Expecto Patronum

In an attempt at quality control and because I am much too scholarly to blog during finals I was never able to finish my BEDA, then I did not feel like blogging during much of the summer; I've mentioned before that I'm still trying to decide if a blog is a good idea. Excuses aside I went to see the final Harry Potter movie last week and, like every other fan, I feel the need to express my thoughts about it. Obviously this contains spoilers.
Overall I thought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was one of the better movies. I believe that having David Yates direct the final four installments of the series was for the best, continuing the ambiance and tone between movies allowed them to have a feeling of continuity that the changing directors in the first movies was not providing. For me, without this, I'm sure the disconnect would have bought down the entire series (even though I did not like Order of the Phoenix I can admit that it was ascetically consistent with Yates' better Potter films).
I always thought that Fred Weasley's death was the worst of the slaughter house that is Harry Potter and the Deathly  Hallows but until I saw the movie a large part of me assumed that was because of the shock I felt. I remember reading it and halfway down the page thinking, 'wait, did she just kill Fred' and then going back and rereading his death over and over to make sure I wasn't making a mistake. In the movie, when Ron was crying over Fred's body, I almost teared up (which is the equivalent of crying for anyone else since the only movie I've ever cried in was Air Bud).
In the novels it seemed to me as if Malfoy had a genuine struggle between good and evil, which I felt was expressed brilliantly by Tom Felton in Half Blood Prince. However, in Deathly Hallows Part 2 I didn't feel sympathy for Malfoy's struggle, it seemed more as if he had weak character. It wasn't as if he was trying to make the personal decision between being a good or bad person.This caused me to rethink the character entirely. The part when Voldemort asks the Hogwarts students and the Order to join the Death Eaters because he believes he has won the battle and Draco joins to be with his parents is the only moment when I thought perhaps he was trying to be good and just was not strong enough. Until this moment I had seen Draco in the books and movies as someone who was a strong person deciding between good and evil, not a weak person who wanted to (or was considering) being good.
Otherwise I thought Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman continued to be insanely fierce, Matthew Lewis looked fantastic and I thought the Neville and Luna story line was cute however non-canon it may be. The moment when Neville says, "You haven't seen Luna have you? I'm mad for her. I think it's about time I told her, since we'll probably both be dead by dawn" was a great add on to Neville kick-assness. I'd always felt that the movies robbed Professor McGonagall of most of the funny or quirky lines she had in the books so I was glad that she had some great moments in this movie. And finally, Filch is hilarious and I feel VERY bad that he had to clean up that giant mess.

House isms

Like I previously mentioned, I have recently been obsessed with House. Here are my five favorite House isms that I have come across so far in season five.

People should not be testing drugs because they're desperate. But, people won't test drugs unless they're desperate. We need drugs to save children and puppies, ergo we need desperate people, ergo welfare kills sick children. 5.03

You "lost track of your speed"? I think that was Hitler's excuse. Lost track of the Jews. No one held him responsible.  5.04 

There's a reason that we've evolved the feeling of awkwardness it tells us not to talk about things. 5.07 

If you don't think your life is worth more than someone else's then sign your donar card and kill yourself. 5.09 

Religion is not the opiate of the masses. Religion is the placebo of the masses. 5.15

And this isn't a House ism, it's just a quote from House I like:

You're going to spend one day of your life on your deathbed. It's he other 25,000 we should be worried about. 5.14

Words

Isn't it frustrating that the things that you love the most are the things that you have the most difficulty explaining your love for? Everything that I want to blog about, not just for BEDA but in general, I properly express my love for. Sometimes I wonder if I was a professional writer, or someone linguistically talented different would I be able to do so? Is that what sets, at least some, linguistically gifted people apart? The ability to flawlessly describe what they love or hate? Or perhaps it is an ability to describe abstract ideas like love and hate that allows certain people to sufficiently express their emotions, experiences and attachments. If I had that ability I would be able to find adequate words to describe my admiration for Disney, particularly of the Land and World varieties, Tamora Pierce, Criminal Minds, panda bears, Lights, crash test dummies, dinosaur skeletons, Greek classics, Johnny Depp and Christmas. Some of these things have been in my life for so long that I am simply unable to put my expansive list of thoughts about them into a concise post that also fully covers these thoughts. Others are simply more intense or abstract and would require days, a thesaurus and a headache to properly describe.

Like a Killer in the Sun

Everyday summer gets closer... and everyday it feels less like summer. Hopefully the weather will get nicer, it is supposed to warm up by the end of the week. Nevertheless I thought I would share some of my summer plans.
001. Craven. I'm not a hardcore country music fan but a road trip followed by spending a weekend camping with my friends and enjoying the ultimate summer atmosphere is a pretty exciting thought. I will admit there are some groups I'm dying to see, like Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland. And when Lonestar sings Walking in Memphis will likely be a highlight of my entire life.


002. Netflix. Wait what? Okay that's a lame summer plan but all my friends have it and are always so excited about it and talk about it non-stop. Knowing it would be the largest distraction ever I waited a whole year to sign up but now that I have four free months ahead of me I am looking forward to having the entire SNL series at my fingertips.


003. Ontario. My annual ontario trip is a staple for summer. I get to visit with my favorite cousin, which is pretty much my favorite activity ever. It also means nostalgia, car trips, Digimon the movie on repeat, LOTR marathons, Chloe and Levesque readings, bookstores, giant family dinners with drunk aunts and uncles and the perhaps the occasional reenactment of Jesus Christ Superstar.


004. The second annual Vanilla Coke expedition. We have to drive to the USA to get Vanilla Coke. Last year we did the trip in under 24 hours because we didn't plan it properly, or at all really. We left 3 hours later than planned because Jess was passed out with nearly the entire McDonalds menu when we went to pick her up and then we spent 2 hours looking for her passport (sock drawer), the border patrol were huge fans of the tarp in the trunk of my car, and then they had a difficult time believing we had driven all day for 6 cases of Vanilla Coke. It was the highlight of my summer. This year hopefully we will leave on time and spend more than 4 hours in the states.


005. Television. Hi my name is Jenn and I'm a television addict. The only shows I am currently caught up on are The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Criminal Minds. My PVR is about to be filled and I am dying to watch the most recent seasons of NCIS, Fringe and Grey's Anatomy as well as watch seasons 1 & 2 of Doctor Who.
So those are five of my plans for summer. A larger trip is still in the works but who knows if that will happen. I'm sure there will also be a number of slightly spontaneous smaller trips. Regardless I'm excited for late nights, summer blockbusters, summer reading, shorts and slurpees.

Arthur Review

I went to this movie because it was the only one in the appropriate time slot and I had fairly low expectations. I figured it would be good for a few laughs and then a week or two from now I would forget I had seen it. The characters are lovable and the plot mildly familiar but the jokes are incredibly hilarious (however, I may have found it so funny due to a combination of lack of sleep and the fact that I have not paid attention to anything other than theology for a week). I'm not a Russell Brand fan, he's one of those actors who is around but I don't pay much attention to, I don't dislike him. I found the humor in Arthur to be refreshing for his movies, less vulgar and more of a combination of smart and innovative jokes. My major issue with the movie is who wouldn't want to be with Jennifer Garner? I think that the fact she played a girl with borderline personality disorder, who was frankly rather frightening at times, is irrelevant to her insane attractiveness.
The movie is very good, I recommend going to see it. You cannot expect it to be anything other than a romantic comedy, and a remake at that. But so long as you are expecting a mainstream, big distribution, box office movie then I believe Arthur will meet or even exceed expectations. I doubt I'll see it again in theaters or even buy it on DVD but it's quality level was higher than that of many romantic comedies I have seen recently and it was a great way to unwind after a final.
Spoilers ahead:
One of my favorite jokes was after Arthur purchases the suit from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural speech at a hilarious auction and is wearing it around New York, the police ask him for ID and he shows them a penny. Whatever I'm a dork, I thought it was funny. AND "this isn't what it looks like. Unless it looks like a cat raping a horse."

J. Crew

I don't want to sum up this entire controversy, but if you haven't heard about it, essentially in the most recent J. Crew catalogue there is a picture of a woman painting her son's toenails pink and nearly, or possibly every, major Western news channel picked up on this picture and labeled it "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children" and "gender bending." In regards to the first quote, firstly how does pink nail polish celebrate transgendered children and secondly why would it be an issue if it did? The Daily Show with Jon Stewart did a fantastic segment on this controversey which you can watch here. Jon handles the issue so well, and I suggest watching the clip because he there is a reason that he has a television show and I don't. As Jon said, "you make it sound like it's a story about incest and cannibalism." He also fantastically mentioned that if you paint your child has their face painted to look like a cat that does not make them a cat or a cat lover. I think J. Crew made a smart decision by not commenting on the story, in fact I believe they called it a non-story. This is not a "gender bender." Pink is a wavelength of light. Light does not decide gender.

Academic House Arrest

On Thursday I had my first final, psychology. While studying for that I found this gem in my notes that I would like to share: "To maximize having offspring and investment men want to have sex with as many children as possible." I can only assume I meant women... Apparently I was not paying attention that day.
So finals are in full swing and I deal with stress by watching television which is bad because television takes a ton of time. Mostly I watch television because I can ignore my own life and focus on the show, while at the same time be reminded that there are bigger issues than my stress and other people are facing much worse issues than I am and, despite my sometimes global view, finals are not the most important thing in the world
This television therapy results in my discovering new shows around this time every year. This year I have found House. I guess I haven't really found it, I used to watch the show sporadically before my parents bought me a PVR (which, bit of trivia, is helpful in preventing depression because it helps provide an internal locus of control, just a bit more psychology for you).  This was around the same time that House fired/lost his entire team and I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the show anymore because, like I said before, I like the family aspect of procedurals. Little did I know that his team was not off the show and they would eventually become members of his team again.
I have watched season seven this week and, despite having read some fairly scathing reviews, I felt it was very well done. I don't feel that Amber Tamblyn's character is very likable but I think she's an interesting edition to the show and her morality (although sometimes unrealistic; see 7.11 Family Practice) is refreshing. What surprised me is that I didn't miss Thirteen, who is one of my favorite characters. I assume that is because I was so busy gushing over the adorableness that was House and Cuddy. Plus how could I not love a show about Sherlock Holmes if he was Benjamin Franklin Hawkeye Pierce.
I'm off to study for Perspective on Jesus, which I should have started doing two hours ago. But...I was watching House.