In Pictures

Damn right.

Truth.

Chocolate, peanut butter, bananas, coconut flakes. 'Nuff said.

Thank goodness.

The wisdom of children.

That is all.

Friday Five: 5 Things You'd Save In A Fire

"We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning"

 

  
Let's assume your house actually IS on fire and you can only grab 5 things.  What would they be? 

1. My iPhone
 
You feel totally naked and cut off from the world when you forget your phone at home, don't you? Mmmm-hmmmm. Now imagine if THE BALROG ATE YOUR PHONE and all your data is LOST TO THE ETHER FOREVER.   

The horror! The horror!

No, I don't have an addiction to technology, why do you ask? 

2. My Mac

I said, I don't have an addiction to technology. Nor do I have a fixation for Apple products.

Besides, I'd never be able to re-amass my iTunes library on the cheap. (What? Napster was legal in college.)

3. My DSLR

I have a slight obsession with photography. (On a recent trip to Italy, I took over 1,000 pictures in 7 days. That's almost 150 pics/day. Yeah.) To be fair, I keep my DSLR in a backpack with all of my lenses (also not cheap) so I'd save them too. I count them as one item since they're all in the same backpack.

4. My mom's Chinese wedding dress

She wore it at her wedding, and I wore it at mine.  I hope my hypothetical future daughter will wear it at hers. 

5. My set of Harry Potter Books

Don't judge. I have a nearly complete set of true first edition, first printings!

It's Aliiiiiiiiiive: POTTERMORE! (Part 2)

Yes, I'm still like:

 

Come on, can you blame me?  I'm not even an online gamer but DARN if Pottermore doesn't get me hooked somehow.

More photos have been released for Pottermore. (These are from Mugglenet.com)  Click on any of the photos for larger versions.

Screenshot of the Gryffindor main page:

What's with the steampunk rollercoaster?

The Hogwarts Express:

I need to know what the icons are on the left.

Christmas at Hogwarts:

Happy Christmas, Harry! Here's yet another hand-knit jumper.

Wizard's Chess Board:

Badass!

Potterwatch is now concluded. Well...until July 15th when the last movie comes out. Or July 31st. Or something else exciting comes out, whichever comes first. 

In parting, I leave you with an excerpt of the POTTERMORE press conference (full text from the press conference HERE. Definitely worth a read):

Because I can't resist, here is a great quote from the press conference:

"I don’t think I’ve given all the stuff on Quidditch yet. Men always ask me about Quidditch because the number of, and I love geeky people so I do not say this in a pejorative way, but the number of geeky men who have come up to me to argue with me about Quidditch - I’d be a lot richer if I had a quid for every one. They just think it’s illogical. But it’s not illogical and I had a speech by Dumbledore in the first book that never made it in explaining why Quidditch is not illogical, so at some point I will put that on the site. Thank you for reminding me."

It's Aliiiiiiiiiive: POTTERMORE!

I originally had a different post for today, but this morning's announcement *CLEARLY* takes precedence. Be warned - this will be a long post and there will be A LOT! OF GUSHING! WITH EXCLAMATIONS!  I'm overusing !!! and I don't care!

*JK ROWLING TALKS POTTERMORE!*

  

At long last, the mystery behind POTTERMORE is finally revealed above. And here. And here.  

POTTERMORE is the last word in Potter fandom.  In JKR's own words: 

"This was about the give-back. The technology existed to do something outside the books and films for the existing fans....I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years, and to bring the stories to a new digital generation.  I hope fans and those new to Harry will have as much fun helping to shape Pottermore as I have.  Just as I have contributed to the website, everyone else will be able to join in by submitting their own comments, drawings and other content in a safe and friendly environment – Pottermore has been designed as a place to share the stories with your friends as you journey through the site." 

Thank you, JKR!

So Pottermore is heralded as an interactive website where HP fans can share stories, interact, and blah blah blah. We already do that elsewere on the interwebs.  MORE IMPORTANTLY, Pottermore will sell digital audiobooks and finally...E-BOOKS!  (Pottermore is the exclusive place to buy HP e-books. Sorry, Amazon and B&N.)  Finally I can have ALL SEVEN bulky easily manageable volumes (4,176 pages!) at my fingertips to read whenever and wherever the hell I want! Goblet of Fire at the airport? Check. Half-Blood Prince on the flight? Double check. Deathly Hallows on vacation? Triple freaking check. No extra carry-on necessary! Don't worry, the e-books will be compatible across all digital reader formats - Harry will play no role in the Kindle v. Nook supremacy challenge.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT than e-books, JKR announced she will be unveiling NEW MATERIAL! *reaches for inhaler* More than 18,000 new words featuring info she's been hoarding lo these many years - and that's only a third of what she's written so far!  Among these 18,00 words will be...wait for it... McGonagall's backstory - her childhood, ministry career, early heartbreak(!!!), and long relationship with Dumbledore.  We also get some backstory on Vernon and Petunia. (They met at work.) There will be a lot more content to come as Pottermore develops and grows. While not The Scottish Book (the official, definitive HP Encyclopedia) that many of us were waiting for, I can't say I'm disappointed.  I'm excited to dive back into Hogwarts again and learn something new!

::breathe in, breathe out::

In my excitement, I kind of glossed over the interactive portion of Pottermore, so let me go back.  The "interaction" is actually pretty cool - you get to digitally experience each book as if you were really a Hogwarts student.  So for the first book, Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone, you're Sorted into a House by the Sorting Hat according to your characteristics (as JKR says, "You get one shot at this. It's like a Mensa test, there's no going back.") - and if you're not sorted into Gryffindor, you get to find out even more info about your House. (Ravenclaw FTW!)  The Wand Chooser also factors into your Sorting and  assigns you a wand (from over 33,000 combinations personally crafted by JKR!)  You can even visit Diagon Alley, cast spells, mix potions, and win points for your House in the race for the House Cup - just like a real Hogwarts student.

Holy moly, this is the ULTIMATE timesuck!  The second book, Chamber of Secrets, doesn't come out until 2012.  And we're only beginning!  I seriously *cannot wait* until Prisoner of Azkaban (OMG dementors! Time Turner!) and Goblet of Fire (Quidditch World Cup! Triwizard Tournament!) And Order of the Phoenix. And....okay, okay, you get the picture.

Pottermore doesn't actually beta launch until July 31 - Harry's birthday - but I am SO! FREAKING! EXCITED! about everything JKR has revealed so far.  If you sign up now on www.pottermore.com, Pottermore will send you notification for "open registration" on July 31st when an online challenge will be launched.  The first million people to complete the challenge and successfully register will get early beta access.  The rest of us unfortunate Muggles must wait until the universal launch in October.  I've been trying to register since 7am and the site continues to be overwhelmed under the crush of HP fans worldwide. Somewhere, a server is gurgling smoke and flame. Still, I keep trying!

Have YOU signed up yet?  www.pottermore.com

Road Trip Wednesday: Literally

For this week's edition of Road Trip Wednesday, I decided to take things literally and write about actual road trips.

I love road trips! Some of my best memories come from cruising across the country with my sister and our friend, E, in Frosty the Snow Car (my sister's white Honda Accord) from CA to DE. Three girls, a dog, and our own devices - the perfect recipe for adventure! Even now that a demanding full-time job and the outrageous price of gas keeps me tethered to home, my wanderlust resurfaces every so often like a gopher in the prairie. 

I recently found a journal we kept for our inaugural cross country trip circa 2001. (I think it was 2001. We didn't bother recording the year, figuring the trip was So Monumentally Unforgettable.) With help from me and E to finish some hectic, last minute packing (is there any other kind?), we finally set off from Davis, CA around midnight on a 3,000-mile adventure across I-80 with a carful of my sister's worldly possessions.  (Remember when all your worldly possessions fit inside an Accord?  Oh, to be so carefree again...)

What nobody told three clueless teenagers driving across The Northern Tundra States (Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska) in sub-zero December temperatures is that a functional windshield sprayer is fairly essential.  When salt from the road turns your windshield into a white blindfold of death and your wiper fluid is frozen in the sprayer, necessity really becomes the mother of invention.

"BIG PROBLEM - salt from road has covered windshield. Our brilliant solution: pour windshield wiper fluid into cup with coffee residue and attempt to throw it onto windshield while speeding at 80 mph. Unfortunately, after trying 3 times, we unsuccessfully cleaned shit. Most blew into the car and 1 sq. in. of the windshield is clean. Needs improvement."

(In subsequent road trips, we refined our Prototype. Yes, Prototype was still necessary because what passes for "Non-Freezing Wiper Fluid" in CA apparently cannot withstand the arctic freeze of The Northern Tundra States. So we sawed off the bottom half of a Gatorade bottle and duct taped it to a long wooden dowel. This way, we could easily reach across the entire windshield and dump fluid on it even while maintaining cruising speed. Brilliant, if I must say so myself.)

We also gleefully discovered that the most popular gas stations across the midwest are called "Kum & Go." *snicker*

"Day 3, circa 4:20. C is swerving madly around the road. We stop to get coffee at the Kum & Go (snort!) Ironically, in the bathroom the only dispenser machine sold every type of condom known to man."

Some of the weirdest memories are random conversations borne of endless interstate monotony. This was labeled "Random Ohio Conversations":

"Question for The Ages: What is a buckeye?

C:  It's an acorn.

J and E: What!? No way.

C:  It's true. An acorn looks like a buck's eye.

E:  Oh, so strawberries should be called...rabbit's heart?

J:  That's ridiculous. What the hell kind of mascot is a buckeye? Do bucks walk around Ohio with an eye gouged out?

C:  No, that would be buck eye-less."

But really, the most important part of a road trip is the soundtrack. Unfortunately, we were novice road trippers at this point and forgot to create a mix tape. Er, mix CD?  (This was before the age of iPods. God, I'm old.)  All we had was the trusty old radio, which gladly spewed forth the same five songs across six states.

It's Been A While (Staind)

You Remind Me (Nickelback)

Hanging By A Moment (Lifehouse)

Wherever You Will Go (The Calling)

Be Like That (Third Eye Blind)

Truly, this is a dreadful soundtrack.

In summary, I greatly miss J and E. I miss our road trips. When can we cast aside mortgages and responsibilities and get back on the road again?

The Magic Will Never End

The end is nigh :(  

As you've probably guessed from my blog's name (and the first few blog entries), I am a HUGE HARRY POTTER NERD. It might surprise you to know, however, that I once refused to read Harry Potter at all. *SMELLING SALTS*  

That's right, folks. The gal who proudly sports a license plate bearing Harry's signature spell once told friends, "Those books are for kids. I'm not reading them." (It pains me to type such blasphemy. Knowing my own lips uttered those words cuts me even deeper. I bleed my own blood.) Thank the hippogriff, I came to my senses.

Now that we're less than a month away from the seventh (eighth?) and final movie, I thought I'd write my own letter to JKR from a fan's perspective. (I can't call her Jo; she's always JKR in my head.)

Dear JKR,

Thank you for bringing magic to life. Thank you for giving us a smashing new vocabulary. Thank you for introducing us to characters so real we wish they were our friends in real life.  

Thank you for bringing the joy that is reading to children everywhere - and rekindling that joy in those of us who forgot. Thank you for creating a world that kids and self-respecting adults can share together - one that can be openly discussed in classrooms, in our workplaces, and at the dinner table. Or worn on shirts suitable for public viewing.

Thank you for showing us that love will conquer evil, but victory comes with a price.  Thank you for the years of mystery, anticipation, and in the end, awe. Thank you for the story that launched a hundred billion internet friendships.  I will forever treasure the time I spent with Harry, Ron, and Hermione at Hogwarts.


Always,
Cynthia

Come July 15, I will be a sobbing, snotty mess in the theater.  I'm already misty-eyed just watching the final trailer for HP7 Part 2.

 

Road Trip Wednesday: The Elevator Pitch

Inspired by my friend, Jessica of Jessica Love Writes, I've decided to jump into Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival hosted by YAHighway.  Each week they ask a reading- or writing-related question and everyone who wants to participate answers it on his or her own blog. Squee! So let's get crackin'...

This week's question:

You're re-reading one of your faves when someone asks the dreaded question: "What's that book about?" Give us your best off-the-cuff blurb of any book, any genre, and have your readers try to guess the title in the comments!

Here are my takes on some classics:

1. This awkward girl and her equally weird but genius brother travel through the universe with three batty old ladies to save their dad who's being held prisoner by a Huge Brain in a planet far, far away.

2. The scariest insect known to man befriends an unlikely barn mate who reeeally wishes that Denny's never invented Baconalia, and decides to save his life.

3. A group of losers go back home to fight a batshitcrazy, bloodthirsty clown.

Can you guess what they are?

Things I Love: The Violin

Image here.

It's ironic that I now include the violin among the Things I Love. I started playing the violin in first grade, like many Asian kids. At first, the novelty was fun. I got to carry around a snappy black case with crushed velvet lining and inside was a shiny new violin. Amber blocks of rosin were squirreled away in little crushed velvet compartments (which, conveniently, also hid my prized Lisa Frank stickers. Score!) PLUS, I got out of class early to go to violin lessons. Double score!

I flew through The Suzuki Method. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Please. Song of The Wind? Cake. Bach's Minuets 1 through 3? Bring it x 3. I memorized each piece in record time and mellifluously performed them (in my humble, childish opinion) at school recitals. Hell yes, I was born to be a violin prodigy!

No, this is not me.

Then we moved onto more advanced pieces. But I never actually learned to read music in Book 1 of The Suzuki Method because it was easier to memorize how to play each piece rather than learn what those dotted, squiggly things on the page meant. No matter, I'll just keep do the same thing. It's gotten me this far, right? Except the more complex pieces required more practice and were harder to memorize.  I began to fight my mom tooth and nail when it came to practice time.  

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!11!!!!1!1"

Harmony turned to cacophony, screeching strings, and resentment. WHATTHEHELL, nobody else has to spend hours practicing. I have to go to lessons twice a week, AREYOUKIDDINGME? I need to go to Claudia's house so we can call up radio stations and request Stevie Wonder songs.

And so it went through third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. I faked it for eight years before I finally couldn't take it anymore. I quit the violin. *GASP* I know it killed my parents to let me quit, especially after they bought me my own violin. But we had bigger academic fish to fry and the fight could only be sustained on so many fronts. So the violin became the second casualty in the War of Academic Aggression. (The first casualty was Chinese school.)

In retrospect, I was just stubborn and lazy. Was it really so hard to learn how to read music? Perhaps I took Cyndi Lauper too much to heart - I mean, yes, girls just wanna have fun. But couldn't they have fun and hang on to extracurricular activities?

So now twenty years later, I find myself yearning to pick up the violin again and this time, doing it right.  I want to learn how to read music. I want to play Back, Mozart, and Schumann.

But I also want to start riding horses again, and I can't do both. Aaaack! I need a Time-Turner!

Here's the Million Dollar Question:

Which childhood hobby should I revive: horseback riding or the violin?

Help me decide!

Things I Love: Horses

I can trace my childhood through horses. My mom enrolled my sister and me in horse summer camp to get us out of the house and out of her hair. The barn was less than a half-mile away and kept us occupied from 8-5. Win-win situation! Little did she know, summer camp would spark and seal a lifelong (and expensive!) hobby for both of us over the next twenty years. 

There was an old Appaloosa, the first horse I started camp with at around age 10. I was an awkward, skinny kid with long hair and even longer limbs. The Appaloosa had a mohawk mane and a loose lower lip that we twitched to make him "talk" like Mr. Ed. 

There was Fizzle, an old, nearly albino pony with reddish eyes. Fizzle holds the dubious title of being the first horse to buck me off. Always docile, Fizzle was a favorite for beginner lessons, which I began shortly after camp ended. While patiently waiting for our turn in the ring, Fizzle must have been bitten by a horsefly because, without warning, he suddenly flung his hind legs into the air like a rodeo bronc and took off around the ring, running and bucking like a horse possessed. I managed to cling to the saddle for an eternity (about 2 seconds in real-time) before Fizzle finally threw me into the air. Miraculously, I landed on my feet. I remember thinking, "Wow,that was fun!"

There was Janbelle, the first, best, and orneriest dappled grey pony a girl ever had the misfortune to lease. She would pin her ears, glare at you, and bare her teeth if she didn't want to be saddled up that day. But on her good days, she was a dream. My love of jumping began with her. At barely 15 hands high, she jumped like a horse twice her size. Never failing to clear any obstacle in front of her, she taught a shy, awkward teen how to be fearless, too.

There was Wallop's Miraclewhip ("Wally"), an athletic bay Thoroughbred, the first horse our family owned. (Yes, breeders give horses seriously idiotic names.)

Officially my sister's horse, Wally began our competitive career as hunter/jumpers. (I slowly followed in my sister's steps, occasionally borrowing Wally along the way.) Wally and my sister covered the Chester County show circuit together, winning silken rainbows of ribbons to bedeck our bedroom walls. We sadly sold him when she went to college.

Finally, there was Reese's Pieces ("Reese"), a quirky Appendix Quarter Horse (half TB, half QH), the first horse I owned.

Reese was terrified of buggies. I discovered this quirk when I invited my brand new college boyfriend (now husband) to ride double with me on a trail ride through a corn field. The corn field had a road bordering one side of it. That day, an Amish family happened to pass by in a horse-drawn buggy. Never having seen a buggy before, Reese FLIPPED HIS FREAKING LID. He suddenly reared straight up, dumping my husband off the back into a big mud puddle, and took off at top speed. It took me a good five minutes to rein him in and calm him down. By the time I returned to pick my husband up out of the puddle, the crisis had trotted out of sight. Reese was calmer now but my husband refused to get back on, preferring to walk the mile back to the barn with me and Reese walking beside him. I've never been able to get him back on a horse since.

I sold Reece after college and gave up riding altogether since law school - and then a full-time job at a law firm - demanded all of my time. Now eight years later, I'd really like to get back into it.

Either that, or pick up the violin again. (Next post: the violin and 20/20 hindsight.)

Music I Love: Mumford & Sons

I will fully admit I am probably the last person to find out about Mumford & Sons.  (My husband is the indie audiophile; I need my sister and Ryan Seacrest to tell me what's up on the Billboard Top 40.)  

I'd heard their name tossed around the house without really listening. It wasn't until the Grammy's when I really took notice. I LOVED their performance of The Cave. Who ARE these Brits banging away on their guitars and that weird ol' banjo? WHY does their name sound like a store selling men's oxford shirts? What's up with the crazy harmony? They sound awesome!

 

 

If you haven't heard their Grammy performance, it's worth a listen.

So I got to see them live at Merriweather Post last night.  They are amazing live. The energy! The sound! They sound exactly like they do on the album! Except with an overtrack of screaming fans. Don't believe me?  Check out their performance of The Cave last night (excuse the shaky footage; recording is harder than it looks!)

Awesome, right?  I hate when bands sound like crap in concert. I love when they sound just like - or better than - they do on the album.  Mumford sounded so much better live - it's amazing how they harmonize with each other.  And they're just SO FUN! At one point, Marcus (the eponymous Mumford) and the (very nicely muscled) keyboard player had a mini jig-off. Then everyone around me was jigging in their seats. I've never jigged a day in my life but God help me, I was jigging, too!

They played the whole album, plus a few new songs which sound promising!  I read somewhere that Marcus gets a lot of his inspiration from literature - Sigh No More is a reference to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and Dust Bowl Dance draws inspiration from John Steinbeck (East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men.)  Before they hit it big, they would play shows at indie bookstores. LE SIGH - a bookshop band after my literary heart!

Can't wait for them to record a new album then get back on the road again :)

 

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I'd heard so many good things about this book from both science-y and arts-y friends alike that I knew I had to pick it up.  In a fit of full-price online impulse buying, I paid my $9.99 to download it to my Kindle. 

All I can say is... WOW! 

What a thought-provoking book! The science, the race issues, the socioeconomic class divides, the questionable medical ethics - picking just ONE of these topics could spawn hours of discussion. Skloot deftly spins each of these threads into a beautiful, haunting tale of HeLa - the cells on which modern molecular biology was built - and the Lacks family, who still struggle with poverty and lack of education despite the incredible advances their mother's cells gave to Science.

The author did a great job of explaining - without "dumbing it down" too much - why HeLa was so important (research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, etc.), and what characteristics of these cells made them so widely used (robust replication, immortality) - and problematic (cell culture contamination). On top of this backdrop, Skloot constructs Henrietta's biography from her ancestors to her husband, children, siblings, and other relatives - and takes us through the impact her story had on them. 

I think I was most impressed by the lengths to which Skloot went to gain the Lacks family's trust.  She spent ten years of her life researching Henrietta's history, tracking down Nobel Prize-winning scientists, and convincing the uneducated, fearful Lackses that she was the right person to tell their story.  Somehow, she overcame decades worth of bad feelings from other people trying to exploit their interest in Henrietta for selfish (and sometimes dark) purposes.  Without the Lackses story, the book would not nearly have the power it does.  Interestingly, Skloot's second publisher wanted her to cut out the Lackses story. She said no. (For a debut author, this is unheard of.) Thank goodness she stuck with her guns.

I felt their outrage at being deceived for over twenty years about their mother's cells.  I felt their fear at the sci-fi qualities her cells took on - shot into space? Fused with mice? Injected with chemicals?  For someone who doesn't even know what a cell is, all of these things sound as scary as aliens invading earth.

In the end, all of Skloot's efforts are paid back in spades. She delivers a touching story of a poor black woman whose cells changed the face of science and medicine forever - and her family's struggle with poverty, identity, and their mother's loss.

I would recommend this book to everyone!  Skloot's website has a lot of great FAQ's, too.

Herro.

Wow, my last post was in March and I never even finished our Italy trip!  Man, I'm a terrible blogger.

So...this is my attempt to revive this blog.  Mostly because I like the name "Blogsmeade," and also because I used up all my creativity coming up with it.  Here's what I'm going to do:

Four days a week, I'll try to post about things I love, like, or am mildly inclined to share.  One day a week, I'll post about something I hate, dislike, or am annoyed with.

Heeeere we go!