Harry Potter and the Giant Chicken Suit

So, I have decided to re-read the Harry Potter books before the movie comes out in November. It has been years since I have read the first few. I am currently on the second one, The Chamber of Secrets, and I am loving every minute of it. I recognize now that the writing is much more aimed at the juvenile readers, but I do not care. The writing is still excellent, the thought that people compare her to Stephanie Myer apalls me, and Rowling astounds me with the ability to write well and aim it at children while still making it completely enjoyable for adults. Also, I have realized I am still quite in love with the story and the characters. And I love being a nerd and being able to say this. :) And I am way excited for the movie. And for the second part of the movie. As I have admitted this much of my nerdom I will also admit that I occasionally watch Judge Judy and that it cracks me up (I am not sure that is a nerd qualification but it works for me). This dude is getting sued by a lady because he sold her a dirty giant chicken suit. That just about sums up life. Judy is a bitch and it can be funny and I admire that she stands her ground no matter what, but mainly it is just these people. You cannot go on Judge Judy and be sane. Everyone's favorite seems to be the crazy-tupperware lady. She is great, but blatantly so. I almost like the not-so-obvious ones. They are the secretly insane ones that can be totally related to people that the audience personally knows. If I ever have to go to court because I am being sued, I really hope it involves something like a giant chicken suit, because that would just make it perfectly fine to be in court. Because then even if I lost I could be like "Yeah, I deserved that. I was involved with someone who wanted to be a giant chicken. No way I can bitch about this. I should be paying them money." I hope for everyone's sake, it never comes to this. But if it does, I will make sure that I am on national tv so that everyone knows and can watch it on Youtube for years to come.

Summer Valentines (Which suck more than February Valentines)

Summer seems to inspire a lot of new romances and "love." It may be a teenager thing, but I do not think so. Couples of all ages seem to appear. Summer romances come around simply because people want to go out in the nice weather and get out in general and they do not want to do this alone. Along with this seasonal comaderie comes the bombardment of people asking for advice. The thing I seem to notice most is that people confuse infatuation with love (I throw lust in with infatuation, though they are not the same thing). Meeting a new person that you have an attraction to is exciting and, if the attraction is strong enough, it can be overwhelming. People are confused by this. They think "I get along with this person so well and we are so alike and we have great chemistry and I feel so comfortable around them and they are so perfect and..." All this is peachy and of importance when first meeting or first getting to know one another, but it is a lie. Once someone REALLY gets to know them then, if they still see this but add to their list of ands "I see their imperfections and I love them because of them" then there is something true in this. The problem is that people do not take time to discover whether or not it is really love, because they assume this first infatuation is love. And everyone is always in such a hurry to find their true love and live happily ever after that they don't just let things happen. These things just simply cannot be rushed. There are those cases where people meet and get married in one weekend and have a happy fifty-year marriage, but these are pretty rare. Instead, it usually ends up like a Hollywood marriage. I guess I do not understand this incessant need to find the perfect person and be with them NOW. People are afraid of being alone I guess. But if they would just slow down and not look at every person as a potential mate, they may actually find that person. If people would just let things happen and run the natural course, something great could be produced. I'm not saying do not try to make relationships work or do not look, just do not try so hard that you cannot see anything but yourself. And all these young people, especially you people right around my age, stop thinking everyone you meet is your "one true love." And yes, I realize that young love can "be true." I know plenty of couples that met when one or both were very young and have been together for twenty or more years. And honestly age does not mean a whole lot in my mind (to a certain degree: people need to be legal and there is a point where it gets a little gross), but at the same time I think the younger set is a bit zealous and excited so can more frequently misinterpret new feelings. The older set can be overcautious and dismiss feelings. But it is easy to find people acting the complete opposite than these two broad and insubstantial-yet-slightly-true sets dictate. A little less annoying than the people who fall in love instantly are the people who never fall in love. I am a bit more sympathetic with these people. They are not as obviously heartbroken and not as blatantly or dramatically upset as the people who lose their loves quite frequently, they are lonely and scared, which can be far worse as it those are deep and long feelings. They are afraid of being hurt. Or they have high expectations that people just cannot live up too. Or they feel that they do not deserve the person they find. These people let intimidation and fear blind them from something potentially great. I guess it all comes down to people need to slow down, relax, and see beyond their expectations and dreams, and just let things happen as they will.

Sluts and Popcorn

Firstly, I would like to say that people who do not have one single picture of themselves standing in front of a mirror trying to look sexy and casual at the same time, are my heroes. These kinds of pictures are ridiculous. The person's face is almost always blocked by the phone/camera, meaning the unfortunate observer is to concentrate on the person's body. Said body is usually never as good as the person thinks or, even if it is, the fact that they have to rape one's eyes with it makes it unappealing. Luckily, it seems that as time goes by people get older and realize that these pictures are ridiculous and they cease taking them. Maybe they finally realize they look like sluts/manwhores, or maybe they just realize that their profile picture looks exactly like everyone elses, with the covered faces and all. Secondly, I have realized something about popcorn. Everyone likes it made in a different way, but there isn't all that many different ways to make it. There is burnt and not. I can control that. And there is more oil and seasoning and less oil and seasoning. I can also control that. But after that I am powerless. The popcorn has complete command. And people hate that. But they love popcorn. Such a paradox. Well that's my thought process for the last five to ten minutes. It is boring-as-hell, but so are you for reading it. Plus, if you weren't boring I wouldn't be blogging right now, so it's your fault.

Lolita

Now that I have had a blog for two months, I think (and by I I mean Ashley has finally motivated me to do something with an empty blog) it has reached the moment where I should actually post something. This something is relatively dull and means nothing to anyone but me, and I shall thoroughly enjoy writing it :). What I want to write about right now is the last book I finished, Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov. This is not the most pressing thing on my mind, but I would much rather talk about a ldemented pedophile than personal stresses. This book is not at all what I was expecting. I first heard about this book in my AP Composition Class in my junior year of high school. We studied the first lines of the book, which I now recognize as infamous. "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta..." We were studying it for the literary devices it contains. But it is amazing for other reasons entirely. It contains the whole novel in it. It shows Humbert's passion and lack of remorse yet acknowledgement of guilt. I really like literary beginnings that are memorable. They are as important as the ending, yet they are frequently overlooked. But moving off of the beginning, I was expecting to be thoroughly shocked by this novel and its taboo subject. What turned out to be most shocking was the lack of detail and how that was more obscene than any detail could have been. How Humbert's "love" was portrayed as legitimate was most shocking of all. I loved that the author made the narrator of the story someone the reader despises and wishes they could castrate. Very interesting. On a side note I watched Grown Ups today. It was ok. Not as bad as I was led to believe it would be. The jokes got tiresome. And the kids could not act and were very annoying.