Bit of Ivory

I found out today that Elizabeth York, the author of Ancient Prophecy, the fic I’m betaing, is in the hospital. Aparently she’s okay physically now, but mentally is another story. Anyway, here’s hoping she’ll get better soon. I’d like to ask all who are religious out there to pray for her and her loved ones. Thanks.

Oh, and you’ll notice my comments look different. I finally noticed that “Please update your code” notice that’s been on the bottom of the comment box for weeks, apparently. So now, it’s the updated version.

Well, RJA posted her rant on the HP movie on her blog, so I’m going to post mine here. For those of you who are on the AtE list, sorry, you can skip this part. RJA was saying that Daniel Radcliffe can’t act. Personally, I think he did a pretty good job, considering that he was 11, it was his first real part in a movie (I don’t count David Copperfield, he was little more than an extra), and that Chris Columbus did a terrible job of directing and couldn’t even get Richard Harris to deliver his lines right (his “Alas,
Earwax” was, frankly, pathetic. I wanted Patrick Godfrey–Leonardo Da Vinci in Ever After–to be Dumbledore. He would have done the slightly-mad but very-wise Dumbeldore PERFECTLY). I expect Daniel to get better in the next movie, as I’m hoping the whole thing will. Chamber of Secrets is a much better book (my fav. in the series, actually), and more easily adapted to a movie.

No, the thing I’m upset about was that the deleted scenes were deleted. Pah! I understand the need for some things to be taken out of the movie, you can’t film the whole book. But when things like Snape’s potions class and Neville’s Leg-Locker curse are cut out, and things like the whole scene with Harry sitting at the window stroking Hedwig (whose name we never hear, except in a DELETED SCENE), which has nothing to do with the story, are put in, it really ticks me off. The scene with Harry and Hagrid on the subway explains SO MUCH, as does the EXTREMELY short scene where Ron and Hermione become friends after the troll thing, which I can’t figure out why it was cut in the first place. It’s 15 seconds long! It wouldn’t have added more than 5 or 6 minutes to the movie to keep ALL of the scenes in, and the movie would have made so much more sense! Also, they way you have to jump through all those hoops in order to get to the scenes at all on the DVD annoys me. It’s fun the first time, but every time you put the disc in, you have to do it again. That gets really old.

The other thing that was cut out that really bothers me was Snape’s potion logic-puzzle on the way to the Sorcerer’s Stone. They made a big deal about the fact that Snape helped to protect the Stone, and then they don’t even SHOW it? Plus, that’s how Hermione gets her points– “Cool logic in the face of fire.” Sheesh.

Oh, and the fact that in the Quidditch game, Slytherin obviously cheats, but no one calls a foul. It makes it look like Quidditch is a free-for-all, with no rules.

But Oliver Wood is still really cute. That accent. . .*melts* And the whole movie is worth it for Alan Rickman. He does an excellent job as Snape. Ron is really cute too. My family almost died when he said “I’m Ron, by the way”, because it sounded like he was Ron Bytheway! Then he says “This is Scabbers, by the way” and Hermione says “You have dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?” This rapid succession of “by the way”s always makes me giggle.

Here’s hoping Chris Columbus doesn’t make the same mistakes on Chamber of Secrets. Oh, and that SOMEONE at Warner Brothers realizes how perfect Jeremy Northam would be as Lupin for Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve always imagined Lupin as Jeremy Northam, ever since I first read the book. I’m going to cry if they cast anyone else. *Emily takes a deep breath*

There, I feel better now.

500 hits! Although, I must say that I’m disappointed with the traffic as of late. Hardly any comments. I suppose it’s possible that I’m just plain boring, so no one wants to comment. But I thought that the readaholic site was good enough to get a comment out of more people than just Wolf550e, who was omnipresent the day of the post (as was I, for that matter. He and I and Morgan posted over 40 messages between us on the HJP HoS thread. Whee!!). Hello? Is anyone out there?

The problem is, I can’t really think of anything to say. I guess I really am boring.

Hi. My name is Emily, and I am a readaholic.

*giggle* Thought I’d turn this into an LAA meeting (Literature Abusers anonymous).
I bought my last purse specifically because I can fit a book in it. Thomas Chatterton died in 1770 of self-administered arsenic poisoning.

(I had to look up what kind of poison it was, but I knew everything else). I’m an English major. Yup, definitely a victim of Literature Abuse.

*grin*

I’m on break again and I just had to write a little entry about something I just found. I was making a list of new acquisitions for our Art, Theatre, and Film librarian, and I came across a title called Cult Movies. Of course, I just had to get a look at it, so I ran over to the shelf and picked it up. I was so disappointed! Not only are my two favorite cult movies NOT in the book (Harold and Maude and What’s Up, Doc?), but they labelled what I consider perfectly mainstream movies as cult flicks. I mean, Singing in the Rain, a cult film? Give me a break. Although, I was happy to find that my family’s original supposition is correct.

You see, in Singing in the Rain, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) can’t sing, so they dub her voice with Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), right? Only thing is, the voice that is used for that dubbed voice ISN’T Debbie Reynolds– the voice is much too deep. My dad thought that maybe the dubbed voice was actually Jean Hagen using her real voice–she actually has a lovely alto voice. Well, this book confirmed it– it was really Jean Hagen. So basically, the scene is Jean Hagen dubbing for Debbie Reynolds who’s supposedly dubbing for Jean Hagen. Lovely little trivia tidbit, no?

Now I want to get a hold of Harold and Maude. I haven’t seen that movie since high school– 4 years now! Sheesh!

It’s sad how boring my life has suddenly become, now that school is out. Busy, but boring. I get up in the morning (reluctantly), drive to work, sit at a computer all day in the library while people ask me silly questions (okay, sometimes they ask completely relevant questions, but most of them are silly), drive home, eat, and go to bed early so I’ll be able to wake up in the morning. Even my free days are not that much fun. On Tuesday, Jen came over and watched Gilmore Girls at 10:30 am, then my sisters and I went Scrapbooking with my Aunt. I spent way too much money on Canada stickers to FINALLY finish up my Vancouver Choir tour pages. That night I went to Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment, where we learned to cook in a Dutch Oven (not that I didn’t already know, I did go to Roughout Camp for six years, after all) and make strawberry freezer jam (which I didn’t know how to do, but now that I know how, I might try it. It’s not too tough). Came home, and found out that our local WB affiliate accidentally aired
Smallville at 7, instead of Gilmore Girls, then aired it again at 8 (the normal time) for all those who missed it, and then aired Gilmore Girls at 9, so I actually didn’t end up missing it at all, and insteadwatched it live at nine.

I have Wednesdays off, too, and we went to my grandma’s and cleaned her house for her. I have an uncle that likes to take his kids over to grandma’s whenever he feels like it, and then expects grandma to watch 3 kids (the oldest is a five-year-old girl, then an almost-three-year old girl, and a one-year-old boy) while he does whatever he wants, even though he’s still in the same house. He just lets them run around, getting into everything and spilling stuff all over the floor, without doing a thing. Yikes, I hate parents like that. Anyway, Grandma’s house is therefore always a mess, because she’s getting old and can’t do all the stuff she used to. So we went over and dusted and vacuumed and she was thrilled.

Tonight is looking up, though. My brother was supposed to go on a blind date to Star Wars, but it fell through, so I might be able to go with him instead. Is it really only Friday?

I watched The Princess Diaries with my family. AP 3 will be tonight, instead.

and thought I’d do an update. I’m trying to decide whether to do anything fun tonight. One of my best friends is married with a kid (hi Nicole), and also has a small budget, so I don’t think I can do anything with her. Plus, I played with her on Saturday. My other best friend is with her family in Florida. No go with Jen, then. My brother will probably end up doing something with his friends, but I’m not sure if I’ll be welcome, although we were always part of the same crowd in high school (Ben was only a year ahead of me, school-wise). So that leaves my sisters, one of whom hasn’t been feeling well for the last week and a half, the other of whom won’t go anywhere without the first (they’re twins, they do everything together). So I guess that leaves me with no one and nothing to do. I guess I’ll finish beta-reading Ancient Prophecy 3 instead. What a life.

Man, having a dial-up connection is really cramping my internet style. I haven’t updated this in forever! I see I’m going to have to bug my dad even more for cable modem. So Gilmore Girls was good tonight. Too short, but good. I sware, that show needs to be at least two hours long. I’m glad that Jess character is gone– although I know it’s not for long. Not that I blame him for the accident, but I still don’t like him. My friend Jen does, though. He’s got just enough good qualities that they make you temporarily forget his bad ones. And Dean is so cute! No, Rory, forget Jess. Although judging by the preview for next week, he’s not going to go away for real anytime soon. And 3 minutes of Luke at the end was not nearly enough.

Smallville was also good. We called it! I knew it was going to be Whitney’s dad’s funeral that they showed in the preview. They tried to sucker us in to thinking it was Chloe or Lana, but we know better than to trust WB previews lately. They’re so misleading.

I’m off to eat some Frosted Flakes in Half-and-half. Ooh, it’s sooooo good!

I’m so excited! It’s the first 4.0 I’ve gotten since high school! WAHOO!!! Hopefully it will boost my GPA enough that I can get a scholarship next semester. . half tuition would be nice, if nothing else. But I GOT A 4.0!!!! *Emily does the happy Snoopy 4.0 dance*