Life and Harry Potter
I read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in about 7 hrs. last night, ending at 5:45am. Not sure what I think, yet. I may stick in a few reactions to other ppl's thoughts under a cut after some non-HP rambling.
Went up to Ramah Berkshires for visiting day to see Shira today. So didn't get much sleep after reading. But it was good to see her, and especially good to hear that she's been doing really well there. It makes me so happy so see her doing something so normal so (relatively) easily.
Camp is still going as usual, the kids are still cute.
I bought my ticket to Israel last week!!!! Oh, man. It's getting real. I've done a (tiny) little bit of clothes-sorting. I've still gotta get a visa, and figure out the money situation, and stuff, but things are underway!
Unfortunately, I'm leaving right before my anniversary w/ Noah. And he'll still be at camp till the day after I leave, so that's gonna get tricky. Especially since my mom is pressuring me to cut down (entirely) on social activities to get ready to go. They seem to think seeing Noah 3 times in a 2 week period is too much. That's an evening a week, and about every other weekend. It's barely more than during the school year! But it's such a schlep, and w/ work in the mornings, ...
Anyway:
Dumbledore?!?!?!? I can't process it, but it's Not Okay. He's the Only One He Ever Feared, the respective demoralization and sense of victory of each side could be a very decisive factor alone, even w/o counting in Dumbledore's actual contributions! (Did that sentence make sense?) I know Harry's gonna carry on, but he's not Dumbledore! No one's got his experience or skills! Harry's certainly got unique experiences and skills to draw on, but I would have thought it would take both. (And I'm sure she's not gonna leave LV in power at the end, whether or not Harry totally defeats him or lives thru the battle, LV's going down. That's all there is to it.)
I'm so upset about Snape. I really am. And he was so convincing in OotP! I never *liked* Snape, but Dumbledore trusted him, so I wanted to too! I wonder if he was really on Voldemort's side the whole time, or if that was a decision he made over the course of time b/w LV's return and now. Agh, I just can't believe it, I really wanted to believe he was truly sorry! And now we may never know why Dumbledore trusted him so much. And come to think of it, I don't like such a blatant display of Dumbledore being wrong. I know he can't be perfect, but that's such a huge mistake!
I'm glad both Harry and Ron finally had relationships, tho Ron is stupid for wasting his time on Lavender Brown when she used to be so mean to him, and he clearly liked Hermione for so long. I'm glad that's finally getting going, but really, they are both so stupidly slow! Hermione, at least, should have put 2 and 2 together long ago and just asked Ron out to keep him from doing anything stupid, which he did. And Harry and Ginny? I liked it, I'm sorry he had to end it. I wonder if she'll wait for him? And I can't decide how long ago I actually saw it coming, and when I first thought to root for it, which was rather a while ago, but I had forgotten until this book. Good thing Ginny hadn't.
I'm not sure how I feel about RAB being Regulus Black. He does get mentioned an awful lot, but there have been red herrings before.
Snape as the HBP makes a fair amount of sense, Lupin (and others, I believe) had mentioned that Snape was up to his eyeballs in Dark Arts from the get-go, and it would make sense that someone who ended up Potions master was so good at improving Potions. But I wonder how the levicorpus (I didn't check the spelling on that, but it's the upside-down-by-the-ankle one) incantation got around, if it's non-verbal?
Oh! Sudden thought!! I wonder if it was getting the DADA job (and when did that class start getting an acronym, anyway???) that turned Snape? Maybe Dumbledore was right all along to keep him as Potions master! But what changed Dumbledore's mind??????? And why did he trust him so much???????????????????
Clearly, I had more to say on that than I realized. And I can't really talk about it here, Leah's only just started it, I don't wanna spoil for her. And my mom's not so into theorizing, as far as I can tell, but maybe the 3 of us will brainstorm when Leah's done.
Leave thoughts, I love theories, even if I think they're nuts!
Okay, I think I'm gonna go look for other HBP info.
Bye now.
Went up to Ramah Berkshires for visiting day to see Shira today. So didn't get much sleep after reading. But it was good to see her, and especially good to hear that she's been doing really well there. It makes me so happy so see her doing something so normal so (relatively) easily.
Camp is still going as usual, the kids are still cute.
I bought my ticket to Israel last week!!!! Oh, man. It's getting real. I've done a (tiny) little bit of clothes-sorting. I've still gotta get a visa, and figure out the money situation, and stuff, but things are underway!
Unfortunately, I'm leaving right before my anniversary w/ Noah. And he'll still be at camp till the day after I leave, so that's gonna get tricky. Especially since my mom is pressuring me to cut down (entirely) on social activities to get ready to go. They seem to think seeing Noah 3 times in a 2 week period is too much. That's an evening a week, and about every other weekend. It's barely more than during the school year! But it's such a schlep, and w/ work in the mornings, ...
Anyway:
Dumbledore?!?!?!? I can't process it, but it's Not Okay. He's the Only One He Ever Feared, the respective demoralization and sense of victory of each side could be a very decisive factor alone, even w/o counting in Dumbledore's actual contributions! (Did that sentence make sense?) I know Harry's gonna carry on, but he's not Dumbledore! No one's got his experience or skills! Harry's certainly got unique experiences and skills to draw on, but I would have thought it would take both. (And I'm sure she's not gonna leave LV in power at the end, whether or not Harry totally defeats him or lives thru the battle, LV's going down. That's all there is to it.)
I'm so upset about Snape. I really am. And he was so convincing in OotP! I never *liked* Snape, but Dumbledore trusted him, so I wanted to too! I wonder if he was really on Voldemort's side the whole time, or if that was a decision he made over the course of time b/w LV's return and now. Agh, I just can't believe it, I really wanted to believe he was truly sorry! And now we may never know why Dumbledore trusted him so much. And come to think of it, I don't like such a blatant display of Dumbledore being wrong. I know he can't be perfect, but that's such a huge mistake!
I'm glad both Harry and Ron finally had relationships, tho Ron is stupid for wasting his time on Lavender Brown when she used to be so mean to him, and he clearly liked Hermione for so long. I'm glad that's finally getting going, but really, they are both so stupidly slow! Hermione, at least, should have put 2 and 2 together long ago and just asked Ron out to keep him from doing anything stupid, which he did. And Harry and Ginny? I liked it, I'm sorry he had to end it. I wonder if she'll wait for him? And I can't decide how long ago I actually saw it coming, and when I first thought to root for it, which was rather a while ago, but I had forgotten until this book. Good thing Ginny hadn't.
I'm not sure how I feel about RAB being Regulus Black. He does get mentioned an awful lot, but there have been red herrings before.
Snape as the HBP makes a fair amount of sense, Lupin (and others, I believe) had mentioned that Snape was up to his eyeballs in Dark Arts from the get-go, and it would make sense that someone who ended up Potions master was so good at improving Potions. But I wonder how the levicorpus (I didn't check the spelling on that, but it's the upside-down-by-the-ankle one) incantation got around, if it's non-verbal?
Oh! Sudden thought!! I wonder if it was getting the DADA job (and when did that class start getting an acronym, anyway???) that turned Snape? Maybe Dumbledore was right all along to keep him as Potions master! But what changed Dumbledore's mind??????? And why did he trust him so much???????????????????
Clearly, I had more to say on that than I realized. And I can't really talk about it here, Leah's only just started it, I don't wanna spoil for her. And my mom's not so into theorizing, as far as I can tell, but maybe the 3 of us will brainstorm when Leah's done.
Leave thoughts, I love theories, even if I think they're nuts!
Okay, I think I'm gonna go look for other HBP info.
Bye now.