid back against the pillow and spent the hours until 5 a.m. speculating on what was going to happen rather than just reading the silly thing and finding out what does happen.

Once I got within a hundred and fifty pages or so, I pretty much had to just hang on and read the end.

So, I finished it at 5:05 a.m. and was in bed trying to sleep by ten after. I thought for a bit that I would finish earlier, as my pace picked up a bit, but the book got a little denser near the end, as they pretty much all have so far. In the end, that put me on a 130 pages/hour pace, which isn't bad as I was actually reading and not skimming.

I said no spoilers, so I won't talk about any of it here. I'd wager most people don't give a fig what I personally think about it anyway.

Please no spoilers in the comments, if any. The entry is marked as spoiler free and I therefore don't want anyone spoiled because of it.

Harry Potter is my Star Wars

At my new job, we have dealings with Scholastic, the company that publishes the HP novels. We don't carry them (much to my chagrin, as I probably could have gotten my copy EARLY that way) but they did send us a display to try to entice us to carry it. I made an off-handed comment about how they'd have to guard it from me, and they gave it to me. Whee!

Wasn't I too old when the HP books came out for it to become my new Star Wars? And yet, that's what it's become. I know how many days until the book comes out (actually, it's either 51 or 52, not sure which, but isn't that close enough?) and I found some production stills from the GoF movie on the net a couple of days ago and thought about making one of them my desktop image. I currently have a very cool Escher-homage image from a Fark photoshop contest as my desktop image, which is quite nice, and I'm not sick of looking at it.

How old does the baby have to be before I can buy Harry Potter Legos and such and pass them off as the kid's toys? Probably, say, two. Right? Ah, that's too long. Suck.

I mean, look at this. Lego Sirius Black. Who doesn't want that?

Wouldn't it suck to be Madam Hooch?

(Click the image to take the test yourself. Presented by Pirate Monkey, a name I am strangely enamoured with.) A couple of you have seen this already, but for the record, I thought it would be appropriate to establish the fact that I am a bookish, quick to anger, nerd.

The cool thing about this quiz is that I couldn't tell as easily as you can with most of those vanity quizzes which character I would end up getting. The last time I took the quiz, I retook it and tried to skew my answers to a particular character, but I kept missing and getting someone else. I suppose that's because it seems to be based on Myers-Briggs, which I've had varying opinions on for most of my life because I seem to get a different personality diagnosis every time I take it.

I peeked at the page where you can see all the results. I think all of the outcomes would be fun to get, except for Madam Hooch, who is in the books for a sum total of about a page and a half. That's like saying, "Hey, in the big 'ol novel of life, you're a minor bit character created so Harry could learn how to ride a broom. Congrats!"

(I just took an LotR quiz too, courtesy of a link from Jason, and discovered I am Aragorn. As that is clearly wrong, I declined to post the results from that test. I was tied as five different characters: Aragorn, Gandalf, Pippin, Sam, and Eowyn. I think if I can tie as five different characters coming out of that quiz, you didn't ask me enough differentiating questions. To take that quiz and perhaps tie for five characters yourself, swing by the Den of Evil, link to the right.)