Snow at last!

Yesterday we finally got snow! It's so beautiful. Well not quite as beautiful as home mind you but pretty at least. Seeing the snow in the garden makes me wish I was at home. I just miss those familliar things really. But as for the rest well there isn't much left to miss anymore.

When I was in Tbay I spent so much time at home in my room on my computer. I had no where to go and no one to go anywhere with. All my friends used to say they were too busy, but after living here for five months I know that that is just an excuse. I have met tons of people here and not once have they said they don't have time for me. Not only that they enjoy going out and trying new things. I was lucky if I could convince people to go to the movies at home. Here there isn't a week-end that goes by that I don't have some option for things to do. If only week days were as good.

As the day that I move into my apartment approaches I get more and more anxious. The idea of lying in bed at night staring at the ceiling in the deafening quiet of an empty apartment makes me sick to my stomach. I remember all too well how that felt when I lived in Whitby. I just didn't luck out in life. All my friends have had the fortune of being able to skip this part of life and move from their parents home into a place with their partner.

That is one thing in life that has never come easily to me while many of my friends have been spoiled rotten in this regard. None of them ever had to experience the difficulties of living on their own. I lived for four months in a basement apartment in an unfamilliar city completely isolated from everyone I knew. The place flooded twice, had the power cut off cause the landlord didn't pay the hydro bill (and this was in Winter) water would come out from underneath the bathtub when I flushed the toilet and I had an electrical problem the landlord couldn't fix which I ended up figuring out on my own.

I got sick three times while living there and the one time that was food poisoning was positively the worst. I had NO idea what was wrong and I was in so much pain. It lasted for 6 hours. I just lay in bed shivering no matter how many blankets on had on. I was so scared. It was then that it occured to me that I was really totally alone. I realized while lying on that bed that I could die right then and no one would know. It would be days if not weeks before anyone realized. If I really needed someone there was no one to call that could help. That IS the worst feeling in the world. I guess it was then that I became so angry inside that I had to go through any of this. All I wanted was to have the easy, cushy life of all the friends I left at home. It was then that horrible anger began and it has never left. To this day I still resent that I had to leave my home to find a job. I wanted to stay where I was. I wanted what they all had, a life, a job, love and my own place close to my family and my roots. To this day I still have not figured out why I don't deserve those things and they all do.

Everyone needs people in their life. Everyone needs to be loved and appreciated. That is all I'm seeking in this life. To be loved and to know that when I need it there is someone there to look to for help. Since I've been here I don't feel like I have any of that.

Last week-end we went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In the middle of the movie I looked around at the two rows of friends that I was with and I was so completely happy to be there with them all. There was nothing overly special about that moment other than that I was at this movie I had been so jazzed to see with a huge group of people I love hanging out with. It was a moment I didn't want to end. But as all good moments do it did end.

The movie itself was good if you just judged it as a movie but if you examine it as an adaptation then it was horrible. I totally ADORE the Harry Potter series and this movie was so inadequate on SO many levels.

Now I know that the book is quite lengthy making accuracy pretty much impossible but the problems I had with the movie all relate back to the screenplay. I think that Steve Kloves did a horrible job of adapting this book and Prisoner of Azkaban. His main problem is that his characterization of most of the characters are completely wrong. In the graveyard scene he completely omitted the portion of that scene in which Wormtail whines and cries like the huge coward he is after he has cut off his hand to restore Voldemort. His omission of this gave the wrong impression of Wormtail's character. Wormtail is the biggest COWARD in the entire series and he portrayed him as strong in this scene.

The other problem with characterization I had was with Dumbledore and Cedric. Dumbledore came off as panicky and unprepared in this movie and never in the entire series is he EVER unprepared or off purpose. He is always calm and collected even if everyone else around him is not. Dumbledore is far too wise and far too prepared to be shaken like he is portrayed in Goblet.

In the scene in which Cedric and Harry get to the cup in the maze Cedric attempts to push Harry down and out of the way. Cedric in the book was too noble to do such a thing. Part of what makes his death so tragic is because he was a 'do no harm' type of person. By putting that bit into the movie Steve Kloves completely maimed his character especially since he had very little scenes in which to establish the high morality Cedric possesses.

The one thing I did respect was the replacement of Dobby's role by Neville. I really love Neville's character and I thought that bit was a great use of him. IT allows us to get to know him better. However, the fate of his parents was not made obvious enough for those who hadn't read the book to notice. This is an important plot point that surfaces later in book 5.

What made me EXTREMELY angry was the ending. The ending of the book is similar to Empire Strikes back in the sense that it IS NOT a happy ending. Harry is left completely devestated by what happens and he doesn't even tell Ron and Hermione what happened that night in the graveyard. Steve Kloves wins the award for the lamest tie up in which Hermione says "Everything is going to change now isn't it?" to which Harry replies "Yes." That was the biggest diservice he could have done to the book. This ending was not meant to be tied up neat and clean. It is chaotic and confusing and scary. That is the nature of this story that Jo Rowling is attempting to tell. The idea isn't to think "LIFE IS Happy and perfect oh but occasionally someone dies...but hey that's ok because life goes on." That was complete BS!!!!

This movie was supposed to shake all the characters out of the whimsical and protected lives they had. Harry learns for the first time that sometimes the only person you have to depend on is yourself. That is NOT a happy or easy lesson to learn and here Steve Kloves has him smiling and cheerful at the end of the movie as if nothing of significance even happened!

By changing this ending not only did he massacre the story but he made the screenwriter's job for Order of the Phoenix that much harder. He has set it up so that he will have to cover a hell of a lot more to get things to where they should be at the start of Order.

I can understand the omissions of Dobby, Winky and Bagman. They were dispensible characters. However the inclusion of Rita Skeeter was pretty much pointless. All the things that made her great were removed to the point where she pretty much had just a cameo. Without the side story of how she overhears everyone's conversations and Hermione's blackmail you could have left her out because her character was completely diffused anyway.

Sadly I don't hold out much hope for Half-Blood prince being a very good movie knowing that Kloves plans to return to write the screenplay. Everything we love about this book is certainly going to go down the tubes.