Is playing mario kart Wiiii. I haven’t been able to play all week. Now I get to unleash some stress on Toad! Oh how I loathe him…
This Tweet got a lot of comment on Facebook, so I wanted to clarify why I despise Toad so much. You see, for years Toad has taunted me by placing my princess in another castle. I busted my butt to get through goombas, beatles, and other varieties of baddies all to find out it was a farce. Also, other times he has just been whiny. “Find the princess, she is lost” or “You need more star power to open this door,” give me a break!
So, that is why I despise Toad. The only expception is when Gina plays Mario Kart using Toad. Then I don’t have a strong hated towards him.
USING ONLY ONE WORD! It’s not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!
1. Where is your cell phone? Attached
2. Your significant other? Awesome
3. Your hair? Constant
4. Your mother? Hip
5. Your father? Watchful
6. Your favorite thing? Isaac
7. Your dream last night? MarioKart
8. Your favorite drink? Coke
9. Your dream/goal? Matter
10. What room you are in? Living
11. Your hobby? Bowling
12. Your fear? Indifference
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?
14. Where were you last night? Home
16. Muffins? Chocolate
17. Wish list item? Job
18. Where you grew up? Illinois
19. Last thing you did? Pizza
20. What are you wearing? WiiPants
21. Your TV? Perpetual
22. Your pets? Snooty
23. Friends? Ross
24. Your life? Good
25. Your mood? Relaxed
26. Missing someone? No
27. Car? Toyota
28. Something you’re not wearing? Bra
29. Your favorite store? BestBuy
30. Your favorite color? Blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? 7:25
34. Last time you cried? 1/24/09
35. Who will resend this? Everyone
36. One place that I go to over and over? LZHS
37. One person who emails me regularly? Facebook
38. My favorite place to eat? Car
39. Why you participated in this survey? Socialize
40. What are you doing tonight? Wii
Isaac has been sharing with us some new tricks around the house. First off tonight he tried to help washing some dishes:
He grew tired of this after a while and started crawling away.
After this, while trying to nebulize the baby, we played the war call game. I used to think that this was a random act that he performed, but Gina insisted he did it whenever you put you hand over his mouth. So, I put my hand over his mouth to see what would happen.
After this, he started to try and make the noise himself and I helped him by doing it at high speed.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a good addition to the Harry Potter film library. I have a hard time watching the films after reading the book because I prefer a literal interpretation, but I suppose the books are little too long for that. The first movie was pretty literal, but it was also pretty short. The first part of the movie really seems to jump around. The screenwriter seems to have chosen random samples from the book to show. When they do show a scene from the book they are fairly literal but they make some often frustrating choices of what to cut and what to add that is not in the book.
An example of this is when Harry and the advance guard fly from Privot Drive to headquarters. They fly close to the river’s surface and almost hit and boat (meaning muggles would like see them) whereas in the book, Moody is adamant about flying high so as not to be seen. Also, when the students get off the train they are not in their robes whereas in the book it always a staple of the end of the train ride to put on their robes. Also, the statue in the Ministry of Magic didn’t seem to match the description in the book with just one fountain in the middle. I think it had the same statues, but this seems like a simple touch that a set designer or film director would be able to correct. It was almost like the screenwriter didn’t read the whole book series and only skimmed the 5th book.
There are other examples of this idea, but these are some that stuck with me now. The movie spends a lot of time at the DA meetings which is fun and the film does a good job of showing Harry grow up and into his role as a leader. As I said, I found the rest of the time at Hogwart’s jumpy and rushed. I get the feeling, as I did with the third and fourth movie, that if you hadn’t read he book you wouldn’t be able to follow the story. Maybe that is okay though given the audience.
Hands down the best part of the movie is the time in the Department of Ministries. The sets are well done and the action is really exciting and captures the adventure of the novel. It is faced paced, gripping, and good ride. The final battle in the Ministry of Magic between Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Harry is very exciting, and in this case the few lines Harry adds I liked and I think illustrates why being good is better than being bad. Dumbledore’s speech at the end leave a lot to be desired, but I guess they were trying to keep to a schedule.
Acting wise, Alan Rickman (Snape), Jason Issacs (Lucious Malfoy), and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) all gave stellar performances as usually. You really want to loathe Malfoy in the film and he is very convincing in the DoM. Snape is detestable and lovable at the same time especially when he is challenging Harry during occlumency. Voldemort is very calm and confident and you really fear him throughout the movie. Helena Bonham Carter does a quality job as Bellatrix Lestrange portraying a truly horrible witch. Finally, even though you hate her, Imelda Staunton gives a true to the book performance portraying Dolores Umbridge.
The score in the movie is very moving. The music during at the end of the battle with Voldemort is really puts a point on the moment and truly makes you feel Harry’s pain.
In end, if you like Harry Potter you should see this movies. It diverts from the book a lot, but if you know the story, you will have not trouble following it. There are several excellent performances given in the film and the movie making elements are all very well done.
Fantastic Four was a fun movie. I wasn’t really familiar with the stories of anything like that except for the Wii game Marvel Superheroes. The movie has fun story and shows that being true to yourself is always the best policy. The characters, as far as I can tell, are true to the comics and are acted pretty well for a comic book movie. The special effects are pretty good in the movie. The look beleiveable and flow with the film.
I would reccomend this movie if you have enjoyed X-Men, Spider-Man, or other comic inspired films.
The more I read and learn the more I still find amazing the people that say money doesn’t help schools. Even on the basic level of salary, people say more salary doesn’t increase the quality of teacher. Recently a letter said that if I pay the same teacher more money, will they be a better teacher? Well, the answer is obviously no. But, over time, if you pay teachers more money, better people will become teachers. Further, the better teachers will come to your district.
I am reading a book about the best practices in education and the ideas they have are very clearly excellent, but they require money to implement. Usually it involves hiring more teacher (hence lowering the student to teacher ratio) so that more individualized attention can be given. There are people out there that believe that class size doesn’t matter, but that is absurd. Reasearch and common sense contradicts that logic. This is very frustrating.
If you plan to read this book and don’t want to have it ruined you may want to not read this.
What an amazing book. J.K. Rowling really makes you feel the emotions of the characters in it. Having said that…
I feel empty inside, like a real person died. I can feel the pain that Harry is feeling. So much, that I really don’t want to be alone right now. It seems silly to me, but it is said. Dumbledore is dead and there is nothing we can do to make it stop and the people that did it are still at large. It is very upsetting.
I think the fact that a book can bring out such emotion is a true testament to the skill that Rowling has. It reminds me a lot of Star Wars III when you could feel the anguish and emotion that was going through Anakin.
I will say I was shocked that Snape was a Death Eater in the end. I was also please with the conflict that existed in Malfoy, very nice touch. I was surprised that there wasn’t a bigger deal made about how Harry was right the whole time about Draco though. Also, I don’t think the word FireBolt was used in the whole book, which is unusual, because Harry’s broom is always referred to as a FireBolt, and not just a broom.
Harry and Ginny breaking up was very reminiscent of Spider Man. I wonder if that is were she got the idea? I was also saddened by this, but I guess I understand.
I am not sure how Harry’s adventure is going to work out. He couldn’t even beat Snape, how is he going to beat Voldemort without more training?
I think these are my thoughts for now. Feeling a little better having gotten this off my chest. I will just have to try to remember the good times.
