Harry Potter Plot Holes and Influence

Long time no write! 🙂

Many friends once told me that Harry Potter book series are way better than the movies. My open hostility towards the bad acting of the trio in the movies (some people will hate me for sure for saying this!) has deterred me from reading the books all these years. Something inside me changed after I visited the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London recently. I started reading Harry Potter. Book after book after working hours and whenever I could squeeze time. The influence of the story on my life is becoming more and more apparent to my close friends and family. I have become a fan now! 🙂

How was my wand-brandising?

Toot sent me a stray cat photo one day.

I replied: bottle-brush tail! (which is an exclusive description of Crookshanks in the books)

I texted Toot on another fine day:

Revelation: every time works are eating into too much of my personal time, I go berserk!

I picked up “berserk” from the books!

Re-watching the Harry Potter movies now makes me feel so….. belonged! Even though I still cringe at the bad acting!

Being a critical person, it’s only natural that I discuss the plot holes of the story with others.

Plot hole 1: So the magical community also celebrates Christmas? Jesus is a wizard?

Plot hole 2: If the magical community can send owls to people without even an address (like how Harry sent Hedwig to Sirius’s hiding place in GoF), then it would be really easy to catch criminals in the magical word!

Plot hole 3: Since the Unlocking Charm (Alohomora) is a charm that unlocks and opens doors and windows that are not protected by magic, why would the magical world be bothered to put on non-bewitched locks at all?

Plot hole 4: Since the Repairing Charm (Reparo) can be used to seamlessly repair a broken object and works on most materials, why is there broken object at all in the magical world?

Plot hole 5: How do wizards and witches get food? Magical farming? How come magical farmer is not on the career list?

Plot hole 6 (this is more like curious question than plot hole): Hagrid is half-giant. A (normal-sized) giant is about 20 ft. in height. How did Hagrid’s mom, who is a giant mate with the dad who is a muggle? Toot commented, “Maybe because Hagrid’s dad is a wizard, he either enlarges himself or shrinks the giant mom.”

Ah… Enough of break time. I shall go back to book 6 of Harry Potter series!

Meine obsessions

My obsessions… some are short-lived, some will remain as life-time addictions 😉

Cats – I think about them, write about them, play with them, I even think that I am one of them!

Collecting earrings – my collection is still growing. I especially like earrings with crystals and gemstones (and look-alike).

Collecting good luck charms – collecting stuff that symbolize protection or good luck or fortune = my newly cultivated obsession! Whenever friends ask me what I want as souvenir from the country they are visiting, I always reply, “local good luck charm!”

Charms to-buy to go with my bracelet! *evil*
1. 4-leaf-clover; horseshoe;
2. Guarding angel
3. cross = faith, heart = love, anchor = hope
4. Turkish eye – The eye – in the Oriental culture, it is believed to protect the wearer from the evil eye.
5. The original Matryoshkas are Russian wooden nesting dolls, which symbolise fertility.
6. Flyagaric
7. Tooth
8. Coin – The coin is the classical symbol for growing fortune and wealth.
9. Chinese knot – The knot is both a lucky charm and a symbol of deep bonding and love in China.
10. Rabbit

Collecting key chains and stamps – used to be a major part of my primary school life but somehow weaned off these 2 hobbies after starting secondary school.

Looking at snowflake pictures – snowflakes, so ethereal! Not even sure if I am putting “ethereal” to the right context, haha! But I meant snowflakes look so pure, light and delicate!

Photos grabbed from here!

Looking into kaleidoscope tube – my neighbor used to own one and let me play with it. I always looked into the tube with relish. I haven’t done this for years now but I just made kaleidoscope tube into my to-buy list 🙂

google image of kaleidoscope ♥

Hair for hope – Part 1

I never know my hair carries so much weight until the day that I decided to go bald for a good cause. The mere thought of being bald already gives me a sense of insecurity and anxiety. 

I am raising fund for Children’s Cancer Foundation based in Singapore. I sincerely hope that you could make a donation to support me and the foundation by clicking here. No amount is ever too little for charity!

Hair for Hope 2014!
Support me!

There was Chinese literature which regarded hair as 三千烦恼丝, which translates to 3 thousand strands of worry. I think I could resonate with this!

My hair is curly/ wavy in nature, not the nice or stylish ringlets though. Before I could afford hair-straightening, I had been struggling to keep my hair presentable, let alone in style. Everyday-is-a-bad-hair-day eroded my self-esteem a lot. Let me further pen down my love-hate relationship with my hair.

During Form 5, I suddenly became A LOT MORE active: besides joining girl guide, I also joined softball club and got to run for green house on sports day, so I had to bike 4km to school for training in the scorching afternoon. My hair was just ear-length but still it’s too hot for my survival and too time-consuming to manage. One hot afternoon, after waking up from nap in sweat, I decided to cut my hair super short. I told the hairstylist,

“I want my hair real short, until the top of my hair could stand up, like tweety bird’s!”

Hair like tweety!

I was happy with the outcome: the head was lighter, using a lot less shampoo, and I did not even need to comb my hair (just shake-dry, haha)! That was the shortest hairstyle I had to date.

Standing on the rightmost, I looked like a boy with spiky hair!

I entered university with the same short spiky hair and that attracted dramas! For one, many uni-mates thought I was a lesbian -_________-

Spiky-hair + tomboyish = les

Too reckless a formula -__________-

Besides, I kept hearing people mentioned “Ah Lian” wherever I went. That stirred my curiosity: who’s Ah Lian?

One fine day, R bumped into me in the canteen and greeted, “Hi, Ah Lian!”

I looked at him aghast: What?! So I’m the legendary Ah Lian??? I wasn’t familiar with this term at all so I asked around what it actually meant and I wasn’t happy!

SY: Ah Lian and Ah Beng, people who are crazy.

Go and have a look at wiki entry of Ah Lian.

 

To be continued… 

Meow’s guide to life – Part 3

Else you tend to overbuy!

While encased in casing on the left, my phone fell from the desk screen on and the resultant damage is considerable. So if you are a careless person like me, choose casing with front cover so that fall could be cushioned

Part 1 | Part 2 |

 

How to cheat for “Guess the Emoji”

My definition of cheat: not solving the puzzles with own light-bulb-moment, but with the help of tools, people, etc.

1) Print screen and send to (reliable) friends for help

2) Hit the “Ask Facebook” button

3) Log in and out of the app several times and print screen every time you do so. Identify the repeating letters and make guesses based on them. 

  

4) Hit the “Use a Hint” button (15 coins to expose a letter or remove letters; 30 coins to solve a question)

5) Want to use a hint but run out of coins? Pay to get more coins! Or share about the app on FB/Tweeter.

6) Ask google! :p

If I were a town planner/ the local council…

I will name the roads and towns in a way that could give people a sense of…

hope!
(Photo taken at Launceston, Tasmania, Australia)

And auspiciousness as well as positivity!

Let me present some examples!

Just another day in Paradise!
(Photo taken at Launceston, Tasmania, Australia)

Jalan Bahagia, 幸福之路！

 

 

Meow’s guide to life – Part 2

Sometimes, speed isn’t essence…

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Laozi

Part 1 | Part 3

The chronicle of a 花痴: another nationality

My new found love!

PS: The one aspect I am glad about my down under exposure is that I now have friends from many countries and this makes sharing of my花痴 experience more delightful! (Telling Thai friend I like Thai actor, more delightful, no? Haha!) :p

 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4| 5 | 6 |

The chronicle of a 花痴: looking into his eyes is like looking into an abyss

I knew he was Amon in “Schindler’s List”, older reader in “The Reader” and Voldermort in Harry Potter series, but I wasn’t smitten just yet. Not until….

… I watched this!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥!

Him in the khaki attire and with tanned skin… Aw… ♥ ♥ ♥! Oh! Learnt a new term: suprasternal notch!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4| 5 | 7

Someone who always knows…

In Grey’s Anatomy, Season 5, Episode 23:-

Izzie has another brain tumor and has to make a life-and-death decision whether or not to undergo a risky surgery.

Izzie: If Derek cuts the tumor out, I could lose my memory, and if he doesn’t, I could die. I don’t know what to do. Alex, tell me what to do.

Alex: Iz, I can’t tell you what to do.

Izzie: Of course you can. You’re my husband. That’s what husbands do. They stomp around telling their wives what to do. It’s your job.

Alex: No, my job is to support whatever you want to do.

Izzie: I don’t know what I want to do. That’s why I’m asking you.

Izzie then attempts to put it to vote in favour of the surgery, talks to a close cancer patient, Meredith tries to offer advice as a friend while the rest as doctors.

Long story short, but none of these seem to help Izzie makes up her mind. Not until George comes to her.

George: You paged me. Are you okay?

Izzie: No. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should have the surgery. I think I’m gonna die either way. You gotta tell me what to do.

George: You know what to do.

Izzie: No, I don’t. I don’t.

George: Yes, you do. You’re just scared to do it. This back and forth is just fear. But you’ve already made the decision. You already made it. You made it the second you decided to fight this thing. Just look…where you started. Look where you are now. I mean, now you’re this… Incredible surgeon… And teacher. You’re a doer, remember? You know exactly what you have to do.

This kind of plot is quite common in movies/series/books: XX has to make an important decision but has no clue what to choose. Then XX always meets YY who seems to understand XX’s strengths, body and soul and makes XX realizes XX’s heart’s desire by pointing out something with absolute certainty, no MAYBE, no PERHAPS. XX would be like struck by lightning, receives great enlightenment and proceeds to make the one decision that when XX draws a conclusion, you would have (good kind of) goose bumps because the decision sounds so right and unassailable on all fronts and also in XX‘s best interest!!!

Giving advice with certainty!

I want my George in real life! Save me all my struggles! Haha!