Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

The Magician’s Nephew

Not a fan of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe. It was ok, nothing as great as the first thou. Harry Potter is the book that I call home, but the first book that I became obsessed with, that I feel completely in love with, where the pages became warm, was the Magicians Nephew--and the beauty, intricacy and originality I felt for lost.

The Magician's Nephew was first great because it was real, it wasn't a story where they went on a grand adventure. These were two regular kids with regular lives that had death, greed and were just doing normal fun activities and were then forced on a "grand adventure".

This also was my first adult book, while wrote for children the adults and characters who were the antagonists weren't just evil or villainous, they were just normal. Filled with selfishness and greed, they weren't one dimensional, they showed the real consequences of human actions and loss of moral. This was a great novel, a great children's novel and a great story about humans, kids and human nature

Pomona Sprout

Professor Sprout was the embodiment of Hufflepuff, mostly pertaining to her love of Herbology, sweetness, and lack of need to be worshipped. Plenty of potions need the careful, dedicated and complicated treatment of plants that is based in Herbology; something that Professor Sprout hints at but does not boast about. Her brilliance was shown not only in her famous care of Mandrake’s to help petrified students be restored, but the year before when she used Devil’s Snare to help protect the Sorcerer’s Stone so that the one who tried to get it would not need only intelligence but the ability to remain calm in a panic.

Similar to her brilliance, Professor Sprout also showed her generosity as the many lessons she taught the students in harvesting she gave to Madam Pomphrey to help students with all types of ailments from being petrified, to common acne or used for other aspects of her class (unlike other Professors). She also showed her loyalty and bravery not only to what was right in protecting her and other students in the year that Death Eaters had control of the school, but also to Albus Dumbledore in her agreeing that the school should be kept open after his passing. Most importantly, she didn’t care whose house you were in—she loved you all the same

New Instant Classics

Diversity has *sprung* into mainstream films--no, not saying there still aren’t issues there because there definitely are, but there are different people making films, starting in films, writing in films, directing films--everything that makes more diverse stories be told. Considering the large number of crap sequels and prequels that have flooded cinemas, there stories being told by film, books, thru art...even Youtube, are welcome. Two films that recently I would define as instant classics, I put here because they are films that tell a classic story and would have been long time classics had they been allowed to tell generations ago, both stories also I didn’t realize until I began to type, star male leads who are portraying their real life, personal stories: Kumail Nanjiani and Menashe Lustig.

The Big Sick is great for a lot of reasons, a modern twist on Romeo and Juliet it deals with cultural differences and inner conflict in both a light-hearted and serious way. It’s hard to go not on a twenty page rant about this film, as everyone can agree with both Kumail and Emily about their romantic relationship, but I believe what spoke to many who saw it—and what makes it an instant classic—is that we see the strength of a relationship at it’s worse, and how some people are just intertwined in who you are. I will not speak on behalf of the character of Emily or the real-life woman, but I do believe even with her annoyance that had the situation been reversed, she still would have been there for him.

Long story short, Menashe tells the story of due to cultural conditions must get remarried after his wife’s passing in order to get his son back. While I struggle to understand the BS argument that’s never made, we also watch Menashe and Menashe’s son struggle with being and not being together, both being adored (Mesashe by his son) and outsiders due to circumstance that may not be worth changing. Along with an insight to a very close-knit community, most importantly the film brings back to all the father and son bond when good, when complicated, when desperate and the inner struggle of what is most important** 

Libraries

I love libraries, I always have. The insurmountable access to books and all the information they contain and may provide, always makes my heart completely burst (especially the reference sections that discuss religion, culture, and historical past times). 

Here is Trinity college, a famous library. Most people don't appreciate their local library as much as they fawn over this one thou. My local library, the library I grew up with, that’s the one that just makes me happy and comfortable, just thinking about it as I am now. 

Whether it’s those little boxes on a yard where people can exchange books for free, a large historic university library inside an old castle or cathedral where some King once studied, or your modern library down the street that lets you take out electronic books: love your local library! GO to your local library! There are movies, there is music, there are boos, there are sessions about plays and scientific questions and just so much can be done at libraries. 

Think of a library as the Wood Between the Worlds, every book can take you to an entirely different place, and you won’t feel so bored, or lonely. Love your local library, be loving to your local library

17 minutes

Today at 10 am local time across the US, students, teachers, staff will be walking out for of their schools. 17 minutes, one minute for each of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting that occurred four weeks ago. These 17 minutes are not a distraction or disruption of their day. More time is lost to these students every year for the drills hoping to prevent these tragedies and the news outbreaks when they occur

It has been four weeks since the MSD shooting and two weeks since they returned to school where on their first day back news broke out that a teacher in Georgia brought a gun to his school, locked himself in his classroom and contemplated suicide. So today they walk out, today they march, not just as symbolism or a performance or as a statement. They are showing the adults how big this problem is, how far it spreads, all of those whom it impacts. It doesn’t just affect the students who survived the shooting, had to sit in their classrooms wondering if this was it; or the family members who lost their children, cousins, sisters, brothers, their parents and those who lost their friends. The intense gun drills that aim to sacrifice themselves for others when a shooter has entered their classroom and how to be quiet in your greatest, hour-long moments of fear has become part of their lives, part of their school prep like fire drills and the bomb drills of World War II

This affects everyone, and that’s part of why today they walk out, they March; because this is so important to them and so vital to them and their lives. We can’t say that children are too young to understand when they are the ones literally taking the hits for it. We cannot say their opinions are invalid or that they don’t know, that we know better and are taking care of them and are handling things for them while passing over a true epidemic that is killing and terrorizing them.

These 17 minutes are a request for thoughts and prayers; thoughts of those that lost their lives, prayers that they are at peace, both to be followed by real action. This isn’t about concert tickets, clothes, or youtube stars. You could see the bodies they had to pass on their way out when it was finally over, their classmates, their friends; because when it was finally over, it had just begun. And they are saying that enough is enough.

So this is a statement, they cannot vote but are supposed to be protected by us and we should be voting with them in mind. If we say their opinions are not valid or misinformed than we should be working with them, but we’re not because their opinions are not wrong or invalid and we are failing them by letting this continue. They are reminding us that we have the power to protect them and we need to step it up.

In the most three weeks since the shooting (February 21st until now) some of the tags that pop under Florida related to the MSD shooting have disappeared, but Parkland and Gun Control are still up there. It will not leave and this will not leave them. 

Alastor Moody

Alastor Moody is, of course, a difficult character to think back on because most of our experiences with him--weren’t actually him

Regardless, he was still an important character, one of the few characters who was in the Order of the Phoenix during both Wizarding Wars. A brave and skilled wizard he was also a good judge of character (Igor Karkaroff), giving (Tonks was his protégé) and he didn’t care too much about what others thought of him—only considering the opinion of those he deemed worthy.

What I think most about him, is he gives us a glimpse into some mental illness, disillusion and how Ron would be in his later years with PTSD. Even as a high-ranking Auror, people mostly avoided him as he had become a bit paranoid

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you

after all his years serving as an Auror and all those he had put away. He had limited friends he felt he could trust and had shown to have many scars showing all he had been thru. In the brief moments with him, he showed to be sentimental and trying to form human connections where he could and appreciating them: giving Harry the original Order of the Phoenix photo and his relationship with Tonks

PS Very glad Harry worked to get his eye back 

Best Interviews (AKA Talking Heads)

1. Season Two, Episode Twelve: The Injury (Ryan) “ I ground up four extra strength aspirin and put them in Michael’s pudding, I do the same thing with my dog to get him to take his heart worm medicine.”

2. Season Three, Episode Five: Initiation (Stanley) “I wake up every morning in a bed that’s too small, drive my daughter to a school that’s too expensive then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little…but on Pretzel day, well I like Pretzel day.”

3. Season Three, Episode Twenty: Product Recall (Kelly and Angela) Kelly "This day is bananas. B-AN-A-N-A-S. This day is bananas. B-A-N-A"

Angela "I don't have a headache. I'm just preparing."

4. Season Five, Episode Twenty-Six: Casual Friday (Jim) “ I’m just hiding out until all this stuff blows over. With Creed. Playing chess. At work. He’s winning. Ifeel like I’m describing a dream I had.”

5. Season Seven, Episode Fifteen: The Search (Erin) “Holly is ruining Michael's life. He thinks she's so special and she's so not. Her personality is like a three, Her sense of humor is a two. Her ears are like a seven and a four. Add it all up, and what do you get? 16. And he treats her like she's a perfect forty, it's nuts."

Dunder Mifflin is a part of..Say-ber (Sabre)

Hopped of the train in Scranton, PA

Another cloudy, grey afternoon

Home of the Railriders and Scranton Miners

Did you pack your snow shoes?

 Jumped in the cab

Here you are for the first time

Look to the right and you see the-electric-city-sign

This is gonna be a good day

For Dunder Mifflin and Sabre

The stock markets going crazy and you really don’t know us

Too much pressure and you’re nervous

That’s when the taxi man turned on the radio

And the music took over your brain

And you thought this might be insane

But you decided to try and stay

 So you put your hands up

You take a deep breathe

The butterflies will fly away

Your noddin’ your head like yeah

Straighten your tie like yeah

You got your hands up

You’ve done this before

We’re all gonna be o-kay

Yeah, yeah, ye-eh-yeah

Dunder Mifflin is a part of Sabre

 Get to the office in your taxi cab

Everybody’s looking at you now

Like “Whose in charge, whose calling the shots”

Is this gonna all work out?

So hard with the sun down by seven

Hope you don’t get seasonal depression

‘Cause it all gets cold and starts to snow

I guess you never got the memo

The stock markets going crazy and you really don’t know us

Too much pressure and you’re nervous

That’s when the Andy and Erin jumped center stage

So they could sing you a welcome song

So we could all sing you this song

And we hope you sing along

 So you put your hands up

You take a deep breathe

The butterflies fly away

Your noddin’ your head like yeah

We’re noddin’ our hears like yeah

You got your hands up

You’ve done this before

We’re all gonna be o-kay

Yeah, yeah, ye-eh-yeah

Dunder Mifflin is a part of Sabre

 Feel like skipping on that flight (on that flight)

Tallahassee’s just alright (alright)

Something her feels just right (just right)

It’s that welcome song that let’s you know you’re gonna Be! Al-right!

So you put your hands up -> Dunder Millfin is a part of Sabre (x2)

The Lottery

I was never too fond of happily-ever-afters, and as I got older and learned how fictitious they were I became more annoyed by them as I felt, and feel, that they present a falseness that others allow themselves to remain within at the cost of others. But before the true fairy-tales of Cinderella or the Pillowman, the first story is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”.

This story brings us more into a different perspective than most, like Samuel Jackson’s character in Unbreakable. We start off just seeing a small town coming together for this very important event, how this is an important event in this town and others big and small. While we don’t know what the event is and an entire town meeting ina square seems odd to us now, we know it used to happen and draw connections to how the children act the adults’ gossip, and the changing of the event over time. As the story continues, an undertone becomes more prevalent, young men are just starting to draw for their families, and a woman mentions about how fast time goes by, using the event as a marker and how some towns don’t participate at all. 

What I love about this story is how much our perception changes as we learn more. We enter the story neutrally, then get excited and then try to hold onto that as we learn more. True artistry here comes from being able to challenge, surprise and have your reader’s perception and world be altered; and it is all down here. 

The Lottery: 

http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

The Gift of Fear

Not all books can be comforting, not all books are make-believe, not all books are heart-racing suspenseful; Gavin De Becker’s The Gift of Fear is all three. Gavin De Becker, the author, shares with us the stories of his clients who were raped by strangers, celebrities stalked by ‘regular people’, obsessed coworkers and more. He dissects them to show them, and us, where and when we should trust our gut and how it really isn’t our gut, but our logical mind setting off warning flags that society has told us to ignore.

I’m reminded of an SVU episode wherein thinking she’s just being racist, a young white girl allows a big black guy into her apartment to help her unload her groceries—she didn’t need the help, and she wasn’t being racist, there was something about him that she knew was off but told herself she should ignore it and then got raped. There are people who are racist, this book nor I ignore that, but just as women have been taught to smile, we have all been taught to be kind and understanding—even when we shouldn’t be. Sometimes it doesn’t matter much, but sometimes it means the end of our lives. He reminds us, me, of the phrase “look at someone’s actions, not at someone’s words”—he reminds us that people choose to be nice, charming—it doesn’t mean they are. He gives a list and more descriptions about Pre-Incident Indicators: methods used by those trying to get something from you that they are used to people ignoring:

Trying to make you two a team

Making you feel sympathy

Locking you down and trying to force a connection

Making a situation where you feel it’d be rude to not speak to THIS COMPLETE STRANGER

Trying to get you into your debt

Trying to make a deal with you, when really they could just leave

Refusing to hear the word no

People say this book could save your life, no. It reminds you that you already have the power to save and fight for your life, you just have to recondition yourself to listen to yourself and trust what someone is showing you. The aspects of this book being real and harrowing are obvious, the issues of comforting is how it allows us to trust ourselves again. This book isn’t just for young women, mothers, or the elderly. I’ve shared this book with managers, coworkers, friends and more. Share this book, read it’s tales and learn how you can survive. It’s awful, but as we know have work-place shootings as part of our fire safety, and the access the internet provides others with our personal details, this book is only becoming more important