speechless

or maybe it's because you cannot hear
me when i mumble (all the time). you make
me smile. thank you for your letters... and yeah...
they were interesting =P

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

plot: as the driving force of this expository tome, the plot truly thickens in rowling's sixth installment in the harry potter series. the stage is set for the seventh, which will obviously have the requisite showdowns and epilogues. the plot progresses at a good clip for most of the book, bordering on breakneck speed at the end. relative to the pace of the fifth book, anything would feel fast.

character: thank you! harry potter is not an angry git anymore. romance is laid on more heavily than usual in children's fantasy books; but harry potter wasn't a children's book to begin with. the budding of certain relationships is contrasted with the dark times that have befallen what is supposed to be a key growing time. it offers a glimpse of what life for harry and co. would be like if there was no war raging.

notes: you have to take it for what it is: exposition. this book is laden with exposition. Voldemort's backstory is revealed piece-meal: an evocative tragedy of circumstance that sort of parellel's Harry's own history. readers should expect heavy plot movement and action-packed chapters. fans of quidditch will be disappointed, but in the face of open war, who really has time for sport?

4/5 - mildly bloated, though it's pretty clear that rowling was keeping it as short as she could. detentions were glossed =P the big death was obvious and necessary, but no less painful.

The Disciple - Oscar Wilde

When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort.

And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, `We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he.'

`But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.

`Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. `Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty.'

And the pool answered, `But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored.'

autogoogle

this was completely unexpected: www.hermanchan.net.

HP6: HBP

i spoiled myself. which only makes me want to read it all the more.

EDIT: July 20
after my halfdays of work and school, i schlep on over to a Chapters to read. i am joined by several others who also find the $24 (at walmart) or $41 (published price) too steep.

Progress 20/7: pg. 127

Progress 22/7: pg. 343

Progress 25/7: pg. 407

Progress 27/7: pg. 500

Progress 28/7: finished

total estimated reading time: 5.3 hrs

into the sunset

there is something oddly effeminate about sending off heroes into battle. sadly, i did not have a kerchief to wave, nor a dress to flutter in the wind as i stood at the end of the pier.

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" - John Donne

you know i only post up the good stuff. this one is so funny...

As virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say.
The breath goes now, and some say, no:

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
T'were prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.

Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares,
Though greater farre, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absense, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love, so much refin'd.
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse.

Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the'other doe.

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to mee, who must
Like th'other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes drawes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.

i maintain

that Horlicks is the most ridiculous name for a drink, after Anusludge. but i made that one up just now, so technically Horlicks wins.

The Rose - Bette Midler

Some say, love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say, love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.

Some say, love, it is a hunger,
an endless, aching need.
I say, love, it is a flower
and you, its only need.

It's the heart, afraid of breaking,
that never learns to dance.
It's the dream, afraid of waking,
that never takes the chance.

It's the one who won't be taken,
who cannot seem to b'lieve.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long;
Then to think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong;

Just remember, in the winter,
far beneath the bitters snows,
Lies the seed that, with the sun's love
in the spring, becomes the Rose.

honourary diaper

SOAK

and then sometimes

it hits you like a brick in the face: you're ugly and no one appreciates your impressive humming talent. it must be said, however, that at least three people on this world would have appreciated your humming, had you been personally aquainted to them so that they might experience such a closed-mouth virtuosity. alas, you are not. i trust your will to live is down to nil by now and no flamboyant gesture will save you from your own despair. i'd go flick a pop-rock right about now.

Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Mission

Associated Press, MOSCOW - NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust — it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer.

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said.

Scientists say the crash did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth.
The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how the solar system was formed.

Bai is seeking damages totaling $300 million — the approximate equivalent of the mission's cost — for her "moral sufferings," Izvestia said, citing her lawyer Alexander Molokhov. She earlier told the paper that the experiment would "deform her horoscope."

bwahahaha. that does not deserve any snarky comment.