To JK Rowling: Nicely Done

Call it the frustration or call it the emotional sap living within me, but I burst into tears after hearing JK Rowling's speech at the world premiere of Harry Potter 7 part 2. I wasn't crying while she was giving the speech because... sad to say, I am not that much of an avid Harry Potter fan. Let me clear that out - I skipped out in reading the books, for a very simple reason, my impatience with not knowing what will happen next and with reading details got the best of me and since the chapters had titles of what they contained, I skipped out on most of the other chapters and the other characters. So I gave up reading it. But the book was really good.

I remember that when the first wave of Potter madness hit, a lot of skeptics came up to do some damage to the newly rising best seller, saying that it promoted black magic and what not. Of course, in my house that talk was in the air as well, lingering there for quite sometime, but not really given that much weight as all the other arguments and problems that linger in our house. Those years were the years of controversial books so I can't really blame my parents for trying to be cautious with what their child reads. Anyway, I was still able to read some of the books in the series; those being books 1 and 3. Book 1, I hardly remember if I finished it thoroughly and then book 3 I finished in the skipping chapters method.

If my friends hear me, or read about this I am going to get a lot of sermons. Anyway, now that I think back on it... Anne Rice is an even harder read than Harry Potter.


Truth be told, I found the deeper meaning of the books in the films, it was the films that opened my eyes to the fact that this book was not some little bed time story book for kids. The take on the narration was simple, but the plot was complex. I thought it rather sneaky but intelligent. I think the best "writer" way of describing it is, JK had command over her language. She used it the simplest way she knows so that the appeal would reach even those that do not really think of reading as a leisure activity. And I applaud her for that, I can't do that. Make something simple and yet still sound intelligent and not like some teenage fan fiction writer.

So going back, I cried after JK's speech. After I told my friend, I want her life, that feeling of having done something you love or something you had poured a part of your life into, take on a life of its own and grow exponentially to touch so many people and so many hearts. That is something. I don't know if I envy her because she has made a name for herself and people will never forget her, or that she had done something so beautiful (period). I cried when I started to imagine how she must have felt crunching those last few hours, writing those last few lines, and then to finally end it. I envy her. I truly do.

I wish I'd get that someday too, to be in the same situation as when she was writing the last chapter of the Harry Potter series, maybe one day... but for now, Ms. Rowling, nicely done.

Kristin Bauer

I found out today that Kristin Bauer, Pam from True Blood, is actually into painting and that she even went to art school. That was quite unexpected. Anyway, I saw one of her paintings in http://www.perfectpictureframing.com/artistShowcase.htm and that just proved she is more than what I had thought of her, which is confined to just an actress (of course she also does well in this particular avenue). Anyway... that's it for the day... time to hit the books.

J.R.R Tolkien

Lament for Eorl the Young 

Where now is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?