How could I forget . . . ?

I forgot to mention that on Saturday I went to see Spiderman 3 with Anna, Kayla, and Jason O. It was awesome, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

After that, Anna had to go to work, and Kayla, Jason and I went to my place to hang out. We did some stuff upstairs, and then went downstairs to watch last week's episode of Smallville. It cut off just as Jimmy was plugging in the ipod though--apparently, the clock on my DVD-Recorder is a couple minutes fast, even though I set it to record for an hour and two minutes. I'll have to fix that, once I figure out just HOW fast it is compared to the TV stations.

Strange . . .

I think that I might actually get finished with Order of the Phoenix faster than I did Goblet of Fire.

What makes me think that? Well, it took me a few weeks to a month to read Goblet, right? I've only been reading Phoenix for two or three days, but I'm already on chapter nine (The Woes of Mrs. Weasley)! I think the reason it took me so long to read Goblet of Fire was because, out of the six current books, Goblet of Fire is my sixth favorite. It just doesn't really do all that much for me, so reading it takes longer because I don't really want to, I guess. In order of favorite to least, I'd rank the Harry Potter books thus:

1. Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)
2. Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
3. Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3 -- This is actually kind of strange, 'cause before OotP, PoA was my favorite!)
4. Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone (Book 1)
5. Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
6. Goblet of Fire (Book 4)

It was kind of difficult to decide between books 1, 2 and 3, so I just listed them. They're pretty much tied for third though, not 3, 4 and 5.

Also, Goblet of Fire, besides bringing Voldemort back to life, doesn't really do much except set up Order of the Phoenix. There isn't even any Quidditch, and while the Triwizard Tournament is pretty cool, it just seems like filler to me. Even Rita's articles don't do much except setup the whole media "Mock Harry" media-fest in Order of the Phoenix.

I'll post an updated list after I've read Deathly Hallows this summer--look for the new list around my birthday!

This is pathetic.

I finallyfinished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. It took me at least three weeks--I can't remember exactly. And today, I read the most chapters I'd been able to read in that book for one day since I started re-reading it.

I read two or three chapters while I was at work today, then after I got home, I read two while I was out on the deck, and the last two on the couch on the second floor.

Now, I just have to get through Order of the Phoenix, and then Half-Blood Prince will be a breeze.

As for the 50-book challenge?

Six down, forty-four to go.

I told you it was pathetic. And it's all my fault I got burned out on reading three years ago too.

Bravo to Google . . . Finally

Okay, so it's kind of dumb to sign up for Google AdSense when almost no one reads my blog anyway. But I signed up for it when I started this blog, just for the heck of it. Every once in a while, I like to look at the ads at the bottom of the page (but I make sure not to click them--that would violate the agreement between me and Google), just to see what Google has come up with that it thinks is "relevant" to my keywords.

Just a few minutes ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see two full ads that I actually approved of (as opposed to only one, or neither)! The one on the left was for an LDS thing, and the one on the right was for a Harry Potter thing. Bravo to Google for finally getting it right!

Minor Tribulations and Old Teachers

Not much has happened since my last entry. I've got a crick in my neck that prevents me from turning my head all the way to the left when I should be able to. I first noticed it yesterday, and I thought I'd be able to sleep it away, but that didn't quite work.

I'm just too tense--I want to go to the FMH Wellness Center in the FSK mall (I haven't been since November), but I can't afford it right now. Maybe I'll put that on my birthday list for this year--as many hour-long massages as people will give me.

I e-mailed my old AP Literature & Composition teacher from high school today. This one thing I learned in that class kept bugging me, because I'd forgotten part of it, but I'd still want to know the part I'd forgotten every once in a while, and whenever I tried to remember, I could only remember that one little bit. So, I decided to go to the source, and asked Mr. P. what the answer was.

He was pretty ecstatic in his reply, that I'd even remembered taking the class, much less anything I learned from it.

I did a little reading out on the deck this evening. I could only concentrate on the book long enough to get through the chapter of Goblet of Fire where Harry finally hears the clue from the egg, gets stuck in the trick stair, and lends the fake Moody the Marauder's Map. When I was about halfway through the chapter, my neighbors came out to have dinner on the back deck, and they were pretty loud, so I couldn't keep my mind on the book after that.

Now, I'm doing my laundry and trying to find something else to occupy my mind besides dubbing movies (minus commercials) from DVD to VHS and back. I don't think I'd be able to do all that running up and down the stairs from my room to the laundry today--I'm still sore from doing it last week!

Good Times

I went bowling on Thursday with a whole bunch of people. Kimba and Anna had invited me, Kayla and Cassie to go bowling with them at Terrace Lanes. The bowling alley has Dollar Days from Sunday through Thursday, 9:30pm-midnight ($1 for shoe rental, $1 per game/per person), so I figured heck, I wanna go bowling!

I took a whole bunch of pictures, but only ten of them turned out even remotely okay. The rest were either too blurry or too dark to make out.

There were so many people in our group, we took up four lanes. I was on a lane with Anna (for the first three games), Cassie, and this guy Eric who I remembered from high school. Kayla didn't actually bowl whole games, but took over for Eric on a few frames.

I don't know how the scores went on the other three lanes, but I managed to get a printout for the lane I was at. Anna made us all have names that were for our opposite gender. We played four games total, before midnight, and here are the scores:

Game One
George (Anna): 90
LeeAnne (Eric): 103
Phil (Me): 78
Nathan (Cassie): 66

Game Two
George: 79
LeeAnne: 84
Phil: 85
Nathan: 89

Game Three
George: 90 (for a grand total of 259 at our lane)
LeeAnne: 96
Phil: 63
Nathan: 83

(Right before the last frame of game three, I broke my right thumbnail down to the quick, but it was still hanging on at one side, so I tried bowling left-handed. My turn was up, so I didn't have time to pull the nail off the rest of the way until the beginning of the next game. So, for the last frame of game three, I had two gutter balls.)

Game Four
(Anna was playing on two lanes, so she took her name off of ours so we'd have time to finish the game before closing.)
LeeAnne: 140 (Grand Total: 423)
Phil: 90 (Grand Total: 316)
Nathan: 106 (Grand Total: 344)

From Cassie's turn in frame 2 of game 3 until Eric's turn on frame 4, we had a streak of strikes. Cassie got one, then Eric, then me, then Cassie again, then Eric again, but then I only got a spare (but the spare was all ten pins in the second round of the frame, so it would've been a spare if I hadn't have gotten a gutter ball first).

Over all, it was a fun time. I completely missed Smallville though--and forgot to set the DVD-R to record it for me.

Friday was boring. 'Nuff said.

Today, I got up at about 11 (I meant to get up by 10), took a shower, and then paid the bills. Once that was done, I headed out to the Red Cross office on Thomas Johnson Drive to make a donation.

It was like the 6th time I've ever donated, so I knew the drill. But this time, it just kept stopping. The nurse said that it probably clotted, because she kept moving the needle (which was slightly unpleasant, but nothing I couldn't handle with a bit of distraction--such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), and it wouldn't just GO. So I didn't get to give a full pint, but it was mostly there.

After the obligatory stay in the cantina, I headed over to Mom & Dad's to pick up Jason for the library. He was at his friend Stephanie's house down the road, so I got his library books and his wallet from his room and picked him up there.

He checked out a few more books, and we went back to Mom & Dad's for lunch. While I ate, I watched Smallville from Thursday on the TiVo. Gotta love those season passes!

Once the show was over, I left to run my errands: Costco for gas, JCPenney for a couple necessities, and Wal*Mart for a few groceries.

Then I came back here to put everything away, and copied my pictures from my digital camera so that I could share them here (since Heather requested that I take them).

Slow Burn

After years
seeking new sanctuary
from the frost,
in a familiar refuge unfurls
an ever-brightening flame.

Something I Forgot

There was something I forgot to mention after that one time I went to Institute a couple weeks ago. Sister C. handed out copies of an April 2004 conference talk by Elder Oaks called, "Preparation for the Second Coming." (See earlier entry about Institute for more information about the lesson and how it might/might not tie into this.) There are a few paragraphs I'd really like to quote, and would've quoted sooner, if the article hadn't been gathering dust on my printer the whole time:

Evil that used to be localized and covered like a boil is now legalized and paraded like a banner. The most fundamental roots and bulwarks of civilization are questioned or attacked. Nations disavow their religious heritage. Marriage and family responsibilities are discarded as impediments to personal indulgence. The movies and magazines and television that shape our attitudes hare filled with stories or images that portray the children of God as predatory beasts or, at best, as trivial creations pursuing little more than personal pleasure. And too many of us accept this as entertainment.

The men and women who made epic sacrifices to combat evil regimes in the past were shaped by values that are disappearing from our public teaching. The good, the true, and the beautiful are being replaced by the no-good, the "whatever," and the valueless fodder of personal whim. Not surprisingly, many of our youth and adults are caught up in pornography, pagan piercing of body parts, self-serving pleasure pursuits, dishonest behavior, revealing attire, foul language, and degrading sexual indulgence.

An increasing number of opinion leaders and followers deny the existence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and revere only the gods of secularism. Many in positions of power and influence deny the right and wrong defined by divine decree. Even among those who profess to believe in right and wrong, there are "them that call evil good, and good evil" (Isaiah 5:20; 2 Nephi 15:20). Many also deny individual responsibility and practice dependence on others, seeking, like the foolish virgins, to live on borrowed substance and borrowed light.

Yikes!

Oh, wow, it's been a while since I updated. I didn't mean to go so long without posting, but it kind of snuck up on me. The last few weeks have been kinda crazy.

I can't really remember much about it, other than that Ryan was here on leave, so we hung out.

I've gotten a couple more movies off the TV, including the first three Harry Potter movies. I just got Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone this evening--though I accidentally had the DVD-Recorder on the wrong speed setting, so I had to use two disks. I'm going to copy it from the disks onto VHS, then re-copy it onto another DVD at the right speed.

I also have to copy Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Day After Tomorrow to VHS, then re-copy them to DVD without the commercials. I just have to have a day when I feel like watching those three movies twice each--or when I have stuff that will keep my mind occupied while still allowing me to stop the recordings when the movies are done.

Tomorrow, I'm covering Jen R's Beehive class, so it'll be like a blast from the past.

What Be Your Nerd Type?

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
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