Popcorn Preview - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I'll admit this one snuck up on me... The final battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort is upon us, and I'm dragging my feet. I seriously don't want it to end! However, I know it must come to an end. By the looks of this trailer, it is going to be a very, VERY emotional and epic end. Seriously, the Twilight crap is absolutly nothing compared to Harry Potter, and Part 2 will blow that series out of the water.

What I really like about this trailer is its return to "Hedwig's Theme" (despite it being slowed down). I'm really hoping "Hedwig's Theme" will actually be featured in the movie as an amazing tribute to the original. I can only hope... The second thing I like about this trailer is that it seems that Alan Rickman AKA Snape will finally have his time to shine (be him good or bad) and more screen time. I can only hope again...

I'm not going to lie. I got some serious goosebumps and teary eye action watching this trailer. Seems like some deaths are going to be pretty dramatic.  Anyways, the end is coming, and July couldn't come any faster.



Photo courtesy of Google

Spring Break in Vernon's Peak

Hello all! It really has been an awful long time since we last spoke, and once again I must apologize for that. So what's the excuse this time? Well, I've been working really, REALLY hard to finish up the first draft of my third book Verity. Heck! I've been working so hard that I haven't even changed my status on Facebook in forever! Anyways, I'm glad to say that I'm about two - three chapters away from achieving that goal! I poured a lot of sleepless nights during the Spring Break into this book, and I'm pretty happy with what I've read so far. I just have to go back and add a little...take out a little...just all the works.

I'm glad to announce that to make it up for my disappearance, I'll give you a new "steamy" tidbit to mull over below. AND...I'll also (in another post) tell you what Mount Vernon icons/people will be featured in this book after I finish the first draft. WARNING: I grind a few axes...just kidding!

Now that's done, I have to admit that I've also been falling behind on my movie reviews. I have seen I Am Number 4 and Battle: LA, but they already had enough reviews about them online by the time I got to see them...so I didn't want to bore you with anything everyone else had already said. I just have to say that if Hollywood would just make a movie worthwhile I would get excited and write reviews!

Anyways, I've got to get back to my book. I'll pop in again soon! In the meantime, check out my post about Anneliese Michel...thousands of others are doing it...so should you!

Oh, and here's the excerpt I promised!

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I met Abigail down on the boardwalk wearing some old swimsuit trunks I found stashed away in the bottom drawer of my dresser. They were a little tight around my thighs and a few inches too high above my kneecaps. I felt like a giant wearing midget pants.


Abigail was facing the glasslike surface of the pond applying some sunscreen to her shoulders.


“Do you need help with that?”


“I think I missed some spots.” She handed me the sunscreen bottle and lifted up her hair. “You mind rubbing some more on my back?”


I squirted the white lotion in my hand and placed the bottle in the cup holder of the nearest sunbathing chair. I rubbed both of my hands together and then uneasily started to massage Abigail’s soft back. The smell of coconuts filled the air. I rubbed the lotion in deep and worked my hands between her bikini straps. Abigail smiled back at me with a troublesome gleam in her eyes. We had always shared a certain fondness in the past.


“You can go a little lower.” She reached around and slid my right hand to the base of her back. “However, you better work your way up from there.”


My cheeks flushed as I slid my hands up the middle of her back. She could sense my unease, so she stepped away from my hands and let down her hair.


“Cute trunks,” she cracked.


“I think I had a growth spurt since I wore them last.” I grabbed the hem of my trunks and tried to pull them down. “It was the only swimming trunks I could find.”


She turned around to face me, and I could feel her eyes scanning my exposed body. I uncomfortably folded my arms against my chest. Abigail took a few daring steps towards me and grabbed each of my forearms.


“I want your body Scott.” She tried to say it with a straight face.


“Excuse me?”


Abigail pushed me backwards and a surge of water sucked me under. I could see the sunlight rippling above the dark surface. The rushing water sounded like a whisper in my ear. I flicked my feet and I shot back up to the hot surface. Abigail was laughing hysterically as I coughed up some water.


“Very amusing.” I whipped my wet hair out of my face and tried to wipe the water out of my eyes. “I’m glad I know how to swim.”


Abigail bent down so that we were nearly face to face. I swam up to the boardwalk and held onto it.


“I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t resist doing it.”


She held out her hand to pull me up, and I gladly accepted it. Just as she started to pull, I clamped down on her hand and pulled her into the water. It was my turn to laugh. She quickly reemerged next to me and splashed water in my face.
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The Bizarre: The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

READER BEWARE: Opinions Are Expressed Below

I finally broke down and gave in to the idea of watching this certified cult classic. However, this is not a cult classic for the same reason The Rocky Horror Picture Show is. I would compare The Human Centipede to the "killer video" in The Ring that you're warned not to watch, but you watch anyways because of natural curiosity...and then you die. Thankfully I won't die from watching The Human Centipede, but I shall forever be scarred.

The plot starts off being pretty basic. Two American girls from New York are taking a tour of Europe and are searching for a club in Germany to have some fun. Well, they get lost down some country road and blow out a tire. Being the complete idiots that they already are, the girls decide to leave their car and track down some help by taking a stroll through the German woods (in the rain). They do manage to find a find a house, but they quickly learn that they knocked on the wrong door...

After that, the plot goes down a sickening road that has to be seen to believed. If you must know a little more...IMDb describes it best. The site says "[Dr. Josef Heiter] kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to 'reassemble' them into a new 'pet'-- a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others' rectums." Yeah...it's pretty sick. I literally had a trash can nearby just in case I couldn't handle the sensory or auditory elements.

There is no deep meaning to this movie. The Human Centipede is intentionally meant to be sick fun (it really isn't fun). Then why is this a cult classic? Two words: Dieter Laser. He looks like a sicko...he acts like a sicko...he is the sicko named Dr. Heiter. I can confidently say that it is Laser's performance that makes this entire movie live and breathe.

If you're curious now...go check it out. I strongly recommend that you just rent this movie, because you would probably be seriously ashamed to have The Human Centipede in your movie collection. You better hurry though before the sequel comes out later this year!



Photo courtesy of Google

Fighting the Disease Called "Boredom"

We've all had that one class where the professor monotonously keeps talking about a subject that we really just don't care about. This eventually leads to the disease called "boredom". This nasty infection is spread from professor's mouths and can be passed on through the use of an assigned textbook, lab work or any other work assigned by a professor.

Prolonged exposure to "boredom" can eventually lead to the inevitable and serious disability called a "head bob". Never heard of it? The symptoms of a "head bob" include heavy eyelids, one numb brain, periodic blackouts and unfinished notes. The hardest symptom to identify is the periodic blackout that usually occur in five-ten second intervals during the entire class period.

But have no fear! I am here to help identify the dangerous signs of the "head bob" for you today. Maybe you have it and just don't know it?

Exhibit A: This student has not been subjected to "boredom" and is perfectly healthy (in his own way).

Exhibit B: This student has just been exposed to "boredom", however the signs are minimal. Notice how he draws a character related to the subject in order to fight the small signs of the "head bob". The student informed me that the character shown below is Gandhi with a megaphone saying "Let my people go!"

Exhibit C: This student has experienced prolonged exposure to "boredom", and the symptoms are at their highest point before the "head bob" occurs. Notice how the student is fighting the "head bob" through drawing like the student in Exhibit B, but this student is drawing bizarre and twisted images that are not related to the subject. The student informed me that these "drawings" were called "Le Spilt Salt", "Donkeyphant", and "Martian Volcano". Please Keep in mind that the student was delirious at that moment.

Exhibit D: This student has been overcome by "boredom" and is now experiencing the most critical case of "head bob" I have ever seen. If you look carefully, you can actually see where this student experienced his "head bob".

I hope and pray this demonstration can encourage everyone to fight future cases of "boredom". Hopefully we can do it before it strikes your child, neighbor, cousin and monkey's uncle.

We Must Unite To Join The Fight!*

*Everyone in the world has already been infected with "boredom". There is no cure, and it's too late to save anybody. We will all die. This message was written in a state of "boredom". This message has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Press Release: The Lost Article

I'm breaking tradition here, but I dove into the archives and dug up this little piece that wasn't published in the campus newspaper. This article is about a terrible tragedy that is pretty much forgotten in Commerce. However, I still think that it is a significant event in our history that can not be forgotten. I wrote this in a style that mainly focuses on the Halladay's contributions and excellence at East Texas State University (at the time) rather than the scandal. Although, I still think that the ultimate event is certainly worth mentioning.

Suicide of the President's Wife
By: Chance A. Crane

On February 24, 1972, East Texas State University was jolted by the news that Elaine “Pat” Owings Halladay, former wife of ETSU President D. Whitney Halladay, was found dead in the presidential home garage. The Halladay’s were the first to move into the newly constructed President’s Home, south of the campus on Hwy. 50, on May 15, 1968.

Mrs. Halladay was discovered by the housemaid and was taken to the Commerce Medical and Surgical Hospital where attempts to revive her failed. At first, her cause of death was unknown and kept silent by Dr. Patrick Martin. According to The East Texan on March 1, 1972, it was Justice of the Peace Charles Walden that declared the official cause of death as “carbon monoxide poisoning from suicide.”

“Mrs. Halladay walked into the garage, closed the garage door and turned on the car engine,” former Texas A&M University - Commerce Archivist Dr. James Conrad said. “Everybody knew about it an hour after it happened.”

Mrs. Halladay was a prominent figure on campus and revered by many.

“[She] radiate[d] an atmosphere of enthusiasm for a not so enthusiastic university,” The Special said.

On June 22, 1970, Mrs. Halladay's husband was summoned by President Richard Nixon, along with 16 other college presidents, to Washington D.C. President Nixon sought advice from the group of college presidents about how to suppress student uprisings on college campuses.

“This was a very violent time,” Conrad said. “However, ETSU was barely impacted because most of the students on campus were fairly conservative.”

Conrad said that it was this trip to D.C. that possibly led to Mrs. Halladay to commit suicide two years later.

“It is said that it was in Washington D.C. where President Halladay developed a relationship with another woman,” he said. “This was probably a contributing factor to the suicide.”

On January 13, 1972, one month before the suicide, the Halladays divorced. After Mrs. Halladay’s suicide, President Halladay resigned on May 5, 1972, and became president of the new A&I University at Corpus Christi.

In Donald E. Reynolds’ book “Professor Mayo’s College: A History of East Texas State University,” it is said that the campus was stunned, “first by the death a highly regarded Pat Halladay and then the president’s resignation. The community had become sharply divided over Halladay because of his personal tragedy.”

The Halladay’s were dedicated to their work at ETSU and to the students. According to The Greenville Herald Banner, President Halladay was “a man who [was] largely responsible for the Commerce school’s emergence as a budding regional university with a growing academic repute.”

According to The Special, “the Halladays often ate in the cafeteria to ‘meet the students in their own environment.’”

“I want to meet and associate with as many students as I can,” Mrs. Halladay said. “When schools were smaller, you could know everyone personally and bring them to your home. But there’s no way we could invite over 8,000 students to the house today.”

Martha Jo McDowell, Marietta McClurg and Whitney Halladay Whitelaw, Mrs. Halladay’s daughter, said in Mrs. Halladay’s written profile that she had an interest in the welfare of animals that was “intense.”

“She could not turn away a stray, and she spent many hours trying to find homes for unwanted and abandoned animals,” they said. “A testimonial to her concern is the Commerce Humane Association, organized with funds donated…as memorial tributes upon her death.”

They also said that Mrs. Halladay had her hand in several organizations. She was a member of the Coterie Club, the Dames Club and the Methodist Church. They described her “[being] active in all of them despite a busy schedule as official hostess.”

“My life pretty well revolves around the schedule of my husband,” Mrs. Halladay said in The Special. “The University always comes first, and that doesn’t leave time for much else.”

Mrs. Halladay enjoyed being at ETSU.

“We aren’t searching for a larger or better school, because we think we have found it.”

On the day before President Halladay resigned, those who loved Mrs. Halladay paid a final tribute in
The Commerce Journal.

“Many share my opinion that today she is where the glory of her own goodness will be revealed in her,” the paid advertisement said.

Voltage: Epic Mickey

I've been slacking on my movie attendance despite desperate cravings to see Tron Legacy and True Grit. Even if I did get to go see them, it would be too late by now to review them since they have been out for awhile. Oh well...I do have something to review now and it's a video game. Now begins the video game review series called Voltage and games shall be reviewed as such: Low Voltage, Minimum Voltage and High Voltage. That's pretty easy..

Disney's Epic Mickey is deceptive.  I put it into my Wii console thinking that it was going to be easy-breezy fun. I couldn't have been more wrong. Epic Mickey is not a children's game. It's dark, it's challenging and it's addicting.

The story starts off in Yin Sid's (from Fantasia) domicile where he created an alternate universe/theme park called Wasteland for all of the forgotten Disney characters to live. The forgotten characters range from Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Captian Hook, various forms of Pete (there was a Pete from Tron) and Wasteland's leader Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Well, mischievous Mickey disrupts all of their lives when he accidentally spills paint thinner all over Wasteland and created The Blot. Mickey is sucked up into this world (eventually) and must save the crumbling Wasteland with the power of paint or paint thinner before The Blot and The Mad Scientist steal his heart. That's the gist of it all.

The storyline is as good as any Disney film should be, and your actions with the paint and paint thinner and choices on how to go about the various missions truly do make a huge difference. The graphics are superb as you traverse Mickey's old black and white classic short films and other parts of what really is the Magic Kingdom we all know and love. I'm speaking of The Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, Space Mountain, Main Street and other important Disney landmarks. However, it is the events towards the end that frustrated me. I literally took one step forward and five steps back...over and over again. Despite the frustrations, I still had a lot of fun playing Epic Mickey. This game has enough deep Disney magic and meaning in it that it caused me to choke up when I finally reached the end.

Epic Mickey is High Voltage.

Photo courtesy of Google

Finals Week

Darkness has descended upon Commerce, Texas. The professors have sprouted claws and fangs, blood is pouring from grading pens, and students have turned into sleep deprived zombies. I can already feel the symptoms overtaking me. My eyes ache...my hands cramp...and I can literally feel my hair follicles turning grey. Where is our saviour? Where is our white light? All hope seems lost in these dark times...OK...OK...I'm stretching the truth just a tad...but it really is that dreadful time of the year where FINAL EXAMS crawl out of the fiery pit of Hell to cause misery and headaches. No exaggeration there.

I literally just got done writing Stalin's life story for the fifth time this semester (socialism and fascism are running rampant in the history department), and I couldn't be more relieved. However, I'll be writing about him and other communist activities more on Thursday for both of my history classes. What a joy...

Well anyways, I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I haven't been sucked into the black hole of finals...yet. More posts to come as soon as tests are done!

Photo courtesy of Google