Friday, July 27, 2007
Harry Potter ending
Spoiler alert: This story reveals some key plot points in the final Harry Potter book. So if you've haven't finished the book, J.K. Rowling asks that you not read this story.
If you found the epilogue of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” rather vague, then J.K. Rowling achieved her goal.
The author was shooting for “nebulous,” something “poetic.” She wanted the readers to feel as if they were looking at Platform 9¾ through the mist, unable to make out exactly who was there and who was not.
“I do, of course, have that information for you, should you require it,” she told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira rather coyly in her first interview since fans got their hands on the final book.
Ummm … yes, please!
Rowling said her original epilogue was “a lot more detailed,” including the name of every child born to the Weasley clan in the past 19 years. (Victoire, who was snogging Teddy — Lupin and Tonks’ son — is Bill and Fleur’s eldest.)
“But it didn’t work very well as a piece of writing,” Rowling said. “It felt very much that I had crowbarred in every bit of information I could … In a novel you have to resist the urge to tell everything.”
But now that the seventh and final novel is in the hands of her adoring public, Rowling no longer has to hold back any information about Harry Potter from her fans. And when 14 fans crowded around her in Edinburgh Castle in Scotland earlier this week as part of TODAY’s interview, Rowling was more than willing to share her thoughts about what Harry and his friends are up to now.
Harry, Ron and Hermione
We know that Harry marries Ginny and has three kids, essentially, as Rowling explains, creating the family and the peace and calm he never had as a child.
As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head.
“Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.”
Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in “Deathly Hallows.”
“I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding,” Rowling said.
Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a “really good place to be.”
“They made a new world,” Rowling said.
The wizarding naturalist
Luna Lovegood, the eccentric Ravenclaw who was fascinated with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Umgubular Slashkilters, continues to march to the beat of her own drum.
“I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures,” Rowling said. “She’s a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is.”
Luna comes to see the truth about her father, eventually acknowledging there are some creatures that don’t exist.
“But I do think that she’s so open-minded and just an incredible person that she probably would be uncovering things that no one’s ever seen before,” Rowling said.
Luna and Neville Longbottom?
It’s possible Luna has also found love with another member of the D.A.
When she was first asked about the possibility of Luna hooking up with Neville Longbottom several years ago, Rowling’s response was “Definitely not.” But as time passed and she watched her characters mature, Rowling started to “feel a bit of a pull” between the unlikely pair.
Ultimately, Rowling left the question of their relationship open at the end of the book because doing otherwise “felt too neat.”
Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom: “The damage is done.”
There is no chance, however, that Neville’s parents, who were tortured into madness by Bellatrix Lestrange, ever left St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies.
“I know people really wanted some hope for that, and I can quite see why because, in a way, what happens to Neville’s parents is even worse than what happened to Harry’s parents,” Rowling said. “The damage that is done, in some cases with very dark magic, is done permanently.”Rowling said Neville finds happiness in his grandmother’s acceptance of him as a gifted wizard and as the new herbology professor at Hogwarts.
The fate of Hogwarts
Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster (“McGonagall was really getting on a bit”) as well as a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That position is now as safe as the other teaching posts at Hogwarts, since Voldemort’s death broke the jinx that kept a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from remaining for more than a year.
While Rowling didn’t clarify whether Harry, Ron and Hermione ever return to school to finish their seventh year, she did say she could see Harry popping up every now and again to give the “odd talk” on Defense Against the Dark Arts.
More details to come?
Rowling said she may eventually reveal more details in a Harry Potter encyclopedia, but even then, it will never be enough to satisfy the most ardent of her fans.
“I’m dealing with a level of obsession in some of my fans that will not rest until they know the middle names of Harry’s great-great-grandparents,” she said. Not that she’s discouraging the Potter devotion!
“I love it,” she said. “I’m all for that.”
Posted by Ephermal at 11:39 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
YO 73! Long time haven't contribute to this blog and so have many of you...though the tagboard is getting more and more interesting by the minute...i really had a good laugh. Just a random post and a random greeting to say hi...want a wet blanket? Well...promos is just 9 weeks away!!! Means 2 months, 420 days, 10080 hours, 604800min, 36288000secs, 3628800000split seconds, ticking away fast!!! Those who did not do while in block test, don't be sad!!! Still got that much amount of time to mug...and see...i have effectively wasted some of it in blogging...haha...crapping...anyway...nights everyone...
Flo.
Posted by Flo at 10:53 PM
Sunday, July 22, 2007
these words say all...HARRY POTTER ROCKS!!!!!
but i rock more.. :D:D ok la.. s73 rock the most!!! :D:D
Posted by the 玮伦 at 3:35 PM
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Imba lecture
I LOVE OUR CHEM LECTURER MAN!He is imbaly funny =D
During his lecture, he wanted us to name the organic compound he showed in his Macbook. First question: Level of difficulty: (1 hwa chong logo= level 1 -.-). A structure looked similar to benzene but din have a ring in the middle. The answer was cyclohexane
Second question (1 and a half hc logo -.-). Methylcyclohexane
Fifth question: (6 hc logo o.O!!! The whole LT WHOAH tacitly, and guess wad? With a click of the button, HAHA another logo dropped from the top!! Which added up to 7 logos =D ). The answer was 1,2-dimethyldecahydronaphthalene
Last question: (1 HCJC old logo -.-, followed by a statement “a.k.a Imba” XD XD XD ). With a click of the button, a humongous replication of the structure floated from the bottom and filled up the whole screen, and the whole LT was shocked with eyes widely opened. O.O!!!
“So what’s the name of this compound X)”
Someone shouted: “1,2-dimethyl-IMBAcyclohexane ” :D:D:D:D:D
Another shouted: “1,2-dimethyl-cycloBEEHIVE” XD XD XD XD XD
HAHAHA THAT’S THE CLIMAX OF THE LECTURE
Guess wad, suddenly the image of the screen changed to a photo.
“Last time when I went to Pulau Ubin, I saw this…”
The answer was 1,2-dimethyl-cycloCHICKENWIRE
-______________________-"
OH MY my stomach was bursting
Long time never laugh dao bao liao
Looking forward to the next chem lecture :)
YS
Posted by Yu Siang at 11:47 PM
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
School Reopens
School finally reopened...(not counting the horrendous block tests we had 2 weeks before). Everyone's back in school and everything's back to the normal, too normal, too sian...Thing No.1:
Yesterday, was a typical Monday. Sadly, we had one an a half hours break before GP starts. Oops, ya...going to be another boring day. So weilin and i decided to go and pick saga seeds...it was a success cos there were quite a lot on the ground...to our delightment...When we came back, we saw yusiang and company...suddenly, they ask, "Eh want to go and see bird?"
Cute baby bird...
We went to the class bench and found a test tube box for it (sorry seniors)...and went to pick twigs and leaves for it...apparently Little Bird was extremely intimidated...its eyes were wide open and it was clinging on to the side of the test tube box like crazy... We were already planning what to feed it and all the stuff, trying to calm the bird down.
In the end, it managed to fly up the tree again...edwin helped us look after it when we went for GP...i guess we helped him fly...it was so eager to get away from us...:D
Thing No. 2:
Today, We celebrated Tingyi and wenrui's bdae....plus our long belated 73 birthday!!! (*throws confetti in the air) 
Wenrui, as meticulous always, cut the cake in perfect dimensions...that's the best cake cut i've ever seen in my life...wow...
Anyway, that's about all now...hope both of you will have a wonderful birthday...yup...
Flo:D
Posted by Flo at 6:13 PM
July Bday (:
Happy birthday Tingyi! (Present)
Happy birthday Wen Rui! (Future)
Mango Cake! Wen Rui so skillful can cut until so nice.
YS
Posted by Yu Siang at 5:59 PM
Saturday, July 7, 2007
"God! pls save me..."(by this photo u cant see weilin's legs trembling, muz imagine yourself :] )
"see i m not scared leh i still can smile :)"
Florence doing an imba pose while boudering
In case u don know, this is ice climbing! it was melting coz weather v hot :)
kx reached the top twice. See he damn happy.
yea this is wad we wore for ice climbing. damn cool rite. u sure gg if i kick u wif this ^^YS
Posted by Yu Siang at 1:32 AM
Friday, July 6, 2007
sabbats- sports climbing
Since weilin spam photos, i shall spam words...let me elaborate a bit on our interesting and funny and exciting sabbaticals...Day 1: We climbed the 25 m wall...and the sun was shining on it...how great you think...the rocks, or rather, the tiles were blistering hot...we could hardly grab hold of it properly...sad...but still have to climb...so you either climb quickly or you just hang there and get your hands burnt...we were blowing our hands while trying to stay on the wall...hahaha...really can't take it...too hot le...
Then, as though it's not intimidating enough to find yourself metres above the floor and clinging on to some boiling rocks, one of the them decided to give way when we grab onto it...WHeeee, it went spinning away when i tried to grab hold of it...gave me such a shock...was cursing it...
Day 2:
More exciting...absailing...dear weilin was terrified...we were suppose to scale down this 18 m wall with a super nice background of a super huge swimming pool...we all enjoyed it trememdously, especially watching weilin...
She gingerly steps onto the edge, and then, her legs starts shivering...hahahhaaha...we were laughing like crazy....finally managed to coax her down...took about 5 mins....then at the bottom...we look down at her. Suddenly, out of the blue, ys nonchalantly said, "从这里看，玮琳变得更渺小..." OOPS...we all instantaneously burst out laughing...yusiang...shall vote this classic phrase as Phrase of the Year...nice one there....we really had a good laugh...
Then, we did bouldering...seriously fun stuff...get to climb upside down, though none of us manage to do so...and then the ice climbing part...me and weilin thought we looked like monsters using the ice axe and the funny shoes...forgot what's that called...to climb up a styrofoam-covered wall...all of us suffered tensed muscles after the climb...hee hee...
Anyway, it was fun la...we can now climb our own!!! Got cert... :D And it's certainly entertaining to see weilin's tensed up face plus shivering legs...
Flo :P
Posted by Flo at 9:14 PM
Thursday, July 5, 2007
florence doing belaying. concentrating. shh cannot disturb her.
florence acting spastic with the artificial styrofoam ice board as background.
florence n me with pikachu! haha. inside the yishun country club de mini arcade for kids.
florence, shin, sihui n me with ultraman!
25m wall den we climbed ystd.
aaron the spiderman doing abseiling.
abseiling looks easy huh. still can smile at camera.
yusiang looking down 18m below us. say cheese!
florence doing abseiling. wrap rope around legs den both hands free to pose. zai.Posted by - at 8:06 PM
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Imba
Come watch this imba vid!Posted by A Lonely Heart at 12:22 AM
Monday, July 2, 2007
Sentosa
YO. And yea we played frisbee and water, too bad no volleyball coz the courts were fully booked. Yah and thanks seng wei, u made me drank a lot of salt water. Posted by Yu Siang at 10:14 PM
this is seriously my first time posting on class blog haha! i shall post the group photo we took at sentosa, too bad not the whole class is here, maybe after promos yea, anyway, we have to thank mr heng for settling the bill at sushi tei for us haha! we'll pay you back REAL QUICK. after we consolidate everything, but then there may be delays and stuff too then we may also forget how much we need to pay already... so yea..haha! hey post the other photo by the beach one, i dont have that..yep..see you people in school tml, its been a long time since we had a normal school day..