etakyma and I are holding a Registration pre-stuffing party in advance of Ascendio!

Our location has changed since the one we held for Infinitus but it's still accessible by T:

Candlewood Suites
130 Middlesex Turnpike
Burlington, MA 01803

By T: Take the 350 Bus from Alewife Station to the Burlington Mall Road and Meadow Road stop.


June 30 and July 1 (Saturday and Sunday).

We will also let people know the room number via Facebook and Twitter once we have checked in.

Even if (or especially if!) you can't come to Ascendio, but you're in the Boston area, c'mon down and say hello! We miss you!

Back at Azkatraz, bekkio made a beautiful House Unity quilt and I bought it at our auction.

Last week it tried to kill me.

J/K. I put it on my bed last weekwhen I was sick and had chills, and the next morning (after I bailed on work), I was bundled up under it and felt a stab. Then another little jab. I lifted up the corner to find that a pin had been left stuck under the top layer. But here's the thing: The head of the pin was caught inside the quilt itself! So there I was, sick, groggy, getting out a seam ripper so that I could open up the binding at the corner and then carefully easing the pin by its head down to the corner and popping it out of the new hole I'd just made.

I still need to sew it back up. But at least my quilt isn't trying to kill me anymore.

(And, um, I'm kinda even more glad that I bought it and not some unrelated fandomer who might then have had a pin sticking them in the head when they were sick and trying to sleep....)

Okay, so I haven't posted in forever, I know. Are you really surprised?

But I had such a weird and random day yesterday I just had to share. ( But I'll cut for the disinterested. )

So, yeah. Welcome to my world of Random. Only in my life would missing a bus (twice) and forgetting my phone and my hat and everything else LEAD me to a serpendipitous discovery of Potter activity. Yeah.

Yes, I realize I'm like the last person in HP fandom to see DH1 - well, except etakyma, because we went to see it together last night.

It was okay. It was better in parts than I feared, more painful in parts than I hoped, and surprising in a few ways. Best thing in the film was Jason Isaacs, though. I think he really did an amazing job of treading that line between scared shitless and trying to maintain the shreds of his dignity, authority, and prowess. The Endless Camping Adventure of DOOOOOOM was mercifully kept moving through the wondrous power of film - and basically skipping the monotony in favor of, y'know, actual plot development. Rhys Ifans cracked me up, mainly because all I could think of anytime he was on-screen was "Notting Hill" and the ridiculous Spike. Yaxley! I am so glad we have a visual for him now. Bill Nighy as Scrimgeour was also freakin' hilarious (though I didn't need the EXTREME close-up of the first few frames).

One moment of huge cognitive dissonance for me was the scene in the tea shop because I had immediately recognized the Death Eater later revealed as Dolohov - only I immediately recognized for the icons that the HP Alternity player has chosen for Rodolphus.... so I had to do a little mental somersault and reassign him in my head. (Yeah, I know. But HP Alternity rocks.)

There are some visuals I want to be able to spend more time on - like Sirius' room (I want MORE!) and Regulus' room (again MORE) and the exterior of the Manor (though not the interior - way too Gothic and not Georgian enough)... long hair on wizards is growing on me, especially styled like the head Snatcher. (I'm kinda glad it wasn't Fenrir, actually. I don't mind that change.) I'm also glad they didn't include Remus's freakout scene when he comes to 12GP because that was one of the bits that really pissed me off - not that he was panicked, but that Harry got all self-righteous with him and really had no clue what he was talking about. (The sequence just drove home why R and T weren't well-matched the way JKR wrote them.) On the other hand, the inclusion of George playing it cool in the face of Harry and Ginny making out? Price. Less. And Luna ALWAYS RULEZ. M'kay?

Oh, does anyone know why on earth the guy Harry polyjuiced into in the Ministry infiltration sequence (Runcorn), was walking so strangely? That was never explained as far as I can tell.

Hm. What else? Since I probably won't see it again until it's on cable or whatever.... I thought it was reasonable. Maybe it's because I'm just not as invested in the story anymore. I dunno. Heavy on the angst and woe in the opening scenes... but overall better than I was expecting.


In other news: Full Monty, baby! At Turtle Lane. End of February. I'm playing Pam and will play Vicki for some number of performances. This is awesome for a few reasons, not least of which that it comes with a very small stipend, which basically pays for the gas and probably for going out afterward. Yayz.

Still no word on the job - I'm told we will know something "this week." Argh. I needz a job.

My Christmas shopping is 2/3 done. And I bought a pair of PJs that I need to exchange for a different size. And the Penguins won, hoorah.


Tonight, I have been watching "The Princess and the Frog" on cable. Er. Well. It does have a bit to recommend it. But I still can't forgive them for Disneyfying her - though there is a better explanation for her outfit in the context of the story... she still was prettier and more appropriate before they mucked with her look. However. Keith David has always had a sexy voice. He's even sexier when he sings. SHIVER. (Oh, and it's worth noting that the dream sequence toward the end shows her in much the way they had her look originally.)

I found out who the music director will be for Seussical and OMG, it makes me feel 100x better about the whole thing! He's not only a fab MD, he works with young kids all the time and so he'll really be in the zone with this half middle-school cast. YAYZ.

I wasn't at rehearsal, however, because I had an audition. Which went fine - but it'll be a while before I hear anything.


So now I'm watching Project Runway and putting together a to-do list for tomorrow.


Also, I meant to say last time, that I'm still really enjoying "Mark Reads Harry Potter" but there have definitely been times when I think, "Jesus, Mark, how can you NOT have figured this out?!" It takes me back to the endless debate days when people actually thought Snape was not acting as a double agent. Or when people couldn't figure out that Hermione was time-travelling. Or that Lupin was a shapeshifter (I won't say werewolf because hey, I thought he was shifting into the Grimm because I thought he was Sirius Black in disguise. So in a way I was a book early). I haven't read his reviews in a couple days (when I left off he was somewhere around Chapter 16), but it's both interesting and frustrating that for someone with his experience of the genre, he doesn't seem to be thinking very critically about what's happening. But maybe that's just because he's reading it just as it comes and not trying to speculate very hard. Still. There's only so much, "BZUH? WTF WTF WTF?!" one can take....

That said, I'm still enjoying his reviews and finding the process interesting. And I'm very intrigued by his reaction to the books especially without any kind of break in between, since it's long been a theory of mine that future generations will be at a huge advantage to those of us who had to wait, who had time to theorize, who had contact with one another and encouraged each other to play around in the Potterverse. These generations (like Mark) will read straight through and thus they won't necessarily stop and think about the inconsistencies and the plot holes and the other flaws in the books - especially the last three. They don't have the expectations that were built up over years and months of waiting, and particularly the collective brain power of thousands of people, of whom at least a few hundred were really perceptive and intelligent and creative and came up with brilliant theories (and some cracktastic ones!) that turned out to be far off-track - and in some cases, IMO, better than what we got. So I'll be very interested to see if the payoff works way better for him, as a representative of generations to come.


Oh, and Playreading. Hm. It was interesting. Of course, some of our play suggestions were made before we knew that we're being forced to change our traditional venue, so we scratched a lot off that might have been a really good stretch had we been able to stay put. But at the same time, I think there are some assumptions at work in the committee that may not be accurate. We'll see....

Okay, I am a genius. I'm sure this has also been done before, but shut up. I'm SMRT.

So, for reasons that probably don't need to be explained (or, well, better not have to be because I really can't right now), I was thinking last night about how much one could condense and compress the core story of Harry Potter - and specifically, could one get it down to a drabble?

Well, I couldn't quite manage 100 words, but I think I did a pretty good job with 200. It could be tweaked, I'm sure.

Mind you, this is pretty bare-bones - no subplots, no explanations, no characters unless they're absolutely integral. Okay, one or two things because I had room. (The really bare-bones version is 150 words!) But here, for your amusement, is my open beta double-drabble on Harry Potter:


Harry Potter lived in a cupboard until age 11. He learns he’s a wizard whose parents were murdered by Voldemort, who is not quite dead. Voldemort tries to reincorporate during Harry’s first year at wizarding school, but fails because he can’t touch Harry. In year two, Harry also destroys a diary containing a past echo of Voldemort. In his third year, Harry learns that his godfather Sirius was framed and the man responsible, Peter Pettigrew, has been hiding ever since. Harry helps Sirius, but Pettigrew also escapes and helps Voldemort return. This breaks the enchantment protecting Harry from Voldemort’s touch. Harry realizes he can see Voldemort’s thoughts, but Voldemort tricks him into thinking Sirius is in danger. Harry tries to rescue Sirius but Sirius falls through a curtain and dies. Harry then learns from Dumbledore that Voldemort separated fragments of his soul into Horcruxes, like the diary. Dumbledore assigns Harry the task of finding and destroying the others. He does. Meanwhile, Voldemort searches for a magic wand that will make him invincible. Neville kills a snake, Voldemort kills Harry, which busticates the Harry-horcrux, but Harry comes back and wins because Voldemort grabbed the wrong wand. The End. Epilogue? What Epilogue?


Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! I'll be here all week. Tip your waiters!

Comment with your own versions! HP in 200 words or less!

I got an email today from someone who has created this resource:

Werewolf Act of 1947

It's heavily based on my "Regulations of the Ministry," which I wrote back in, um, 2002? Yeah. Before Order of the Phoenix and Tonks and any of that stuff. I LOVE the formatting, and it looks like many of the changes she made to the documents make *a lot* of sense based on the new information we got in the later books.

It's wicked cool!


(Also, one of the guys in "Fiddler" is a big fan of copperbadge's. And loves "Stealing Harry." And HATED Deathly Hallows. How awesome is that? (Of course, he's about 24. Sigh. I'm sooo ooooollllld.))

A few days ago, I got a message some someone looking for this fic. It was previously up on Azkaban's Lair, which sadly is gone from the intarwebz.

Since I didn't have it archived really anywhere else, I'm posting it here for y'all. So hogwartshussy, this is for you!

Title: Puppy Love 1/1 (A sick ficlet)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: SB/RL
Disclaimer: I won’t make any money off this (I hope) and the characters belong to JKR (please forgive me for what I’ve done to them)
Archive: Go right ahead, but let me know
Notes: A few days before I wrote this someone asked (sorry, I don’t remember who) why people always cast Remus as the “girl.” For some reason, that little comment inspired in me the image of Sirius in a dog collar….hence this PWP.
Notes continued: Explicit BDSM, lots of references to bestiality. “If we offend, it is with good will.”
Feedback: Sure.


( Puppy Love (1/1) )

I am way too busy for words, trying to keep my head above water, here.

But it's been a cool weekend. We went to the fandom party of awesome for a little while. I love nqdonne and lesyeuxverts00's apartment! It is the spiff.

Also hung out with flourish and her very cute, very nice young man. It was an accident of timing that the four of us arrived together and left together, but etakyma and I had tickets to Spookapella V at TCAN.

It was a great concert, but more subdued than in past years. The last one was very Halloween-y, but this seemed like an older crowd and maybe because it was the day after Halloween, no one but the performers were in costume. Well, two of the acts, anyway.

The third act (the post-intermission half) was the professional group Ball in the House. Awesome. But TOTALLY DISTRACTING in that two of the members I SWEAR could have been cast as the Black brothers.

No, sincerely.

Anyway.

hpalternity is still awesome and way too much fun. azkatraz is going to be SO AMAZING and we are really zeroing in on a lot of the fun stuff that we'll be doing, but we still need a ball coordinator and some other positions and more stuff should be forthcoming about that soon.

I have rehearsal for which I need to leave (and I need to eat!) and then I'll be home later tonight for a phone call with Dad and an Azkatraz chairs' chat.

Hi, all.

Well, a number of people asked me about the four house filks I wrote in honour of Nimbus - 2003. I am an unrepentant elitist filk snob, so I hold true to my conviction that I will not enter these in any filk competitions or submit them to any filk site, nor will I post them to discussion lists or such.

However, so many people asked about them that I've bent my position on posting them *anywhere*. I'm posting them here.

If any of you want the tunes to these (since most of you only heard two, and because two are original tunes and two are SCA filks), all you have to do is mail me a blank cassette tape with a self-addressed, postage-paid return envelope, and I'll be happy to record them for you.

So, without further ado: the filks.

A Hufflepuff Song:

Hufflepuff
Has a lot that’s tough.
They think we’re all duffers,
They say we’re all dumb.
But hard work and kindness
Don’t hurt anyone
So we’re Hufflepuff,
And that’s quite enough.

Hufflepuff
Made of strong, stern stuff,
We value persistence,
We stand by our own.
Our egos don’t easily
Get overgrown,
Cause we’re Hufflepuff
And we’re tough enough.

We’re Hufflepuff
Go ahead and scoff
You don’t even see us,
You don’t realise
Tis honey, not vinegar
That catches flies,
And we’re Hufflepuff,
And we’re sweet enough.

Hufflepuff
Is no place to slough
We’re not here for glory,
We don’t need to shine.
We do our jobs proudly
And think that that’s fine
For in Hufflepuff
We work hard enough.

We’re Hufflepuff,
And we could be gruff,
But loyalty works--
And you might be surprised
By how much we accomplish
With patience, not pride,
For in Hufflepuff
Modesty’s enough.

Hufflepuff
Does not think it rough
To work in the background,
To help from below,
To sow seeds with favours,
To reap what we grow,
Cause we’re Hufflepuff,
And we’re shrewd enough.

We’re Hufflepuff,
And we’ve had enough!
You ask what’s the point in
A house of our kind?
Well, we run the world
From beneath, and behind,
Cause we’re Hufflepuff!
And we’ve got the stuff!


A Ravenclaw Song:

Oh, Muggles think that the owl is wise
For he flies both swift and true,
But wiser still is the raven bold
For there’s nothing she can’t do.

A peaceful bird is the turtle dove:
For hope and love she stands,
But the raven has true peace of mind,
For she serves no master’s plans.

The raven black with claws of coal;
The eagle bronze and bright:
Wisdom, wit and truth the goal;
Knowledge gives us flight.

A bird of prey like the kestrel
Picks off the weak and slow.
But patiently the raven waits
And her meals appear below.

The robin preens his feathers bright
And sings a song for all.
But ravens spare their voices
And none ignore their call.

The raven black with claws of steel;
The eagle swift and free:
Wisdom, wit and truth our weal,
Knowledge is our key.

The heron stands long hours in mud
And the stork he scans the foam,
But ravens feast on land or sea
And make any place their home.

The goose may be contented
To be fatted for the kill,
But ravens ever shall be free
To serve where’er they will.

The raven black with claws of pitch;
The eagle wizard-wise,
Owes fealty only to the witch
Who saw in us her prize.

The cuckoo preys on the innocent
And to echo is the parrot’s fate,
But ravens are the gods of birds
And they perch on Odin’s gate.

And for raven intellect
And for eagles sharp of mind,
Rowena, warrior, witch, and friend
Made a house for ravenkind.

The raven black with claws like knives,
The eagle brown of wing;
Wit and wisdom all our lives:
Truth is everything.

Now some might think that Ravenclaw
Has no trait to recommend,
But ravens know our wit’s a wealth
That serves us ‘til the end.

For ravens are both brave and keen
And not easily seduced:
Thus reason solves more ills than brawn -
And ravens rule the roost!

The raven black with claws of coal,
The eagle fierce and proud:
Wisdom, wit, and truth the goal
That lifts us from the crowd.


A Gryffindor Song:
(to the tune "The Peasant Knight" by Mistress Rosalind Jehan of Paradox Keep)

A young boy born to a lady and lord
Of noble birth and high,
But no drop of wizard blood between the two,
Still finds his place in a magic world
Where dragons fill the sky,
And he learns the truth behind all he can do.

“Oh I have the heart of a warrior
And although I’m Muggle-born
The Sorting Hat this day I’ve worn,
And it saw my might,
And thus it hight me Gryffindor.”

A girl no older than eight years
Sees dreams of futures told
And her mother knows she’ll be a witch like her.
She’s strong of heart and true of mind,
Both virtuous and bold,
And she learns with delight of the school awaiting her.

“Oh, I have the heart of a warrior.
And although I am half-born,
The Sorting Hat this day I’ve worn,
And it saw my might,
And thus it hight me Gryffindor.”

A wizard born of wizard kin,
Grows up with spells and brooms.
In his veins the blood of generations flows.
And every night his father
Helps his gifts of magic bloom,
As he waves his wand, his innermost soul knows

That he has the heart of a warrior
And because he’s wizard-born,
The Sorting Hat one coming morn
Will see his might
And it will hight him Gryffindor.

The boy arrived on an autumn eve,
With a short sword at his side,
Knowing not what challenge he would face that day,
But courage burned within his breast
And his fears of magic died
When he saw that castle looming leagues away.

“Oh I have the heart of a warrior.
And although I’m Muggle-born
The Sorting Hat this day I’ve worn
And it saw my might,
And thus it hight me Gryffindor.”

Her eyes as bright as firebrands,
The girl arrived one fall,
Leaving far behind the fate of peasant wife.
And always she’d remember
How that test determined all,
Gave her expectations for her newfound life.

“Oh, I have the heart of a warrior.
And although I am half-born
The Sorting Hat this night I’ve worn
And it saw my might,
And thus it hight me Gryffindor.”

“House of honour, House of strength,
House of Godric’s pride,
Be with me this day; and let me do you grace.
My parents met here in their time,
When here they did abide,
And in Gryffindor I pray I’ll take my place.

For I have the heart of a warrior,
And because I’m wizard-born,
The Sorting Hat this day I’ve worn,
And it saw my might,
And thus it hight me Gryffindor.”

Witch or wizard, serf or king,
‘Tis magic that we share
Neither skill of hand nor strength of arm can serve.
For bravery and honour bright,
No other can compare,
In our ranks are wizards famed for strength of nerve.

For they all have the heart of a warrior,
And no matter how they’re born
The Sorting Hat one day they’d worn,
And it saw their might,
And thus it hight them Gryffindor.

May you have the heart of a warrior,
And no matter how you’re born,
In this house we all are sworn
To strive for right
And serve the might of Gryffindor,
Yes no matter how you’re born
In dark of night or light of morn,
Be bold and bright,
And do what’s right for Gryffindor.


A Slytherin Song:
(to the tune "Worms of the Earth" by Sir Volodomir Kambionets, OL (Bob Esty))

(Well) We are the worms of the earth,
Against the lions of pride
All of our days we are told that our ways
Are too cunning, but we’re justified.
Those Gryffindors think they’re so noble and kind
But we find them naïve and plain wrong.
They’ve beat us before,
But we’ll win in the end,
And you’ll see we were right all along.

My father’s blood it was pure,
As was his father’s before him.
Of Salazar’s lineage we’re sure,
With such prowess they couldn’t ignore him.
So I learned thirty hexes before I was ten,
At Hogwarts the Sorting Hat knew me, for when
It was placed on my brow it spoke the name, and then
And in Slytherin house I found home. Where (Chorus)

As a student, of course, I excelled,
Be it Transfiguration or charms.
I learned every potion and spell,
Winning points for my house with no qualms.
And so what if my methods seem cut-throat or sly?
Just get out of my way if you’re not on my side,
Or else get a strong dose of Slytherin pride,
And you’ll learn what crossing me means. For (Chorus)

It’s not that we’re naturally mean:
We’ve respect for the hardworking type,
Or minds that are brilliant and keen,
And whose houses don’t grumble or gripe.
But just let us Slytherins win the House Cup
Or Inter-house Quidditch — it’s not all that tough,
And they stand up against us and shout “That’s enough!”
And those Gryffindors cry, “It’s not fair!” (No chorus)

But what they don’t know that we do,
Is that life never is about fairness,
The brave and the cunning are few,
But many the foolish and careless.
So you Gryffs who report we all cheat — it’s not true,
You just don’t like to think that we’re better than you,
And we know one day soon we shall all get our due,
And we’ll see who’s ahead of the game.

For we are the worms of the earth,
Against those lions of pride,
All of our days we are told that our ways
Are too cunning, but we’re justified.
Those Gryffindors think they’re so noble and kind,
But we find them naïve and plain wrong.
They’ve beat us before,
But we’ll just come back stronger,
And you’ll see we were right all along.


There you go. Enjoy!