Happy Birthday to a Very Special Wizard!

On this day, 21 years ago, a little boy was born with amazing powers that would vanquish the evil in this world. This power was love. Happy Birthday Harry Potter!

Is it weird to think of my life without Harry? Duhhhhhh. The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, came out in the US in 1998, when I was three, and my brother was six. It wasn't long after this, maybe a year, maybe more, when my brother became interested, and my mom began reading them aloud to us. I, quite literally, grew up with Harry coming to life from the pages of the book cradled in my mom's hands at my bedside, my brother nestled under her arm.

My very first mental picture of the Harry Potter world? A house, much like the one I live in today - a small ranch with a spacious backyard - and a modern motorcycle landing on the street in front of my house, the man (who looked suspiciously like the red power ranger) grabbing a baby, and flying off with him.

Of course, my imagination has grown considerably since I was four, and with the aid of the Harry Potter movies, I now have a wonderfully rich place in my mind that I can live in when I find myself wanting to be more... magical. Man, it sucks being a muggle, doesn't it?

So anyway... Harry would be 21 today, if we are considering that the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came out in 2007. In this book, he was, of course 17. It's interesting to think of the things Harry would be able to do today in the muggle world. Buy alcohol. Buy a lottery ticket. Gamble. I wonder how that would go for him, or if it would all bore him because of his much more interesting wizardly pursuits.

......Hmmm........

It'd probably bore him. Oh well. Happy Birthday anyway, Harry!

6 Facebook Statuses that are a Waste of Cyber Space

And there I am, again, my eyes glued to the home page of my facebook account, reading a "friend's" status and silently trying to think of all the appropriate things that might be wrong with her/him, all the reasons why she/he is telling the world these stupid things that are equivalent to "I DON'T HAVE A LIFE." (ironic, isn't it?) I bet you know at least one of these people. Am I right? I thought so. That's because they are everywhere. And the really scary part of it? You might be turning into one of these. Or (gasp!) you might already be one!

But, with my helpful list below, you can identify whether or not you truly do not have a life, and hopefully make some changes, for the benefit of the entire human population. If you are reading these statuses and they sound unnervingly familiar - aka, you wrote one - DON'T BE UPSET! I still love you! That is, if I even loved you in the first place, which, I probably maybe hopefully did. Look, I can be mean, I know it. And I can have really stupid statuses. But this is simply constructive criticism. Think of it as I am helping out you, and you are helping out humanity.

And now, without further ado, 6 Facebook Statuses that are a Waste of Cyber Space:

1. Got off work at 2, now going to hang out with baby. i love u
Ok. First of all, it's great that you have a job. Honestly. It really is. And, it's also great that you have a baby (thinking maybe this is referring to significant other and not an infant, still a little unclear). It's great that you love "u." BUT, my friend, we just don't care. That's the truth. And maybe, just maybe, we would care if you didn't post this everyday.

2. I miss you. Wish we were back together again.
This status is borderline acceptable, but only if you post this/something similar to this ONCE after a breakup, and even then, it's still on the line. You see, when you say "I miss you," you are speaking to someone, in this case, your ex. Well. If it was a really nasty breakup, I doubt you're even facebook friends with him/her still. And if it wasn't that bad, and you are still facebook buddies, do you think he/she is even going to read it? And if they do, are they lame enough to call you up and say "hey baby, let's give it another go" when you didn't want them back enough to call them? Posting this once is questionable. Twice is too many. Three times is ridiculous. Four times is disgusting.

3. Apple pie and a Greek salad for dinner - yum!
Anything where you are informing the world what you are eating for dinner/lunch/breakfast is unacceptable,UNLESS it is something highly unusual and exotic - for example, jellied eel. Otherwise, we don't want to hear it. And if you stop and think about this one for a minute, I think you'll realize how very strange it is. I never go out into the front lawn and shout what I'm eating, so why would I go onto facebook and do the same thing?

4. Embrace the beauty in your life!
Are you on something? No, really. I love how enthusiastic you are about your life, but I believe your time would be better spent writing Hallmark cards/composing a self-help book/creating one of those terrible motivational speeches. Thanks.

5. Every year, (insert number) people are diagnosed with cancer, and (insert number) of these people will die from complications of their disease. (insert number) will have to go through chemo, radiation, and intense treatments that will leave them exhausted and hurting. But hope never dies, and you too, can inspire hope for more survivors. Repost if you care. If you don't repost, you don't care.
These sort of statuses come in all forms - gay rights, faith, disability rights, and quite frankly, friends, they're all the same. Don't get me wrong, the majority of this status is great. BUT, the moment you write that last sentence, well, I'm NOT going to repost, because I'm not one of those people that gets a guilt trip from someone's status. And neither should you. I happen to care quite a bit, and I do like your status, just not they way you chose to conclude it.

6. Give me everything tonight...
This is referring to any popular song lyrics you post. Just... don't do it. Please. If we wanted to hear this, we could turn on the radio to that really lame station that only plays really lame songs because people buy them because they like to imagine doing things with other people to the horrendous beats of electronic, computerized, unoriginal music. Song lyrics are only acceptable if they are from a song less than 25% of the population knows, and only because they make people wonder why you are stringing together random words and phrases.

A Cure for SMA, found on ETSY

For those of you who are not familiar with the site etsy.com, it's an online marketplace for all things handmade. I am a huge fan of this site, even when I use it just for inspiration. There are some absolutely amazing things out there - there are some amazingly talented people in the world. Some shops even donate all their proceeds to charity (brownie points, baby) and some of them even are exclusively devoted to finding a cure for SMA!

As an etsian and SMAian, I would like to share a few of my favorite "SMA Cure" shops with you!


From the shop SayWhatCreations, this necklace was inspired by a little boy with SMA, and can be customized with your own phrases and names. For all things bought from this shop, 10% will be donated to help find a cure for SMA.
The shop can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SayWhatCreations?ref=seller_info


This neck support was inspired by the same little boy who inspired the necklace above, Nathan. This shop is called BusyBee Sewing for SMA and features neck supports and oxygen tank covers. 100% of proceeds go to funding SMA research.
The shop can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BusyBeeSewingForSMA?ref=seller_info


This little owl necklace was inspired by a little girl with SMA, and $5 from this pendant sale will go to SMA research. I believe this is the only pendant in this shop, JubilantWares, that is linked to SMA.
Her shop can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jubilantwares

There are many others out there! I would recommend spending some time on etsy to check things out!

Here are some links to other SMA themed shops:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/arimart?ref=seller_info
http://www.etsy.com/shop/oneblessedmommie?ref=seller_info

How to Make a Melted Record Bowl

In honor of my friend, Jenn, I am going to make today's post about making your own record bowl. The result of this project is super cute, and it's super cheap to make, considering you may already have old records.


The best website I have found to make these is called instrucables, and can be found at this link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Vinyl-Fruit-Bowl/

This video is also very helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOpAGZJmV0A (it's also annoying)

Enjoy!

Freedom for Youth, Freedom of Nailpolish

This April, I participated in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine at my friend's church. Designed to raise awareness of world hunger and to raise money to nourish the underfed, this event consists of not eating food or anything that contains calories for 30 hours. You can only drink water and fruit juice, and at the end of the 30 hours, you enjoy a wonderfully delicious feast. During those 30 hours, you spend time at the church listening to speakers, canvassing the neighborhoods for canned food, and passing out these collections to homeless camps or shelters. The weekend is always one I look forward to, but this year, those 30 hours lead me to an entire summer full of helping people out.



The speaker that came that night was from Freedom for Youth (http://freedomforyouth.org/), an organization that tries to "break bonds" with inner-city and homeless youth. They do so much and have so many different programs, that I am not going to take the time to explain. Please though, do visit their website.

I started volunteering there the beginning of the summer, and I absolutely love it. The program I am helping eith is for elementary aged children, and helps them with reading and writing skills. The kids are so much fun, and often hilarious. I started bringing my nailpolish the second week, and have brought it back ever since - the girls are addicted to it. Yesterday, one of the little girls got a little carried away and missed the nails of the volunteer she was painting - by a long shot. By the end of the painting episode, she had zebra stripes up and down her arms. And ya know, nailpolish is called nailpolish for a reason. It takes ages to get off of skin, probably because it's not supposed to go on there in the first place. Anyway, I promised this same little girl that she could paint my nails the next day (aka today) if she promised not to paint my skin.

This, my dear friends, is the result:

6 Harry Potter Films According to Someone Who Never Saw Them

So my friend posted this article to facebook called 6 Harry Potter Films According to Someone Who Never Saw Them. As you probably know by now, I am an avid Harry Potter fan, and I also happen to like funny things. Needless to say, I clicked.

SO FUNNY.

read: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harry-potter-films-according-to-someone-who-never-saw-them/

Harry Potter and the Deathly Accessible Seating

Two days after the release of the last Harry Potter movie, my wonderful friends and I finally made it to the theatre to see it. One of my friends has a broken metatarsal and because of her cast, is in a chair. Another one of my friends has a sprained (possibly broken) ankle and because of the extreme pain, is in a chair. My friend's boyfriend recently had surgery on his foot and because of his cast, is in a chair. Because of my crippling disease (say it with me... "duhhhhh-zeeeze"), I am in a chair.

I am guessing that the majority of you, not being in chairs, and not being all too bright, have never really noticed the accessible seating, or lack thereof, at a movie theatre. In my town, in a typical theatre, there are two spots for people in chairs. Two. Four of us were going to the theatre in chairs. Did this mean we would have to pile on top of each other? Massive orgy, perhaps? Sadly, no.

Thankfully, we had another friend with us that was perfectly capable on her own two feet, and was able to help my two friends and my friends boyfriend into a movie seat. She then proceeded to move the three chairs off to the side. And of course, because it was Harry Potter, the theatre was packed anyway, so we had to sit in the very very very front row.

Now. Harry Potter. You are wondering if I liked it. Well of course. It is, after all, Harry Potter, one of my dearest loves. However, I was slightly disappointed, as I am with every movie, because it does not follow the book. For example, Snape was never fully explained! And Harry's grand coming-back-to-life was nowhere near as glorious as in the book. Alas, it was still Harry Potter. And I do find myself slightly sad that there will be no more... :(

The question is, will J.K. Rowling write more books about Harry and Ginny's son, Albus Severus? Look here to find out! http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/ns/today-wild_about_harry/t/finished-potter-rowling-tells-what-happens-next/