Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in nimbus1944's LiveJournal:

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Friday, June 17th, 2011
10:14 am	The Potterverse Gets Pottermore She's Baaack What, you haven't had enough Potter? Awaiting movie 7 and 3/4, but it'll be an anticlimax for you? Enthusiasm waning? Can't wait years until the HP Encyclopedia comes out? Cheer up, says the boss lady. There's more coming...in days, not years. Pottermore.com arrives next week. The scuttlebutt says it might be backstories on the various characters. What A Hoot! JKR's avatar in the latest advertising campaign is a perched owl. Excellent choice! I agree wholeheartedly! JKR avatar de jour Blah, Blah, Blog Meanwhile, I just copied this blog all the way back to day one and pasted it in word processing to do an archive. It came to 327 pages. No wonder I'm blogged out. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
11:37 pm	Odo: Oh, Good Grief... Gee, I turn my back for a year and look what happens. Just ran across an unusual discussion on Harry Potter Wiki. They found what they believe is the REAL ACTUAL ODO THE HERO SONG, COMPLETE, ONLINE!! How do they know it's the real one? Because the last four lines are exactly what JKR had in her book! Wow! It must be real! Um... First off, the song in question is very familiar. It begins -- Now gather 'round, fellows, let's sing us the saga Of Odo the hero, born one happy day — His father from Giggleswick, in all its glory; His mother from Wigglesworth, farther away. Um... yeah, it's mine, from Fanfiction.net. As the disclaim statement suggests, only the last lines are JKR's; the rest are pure fanfilk... just like the other dozen or so Odo poems by other folk in FF.n's Odo The Hero Community. There's also a painful discussion about whether it's fanon or not. Read it and groan: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Odo_the_Hero . (Comment on this)
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
8:59 pm	Back In The Saddle Again Sorry, my owl's been ill. Or rather, the computer equivalent of my owl's been... confused. 1. The DVD drive is vertically mounted - one of the great engineering mistakes of all time. Under strain, it finally decided to jam in the open position. 2. The resident copy of AOL9.0 developed a glitch. Sooo, I couldn't get online to get a fresh copy of AOL, and I couldn't load it from disc either. Sooo,I dug up an old computer that wasn't being used for some specialty around the house -- weather, record keeping, radio, etc. It turned out to be an old Packard Bell running AOL6.0 and Windows 95-- life in the slow lane! And that's what I've been using until I get time to straighten out the other contraption. The two most frightening things on returning here to the blog: 1. Bagge hasn't posted to FanFiction in over a year. Hope all is well! 2. I have a long and overdue list of new readers to add to the thank-you list on the FanFiction home page. Until I get to it, thanks to all. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
8:47 am	Fanfic and Fact Six years ago, in Still Life With Flowers: Ron approached Hermione, gazing longingly into her eyes. Hermione remained expressionless, and said nothing. Being petrified will do that to you. Each day he visited her in the infirmary, Ron always chose to sit on the left side of the bed, where Hermione's eyes looked straight at him. Ron was joined momentarily by Madam Pomfrey, making her rounds. Though this patient made no demands on her time, Pomfrey had one duty: eye drops, four times daily. The soothing wash was needed to keep Hermione's wide-open eyes moist. Pomfrey was gentle but adamant. "I tell you, Mr. Weasley, there's just no point in talking to a petrified person! But, if it makes you feel better...." She padded away to treat the other paralysed victims. Ron waited until Pomfrey had done her work and left the ward; even then, he whispered his words. "Hi, Hermione. Harry will be along in a few minutes. Sorry we couldn't come last night. It's my own fault; I've been having trouble falling asleep at night. Yesterday, I nodded off in McGonagall's class again... third day in a row. McGonagall had to do something, and she gave me detention. So I was polishing trophies again last night. You remember me telling you what a joy that is, huh?" Ron's whispers just barely reached her ears. Did it matter? If Pomfrey was right, Hermione's heart and life were poised in mid-beat. Her brain would have no activity until the antidote was applied, and she could not possibly see or hear what was going on. Pomfrey, for once, was not exactly correct. It's all right, Ron, thought Hermione. I understand. I only wish you could hear me. Yesterday, in the news: A man who literally spent half his life in a coma after a car accident - but was actually conscious - has spoken out about the 23 years he was ``screaming'' to doctors and those around him. Rom Houben, 46, was left paralyzed after a 1983 accident, but told the U.K. 's Daily Mail that he ``dreamed himself away.'' Doctors had said he was in a vegetative state based on testing through the Glasgow Coma Scale, the paper reported, but was repeatedly received incorrect grading through that system. New tests from the University of Liege in Belgium - which has a dedicated team of coma experts - determined he was fully paralyzed, but completely aware of his surroundings, the paper said. (- from a Canwest News Service story, 23 Nov.) Now, there's a nice happy outcome for Thanksgiving. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
9:50 am	Misc. & Etc. Big Toot and Little Toot As a kid, did you ever make the tugging motion to encourage a passing train or firetruck to toot the horn? I'm reminded of that by the scene in Close Encounters where the keyboard man's music is first answered by the mother ship. Here's a YouTube clip of a gent who has a ship's horn mounted on his Mazda truck. He's answered by the real thing, the liner Maasdam. I'd have to think the ship was considerably louder than the truck in real life. Actually, he has more than one horn on that truck; see the photo at the bottom of the page here. Nice! Hope he has a humungous battery and alternator. More "Didn't We Work Together Once?" At least four Potter stars turn up in The Boat that Rocked (retitled Pirate Radio in American theatres): - Bill Nighy (Rufus) as Quentin - Kenneth Branagh (Gilroy) as Sir Alistair Dormandy - Rhys Ifanms (Xeno) as Gavin - Emma Thompson (Sybill) as Charlotte Bill's biggest role, under heavy computerized makeup, was Davy Jones of Pirates of the Caribbean. More Good Internet Signatures The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket? Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run! Death hates that! Life is too short for drama & petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, Love truly and forgive quickly. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
10:43 am	Wide-Awake Aviation Okay, so the approach lights to the runway weren't lit. And yeah, the navigation equipment was also down. Still, at a big major airport on a clear night, there are little clues to what's a runway and what's a taxiway. The runway has these big numbers at the ends, y'see, and some lines to line up on in case you're not an instrument-equipped airplane, and all these bright white lights to see the path and judge your angle of approach. The taxiway has these little blue lights, and occasionally some taxiing airplanes and ground vehicles, and not much else. So, when you're a Delta Airlines pilot and you land a full-sized passenger jet on the taxiway at Atlanta, expect a few questions… and a suspended pilot's license… while they figure out what you were thinking. Similar questions, suspensions, etc. are to be expected when another crew totally ignores its radio for about an hour while approaching Minneapolis, then not landing at Minneapolis, and in fact continuing for 150 miles beyond Minnapolis. Basically, the plane could be tracked on radar, but they hadn't switched the voice radio to the enroute channel. Whoops. The world is shouting at them, and worrying if they've been hijacked, and preparing to scramble fighter jets after them, and they're in blissful ignorance of it all. The flight attendants finaaly get their attention. About then, someone on the ground finally gets the brilliant idea to use the last channel they used -- and they got a response, but sort of a woozy non-explanatory response. The controllers put them through a looping path to see if a real pilot is still in control, and that seems to work, so they send them back to Minneapolis, where they land okay. Okay, it was a long flight from San Diego, but... (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
1:28 pm	A Mere 53, a Paltry 91 It wasn't easy dreaming up 52 Harry Potter fanfics and a Peter Pan. For shear numbers, though, my "product" to date pales by comparison with that of some very prolific writers. One that's been mentioned here before is fellow Odo poet BAGGE, who has cranked out a lot of quality stuff -- 1 each: Book of Amber, His Dark Materials, Misc. Books; 16 Xena Warrior Princess, and 72 Harry Potter! Total: 91. Impressive! But then, the other day I had a review from Silver Sailor Ganymede, and visiting her page, I found she's somehow found the time to write -- 1 each: Avatar, Doctor Who, Haruhi Suzumiya series, Hellsing, Hellsing/Twilight crossover, Lord of the Rings, Loveless, Twilight, Shakespeare, Yami no Matsuei; 2 each: Death Note, Demon Diary, Misc. Books, Pretty Guardian Sailormoon, Soul Calibur, Young Ones; 3 each: Gokusen, Gravitation, Darren Shan Saga/Cirque Du Freak, Mean Girls, Misc. Anime/Manga; 5 each: Fruits Basket, Pokemon, Fullmetal Alchemist; 6 each: Greek Mythology, Sailor Moon X-overs, X-Day; 10 Tokyo Mew Mew; 21 Yu-Gi-Oh; 41 Naruto; 69 Azumanga Daioh, and 102 Harry Potter! ..oh, and 130 Sailor Moon! Thus, her grand total to date: 434 fanfics. Assuredly, I'm not going to be catching up to this author any time soon... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
9:35 pm	The End 23 October 4004 BC was a momentous occasion. Overnight, the universe was created. 23 October was "morning and evening of the first day"… or so calculated James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh. Today, he is generally recognized as a man on a foolish mission. If he had predicted the date of the end of the world, no one would accept it for a minute. Actually, it would seem, he wasn't too far off. According to today's accepted experts, the universe began on 13 August 3114 BC. Aren't you glad that's settled? No? You think that's a mistake? You think the "experts" must be students of Bishop Ussher? Nope. We pay attention to these "experts" because they're quoting the Mayan calendar maker. Its last date is 21 Dec 2012, therefore, that's all. folks. The world ends that day… they say. But what if the Mayan calendar doesn't end in 2012 because the guy carving the calendar knew something? I say it ended because he stepped out the door to have a smoke, forgetting that he was at the top of one of those stone temple pyramids. He bounced down all 91 steps before stopping, alas, and that was the end of the calendar project. The whole 2012 thing is an insidious marketing plot to sell us survival rations, Swiss Army knives and wind-power generators, who were probably Merovingian Illuminati globalist radical extremist Templar time terrorists… the same folks who sold us computer insurance, tinfoil hats and canned food for Y2K. There have been predictions for over 200 end dates, based on the Bible and Nostradamus and Cayce; see www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm . Then there are those other guys, the ones who say the universe began 13 to 15 billion years ago with the Big Bang. Thinking equally big about the end of time, they think we should be around for billions of years more before our galaxy falls into a black hole. Billions of years is a good thing. I like this prediction. Or, CERN will accelerate us to atoms, or an asteroid smashes into the Earth, or Yellowstone Caldera blows us all to kingdom come. Hey, whatever. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
8:41 am	Sailing Into The Record Books Mike Perham's very battered sailboat, the TotallyMoney.com, has crossed his starting point, welcomed by the Royal Navy and a flotilla of newsfolk. He's now the youngest sailor to have completed a circumnavigation, and just in time to make that record (he's two months younger than his predecessor). Bravo! Meanwhile, there's other would-be round-the-world record-breakers in the wings: a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old — both girls. I look at Mike's blog and feel assured he knows that boat and all its parts, and can keep it upright and afloat with troubles galore in mid-ocean conditions. Could he have done it at age 13? Yes, girls can be as strong, dexterous, knowledgeable, experienced and ambitious as Mike; young ladies crew on full-sized sailing vessels. Do these girls have it, and will the parents exhibit the same care and caution? Jessica, at 16, perhaps... Laura, at 13?? (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
11:38 am	Alguma Pergunta? A pleasant and unusual offer came my way a few days ago. Thais, who writes fanfic from Brazil as Rika Icemaiden, inquired about translating one of my fanfics, Any Questions?, into Portuguese! Feeling humbly honored, I agreed, and the result is already posted on her Fanfiction.net page. Thanks very much, Thais, for going to so much trouble. This story centers on Ron, performing his prefect duty by conducting a Firstie orientation in the Gryffindor Common Room, answering their questions with the typical bluntness JKR gives him ... except now he's doing it in Portuguese! - Senhor, a Floresta Negra é realmente assustadora? - Depende. - De quê? - Se as criaturas matarem antes de comerem vocês. Eu quero dizer, se elas matarem vocês imediatamente, então nada vai incomodar vocês depois disso. Mas ser comido vivo é provavelmente assustador, sim. Sabem, uma vez que elas começarem a te comer, vocês meio que querem que elas acabem de uma vez com vocês – vocês não gostariam de serem resgatados com três quartos comidos, gostariam? - Entendi a ideia, obrigado. - Especialmente se for um grupo de aranhas gigantes e elas estiverem tirando tacos de vocês, e... - Senhor? Acabamos de comer. - Oh. Sim. Próxima pergunta? Run that through your favorite Babelfish! (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
6:09 am	Totally Mike Back in Jan. 2007, we were following a 14-year-old, Mike Perham, as he sailed across the Atlantic from England to the Caribbean. Another vessel went along for safety's sake, but not intruding on Mike's accomplishment: the youngest sailor to make the crossing solo. Well, Mike's almost halfway across the Atlantic again, but not on a mere transoceanic journey this time. It's the last step as he finishes a hard-fought solo sail around the world, despite endless mechanical problems and meteorological vagaries. He will be the youngest to circle the globe alone, and not with the safety net of a backup vessel to rescue him; any trouble needing repair meant a side trip to a safe harbor. His vessel is called the TotallyMoney.Com, a name which at first sounds a bit greedy, but that's actually the name of his main sponsor, a website covering all facets of investment and profit in the market. His trip seeks to raise money for charity. Thanks to modern satellites, Mike's had good communications with home along the way, which always helps, and he's posted stories and photos to his blog, http://www.totallymoney.com/sailmike/ . His map tracker: http://admin.octracker.net/data/GMap.aspx?e=fd4a33e3-837d-410e-8585-3dcb6baf9b6e . (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
7:58 pm	Life Imitates Art Recent oblique view of Victoria crater, Mars (NASA) Recent oblique view of Reese's peanut butter cup, Earth (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
5:14 pm	Get A Job, Daisy Yeah, Daisy's only 12, but it's time. The baby bird's being kicked out of the nest, and none too soon. It's okay, though. Daisy is fictional, the center character of my first try at writing a novel at young-adult level, which is pretty much the same audience reading HP fanfic. The text has been reviewed, repaired and rewritten over and over for several years, and has passed muster by actually being read by two others, who were satisfied with it. So, the first step: sending a concept letter to a literary agent. The letter went out today. IF they like the idea,they'll ask for a synopsis, or sample chapters, or eventually the whole thing. Assuming they still like it, they'll deal with the enormous task of trying to find a publisher. The agent doesn't get a penny from the author; when a publisher buys into it, the agent's cut is part of the deal. Of course, the agent may reject the idea without ever reading the book, before a publisher does. (There's a website with a guide to finding an agent. The suggestions on writing that first one-page letter fill over 70 pages!) Jo Rowling's website biography recalls this painful part of a budding author's career: "I covered the first three chapters in a nice plastic folder and set them off to an agent, who returned them so fast they must have been sent back the same day they arrived. But the second agent I tried wrote back and asked to see the rest of the manuscript. It was far and away the best letter I had ever received in my life, and it was only two sentences long. "It took a year for my new agent, Christopher, to find a publisher. Lots of them turned it down." By actual count, Philosopher's Stone got nine rejctions. She was lucky. As Inkygirl reminds us, M*A*S*H got 17 bounces, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull got 140. Agents and publishers are overloaded with would-be books to the point where (a) the concept may be rejected without the agent ever seeing a chapter, and (b)some don't even send a rejection slip, let alone return a manuscript. At least the agent I'm approaching has the decency to send a rejection by e-mail. Whatever. I have a binder ready for all correspondence on the book, good or bad. Bye, Daisy. Write if you get work. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
1:21 pm	Finally In one busy week -- Finally, HBP emerges on CD and the silver screen. Finally, the term "fan fiction" is accepted in Webster's Dictionary. And finally, a glimmer of hope that John Williams may return to score the last movie. Woohoo! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
4:26 pm	Progress on the State of Nature Preservation on Hunga Ha'apai Thousands of bird species in Oceania are extinct since mankind came to count them and decimate them. Fortunately, for the surviving varieties, there are islands of preservation -- literally. Once the average Pacific island has been visited by large ships, the avian population suffers from rat infestation. Why do the ships come? The obvious reasons: tourism, trade, and the mining of huge untouched fields of guano. Those problems have escaped Hunga Ha'apai, in the Kingdom of Tonga, which is left to the birds. Hunga Ha'apai is home to the Friendly Ground-Dove, (Gallicolumba stairii), called the Tu in Polynesian. As the Tongan Wildlife Centre reports, the Tu "clearly suffers from forest destruction, hunting and predation by introduced cats. The birds are very tame and confident and are easy prey for cats and humans. Its future in Tonga depends on the protection of islands such as Fonualei, Late, Hunga Ha'apai and Hunga Tonga." The Pacific Pigeon (Ducula pacifica), called the Lupe, does not need to be isolated from people; they coexist well. However, it needs heavily forested surroundings, which Hunga Ha'apai supplies well. The Spotless Crane (Porzana tabuensis), called the Moro, may be totallly extinct in Tonga. It is a shy creature of the wetlands; if it can be found in the tall grasses of Hunga Ha'apai's swamps and marshes, that may be the only stand of the Moro. So, with this peaceful avian paradise in the Pacific, the outlook is excellent for the preserv.... ah... Excuse me a moment, I have a voice in my earpiece. Yes?.... Say that again?.... Really?..... Oh. Well, that's rather bad luck for the Moro, then, eh? Ladies and gentlemen, disregard my report. Mother Nature has seen to it that Hunga Ha'apai's status has somewhat... er, changed. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
7:58 pm	Almost There, Almost There.. Angels and Demons has grossed $400 million worldwide. One more good week and it'll break into the Top 100 All-Time Box Office list. Then, next month, we get to see how the Half-Blood Prince will fare in that same race. Does Harry have more loyal fans now, or less? HP6's predecessors, in order of filming, are #5, #14, #21, #12 and #7 in all-time money. The list: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/?pagenum=1&p=.htm Speaking of passing 400,000, so has another HP statistic: over 403,000 fanfics posted in the "Pit of Voles," fanfiction.net. That half-million milestone is coming! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
7:05 am	The Passing Parade Passing thought After forty years of manned space missions, when high-definition TV and flawless data streams are received from the International Sapce Station and other spacecraft, how come the audio still sounds like the astronauts are using two tin cans and a string? HP fandom's influence? In the US, the most popular name given to baby girls is now Emma... ¡Ai, caramba! After 162 years, US postage stamps have finally come down to this: “It’s an incredible honor,” says Simpsons creator Matt Groening. “I honestly can’t believe it. I thought the Pillsbury Doughboy would come before us.” James l. Brooks, the producer, agrees. "We are emotionally moved by the Postal Service selecting us rather than making the lazy choice of someone who has benefited society." (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
9:30 am	Hi Ho, Hi Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me Chaucer said April was the cruelest month. May, though, is not turning out so well for some hapless criminals. It's easy, y'see. You get some fast boats, a "mother ship" to serve as a refueling station, and a dozen or so of your fellow Somalis who happen to have AK-47s, and you become a pirate. Arrr! Well, okay, it's not always easy. 11 would-be pirates took a run at a ship in international waters. It turned out to be a French military vessel. 8 were taken into custody and 3 were released. Those 3 lasted one day before they were caught again by another patrol vessel. Let's face it, some guys just can't get the hang of it. Being a criminal isn't as easy as it looks on TV. In Cleveland, Ohio, one gent went out in a parking lot (that's a car park to some of you) and began peddling drugs. It should have been an easy job, but he didn't last long. Maybe he shouldn't have chosen the parking lot of a police station, y'think? In Ottawa, firefighters had a rough night as arson fires broke out in three spots around the city. How in the world would they ever catch the villain? As it turned out, they didn't have to look too hard for him. A likely suspect turned up the next day... at a hospital... with third degree burns over mostly all of his body. Good thing he wasn't building bombs. Mugging is getting tougher these days, too. In Cambodia, a few guys decided to hit an easy mark, a British tourist girl. Bad luck, mates; they picked Princess Eugenie, who has an official set of bodyguards with her. The snatched purse was quickly recovered and the princess was hustled away, unhsrmed. Now, the muggers in Quartz Hill, California should have had better luck; no princesses, therefore no bodyguards, so they attacked a 17-year-old girl. Bad choice. She scratched; she kicked them in painful places; then, she took out her instrument from band practice. Big deal, huh. What's she going to say? "Stay back, I've got a flute, and I'm not afraid to use it!" Not exactly. This is America, where one tradition of the schools is the marching band. The girl happened to be the drum majorette, who leads the march with this huge meter-long baton, y'see, and she proceeded to beat the bejabbers out of them. Rough life, criminality. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
1:35 pm	Sic 'em, Fluffy! Lost any money in the stock market lately? Get your revenge! Well, vicariously, anyway. Let your dog do it. Yep, it's the Greedy Stockbroker chew toy. You'll have hours of enjoyment as your dog mauls your mini money-mismanager! Now, maybe a stockbroker is not your problem. How about a politician? Jihadist? Governor? Petty dictator? The nice man who ticketed your car? Take your pick here. For those who don't have a dog, there's voodoo dolls. Bloomberg news reports that President Sarkozy sued about his doll (20,000 sold in one day in Paris). The ruling was split; he was awarded a massive 1 euro in damages, and all future dolls must have a prominent warning that it's "an affront to dignity" to stick pins in it. After Sarkozy pays his attorney's fee, can he get an attorney voodoo doll and offend his dignity? (Comment on this)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
8:15 am	(Yawn) Is It Spring yet? Easter afternoon was a chilly 42°F (5.5°C). Doggone global warming. At the annual season of resurrection and rebirth — and the reclaiming of a vessel and crew feared lost to pirates — we roll out another new fanfic, In Lieu Of Flowers, on the return of the kidnapped wizards of the war with Voldemort. This fanfic is my #53 to be tossed in the fanfiction.net swamp, which seems like quite a lot at first glance. Then I look at the home page for fellow scribe BAGGE, who posted #91 in January! Not too long to wait before HBP is on the screen. Meanwhile, many of the "kids" in the cast have been busy with moviemaking. Robert Pattinson has profited from his Cedric role with 5 more movies, including Twilight I and II; Natalia Tena and Rupert have two more; one more apiece for Dan, Tom and Devon, a TV episode for Katie and a voice-over for Emma. However, the overlooked Bonnie and Evanna are still sitting by the phone, waiting for that casting call... Hmmm! The new fanfic's already garnered its first review. Yep, Spring is here. Gotta go. (Comment on this)