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Inspired by THIS (thanks to Boushh on Chamber of Secrets) I did my own Google Search for "Snape Is." Look at today's heading ~ The Count from Sesame Street!




This is pretty funny, too:

Pictures of Young Dumbledore played by Toby Regbo from Snitchseeker. There are pictures and scans of an interview by Jamie Campbell Bower HERE in the Snitchseeker Gallery.

What do you think? Does this look like Young Michael Gambon?

I've had a good day of writing, although tomorrow of course the well may go dry. If you are taking a break from NaNoWriMo or you need some inspiration, maybe these videos may help:










( More Under the Cut )

This will be short and sweet but hopefully entertaining. I'm trying to stay focused on NaNoWriMo and my erstwhile novel that is moving at a snail's pace. I realized tonight that I needed a map of my imaginary county in Tennessee before I could write some of the scenes. So I had fun drawing it out in Tolkienesque detail, but it doesn't add to my word count, damn it!

My gorgeous icon about House Unity is by bombottosa, who has made so many great icons of Snape over the years.

Snape Knew This: Lying Can Make You Sick
Hive Mind: Balloon Boy's Vomit and the Science of Lying

For Language Buffs: Supernatural Collective Nouns




Permuto: The Most Popular Christmas Toys By Year since 1960 and yes, the Rubik's Cube is on the chart as the most popular of 1980. But my son ( who wasn't born until 1995) is still fascinated with that toy. So here is my youngest child who has become Master of the Rubik's Cube. This is the son I call "Little Snape" and you'll understand why after you watch him. *Apologies to anyone who has watched this before on Facebook ~ I just had to post it here as well.*

The Death Eaters are large and in charge this time. They've taken over
the podcast to let everyone know their side of key events in the
series. They also brought in a bunch of filks to let us know how truly
evil they are. Let's hope they didn't torture the Gurus too much.

0:00:00-0:00:28 Intro (Jules & Miranda)
0:00:28-0:01:19 Soundtrack Teaser
0:01:19-0:01:56 Intro (Jules & Katie)
0:01:56-0:05:43 Bella's News (Katie)
0:05:43-0:09:40 "I'm a Death Eater (I'm a Lumberjack)" (Katie, Hilde, Patrick & Jules)
0:09:43-0:11:52 "What a Wonderful World" (Patrick)
0:11:52-0:12:37 "Spinner's End" Snippet
0:12:37-0:13:06 Bella's Reaction to Spinner's End (Katie)
0:13:06-0:16:06 "DE Peep Song" (Hilde)
0:16:06-0:16:31 Frosted Face Commercial (Patrick)
0:16:31-0:20:17 "Lucius" (Jules)
0:20:17-0:24:00 "The Dark Mark" Snippet
0:24:00-0:25:13 Death Eater Reaction to the Dark Mark (Katie, Jules & Hilde)
0:25:13-0:27:32 "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" (Jules)
0:27:32-0:30:30 "I'm a Death Eater (Nightmare Before Christmas)" (Katie, Hilde, Erna, Kimmy, Jules & Patrick)
0:30:30-0:34:17 "Malfoy Manor" Snippet
0:34:17-0:34:33 Fenrir Talks About Malfoy Manor (Patrick)
0:34:33-0:38:11 "Poor Lucius" (Patrick)
0:38:11-0:38:46 Bella's Kleenex Advert (Katie)
0:38:46-0:46:07 "Cell Block Tango of Azkaban" (Miranda, Jules, Jamie, Erna, Hilde, Katie & Chris)
0:46:07-0:47:21 "Beyond the Veil" Snippet
0:47:21-0:47:24 Bella Reacts to Sirius' Death (Katie)
0:47:24-0:51:40 "Death Eater" (Jules; Backing Vocals: Katie & Hilde)
0:51:40-0:53:59 "Whatever Voldy Wants" (Jamie)
0:53:59-0:55:39 Lord Voldemort Hotline (Hilde)
0:55:39-0:55:50 Death Eater Burrow Attack Discussion (Patrick, Jules & Hilde)
0:55:50-0:58:54 "DE Mash" (Miranda)
0:58:54-1:02:50 "Lord Voldemort" (Hilde)
1:02:50-1:05:01 "Voldemort (Is Known As the Dark Lord)" (Patrick)
1:05:01-1:05:10 Sign Off (Katie & Patrick)
1:05:10-1:05:36 Outro (Jules & Patrick)
1:05:36-1:07:45 Bloopers (Jules, Katie, Hilde & Patrick)

All audiobook snippets are from the British editions read by Stephen Fry.
Special thanks to our friend Makani for this episode's fantastic artwork.

this is a smiling firenze, out hunting on a happy-go-lucky evening,
when mars is behind a cloud and his friends are not busy kicking him in the chest.

Those are my Halloween decorations, and it's sad to think of putting them away for another year. I've only got one child young enough to go Trick-or-Treating this year, and he didn't decide to go until yesterday. *sigh* We are dropping him off with a couple of kids in a neighborhood a few miles away. He thinks he's old enough to go alone, but I'm not sure. As I wrote the other day, I have "Empty Halloween Syndrome." But I still love it and always will!

If you don't have anything planned for tomorrow, here are some fun things to watch on TV:

Starting 9 A.M. Saturday ~ NCIS Scare-a-thon on USA network
All Day Tomorrow ~ Boris Karloff and Halloween Marathon on Turner Classic Movies
All Day Tomorrow ~ Monsterquest Marathon on the History Channel



( When Elf and Sprite Flit Through the Night on a Moony Sheen )

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

I get nostalgic for Canon Snape sometimes, considering the ways people spin his character on the forums or feel the need to spread the Snape-Hate around. Luckily many artists understand book-Snape perfectly because they aren't in denial about what actually happens in Deathly Hallows.  

Edited to Add: I intended this post to be some quick escapist fan art, and didn't realize I was expressing myself so badly.

After reading many of your comments, I realize that my view of Canon Snape may be somewhat different from the norm.  I was actually referring to people who hate Snape's character in general and are stuck in the past around PoA when his character still seemed like a cardboard villain. I talk to people like that every day on the forums.  They want to dwell on the dark side of his character rather than the redeemed man he became by the end of the series (with apologies to Mary J ~ we'll have to agree to disagree on that fact).

I don't know why fans of "Dark Snape" have a monopoly on the term "Canon Snape." I disagree with their view of Snape in the canon because I don't think of "Canon Snape" as just mean and cunning, and I shouldn't have used such a charged phrase. To me that is what Snape haters say when they accuse Snape fans of glossing over his faults - that we are missing Canon Snape and only seeing a romantic hero.

BUT ~ ( Read more... )

These are some pictures from DeviantArt that have touched me lately. Follow the links to see more from each artist. And of course, all these are much better seen at full size, so check that out also. The first one especially may be one of the best fan art pics ever done. Cheers to Vizen for her brilliant use of color, the blurry plaid on McGonagall's clothing, thhe sense of humor, Dumbledore's cocktail glass with a tiny umbrella, and Snape's spectacular nose.

Pictured Intensive for those on dial-up. No Slash.

 

The Banes of Her Existence by *Vizen on deviantART

( See More Pics Under the Cut )
 

The Snape-Haters say they see him that way, but in reality they want to believe Harry's view of his least-favorite teacher. There's a guy I know who continually says that Snape "whipped" Harry with a lash and pushed him to the ground at the end of HBP just for the enjoyment of it. I don't see that at all - but it's the allegedly the same canon.

So to me, Canon Snape is the guy in the books with his many faults and his good points. In my opinion, he is a sympathetic character by the end of the series, and not just a baddie or a mean old schoolteacher. He's a well-rounded character, and a very complex character, which is why we are still talking about him years later.
 

Ar čia tik man taip atrodo, ar tikrai žodis "daniškas" per dažnai pasitaiko mano pavadinimuose?

Taigi, daniški egzaminai baigėsi, beliko tik rezultatų sulaukti. Nors kai ką ir norisi iškart pamiršti, bet reikia su pasauliu pasidalint (nes pasauliui gi taaaiip įdomu).

Pasiruošimui turėjau šešias dienas. Tik šešias dienas? Jaučiasi žymiai daugiau. Hm. Ak, tiesa, prieš tai dar reikėjo parašyt 11 puslapių referatą. Šiurpas krečia prisiminus. Panaudot 15 straipsnių. Jų gal pusės neįmanoma suprast, ir jų esmė smulkiausios detalės, kurios man tikrai nerūpi, ir kurios...

Bet ketinau kalbėti apie egzus, o ne apie tai, kaip aš nebūsiu genetikė. Taigi.

Ech, genetikos egzą tikiuosi greitai pamiršti, ir tikiuosi, kad nereikės perlaikyt. 4 valandos, balažin kiek klausimų. Pojūtis kaip per Lietuvos biologijos olimpiados paskutinį turą, tik kad per olimpiadą man buvo nesvarbu, ar laimėsiu, ar ne, o čia buvo sunku galvot apie ką nors kitą, išskyrus "tik išlaikyt, tik išlaikyt, ar šito užteks, kad išlaikyčiau?". Vienintelė paguoda, kad visi kiti jautėsi taip pat. Nors įdomu, ar tai turės įtakos vertinimui.

Zoofiziologijos egzaminas buvo visiškai kitokia experience. 30 minučių pasiruošimas, 30 minučių kalbėjimas. Neprireikė visų minučių nei pasiruošimui, nei kalbėjimui. Ir, tiesą sakant, buvo visai smagu. Egzaminuotojai (jų buvo du, ir nė vienas nedingo) šypsojosi ir klausinėjo, ir dar ausimis vienas iš jų palapsėjo (tik visual aids tikslais - klausdamas apie tai, kodėl žiemą ausys ir nosis atšąla... hm... galėjo dar ir į nosį bakstelt - nors tai, ko gero, būtų buvę juokinga).

Ir galiausiai, šiandien, genetikos dalis žodžiu - referato prezentacija. Visai nieko. Egzaminuotojai (jau kiti) šypsojosi ir klausinėjo visai įdomių klausimų. Visai įdomi ta epigenetika pasidaro, kai pažiūri kitu kampu. Bet gal vis dėlto ne, ačiū. Bent kol kas.