Yes, I am a Harry Potter nut...

Just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the OotP today, and started re-reading HBP. These books are gonna be classics...

This is way too funny. Now you know where I got the "bother bother bother" thing I use to pick on my friends! Fortunately, my muggle friends can't do Avada Kedavra... hehehe...

Finally got my computer updated to Windows XP. It was about time! I'm not much of a techie person, but I find the update makes my computer go much faster.

I got a subscription for Dance Spirit magazine and got my first issues today. The January one has an interview with Nick Lazzarini from SYTYCD, and he's on the cover. He is amazing. I knew from the start that he'd go far on the show and after a while, it was obvious he deserved to win. He was the best dancer by far! Well, Anthony Bryant would have been fierce competition for him, but he was rejected in the New York auditions because they thought he wasn't masculine enough. Yes, his dancing and the way he carried himself can be described as androgynous, but this guy was so talented that he was the only one who would have had a chance of beating Nick.

I got moved up to a more advanced ballet class, yay! And in all my dance classes we started working on the end-of-year recital. I suggested an idea for the musical theatre one - we're using "Cool" from West Side Story and are split up in two teams that are suspicious of each other. I got the idea of it being a Griffindor vs Slytherin thing, and the two guys who battle can be Harry and Draco. Then when we jump out two by two and do the shaking moves, we could be carrying wands and cursing each other. In tap, we're using a fast swing song and it's awesome. In modern, we're using something by Afro-Celt and it's beautiful. In Jazz, we're using that song by the Gorillaz with the maniacal laughing (and even after weeks of Christmas break, I can still land double jazz turns, whooo!). In ballet, we're using music I don't know, and it's kinda weird but mellow at the same time... And I started taking hip-hop and belly dancing too, yay!

Well, those are the bits of happy news lately. But aside from all that, I've been plagued by heartache lately. I won't name names or give details, all I'm going to say for now is that those who know about that know what I'm referring to, and those who don't, don't need to know. I still cry about it sometimes, and I still feel that I can't trust anyone anymore... I'm not recovered, and won't be for a long time.

Emotions - Destiny's Child.

It's over and done
But the heartache lives on inside
And who's the one you're clinging to
Instead of me tonight?

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You'll never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion taking me over
Caught up in sorrow
Lost in the song
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to hold me tight?
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight

I'm there at your side,
I'm part of all the things you are
But you've got a part of someone else
You've got to find your shining star

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You'll never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion taking me over
Caught up in sorrow
Lost in the song
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to hold me tight?
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You'll never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion taking me over
Caught up in sorrow
Lost in the song
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to hold me tight?
Don't you know there's nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight


I need a hug... :(

Memoirs of a Geisha movie review

Turns out Memoirs of a Geisha did come to this town after all! I went to see it with some of my friends last night. Here's what I thought:

I loved most of it. The scenery shots of Japan were amazing, especially the sunsets, mountains, and gardens. Most of the actors were good, even if they weren't all Japanese. Pumpkin was funny in the later part of the movie, and Hatsumomo was the perfect arrogant bitch. I LOVED the dance scenes and the soundtrack.

However, I am a purist when it comes to books being made into movies, and I noticed a lot of things that were either changed or removed:

-Chiyo/Sayuri's childhood in Yoroido wasn't shown, and in the movie it looked like she thought she was being kidnapped. In the book, she thinks Mr. Tanaka is adopting her and her sister so she's happy until she gets to the geisha house.

-The story is supposed to take place in the Gion district of Kyoto (the most famous geisha district in Japan). In the movie, it was another city.

-In the movie, the other little girl in the geisha house is already nicknamed Pumpkin when Chiyo arrives. In the book, Chiyo gives her the nickname when they first meet, because Pumpkin has a round face and is sticking out her tongue in concentration while dragging a heavy bucket (she says her tongue looked like a pumpkin stem).

-Mother wasn't old or ugly enough. In the book, she was described as having red-rimmed eyes and yellow teeth.

-Doctor Crab wasn't crab-like enough. He's supposed to always walk sideways with his elbows sticking out. Also, not much was told about his reputation for always chasing after mizuage.

-When Chiyo/Sayuri becomes an apprentice geisha, Mameha takes her to a party where another geisha is telling a funny story about the wig-maker who liked Mameha. That wasn't shown in the movie. I was hoping that part would be in the movie since the story is hilarious.

-Nobu had two arms. In the book, he only had one arm (his other arm got blown off in battle when he was in the military). Also, in the book, his scars make him somewhat of a tragic figure. It wasn't really emphasized in the movie.

-In the book, Doctor Crab become re-interested in becoming Sayuri's mizuage patron because she is tested and is found to be intact after all (contrary to the rumour Hatsumomo spread). In the movie, he becomes re-interested because of her dance performance.

-In the movie, Sayuri was discreet yet flirty when presenting the rice cakes to the men who would bid for her mizuage. In the book, she presented them formally.

-In the book, the part where Sayuri is trying to pour tea but the teapot is empty happens with the Chairman. In the movie, I think it was with Doctor Crab.

-The scene where the artist paints a picture of Sayuri is not shown in the movie. There were a few other minor scenes that were not shown.

-In the movie, nothing was said about the abortions Mameha had at the Baron's request. I think it should have been in the movie, since it shows how oppressive he was.

-In the movie, everyone freaks out because they thought Sayuri slept with the Baron, and only know for sure that it didn't happen because he bid high for her mizuage (no man would bid that much for something he had already taken). In the book, they know that he tried to assault her, but didn't succeed.

-In the movie, Hatsumomo gets kicked out of the geisha house because she set fire to it after threatening to burn the Chairman's handkerchief. In the book, she doesn't find the hankie (and never knows about Sayuri's feelings for the Chairman), she finds Sayuri's journal, and doesn't start a fire. She doesn't get kicked out till later.

-I had been hoping to see the scene where Hatsumomo cracks and gets thrown out of the geisha house as a result. In the book, Sayuri and Mameha follow her to a party hosted by a gay Kabuki actor who is so feminine he could actually pass for a woman (he plays women's roles in theatre). He makes everyone laugh by imitating the women around him, and fawns over a British actor he liked who, unfortunately for him, was not interested in men. Eventually, he makes Mameha become the life of the party and Hatsumomo is so pissed off that she starts beating him up. A few days later, everyone in town knows about it, and she gets thrown out. None of that was shown in the movie.

-Sayuri's danna General Tottori is barely shown, and nothing is said about him being her danna. In the book, Nobu freaks out because he wanted Sayuri for himself.

-In the book, Sayuri sleeps with another man to secretly get revenge on Mother after Mother sells a kimono that this man had given Sayuri. Later when she's working with the family after the geisha districts close during the war, she has a fling with someone else. That wasn't in the movie.

-The man Sayuri seduces to get rid of Nobu is a cranky Japanese minister in the book. In the movie, he was an American colonel who thought geisha were prostitutes.

-At the end of the book, the Chairman takes Sayuri to New York after they become a couple, and she spends the rest of her life there. The movie ends with Sayuri and the Chairman becoming a couple.

-Not much was shown about Pumpkin being a slow learner and not really being suitable to become a geisha. Also, the back story on Hatsumomo that Mameha told Chiyo isn't shown in the movie either.

-Before the movie came out, I was expecting an all-Japanese cast, in the Japanese language with subtitles. The movie was in English (albeit with strong accents) and not all the actors were Japanese.

-The geisha didn't really look authentic. I have a book with pictures of real geisha, and the ones in the movie just look like Asian women in kimono rather than real geisha. The hairstyles and makeup seemed to have been altered to appeal to a Western audience, and in some scenes they had their hair down (in the book, Sayuri says that she never saw Hatsumomo with her hair down till she got thrown out). Also, the main actresses were Chinese rather than Japanese. Yes, they are talented and played the parts well, but I could tell they weren't really Japanese.

Anyway, even with these changes and inconsistencies, I still think the movie was worth seeing. On a scale of 1-10, I give it an 8.

It's Harry Potter time again!

I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books and I'm on book 5 now. I can't wait for book 7. There have been a lot of rumours about book 7, and I will now present some of my theories and speculations about what may happen (SPOILER WARNING, in case anyone hasn't read books 5 and 6 yet...):

-Sirius might be simply trapped behind the veil rather than dead. If that's the case, Harry might rescue him.

-Peter Pettigrew owes his life to Harry Potter because of what happened in book 3. Dumbledore had told Harry that Voldemort will not like having a servant indebted to Harry Potter. It's possible that Pettigrew might save Harry in book 7.

-Harry's scar might be a horcrux. After all, Harry can speak parseltongue (which Voldemort could do) and can see into Voldemort's thoughts. Harry's scar also hurts whenever Voldy is near or feeling particularly murderous. This may be because a piece of Voldemort's soul is trapped in Harry, and the scar is the "object" used for the horcrux. Which means that Harry might have to die in order to vanquish Voldemort. But he won't necessarily die. It's entirely possible that Voldy will do Avada Kedavra, but the spell will hit Harry and destroy the scar (therefore destroying that piece of the Dark Lord's soul), and then rebound and hit Voldemort (just like what happened when Harry was a baby and survived that curse), killing the Dark Lord once and for all.

-Snape killed Dumbledore, but might not be evil after all. Perhaps it was necessary for Dumbledore to die. Also, maybe Snape told Dumbledore about the unbreakable vow he had made (Snape is a double agent, after all), and when Dumbledore was like "Severus, please..." when Draco was chickening out of killing him, he might have been actually begging Snape to kill him. Dumbledore isn't afraid of death, and maybe the consequences of Snape not killing him could have been worse. Also, he might have known he was dying because he was weakened by the green potion where the fake horcrux was hidden.

-In book 5, when they're cleaning up Sirius' house, they find a heavy locket that none of them could open. HORCRUX ALERT! If it's not in the house anymore, Mundungus probably stole it and sold it, but it will turn up again somehow. Actually, in book 6, Lavender gives Ron a "Sweetheart" locket with a big S on it. No one says anyone opened it. Perhaps that's the one?

-Harry's eyes are green, and so are his mother's. JK Rowling had said that this detail is important. The Avada Kedavra curse light is green, and so was the potion that hid the fake horcrux and weakened Dumbledore. Any connection?

-RAB who stole the locket horcrux and replaced it with a fake was probably Sirius' brother Regulus. Sirius said his brother was a death eater, then quit, and got killed by Voldemort. Perhaps he stole the horcrux after leaving the death eaters, took it to the house, then got tracked down and killed before he had a chance to destroy it.

-Hagrid may have to be a double agent with the giants. Voldemort wants to gain their support, and if he succeeds, Hagrid might have to be a spy for them. Grawp and Madame Maxime might have a role in this too.

-More people are going to die. Before book 5 came out, JK Rowling had confirmed that someone important dies, and I thought it would be Hagrid or Mrs. Weasley (turns out it was Sirius). If anyone from the Weasley family dies, I think it will likely be Mrs. Weasley.

-Percy Weasley the prodigal son might come back to the family.

-Draco could die. Or maybe he and Harry will join forces to beat the death eaters. Draco is a bully, but he chickened out when he had the chance to kill Dumbledore. Maybe that means he's not truly evil after all?

-One of Harry's friends might become a animagus either for protection or to spy on the death eaters.

-Priori incantatem will probably happen again. Fawkes the phoenix might show up again too.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now... Any other HP fans got any ideas on what might happen in book 7?

Kitties on crack, yummy cookies, the art of dance, funky knives, and other holiday fun stuff...

Christmas was good. I had to work that day but that means I get pay and a half so I'm not complaining. The duck we ate for Christmas supper was yummy, and I like my presents. Funny story - in the present I gave to my sister, I had included a catnip thingy for her cat, but my cats smelled it through the wrapping paper, tore the gift apart, and tripped out on the catnip (apparently, catnip is like crack for cats and makes them hallucinate). Since I had included another catnip thingy in my mother's present for our cats, I gave her that one instead (the cats didn't attack it because I had used plastic wrapper instead of paper so they didn't smell it). I also sent a Christmas card to my host family in Germany and they sent me an e-mail to thank me. I also sent one to my host family in Dominican Republic and to Alejandra (the Mexican I partied with in Spain). Midnight mass was awesome, I always love going to midnight mass at the basilica. Father Danny celebrated it, and Chris was an altar server. I noticed Doran there, he now has a ponytail and a goatee (actually, "the goté" in the words of Neal and Ryan. Apparently, that one is popular with serial killers, hehehe). One of my favorite parts of midnight mass is when they turn off the lights and the choir sings "Silent Night". I remember 5 years ago, I was in the basilica choir and it was my first time going to midnight mass in years (I didn't start going to church regularly till I was 17, long story...). All the Christmas talk of the Magi reminds me of World Youth Day.

I had quite a busy social schedule this year for the few days before New Year's. Quite different than 5 years ago when I barely had any friends, wasn't invited anywhere, was a year too young to go to bars, and spent New Year's Eve bored at home.

Neal had another WYD get-together on Wednesday to watch the now-edited video. It rocks. And now he's making copies for all of us! Whoo take yer shirt off! I remember while watching the video, as soon as I heard the start of that German Taize song that played at Marienfeld, it really touched my heart because I heard that song several times at WYD, and recognize it immediately. After watching the WYD video, we watched Home Alone.

The next night, Tasha had a potluck at her place. I made some chocolate chip cookies and everyone loved them. Jason and Steph announced their engagement. CONGRATS, JASON AND STEPH! I brought my ballet book but the guys still won't admit that ballet is manly. Check this out guys - male dancers get to hang out with girls in tight clothes, touch girls on stage, and when they get on stage, girls scream and cheer for them. Male athletes tackle guys, shower with guys, and snap wet towels on each others' butts. Who sounds gay now? Teehee!

My friend think I'm weird because I do dance poses whenever I feel like it. Non-dancers just don't understand...

I was told he's not attracted to me. It made me sad, but then he pulled me aside to explain his case. I did my best not to cry, though it was obvious I was on the verge of tears. He thinks I'll find my "one", but right now I feel it's hopeless. He's going to be a tough act to follow, after all... All my friends agree that he's a great guy, unlike the last one who turned me down. I did cry my eyes out a few minutes later. Now I know he'll never love me like that, and that thought makes my heart ache. After I finished crying, I went back to the party and played Cranium with the gang (actually, only about half the gang, everyone else was in the kitchen playing poker). But because of what had happened earlier, I'd get cranky and snap every time I messed up. But later I tried not to let heartache bother me. The DR video that Tasha's roommate played brought back memories of my own experience in the DR, which were happy ones.

Then last night was New Year's Eve. The gang and I went out for dinner at Piazza Joe's and it was yummy. Some middle-aged woman came up to our table and asked Ryan to dance. Later, she admitted that it was only a dare! Hehehe... Then, we went to Mindy's place. The place she's subletting has all sorts of knives and swords and stuff on the walls, which is kinda freaky, but cool too since they were fancy knives. Neal nearly decapitated Kurtis with the sword. The guys watched Ultimate Fighting on tv, and Andrew claims it's an art. What the frig?! You call barbarians beating each other an art, but dance is sissy?! Do you have any idea how much strength and stamina it takes to make tough dance moves look easy?! Frig, Roberto Bolle (who is practically a work of art himself) has a better body than any of those "ultimate fighters". Anyway, there was also a kitty in the room, but he was antisocial. Part of the gang played poker, but some of them really need to work on their poker faces, hehe... We couldn't yell when we rang in the new year because the people downstairs were sleeping, but it was still cool. Fun times...

Anyway, even with a few cases of the blues, I still had a good holiday season. Dance starts again next week. This coming weekend, there's the UPEI retreat. I'm not a student anymore, but I still signed up. There have been several times when non-students came on the retreat so I can still go as long as they have room. I've been needing a retreat lately anyway, it can't cure heartache but it might help...

Anyway, Happy New Year!