Back From Exploring

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Fifteen years after drawing this strip, Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson, stepped out from his low-key profile and was interviewed (via email) for a Cleveland-based paper.

“By the end of 10 years, I’d said pretty much everything I had come there to say…If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now ‘grieving’ for “Calvin and Hobbes” would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine,” Watterson said.

I love Calvin and Hobbes, but I do understand where he’s coming from. More of the same would have made this comic less special than it is.

“The only part I understand is what went into the creation of the strip. What readers take away from it is up to them. Once the strip is published, readers bring their own experiences to it, and the work takes on a life of its own,” Watterson said.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

The Sheikh From the Land Of Meknes

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First Official Trailer - HPHBP

Watch or download the new trailer of the sixth movie in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, came out on the 29th and it doesn’t really show much.

We get our first glimpse of little Tom Riddle, the troubled boy who later becomes the darkest wizard there ever was. That is all that is in the trailer, but that is a good thing! Maybe the next trailers will reveal more about the other important parts in the book.

I can’t wait to see it! Kuwait will be cutting parts of the movie so I won’t be seeing it when it first comes out. Is traveling to another country to watch the movie too crazy? What are the nearest countries that don’t censor movies?

My Try At Fiction

Muneera throws back her head and laughs hysterically as she prepares to describe her eventful summer of 2005.

Muneera, 22, calls the summer of 2005 one of her most favorite so far. She had come to the United States to visit a friend in Los Angeles to spend four weeks of fun and excitement. Seeing celebrities, shopping compulsively, and almost getting food poisoning are just some of the highlights of Muneera’s four weeks in LA. Not to mention, driving the chaotic streets of LA when she’s had absolutely no experience driving in America.

“We were as sick as you can get and enjoyed almost every minute of it.” Jumana, the friend Muneera was visiting, thought she would take her guest to a famous restaurant on her first night in the city. Killer Shrimp is a restaurant that has only one thing on the menu: shrimp. “We spent maybe two and a half hours stuffing our selves with these amazing shrimps! Only when we started to feel the rumble did we realize that we probably had enough.” No sooner did they get back to Jumana’s apartment when everything went “out of control.” They took turns heading for the bathroom and when both happened to be on the couches at the same time, they laughed at each other and made fun of how bad the other looks. “I remember one of the things she said to me was that I looked like my high school junior year yearbook picture! I laughed so hard, I had to head back to the bathroom.”

Seeing Keanu Reeves and Amanda Bynes was definitely a highlight of her visit. They were on their way to Cheesecake Factory to have some cheesecake, when on the sidewalk all dressed in black, signature stubble, and messy hair comes Keanu Reeves towards them. “Thank God we were in the car or else we would have died of embarrassment from all that screaming.” They even thought about going to the restaurant they saw him eventually go into but then decided that that was too desperate of them.

A week later, during the shopping hours of their day, they saw a very “modest-looking and humble” Amanda Bynes in Saks Fifth Avenue. Surprisingly, their reaction to seeing her was very different than it was for Keanu Reeves. “We were at the makeup stall that was right next to the one she was at but just pretended she wasn’t there. I guess not all celebrities are screamable.” However, later on they figured that if they were in the privacy of the car, they would have screamed anyway.

At one point during the visit, after Jumana had complained a few times that driving in LA was a pain, Muneera offered to take the wheel for a day. “Big mistake. A thrilling experience for both of us, it was.” Near misses at intersections, tailgating, and zigzagging through traffic are the only things Muneera is willing to be known. “It was great fun screaming every two minutes,” she says. “I did a lot of screaming in those four weeks.”

It was really memorable, and the girls enjoyed it immensely. They even made plans of Muneera visiting again next summer. Even though all the shopping caused a bit of a problem in the luggage check-in at the airport on the way back home, Muneera will never forget eating “a million” shrimp, seeing a couple of celebrities, and enjoying a nice anarchic drive in the streets of LA. “I don’t know what other obnoxious things there are left to do for next summer. We did mention driving over to Las Vegas though.” And with a smile she says, “I’m guessing that place has lots of potential.”

No, But I Saw the Movie

I HATE it when I get this response when I ask someone if they’ve read a certain book. Don’t people know that not everything in a book could fit into a 120 minute feature film? Take any of the last couple of Harry Potter books, if everything from the book was filmed then the movies would be at least six hours long! And all fans can back me up in saying that people who “just watch the movie” are seriously missing out on some quality story telling!

People also don’t know that the movies don’t always follow the novels as they are. For instance in the novel, Forrest Gump there’s no continuous running from sea to sea, his mom doesn’t die or have sleep with a school principle, Forrest goes to a special school and didn’t even have leg braces. Not to mention the COUNTLESS other accidental adventures he has with his companions. There is a monkey who is one of the main characters; it also goes to space with him.

Sometimes I watch movies and not even know they were based on novels. Whenever I like a movie after watching it, I always go online and check out trivia and other facts about it and I get excited if it mentions a novel!

Books I’m really looking forward to reading:
1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - I love the movie adaptation.
2. Corelli’s Mandolin - I read an excerpt for my high school English class, it is an intense and highly graphic war novel.
3. Brokeback Mountain (short story) - It;s one of my favorite movies of all time.
4. Frank Miller’s Sin City (comic book series) - The movie was moving art.

Come on people! It seems like no one like books anymore! Reading is cool! Yay for books!

[nerd smiley]

End of Story

Well, I’m done.

There’s a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. It happens every time I think about the last scene of the book. Naturally, I was also expecting this feeling because there won’t be another book. Harry and his crew’s story ends and there’s nothing more that can happen. That’s what J.K. Rowling has been saying from the very begining.

This one was different than the others. The others had the story lightly go along the school year at Hogwarts and then near the end all the action happens and then everyone goes home for the summer until school starts (or the next book comes). This one had action on every single one of it’s 759 pages.

Also as expected, there were sad parts (I actually shed a tear for the first time :|) and good parts. Mostly sad though. I won’t say what feeling is associated with the ending though.

Finally, I would like to say that I’m honored to have been a diehard fan ever since the begining as a young teenager (the perfect age to have started). This must be what teenagers felt like when they were part of the phenomenon that were the Beatles.

I think I’m going to write a letter to Rowling to thank her (corny but I don’t care).

I will never forget this great ride. I’m sorry for those who missed it.

Temporarily Offline.. For Important Reasons

“Within hours you will know what happens to Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest in their final adventure. All the secrets I have been carrying around for so long will be yours, too, and those who guessed correctly will be vindicated, and those who guessed wrongly will not, I hope, be too disappointed! As for me, I feel a heady mixture of excitement, nerves and relief. ‘Deathly Hallows’ remains my favourite of the series, even after several re-reads; I cannot wait to share it with the readers who have stuck with me through six previous books.”

And with these words from Lady Rowling herself, I shall bid you farewell.

I can’t risk any horrible spoilers from any form of media so I will be offline and out of touch until I finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Adios!