Hey, this was posted today and it shows lots more footage of the movie!! :D

If you don't want to be spoiled, ignore this post!

( New trailer! )

I'm through with standing in line
To clubs we'll never get in
It's like the bottom of the ninth
And I'm never gonna win
This life hasn't turned out
Quite the way I want it to be
Rockstar - Nickelback


Yes, I majorly do! I haven't updated in freaking ages and do have valid excuses (to start with, my laptop was stolen and I didnt get a new one for aaages!!!), but I wont bore you with it all. I've been in Paris for the past 2 weeks really and before that I've just generally been busy with uni work (which I should be finishing right now) and saving up for the new laptop. Its the same model as the previous one and was half price!! Bargain :D

Anyway, here's the latest news:

( Update about me, Eastercon, mudblood428, HP fandom and tv shows )

So that's it from me really. I'm currently waiting for my new boiler to arrive so I can finally have a shower in my flat again (yay!) and also do my washing! Oh and I have been keeping uptodate with everyone's LJs (sorry for not commenting much!), but if you feel like I've missed anything important, send me a link!

So I took my driver's test for the second time yesterday and had to wait for the result to come through the mail. I totally didn't expect it to arrive today, but it did and the tiny transparent piece of paper said 'Favourable'... which basically means I got it, I finally have my driver's license, woohoo!!!

I'm freaking ecstatic at the moment cause driving lessons are insanely overpriced and all my savings went into them. So yeah, I can finally drive... well as soon as I have a car. I guess that's going to be next on my list of "things I need to save up for, when I finally get a job!"

In any case, what an awesome way to start the year! 2008, I'm starting to believe in you :D

Oh and also, I finished season 1 of Rome and finally managed to download the JKR documentary, which was everything I expected it to be.

( Cut for spoilers )

Right, well I'll be back in London on Sunday and then uni starts again for me. I'm still struggling with my essays but now that I've no longer got my license to worry about, things should go a lot quicker! :D

I'd just like to say how wonderful the convention was, I had an amazing time and was very impressed since this was the first convention I've ever attended! The committee and organisers did a brilliant job and since I often passed by the Ops room for the podcast play on Friday, I was well impressed by the level of dedication and hardwork everyone put in to make the convention run smoothly.

In any case, here are the pictures I took over the 4 days I was there... I don't have everyone's LJ names, so if you recognise yourself, let me know and I'll add your name in! :)

( Sectus picspam )

So there you go guys. Overall a lot more fun than I thought it would be and the panels and roundtables were amazing, it was so relieving to simply sit and chat about book 7, Harry Potter and fanfiction with people who were just as obsessive about it as me! :) My particular roundtable about character deaths went really well and I wanted to thank everyone who voted on the poll I put up last week.

The podcast plays for SpellCast were hilarious and simply brilliant! The author of the two plays is amazing and extremely talented and the cast I managed to gather within the day were great! The episode should be up shortly after SpellCast's Deathly Hallows episode is out.

And talking about book 7, we're trying to gather as many reviews of the book as possible, so if you've finished reading it and have something to say about it: click here!

First of all, happy birthday to sugareey!!!

As most of you know, I'll be attending Sectus in London starting Thursday and I will also be heading The Next Great Adventure roundtable on Saturday, discussing character deaths in book 7 and how they affect canon and the fandom. (Yes, that does mean I'll be reading book 7 overnight... eek!)

In order to compare people's thoughts about character deaths in Deathly Hallows and who JKR really decided to kill off, I thought I'd put up this poll so that everyone can have their final say before the book release :)

Poll #1021781 Character deaths in book 7
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 95

Which are the two characters JKR changed her mind about and decided to kill in DH? (only 2 answers please)

JKR: "It's more than two" ... which other characters do you think might die?

Question 2 continued...

Which character's death would affect you the most? (please feel free to explain in a comment)

Please feel free to explain your choices in a comment and I'm sorry if I forgot any important character! I looked through the books trying to think of everyone, but there are so many characters, someone might have slipped my mind. If you feel that Percy, Flitwick, Slughorn, Grawp, Lockhart, etc might die, just let me know in a comment. :)

Thanks to everyone who's taken this poll! It's going to be really helpful for my roundtable discussion and if anyone's going to Sectus and would like to help me out with it, do let me know.

To everyone who's answered the Philosopher's Stone poll so far, I think I sent the special premiere videos to everyone who voted except viqii, relyko, floorcoaster and twitchy_littlef. If you guys want me to send the vids, either email me (see profile) or leave me your email in a comment, thanks! :)

Ok here's the final picspam; it's basically a load of high-res photo stills from the video which might interest icon makers and I guess any hardcore HP fan like myself! :)

For those of you who couldn't see the video, FA has a transcript of it here.

( I could be brown, I could be blue, I could be violet sky... )

Also, I'd just like to point out to all those who've answered my poll (which you can still do!), I'll post your video prezzies in a comment on your LJs or below, so be on the lookout! :)

Right and finally my review of Order of the Phoenix. I just went to see it with my mum (dubbed in French though!) and it was a bit strange because my mum felt ill towards the end (I think it was the marshmallows) so I only half saw the ending as I was taking care of her at the same time, but at least I stayed till the end and... I LOVED IT!!!

( The Good )

( The Bad )

( And the Ugly! )

I can't wait to see the movie again now and in English this time! Did anyone else see it dubbed in another language? I guess I'm used to it now after 5 movies, but I still prefer watching it in English. And oh God... only 9 days till Deathly Hallows comes out!!! When did that happen?

ETA: Happy Birthday summerbreeze19 !! Sorry if I'm a bit late :)

Right, so here is the big event I wanted to talk to y'all about for a while now. I was actually waiting for episode 22 of SpellCast (faspellcast) to be released first and since it's been out now for nearly a week or so....

To all you SpellCast listeners, this won't come as a surprise, however, to everyone else, I'm extremely excited to announced that we are going to the Order of the Phoenix Premiere!!!

By that I mean, I am going to the London premiere, July 3rd, with elanor_isolda and a friend and we'll be on the red carpet filming and interviewing the actors!!! *squees* The other hosts will then be going at the LA premiere, which is later on in the week. We'll actually also be interviewing fans standing hours on end to see the premiere (I was one of them for the GoF premiere and it was a VERY long wait!), so if you're planning to go to the premiere or know anyone who is and would like to be interviewed by SpellCast, leave a comment :)

So that was the big news I've been keeping from everyone and I am uberly excited and seriously can't wait, although I'm frantic to organise everything in time (only a week!). I'm leaving for London Friday and so far it sounds like it's going to be an awesome weekend and week :) I'll be taking tons of videos and photos and maybe even get some autographs... (who knows) and they will all be up ASAP on the SpellCast website and here of course!

So, to celebrate it all, I decided to post the first batch of OotP icons I made from the lastest Order of the Phoenix scans and photos.

[11] OotP the movie
[15] OotP: characters
[3] Draco/Hermione

Teasers:



( Colourful icons here! )

Also, the Philosopher's Stone poll is still up and needs your votes. I'm hoping to get 10 votes or more before putting up the next round. Thanks :)

Well it seems that we have a clear LEAST favourite chapter after the poll has been up for about 24 hours... So here's the list after Round One:

SS/PS LEAST favourite chapters
1. Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
2. The Vanishing Glass
3. The Midnight Duel

I have now taken those three chapters off the list so we can determine which are the next three least favourite Philosopher's Stone chapters and hopefully continue to narrow the list down to the favourite one.

I find it very interesting that 4 people have voted against chapter 1, The Boy Who Lived, which happens to be one of my favourite chapters. I remember the first time I read PS, I was fascinated by this cat that happened to an old lady and this old man that could flick out street lights. I was also instantly drawn into JKR's world through McGonagall and Dumbledore's conversation of Voldemort's downfall and how the entire world was rejoicing. It definitely set the atmosphere right at the start of the book.
It is also clear from the poll that not many people enjoyed the 'Norbert, the dragon' plotline. That chapter according to my own opinion and people's comments seems almost out of place and too incredible to believe even though the first book is a continuous introduction and description, through Harry's eyes, of the wizarding world and especially Hogwarts, which we all love to read again (for example Diagon Alley and The Sorting Hat).

So anyway, on to Round Two!

( And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song! )

The poll will be up for another 24 hours or until it gets enough votes, so spread the word! And also, I'd like to thank everyone who voted yesterday, you guys rock :)

So I'm genuinely curious.... I've been re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (in a desperate attempt to re-read all 6 books before Deathly Hallows is released) and as much as I enjoyed the first chapters when Harry discovers the magical world, I very quickly got bored reading about the troll, Nicholas Flamel and Norbert the dragon. Apparently, not everyone thinks like me and some prefer the end chapters to the beginning.

So I was thinking this would be the perfect opportunity to do a poll about the first book and see what everyone liked least about it. Yes I know it seems strange, but hey, that's just how it is :)

ETA: Voting for this poll has ended! You can find the new poll up here

( I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks )

And so spread the word people! I'll keep the poll up for a while and if I get enough response, I might kick out the chapter with the most votes and start again till we figure out which one is everyone's favourite :)

And talking about favourites; mine would definitely have to be chapter 12, the Mirror of Erised. Not only is it the Christmas chapter where Harry receives his invisibility cloak, but he also comes across the mirror and sees his parents, which is one of my favourite moments from all the books. Plus, all the Dumbledore lines in that chapter are love!

Here's my second batch of icons, all Harry Potter ones as I'd promised, and for the first time, I've also made a couple of friends only banners. Not too sure if there's a conventional size for those so I hope they're ok!

Enjoy! :)


[4] PoA: Draco
[4] OotP: Harry/Ginny
[15] Draco/Hermione
[5] OotP: Sextet
[4] OotP: Bellatrix
[2] FO Banners

Teasers:



( Rest of the icons here )

I hope you guys like these, I had fun making them and hopefully I'm getting better at using photoshop :) If you'd like me to customise either of the banners for you, just let me know in the comments. I can change the dimensions, add your LJ name or make them simple headers. Also, I'm sorry for OotP icons, the scan pics I used were pretty bad quality.

I'm on holiday!!! Finally after 3 weeks of hell (well... nearly), I am free of exams, free of revisions and most of all - stress free!

And so, I know what you're all thinking - icons? since when does she make icons? - yes, yes I know, icons... and I even started participating in icon contests too, namely PotC ones, which is why I need your advice! Here's a batch of icons I made this afternoon (which I hope you'll like) and if you could also please let me know what you honestly think of them or how I could improve, that'd be great! :)

Teasers:



( Rest of the icons here )

So there you go... yes I know, not many PotC icons and one measley Supernatural icon, lol! But hey, it's a start and I definitely want to make more. Although this weekend, I need to concentrate on my fanfiction... it's seriously time I updated chapter 13 of HWY and took a look at Drastic Changes again, hmmmm.

Hey everyone! Well I'm back, rid of most of my exams for a while now and look what gifts I bring with me... :)

Video footage of Potter stars recording audio for OoTP game

Features sexy Tom Felton, Phelps twins and more!

Also, yesterday after my 4hour long exam about archaeological theory (yes, I know, it's just as boring as it sounds), I treated myself to Pirates 3: At World's End!! And... I loved it! I realise it was kinda strange, a bit all over the place and not as good as the first movie, but I still loved it (Johnny Depp AND Orlando Bloom with open shirts and golden tans! *squees*), but the ending... I won't spoil it for those who might not have seen it yet... it got me all depressed! Man, I was so frustrated and I couldn't stop ranting for hours on end afterwards to my friends and feeling sorry for the movie characters.

Otherwise, I've been trying to catch up with all the LJ posts I might have missed these past 2-3 days and haven't found any PoTC 3 icons anywhere: anyone got any links?

And no song today, instead I'll leave you with the wonderful Live Spinner's Alley podcast recorded at Phoenix Rising, NO. It features a live Harry Potter podcast play, which I'd only heard of briefly from the other Spellcasters and then was completely amazed when I listened to it earlier! I was very much impressed but the script and the voice actors, so definitely check it out :)

I've seen so many season finales in the past two weeks and had so many things to say about each of them, that I thought I'd summarise my thoughts all in one post.

Spoilers ahead!!!

( Grey's Anatomy: 'No matter what, you're walking down that aisle today.' )


( Supernatural: 'Sammy... what am I supposed to do?' )


( Heroes: 'Turns out you're the villain, Peter.' )


( Smallville: 'Clark, I came here to say goodbye.' )


( Lost: 'Not Penny's boat...' )


And since I know some of you might not follow any of the previous shows, here's something for the HP fans on my f-list from hp_fridayfive

( Would you rather...? )

So there you go guys, feel free to comment about the season finales, I would love to have other people's opinions since I haven't had much time to check out community posts yet... Uni exams coming up in a week!!!