I'm not very good at keeping a journal, I don't think, especially during the summer and especially when everyone's making a fuss about prefectly things and when there's a new expansion for WoW and a new expansion for tOR. Those have kind of kept me busy. But I've been reading a little, just not writing, largely because I have nothing to write about.

But now I do! I think that this school year is going to be absolutely brilliant! It'll be different, sure, but different isn't always bad. Except when different means your class gets nerfed, then it's bad. BUT I think these will be good differences, not nerfing differences.

I also think that Ravenclaw got the best of the best when it came to Sorting, but I'm biased.

( Private )

mood: determined

Oh my gosh.

Me?

Prefect?

This is absolutely brilliant. Mum and Dad are doing an Ewok dance right now, out of sheer excitement.

mood: accomplished

I wonder, which are wiser and better (out of pointy-eared people groups): Tolkien's Elves or the Vulcan?

mood: contemplative

Look what I've found!

It's been a long time since I last wrote, hasn't it, but a lot has happened since that time. I've decided that Star Wars weekends are, by far, the best thing in the world: when we went this year, I managed to master Jar'Kai against this older pudgy fellow. He was pretty quick, for someone who looked more like a Hutt than the Trandoshan he claimed to be, but it was fun, and Dad got all teary-eyed and proud and such. Then on the last night, there were fireworks and I met a really delightful Muggle boy who is going to be my penpal (since he lives in America).

Star Wars really does make everything seem much simpler, but I'm also still looking forward to Potter Day.

mood: okay

I should probably write my journal essay, but this month, I kind of don't feel like it, and I can't really decide what was my first memory anyway. Maybe it was going to a Star Wars weekend. I don't know. I think that there are enough entries with school ending, though, and also that there are more important things than thinking about your first memory (I don't mean any offense, Headmistress, but it does seem kind of peripheral in relation to everything else that's been happening).

I kind of want this year to be over.

mood: tired

Dances are stupid. Nobody in Lord of the Rings or Star Wars ever had a dance. They just danced spontaneously and only in celebration of something. They didn't plan dances and talk about going to them. That is why dances are stupid and I am not going. Because I'm not even like Eowyn who at least got Faramir. I'm like Eowyn's third cousin who nobody even talks about because she's not pretty eno

mood: sad

( Warded to Corrie )

( Warded to Lorcan & Lysander )

I wonder if real people become Force ghosts. I think that they do.

mood: sad

So I've done something rather ridiculous.

You see, when I went with my Grandparents Dukelow (who are both Muggles and happily retired and living life to the richest and all of that) to Switzerland over the Christmas holiday (they like to take us skiing sometimes and I am rubbish at it), I purchased for myself a journal that looked so much like this one that it was unbelievable. Mostly, I just bought it because I wanted to have something to compare, only what happened was that I got the two confused and I've been writing in the new one all this time. It's not magical or anything, and I was wondering why everyone was so quiet and thought for a little time that maybe people just didn't want to talk to me, but now I've seen that I was only using the wrong journal, which was more than a little silly of me!

How is everyone, incidentally? I feel like I've been disconnected from the world for a very long time!

mood: amused

I've realized I'm rather bad at keeping a journal. It's not that I don't have things to write about, but rather that I never have time to write about the things that I have to write about, such as the game this weekend (I was cheering for Hufflepuff because of Corrie. Sorry, Gryffindor!) and then all of the Gryffindors and their silence. I wrote Mum and Dad about the silence...they'd be interested to hear about a silencing spell in action, like they have in video games. I'm sure no one could cast spells at all, unless they were nonverbal, which would've made epic battles a lot easier, if people were fighting epic battles against the Gryffindors (which they may or may not have done, depending on what kind of loot dropped from the Gryffindors).

Play rehearsals are quite fun! I'm enjoying being Peaseblossom, even though I don't have a lot to do except to say "Peaseblossom." I think it will be a very good play when we perform it in December!

And now I don't know what else to write.

mood: contemplative

I think I shall enjoy being Peaseblossom, but I think I shall enjoy being Alice sooner...for tonight, that is. I think it would be rather frustrating to be Alice permanently, and also confusing, because I think I would get confused with Alice Longbottom. Who is nice and all, but I prefer to be Lourdes.

I think it's going to be a great play. And I think we're all going to have fun.

mood: excited

Costume Ideas for the Harvest Dance (and Halloween)

- QUEEN AMIDALA: When we were all little (that is, Luke and Leia, too) and we'd dress up for Halloween, Leia always got to be Princess Leia and she kept doing that as we got older, so I'd always have to be Queen Amidala. When I was little, I really hated it, because I'd have to wear those crazy headpieces and I was too young to charm them to be lighter (and Mum always forgot to do it for me, but Dad usually remembered when we'd be walking down the street and my head would be bending to the side a lot), but I think it might be fun now. Only I can't decide which costume of hers would be best. Everyone always does the red one, but I've always liked the one that's kind of dove grey with the fan hair and the lace headpiece. So maybe there's that, but it might take a long time to make and make look good.

- EOWYN: I always had to be her growing up, too, because Leia always wanted to be Arwen, especially when we'd play Lord of the Rings with the little boys next door and Michael (he was the older one) wanted to be Aragorn. She has really big sleeves, though, which I like, and she gets to carry a sword (though I don't think that the people here at Hogwarts would like it if I was carrying a sword).

- A ZOMBIE: Which is kind of like an Inferius except they're not under anyone's control a lot of the time and are just scary. But it might be fun to do dead person makeup and the costume part of it wouldn't be too hard, I don't think.

- OH SCRATCH ALL OF THAT! I think I'm going to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland. That would be a good and easy costume, and very pretty as well.

mood: thinking

( Warded to Lysander )

I don't like it when people are unkind to each other. It's not usually very fair...it almost always ends up going too far and hurting someone or ends up making sides or ends up starting wars and before you know it, you have a Galactic Empire on your hands, and that's never good.

See, Anakin Skywalker ended up turning into Darth Vader because no one listened to him the way he wanted them to, because they didn't trust him and weren't treating him kindly, and before long, he went crazy and killed all the Younglings and everyone except Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and not even Mace Windu could defend himself against Anakin and Emperor Palpatine and he was a BAMF, and I'll bet that people were unkind to Emperor Palpatine when he was a Padawan, too.

So I think people ought to be kind to each other.

mood: distressed

So let's see...

Ancient Runes, M 4-5 and W 4-5
Astronomy, T midnight
Charms, T 4-5 adn W 11-12
Muggle Studies (YAY!) M 11-12 and T 11-12
Potions M 3-4 and T 3-4
Transfiguration M 10-11 and F 9-10

Note how there is absolutely no Th. there. It'll be nice to have Thursdays off, though I suppose Fridays would be better, once we start having Hogsmeade weekends and all of that. It's also a bit sad that I've only got Muggle Studies twice in the beginning of the week instead of spreading it out more, but I think I'll manage.

mood: pleased

Oh sigh.

You'd think all those O's and all those E's would be enough, but I'm not Luke or Leia and I got an A in Herbology and Mum is Not Happy.

See, because Herbology was her best subject, and that's what she does for a living and it's all really nice and fancy and stuff, but I'm just rubbish with plants and...I don't really care, you know? I don't really want to be a Herbologist or even have a garden.

Ugh. At least Dad was able to calm her down. I wish he'd just Jedi Mind Trick her already so she just wouldn't care.

mood: disappointed

I think someone should make a list of people that are good for different reasons besides being physically attractive, like maybe people who are clever or people who are funny or people who are really nice. That would be a better list, I think, because those types of qualities tend to last longer than being physically attractive.

My list, at the moment, is going to be a list of the BEST Batman villains EVER (because I just rewatched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight today, just those two because they're, like, superlong):

5. Penguin - The reason Penguin is number five and actually on the list at all is because he kind of controls things in the Batman villain world. He's not really that scary of a villain, when you think about it...I mean, in Batman Returns he was played by Danny DeVito who's shaped like a beach ball, and his only supernaturalish traits are that he's kind of a little crazy and he kind of looks like a penguin, but more like what would happen if Edward Scissorhands ate too much fish. He's not really that scary, but he's kind of an underground mob controller person, which is really cool.

4. Mr. Freeze - Mr. Freeze actually has a sort of schtick, you could say, when it comes to being a villain...namely, that he freezes people, which is cooler (haha!) than a lot of the things that the other villains do (like Bane, for example, just beats people up, which is boring and Two-Face who is just schizophrenic I think), but still, when you freeze someone, you put them in a warm bath and they're okay eventually, so it's not that bad of a thing. Plus he was played by Arnold Schwarzzengereagerstupidlongname, so depending on how you feel about that...

3. Poison Ivy - I really like Poison Ivy because she also has a schtick, but it's harder to recover from her schtick...she uses plant toxins to make people really sick and sometimes DIE or turn into PLANTS, which I suppose would be good for Herbology class (and my mum would totally sympathize with her), but it's still kind of one-note and not all that scary...I mean, yeah, if plants started attacking me, I don't think I'd like it very much, but there are scarier things than being chased by Uma Thurman with an angry rhododendron.

2. Scarecrow - Ignore the fact that he was played by Cillian Murphy in Batman Begins and Cillian Murphy kind of looks like a fish. He's SCARY. Scarecrow has this stuff called fear toxin that he makes people breathe and when they breathe it, everything is scary to them! Like, you'd breathe fear toxin and all of a sudden, your parents would look like zombies or dementors or something and your cat would look like a rabid evil beast and eventually, you'd just go crazy from scared. AND THEN he has this other stuff that he used in the cartoon that was ANTI-fear toxin that made people not afraid of anything, so they'd do all sorts of crazy stuff and get hurt and everything. Scarecrow is scary, but he's not quite the same dynamo as...

1. The Joker - Why is the Joker so awesome? He's a FORCE. He's not just a criminal villainous evil guy. He's a FORCE of NATURE and EVIL. He's absolutely insane, he drives other people insane, he has no phobias (like Poison Ivy gets nervous when you try to kill a plant) or weaknesses (like Mr. Freeze has his cryogenically frozen wife), he's just an all out bad guy and he has that Glasgow Smile that's just so creepy and...yeah. The Joker is the best Batman villain, hands down.

And that's my list.

mood: accomplished

W00T (those are two zeros, by the way, not the letter O. I don't know if you can tell from my handwriting, but W00T and WOOT are not the same thing, and W00T is the only correct way to spell it, even though you say it "WOOT") for POTTERDAY!! I've no idea what we'll be doing for it yet...part of me wants to go to the Hogsmeade one for NOSTALGIC reasons, but then again, I'd probably be the only one there between the ages of nine and thirty-five-ish, so maybe not. Then again, it all depends, because the thirty-first is a Thursday, and Mum and Dad like to be home in time for raiding, BUT that doesn't mean I can't go, I'll just have to convince Luke or Leia to stay with me, yeah?

But STILL, I really love Potterday. I mean, Battle Day is nice and memorial, but it's also way too much sadder than Potterday, which is all crazy and fun and...you know, UPLIFTING, like Wingardium Leviosa is uplifting, only much more gently.

And I REALLY CAN'T WAIT until they print what sorts of things will be going on at Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in the Prophet. Last year was brilliant, wasn't it? My favorite was the big broom race around Gringott's, except when they crashed at the end, that was pretty wretched, so they probably won't have that again this year, will they? That's too bad.

mood: excited

We're back, and I wish we could've stayed longer, but I think that ultimately, 11 days is enough time to be on holiday, at least when you consider costs and stuff, and they were definitely a BRILLIANT eleven days. STAR WARS weekends are always so much fun and Darth Vader didn't sneak up on me this time there were no Jar Jar Binkses this year, which made everybody happy.

And oh my Merlin, QUIDDITCH! I can't believe the World Cup, I'm already hearing the sounds of fights in the stands. I don't know yet if we're going. Mum said that the whole thing was "too rah" (that's her way of saying "wicked" or something similarly sane, but saying it in an insane type of way), so there may be hope for us to be in nosebleed seats or something, but I'm not counting on it. Still, it really would be wicked to see...

mood: rejuvenated

GAH! Almost all packed. I am so going to forget, like, everything and get home and be all like "WAAGH!" because I forgot something important, but I'm pretty sure I got everything. I think.

Oh wait, no, me and Benny aren't actually going home I don't think. Mum sent an owl last week and said that we're going straight to Heathrow because of...

STAR WARS WEEKENDS!

So we have a flight to Orlando and stuff today and then I completely forget where we're staying, but it's the big family...thing...and it has to happen this week or else we might be too late. I think.

Wait, where's my grey jumper?

mood: rushed