Job and school situation, the Harry Potter journey is over...

In my last post, I promised more. This is because I was going to also talk about my job and school issues, and I got too tired after spilling opinions on big developments in Deathly Hallows (which I finished today btw -- I wasn't planning to finish it so fast, but it got to a point where it was hard to stop reading...I'll mention it later).

I, as you can probably guess, do not like my job. Why do you think I've bought so many CD's and other forms of entertainment in the last few months? Because my job is boring with a capital, bold-faced B. Sure, the coworkers are nice, and the pay is decent. But the commute stinks, the endless closing shifts are causing me to become more and more of a night owl, and nobody seems to appreciate the hard work I do. I'm the behind-the-scenes girl, the one whose breakout makes it possible for all those rolls to grace our table, the La Brea breads to sit in their little baskets, and those danishes, donuts and bagels to sit in pomp in their glass-fronted cases. I'm also behind-the-scenes as the perpetual closer, packaging all the danishes, muffins, danish-case rolls, and bagels so they can be put out in the morning (or whatever it is they do with them), sweeping and spraying down the floors so we don't get flies, and washing the danish and muffin case trays (and often dishes from the cake decorators and bakers too) so the morning crew have clean dishes to use. In other words, I make what the others do possible. (It's like Linus says in the movie Sabrina to his brother David: "My life makes your life possible!").

Now, granted, I am not the only closer, or they could not afford to give me as many days off as they have been doing (I've got 3 this week, including today; 2's the usual). Joseph, Sara, and Elizabeth -- all long-time employees compared to me -- have all closed many times; Filiberto or "Phil" also knows how to close, and no doubt he closes on days I am off. But most of the time it is me.

It would be great if I could get a job at school. I just checked Monstertrak (where MiraCosta posts their job openings) and there were 2 positions. One was for a lab assistant in the library. I am not familiar with "Visual Basic, Macromedia Suite (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash), Adobe Suite (In Design, Photoshop, Illustrator), Quark Xpress, [and] programming languages" though. But then it does say that you need to have passed CIS 100 (which I did), which is a plus. I don't know Macromedia or Adobe though (which basically means, do I know Flash and/or Photoshop -- the two programs from those companies that I know MiraCosta has classes in--and I know I don't). I'm not sure I'd qualify. I'd have to check. I was going to go to school tomorrow for something else anyway. The other one is for an assistant for the Director of Campus Police. This one essentially requires someone who can do office work and if required, patrol the campus, looking for "hazardous conditions." Now, I am more qualified for this job, since I have office skills (thanks to the BOT program) and know the campus pretty well since I've been going there for over 3 years. But there is only one opening, and it is likely that the opening for Oceanside (they need someone for any of the campuses) is filled already. I'll check tomorrow. (They're both part-time too; the Campus Police job has 3 shifts to choose from; I might have to do the early one cause I can't work 5pm-10pm cause I can't take the bus home and I don't want to make my parents have to pick me up, and if I do 12pm-5pm I sacrifice the chance to rejoin InterVarsity, which meets 12-1 for its weekly meetings, as far as I know, plus I couldn't take any afternoon classes).

Speaking of school, I do want to go back this fall, but I have to decide what to take, since I'm down to major prep stuff now in order to finish my A.A. (University Studies) and nowhere closer to picking a major. I am thinking I will end up having a major and a minor, if I can accomplish that, because that way I will have a degree in two subjects (my dad did this -- he got a B.A. in Speech, with a minor in political science). But if I start a new job somewhere else than at school (where I know they'd accommodate my school schedule...I mean, c'mon, they have to), it would be kinda awkward to spring a standing schedule commitment on my new employers. Now I know most employers are pretty good with working around school schedules, but some aren't (as Heather can attest) so I am afraid to take that risk.

I planned to tackle the school problem last night while using my laptop downstairs, but got caught up in other stuff. So probably tonight. I may not be able to pay till Friday though, assuming my Direct Deposit goes through this week (which Tori told me it should), because I have been a bit reckless with money this week. I just spent about $60 at Wal-Mart this afternoon picking up 6 shirts (one of which I just realized from looking at the receipt was $7.88...it must've been on the wrong table, cause I could've sworn I only had 4 $5 shirts and a couple $6.44 shirts) and some iron-transfer paper for my "make my own T-shirts" project (as well as pizza for dinner and some gummy bears).

Just remembered that the price per unit went down, according to the copy of the MiraCosta schedule that I picked up last week when I went to pick up my check from work. (I missed the express bus I normally take, and so I took the 302 Oceanside instead, and since it goes through MC, I decided to hop off and grab a schedule -- one of the benefits of having a monthly pass is that you can actually do such a thing and then just hop on another bus to continue your original journey). I guess maybe Arnold's promise to help out schools is finally going to come true. Anyway, the fee went down to $20 a unit (from $26 a unit) so if I took 12 units it would only be $240. Add to this other fees -- $14 health fee, up to $10 a fiscal year for the "Student Center" fee, and the optional $6 for the ID card (which I always get cause it's needed to check out library materials; plus if I get any books at the school bookstore and decide to write a check, they want your school ID as an ID), and we're looking at an extra $30 (or so) and I have over $300 in my checking account (I night-dropped 3 checks, which made my checking account go up to almost $600, which is how this is possible). So I could write a check for school (since I don't have a credit card I can't do that, and I feel uncomfortable carrying that much cash) and be okay, since I get paid on Friday anyway, and Direct Deposit is supposed to start this week if Tori is right about that (I will have to check Thursday or Friday to make sure). It won't add much (I haven't been working a ton of hours lately, plus my checks have been skimpier cause the union's taking out double dues right now to make up for June -- see my post on visiting the union to see why). But it will help.

Okay now...the news you've been waiting for...Harry Potter. I finished the last book today, as aforesaid. But before, I express my thoughts...

SPOILER WARNING!!!!! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!!!

Let's start this this way. PotterCast, on their summer tour, asked each city a 5-question Deathly Hallows "prediction exam," asking the biggest questions still left unanswered. So I'll start with answering those.

1. Harry Potter - Live or Die? He lives. He almost dies, though. It's kind of confusing. This one chapter ends with Harry ready to die (cause of a new discovery...I'll say that in a minute) and a Avada Kedavra curse getting shot at him by Voldemort (or Voldy as I like to call him), and in the next chapter he's in some unidentified place with Dumbledore (who is of course dead). Yet Dumbledore says Harry himself is not dead. Where they actually are is confusing too -- Harry says it looks like King's Cross (where the Hogwarts Express picks up and drops off students) "but cleaner." I'm guessing it's supposed to be some sort of heaven.

2. Snape - Good or Bad? Unfortunately, Mr. Severus Snape is indeed Dumbledore's man. He is good. I say "unfortunately" for this because I was always in the "Snape is evil" camp, though I thought the "Snape is out for himself" theory (which involves Snape playing both sides for his own benefit) was good too. The chapter "The Prince's Tale," which features a bunch of Snape's memories, basically clinches this topic. Even up to the chapter before this, Snape seems to be siding mainly with Voldemort, even offering to bring Harry to Voldemort (despite Voldy's reassurance that Harry will come to him -- Voldy -- instead). And while we're on the subject of Snape, why did Dumbledore trust Snape? I was a little confused on this. I'm not quite sure if this is explicitly answered in DH. Snape's actions to protect Harry had to do with his love for Lily (Snape x Lily fans rejoice!) but I don't think that's why Dumbledore trusted Snape. Snape asks Dumbledore for his word on something and Dumbledore swears not to tell, but I am confused as to what that thing is. The scene goes like this:

[Snape talking] "'I thought...you were going...to keep her...safe...'

"'She and James put their faith in the wrong person,' said Dumbledore. 'Rather like you, Severus. Weren't you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?'

"Snape's breathing was shallow.

"'Her boy survives,' said Dumbledore.

"With a tiny jerk of the head, Snape seemed to flick off an irksome fly.

[Dumbledore] "'Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?"

"'DON'T!" bellowed Snape. 'Gone...dead..."

"'Is this remorse, Severus?'

"'I wish...I wish I were dead.....'

"'And what use would that be to anyone?' said Dumbledore coldly. 'If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear.'

"Snape seemed to peer through a haze of pain, and Dumbledore's words appeared to take a long time to reach him.

"'What --- what do you mean?'

"'You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's son.'

"'He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone ---"

"'The Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does.'

"There was a long pause, and slowly Snape regained control of himself, mastered his own breathing. At last he said, 'Very well. Very well. But never ---- never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear...especially Potter's son...I want your word!'

"'My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?' Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape's ferocious, anguished face. 'If you insist...'"

~~ Deathly Hallows pages 678-679

So what does Snape want to hide? That he loves Lily or that he's helping Dumbledore? Not quite sure.

Anyway, moving on...

3. Is Harry a Horcrux - Yes or No? Surprisingly enough, Harry is a Horcrux. I seem to recall the writer of that chapter in Mugglenet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 seemed highly in favor of that side of the issue, so he (or she) must be pretty happy. Basically, he is, of course, an accidental Horcrux. I doubt Voldemort really wanted to make a seventh Horcrux -- he had 6 already, and the soul in him was the 7th part -- he had successfully split his soul into 7 pieces, as he'd planned. (That is, unless he wanted to find a Gryffindor item and make it a Horcrux --- we know he may have tried with the sword, but was unsuccessful...coincidentally, the Sword manages to be able to take down Horcruxes, and is actually used to take down 2 of them -- the locket and Nagini. Judging by the fact that we know now what all of them are, we find out Voldemort never ended up with Horcuxes from all the four founders). Anyway, it happened cause on the night he killed the Potters, Voldy's soul was so unstable, a piece of it latched onto the only other living soul in the room -- baby Harry's. But when Voldemort tries to kill Harry again, he actually (somehow) destroys that piece of soul, but Harry doesn't die. Something to do with Lily's blood protection being in Voldy too (Voldy used some of Harry's blood to make his new body in Goblet of Fire). I'll have to re-read that part again.

4. Harry Will Return to Hogwarts for School - Yes or No? This question was prompted by fans who realized the U.S. cover says "Year 7" on the spine. Since the "years" on the spine generally refer to Harry's years in school, people figured he'd go back to school (or at least Ron & Hermione would -- as the PotterCast people said, "would Hermione really miss her N.E.W.T.s?"). The answer is no. While the trio does go to the school (to find a Horcrux), they don't actually attend school. But then this is just as well cause with Snape as headmaster (which is a weird thought anyway) and Alecto and Amycus Carrow (dangerous Death Eaters) as Muggle Studies and DADA teachers respectively, Hogwarts is pretty screwed up anyway.

5. Will we go behind the Veil - Yes or No? What Veil? No seriously. The Department of Mysteries does appear briefly in the book, when the trio infiltrates the Ministry cause Mundungus sold the locket Horcrux to Umbridge (yeah, dumb idea, but hey this is Mundungus we're talking about...plus he didn't know what the locket really was). But do we even go close to the Veil, let alone behind it in DH? Not at all. Now, one could argue that when Harry is with Dumbledore's spirit after Voldemort aims a AK curse at him and Harry assumes he's dead, that he is "behind the Veil," but this is not explicitly said, and I think JKR would've said that specifically if it were true, cause the Veil is a major plot thing.

Now, for fun, I'll answer Scholastic's "There will be 7" questions.

1. Who will live? Who will die? That's technically 2 questions, Scholastic, but whatever. So who lives and who dies? I'll use the death odds chart in Mugglenet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 in order to identify the main characters people thought might die.

- Dobby: Surprisingly, the Mugglenet people gave Dobby an 100/1 chance of dying, making him the least likely to die. And yet what do we see? Dobby stabbed by Bellatrix's knife as Dobby and Harry are Disapparating from Malfoy Manor to Shell Cottage (Bill and Fleur's house). So, Mugglenet people, Dobby's not gonna die, huh? Wrongo. It was actually very sad when Dobby died, though. I wish he hadn't died.

- Dudley Dursley: We see nothing of the Dursleys after chapter 2, when they are taken into hiding by a couple Order members, so it is not said whether Dudley died, but it's likely he did not (did we ever find out what he saw when the Dementors attacked? I don't think so! I thought we were supposed to find that out!).

- Minerva McGonagall: The Mugglenet people said McGonagall would have an important job as Hogwarts's Head and was not likely to be killed, especially since JKR just killed off another Head (Dumbledore). Well, in DH McGonagall's not Head of Hogwarts (Snape is), and yet she is not killed.

- Vernon Dursley: Same as Dudley, not seen since chapter 2, very likely made it through.

- Petunia Dursley: Same as Vernon and Dudley.

- Luna Lovegood: Luckily Luna (who has quickly become a favorite character of mine, through re-readings of OOTP, plus seeing the OOTP movie) does not die, though since she is captured by the Death Eaters and takes part in the big battle at Hogwarts at the end of the book, the fact that she did survive is definitely amazing.

- Percy Weasley: Percy actually has a change of heart, turns against the Voldy-infiltrated Ministry, and reconciles with Molly and Arthur. Who could've predicted that? But he does not die. Lucky Percy.

- Fred Weasley: Sadly, Fred does actually die! It's not quite clear who kills him; Harry doesn't really see it happen, and of course pretty much everything's from his viewpoint in these books. I was thinking Bellatrix after she taunts Mrs. Weasley with the fact that Fred's dead, but then Bellatrix would do that even if she didn't kill Fred.

- George Weasley: While George does lose an ear when the Order is rescuing Harry from Privet Drive and gets pursued by Death Eaters, he does not die like his twin bro.

- Nymphadora Tonks: Poor Tonks actually does die cause although Lupin tells her to stay home with their new baby, she heads to Hogwarts anyway (leaving the baby with her mom) to help fight Voldemort. Again, not sure who killed her; we just see Harry seeing her body as one of the "50 people who died for him."

- Charlie Weasley: Charlie is supposedly at Bill & Fleur's wedding, though I don't remember him mentioned, but after that he disappears and I don't think he's at the Hogwarts battle. I assume that he lives, cause if he'd died we would have been told as much.

- Grawp: Grawp's 15/1 odds in the Mugglenet book leaned on the idea that he would go back to live with the giants, and the giants, being rather violent, might kill the poor guy. But he stays with Hagrid, rather than going to the other giants, so these odds fall through, and yes he lives.

- Bill Weasley: Bill survives, and actually proves useful to Harry in DH.

- Hermione: Traveling with Harry and Ron to find Horcruxes, Hermione comes close to death many times, and in fact is almost killed by Fenrir Greyback when the trio is captured by Death Eaters and hauled to Malfoy Manor. But she survives (yay!) and goes on to marry Ron (boo!).

- Neville: Neville fights pretty valiantly, even destroying a Horcrux (Nagini; he slices off her head with the Sword of Gryffindor). He doesn't get his revenge duel with Bellatrix though. He makes it through anyway.

- Ron: Ron, too, comes close to death several times, but he pulls through and marries Hermione.

- Ginny: Ginny comes close to death a few times (Bellatrix even almost AK's her, but misses, and this provokes a duel with Mrs. Weasley, who gets so mad she says, "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU B*****!!" Ouch) but survives, and marries Harry.

- Lucius Malfoy: Malfoy gets in some major disfavor with Voldy, especially after Voldy borrows Lucius's wand in order to be able to kill Harry (cause of Priori Incantatem Voldy can't use his own wand) and Harry still escapes. But he does actually survive.

- Harry: As I said, he lives. Even though he's a Horcrux and puts himself in the position to die in order to get rid of that Horcrux, and also to save his friends, he still lives.

- Lupin: Lupin dies. WAHHH! Again, not sure who cast the fatal spell; we just see his body with Tonks's when Harry goes by them in the Great Hall.

- Snape: Snape being good would suggest that he would die, either by taking the blow for Harry or getting killed by a very angry Voldy when Snape reveals he's been a traitor to Voldy all along. And indeed Snape does die, but very unceremoniously. He has an argument with Voldy and Voldy realizes he can only truly be the master of the Elder Wand (the most powerful wand ever) if he kills Snape, since Snape came to the wand by killing Dumbledore, who had won it from Grindelwald. So he kills Snape. Snape manages to survive a few seconds after being AK'd, enough time to allow Harry to collect a flask full of memories from him, which are key in the next chapter.

- Hagrid: Though Hagrid falls into Death Eater hands (he is tied to a tree when Harry comes to the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort), he makes it through. And despite the Mugglenet writers saying Hagrid has no part to play in the story, he does actually play a part.

- Arthur Weasley: JKR revealed in a recent post-DH interview that Arthur was the character who got the "reprieve" she'd talked about before. (Thanks Mugglenet.com for this tidbit). This means he was originally slated to die but then she chose not to kill him. Interesting thought. She's gonna be on the Today Show and Dateline this week; maybe she'll say why then (you know people will ask).

- Molly Weasley: Despite daring to duel Bellatrix (after having called Bella the "b-word"...see above), Molly makes it out ok.

- Draco: Draco does survive, though I wasn't sure he did until the very end, when it was said that the "three Malfoys" were sitting together in the Great Hall. Draco marries later on, though who his wife is isn't revealed.

- Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew: Wormtail does die, and apparently the Mugglenet people thought he would too, seeing as he has very bad odds in their book (1/3). He dies while trying to help Harry and friends escape Malfoy Manor. Method of death? Strangulation by an unknown and unseen person (likely Voldy). Reminds me of Darth Vader, and how he'd strangle his underlings on occasion, using the Force.

- Bellatrix: Bellatrix gets killed by Molly in their duel. Ha! Go Molly!

- Voldemort: Um, what did you expect? That he'd live? Um...no. OF COURSE HE DIES!

2. Is Snape good or evil? He's good, as I've already said.

3. Will Hogwarts reopen? The most pointless question in terms of its relation to the plot, since the trio didn't go back to school anyways. And yes, it did reopen.

4. Who winds up with whom? The epilogue only answers this question for the trio and for Draco. Oh and as for Lupin and Tonks...yes they get married, but then at the end they both die. Draco marries somebody, as I said, but we're not told who. Ron ends up with Hermione and Harry with Ginny. Both relationships were suggested early on but then barely mentioned, so I thought there was still hope for Hermione/Harry and for Ron (who I'm not terribly fond of, though he redeems himself somewhat in DH from the bad rap he has in other books) to be left in the cold. But the epilogue basically lays down the facts: It's Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny, and that's that.

5. Where are the Horcruxes?

There are 7 Horcruxes total: Riddle's diary, the Peverell ring, the Slytherin locket, the Hufflepuff cup, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, Nagini, and Harry himself.

The diary and the ring were found and destroyed pre-DH (Harry destroyed the diary in Chamber of Secrets; in Half-Blood Prince we find out Dumbledore destroyed the ring). The diary was entrusted to Lucius Malfoy, and the ring was hidden in the Gaunts' old shack.

As for the others:

~~ LOCKET: The locket Horcrux was the locket found in the cupboard of Number 12 Grimmauld Place in Order of the Phoenix. According to Kreacher, it was stolen by Mundungus Fletcher, who raided the house, and, according to Mundungus, was sold to Umbridge. The trio infiltrate the Ministry Polyjuiced as Ministry employees, and Hermione manages to steal back the locket. Ron destroys it in chapter 19 of DH using the Sword of Gryffindor.

~~ CUP: Obtained by Voldemort from a lady he knew while working for Borgin & Burkes. Entrusted to Bellatrix Lestrange, who had it locked in her vault at Gringotts. (How she got it there, I'm not sure). Retrieved by the trio (with help from Griphook) from the vault, destroyed by Hermione using a basilisk fang that she and Ron found in the Chamber of Secrets.

~~ DIADEM: Obtained by Voldemort from a tree in Albania, where it had been hidden by The Grey Lady, who was Ravenclaw's daughter. Voldemort brought it back and hid it in the Room of Requirement, similar to how Harry hid the Half-Blood Prince's Potions book in there. It was unknowingly destroyed by Crabbe, who cast a Fiendfyre spell at the trio that also affected most of the stuff in the room, including the diadem.

~~ NAGINI: Nagini was, of course, with Voldemort. Voldemort carries her on his neck when going to show Harry's (supposedly) dead body to the people inside to prove his victory. Seizing a chance (and knowing from Harry that Nagini must be killed), Neville cuts off Nagini's head with the Sword of Gryffindor, which he pulled out of the Sorting Hat.

~~ HARRY: Well we all know where Harry was.

6. Will Voldemort be defeated? Well, duh. Of course he will, and he is.

7. What are the Deathly Hallows? The trio finds out about these "Hallows" from Luna's dad, Xenophilius, who was wearing a necklace with "the sign of the Deathly Hallows" at Bill and Fleur's wedding. Here is the sign:



They are three items, said (in an old kids' tale) to have been given to three brothers (later known to be the Peverell brothers) by Death after they defied him by magicking up a bridge to cross an otherwise impassable river. The first brother asked for a wand to defeat Death, and so he was given the Elder Wand. The second brother wanted to bring back the dead, so he got the Resurrection Stone. The youngest brother, wiser and not exactly trustful of Death, asked for a way to always escape Death, and Death gives him his own Invisibility Cloak.

The Elder Wand ends up with Gregorovitch (the guy who made Krum's wand), is stolen from him by Grindelwald, passes to Dumbledore when he defeats Grindelwald, passes from him (in loyalty) to Draco when Draco disarms Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince (not to Snape, as Voldy thought), and then to Harry when Harry disarms Draco in DH. Voldy does gain possession of it, but when he uses it, it does basic spells okay, but nothing extraordinary. Harry decides not to keep the Elder Wand, and instead uses it to repair his old wand (which broke in two but was hanging on by a thread) and then intends to put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave. (It should be noted that in an interview with CBBC at the midnight release of DH, JKR subtly gave away the fact that the chapter title "The Elder Wand" was part of one of the alternate titles she had in mind for DH).

The Resurrection Stone is cracked cause it was in the Peverell ring Horcrux, which Dumbledore destroyed. Wikipedia claims that Harry uses it to "bring back" the spirits of Lupin, Sirius, and his parents as he goes off to face Voldemort in the Forest. I need to re-read that part cause I don't remember him doing that. He loses it in the Forest but decides not to go back for it.

The only Hallow Harry keeps is the Invisibility Cloak, which is indeed the one that was his dad's, which he got from Dumbledore in book 1.

Okay, it's late. Enough with the spoilers and any other news.

Oh, one more thing. How does the symbol represent the Hallows? Simple. The triangle stands for the Cloak, the circle for the Stone, and the line for the Wand.

SPOILER ENDS HERE.

Gonna go take a shower and go to bed. G'night.

Gah. I started this post around 8pm, and it's 12:25AM now. I guess I got distracted...well the Firefox window was frozen for a while too.

Anyway, g'night.

Little sleep breeds irritation, the DH experience, and more later

Hi again. Haven't written in about 10 days, I know, but it's better than like a month between entries, as often happens with me, as anybody who checks the list of posts per month on this blog can see.

Last night, I only got 4 1/2 hours of sleep, and as a result, I was rather irritable at work today, which I feel bad about. I mean, generally I do get irritated if I'm pulling the breakout cart out and a box falls off. But today I even seemed supersensitive to the sound of a bus's tires screeching when I was heading back to the mall bus area after going across the street really quick to see if the Dollar Tree over there was open. It wasn't, but then it was only a little after 7am.

I should explain something here. My parents are out of town, on a trip to New York and Montreal, because it's their 25th wedding anniversary this year. Knowing this in advance, I asked for early shifts so I could take the bus home and not have to have someone pick me up. I got them, but I have to be at work at 10:00. I looked up the buses and found out I had to catch the 6:30 FAST to make it (the one an hour later would work too, but I'd get to work 15 minutes before I was supposed to start). I remembered that one of the buses for the normal bus route in the area where I live reaches a stop close to my house at around 6:40am. (I know this because I had an 8am class one semester, and I'd have to catch the 6:40 bus to make it to school on time). So I decided to catch this. To be ready, I had to get up at 5:30am.

Unfortunately, last night, I went to bed at 12:42am (I count anything before dawn as part of the night before). This meant, 4 1/2 hours of sleep, probably the least I've ever gotten. Hence, my irritability. Add to that my stress about my work situation (should I look for another job? Or should I stay here for a bit longer? If I should go, should I seek an office job or another store job?, etc) and school (which I'll mention later), plus that it's around "that time of the month," and, while I was not a b-word (female dog b-word, not illegitimate child b-word), I was whiny and irritable.

Stuff got better later in the day when I realized I have tomorrow and Thursday off and so can catch up on sleep. Still, I had to stay a half hour late (the latest I could legally stay) to finish breakout.

In other news, yesterday I picked up my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And though I, as I have been telling people, have been trying to pace myself and not read it too fast, taking two bus trips to and from work provides more reading time for me than usual, plus a slow computer and a big need to relieve myself when I get home from work have contributed to me having more reading time too. (Yes, I read in the bathroom -- I read everywhere basically). So I am past chapter 20 (of 39, including the epilogue).

And since I really want to share my thoughts about this book with somebody, I'm going to post my thoughts here, where I am least likely to spoil the book for anybody. But for the rare few who actually read this blog (despite the fact that I have a link to it in my forum signatures, on my websites, and that sort of thing), I will make sure to put a warning before spilling the beans.

SPOILER WARNING!!! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!! PLEASE SKIP THE SECTION BELOW IF YOU WISH TO NOT SPOIL THE BOOK FOR YOURSELF. IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT, OR IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THE BOOK, THEN READ ON.

From what I've read so far, Deathly Hallows is excellently written, and unique among the other books in that there is action going on constantly. But then, considering what's going on with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and with Vol--oh, whoops, his name's Tabooed...He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named--about, things are bound to be action-packed. (Mr. Bad Guy [as I'll call him]'s name becomes "tabooed" around the midpoint of the book, because somehow it has the power to break protective enchantments, which is how come Death Eaters keep finding the trio just when they think they're safe...we hear about this taboo through dialogue from Ron though so we don't know exactly when in the timeline this taboo started).

As for deaths...Rowling said there'd be some, and there are. Heck, the first chapter even has a death! Not a main character though, just a former Hogwarts teacher, Charity Burbage. (She taught Muggle Studies...at least we know who that teacher is now...Hermione took MS during her 3rd year, but never mentioned her teacher's name, nor was Professor Burbage ever mentioned as having been at the staff table during feasts, whereas even Professor Vector [Arithmancy] and Professor Sinistra [Astronomy] have been mentioned before...maybe she's real elusive, like Trelawney?).

Main character deaths happen early on, though. When the Order rescues Harry from Privet Drive and get pursued by Death Eaters on the way to safe houses, Hagrid very nearly gets killed, but two actual deaths occur. Mad-Eye Moody is hit by Avada Kedavra while traveling with Mundungus Fletcher, who, being the coward he is, got scared and Disapparated, leaving Moody alone (scoundrel!). The other death is...*sigh* Hedwig! Poor Hedwig gets the brunt of a misaimed (I'm assuming...why kill Harry's owl?) Killing Curse.

So far, no other real deaths of consequence (i.e., main characters) have happened, pretty much just random wizards (and Muggles) killed by Voldemort (I'll say his name, who cares) or his followers.

Some other highlights...Lupin married Tonks (yay!) though he regrets making her an outcast in the magical world because of his being a werewolf. Our lovely "Dastardly Duo" of ladies from book 5 -- Rita Skeeter and Dolores Umbridge -- are back in full force as well. Umbridge is still secretary to the Minister, but is primarily acting as a judge in trials resulting from the Ministry's sudden decision to round up Muggle-born wizards and witches who refuse to register with the Ministry (a result of Voldy's infiltration of the Ministry). Rita Skeeter is, of all things, WRITING A BIOGRAPHY OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE. Now, knowing Rita and her tendency to take only part of the truth and make up the rest (much like tabloid magazines do), this is a scary thought. On the other hand, it proves convenient as a way to let us know some stuff about Dumbledore's past, although I have a feeling some of what Rita's saying is not true. One thing that is of note is that Dumbledore's dad went to Azkaban for killing (or torturing, can't remember which) 3 young Muggles. We know in Half-Blood Prince, when he was drinking the potion, that Dumbledore said "Don't hurt them! Don't hurt them!". Could this be why? Did he witness the act?

Also Dumbledore had a sister, who Rita (and Molly's aunt Muriel, a perfect picture of the prim, strict family matriarch who criticizes everything) claims was a Squib (a child born to magical parents who can't do magic), and that Dumbledore's mom was so ashamed of this that she kept his sister prisoner. I doubt this too.

We finally meet Luna Lovegood's dad, who is as quirky as she is. And get this -- his name is Xenophilius. What a name! (I know that "xenophobia" is the fear of foreign or alien things, so "xenophilia" must be the opposite). Also, Mr. Lovegood mentions that they have this radish-looking plant that makes it easier for a person to accept the extraordinary. Luna's earrings, anyone?

The kind of disappointing thing is I'm over halfway through, and they've destroyed only ONE Horcrux so far (the locket, which is, in fact, the locket from Grimmauld Place).

Oh and R.A.B. ... he is Regulus Black indeed, and yes he is dead. Kreacher went with him to switch the lockets, but Regulus drank the potion, telling Kreacher to leave Regulus there and save himself. Bound to obey Regulus, Kreacher had to stand and watch Regulus get dragged under the water, unable to do anything. Also, Kreacher went with him because Kreacher had been there before...with Voldemort! Voldemort, when he went to put the original Horcrux in the cave, decided he needed a house-elf to come along, and Regulus volunteered Kreacher. Voldemort, of course, made Kreacher drink the potion. This may explain Kreacher's deranged behavior.

There's more I was going to say, but my memory escapes me as, as they say in Ella Enchanted, "the Shores of Sleep are approaching." So I'll end this here for now.

SPOILER ENDS HERE.

More tomorrow. Now I want to sleep. I am tired, as aforesaid.

Boring summer mostly, saw OOTP, Deathly Hallows comes out in a little over a week, and stuff like that

I don't feel like writing a long entry, so I'll keep this short.

~~ Boredom: My summer for the most part has been very boring. I am working pretty much all the time. Well, that's full-time work for you. I suppose it's sorta good, cause if I didn't have a job or was only working part-time, I don't know what I'd do with myself. Free time is nice, but too much of it, like any good thing, gets tiresome after awhile. On my days off, I tend to go somewhere, either by walking or on the bus, just to get out of the house. For the most part, making videos and watching the anime torrents I've been downloading (like the OVA for the video game Tales of Eternia) are the only things that have kept me sane...oh and the fact that new seasons of two of my favorite shows -- Code Lyoko and Pokémon -- are airing this summer.

~~ ORDER OF THE PHOENIX: Yes siree, the 5th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is out -- came out yesterday -- and today, as I had the day off (the first of three days off in a row...yay), I saw it. Now, as a rule, I tend not to see movies right after they come out cause of the crowded theaters, but I had been waiting for this movie for some time, so I decided not to wait. I had hoped to get one of those House Crest t-shirts from Hot Topic with the Ravenclaw crest, but as expected, they didn't have it. I bought a Ravenclaw crest keychain though, along with a pack of Order of the Phoenix trading cards (which had three cards with Luna Lovegood on it...yay...two by herself and one called "Ravenclaw DA Members" with her and Cho) and a postcard with the main members of Dumbledore's Army (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna -- on it. (Did you know Cho is actually supposed to be older than Harry? I didn't realize this until recently, when I bought Prisoner of Azkaban from my work, where they are selling paperbacks of the Harry Potter books, and re-read it -- in that book, when Cho is first mentioned, she is said to be a 4th-year, and Harry is a 3rd-year in that book. The trading cards confirm this too...the "Ravenclaw DA Members" one calls Cho a 6th-year, which is correct for Order of the Phoenix cause Harry and friends are 5th-year in that book, except for Ginny and Luna who are 4th-years). The reason I wanted the shirt was I was going to wear it to the movie. Oh well. Maybe this means I could make my own and not get into copyright trouble. (I'm planning, as soon as I can find a thrift store where I can buy some cheap plain T-shirts, to buy a bunch of shirts and some iron-on paper and make my own shirts, not only to save money on buying shirts but also to have cool, one-of-a-kind shirts). I did wear the little Hogwarts crest pin that I got free from Barnes & Noble when I bought a OOTP bookmark. It was dark in the theater though so I don't think anybody noticed me wearing it.

Anyway, the movie was awesome. My coworker Laura (coworker in that she works in the store I work in -- she's a CSR, a sort of special type of checker), who has read the books and went to see a midnight showing of the movie with her sister Heather (who works in my department) and some other people, said the movie was the "Cliff Cliff Notes Version" of the book. But I had expected this, once I found out the movie was only going to be a little over 2 hours long, seeing as the book is 870 pages long (the longest of the Harry Potter books).

Now, granted, they did cut out some stuff. But they kept the core of the story, with a few changes, like having Neville find the Room of Requirement for the D.A. to use, in lieu of Harry finding out about the room from Dobby, who due to the cost of having him on screen, has not appeared in the movies since movie 2. I sort of figured they might do that, since they did this with the scene in Goblet of Fire where Harry finds out about gillyweed as an option for him to use to breathe underwater for the 2nd Triwizard task -- in the book, he finds out this from Dobby, and in the movie he finds out from Neville. It actually worked there because Neville is really into plants, and plus there's a line from the fake Moody in the book about planting the book with the information on gillyweed in it on Neville in hopes Harry would be able to find out about it.

The cuts seemed to be more for time than plot (though they took out the whole "Weasley is Our King" subplot, which involved Ron doing badly as Gryffindor's new Keeper and Harry and the Weasley twins getting banned from Quidditch for life by Umbridge, which would've made a nice "cruel Umbridge" moment...but it was minor enough to get cut, I think). They condensed the many chapters spent on Umbridge's various changes at the school and her inspections of teachers into a montage of scenes, punctuated by the proclaiming of various decrees (even more than in the book -- including ones like "Boys and girls shall not be within 8 inches of each other," which I thought was kinda funny). The progression of the D.A. meetings was also made into a sort of montage, which worked out well. They changed the plot though slightly by having Umbridge actually have some inkling of the fact that the D.A. exists (since she overhears Harry and friends as they walk in the building talking about where to meet), and so the D.A. montage is punctuated with shots of Filch waiting outside the door to catch them, which includes a funny scene of him opening a box of what appear to be Valentine's chocolates, with Fred & George snickering behind him, which then switches to Filch reporting to Umbridge with a bunch of boils on his face from one of Fred and George's joke things.

And...glorious day...they actually included at least some of the Skiving Snackboxes plot, which I was hoping they would, but the fact they kept it in is really interesting cause they didn't have the scene of Harry giving them his Triwizard money at the end of Goblet of Fire in the movie of that book, so how would they explain how the twins got the money to make this stuff?

Okay I better stop blabbering now...I was going to keep it short. Basically, awesome movie. Luna was AWESOMELY TERRIFIC, as I assumed she would be the first time I heard Evanna Lynch's voice on a PotterCast phone interview. Umbridge was her perfect evil self, and Bellatrix was pretty good too, though she hardly had any lines. Oh and the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore was pretty good, but a bit short. And, as the podcasters were saying, Dumbledore and Voldemort seemed to be having a little "Priori Incantatem" moment for a while, where the jets of light from their wands connected. I don't understand that.

There were some good lines in the movie. They gave Bellatrix's line about having to mean Unforgivable Curses to Voldemort instead, which actually worked a lot better. And I loved the part where Umbridge is being carried off by the centaurs and she yells, "Tell them I mean no harm!" and Harry says, "Sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies" ("I must not tell lies" was the line Umbridge was making him write in detention).

~~ Deathly Hallows: The 7th book of Harry Potter comes out in a little over a week, 8 days by the new MuggleNet countdown I put on here (to replace the one that also had a movie countdown on it), although technically here it's 9 days (the MuggleNet server must be somewhere where it's already tomorrow). It's sooo exciting. By next weekend I could be holding that precious book in my hands. As Sue of PotterCast would say, Squee!

Well that's all I feel like writing. Good night.

Jury duty, feeling relaxed, Diamond & Pearl catchup, psyched for the new Fantastic 4 movie, and so on...

Today I had my one day off this week cause I was scheduled to do jury duty and had requested the day off. The drag was that I had to get up at 5:30 to be ready to leave and be at court at 8. Papa gave me a ride, dropping me off at the nearby Food for Less cause it was only around 7am. I bought a soda and some batteries, then went across the street, sat in Starbucks for a few minutes (initially I was going to use my computer there but then remembered that you have to pay to use the wi-fi there), and then walked to the court.

I was prepared to be there all day. I had brought my laptop, my DS, a couple DVD's (the R.O.D. OAV and the movie One Night With the King), a couple books (The Golden Ball and Other Stories by Agatha Christie and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling), and my recently-purchased newest manga, the fourth and final volume of Read or Dream, which I've been waiting to get.

It turned out they only had three cases to call, and one of them settled without going to trial, and I didn't get called for the other two, so after that they said those of us who were still left could leave. This was around 11 a.m. All I'd done was work on a video (my Kawabe Chieco tribute), played Code Lyoko on my DS (using my finger and my house key for the touch screen, since I somehow lost my stylus in the confusion of getting on the Coaster last Wednesday; I'm just going to play Code Lyoko till I get a new stylus, cause Pokemon Ranger involves drawing circles with the stylus, and I'm afraid of scratching up the screen with my key), and listened to a MuggleCast for a little bit.

So I got some lunch to go at El Pollo Loco and took the bus home.

I went to bed early last night cause I was tired and had one of my annoying temples-headaches, and I feel much more relaxed. It's great.

I got fed up with how slow my computer was being, so I went downstairs to watch some of the stuff I'd DVR'd so I could delete it (which makes it easier to make sure other stuff gets recorded, both for me and for other members of the family). I watched an episode of On the Lot (a reality show I'm getting into) and several eps of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, which I have on "record series" so I don't miss a minute. (I would do that with the new season of Code Lyoko too, but Tech Links has plans to have rips of the episodes the same day they air, so I can just download the eps and watch them that way -- plus they do re-runs of the episodes at 11pm so I can watch them after work).

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is just as fun as one would expect Pokémon to be. I didn't like the English theme song when I first saw the English opening on YouTube, but it's starting to grow on me. I also like the new female lead Dawn, because she is human. She has struggles. She's a coordinator like May from the Advanced seasons (who also had struggles with her Pokémon early on, I think). She also wears rather extravagant outfits for her contests.

In this season, Ash has a new rival once again. Since Gary rarely appeared in his first season (season 1) and didn't appear much after that (his latest one was at the end of Battle Frontier, when he told Ash about Sinnoh), I was kind of hoping he would get a new rival. His new rival is a guy named Paul who is a big jerk. He has a big attitude, and he has a way bigger disregard for being friends with Pokemon than Gary did. In fact, he scans Pokéballs after he captures Pokemon to find out how strong a Pokemon is, and if he feels it's not up to par, he just RELEASES IT! Yeah. He doesn't even keep it and train it to make it get stronger. So far he just has his starter Chimchar, a fire-type monkey-like Pokemon, as well as Elekid and Ursaring, and (according to the opening) a Murkrow.

I saw another preview for the new Fantastic Four movie Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which comes out this weekend. I really want to see it, as well as Nancy Drew, which also comes out this weekend (but my mom wants to see that with me so I'm going to hold on it). It looks pretty cool. I saw in a little article on it in Disney Adventures magazine that interviewed the guy who plays The Human Torch where he was asked if the Silver Surfer is a good guy or a bad guy. He said he couldn't say, which means it must be a key to the plot.

I'm tired so I'm going to go now. 'Night.

Edit 6/14/07 at 9:36 am: I forgot to mention this last night -- Team Rocket has a new motto this season. Of course, it was only a matter of time till this happened. They have gone through two mottoes before this: the Kanto/Johto one and the Hoenn one. (I know there are only two cause there's only two variations on the "Team Rocket Theme" BGM so far, and the theme usually changes when the motto changes)

I wrote down the new motto so I could post it somewhere (probably on Silvanmare when I revamp it). This is where being able to rewind and pause live TV comes in really handy. Here it is:

Jessie: Listen! Is that a voice I hear?
James: It's speaking to me loud and clear
Jessie: On the wind... [Wikipedia says "Floating on the wind"...just checked...I'll double-check that with the show]
James: Past the stars...
Meowth: In your ear!
Jessie: Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace
James: Dashing hope, putting fear in its place
Jessie: A rose by any other name's just as sweet!
James: When everything's worse, our work is complete
Jessie: Jessie!
James: James!
Meowth: Meowth! That's a name!
Jessie: Putting the do-gooders in their place!
James: Team Rocket!
Meowth: In your face!

Then of course, Jessie's Wobbuffet and James's Mime Jr. chime in at the end. Oh btw James has a new Pokemon again (Jessie still has Seviper from the Hoenn seasons), a grass-type called Carnivine (a combo of "carnivore" and "vine") that resembles a Venus Fly-Trap. Like Victreebel, Chimecho, and Cacnea before it, Carnivine has a fun little habit of showing extreme but painful affection towards James when being called out to battle (in the form of chomping on his head).

The motto is cute; they have the "make everything worse" spiel again from the Hoenn motto, which is a nice, subtle reference, and the motto overall has the more poetic quality that the Japanese mottoes have. The first time Team Rocket did this new motto, Jessie actually had a rose like the one James always has when she said "A rose by any other name's just as sweet" (held in her teeth no less) but sadly this rose has failed to reappear.

For once Team Rocket managed to tick off Ash's rival too (this may have happened with Gary too, I don't remember), since in one ep they interrupted a battle between Paul and Ash. They even called him "the new twerp," grouping him with Ash's group.

Oh and there's a new guy who's bound to be a recurring character: Nando, a minstrel guy with a harp and a suave, foreign-sounding voice and a bud-like Pokemon named Badew or something like that. Turns out it's the new first-stage Pokemon for Roselia, a Pokemon we saw often in the Hoenn seasons cause May's rival Drew had one. He has decided to go for both gym badges AND contest ribbons, proving for the first time you can be both a Pokemon trainer AND a Pokemon coordinator at once. So even if we don't see him at the gyms, he'll probably appear at the contests.

Ok gotta go and get dressed...I have to leave for work in an hour and a half, and I'm not dressed...ack.

Paying up, getting lost going to ITT, bro's graduation, Harry Potter theme park, first SeraMyu, and other updates

While on the-leaky-cauldron.org just now looking for pics, I took the Hogwarts Professors Quiz and scored 90 out of 100. Not bad. Here is my little badge:



On Tuesday of the last week of May (last week I guess), I went down to the union to pay what I owed (going to the bank first so I was sure I'd have enough money to pay my debts in full on the spot). I got a little lost after getting off the bus and finally managed to get there just before they closed for the lunch hour (noon-1pm). I filled out paperwork, and the guy and I discussed what I owed. Apparently I owed a little more than I thought, since the system had tacked dues for June onto me after I received the letter. The guy said I could just skip June and then I'd just have to play catchup with the dues that would normally have come out of my June paychecks. I said that was fine and paid the $368 that I owed according to the letter ($200 initation, $168 for back dues for February, March, April, and May).

Wednesday of this last week, since I was off, I decided to go visit ITT Tech, since I talked to a guy from there that same day I went to the union and he had suggested that I visit the campus. (I had planned to go on Monday, when I was also off, but by the time I'd figured out how to get there, it was too late to leave and be back in time to take the bus home). I got up early so I could leave early. I had looked up the buses to get there, but thought taking the Coaster and the trolley would be faster in terms of getting to San Diego. I was wrong. It took me almost all day, instead of the 3 hours the bus trip planner had said, to get to ITT Tech, and after the visit, I ended up stranded cause it was around 5pm, and I was a good ways from home, so I had to call my dad and have him pick me up (since he works not too far away). So anyway, I took the FAST bus to the station and then took an express to another station to catch the Coaster, a small commuter train that runs in the area where I live. I rode this to the last stop, in downtown San Diego. From there I had planned to take the trolley and then walk a little.

That's where my trouble started. It turned out that to get to where I wanted to go, I needed to take the Green Line trolley, which could only be caught at Old Town, the stop before the downtown station. Fortunately, I could catch the Blue Line trolley back to Old Town and go from there. But I missed the first one cause I got confused with the signs (the Blue Line goes to Old Town going one way and to San Ysidro/Tijuana going the other way) and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. Then from Old Town I had to sit on the Green Line trolley with a bunch of really loud schoolkids.

I got off at Qualcomm Stadium (home of the San Diego Chargers and the SDSU Aztecs, former home of the San Diego Padres), which I believed to be the closest stop. I got out to the street after walking through the deserted parking lot and started walking from there. I walked about a block and then asked for directions. No one was able to help me, so I ended up having to call ITT and explain the situation (fortunately, I didn't have an appointment with them or anything). The lady told me to go back to Qualcomm, catch the trolley going back the way I'd come, and get off at Fashion Valley Transit Center, where I could catch a bus to go the rest of the way.

Long story short, I finally arrived at ITT, albeit hot and sweaty (cause Mum made me wear this nice shirt) and more than a little embarassed. I ended up talking with a guy named Jay (not the guy that originally contacted me -- that guy was with someone else), who explained stuff and took me on a tour of the campus.

The programs there are intense, involving 15 quarters of classes for a bachelor's, if you're full-time. If you figure each school year has probably three quarters, that's quite a lot. The guy said you can finish it in 3 years and 9 months. Since 15 quarters would normally be 5 years, and they're doing it in 3 years and 9 months, it must be intensive and fast-paced.

My brother graduated high school on June 7. I somehow managed to get the whole day off when all I'd tried to do was get an earlier shift (since I found out really short notice when the graduation would be I knew I couldn't get the day off). It worked out ok cause I hadn't gotten a present yet, so I called the FAST bus and went to Wal-Mart to look for stuff. I ended up, between Wal-Mart, Target, and Office Depot, spending about $20 and getting together a "College Survival Kit" for my bro, including things I thought he might need, based on my college experience so far.

The graduation itself took place at the football field. There were 370+ kids in the class, so the part where the kids filed through for their diplomas got rather boring after a while. (In comparison, there were 48 people in my senior class, including me, at the private Christian school that I went to -- and that my brother went to through 7th grade -- and we were the largest senior class the school had ever graduated at that point).

Afterwards we went out to dinner -- my parents, my bro, me, and my dad's dad, my one surviving grandparent, who had managed to be able to make it. My brother liked his present very much. I think he may have liked my parents' present better -- they paid off the remaining debt he had with them on his truck (a '94 4Runner). Plus they got him a nice leather Bible in The Message version (which I know, from my work at a Christian bookstore, is a good version, especially for young people). They also gave him a check for the $1000 our deceased grandpa (died last summer) had allocated for him for education or a car (I have $1000 allocated to me too; I was planning to use it for college, but since I still need a car and am terrible at saving money, I am starting to think that having that money as a start for a car would be nice, since I want to pay cash for my first car so I don't have car payments).

I first saw it on the news box on my Yahoo page, and the Harry Potter podcasts I listen to have confirmed it: they are creating a HARRY POTTER THEME PARK. It will be called the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" and will be located in the Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Though I'm not as hardcore of a Harry Potter fan as the hosts of the podcasts I listen to are, I still think I'd like to visit the park when it opens in late 2009 or early 2010 (which is what the official sources are projecting as the opening date), mainly cause I have never been to Orlando in my life and would like to go there sometime to visit the other theme parks, like Walt Disney World. Yes, believe it or not, I have never, ever in my 22-year-old life been to Walt Disney World. I have been to its West Coast cousin, Disneyland, several times though (including for Grad Nite). I haven't gone to California Adventure yet, however. I have heard it's ok.

As far as Orlando theme parks go, I want to visit Walt Disney World to say I've been there, but probably not a bunch of times. I do really want to go to Epcot though. That sounds fun. I want to see the World Pavilion and (if it's still there) that Innoventions thing I saw an ad for on a Bill Nye: The Science Guy video we have. I also am interested in Disney's Animal Kingdom, which I heard some about from a special on Disney World that they did on the Travel Channel, although it could just turn out to be just a bigger version of the San Diego Wild Animal Park. They are building that Everest ride over there which looks kinda fun and yet a bit scary too.

As for Universal Studios, I haven't even been to the Universal park out here in California, so I don't know if I'd go to the one in Florida, though I would certainly go to go to the Harry Potter theme park.

What we do know about the park is that it will feature a Hogwarts castle you can walk through and some replication of Hogsmeade (the only all-wizarding community in Britain and the second and final stop for the Hogwarts Express). I kinda hope they do some replication of Diagon Alley as well. It would be fun to see Ollivander's (the wand store), Flourish and Blotts (the bookstore), and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes (the Weasley twins' shop). I know the hosts of PotterCast are hoping they'll put The Leaky Cauldron pub in there (since their sponsoring fansite is called The Leaky Cauldron). I would definitely go to Flourish and Blotts. If they sold anything, I would buy something, even something small, just to get a bag or something that says "Flourish and Blotts." That would be awesome.

I thought of something as I listened to MuggleCasters Andrew, Laura, and Micah hash out the theme park thing for a good half an hour on MuggleCast 93: What will they do as far as money? If they wanted to make it really authentic, they'd have some place where you can change your "Muggle money" for wizard money (you can in Gringotts in the books, as shown in, I think, Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione's Muggle parents go to Gringotts to exchange money). That would be kinda fun.

Last Sunday, I had a bad day at work. Shelley chewed me out, and I hate that, and a bunch of other stuff happened that I don't remember. I came home and just needed something to get my mind off of the day. So I decided to watch the video file I had of one of the Sailor Moon live musicals (or SeraMyu as they are also known), called Last Dracul Saishuu Shou:
Chou Wakusei Death Vulcan no Fuuin ["The Final Chapter of Last Dracul: The Seal of Death Vulcan the Super Planet"]. (I had downloaded it for my Kawabe Chieco tribute video, since Kawabe Chieco played Sailor Mercury in SeraMyu for a short time; she also plays Osaka Naru, Usagi/Sailor Moon's best friend aside from the other senshi, in PGSM). It was pretty cool. Ono Hikari, the actress who plays semi-bad guy Blood Dracul Vampiru, reminds me of Michelle Yeoh. Chieco-san was pretty good too.

The musical was followed (in the same file) by the "Super Revue Show," a sort of mini-concert. This featured the special songs for each Inner Senshi ("Drive Me The Mercury" for Mercury, "Honoo no Messenger" for Mars, "Zigzag Slash" for Jupiter, and "Traditional The Grace ~Ai no Arashi~" for Venus), among other songs. Ono Hikari even had a couple songs in this revue, since she's acted in other SeraMyus. She had "Chasin' After You" as Taiki/Sailor Star Maker and "Onna Kaizoku no Sakusen" as Roof Mellow from the Kaguya musical. (She's also been Hawk's Eye and Prince Diamond).

All in all it was pretty good.

Crud. I stayed up super late again...and I have to work 12-9 tomorrow, which means an early wake-up time cause of the stupid commute. Good night.

55 days till Deathly Hallows, Jordin wins AI, union issues, CL sneak peek, missed a signing, I bought a DS, and other stuff

As you can see if you look at the Deathly Hallows/Order of the Phoenix countdown at the bottom of my main blog page (which is courtesy of MuggleNet), there are only 55 days (a little less than 3 months) until Deathly Hallows comes out. I am having trouble waiting that long. I just bought and re-read Order of the Phoenix (one of my 2 favorite Harry Potter books, the other being Prisoner of Azkaban) cause of the upcoming movie release, and that got me excited for the movie, which made me think of book 7, which is also coming oh so soon (about a week after the Order of the Phoenix movie). I have it pre-ordered, as I said before. While I am probably not going to marathon-read it (I don't have the patience), I am going to start reading it ASAP after I get it.

The American Idol finale was this week, split into the usual two nights of performance from the top 2 (Jordin Sparks and my favorite contestant, Blake Lewis) and results. It was hard to get into since I haven't had the opportunity to watch most of the season cause of work, even though we've been DVR'ing it (which my mom says is the only way to watch it, since that way you can fast forward through the zillion commercials they have during that show). The results show was Wednesday, and was 2 hours. Mum had it recording as usual so by the time we got home after she picked me up from work, we were so far behind (we were actually at where she paused it, which was at about 8:30) that we were able to fast forward through most of it. The fact that the results show was two hours long (as the Survivor finale reunion show always is also) is stupid. All anyone cares about is who wins, and announcing the winner takes like 5 seconds. The rest of the show is dedicated to people performing -- mostly celebrities, some performing solo and others with members of the top 12, as well as all of the past American Idol winners except for season 3's winner Fantasia, who was busy in New York acting in The Color Purple. So this meant there was Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard (who looks just as overweight as he did when he was on Idol, based on pics I've seen), Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Hicks. Then Clive Davis, who is the main producer for all the albums done by Idol alums, gave this long Oscars-esque speech about how well the franchise is doing, although he totally ignored Taylor Hicks's success CD-wise (focusing instead on how the first CD by Daughtry, the band led by season 5 fourth-place finisher Chris Daughtry, outsold Taylor Hicks's first CD) and babbled on continuously about Carrie Underwood, who appears to be his favorite Idol winner. Then he gave Carrie a plaque for selling 6,000,000 units of her album Some Hearts (which means it hit Platinum 6 times...wow). Anyway, as a result of this speech and the ridiculous amount of commercial breaks, the show ran over its time slot, meaning that Mum had to record part of the next program (Fox Evening News) so the part when they announced the winner wouldn't be cut off by our DVR system. Apparently this happened to everyone; I saw something on some other person's blog that said something about the show running over too.

The point is, the winner was finally announced, and it was...JORDIN SPARKS. Not my fave, Blake...wah. It's okay though...at least Sanjaya didn't win (Mum says she doesn't want to go see the AI live tour this summer, like we did last summer, for the sole reason that she doesn't want to see Sanjaya sing), and Blake seemed cool about getting runner-up. He'll record a CD though. I'm sure of it. Seeing CD's by past Idol runners-up, namely Clay Aiken (from Ruben's season) and Katharine McPhee (from last season), convinces me of this. Oh which reminds me. I saw at the Barnes & Noble by me the debut CD for season 5 finalist Paris Bennett (who is about the same age, if not the same age, as Jordin), and by one of the songs on the back was written "featuring Kevin Covais, aka Chicken Little." I found that quite funny. This refers to, for those who didn't watch season 5 of Idol, a bit of an inside joke. In that season, there was a guy in the Top 12 named Kevin Covais, who was 16 and kinda scrawny and short. Also, the Disney/Pixar movie Chicken Little had come out around the same time he was on the show. So the other contestants started calling him "Chicken Little," and the name stuck.

I received a letter a little while back about joining the union, which said I had to pay the money I owe them to join by June 1, or I will be terminated. I didn't have an opportunity to go over to the office to sign the proper paperwork until last Tuesday (the local union office is only open Tuesdays and Thursdays), but the day before at work I was having second thoughts. I have been considering looking for another job, and it doesn't make sense to join the union and then quit soon after. Plus, as I found out later, I won't qualify for benefits (i.e., medical insurance) until my 13th month of employment. So it will be awhile before I can get the benefits that I hoped to get when getting this job. This seems hardly fair...that you have to work there a year before you get benefits. I mean, what person my age expects to work for a grocery store that long? I was looking into other jobs, but now I am running out of time before the deadline, so I am going to go ahead and join the union after all. At least that way I can keep my current job while looking for a new one. I'm going to go this coming Tuesday, which I get off, to sign the paperwork for them to deduct the money I owe for monthly dues out of my paychecks, which seems to be the easiest way of paying them. Since I owe them quite a bit of money up front (initiation fee for one, which is I have no idea what, though probably not the whole $200 or so that they say I owe them), my checks might be a bit skimpy for a few weeks, but I've got quite a bit of money in the bank, so I'm ok.

Yesterday the Barnes & Noble by my work had scheduled a signing with Ben Schoen and Emerson Spartz, as part of the book tour for Mugglenet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How Will the Adventure Finally End?, to which they contributed along with some other MuggleNet people. I was going to not take a first break on purpose so I could take a 15-minute last break (which I think is how the break system works) and rush over there to get my copy of the book signed, but in the rush to get out the door to catch the regular bus yesterday morning, I forgot my copy of the book. I didn't realize this till I was already near work, and since I take the bus, I couldn't go home then or on my lunch to go get it. I wasn't too disappointed, since I only bought the book cause the MuggleCast people mentioned it so much, and I didn't even agree with everything in it. Plus I had assumed that I would probably be closing by myself and wouldn't have time to get over there anyway, and even if I had time, the line for getting books signed would probably be extremely long, and not worth risking going way over on my break to wait in. As it turned out, I had plenty of time, since our new guy Filiberto (or "Phil" as he likes to be called) was there to close with me, and things always get done faster and earlier when he's there, but with no book to have signed, going over there seemed pointless.

Since I had sprayed the floors with the foam gun (how they clean the floors here, rather than mopping), shortly after coming back from lunch (normally I sweep first, but Phil got ahead of me there and was already sweeping when I came back from lunch), by the time I got the dishes done (the last thing that needed to be done), it was only 7:40, and I was scheduled to be off at 9:00. So I tried to think of things to do. First I cleaned the three white floor drains (two of which are in the back under our prep and dishwashing sinks respectively, and the third of which is in the front in an accessible area under the cake case), a time-killing activity that my coworker Joseph had suggested. This involved taking out the grates and debris-catching trays from the drains, spraying out what was in the drains (which I used the sprayer gun for), and then putting some Block Whitener (a bleach-like cleaner that we use when the white blocks we use for counters get really dirty, hence the name...it also works on walls and on the drains) in them and letting it sit. Then I cleaned the grates, sprayed out the Block Whitener, and put the grates and trays back.

By this point it was 8:00. The only things left to make up on last week's sanitation chart (another time-killing pursuit I've been doing on the nights Phil and I have closed together, namely Monday and yesterday...normally when I'm by myself I don't have time to do that stuff) were "Ceilings, Fans, and Lights," "Proofer Box Filter," and "Freezer Floor." The first two I didn't know how to do (I don't even know where the filter is on the proofer). But the Freezer Floor I knew from working at the other Stater Bros. just means to sweep the floor, which often gets cluttered with dust and bits of ice from the door flaps. Granted, the bakery freezer at the Stater Bros. I'm currently at is about twice the size of the one at Sycamore (probably cause we share it with deli). I decided to do this task, since it would take some time (I was trying to kill time, remember?), and last night was a good night to do it since there weren't a ton of racks and 6-wheelers (6-wheeled carts we use for carrying large amounts of boxes, also called "U-boats" cause of their flat bottoms and U-shaped handles) in the freezer. So I grabbed the communal department jacket (since to go in the freezer for longer than a few seconds without a jacket or sweater is not a good idea, since it gets pretty cold in there), and was delighted to discover that it does in fact zip. Thus insulated, I got a broom and then started pulling all the racks and 6-wheelers out of there. This took some time, since there were quite a few racks and not a lot of room near the freezer to put them, and also I had to move some La Brea trays cause Phil (who had graciously done the La Brea breakout for me at my request) had put some of the La Brea breakout on the rack that the deli uses when they clean their salad bar at night and put the rack in the freezer. Then I finally got to sweeping and a customer came. So I helped him, grabbed a different broom (we have a large, wide broom that works best for sweeping large areas, better than the small broom I was going to use since it's easiest to use the small broom to get the stuff in the dustpan), and went back to work. By the time I'd finished sweeping and gotten the racks back in the freezer, it was 8:40. So I wrote a couple notes (one to Heather asking about an earlier dilemma Joseph and I had had over whether a customer who'd ordered a 1/4 sheet Tres Leche cake got free ice cream with it -- normally when you order a cake that is a 1/4 sheet or bigger, you get a free half gallon of Stater Bros. ice cream with it -- and one to Karen, who was scheduled to bake this morning, explaining about the La Brea racks I'd had to move). After this, I didn't have anything else to do, so I leafed through a book of kits by DecoPac that was on the cake decorator's table in the back (I figured if I was just going to stand around, I better do it in the back, where I wouldn't be seen by customers or any managers passing by--unless the manager in question poked his or her head in the back, which they rarely do--plus I think we have security cameras in the front, and I didn't want to be on camera).

Today I went to the mall, since it was my day off (my first Saturday off in quite a while), and I was bored. (I had planned to go out anyway to see a movie, but nothing I wanted to see was playing -- I don't really feel like seeing the new Shrek and Spiderman movies, and I haven't seen the second Pirates of the Caribbean yet so I don't think I'd understand #3, plus at movies like that it's always nuts on the day after it's released, as I found out when I went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the day after its release). Before going in the actual mall, I went to a nearby Christian bookstore (namely Family Christian, the only real Christian bookstore chain out there), where I got a key chain for new house key (I lost mine--along with my treasured keychain featuring a super-deformed version of Ayeka/Aeka from the anime Tenchi Muyo, which I got from Comics n' Stuff, a store that no longer exists, at least at the mall near me--and Papa got me a new one, which I paid him back for) that is red and looks like a street sign. In white letters it says "Born Again Blvd." I felt this appropriate cause of what "born again" means (as I think of this I can't help but think of the song from Psalty's Kids Praise 10 called "Born Again"), and also cause my real name (which I won't reveal here) means "born again." Once I got in the mall, I wandered around mostly, only stopping in a few stores, as is my usual habit when I go to the mall. I saw EB Games and went in to look at the Nintendo DS games, since I'd been thinking the last few days about getting a DS, with the Code Lyoko video game coming out this weekend for DS. I looked up at the systems. They had some DS Lites for the usual $129.99, some used Lites for $119.99, a lone used regular DS for $99.99, and some "refurbished" DS systems for $99.99. Finally, I made one of my rare impulse decisions (the kind of decision that made me buy Hilary Duff's newest CD, Dignity, which is pretty good actually), and went out to the nearest ATM and took $200 out of my savings account, which I figured was more than enough for a used DS and a couple games. It ended up that the only non-new DS systems they had were the refurbished ones (the boxes above the games are for display only, as most people reading this probably know). The guy assured me that this still meant they were in good quality condition. So I said I'd buy one. The only one they had was in a bright red, but that was ok, since I didn't really care about color anyway, and plus it would match my GBA SP, which is in the slightly less bright red color the Nintendo people call "Flame." So, long story short, buying the system, two games (the Code Lyoko game and another game I'd been wanting to try called Pokémon Ranger), and a $10 1-year warranty that the guy talked me into getting so I could replace my DS if anything happened to it (they always try to talk you into this stuff; I got talked into a 6-month warranty on my used GameCube which did me no good cause I didn't have problems with it until long after my warranty was up), cost $182.36 with tax. I paid the guy the $200 in cash and got change back.

Other than this, my trip to the mall was uneventful. I finally found a plug for my laptop (which I had with me in its new bag -- a lovely laptop bag that I bought at Computer Circulation Center for $35 -- my first purchase with my debit card) on a pillar near the seating area next to the rather out-of-place indoor carousel. I used this opportunity to add more music to my mp3 player, since I'd only had time to add 17 songs before I left home. Then I worked my way back to where I'd come in to get to the small bus station at the mall so I'd get back in time to catch a bus from there to a station closer to my house, where I could catch a bus home. I played a bit of both games on the way home, once I figured out how to get past the save file naming screen for the CL game. I got home around 6:00.

I did not tell my parents that I bought the DS, mainly cause I don't think they'd want me to spend my savings on something like that. Strangely, though, I don't feel bad about it like I did when I bought the webcam, probably cause in that case my mum had specifically forbidden it. I've mentioned to my parents in passing about some of the CD's I've bought lately (in my quest for new music to listen to on my mp3 player, being bored with the music on my computer) and they didn't say anything, so they might not care about the DS, but just to be safe I am not going to say anything unless they see me playing it or something.

One frustration I have as far as the DS goes is that cause it is refurbished, it has some spots on the front where the paint's worn off. I was going to put some of my stickers on there to cover them, but I can't find my stickers. Then I decided it might be a good idea not to put stuff on there till I make sure the system won't have any problems or glitches.

Gah! It's already 10:30. What have I been doing up here? I've been on the computer I guess, playing my DS games when waiting for some program to unfreeze. I'm gonna go and eat some dinner. Tomorrow I don't work till 3:30pm, so I'm gonna go to church in the morning. Then I work Monday too the same shift, and I need to figure out if the buses for Shadowridge will run (since it's a holiday -- Memorial Day -- and so they may not run).

Oh and I saw the CL sneak peek ep, "William Returns." It was, um, interesting. I'm still holding my excitement till season 4 officially starts on June 5th though. Actually, I have two premieres to look forward to next week. The dub of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl debuts June 4, and season 4 of CL debuts June 5. Yay!

Anyway good night.

Thinking about college, not much sleep, kitchen remodeling, wanting to break free, debit card, etc.

I was thinking about college again this afternoon on the way home from work (I got off early cause I was covering at the Stater Bros. near me since the employees got to go to a special luncheon cause some customer won the lottery, so I was only scheduled 10-3 cause nobody was going to be there then). I think I was thinking of this cause today I just started reading the fourth and most recently released book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, called Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, which chronicles the summer after the Sisterhood's first year in college. I got it for Mum for Mother's Day (she's gotten really into the series; I lent her the first book and she really liked it) and she just finished it and passed it on to me. The more I thought about it, the more depressed I felt, and I even felt choked up.

Once I got home, I decided to take a nap. I got home around 5pm, and set the alarm to go off at 5:45. I felt like I slept for longer than 45 minutes though, which was nice.

I have not gotten much sleep lately, due to going to bed late and having to get up early to get to work at noon. So having a nap was good.

My parents have been remodeling the kitchen. They got new cabinets, a new dishwasher, and a new refrigerator. So all the appliances are stainless steel and match. Very nice.

These thoughts got me thinking about independence in general. I really want to move out. Even if I could rent a room or something. But the cheapest those go is like $400/month. That's a lot. I would have like no money after rent.

I started a checking account a little bit ago and ordered a debit card, which I received a few days ago. I really like it cause now I don't have to take out $20 if I want to spend like $2 and have no cash on me. I was just on my bank's website to try to figure out how to order checks, but I couldn't find anything. I did set up my BankOnline account though.

I'm really tired...it's been taking me forever to write this cause Tammy IM'd me and she can keep going forever, literally. Good night.

Oh one last thing...a sneak peek of the new Code Lyoko season airs tomorrow night! Yay! I have it set to record, since I'll be working tomorrow night. It was shown as airing twice, so I set it to record at both times in case it's a two-parter. If not, then I'll just be doubly sure it'll record (some of the stuff we set to record on DVR doesn't get recorded cause there's so much under "Recorded TV"...mainly my brother's numerous recorded eps of The Ultimate Fighter and my mom's many eps of Intervention or Grey's Anatomy -- our DVR didn't record the special premiere of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl cause of this...wah).

Oh and as far as college goes, I am seriously considering the game design B.A. program at ITT Tech. They have a campus relatively close by (in San Diego, about 45 minutes to an hour away from where I live) and yet far enough away that were I to move down there I would feel like the atmosphere was different. Plus they have job placement, which makes it easier to get a job after you get your degree.

All right...good night now.

Work changes, they finally fessed up!, appointment at Drake Institute, and other updates

A couple weeks ago, I got so stressed at work I had a breakdown. I really hate when I do this cause it is very unprofessional behavior. So I took my break so that I could calm down, at my co-worker Aja's suggestion. Then Marta (one of the managers, well actually a key carrier) came and asked me if I wanted to talk, which I was a little afraid about because usually when you go into an authority figure's office to talk, they chew you out. Plus, I had just been crying and that is a very unprofessional way to look in front of a manager. But it worked out cause I was able to tell them how working the late shifts I had been working (2pm-11pm or even 3pm-MIDNIGHT!!) had been not working out too well for my parents, who have to pick me up cause I can't take the bus that late and I don't have a car. They said they would look into it.

Initially, I thought I might end up just with earlier hours in the deli. Then Marta said (when I went with her into the office to get a band-aid on my lunch break one day) that she needed day Courtesy Clerks (a fancy name for baggers). If I did that, I'd be working 7-4 or 8-5. I said I'd think about it, then talked to Mum and Papa about it, and they said to go for it. So I wrote Marta a note (since she wasn't there when I got to work) telling her I'd do it. When I came to work the next day (my day off) to get my check so I could take it to the bank, Diana (the store manager) and Marta told me they were going to try me out in the bakery. I'm fine with that, since I did bakery for a little bit at the other Stater Bros., but it was a surprise.

So this week was my first week there, and it's ok, but I'm basically doing breakout all day, and it takes me half the day to do, which is not good. I should be faster. But then they only showed me how to breakout French bread at the other Stater Bros. (Toya showed me) so I didn't know how to do the other stuff (plus I pretty much always closed in the bakery over there). Oh well, hopefully I'll get better with time. The people who have been "supervising" me with this though (Karen, the main baker, and Shelley, one of the other morning people) are rather bossy about it. The other people in the department are nice, though. There's Katie, the bakery manager, who is nice and rather gentle; Heather, the Bollywood video-loving, homosexual-supporting cake decorator; Elizabeth, who's nearly-6-months-pregnant and was suffering some kind of back pain the other day (likely as a result), but who has (according to her) not gained any weight from pregnancy (which I find odd); Sara, a Hispanic girl who usually closes (thus I don't see her much); and Joesph, the only guy in the department and another usual closer, and who seems to have a stutter.

The rest I'll do really quick cause I've decided I'm going to go out and get myself dinner, so I should leave soon before it gets dark.

• A Confession: Remember how in my last post I was complaining about the MuggleCast "DH manuscript" joke and how they wouldn't confess that it was a joke? Well...in MuggleCast #87 (their April 15 podcast), when Andrew was (conveniently for them) unable to make the show, Laura and the others finally fessed up that the thing was a joke. I AM SOOOOOO HAPPY ABOUT THIS. Laura did a great job hosting that show too.
  
• Drake Institute Appointment: I had an appointment today with Mum and Papa at the Drake Institute to have a orientation about their treatment options so that maybe I can get diagnosis and treatment for my supposed Asperger's Syndrome. We had to watch a video for like an hour, and then we talked with a clinician. I was worried from the video that we didn't know much about what they did for the "autism spectrum" (which includes Asperger's), since the orientation video mainly focused on the Institute's work with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). We said we'd go home and talk about it before scheduling an evaluation (which, for me, would include diagnosis). They gave us a price list. Just getting what's called a "brainmap" (where they map out 19 spots in your brain and measure the brainwave cycle) is $625!! The whole treatment thing, with the evaluation and stuff, is like $7,000. Sheesh, tuition and room and board combined at a Cal State school is that much. For treatment, they use neurofeedback (basically the same as biofeedback) rather than medication (I don't know what medication they give you for Asperger's anyway; I know they use medications like Ritalin for ADD/ADHD). I don't know much about biofeedback, but it sounds interesting. I know it can help with stress, thanks to some paperwork from Health Services at school.
  

Okay, I'm gonna go now. Bye.

Mad at MuggleCast, MC Hotline off the hook?, facing the music about the webcam, French in Action, my "karaoke performances"

I am rather mad at the MuggleCast hosts. On their April 1 show (which I finally listened to the rest of today, having started to listen to it last night), the main host (Andrew Sims) said that he had managed to obtain a copy of the Deathly Hallows manuscript from Scholastic and had photocopied it and sent it to all the other hosts. They then proceeded to talk about the plot (issuing a spoiler warning beforehand, which I ignored cause I was suspicious that the whole thing was a joke). Things mentioned included that Snape and McGonagall make out, Harry defeats Voldemort by putting some inflatable heart over his head to suffocate him (and the heart is thrown to him from the other side of the Veil by none other than Ginny, his supposedly fated love -- despite what people say about the lack of evidence for Harry x Hermione, I still support them, and apparently some other people do too...you can read an excellent article on their relationship here), Harry uses FaceBook to find the Horcruxes, and that when it all ends, Harry loses his magic and becomes a basketball coach.

As funny and utterly outrageous as these things (and the others I didn't mention) all sounded, the hosts acted as if they were being totally serious. Me, I was waiting and waiting for them to announce that it was an April Fools' Day joke, but they did not. I was pretty mad, so mad that I decided to call their U.S. hotline (1-218-20-MAGIC) to tell them I thought the whole thing was baloney. I tried calling and got a busy signal. Later, I was listening to episode 85 (this week's episode and the first regular episode after the episode with this incident -- they did a special mid-week episode in between), and they started off the show reading a couple e-mails from people who were as furious as I was about their little spoiler-filled book 7 (pseudo-)discussion. Then Laura (one of my fave hosts) said, "You know, a lot of people thought it was an April Fools' Day joke" and somebody (I think Andrew) said, "But I'm sorry to say it's not," or something like that (I was having lunch at Popeye's so it was kinda hard to hear the podcast on my mp3 player). I was SOOO mad. Not only did they spring the worst April Fools' Day joke I've ever seen or heard on the net (except for the infamous "Sailor Stars dub" April Fools' Day joke, which I actually believed, sadly, until I found out it was a joke) but then they refuse to admit that it is a joke. Seriously, people are starting to not listen to MuggleCast anymore because of this! Just admit already that it was a joke!!!

I think I am going to check the episodes for PotterCast for the same timeframe and see if they have any mention of this stuff. If MuggleCast is the only podcast mentioning these ridiculous things, then I'll know more or less that it's a hoax. (I will know for sure if they come out and confess, but it doesn't look like that might happen any time soon).

Just checked PotterCast's website, only to find out two things: I'm way behind on listening to it (more than I am on MuggleCast), and there is no mention of these supposed Deathly Hallows revelations (now, granted, they likely did not get a copy of this "manuscript," but since PotterCast's trio of hosts -- Sue, Melissa, and John -- are good friends with and friendly rivals of the MuggleCast crew, I'm sure they listen to MuggleCast and would've said something if the info was true. Plus, the news would've covered it, as the mother of this 8-year-old from Glasglow, whose e-mail on the subject was one of the two featured at the beginning of episode 85, said).

Anyway, I tried to call MuggleCast's US hotline four or five times throughout the afternoon and evening today, only to get a busy signal every time. So either the line (which is probably at Laura's house in Georgia, since she handles voicemails...the message has Andrew's voice though, which I know cause I've called the line before, even though none of my voicemails have appeared on air yet) was off the hook or something, or it was flooded with people voicemailing their angry complaints about this book 7 thing along with the usual people who call in with DH theories and what-not. This second option seems more likely -- I've gotten busy signals on the American Idol voting phone lines sometimes, especially right after the show ends when most people vote.

As for my webcam, I felt sooo bad about it, particularly after I opened the box at the encouragement of my friend Gilbert, who thought it was dumb that I was letting my mom dictate whether or not I could have one or not. So last Sunday (as in 2 days ago), I told my mom straight up that I'd bought it. She said she was thankful that I'd told her and that she was serious about not wanting me to have one. So the next day I took it back (fortunately I still had the receipt, since I'd bought a DVD on the same trip that I wanted to return also). I don't regret it. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to use it for anyway, except for a stupid comedy thing involving a plush Sailor Mercury doll I bought a few years ago for $10 at ComicCon and a youma represented by the large geisha doll I have that was my grandma's till she died, when it came to me. A later version I'd come up with for this had Strawberry Shortcake come and save the day, along with PGSM Sailor Jupiter (who was to be played by me, since I physically resemble Jupiter more than any of the other senshi). Un-transformed Mercury was to be represented by my "Monaco doll" (another doll that used to belong to my grandma). I even bought a Strawberry Shortcake doll for the express purpose of using it in this comedy. (I couldn't decide between Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Muffin for a while...I think they had a doll there of Crepes Suzette also). Now that I look back at the thing, which was to be called "Mercury and Jupiter vs. Super Geisha," it seems dumb. (I'm keeping the Strawberry Shortcake doll though...it looks cute, and plus I'm not sure if I still have the receipt for that purchase...since I don't usually buy things I think I'll end up returning, I don't usually save receipts; the one exception is of course with clothes -- sometimes I don't try things on cause I tried on a thing but it was the wrong size, so I just exchange it for the right size without trying it on).

I was just thinking about "French in Action" for some reason. This is a video series I started watching on learner.org a while back (having learned about learner.org from my Human Development teacher, who pointed us to the "Seasons in Life" series) that is an immersion-style French course. I also borrowed some of the episodes on VHS from my school's library. I haven't watched it in a while. I may watch it again soon...I've missed Robert, Mireille, and Marie-Laure (Mireille's little sister).

To end this post, since there's nothing to really talk about besides that (my life is basically the same as it was), I'd like to present some "karaoke performances" I recorded tonight in Audacity using the lovely headset mike I bought a little while back. They are really just two songs, but there are three versions of one of them.

• W.I.T.C.H. U.S. Theme Karaoke Performance -- using a instrumental version of the U.S. "W.I.T.C.H." theme from the witch-united.net forums, I sing the song from memory. Go here to download: http://www.sendspace.com/file/g0ko20
• Mezase Pokemon Master: This is the theme to the first season of "Pocket Monsters," the original Japanese version of "Pokémon." I got the music from a site called the Pocket Monsters Repository. It's the officially released "karaoke" (instrumental) version of the song from the "Mezase Pokemon Master" single. I found lyrics in both Japanese and English on animelyrics.com and just sang from those. There are three versions:
• Dual Audio: This version has me singing in English and Japanese at the same time. This was accomplished by mixing the English audio track and the Japanese audio track, along with the music, in Audacity. It may sound a bit confusing (a lot of the time the English version overpowers the Japanese version...I had the mike a little farther away from my mouth when doing the Japanese version so as to prevent it from being really loud and also to avoid having my breath from getting picked up in an obvious fashion -- I have a habit of breathing through my mouth, so I have big breathiness issues when recording stuff). Download here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/k94yjc
• English Version: Just single audio this time, and in English. If you have translated lyrics for this song and they sound different from the ones I sing here (which are from Naoko of animelyrics.com), don't freak -- different people translate things differently (for instance, I noticed that the subtitles for the songs in Kirari Super Live seemed to be worded differently than the translated lyrics I'd seen on Sailormusic.net). You'll notice if you compare the English and Japanese versions that I make less pacing mistakes with the lines in the English version...in the Japanese version the first line of the first verse I mess up on cause it's supposed to be sung really fast. Download here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6u3n29
• Japanese Version: Single audio like the English version, but this time it's in Japanese. My pacing with the lines is a little off here and there in this version cause for some reason I can't sing at quite the same speed that Rica Matsumoto sings this song. Download here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6zjxt

Hope you enjoy these files! I'm gonna go now cause I have to get up early tomorrow to get to work at 11am.

Transferred, Gina's gone (no!!!!), Keepsake, Deathly Hallows cover, and other updates

Lots has happened since my last post, so much that I am still processing the biggest of the things.

First of all, I found out last Saturday that I was being transferred to another Stater Bros., this one in Encinitas. It is not the greatest situation for me transportation-wise. I've gone within a few days from a workplace I could walk to to one that it takes me 1 1/2 hours by bus to get to. Erika (the store manager at the store I was at) had told me last Wednesday she'd have me working at the Encinitas store the following week, but I did not realize that this would be permanent. I thought maybe they were just having me help out over there (they have people help out at other stores sometimes for a few days). No such luck. No reason given, no asking me if I wanted to transfer, a brushoff statement of "it's a reasonable distance" when I expressed concern about it being a long way for me to go.

My mom was saying I should look for another job since this transfer isn't very good transportation-wise, and so I'm going to look, keeping my current job for now. I hate to just quit now, even if there was another job opening, because it seems humiliating, after a little less than 3 months, to give up. Maybe it's just my pride or something, but I am the kind of person who will stick it through in tough classes and work environments even if they grate on me. I try to make things work until I can't do so anymore or I get through it.

I told Gilbert about it on IM not long after learning of the permanent nature of the situation, and he was saying the transfer was unfair and that I should just quit. I agreed that it was an unfair situation but was reluctant to just quit, for the reasons I already said.

I started at Encinitas yesterday, after a day off and the next day spent at another Stater Bros. for the General Merchandise Clerk class, which I must admit was ridiculously boring, filled with information I pretty much knew anyway from job experience, training videos from Wendy's that talked about food prep, and the county Food Handler's class I took, and 3 absurdly simple true/false tests, which you could ace no problem if you paid attention to the info being presented, since it gave you all the answers. I missed 2 on the first test cause I was tricked by the wording and put "false" when they were true, but the other two I perfect scores on. I had to be at work at FIVE A.M. Ouch. Not fun, especially since I'd gotten up the previous day at 4 a.m. to take the bus to the training, spent a whole hour getting ready, and then found out my dad was going to take me anyway, which left me with a couple hours to spare and no point in going back to sleep. Fortunately, getting in early means you get out early too, so I got off at 2:00. The strange thing was going to "lunch break" at around 9:30 AM, when pretty much no place that serves lunch and that is not a fast food place (or the almost-always-open Starbucks) is open.

Today was a slightly later day; I was scheduled to be in at 11 a.m. Unfortunately, I was 20 minutes late cause I missed one of my bus connections and thus had to wait half an hour for the next bus. So I asked the deli manager (that's where I am at Encinitas, btw...back in the service deli, after being in the bakery for about a month in the other store) if she wanted me to stay late to make up the time, and she said it was up to me whether to do so or not. I did stay the extra 20 minutes to make up the time, but I had to clock out right on time to avoid going overtime, which meant I had to hand off my task of putting fried chicken in the hotcase to Michelle, who I met today. The thing was though I was all hurrying over to the timeclock cause the clock in the deli said I had a minute before I was supposed to clock out, and I got there and the timeclock said 8:17 PM, which meant I had to now kill 3 minutes I could've spent doing something more productive than staring at the timeclock or looking at cigarettes (the timeclock's right by the cigarette/cigar/chewing tobacco case). This has happened at least once in the last two days -- the clock in the deli must be fast compared to the timeclock -- there's at least a 2-minute difference at all times, it seems.

The people in the deli are really nice. So far I have met only a small fraction of the half-page-worth-of-the-schedule amount of people who work in the service deli at this store. There are two guys I have met: Daniel, who usually opens (meaning he comes at 3am) and who is loud and obnoxious, and the more gentlemanly Alex, a CSR (Customer Service Representative; at the store I was at they act as checkers, but in a few stores like Encinitas, Alex told me, they are trying out having at least one CSR in each department). The rest of the deli crew are girls, as far as I have seen. Nely is the deli manager and doesn't look that much older than me, although I have often misjudged the ages of people I've worked with since I started at Stater Bros. (Michelle, the newest person in the bakery at my now old store, is around 40 but looks like she's 20). Since I am used to working for managers who were more obviously older than me, this is a new experience for me. Then there are Myrisha (not sure if I spelled that right...she's a talkative woman with a foreign-sounding accent), Clara (who transferred from the same store as me at the same time I did), Alicia (who doesn't understand much English), Diana (who is talkative and fun), the aforesaid Michelle, Celia (a nice lady who is very helpful), and a quiet but sweet Cambodian girl named Lang. There may be others that I forgot, but it's tough to remember them all.

As the title says, Gina Glocksen, my favorite girl in this season of American Idol, is gone. She, the "resident rocker" of this season's American Idol, was voted off last night, after landing in the bottom 3 with Phil Stacey and Haley Scarnato, both of whom could've been eliminated a whole lot easier this week if people actually paid attention to the contestants' singing rather than more shallow things -- Phil wasn't so hot this week with the song "Night and Day," and Haley is the model beauty pageant contestant but she honestly cannot sing at all and she shouldn't have even made it this far. Gina, on the other hand, sang a song called "Smile" that was written by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 movie Modern Times (famous for being the last film to feature Chaplin's "Tramp" character and being the first Chaplin movie with sound, although it was not an official "talkie"), and she did it very well. She received good comments from the judges also. But even this did not help Gina when she was in the bottom 2 with Haley, who has somehow managed to get this far although her singing's not that great (Mum thinks it's cause she wears short skirts and such all the time, which I assume means Haley attracts a lot of votes from men who care about that stuff). And once again, surprise surprise, Sanjaya was safe. That kid is just weird, and his singing's not really that great, plus he picks very strange outfits (and hairdos, like his slicked-back hair this week and the faux mohawk last week). This week he wore a white suit, which looked sooooo wrong on him (his outfit last week was ok but the faux mohawk threw everyone off, including the judges -- Simon said "There must not have been a mirror in your dressing room"). It's a shame cause he sang a great song ("Cheek to Cheek") but that suit kept bothering me. But anyway, he is so darn popular that he keeps surviving on the show, even though he doesn't deserve it.

It's getting late, so I'll be quick on the other stuff.

• Keepsake: Keepsake is a computer game I bought a few weeks ago which I have finally started playing recently. It's an action-adventure sort of game with lots of exploring, though the story is more fantasy RPG.
  
• Deathly Hallows cover: Yes, ladies and gents, it's here -- the covers for the U.S. and UK versions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were revealed last week. You can see the U.S. front cover below, and more cover art here.

• I got a webcam the weekend my parents were gone. I finally opened it at Gilbert's encouragement, but I don't know what I'll use it for yet.
• I've got a big list of videos to do, which I hope to make soon.

That's all. Good night!