Jessie’s class has been learning to write essays over the past couple weeks. That girl loves to write and I’ve read several of her stories that she’s written on her own. She has a great imagination, and I told her that she should keep writing even if it’s just for fun. (after all, I got my poetry and for a short time did write several short stories and published two of them)

So far, for her assignments, she’s written about karate and cartoons — two subjects she knows very well. LOL! Her assignment this week has been to write a description 5 paragraph essay. She was showing it to me last night — she wrote about dogs. She mentioned that her teacher encouraged her to write about something else (as the majority of the class wrote about animals!), and she was stumped and out of ideas.

I named off several things that she knows well: her various video games (UT!!), Harry Potter, Webkinz (too much like animals she said), Neopets, … she rejected them all and I was running out of ideas. Looking over across the den, we have a box of wedding stuff waiting to go into storage. I suggest writing about her part in the wedding. No dice. My next suggestion: How about the honeymoon?

“Huh?” LOL, she gave me a puzzled look that made me laugh, “You know, Disney World?”

Her face lit up like the 4th of July. Eureka! I hit gold.

She scrapped the paper she had previously written and started at once writing a new one. She let me read it just before bedtime last night and she wrote more about the hotel cafeteria and pool than the Disney World park itself. LOL!

Good thing we went there instead of the royal caribbean cruise I had been eying, hehe.

So my little budding writer was all happy and giddy when I left for work this morning. She was still talking about the paper she wrote last night and can’t wait for her teacher to read it.

That’s my girl!

I have put this off far longer than I had wanted. Originally, I had planned to write this a few hours after finishing reading the Deathly Hallows, but time ran out on me and then things piled up. As it stands, I am currently penning this in a meeting and will type it up later in my blog! (That makes fine use of all these meetings that I have to sit in, I must say!!)

Forgive me as my thoughts will meander a bit, but I think for the most part my points will come across just the same.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet read the last Harry Potter book and do not want to know what happens, proceed no further!

The Leak and The Casualties

Looking back, I’m glad that I was able to avoid the leaked spoiler circulating in various areas on the internet. However, the spoiler itself was a bit misleading in that it was not only one character that died in this book. This final chapter in the Harry Potter saga covered the end of the war between followers of He Who Must Not Be Named and those who chose to stand up and fight. Among those who were lost, the ones who come foremost to my mind are: Hedwig the owl, Dobby the free elf, Mad-eye Moody, Colin McCreevy, Severus Snape, Remus and Tonks Lupin, and last but certainly not least, Fred Weasley.

Many people naturally speculated that Harry would fall and at one point in the book, I found myself believing that as well. Harry learns that for Voldemort to be vanquished, they both must die. He prepares himself for his demise and sacrifices himself to save the world from this great terrible evil. (sound familiar?) This act of self-sacrifice allows Harry a moment to reflect and confer with Dumbledore, to discover truths which he already knew but needed sorting out and putting together in order to better fight. He awakens to find he is not dead after all and defeats Voldemort once and for all.

Snape’s Vindication

One of things I really enjoyed about this final volume was seeing Severus Snape’s name “cleared” in the virtual sense. Found dying of a bite from Voldemort’s snake, Harry is given a few strands of Snape’s memories, divulging his childhood friendship and lengthy history (and obsession) with Lily, Harry’s mother. He also learns of a mishap that dooms Dumbledore, and Snape’s promise to kill him so that young Draco Malfoy won’t have to. Harry learns that all of the “evils” that Snape has done have been for a good cause.

Similarities

Something else that struck me as peculiar … when Harry and Hermione were wandering around in the wilderness with a Horcrux that must worn around the neck, which brought the wearer terrible fears and loathsome feelings, and they despaired and often wondered when they would see their home and loved ones again … sound familiar? (Lord of the Rings, anyone?)

Tied Up

For the most part, I think Ms. Rowling tied up most of the loose ends pretty well. Harry and Ginny of course end up together, marry, and have kids. Ron and Hermione do the same. There was no mention of George, however, so I am left wondering about him. (What about the joke shop? Will he continue to develop new products? Too bad he doesn’t make radar detectors ;P)

Neville became the Hogwarts Herbology professor — no surprise there, but there is no mention of who he marries (if at all?). There has been speculation of he and Luna Lovegood, but I think Luna and Dean end up together. But that is not confirmed either. And what became of Bill and Fleur? Or Charlie Weasley?

Not a Great Wizard

Last but not least, I think what stuck out most about this story was that it finally became clear that Harry had long been assumed to be a “great wizard” due to his mysterious past and “you know who”, but this book proves this to be untrue in a sense. Yes, his spell-casting could be characterized as predictable, but not without its merits. He has his strengths and in areas where he has weaknesses he is blessed to have help in friends and loved ones to help out when needed. Harry is at last shown to have a strong and moral character, something that both does and doesn’t make him remarkable – and something that every hero should have.

(I’ve tried sending this twice from my Helio, but something seems to be up with it today. Grrrrrrrrr!!!)

… but y’all knew that already, right?

Friday night was fun, but I was in a lot of pain … and standing in a room full of several hundred screaming kids did not help. LOL! I had left work early Friday because I was getting another headache and went home to take a nap. I slept for a couple of hours and downed an assload of Tylenol and felt “ok enough” to head to the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release party at the McWayne Center. We had a good time despite my being a little “out of it”, hehehe. Jim’s mother, brother and his family joined us and fun was had by all. I was really impressed with all the neat little “side shows” they had set up for various Harry Potter-themed activities. Jess had a good time, but around 11 she started winding down — actually, I’m amazed she lasted that long!

When the doors opened to hand out the books at midnight, we pretty much grabbed ours and left. I didn’t actually start reading the book until the next morning. Jim and I both spent most of Saturday reading the book. I’ve noticed something — I read much faster when I’m alone. Every time I started crying (from the story), Jim would “check” on me and want to talk. Bless him, I kept telling him “I’m fine, I’m fine, leave me alone!” LOL! I finished the book late Saturday afternoon and I have to say, I’m really impressed.

I don’t want to say any more about it, because I know several friends who are just now getting their copies and/or still reading it. I will hopefully have a chance to post my complete thoughts on its contents in a day or so. (but not without a proper spoiler warning of course!)

I had a horrible headache Saturday (from all the crying) but felt pretty good yesterday. Jessie and I did a little cleaning around the house then took Jim’s mom up on a swimming invitation — that water felt SO GOOD!

Today’s doctor’s visit went ok. I explained how my headaches have changed, my symptoms, and what I’ve been taking (which she said was nowhere near the level of medication I needed, surprise surprise!). She thinks my headaches are brought on by stress and gave me some new medication. Basically, I’ll have to take a pill each night to prevent headaches from occurring, and if I *do* get one, I have another pill that I can take to get rid of it (but I’ve been warned of its “loopy” side effects!).

I’m not thrilled about having yet *another* pill to take every day; but hey, if it gets rid of these damned headaches, I’ll deal! (Hey, it’s headache medicine, not a diet patch, LOL!)

Tomorrow Jim, Jessie and I are attending the Harry Potter book release party going on at the McWayne Center. Jim and I are most likely going to unplug both the phones and internet this weekend while we each curl up with the book. Jessie will be at her mom’s (most likely sleeping since she’ll be out LATE with us!).

I’ll be spending a good bit of Monday at the doctor’s office. I’ve finally decided to get my head checked.

Go ahead, laugh … it’s ok. I’ll wait until you’re through. ;p

Seriously, my headaches have been getting a LOT worse; and the amount of OTC pain medication that I’ve been taking has reached a dangerous level. I came home with a headache last night that was so bad that I laid in bed and cried for 2 hours straight. I woke up this morning and STILL had that damned headache, luckily not hurting quite as bad as it did last night.

I figure something’s GOT to be wrong and I need to get checked out. I’m tired of being in pain and it’s only a matter of time before my job performance will suffer because of it. Hell, my home life is already suffering. (Well, not really, but *I*’m suffering and when I suffer, Jim suffers, LOL!)

Anyways … have a great weekend, I’ll hopefully have a nice personal tidbit to share with you lot early next week. (assuming we’ve got our Dell memory issues ironed out at work!).

I like to think I’m pretty careful. Whenever possible, I try to avoid spoilers to books and movies that I have every intention on reading/seeing. I don’t mind when people post spoilers, just as long as it’s prefaced with a very blatant spoiler warning, or in the case of LiveJournal, WordPress, Blogger and similar blogging services, hidden behind a cut (aka “read more”).

But what REALLY pisses me off is when some asshat decides to just post a spoiler in plain site with no warning. So plain that you can’t HELP but see it and instantly the movie, book, whatever you’re looking forward to seeing/reading is instantly ruined. I swear, some people apparently have so little of a life that they can only get their rocks off by spoiling the joys and anticipations of others.

You assholes deserve to smacked into next week. And to the bubbleheaded fuckwad who posted the Harry Potter spoiler to Girl Gamers, the admins there are a LOT nicer than I am, but you totally deserve everything you get … get over yourself.

And while I’m hot and bothered and ranting, I’d like to share something I read on The Terminal earlier today:

Watch your speed!

Especially if you’re planning on driving through Malfunction Junction anytime soon. Governor Riley has assigned six more troopers to the state’s busiest interstate interchange (connecting I-20/59 with I-65) to enforce the speed reduction from 60 m.p.h. to 50 m.p.h.

According to information obtained for this report, more than 3,900 tickets have been written since the speed reduction was implemented in late March. Motorists complying with the speed limit change have been left in the dust by those that still disregard it.

There is no word as to if or when the increased patrols would end.

Great, just great. It’s bad enough that he kept lowering the speed limit on the highways and interstates, now the busiest interchange in the city will become more fucked up than it was before.

Take an example: I drive the current speed limit in the SLOW LANE and still nearly get run over several times. 18-wheelers are the worst because they try to pass me while glued to my bumper. Mind you, as opposed to most of the mental midgets around Birmingham, I normally go the speed limit through the Junction while in the SLOW lane. Now just image how fast the other lanes are going … and this is during RUSH HOUR! Take into consideration though, 50 MPH is not really even needed for people going straight through the Junction as the speed limit drop was ORIGINALLY for the 18-wheelers flying through the exit ramps and turning over. But the local law enforcement isn’t ticketing the 18-wheelers … they’re ticketing everyone else! Why? Because the government won’t limit the speeds of the truckers, that’s “picking” on them. (*cough*unions*cough*)

Anyways, that choke point is in dire need of widening — AGAIN. Also, it would be more to our benefit if law enforcement would enforce speed of the 18 wheelers that they’re not ticketing now. From then on, keep others under 65-70 during rush hour and have a lovely fucking day.

Speed doesn’t kill people. Stupid people kill people.

I witness more “almost wrecks” than I care to, and quite honestly I’ve seriously thought about decking out my car with video recorders and similar equipment to better make my case to local governing bodies. Every damned day I see this shit! I see people dart in and out of lanes of morning rush hour traffic while doing speeds all under the speed limit. I see aggressive driving and excessive tailgating. Then there are the morons who are going 20 MPH *LESS* than the other 3 lanes of traffic around them, but they STILL won’t get out of the fucking fast lane!

*proceeds to bang head against wall*

I’ll say it again … stupid people kill people.