As readers of this journal know, I'm an obsessed Harry Potter fan. I am also, to a lesser degree, a Star Trek fan. I've never been part of the online fandom, but I have liked the original series since I was a young girl sneaking peeks at reruns of it that my father was watching. (The series was taken off the air a few months before I was born.) And I followed TNG, DS9, and part of Voyager when they were on TV. I also like the movies (more so with the original cast, though the TNG one with the Borg was good too!).
So of course, I was going to go see the new Star Trek movie, especially once, having seen a trailer, I realized it was going to focus on the original cast *before* the time of the original series, which struck me as a pretty cool concept for a new direction to take with the franchise. Consequently, on Mother's Day Josh and Nathan took me out to the movies.
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- Location:My bedroom
- Mood:
enthralled - Music:The hum of a neighbor's lawnmower
So as I have mentioned, I *may* be moving to Rochester and therefore selling my house. The advice on that that I am getting, is redesigning the house before selling is silly and not a good investment, but fixing all the nagging little broken things I have been living with, is a must. And I have decided that even if I am staying, I shall fix the worst of them with my income tax refund money, because why shouldn't I enjoy the same improvements I would be willing to make for some stranger who will buy my house? And one of the broken things is...the lighting in my kitchen.
- Location:My bedroom
- Mood:
accomplished - Music:Simon & Garfunkel
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- Location:My bedroom
- Mood:
stressed - Music:the hum of my laptop
So yeah, my poor languishing fic that I've mostly ignored for months has a new chapter.
- Location:My office in the basement
- Mood:
accomplished - Music:the hum of my laptop
Hope your birthday is a happy one,
- Location:My office in the basement
- Music:the hum of my laptop
I've been really enjoying what I can catch of the Olympics, but am now getting really excited about events I did not get to see - the games so far of the Lithuanian men's basketball team.
- Location:My office in the basement
- Mood:
excited - Music:the hum of my laptop
As I have mentioned before, I am raising my kiddos to be bilingual, in English and Lithuanian. I am also (yes, I know this will shock you all) an avid fan of the HP series, and this created a dilemma. I want Josh (5, and soon to start kindergarten) to share my enjoyment of all things HP, but I don't want to spend hours reading a book to him in English - he gets that from everyone else in his life.
The obvious solution - buy the translated books, available from an online book club in Lithuania that will, for a price, ship books around the world. Not too bad, actually - I paid less than I would for all 7 books in hardback in the US, and got a copy of "The Amulet of Samarkand" (which I have not read despite recommendations from several HP liking friends) as part of a promotion the club was running for the release of DH (in March, when I originally ordered the books, in Lithuania).
SQUEEEEE! They arrived! And they look nice. They are hardbacks, and use the US cover art, only printed onto the covers instead of on a book jacket (cool, cause I lose/destroy those promptly). And I can complain in great detail about the lousy translation, too!
I am soo looking forward to starting to read them with Josh, hopefully tonight. I already tested the waters with another Lithuanian book I borrowed from my sister, who has older kids (Lindgren's "Brothers Lionheart", not so far as I know available in English), and Josh does has the attention span for chapter books, if they contain adventure. And of course, he has seen the HP movies, so he is primed to like the book... It has been a long wait. The place does nto take credit cards, so I had to mail a paper check in US funds, and then wait for over a month for it to clear with the bank in Lithuania, and then have the books shipped to me.
- Location:kitchen table
- Mood:delighted
- Music:the hum of someone's lawn mower in the distance
So, as my flist know very well, I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. I am also a big fan of the fantasy genre more generally. A favorite writer of mine is Guy Gavriel Kay, who writes really amazing fantasy novels (he also helped to edit "The Silmarillion", for the Tolkien fans among you). His strengths are writing a large cast of interesting characters, avoiding trite "happy endings", and creating a detailed sense of a world in a way that reminds me of well-written historical fiction.
I have recently comverted a couple of HP friends to this author, and we plan to embark on a reading of his novel "Tigana", a wonderful book set in a place similar to medieval Italy. (Here, to tempt you, is a review of the book from the Toronto Star: http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/re
- Location:My office in the basement
- Music:the hum of my laptop
- Location:Hotel Room
- Mood:
tired - Music:the hum of the AC
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
- Location:the kitchen table
- Mood:
chipper - Music:Nathan babbling happily
- Mood:
accomplished
- Location:in bed
- Mood:
excited - Music:The dryer
http://cdn.libsyn.com/spellcast/SCR202.m
- Location:My room
- Mood:
enthralled - Music:The peaceful sound of two sleeping boys
W00t!
- Mood:
excited
The release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be unique in many ways. One lesser-known way is that this book will be available in a Braille print version on July 21, the same as the regular version. For the first time, blind HP fans will not have to wait months or years to read a book their sighted friends are already enjoying. This book will be made available by NBP (National Braille Press) for the cover price of the regular hardcover book.
The catch? Braille books cost a lot more to produce, so NBP needs the help of donors to cover the higher costs so that the book could remain affordable for blind readers. HP for Grownups, a discussion group of which I am a member, is sponsoring a fund drive for this cause. For more information or to donate, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP7/.
I went to see the movie "Ratatouille" tonight, and loved it so much that I shall now proceed to gush about it to anyone who cares to read. The last movie I went and saw in a theatre that I loved as much was King Kong (not at all similar, except in that both were brilliant in their own ways and both made me cry).
"Ratatouille" is a Pixar animated movie. The main character, Remy, is a rat who lives in France. He is blessed with very acute senses of smell and taste, and aspires to create gourmet food. The events that lead Remy to pursue his dream in Paris are excellently conceived - imagine all the zany fun you might have combining the snooty world of haute cuisine and rats, and then forget it, because the creators of this movie topped whatever you just came up with.
The movie is not just a hysterically funny comedy with a lot of rat humor, though. I found it a touching story about pursuing dreams, family, and friendship.
- Location:Home
- Mood:
enthralled - Music:La Vie en Rose
