I have been a Harry Potter fan for years now but sadly, I don’t have many HP friends that live near me. I have great friends, but they don’t understand what Harry Potter means to me. It’s hard to describe to them that I have a deep connection to the books because I have felt alone, as many of us, I’m sure have felt. I have this whole world that I can turn to when I don’t feel good about myself or my day or whatever.
Even though I am a fan, I didn’t feel like I was truly fitting in. Not until I found the HPA. I can’t describe in words how much the Harry Potter Alliance means to me. My only regret is not joining in sooner. Volunteering is the only thing I feel like I am good at sometimes. Helping others gives me this purpose in life and makes me feel like I can actually accomplish my goals and the goals set upon us by the HPA and our communities.
It may sound cheesy or weird but the HPA has given me new life. I have something to look forward to everyday. I have new friends that understand why Harry Potter is so important. I wake up with the feeling of what am I doing for HPA today? The Harry Potter Alliance makes me want to go out and help my community so much more. I am already helping at my church, but now I want to do more. I want to share the message of the HPA with all my non-HP friends. I want to shout about it from the lighthouse in my town (I live in a seatown, it’s the highest point I could think of).
Recently, I’ve been reading all the blogs and comments posted here on the NING. I am so proud to be a part of this community. Reading some of the blogs are so inspirational. You all are so involved and passionate and it makes me really love what I am doing that much more.
So thank you for caring and writing and donating and volunteering. Please don’t ever stop.
We all know the choices we make matter. They have consequences, whether soon or in the distant future. We don’t always know what the right choices are, and sometimes we know but it’s too hard to make them. Either we are too shy, or too scared, or too uncertain. Sometimes the timing just isn’t right. Most choices aren’t really that important, but sometimes they are.
Ron and Hermione clearly had a thing for each other fairly soon after meeting. But they kept silent about it, awkwardly dancing around the topic, denying it, pretending it didn’t exist. They were too shy, or not yet ready, to confront how they felt. I had a similar experience in my teen days that I want to share with you. In my case, I acted more like Ron and he more like Hermione, but for simplicity, I’ll call him my Ron.
We met in band in junior high. I was 13, he was 14 (a year ahead), and we both played trombone. I quickly got a big crush on him. He was cute, smart, talented, nice, and had a quirky sense of humour like me. We quickly became friends. I drew little hearts with our initials in my school notebook and made sure he didn’t see. It was painfully obvious to everyone else that we both liked each other, but being young, we weren’t so certain, and said nothing. This definitely lead to some awkward moments, but we had good times too. I took him to my junior high prom. Even then, we never said anything. I remember one New Year’s Eve, I was trying to convince myself to stop being so shy and finally talk to him. It was New Years, I could even probably get a kiss out of it. But I didn’t. I was still too shy. I wasn’t ready yet. Read the rest of this entry »
In Aug. 2000, a graphic designer from San Francisco known as SomeGuy decided that he wanted to connect the world with creativity. So he got together 1000 blank journals and launched them into the world. He left some in random places around the city, mailed some to people and had a website where people could sign up to get one.
The idea was that these journals would be filled by people all around the world. You could write, draw, create, whatever you wanted, on the pages of these journals. These journals travelled all over the world - Asia, Europe, Australia, seriously all over. Some made it back to SomeGuy, some got lost, some are still with certain people around the world. The connections, in many cases led to friendships, business partnerships and even marriage.
The point of this experiment was that people were connected and were able to in some way, creatively express themselves. The project got so big that a documentary was made and now many of the journals are on display in San Francisco museums. The project became so popular that journals were filled in no time and the project actually expanded to 1001 Journals.
There are over 3000 journals in the world today that are connecting people all over. In the expanded project, 1001 Journals, people can actually add their own personal journal. There are then two options - they can keep it amongst their social/community group or can send it out into the world as a travelling journal and see how many people they can connect to. Once the journal is filled, it would come back to the orignal journal owner (hopefully) and would be scanned into a computer so the creations can be shared with everyone.
I think the members of HPA could really get into this. This would be a great way for people to connect with other HPA people as well as fans and strangers alike across the country or even the world. It would really help spread the message that the Harry Potter Alliance is trying to convey as well as bring all the Harry Potter fans and even non HP fans closer together.
You can gather more info and check out the scanned pictures of the journals at www.1000journals.com and http://www.1001journals.com/.
Feel free to leave any comments you may have or email me at emeline@thehpalliance.org.
There’s a video going around today, and it’s one I think Harry would be proud of: a 13-year-old from Udall Road Middle School in West Islip, NY, is making an online stand against bullying. He made this video to show at his PTA meeting and was told it was too graphic. So he put it online.
We’re not talking about a shove in the hallway or some light freshman hazing: reports say this kid has been hit by a rock from school bullies. This is an often-overlooked ill, and I for one think this video shows that this child is more courageous than all those who pick on him put together. If his courage could manifest in muscles, they would be too frightened to go near him. Dumbledore’s Army supports you, Patrick Kohlmann.
“they saw Viktor Krum…(as he) dived, right into the lake…’..there’s still the giant squid,’ said Ron. He didn’t sound anxious–if any thing, he sounded hopeful” (Goblet of Fire 444).
Then again, post-snogging with Hermione in the middle of the Battle of Hogwarts/marrying her and having Hugo and Rose, I imagine Krum is no longer so much as a threat as he once seemed. But I digress. Turns out that a real world giant squid has been found to have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Yep. Eleven inches makes for quite a giant eye. And 26 feet long, weighing over 1,000 pounds makes for quite a giant squid.
