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New Wizard Of The Month
There's a new Wizard of the Month on JKRowling.com - which isn't surprising, as it is a new month. However, this month's wizard is of particular interest in light of the coming seventh book and the search for the horcruxes. Enjoy!
(For those who have never been to this site, the WotM is on a calendar type thing in the upper right hand corner once you've reached her website - as in, once you've chosen your language - click it and out should pop a picture of the dear old WotM!)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/30/2007 09:57:00 PM | (0) comments
Hurricane Lois
I got called detail oriented last night - ha.
I'm 'bout as detail oriented as a hurricane...
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/27/2007 08:53:00 AM | (0) comments
Turnin' In To A Trailer Park
Here is another trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/25/2007 03:17:00 PM | (0) comments
Throw Your Money In The Air!
Shake your wallet like you just don't care!
If you're betting on the Derby - good luck to ya.
Here is an article about this year's Kentucky Derby. It says the same thing I already said - basically that nobody knows what's going on.
The only advantage the author of this article has is that he can watch the horses work out in the morning. As for all us out here, all we get is the numbers, which really don't tell you anything.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/25/2007 02:40:00 PM | (0) comments
Holy Crrrap!
Ok, I've tried to convince people that the Harry Potter novels are not "just children's literature" - and for those remaining hold-outs...
I've got something for you.
Now it appears the movies are catching up to the books. From the looks of this trailer, I'm going to like - actually like - this movie version of The Order of the Phoenix.
(FYI - You do realize that "The Order of the Phoenix" is a reference to the church, right?)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/22/2007 06:52:00 PM | (2) comments
Sun-Warmed Cheddar Cheese
Blogging to you from outdoors today. It's a perfect, beautiful sky-blue day and I have a block of cheddar cheese warming nicely in the sun. There's nothing better than sun-warmed cheddar cheese and saltine crackers - especially after a nice long hike - which I have not done, but I intend to enjoy the cheese anyway.
Basil Bugsbane is chasing bugs, I am thinking about East Germany, The White Stag and Harry Potter.
Live is good.
Out.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/21/2007 11:57:00 AM | (0) comments
Professor Trelawney Strikes Again!
Ok, I guess I was wrong about something new on JKRowling.com. There isn't anything.
Except...
There are some (more) gumwrappers and a paperwad that weren't there before. But they don't do anything when clicked.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/21/2007 09:04:00 AM | (0) comments
Ninty-One Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 91
Reason #9: Challenge your wit against a Sphinx from the safety of your couch!
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard's Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
5. While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
6. Learning how to deal with the Boogie Man - Riddikulus!
7. You begin (or remember) to look at ordinary things as though they may very well be extrodinary.
8. Two Words: "Alan Rickman"
9. Challenge your wit against a Sphinx from the safety of your couch!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/20/2007 11:23:00 PM | (0) comments
MVP!
Funny quote from Dirk Nowitzki, who hates doing publicity shots:
"It takes four hours and I have to put on makeup," he laments. "I could be home reading a book or doing something else."
And one more from a former employee of the Mavs:
Gregg Elkin, former head of media relations for the Mavericks and now a PR director for the Texas Rangers, remembers Nowitzki struggling with his celebrity early on. "Dirk was surprised people wanted to talk to him," says Elkin. "I remember his dad asking me what his son could do to avoid attention. All I could come up with was maybe he should sit down when in public, so he wasn't as obvious."
I laughed right outloud on that one...
To read the whole article, click here.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/20/2007 11:16:00 PM | (0) comments
President Bush Comes To Town
So today, in the world of East Grand Rapids, we are locked down and held captive to our relative places. No, no threat of mass school shooting...
President Bush is speaking today at East Grand Rapids High School, approximately one mile from were I will lay my head tonight, from where I have eaten my breakfast, from where I am writing to you.
Several thoughts run through my head. The first is that had I moved slower through my education program, I might be at East Grand Rapids High today. I was this time last year, doing my student teaching internship. As it is, I did not ever bother trying to get in to hear the President - fat chance, in other words.
But that's not all. I have, for the first time in my life, been having recurring dreams. Not really exactly recurring dreams, but a recurring theme.
Spiders.
I have been dreaming incessantly of spiders - big, small, hairy, whatever - they're gross. Last night, I could barely get to sleep because I kept imagining a massive gray spider hiding under my bed.
Yes, I know I'm 33 years old!
But I WONDER...if possibly...in some small way, I have been picking up on all the creepy, crawling security stuff that has been underway for at least a month now. You know - the "them" and the "they". Those who make sure everything is secure months before the President arrives.
I'm going to think that anyway, cause it's kinda cool!
But I can't see any of those silent helicopters Mel Gibson talked about in the Conspiracy Theory - every breeze though, and I run and look!
Another thing I saw - besides the obvious and the, hmmm, isn't it weird that we've had all these people walking around, driving around checking all the telephone wires and electrical wires - besides that, I noticed my neighbors - two of which are students at EGRHS - have been coming and going and constantly on the phone. The kids who should be in school - but they're not. Instead, they just pulled up to the house and unloaded three identical bottles of laundry detergent. Three - and nothing else. Suspicious, isn't it?
I'm trying to determine if you can bombs from laundry detergent...I mean, after all, they're clearly Democrats.
Which leads me to my next thought - I couldn't help thinking, as a writer you see, of all the possible Tom Clancy moments that could happen right now - and I'd be here in the thick of it! I've been imagining myself as that "Innocent Bystander" character, who gets thrown into the thick of the things purely by proximety. There's a basement in my apartment that opens, like a storm cellar, on the outside. I've often thought of glamourous scenarios involving runaway - and wrongly convicted - criminals hiding in my basement while I sleep in comfort two stories above. I also imagined this same scenario last fall when a felony suspect actually escaped from the city jail, which is...oh...maybe 5 miles away? Not far, anyway... During that manhunt, I was actually stopped while driving and was intergated and made to pop my trunk, in case I was transporting the poor fellow.
Anyway, I've been imagining scenes in which I, clutching my cat in one arm, sliding along the interior hallway towards the inside basement door, whisper dramatically in my cell phone:
"I think...there's someone...in my basement..."
At which point, men in black bust down my door while some would-be assassin tries to escape. The next scene is of course, me - still holding my cat for some reason - accepting some metal of honor from President Bush for bravery and for saving his life.
There are a lot more details to this story, but I won't bore you...
(By the way - it's 11:49 - and the streets are all silent, no buses running anymore...hmm....)
Finally though, my last thought will have some air time.
I like President Bush. I voted for him, not once, not twice, but three times. No, this is not Chicago...
I voted for then Governor Bush while I lived in Texas, which makes three.
Now, I know it's not popular to like Mr. Bush, and I know that my value as an intelligent person goes down in the public market as I write this. But, I will say it again. I like him and I trust him.
Jeremy Benson and the utilitarians thought that the best way to behave ethically was to ask what is best for the largest number of people. This, of course, is a version of our American Democracy. The caveat of course, is that we have all sorts of protections for those who don't belong to "the largest number of people", which is good. But the real problem with utilitarianism is that it begs the question of what is good. See, if ethics is essentially the study of "How shall I/we be/behave good?" then utilitarianism doesn't answer the question. Nor sadly does popular opinion have anything to do with what is good. I'd like to believe otherwise, but in general, I do not see it is the case.
Politicians typically are all about what is popular, because that is what keeps them in power. But, if there's one thing you can say about President Bush, he clearly doesn't buy that. He hasn't behaved in the ways acceptable for those who wish to please the crowd, and sometimes I wonder if that's why "the crowd" hates him so much. Perhaps the crowd likes the power it has, and hates when politicians don't dance?
We have played you a wedding march and you did not rejoice;
We have played you a funeral dirge and you did not morn.
So what can we say about an American politician who doesn't care about popular opinion? Either he is tyrant, driven by his own lust for power, or he is a man who forcefully bends himself to a truer good that what is popular.
Why do we think - or why would we want - the President to tell us, explain to us, all that he knows? He cannot. For the good of people everywhere, he must not. So all we can do is trust or not trust his character.
I trust him.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/20/2007 11:28:00 AM | (3) comments
Unfogging The Future
I will make a prediction!
Tomorrow, Saturday the 21st, JKRowling.com will be updated in some way, shape or fashion!
Yay!
(You heard it here first!)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/20/2007 10:34:00 AM | (0) comments
Ninty-Two Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 92
Reason #8: Two Words: "Alan Rickman"
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard's Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
5. While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
6. Learning how to deal with the Boogie Man - Riddikulus!
7. You begin (or remember) to look at ordinary things as though they may very well be extrodinary.
8. Two Words: "Alan Rickman"
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/19/2007 10:26:00 PM | (0) comments
That's Showbiz, Kid!
Dallas Mavericks Blooper Reel!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/19/2007 02:31:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Three Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 93
Reason #7: You begin to look at ordinary things as though they may very well be extrodinary.
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard's Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
5. While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
6. Learning how to deal with the Boogie Man - Riddikulus!
7. You begin (or remember) to look at ordinary things as though they may very well be extrodinary.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/18/2007 10:38:00 PM | (0) comments
Ugly Wugly
So I have a wheat allergy.
So I don't really drink that much - like pretty much never.
So I asked the bartender if he could tell me what liquor was in a strawbery daquiri and if it was made of wheat, barley or rye. He said he didn't know and he wasn't going to look.
I must be ugly.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/17/2007 11:44:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Four Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 94
Reason #6: Learning how to deal with the Boogie Man - Riddikulus!
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
5. While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
6. Learning how to deal with the Boogie Man - Riddikulus!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/17/2007 07:12:00 PM | (0) comments
(R)ated
Today in the grocery store I learned that I could buy 10 packages of movie sized Junior Mints for $10 dollars.
Which begs the question, why would anyone want 10 packages of movie sized Junior Mints?
And in other news (this sadly rated R for language - let the reader beware) it's a weird day in the neighborhood when my urban dictionary word with religious connotations is censored while "sockfucker" is not.
No. I didn't look to see what a sockfucker was.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/17/2007 06:57:00 PM | (0) comments
Texas Assault
Well, less than a month until the Kentucky Derby, and no, I have not forgotten it or traded horses for Harry. I haven't written about it, because I have no idea what to say. So I thought I'd talk about why I don't know what to say, just to say I said something, 'kay?
Okay!
When Assault, born and bred in Texas won the Kentucky Derby in 1946, he had raced 23 times prior to the Derby. He was also clubfooted and limped when he walked, had terrible kidney problems, issues with bleeding and just to add insult to injury - he was sterile. He went on to win the Preakness and the Belmont, making him the 7th Triple Crown winner in history.
So now it's time for the quiz. Which of the above listed traits makes Assault normal instead of abnormal? Was it the club foot? Born in Texas? Sterile?
What do you think?
Alright - here's the answer: 23
The fact that Assault had raced 23 times in his life prior to the Kentucky Derby (I remind everyone that the Derby has only ever been for 3 year olds) is what makes him normal in the history of the Derby.
Except today.
Well, ok, except for the past decade.
Owners and trainers are racing their horses fewer and fewer times. Whatever their reasoning is for this, the effect is that I have no clue about any of the horses running in this year's Derby. The current favorite for the Derby has raced 3 times - in his life. Only 2 times this year! I mean, he's beautiful, but how is anyone suppose to know what that means?
And it just continues - lots of the Derby horses are going to race this year having only run twice as three year olds, and while most of these other horses ran 3 or 4 times as two year olds - still! What am I suppose to say?
I don't know any of these horses - I've only ever seen them run for a total of 4 minutes! And that was with 2 months in between the first 2 minutes and the second 2 minutes!
So, okay...
For those who care...
Nobiz Like Showbiz is trained by the same trainer as Funny Cide, who won a couple of years back. This is a trainer you would respect - he basically never says anything, just watches his horses - that kind of guy. And Nobiz is a good looking horse...
Curlin is the beautiful, unbeaten, runaway winner of the Arkansas Derby - he's also the one who has only raced 3 times in his life - and his the favorite. All I can say is he looks great - all 3 minutes I saw him...
Street Sense looks like a really tough, really talented horse - having raced 7 times, he feels solid and like a real Kentucky Derby winner.
Hard Spun is another tough little horse, but he's going in to the Derby off a huge lay-off. I think the last time he raced was the beginning of March, which would mean a two month rest going in to the Derby - not really the ideal for a race that requires so much...
Great Hunter is a possibility, though who knows if he'll even make it to the Derby, as the evil 5/3rd Bank - yes you read that right - is trying to claim partial ownership in him because of some piece of paper work that wasn't filled out correctly. They're evil bastards as everyone in Grand Rapids knows.
Any Given Saturday always shows up, running 2nd and 3rd more often than 1st.
Cobalt Blue is cool, just because of his name. He looked good winning, but his last race was losing, so...
And that's it - I mean, I can't even think of anything to say about the other horses.
So...I guess we wait.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/17/2007 02:55:00 PM | (0) comments
What Goes Around...
Do people in Austrailia stir their coffee in the opposite direction?
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/16/2007 11:15:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Five Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 95
Reason #5: While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
5. While playing Settlers of Catan, pull out the Alchemist card and distract your opponents with brilliant, indepth knowledge of alchemy (thanks to Harry) - when they get that dazed look in their eyes, STEAL THEIR WHEAT!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/16/2007 09:08:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Six Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 96
Reason #4: It's a people movement.
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard Chess!"
4. It' a people movement.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/15/2007 08:58:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Seven Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 97
Reason #3: The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard Chess!"
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
3.The next time you're playing chess and move in for the kill, grap your piece and smack your opponent's piece right off the board. If he or she gets offended, just look at them and brightly say, "That's Wizard Chess!"
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/14/2007 01:04:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Eight Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Days to Go: 98
Reason #2: You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
The List So Far:
1. He will baptize your imagination.
2. You will actually learn about mandrakes - even if you still can't figure out why Rachel and Leah were arguing over them.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/13/2007 10:04:00 PM | (0) comments
"There's Gonna Be Loads Of Fog Tonight"
The Leaky Cauldron has a new quiz to help you clarify your guesses about Deathly Hallows. If you'd like to make your predictions, click here. Fair warning though - at the time of this post, there is some glitch in the system that makes the pages (yes there are pages of questions) load slowly. As one commenter said, "You should click the link and then go buy groceries. Come home, fill out page one, click next and then go take a shower. Between pages 2 and 3, maybe call your mom for a chat..." Hopefully, this will be fixed by the time you take the test.
If you'd like to see my predicitions, please remember that there are pages of them - and that I'm not really so egotistical that I believe you're out there begging to see my predictions. But, if after all that, you still want to see them, click the little icon below and enjoy!
Peace out!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/13/2007 09:51:00 PM | (0) comments
I Play Football Coach!
What is it about athletes that think?
They're so sexy.
And rare.
***
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/13/2007 03:15:00 PM | (0) comments
Ninty-Nine Reasons To Love Harry Potter
Today marked the first double digit day in days left until Deathly Hallows appears on the shelves. Starting now, until July 21st, I will post ninty-nine reasons to love Harry Potter.
So...
1) He will baptize your imagination.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/12/2007 11:48:00 PM | (0) comments
One Robin Does Not A Spring Make
Today, as I battled the driving snow and stepped over the daffodils, I was struck with inspiration. It was the bright, clean laundry I was lugging back to my car for the ten minute drive to my apartment atop the narrow, rickety stairs...
I've got Downy's latest scent - not to mention Febreeze and everyone else - are you ready?
"Spring Snowstorm"
Oooooooooooo.....
You LIKE it!
(*Edit: This may work better as a snowcone flavor...)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/11/2007 02:38:00 PM | (2) comments
No Violent Palming
Meet Violet Palmer, Profession Men's Basketball Referee - as in the NBA - as in Michael Jordan.
She does not allow "violent palming" of the ball. Not even by my future boyfriend, Dirk Nowitzki. Or in this case, not even by six-foot tall leapfrog, shoot-the-lights-out dynamo, Allen Iverson.
No matter how much he cries.
(Here is a brief biography of Ref. Palmer.)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/07/2007 11:59:00 PM | (0) comments
New Iraq Policy
That's it. I've decided to enforce MY Iraq Policy.
Here it is:
The Iraqi People have one year from today's date to put their crap together and figure out how to live together in peace with each other and the world...
OR,
The United States of America will colonize the nation-state of Iraq for the duration of forty years, at the end of which, we will re-evaluate with intent to turn over Iraq to the Iraqi People, whom we hope will have finally had enough time to put their crap together (or like the Ancient Hebrews entering Cannan - the current generation will have died off, and their children will be ready to play nice with each other).
Under colonization, Iraqi will live within the strict military rule of The U.S. Military (as in, not the U.N.). The sucks for them, but that's just too bad. We did give them a choice and, if they did not get their crap together during the year we gave them, then they have - by default - made the choice of colonization.
Under this rule, the borders will be sealed - absolutely - as in we will build a replica of the Berlin Wall, if we must. In conjunction with this, the technological border will be sealed as well. Specifically, no other country, tribe, or "terrorist cell" will be able to pass instruction, information, or most importantly money, to anyone living in Iraq. Also, no citizen will be allowed to buy, sell or carry any weapon making materials or weapons themselves. This includes butter knifes. There will be a curfew. There will be education. There will women's self-defense classes.
Furthermore, The United States of America will impose - without remorse - prosperity and Bill Cosby on the Iraqi Culture. In short, The United States of America will make fat, happy, jello-pudding-pop-eating-people out of the Iraqis - and, again, we will do this without any remorse whatsoever.
Mission? Accomplished.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/07/2007 09:45:00 AM | (0) comments
I Shake My Fist At Time!
I've decided to start making my predictions about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Why do we make predictions? Who knows...but I think it's humanity's middle finger at time. So time, you may have me trapped here, but it's only a temporary state, and I'll prove it to you and to me by making these Deathly Hallows' Predictions:
1) The book will be dedicated to her mother.
2) Snape is (or will be by book's end) on the good side, because of something Hagrid did (or will do).
3) We will time travel.
4) The phrase "Deathly Hallows" will not appear in the story.
5) Harry, Ron and Hermione live.
6) Hagrid dies.
7) Irma Pince, the librarian at Hogwarts, is Snape's mother.
8) Professor Sinistra, who teaches Astronomy (and we never hear about) is Snape's wife!
9) The Dursley's will visit 12 Grimmauld Place!
10) Harry is a Horcrux!
Ok, the last three are my risky predictions - so we'll see!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 4/03/2007 10:38:00 AM | (2) comments
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