Have a cup. Relax. How are you this evening? Let's spill our minds and not the tea.
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- Created By enin
I'm surprised every time
This year, I was expecting to go simple. Dinner with family, some candles to blow out, maybe a card or two and some noodles for longevity. Well, with a family like mine, "simple" doesn't necessarily mean "little". Simple can go big too. To ...Grow up?
Screw that. Grown ups don't get pinatas.
I Never Thought I'd Say This....
This is a Harry Potter post.
It's seems a little out of nowhere, I know. I've never really made any mention to the Harry Potter series before, but hear me out.
As most of you know, I have two younger sisters. The elder of the two, I refer to as Lil Sis, and I consider my twin for various reasons (one being we always know what the other is thinking. That usually ends with "Get the fuck out of my head, *insert sibling name here*!") My other sister, who will be known as Youngest Sis, and I get along fine. We often team up against Lil Sis and tease her for being the smallest, but other than that, we don't have anything to really join forces for. Lil Sis and I quote the Lord of the Rings on a daily basis and it would sometimes annoy Youngest Sis. Fortunately, we've found a common ground in terms of fandom.
About a month ago, I started to hear Hedwig's Theme being played often from our basement. Other days, I'd catch Youngest Sis watching the Harry Potter DVDs on my Xbox 360. When I realized that the newest film was to be released soon, I understood her excitement.
I've never read the books, so I can't say I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I think I'm starting to be now though. You see, a trait of obsession runs in our blood... so if anyone in the family is into something, they're INTO something. With that said, I started to get excited for The Half Blood Prince too. I started watching the DVDs and DVD extras with Youngest Sis. Sometimes we'd watch the films while surfing the net for film information, interviews, behind the scenes stuff and in my case having not read the books, more information about each character. It wasn't long before Youngest Sis and I had our own fandom to bombard Lil Sis with. 'Course, I'm still a Ringer through and through (In fact, I'm in the middle of reading The Hobbit for the 14th time, which is why I'm not going to start the Harry Potter books yet). After all these years of feeling left out because of age difference and infinite Lord of the Rings references by Lil Sis and I, Youngest Sis finally teams up with her 'cool older brother'.
If you know me well enough, you'll know that my fandoms never stop at mere conversation. I like to submerge myself in it. Make something out of it, y'know? So one night, days away from the release of The Half Blood Prince, I saw Youngest Sis browsing a site that featured replicas from the film. "Aww, the wands are so cool." she says. That's when inspiration hit me like the Hogwart's Express. I asked if she wanted me to make a wand for her. A custom wand that she can call her own without ripping off the design of an existing characters wand (Let's face it, even though buying a wand from the site is "official" and all, having a character's wand means it's not your own and isn't very original.) Needless to say, she agreed and I started to work some magic.
In case you don't remember, I keep a bag full of broken drumsticks. I was thinking I could burn them as a tribute to the gods of drumming but this seemed like a more productive route. I picked out a few sticks, most of which still had most of themselves intact with only the tip broken off, and Youngest Sis researched wand information online, looking for a 'core' that fit her and a design that she liked.
It was an early afternoon when I prepared my workshop in the backyard. By workshop, I mean iPod speaker dock, a pitcher of iced tea and my handy little Dremel (Kinda wish I knew where my hand tools were). Youngest sis came out and gave me few specifics and left the rest up to my judgment since I was pretty much winging it. Thirteen inches, handle, dark brown and tapered. Easy enough. I spent the rest of the day carving, sanding and shaping out the wand from what was once a no-name, maple drumstick. Youngest Sis would periodically come out to check progress and hold the wand to get a feel for it.
By the end, it turned out nicer than I thought. I carved a simple swirl design into the handle portion, sanded it smooth and stained it with some brown ink (from my Citadel paint set). Youngest Sis was very much pleased with the final product and spent the remainder of the night waving it around while reading from a cheat sheet of spells.
The day of the film release, I decided to make two more wands. One for Lil Sis and one for me. I thought it would be neat to design them to fit us accordingly. With Youngest Sis' wand being 13 inches, dark brown and designed with a swirl, Lil Sis' wand would have to be a bit shorter, lighter and have a simpler design, and my wand would have to be taller, darker and have a more complex design. Lil Sis' wand ended up looking very clean. 12 inches with a handle comprising of three ring, a rounded end and stained a lighter brown. Mine was fun to make. At 15 inches, I carved out a twisted vine design that melded into the rest of the wand and stained it black.
Have a look:
There are more detailed shot on my deviantArt page here: mistergrinn
Youngest Sis seemed impressed with the two wands, and wanted to claim them for her own since she is the bigger Potter fan. Should time and funding be available, the next little project would be a robe for our respective houses. Why? Well... Why not? I have a feeling Youngest Sis will be game for dressing up for the final two films so she'll need the appropriate garb. By the way, according to several quizzes, Youngest Sis has been sorted into Gryffindor and I to Ravenclaw. No word on Lil Sis yet, but I imagine it would be Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. I like Ravenclaw. Luna is fun and I dig the colour blue. I might wanna get my hands on a scarf sometime.
Originally, we had planned to see the new film next Monday, most on my account. You see, I absolutely despise seeing any film in theatres during the opening week because of the crowds. Unless it's truly worth seeing the split second it comes out (namely The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I skipped school to see), I usually wait a week or so to see a film. After making three wands, reading up on the Hogwart's universe and seeing the DVDs run my Xbox 360 into oblivion, Monday was too far away.
Going against my usual principles, I suggested we catch the first showing on the day after the release so there would be less people. Lil Sis and especially Youngest Sis thought it was a grand idea and so that's what we did. I watched The Half Blood Prince just yesterday and obviously it was a fantastic film. I needn't go into details and I don't have to recommend you see it. If you're a fan of cinema, you'll be hitting up your local theatre without a doubt.
So yeah... Harry Potter is pretty fucking cool.
There. I said it.
Strong and Free
Our nation is most excellent.
Today, I was bet a Toonie that I couldn't down a half bottle of maple syrup from a Tim Horton's cup. That was my exaggerated slice of Canada for the day (won the Toonie too). I love this country.
I'll most likely return with a better written post some time soon since I'm not exactly feeling 100%.
In the meantime, have a look at these.
The nuke I set off in the garden:
Happy Birthday Canada!
Secret training to become as good a fighter as Yamchaa:
Perseverance, Joshua. Perseverance.
I'll be back soon. Shake it easy, people.
