Long Live Harry Potter

Warning: Spoilers ahead

I just finished reading the 7th and last book of the Harry Potter Series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have been highly anticipating this book,waited for two years for it's release. I was quite worried that I will run out of copy because I forgot to reserve one. The book was dued for release yesterday and I had classes so I asked my dad to grab me a copy.I explicitly asked him to be there at the opening of the nearest National Bookstore from our home at 10:00am and at 10:05am he sent me an sms that he had secured a copy :) I can't wait to go home but I still have classes til' 8:00 pm and then I had dinner with friends so I was not able to go home till 11:45pm last night. The moment I entered my room, I started reading but then after 30 minutes exhaustion took over and I drifted off to sleep. I woke up at 8:00 am this morning and started reading, only stopping for meals and a nap and almost relcutantly for a bath ;) My eyes were watering and I think my vision is now pemanently impaired but finally I was able to finish the book. Now I can start reading it...leisurely this time so I can absorb all the details and digest the words properly ;) The book is FANTASTIC! JK Rowling is a GENIUS! It is my favorite book on the series.

For me it was almost a given that Harry would have to kill Voldemort in the end. Good has to win over evil right? After all it is still a children's book. But what most readers are still speculating was whether Harry would die in the process? There was a time while reading the book that I almost wanted to stop because Harry was about to die...but thankfully, he didn't. But one wouldn't know about it till the end. Rowling made such a delightful twist in the story. The final battle scene between Harry and Voldemort was FABULOUS(any other words for fantastic?i'm running out of adjectives here ). There were a lot of unforgettable scenes in the book but what really cracked me up was when Mrs. Weasly exclaimed"Not my daughter, you bitch" to Bellatrix and then finished her off :D Rowling was also able to justify Dumbledore's death whom I was hoping was still alive.Tis sad that Moody,Fred,Lupin, Tonks,Dobby the house-elf and other characters died but oh well they were in the middle of the battle and there has to be casualties. I wished Fred didn't die though, he and George are my fave characters along with Peeves.

But what really saddens me is that,now that the Harry Potter series is over . . .what book will I obsess about now? :-/

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Covers

Like I posted a long2x time ago, I’ll be sharing some mp3s of music that I love. But laziness got the better of me thus I was not able to do it. Anyways, I stumbled upon this version of Rihanna’s ella…ella by Scott Simon (the music you’re hearing right now from my blog) and thought of sharing some music covers.
Lately I’m into music covers. Don’t get me wrong I love original music but good covers give an old song or even a new song a different twist. Covers offer us listeners a new sound to familiar songs. It allows music artists to give their own rendition of previously recorded song. Mostly songs by artist they look up to. Some popular bands also do covers of lesser known bands to help them out or pay them recognition.
There are albums by different bands covering up music from legends such as tributes to Depeche Mode, Beatles and Carpenters to name a few. However most covers aren’t included in the artist albums and only performed in concerts or shows so they’re quite hard to find but I found some ;) Here are some of my favorite cover songs that you can download here:

To Love Somebody(Bee Gees)-Billy Corgan
Can’t get you out of my head(Kylie Minogue)-Coldplay
Heart Shaped Box(Nirvana)-Evanescence
So Sick(Ne-yo)-Fall Out Boy
Numb(Linkin Park)-Jamelia
Turning Japanese(The Vapors)-Incubus
Maneater(Hall and Oates)-PATD
Sunday Bloody Sunday(U2)-Pearl Jam
Pieces of me(Ashlee Simpson)- Dunno who covered it but it’s good…way better than Ashlee
Pure Imagination(Gene Wilder)-Maroon 5
Bittersweet Symphony(The Verve)- Richard Ashcroft & Coldplay
Snow Patrol(Beyonce)-Snow Patrol
Since You’ve Been gone(Kelly Clarkson)-Ted Leo
The Scientist(Coldplay)-Natasha Bedingfield


Sometimes I like the cover versib more than the original just like the Umbrella song and also Bowling for Soup cover of Fergie’s London Bridge (I’ve only seen the vid…anyone who has an mp3 of it?)…the original versions are too upbeat. I’m actually not sure if I love the covers because they make some sort of mockery to the original version. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me J but if you listen to some punk bands cover then you’ll know what I mean. I’ll share some songs from the Punk goes Pop album, which covers songs from boy bands like N’Sync and Backstreet boys and girl groups. The versions are cool and guaranteed to make you smile…trust me. You can download it here. Various Punk bands actually have other albums such as Punk Goes 90’s, 80’s, acoustic..i’ll share them next time.

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Remembering the future

I’ve read somewhere that time, the past, present and future coexist. That parallel worlds exist in different dimensions. That sometimes our subconscious can sense the future that’s why we have déjà vu moments. And that space separates these times that it’s more apt to call it Space travel rather than Time travel. I guess Quantum Physics can explain this in further detail. Nope I didn’t get these info from a Quantum Physics book…I actually got it from reading fiction books whose title I already forgot but they have done research on these stuff. . . I guess. So, what I’m actually saying is that the things I’ve said are pure nonsense. >:)
I have experienced many déjà vu moments. Like going to a place for the first time but actually having that vague recollection that I’ve been there before. Or saying something or experiencing something and getting that feeling that it already happened before. I attribute this familiarity to having these experiences in my dreams. Most of my dreams I recall after it happened in real life. I also have dreams that I recall after waking up and then having them come true. Not the I-want-to-be-an-astronaut-when-I-grow-up kind of dreams. But sometimes when I wake up I have a slight recollection of the dream and it actually happens although not in the exact way I dreamed it. Mostly I would dream of random persons and the following day they will make some sort of contact. Example just last night I dreamed that I received an SMS …particularly a picture message from one of our supervisors Sir Nestor. He had never sent me any SMS before and I haven’t been in contact with him for quite sometime. Then when I woke up I received an SMS from my officemate asking me if Sir Nestor made a contact with me about his camera…because it was missing. Okay that was a bit vague right? And takes a lot of imagination to connect but please don’t rob away my belief that I have psychic abilities nyahaha I’m only half serious about my so called ability but I just find it weird how dreams find their way to reality. I really believe in the power of dreams and that it is a way for our subconscious to communicate with our conscious self. Or seeing the future through our subconscious level and then remembering the future. I make it a point to pay attention to my dreams and jot down things that I can recall about it and use it as a guide.Ok so I’m just half serious about being half serious on my psychic abilities. I’m actually serious about it. Here are more examples that I can recall.

I dreamed about a friend’s mother and then a week later I saw my friend and told her that I dreamed about her mother. She told me that her mother just got rushed to the hospital a few days before our meeting because of stroke.

I dreamed about my ex and that him wanting me back. It was 3 months after our breakup and we haven’t had contact since. Immediately the following day we met at a mall while I was having lunch and we talked. He never asked me back though #:-S

I have this recurring dream about a city being covered with water. A month later Leyte had another flashflood.

This is actually the first time that I’ve told anyone about it because I see it as pure coincidences and I’m afraid of being ridiculed. At least here I can delete derogatory comments hehehe Maybe this is a product of my obsession on Heroes..trying to make something extraordinary from the ordinary….oh well…

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First Day High

I had my first day of class in MBA last Friday. I mean last last Friday coz I was already absent last Friday. I was expecting something different but to my dismay I found things to be almost the same as college. It feels like dating a guy you swore you would never see again and hoping he’d change but finding out he didn’t ..forgive the analogy, I’m currently watching Grey’s Anatomy. Anyways, to elaborate further…

1.You still introduce yourself to the whole class; I was almost expecting to be told to wear name tags.

2.The classrooms have improved a lot. The desks are almost spotless but an occasional vandalism here and there still makes an appearance. I didn’t find my fave vandal though…that drawing of button with the words “push button to eject teacher”

3.There is still that student who hangs on to every word the teacher says. He seems to make it a mission in life to finish whatever statement the teacher leaves hanging. I hate that student.

4.There is still that smart kid who has the answer to every question. I hate that kid.

5.The teachers are still made from hell. Giving assignments on the first day of class, WTF, talk fast and speak in tongues…epistemological triangulation? Gimme a break. I still hate teachers.

6.I still have panic attacks at the thought speaking to the whole class or be called for recitation.

7.My attention span has further decreased. My mind wanders off every few seconds.

8.Time still seems to stand still during classes…3 hours seems like forever.

9.The books, modules and reading materials still possess this strange magical ability to induce sleep.

1o.There is still that cute guy that makes you look forward to each class ;)

I know…I know I should quit complaining. Whoever said that going back to school is a piece of cake? I was maybe a tad disappointed for how things went out but I promised myself to relish the experience and learn and enjoy hating it :)

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Zeitgeist

There are a lot of things to look forward to July. First, there’s the long awaited Transformer movie(July 4), then Harry Potter movie version of the Book 5:Order of the Phoenix(July 13 in Phils) and the release of the last Harry Potter Book,Deathly Hallows(July 21). Those were reason enough to make me wanna fast forward time or teleport myself to the month of July. But just yesterday, my friend Neil told me that our favorite band in the world Smashing Pumpkins has reformed and is set to release a new album Zeitgeist this July 10. Smashing Pumpkins to those who don’t know is the uber cool and successful alternative rock band from Chicago formed in the late 80’s and flourished during the 90’s and disbanded in 2000. The band has released 7 major albums and 6 of which became platinum. The songs form these albums has topped the US and UK charts. I love the band because even if they are mainstream…they still manage to sound indie. Maybe it’s because of their diverse elements in their music like progressive rock, gothic, heavy metal, psychedelic and etc. I also love their cathartic lyrics which my friends and I used to memorize and sing during our care free days. The band has had a lot of members but the most prominent were Billy Corgan(vocals, guitars, songwriter), Jimmy Chamberlain(Drums/Percussion), James Iha(guitar, vocals) and D’Arcy Wretzky(bass, vocals). Sadly, only Corgan and Chamberlain from the original members will compose the reformed SP. Iha is now with Perfect Circle while Wretzky has been out of the music scene and was last heard battling with drugs. I’m pretty much excited to hear their new music and I’m pretty sure I won’t be disappointed whatever the band will come up with.
Their new album is aptly named by the way since zeitgeist is a German expression which means “the spirit of age”

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Interview Meme by Confessions from a Cheap Motel

Too much inspiration can sometimes lead one to be uninspired. I still can’t think of anything decent to write (I would like to think that I do write something decent...every now and then) so I decided to do another interview meme. Actually this is similar to the meme below but this time it’s asked by a different person, Paolo (Confessions from a Cheap Motel). He was the first person that I interviewed. After reading his blog which has now become one of my favorites I was curious with the questions that he would come up with. So on a whim I asked to be interviewed by him. As expected his questions were errr thought provoking :">

1.)What superpower do you wish to have and how will you use it for you're own greedy needs?

I would like to have Hiro Nakamura’s power (Heroes TV series). He can bend time and space continuum or simply known as teleportation. This power would allow me to travel form one place to another or one time to another. I would use it to rectify past mistakes and alter my past so that I would become somebody rich and famous today and have Orlando Bloom as my husband and Wenworth Miller as my lover. I would also use it to travel and maybe live at long gone eras like the Victorian Age.

2) Have you watched (by accident or otherwise) a guy masturbate on webcam? if yes, tell us the details. if not... well, make up a story then. make it a good story though.

I visit the chatrooms (yahoo and mirc) when extremely bored so yeah I saw guys masturbate on webcam and not accidentally but I find it quite lame. I don’t know but there are a lot of guys who willingly do it without much prodding. There’s not much to tell really but there was this one guy that really stands out(no pun intended). I did not see his face but he was jacking off in front of a fireplace…the background was romantic with the fire crackling and all… Watching a guy do it off cam is another matter though :>

3) Does size matters?

Yep but it’s not the length but the thickness but those who lack can make it up w/ ahmmm creativity.

4) What turns you on sexually? Answers like personality, intelligence etc etc are not counted.

A hard-on …shorts or pants making a tent or simply knowing that a man is turned on by me.

5) If you were to ask yourself a question, what would it be? Answer the question too.

Hahaha this is a difficult question. I guess it would be one of the existential questions that I’ve been asking ever since time immemorial…something like “What is the purpose of our existence?” And my answer would be, "I don’t know". I just don’t buy all that religion and life-as-a-journey crap. I even attempted to read the Purpose driven life book for answers but got stuck with the 11th day...maybe i shoul've finished it but nah...i guess its one question that would take a lifetime to answer or maybe be always left unanswered.

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Meme:Interview Me

So much has happened lately that I can't decide what to blog first so let me fill this gap with another meme from karol. Here's the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Okies, Karol posted this on her blog and I commented and these are the questions she sent me and my answers:

1.What do you like most about blogging and why?
A lot! It gives me a venue to express myself and connect with kindred spirits.

2. What is your dream job?
To be a plain housewife ;) plus these 5 dream jobs I blogged about before

3. Describe a typical day in Raine’s life.
Awfully boring. The usual workman’s day. I wake up at 7:30 then rush for work. Arrive at the office around 8L30 and wonders why I am always late. Open up my pc then my online life begins. Then balance my online and offline career hehehe then go out at 5 or depending on the work load, we sometimes work as late as 1:00. If I go out early, I usually have dinner with friends or catch a movie or Videoke then go home and sleep. The end.

4.If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
I'd love to be a Bird so I can freely travel from once place to another..chirp!

5.How do you deal with difficult people?
I try to be pro-active and not be reactive. Naks! I learned something from Covey after all ;)

So guys if you wanna do this meme, just leave me a comment.

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Back to the Cave

I’m officially going back to the cave! I just enrolled for MBA at my alma mater and will be starting on June 16. My boss has agreed that I will be excused from work every Saturdays but would make it up on the other days. I've been planning to enroll for quite some time that i've even forgotten why i wish to enroll in the first place. Anyways, the whole enrollment, exam, interview process has been quite an experience specifically revisting our old school. There have been a lot of changes in our school but essentially it’s still the same. I feel very nostalgic just walking around the campus…walking past those places we used to frequent. Expecting to see old faces and hearing familiar voices. I had fun during college and I miss it. I miss the controlled environment. I miss the idealism of youth. I miss being shielded from the real world. I miss not making decisions for myself. I miss not making plans because everything is carefully laid out. Exam at 8:00 at R303 and Oral recitation at 4:00 pm. And you know that come October you’ll finish first sem and enroll for 2nd sem and that next year you’ll be a sophomore and so and so forth. Unlike now where everyday is routinary yet you have to decide where life will bring you. As I was going through this whole thing…tripping down the campus and memory lane, The Allegory of the cave by Plato came to mind. I don’t know why. I actually forgot the real interpretation of that article but allow me to liken the cave to the school where I only saw a disfigured version of the real world. And now that I got out and saw the world for what it is…I wanted to crawl back to the cave. My life hasn’t been particularly cruel but I’ve always wanted the easy way out in anything and freedom or free will is such a double edged sword. I just feel need to escape sometimes.Mmmm if only I can really go back to school and quit my job and just concentrate on schooling.
Anyway, despite all these dramas I’m actually pretty excited to go back to school …buy more notebooks and school stuffs and of course learn new things and meet new people :)

Photo credits: http://davaocity.gov.ph

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