My faithful blog readers, I feel like I've stabbed someone in the back. But I don't know who. Probably me. Now that this blog has finally achieved some stability, I've made a tumblr.

I know, WHAT?

I never shared this, but when everyone got tumblrs and I was still over here on blogger, I didn't mind. I was being loyal to blogger. But I've realised many of my posts are now tumblr length and I could actually repost the posts I like on the tumblrs I follow. In short, it would be easier for myself.

Granted, blogger has had it's moments for me. My recent Harry Potter series was a personal favourite, simply because people I didn't know bothered to write comments to tell me they weren't bored by the exceptionally long posts on one topic. The time two friends collaborated to help me out on a little theological problem (Alison etc). The classes group blog we started and kept up for....a little while. My Trifling Facts blog. And the huge, fiercely opinionated (in my now older, mellower view) rants I used to have. And more. But I'm going. I think I really am. And if I hate it over in tumblr land, I'll be sure to come crawling back and say to myself that I told you so, but for now, I'm MIA. That is all faithful readers.

Oh, catch me here: http://thecolourofmagic.tumblr.com/

Sometimes I get so lost in a book that it half takes over my life for a short time. I love those books, but it's always so sad to leave them behind, and return to the real world.

You Need to Know

That if you ever accidentally put your lunch bread in the toaster instead of the microwave (for a packed lunch) you can still make your sandwich and it will be fine in another 4 hours. Just like a normal sandwich, only brown in some places.

I'm on a Tiny Little Low

Because after recently rediscovering doctor who, I went to the video store and they didn't have the next half of series one.

Severely disappointing.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

-Frederick Douglass

Oh look, this is me, making it into a tumbler post.

Because I am a murderer.

It was a proud day.

LITERAL Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Parody HD

Hilarious. That's all.

What the Shakespeare?

Said by Charles Dickens. I thought this line quite clever.

Switzerland Seems Like a Nice Place to Visit.

What I've Been Doing

The 16th of August was precisely a week ago, and I am sorry for the delay but I've been completely absorbed in the world of Elizabeth Gaskell (her actual real life world, not the world's she wrote about) and the Stravagante in Talia. I simply adore books, but I've been a bit scared by the sheer amount of reading I've done in the past week. Two whole Stravaganza books and half of Jenny Uglow's biography of Elizabeth Gaskell. Plus a bit of the Bible, but I take that slower.

Reading the Stravaganza books has made me realise that although I've read a lot of fantasy, the fantasy books which I really love (Harry Potter, Stravaganza, Narnia, and others) are ones in which the magical/fantasy world is unknown to the protagonists until it find them/they find it. I feel like this just makes the books more . . . it makes the reader feel as though they can almost reach the world, that it's plausible, there but hidden. It pulls you in more.

Elizabeth Gaskell's biography on the other hand - I love her letters, and I am not exaggerating. They're delightfully excellent, charming, full of details but not boring. At least the extracts I've read, and I plan to borrow out the book of them from my uni's library. I just wish the modern world lent itself more to letters. I love letters.

And that has been my week of reading, or extracts from. So, I'm off to read a bit more!

Sometimes I build up these lists in my head, and I feel like I'll just go mad if I don't write them down somewhere safe, before I forget anything on them.

Small Minds.

How could there be a God that could control all that? What did my science teacher used to say - two thirds of the earth's surface was covered in water? How could I be the son of someone that powerful?

-Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.

And yet, we can be the children of the God who controls more than that, the whole universe, who is infinitely powerful, but belittle him and forget his power and glory and take him for granted and be irreverent. How?

Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.

- Stephen King

I've begun to wonder that too. So I may just try it out/already have. I also keep reading Stephen King quotes and liking them, but I don't really know who he is. I am now off to amend this.

I think smart in my head, I just can't get the words out.

-Tara, 'Beauty and the Geek.'

36 Days later (but really 31)...

I'm finished. Harry Potter is done for quite a while.

You know, I've never read them all together before. It was lovely. Harry aged 7 years in little over month. Wow.

Deathly Hallows, particularly the last nine chapters, is such an emotional roller coaster. I can't imagine what it's like for people who score higher than 2% emotion on Harry Potter Wand Quizzes. Anyway, the last nine chapters of DoH, the Battle of Hogwarts and everything surrounding it after they become bank robbers, rates as a favourite section out of all the books. I'm waiting to reach it as soon as I start HBP. Also, you can tell it's a favourite section because of the density of dog ears in it compared to the rest of the book. So, without further ado, a cascade of quotes to end my journey.

...there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him. Fred and George turned to each other and said together, 'Wow - we're identical!'

I feel like there's a lot less humour in this book. Well, not feel, because there is. So this is a little gem of the small amount of humour in the book. Thankfully, that which is there is good. (Something about Severus Snape and shampoo comes to mind....)

'Always the tone of surprise.' [Said by both Ron and Hermione]

This little quote is lovely. Ron says it a fair bit to Hermione in a few of the previous books, but I only picked up on it because I read them all in a row. I just love how many references there are to previous books in DoH. It's great (another one is coming)

...each [g] felt like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil.

Enough said. Lovely writing.

'Yes - yes - a boy,' said Lupin again, who seemed dazed by his own happiness.

This scene made me so happy when I read it. I loved that Lupin had a kid, I loved that he and Harry were friends again, and I loved the punctuation of happiness in the midst of a grim story. But I'm always a little saddened byt he fact that Lupin could be dazed by his own happiness. It's a slightly melancholy image, whilst being happy at the same time.

'Potter belongs in my house!' Beneath the disbelief and anger, Harry heard a little strain of pride in her voice, and affection for Minerva McGonagall gushed up inside him.

I love that this line was written. And I love it when McGonagall screams when she thinks Harry is dead, and I love it that she duels Voldemort. It's been confirmed in the last month that McGonagall is one of my favourite characters.

...the Snape-shaped hole in the window.

'Are you a wizard or what?'

As promised, the throwback to other books. In this case the first, but this time reversed. Quite brilliant.

'After all this time?'/'Always,' said Snape.

Always. What a beautiful answer, from a character I still dislike. Haha.

...to think that people had years, time to waste, so much time it dragged, and he was clinging to each second.

What poetic language. I thought as I read this that I'm really glad she wrote this book last, which sounds stupid, but it's how the thought got phrased. What I mean is...her writing has gotten better, I think through the books, so that a lot of DoH is just really wonderful writing. This is one example. As an aside, the scene right after this (the resurrection stone) brought me to tears, but only the first time i read it.

Sorry for the length of this post but, you know, it is the last one. So, that's it. Now you can expect sensible, reasonably lengthened posts that aren't bordering on obsessiveness. Thank goodness for that.

'When a father can provide a deserving son with something but denies him, there has to be something very important, something over and above that, and that thing is us. The death of Christ teaches us the love of God.'

'We sing and we sing because we've got so much to sing about, friend'

'The more you count your blessings, life gets into perspective. We've always got something to thank God about. If nothing else, thank him for sending his son.'

~~~

Spent a week away, studying God. It was excellent, and above are just a few quotes from Phillip Jensen's talks on the cross of Christ.

Feeling Princely

There are so many pages turned down in my copy of the Half-Blood Prince to mark the lines I liked. More than the other books, so it's hard to be selective, but I've decided to pick a only er a few to share.

[About Harry's popularity]'And it doesn't hurt that you've grown about a foot over the summer, either,' Hermione finished, ignoring Ron. 'I'm tall,' said Ron inconsequentially.

Rowling has a knack for picking exactly the right word to describe tone and the way things are done. I think I said that in the last post, but I can so easily imagine Ron saying that. And I love how quietly amusing the books are. There's not really much that would make you laugh out loud, but there's plenty of lines that have me chuckling to myself.

He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behaviour, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way.

Good old Hermione. I love that about her. And she doesn't even care that everyone thinks that.

'It's not my fault she's barking mad Hermione. Or d'you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I've always thought there might be something going on between them...'

I love it when the kids discuss something other than the year's big mystery, or Voldemort. When you get a glimpse of when they're just being completely normal teenagers. I also love that later on in the book, at the funeral, Rowling specifically mentions that Madam Pince and Filch were standing together in the hall.

[Harry]:'I want to find McLaggen and kill him.' 'I'm afraid that would come under the heading of "over exertion",' said Madam Pomfrey.

I love it when the staff are funny. That is all.

'I am not worried Harry,' said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger, despite the freezing water. 'I am with you.'

What a compliment. Not much to say, except that I dog eared the page as soon as I read that line.

'DON'T --' screamed Snape, '-- CALL ME COWARD!'

So before book seven this made me dislike Snape more, but now this whole section makes me respect him more (not really like him though). He's just had to kill Dumbledore and commit himself to Voldemort indefinitely and Harry runs after him, taunting him and he's absolutely beside himself. It's quite um...an intense situation for him.

And that is all. Sorry, there turned out to be more than I thought. But still, that's about a quarter of the quotes I had marked, which is about half the quotes I mentally mark.

One more to go, ('thank goodness' I hear you say), and then I can return to posting about some things which are a bit more relevant, perhaps.

Phoenix Ramblings. Sorry.

Having finished Order of the Phoenix er a few nights ago, and being now a good 200 pages into Half Blood Prince (which is, incidentally, up there as a favourite), it seems odd to come back and write about the fifth harry potter book, but I have to, because I had several observations. I hadn't read this book for ages, so a lot of things stood out for me. (This post is long. I'll forgive you if you don't read the whole thing)

1) This book is long. Seems pretty obvious, but when I was setting a target of at least 100 pages a day just to get through it in a week, that tells you something. But while it's long it is also...

2) Quite a good story, yarn, tale etc etc. Well, I don't actually know how to articulate it, but it's just that there's so much in this story about one boy's year at school that it's just kind of engrossing. Okay, so much happens and...I give up on this point.

3) It's well told. I don't know if you've ever actually tried writing a story with so much dialogue and movement, but J.K does a really fantastic job of simply describing the way people say and do things that makes it easy to visualise, and not repetitive (you know the classic bunch of quotation marks followed by said all in a row. She avoids this) This is true of all the books, but I've never really noticed. I just really admire the variation and cleverness in her choice of description.

4) The fight in the ministry is really good! So I used to just kind of skim through this whole book I think I dunno, but I suddenly realised how er enthralling those whole two chapters are. The movie adaptation completely decimated the greatness of this bit. I mean the teenagers are running around in the depths of the ministry, dropping one by one .... it's suspenseful! Haha

Also, the book is humorous, but then again, they all are, so it doesn't make the list. As this was such a long book, it needs a longer post than this so I'll add a few quotes too. Had to be very selective, much to my consternation.

He was never going to see Ron and Hermione again - And their faces burst clearly into his mind as he fought for breath. 'EXPECTO PATRONUM!'

One of the great things about the books, and this sounds cliche but it's actually true, is how much they value friendship. In the quote above, it's this massively powerful thing that allows Harry to defeat dementors. And for Harry, Ron and Hermione are it, they are the people that mean the most to him for so long. It's just....amazing.

'Ron,' said Hermione, 'you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet.'

Okay, so I had to pick only one quote from this whole hilarious, four page discussion by the trio. I just love it, I laugh the whole way through every time. Anyway...

'Has it not occurred to you, my poor puffed-up popin jay...' [Phineas Nigellus to Harry]

Love a bit of alliteration, and how many people do you hear using this expression? Fantastic.

Ron had caused a dinner plate to mutate into a large mushroom and had no idea how it had happened.

I just was struck by (and loved) the fact that their mistakes in exams can be this bizarre. If you read through the whole OWLs section, it's like a list of bizarre mistakes, listed almost nonchalantly. The worst we can do is answer the wrong question.

And finally that's it. Oh, one more thing. I've juts got to say how much I love McGonagall. She's amazing; the scenes that she and Umbridge are in are hilarious/excellent because McGonagall completely owns Umbridge. So that's it. I'm off to read the sixth!

Once I began a book, I couldn't put it down. It was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the train, in bed until late at night, in school, where I'd keep the book hidden so I could read during class. But I had almost no desire to talk with anyone about the experience I gained through books and music. I felt happy just being me and no one else. - Haruki Murakami

~~~~

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible ad wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. - Charles W. Eliot

You can't tell that I've been on holidays lately can you? The record number of posts for this month doesn't give that away at all.

'She can't have been a spy. Look what she did to her hydrangeas!'

- A woman in the Sydney Morning Herald, neighbour to the woman in question. I don't know what she did to her hydrangeas, but it's obviously solid proof. Obviously.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer

Gosh, they picked the right music, didn't they? Makes it sound absolutely epic. Also, looks like, after 3 films, Daniel Radcliffe finally got Harry's hair sorted out. It was getting there in the sixth, I admit, but it takes a while to rebound from that awful cut he had in OoTP. Hooray! I'm so excited for this to come out =D

True

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.
- Will Rogers

Following on from the last post I was going to try and find this awesome picture of a section of a library I've seen which was huge and sectioned off by glass. Couldn't find it, and my description skills fail, so I settled for Trinity College's library, which I actually like more.

Islands

I just finished watching the last episode of a series called Islands of Britain. It was really interesting, and i thought you ought to know about some of the ones mentioned in this last episode. South of England there's a small island called Sark, which is the last feudal state around. All the farmers rent their land from the baron, and there's no cars or motor vehicles allowed on the island, except tractors (and that's only if you need them for work). It's a really interesting island.

Then there's bishop rock, allegedly the smallest island in the world, and the most south-westerly point in Britain. This picture speaks for itself - the only way to get there is by a small helicopter.

So there you have it. Something to have learnt for the day :)

*Jaw drops*

Bear With Me

Finished good old GoF after having not read it for years I think.

The bell was due to ring at any moment, and Harry and Ron, who had been having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands at the back of the class, looked up, Ron was now holding a tin parrot, and Harry, a rubber haddock.

What is a haddock anyway? I've never even found out, just always imagined some weird fish-bird thing. Turns out it's just a fish. Oh well. This little scene is quite amusing.

Yes. He'd [Moody] probably blast us through the door if we wake him at the crack of dawn.

Harry is actually quite funny. No one ever mentions it, but he's got more than a few funny one liners.

You fail to recognise that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!

Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

Oh, classic Dumbledore. Such wisdom. I actually quite like these, because they are true. And that is all.

Ramblings

I spent a few hours this week putting together a slideshow of photos for my grandma's 80th today, and it was really interesting! I've only really known her from her mid-60s on, so it was really cool to get a look into when she was young, had little kids and all that. Weird to see my dad as a little boy with ears that stuck out as well! Haha.

My grandma has a twin sister, and when I showed the slideshow to mum, I'd say for a few photos, 'not sure who any of those people are but grandma is there so...' And mum would say, actually that's her twin sister. And all those people are her other sisters and their husbands, or pop's relatives. And it's like....those people are actually quite closely related to me but I had no idea some of them existed! So all in all that task was worth it.

Ok so I'm sorry about all the Harry Potter posts and I promise I won't bore you with many more, but I had to post this.

The Scene: Dumbledore, Fudge and 'Moody' are discussing the disappearance of Senior Barty Crouch. Fudge throws a subtle insult at Madame Maxime and Dumbledore simply says he believes she is a very able Headmistress. Directly following is...

The Problem: 'Dumbledore come!' said Crouch angrily.

Say who? Crouch just popped up! [Crouch should be Fudge in this instance] That's handy, their conversation can now come to an end. It's odd because I've never heard this typo mentioned before and it's actually quite an amusing one.

And that was a little event from my day. Hope you enjoyed.

Sorry I know you're sick of these but...

I read approximately 200 pages of my book yesterday - and that is why babysitting is so good. But it is odd, reading so much in one day. I have in my time read a 600 page book in less than 48 hours, and the amount of time you read through in the book compared to the time you've actually lived makes for a weird contrast. Yesterday, for example, Harry went from seeing the Dark Mark to hearing about the Yule Ball, which is like over three months, in a few hours. Weird.

I forgot how much I like the fourth book. Humour starts to really kick in in this one, and we get given another character to hate. However, I've always wanted to know how Dumbledore's joke ends...

'I am not joking Mr. Weasley, though, now you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll. a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar-'

Oh...

Finished the third book on Monday night then realised I didn't have up any quotes from it, when it's one of my favourite. So here you are.

'And we've got a seeker who has never failed to win us a match!' Wood rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. 'And me,' he aded as an afterthought.

'We think you're very good too, Oliver,' said George.

'Cracking Keeper,' said Fred.

'I don't need help,' Ron whispered. 'It's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight.' Both Harry and Hermione burst out laughing.

'Your parents gave their lives to keep you live Harry. A poor way to repay them - gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks.' [Lupin] walked away, leaving Harry feeling worse by far than he had at any point in Snape's office.

This last quote always makes me feel really bad as well, for Harry. What a guilt trip from Lupin.

Too Left

The holidays, for me, are a chance to try and give my right brain a little more exercise. Music, sketching, reading and writing (i.e. imagination). Now, to get that statement right, I had to do a little research (lucky I did or this post would be very boring), and I came across these interesting things about the brain.

Experiments show that most children rank highly creative (right brain) before entering school. Because our educational systems place a higher value on left brain skills such as mathematics, logic and language than it does on drawing or using our imagination, only ten percent of these same children will rank highly creative by age 7. By the time we are adults, high creativity remains in only 2 percent of the population.

Such a shame that the education system does that, but I suppose it must be hard to balance both sides. Also, the brain can only focus on data from one side of the brain at a time, and while we can switch quickly between sides, most of the time one side wins out, usually the left brain. So now I feel sorry for the right side of my brain, and I'm going to work even harder on giving it a fair go. Apparently there are ways to stimulate the right brain, which pretty much involve boring the left side into a doze through meditation (repeating a word or mantra) or sensory deprivation. All the mental images coming from this are amusing me. I think I'll go use the imagination of my right brain by reading...

I'm so glad the socceroos squad finally got their act together and preformed to their usual standard last night. It made me so happy. Just a shame we couldn't get another goal in.

I also love the fact that two of the great players last night, Chipperfield and Wilkshire, are Wollongong guys =D

Somehow discovered this artist's pictures a few days ago. I just really like the style, and she's brilliant at capturing expression. So, a little Harry Potter fanart for you, which I usually dislike and avoid, but for some reason won me over this time.

Uni has lowered both my discipline and my standards. How is that good for me?

Forgot About this Line

Lockhart ... irritated Harry so much that he yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face.

That a boy Harry.

Yesterday I posted my 200th post. That's always worth celebrating. So there we go.

Loathsome Lockhart

Loathsome is a little bit strong, but it was the only word beginning with L that I could think of. But it also sums it all up quite nicely. Lockhart is simply incredibly irritating, so I suppose I wasn't alone is always wishing Harry would just hit him square in the face. But that wouldn't exactly be in character, and would take some of the weight from Hermione's exclamation in the third book: 'we attacked a teacher!' Oh well. In any case, Lockhart provided Rowling with a nice source of humour because of how thick he is, and I'll leave you with a few.

'Yes,' he said dramatically. 'Freshly caught Cornish pixies.'

'She has been Petrified,' said Dumbledore ('Ah! I thought so!' said Lockhart). 'But how I cannot say...'

'I'll make it,' Lockhart butted in... -- 'Excuse me,' said Snape icily, 'but I believe I am the potions master at this school.' There was a very awkward pause.

I like walking, but I would enjoy it so much more, I feel, if I could just have a chunk of land that wasn't in a city. That was .... just a little like the lake district. Even a much, much smaller version.

I don't know, sometimes, I'd just like to be able to go walk amongst nature without all the buildings, and sit and enjoy it.

Oh ok so Siberia is north of the most northern point in Britain. Sorry for doubting you Martin Clunes, and not knowing my Geography.

My Philosophizing is Done. I'll Now be Delving into some Secrets.

Sorry for the plethora of quotes, but I wanted to share, and there were so many to share! I tried to cut them down but I couldn't. And, if this was book one I can't imagine how many I'll have for the others. There's not even really that many quotes I love from Philosopher's Stone. Anyway, I'll just aim to be ruthless and selective and pick the best ones in the future. For now, please try and enjoy this avalanche of Harry Potter.

'You haven't got letters on yours,' George observed. 'I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid - we know we're called Gred and Forge.'

I think I read their names normally the first time I read this line, because I remember having a '!' moment a few years ago and finding this line suddenly hilarious. Either way, it's classic Fred and George humour, and who doesn't like that?

Harry suddenly turned to Ron. 'Charlie,' he said. 'You're losing it, too,' said Ron. 'I'm Ron, remember?'

Another bit of humour. Lines like this add that little bit more character to the books which is so appealing.

So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut. 'Wonder what it's like to lead a peaceful life,' Ron sighed.

Sorry Ron, you won't know what that's like for another six years. I also just love how nonchalantly this line adds the hiding of a dragon to the worries of 11 year old kids. But then again, that's the whole Harry Potter story I guess.

'Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help,' snarled Ron.....'Have you gone mad?' Ron bellowed. 'ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?'.....'Yeah,' said Ron, 'and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis - "there's no wood," honestly.'

These lines have always been a favourite. Why did they change them in the movie? They are fine as they are in the book. In fact, they're fantastic.

'Alas! Earwax! ... To the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.'

Classic Dumbledore. Cliche, but I had to put them in somewhere.

Ron and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud.

I don't know why I like this line, but I always have. I guess it's the just the mental image of Harry teling a story to a rapt audience with exaggerated reactions that makes it for me. Either way, thought I'd share.

Also, can't find it now but there's a sneaky little reference to Snape mind reading in this book. 'Harry had the feeling Snape could read minds' or something of the like. Love that foreshadowing.

One little further observation. Has anyone else ever noticed that in book one Hogwarts only makes up half the book? 100-ish pages out of 200-ish. But I guess it takes quite a while to orient the reader to a world where magic is real....

No Coward Soul is Mine - Emily Bronte

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life--that in me has rest,
As I--undying Life--have power in thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The stedfast rock of immortality.

With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou were left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou--THOU art Being and Breath,
And what THOU art may never be destroyed

On Quidditch and Friendship

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

I love this quote - it marks the beginning of the trio. Up until this point it's just Harry and Ron, and if you're re-reading, it gets a bit lonely without Hermione around. I've known this quote virtually off by heart for years, not because I sat and memorised it, but because, as a fantastic little quote about friendship with an anomalous reference to trolls stuck on the end, it just sticks in your head somehow.

'Jordan, I'm warning you -' / 'All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure.....hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose - only joking, Professor...'

My mum has always said she's a little bored by all the Quidditch matchs in Harry Potter, but it's one of the defining things about the books! I always find it harder to pick up books two and four simply because there's no Quidditch in them (well, one match in two). And a great part of Quidditch is the commentary. The banter, for want of a better word, between Jordan and McGonagall is always amusing, and definitely part of the appeal for me.

As an aside, I wanted to just revisit the whole mis-reading affecting your imagination thing. The Quaffle is described as being about the size of a football in this book. Unfortunately at the age of six/seven I was completely oblivious about the fact that soccer was actually known as football in the UK, and so happily imagined an AFL or rugby type ball for years, still do, and was again puzzled when the movie came out. It would be easier to catch anyway, I imagine.

Change

Do not think of knocking out another person'as brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago, - Horace Mann

My blog now has posts dating back to the end of 2007, when I was in year ten. That's only two and a half years a go, but already those posts contain a few opinons on which I have a very different stance now. So I now see more than ever the sense of Mann's statement.

People are very interesting, are they not? It's just the way we can change so much but also remain the same person. It's really very cool.

Physics

Sorry for people who don't like physics. But I have to tell this funny story, which is potentially only funny for physics kids. Oh well.

Was watching QI today and Stephen Fry (the host) said something along these lines. 'This is one of those things I find hard to believe but that I know is true. If you hold a bullet in one hand and a gun in the other at the same height, and fire the gun and drop the bullet at the same time which lands on the ground first?' And all the contestants said the bullet from your hand. Of course.

Except the answer is that they hit the ground at the same time. They all struggled to believe this and appealed to scientists in the crowd to back Stephen Fry up.

Earlier in the show, they mentioned the fact that heavy things hit the ground at the same time as light things when dropped, and my mum found this very hard to believe. I thought everyone knew this, because it's been drummed into me for at least two and a half years now. Fun.

Hooray for Physics and the counter intuitive things it comes up with.

Hogwarts Impressions

'I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!'

I like this line. It's got a nice ring to it, and also it reminds me of my first impression of Hogwarts, before it's actually described in the book. I pretty much imagined a whole lot of tables outside on a veranda type thing with adults teaching the kids your basic magic tricks (top hats, frogs, rabbits etc). I'm so glad Harry didn't go there.

However, I apparently didn't pay much attention to the description of Hogwarts when it was given to me, particularly the Entrance Hall.

'A magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.' Unfortunately, my Hogwarts is built with a completely different layout to the one in the book, because I imagined the marble staircase to the right. It's made a mess of a lot of scenes in the book for me, and I was puzzled when the movies came out about why they put the staircase in front of the entrance, but there you go. That's one thing I love about reading: everyone imagines it differently. Some more correctly than others, perhaps, but that's a matter of opinion.

Currently: Philosopher's Stone

I've begun reading all seven Harry Potter books again for the holidays - I start to miss them after a while. So this is just a heads-up: harry potter quotes may start randomly popping up as posts, because I've come across one I love and want to share.

It's probably not a good idea to read them all before the movie comes out, I know. It's usually a better idea to have nothing to do with the books for a year so you've forgotten the details, but like I said, I miss them. And I'm determined that missing out details/changing significant parts of the plot/making up things/casting characters wrong won't bother me anyway. I'm past all that: as long as we finally get an epic battle at Hogwarts, I'll be content.

Been watching these guys quite a bit lately. They're very funny =)

I was wasting time today, avoiding maths study, by reading tumblrs. One had this, oh Harry Potter Wand Test link which I followed and did. I scored zero for the emotional scale. So thank you test, for simply confirming my long held suspicions that I actually do have no emotion whatsoever.

On the plus side, 0% was higher than 2% of the people that took the test. Go figure.

Things I have learnt from Physics this Week

1. If you walk off the roof of this building you will hit the ground.
I did have my doubts about this one. Lucky they were dispelled before I tested them out.

2. If you throw your books on the floor and take your clothes out of the wardrobe and put them on the floor, your room is disordered.
Oooh, that's another word for messy. I knew there must be one.

Thanks for those two lessons Rodney. I guess this proves physics does have real-world applications.

So this [Foyle's War] is pretty much the best tv show. Well, it's my favourite anyway. I watched the series final today and it was fantastic. Sam finally got her man, there was an epic plot and there's some hope for another series.

Point of the story? An hour and a half of these guys today made me happy. That's all.

There are three blogs on my blogger dashboard. One is this one. One is an old dead blog of mine and another is Year8: The Class of Tomorrow. Every time I log on I see this blog from ... five years ago. But today I visited it instead of doing my uni assignments.

I'll just say that the visit was quite enlightening. It seems we've actually grown up quite a bit, which is a good thing, and it made me smile, which is also a good thing.

Cara Dillon - Love her music/arrangements =)

Classical Cover by Aston - Telephone

My bedroom is about 2 metres, or less, from the kid-next-door's room. Some Saturdays her brother jumps up and down in the window calling: 'Hello?! Hello, is anyone there?!' One Saturday, when he could clearly see me, I said 'hello' back but he kept asking if anyone was there. I was a little confused.

Maybe I should wave as well next time...

A Leaf in Repose

Adventure of the Day

I couldn't spell privileged about half an hour ago, so I used chrome's wonderful built in spell checker and got it corrected. Then I looked up at the post I was replying to, which also used privileged. And I thought 'Oh, he must've had to use spell check too, because it's spelt the same way as mine now is.'

I can't even begin to try and explain this awful attempt at logic.

'The heaven's declare the glory of God', but they weren't created in the image of God: you were.

-You really have to hear this is John Lennox's Irish tones. It makes it better somehow :D

Captain Carrot: “In a few months they say we’ll be able to send messages all the way from Ankh-Morpork to Genua in less than a day!”

Sam Vimes: “Yes indeed. I wonder if by then we’ll have anything sensible to say to each other.” – Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant

It's little comments like this that make me really appreciate Pratchett's books.

I just want to tell you all that the book of Isaiah is amazing.

Yes, the whole Bible is amazing, but I've never read Isaiah before, so I'm just focussing on it. And why not? Chapters 25-26 are full of things like salvation by faith, God's grace, resurrection of the dead, the proud made humble, the fact that what we accomplish is done for us by God, God planning things aaaages ago. No wonder its quoted in the NT so much. Also, comparing 25:8 with 1 Corinthian 15:54 and Rev 21:4 - they're the same. I didn't know Rev 21:4 was actually quoting Isaiah!

And that is what I've been thinking about.

A Snippet

"Don't let the world shape you so that the Bible looks boring. God Almighty has spoken. It can't be boring. It can't be boring - we're the problem. He's a Vesuvius of joy and energy and power and wisdom and strength and love and grace and justice and truth. He can't be boring. The world is boring! Avatar is boring!"

I laughed quite hard at the last part of this, but also, excellent point John Piper.

This is delightfully excellent. A portable bookshelf AND exercise wheel.

That awkward moment when both persons are trying to decide if the other recognises them, before one dives in with a tentative wave.

Just happened.

Love it.

It's funny how I had no posts between July and the 4th November last year . . .

Just thought I'd share that passing thought with you.

Which is another funny thing. I think something along those lines and then think, hmm I want to tell someone that. But of course, no one really cares, so the best place to put it is my blog where if a post looks boring, people don't have to read it.

Quite like this one, in fact.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

- Robert Graves

Angular Momentum

It's funny too, because I'm meant to *really* get this comic as I studied angular momentum last week. Unfortunately I didn't take anything in, but the cartoon is still more than moderately amusing.

Wow, wow, wow. John Stott the other night showed me a completely new and edifying way to look at the passages about Jesus, Pilate and Barabas. Basically, we are Barabas - the murderous theif who fully deserved death, and yet Jesus died in his place. "Imagine the look on Barabas' face when his cell was opened and told he could go free." Imagine him finding out that Pilate had said he found Jesus guilty of no crime. Imagine his astonishment.

That should be ours, multiplied by a factor of a thousand because our minds are just too small to comprehend the greatness of God and his grace.

My Dip into Politics

So I've started reading up on the cause for East Timor's independence. I (ignorantly) thought that Australia had simply always supported East Timorese independence. But on the first page of my reading I found that, far from that, our government had actually supported (morally and materially) the Indonesian government for twenty years in its brutal occupation of East Timor. I was a little shocked, and quite dismayed that the government considered good relations with Indonesia more important than human rights violations in East Timor.

I do not look 'down'. This is contemplative perplexity.

-Frasier Crane, Frasier - Series 10

I loved this phrase as soon as I heard it. :)

Sunday

I just watched a movie called The Brothers Bloom. I enjoyed it. The style was unusual but I really liked it and it kept me guessing, was mildly comic and interesting. But then I flipped the case over and it said the genre was comedy, only I didn't really find it hilarious. As I said, only mildly comic. But I thought, maybe I didn't really get it? I only really was able to come to this conclusion though because I had to think very hard about the ending to come close to getting the whole movie. It was a con movie, and there was a few overlapping cons, but I think I got it. And I've come to the conclusion that the case was wrong and it's not comedy as such. It's amusing but, its sort of more like Hustle. Anyway, I enjoyed it, so check it out.

Sonnets from The River Duddon: After-Thought

I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,

As being past away.—Vain sympathies!

For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,

I see what was, and is, and will abide;

Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;

The Form remains, the Function never dies;

While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,

We Men, who in our morn of youth defied

The elements, must vanish;—be it so!

Enough, if something from our hands have power

To live, and act, and serve the future hour;

And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,

Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,

We feel that we are greater than we know.

By William Wordsworth

Define:

Freer is a very strange looking word. It looks as though it should be pronounced FREAR, like fear with an extra 'r' stuck in.it's just such an odd word, and the spelling does not match the sound at all.

But then, how else would you have it spelt?

Easter

So I had an excellent easter. I hope you did as well. I spent it getting my head full of God's word, so I hope some of that decides to stick around and make itself useful. And as I couldn't do this on Easter Sunday, I'm going to say it now, because it is no less true: Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! One of the speakers over the weekend taught us to say that in Russian, but...mimicking sounds is quite different to transcribing them in a foreign alphabet. I would like to say more about my excellent Easter weekend and everything I learnt, but there's way too much to say in a blog post which I'm using to put off writing a history essay.

The reason I'm actually writing is because I saw a quote on my wall and I thought "I should blog that," but I couldn't just blog another (science) quote after easter, so you got my well-wishes as well. And here is the lovely little quote by the brilliant Mr Niels Bohr (by-the-by I heard a reference to Bohr on tv(?) the other day, but it was along the lines of I'm not just a Niels Bohr, and I though '!!'. just a Niels Bohr? the man was pretty intelligent.)

"One must never be satisfied with doing what one can; rather, one must always do what one really cannot" - Niels Bohr

One of the Things I Love

Picking up a novel after spending a few weeks on non-fiction. It's the best. Northanger Abbey was my latest novel read, and it took me about 5 days even though I was busy because I couldn't put it down! After reading non fiction you 'forget' how engrossing novels are - non-fiction just doesn't read like that, interesting though it may be.

Long story short: if it's been a while, pick up a novel and give yourself a slab of time to read because it's better than tv.

Also, read Northanger Abbey - it's really amusing and a lovely story. Despite Henry Tilney being paid out in the paper a while ago I liked his character, and for once an Austen heroine had a living, likeable, pretty strong mother. Only S&S lives up to that. It's also quite an easy read compared to the others, from memory, but maybe I'm just used to the language now....

Anyway, that's the overflow of my mind at the moment. Novels and Austen. Hope you enjoyed.

Looking out at Adelaide

Two Weeks Later

When does the word 'concise' stop being correctly applied simply through relativity and start being just the wrong word to use? Today I found 'The McGraw Hill Concise Encyclopaedia of Science' - or something along those lines. However, the encyclopaedia had:

a)two volumes on the shelf

b)about 4000 pages in each volume

c)very large surface areas

I wouldn't have called that concise. But apparently it had been adapted from the McGraw Hill Encyclopaedia of Science. I.e not concise. So in other words, concise is a relative term meaning, 2 volumes long instead of 10. But surely there's a point where concise just doesn't really apply. If you cut it from 20 volumes to 10 it's shorter, but if the entries are still quite long its not concise. Right?

My point? Food for word-thoughts. Love it

Ever Thought...

About how online chatting is so different to real life chatting? I usually don't try to have three real life conversations at once and write a blog post. I don't usually abandon a real life conversation fro 2-3 minutes to finish a chore I forgot about without telling you. There are a few more differences but I'm talking to three people so I have to make this quick - think about it.

I found this on my phone, and I don't know when or where I took it, but i like it anyway. :)

Found in the Hatch Daily New Summary

Flatulence from cows and sheep is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 from cars. Ruminants expend 50 percent more GHG than the world's transportation sector.

The good news: kangaroo stomach gas has no methane component.

Resolution: Replace cows and sheep with kangaroos

This made me laugh. So I thought I'd share it.

A Caution to Everybody

Consider the auk;

Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.

Consider man, who may well become extinct

Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

- Ogden Nash

'The main battles in life are to believe in the person and work of Christ on the cross. I mean really believe it - trust it, embrace it, cherish it, treasure it, bank on it, breathe it, shape your life by it.'

John Piper

The best portion of a man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love -William Wordsworth

I've not the faintest idea where I first found this quote, but it inspired a story that got me through almost every HSC Adv. English exam, so thank you William Wordsworth.

The Promised Periodic Table (Before I Forget)

Yeah, this doesn't show much, so click here to see the original posting.

What we Actually Need to Know

'The Bible-versus-science debate has, most regrettably, sidetracked readers of Genesis 1. Instead of reading the chapter as a triumphant affirmation of the power and wisdom of God and the wonder of his creation, we have been too often bogged down in attempting to squeeze Scripture into the mold of the latest scientific hypothesis or distorting scientific facts to fit a particular interpretation. When allowed to speak for itself, Genesis 1 looks beyond such minutiae. Its proclamation of the God of grace and power who undergirds the world and gives it purpose justifies the scientific approach to nature. Genesis 1, by further affirming the unique status of man, his place in the divine program, and God’s care for him, gives a hope to mankind that atheistic philosophies can never legitimately supply.'

- Gordon Wenham

This is Now my Wallpaper

Image courtesy of The Creative Brainwaves of Anneka Tran. She also did an excellent makeover of the periodic table which I'll have to post sometime soon...

Sesquicentenary

Hooray, I reached 150 posts. However, I'm less fond of my recent ones than my old ones. I think I need to throw in a bit of actual thinking with all these little posts I've been doing.

So I won't promise anything, but I'll say that if I think about/remember to/get around to it I will try and write up something interesting to share. How does that sound?

Oh, a little picture to celebrate my 150 posts. =D

Cherish

A word that is now too often under-used, at least around me.

I found some rocks a while ago that I thought were cool, so I'm sharing them with you.

Back

Yes I haven't posted in a while, so here is a post for January before it's too late.

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.

-Hector Berlioz

I love this quote, because of how true it is.