David Tennant's face of the day

Source: notabadday.tumblr.com

I'm going to apologise profusely for being M.I.A. and try and defend myself by saying it's finals week. I've only got one final (accounting) and one presentation left, but it might as well be a million, considering how these last three days have been.

David Tennant's face of the day

They're such beautiful people. I wish I were part of the gang, /tears.

Instead I'm sitting at home, eating delicious scrambled eggs made by my sister, and trying to organize my life enough so that 'failure' does not become part of it. On the bright side, the digital content I picked to write a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis on is Pottermore, so it's not too bad. It means that the next assignment I have to do, which is to take the opportunities I've thought of and basically plan on how they could become realities, through proposed partnerships and ad campaigns and brand extension, will also be centred around Pottermore.

Which makes me feel good, because I get to plan a hypothetical future for something that I absolutely love. Harry Potter just instantly makes projects fun. 

David Tennant's face of the day

Source: obliquemotion.tumblr.com

I think I can do this guys. I think I can get through this week of death and projects and assignments and still be alive and not a failure when Friday comes along. Wot's grad school but undergrad on steroids, right?

Got me some house points! 21, actually, which isn't that much. But considering my love for Hufflepuff, that might as well be 21,000. If anyone wants to duel me, my username is GhostStorm34 (thanks for making me feel like I'm five again and creating my first email/AIM screenname J.K. Rowling). I'm still a little frustrated with the site, due to the whole me being in the middle of brewing a potion and then facing that damn message screen and consequently failing at brewing the same, simple, potion eight times. But otherwise, hanging on there despite my frustrations.

Dear Pottermore

For the love of God, your future as a popular website and my sanity, please enlarge your servers or whatever it is that you need to do in order to ensure that people don't continuously (and I mean, continuously) have to run into your support message. If you can't handle the traffic that the site is getting in it's beta stage, how on earth are you going to work smoothly when the site launches publicly?

Love,
Yazya

P.S. Yes, this is a result of me being in the midst of getting my first damn house point for a house I don't even want to be in and then seeing the purple support message page appear before the point registers. I don't care if it's whiney or childish, at the bottom of it all, I have a point and you know it. I still love you, but you need to get your act together. Just saying.

P.P.S. This picture describes how I feel right now. But not really.

Source: danrad-daily.tumblr.com

David Tennant's face of the day

Source: gytrash.tumblr.com

I love Saturdays. I love being able to wake up at noon or 1pm and not feel like I've wasted the day. I love making coffee in the morning, or my lovely mate of the room variety bringing me a cup. I love lounging around in my pyjamas for as long as I damn well please. Especially rainy Saturdays, because that's just an even better excuse to not ever do anything at all. Granted, I had to go out in the downpour to get some stuff, but that's not the point.

My arms aren't sore yet from climbing, and I'm wondering if that means I didn't push myself hard enough, or simply that it'll sneak up on me when I least expect it. I'll let you know if I can type or not later, it's Pottermore and coffee time (I've begrudgingly accepted my Hufflepuff status and am willing to enter the fray of duels and class and etc. got to win my house some points, as long as I'm in it).

Stopping the world

Source: captaintightpants-.tumblr.com

I got into Hufflepuff.

Is it wrong that I would rather be cunning and evil and manipulative and risk being a Death Eater than be loyal and patient and a surprisingly good finder?

David Tennant's face of the day

Source: iwearastetsonnow.tumblr.com

I don't know why this happened or how it happened, and I honestly don't think I want to know these things. It's so much more entertaining imagining the possibilities.

On the equally bright side, finally got my Pottermore email! I've almost made it to the Sorting Hat, got my wand and books and all that wonderful nonesense (my wand is pretty awesome too, 12 and 1/2 inch sycamore, dragonecore, surprisingly swishy). I feel like I'm going to get into Hufflepuff...I don't want to get into Hufflepuff, there's too much internal prejudice against them for no real reason other than they really got the worst description in that first Sorting Hat song in book 1. Also, Cedric Diggory.

Still, probably going to get into Hufflepuff, and probably going to have to begrudingl deal with it. Though if it were a real Sorting Hat, my thoughts of 'not Hufflepuff! Not Hufflepuff!' would insure (for the most part) that I didn't go there. Unless, of course, it didn't think I fit into anywhere else. But...I'm just going to stop.

David Tennant's face of the day

I love long weekends. It means I can pretend to be on summer vacation for a little longer, despite making a conscious effort to continue my studies. So school starts on Tuesday, but my first class is Introduction to Book Publishing, so that should be a lot of fun. Still waiting on whether I've gotten my internship (went to interview yesterday) but I think it went well. Fingers crossed, right?

On a less happy note, I still haven't gotten the official letter that actually gets me to get on the Pottermore website. I am unhappy, considering I got it on the third day.

Proof of Magicalness

I am magical. Your arguments are invalid.

Ramadan Musings: Day 1

That's right folks, during daylight hours, Muslim men and women aren't allowed to hold hands whilst floating above a bed.

So my dear Viking friend of mine, who is Christian, has decided to try out Ramadan for the first time this year as a form of solidarity with our mate of the room variety, so that she doesn't have to fast by herself (now that's love right there). In the meantime, he's decided to write down his experiences with fasting in journal-esque format.

On a whim, and though this is far from my first Ramadan, I've decided to do the same and then upload some of them the next day, just for fun (and slightly to have more than one post a day, this internet is killing me folks). So here they are, day one of my Ramadan musings. Forgive the ramble, slightly decent into madness, and complete stupidity of some of them.

Keep in mind that the timings correspond to Abu Dhabi.

August 2nd, 2011

2:07am

realized I can't keep sleeping at 8am and waking up at 2pm for the rest of the month. The prospect of more daylight frightens me. Trying to find a list of things to do that will distract from heat and thirst and boredom. Have ruled out DDR, am now sad

2:10am

realized that writing these Ramadan reflections are actually fun. Might consider doing that. Fingers crossed for it not making me feel worse.

2:56am

hope roommates have remembered that cat isn't fasting and, according to Islam, probs shouldn't be tortured 

3:30 am

wondering if it's Ramadan that’s causing sister to go crazy. She's having a rant about no one being able to hate her if she's in a comma.

3:31am

it might be the heat, I misspelled "coma," and my cousin asked wot my sister will be doing during the time that she's in her coma. She's in the damn coma, she can't do anything but be in a coma.

3:32am

reconsidering applying for internships in this state. It's not even sunrise and already I'm dying of thirst and delusional. All I can think of to answer the question " Describe a specific project or assignment you have worked on that illustrates your strengths in the area(s) of interest you have selected" is "I deal with my family on a regular basis. This illustrates my strengths of patience and high tolerance for stress and ridiculousness. In addition, it shows how I can multitask, i.e. keeping saying while resisting the urge to strangle them and still being able to form mostly coherent and respectful responses to repeated questions." 

Pottermore: Brilliance webified

The above is a screenshot of the Pottermore website, in all it's unaccessible glory.

I realized about 20 minutes or so ago, in a confusing-to-anyone-who-doesn't-know-me yell of "ZOMG! Pottermore!" (yes I say "ZOMG" in real life) as I lept for my [mother's] computer, that today was the first day to register for early access to the website Pottermore by the awe-inspiring JK Rowling. It being Harry's/JK Rowling's birthday, today was naturally the first day, but to my dismay I found out that registration was closed (as expected). A glimmer of hope loomed though, because despite registration being closed for today, it's not, as I expected, closed permanently until  the official launch. Oh no, that would be silly, and something any other normal website would do. Clearly something that has emerged from the mind of Ms. Rowling has to exceed the expectations of her devoted fans (i.e. me); just as she gave us 7 books, she's also giving  us 7 days and 7 chances to get early access to the website.

The best part, other than the whole website, is that you can't just register by being the first and signing up your name. Again, that would be silly and something any other normal website would do. To be part of the magical world that Pottermore is surely going to offer us, you have to be magical yourself, and be good with riddles.

The pinkish banner above says this (the bigger screenshot wouldn't fit, sorry lovelies):

Those of you who would like the chance to gain early access to Pottermore must find The Magical Quill and then submit their registration details. Each day, from 31 July to 6 August, a clue will be revealed here. Solve the clue and you will be taken to The Magical Quill. Be quick, The Magical Quill won’t be there for long and registration will only be open while spaces are still available each day.

"The Magical Quill? Wot on earth is that?" I hear your voices say in sheer dismay (I told you, I have brilliant hearing). Never fear, for Rowling has an answer for that as well, on the far right in that lovely green/blue/I'msurethere'sapropernameforthatshade colour.

What is The Magical Quill?

The Magical Quill detects the birth of magical children and writes their name down in a large book. To find out if your name is in the book, you need to find The Magical Quill and then submit your registration details on Pottermore.

I don't know, maybe I just have deep love for JK Rowling and everything she creates, but I cant help but to think that this woman is absolutely and fantastically brilliant. I mean, I'm aware that this registration process is something small and silly and gimmicky, but I got so extremely excited...and that's wot I like, she got me excited to register for a website. Not a lot of people have managed to do that. Actually, no one has ever gotten me excited to register for their website. I've been excited to use websites, but never to simply have the chance to register for them. It may be a little frustrating to try and figure out the riddles, or even try and figure out wot would be the optimal time to try and sign up (with the whole time zones thing existing on our little planet).

Also the whole 'magical birth' think is quite clever. I can see children and adults all over the world working out riddles and going "HA!" when they figure them out and are told that their names have been found in the book. Then they can turn to people who don't like Harry Potter and murder them!

*cough* I mean, say "I told you I was magical!"

I'll let you know if I'm magical.