Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - SPOILERS
Sunday, 17 July 2005 10:08:25

Well, as I promised I finished it last night and although the opening chapters are the best in the book the rest of them are my least favourite of all of them. In the last book/s Neville and Luna were built up as relatively major characters and yet in book 6 they had all but disappeared. Considering they are 2 of my favourite (Neville is my favourite outside of the 3 central characters and Weasleys) this did not sit well with me. Other characters seemed to be ignored as well particularly Hagrid/Grawp, the Order of the Phoenic and Aunt Petunia. Also, the f@*%ing BBC spoiled the ending for me because they published a news item online about a certain character dying which was of course the whole point of the book. This meant that I could see it coming pretty much from the first lesson between Harry and Dumbledore. Plus, I am always surprised by the plots in these books but I knew pretty damn early that Snape was the HBP - it was too obvious. It was, however, completely unresolved. A nickname fair enough but that was too damn easy. Furthermore the gorram relationships went on and on but the thing with Ginny came out of nowhere (for me anyway) and seemed a bit forced - grrrrrr. In short there wasn't enough action and it was a bit less believable than usual. There were some excellent parts though: The funeral chapter was gut-wrenching I sobbed hysterically for ages. The final scenes between Dumbledore and Malfoy - against my better judgement I wanted to pick Malfoy up and huggle him. The final fight (which we didn't get to see - annoyingly) between the Order, Death Eaters and DA. The aftermath of this in the hospital wing was beautiful. Anyway, the next book better have more action and resolve the character developments and plots with all of the characters not just Harry, Ron and Hermione. It would be very cool if Luna and Neville went with the three but I think that unlikely. It will be interesting to see whether my hunch is correct that both Snape and Malfoy will turn out for the good in the end. I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore had arranged for Snape to kill him if anything like this happened. Finally, I will read the book again in a week or two and see if it improves upon reading. Book 5 did and is now my second favourite after Book 3 so you never know...

Tom Cruise...What Were You Thinking?!
Sunday, 17 July 2005 14:13:09

Ah, the summer movie season...time for old failed romances to come to light in the faces of new ones. See, this whole blog is inspired by spending too much time in grocery checkout lines. All those cheap rags by the counter touting this relationship and that. I would never pick up any of those, but it's hard to ignore the covers. For starters, Katie Holmes is hot...no doubt about it. And she's comparatively young...she has that going for her as well. But dammit if there just isn't something about Nicole Kidman that's simply intoxicating. You can just see her on a magazine cover and swoon...become all light-headed and stuff! Like, I don't even know that I can identify exactly what about her causes that reaction, but it's there! It's a moment like this: *gasp* =pause= Oh my. :) And it's not just movie starts that have that quality. Every now and then I'll notice someone on the street or a co-worker or whatever and have that moment. It's kind of a weird endorphin rush (which, granted, happens every time I see my wife). So Tom, I can understand the attraction to Katie, but what the hell were you thinking giving up on Nicole like that! -UO