Fall Fatalities

This is your backyard. Now start raking.

As much as I love Fall and all the wondrous and joyous things it brings me, there are a few things about this season that I think we, at least those of us who live in the Mid-Atlantic to Northeast region of the United States, could go without. You know what I'm talking about; Raking Leaves.

I understand why we have to do it, I mean who wants a beautiful blanket of autumn leaves on your lawn, transforming the quickly dying grass into a mini cornucopia of colors until the snow comes down? certainly something so evil as these must be destroyed. But no not by the adults who want them gone - by their children who couldn't care less if there is a pile of leaves in the backyard or not.

Your parents bug you for days and days on end to go rake the leaves up and eventually you have to do it, for a fee of course. But the fee is so insubstantial that we might as well be child workers in the Great Depression for the little reward we get out of this unpleasant task. The leaves always have weird things like twigs and mud and SPIDER CRICKETS in them, and for some reason are always slightly damp even if it hasn't rained in a while....

If you have parents like mine, then bagging is even worse than raking. My parents make us fill a bag, then sit on it in order to compress the leaves and simultaneously making it harder to meet my bagging quota for the day. When I am finally done after 3 and a half hours of bagging I am cold, sweaty, irritable, and smell faintly of mold and forest. I shower and get handed 4 dollars by my parents. One. for. each. bag.

So for those of you who live in temperate regions, Kudos. For those of you who live in Cities, Great. For those of you who live in a Coniferous forest, that's unfair. And for people who live in woodlands and actual forests, my thoughts are with you this November.

Back again...10 pounds heavier

After a much needed, and deserved break from my daily blogging, I'm back to highlight a few things about Thanksgiving that we are are hopefully familiar with. We all know that family bonding comes with the holiday, but what are the pros and cons of this most sacred of eating days?
Pro's:

1. Seeing cousins, catching up
2. Good food
3. Getting off school for a max. of 5 days
4. Sleeping in, staying up late NOT doing homework
5. College kids come home!
6. Movies are on all the time (Back to the Future, for ex.)
7. For some, Black Friday discounts
8. being THAT much closer to Christmas (less than a month now!)

Cons:

1. The drunk and disorderly aunts and uncles
2. Having to clean your ENTIRE HOUSE for your guests
3. Eating too much food and feeling physically ill for days afterward
4. Having crippling amounts of homework you save till Sunday night
5. Relatives talking politics, economics, and (gulp) your future. All the while managing to say something offensive or racist
6. Cleaning up the thousands of plates after the meal
7. Still being a month away from Christmas
8. Exams are right around the corner...

So as you can see, the scales are realtively balanced, with enough good and bad going around to tide you over until Christmas. Given, this is a slightly bias perspective based on my own crazy family but hey, I assume we're all relatively similar in our grievances right? If not, leave a comment and say what you love or hate about the day of thanks.

The Joys of the School day midnight premiere

3:30: we arrive at the mall, thinking we are ahead of the game and have some time to walk around before we get in line, when lo and behold there are already people in line at 3:30. for a midnight premiere. eight and a half hours away. We ran to the movie theatre and got in line fairly near the front. yay.
4:00: we've made friends! they are sitting in front of us and nice. They told us the people at the very front have been here since 10 in the morning. So they were waiting five hours already, and were prepared to wait nine more. Thats a 14 hour wait people. Oh and I gave Mary a wand for her birthday.
5:00: I took a nap on the floor of a movie theatre for 40 minutes which in any other circumstance would be kind of gross. It still was but I ignored that, more people are arriving and Mary is doing homework I listen to Mugglecast. Only seven hours left. Mary draws me a kick-arse Dark Mark.
6:00: I get my awesome Draco Malfoy (from A Very Potter Musical) costume on, complete with an amazing blond wig, baggy black pants, and a slytherin tie. I look pretty awesome
7:00: Dinner Time! Mary and I go downstairs to stretch our legs and consume fast food while looking like freaks. We bring our wands of course, because one never knows when danger is afoot. We draw some stares but honestly? if your just hanging out at the food court of a mall on a Thursday night you have problems.
8:00: Kaylee arrives, so do many others as the line stretches down the stairs and into the food court. I laugh because our spot is awesome and then feel slightly humiliated as soon as I see people I know from my school (who I don't actually know that well) see me in full Draco garb. oh well. our spot is getting increasingly more crowded as friends decide we have a fun spot in line (hi Marylee!) and the usher marks our tickets. I am #43 out of 2400 YIPEE
9:00: The usher says they are letting us into the theatre in 20 minutes and the whole theatre flips a shit. They let us in to theatre 7 and we ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE. so we get the best seats, I role around on the floor with a fellow actor and draco, and we lead the entire theatre in a rousing round of "the Mysterious Ticking Noise"
10:00: food is bought, and bertie bots are fun
11:00: We make everyone sing again, and they love us. Except for the two adult who try and steal our seats in the movie theatre. apparently they had "reserved seats" which is impossible. so they tried to bully teenagers and we won because there were more of us, we loved Harry Potter more, and we were a hell of a lot crankier, having been at a movie theatre for a third of a day.
12:00: the PREVIEWS START. we talk excitedly before an irate fan drops the f bomb and tells us to be quiet, we say we will during the movie and she storms out to tell the usher. everyone is a leetle cranky. BUTTHEMOVIECHANGESTHATBECAUSEITISAMAZING
2:30: numb I drive home at top speed and get home 15 minutes later. I promptly fall asleep on my bed.
For the next day I am a walking zombie, I couldn't tell you what happened if I wanted to.
So much fun though, and oh so worth it.

My countdown is over.

Kudos to everyone who listened to my rambling facts (all 52 of them) over the past month. Tune in for that later when Deathly Hallows Part II comes out which, let me tell you, is not soon enough.

The movie, which I saw at midnight was AMAZING. Best Potter movie ever, and if you haven't already seen it I don't know what you're doing with your time besides reading my little known blog. Now here comes the brief review.
I laughed, I cried, I screamed, and I got really really angry. All the main actors (Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson) did amazing! My favourite was Daniel Radcliffe. He had amazing timing on all his lines, had some great funny moments, and most importantly was great at the emotional scenes. His scene in the Godric's Hollow graveyard was so heartbreaking. It broke my heart. (redundant)
The funniest scene was definately the beginning of the seven Potters when Daniel Radcliffe had to play all the Order. Seeing him in a bra = priceless
Scariest flupping thing ever was Bathilda's house in Godric's Hollow. 1) she was the scariest looking old lady in the world. 2) you KNEW what was coming, which oddly made it scarier 3) THE SNAKE WAS TERRIFYING. at one point when I thought the worse was over, IT CAME BACK, and made me jump at least 2 feet off my seat.
The Saddest scene was Dobby's Death. enough said.
Lastly props to Emma Watson during the torture scene. that was some seriously good acting.
Hopefully if you just read this, you were at least aware of the basic plot of the books and I didn't ruin your life or destroy your movie experience but right now, GO SEE IT. If you haven't already, drop everything. If you've already seen it, go see it again, if you've seen it twice mad props, (now wait a week, and get someone else to buy a ticket for you, go to a matinee, and see it again)
Needless to say it was...Mind Blowing.

ONE quote

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does...I am the true master of the Elder Wand"

ONE

Yes my friends, tomorrow we witness the beginning of the end of the Harry Potter movies, The Penultimate Peril, the Second to Last Hurrah- The Deathly Hallows.

to thank those of you who read, I will give you some cool FACTS today

1. Fred and George were born on April Fools Day

2. Peeves, being a poltergeist, was never a living person. He is not a ghost but an indestructible spirit of chaos.

3. Dementors don't breed. They grow whereve there is decay.

4. Rowling has stated that Crookshanks is half-kneazle ( a kneazle is a highly intelligent, cat-like animal that has a penchant for sniffing out suspicious characters and fowl-play)

5. A magical quill detects the birth of every magical child in England, then McGonagall sends them and owl when they turn 11

6. When Ron sees Tom Riddle recieved an award for special services to the school he jokes that "Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've doen everyone a favour" when in fact, Myrtle died because she saw the basilisk that Tom had sent for

7. Most of the wizards in the Black family (extended too) are named after stars or constellations.

Well guys, its been fun, real, enlightening, but most of all MIND BLOWING (ps. the number of facts is no coincidence)

TWO quote

"Haven't you always wondered what was the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord? Why he was unable to kill you when you were just an infant? Don't you want to know the secret of your scar? All the answers are there, Potter, in your hand. All you have to do is give it to me, and I can show you everything." Enticing...Lucius Malfoy

TWO

Once again, clarification: TWO days until the midnight premiere!

Everyone knows that Voldemort and Harry's wands share the same core - a phoenix feather, but what makes their wands different?

Voldemort's is yew, which is traditionally seen as having immense supernatural powers regarding death and rebirth, both of which are things Voldemort obsesses over. Also Yew, according to Celtic lore, is the tree of the day before the winter solstice, around the end of December. Tom Riddle was born at the end of December on New Years eve late at night. hmmm.

Mind blown

THREE quote

"The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are nto etched onto the inside of skulls, to be perused by an invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing." Occulemency fun with Severus Snape.

THREE

the pressure is on for me to make these last facts particularly mind-blowing, but they will most like be normal run-of-the-mill but hey, its not like my fact will eclipse THE MOVIE IN THREE DAYS.

"the run down definition" of Rubeus Hagrid's name
Rubeus - Latin for something produced by a bramble or thicket, something "wild" (Hagrid has a wild personality...and hair)
Hagrid - most likely comes rom haggard, which means wild or unruly
Rowling has also said Hagrid is named after an old English phrase hag-rid which means you had a bad night, (Hagrid is a big drinker) teehee.

"Neville Longbottom "- MuggleCast just told me his name means "absent-minded proffesor" in Latin

and, perhaps most oddly, "Dumbledore" means bumblebee, which Rowling says she chose because she liked to imagine Dumbledore buzzing aroudn the castle, humming to himself.

Mind Blown

FOUR quote

"There is no good or evil: only power and those to weak to seek it" Said by Voldemort, or Quirrel, or both, it's hard to tell sometimes, point is, its evil.

FOUR

Creeping up fast on us now

breathe

breathe

breathe

When A dementor comes near you, it doesn't just make you sad, it makes you depressed. Having never been depressed I can't say what this feels like, But JK Rowling can. There was a period in her life when she was clinically depressed and impoverished, and when she describes the effect dementors have on people, she is using her real life experiences with depression. As a counterattack, Chocolate cures a person after a dementor encounter, which makes sense, because chocolate is a well known aphrodisiac...

Intresting...Mind blowing...

FIVE quote

"In the maze, you'll find no dragons or creatures of the deep, instead, you'll face something even more challenging. You see, people change in the maze. Oh - find the cup if you can - but be very wary, you may just lose yourself along the way."

Ummm go team??? thanks Dumbledear.

FIVE

no more joshing around, this is almost real.
The Secret Code Arthur Weasley dials into the phone booth vistor's entrance to the minestry is 62442 which, if you type into a phone while it is on that T9-word setting, can spell MAGIC.
That Rowling thinks of everything, doesn't she?
Mind blowingly everything

Shoutout again

And welcome again to new follower, Reilly Dunn!!! I promise you as soon as the Potter paraphenelia is over, I will write a little somethin' somethin' about Gossip Girl for you ;)

6 quote

"I'm going to Hagrid's, I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's" High as a kite on Felix Felicis, Harry decides to vist Ol' Haggy.

6

6 days is less than a week guys, just think about it. On another note, I got interviewed today about Harry Potter for The Capital, and the article should be out next week in...six days! so if anything I said actually gets put in there, you guys will be the first to get a personalized link :)
Onto today's fact:
JKR gives us a hint early on that Fluffy's weakness is music - in fact, we learn it the first time we meet the beloved three-headed canine, who is sleeping when our friends first meet it. Why is Fluffy sleeping though? BECAUSE in the hallway right outside the room with fluffy in it, Peeves is outside, talking in a SINGSONG voice. meaning that Fluffy was lulled into sleep by hearing Peeves sing, which is a top notch use of foreshadowing, in my opinion

BOOOOOOM. MIND BLOWN.

7 Quote

"Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what you get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh -- took care of yer mum an' dad an' house, even -- but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry" Bringing you back to Sorcerer's Stone, with a relate quote to Deathly Hallows - Hagrid style

7

One week until the midnight premier, time has just flown by hasn't it?...sort of.

This one is a quicky but a goody in my personal opinion

Hogwarts has a sorting hat because Godric Gryffindor decided the students would still need to be sorted into houses, even after the founders died
Salazar Slytherin, always a top notch guy, contributed a secret chamber to Hogwarts that held a giant snake that, when called, would kill all students "unworthy to attend"...great!
It was Rowena Ravenclaw who made the staircases at Hogwarts move, which, although a pretty cool magical feat, proves to be a pain in the arse - to use the brits spelling - for many a Hogwarts student
Helga Hufflepuff created the menu that is used at Hogwarts, because among her great magical talents is...cooking?

Mind blown

8 quote

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more, to stand up to your friends." Go Neville, from Dumbledore

8

8 days left, and an extra special shout out to Mary Purnell, whose birthday happens to be today. and another extra special shout out to Darren Criss, star of a very potter musical and who was on Glee last night! Yay to both of you!!!

Now onto today's magical mystery tour: Rowling likes to use play on words for places in more than one instance, here are three examples:
Diagon Alley - Diagonally
Knocturn Alley - Nocturnally (Things that come out in the night, Knockturn ALley is a dark place?)
Grimmauld Place - Grim old Place (it is kind of depressing)

Boooom.

9 quote

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me. I can make them hurt if I want to." If an eleven year old said this to you, how would you react?

9

we are in the single digits kids, I repeat. THE SINGLE DIGITS.

this one's a quicky but fun, and y'all (or the proper, you all) can look for it in the movie opening on NOVEMBER 19th!!!
During Potterwatch, the secret radio station that goes on during Voldy's rule of the wizarding world, those who do the radio show in the underground resistance are forced to choose codenames for example
Lee Jordan - river
Kingsley Shacklebolt - Royal
Fred Weasley - Rapier/Rodent
Remus Lupin - Romulus
All these codenames are hints to the speakers actual name, Lee Jordan's is River and there are two Rivers in Ireland, The River Lee and the Jordan River with the same name
Kingsley Shacklebolt is Royal because well, his name is Kingsley,and (foreshadows he will become Minister of Magic?)
Fred Weasley was originally dubbed rodent, which is easy; rodent=weasel but changes it to rapier, whichmeans sharp. please comment if you can think how that is significant
And lastly Lupin is Romulus, and if you want the full story for that, scale back in time to a post in October for the full story ;)
Well. That was fun. MIND BLOWINGLY SO.

10 quote

"There is no doubt in my mind that his death would have been as widely proclaimed as possible by the Death Eaters if it had happened, because it would strike a deadly blow at the moral of those resisting the new regime. 'The Boy Who Lived' remains a symbol of everything for which we are fighting: the triumph of good, the power of innocence, the need to keep resisting"
Lupin affirming his belief that Harry is still alive, despite Harry bitching him out earlier in the book <3>

10

bum ba da bum bum bum BUMMMM

to clarify, this means 10 days until the midnight premier on the 18th, so for the rest of you, its technically 11. But lets not get into detail.

The Marauder's Map reads: "Mssrs. Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present: the Marauder's Map" which is nice and spirited and friendly and stuff until you realize the marauders died in reverse order Prongs is James, and he dies first. Padfoot is Sirius and he dies in OOTP. Wormtail is Pettigrew and he dies halfway through DH. Lastly, Mooney is Lupin (my favorite man) and he dies during the battle of Hogwarts near the end of DH :(

Creeeepily Mind Blowing....

11 quote

"Dying? Not at all," Said Sirius. "Quicker and easier than falling asleep."

11

I said I would do this fact a few days ago but forgot, so here it is now

Did JK Rowling give her readers some forshadowing that scabbers was not really a rat? did she give that hint to readers in The Sorcerer's Stone? The answer is: maybe.

When Ron tries to turn Scabbers yellow with his little rhyme, nothing happens but why? maybe because Ron says "turn this stupid fat rat yellow" and Scabbers isn't a rat, BUT PETER PETTIGREW. so there. ha.

Mind Blown.

12 quote

"You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Vicious ultimatum given to Harry when he first sets foot inside of Hogwarts. Who knew 11 year olds had such a sense of entitlement??? Oh Malfoy...

12

a dozen days left, isn't it wonderful??? now, onto the factoid...

What do foreign wizarding schools names mean????

Durmstrang - "Sturm und Drang" is a German phrase meaning "storm" and "stress or urge" also a genre of plays that have an ill sense of foreboding to them. Fitting for a school known for the dark arts hmmm?

Beauxbaton - French for "Beautiful wands" not much meaning other than that, although the students of Beauxbaton tend to be rather proud....

Mind blown

13 quote

"But...I can't be a wizard, I'm...just Harry! just Harry!" poor little Harry potter at age 11...

13

Unfortunately it is a rather bad day, so this post won't be quite so mind blowing...

Even though Fred and George Weasley have bright red hair, the actors who play them, James and Oliver Phelps, are naturally brunette. Same goes for Tom Felton who plays Draco Malfoy, he doesn't have blonde hair, he's also a brunette!!!

14 quote

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." Hermione getting catty with Ron, its okay, they wuv each other...

14 (2 WEEKS)

JK Rowling originally wrote in another Weasley in the Harry Potter Series, Malfada Weasley who would be a Slytherin! WHAAAAT? An evil Weasley? She was supposed to appear in the goblet of fire, with both her parents being muggles or non-magical. According to Rowling's idea, she would've been a rather annoying character, who would let information slip to Harry, Hermione, and Ron about death eater news when she heard their children talking in the slytherin common room. She was supposed to be a highly gifted witch (which would annoy Hermione). Instead, Rowling thought it would make more sense to have an adult dig up the dirt, and thus, Rita Skeeter was born.

you can read all that in more detail here! at Rowling's official site (so you know i didn't make this up, or know it off the top of my head.)

Booooom. Mind Blown. 14 days.

15 quote

"Sunshine Daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow" Said by a young Ron Weasley, a failed attempt at a spell on his rat Scabbers, but maybe there's more to this story than meets the eye...tune in

15

Hopefully I still have enough facts to amuse you all for about 15 more days before I do my official REVIEW of the movie!!! (not so official)

Well here is your daily sampling of HP: Rowling got the name Potter from a family who lived down the street from her when she was a kid, the real Potters have stated that they were besties with the author and often played make believe magic games with her when they were all children, but Rowling has always denied these claims saying she never personally knew the family and just really liked their surname. Owned.

I'm not going to ask if your mind was blown because I fear it's getting on the nerves of my adoring fans. But, I just mentioned it anyways so it's still a win win para mi

16 quote

"You're a fool Harry Potter, and you will lose...Everything"

Quote goes to Voldy, WTF picture goes to youtube.

16

Almost at the two week mark, and I have to be quick so here comes a lame fact:

George Weasley married Angelina Johnson and had two children, a daughter and a son named FRED.

Sadface, Mind Blown?

17 quote

"I've been able to see them ever since my first year here. They've always pulled the carriages. Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am." Aw, Bless Luna...although not very comforting.

17

The clock is ticking...

http://mugglenet.com/ is officially becoming my favourite place for finding these facts, so here is another one to tickle your fancy, This one is a fact evidently disclosed by JK Rowling that she thought of after but never included in the books, It will make all of you not think of Dean Thomas as a tool anymore MARY:

Dean Thomas states that he doesn't know who his father was, although we know he never met him and that his mother was a muggle. What we don't know is his dad was killed by DEATH EATERS when he refused to join them, according to an interview with Rowling.

MIND BLOWN, as a tear roles down your eye in sympathy for little Deanster.