Archive for the 'Books' Category

Dumbledore is gay

Published
by
Austen
on October 22, 2007
in Books and Websites
. 6 Comments

From The Leaky Cauldron via Gothamist:

Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?
JKR: My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. [...] He was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how I always saw Dumbledore.

When I read this I though, oh - ok. Interesting that J.K. Rowling thinks that. Well, I guess that it makes sense. Which I think is a perfectly reasonable reaction. Wow, he’s gay. Big deal. The books haven’t changed, they haven’t been rewritten. It’s just the author’s opinion. Nothing wrong with that.

Aparently not. From a comment on the Gothamist post:

I am a christian who supported these books as they brought the joy of reading back to sooooo many kids and adults. I have read all the books and thoroughly enjoyed them. I argued with all my christian friends who put down these books and supported the Narnia books.

Now, I will make sure I throw away all the copies I have, and no one in my family will ever read that trash again. I will also advise anyone who asks not to let their kids read these books, which is an absolute turnaround from where I was [...] Not only has she destroyed a great hero, but she has tarnished the entire series.

Wow. Let’s see… has anything changed in the books? Did J.K. Rowling revise them so that it’s evident that Dumbledore is gay? Did she give him a boyfriend in the book??? No! The books are exactly the same! But now that the author thinks that a character she created is probably gay, the books are all of the sudden evil.

Oh yeah - that makes perfect sense. Let’s burn the Harry Potter books just because one of the characters is gay in the author’s mind. Not because of how Harry is orphaned as a child, and is witness to dozens of murders. That’s not a big deal, it’s ok. As long as there aren’t any gay characters, Children can read the book. </sarcastic>

Harry Potter 7

Published
by
Austen
on July 25, 2007
in Books
. 1 Comment

Do not continue reading until you have finished reading the book.

Continue reading ‘Harry Potter 7′

Harry is a Horcrux!

Published
by
Austen
on July 9, 2007
in Books
. 4 Comments

With the 7th and final Harry Potter book coming out July 21st, I’ve decided to re-read Half-Blood Prince (#6) and I’ve just realized something: Harry is a horcrux! I know, I know. Just let me explain:

  • Harry’s scar. Why does it burn when Voldemort experiences extreme emotions? And even more, in the 5th book he experienced dreams from Voldemort’s point of view…. hm…. maybe Harry has a piece of Voldemort’s soul stuck inside him?
  • Harry being almost put in Slytherin and being a Parsetongue.
  • Finally, I didn’t make this one up on my own - I got it from here. But they think that Harry is a decendant of Gryffindor himself because of the sword thing in the 2nd book. Therefore, he would be the missing Gryffindor horcrux. And as we’ve seen from Nagini (Voldemort’s snake) Horcruxes aren’t just limited to inanimate objects.

It’s sort of a weird idea, but once you think about it you realize it just has to be true! Duboink! Also, some more theories:

  • Harry shouldn’t die. Ron should. Not that I want him to, but him being killed by a Voldemort or a death eater early on in the book would really make Harry mad, make Hermione completely sad, and destabilize the viewer’s faith in if anyone will survive.
  • And relating to the theory above, Harry may have to end up killing himself to ensure that Voldemort can never come back. That might be okay, but I would really prefer that Harry didn’t die!

New trailer for Harry Potter 5

Published
by
Austen
on April 23, 2007
in Books, Movies and Videos
. 0 Comments

The new international trailer for the 5th Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix was released yesterday…

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

My favorite part:

Hermione: It’s really exciting, isn’t it? Breaking the laws.
Ron: Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?

The trailer is AWESOME, and I’m looking forward to the movie, but not nearly as much as the 7th book. This is probably the only series where I would prefer the book to the movie. Not that the movies aren’t great, though. I really think that they handled the movies very well. They could have easily just been crap. They’re not as good as the books, but they do a good job of interpeting them.

Harry Potter 7!!!

Published
by
Austen
on April 21, 2007
in Books
. 1 Comment

The book cover for the 7th and final Harry Potter book was released today, and it’s awesome and all and now there’s only 90 days left till Harry Potter 7! And 82 till the 5th Harry Potter movie! I can’t wait!

Of course, this is just the American book cover and artwork. You can find the UK ones here. The book will apparently be 784 pages long (longer than Goblet of Fire, but not the Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince.)

Harry Potter 7 Wiki | Harry Potter 7 on Amazon

Ketchup: Linux, burning to a roast and more

Published
by
Austen
on December 17, 2006
in Books, Life, Movies, Music and Netsua.com
. 3 Comments

I KNOW that I haven’t posted for over a week, and the last post was only a Christmas list, and before that it had also been a long time, and I’ve very sorry, so I’m going to catch you up (or ketch-up), right here, right now as an apology. So here it is; Things that have happened since my last post:

  • I installed Ubuntu (a distribution of Linux) on my Mom’s old computer and it is awesome! It’s too bad there’s no internet on it (yet.)
  • I became a subscriber on Last.fm (this actually happened a month ago, but whatever) and personal radio is awesome - it play songs you like AND songs you will like!!!
  • I am almost done re-reading Eragon in preparation for the movie which I have just found out has a terrible 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.:-(But I’m sure I’ll love it anyway!:-)
  • I received the newest MAD magazine that came with a free coupon that says “Get an iPod!” Of course, only the coupon is free.
  • I wrote a poem for English class that I will not post on this blog because although it start out like “the night was dark, the lake was calm, there are no sounds…” blah blah, it eventually ends up referring to a specific young person (or at least at the time) being “burned to a roast.”
  • I spent all of my allowance for the week on soda, pizza, and GUMMI BEARS! (All by Wednesday.)
  • I’ve been tweaking Netsua in numerous ways… (1) I got a plug-in for Wordpress that gives me more power over what goes on the sidebar, on which pages, etc. (2) I put some Christmas holiday lights on the logo for the site. (3) I made some minor updates to the About page.
  • I have also been trying to speed Netsua up in general by reducing the loading time with less and smaller images. I lowered the quality of the main logo and “more bar” from maximum to high when saving them in Photoshop. Also, the more bar now is the same shade of blue as the main menu. I also put a break in the Last.fm post so that only one image shows on the main page, and disabled the Flickr sidebar. All to reduce the overall loading time. So far I have reduced the loading time from 3.16 seconds to 2.46 seconds. (I hope to another 0.3 seconds soon.)

Eragon - a great book, a hopefully good movie

Published
by
Austen
on November 23, 2006
in Books and Movies
. 1 Comment

I’m not the type of person who could read through just one of the Lord of the Rings books (Trust me, I’ve tried about 3 times), so a book like Eragon is pretty cool for me. It’s a fantasy just like LOTR but by a 20 year old kid about dragons and stuff - it’s really good, and the sequel Eldest is even better. And the movie based on the book comes out this Christmas holiday season. I’m looking forward to it and hope it’s good, but you never know. Movies that are made this fast after a book comes out just seem rushed *cough* DA VINCI CODE *cough*.

Still, I’ll see it. Anyway, basically the whole point of this post was really to show you this:

I made this 1024×768 desktop wallpaper using only this poster for the movie. Never, and I mean NEVER underestimate the power of copying, pasting, fading, flipping and just altogether expanding clouds. All of the stuff at the bottom of the wallpaper that wasn’t in the original picture is mostly just the cloud parts of the poster pasted around, as well as some of Saphira’s (the dragon’s) neck.

Angela’s Ashes

Published
by
Austen
on August 13, 2006
in Books, Life and Movies
. 0 Comments

I’m reading the book for my high school summer reading list. It’s good, but SOOOO depressing. All of his brothers and sisters, like die when they’re just babies.

But it’s still good, even though it’s written weirdly. It doesn’t use quotes so as opposed to saying:

After that he said “I need to go to the store to get Cocoa Puffs.”

It’s more like:

He said that he needed to to the store to get Cocoa Puffs.

But more stlyistic, I believe the word is.
I’ve seen some movies over the past few days including:

  • Taxi (NOT driver)
  • Anger Management
  • Scoop

And the newest 24 season 1 dvd came today from Netflix! Wohoo!!!! I can’t believe that Jamie killed herself!!! Sorry.

Book Review: Angels & Demons

Published
by
Austen
on May 27, 2006
in Books and Reviews
. 3 Comments

It took a while, but I’ve finally finished the prequel to The Da Vinci Code. It’s good, but a little bit different from The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code was all about the past and researching history; and while Angels & Demons has that it’s really more present-time.

Angels & Demons starts out in almost exactly the same as The Da Vinci Code - Robert Langdon wakes up with an urgent phone call that some guy has been murdered with symbols all over him. After that though, the stories go their seperate ways. In Angels and Demons, the creator of a new technology called “antimatter.” Briefly, antimatter is matter that is negativly charged, and a droplet of it can power New York City for a day… And a gram of it, if it comes in contact with any matter - even air - has the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. And it’s actually a real thing in real life! Anyway, someone kills the creator of it and steals the anitmatter in it’s little capsule that, once disconnected, ahs 24 hours of charge keeping the antimater from touching normal matter. After it’s stolen, it’s hidden somewhere in Vatican city and the book is all about trying to find it by uncovering clues about a secret ancient society called the “Illuminati” that has this huge thing against the church and want to destroy it. There are treasure hunts, fights, countdowns, romance, and plot twists - as can be expected by Dan Brown.

Robert Langdon teams with Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the guy who created antimatter and was killed. They go on a treasure hunt around rome looking for clues to find answers to who the Illuminati are and how to stop the bomb, figure out where it is, etc. Cardinals and other people very close to the Pope play main characters in the book. The characters are fairly complex, and just when you think that you know them - BAM!!! - everything is turned around. Brown does a great job of setting up the plot towards the beginning, giving the general plan, and that happens, but then about halfway through another thing factors in, raising the stakes even higher.

The book is heavily centered on the Science vs. Religion debate. It explores issues how people are losing faith in God and religion and turning towards science for answers. The book isn’t biased either way. It shows both sides of the argument. Still, the ending is almost over the top. Some pretty amazing things happen that is pretty much not possible. Brown goes into some of the cardinal’s minds where they think it is a religous miracle and that God made them survive. The conflict is very well described and played out throughout the book.

One note, out of the 600 or so pages, at around 500 the bomb’s timer counts down and the climax happens. Then the last 100 or so pages are a bunch of plot twists that are fascinating to read but aren’t exactly necessary, and then the resolution.

So overall the book is an enjoyable read, a great thriller with some historical information and recent issues mixed in. The book is a bit over the top, as I mentioned earlier, and the book does go on for a bit to long, some of the middle could have been cut. But besides that, if you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, this is a great read, and just a great thriller in general.

8/10

Sorry about the convoluted review, it’s kind of all over the place and not in order.

Book Review: The Da Vinci Code - 4/5

Published
by
Austen
on April 30, 2006
in Books and Reviews
. 4 Comments

The Da Vinci Code: a very controversial book that has been very popular for the past few years. Over the spring break, and on the eve of the movie coming out starring Tom Hanks, I decided to read it and see what I thought…

The plot starts out with a murder in the Louvre museum in Paris, the curator was murdered, but he had aranged himself like Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Vitruvian Man” and written a code on the floor beside him. The main character, Robert Langdon and Sophie Nevue then must follow this dead man’s clues through Paris, going from one code to the next, trying to uncover this man’s dying secret. We are told the theory that Jesus actually had a wife, and that he may of even had kids, and a bloodline could still be alive today. There are more mysteries than just this, and Dan Brown (the author, in case you were wondering) takes the reader on a ride through Da Vinci’s paintings, churches, bank vaults, museums and more across Paris.

Brown does a terrific job at keeping the story interesting, surprising, but not TOO surprising, which I think is what will eventually be the TV show Lost’s downfall, to many twists and turns. The story blends religion, history, and modern day things like cell phones together in a way that many people cannot do. The book questions the entire Christian faith, and mentions some of the church’s… more violent actions in the past. Once you dive into this book, it is very hard to put it down. Despite it’s title being “The Da Vinci Code”, less than the first third of the story focuses on Da Vinci’s code. Once it’s found out what it is, it kind of leaves Da Vinci behind and him an his paintings are less significant to the rest of the story - what the paintings suggest, are significant though.

What I like most about this story is the way that Brown takes certain things, like that instead of 12 men at Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” their appear to be only 11, and one women - Jesus’s wife. He then takes theory’s that people have had and combining them with other theorys to create an entire history of things, that makes the book such a fascinating read.

There are some things that I didn’t like about The Da Vinci code. First, the epilogue wasn’t an epilogue. It was the climax. So it needed a real epilogue. Also, at times it did seem to be a little bit far fetched, the ideas that Brown was suggesting, but hey, Lost is a lot worse. In addition, the seemingly bad guys were shown much lighter sides in the end, which I think kind of ruined the effect. Anyway, I give this book:

[rating:4]

_________________________________________________

Now I’m reading another one of Dan Brown’s books, featuring the same main character, Robert Langdon that was written before The Da Vinci Code called “Angels and Demons.” Review coming for that one once I finish it.

The Da Vinci Code

Published
by
Austen
on April 20, 2006
in Books and Life
. 0 Comments

I’m about halfway through the book, which I decided to start reading this spring vacation. It’s very, very good - kind of like a Harry Potter for adults. It’s interesting, historical, and a real page-turner.

No one tell me the end yet, I already learned a bit to much while watching a TV program about Da Vinci, which mentioned some of the book. Anyway, I SHOULD be reading Anne Frank’s diary. Yeah, whatever. Then I have to write a paper on it. I mean, it’s a pretty good book - but it’s just not my………. genre.

Still, the Da Vinci Code movie is coming out May 19th (a year after the 3rd star wars movie) and I can’t wait to see it, since I’m reading the book right now. Great timing, huh? It stars Tom Hanks (isn’t he getting old? And is hair is… ew!)