Mostly about Travelouges

I had a test today in MC 301. All weekend I was like, "I should study for this test. I should do the study guide. I should really devote some time going over the stuff that's going to be on this test." But I didn't do any of that. Saturday I was a disgrace to humanity. I woke up. Did nothing. Ate lunch. Watched 30 Rock. Took a nap. Went to Fazzoli's with the lads. Went to Walmart to kill time before work. Saw Thomas there. Had a nice conversation with him. Went to work. Actually the last four things weren't all that disgraceful, but the rest of the day I was a useless human being. Sunday was slightly better. I went to Mass, did some homework, helped with lunch, watched some long way down, made some cookies and played some Pharaoh, but no studying. So this morning, I woke up early to get some studying down before class. I got to class half and hour early, studied briefly, and got a 96% on the test. Boo-yeah. I guess the moral of the story is, I'm awesome.

Speaking of Long Way Down, which I did briefly last paragraph, I enjoyed Long Way Down, which is the second travel documentary made by Charlie Boorman and Ewan MacGregor. If you recall, last year I watched Long Way Round, their first documentary. It was the story of Ewan and Charlie riding around the world on Motor cycles. In Long Way Down they ride from Scotland to South Africa on motorcycles. Long Way Round is a much better documentary series then Long Way Down, but that's not because Long Way Down is bad, it's because LWR is so incredibly awesome.

Now I'm going to talk about how I came to love travel documentaries:

Two words; Michael Palin. My mom got my dad the book "Pole to Pole: With Michael Palin" for fathers day or something one year, sometime after I graduated high school. I don't really know why; dad had never seen the series, nor expressed a great love for travel documentaries, nor Michael Palin for that matter (although, I think everyone's love for Michael Palin is the kind of love that needn't be spoken). Anyway he got this book, and it just so happened that they had that series at the library. So we rented and watched the series and it was very interesting. It was the story of Michael Palin traveling with a camera crew from the North Pole to the South Pole. He goes through a big chunk of Russia and through a lot of Africa. One of the most interesting things about that series is that he travels through Russia, and gets out like 2 weeks before communism falls. It's pretty neat to see the last weeks of communism through the eyes of a traveler.
They had another of Michael's travel series called "Hemingway Adventures" at the library. I watched that one too and loved it. Then I discovered that both of these series were sequels to Palin's wildly popular first series, around the world in 80 days, in which he follows Philieus Fogg's path around the globe using mostly the same sort of methods employed by Fogg. He does use cars at some point though I think. Anyway, I downloaded that one and watched it and was amazed. So yeah. I love travel documentaries.

Here is a list of my favorite travel documentaries:

1. Long Way Round
2. Around the World in 80 Days
3. Pole to Pole
4. Long Way Down

Anyway... I'm done being boring for the night... well at least writing boring things. I'm going to bed.
5. Sahara

More Icy Goodness

Hey, it's sleeting again and they closed SEMO again! It doesn't bother me so much this time, because I'm not actually missing class. I actually like class this semester.

Speaking of class: Yesterday in Intermediate Film Production we played with lighting. I hate lighting. I hate trying to set up lights in a shot. It's a crapshoot, it takes a long time, and the effect of multiple lights, although noticeable, becomes less so the more you add, and we had to set up a shot with four lights yesterday (which is about two more than were necessary for the shot, and one more than what's necessary for something called "three point lighting", which is a pretty basic lighting technique). Anyway lighting... yeah.... don't like it.

Job!
I have a job. I've worked one night so far (my second night is tonight). It wasn't too bad. The work isn't hard. It was fun to work with Matthew, although that's not going happen every night. I was just working with him while I was training. But he'll still be there, so that's cool. I really need to find a second job. That is something that needs to happen next week or sooner. I might apply at Food Giant if they are still hiring.

Is Semi-Pro rated R? I think it is, which is exciting. Everyone else in that group has been doing R rated comedies, I'm interested to see how Will Ferrell does without the restrictions of PG-13. It doesn't come out till next week though, so I have one more week to wait.

It's been a couple of months since I heard from Jimmy. I've e-mailed him a couple of times but have gotten no response. I think I might call him this weekend to see what he's up to.

Ok off to bathe.

Valentine's Day Math-acre?

What's up internet? Oh really? I'm sorry to hear that. (I'm pretty sure I've used this joke before)


Anyway. It's Valentine's day, which means absolutely nothing to me, nor should it to any sensible human being.

Were you aware that there was an apocalypse of Ice and Frozen Death earlier this week in Missouri? Because there was. There was a lot of Ice (proper noun) on the ground. It got here on Monday and some of it's still here. It made traveling pretty ridiculous. It made me not have class all week (which will make this an 11 day weekend by the time I have school again, Monday). So Matt, you ask, what have you done with these 11 days off you've had. Nothing. Well... that's not entirely true. I did some baking. I started writing Trivia Night questions for next year. I edited (badly) my B-roll project. I got a job. WHAT!? What's that you say? You have a job?

Yes. I have a job. I start at Kohl's tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I told you this, but I probably didn't know for certain at that point, well now I know for certain that I will be employed at Kohl's doing Ad Set with Matthew, and perhaps working on unloading trucks. Yippee!

What didn't I do over this extended break from school is homework. None of it. I really need to be writing a whole lot more than I am. Especially journal entries. I'm like 3 weeks behind in that department.

Anyhoo... I'm probably going to do a ridiculous amount of sleeping pretty soon, so I have to get ready for that.

Trivia night: Success!

The Notre Dame Trivia Night was last night. It went pretty well. My category was very well liked... by me anyway. I'm in charge of the questions for next year, which is exciting.

In other news, I think I have a job. If I pass that drug test I took on Friday, which is more than likely, then I'll be offered a job at Kohl's doing Ad Set with Matthew. It'll be fun to work with Matthew, but my concern with the job is getting enough hours. Matthew works 3 maybe 4 days a week, for like 5 or 6 hours at a time. I'd really like to work 30 or so hours a week, but any job is better than no job.

Also, I am really good at sleeping.

Sick and Tired

It's almost 2 in the morning, why am I not asleep? I'll tell you, because I'm awake, that's why.

I was a little sick earlier, but feel much better after taking a single aspirin. Medicine is magic.

I am still unemployed. This sucks. I really need a job. This is getting ridiculous.

In other news, Lent starts tomorrow, or today if I'm being accurate. This year I'm giving up soda and fast food... well fast food that's fried. It's sort of a vague resolution but I have a pretty clear idea of what I won't be eating for the next 40 days or so. In other news, I still don't have a job, and it still sucks (yes, I realize I just typed that like 4 lines up, but I'm restating it to emphasize the suckiness). Starting Friday I will officially be desperate for a job and will apply to restaurants. *shudder*.

Also John McCain is probably going to be the Republican candidate for president and Hilary Clinton is probably going to be the Democratic candidate. This makes me sad. I don't won't McCain to president, but I don't want Hilary to be president either.

This is becoming the most boring post ever written so I'm going to end it now before I start talking about something else that's really boring.

Extended White Chocolate Experience

The title to this post is something that Matthew Long used in casual conversation today. I thought it was amazing.

JOB UPDATE:

Did I tell you I applied at Ace Hardware and Bargain Hound? Cause I did, about a week ago. They aren't going to hire me.
Today I applied at Sears Grande and The Victorian Inn. I don't think Sears is going to hire me, but the Victorian Inn might, they had the least specific application I have ever seen. Sears had one of those horrendous personality tests that I keep failing. I don't think I come across well when reduced to a multiple choice personality test. Oh.... but seriously. I need a job. If I don't hear back from anyone in a week, I will officially be desperate for employment, at which point, I'll start applying to *shudder* restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, one of the people in my Creative Writing Group, wrote an excellent essay about tipping and how it's bullshit, which it is. We were discussing the essay in class and a couple of people were really interested in it because they disagreed with him. They thought tipping is not bullshit. Ironically these people worked in the food service industries and were both frequent recipients of tips (presumably). Anyway, I found myself really itching to debate these people, but unfortunately debate did not happen. I was sad.

Good news everyone, the G string on my guitar just broke! The same thing happened around this time last year. I remember, because it happened on superbowl sunday, which is this coming Sunday if I'm not mistaken. Last time it took me a month to replace it. That's kind of weird though. Anyway... I'm kind of hungry so I'm going to do something about that.

Gloating

Here's a bit of trivia for you. Almost every time I try to come up with title for a blogpost, e-mail or journal entry the first title I come up with is "Da Business". It's almost never relevant to what I'm writing about at that particular moment, and when it is, I usually don't think of it first, but it is a phrase I really enjoy.

Here's another bit of trivia for you. My trivia night team kicks ass. We got second at the St. Joseph Trivia night in Scott city, which isn't bad if I do say so myself. The other team beat us by like 10 points. They knew the answers to questions like; "What state does Hunter McMuffin represent?" (fake question) and "On the television show Reba, what is Reba's ex-husband's job?"(real question) If the choice is between getting second place and watching Reba enough to know her ex-husband is a dentist, I'll stick with second place.

Oh speaking of bragging...this:That's right ladies, by getting three A's and a B last semester, I was put on the Dean's Honor List. I've always been on the Dean's List of People that Can and Probably Will EFF You Up, but this is the first time I've been on the Honor List... so gloat on you, the internet.

His cane makes me melt.

I love the show House. You probably didn't know that about me. I haven't talked about it much, especially since I haven't blogged much since I've started watching it. I describe it as a smarter CSI, which isn't really accurate. What would be more accurate is that it's a CSI for people smarter than the people that like CSI. I think CSI is kind of dumb. You probably did know that though.

Job update: I've applied for 2 different Pharmacy Technician jobs at St. Francis, and a job at Hollywood Video. I don't think I'll get any of those jobs, because I can't get jobs like those for some reason. By "jobs like those" I mean jobs that pay well or jobs I'd like to have. I am supposed to do inventory at Steve and Barry's on Sunday. It's not a permanent position, but it could lead to one once they start hiring again.

Heath Ledger died. That made me sad. I really like "A Knights Tale".

The Stakes are Raised

The title of this post means nothing.


School started yesterday. Hurrah!

I don't know how I'm going to feel about MC 301, but intermediate film production and film history are going to be fun. We watched City Lights in film history last night. It was pretty good for an old movie. A little long, but pretty good. Tonight I have creative writing. I'm pretty excited about that class.

Job update:
Still unemployed, I've applied at 2 more places, Hastings and Target. That brings the total applications up to 5.

Not my first post about Euchre

I went to a Euchre tournament tonight in New Hamburg. I did not do well. Neither did Dustin. Jody, on the other hand, cleaned up. I've been to three non-Dustin Glastetter initiated Euchre tournaments. One at Scott City, one at St. Augustine and this one. At all three of these tournaments I've felt very much like I didn't belong there, not just because I'm not from the places the tournaments are held, but like a greater sense of outsiderness. I feel like a tourist or something. It's not necessarily a bad feeling but it is kind of strange.

School starts tomorrow. I don't even know what to think about that. I'm excited. I guess that's what I think about school starting tomorrow. I think excited. I'm really looking forward to making more films and seeing some of my friends from last semester.

I've been unemployed for 2 days now. I don't like it much. Last time I was unemployed it was about a month till I got a job, although I don't remember looking too hard that time. We'll see how well I do this time. So just to keep you updated on my progress:

1. Staples: nothing
2. Hospital: nothing
3. Steve and Barry's: nothing

Awesome.

Almost Unemployed

Hello My Blog.
The reason I've decided to start blogging again is to chronicle my job search. I'm looking for a job because as the title suggests, I am almost unemployed. In about 10 hours I will have concluded my term of employment with Commercial Mail Services and will therefore be in need of a new job. Why, you ask, am I ending my nearly three years service at CMS? Well that is a long and painful story... just kidding. I have a couple of night classes this semester so I would only be able to work at CMS 3 days a week and one of those three days I wouldn't be able to come in till 5ish so I wouldn't be able to get enough hours. On a personal note, I'm decidedly not too sad about my eminent departure. I was sad when I quit John's, somewhat less sad when I quit N'Orleans, but I'm not really sad at all about quitting CMS. It's probably because unlike those other places I'll still be connected to my friends that work there through Jimmy.

So far I have applied three places for jobs:
1. Staples
2. Southeast Hospital
3. Steve and Berry's

None of them have contacted me yet, but I just applied for the last 2 yesterday. They are probably still marveling at gift they have been given, the gift of me offering to work for them. Truly a great prize to be sure.

Ok well I need to take a shower cause I'm all sick and gross. Anyway, I'll keep you posted!

Secret Wilco Confession

I don't know when it happened, but Wilco has sort of become my favorite band. I still love the Decemberists, but Wilco has sort of edged them out of their prime spot as of late. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to Kicking Television, but it's a lot... a lot of times.

NEWS FLASH!

I went downtown last night to a bar and had a good time. That's right, for the first time ever going to a bar didn't suck. I went down there with Bucket, Joe and some of Joe's friends and it was a fairly pleasant experience.

School is fun so far. I have a paper that's going to be kicking my ass later this week if I don't get on the ball. We'll see what happens. I am kind of bummed that I don't have my film class tomorrow cause we don't have school.

I can't move my arms

I lifted with Dustin Wednesday and Thursday and consequently, I can't comfortably move my arms.

I'm almost done with my first week of class of the semester. Here's a brief summary;

Intro to Film and TV production: My favorite class ever.
History of Mass Media: Could be worse, Dr. Baldwin seems like a lot of fun
EN 140: The jury is out on this one.
MC 155: I enjoy this class in the same way I enjoy bad movies. I love the fact that Bob hates it. It's very entertaining.

Speaking of bad movies, I've probably watched the Across the Universe trailer a dozen or so times. I really don't think it's going to be a good movie, but I already know I'm going to like it. I suppose there's a slim chance it will be good, but I'm not holding my breathe. Just from watching the trailer I can tell you that the girlfriend will probably die and her brother definitely will. Jude will end up alone either way and it will still be the 1960's. I hate the 1960's. It's a very smug decade. I just read that they're going to be releasing 2 soundtracks for the film though. A regular 16 track one and the super deluxe 31 track version. Guess which one I'll be buying.

I saw Superbad again tonight. I agree with Matthew, it's 2/3 of a good movie.

You'll be pleased to know that I'm not reading Order of the Phoenix now. You're probably tired of hearing my views on that particular English teenage wizard. That isn't to say I'm giving up on my complete reread, I'm just taking a break. I think I'll probably pick up the series again around fall break. I can't wait for fall. Several stores I've been to are already selling Halloween merch. It's not even September. It's more than 2 months till All Hallows Eve. Capitalism is awesome.

That's all for now. I need to go brush up on my complete world knowledge.

I thought YOU had class.

I've been going to the REC center this week instead of running for 2 reasons.
1. My MP3 player has stopped functioning in a satisfactory manner.
2. I haven't been getting up till 10, and it's just too f*ing hot to run that late in the morning
The nice thing about the REC center is that I can watch TV while I use their magical exercise machines and today I got to watch some classic first season Arrested Development, hence the title of this post.

Harry Potter talk commences:

I finished book 4 on Sunday, but since I had already posted once on Sunday I decided not to post my analysis that day because I didn't want to overload my audience (myself and perhaps the other Matts). So here are my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

It's still a good book. Pretty much everything Barty Jr. does as Moody is justified as either part of Voldemort's scheme or just part of his personality manifesting itself, but I still think he's a better teacher than he has any right to be especially since he's spent the last decade or so in prison of some sort. I'm pretty sure it says he went to Azkaban as a teenager, so being generous he was 19, two years out of Hogwarts (unless he was home schooled, which is possible given his father). Maybe he majored in Secondary ed at Hogwarts, or maybe he was just a gifted educator. As well as being a great educator he is apparently an amazingly talented actor, convincing everyone for the better part of a year that he was Mad Eye would be no easy feat. Also, something Matthew brought up was the Barty's polyjuice supply, once he got to Hogwarts, it wouldn't have been that hard to keep making more polyjuice potion, but where did Barty get his first month's supply? Doesn't it take a month or two to make it? Wouldn't he need a shitload of it? I suppose Peter could have made it but was there enough time? The Quidditch World Cup is a couple of days before the first day of school, it's also the night that Barty breaks free from his dad. So they have like 2 days to set this whole plan in motion. It seems a bit dodgey to me. Also Hermione Granger keeps Rita Skeeter trapped in a jar for at least 2 days. She is a horrible human being. I love Hermione Granger.
Anyway the movie handles the last task and the graveyard scene better than the book does, but other than that the book is far superior to the film. Now that I'm done with book 4 I have finished all of the High School Era Harry Potter books. I read the first through fourth books for the first time during high school, and I'm pretty sure I haven't read them since. Also, now that I'm done with book four, I'm done with Harry Potter being a sympathetic character. I won't like Harry Potter the person again until I get to the 3rd to last chapter of book 7. He's such a dick.

I was toying with the idea of giving the series a rest until the end of the semester, picking it up again when the fifth movie comes out on DVD. I've read part of 5 and all of 6 and 7 within the last couple of months, so I don't know if I'd be able to keep interested in them. Also I suppose I'll need to, you know, do homework and stuff starting in a week or so, so I probably won't have as much time for reading as I do now.

I still need to talk to Anna and Layne about book 7.

End Harry Potter Talk

The Lookout is ok. It doesn't have any kind of twist ending, so don't believe what the DVD box says.

Magical Supertime happy face!

Stardust is awesome.
Rush Hour 3 is horrendous.

I saw both of those movies yesterday, but more importantly I saw a metric assload of movie previews. Since I don't really watch TV, I don't really see a lot of movie previews. Most of the previews I see online are for movies I already know about and am probably going to see anyway. All the previews before Rush Hour 3 were for movies that looked to be as crappy if not more crappy than the feature presentation, except for American Gangster, which looks awesome. Most of the previews before Stardust were uninteresting except the one for Across the Universe . Across the Universe is a musical set in US during the 60's. It's about an English gent who comes to the states and falls in love with some chick and it uses exclusively Beatle's songs as the soundtrack. WOOT! It kind of looks and feel like Moulin Rouge, which is a movie I quite enjoy. So I'll probably end up seeing it and buying the soundtrack.

I'm not quite done with book four, so you'll have to wait for my next post for my insights into Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts, sorry.

I hope we play frisbee tonight. It's been too long since I've participated in a good game of disc.

I promise this post won't be about work, Harry Potter or sleeping.

90.9 plays pretty good music between the hours of 10 pm and 12 am on Friday Night. It's the kind of music I wish the college station would play, the other college station, the one run by college students, the one that plays emo, screamo, nu metal and various other crap except for the 4 minutes a day when they play good songs. Really four minutes is a generous estimate. I don't think they play that much good music a day. I hear maybe two songs a week that I like on RAGE 103.7. It's pretty f*ing ridiculous. From what I understand 103.7 subscribes to some sort of crappy College Rock version of Now: That's what I call music. They get CD's of the "popular" "alternative" "songs" they rip the CD on their computer and then make a crappy playlist.

I think I'm going to see Stardust tomorrow with Pete and Steve. Rush Hour 3 also opened this weekend. So did Skinwalkers, which is a werewolf movie and I am therefore contractually obligated to see it. I'm probably not going to see it though.

I just e-mailed The Friday Night Music people telling them how much they rock.

night

Number 200!!! I think...

Brief work update (I promise) Jay hired some young guy named Jason to do route one. I'm really tired of work.

Not so brief Harry Potter update.
I realized a few days ago that this reread will probably be the last time I pick up any of the Harry Potter books for a long, long time. Unless she writes more books, which I think she might. Anyway I finished book 2 on Sunday... I think. I can't remember. Yeah, it must have been Sunday. Book 2 is really funny. It might be her best book... it's not, but if I were trying to defend her writing to someone, I would probably present Chamber of Secrets as exhibit A. Her best book is probably book 3, which I finished last night. I love book 3 so much, and it was a lot better rereading it with David Thewlis as the Lupin in my head. The big revelation scene in the Shrieking Shack has too much yelling and it seems like the situation could have been diffused a lot sooner if Lupin and Sirius would've been less vague about who they were intending to kill.

Black: I'm totally going to kill someone in this room that's a wizard!
Harry: No I won't let you!
Lupin: Stand back Harry, Sirius is going to murder someone who is in the Shrieking Shack and has spent a lot of time at Hogwarts recently!
Ron: No don't!
Black: Yes, the time has finally come to end the life someone in that particular corner. (Sirius points vaguely to the corner of the room where Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing)
etc...

I kept wanting Ron to put the moves on Hermione in book three. Hermione shows a lot of vulnerability in book three, she really needed someone to be there for her. Ron totally could have hit that.


I didn't go running today or Monday. I'm going tomorrow, I promise. I just need to get some good music on my MP3 player. I've been listening to a Hell of a lot of Wilco lately. I really like Wilco, but I need something different for running purposes. Something that's distracting, yet compelling. I could just put a mix on there, but that usually doesn't work out because I usually just ending up skipping to the tracks I really want to hear, I feel with a whole album on there I'm more likely to listen to the whole thing.

Ok, I'm going to start reading book 4 now.
Night.

Hello, hello.

The first paragraph is about work

Well the first of the month is over at CMS, pretty much. It usually takes 2 days for the mail to go back to normal and yesterday was the second day. I must say it's been a pretty interesting week so far. It started with Adam getting fired for leaving mail in his van, again. Tuesday was Vicki's last day, and Meredith's last day for that matter, and we've been swimming in handsort ever since. They hired Darrell on Friday, he's doing Adam/my old route, Ricky was doing route 1, Scott's old route (Scott's now doing route 5) but today was his last day so Jay hired some lady named Diane to take over route 1. She won't show up tomorrow. They never do. Girls will not do my job, they are perfectly capable, but they just don't like that kind of work. So tomorrow we'll be short-handed, but I might get to do a route since Diane won't be there. So the worst part of the whole driver swap 2007 is the route 6 and 7 combo that's brining mail that used to arrive at 5:45 and 6:30 respectively, anywhere between 7:30 and 8, which means I'm not even running it till 7:40 at the earliest which means we're not getting done with pass 1 till 8:15 at the earliest. This blows. And it's really frustrating because we can't keep anyone long enough for them to get good at what they do, so we'll never get out early again.


The Second paragraph is probably going to be about Harry Potter, although I'm not really sure, I haven't written it yet.

I finished the first Harry Potter book this morning. It took me about 3.5 hours to read. It is a quick read. There is no mucking about in book 1. Second to last chapter they go through the trap door. The last chapter is the confrontation with Quirrell and the wrap up. It's all business. While rereading the book I was trying to figure out why I liked this book so immediately. I couldn't, but I did notice some things that struck me as odd.
1. In the first chapter Dumbledore call Prof McGonagall, "Professor McGonagall", were they not yet on a first name basis? I wonder if I was confused by the fact that she was called Professor the first time through considering I had no point of reference for her being a professor.
2. How long was baby Harry alone in his ruined house? Hagrid brought him to the Dursley's the night after Voldemorte died. What was the immediate aftermath of James and Lily Potter's death? Did Bathilda take Harry? What was going on?
3. Where did the hats go? No one wears their wizard hats anymore. All the students have hats in the first book. Of course it could be that they are wearing them all the time, Rowling just takes it is as a given when describing a characters appearance that the person is wearing a silly wizard hat.
4. Harry used to be kind of a likeable kid. What the hell happened.
I'm going to try to read the second book tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

The third paragraph is me talking about sleep.

I'm tired. I'm going to sleep.

Finally Over My Post-Potter Funk

It only took 7 days! Well, 8 at this point. Anyway....

Have you seen the Iron Man Comicon footage?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVRQjCG8tn4

Robert Downey Jr. is amazing. I wonder if he's always been this good. I need to see Zodiac.

Only two more Carbondale runs at work. Quel dommage.

So I don't know about you, but I'm totally ready for school to start. It's been a long, unproductive summer. I need something constructive to do.

ok. that's all.

Welcome Back!

Hello blog. I'm back. At least for now.

I know it's been a while since I last blogged, and I'm sorry. Well not really. But I have some stuff I feel like I needed to get out of my system and I feel you are the best avenue to said system venting.

The primary reason I've come back to blog is because of a 17 year old English wizard that I have not and will never meet. Of course I'm talking about Harry Potter. I finished book 7 about four days ago, and I'll be honest, it's taken quite a toll on me. I haven't been sleeping well since I finished the book. I haven't been hungry since I finished the book. To put it succinctly I've been fairly depressed since I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The book isn't terribly depressing in and of itself. A bunch of people die and it's kind of sad when they do, but this sadness is nothing compared to the intensely depressing realization that this is the last time I will get to visit Harry's world. Sure I can reread the books anytime I feel like it, but it will never be the same as it was the first time.
I really can't explain why I love the Harry Potter books so much. It could be the escapist element. I love the idea of being a student at Hogwarts. (I would be a Hufflepuff and I would think that the Gryffindors were all tools, but I'd be cool to Harry, even though he's totally a dick)
But then again, I've never really needed help from books to escape. I've always had a pretty vivid imagination. And really the fact that Harry Potter is so universally popular should make me hate it, because I'm something of a contrarian. But for some reason I love the books, even though there are admitedly bad at times (most of book 7). I sometimes wonder if I read the books for the first time now, as a 23 year old, instead of when I was 16 I would feel differently about them.
Anyway, I hope they make significant changes when they make a movie out of Deathly Hallows, like a lot less polyjuice potion. I hope they make Ron and Hermione's kiss something cool and significant. I hope they change the ending, the horrible, horrible ending.
So that's my first post in 4 months. Hopefully it won't be my last.