Happy birthday Mandy! I miss you and I wish I can celebrate your 21st birthday with you.

Happy birthday Kelvin, thanks for bringing so much laughter into my life...ever since 1984.

I guess some good things never change.

Check out the new trailer of The Golden Compass. It's going to be an awesome movie! http://youtube.com/watch?v=7mpCYhp7t7M

I'm glad that Nicole Kidman is playing Mrs. Coulter. I've always imagined that she would be perfect for that role.

I watched Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix last night (yup opening night). This was my least favorite Harry Potter book but I actually really liked the movie. I didnt like the book because it was very dark and angsty. Throughout the whole book Harry was tortured, both mentally and physically. He was always either angry, depressed, or angry AND depressed, and it got really wearisome for a book close to 900 pages long. Well, the movie was still dark and angsty, but at least the moments of darkness were balanced out by moments of light-heartedness and visual spectacles. When the Weasley twins flew into the classroom in the middle of the OWLs examination and released a bunch of fireworks, I almost cheered along with the students. (In the book the exam was also interrupted, but by the sounds of Professor McGonagall being attacked outside the windows. Here you can see the difference between the book and movie). The cast gave a great performance as well. After playing the same roles for the last several years, they look as natural in character as if they have grown up in that world (they kinda did actually). The new cast members, playing Dolores Umbrage and Luna Lovegood, were also good additions. Umbrage was a memorable villain, fairly dripping with maliciousness. The strange but charming Luna was simply adorable. Unfortunately, there was less Hermione and Ron than I would have liked. In my opinion, Rupert Grint (Ron) actually hasnt had much of a role to play after the second movie, oh well. One thing I did not like about the movie was the treatment of Sirius Black's death, it just seems so...brief. He died in a matter of seconds, and soon afterward Harry got embroiled in a magic showdown between Voldemort and Dumbledore. The death was then mentioned briefly during a conversation between Harry and Dumbledore. Doesnt Sirius deserve more than this? When I was watching the last HP movie (Goblet of Fire), I started tearing up as Harry and Cedric's father grieve over Cedric's body. There was a touching memorial/eulogy for Cedric after. I felt none of these strong emotions at watching Sirius' death. Nonetheless, the movie was pretty well done.

Now the countdown begins (if you arent counting already) for the last Hary Potter book, coming out July 21.

Recently I've started a summer project of scanning some old photos into the computer. It's pretty slow going since there are so many photos and I kept on getting distracted by everything else (youtube, anyone?). I really enjoy looking at my baby photos. They make me think of a happier, simpler time, when everything seemed bright and new and wonderful, when the possibilities of future seem infinite, and I did not have the worries I carry now.

Maybe sometimes we all can benefit from stepping back a little and try to look at the world again with the wide-eyed innocence we used to have.