NoSQL est le terme anglais sous lequel sont souvent désignés les bases de données émergentes généralement non relationnelles et donc n’utilisant pas le langage SQL pour faire des requêtes sur la base de donnée.

Les bases de données relationnelles sont aujourd’hui essentiellement utilisées dans les entreprises pour stocker les informations critiques sur le business.

J’ai passé plusieurs années à écrire des logiciels pour permette de faciliter l’accès à ces données par des non experts , des utilisateurs normaux non doués de pouvoirs paranormaux pour intérpréter l’algèbre relationnelle et le SQL.  Je faisais déja du NoSQL, mais uniquement pour les utilisateurs … Sous le capot, il y avait du SQL à gogo.

J’ai eu l’opportunité d’aller à la conférence Open Source OSCON 2009 d’O'Reilly et le sujet des bases de données NoSQL était vraiment un sujet très chaud.

Saviez-vous que Voldemort n’est pas seulement un personnage de Harry Potter ? Que Cassandra ne faisait pas que prédire l’avenir en Grèce ? Que Hadoop (avec HBase) n’est pas le bruit que fait une boisson gazeuse mal digérée ? Que CouchDB permettait de se relaxer au niveau du schéma ?

Au commencement, il y eu le verbe, avec un papier de recherche publié par Google qui a fait date:

Bigtable: A distributed storage system for structured data (2006) par Fay Chang ,  Jeffrey Dean ,  Sanjay Ghemawat ,  Wilson C. Hsieh ,  Deborah A. Wallach ,  Mike Burrows ,  Tushar Chandra ,  Andrew Fikes ,  Robert E. Gruber

Ce papier décrit la base de donnée non relationnelle (NoSQL donc) utilisée par Google pour stocker les données du moteur de recherche, de Google Earth et Google Finance.  L’échelle de grandeur de la quantité de données stockée donne le vertige, on parle en petaoctets (ça fait beaucoup de gigaoctets tout ça!).

Celà a donné plein d’idées à d’autres et une pléthore de bases NoSQL ont vu naissance dans la foulée.  Je tiens de source sûre (un architecte de Yahoo en Californie) que la sortie de Hadoop et HBase en Open Source par Yahoo! a été poussée par l’idée de permettre à tout le monde de faire la même chose que Google avec BigTable et Map/Reduce…

Je ne vous ai pas encore parlé du théorème CAP qui veut qu’entre Cohérence,Disponibilité (Availability en Anglais) et tolérance à la partition/découpage du système, on ne puisse en obtenir que deux.  C’est un peu la théorie des quantas de l’informatique …

Vous pouvez voir une vidéo en Anglais du directeur technique de Amazon qui explique les enjeux dans l’utilisation de ces nouvelles bases de données.

Si vous êtes arrivé jusqu’à la fin de cet article et que vous n’avez pas encore mal à la tête, il est temps de lire l’article sur BigTable

I have so much on my mind, but most notably Frank and I went to a housing conservation center just down the street from us to seek legal help in getting section 8 housing, which we’d learned through his therapist, Miss Marbles, is still available, contrary to what is told to everyone, even by the mayor’s office for the disabled, and it seems, though maybe I was wishing to hear what I did or misunderstood what was said, that we can remain in our current apartment at a frozen rate of only 30% of Frank’s income/benefits, but could this be possible?  Was I too tired and anxious to understand what was communicated?  Was it true that the woman we spoke with was reassuring us everything would be all right?  Or is this all a fantasy?

If it indeed was a product of my imagination and we do still have to move, at least we know that section 8 isn’t a myth, that we’d be a top contender of any available apartment, and that Miss Marbles knows how to fill in the applications for us to ensure they’re taken with the utmost seriousness, though sometimes I do wonder if she exaggerates her mastery of the system.

As for questions answered, I learned what the stupid question was that provoked my brother’s girlfriend, no longer to be known as Voldemort, to break up with him.  But it wasn’t a stupid question at all and reveals her to have the wisdom and insight that my brother insisted she possessed and that he is so lacking in.  Part of what he’s missing is an accurate and developed understanding of my mother.  Of course, just as it’s not my job to make him see he needs to stop drinking, it’s not my job to make him see my mother is far from infallible.

What does concern me appropriately is how difficult it was for Frank during the meeting with the housing conservation lawyer.  He was in so much pain due to unrelenting exhaustion this past week from all his appointments, he couldn’t think of words like “identification” or names of places we’d contacted already and I found myself . . . scared.  I knew it was because of his pain, but I momentarily forgot it wasn’t a constant, his level of disorientation.  Thankfully, Frank has his first appointment on Monday with a pain management clinic headed by a specialist he’s been trying to see for years now and hopefully this is the first step in his stopping the progression of his symptoms and reversing the toll its taking on his days.  But what people who haven’t experienced it personally may not see is that attaining disability status is sometimes the only way you can get the treatment to function again.  It’s not a matter of giving up on yourself but of taking back control of your life, away from your medical condition.  At least, this is what I see in going through all these bureaucratic trials these past couple years with Frank.

I’ve been thinking how fortunate Frank and I are for the services provided by the city for the disabled (and thanks to Jim for making me realize this) and how completely unfortunate and regrettable it was that my parents chose to lash out at Frank because of their anxiety.  I know how to move forward in my own life, with my own goals and with Frank, but I don’t know how to proceed with my parents.  Is it possible to have them in my life without being aware of their disdain  and disappointment?  But I hope my own Miss Marbles can help me with that.

When I first saw Harry Potter VI: The Half-Blood Prince I noticed two things:

1. That movie is fucking terrible.
2. One scene is eerily similar to a scene from X-Men 3: The Last Stand

It’s additionally suspicious that both films are the worst in their franchise. The scene in question, however, is the memory scene where Dumbledore first meets Tom Riddle and invites him to study at Hogwarts. Though the tone and dialogue are slightly different, the subtext is exactly identical. Teacher(s) comes to supernaturally powerful youngster, teacher tells youngster they’re similar, youngster is suspicious, teacher tells youngster they have a power that needs to be controlled. Additionally, both youngsters go on to kill their teachers [Note: Voldemort kills Dumbledore indirectly - I know he wasn't hold thing wand. Don't even try.] The way the music builds tension is also very, very similar.

See for yourself:

WHAM. Take that ‘arry. I know the book was written before X-Men 3, but X-Men and Xavier’s school have been around for decades. Regardless, the sixth Harry Potter movie was terrible.

A week back, I woke up from a deep sleep early in the wee hours of the morning to find myself lying in the bed, clutching the pillow tight.

Thank God I’m back, Home – This is what I thought for some time and then slowly recalled what I saw scene by scene…

***

The living area seemed to be so familiar.

Yes!!!!! It’s my home. Something was bothering me. Yes, The world outside is going to come to an end. But how? That’s the question which pricked my heart. I was searching frantically for some book.

I shouted, “It’s there in the book. It is written how the thing will happen”.

I searched the book, without knowing, what the book is all about. I kept reminding myself the page number in which it was written. I looked at all places. Finally spotted my computer table in which I found the book intact with the surface of the table. I could feel the chill gush of air in the face. I could feel the electric pulse travelling from the central spine to all over the nerve junctions. I advanced towards the table to pick it up and open the page in which the thing was written. I wanted to read that single page which decided the next few moments. I felt, the world outside will any time get destroyed. I could imagine the cracks appearing in the roads ready for its destruction and its journey in to the deep unfathomable cavity extending underneath the surface!

I extend my hands to reach for the book. The scene changes!!! **Sigh**

***

I walk in a big campus resembling the Infy campus in MCity. I could see big posh buildings, dazzling in blue and green glasses, reflecting the sunlight which appears to be some known university in a foreign country. I walk with my thick blue jeans with a full sleeved turtleneck T shirt covered with a long brownish cloak covering my body till the knees. I could see myself walking hurriedly towards a glass door entrance with an old book covered with parchment type of hard bounded cover and an ancient symbol beveled in its cover in the center. I read a particular page with some unknown symbols and markings scribbled in the top empty space in the page. I kept walking along the pathway into the Corridor, where I could spot few other boys and girls strolling randomly towards various entrances to halls.

I was about to turn the next page, just them someone who passed by me, snatched the book from my hand closing it and then stuffed back to me saying

“Don’t read all this here. It’s barred here. Don’t you know?”

I looked at him in bewilderment and snapped back, “Why is it that? Can’t you see I’m reading things and see the symbols I’ve noted down, here?”

He didn’t seem to show any interest in my argument. He picked up his mobile and walked away. I kept looking at him and suddenly I rushed towards the staircase in the corridor and kept walking in it until I reached a room which appeared to be a classroom. It was full of students. I thought I was going to give some lectures to them and I did not feel like a student in the university which I had thought earlier. I was about to enter the classroom, just then the scene changes again

***

I was walking in the streets of Triplicane looking at the things around me. This is my place where I stay in Chennai currently, for the past 12 years. Now, I had reached the road which was perpendicular to our street. I marched forward looking at the world outside my house. It seemed to be normal but as I crossed two junctions which came in between, I could see the cars and almost all the vehicles are parked in the traffic as it is. Nothing seemed to move. Looking straight ahead, I could see an array of vehicles jammed in the road and it was crowded as if some disaster is scheduled to happen.

I walk past various cars and autos parked in the middle of the road. I was terrified. I still couldn’t visualize the disaster that’s going to happen. As all chennaites know very well that, Triplicane is situated near the Marina beach and it is walkable distance from the place, I need not explain where the beach is. I kept advancing towards the end of the road. I could see many people standing outside their houses and looking at things very uneasily. There were lots of worried faces which I could easily spot. Almost all of them have come out and were holding feared looks in the faces.

I didn’t know how far I walked; suddenly I could see the sea and its water level has risen considerably. I didn’t know, Marina beach encroached this much of land beside it. The   water level was deliberately high. Usually, whenever I look at the beach, standing on the shores, facing the waters, I had always looked down as the shores are always elevated. But for the first time in my life, I’m looking up at an elevation angle of about 60 degrees above the normal eye sight. I couldn’t digest the fact that, I’m not standing in the shores which will be usually sandy where we can find Sundal hawker, boats, ice cream and Balloon Shooting stalls and a sparsely distributed population of affectionate duos performing the intimate game plays in the vast open space, but I’m standing in the well polished tar roads which were laid for the last week parliamentary elections.

I could see the waters have engulfed the dry sandy shores into its buoyancy and people are standing in the road that runs parallel to it. In no time, I could hear the waves emitting a mystical hum and the water body visible to my eyes started ebbing out. The clouds above the water body took weird shapes and darkened. I couldn’t control my fearful excitement. The darkened clouds formed a weird image resembled to be a face of a human being, like that of lord Voldemort’s image used to appear in the sky whenever death eaters cast the dark symbol in Harry Potter series. I immediately took out my mobile from my shorts and launched the Camera application in it (I’m still confused as to why I wanted to take the picture of that face in the sky, when the world is about to come to an end). I did not know from where did my mobile come into my short’s pocket. I never remembered carrying it with me, when I started from home. Well dreams always leave you with many questions unanswered.

I took out my cell, gazed the sky and tried clicking the image and the whole devastating scene in front of my eyes that nobody could imagine – A sea ebbing out which is already at a higher elevation than the usual one and ready to pounce on the human population and engulfing the lands, pulling everything inside it. But the time I was to register what is happening, I found myself inside the water, floating in an unknown height and depth. I went unconscious and suddenly the scene changed as usual

***

I was clutching very lightly without any efforts, the outer surface of a huge cylindrical hollow tower edifice which can hold 2 to 3 persons vertically in its hollow circular enclosure, situated at some safe distance from the beach. I could see the water body flowing into the lands and roads underneath it, getting slowly swallowed by the demonic waves. I still hold the metallic edifice clutching its cylindrical surface on its top and yelling at the image which appeared in the sky .

“Let it happen the way you wanted. I’ll see what can be done.” I challenged the dark face.

I could feel some force which was holding me close to the cylindrical structure. I felt easy to be held in its proximity, myself at the topmost part of it. I did not hold it tight. I was just spreading my hands around it and the circumference was so large that, I couldn’t hold my palms of both my hands, together on the other side. So you can imagine how I was being held to its surface like a magnetic levitated train in its electromagnetic tracks. To be very simple, I felt like spiderman sticking to the surface of the tower. Well I nested a small pride in me to have challenged some evil force which was trying to destroy the world by agitating the water body of world’s second largest beach!! (Heights of dreaming!!)

Now I started descending down the pillar and felt as how I’ve been operated by someone. I drifted smoothly in the cylindrical surface without being held anywhere or suffering intense pain or scratch. The bright world outside slowly started disappearing and an enclosure has started appearing around the pillar. I was descending down in the hollow space between the enclosure and the hollow pillar like structure. The darkness has already surrounded me. But I could see an aura of light around me, just me alone. I could see the inscriptions which has been inscribed on the edifice surface. I was still descending down. I was comfortable descending down as how the elevators descend down the floors. Suddenly, I remembered something was written beside the image which I saw in the sky, the darkened image f0rmed by the clouds. I wanted to recall that. So in that instant, I was again ascending upward the edifice. I reached the top of the tower again. I could see the sea and the terrific waters flowing mercilessly into the city. The city was getting heavily water logged. Slowly the roads, houses, and buildings have started disappearing in the water. I could again see the face and the text which was formed beside it through the dark clouds. Satisfied, I again descended down the tower effortlessly.

To my surprise, I found this undeniable truth that, it was none other than me who was controlling my traverse upward and downward. Nobody was controlling it. I felt as if I’m controlling my life and my dream. I could clearly see that I’m in a dream and I could do all weird things like controlling my traverse up and down by just giving a thought about it. I calmed myself and held the pillar close to me and started my descend down into the deep hollow black space that lay beneath me. This cylindrical pillar was my only ray of hope and light to this journey of descend, which I’ve been subjected myself to. I found myself getting into a state of mental stability. The downward journey into the vast pitch black hollow beneath me was happening at ease. I was breathing normally.

It would have been some hours of time ticked away. I still found myself descending into the oblivion. Suddenly the velocity at which I was travelling encountered retardation in the motion and the journey came to a halt as my feet touched a solid base of something.

I detached myself from the structure which was holding me all throughout the journey and looked down to get a view of staircase. The staircase was made of metal with the most intricate artistic works in its design. The spiral steps looked very ancient like that of the steps in the British style bungalows0. I was involuntarily getting down the steps and I reached the doors which seemed to be half open. I reminded myself about preparing for some lecture to be given to students who have gathered in a large seminar hall. I quickly entered the door to find a bunch of foreign university students waiting for someone. As soon as I entered the hall, they started moving towards a particular classroom which seemed to be attached with the hall. The hall was brightly ventilated with the gleaming yellowish ambience spreading all over the hall.

I walked in to one of the classrooms. I could see around five to six students who were sitting opposite to each other in the class room tables and were chatting. The girls were in their sleeveless tights and jeans and were excited seeing me in the class. It looked as if a gang of friends were chatting happily in the recess break after a session of lecture. I happily joined them remembering my own college days. They welcomed me with “yaay…yo”. In that group, one of the girls looked at me. I was confused as whether I’m a professor who is visiting this campus for a guest lecture or a student who has enrolled for a course in MS in some weird discipline say Symbology in some foreign university in UK. Images of Dan brown and Robert Langdon hovered in front of me. I could recollect the pages I have read from the “The Lost Symbol” last night in the bus. The way he has explained the interior of the US Capitol building was haunting my mind. The girl came to me. She was nearing me. I knew what she is about to do. She had a titillating looks in her face. She looked stunningly beautiful. I couldn’t resist the delay. I wanted to go and grab her and….

I woke up with a heavy pounding heart. Searched for my mobile and saw the time. It was 3.30 AM. I opened my eyes completely, chafed it twice or thrice and kept thinking about what I saw. I remembered many things immediately post dream – 2012, Movie trailer, 2012 theories, The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown, Robert Langdon, Harry potter, Infy Campus, my willingness to do an MBA abroad, interest in cryptography, passion for getting a new mobile touch screen mobile and many other things which I’m so passionate about. These things have collectively shown its face in various events.

***

Well, I recalled everything and dozed off. Usually we used to forget what we see in the dreams as soon as we get up in the morning. But this dream I really wanted remember. I wanted to blog about this. It may look very silly but still I wanted this to write this somewhere and share with others. For those who think this is all crap and I’m so silly, I admit I’m silly and don’t wanted to be in one of those mature grown up frowning serious male category. And for all those who enjoyed this, let me know what you felt about this.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091114010626AAYBSsI

Thankfully, I have something to momentarily distract me from the stress caused by my parents’ hysteria.  My brother is no longer with Voldemort.  I should be clear that, though I was concerned by what I’d heard about her actions (which all spoke of her being manipulative, possessive, demanding) and didn’t care for the vibes I got from her photos (that she was a drunk, conniving dragon lady), Frank reasonably pointed out that she was the only kind of partner my brother could expect and, in fact, wanted in his current state of insecurity, thrill-seeking, alcoholism, and general poor judgment.  So I’d come to see their being together (and marrying before her work visa expired) as inevitable and really what my mother deserved, as Voldemort was, in fact, eerily like my mother in terms of her being conniving to get her way.

What surprised me, but shouldn’t, was that it was Voldemort who broke up with my brother–all because of this supposedly stupid question.  I don’t know the details of the situation that led to the split, but have only this cryptic scenario to puzzle over: She asked him a “stupid question.  Her friends told her it was a stupid question (well, the friends not trying to sleep with her at least), and she admits that it’s a stupid question. She also admits that [he] gave a stupid answer, and [he] tend[s] to agree. It’s one of those Catch 22 questions to which there’s no answer that makes both parties satisfied.  [He] answered it the way [he] knew [he] had to, to be true to [himself] and not lie, but she would have preferred the lie.  Okay, preferred isn’t too strong of a term obviously, since she broke up with [him] because of how [he] answered that question.”

The question remains, what was the question?  Obviously., it couldn’t actually have been a stupid question if it made her realize he wasn’t worth putting her hopes on.  My brother believes people tended to underestimate her wisdom and insight, but really I never did.  In fact, she was much too crafty for me to underestimate her in any way.  Like my mother, she’s a survivor and has street smarts, if not quite the ability to pull off a convincing fake smile.  If anything, it was her acting so clearly as puppet master that initially frightened me (and I’m as afraid of marionettes and those who operate them as I am of clowns).

Why are you afraid of me?

Also, people don’t break up because of stupid questions or answers.  It’s simply these differences that reveal deeper rifts in a relationship or are the last straw in what has been an ongoing struggle of personalities.  No, you didn’t divorce over his not buying sour cream.  No, he didn’t break up with you because you didn’t straighten your towel after your shower.  Don’t be foolish.

So what question could (1) be perceived as stupid by yourself and others, (2) be answered in an acceptable manner only by those trying to sleep with you, (3) and couldn’t be answered favorably by a significant other telling the truth, (4) the truth coming off to both parties as a stupid answer (5) but still leading you to give up hope on someone already in love with you, whom you’d believed would enable you to attain a green card?

Another option would be to ask a hypothetical question like, Would it matter to you if I didn’t want to have children?  In this case, guys who only wanted to sleep with her would say no, it doesn’t matter (in fact, it’d be the last thing they wanted), whereas someone who cared about her would say yes, it did matter (i.e. I do want to have kids).  But this, even if only hypothetical, doesn’t qualify as a foolish question at all, nor would answering honestly result in what could be regarded a stupid answer.

What about, Does it really matter to you what your mother thinks of me?  This one, a guy who simply wanted to sleep with you would answer of course not (criteria 2).  And I know that, if my brother were to answer this question truthfully, his answer would be yes, it does matter (crieria 3).  This he could admit to himself would be a stupid answer, since why should it matter if you’re in love? (criteria 4)  And this would be enough for her to give up hope that he would marry her (criteria 5).  But I’m not sure it meets criteria 1 in qualifying as a stupid question.

So what was the question?  What was the answer?  And why do you never put your towel back properly after you shower?

Not to credit the films over the books, especially this last film (which I’m already noticing was a ridiculously poor adaptation of the text), but the cursing of Katie Bell stands out as a remarkably memorable image from the movie. I remember it striking me as horribly violent and unsettling for a kid’s book. Keep in mind, until I started reading, I was convinced this series was for children. Silly, silly Muggle.

"You just think happy thoughts. They lift you into the air." -Peter Pan

So finally getting to the moment where Katie Bell took flight was both satisfying (because I could link it with a moment I clearly remembered from the film) and unnerving (because I realized moreso from the reading exactly what her cursing implies, and how close she got to going the way of Cedric Diggory).

Book 6 is dark. I’m not telling any of you Harry Potter fans anything new, but as someone approaching it for the first time, it’s amazingly darker than Book 5, which shocked me for somehow being darker than Book 4. I respect J.K. for her twisted vision. The violence encountered by school children and teenagers is honestly twisted. But then, isn’t all the best literature a little off kilter?

Before I get into “Who sent the Necklace?”, I want to talk about Tonks for a minute. I love Tonks. I loved Tonks in Book 5. I continue to love Tonks in Book 6. But to be honest, she was one of those characters I didn’t expect to see much of in Half-Blood Prince – while she clearly hadn’t played herself to the fullest in Order of the Phoenix, I didn’t anticipate too much from her this time around. I figured she’d come into play somewhere along the line, mostly because she was too interesting to disappear after one battle at the Ministry. Still, I didn’t anticipate she’d have such a mysterious role this time around. Something is up with Tonks. Something is not right. How did she just-so-happen to appear at Hogsmede right when Harry was confronting Mundungus (who may not have been the bad guy of Book 5, as I previously predicted, but still remains an ass)? That’s just a little too convenient to dismiss. I’m sorry. If reading these books has taught me anything, it’s to never dismiss something that is just too good to be true.

Tonks doesn’t join the dark side, does she?

Yes, I keep wanting to apply Star Wars terminology to this series. And no, I don’t even like Star Wars.

I hope Tonks doesn’t go bad. But oh man, that would be a fantastic plot twist if she did…

Anyway, I’m rambling. The necklace! Who sent the necklace?

I honestly do not think it was Draco. Ignoring my inexplicable adoration for the little blonde twit, I just don’t think he’s that clever. Someone is trying to kill Dumbledore. Obviously. Part of me wants to think that Snape sent it in order to keep Draco from having to kill Dumbledore on his own, but that would run counter my argument that Snape only kills Dumbledore because he made the unbreakable vow to step-in if Draco is unable to complete the deed himself. Actually, come to think of it, I bet Narcissa sent it. A desperate mother will go to desperate measures to protect her cub. Or is that giving Narcissa too much credit? Maybe Bellatrix sent it, because she’s batshit crazy. I could see where she wouldn’t want Draco to steal her thunder and kill Dumbledore, when such an act would put him in high favor with Voldemort (for whom she harbors a massive people crush). But that seems too cunning for Bellatrix.

My vote is with Narcissa. That would make sense, thematically. The series seems very focused on mothers making sacrifices for their children – or failing to do so. Harry’s mother dies for her son, Voldemort’s mother dies in spite of her son. Why not have Narcissa step up to the plate?

This brings me to my favorite quote of Chapter 12, when Dumbledore points out to Harry that yes, Voldemort’s mother had a choice not to die in order to be there for her son – but Harry’s mother had the choice, as well.

Ouch.

I review one or two draft novels for my internet-writer-friends each month, and I have detected a disturbing trend that plays out during each review.

First, the writer pitches the idea, and it is fantastic: Clone soldiers! Warrior-maiden finishing school! Magical freedom fighters! The humans are the aliens! Anti-psychic racism!

Then, I read the book. And while the quality and style of the writing varies a great deal, just about all of these books have had the same problem, which is…

…conflict.

Sometimes the conflict feels manufactured, meaning that there isn’t any real danger. Instead, the author has created a situation with “cool” elements or characters or settings and then artificially injected a “threat” to show off her cool ideas.

Sometimes the conflict is tangential, meaning that while the war with the Evil Empire might be fairly exciting, the characters aren’t actually involved in it, so it’s quite boring to read about them.

Sometimes the conflict lacks agency, meaning there is no antagonist. And while some published authors have done a magnificent job with the “Man versus Nature” or “Man versus Self” plot structures (sexist though their names may be), it takes an unusual depth of writing to succeed without a villain or three. “Man versus Man,” in some guise, is really the way to go these days.

Sometimes the conflict just…isn’t there. Instead, we find a minor mystery, or a tour of exotic places, or the “excitement” of a romance (that strangely has no bumps in the road). I’m not sure if this is just wishful thinking on the writer’s part, or a failure to see the big picture.

 The worst part about doing these reviews, of course, is the moment when I have to tell someone that their dear manuscript is utterly boring. I try to rally all the tact I have left after plowing through 80,000 words of their lifeless prose, and then I say it:

“Where is Voldemort? Where are Snape and Malfoy? Where is the failure, the fear of failure, the consequence of failure? Where are the suspenseful mysteries? Where are the threats to life, liberty, and happiness? Who am I rooting for? Who am I against? Who moved my cheese?!”

They don’t always write back.

I’m baaaaaack!

The world’s slowest trudge through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince continues, one chapter at a time. It’s not for lack of love for the series that I have gone so long without writing. I simply have not had the time to read anything. This was perhaps the main reason I didn’t read the series when it first came out. I am insanely busy most of the time. Not to delve too far into my crazy hectic life, but the show I’m directing opens in less than two weeks (ahh!), and I’ll pick up the pace again once that happens. Until then, I don’t have the heart to half-ass my way through the series. I’ve waited this long to read it – I want to enjoy it. If that means taking FOREVER to get through Book 6, so be it. It’s not going anywhere.

That said, I took time at lunch yesterday to read Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt. I have to be honest – it’s difficult to jump back into this book. I spent a few minutes trying to remember what happened in chapters 1-9, but then I realized very little happened that was worth remembering. It was all exposition. Nothing earth-shattering. Slughorn was hired. Snape took on the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The Half-Blood Prince’s spell book is the best thing since sliced bread. We visited the Weasley’s successful shop. Dumbledore burnt his hand in some horrible accident (duel?) he won’t talk about. Wizards are disappearing left and right (Ollivander, wherefore art thou?) Harry grew a pair. Draco turned angsty. Shit got real in Knockturn Alley. Tonks is suffering from mad depression. Fleur came back. So on and so forth – but nothing…surprising? Yeah, nothing particularly surprising.

I like Book 6 so far, but I’m not sure what we’re getting at in this one. My understanding is we’re simply getting at Book 7. Lots of people have told me they love Book 6 – a few choice people have told me they hate it. I remain wholly undecided.

But enough about the book itself – let’s talk about Chapter 10.

I guess all wizards have to come from somewhere, even the evil ones, and when a Mommy Wizard and a Daddy Muggle love each other very much (because the Mommy Wizard put the Daddy Muggle under a powerful love spell), they make a Baby Wizard – and I suppose sometimes that Baby Wizard grows up to be a power-hungry mass murderer. Que sera sera.

I like Merope. I think it’s safe to say I like Merope, because she seems to die before she could possibly do anything ridiculously wrong, and her situation in life is completely out of her control. Yes, perhaps the argument can be made that putting a muggle under a love spell is not in anyone’s best interests, but that means forcing logic on a character that has been browbeaten by her sadistic relatives – her sadistic Slytherin relatives, at that.

It’s nice to see the makings of Voldemort’s motivation begin to develop. I appreciate the message that one is not born evil – one becomes evil. I sort of know where this is going (thank you, film #6) – Voldemort will be left in an orphanage because his muggle father wants nothing to do with him and his mother dies. Actually, that’s touched on in the chapter, as well.

The similarities to Harry’s story are fantastic. They are ridiculously similar figures. The fact that they could have gone in each other’s direction is a strong point in this part of the series. It makes for a compelling tale and a much more interesting rivalry. What’s perhaps more interesting than the fact that Harry could have been evil, is the fact that Voldemort could have been good.

To what end Dumbledore is taking so much time to show Harry these memories, I am not sure. Perhaps it’s simply a device to tell the readers the background information. I’m sure it will be worked nicely into the overall plot, so as not to come off as a device. And I really appreciate the depth of the story. To an extent, I find the adults way more interesting than the students. But part of me still feels Dumbledore should be teaching Harry how to defend himself and jinx the ever-living-wizard out of Voldemort - not taking him on a trip down memory lane. I figure this is a prevalent opinion among readers.

Randy Seaver (Genea-Musings) was writing today about some Hallowe’en-ish surnames he has found over at Rootsweb (e.g. goblin, skeleton, skull). I must say that some languages have interesting surnames because I’ve been searching high and low in the 1901 census for some French equivalents and the only thing I’ve come up with so far is St-Esprit – which actually refers to The Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

There is one Hallowe’enish name I discuss a lot with my elementary school students and that is Voldemort – the wonderfully terrifying antagonist of the Harry Potter series. I teach in a bilingual school (French/English) and we’ve always translated his name as “Flight of Death”, but I just did a little research and the majority opinion seems to be that it means “Death-eaters”.

I called my third brother for his 30th birthday yesterday.  I got his answering machine when I called, so i left a message.  Then he called but I couldn’t get the phone in time.  He left a message about how we coulg talk that day, or he could go ahead and get drunk and we could talk tomorrow.  I called back several times, only getting his voicemail again.  But minutes later, he called me back.

Y: Aha!

R: Yes, you got me.

Y: Happy birthday.

R: Thank you.  And happy belated birthday to you.

Y: Thank you.  What I should have said before was it wasn’t Frank who called her–I can’t say her name, mom’s conditioned me against it, so she’s just She who Cannot Be Named, Voldemort–Frank didn’t call her a dragon lady.  I did, I’m sorry, I was just talking without a filter.

R: She’s here. We’re cleaning up the apartment.

Y: Yeah, mom said.  I’m glad you won’t be driving.

R: I haven’t done that in years.

Y: Still, I’m glad.  Will Pete and Amber be there?

R: Yeah.

Y: They’re nice.  I even had a nice correspondence with Pete until he told me about Havasu and I responded that, as a child of an alcoholic, I got queasy even passing bars, so I didn’t know how to respond.

R: What?  Child of an alcoholic?

Y: Yeah, me, us.

R: What are you talking about?

Y: Of course we are.

R: You’re just looking for excuses.

Y: Don’t tell me you don’t think  dad’s an alcoholic?  That’s crazy.  He can drink several bottles of wine a night.

R: So can I.

Y: That’s because you’re an alcoholic, too.

R: No, I’m not.  I’m not emotionally dependent on it.

Y: You’re physically dependent on it.

R: I can go days without drinking.

Y: Knowing that you’ll be able to drink in a few days.

R: You don’t know what real alcoholics drink like.

Y: Everyone says that.  Oh, he only drinks with friends, only drinks beer, wine, cosmos, in bars, on weekends.  It’s all the same.

R: No, it isn’t.

Y: It’s a spectrum–that includes you.  You accept vomiting as part of your life.

R: I accept vomiting as a part of life.

Y: But why?

R: Look, there’s nothing wrong with drinking.  It’s like masturbation.

Y: No no no no.  Don’t go there.  It’s not like that.  You take pain killers with alcohol.

R: It’s fun.  You should try it.

Y: That’s not funny.  Look, Frank could explain this all much better than I can, but he’s too polite to talk to you about it.  Trust me, everyone in the family knows you have a drinking problem, except dad.

R: I’m my father’s son.

Y: Even Pete noticed you were different from us.

R: Who?

Y: Me, and K. and L. and mom.  And that’s saying something, coming from him.

R: He did?

Y: Look, you can’t mention that.  But you obviously trust him more than you do me.

R: I’ll have to talk to him about that.

Y: You can’t.  The point is, all your friends are alcoholics.  Once you join AA, you’ll have to lose all your friends, Amber, Pete, Voldemort.  Your friends are drunk in every photo you take of them.  Look, I know this is the wrong time.  I’m sorry.  But when you get to step whatever, you’ll apologize to me.  Are you marrying her in two months?

R: We’ll see.  We’re not there yet.

Y: Just think about having kids as an alcoholic.  You’ll end up hitting them.  You know you will.  Okay, I should stop.  Have a nice party.

R: Yeah, I have a night of binge-drinking ahead of me.

Y: Bye.  Happy birthday.

R: See ya.

I obviously haven’t figured out how to discuss my concern for him without letting my anger get in the way.  That (“Anger”) happens to be the chapter I’m reading right now in Codependent No More, not that it’ll suddenly teach me how not to act out as I did last night.

I was thinking R. might take us more seriously if Frank were a recovered alcoholic himself.  He is Irish after all: everyone assumes they drink or are in recovery.  I spoke with Frank about creating a scenario so he’d have more alkie cred with R. Something like:

It all makes sense now

Okay, so we haven’t told anyone but you should know, Frank is an alcoholic.  You can’t tell mom.  For three years just after college, Frank couldn’t hold down a job and was homeless: he had to crash at friends’ places when they’d let him.  He even used meth: yeah, his teeth actually are dentures.  Finally he had to go into rehab, court-ordered, and he got job training and that’s how he learned to write resumes and become a career counselor.  Anyway, he knows what alcoholism is.  You should listen to him.

Sound believable?  Doesn’t it explain everything?  His Irishness, his angryfrank-dom, his potato famine . . .

P.S. I told my therapist, “Now aren’t you glad I didn’t call you for your birthday!” 

Ah, the Harry Potter movie juggernaut returns.  I, for one, am a big fan of J.K. Rowling’s novels and have enjoyed each of the films (though the last outing, Order of the Phoenix, was one of the weaker installments).  Now we are back with the sixth, the Half-Blood Prince.

I liked it a lot. Yate’s directing was a vast improvement over Order of the Phoenix. The three main actors are really comfortable now in their roles and it shows. The story was well adapted, I thought, with all of the major points explained in advance in order to build up the tension and motion of events.

The cave scene was fantastic, despite the curiously gollum-esque design of the Inferi. But the fire-defense moment was really quite epic and well-done. The tower scene was also executed well and didn’t disappoint like the Department of Mysteries scenes did in the previous movie.

The burning Burrow scene was really quite pointless. I’m not sure why they added it. It felt tacked on and really didn’t affect the rest of the film at all.  Normally I am not too much of a stickler when it comes to adapting books to the screen, but if you are going to add a scene like this, have a purpose for it.  And not only did this not have a purpose, the scene’s presence actually detracted a little of the film.
I also thought it felt a little overlong, but it was still pretty tight and solid, much like the book itself.   One of the best of the Potter films to be sure.
9/10

Who is your favorite actor in the Harry Potter films? It’s a pretty weighted question if you consider the many factors that go into it. You can have a renowned, seasoned actor on screen, such as Emma Thompson, who is portraying a character who simply is not as developed and interesting as the other characters she is playing against. In that way, someone like Tom Felton, who is much younger and inexperienced by comparison, somehow outshines a veteran actor. It ain’t fair – but hey, that’s showbiz, kid!

That said, you heavily favored someone with clear merit, both as an actor and a character – 37% of you voted for Alan Rickman (Severus Snape). It’s difficult to imagine anyone else embodying Snape quite like Rickman. His voice, his look, and his mannerisms all match the description given by the text. This is a prime example of phenomenal casting. No arguments. I don’t care how evil (or good) Snape ends up, it’s actually a pleasure having him on screen. Essentially, Rickman can just stand in front of Hogwarts reading the phone book and I’d probably see the film.

I make no claims to this image - this is someone else's brainchild. And that someone else is awesome...

With a not-too-shabby 19% of the vote is Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange). Before, I mentioned how I was struggling to hate Bellatrix simply because I adore Carter. She’s just so good at being so awful! It’s worth pointing out, though, that she seems to have made a career out of playing the crazy bitch.

Pulling a five-way tie for 3rd place, with 7% of the vote, we have Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), and Richard Harris (the original Albus Dumbledore). A few thoughts:

I raise an eyebrow whenever someone says one of the younger actors is their favorite. My mind immediately goes “fan girls!” and writes off the opinion. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying they aren’t talented. You grow up on screen, portraying the same character for most of your life, and you’re bound to be good at it. I’m just floating the opinion that perhaps, just perhaps, they cannot possibly outshine someone more experienced. A plethora of screen time does not a scene-stealing actor make.

Grint is precious. He could not be any more British if he was the Queen of England herself. And Felton I’m just not sure about. I started to buy him as a very strong actor in the sixth film, but I need to see what happens in the seventh before I say anything. He could become very one-note. Lots of people can look troubled and angsty.

Maggie Smith, on the other hand, is a goddess of the screen. I will not argue with this vote – in fact, I question why it wasn’t higher. It’s not easy playing the reservation she portrays. That self-contained attitude takes a lot more work than simply losing your shit on screen.

As for Richard Harris, I’d have to go back to the first film to cast an opinion. Terrible truth – I wouldn’t have noticed the differences between the Dumbledores if everyone hadn’t made such a big deal about it. I just never paid that much attention to the films. And while the match isn’t perfect, they did a pretty good job hiding it. It’s not like the case of the mysteriously switching Darrens in Bewitched.

So you guys do realize you stuck Gary Oldman in the same category as a guy who died before the series was finished, right? Because it’s Gary Oldman, and I don’t know if I need to remind you who that is, but it’s GARY OLDMAN! This vote surprised me. I remain surprised. Surprised and shocked. Shock and awed. Awed. Just awed.

And with a mere 4% of the vote (which amounts to 1 vote each, for those of you scoring at home), we have Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) and Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter). Again, a few things…

Ralph Fiennes is one of my favorite actors of all time. I would pay to watch him watch paint dry. And while he’s barely discernable under all that Voldemort makeup, it takes a special actor to pull off what he pulls of as that character. “Hey, listen – we have this part in this film for you. Your job is to play the embodiment of evil. You up for it?” Granted, this is a man who played the embodiment of evil back in the early nineties with Schindler’s List, so I suppose it’s only a few steps from a Nazi to Voldemort (they’re a few very weird steps, but a few steps nonetheless).

Daniel Radcliff – only one vote. Hmmm. For all my lecturing about the young actors outshining the veterans, and how having a good character does not make you a good performer, I’m still surprised so many other actors stole the show from the lead. At the end of the day, he is Harry Potter. And it will be interesting to watch him break away from that role. They always say the challenge for a child actor is to force the world to see them outside their childhood role. Try doing that when you are the face of the most well-known fictional child in recent history. Equus was a good start, I’ll give him that.

I’m not particularly surprised Emma Watson didn’t make this vote. I liked her better when she was a frazzled child. As an unnecessarily attractive teen, she’s kind of blah in the acting department. No offense. I’m sure she’s a lovely person. Just not my cup of tea – and seemingly, no one else’s either.

So there you have it – another Reader Poll down. You may notice the dramatic lack of “poll” in the sidebar. I haven’t come up with a new one yet – it’s getting tricky. Stay tuned. It’s coming.

Depois que deixou o cargo de diretor, o nosso bom, aclamado e amado velhinho Alvo Dumbledore desapareceu e nem dá pistas ou sinais de fumaça de onde está alojado. Você notou o sumiço dele? Não? Pois a gente sim! E foi nesta polêmica question que decidimos realizar uma divertida, descontraída e totalmente excelente ― diga-se de passagem ― promoção. Não só para discentes, mas para todos os membros participantes da HOB. Sim, todos podem participar.

A pergunta é fácil e nada complexa: Onde está Dumbledore?

Com o limite máximo de 140 caracteres ― ou seja, a sua resposta não poderá ultrapassar o pico de 140 palavras ― você irá mandar a sua sugestão para este link (clique nele, por obséquio).

Nota mental: A frase só não pode passar de 140 caracteres, mas isso não significa que ela precisa ter exatos 140 caracteres, tá compreendido?

As três ideias mais criativas, engraçadas, cômicas, interessantes e dignas de um escandaloso “WTH?” barra “OMG!” ganharão um prêmio super especial ― e secreto, tornamos a dizer de passagem novamente de novo (nem erramos agora).

Dica Mental: Não fique tão esperançoso, pois não vamos lhe dar um par de ingressos para a inauguração do parque temático The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (O Mundo Mágico de Harry Potter) ou tampouco um chá descontraído com a autora dos livros de Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling… mas prometemos algo interessante.

Só podem mandar apenas uma frase cada pessoa, e ainda não temos uma data de encerramento da promotion. Portanto, você possuem tempo livre para pensar à vontade e com calma antes de mandar algo. Mas pelas cuecas floridas de Merlin, não demorem! Afinal, Voldemort está louco para saber onde o barbudo está.

Auf F!xmbr wurde obiges Bild veröffentlicht. Den satirischen Zusammenhang zwischen Harry Potters Erzfeind Voldemort und dem Schreckgespenst der SPD, Oskar Lafontaine herzustellen, finde ich sehr gelungen.

Warner Bros. Entertainment besitzt die Rechte an den Harry-Potter-Filmen. Und hat darum gebeten, dass Herr Voldemort nicht im Zusammenhang mit einer Partei genutzt wird. Kunstfreiheit? Nö.

Chris von F!xmbr ist der Bitte nachgekommen, schließlich ist ein handfester Rechtsstreit mit einem Medienkonzern unbezahlbar. Und hat gleichzeitig eine lesenswerte und sehr besonnene Position zu solchen Auswüchsen von Medienrecht bezogen:

Und mir ist einmal mehr bewusst geworden, dass der Fair Use nicht nur durch maßloses Filesharing aufgekündigt wurde, sondern ebenso durch das Verhalten der Rechteinhaber. Es wird Zeit, dass das Urheberrecht an die Lebenswirklichkeit angepasst wird – zu dem gehört das Internet genauso wie ein Umdenken auf beiden Seiten.
(F!xmbr: er Tag an dem Harry Potter starb)

Die Figuren aus der Harry-Potter-Welt sind Teil unserer Kultur geworden. Das bedeutet, dass wir ins Kino rennen, um uns neue Geschichten über sie erzählen zu lassen. Es bedeutet aber auch, dass wir sie zum Teil unserer Diskurse machen – ob das Warner nun passt oder nicht.

Fleur is back?

It’s the same reaction I had when Gildory Lockhart and Rita Skeeter popped up out of seemingly nowhere in Order of the Phoenix. But I guess by now, I should be used to any and all characters being in constant play. Does this mean more Viktor Krum in our future?

Chapter 5 continues the pattern of setting-up future events with piles of exposition, though unlike the previous books, I’m venturing a guess that these future events may not show up until Deathly Hollows, leaving us with an entire book of mostly exposition. I’m not complaining. There’s something about the backstory – about knowing what the characters are up to outside the obvious plot – that interests me. While every detail will inevitably come back to join the main through-line in the end, right now they’re just enjoyable tidbits that enliven this imaginary world.

Fleur marrying Bill is one of those tidbits. I’m sure she will come into play in a more significant way later in the story, or why reintroduce her? But for now, it’s nothing more than amusing watching the Weasleys react to their new addition.

Half-past Mortal Peril

Speaking of the Weasleys, maybe my fondness for this part of the book has something to do with them. Mrs. Weasley and her dynamic with her family is fascinating. There’s something endearing about the fact that she carries her family’s clock around, and something unsettling about the realization that in doing so, she is constantly reminded that they are all in mortal peril. For a character that could have easily been written-off as “Ron’s Mom”, she has a depth that makes her stand out in a series that is absolutely littered with characters.

Speaking of characters who have caught my attention, Tonks is back. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how much we’d see of her after Book 5. Member of the Order of the Phoenix or not, she could have easily faded into the mass of characters associated with the group. Then again, her ability to transform her appearance at will hasn’t truly been utilized in any sort of awesome way yet, so why would she go away so soon? Wonder what’s upsetting her. I’m not sure it only has to do with Sirius…

And then there’s the O.W.L.s, which I abruptly forgot they took the moment the kids flew off to the Ministry. For a story that takes place predominately at a boarding school, grades and achievements take a major backseat – which I guess is to be expected, considering they could all Avada Kedavra out of existence at any given moment. Priorities!

But I bring up the O.W.L.s because of Harry’s ambition to be an Auror. While it’s nice to have goals, maybe he should limit his focus to “learning how to kill Voldemort”, and worry about his career aspirations after-the-fact. I get the feeling that “defeating the Dark Lord” is enough of a resume boost to put him into whatever position he desires.

Phew, it’s been a while! Did you miss me? I would have sent an owl explaining my absence, but then I found this article explaining how out here in “reality”, owls are actually aggressive predators who will absolutely shred you, velociraptor-style. So after much deliberation, I decided the last thing I need is for my readership to be sliced and diced by a wayward message owl (lucky for you!).

It’s not that I’ve forgotten about you; I just haven’t had the time to read. Life is what happens when you’re trying to finish the Harry Potter series. These days, I’m smack dab in the midst of directing a musical at a local university, so there isn’t a lot of free time to go around. Seems that while Book 6 may not be the longest of the series, but it will inevitably take me the longest to finish. Stay with me – I will finish this series, come hell or high water (or evil killer messenger owls).

So without further adieu: Chapter 4 – Horace Slughorn

There’s a lot to cover in this chapter, so I’m going to make like a messenger owl and slice it up into little bite size pieces (yes, I’m still milking the owl thing).

Initial Impressions of Horace Slughorn
As with every new character that is introduced in the series, I quickly Googled Slughorn to match the name to a face from the films. This time around, I recognized the actor, which is good since I only saw the movie in July and as far as I know, I haven’t experienced any traumatic head injuries since then. Or maybe I have, because I don’t remember if Slughorn turns bad or stays good or is even actually good to begin with. Onward we blindly stumble!

Make like an Ikea chair...

The gut reaction anytime someone admits to being a member of the Slytherin House may be a little unfounded. If every single one of the Slytherins is bad, wouldn’t they have disbanded the House by now? Dumbledore must find something valuable in the Slytherins to keep them around. Just because the four houses have been the same since Hogwart’s founding, that doesn’t mean a shake-up can’t take place. The Slytherins must have something good to offer the wizarding community, despite their remarkable inclination toward evil.

So I guess it shouldn’t send up too many red flags that Slughorn used to be the Slytherin House Head. Dumbledore trusts him, after all. Then again, Dumbledore trusts Snape (which I’ve already gone on about at length, so no need to dig that up again) and he had no problem trusting Fake Moody/Crouch. Maybe Dumbledore is slipping.

That said, Slughorn seems too frightened by the Death Eaters to actually be one. Of course, he didn’t do a very good job hiding from them if Dumbledore could find him so easily – he didn’t even send up the Dark Mark above his house. He may have fooled Harry, but could he honestly be fooling an entire Death Eater army? Maybe he’s hiding from something/someone else? Dumbledore, perhaps? But then, why would he willingly go to Hogwarts?

I feel like Slughorn goes bad in some way, because I distinctly remember him giving crazy eyes in the movie at some point. Then again, the actor kind of looks like he’s always sort of giving crazy eyes, so that might not mean anything.

Is Slughorn racist, wizard-style? I don’t think so. I think he’s just old. By listing all the Muggle-borns he has known to go on to great things, he is effectively still singling them out as different and remarkable for their kind. But I get the feeling prejudices against Muggle-borns may follow the same timeline as modern racism struggles, thereby explaining why an old wizard might say things that aren’t particularly appropriate by modern standards. Maybe not. Maybe that’s just me inserting completely unrelated data into a fiction book. Anyone have any further info on this?

So Slughorn has favorites and one of those favorites was Lily Evans Potter. I’m remembering a dinner scene in the film – I’m going to surmise it was hosted by Slughorn so that he could wine and dine those he felt had the greatest potential. I’m sure more came out of this scene, but I’m at a loss. I’m just going to assume that Slughorn will pursue Harry’s friendship and Harry, in turn, will reject Slughorn’s. This is a mix of what I think I remember from the film and what I feel would make sense.

Side Note: I bet Snape gets to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this year and Slughorn gets Potions. Eh? Eh? Maybe? Possibly? Potentially? Indoobidily?

Welcome Back, Dumbledore
Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back, to the same old place that you laughed about.
Well, the names have changed since you hung around,
But those dreams remained and they’ve turned around.

It feels like Dumbledore is finally back in the series. Has he gotten wittier, or is it just the almost complete lack of ridiculous Dumbledore comments in Book 5 that is drawing my attention? There’s going to be a lot of him in Half-Blood Prince. It’s like his swan song (((single tear))).

Dumbledore has a variety of moments in the beginning of this book, from the scene in the Dursley’s living room, to his exchanges with Slughorn and Harry in Chapter 4. Maybe he is losing a bit of his edge (where did the charred hand come from?), but he still has the wherewithal to bring Harry along to tempt Slughorn back to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore is going to use Harry in this book. This isn’t going to be a student/pupil relationship anymore, and you can already tell. In a lot of ways, Harry needs Dumbledore, but moreso, Dumbledore needs Harry. It will be an interesting pairing. They’re like Batman and Robin, minus the unfortunate wardrobe choices (at least on Harry’s part).

Harry’s Mental State
And we’ve grown up (at least a little). Harry has grown a pair since last we met, which is a relief. Sirius’ death and the revelation of his ultimate fate have harden the once spunky (then unabashedly emo) wizard. He seems emotionally shaken, but resolute. That said, the scene in the Weasley’s outhouse-turned-broom closet was still heartbreaking. Dumbledore isn’t one to pull punches. Well, I guess once you’ve broken the news to someone who they are either going to have to kill someone or die, you stop protecting their feelings from other realities, such as the fact that the only parental figure they’ve ever had will never be coming back, and thereby life is unfair.

An interesting quote: “It could be me next, couldn’t it? But if it is, I’ll make sure to take as many Death Eaters with me as I can, and Voldemort too if I can manage it.” And now we’re playing a new game, folks.

Aparating
Only one thought: if it is so unpleasant, why do Fred and George Weasley apparate everywhere that isn’t exactly where they are standing at the moment?

Inferi
Oh great, we have a corpse army now? Are these those things that are crawling out of the water when Harry and Dumbledore are doing the thing with the thing? Yeah, if you can actually figure out what I just said, don’t answer that.

Protecting Your Home and Family Against Dark Forces
Okay, this is actually from Chapter 3, but I wanted to go back and point out how much this reminds me of the whole Homeland Security “How to Protect Your Family Against Evil Terrorists and Their Evil Plans Against Wholesome Americans” pamphlets that came out a few years back. Surprisingly missing from the Ministry of Magic’s pamphlet: duct tape. Don’t these wizards know that the best way to protect oneself against evil is to duct tape ones home? Where have they been?

Anyway, that’s it for Chapter 4. Next stop, the Weasley’s house, which is always fun. So much red hair, so many freckles…

Cuenta la historia que habían tres hermanos que al encontrarse a la medianoche en un río demasiado peligroso,aparecieron con sus varitas un puente. La Muerte, sorprendida por haber logrado esquivar su mortífero destino, les concedió un premio a cada uno de ellos: el primero, combativo, eligió una varita con la que siempre pudiera ganar en los duelos. La Muerte le hizo una varita con un saúco que había cerca al río.

El segundo de los hermanos, un hombre arrogante, quiso humillar a la Muerte. Le pidió el poder para convocar a los muertos, y la Muerte le entregó una piedra a la orilla del río tan poderosa que podía hacer volver a los muertos.
El tercero de los hermanos, modesto y coherente, no confiaba mucho en la Muerte y por ello le pidió un objeto con el que pudiese esconderse de ella. La Muerte le entregó una  Capa de Invisibilidad.
Cuando los tres hermanos tuvieron su propia reliquia, tomaron caminos distintos. El primero de ellos llegó a un pueblo retando a duelo a un mago con el que había discutido y matándole después. Por la noche celebró en una taberna cercana, y otro mago lo escuchó. Por la noche, mientras dormía, le robó la varita y lo mató. Llego la Muerte y se lo llevó.
El segundo hermano viajó hasta su casa, en donde vivía solo. Utilizó el poder de su piedra para revivir a una joven con la que estuvo a punto de casarse hasta que una enfermedad se la llevó. Por desgracia, ella era fría y triste, separada de él por lo que parecía un velo. Enloquecido, el segundo hermano se suicidó y la Muerte también se lo llevó.
depues de ello, la Muerte buscó durante años al tercero de los hermanos sin éxito. Sólo cuando él era muy mayor en edad se desprendió de su Capa de la Invisibilidad, entregándosela a su hijo, y se encontró con la Muerte.

En el septimo libro de Harry Potter , las reliquias de la muerte dejan de ser un simple cuento para niños magos y se convierten en la salvacion del mundo magico, la varita de sauco pertenecio a Albus dumbledore, la capa de invisibilidad es propiedad de harry potter y la piedra de resurrecion pertenecio a voldemort muchisimo tiempo y el unca se dio cuenta de ello hasta que la habia perdido.

Se decia que el que tuviera en su posesion las 3 reliquias seria el señor de la muerte……