It is Winter Olympics time (or at least I assume they haven't done the closing ceremonies yet; which tells you how well I've been in touch with the games). And that means it's time for people to throw back and forth the usual arguments about "Is Figure Skating a Sport ( Read more... )

Hello, folks. Things have been quite busy here on three fronts-- work, church, and orchestra-- but I can't let the 250th birthday of my favorite composer pass without at least this small comment. A happy Mozart's birthday to you all!

(P.S. And, oh yeah... Go, Seahawks!) :-)

So, this afternoon I was in the local Barnes & Noble, and happened to glance across a table full of books in the (rather extensive) "For Dummies" series.

And, alongside such titles as Hypoglycemia for Dummies and Menopause for Dummies and a whole bunch more like them, there it was:

Athletic Scholarships for Dummies"Hey, now," I thought, "wait ( Read more... )

January 2001

It was five years ago this week that I was surfing around the HP section of ff.net, and decided to read this one story that a lot of people I respected seemed to be recommending. The story was known by the odd title of "HQoW".

I noticed on the ff.net page of the author, somebody called arabellasq, that she was involved in a website called " ( Read more... )

Didn't seem to be getting to sleep, so listened to JKR with Stephen Fry on BBC Radio4. Nothing big about book 7-- the only significant comment on it was what TLC had already posted. Sketchy notes follow. ( Read more... )

One of the surprising things about the last chapter of HBP was Harry's declared intention to leave school early, that he's "not coming back even if [Hogwarts] does reopen." The school years at Hogwarts have been such an integral part of the series that it wouldn't quite seem like Harry Potter book without that. It seemed like JKR must have said ( Read more... )

One thing I've noticed in re-reading a few bits of HBP is the scene in chapter 17 where Harry and Dumbledore discuss their shared ill relations with Minister Scrimgeour, and Dumbledore notes that "he has even attempted to have me followed. Amusing, really. He sent Dawlish to tail me. It wasn't kind. I have already been forced to jinx Dawlish once; ( Read more... )

Hello, everyone. No, I haven't seen the GoF movie yet (will probably do so within the next week or so).

What got my attention today (Friday), though, was this article on the GoF release on msn.com. The writer states:

The new movie is darker and richer than earlier installments, and some are already calling it the best of the quartet, but that ( Read more... )

A couple of nights ago, I visited my grandfather at the retirement center where he lives. They had some sort of special event going on in the dining hall when I arrived, and they had some popular songs from the 1930's or so playing ( Read more... )

Is anyone else here reading Christopher Paolini's books?

I acquired a copy of Eragon not long after it had come out-- a couple of years ago, I think. ( No 'Eldest' spoilers here )