ChasingBlueSky

Found out today that the screenwriter for the first 4 movies didn't do OOTP, but will be back for Half Blood. Hopefully this gets the movies back on track! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yes, but how? At least Lupin deserved a proper sendoff...not something along the lines of a minor minor character. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

It was a great closure to the story line....I'm more impressed on how she tied in so many events from all 6 books into this final one. I respect her for what she has accomplished on every level. The biggest shock in the whole book? That Snape loved Harry. A lot of the other stuff wasn't a shock.....it was a good guess that Harry was a Horcrux and that Lily was the reason Snape turned.....but now we see that Lily did care for him and why. Interesting to note the circular nature of history she quietly puts into the story line...of how friendship's and enemies are somehow made on the Hogwarts express (started to happen again 19 years later). I'm sure she wanted a fast paced ending at the school, to put a sense of urgency on it. In fact, it was one of the few times in all 7 books that time seemed to matter so much. But it did feel rushed. I want to know what happened to Tonks/Lupin! And having Percy just show up like that? meh And as someone else said, I wanted more to be done wtih Draco. I would have been ok with a bit less time in the tent doing nothing and more time at the end of the story. The bit that happens 19 years later is interesting. Has a very Hollywood feel to it and I'm sure thats how the movie will end. I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. I'm not sure how else it should have ended.....and I don't disagree much with who lived or died or the few loose ends (whats up with lavender). I guess my complaint is that too much was tied up in 4 or 5 paragraphs after Harry gets the wand back from Riddle. I'm just waiting for the religious conservatives to jump all over this one. Once they find out that Harry died to protect them all and that his death prevented evil from harming all of them and then rose from the dead.....there is going to be some sort of shit storm. Christ figure as a wizard? hehe What was great about it? Ron leaving the tent, Snape being not just a good guy, but a tragic hero, the reversal of respect coming from Dumbledore instead of Harry in that relationship, Dobby, a very human and failable Dumbledore, Neville, Mrs Weasley's revenge (and was there a hint of love from riddle for bella in that moment?).....and Harry showing mercy in that final moment just shows how far he had come. I hope she gets around to that Enclyopedia soon so we can find out for certain who Victorie is (thou with that name I can guess Fleur) and find out mroe about the rest of the other characterss and things like what happens with the giants and dementors. Do the house elves and centaur's establish a better relationship with the wizard world? What about goblins? What about telling us what the Veil in the ministry was all about? Can Harry still do magic now that the internal connection to Riddle is gone? Edit to add: After reading the news, she announced that Mr Weasley was the one that was going to die originally and that Tonks/Lupin are the ones that originally were supposed to live. On a personal note....if you had told me in college that I would have enjoyed reading 800 pages over two days I wouldn't have believed you. Picking up the Potter books has renewed my interest in reading over the last few months and I am now reading about two full books a week instead of watching TV. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

This is something that went past my radar in May and had it brought to my attention this weekend. I didn't see it mentioned here, figured it was worth while to bring up. Best I can tell from reading this, the POTUS at any time declare a catostrophic state (doesn't seem to have any limitations on it) and have full control of all three branches of the US Gov't. I have to ask, what constitutes that? From what I can tell, even on one of our worst days on 9/11 this country still worked together quite well as he sat dumbfounded in a Florida classroom. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902719.html Bush Changes Continuity Plan Administration, Not DHS, Would Run Shadow Government By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 10, 2007; A12 President Bush issued a formal national security directive yesterday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White House. The prospect of a nuclear bomb being detonated in Washington without warning, whether smuggled in by terrorists or a foreign government, has been cited by many security analysts as a rising concern since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The order makes explicit that the focus of federal worst-case planning involves a covert nuclear attack against the nation's capital, in contrast with Cold War assumptions that a long-range strike would be preceded by a notice of minutes or hours as missiles were fueled and launched. "As a result of the asymmetric threat environment, adequate warning of potential emergencies that could pose a significant risk to the homeland might not be available, and therefore all continuity planning shall be based on the assumption that no such warning will be received," states the 72-paragraph order. It is designated National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20. The statement added, "Emphasis will be placed upon geographic dispersion of leadership, staff, and infrastructure in order to increase survivability and maintain uninterrupted Government Functions." After the 2001 attacks, Bush assigned about 100 senior civilian managers to rotate secretly to locations outside of Washington for weeks or months at a time to ensure the nation's survival, a shadow government that evolved based on long-standing "continuity of operations plans." Since then, other agencies including the Pentagon, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA have taken steps to relocate facilities or key functions outside of Washington for their own reasons, citing factors such as economics or the importance of avoiding Beltway "group-think." Norman J. Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an adviser to an independent Continuity of Government Commission, said the order "is a more explicit embrace of what has been since 9/11 an implicit but fairly clear set of assumptions." He added, "My frustration is that those assumptions have not gripped the Congress in the same way." Other former Bush administration officials said the directive formalizes a shift of authority away from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House. Under an executive order dating to the Reagan administration, responsibility for coordinating, implementing and exercising such plans was originally charged to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and later DHS, the Congressional Research Service noted in a 2005 report on a pending DHS reorganization. The new directive gives the job of coordinating policy to the president's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism -- Frances Fragos Townsend, who will assume the title of national continuity coordinator -- in consultation with Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, with the support of the White House's Homeland Security Council staff. Townsend is to produce an implementation plan within 90 days. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will continue to coordinate operations and activities, the directive said _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Ah, but will you have a story or three to tell about the good times you had with friends while picking it up? I will. That stuff doesn't matter to me. If I could find a drive thru book store tomorrow, I'd be a happier person. I'd rather be deep in my own imagination reading the book instead of at some commercialized event for it. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Sleep is just a cheap caffine substitute!! LOL. Well, after four shots of espresso, my hands are a little shaky, but I'm still exhausted. I find when I am that tired that any stimulants make it worse due to the crash which seems to be increased in intensity in this state. I've found the best way is to get up and walk around (don't run) and drink a lot of water and green tea. Also, never underestimate the power of a 10 min nap....just make sure you drink water right after you wake up. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Still active to this day: http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Maps/89-37_full.html 102 earthquakes this year in the New Madrid fault, largest one is a 2.7. All very minor by official ruling (most aren't felt and about 1000 of them happen every day), but enough to keep your eye on it. I'm pretty sure that most of the midwest construction saves money by not being up to CA earthquake standards. So remember that richter isn't a linear scale, and what would be a medium magnitude quake on the west cost at very little damage would most likely cause collapse related deaths in this region. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I took the easy route. Went to the local smaller college bookstore, placed my order. 100+ copies showing up there, 15 people have them reserved. I'll pick mine up sometime this weekend without any worry or rush. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I find this sort of legislation highly unneeded. This is the gov't trying to raise children, and the bill itself doesn't even try to hide it (The Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act). This is something that should be fully on the child's guardian. It is up to them to raise the child around the belief that such stream-of-consciousness slips are truly damning to a child's development.....or if it will help them better understand the world. Honestly, is this really the most trying issue today? To levy massive fines against live newscasters (about the only form of common live TV anymore) that slip a swear word out is worthwhile of this much debate and legislation? Are there that many people in this country that are demanding it, or is it just the special interest groups in action again. How long is it before someone asks for fines to be dealt out if you swear in public because someone's child may overhear it? http://pressesc.com/01184929170_senate_indecency_bill US Senate committee passes FCC indecency bill Submitted by Adam Thomas on Fri, 2007-07-20 US Senate Commerce Committee today passed a bill that would allow FCC to fine broadcasters for slip of the tongue expletives, negating a ruling by federal appeals court in New York that commission's policy on 'fleeting expletives' is arbitrary and capricious. The Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act introduced by Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV) would effectively overturn the court decision on the Fox Television Stations v. FCC in which the court ruled: "We find the FCC's new policy sanctioning 'fleeting expletives' is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act for failing to articulate a reasoned basis for its change in policy." A mandate by Congress that a “fleeting expletive” can now be found indecent will create a vast chilling effect on broadcast speech, the advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology claimed. CDT points out that prior to this bill and the FCC’s policy change, the FCC exercised discretion in determining which utterances were indecent, and consistently found that one-time uses of curse words were not indecent. The bill would empower FCC to find fleeting expletives indecent, it is highly likely that broadcasters will censor themselves even more to avoid being targeted by the Commission, the group argued. But CDT also points out that if Senator Rockefeller’s bill becomes law, it will certainly force the courts to consider the constitutional question: Does the FCC have First Amendment authority to censor the use of a single curse word over the airwaves? Currenty, FCC’s constitutional authority to regulate broadcast content rests on the 1978 Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundatio in which the Court held that the FCC had properly found comedian George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” monologue to be indecent. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Not really. SFX are normal in movies now. Long gone are the days of a rare green screen on a movie set...most people know what a good effect now when they see it....and most can point out bad ones. Ever since movies like Two Towers made a CG character part of the movie instead of just eye-candy, the bar was raised. Even an eye-candy movie like Transformers did a good job of making the robots into part of the story along. So, I'm no longer impressed that a multi billion dollar movie studio was able to produce good looking computre effects. I'd rather see a good story. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Old news, she picked up a contract for the remainding two earlier in the year. They will be making all 7 movies, all the main actors will be there as well. The 6th movie, Half Blood Prince (easily the best book so far other than the poor pay off on who the Prince is) is in pre production now, I think it starts to shoot in a couple months....in fact, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417741/ shows a Nov 2008 release date. Sad to say, David Yates will be directing this one as well. The movie will be lacking if it is missing any of these items: 1) Ginny's storyline, 2) two characters as Prefects 3)Smug Club 4) LeFluer's story line 5) Dobby/Kreatcher 6) Harry's chat with the new minister 7) The pensieve lessons Talk to both of my roommates that didn't read the books but saw it over the weekend....neither of them understand why the focus of the title was on the Order when the movie clearly wasnt about them....they had a dozen or so other complaints. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I remember once being at a DZ that just had a death due to a canopy collision......I suggested afterwards that maybe the 2nd field should be used for the swooping/HP landing area and I showed some reasons why with prevailing winds and overlapping patterns. I was told at the end of the conversation "do you really think xxx and xxx jumper will walk that far back to the hanger...how could they do back to backs anymore?" I suggested a DZ truck to pick them up thus getting them back even quicker....but that idea was overruled for other reasons. So yes, I think a lot of it comes down to how far someone wants to walk back...at least that it what it used to be when I was a full time jumper, but I doubt much has changed. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

This is just the sort of heresy that has Martin Luther burning in hell now and forever. Time for me to find some hammer and nails then I guess. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

The violence is there, and the pop culture idiolizes gun violence. Would a ban help prevent this? No idea. But I don't support any form of suppression of our rights....yet this won't be a topic that causes me to either vote/not vote for him. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

My one true church of jesus can beat up your one true church of jesus! Once again, religion prefers to further itself instead of reaching out to it's people. The Roman Catholic Church is doing its best to make sure it becomes further irrelevant. In time the faithful will all realize you don't need a stodgy group of old men that don't live in reality....nor do you need a brick building. Here is the other thing, never once did Jesus say that you needed 8 years of school to be able to lead a group of his followers in his memory. What matters is the faith, not the collar..... _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

....will not have to die in Iraq. Afghan is still a busy place and now that we have spent the last few years giving combat ready practice to new terrorists, I'm thinking they will be busy elsewhere as well. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

A lot of hype on that...my best loved guess is that its a Lovecraft monster told from the PoV of people in NYC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu Transformers was the best action movie I've seen in a very long time and I thought the movie would suck and destroy my favorite childhood obsession. Interesting enough, the one movie I thought was a sure thing (Harry Potter), was terrible. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Reckon they'll finally hit a release target for TF2 then? Already has a street date, was playable at E3 this past week. Will be boxed with several games - Half Life Episode 1 & 2, Portal (looks like a cool new puzzle shooter), and TF2. Link about it with E3 info: http://pc.ign.com/objects/877/877579.html#e3_stories This looks fun as well: http://pc.ign.com/articles/804/804933p1.html _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I disagree entirely with this line of reasoning. For one brief moment in this movie . . . after all the others where Snape is seen as a bad guy for seemingly no other reason than to be the bad guy . . . we are given a glimpse of why Snape hated Harry's father and we can actually feel a bit sorry for him. This is expanded on a bit further when he has the opportunity to really do some officially sanctioned torture of Harry, but, decides he'd rather not becuase he hates the person that is ordering him even more. I do think it leaves a bit of an issue for later movies, but we'll just have to wait to see how that is resolved. It opens a HUGE issue for the next movie....it will be a rather large leap to convince the audience on why Snape came to Dumble 14 years ago after a particular thing he does....which once again impacts the key moment at the end of 6. I also found it odd that they did nothing with Harry's thoughts after seeing that vision....maybe I was tired and missed it, but I don't think it was in the movie. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

It was a hack job of a movie. There was no pacing, no flow to the entire thing....someone even turned to me and asked what the movie was supposed to be about as the Order was hardly used in the movie. They mis handled some of the more important items that are heavily used in the next book....OOTP answers pretty much every question the first 4 books had and is a major setup the final two books. Ron/Hermoine were never in the movie unless they were there to nod around Harry (and the whole Weasley family losses out on some of the best character development in all of the books....and without that it will lessen the mood in the hospital at the end of 6).....Dumble's major revelation to Harry at the end of the movie isn't even there and that is a major turning point in their relationship that impacts how they relate in book 6..........the fact that they originally were not going to have Kreatcher in the movie shows they didn't read Half Blood before starting to make this. Umbridge being able to break into the Room of Requirment just destroys the idea of how hidden the room is (which is important in Half Blood). And the OWLS - 5th year is the year from hell and they never once got in to that. Essentially they took all the character out of the movie, the things that made it part of the Potter story line and made it into a typical boring movie without, for lack of a better word, magic. And with the focus all on Umbridge being THE evil in the movie, lead to zero buildup of the impending doom their world is about to face....a doom that is preached by Harry and that is slowly realized by the rest of the world.....and Harry fighting against that shows him coming into his own....which leads to his ability to act in the next book. The editing was the worst part of the movie.....outside of a few key moments, the cuts were rather quick and often changed time/location without much warning. And just putting a dark filter on the entire movie is not the way to set a dark tone. And what fucking genius decides to make the longest book into the shortest movie? This director had no vision. He took a mixup of art design from the first 4 movies and tossed them in.....and he had no awe or beauty with moving the camera. The only real story telling in the entire movie was regulated to the news paper clippings. And did anyone else pay attention to the music? Nothing about it stood out and made it good....nothing about it increased the mood on the screen. I was fully disappointed and have major concerns knowing that he is directing the next one. Hopefully they stop to read the last book when it comes out before they finish shooting Half Blood.....and the fact that they did nothing to further Snape this movie is even a bigger worry for me....there will be no emotional attachement to the character at all to gain the full shock of what happens on the tower and the events after. Not only that, they leave out pretty much everything about the prophecy and what it meant to Riddle and how Snape knew it, and how important all those things are because its essentially why the last 14 years have come about. Will they even do any character development about Riddle and his life in the next one? This was easily the worst Potter movie yet. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yea, premades are the only way to go if you do play. I wish I did keep playing them, started playing HL2 recently and my aim has gone to hell. Hopefully I will be good again by the time Team Fortress 2 comes out in October _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

This could have an impact as well down the line http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/07/12/1425226.shtml "Google is the target of another lawsuit — this time over whether or not they are responsible for the content that advertisers put up on their site. The case involves an instance where Google displayed ads for two automotive dealerships in Australia, yet the links led users to the site of a commercial rival. The company that placed the ads in 2005 avoided a lawsuit by settling with Australian regulators, who are now going after Google for not policing the ads. If this suit holds up it will set a precedent for very heavy ad monitoring responsibility on the part of all search engines, not just Google _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/washington/11surgeon.html?ei=5090&en=e90da41b777967cf&ex=1341806400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1184277813-KjOKGMm55UCs0kUsREqIng ....Reagan tried to do the same to Koop and Clinton tried to do it to Satcher. Interesting enough it was only Carmona that was shut down. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

You should read State of Fear....pretty interesting read even if it is a bit of fiction _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Why bother? My current phone is better than the iPhone and cheaper....and can do more (it's the same size of the iphone as well). You can interchange memory cards and batteries, use third party programs, get company email easily, read any type of document, use a keypad, play mp3's, store photos, watch video, use a web browswer just like theirs etc. On top of that I faster data connections and can use my phone as a modem for my laptop and can simply sync up my phone book from my PC/Outlook to my phone without having to spend hours putting 300 phone numbers into a phone. I can also watch TV and get XM Radio streaming on my phone and use any IM program for free. And this phone only costs $90 with a two year contract. I don't see the reason to get the iphone, esp the 1st generation one.... no keypad for easy text entry, touch screens have never been a precision instrument, not enough storage for good video usage if you are a videophile, you have to use iTunes type shit, you can't use third party programs outside the browser, etc etc..... Oh ya, it costs as much as a Playstation 3 if you want the good one. The only thing I can't do yet is watch YouTube from my phone since Flash doesn't work on Mobile 5 but it will on Mobile 6 _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....