I've finally finished reading all of the Harry Potter books! Woohoo!I actually managed to finish Book 6 (Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince) within two days (Monday and Tuesday) and the whole of Book 7 (Harry Potter & The Death Hallows) in just one day! Well, I had read a few chapters of Book 7 beforehand when I borrowed in from a friend during a trip to Genting, so I skipped those that I had read when reading it yesterday. Took me about 14 hours to finish the whole thing, including breaks for food, a swim, shower and other miscellaneous things. And if you're wondering how come I'm so free that I spend the whole of 3 days reading Harry Potter til my eyes grew bleary and my butt was aching from sitting on the chair too long (reading from my laptop, see), well, it's coz' I'm off the whole of this week to use up my remaining leave days before I start my new job at Accenture, which is next Monday. I have a feeling I'm just going to totally freak out when that day comes coz' it's a completely different world from where I was working before, and not being a big fan of anything corporate-like (which is all what Accenture is about), me thinks I will most likely suffer from some form of culture shock. I just hope I don't meet any cruel, crazy people who will backstab anyone in their way to climb to the top, or have a nutty boss who will make me work right up to midnight everyday. Eep.
Well, anyway, worrying about things that may not happen never helped anyone, so back to the subject of Harry Potter. I thought all the books were great (except for Book 5, which was also good but full of a lot of unnecessary stuff that made it a bit draggy) and Book 7 did not fail to deliver a fantastic finale to the series. Unfortunately, quite a number of good guys die in the book, one of which I liked quite a lot so there was actually a little tear in my eye when he was killed, more out of shock than anything coz' he was one of the funniest characters and I didn't expect him to be killed off at all. But ah well, it IS just a fictional story after all. But anyway, I really have to take my hat off to that Rowling lady, coz' I have no idea how on earth the woman couldn't thought up the whole complicated story in a her head and end it all in such a bang.
I mean, there are so many twists and turns and mysteries in the book, which makes it so fascinating that I couldn't hardly stop reading juz' coz' I needed to know what happened next. And she manages to wrap it all up pretty well in the end. Plus there's a really cool battle scene at the end which I think would just be totally cool to watch in the movie, though I think the movie would not be able to fit in most of the book's details, so story-wise, the movie would probably go splat. But I hope whoever directs the seventh movie does that final battle scene justice, coz' I think practically every magical creature in all the books was involved in that fight scene, and it could be a fight scene of epic proportions that would probably make Lord of the Rings look like a line dance party.
Anyhow, just for fun, I was looking up some Harry Potter stuff on the net and took one of those funny surveys to find out which one of the four Hogwarts houses I would go to, if I were a Hogwarts students. Apparently my score was highest for Hugglepuff, at 73 points, and it said "Hufflepuff students are friendly, fair-minded, modest, and hard-working. A well-known member was Cedric Digory, who represented Hogwarts in the most recent Triwizard Tournament". Hmm... sounds like me I guess. I also might have done equally well in Gryffindor (71 points), which has students which are "brave, daring and chivalrous", or Ravenclaw (70 points), with students who are "clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable". Hmm.... I think Ravenclaw actually suits me better than Gryffindor. Not unexpectedly, I'm least likely to get into Slytherin (45 points) as I'm not so "cunning and hungry for power". Yup, I'm a good girl, I am!
Haha, too bad my holiday is going to end soon. *Sigh!*
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Being a witch for a day
Well, after my little stress releasing session in my last blog entry, I guess it would be good to write about some more cheery events. Before my last post, I was pretty much MIA (Missing In Action) from blog posting for a few weeks. Mainly because, just like pretty much half of the rest of the world, I was getting caught up in a bit of Harry Potter fever with the launching of the last book on the 21st of July. About one week before the book launch, my colleague lent me a cd with soft copies of the first six books, so I've been happily reading all of them since then (I finished the first book in two days!) and neglecting my blog because of them. Right now I'm on Book Five, so I'm on leave possibly until Wednesday (initially coz' I wanted to use up all my leave before moving to my new company, but now also because my car is in the workshop), so I will most likely lap up Book Five in no time.
But anyway, in conjunction with the launch of the final book, MPH had organized a Harry Potter
pre-launch party, in which they invited us Mad Scientists to go there are perform a magic-related show. They had also wanted us to perform some demonstrations on the day of the laucnh itself, but due to the whole hoohah with the hypermarkets making them boycott the selling of the book, they cancelled that. But they couldn't cancel the party, so I and three of my colleagues went there. All of us except one were decked out in witch and wizard's costumes, which were mainly just our Mad Science lab coat with a 'cloak' (read: big piece of cloth) of our favourite colour, a witch hat (I made them myself out of hard board) and a wand (a super-size japanese chopstick, decorated personally by each of us). So, I being the lover of the colour red but not looking like an apple, decided to go for the maroon cloak and also painted my 'wand' that colour. I had also glued on a long piece of yarn that wound around it like a vine, so it looked cooler. My male colleague, Jay, went for the blue cloak and actually took the trouble to stick a golden eagle statuette at the bottom so it looked pretty cool. And another colleague, Swee Khem, who likes pink, decided to go for the Professor Umbridge look and really decked herself out in pink (an outfit I wouldn't have been caught dead in). So thus is our motley Mad Science Magic crew!
As for the fourth colleague, he came dressed like normal, so they slapped on him and every other normally dressed visitor a sign that red "Muggle", which in the Harry Potter world means non-magical folk:
And though most of the other people there were dressed like 'normal' witches and wizards, there were a few who took the extra step by dressing up as specific characters in the book, such as this fella below who dressed as Mad Eye Moody, who first appeared in book four. Don't ask me if it's a guy or a girl, coz' I'm not too sure myself....
Next, I performed possibly one of the most fun Mad Science shows I've ever done, as I had to customize everything specifically to the Harry Potter theme. It was a half an hour show, and I introduced myself as the long lost niece of Professor McGonagall (one of Harry Potter's teachers) who is a teacher at a not-famous school of magic, called the Mad Science School of Magic! And I was about to teach them some of our magical Mad Science secret, haha! I did stuff like making my "magical pet", a real live rat appear in an 'empty' pan (it was actually one of my black gerbils, Coffee!) which the audience really enjoyed. Then I showed them how to make a Rainbow Potion that can change colour from green to orange to dark blue. Then I got two kids to help me making some slime that can change colour as well. And for my grand finale, I did a super cool trick with a water cooler container where I poured in some methanol shook it up well so it evaporated, poured out the excess and lit the top of the container with my wand (I actually stuck a match on it and lit it with a lighter while yelling out a so-called lighting spell, which was pretty funny!), so a blue flame would shoot out of the container and make a loud whooshing noise that scared the pants off everyone! I called that my Dragon Breath spell, hehe! And to end it off, I pretended to want to continue my show but my assistant sent me a letter from the Mad Science School of Magic saying I had performed magic illegally in front of Muggles (at which, I looked around and yelled out when I saw a 'Muggle' in the audience) and I was to stop immediately or else I would lose my job. Of course, it was just all pre-planned to make the end of my show more interesting. And all in all, I think everyone did enjoy the show and so did I. Anyways, here are the pics:
This is me doing the colour changing slime with some kids from the audience.
And me doing the Dragon's Breath thingy. Too bad we couldn't catch the fire coming out coz' it only lasts like one second.
So after my show finished, there was a best dressed witch and wizard competition, and though they didn't think I was good enough to be a finalist (Hrmmph!) they chose my colleague Jay as a finalist. Funnily enough, his competitor for Best Dressed Wizard was only one other guy, and the other guy won. Heh. And the reason they chose my colleague was because of his wand, which actually does look pretty cool. But I still like mine better. :P
Anyways, my other colleagues who were supposed to do the other demos which were cancelled also had their Harry Potter fun in the office, as shown below by my colleagues Sharmila and Paul.
Paul even dressed up in Swee Khem's pink cloak and wore the blond wig so he looked like an Ah Kua witch, and the picture is so disturbing I think it's best not to show it here. But anyway, I will most likely post up more of the Harry Potter pics on my photo site, http://naeemng.dotphoto.com. Whenever I feel like getting round to it that is. Now if only I could magically make my car repair itself and the other guy's car too... *Sigh*....
But anyway, in conjunction with the launch of the final book, MPH had organized a Harry Potter
pre-launch party, in which they invited us Mad Scientists to go there are perform a magic-related show. They had also wanted us to perform some demonstrations on the day of the laucnh itself, but due to the whole hoohah with the hypermarkets making them boycott the selling of the book, they cancelled that. But they couldn't cancel the party, so I and three of my colleagues went there. All of us except one were decked out in witch and wizard's costumes, which were mainly just our Mad Science lab coat with a 'cloak' (read: big piece of cloth) of our favourite colour, a witch hat (I made them myself out of hard board) and a wand (a super-size japanese chopstick, decorated personally by each of us). So, I being the lover of the colour red but not looking like an apple, decided to go for the maroon cloak and also painted my 'wand' that colour. I had also glued on a long piece of yarn that wound around it like a vine, so it looked cooler. My male colleague, Jay, went for the blue cloak and actually took the trouble to stick a golden eagle statuette at the bottom so it looked pretty cool. And another colleague, Swee Khem, who likes pink, decided to go for the Professor Umbridge look and really decked herself out in pink (an outfit I wouldn't have been caught dead in). So thus is our motley Mad Science Magic crew!
As for the fourth colleague, he came dressed like normal, so they slapped on him and every other normally dressed visitor a sign that red "Muggle", which in the Harry Potter world means non-magical folk:
And though most of the other people there were dressed like 'normal' witches and wizards, there were a few who took the extra step by dressing up as specific characters in the book, such as this fella below who dressed as Mad Eye Moody, who first appeared in book four. Don't ask me if it's a guy or a girl, coz' I'm not too sure myself....
Next, I performed possibly one of the most fun Mad Science shows I've ever done, as I had to customize everything specifically to the Harry Potter theme. It was a half an hour show, and I introduced myself as the long lost niece of Professor McGonagall (one of Harry Potter's teachers) who is a teacher at a not-famous school of magic, called the Mad Science School of Magic! And I was about to teach them some of our magical Mad Science secret, haha! I did stuff like making my "magical pet", a real live rat appear in an 'empty' pan (it was actually one of my black gerbils, Coffee!) which the audience really enjoyed. Then I showed them how to make a Rainbow Potion that can change colour from green to orange to dark blue. Then I got two kids to help me making some slime that can change colour as well. And for my grand finale, I did a super cool trick with a water cooler container where I poured in some methanol shook it up well so it evaporated, poured out the excess and lit the top of the container with my wand (I actually stuck a match on it and lit it with a lighter while yelling out a so-called lighting spell, which was pretty funny!), so a blue flame would shoot out of the container and make a loud whooshing noise that scared the pants off everyone! I called that my Dragon Breath spell, hehe! And to end it off, I pretended to want to continue my show but my assistant sent me a letter from the Mad Science School of Magic saying I had performed magic illegally in front of Muggles (at which, I looked around and yelled out when I saw a 'Muggle' in the audience) and I was to stop immediately or else I would lose my job. Of course, it was just all pre-planned to make the end of my show more interesting. And all in all, I think everyone did enjoy the show and so did I. Anyways, here are the pics:
This is me doing the colour changing slime with some kids from the audience.
And me doing the Dragon's Breath thingy. Too bad we couldn't catch the fire coming out coz' it only lasts like one second.
So after my show finished, there was a best dressed witch and wizard competition, and though they didn't think I was good enough to be a finalist (Hrmmph!) they chose my colleague Jay as a finalist. Funnily enough, his competitor for Best Dressed Wizard was only one other guy, and the other guy won. Heh. And the reason they chose my colleague was because of his wand, which actually does look pretty cool. But I still like mine better. :P
Anyways, my other colleagues who were supposed to do the other demos which were cancelled also had their Harry Potter fun in the office, as shown below by my colleagues Sharmila and Paul.
Paul even dressed up in Swee Khem's pink cloak and wore the blond wig so he looked like an Ah Kua witch, and the picture is so disturbing I think it's best not to show it here. But anyway, I will most likely post up more of the Harry Potter pics on my photo site, http://naeemng.dotphoto.com. Whenever I feel like getting round to it that is. Now if only I could magically make my car repair itself and the other guy's car too... *Sigh*....
Waaahhh! My money gone!!! :((((
Argh, I've had a sucky week. Last week I went to Genting for a holiday with my colleagues, and though we had fun there, I wanted to reload credit into my phone and the credit accidentally got tranferred to a number similar to mine coz' the shop owner did the credit transfer through his phone. And when I tried to call back the number that received my credit, the idjud claimed she didn't receive any credit, though I'm 100% sure that it was sent to that number. So I was miss calling the idjud for several days just to bug her to give it back but the idjud just ignored me. Ish! So that was RM30 lost!
And if that wasn't bad enough, a couple of days ago, I got into an accident where I reversed my car too fast into a guy who was coming out of his parking space. I was only looking at the rear view mirror for cars coming directly behind but forgot to check for cars coming out of their parking spaces. So because the accident was my fault, I have to pay for the repairs to both cars, which will probably come up to around RM1000. AAAHHH!! Life is so unfair. When I do something wrong, at least I have the courtesy to make up for it, but that fool who's keeping my credit can't even bothered to return a measly 30 bucks! I am sorely tempted to call her up and pretend to be someone asking for her details so I can go to the Digi shop, report that number stolen and get it disconnected! Ha! Even if the fool can reconnect it, whatever credit is in there will be lost. Double ha! Even better if she lost all her sim card contacts too! Triple ha! Arrrggghhh, and yet I know it's not the right thing to do. Just last Friday at cell group, we were talking about forgiveness. And yeah, every Christian knows that Jesus died for us even though our lousy arses don't deserve it, therefore we should be forgiving to other who do us wrong too..... But actually doing that is so difficult I feel like my head is going to pop, wishing I could get my revenge and knowing that I shouldn't. Not like letting the idjud off the hook is gonna inspire her flock to the nearest church anyway. She's probably gonna continue living out her evil life taking advantage of other people's mistakes for her own gain. The scum!
Ok, ok, yes, I'm very angry, coupled with the fact that I have to lose one grand for my own stupid mistake on the road and half wishing I could just be mean like all the other greedy, selfish jerks in this world and just refuse to pay. And also carry out my revenge on that idjud who kept MY credit. It's so annoying! It's so frustrating! And the most I can do is mutter unmentionables to myself when no one's around and freak out on my blog! I can't even go to the gym and release my flames on the punching bag coz' they took it down! Arrgghh!!! @*$%#@*#$%!!!!!!! Life is so unfair! Woe betide me! Let me just wallow in this sinking black dark hole that is the depths of my misery!! Aiya bleh blu yargh yargh pthhh!!!! That's my impression of the Tasmanian Devil on a rampage... *Insert half angry and half crying emoticon here*
And if that wasn't bad enough, a couple of days ago, I got into an accident where I reversed my car too fast into a guy who was coming out of his parking space. I was only looking at the rear view mirror for cars coming directly behind but forgot to check for cars coming out of their parking spaces. So because the accident was my fault, I have to pay for the repairs to both cars, which will probably come up to around RM1000. AAAHHH!! Life is so unfair. When I do something wrong, at least I have the courtesy to make up for it, but that fool who's keeping my credit can't even bothered to return a measly 30 bucks! I am sorely tempted to call her up and pretend to be someone asking for her details so I can go to the Digi shop, report that number stolen and get it disconnected! Ha! Even if the fool can reconnect it, whatever credit is in there will be lost. Double ha! Even better if she lost all her sim card contacts too! Triple ha! Arrrggghhh, and yet I know it's not the right thing to do. Just last Friday at cell group, we were talking about forgiveness. And yeah, every Christian knows that Jesus died for us even though our lousy arses don't deserve it, therefore we should be forgiving to other who do us wrong too..... But actually doing that is so difficult I feel like my head is going to pop, wishing I could get my revenge and knowing that I shouldn't. Not like letting the idjud off the hook is gonna inspire her flock to the nearest church anyway. She's probably gonna continue living out her evil life taking advantage of other people's mistakes for her own gain. The scum!
Ok, ok, yes, I'm very angry, coupled with the fact that I have to lose one grand for my own stupid mistake on the road and half wishing I could just be mean like all the other greedy, selfish jerks in this world and just refuse to pay. And also carry out my revenge on that idjud who kept MY credit. It's so annoying! It's so frustrating! And the most I can do is mutter unmentionables to myself when no one's around and freak out on my blog! I can't even go to the gym and release my flames on the punching bag coz' they took it down! Arrgghh!!! @*$%#@*#$%!!!!!!! Life is so unfair! Woe betide me! Let me just wallow in this sinking black dark hole that is the depths of my misery!! Aiya bleh blu yargh yargh pthhh!!!! That's my impression of the Tasmanian Devil on a rampage... *Insert half angry and half crying emoticon here*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)