The Dangers To Be Had When Naming Children

I mean, not that I personally have ever had this problem, except when I try to convince friends to name their daughter Vanessa Gretchen or Gretchen Vanessa. But during my intense Masters and Doctoral research of Harry Potter I have noticed some important naming patterns that I think must be taken into account.

For example, Remus John Lupin. He wasn't born a werewolf, as he was bitten by Fenrir Greyback in his childhood. But his parents were nuts for naming him Remus, it's like they were carving his fate in stone.

Also, Fenrir? Who names their son Fenrir? Psycho parents, obviously.

It's not hard to believe that Narcissa Black Malfoy's parents would name her such. They were huge snobs.

Her sister, Bellatrix? Their parents had some serious bellicose fantasies they wanted to live out through their daughter.

Their cousin, Sirius Black, is named after the dog star. His form as an animagus is like so unsurprising.

Dolores Umbridge has the most perfect name. She totes deserved it.

Mundugus Fletcher? Nasty name.

There's a nice ironic name, too: Bartemius. We don't know about Sr.'s dad. But I'm guessing he was an obnoxious, letter-of-the-law type of man that totally missed the point of life.

etc. etc. etc. I could continue the list due to my exhaustive research into the matter, but meh, I'm done.


Anyway, just be careful when you're naming your kids is all I'm saying.

Pottermore

Because I'm in huge need of banality right now, something that will take my mind off of life, I've decided to post some not-letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag screen caps of Pottermore. I got in as a beta tester, which was very exciting. So I've been in Pottermore for about 10 days.
This is what it is:

Then a wand chose me. I was absolutely most excited about this part. I'm going to try and find one similar when I go to HPLand in June:

 Then I got sorted into a House. I was least surprised about this, since I'm an intellectual snob.

There are other cool thing about Pottermore, like wandwork practice for spells and charms, or the part where you get to brew potions, things like that. The background information that we never knew about regarding different characters is really fun to read. You find that as you journey through the chapters in the story. Book 2 is set to be released in a few months and Pottermore is up for everyone to enter in around the end of Oct, I think. I'm FelicisLumos85, so you should add me if you're nerdy awesome enough to be on the site.

Rapture Day Activities

It's almost here! So I think I'm going to list off various things that we could do. Feel free to join in.

We could listen to DMB songs that fit the theme. Or the obligatory...

Photoshop.

Look at Photoshopped pictures that will haunt you for the next few hours, five months or billions of years.

Listen to uplifting musicals.

Magic.

We could hope that we're part of the group that isn't raptured, because then we won't miss out on HP 7.2 this July! But since I'm Mormon, I'm pretty sure that I'll get to see the movie.

There are some silly t-shirts that we could buy.

I was talking with Wendy today, and we decided that since other days/holidays like Rapture Day, get commercialized, we should start the trend. So I think we should get our loved ones Rapture Day gifts.

Wendy and I also realized that Christmas has reindeer and manger animals and Easter has bunnies and baby chicks, Rapture Day needs animals: Fire-breathing Dragons and post-Rapture Day gets stinky skunks à la brimstone.

So many things to be done...like getting a massage, which is what I'll be doing.
What else could we do? Ideas?

Jimmer's in Gryffindor

See:

 


photoshop makes me so happy, as does The Jimmer.

I'm just saying

So worth it...

Yet another HP post

Hi. This is yet another Harry Potter post. A new trailer was released and I noticed something a bit bizarre in it. There had been some previously released trailers, like the one at the MTV movie awards, or the one that was added to the 6th movie's bluray. But the one that's been released within the last 36 or so hours is missing something that had been previously shown. (small, medium or large)
In the first couple of trailers, you'll notice Hermione's hands are bloody because she's been fixing Ron, who was splinched (or whatever it's called) at the shoulder:

But, in the new trailer you'll notice that her hands are now free of blood. I think it's just weird. What's wrong with the blood? I mean, Ron was bleeding and she was healing him. Whatever:

The obvious reaction should be, "Wow, Vanessa, you have watched these way too many times."

The Nexus of Knowledge for the Day

AKA, This led to that which led to yonder thing which brings us to this thingie here
subsubtitled things that might only interest me

I think I might do this more as a chronological rundown of the Nexus of Knowledge that Scottie and I learned in the last 10 minutes:

1-I'm reading book 5 of Harry Potter in Italian (shout-out: Wendy!) right now. There's a spot in chapter two where "April Fool's!" is written. In Italian it's written as Pesce d'aprile! I'd looked it up in my French (poisson d'avril!) and Portuguese (primeiro de abril!) books as this phrase is a linguistic essential.

2-So we searched on Word Reference in Spanish: Día de los Inocentes!, which is what is written in my HP5 ebook in Spanish.

3-I tell Scottie that Día de los Inocentes is actually on December 28th and that I think that it probably comes from the slaughter of the innocents by a wussy Herod who wanted to keep his throne. So we Wikipedia-ed it. Low and behold.

4-Scottie and I become curious about the roots of April Fool's Day. Hello Wikipedia again. Chaucer: HEEEE-EEEYYY.

5-A part of the Wikipedia article mentions the Feast of Fools which was held on December 28th (shout-out to #3!).

6-Suddenly 2 songs from the somewhat skanky French musical Notre Dame de Paris pop (phonetic pun intended) into my head: Le Pape des Fous & La Fête des Fous. These songs link to this part of the Feast of Fools Wikipedia article.

7-I start singing the lyrics to both songs which makes Scottie look at me like I'm slightly crazy. All the while I'm learning about the intrinsic relation that the Feast of Fools has around the Cathedral Notre Dame. I explain this Nexus of Knowledge to Scottie.

8-Scottie says that the Nexus of Knowledge always does come back to French Musicals.


addenda to today's Nexus of Knowledge:
9-It seems to me that Día de los Inocentes was yet another religious holiday that the Catholic church imposed over a pagan holiday to try to draw attention away from the ultra-fun reveling.

10-The mythological history behind Saturnalia "tomfoolery" and "buffoonery," the Titans & the Roman gods makes so much more sense to me as I just finished the Percy Jackson series.




ça, c'est fini, quoi!

according to the people who've voted...

So, it seems like presently there's a unanimous vote on the poll that I should be going to London for my next international excursion. It also seems that only 2 people have seen Harry Potter 6. I have a feeling, though, that this is all due to the fact that I didn't broadcast that I'd put new polls up.

So, here's some picturesque info:

Paris.

Buenos Aires.

London.

Mexico City.

St. Petersburg.

Or do you think Rome?

Also, I'm glad that those who voted were unanimous in that Natalie should blog more so that we can see pictures of the cute kids.

Recap and intro of polling

So what's your favorite team sport? I know that I left some off, but seriously, there are like a billion. But if you have major complaints, you can always comment.

And what about your favorite of the bigger rides at Disneyland?


I was very pleased that HP2 didn't get any votes. This makes me think that I'm not alone in my wishy-washiness of this book. But I was surprised that other than that, everything was a wash:I also wasn't surprised the Umbridge totally beat Voldemort at most annoying. My guess is that she bugs b/c we still see her as a human that has a choice to be cruel and the ultimate hoser. Voldemort's just a lost cause.


Purple beat out white in the end for ugliest car. I almost didn't add purple, b/c I have a distinct fondness for one purple car in particular, Melissa Schlegel's old car that we called the Purple Demon Grandma Car. It was awesome.
Food polls:
No surprise on the hamburger vote--it was mine, too. However, lately I'm thinking I don't care as long as it has dry rub on it.
My egg vote just barely eeked out the win. yum yum over easy
Vowels, my weirdest poll:

And I guess I should be polling more often:




I have to admit, I really like polls.

Laurel murmured at breakfast this morning

Laurel complained that I hadn't had a poll in a while, so there are a few up now.
My mom's curious about the eggs.

What else do people regularly BBQ that I didn't put on the poll?



When I was a kid, like in kindergarten, I started to have this idea that the vowels a, o and u were girl vowels and e and i were boy vowels. I have no idea where it came from, but it's still like this innate idea that I have, even though the vowels o and u in Portuguese turn a word masculine.

Yet another trailer

My supervisor found this today:



New trailer LARGE.
New trailer medium.

You can go to Mugglenet to find different formats other than the Quicktime HD that I've linked.

Yellow Birds

They show the yellow birds in this latest clip. Also, for pretty much the first time, they're hinting at the fight between Draco and Harry. Sectum Sempra?



Large format
Medium format

Yet another HP6 post

My supervisor Karen let me in on this particular clip today. There's some new footage. I imagine by the time the movie comes out I will have posted the whole movie in bits and pieces. It looks like this movie is a bit truer to the book. Yay!


This is Harry Potter tag #25 on my blog. Man, oh man. Marie, you thought your U2 obsession was crazy on your blog.

New HP6 footage

I know, I'm crazy and somewhat obsessed. But there's some new footage mixed with the old in this trailer (Lavender macking Ron awkwardly shown below):

Excuse the Japanese,

but here is a Japanese sub-titled trailer of HP6. There's a bit of Japanese voice over, too. Sorry about that.
Here it is:

3 new polls

I went a bit crazy this time with polls.

A bit more HP madness

What do I do when I'm sick? This:

I know that some of the last one has already been posted. But it's good to review.

Well, she tagged me

Since I can't come up with anything über substantial to blog about, I'll finally post (sorta) what Anna-Lisa tagged me to do:

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Speak Portuguese
2. Play softball
3. Drive a stick
4. Find random things on the internet
5. Make spectrograms of sounds
6. Eat fish (a big step)
7. Make a mean feijoada

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Tread water worth beans
2. Control my pocketbook in bookstores
3. Run fast (Swenson slows)
4. Eat a chocolate and peanut butter together and not gag (Chris, remember my crazy reaction?)
5. Handle watching Seinfeld
6. Control my laughter
7. Do pull-ups

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Beans and Rice
2. Swenson family pizza
3. Pie
4. Christmas breakfast at the Swenson home
5. Broccoli (it's how I decide what to get at restaurants)
6. Flavored drinks
7. Salgadinhos

7 (of the) Books I'm currently reading (yes, this is a problem I have)
1. Les Mis
2. Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé
3. The Bourne Identity
4. 1776
5. Lectures on Faith
6. Reagan Diaries
7. Meet your Match

7 Most listened to songs on iTunes
1. Hypnotic, Craig David
2. Time, Sarah McLachlan
3. Samedi soir sur la terre, Francis Cabrel
4. Use Your Words, Owen
5. Femme Fatale, Owen
6. The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi, Owen
7. If You Ain't Got Love, Mason Jennings

7 of my favorite words:
1. Irokesenschnitt (mohawk in German)
2. paralelepípedo (cobblestones in Portuguese)
3. ustedes hermanas (I totally misunderstood the Spanish at the Santiago temple and shouted out a wrong answer. Scared the poor sister)
4. d'ac (French for "agreed)
5. Яд ([Yad] it's "Venom" in Russian and is what Megan, former Sister Neeley, calls me)
6. sipo (Chilean for yes, uh huh, right)
7. rã (frog in Portuguese, pronounce like huh? but nasally)

7 of my favorite quotes from the West Wing:
1. I'm Marion Coatsworth Hay. (CJ)
2. I thought my reflexes before, in the press room, were catlike. (CJ)
3. I don't understand. Did you trip over something? (Toby)
4. You want to tempt the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing? (Toby)
5. Abbey: Hon, this is like, nerd hot talk.
Bartlet: Who's your Commander in Chief?
Abbey: You are.
6. Margaret: Can I - can I just say something for the future?
Leo: Yeah.
Margaret: I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good.
Leo: You can sign the President's name?
Margaret: Yeah.
Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?
Margaret: Yeah. Or... do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?
Leo: I think the White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat!
Margaret: Well. I'd probably end up doing some time for that.
7. CJ: "What are you, 4'10"?"
Annabeth: "4'11"."
CJ: "I can't believe we're the same species."


There. I sorta doctored what Anna-Lisa did, but it's close enough, at least in the spirit of it all.

Vote in the new poll! ------------------->

Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny