Harry Potter Book #7 Predictions

Ok, so there are lots of things that have been going through my mind about what might happen in Book #7. From re-reading all of the books over the course of a month, it becomes very apparent how much foreshadowing J.K. Rowling does books ahead of time. Therefore, I am racking my brain to figure out what events have been hinted at but have not yet occurred. Sorry for any Harry Potter related mis-spellings, I don't have a book on me to look them up.

Harry: Harry will not die. It doesn't seem like it would make any sense with all of the work she's put into the character. If he dies I will be completely shocked. I bet he will use Dumbledore's pensieve to help him accomplish his task, however. I also bet that his chosen profession will either be auror, professor, or Quidditch player, depending on how vanquishing Voldemort goes.

Ron and Hermione: I also think it unlikely that they will both die. I think there's a chance that one of them will at least be attacked and almost killed...but at most one will die, and I'm betting on neither. But I am also betting on injuries for both. Also, I expect that Hermione will be a lot of the brains behind finding the Horcruxes.

Complete Theory #1 on who will Die: At least 1 Weasley will die. Although Mr. Weasley talks in book #6 about how half of their family owes Harry their lives, which may imply that the other half will in the end as well, I think they are such major characters and so close to Harry that it is unlikely that they will all survive. My first inclination is that it will be Ginny. Also, nothing has happened yet with the fact that Mrs. Weasley's greatest fear is the death of her family members and Harry (see via the Boggart in book #5). I also suspect that Draco may be killed by Voldemort or at least punished for not killing Dumbledore himself. Either Draco or Snape will surely die by the end of the book to satisfy the vengeance everyone feels toward the killers of Dumbledore.

Complete Theory #2 on who will Die: Throughout the series Harry consistently loses the adults that have acted like parents to him: his actual parents, Sirius, and Dumbledore. He even states so himself at the end of book #6. However, in book #6 he erroneously states that he's lost every parent figure he's still had. He does still have Mr. and Mrs. Weasley though, and to some extent he has Hagrid. I therefore suspect that at least one of the Weasley parents will die in book #7. I mostly think it will be Mrs. Weasley who is killed while trying to save someone else, especially since all of her family was killed the last time Voldemort was alive. This all also relates to the fact that nothing has happened yet about Mrs. Weasley's boggart. If only Mrs. Weasley does and not Mr. Weasley, then the 2nd death will probably be a member of the order...probably Lupin because he hasn't been looking well and Fenrir Greyback will know he's in the order now that he fought at Hogwarts in book #6, and he and Tonks are finally together despite him saying it won't work. Poor Lupin, he might even get killed by non-Death eaters who fear he's with Voldemort just because he's a werewolf. :(

Dating: Obviously Ron & Hermione will finally get all of that figured out, and from the end of book #6 it looks like Neville and Luna will be together as well. If Ginny survives until the end, she and Harry will be re-united.

Horcruxes: The locket that RAB (Regulus Black) stole from the cave is at Grimold Place. I assume that Harry will not realize this until at least halfway through the book, unless he forces Kreacher to tell him of anything like it in the house. Another Horcux may be hidden at Hogwarts, which could have been a reason for Voldemort to visit Dumbledore to request a teaching position. He only needed to enter the building to hide it, maybe in the Room of Requirement?

House Elves: They will be put to use somehow by Harry, and Hermione will somehow secure freedom for at least one of them in the end. Harry will probably grudgingly need to use Kreacher at least once, and Kreacher will probably betray him at some point.

Magical Creatures: Throughout the books, every creature discussed in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures has come up again. It's a great way to explain to the reader what a creature is early on, and then just reference it at an exciting point in the book. I haven't had time to note if any creatures haven't been seen that were mentioned...but I bet that most things that they meet they will have heard about at school already, even in passing. I also bet the pixies will somehow be utilized (or at least I hope they will be).

Wormtail: He still owes Harry for saving his life, and this may be the only reason Harry is able to kill Lord Voldemort. That silver hand he was given at the end of book #4 is going to have to be special in some way; Voldemort says he hopes he will be a better wizard, so perhaps it increases his magic abilities or decreases his clumsiness. If so, it will give him the power to help kill Lord Voldemort because he was never really loyal to him anyway.

Other Ideas:
I have an inkling that Voldemort or Death Eaters may show up wherever Harry is the second he comes of age, as Dumbledore's enchantment will wear off at that point (assuming it is still in effect now that he is dead, which I am unsure of).

I hope that Harry will use his ability to speak Parseltongue in some way that allows him to gain advantage on his enemies, or even to eavesdrop. I also hope that Harry will become better at occlumency because it drives me crazy that he still hasn't bothered.

Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix

Some co-workers and I attended the opening night of Harry Potter on July 10, despite a 9AM meeting the next morning. It was an interesting experience...but I'm glad I did it no matter how I feel about the movie. I've had a week now to think about how I feel on the movie, and I'm still disgruntled.

OK, so the book dragged on a bit, I understand that. I also understand that things get cut for movies. But that's no excuse to try to re-write the entire story when making the movie. I have no problem with changes that enhance the story or adapt it to the movie format, as many things that happen in books are ill-suited to film. But why was every scene very different? Why were characters changed? Why was there such a focus on Umbridge to the point that Ron and Hermione don't even seem like main characters? Why were all of my favorite scenes ruined?

And the biggest question of all: why did someone decide that the movie didn't need to flow, and that cutting from scene to scene with no explanation was a good idea?

I have 2 main issues that stem from these questions. The first issue is that many changes from the book were less creative and interesting than how Rowling did it. The second issue is that much of the movie would have been impossible to understand or follow if I hadn't read the book, which I can say because people with me who had not read the book were lost by the end.

On the positive side, I think the acting was superb, the shooting was excellent, and the scenes were well laid out. It's just a shame they couldn't find a way to make those scenes flow better. Although I think there were many excellent shots, it did feel a bit like one giant montage.

Harry Potter Oddities

While re-reading all of the Harry Potter books over the last month, I've noticed little things here and there that don't quite mesh up. Some of them are not listed here because J.K. Rowling explains them away on her website. Although I did not do a thorough search there for the ones below, I don't think they've been addressed:

Book 2: Percy docks points from Griffindor when Ron and Harry exit a girls bathroom (Moaning Myrtle's)
Book 5: Hermione points out to Malfoy that prefects can't take points away from houses

Book ?(multiple): Harry references when he first met Draco on the Hogwarts train
Book 1: Harry first meets Draco at the robe store

Book 6: The library fails Hermione for "the first time" when looking for Horcruxes
Book 4: The library actually fails Hermione for the first time when trying to figure out how Harry can breathe under water

I'm not quite done re-reading Book 6, so I will edit this post (with a note) if I realize any more oddities.

Nancy Drew

I saw the Nancy Drew movie yesterday, and it was surprisingly good! I read many of the books when I was younger (at least a decade ago), so I only remembered that she tended to get herself into tough situations, and her father was a lawyer. My officemate re-read one of the books yesterday morning, and assured me that the books were actually horrible in that people reacted in totally unrealistic ways. The movie kept true to that theme, and was very enjoyable because of it.

Overall, it was quite hilarious. Many funny things happen as this awkward girl from a small town tries to adjust to living in LA. There is also suspense in trying to determine what the solution to the mystery is. The audience can make a few guesses just because there are only so many characters involved, but you don't know until near the end which guess is right. Although it does have some short suspenseful moments, it's definitely appropriate for older kids since there is barely any actual violence, and common sense tells you that the main characters will be OK in the end.

As a former Nancy Drew fan, I was very pleased with the movie. I was worried that it would be horribly cheesy, but it really wasn't. Even if you never read Nancy Drew, you should definitely watch this movie because it has a good story and actually keeps you interested the entire time.

I recently found out that there are some old black and white Nancy Drew movies. I wonder how those are?

SI's best football uniforms

Sports Illustrated just released their Best College Football Uniform List to counteract their worst football list of last week. I can easily agree with some of the uniforms that are there, such as USC and Texas. But it seems that their definition of "best uniform" is primarily based on whether or not they have a dark muted color, and the level of boredom the uniform causes you (the more the better). Apparently the blue Notre Dame uniform is infinitely better than the green Notre Dame uniform.

So what truly defines "better" for these uniforms? I would wager that a good uniform would be defined as using the school's colors wisely, being pleasing to the eye, and having a modern look. Obviously I don't work for SI. My main wonder is why Michigan made the "best" list and Delaware made the "worst" list. Granted, Michigan's uniform is slightly more pleasing with the gold over the yellow, but the differences are not vast enough for one to be in the top 10 and the other to be in the bottom 10. Maybe if there were only 20 teams in college football I'd buy that, but we all know the truth of that statement.

Also, how could someone call a football uniform one of the best when there is no school logo on the helmet? Half of those uniforms could belong to any team with those general colors.

I wonder how they chose their rankings from 1 to 10 after determining their top 10. As far as I can tell, they were drawn out of a hat. Or maybe 10 people were ranked in their order of importance and they each got to choose who were the top 10 and bottom 10 based on their personal order. I was hoping that the best uniform list would be different enough from the worst uniform list to shed some light on their formula, but as I've elaborated on above we had no such luck. Although I think they nailed Texas and USC as being great uniforms, I have no idea why they ranked USC at the bottom of their "best" list.

I wonder if SI is stuck in the past enough that anything that appears "classic" is obviously "good." Maybe SI needs some new blood. Or maybe they just need to hire more women in general (and I don't mean in a bikini context). But that's another topic altogether, I suppose.

If I was choosing a team to cheer for based on uniform alone, I would choose Clemson (worst list, #7) over Wofford (best list, #6) any day.

Is that the worst you can find?

Sport's Illustrated has released their Top 10 Worst College Football Uniforms, and I have to say that I'm rather disappointed in SI, and quite pleased with college football.

Overall, the uniforms they show are not that bad from either an aesthetic point or a school spirit point of view. Some of them are indeed God-awful, like Delaware, Notre Dame, Air Force, and the old Oregon uniforms. But apparently SI has a thing against too much of one color. Did they miss the point that it's all about school spirit and being proud of your school colors? Yes, many of them could be better designed, and its apparent that most of the uniforms have probably been around since the late 90's, but most of them don't look that bad. I think a proper title would have been "Oldest-Looking College Football Uniforms."

As far as the new Oregon uniforms go, I like them. Coming from a school that is orange and maroon, I have to say that they did orange well. They have a nice modern design over the shoulders, and don't have too much of any color (which should have made SI happy!). It's a nice young look, which is great for a college team.

Sure, I may not be a fashion designer, but I guarantee the people that wrote that SI article aren't either.

Once a Hokie, Always a Hokie

The past week has been so very rough for all of us due to the shootings on my beloved Virginia Tech campus. I am happy to report that no one I knew was injured or killed, including my brother, although many of my friends' friends were not so lucky. Whenever I check Facebook I see messages about dead friends from those on my friends list, and new groups in honor of the victims, the administration, and the school. There is so much grief, but yet there is a determination and spirit as well. Nikki Giovanni was so right when she said We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail!

Maybe someone from another school wouldn't see it or understand it, but you don't stop being a Hokie when you graduate. You don't stop being a Hokie if you drop out. You don't even have to go to VT to be a Hokie. And as was demonstrated in a horrible way on Monday, you don't stop being a Hokie even in death. Virginia Tech For Life is an alumni motto, but I think Virginia Tech for Life and Beyond might be a better fitting one. You know what we say: If God isn't a Hokie, why do the leaves turn orange and maroon?.

Being so far from home when something like this happens it just terrible. I want to be able to go to the vigils at VT and support my Hokies. Even though I didn't lose anyone I knew, I still lost members of my Hokie Family. My friends are suffering, and I can't be there for them. I spoke to my mother on instant messenger for hours last Monday as she filled me in on details that she got on the local news before they reached me on the Internet or TV. I checked up on people via Facebook because cellphones weren't always working, and I don't have everyone's number anyway.



It has been wonderful to see such support from around the country though. At my current school we had a vigil on Thursday night to honor the victims and help everyone find some peace. It was fabulous to see such a great turnout, and to meet other Hokies that were also so far from home. We all cried (at least we alumni did), there was beautiful music, and everyone had the chance to write a note to send to VT. My boyfriend wrote "I never knew what true school spirit was until I met a Virginia Tech graduate." and then continued about how VT would prevail and survive. That touched me so much, especially because it was straight from his heart.

Also, last Friday was Hokie Hope Day, also called Orange and Maroon Effect Day, and was devised by VT alumni. It was great to see the word spread through the internet and finally through the Alumni Association. Many people in my department wore maroon and/or orange to show their support, and it truly touched my heart.

The world lost many wonderful people last Monday, and the world continues to grieve. I am happy to say a week later that the healing has begun. Although it will be difficult for a long time for those that lost loved ones and friends, they will pull through. It is a tragedy that something so horrible could happen to such a wonderful university, but Virginia Tech has a community that will pull together and rally. They will support each other, even as the alumni support them with our thoughts and prayers from far away. Virginia Tech is not weak enough to fall by the actions of one man. Although there is much heartache, confusion, and disbelief, one day the Hokie Nation will return to normal. We will never forget, and our mourning will last for a long time, but we will triumph over our fears and sadness.

We are Virginia Tech, and We will prevail!

Jet Airways - Flying in India

When I went to India in January, I chose Jet Air as my domestic flight provider despite a few negative comments. I am glad that I made that decision (even if it was based on price) as it was a great experience.

Overall, my flights (Mumbai -> Hyderabad, and Hyderabad -> Delhi) were on time. A friend of mine flew Hyderabad -> Delhi on Spice Jet, and his flight was about 4 hours late. I've heard that SpiceJet is relatively cheap because all of the businessmen fly it on a regular basis, but that flights to Delhi in the evening are usually late due to compounded delays over the course of the day.

One of my favorite parts about Jet Air was the fact that we had hot meals both times, even though one of the trips was only about an hour. Each meal had a hot entree, bread (usually naan), and some sides. They were very filling! On each flight there was also the choice of juice or bottled water, and the meal came with hot tea.

The service seemed so much better than on US domestic flights. The meal was hot, in real dishes, and was free for even a short flight. In the US, you'd be happy just to get a pack of peanuts! Not to mention the fact that in the US you frequently are stuck with none of your flights offering a meal as you fly across the country (as I've mentioned before). Indians definitely have better comfort when it comes to flying on small planes. Granted, the seats are a bit cramped, but are equivalent to many US flights.

Marie Antoinette - Was there a Point?

Ever since I saw the first preview, I wanted to see Marie Antoinette. The preview convinced me that although it would be a movie filled with rich people having fun and wearing expensive clothes, it would still have an interesting story to tell about the title character.

However, I was sadly mistaken. Halfway through the movie I was ready for it to end; my roommate, who had seen it the night before, laughed that I didn't make it as far into the movie as she did. Luckily it was a rented DVD, so I just hit the fast forward button until it looked like they were talking or advancing the storyline. I contribute my ability to get to the end of the movie to the ability to fast forward at a designated speed.

Granted, I tend to get easily impatient with movies; I know a movie is good if I can manage to sit through it without constantly checking my watch for the last half. Or fast-forwarding, if it's rented. Much of Marie Antoinette was only reinforcing the fact that she was a spoiled woman, who did what she wanted and spent money she didn't have. So many facts about the real person were only barely noticeable, assuming the viewer was already aware of them (like the fact that she never wore the same dress twice). Much of the movie was just watching her lie around, or play games. Of course, the first third of the movie had the tension of whether or not she would convince her husband to consummate the marriage, but this part of the plot can only hold a viewer's attention for so long.

After they have a child is a good point to begin fast-forwarding until the end. The rest of the movie after this point is just Marie and her friends having fun. Much of the movie doesn't even have dialogue; although many movies can tell a great story without a large amount of dialogue (Amelie, anyone?), this one merely stagnates. There is an interesting love scene though, so if you want to see Kirsten Dunst without many clothes on this part of the movie will help you in that respect.

I did enjoy seeing all of the costumes designed for the movie, so if you are interested in old clothing then the movie will be fun throughout. Other than the exciting dresses, shoes, and hats (I wish I could wear a boat in my hair!), the last 30 minutes (maybe less?) has actual excitement as the French Revolution begins. If only more of the movie concentrated on this one part!

Another problem I have with the movie is the fact that Marie seems like a completely clueless but possibly extremely nice person. Her personality comes off as almost non-existent, except for the few times it seems that she enjoys thrills that save her from her "boring" life. Her husband seems like a dolt, but at least the character seems to have a little depth.

Why did I spent part of my Saturday evening watching this movie?

Microsoft Office 2007 - Don't try to right click without dual processors!!

I have used Office products since the late 90's, so I was very excited about the new Office 2007 suite. Granted, I am partially biased towards it since I was an SDET intern on Outlook before coming to grad school, but despite that fact I see some major flaws. In fact, if I hadn't acquired it at the student price I would probably be extremely annoyed.

It's always best to say the positive parts first (well, the positive parts with caveats): the suite as a whole is very well done, and I especially like the ribbon (the new controls in place of the old menu) most of the time. I am in love with the task bar in Outlook. I appreciate the slightly more elegant look to Excel charts, except that it takes the power of at least one full 1.6ghz processor to edit them, and editing chart titles is nearly impossible. I am entranced with the new Outlook calendar, although I'm still not impressed with the low details view.

I should probably expound on those caveats before I go on a tangent about memory usage, and details by application is probably the best. I haven't used the new Infopath, Access, OneNote, or Publisher yet, although I have all of them except OneNote, so that will be a different post probably far in the future. One should also note that I have an Intel Core Duo with 1GB RAM. So here goes it with the general products:

Excel

I can't remember ever having so many problems with right-clicking or scrolling in an Office product. The response time seems to be fine if the spreadsheet only contains data, but as soon as you add charts it's a whole new world. For a spreadsheet with only charts, scrolling down is nearly impossible. The best I've been able to do is continuously click the down arrow; otherwise, it seems to forget that I wanted it to scroll.

As far as right-clicking goes, don't do it on a chart unless it's on an axis. I've had Excel quit responding due to a right click, although to its merit it eventually recovers on its own and doesn't crash. But who wants to wait 10 minutes to do any editing after clicking on the area to edit? After a week of frustration I discovered that editing charts via the ribbon did not slow down the application at all, and it responded as quick as Excel 2003! As much as I love the ribbon, I find right-clicking to be easier because it doesn't require me to move my mouse away from the chart...and I do love the semblance of efficiency. However, since right-clicking is apparently prohibited in this new version, I began using the ribbon. At first it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to change my chart title and I nearly threw the computer across the room (the only thing that stopped me is the fact that it's a new laptop and I absolutely adore it, despite Office). Now that I've learned where some crucial buttons are though, I can use the ribbon relatively quickly. I still wish I had the choice of right-click; did no one bother to test that it was realistically possible to use? Seems like right-clicking locking up the application should have been a high priority ticket....someone really dropped the ball on that one.

Speaking of dropping the ball...are users expected to no longer what to edit their chart titles without overwriting the previous changes? If I click on the chart title twice to edit it, I get the cursor at the end as in previous versions of Excel. I can then proceed to erase the last few characters and type in new characters. However, if I press enter or click on the chart I will always lose the original text and only the changes will remain. If I instead click on the spreadsheet after making the changes as the first click outside of the title box, sometimes it will save the entire thing, but many times it still loses the original text. For example, if my title is Run2 but I click on it and erase the 2 and replace it with a 3, when I hit enter I will end up with '3' as my chart title instead of the expected 'Run3'. I have discovered that to ensure chart title editing works appropriately, the user should click on the chart title (or select it via the ribbon) and then type the entire desired title into the function bar near the bottom of the ribbon. Why would I want to use the ribbon just to edit a chart title? Who knows. Well, someone knows...and he/she is probably a SDE.

One thing I can't complain about though is the default colors for graphs. They are more subdued than the pure red/blue of versions before, and make them look much more elegant and closer to a Matlab creation.

Word

Word has been a relatively positive experience so far. I remember the Word ribbon from my SDET summer, although it has of course changed in the past 2 years. I've heard that it has a new equation editor, but since I use LaTeX for everything I haven't tried it out yet (although I'm tempted, at least). I did use Word to show off the ribbon to my Mac-using labmates, however, who were impressed. They didn't believe me when I told them that Microsoft had completely revamped the menu system (apparently they live in a dark hole), but Word was great for demonstrating the ribbon. My absolute favorite part about the ribbon in any application are the superscript/subscript buttons in Word. Finally, I don't have to use LaTeX just for easy superscript/subscript creation! (yes, I'm aware that keystrokes could be used previously)

Outlook



Oh, Outlook, how I worship you. Well, maybe not...but I do feel like it is one of the most successful of the new Office applications. The calendar is such a far cry from the old flat pastel one, any frequent user must be ecstatic. The fact that I can easily view my week's schedule in a reasonable format makes my heart flutter. The task pane allows me to finally be able to keep track of the days activities without having to constantly switch back to the calendar view, and I can finally keep up with my tasks without needing to switch to the task view. I use Outlook as my life management system (combined with my Treo, of course), so being able to stay organized efficiently makes my day that much better. Besides, how could anyone dislike the new pleasing aesthetic?

Unfortunately Outlook isn't perfect either, just like all other complex software systems. The "low details" view on the calendar seems relatively useless, whereas the "medium details" view seems like a good "low details" option. I think medium details might be better used to not display day long appointments since they crowd the space, and only display appointments with specific times. But I don't think I thought of that when I was testing the calendar...or did I? Only the work ticket system knows!

PowerPoint

I definitely like the new PowerPoint, although coping/pasting graphs from Excel is a time consuming task for no apparent reason. It is really nifty that they finally copy/paste graphs without a border and with a clear background by default though! I'm also impressed with the fact that if you have chart 1 on your slide and selected, and you try to paste chart 2, it will combine the data from the 2 charts to create a new one! I accidentally did this the first time, but it is such an awesome feature that I didn't mind! My quickly made slides for an afternoon presentation look so much better just because of the default graph quality, as well as the default font family (verdana, soooo much nicer than times new roman!!).