Harry Potter and the Half Assed Plot

I must preface this whole blog by saying I am a person who whole-heartedly understands that a movie CANNOT be a book. There must be cuts and edits and some re-writing to translate the written page to the big (or small in Danielle Steele's case) screen. And up to this point I have never had any large issues with any book I've liked being turned into a movie. If I have, it's been because the acting was terrible or in the case of 'Flowers in the Attic' the screenwriter couldn't have possibly read the book, maybe the cliffs notes...anyhoo, that was until I saw 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. Suffice it to say, if you have not read the book or seen the movie and do not want to know anything, stop reading now and move along.

First off, I had read some reviews and articles stating that the big finale wasn't like the book at all. The rumor that Dumbledore wasn't killed off is completely false. He dies, just like in the book. What doesn't happen is there is no big fight between the OOP and the Death Eaters, and no funeral scene. Nichols (the director) had a good point about not having the big fight; there's going to be one at the castle in the last movie, it would be redundant in the films. Instead of a funeral, there's a bit of a nice tribute. Cool. It was good. Now on to my gripe. This movie went from one that should have helped set up the finale in the way it needs to be set up, to one long crappy teenage lovey dovey fest!! The sub-plot concerning the love lives of the main characters was turned into the major plot of this film! And for some reason, they decided to burn down the Weasley's burrow! WTF?? No mention was made of Harry inheriting #12 Grimauld Place or Kreatcher, VERY IMPORTANT INFO. No explanation of WHY Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, VERY IMPORTANT INFO. And there was very little build up of the Horcurxes..a MAJOR plot point in the next two films!
We waited an extra EIGHT frickin' months for this movie only to be handed this crappy sitcom that's 5 times too long??? Bring back Chris Columbus for fuck's sake, at least he kept something of the storyline resembling the actual plots of the first two books and visually was a damn genius! How the hell did they get JK Rowling to sign off on this adaptation?
I have read all of these books to the point of not really needing to re-read them completely to enjoy them anymore and I can say unequivocally this has been the worst adaptation, not only for the series, but for adapted movies from books that I have ever seen!! The last book of the series is an awesome piece of writing. It's smart, well thought out and leads us to a great ending, let's hope the last two movies redeem this franchise and don't make me want to slit somebody's wrists!

Albert Einstein Invented Science, didn't you know?

So my son says to my husband while they are in the bathroom at Chipotle; "Albert Einstein invented science." Then after they wash their hands he says, "If you waste paper towels, it's rude to Jesus!" This is my child. My wonderful, smart, sport enthusiast of a child. A child who has been to Christian church a handful of times and believes both in Jesus and reincarnation due to his father and I's differing beliefs.
I was raised Catholic for the first 6 years of my life, when I began to behave so badly in Mass (hello, it was BORING) that my mother drug me out of the church proclaiming we'd never come back if I couldn't behave. I suppose you could say ( and I do - often ) I couldn't take the guilt so I didn't go back.
Instead I went more regularly to the southern Baptist church with my paternal grandmother, or Maamaw as I lovingly called her. It was definitely more fun there. Less structured, not so hard on the knees. And I believed it all, every bit of it, until I was about 10 or so. See my mother taught me to read before I started school, so by the time I was in Kindergarten I was reading books that were high school level. Therefore, I didn't have that same innocent mind akin to blind faith as most children. I was a questioner, and I questioned everything. Questions like what's the difference between hearing 'God' and just being schizo? If 'God' can perform the miracle of immaculate conception for Mary, why not for a man? I mean, it's one thing for a chick to show up preggers and claim she's never had sex, but it's totally something else for a man to show up in the 'motherly way'. Now THAT would something.
But then again, I had deeper questions. Questions that couldn't be shaken off with just "Have faith. Faith is the answer." Umm, I call BULLSHIT. We had a youth pastor when I was around 14-15 and we were going on a mission trip. Before hand we had to fill out a questionnaire and have a sit down with him. These were pretty heady questions, things like: do you believe in God? I answered maybe. It also had a place for us to ask what we wanted. I asked how do we not know that every religion is actually perpetrated by the same higher power? Suppose that in an effort to fulfill all of the different kinds of peoples needs around the world, different beliefs were handed out, just like different skin colors and languages. And then a secondary reason for this was to help reinforce the value of loving each other as we are, of accepting differences and making them work.
That youth pastor didn't give me the bullshit line. He told me that what I thought could very possibly be true. That my idea was something that we could explore and research. He valued what I had to say. Unfortunately, we never got that chance. Other's in the church, you know the ones (you gotta just have faith) didn't like his forward was of thinking, and made his job such a nightmare he eventually resigned and moved on. This example shows full on why most organized religion is more of a hindrance to fulfillment rather than something beautiful that glorifies anything or anyone. They don't allow for growth or better interpretation. They are about keeping you down, underfoot. If you are happy, you must be sinning. If you are in despair, then damn you're doing RIGHT!
I will allow my child to learn about all religions that he is interested in. If he wants to find out about Judaism, Hinduism or what have you, I'll help him on his route. But I'll be sure to instill in him the ability to allow everyone to have their opinions and not degrade them for it. He'll also be able to stand up against those that will put him down for his choice, whatever that may be. And if he ever decides he wants to cast a circle with me and call his God and Goddess Jesus and Mary, I'm okay with that.

Beating a Dead Horse? How do you know

Wow, cool stuff happens all at once doesn't it? I finally got an iPhone! Did I NEED it, no. Did I have some extra cash so it didn't come out of the budget, yes! I feel that I make a lot of sacrifices (to not much avail) and occasionally I want to do something nice for myself. But then, right after I got it, I found out Tori Amos was coming to KC right before my birthday, so I guess I'll be doing something else for myself!
I'm not sure I'm living the life I was meant to. Do you ever have that feeling? I always seem to make the wrong decisions, so I'm trying to stick with certain decisions that I've made hoping that they'll turn out for the best, because I know my luck, as soon as I make that decision to do something different, it will be worse. Maybe I need a life coach!! Right. I wonder what kind of life they actually have that makes them so wise as to tell others how to live. Was there really a major for that and if so, why don't they condense it down to just one course and require all students to take it, like with stupid PE? I will never understand why PE is required in COLLEGE! But then again, I'll never understand a lot of mandatory things we have in the US.
The iPhone is awesome, I'm listening to Tori's new album on her MySpace, as it isn't available until Tuesday.
Other good things: my kid is rocking at baseball. I'm counting the money I spend for him to play as an investment so he can take care of his wonderful mother in her old age. Right now he doesn't think that is such a hot plan. After all, I already work two jobs, I can surely take care of myself, right? Oh to have an 8 year old's logic again. At least he has been an angel at school the last few months. People who are against medicating children: find the right mix. You can give your child a medication that won't turn them into a zombie, but does dial down the impulsiveness so that they can actually learn at school! Then the idiots running the public school won't just send them off to the 'bad kids' school so they can learn some REALLY bad habits from actual juvenile delinquents!
Rambling seems to be a process of mine. I could now ramble on to more boring and obnoxious topics, but I think I should probably start getting ready to go to my sister - in - law's graduation party. Whoo, teenages galore...fun.

The St. Joe School District Got F*cked!

So we had a levy and bond issue for our public schools a couple of weeks ago. It didn't pass and I am still seething! The main reason given by people who voted against it was because there wasn't a 'sunshine' clause. They also don't think we need to close down some of the older schools and build a couple of new schools.
Everyone seems to forget that we want public schools FOREVER, so we're going to have to pay for them FOREVER. We should gladly and proudly fund our schools. When this was first brought up, I too, was like "the schools are too old? Humboldt is older than either of the ones they want to close!" But then it was explained to me by someone who had volunteered at the schools that Hall School has only 2 bathrooms for the ENTIRE student body, not 2 per floor, 2 total. And if they wanted to add a couple more, they would have to remodel the ENTIRE building up to todays standards (ADA and all that). Now imagine doing that to a bunch of schools...seems cheaper to build 1 or 2 brand new schools than to re-do 3 or 4 older ones. Everyone was okay with the CIP for the Shoppes, seeing as they brought in ALL those high-paying jobs (that was sarcasm - which they teach in English in the PUBLIC SCHOOLS), but we can't seem to fund our schools to the point that our children can have an adequate place to learn and then perhaps when they grow up have ACTUAL high-paying jobs. Taxes are a part of life when you want government to provide public services. For those of you who say tax and spend doesn't work - how come there was a surplus when Clinton left office? Who cares if it does or doesn't? No one is up in arms that we let the government take our tax money to bail out the super rich like AIG, and here we can't even give our children the promise of a bright future cause we're such damn tightwads. You want the school district to cut back, you want salary freezes and such, how about you give up your gas guzzling vehicle, your cable television, your gym membership? How much do you spend at Starbucks every month. I guarantee that if you get a $4-$5 coffee every morning, that's going to add up to more than school levy portion of your property tax every year. Let's stop being selfish already and do something for the future. The 'Me Generation' is so passe. Our 'bright' tax-paying voters also saw no problem with voting to use tax money to entice the Kansas City Chiefs to bring their training camp to MWSU! So let's see what this says about our town...it says that we'll give tax breaks and use our taxes to bring in lots of minimum wage jobs while all the good paying ones go over seas, and we'll use tax money and breaks so that a bunch of over paid, probably roided up, sterile men can train closer to home, but WE WON'T FUND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE!! That sure makes me 'St Joe Proud' - BARF!
If only could afford to move to a real town where the intelligent people outweigh the idiots!

ooohh primero

I had to pick this font because it is titled Trebuchet...the only time I had heard this word previously was on "Little People, Big World" when they were building that catapult-esqe contraption. Perhaps that is fitting as this is the first blog, jetting myself into the big wide world of it (blogging, not trebucheting).
You may see 'Murvene' and think "that sounds like someone's middle name", and you'd be right! It belongs to a girl I went to high school with and I have always felt that it was begging to be the name of a girls doo-wop group. Alas, I have no doo-wop group nor the vocal exhaltations to perpetrate one, so here it is relegated to the name of a web log.
My free time for expelling my creative juices will become less than I have even now. My duties at work are about to double due to the impending conclusion of my boss's breeding efforts. A mini-she will be with us by tax day (hopefully), thus knocking our 3 woman finance office down to 2. This comes at a time when many changes are traipsing across our non-profit door. Stimulus money influx, highest unemployment numbers in decades, people needing help at an un-precedented rate since the Great (what was so great about it really?) Depression. Our third is new to our crew, joining us a scant 6 months ago, however she is quick on the draw. We'll muddle through with the utmost confidence of our executive director, all the while praying (she to her God, me to my multiple ones) that we do as well as everyone needs us and expects us to. No pressure. Really. And that's just my full time gig.
Let's not forget the part-time selling of books, full time mommy, full time wifey, part time student, wanna be writer, as well as dipping the toes into the waters of possible starting a home side business and not missing any of the boy's baseballs games. How about 3 more hours added to the days? Enough for today. More tomorrow (or sometime this week), but fun and entertaining!