Inn of the Wandering Dragon

I've been fully swept up in the Potter mania and I've enjoyed every last bit of it. Friday night some friends and I ventured out to the local bookstores for the festivities. These consisted primarily of games and crafts for the kids, which is as it should be. Afterwards I went down town for the street festival. I have to say that I do not recall ever finding that many people crammed into Stephen Ave - not even durring the olympics! While it was a valiant attempt to turn this section of street into Diagon Alley, I'm thinking the organisers under estimated the sheer volumn of fans.

Don't get me wrong - I love street festivals! I love the energy and the atmosphere, especially at night when everything is transformed. On a more practical note the heat of the day is lessened considerably making things much easier for everybody. There were acrobats, fortune tellers and buskers. There were crafts for the kids and there was even a rescue society that brought at least one snowy owl for people to look at and learn about.

My favorite past time in things like this is watching for the costumes. People go to enourmous lengths to create costumes of favorite characters. Some of the better ones included Mad Eye Moody, Faulkes (the phoenix), Lupin, Moaning Myrtle, Professor Sprout, a few house elves and Hagrid (wild bushy hair and all). There were of course numerous Hogwarts students and oddly enough a Jedi Knight. Go figure.

Just over 12 hours ago my preordered copy of the Deathly Hallows finally arrived at my work. The timing was perfect as we technically were about to close for the day when the post van drove up. But by that point I was prepared to sit on the front lawn for the hours required if need be. The mailman in question seemed to find the whole thing rather ammusing if slightly odd. And after seeing to some much needed laundry, yardwork and grocery shopping I finally curled up with my book and read it from start to finish. I will read it again of course in the next few days, the first read is always fast and so some details get missed. The second and third read are more enjoyable as further details and connections are gleaned.

But now, I think it's time for some sleep. It's been a while since I have been up this late and I suspect tomorrow may feel a bit worse for wear. But to be honest - it will all have been worth it.

Ha! And some people wonder why I'm weird....

Which College Major Should You Be?
	Your major should be Engineering. Logic is your friend. With enough work, you can find a solution to anything... Unless it involves dating or parties.
	Your major should be Art. You are sensitive, creative, and you don't follow established rules. Unfortunately, you'll have to follow some rules if you ever want that promotion at Starbucks.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Wow, it really has been 2 weeks since my last post. *gives a bemused shrug* Ah well, not much to be done about that. I quite enjoy writing in my blog - honest! But sometimes life gets busy, and sometimes the furball knocks a pretty glass object of the shelf and watches me clean up the shards. (Yes that is what I just spent the last 20 minutes doing)

Actually I have been playing more in the collage / artsy department. My latest adventure has been learning to work with gold foil, I swear the stuff wants to stick to me. And I don't even want to imagine the look on the vet's face if the afformentioned furball were to get involved! It's another fun dimension to add to my creations. Admittedly I tossed out most of what I made but I would like to think the one piece I kept is good enough to hang onto for a little while anyway - long enough to remind me of a few important points when working with the suff. I think I have a whole series bubbling up of art cards to play with.

But in truth I have also been pretty tired lately. There is of course a lot going on with friends visiting and various birthdays, events and related craziness. I am also trying to be more physically active which has led various protesting body parts to loudly exclaim "What are you thinkg?!?!" Case in point we went swimming at the local wavepool recently. Just because I used to go tread water in the deep end durring the waves on a regular basis back in the mists of time does not mean that I am ready to pull that off today. I don't think I have been in that much pysical discomfort since I had the stuffing kicked out of me by an ostrich. Of course the fun part of trying stuff like this is that the body waits for a day or two to really get back at you.

Some days I have sat down at the computer and then just wander off to bed - my head feels like it is stuffed full of wool half the time. And some days I just don't feel very interesting in print. We all have those long days of just getting through work, cooking, and housework only to turn around and find the previously pristine kitchen counter is suddenly overflowing with dishes and it is - *sticky?!*. Sigh...

I think it is time to go play laser with the cat and call it a night.

Or perhaps I should say the facebook cult? At any rate it has recently exploded all across North America and people I know here in Calgary are along for the ride. I resisted for a while, but eventually numerous emails from friends trying to add me to their "friend" list got the better of me and I set up a small profile. This is not the first time this has happened though.

I remember back in highschool I had several pen pals. We hand wrote our letters and tossed them in the post box to find their way across the country and the world. Gradually over time some pen pals fade away - their letters come further and further apart. Other pen pals stopped writing letters altogether and instead sent me postcards with their e-mail adress on the back. "E-mail me!" And so our communications moved to the electronic medium. I will admit the convenience and speed of receiving these new letters added a whole new level to the pen pal relationship, as well as opening the door to a few more pen pals. However even e-mail would fall by the wayside as online chatting began to take over. Programs like ICQ and Messenger became the way to keep in touch. Once you worked out your relative time zones you could have a real time conversation with people in other parts of the world without the expensive long distance bill. I still use that method to keep in touch with a few people. Instant messaging was also the norm for commumicating with many friends close by and for a few that is still true. But now chatting has been supplanted by MySpace and Facebook. The thing is, our comunications have been changed as well, primarily getting shorter.
Are we really still "in touch" or "involved" with our friends despite only exchanging a few sentances? My friends and I wrote letters that went on for pages. In chatting I could have a whole conversation touching upon various facets of our lives. In facebook it depends upon whether the other person is online at the time and whether you are checking your profile for replies. A short single subject conversation can take a week. It is still my experience that we communicate much more in person or even over the telephone. We add in nuances of tone, volumne and body language that smileys can not reach.
I am not saying that Facebook is bad, or that it does not have it's place. There are a few things that facebook does well - like organizing events or providing a means to re-aquaint yourself with old friends / co-workers. I am just not convinced it is the best option for our primary means of communication.
What do you think?