Entries tagged with harry potter

Current Mood: content
Crossposts: http://ceitfianna.livejournal.com/345214.html

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The ups outnumber the downs

This weekend has been long, tiring and surprisingly good. I went to Kids Read Comics yesterday and it was wonderful, events like that are why I want to be a librarian.

Though things have been good, they've also been one thing after another as I got the moving estimate and it was huge and didn't seem fully filled in, so I'm waiting on that. I hope to get the movers settled by tomorrow.

Also starting on Wednesday night, my trackpad was acting up, which was annoying. Today I took it to the Apple Store and they got me a new one and now its working again, which makes me happy. I have an idea for a librarian blog post to write and need to get to do more writing on my Narnia exchange but I signed up for

ineedmyfics and feel good.

That means its time for a meme, this is the first of two lovely memes that

in_the_blue posted recently, the other one requires more thought.

1. Reply to this post with Dance with me, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.

in_the_blue chose these icons:

This icon is called Taking Wing and

synchronicity2 made it and I love the beauty and hopefulness of it.

These are the Weasleys and they're my favorite part of Harry Potter as I love the joy they have with life and each other. They also remind me of my own family since there are a lot of us and we can be silly and love each other so much.

This in my mind is Will from the Disney Robin Hood and I love his expression of oh god, what now? That is one of my favorite versions of Robin Hood, it just works for me and makes me happy.

Tiwa,

piwakawaka is the name of my Changeling OC who turns into a bird called a fantail. This icon is of a beautiful statue made by a New Zealand artist of a fantail and I love the movement of it and how it has the feel of traditional carving but it its own thing. If I could, I would own so much fantail art as these little birds are quick and brave and remind me of New Zealand.

I loved the movie Up and the beauty of this moment spoke to me in that sense of far to go but the end is in sight. I made this icon as I couldn't find one that someone else had made.

Probably tomorrow I will start writing answers to the next meme which is five topics to write about. I hope everyone's week is going well. Life has been full of far too many ups and downs of late. Here's for more ups than downs.

Current Mood: drained
Crossposts: http://ceitfianna.livejournal.com/344781.html

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Wobbling a bit

Last night I didn't actually sleep. I meant to, I planned on it but it never happened. The darkness in my apartment was just too deep that I didn't even try. Instead I wore down the battery on my phone and laptop watching The Hollow Crown, which is amazing and reading Courtney Milan novellas and listened to the NPR music app, I love that app.Though my two cheap purchases yesterday were amazing, the little flashlight from 826 Michigan, which has yet to need new batteries. Then I also bought one of those handheld fans which have water in them, useful thing.

I've spent the majority of my day cafe hopping in search of AC and free wifi and feeling almost pummeled by the weight of the heat today. I also just realized that I somehow missed dinner and after work have to get my car from the parking garage, pick up a person for Kids Reads Comics and drop them where they're staying then head home.

According to DTE, my power should be restored between 9:30 and 11:30 tonight which would be wonderful. I think my frozen food should be okay as its all precooked stuff.

I've yet to get an estimate from Two men and a truck, so I'm guessing they lost power and haven't had a chance to email me. This worries me as I really want to get the moving company settled. Depending on how things go, I'll either email them or phone them tonight just to go, I want to hire you, please don't forget me. Since I've been up almost all day today, I've written a lot of FridayFic as they're a wonderful distraction from everything.

( Tweeted stories )

Current Mood: hot
Crossposts: http://ceitfianna.livejournal.com/344133.html

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Too damn hot

Today has been odd and I keep reminding myself that yes, I did get things done. I had the first moving estimate from a big moving company which was honestly terrifying in how expensive it was. Hopefully the one for the slightly smaller national company will be less. Then lost a good part of my afternoon by creating a Goodreads' account, most of you probably got emails from me, but if not, please friend me. I like how easy it is to add books and I think LibraryThing will be for doing what I've read, crosspost reviews and Goodreads for my list of to read, which is daunting. There are so many books I want to read out there.

I also emailed my mentor in Delaware who's happy to have me back, put my work shifts up on the Tradeboard and sent another cover letter out. Then I ended up waiting for a storm that didn't happen and leaving my window partly open just made my apartment sticky, so back to the fan. Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to

dodger_sister's and I think I'm going to make the cornbread muffins in the morning. That way they're all nice and hot instead of sitting over night.

Now to make my writing brain come back as my story for the Narniaexchange is going far too slowly. I know what I want to be the heart of it but the words aren't coming. I also really want to write a good and meaty post about heroines because reading Sappho's Leap that didn't get that Sappho was amazing for herself and her poetry, and then seeing Snow White and the Huntsman and Brave, which did get it gives me ideas. I'm not sure if its a post that will end up here or on my librarian blog, it depends on how happy I am with it.

I highly recommend Snow White and the Huntsman, which for me was like, yes, this is how I imagine the world of Robin Hood, medieval with magic and harsh and just perfect. It actually got me playing Will more and he always makes me happy. I need to write up my HP!AU breaking of him as well since I have a few ideas with it. Brave was wonderful as well though I think I'd actually go see Snow White and the Huntsman for a second time before it. Though I'd see Brave again with my family, it depends on the audience and my mood, one made me all thinky, the other made me cry and go, yes, family.

Current Mood: cheerful
Crossposts: http://ceitfianna.livejournal.com/343259.html

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Miles to go

I haven't actually posted in a few days as I've started to get into the meat of figuring out moving back to Delaware in August. Thankfully its not as confusing as it could be, most of its closing things down, clearing out and figuring out estimates and stuff like that. For those of you who've used moving companies, how does this all work? Apparently I get estimates for my stuff and dates and all. My parents have done it but I'd love thoughts from others as its at the moment a new thing for me.

Work is being busy as I have to try and find ways to get my August shifts covered as I'd prefer to actually go east with my stuff and parents but if I need to cover shifts I will. Though I find it ironic that next month, I get a two dollar raise, I don't know what to make of that. More money is good but getting it as I'm on my way out is odd.

In other I'm doing far too much stuff news, the Ann Arbor District Library is hosting Kids Read Comics on the weekend of the 6th and 7th when I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday but I volunteered for Sunday. Its the kind of event that I want to help organize and run as a librarian so I'm going to do what I can to be involved even if it means I fall over on that Monday.

I'm also still getting job referrals for school, or at least one that I sent off my cover letter for. I hope I interest them. Also I've discovered that my iPhone's to do list plus Evernote makes me feel so much more organized as I like lists where I can cross things off.

Now for a new round of the icon meme, this time started of by

crazyfurries:
1. Comment with the word "Chimera" to engage the game.
2. The selection of five of your icons will commence.
3. Please generate your own entry with the backstory/explanation/snarky commentary behind the selected icons.
4. Watch the cycle of a game begin anew.

Keyword: Fred and Ginger Dancing
I have an incredible soft spot for early musicals especially Astaire and Rogers and when I started looking for more icons, I found this one. Its one of my life is good icons, because dancing is something I love and their joy is obvious. The image is from when they're singing "Let's call the whole thing off", which is the song where you say potato, I say potato comes from. I also have a CD of all the music they did together, it makes me happy and I wish I owned more of their movies on DVD.

Keyword: Taking Wing
Ali

synchronicity2 made this icon and I love the simplicity of it. It's one of my contemplative icons for when life is seeming rather big.

Keyword: Weasley's family
I adore the Weasley's, I think they're probably my favorite part of the entire Harry Potter series as they remind me a lot of my own family. They're loud, a little big and messy and full of love and will welcome people in with open arms. I love this icon because the image captures them and my kind of happiness, being surrounded by those I love about to eat too much and just be together.

Keyword: Feathered face
I first found this icon while I was looking for Tiwa icons but its since become one of my favorites. Birds make me happy as does acting and there's something about this icon that holds a lot of how we're all rather complicated. Sometimes we wear masks and try being someone else, but we're always happy.

Keyword: Candy raspberries
Raspberries are one of my favorite things to eat and I also love the candy ones, I happen to have a rather awful sweet tooth. This is one of my happy icons as its simple, bright and makes me smile.

Current Mood: peaceful
Crossposts: http://ceitfianna.livejournal.com/336940.html

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A touch of wanderlust

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The idea of a housewarming party comes from
an old British tradition. People who were moving would carry away embers
from the fireplace of the home they were leaving and bring them to the
fireplace of the new home. I recommend that you borrow this idea and
apply it to the transition you're making. As you migrate toward the
future, bring along a symbolic spark of the vitality that has animated the
situation you're transitioning out of.

Uncle Rob seems to know my thoughts quite a bit of late. When I came home from my travels last night, I had this grump of the flat is too dark and when they were showing my place, they did something with the blinds. It was all easily fixed but it feels like my time here is probably ending as while the sink is fixed, my landlords have just making me grumpy more of late. Normally I feel happier to be back but it was a point of huh, yeah, I think I will be moving on soon.

My interview went incredibly well and I can certainly see myself working at that school. I'm still processing it as I've had three days of four to six hour drives in a row, but tomorrow I don't work and will finally see The Avengers. I would have seen it today but I had a phone interview that also went really well with another school. I feel like I know how I might fit into these schools and I love it. Each conversation makes me realize what I know and what I can do.

Oh and I'm having some amazing roleplaying stuff that Twitter has been hearing about. That added a lot of fun to my long days of driving.

Now for another round of the icon meme with icons from

bjornwilde. If you'd like some icons just comment.

This was my very first icon that I made from the Ace of Cups in my tarot deck, which is the Faery Wicca one. In the link, the original image from the icon is the top right hand corner. I scanned it on my mother's scanner and then cropped it and for about two or three years it was my only icon. I'm still proud of it even though I don't use it that much.

I love the Harry Potter books and the Weasley family is one of my favorites within that world. I happened to see this icon and it reminded me of family parties with not enough seats and too much food and Harry Potter so I snagged it.

The Once and Future King is a book that I just adore and Merlin is such a fun show that when I was looking for a Merlin icon, I knew it had to say once and future king on it. This was the icon I found.

I loved Inception and the moment when Ariadne manipulates the landscape is probably one of my favorites in it. I wish they had been willing to be a little more surreal but its a great film. I knew I wanted an icon of that moment and it trickier to find than I expected.

spiffynamehere made me this icon and some other really pretty ones when she was in an icon making mood and I love it. Its so peaceful and contemplative.

Current Mood: amused

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Little Meme

A fun meme from

in_the_blue and before I sleep tonight, I'm going to post at least one fic.

She gave me H:
1-Harry Potter-first one that comes to mind
2-Captain Hook-I can see my video of Hook from here.
3-Hermione Granger-Another easy one.
4-Helen-Greek Mythology
5-Hank McCoy-X-Men, because I keep writing about X-Men and I need to work him into more of my fics as I wonder the conversations he and Xavier had.
I'm also adding a sixth through the icon I'm using.

1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and either reply here with their names and your comments on the characters or post them to your own journal.

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Thoughts on Endings

I don't have a lot of words about Norway or Amy Winehouse as any death is a loss and so many deaths at once is hard to comprehend. The thing I find scariest is how quickly the world turns these deaths to their own use instead of mourning and allowing time between death and anger. That's one of the dangers of how fast our connected world moves, a version can be written that says one thing no matter if its true as long as it satisfies someone. I hope that some justice can be found and those who lost someone will find time to heal.

Today I finally saw Harry Potter and I enjoyed it. The theater was almost full, which was a really nice surprise though it was a quiet audience. I was one of maybe five or ten people who clapped at various points.
( More Thoughts, slightly nostalgic and probably spoilers )

After the movie, I walked into a drenching rain to get a not so great pizza at a restaurant called Carlyle's that was trying to be much snazzier than it is. It was all dressed up like a really nice steak house but the food I had was just okay.

Another ending I just realized I should mention is Borders, which I keep hearing more and more about since this is their home base. They were my first big bookstore that I could walk to and buy my own books. Its fascinating to get all these emails on my SI listserve of students and faculty talking about Borders and what it meant to them and what their closings means. At some point I will go shopping as I walk by them all the time, its going to be hard to see that big store empty.

Now I'm home, my stomach hurts and the heat has lifted slightly. Life is feeling quite full at the moment. In about two weeks, I have my last class at Michigan and then I dive fully into job searching. At the end of August, my brother gets married and hopefully in not too long, I will find a job and make my next step.

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

(no subject)

This has been a really weird week. I had all these plans of things I wanted to do and so far most of what I've done has been sleep and wander around the Art Fair. Oh and I read Welcome to Bordertown which I loved and has made my list of authors to find and read much longer. I have pretty earrings that look like joyful dancing girls but that's about it. I'm going to try and sleep early in the hope that tomorrow I will wake up, watch Harry Potter 7.2 and then do errands or writing or something.

Have a meme last seen on

alas_a_llama's journal.

Everyone has things they write about. Everyone has things they don't write about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't write about, but you'd like to hear about.

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Riddles

I've recently started getting Uncle Rob's horoscope email as I keep reading them and they resonate with me so I'm posting the one for this week as it got me thinking.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Do you know how to resolve an unresolvable
paradox?" asked a Facebook friend named Pi. He answered his own
question: "You figure out the 'error' in the initial premise or assumption."
And that's my prescription for you this week, Gemini. Do not be tempted
to bang your head against the wall so as to shake loose a non-existent
answer to the wrong question. Instead, stop yourself in the middle of your
angst and think: "What would be a more productive way to formulate the
riddle I need to untangle?"

This feels right in terms of a number of things. I was trying to print my resume to send out to the first job, I emailed them my stuff already and something was off in the header and footer of the first page so it won't print. Also I have two weeks to write a grant for my class and I'm fretting about getting some new clothes and a dress for my brother's wedding and not feeling happy with my body. Also last night I watched the first part of Deathly Hallows, which was wonderful but heartbreaking.

So I read this, took a deep breath and went for a walk. Ann Arbor is setting up for the Art Fair, which means most of the major downtown street are full of booths and people prepping booths. I lost myself in Welcome to Bordertown and felt more hopeful. Urban Fantasy offers the possibility of looking sideways to see beauty and magic that was always there, which is how I like to think about the world. I know I can do what I need to, write the grant, find a job, find a place where I can figure out how to feel happier with myself. The trick is to not get too caught up in any one question but enjoy the quest. I know I have this bad habit of over thinking things until I've tied myself in knots over what I can't control and ignored what I can.

If this first job doesn't pan out, its the first one and there is a need for librarians out there. I have a number of great links and places to find jobs and an amazing support system. Writing a grant is tricky but I'm doing well in the class and the program I've designed is fascinating. Now I just need to fit it inside the specific structure of a grant. While I'm not happy with where my body is at the moment, grad school isn't that healthy and I know what I like doing in terms of moving and cooking. Its a matter of finding the time to say and now I will find a dance class, a theater class, something to get me moving and feeling social and live more. In the meantime, I'll keep cooking interesting things and walking everywhere. This week I will get a new desk chair so my back stops hurting and a shredder to keep money safe and keep making my home. Since I'm in the body and place I'm in now and won't be here again, I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can and see Harry Potter this week too. I can't believe part 1 ends there.

Current Mood: peaceful

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Hot Summer Days

Summer has truly hit in Michigan, the weather is in the 80s and beautiful though humid. I'm still trying to find a good sleep schedule as I think I'm adjusting to the heat. So I end up staying up far too late and then have trouble sleeping.

The night before last I had a dream that has stuck with me, I was visiting a workplace or a school, it wasn't really clear, but I fit in incredibly well. At the end of my time there all the guys who were there asked for me ways to keep in touch but at some point what they wrote down wasn't email addresses or numbers. This meant I had to ask them again and I woke up feeling disappointed and wondering if I can find a place like that.

In good news, I'm enjoying figuring out what to do for my birthday and planning to see X-Men: First Class soon. The reviews and things people have been posting make me hopeful that it will be another fun summer movie.

Now to post more pictures, this batch is going to be flowers and some beautiful birds and critters that I've seen.

I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but these flowers caught my eye.

( Bright, Blooming World )

Current Mood: good

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Checking Things Off and Finds

Today went pretty well even though it started off rather bumpy. I woke up at the right time and then went back to sleep and woke up right when I was meant to be at work. Since I drive to work it was fine and I finished all the things I needed to. I'll go back to America Reads next week to wrap some things up, but I'm pretty much done there.

It was sunny today and after work, I drove out to Borders and was able to snag a Deathly Hallows DVD and the newest novel by Catherynne Valente. I probably spent more than I should have but I've heard great things about this novel and I didn't have a coupon so I just went with it.

Then I came home and finished up one last blog post on my wordpress blog for my Professional Practice class. Now that class is completely done, which is a nice feeling. I meant to do some writing on my Milliways' paper but it hasn't happened. I have all the ideas in my head, they just need to get on paper. Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to fill out the survey. Tomorrow at work in the morning, I'm going to try and do some writing. My part of my group presentation for Tuesday is looking good, I just need to get my self-evaluation done at some point.

Also I got my summer work schedule and its really nice, work early Sunday evening, class Monday afternoon, work Tuesday night, work Wednesday early afternoon and then done. That will leave me a couple of days to myself. I'm trying to pick either a class or a routine to try during the summer, maybe couch to 3K or try one of the many dance/yoga studios around me. Its a nice thing to plan.

In the meantime, here's a nice little meme that's been going around my flist. Last seen on

mm_spinelstar and

viridian.

Give me a character and I will tell you...

* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character -
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

All my characters can be found over in my profile here and if you're curious about a canon you know I like, just ask.

Current Mood: good

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I dance to be free.

I just tried out a Bollywood dance exercise video and it made me realize how much I've missed dance. In undergrad, I fulfilled my PE credits by taking a modern dance class which I loved. We had the most amazing guest teachers and I wish I could remember all of them because some of them were well known. At the end of every class, I'd be sore as I walked up the hill to campus from the gym but it felt wonderful. I did theater in middle school and high school and while I was never a great singer, I loved the physicality of getting into a character and dancing. Live performance and dance are things that have been aching inside me and this came a little closer to filling that hole.

Work today was tiring and I ended up leaving early as I finished up another round of games and books and ran out of labels. Then I braved Trader Joe's and now have lots of food supplies. There's tons of progress on getting my intership credits sorted but the other class stuff is being really slow. I've emailed people but haven't heard back, but I'm not going to give up. I would love any suggestions about what else might work. Worst case scenario, I take a summer class as opposed to graduating in May.

Now I've been meaning to do this for a while but life sort of whacked me. Here are another two rounds of the icon meme. If you'd like five more icons for yourself just comment with meme me.

These ones are from

misslucyjane

( Round 3 )

Next round from

skidmo

( Round 4 )

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Someday I'll have a good Monday

There's a reason I was wary about having someone help me out and it was kind of born out when she first sorted the books alphabetically by author's first name. Its been fixed now and she's moving through, but not how I wanted to start my day.

I'm also deep in the midst of trying to figure out how in the world to catalog the phonics/decodeable books. The issue is there are many ways to do it and the woman in charge isn't around and I don't want to make a choice without her say so. She's been so stressed lately that I'd rather double check everything and border on annoying than do the wrong thing.

Okay, found a solution, export records like mad from OCLC and I think I should be alright and my helper ended up figuring things out. Gah, one step forward and two steps back, OCLC has the records but I can't export records only bibliographic information, the citation.

Also having to wait until the helper leaves to grab lunch at around 1:15 is not good for making me happier. I will make today work out.

Now for something fun, Ask me for my top five in any aspect of fandom from

in_the_blue so I can have some nice distraction.

She asked me for my five most hated fictional villains, so here they are in no particular order.

Severus Snape, he's a bully and a bad teacher and its nice that he gets redeemed by his actions, but I still don't like him. He may not fully count as a villain, but he does to me since throughout the books, he's the person daily that Harry is confronting and dealing with.

Reigner One from Hexwood, he's manipulative and cruel for the sake of making others cruel. People who work to bring out the worst in people bother me a lot.

Tom Lefroy's Uncle, he's clearly meant to represent all the forces of society against Jane and Tom, but he's not as fully realized as some of the other villains like Lady Gresham.

Quaritch from Avatar, because when you pay attention to the way the world works, he's just a man doing his job. So I'm not a fan of how Cameron makes him the whole military is messed up weapon.

The guy who subpeonas Jack in 24: Redemption, he's the epitome of sleazy government and not a good foil at all for Jack or Carl who are just so awesome.

This was actually much harder than I thought it would be to think of. I guess really I don't like badly drawn villains.

ETA: I have found a way to get the records, someone out there wrote code to make Amazon stuff into Marc records, its many steps but doable.

Current Mood: content

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Apparently its Homecoming Weekend

My week has been rather long, I started it by discovering I have extra stuff to for America Reads and ended it feeling worn out but accomplished. Resting on Tuesday has made me healthier than I think I might have been and sometimes the work I do is wonderful.

Students have been immensely pleased with how quickly I can make their Mcard into an America Reads' library card. This weekend happens to be Fall Break and Homecoming weekend so I'm not driving anywhere if I can help it. Just driving home yesterday afternoon, the traffic was starting to get crazy.

After this entry, I'm going to head out and find a cafe to read Charles de Lint's Moonheart, I'm really enjoying it though I can tell its an early work. He's one of those writers where I love all of his stuff since there's so much depth in everything. The early part comes in that I can see him figuring out the magical systems for his world.

Oh and I've sent in my Yuletide nominations, which go above the cut while picspam shag, marry and cliff goes under it.

Now this is going to be a picture heavy post as I'm doing a wonderful and pretty meme from

katernater.

1) Comment to this and I will give you 3 people (I will pick only fictional people for you)
2) Post this meme to your LJ with your answers.
3) Provide pictures and the names of the 3 people.
4) Label whom you would shag, marry and cliff.

She gave me the Weasley twins, Castle and Arthur from the BBC's Merlin.

( Difficult Choices )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Good Samaritan-Norumbega Harmony

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Ah Life so Messed up

The AAA guy just left and was very helpful but apparently I need a new battery. He was willing to sell me one since at this point from Mazda, I'd be paying for service and only half of the price. I'll probably call him to get a new battery but this just makes me sigh because life is crazy at times. I've been recently planning my first solo road trip on break down to Kentucky to see

moofoot and

wordsthatfail so this is the month for learning more about my car.

Also I think this is kind of an odd sign that I hadn't charged my ipod yet since I mainly listen to it in the car.

So since I have time before I have to head up for class at 5, its time for an awesome meme from

dynastessa as I try to figure out how to get to sword stuff without my car.

Comment and I'll give you three of your fandoms, then copy and paste the questions onto your journal and fill it out.

dynastessa gave me:
1. Chronicles of Narnia
2. Harry Potter
3. Supernatural

( Lots of interesting questions )