Rare afternoon coffee.
Out running errands and my wife requested.
Fun times at the library 📷
🗞️ Marco Armet’s Bob and Van.
Our casual friends were just casual friends. We didn’t expect them to take positions on the world’s most complicated conflicts. We could just talk about weather and TV shows, and maybe sometimes get a beer.
And our neighbors were just our neighbors.
This is the way. Our neighbors play a bigger role in our daily lives despite and regardless our respective politics.
Speed-Running Harry Potter in Cinema
My oldest started, and finished, Harry Potter this summer. He read the first book in a day and half. Although he slowed down a bit as they got longer, it still took only about seven weeks to read seven books.
So we rewarded him by taking him to see all eight films for the 25th Anniversary re-release in cinema. I had seem them all on DVD/Blu-Ray with my wife about 12 years ago, but not since. (A few we watched after he finished the first couple of books, then we stopped once we knew were going to take him.)
Some random, loosely connected thoughts, on seeing them in theaters.
- The big screen really does make a difference. There are so many subtle details in the backgrounds of many scenes.
- Chris Columbus is a master of blocking.
- All these years I’ve been watching the extended versions. The first time I watched HP was with my wife. I never read the books (except for the first one with a friend in college). I was a bit too old for the first one when it came out and was in the military, deployed after 9/11 and all that when the movies started releasing. So it wasn’t an objection to the films but was just doing different stuff.
- Basilisk is much more terrifying on a large screen.
- I can’t handle when Amos Diggory “my boy!"—it’s too close. I understand that pain and no one ever wants to feel like that, and I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worse enemy.
- Goblet of Fire might be the most interesting of the films because it marks the shift from idilic school boys stories to serious literature
- Was Harry looking at Ginny or someone else when Patel said “she’s beautiful” (but was looking at Hermione in the other direction)?
- Dobbie’s death might be the most heartbreaking loss in the whole series. He was a free elf.
- Speaking of free elf, I missed it the first time but Dobbie has shoes, like sneakers or something, when he’s at Malfoy manner. Loved that detail.
- The Christ allusions are so much more obvious after all these years; and though JKR has been open about that intentionality, and her own doubts, I couldn’t help but chuckle at all the concern from Christians circa 1999–2007 when the books were coming out.
- Fred Weasley’s death hit my son too hard (see #5 above). My kiddo held my hand and got choked up. We talked about Paco a bit in the theater and on the way home. Much as we loved that boy, we agreed, he would have been a Slytherin—what an ambitious troublemaker Paco was.
Watched (popcorn emoji for the days we ordered concessions):
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 🍿
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 🍿
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 🍿
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 🍿
Another great film back in theaters for an anniversary screening.
Watched: Terminator 2: Judgment Day 🍿
We have a saying the family, “For Paco!”, when we do a thing he used to love, or something we know he would have.
Watched: PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie 🍿
Finished reading: Anger, Mercy, Revenge by Lucius Annaeus Seneca 📚
Forgot to record this a couple weeks ago. Will definitely revisit. More to say one day on how this book helped me this year.
Finished reading: Academic Writing as If Readers Matter by Leonard Cassuto 📚
A great little work on academic writing. Strong endorse here.
Last night, the big kid finished readying Harry Potter. About a book per week.
Finished reading: Themistocles The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind by Michael. Scott 📚
Two teeth pulled today. Back wisdom tooth cracked after 25+ years with a silver filling.
Watched: Raiders of the Lost Ark 🍿
Watched: The Mummy 🍿
Big kid (10.5) thought it was funny. He was scared of the scabbards. Funny how all these years later that’s what scary. I recall the effects being terrifying, but in hindsight they are pretty dated.
Saw this accident on the road, a few minutes before the power company emailed and texted that there was an outage at our house.
ETA on restoring as late as Friday. Pitstop at the house to put essential food in our cooler. Off to kill time and pray for the lineman working the issue.
TFW your five-month old falls asleep on you while you sit on the couch. 🫠❤️
Find someone who loves you the way this girl loves ranch on her pizza.
A few picks from the Ohio State Fair earlier this week.
This girl has the spirit and temperament of Paco: never a dull moment with her.
It isn’t a family adventure until mom gets her family pic.
I need to dig up my picks from the Irish Festival last weekend. I’m behind.
My oldest has read the first five Harry Potter books in July. The kid is on a mission. 📚
Watched: Spider-Man: Brand New Day 🍿
Remarkable film full of real emotional moments, a rarity on comic films but seems much more common in the Spider-Man franchise than others. I have my complaints but they’re few.