"The Deathly Hallow"

Harry Potter seems to be the "it" thing for the moment as the seventh book of the series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was released earlier today. Only, I never really got into the whole hype of Harry Potter's magical world. I've seen couple of the so far released movies and thought they were okay. But I haven't read a single book of Harry's adventures.

Now that the hype is coming to its end -- even though there are still the remaining two movies to come -- I'm starting to think that maybe I should read the books. I don't mind being the late bloomer on this. Besides, when I start from the first book now, I don't have to wait for the next one to be released. Also, by the time I make it to the 7th book, it's probably already released in paperback. (I prefer paperbacks because they're cheaper for one -- I like owning the books -- and as they are often more compact in size, they're easier to take with.) The only thing I'm torn between is whether I want to read the books in English or the Finnish translations instead.

What I usually hate about translations is the sloppy work and obvious shortcuts that pop out. Also, bad Finnish grammar and lack of proper punctuation often bothers me with translations. I might call it a pet peeve of mine.

For the past couple of days I've stumbled upon lots of blogs about HP and the anticipation of waiting for the release of 7th book. I bet many of them are currently turning the pages of their much craved book. And many that have already finished reading it and found out what happens to Harry and his fellow wizards.

To be completely honest, there's a part of me that doesn't really understand what all this commotion about a fictional character and a book he is in. But I'm not judging, honestly. It's just that the last time when I went crazy over something was in my teens when NKOTB was still big and doing well. Now, my biggest fan thing is going to a Metallica concert and listening to their music at home from time to time. Other than than, I'm pretty boring at being a fan -- of anything.

But then there's this other part of me that goes "Wow" to all those people who have something obviously important to them and will do anything to make the most of it. And I mean all those people who were willing to wait in line for something like two (or more?) days to be the firsts to get their hands on the last book in the series they adore. That's dedication, admirable kind in that, IMHO.

I wonder if this Potter-mania had happened, say 20 years ago, I might have been swallowed into it more as I was quite the book aficionada back then and read lot of the Enid Blyton's books along with Nancy Drews. On the other hand, I wasn't much into fantasy type of mystery stories (I still haven't read the "Lord of the Rings", even though I've seen all the movies) back then...

Having said that, I've pretty much made up my mind and decided that I will read all the Potter books -- eventually anyway. But first I'll have to finish reading "The Egyptian" by Mika Waltari (so interesting, but so tiring book written in old-ish Finnish) and the aforementioned "Lord of the Rings". So, check back on this around the time of the 7th Potter movie release in 2010.

Things that suck #759
But have a brighter side, too.

Getting a summer cold on your already short vacation sucks.

On the bright side, I had a legit reason to watch Disney Channel and Toon Disney's cartoons all day. Lloyd in Space is actually pretty good, though Lilo & Stitch is more of fave to me. Yeah, I'm such a kid at heart sometimes.

Scrapblog

Have you heard of Scrapblog? I came across this cool picture sharing site yesterday, and of course I had to set up an account for myself. It's at www.scrapblog.com/oneka. There's a "test page" with Cati's pictures. Let's see what I can come up with the picture blog.

The good thing about Scrapblog is that I can use the pictures I've uploaded to my flickr.

Wise Bear, that Pooh

Don't
underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

-- Winnie the Pooh
....................................

Though my Doing Nothing today after work was to play 18 holes of golf with hubby.
....................................

Random trivia # 66565
Only little over 120 police officers has been killed in the line of duty since 1917 in Finland. The latest cop killing happened just a few days ago when a 20-something kid ran over a cop by car at speed of 190 km/h (118 mph). The previous cop killing occurred in 1997 when a Danish  prisoner on his break from prison (!?!?!) killed two unarmed police officers. So, in this context Finland is quite a safe country in general.

But if you take a look at the news for today for example:
- a construction worker was killed by a ledge hammer that had fell some 50 meters from above (by accident)
- an innocent bystander witnessed a murder in one of the neighborhoods in Turku
- a motorist was seriously injured in collision of the motorbike and a car
- a wife tried to slash her husband to death
- people are driving drunk
- people drown because they go swimming intoxicated and with poor swimming skills

Most of the news are a sad read of people getting killed, being hurt, or just being stupid. In that sense, Finland has become more violent (I mean civilian to one another) country over the past few years. I really don't like the change.

Tagged, Slam, Dunk

1) People who are tagged need to share seven random facts/habits about themselves on their own blog.
2) Include the rules.
3) Choose seven people to tag and include their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they've been tagged.

One / It's pretty much the warm season now. Despite indoor temperature in our condo sometimes gets quite intolerable, I will not sleep naked. As a matter of fact, I hate sleeping naked and I have to have at least something on in bed.

Two / I really like golf for that fact that it's a difficult sport to master. It looks easy but hitting the ball is quite demanding on its own, let alone getting it to to where you want is completely different story. Many other sports that I enjoy doing are so much more effortless compared to golf. That might be one of the reasons why I get so easily distracted from other sports...

Three / It has been mentioned many times before but it's still worth bringing up again. The time that I spent in Wisconsin back in 1993-94 is still some of the fondest times in my life. I really don't keep in touch with anyone from my class. It has also been way too long since the last time I dropped a line to my host mom. But as I look back, that year that I spent as an exchange student in WI taught me a lot about who I am. The things I learned are so intrinsic that I can't really put them into specific words. And if nothing else, at least my English got better during that time.

Four / This November marks our 10th anniversary together. Hubby and I still aren't married (or engaged) nor do we plan to be anytime soon. Also, child(ren) is/are not in our immediate future plans. For the time being, Cati will suffice as our "kid". Maybe we'll get another cat next spring or so...

Five / Our next long vacation will be spent in Thailand in February 2008 (check the countdown at the bottom of the page to keep track when). Even though I'm looking forward to this vacation, I was kinda sorry we didn't make it to Florida (or elsewhere in the US) this year. I really fell in love with FL on our first visit. I had my doubts before as I was mainly thinking FL to be about golf playing elderly. This is one of those rare times when I was VERY happy to have been wrong. So, I will definitely go back to FL sooner or later.

Six / One of my pet peeves is bad grammar and misspelled word (or incorrectly written compound words -- there are many in Finnish) or the lack of appropriate punctuation. This actually only applies to Finnish because I couldn't possible be one to judge someone's English spelling and correct use of commas etc. because half the time I'm clueless myself.

Seven / Even though Finnish is my mother tongue, I still prefer writing in English (especially in my journal). As weird as it sounds, I sometimes can't find the right words in Finnish when they've been more than obvious in English all along. Also, when I write in Finnish, it sounds almost pretentious to me. I don't know why that is... I though wish I was as fluent in Swedish, German, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese as I'm in Finnish and English. Though, I suppose being bilingual in plenty.

Couple of links that let you hear Finnish:
A chance to speak Finnish
Finnish for Foreigners

Since I'm lazy to tag anyone, I won't name the seven that should do this. Besides, this seem to have been going around for a while now, so many have already been tagged by others and participated. So, feel free to grab this for your blog if you like. I won't push you.