Happily Ever After

The long wait was finally over, as of 0701H this morning (21 Jul 07), the 7th and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the entire world, through much fanfare. Some minor spoilers scattered below, so read at your own risk.

JK Rowling is amazing at storytelling and for building up suspense to the readers to read and find out what happens in the end. With just 7 novels, she's made millions and become richer than the Queen of England, not forgetting royalties from the Harry Potter movies also.

However, she tends not to make the death of her major characters clear-cut. For example, Sirius Black falling into the veil, that was ambiguous, it kept fans guessing if he's still alive or there might be some kind of hope that he will return. She never explained the veil portal, or where it leads. At least if she did, it would have been more obvious that the character had indeed died, and there wouldn't have been this huge debate of whether or not he was truly dead. This truly obsessed fans to research and scrutinise every single detail of all the books for clues.

Many questions were answered in this book, but there were many other that were left open-ended without a conclusion. What happened to the giants? What happened to Hagrid's brother Grawp? What about Hermione's campaign to free to house-elves? Her epilogue could have been longer and more detailed, for all time's sake.

Lord Voldemort was indeed truly evil and ambitious. While pursuing to return to a human body, he did find some other projects to do. Kill his enemies, search for the items pertaining to the deathly hallows, try to kill Harry Potter. Let's put it this way, he was bent on magical world domination, like some James Bond villain. He was hellbent on destroying his nemesis Harry Potter in order to "rule" unequalled. But perhaps he could have stopped while he was at it and still "rule" the world. An experienced and powerful dark wizard, time and time again having his plans thwarted by a young teenage boy, must have put him to such shame.

In the end, enemies became friends, and even some family was found again. I don't think they really explained what happened to other characters like Cho Chang. Rowling never again touched on the other wizard schools. I expected a international battle against Voldemort, not a one man show. It's all about balance in the magical world. And the cycle continues again with the next generation of wizards, free from the world of Lord Voldemort.

I would have preferred a much darker ending than the goodie-goodie ending, where perhaps one of his close friends like Ron or Hermione was murdered and Harry never found love ever again. He would be an auror like he always wanted to be, hunting down every last death-eater and anyone else evil there was. It was happily ever after like some fairy tale. Perhaps that would have angered fans all around the world, but hey, a twist does make things a tad more interesting and unforgettable sometimes.

But what have I learnt from the entire series? Magic is wondrous and helps expand our imagination beyond limits; true friendship, love, courage, cowardice, hope, despair, betrayal, jealousy, good, evil, wickedness, revenge, obsession; good always prevails no matter what, but many people have to die in order for that to happen.

A crying shame that the series has ended. Let's hope that JK Rowling will be able to dazzle us with another series of beautifully crafted novels to read in the future, someday. I, for one, am hoping that she writes murder mysteries, she's excellent at keeping the readers in suspense for the longest time!

8.5 out of 10 stars

Kingsand

This post is for Amanda. I must confess that I fell in love with this quaint little village by the sea. It is so beautiful and relaxing, and the people are friendly and lovely. If I ever have the time, I will definitely want to return for another visit. Last visit was in August 2003. If you look closely Amanda, you can see Trenance!

Iron Man 2008

I have to admit, I was never really a fan of Iron Man in Marvel.

He kept changing his armour, and he was another millionaire
playboy with a moustache in an armoured suit. Yawn.
What's more, when I found out that Robert Downey Jr
was playing Iron Man, it was double yawn and yucks!
I preferred Iron Man's nemesis, The Mandarin, with his power rings!
But the poster is nice though, perhaps the movie might
change my perception of the character.
Or not...

7 New Wonders?

The latest results for the 7 new wonders of the world have been released. I've added my comments as to why they should or should not have been chosen below:

1. Chichen Itza, Mexico
Created by man, almost resembling the great pyramids of Egypt. Yes, I believe it's a wonder.

2. Christ Redeemer, Brazil
What the hell is this doing as a wonder? How can a statue of a religious person be a wonder? It is completely bias. In that case, they should have brought up all the Shiva statues or huge Buddha statues around the world. Perhaps they're trying to compare it to the Colossus at Rhodes, one of the ancient wonders? I call for a revote for this.

3. The Great Wall, China
A definite yes. This great wall has withstood the test of time and can be seen from space.

4. Machu Picchu, Peru
This shouldn't even be here, the location is in ruins, how will this stand the test of time in the future?

5. Petra, Jordan
I'm half-hearted with this decision. Granted it was built into the cliff face, but so was Mount Rushmore sculpted into the face of the mountain, why isn't that also chosen as a wonder?

6. The Roman Colosseum, Italy
Yes, this should be in, it's still standing since before Jesus was born. The only ancient architecture that seems to have lasted for 1/2 the time of the pyramids.

7. The Taj Mahal, India
I'm half-hearted with this one also. It's a tomb, it's beautiful, it's made of marble. It's more a structure than a wonder. If they chose this, then they should have chosen structures like the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House.

Although these are finalists, I believe that they are more eligible to be wonders than some of the confirmed ones.

1. The Acropolis, Greece
A marvel of human design and engineering and has withstood the test of time.

2. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
The most eligible of all, this has been standing for more than 7000 years! How they didn't chose it as a wonder is really beyond me. A feat of engineering that is the only surviving structure that predates all the ancient wonders AND, like the Great Wall, they can been seen from space.

The website www.new7wonders.com states that the criteria for a wonder to be a wonder: Nominations must be for a clearly defined natural site or natural monument that was NOT created or significantly altered by humans.

It seems it's a matter of how many online or SMS votes that members can put into this. Come on, this is ridiculous, should there be some kind of committee that makes a final decision on this? This sounds like some kind of American Idol voting system, where you vote the most popular instead of the most eligible.

Perhaps the 2 I listed above that I wanted as a wonder has significant upgrading or restoration work done to it as a present to long term project. In that case, would that make it significantly altered by humans? Yes, the 7 new wonders haven't been significantly altered by humans, but I think the argument here is whether or not it's a popularity contest.

Having just 7 doesn't cut it, perhaps they should have more, but if they do, then every other country would want their monuments as a wonder or built a monument that will one day become a wonder. Or does 7 mean that each wonder should appear on every continent? These 7 wonders chosen will have to last till our next generation changes them just like the 7 Ancient Wonders have all vanished.

Sadly, these are very bad choices made. Hopefully, somebody will see it as criminal and set up a committee to correct the mistakes!

Death Finger

I'm taking this post in a different direction. I'm not going to talk about books, movies, music, or posters or anything else pertaining to entertainment. I'm going to try something really different, just for the fun of it. I'm going to talk about gardening!

I have never had much luck with plants. Most of the time, I'm a person who adds water to something green and watch it grow, hoping that they grow. At the beginning of the year, I bought a sunflower (not the usual variety) and a Phaelaenopsis orchid. I've listed down their survival rate below.

The sunflower wasn't the usual variety because, it wasn't very big, I've seen sunflowers with a huge flower the size of my face, but this one was smaller than a saucer for a teacup. It was sadly pathetic. Sunflowers love the sunlight, so I watered it and put it in the sun. It was a potted plant. It died in 2 weeks. Perhaps I don't understand, but it was in the sun, it's a sunflower, and well, it had water. As far as I know, it didn't need fertiliser on the first week. Then again, I could be wrong.

The Phaelaenopsis orchid is still alive, but probably in its death throes. I was so happy with it that I over-watered it on the first week. The white moth-like orchid flowers all dropped off within the first week because there was too much water. I tried my best but oh well, too much water. Then I was busy and forgot to water it, and it started to wither. The branch that held the orchids started to dry out and well, turn into a stick.

If anyone out there can help me revive my Phaelaenopsis and perhaps, help me get it to flower again, I will be eternally grateful. However, if all else fails and I don't see help or comments, then if the plant dies, it dies, no matter how hard I'm going to try to help it grow back.

No amount of praying is going to help this plant. I suppose I'll just have to buy a new one and start all over again! ARGH! Maybe a sunflower or orchid is too difficult for me, I think I should try a cactus, just water and forget all about it for a few months!

And then, imagine if I owned a cat or dog or some other pet...