They’re Here…

My new MacBook and iPod Touch, that is.  They were supposed to arrive Friday, which was less than 48 hours after I ordered them.  Apple has incredibly fast delivery service.  I chose the free 5 day shipping.  When I got home from my French class, there was a note from FedEx on the door telling me that they had tried to deliver them, but no one was there to sign for them.  If it weren’t for that French class, I could have had them on Friday!

I spent half of Saturday waiting around for the FedEx guy.  That shows how dorky I am.  I was so excited when he showed up.  I opened it right away.  Then I had to figure out how to transfer my files, which in theory was supposed to be easy due to Apple’s migration assistant.

I had a few failed attempts, including one that I left running during work and then the connection broke while I was there and I had to start over after I got home.  It actually took much less time after I got home because I used a shorter Ethernet cable and turned off my AirPort, which helped.  It took about an hour.

Pics are obviously necessary of the new MacBook, but I lost one of my rechargeable batteries at LeakyCon and I have yet to buy any new ones.  Nor do we have any double AA batteries in our house.  So, pictures will come as soon as I can locate some batteries.

Due to the migration assistant, I haven’t noticed much difference between my new one and my old one, except for the lack of a blinking screen.  My programs are nearly the same and it’s like being on my old computer, which I like.  The major difference is that I now have a WebCam, which is great because I can talk to my college and LeakyCon friends while being able to see them and they can see me.  WebCams are so awesome when most of your friends live far away.

I am still debating about which iPod to sell.  I haven’t opened the Touch yet.  I wanted to get the rebate all squared away first, which I just finished doing.  However, there are pros and cons to each iPod.  I know MJae is going to say ‘Keep them both’, but I need money.  I’ll probably post a pro and con list on here at some point.

LeakyCon: Hagrid vs. Alex Carpenter, Plus Bacon Randomness

Alex Carpenter is the lead singer and founder of the band, The Remus Lupins, which is my favorite Wizard Rock band.   You have to know that in order for this post to make much sense.

Friday night was the second Wizard Rock concert.  Tonks and the Aurors opened, followed by Gred and Forge, the Whomping Willows, and then Harry and the Potters.

The concert was brilliant.  My favorite band was Tonks and the Aurors and I bought one of their t-shirts and CDs.  However, the best part of the night was when Alex Carpenter got ahold of my brother’s light saber and started dueling with a guy dressed as Hagrid.

Hagrid’s costume was complete with a pink umbrella and he and Alex were really going at it.  Hitting each other with the umbrella and light saber, running around the room.  It was hilarious.  I got a few pics, thinking someone would capture it on video and put it on Youtube.  A lot of people had cameras out, but so far nothing has appeared on Youtube.  I’ll post if it’s ever there.  Here are some pics I got.

Hagrid won, which just proves that even a broken wand concealed in a pink umbrella would beat a light saber in a duel.

The night only got better when Harry and the Potters, the first ever Wizard Rock band, took the stage.  Their songs were amazing and they really energized the audience.  The band, brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge, really like bacon.  During one of their later songs they passed around platters of bacon while changing ‘Bacon, bacon, bacon, etc.’  My sister wound up with a platter and no one wanted to take it from her, so she just set it down on a table.  It was pretty funny.  Here’s the platter she had.

At this point, LeakyCon was only half over and only getting better by the minute.  I must say that I had a hard time getting to sleep while I was there because I was so excited.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

I ordered my new MacBook and free iPod Touch last night.  Yesterday was the first day of Apple’s Buy a Mac, Get a free iPod deal. I’m glad I waited because not only do I get the free iTouch, Apple upgraded their MacBooks to come with a 160GB hard drive instead of a 120GB one and a 2.13 Ghz processor instead of a 2.1 Ghz one.  All for no additional cost.  Apparently good things come to those who wait. Now I have to wait until next week to get it, because I chose the free shipping which takes the longest to arrive.

LeakyCon: Meeting Melissa, Sue, Frak, and Lisa

After our GIT programming, we went to the Boston Commons to eat lunch.  My sister made us sandwiches because everyone knows Hufflepuffs make good sandwiches.  We actually met the guy who started the Hufflepuffs make good sandwiches thing, Scott from the Blibbering Humdingers, and my sister made him a sandwich, too.

Lunch was fun because after we finished eating we had a duel in the park.  I used my Elder Wand and everyone else used sticks they found on the ground.  Someone got it on video, but I’m not sure who.  People stared and it was epic.

Shortly before the duel we went back to the vendor room to give Scott his sandwich.  I was looking at some stuff he was selling and I overheard someone complimenting my sister on our GIT t-shirts (picture coming soon).  I turned around because I was wearing the same t-shirt and saw that it was Sue Upton!!!  SQUEE!  She’s from PotterCast, in case you didn’t know.  I hadn’t recognized her voice because she sadly lost it before the con.  We talked with her for a little while and then got a picture.

After lunch and the duel I went to an Author Panel where I got to meet some awesome authors.  The first being Lisa Wright DeGroodt, who wrote the Quest Series.  She had actually been the one to answer most of my LeakyCon related questions on the LeakyCon message board. So it was cool to meet her in real life.  I bought the first book in her series and she signed it.

Then I got to meet Melissa Anelli, webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron, and writer of Harry, A History, which is an awesome book.  She signed it for me, I got a picture with her, and she gave me an autograph for my youngest sister who was too young to go to the convention!  It says ‘See you next time.  Grow up already!’  She was thrilled.

We also met Frak, another PotterCast member, who is an amazing artist and has an obsession with Pellegrino.  He actually talked on the phone to my sister when I asked him to, which I thought was awesome.

It was just amazing to get to meet all these people who I’ve listened to their PodCast and talked to online and have written amazing books.  It makes the whole fandom seem even more close and real.  I can’t say thank you enough to them for organizing this whole thing and making it so great.

LeakyCon: GITs

The second day of LeakyCon began with my sister and I getting together with two other girls to work on the programming we signed up to do.  It was an Improv workshop centered around Harry Potter.

We named ourselves the GITs, which stands for Gryffinpuff Improv Troupe.  Gryffinpuff because two of us are Gryffindors and two are Hufflepuffs.

The programming itself went amazingly.  The first skit we did was ‘Park Bench’ which I ran.  One person was a Muggle and they sat on a bench.  Another person, who was a Harry Potter character, sat down on the bench and tried to get the Muggle to leave while staying in character.  Once the Muggle left, the character oved over and became the next Muggle.  It was hilarious.

The Knight Bus was next.  My sister pretended to be Ern, the guy who drives the Knight Bus and people came aboard the bus.  She told them which character to be.  My dad had to be Luna, which was really hysterical.

The highlight was probably when someone had to be Hagrid and was asked what creatures he was raising.  Hagrid’s reply?  Snapes!  He then went on to explain how hard it was to find something they would  eat.

Snape entered the bus after that and Hagrid asked,  ‘Why won’t you eat the carrots?’

Then we split everyone up into groups to work on small skits.  They had to either begin their scene with either the line ‘I’m not paying seven sickles for that’ or ‘Can I see the Prophet?’  The other line would be used at the end.  The groups came up with stuff from Azkaban offering tours in order to fund Fudge’s anniversary present to Cedric Diggory dying and Moaning Myrtle fawning over him.

We had people of all ages participate and it was really awesome.  We’re going to try to do it again at LeakyCon 2011.

LeakyCon: The First Night

I’m going to blog about Leaky in multiple blog posts since I have so much to say about it.

First, I want to give a shout out to Melissa, Sue, John, Frak, MJ (not, MJae ), and everyone else involved with organizing this awesome event.  I am forever grateful that you took the time to organize this and give me some of the best four days of my life.

LeakyCon was some of the best four days of my life.  It was right up there with meeting J.K. Rowling, and although nothing can possibly compare to that, LeakyCon is the first Harry Potter related event that has been able to hold a candle (or a lit wand) to that.

We arrived in Boston around 5pm (after getting lost) and were amazed at the fanciness of the hotel.  I have never stayed in such a fancy place.  They unpacked our car and took all of our stuff up to the room for us.

The lobby was filled with Harry Potter fans.  People were dressed up as characters, wearing Harry Potter t-shirts, or were wearing Muggle clothes.  I wore my Half-Blood Prince t-shirt (pictures to come soon) and got a few compliments on it.

The feast and first Wizard Rock show (Evil Night) was held in the castle across the street and it was beautifully decorated in all the house colors.  I ate some food and then met a few people who I have talked to on the Leaky Lounge.  That was really cool, meeting people who I’ve talked to online for so long.

Melissa Anelli announced the official beginning of the Con and then Andrew Slack, head of the Harry Potter Alliance, gave a wonderful speech that reminded me of Obama’s speeches.

After that was the Wizard Rock concert, which was absolutely amazing.  It was the first Wrock concert I have been to and I loved it.  Swish and Flick opened followed by Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills (JFF is a Hufflepuff, so I have no idea why they played during Evil Night), The Parselmouths, and then Draco and the Malfoys.

I was able to buy a Team Lupin shirt that The Remus Lupins (my favorite Wrock band) were selling, which was awesome.  I have wanted a shirt like that for a while and didn’t know anyone made them.

It ended around midnight and then we walked back to the hotel in our wizard garb while singing.  It was truly epic.  Then it was time for a few hours of sleep before the first full day began.

Until the next installment of my Leaky adventures, remember, “No sleep ’till Breakfast, no sleep ’till Breakfast!”

What Semester Would Be Complete…

Without me complaining about textbook prices?  I’m taking a summer course that I am already really mad that I have to take in the first place (French).  Today was the first day and after the class was over, I went to the book store to get the book.  Since it’s only a month long course, I can’t get the book online because by the time I get it, the class would be a quarter of the way over.

The stupid book cost $207 at the campus bookstore.  Isn’t that insane?  It is the most costly book I’ve had to buy.  I got it at a bookstore next door to campus for $200, but that isn’t much better.

To put it into perspective, my LeakyCon registration cost $165.  $165 for four days of non-stop euphoric Harry Potter related fun.  $200 for a book.  $200 could also buy a 16GB iPod Nano, five or six tanks of gas for my car, a week of groceries for my family, a low end EeePC, or a few dozen books that I would actually want to read.

After Over a Year of Waiting…

LeakyCon, the first ever Harry Potter convention run by the Leaky Cauldron, is finally here!  In less than 24 hours I will be on my way to Boston to meet other people who are as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am!

I am so excited!  This is the first Harry Potter convention that is relatively close to where I live.  There have been numerous conventions in California, Florida, and Illinois.  I have jealously read articles about how awesome they are and now I finally get to go!

There’s going to be Wizard Rock, feasts, discussions, a scavenger hunt, and the Potter Puppet Pals!

Here’s to four days of Potter-induced euphoria!  I’ll be back with stories, pictures, and videos!

The Verdict Is In

I am retiring my iBook.  In a few weeks, once Apple brings back their ‘Buy a Mac, get a free iPod’ deal, I’ll be getting a brand new MacBook.

I took my iBook to the Apple Store and they told me it would cost at least $200 to fix it.  $200 to open it up and replace cables to see if that’ll help.  If that doesn’t help, then it’ll cost even more.  So, I’m giving my iBook to my mom, who has been wanting a laptop since my dad got one of those EeePCs.  She doesn’t mind the blinking screen.  Then I’ll sell my iPod Nano since I’ll get a free iTouch.

Always Check The Drawers

The semester ended Friday and I am now home.  Friday was a hectic day of my last final, packing, cleaning, and loading up cars.  I got home at 10pm, so I didn’t unpack anything until Saturday.

I unpacked all my clothes and realized that I was missing some of them.  I believe I left an entire drawer full of t-shirts in my dorm.  I can’t believe I did that.  I thought I’d checked all the drawers, but I guess not.  I emailed the resident director and am waiting to hear back.  I want them back!