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harry potter

A Smart Title Eludes Me Today

I might not have been posting, but somehow, the temptation to fiddle around with the site has persisted. I don’t think I’ll ever be as happy with the design of this thing as with other, less personal ones I’ve done.

I’ve removed the short-lived dropdown menus, anyway. I don’t know how to make them validate as XHTML strict, and while I’m using ‘transitional’ right now, I want to feel able to switch if it suddenly seems like a good idea.

I need a new photo, too. The current one is kind of crap, but it’s the most recent I have (last January). I think I’ll wait until I get a haircut, which ought to be soon, because I have a feeling the Ozzy Osbourne style isn’t all that flattering…
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Hogwarts Revisited

It was great news to hear that Ali Ismail Abbas has been flown to Kuwait and is receiving proper medical care. On a more cynical note, how good it was of Mr. Blair to condescend to ‘comment’ on the situation. But I’m not going to have another war rant…

Monday, I went to buy the video of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. A bit of extra money came our way, and since this counts as extravagance in our current impoverished state, what the hell! We watched it Monday night.

I thought the first HP movie was just okay. This one was a huge improvement, although as each of the books is longer than the last, there was much more condensing. Arguably, the plots also get better, so perhaps a stronger plot suffers less from omission. It was fast-moving and slick. The younger cast were much more polished. Robbie Coltrane was his usual awesome self. The FX were much better, in particular Dobby the house elf… I thought they might mess him up, but he was a wonderful CGI creation, furnished with a wide range of extremely realistic and endearing mannerisms.

Harry Potter 2002
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Pleasant Atmosphere

Today is a nice day. I’m not a big weather fan, but today it’s sunny without being dazzling and fairly warm without being unpleasantly hot. (If blinding sun and blistering heat is your thing, you may not agree with me.)

I had a brief errand to do this morning, and instead of my usual approach—to rush to my destination as fast as possible and hurry back—I took a longer route through our nearby park, pulled off my jacket and wandered around dreamily for a while. It was really nice. I didn’t even fret about skin cancer! (I’m very pale and get little sunlight…) There were a few people about, but the place seemed so peaceful and relaxing. I’ve forgotten what relaxing is in recent times, i.e. probably the last 20 years! Must do this again sometime; since our dog got ill (and later died), going through places like parks just hasn’t crossed my mind.
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Christmas Entertainment

No updates over Christmas period. I couldn’t be arsed. Actually, I have (yet again) been wondering what purpose this Web site serves at all, and I’m lost for answers. It is something to do when all else fails, yes. I enjoy fiddling with it sometimes. But it doesn’t really say much or do much. It’s just there. Hmmm.

Christmas was quite boring. The television was generally rubbish, so no surprises there. The Only Fools and Horses special was pretty good—somewhat better than last year’s weak effort, anyhow. I OD’d on the soaps a bit, and they were, uh, full of shocks… Jamie died in EastEnders (wow, big surprise), Ray was the stalker in Emmerdale (wow, even bigger surprise), and Richard didn’t kill anyone in Corry (actually, that was a surprise).

The Hound of the Baskervilles film (mentioned here) was fairly good. It wasn’t quite as faithful to the original as had been implied, but I did like it. Although, Richard E. Grant being in it (as Stapleton) made me realise what an absolutely perfect Sherlock Holmes he’d make. Richard Roxburgh’s Holmes was okay, but Grant could have been genuinely great. A missed opportunity.
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Computer Fakery

Since I was droning about Harry Potter earlier… today (er, yesterday), I read the appalling story/rumour that they might use cast-off footage of Richard Harris from the first two movies, combined with his stand-in and computer trickery, to generate an artificial ‘performance’ for the third movie!

I really, really hope this is only a rumour…
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Retail Therapy

Today, being out shopping (for food, not pleasure, alas), I passed a book store and I of course succumbed. Some people buy shoes; some people can’t pass a novelty shop without buying some little cuddly toy; but me, I guess it’s books. It used to be comics more than books, but books are better value for money these days, and comics don’t have many Jack Kirbys out there anymore. (*sigh* I might get nostalgic.)

It was a close one. This store had several copies of Stephen King’s Cycle of the Werewolf, with wonderful illustrations by Bernie Wrightson. I wanted this so much when I heard about it maybe 17 years ago, but amazingly, I have never seen it for sale anywhere. I didn’t even know it was still in print. Anyway, that’s earmarked for purchase v.v. soon. I passed it today.
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Hogwarts Movie

Yeah, I did see the Harry Potter (and the Philosopher’s Stone) movie a couple of weeks ago. I really liked the books, in spite of my inclination to expect they would suck. Well, the movie was just okay… most of the cast was great, with Robbie Coltrane shining in particular, but… somehow, the pacing and direction seemed kinda flat. To me, anyway. I imagine it’d be quite confusing to people who’ve not read the books, due to the condensing of a lot of stuff. It was okay; just not great.

Harry Potter 2001

I still need to see Lord of the Rings.
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After the Hiatus

What can I say? I’ve been stranded without a computer for a whole month, which is the longest I’ve gone offline/disconnected… for a few centuries. My computer died, poor old thing. And not gracefully. It belched and seethed and just kinda gave up the ghost. Poof! Bye-bye! Etc.

Actually, it was probably the CPU, which had apparently been running without a fan for a few months—so that was what those funny noises were! And odd how they stopped a while back. Erm, yes. Well, I can’t have looks and brains. Ahem. So, seeing as the thing was generally in a crummy old state anyway, I quickly lost interest in getting it patched up… and £250 I can by no means afford later, I now have a decidedly average but adequate refurbished thingy. It’ll do for a while, anyhoo.
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