I <3 books

Most of you know that I am a big reader. I love books. I've read more books than I can remember. But Jen turned me on to a great site that will actually help me remember what books I've read, and what books I plan to read. It's called Goodreads and works like any other social networking site. You find books that you have read/plan to read and add them to your list. You can search the site for others that have read that book, or Amazon.com to find them. It has a rating and review system, friends list, and even a great layout that lets you see all your books with covers! Even has some nice widgets to add to your blog (which you will see on your right). The widget only seems to load a few books from my "Read" shelf, so if you want to see all 130+, you have to click the link

I highly recommend it to all bookworms and, well, anyone that can read.

Update: Broken Big Daddy Figurine Replacement

Just got the following e-mail from 2k Games:

BioShock Figurine Replacement Program Update

The BioShock figurine replacement program is nearing completion after some delays due to production of the replacement figurines. We appreciate your patience and in order to speed things up, 2K Games is eliminating the step in which you are required to return the broken figurine (we've figured you've waited long enough!).

In the next two weeks, we will begin shipping out a single package containing both the replacement figurine and the art book to customers who enrolled in the program by November 12th. There will be no return box or need to return the broken figurine to our attention.

Thanks for your support and interest in BioShock, and for your patience during the replacement figurine program.

2K Games

Now THAT's customer service at it's finest. Are you taking notes AT&T? Comcast?

Music, evolved

Well I finished HALO 3 last night on Heroic (Hard, in layman's terms). What a blast! HALO is such an awesome series and I've loved every minute of it. It's sad to see it go, but as with Harry Potter, all good things must come to an end.

But on my way to work this morning I was struck by a thought. What was it, exactly, about the HALO series that has so enthralled me? Was it the story line? While it's great military sci-fi and the HALO universe is fascinating, the story is not exactly mind-blowing. A good read, but it won't change your life or have you in tears or really elicit any deeper emotion other than exhilaration and excitement. And the occasional "Shitshitshitshit need ammo, need ammo!! Where the hell is tha-OH GOD!! A HUNTER!! OH SH-"

Well, perhaps it was the online play, which has still yet to be matched in scope or success by any game prior to or since (with perhaps the exception of Counterstrike)? Again, I have to say that while I am a big fan of the multiplayer, it still doesn't give HALO that special something that makes it such a great franchise. Besides, I tend to get my ass handed to me every time and while I'm a good sport and always enjoy the challenges of online play, one can only take so many energy swords to the chest and unrelenting attacks on one's sexual orientation by prepubescent 10 year-olds before one must quit else the childless future of "Children of Men" start to look a little too inviting.

So what is it? Well, those of you that have known me for a while know that there are certain things that I simply cannot compromise on, notwithstanding of the limitations of available funds and the general laws of thermodynamics and gravity and such, and one of those things is sound. In particular, music. I am a huge fan of music and the equipment to play it, record it, store it, manipulate it, etc. I've had an iPod for a long time, my latest being my iPod touch, and before that I have always had some sort of music playing device be it a computer, CD player, or whatever. Also, lurking on a hard drive somewhere is a massive MP3 collection that will one day be resurrected when I get the time/funds to build a good media server.

As such, being something of an audiophile, I have added two pairs of rather extravagant headphones to my collection. My old set, is a pair of over-the-ear Sennheiser HD-590s which have served me for years as the best pair of cans I've ever owned. Seriously, you can hear things you never knew existed on your CDs with these babies. The other pair are earbuds to replace the abysmal iPod ones. These are Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pros, hands down the best earbuds you can buy short of selling several major organs or marrying Paris Hilton (of which the former may in fact be preferable). Even so, these still cost around $350 and $250 respectively. Someone once asked me why I needed $350 headphones, to which I looked at them strangely and said in my best "isn't it obvious" tone: "Because I couldn't afford the $600 ones."

What is my point? My point is this: Music. HALO has some of the best music composition of any game I have ever played. I actually own the soundtracks from HALO 1 & 2, and listen to them quite often. The music is simply stunning and supremely beautiful. It can make certain scenes in HALO go from run-of-the-mill shooter stuff, to pure poetry. The frantic and wanton destruction that you rain down upon your enemies, set to a soaring and dynamic score makes for delicious contrast that just makes me smile. I am particularly fond of "Covenant Dance" and "A Walk in the Woods", and of course "Halo" from the original soundtrack, as some great instrumental pieces. I particularly like "Truth and Reconciliation Suite" not only for it's length, but for it's range of emotion and depth, as well as "The Last Spartan" from HALO 2. I'm also rather partial to "4th Movement of the Odyssey". But the "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" from HALO 2 is by far my favorite for pure awesomeness. It makes you want to don your MJOLNIR armor and go f*ck up some Covenant. Maybe stomp on a few infection-form Flood or knock down a Scarab. As G'Kar would say, "They make a very agreeable thump."*

Martin O'Donnell, you are the man, my friend.

*From Babylon 5

I hate people

The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries.

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End of an Era, Part 4

So we have finally arrived. This is the end of the road, the last book in the long Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm not sure where to begin with this book, but I guess the best option is to just start at, well, the beginning.

Deathly Hallows starts out pretty much exactly where Half-Blood Prince left off. And right from the get-go, you can tell that this book isn't like the others. Maybe it's the fact that this is the last book and once you turn that final page, you've reached the edge of the world, the end. Or maybe it's because, of all the books in the series, none carries as much tension or foreboding as this one. There is a constant sense of lurking fear, of danger that is there and present just beyond your perception. I think that it is for this reason that Rowling decided to jump right into the action (and kick start the body count) by having Harry's flight from his house on Privet Drive to the Burrow.

As I said before, this book is much more intense and dark than any previous one. And the first few chapters are nothing if not perfect examples of this. The protection that Harry had bestowed upon him by his mother's sacrifice breaks when he comes of age, in other words turns 17. So they must move him to some place more secure, and more secret. Even though I knew that this book would be fraught with danger, I still assumed that this little journey, while exciting and eventful of course, would not exactly be death-defying. It was too early, I thought, to be killing people off just yet. How wrong I was. No sooner had the party left with their six decoys, than they were instantly attacked by the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself, who, it seems, can now fly without aid of a broom. Fantastic.

I think Rowling wanted to set the record straight right then and there: this story is not going to be a children's tale where the good guys all live happily ever after. No, we left that notion behind in Order of the Phoenix. There will be death, pain, sorrow, danger, and loss. And to illustrate this point, Hedwig, Harry's faithful snowy owl that has been an important, if peripheral, part of the last six books, is killed in the frantic flight from the Death Eaters. I remember that I was almost as shocked as when Dumbledore was killed. I suppose it makes sense to a certain degree. Harry has known for a long time that in the end he must finish this alone and so this is just the next in a long line of losses for Harry. And it would not end soon. Before the end of the first quarter of the book, we not only lose Hedwig, but Mad-Eye Moody. This is not your kid's Harry Potter.

But with this immediate punch to the gut, the next few chapters are enough to make up for it all. When Harry arrives at the burrow he is thrust into the preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding. I think this was a brilliant decision on Rowling's part, and the wedding itself it just a delight to read. Weddings are something that we have some experience with, either through attending those of friends and family, or participating in our own. Weddings, despite the many and varied traditions and forms all over the world, have one thing in common. They bring a sense of hope and joy, even in a world that feels as though it could crack at any moment. They can make you forget for one day, the troubles of the world. And wizard weddings are no different, though there seems to be quite a bit more sparks and floating things involved.

This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the book. It was a very well written piece that could have easily destroyed the flow and tone of the book by feeling forced or out of place, but I think Rowling succeeded in her goal which was to make you forget for just a few pages, the threat of Voldemort and the sense that no one was safe. Looking back I think that between the outlandish dress of Luna's father, the exasperation of dealing with Ron's Aunt Muriel, or the delightful descriptions of the magical decorations, I actually forgot for a moment about Voldemort, the Death Eaters, and the mission to find the Horcruxes. It was very pleasant. And then came the lines from Kingsley's Patronus that shattered my brief daydream and literally sent a chill down my spine: "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

That line was like a slap in the face. It was a sudden and shocking reminder that things are not going to be easy for the trio in this book. The Ministry, while full of power-hungry and pompous windbags, did at least provide a semblance of stability and protection. Rowling is quite critical of government it would appear, and the repeated blunders of the Ministry of Magic are evidence of that. Their collapse at the hands of the Death Eaters demonstrates that not only is Voldemort far more powerful than he was before, but now that the last check against his power has been removed there will be nothing between him and Harry as he can now move freely and openly. And of course when the Ministry falls, the enchantments they placed on the Burrow to protect Harry are broken, and within the first few lines of the next chapter, Death Eaters start materializing at the wedding and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are forced to flee.

This is the point where we enter the final phase of Harry Potter. With the Order scattered, the Ministry broken, and Voldemort running unchecked there is nothing left for the trio to rely on except each other. This, I think, is one of the most crucial points of the final book and one of the reasons Dumbledore had to die in Half-Blood Prince. Harry Potter is many things, but most of all it is a story about facing and overcoming the fear of Death. Harry knows that he is the only one that can kill Voldemort and in the end, he must face him alone and in so doing face his own mortality. And yet, he is not alone. It was a fateful day indeed when Harry and Ron shared that car on the train nearly ten years ago. Even more so when Hermione, the straight-and-narrow-to-a-fault, lied to Professor McGonagal about the troll to get Harry and Ron out of trouble. These two friends have stood by him through not only near death experiences, but through jealousy, anger, secrets, and envy. Harry must take the final journey alone, this is true. But he could not hope to make it that far without their help. Each person's skills and traits complement those of the others, making them stronger together than they are apart. Hermione's intelligence and wit, and Ron's loyalty and (despite himself, bravery) are strengths without which Harry could never hope to achieve what seems impossible. Because not only does he have to find a way to kill the most dangerous wizard in the world, but he must also track down and destroy the four remaining Horcruxes.

As expected, a good portion of this book is devoted to finding and destroying the Horcruxes. I'll say one thing for book seven, it certainly does not lack for adventure, excitement, and death-defying escapes and first quest they undertake is to track down the real version of Slytherin's locket and finish what Harry and Dumbledore could not. I don't think Rowling could have come up with a more convoluted path than the one she lays out for them to follow to the real locket. After learning that the mysterious R.A.B. from the note in the fake locket is Regulus A. Black, Sirius' brother, and that Mundugus had stolen the locket from Kretcher, who had stolen it from the pile of junk thrown out by everyone in book five when cleaning the house for the Order of the Phoenix, and then how someone from the ministry had confiscated it from Mundungas on the street as an illegal object, we learn that someone is none other than Dolores Umbridge. Despite this rather twisted (and quite frankly, contrived) path this brings up a very interesting bit of foreshadowing that appeared way back in book five as the real Horcrux is mentioned as a very heavy locket that could not be opened, which means that Rowling had planted the seeds of the Horcruxes quite a long time ago.

If there is one fault I can find with this whole Horcrux mechanism it is that far too much time and energy is spent finding and attempting to destroy a single Horcrux: the locket. True, there are multiple goals that the trio must achieve in order to destroy it: find the real thing, retrieve it, find a way to destroy it (a la the Baslisk venom-infused Sword of Gryffindor) but consider all the time spent in book six just getting the damn thing from the cave, then how long it takes to locate the real thing, THEN they have to break into the Ministry and steal it from around the neck of, who else? Dolores Umbridge. After this lengthy and rather fatiguing journey, the finding of the rest of the Horcruxes is rather swift, with the retrieval and destruction of Ravenclaw's diadem downright abrupt. It was as if Rowling had realized that Deathly Hallows was becoming "Harry Potter Spends Nine Months Looking for Horcruxes and a Sword". In fact, it is not until very late in the book that we actually learn of the truth of the Deathly Hallows, and what implications they have for our intrepid hero.

Part five will be posted shortly. And this time, I will reveal my favorite character and why book seven is my favorite in the series, despite it's flaws.

Overthinking HALO: One writer's attempt to overanalyze the hell out of HALO

"For one thing, his identity void seems exacerbated by one of the most explicit and powerful Oedipus complexes ever seen in a videogame: Master Chief’s relationship with ship commander Captain Keyes and the fascinating artificial intelligence Cortana is blatantly framed in a dialectic of restrictive authority versus desire." Wait, what?

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End of an Era, Intermission

For the 8 people that probably read my blog, you may be wondering "Where the heck is the next installment of your gripping essay 'End of an Era'?" Well, the next part is taking longer to write than I thought. First, it's long and I'm trying to trim it down. Second, there is just so much to talk about I and having trouble deciding what is important. Suffice it to say that part 4 may be a bit long, and there will be an epilogue to wrap things up. Hopefully in a few weeks. So there.

End of an Era, Part 3

Note: This is the third entry in my "End of an Era" essay. If you have not yet read part 1, or part 2, I suggest you do that first. Be warned: Thar be spoilers ahead AND behind!

Ah, now we're getting to the really good stuff. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is probably the most important book in the series, not only because of what we learn about Voldemort's most closely guarded secret, but what we learn about his past and the quest that Harry and his friends must undertake. Up till now, we never really knew how Voldemort had survived the curse that gave Harry his scar. We did find out about the charm left by his mother when she tried to sacrifice herself to save Harry in the previous books, but there was never any real clues as to how Voldemort managed to live.

The concept of the Horcrux is one of the most fascinating and sinister ideas to appear in the Harry Potter books. Even the Unforgivable Curses, while horrible in their own right, pale in comparison to what a Horcrux represents. The description that Slughorn gives to the young Tom Riddle about how Horcruxes are made sent chills up my spine. To take one's soul and rip it in two, and store a piece of your soul inside another object? Terrifying to think that anyone could be so careless with one's soul. What makes it even worse is that the only way to tear one's soul apart, is by killing another person. And the fact that Voldemort made not one, but six Horcruxes brings into sharp relief just what Dumbledore meant when he tells Harry that "the transformation [Lord Voldemort] has undergone seemed to me to be only explicable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call 'usual evil'..." As if being one of the most powerful dark wizards in history weren't enough, now we find out that there are six unknown and most likely extremely well protected objects carrying around a bit of his soul? Now that's just plain evil, in every sense of the word.

Fortunately for Harry, we learn, he already has a bit of experience destroying Horcruxes already. I remember thinking that the diary that nearly kills Ginny in Chamber of Secrets seemed oddly powerful to just have been a spell or enchantment of some sort; it had to be something far more sinister. I never thought much of it, but when I learned about Voldemort's creation of the Horcruxes, it hit me that there really was more to that diary than was revealed in book two. And in Half-Blood Prince, we find out that this is indeed the case. Not only that, but Voldemort had intended it as a weapon, not just as a safeguard for his soul. He wanted it to be found by an unsuspecting person so that he could use them to return to human form if he ever needed it. I knew Voldemort was arrogant, but that seemed unbelievably brash.

The revelation of the Horcruxes is certainly a crucial aspect of book six and the rest of the series, but it was not the only important event. This is the book where we finally see Harry start to fall, and fall hard, for Ginny Weasley. I think that of all the potential matches Harry could have had, Ginny is definitely who had my vote. As I've said before, Ginny became a favorite character of mine in book five and her growth as a character in book six really solidified my opinion of her. And I will admit that I cheered when they (Harry and Ginny) kissed after the Quidditch match because it was what I was hoping for all along. While the Harry and Ginny romance was full of some pretty funny jealousy scenes, I have to say that the way Rowling played Ron and Hermione's jealousy against each other was brilliant.

So now it seems we come to the main event, so to speak, of Half-Blood Prince. Rowling had said that a major character was going to die in book six and while I knew it wouldn't be Harry I was very worried for Ron and Hermione, not to mention the major-minor characters of Ginny, Neville, and Luna. But never in a million years did I expect that the person that would be killed would be Dumbledore, and that it would be Snape that did it. I remember reading that passage and then stopping for a second, not sure if I had read that right. I was shocked and saddened by Dumbledore's death. He was always so powerful and so knowledgeable about everything that it seemed that if he was going to die, it would have been at the hands of someone like Voldemort himself. I think it was at this point, more than any other, that I really felt that no one was safe anymore and it was only a matter of time before Voldemort began to take control. The end of this book was probably the most bleak and desperate of any of the books up to this point. With Dumbledore gone, left with only a fake Horcrux and a enigmatic note with no inkling of where to look next, Harry's decision to break up with Ginny for her protection, and his realization that he will not be returning to school the next year, makes for a dark and harrowing future indeed.

And yet, in the midst of the grief and pain at the loss of someone so important, as Harry prepares to take the final road that will lead either to his death, or to the death of Voldemort, there is still happiness to be found. On the very last page of the book, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are making plans for where they will start looking for the Horcruxes. Harry is, as usual, trying to convince his friends that he needs to do this alone, but of course they are having none of it. You'd think he would have learned after six books that the trio is an all or nothing package. I think I just need to quote the passage here, as I can't do it justice otherwise:

"No-," said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone.
"You said to us once before," Hermione said quietly, "that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"
"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow."
"Why?"
"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"
Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.
"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that," he said finally.
His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead of himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.

Part 4 will be posted soon.

End of an Era, Part 2

Note: This is the second entry in my "End of an Era" essay. If you have not yet read part 1, I suggest you do that first. Be warned: Thar be spoilers ahead AND behind!

The fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was the longest book yet. Maybe even longer than 1-3 put together, though that may be an exaggeration. This is probably the most "action movie friendly" book of the series as there's not one but three major events during the Triwizard Tournament that Harry and the other participants have to overcome, not to mention the final confrontation with Voldemort in the graveyard. Between fighting dragons, battling with merfolk, and navigating a deadly maze filled with traps and fantastic creatures, it's a damn exciting story. Even though the tasks are dangerous, the book still maintains the light-hearted feeling of the previous three. Regardless of the harrowing adventures in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione find themselves in in the other books, no one is killed or seriously wounded despite being attacked by dementors, chased by a basilisk, coming face to face with a fragment of Voldemort himself (not once but twice!), and even being "helped" by Dobby. But then, that all comes crashing down at the this book, after Harry and Cedric Diggory reach the end of the maze together, and and transported face to face with none other than Voldemort himself. No longer the mere shadow or fragment he was before; this is Voldemort at full strength. A new body, with his faithful Death Eaters at his side once more. This is the first time we see how evil Voldemort really is as he orders Cedric killed simply because he was "the spare" and was of no use to him. And since it wouldn't be Harry Potter without someone being revealed as not quite what they seem, the revelation that Mad-Eye Moody is in fact the Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. was just the icing on the cake. Or, to use a different, more fitting analogy, a knife in the back. From this point on, the books become darker, the threat of Voldemort more pressing, and the fight more desperate than ever.

I think if I had to pick a least favorite book of the series, Chamber of Secrets would be my choice, however Goblet of Fire is a close second. Of course picking a least favorite Harry Potter book is a bit like asking someone "So which of your sports cars is your least favorite: the F430 or the 911 Turbo?" My reasons for disliking this book are difficult to explain, even to myself. It might just be that, whenever I start a Harry Potter binge where I read them from beginning to end, I inevitably get bogged down by Goblet of Fire. I can't really say for sure why this is. Quite possibly it is that coming off the shorter first three books, Goblet of Fire is a bit like starting a marathon right after the 200m dash. Don't get me wrong, I love this book and I love Chamber of Secrets too, but while I thought that Chamber of Secrets was too similar to Sorcerer's Stone and didn't have enough new material, I felt that Goblet of First just had too much. First there was the Quidditch World Cup, then of course the Triwizard Tournament and it's three tasks, the mystery with Barty Crouch, the return of Voldemort, and finally the death of Cedric and the revelation that Mad-Eye Moody was an impostor. It's a bit of a sensory overload and by the time they get to the maze, you're just glad you've reached the home stretch. But one aspect of the book I really enjoyed was seeing for the first time, that Ron is developing feelings for Hermione and even though he's a bit of a twit, you can tell Hermione feels the same way. This is where the Harry Potter books (and our three heroes) leave their more childish pasts behind them, and begin the painful road to adulthood. Like Harry's journey through school on his way to becoming a full-fledged wizard, so too do the books themselves begin to grow up and change. If books one, two, and three were the childhood years, then book four is where the teenage years begin, which are the main focus of book five: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

One of the best things about Order of the Phoenix is you begin to see the romantic relationships blossom between the students at Hogwarts. When I finished this for the first time, I was convinced, more than ever before, that the relationship between Ron and Hermione was going to be more than just the friendship they had forged in the past books. I had inklings that Ron and Hermione would end up together in the end for quite some time, ever since the whole thing with Hermione and Viktor Krum in Goblet of Fire. I mean if anything, the twists in book three and the unexpected death of Cedric in book four demonstrated that Rowling was not going to take the obvious route and have Hermione end up with Harry. That was too formulaic and it would essentially leave Ron out in the cold. Despite his prominence as a character, he was often shunted to the side in favor of Harry and having Harry and Hermione end up together would have essentially place Ron as nothing more than a secondary character like Neville or Luna. This, in fact, plays a pivotal role in books four and seven as Ron's resentment at Harry's attention thoroughly tests their friendship and threatens to unravel everything they've worked for.

I actually had a theory for a while that Harry might end up with Luna Lovegood. Crazy, right? Well it seemed like it might be an interesting match. Luna as a very lonely person and I thought that her friendship with Harry might become something more. But despite the fact that she and Harry grew quite close in this book, this did not happen and Ginny Weasley's arrival as the object of Harry's affection in Half-Blood Prince was much more fitting. Ginny quickly become one of my favorite characters and not because of her involvement with Harry. Harry, while the focus of the books, is not actually my favorite character (I won't say who it is just yet. In due time). In fact in book five, his irritating teen angst made me want to smack him across the face. Since he was not actually a real person, I had to content myself with screaming at SOMEBODY to give him a good kick. And Ginny fit the bill nicely. Ginny came into her own as a wonderful mix of Fred and George's sense of mischief, Hermione's talent, and Harry's sense of bravery and loyalty. She also has a great sense of humor, and a sharp wit that more than once was able to put Harry in his place when his Breakfast Club-style tendencies threatened to boil over. Of course Harry's attention is focused on Cho Chang in Order of the Phoenix, which goes about as well as most first romances go. Akward, painful, and in the end a miserable failure. But the disasterous Valentine's day scene in Hogsmeade was a bit like watching someone slowly sawing through the limb they are standing on: Painful, yet hilarious.

Order of the Phoenix is definitely the longest book of the series, weighing in at over 800 pages. Yet it's also one of the most fascinating, not only because of the uprising you know is coming with the arrival of Dolores Umbridge as the Hogwarts High Inquisitor (who, by the way, you come to hate almost as much as Voldemort), but also because you can feel the tension building the entire time as Voldemort gets stronger and the Ministry of Magic puts more and more pressure on Harry and the Order to stop their attempts to alert people to the danger they know is coming. I remember silently fuming at the stubborn insistence by Cornelius Fudge that Dumbledore's constant warnings that Voldemort was back was nothing more than an attempt to seize power. Add to that Harry's foray's into Voldemort's mind, the secret kept in the Department of Mysteries, the hilarious grand exit of Fred and George from Hogwarts, and the forming of "Dumbledore's Army", and you have one hell of barn-burner. As if that weren't enough, you get to see why Dumbledore is considered the most powerful wizard of all time and even though you got a taste if it at the end of book four, it's nothing compared to the scene when Dumbledore and Voldemort finally meet face to face. I remember when Dumbledore arrived on the scene at the Ministry, when the Order and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Ginny are all desperately fighting the Death Eaters, I got a chill. I still do. And when I read the title of the next chapter, "The Only One He Ever Feared", I was ecstatic! Finally we get to see Dumbledore and Voldemort fight face to face! My only qualm with the entire scene, which rivals the showdown between Yoda and Count Dooku in "Attack of the Clones", is that it was far too short. But it was thrilling to finally see the one person that could go toe to toe with Voldemort, and live, cross wands him. Very "High Noon".

Of course Order of the Phoenix is not without sadness. Sirius had become another favorite of mine and his death was very disheartening. It was even more upsetting due to the fact that it was none other than Bellatrix Lestrange that killed him. I already hated her since I learned what she did to Neville's parents. Torturing someone is bad enough, but to do it until their minds broke, until they went mad with the pain, so much so that they no longer recognize their own son? That is absolutely disgusting and horrifying to think about. Her escape makes Sirius' death all the more tragic. Harry loses the only member of his family that he has left. If there was any doubt at this point that the Harry Potter were getting seriously dark, this would have neatly squashed that notion. The fact that the last chapter is called "The Second War Begins" could not be more ominous. This book was tremendously important because we learn a great deal more about Harry's past, his connection to Voldemort, and why Voldemort tried to kill him so long ago. The prophecy of "neither can live while the other survives" made me very uneasy. By this time I had learned that no one was safe in the world of Harry Potter and while I was confident that all the major players would make it to the final book, I was not so sure they would all make it out in the end. And so I waited with bated breath, for the sixth, and quite possibly the most important, book in the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

End of an Era, Part 1

Note: What started as a short entry on how much I like Harry Potter, turned into a friggin' essay, so I split it into 4 parts. Be warned: Thar be spoilers ahead!

So Harry Potter has finally come to an end. It's be a long and incredible journey since that first book found it's way to our shores. I don't think any series in the history of literature has had such a following, had so many admirers, or so many enemies. Like all great stories, this one can be told again and again, and sometimes the second or third reading can be even more moving and meaningful than the first. I just finished a straight through, non-stop Harry Potter binge starting from book one all the way to book seven, which I just finished last night. This was probably the third or fouth reading of the first four books, and at least the second for the rest. It was a strange mix of emotions as I closed book seven, and thus closed the story of Harry Potter and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Never again will I journey down the magical corridors of Hogwarts for the first time. Never will I feel that original tension and fear as Harry and his friends are forced to battle the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. Never will I feel the shock and sadness I felt as I sat,dumbfounded, having just read the pages where Sirius and Dumbledore meet their untimely deaths. And never again will I feel the burning joy and aching sadness I felt when first I read the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as Ron and Hermione finally fall for each other, Neville Longbottom finally revealing himself as the bad ass he truly is by cutting off the head of Voldemort's snake, or Harry dueling Voldemort for the last time. I think that, as I sat there in the dark, contemplating the story and what it has meant to me over nearly the last decade of my life, I decided I needed to write something about how I felt about the story. About how I grew to love the story, it's characters, and their world as it unfolded on the pages before my eyes.

It was books like Harry Potter that etched into my soul this obsession, this passion, that I have for books and literature. Ever since I was a child I've loved to read and as an adult, that has not changed. I take immense pride in my love of the written word. And in today's society where "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" takes precedence over letting one's imagination run wild in the hills of Middle Earth, amongst the stars with Rama, or even just trying to remember that "the enemy's gate is down" I have found that this is an all to rare gift indeed. I recently read that only 40-50% of adult Americans plan to read at least one novel this year, and about half of those will not read anything. It is a sad thing to witness, yet the one glimmer that has given me hope is that despite this dismal out look on the American populace's reading habits, at least Harry Potter has remained as popular and enchanting as ever.

It is a rare thing indeed to witness any book take hold of the public's imagination the way Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone did when it was first published in 1997. It did not make it to the United States until 1998, but by that time you could tell something extraordinary was happening. I don't think anyone at the time realized that they were making literary history, but the success of Harry Potter was nothing short of phenomenal. The book was simply flying off the shelves. I know that is a tired cliche and it's tossed about by marketing departments for anything that sells more than 2 copies in an hour, but this is one of the rare cases where I think the term can accurately be applied. Everyone I knew at the time was reading Harry Potter. And Rowling did not sit idly back and watch the money roll in, but she came out with a rapid-fire barrage of sequels, each one more popular and better than the previous. That last statement might offend a few purists who say the first book is their favorite and I admit, I still have a soft spot for the original. But as she wrote more, her voice got stronger, her language more mature, and her magical world richer, and deeper.

There was something magical (no pun intended) about the first book. It filled me with a sense of wonder and amazement that I had not felt reading a book in a long time. In fact, I think no other book has caught my imagination in quite the same way as Harry Potter did. Harry's discovering that he is a wizard, his arrival at Hogwarts, his forging of his lifelong friendship with Ron and Hermione after the fight with the troll, his battle for the Sorcerer's stone, and the mystery surrounding his past and his nemesis, Voldemort, were all so mesmerizing that I had to read it though several times to catch all the details of the rich world that J.K.R had created. Despite the fact that the book was very much a children's tale, I could see tremendous potential in the work Rowling had created.

One of the best facets of the Harry Potter approach to magic was to separate the different types of magic in the same way we separate different studies at school. She was able to create an entire curriculum of magical studies, each as different and distinct as the fascinating characters that each each discipline. Mix in a normal set of school-kid complaints, homework, exams, detention, study, and the one thought that every child has had at least once in their school careers: "When am I ever going to use this in real life", and you get such an amazing world that it would be a crime to limit it to only one book! Then, of course, came the second: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Many people have said the second book is much like the first, to it's detriment. And I would agree with this statement, up to a point. The story lines are very similar, the same basic formula is followed, and even the twist at the end revealing the true culprit is done in an almost identical fashion. But this book was when I first started to see that there was something a bit more to this series than the standard "take set of characters X and put in situation Y" formula that so many books of this type tended to follow. Maybe it was finding out about Voldemort's past, his real name, and connection to both Harry and the school. Maybe it was the fact that each book did not tie up the story in a neat little package. Whatever it was, there was something that told me that the story of Harry Potter was far from over, and it would be far different from anything you might imagine. This book also introduced the delightful character of Dobby the house-elf, who attempts to save Harry Potter by repeatedly trying to get him injured or expelled. Dobby could have easily tread into Jar-Jar Bink territory, but the brilliant way he was portrayed as this small but extremely powerful character who desired to do good yet was bound by the laws of his kind so that he had to constantly punish himself for the things he did was just awesome. It seemed that there was more to this than simply good guys vs. bad guys. And I was even more intrigued by this one than the first. But it was not until the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, that I truly became a hardcore Harry Potter fan.

This book had the same tone of all the others: mystery, shadowy figures from the past, fights against overwhelming odds, yet this time it was different. While in the other books events were a bit predictable and sometimes seemed contrived, in this book we begin to see the deeper underlying themes of the Harry Potter series. Death, as always, plays a major role. It is fitting that we meet the dementors for the first time in this book as they are almost Death incarnate. They go unseen (except by wizards), wear hooded cloaks and have a skeletal, dead-like appearance. Yet despite the obvious allusions to the classic image of death the dementors do not actually kill their victims. The "dementor's kiss", we learn, is quite possibly the most horrible fate that can befall anyone as the act does not kill the person, but rather "sucks out their soul" leaving behind nothing but a shell. The book also continues with the idea that nothing is as it seems and the truth is always more fantastic than you think, but this is the first book to take that idea in such an original way. One of the most interesting things about this story us that Voldemort, while always a looming shadow in the background, never actually appears in the book. This is part of why it is so different: It is the only book in which the primary antagonist never makes a personal appearance. The entire time, you are focused on Sirius Black, whom everyone thinks is trying to kill Harry. But when I found out that not only is he innocent, but Harry's godfather, my whole view of the Harry Potter universe changed right then and there. Of course, that was until we learned that Scabbers, Ron's useless, sickly, and slightly used pet rat is none other than Peter Pettigrew (whom staged his death and framed Sirius in the process). That sent my head spinning.

This was also where I realized something: I had actually begun to care about the characters. I cared about what happened to Harry, Ron, Hermione, the other Weasley's, even Voldemort (though for him I was simply trying to think of the best way for him to get his comeuppance). This does not happen often for me, and I think this is one of the things that makes Harry Potter such a meaningful series. Most of the time, I read a story with a sort of detached interest. It is amusing to see the adventures of someone unfold and sometimes I'm surprised by where the author takes me, but it is almost never the case that in the process I find myself caring about people who do not exists anywhere but in my and the author's imagination. And it was at this point I was hooked. I would be one of those people who stand around at midnight, waiting for the next book to be released. Which is exactly what I did, though not for the next book. You see, when I started Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was already out, so I wasted no time continuing the journey with my imaginary friends from Hogwarts. And no one could see what was coming next.


Note: Part 2 will be posted shortly.

I finally fucking found it!

I have been looking for this video on and off for probably 6 years now. And here it is: One of the greatest music videos ever!

Oribital - Much Ado About Nothing Left

Optimus f*cking Prime

That's right, 3/4 pure Prime.

I AM
76%
OPTIMUS PRIMETake the Transformers Quiz

Star stuff

I recently saw two excellent movies. One is a serious sci-fi flick, and one is pretty much pure fantasy. The first is Sunshine, which is set in the near future and is about the crew of a massive space ship (rather ironically named the Icarus) sent to restart the sun. (This is the sci-fi film, BTW) It seems our sun has dimmed and plunged Earth into a new ice age. No real explanation why this has happened or how they actually plan to fix it is given, but I think that was a wise move. It allows the story to focus the characters and their struggles, without getting too lost in the whole "we're basically flying a giant bomb into the sun" bit. Yet it maintains a distinct sci-fi feel as there is plenty of science, and no desperate, last-minute WTF solutions to the "zOMG we're fux0r3d! Let's fly teh ship into the sun to save the humaz0rz!" Armageddon, this ain't. All in all, a very cool little indie film. Absolutely gorgeous imagery. Not a bad story either and very atmospheric. Think the visuals of The Fountain with the tone of Solaris, with a little Event Horizon deep-space horror and 2001: A Space Odyssey computer creepiness mixed in. Though neither Solaris or Event Horizon were all that good (though I did like Solaris), I think that they have certain qualities that make them noteworthy sci-fi films and if you have seen them, you'll definitely see what I mean when you see Sunshine. And if you can make it though The Fountain without your brain melting, I salute you soldier. Now it's not getting a lot of press, but I highly recommend it. It's playing at the Arizona Mills Harkins at least, maybe elsewhere. So go see it.

On Saturday I saw Stardust. This was the fantasy film, if you hadn't deduced that. And it was much better than I anticipated. I was really looking forward to it when I saw the previews, but I was a little skeptical about the quality since I've been let down many times by this same pattern. *cough* Spiderman 3/Aeon Flux/Ultraviolet/Fantastic Four/The Hulk *cough* It's almost a kid's movie, but it has some rather intense scenes involving animal disemboweling by some rather nasty witches (not graphic, just violent), and people seem to die a lot. But to give it some perspective, and since this post seems to be all about comparisions, I would say tt's somewhere in between Lewis and Tolkien: not quite as childish as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but less mature than The Lord of the Rings. I'd put it in the same league as the latest Harry Potter, but with a distinctively more fairy-tale feel to it. It would be hard to summarize, but it involves a magic kingdom, evil witches, a power-hungry prince, a lost princess, flying pirates, and a falling star (in this case, played by Claire Danes, who makes one sexy fallen star I might add). Now if you go into this expecting something as deep and rich as Middle Earth, you'll be quite disappointed. In fact, I'd say the closest thing would probably be The Princess Bride. It has a rich and detailed world, yet it maintains the fairy-tale aspect of wonder because what you see is not always explained or even given any real back story; it simply is.

So go see Sunshine and Stardust. I mean really, what else do you have to do?

Sound Advice

Important life lessons courtesy of About:Blank.

I predict a riot: Apple 4G iPhone for 99¢

99¢ Only Stores will sell Apple 4GB iPhones to the first nine in line for 99¢ on Thursday, August 9th, 2007. Is there any way this won't end badly?

read more | digg story

Things I'm thankful for...

That I'm not too old to enjoy a kids story like "Harry Potter."






And that I'm old enough to enjoy it with a cold beer.

Happy Harry Potter Day to all!

Transformers = OMFGSPLOSION!!!!

Jen and I just saw the new Transformers movie. It...it was incredible. I could have sucked, or just been a lame action/superhero movie but it was stunning. Go see it. Go see it now.

Cell phones are the new cigarettes

I realized something today while watching the umpteenth cell phone ad on TV during "Deadliest Catch" (awesome show BTW). Cell phones are quickly gaining many of the cultural stigmas and traits that cigarettes have enjoyed (endured?) over the years. First, there are many studies (though nothing conclusive) that show that extended cell phone use for long periods of time can lead to brain cancer. Just like cigarettes can lead to lung cancer. Also, more and more restaurants are banning cell phone use in their dining areas so as to not disrupt the non-cell phone using customers. If that wasn't enough, cell phones are becoming so ubiquitous in every day life, that they are becoming a natural and even expected detail in TV and film. They are at the same time status symbols, social instrument, and, for some, an addiction.

Cell phones are the new cigarettes.

Think about that last parallel I mentioned. How many of you saw "The Departed"? Everyone? No? Well stop what you're doing, go rent it /add it to your queue and come back when you're done. No really, I'll wait. (BTW, every time you don't watch a Martin Scorsese film, he misses another Oscar).

Done? Good. Now where was I? Ah yes: Cell phones in movies. Cell phones play an important, nigh indispensable, role in "The Departed." Seriously, take cell phones out of the movie. What do you have? Now think back to any movie you've seen pre-1955 or so. Everybody smoked. Even the doctors and patients in hospitals smoked! Shit, without smoking, 90% of film noir films would basically be title and credits. Maybe some drinking. Maybe. And then there's movies like "Cellular" that, while not exactly Oscar-worthy, depend almost entirely on the prevalence of cell phones in modern society.

Not convinced? Then think about the last concert you went to where the average age was no greater than 30 (i.e. Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance, The Strokes, Brittney Spears*, etc.), or, hell, just about any concert where people don't wear Grateful Dead T-shirts. When it got to one of those songs, what did everyone hold up? (You know the ones I mean.) Lighters? Nope. Cell phones. Even if you smoke you probably hold up your cell phone. That's just how it's done these days. Instead of a sea of flickering orange flames during Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, now we get the steady blue-green glow of cell phone screens.

Interesting, is it not? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a call.

*If you have ever been to a Brittney Spears concert and you are not an 11-year old girl (and if you are, you need burn all your Brittney CDs and reassess your life), please slam your nuts in the nearest door or filing cabinet. If you do not have nuts due to your being female or a eunuch, beating yourself senseless with your own arms will suffice.

PRESS 'A', BITCH!

Japan Pics

Well everyone pretty much knows we're back from Japan and so, here is you've all been waiting for: The pictures! I recently switched from Flickr to SmugMug and I haven't yet figured out how to use all the tools yet so bear with me for awhile.

So without further ado, the Japan pics (I recommend the slideshow)!

Sayonara

Well tomorrow's the day! Tomorrow we leave for adventure and enlightenment in a foreign land. Tomorrow we leave for Japan! I don't know if I'll be blogging while I'm over there, but stay tuned! I just might post a few updates :-) If not, be sure that I'll have a ton of stuff to say once we get back.

Phucking Phishers

It seems I just got a very convincing phishing e-mail trying to get me to give away my Paypal information. The e-mail itself was not that convincing, but the link to the "Paypal site" was very well done, and the site itself was an almost perfect forgery.

This is what it looked like:

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your
account.We requested information from you for the following reason:

Our system requires further account verification.

Case ID Number: PP-140-076-751

Please confirm your Paypal account,click the URL below:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-submit

This is a second reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible. Once
you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account
access.

Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to
restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to
ensure account safety.

In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will
remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if
access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it
may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We
encourage you to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to help
avoid this.

To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal
used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the
Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you
seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact
PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please
understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PP638

But if look at the email in raw HTTP, you see that the actual site the link directs you too is this:

http://maxipriest.com/loggin/

Yeah, not exactly confidence inspiring. See, they spoof the URL to appear to be the Paypal site in your address bar. This is fairly simple. And if you click the link (I wouldn't recommend it), it takes you to a page that looks EXACTLY like the Paypal page. Here's a comparison:

Left, the real Paypal page; on the right, the fake.

Well done, eh? If you didn't know what to look for, you'd never be able to tell. And that could be disastrous. So how can you tell? It's all in the URL. Take a look at the real page URL here:


If the login page doesn't match what I have here, don't put any login info in. Now the fake page has the wrong URL, but it still looks like it could be legitimate. Ah! But if you view the page source, you see it's actually a frame (sort of a Web page within a Web page). And the page that is being displayed? Well, take a look:


So the address on the left is what the spoofer wants you to see. Notice no "https." On the right, is the actual URL of the spoofed site. And if you put in your login and password? Well, you are definitely SOL then. The wost part of this spoof? The links from the page are the actual links to Paypal stuff! They are essentially copying the PayPal page, and just running their own login script to grab your ID rather than the Paypal system. Insidious, no?

So here's a few simple rules that you can follow that, if you follow them, will give you 100% protection against phishing attacks.

1. First, most legitimate companies will NEVER ask you to update account information by posting a direct link to their site in the e-mail, so become immediately suspicious if they do.
   
2. If an e-mail gives you a link to take regarding your account information, check the URL by copying it (right-click and then choose Copy Link) and pasting it in Notepad or some other text editor. This will give you the real URL that you will be following. If it doesn't match, don't follow it.
3. Legitimate sites will always use secure "https" pages for logins. Phishers will almost never bother with attempting to use secure connections.
4. Never, ever, EVER put any login or personal information directly into any text fields in an e-mail! No one will ever ask for info this way as there is no way to make this secure.
5. If you use Gmail, they have a "Report phishing email" option just like spam reporting. Use it. Even if you think it's real, let the ubbersmart guys at Google take a look just to make sure.
6. If you are even a little bit suspicious about an e-mail, report it and then trash it. If you want to make sure your account is OK, go to the site directly (don't use any links) and login, or even contact customer service and ask if there is anything wrong.
   

Well that's about it. Just thought everyone should be aware of things like this.

Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Looks like Kevin Rose got his priorities straight:

"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."



read more | digg story

A day that will live in hilarity

Wow. I've never seen anything like this before. Digg
, (yes that Digg) was HIJACKED! Not by malicious hackers, not by lame-ass script kiddies; no. It was hacked by it's own users. Yes, the very people who make Digg what is it, a user-driven news site, rose up and revolted against the Digg bourgise.

What happened? Well, in the last week or so several stories popped up on Digg about the HD DVD decryption key that has been wandering about the interweb. They were posting the key to protest the force-feeding of DRM-infested media to the public. I've never seen a more twisted relationship between an industry and it's customers that that between the RIAA/MPAA and John Q. Public. They seem to both love and despise, distrust and adore us all at the same time. It's really pathetic.

So what does this have to do with Digg? Well, apparently at the behest of the HD DVD group, all stories showing the decryption key were mysteriously removed from Digg. You can read about it here. As a result, the Digg community revolted and began flooding the Digg servers with hundreds of stories that included the decryption key. And to get them on the front page, the rabid hordes began digging up EVERY HD DVD STORY! So that before long, all the stories on the front page of Digg were, in some form or another, about HD DVD and the key. As you can see, I took a screen shot just to prove how hilarious and awesome this was.

Some of the stories were just commenting on the situation, but others were downright ridiculous. Here are a couple of my favorites:


Yeah, that's right.

Hell, even Wikipedia has an article about this. They are calling it "HDDVD Night". Of course, it's been deleted and then protected to prevent recreation, so that's no good. Nothing like a good old fashioned Wikipedia burning.

Maybe we should call this HDDVDnacht.

Brilliant.

By the way, 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0. VIVA LA RÉSISTANCE!!!

Fuck Blogspot

Sometimes, free sucks. I guess Blogger.com decided that squidwarrior.blogspot.com was just too full of awesome to be allowed to live, and moved me to squidwarrior4.blogspot.com. Without telling me. However, squidwarrior4.anything contains at least 4 times less awesome than squidwarrior.anythingelse. I mean, I don't mind having my blog shunned to the realm of the unimaginitive Internet denizens that can't think of something original to use for their avatars, so they resort to something painfully dull and attach a string of numbers to the end to make it unique. I just mind that they didn't have the balls to tell me about it. So I updated the address to be the title of my blog.

And all you anti-Harry Potter types can just keep you sarcastic comments to yourselves, thank you very much. I'm a Harry Potter nerd, and damn proud of that fact.

Anyway, sorry to have to make everyone change their links/bookmarks/homepage, but it really was through no fault of my own. And when all the craziness dies down, I'll start posting again. Really. I mean it. Posting. With wit, humor, and vicious, viscous prose. I don't know what vicious viscous prose is exactly, but it was a chance to use the words viscous and vicious in the same sentence. With alliteration no less.

On second thought, go ahead and post your pathetic and feeble attacks on Harry Potter. What do I have to fear? I have vicious, viscous prose at my disposal! Tremble before the vale of my viciously viscous and voluminously viper-like volumes of voluptuous, virile prose.

...

I think I just hurt my brain.

Oh and by the way, my Xbox Gamercard shows up in Japanese and it takes me to the Japanese version of Xbox.com. Stupid Camino browser. Stupid Blogspot.

Update: Fixed the Camino problem. If you use Camino and Xbox.com redirects you to the Japanese site, go to here and click on your country. Fixed it for me.

Anyone checked on Hell lately?

Tucson froze Sunday night. Literally. A cold winter storm blew in and dumped
quite a bit of rain on the city. Then it got REALLY cold, and that rain turned
to ice and snow. I remember Jen and I were sitting in the living room and she
just happened to look out and said "Um...there's snow on my car." To which I
replied "...FTW!"

Going to work the next day was surreal. Everything was coated in anywhere from
0.5-2" of snow and a lot of the trees were completely frozen over. It was quite
beautiful actually. I took some pictures of the Catalina mountains, and some of
the scenery around my office. Enjoy!

Update: Apparently, Josh is not l337 enough to know what FTW means. See my response to his comment. Josh, FTW.

Picacho Peak

Jen, her brother Jeff, her dad Bob, and I hiked Picacho Peak this last Saturday. All the way to the top. Oh. My. God. That is one brutal hike. That was one of the hardest and most challengins hikes I've ever been on. But I hauled my new Pentax all the way to the top, and managed to get some great photos! Check 'em out! Oh and BTW, I'm about 1/3 of the way done with my first book review, Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash". Look for it in about a week or two. :-)

New toy II

Hooray! It's finally here! I got my new digital SLR! For those not in the know, that's a camera. :-P I'm so excited! This is the first camera I've had since high school, and my first digital camera EVER! It's not the top of the line, but it has more than enough for me right now. Plus it's a bit smaller and lighter than the big professional-grade cameras like the Nikon D200 or the Canon 30D so it should travel much better. Which is good for Japan. Expect to see some great shots from over there!

I uploaded my first batch of pictures onto my Flickr account. Just click the little photostream thingy in the sidebar. If you want information about ISO, exposure, shutter speed, etc. let me know and I can pull the metadata from the pics.

Update: Josh pointed out to me that Flickr saves the metadata when you upload the pictures. Sweet!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2007 to all! We had a kick-ass party at my parent's house. Pics to come.

All I can say is, Meghan...for shame. ;-)