This Space Intentionally Left Blank: July 2007 Archives

12 Thermidor CCXV (July 30, 2007)

One Day You Stand At The Edge Of Life And Face Darkness

Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, dead at 89.

If anyone wants me, I'll be sitting on the couch watching The Seventh Seal again.

Posted by g026r at 10:06 | 0 comments

10 Thermidor CCXV (July 28, 2007)

Important Notice (Again)

For the second time in a year, it would appear that someone has decided that my domain name is a nice choice for e-mail spoofing attempts.

The same statement applies as before: if you're arriving here because you're pissed off about the spam, then I can commiserate with you but, since I didn't send it, there's nothing that I can do about it.

Posted by g026r at 15:33 | 0 comments

4 Thermidor CCXV (July 22, 2007)

Andrew's Quick & Dirty, Spoiler-Free Harry Potter Review

Good but not great. A longer but still spoiler-free review is located below but hidden for those who have yet to finish and are trying to ignore all reviews. If you wish to read it, then you know what to do.

Continue reading Andrew's Quick & Dirty, Spoiler-Free Harry Potter Review

First off, the good: For starters, it's definitely an improvement over Half-Blood Prince — but it's not like that would take much. The bad fanfic feel of the previous novel has been mostly relegated to occasional paragraphs, plus the epilogue (more on that later).

The novel also doesn't drag. Rowling appears to have benefited from a change away from the standard Potter formula (i.e. time with Dursleys, journey to Hogwarts, high jinks ensue, wrap up by end of term).

Finally, it does definitely do what it set out to do, and provides a definite conclusion to the series.

Now then, the bad: Rowling's penchant for deus ex machina is out in full force, with characters appearing (or being discovered) unexpectedly to suddenly give advice, explain plot points, or simply to carelessly drop the information needed to allow Potter and company to continue their quest. Her writing, never her strongest point, suffers from occasional cheesy dialogue, and over-the-top descriptions (Chapters Twelve and Thirteen were the worst for the latter, in my opinion).

In addition, the Deathly Hallows of the title seem, in some ways, to be somewhat extraneous. The parts of the plot concerning it could easily be trimmed back without sacrificing anything significant other than several pages of text.

What of the much ballyhooed deaths? Well, there are a fair number of them (over a half-dozen named characters who appeared in previous novels, ranging from incredibly minor to major, die), but the deaths — whether longed for or unwelcome — aren't satisfying. Most dead characters don't get more than one or two sentences. To give an example: imagine if Dumbledore's death was given the same treatment as Cedric Diggory's, or if it was passed over with one character simply mentioning to another that Dumbledore had died.

Finally, the climactic chapters suffer from Rowling's worst writing of the novel. The dialogue is at its cheesiest and occasionally out-of-character. There's the feeling that every character who had any sort of role, however insignificant, makes an appearance — whether it makes sense or not — and the plot twists, far-too-pat explanations, and deus ex just get piled on in what seems like a rush to make sure that all of the important loose ends are tied up.

In some ways, it feels like Rowling spent much of the time studying Star Wars for ideas — unfortunately, she seems to have decided that Return of the Jedi was the good choice to model after.

So then, my last bit: if given my druthers, what would I change or eliminate? Well, I'd either seriously reduce the number of plot points regarding the Hallows or I'd increase the Hallows' importance. More importantly, though, I'd eliminate the epilogue entirely, and I'd completely rewrite everything from Chapter Thirty-Five onwards.

So there you have it: good but not great. I simply couldn't help but finish it without feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

Posted by g026r at 18:58 | 2 comments | Most recent by g026r

29 Messidor CCXV (July 17, 2007)

Strawberry Lemonade

Taken from Lemonade, by Fred Thompson — aka "the book for people who like the idea of lemons, but can't stand sour." (The recipes are generally good, but the amount of sugar he calls for is usually outrageous. It's been halved below, and I find it works quite well this way.)

You'll need:

1 1/2 cups fresh-squeezed lemon juice. (Thompson claims this will require 9 lemons, I used about 4.)
1 quart strawberries
3/4 of a cup sugar (May be adjusted depending on sweetness of berries and desired tartness.)
3 cups water

Hull and halve (or quarter, depending on size) the strawberries. Combine strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.

In a 2 quart container, combine the water, lemon juice, and berry/sugar-mixture. Stir and serve well chilled.

Posted by g026r at 12:17 | 0 comments

22 Messidor CCXV (July 10, 2007)

You Chowderhead!

This is honestly one of the strangest advice columns that I have ever read. Would somebody please tell me when the 3 Stooges started writing for the Globe & Mail?

(Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.)

Posted by g026r at 23:41 | 0 comments

18 Messidor CCXV (July 6, 2007)

Bumper Crop Of Nightmares Material

Swiped from Reddit:

Viktor Karlovich Bulla (1883-1938), Pioneers in Defense Drill, Leningrad (1937)

An article, called Dreams Decreed, describes the photo as such:

"Perhaps nothing captures an American's inability to think through the meaning of the Soviet photographs like Viktor Bulla's Pioneers in Defense Drill, Leningrad (1937), the most profoundly unsettling photograph in the exhibit. Bulla's photograph of hundreds of children wearing gas masks was not meant to be ghoulish, a commentary on war or lost innocence, but rather exemplified a reason for pride--the country was blessed with well-trained, well-equipped and obviously courageous young fighters."

I don't care what the context is, it's still creepy.

Posted by g026r at 13:32 | 0 comments

So Long, ICQ

Unlike seemingly everyone else who long ago abandoned their ICQ accounts when they moved to a new messaging service, I still used mine. Granted, it didn't get much use, but it still had a few nice features that weren't available in more popular messaging protocols. (i.e. offline messaging)

The key word in that paragraph is "used".

As of early this week, it would appear that I am no longer using ICQ — and not by choice. Rather, the service has simply stopped accepting my UIN/password combination and, since I can't remember what email account I registered it with years ago, I can't find out what they think my password has been changed to.

So, unless something unforeseen happens, it's good-bye to ICQ. If you were using that to contact me via IM, I suggest choosing one of the other protocols I can be reached via. (If you don't have any of the other protocol information, let me know and I can get it to you.)

Posted by g026r at 10:45 | 0 comments

16 Messidor CCXV (July 4, 2007)

Things I Never Knew

Apparently, in Canada the terms "fringe festival" and "fringe" (when used as a description of a festival) are ~~copyrighted~~ trademarked. And yes, they are actively enforced.

Who knew?

Posted by g026r at 23:34 | 0 comments

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