Blue Skies

Just finished “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows”.  It was pretty much what I expected it to be all along.

I like the books, but I’m critical of them, too.  Y’see, Rowling’s a great idea person.  There’s no denying that the series is chock-full of wonderful ideas and creations.  But the problem is that she’s not a very good writer.  Looking back over the seven books, I can see — unintentional or intentional, I don’t know — a formula to the book’s goings-on.  Even with the last book, the same things happens in the end.  There’s no subtlety, no grace, no careful handling of words that really makes the story stand out as something amazing.

Good, but not amazing.  Maybe the kids who have read these books, now grown, will keep reading, and seek out those books that are truly moving and beautiful.

Whoo-hoo! Goin’ paintballing tomorrow! I didn’t get to go last week on account of being kinda sick, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s a relatively new hobby of mine — only been at it a couple of months — but I love it. Especially now that I’ve got a decent gun (a Spyder MR1) instead of my Wal*Mart beginner’s P.O.S.

Want to know how much I like paintball? I’m typically an indoors guy, but for this I’m willing to go out into the 90+ degree Florida weather to play. I’m willing to wake up early on a weekend to play.

There’s nothing better than spending some time with your friends and shooting them with hard little paint pellets. That’s the good life.

There are so many games coming out this year that I want to get, even though I know there’s no way I can afford all of them. Let’s go through the list, ‘eh?

-Eternal Sonata
-Assassin’s Creed
-Halo 3 (already pre-paid for this one, though)
-Guitar Hero III (As much as I want the wireless guitar, I think I’ll stick with II’s wired X-plorer)
-Army of Two
-Blue Dragon
-Grand Theft Auto IV
-Mass Effect
-Beautiful Katamari

And I’m sure that there’s some that I’m missing. But just from that list alone and not counting Halo 3, that’s $480 (not counting tax). Damn!

It’s tough being a video game addict. I’m pretty sure that drug addicts don’t have to pay this much for their fix. Lucky bastards.

I work for a big brown delivery company — I’m pretty sure you know who I’m talking about. Yesterday, we began receiving shipments of the newest and last Harry Potter book.  There were literally hundreds of boxes coming through our area, so the chances of one breaking open during transit between areas was pretty good.  As fate would have it, one did.

My job is called a Pick-Off, and what that means is that I’m responsible for overseeing all of the packages that come into our area and making sure that they get to the proper trucks.  So when this opened box of Harry Potter books came down, I had to pull it aside so I could tape it up and send it on its way.

A dilemma.  Do I look through one of the books and find out the ending?  I could have, and it was pretty tempting.  But, I refrained.  I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.  But that got me thinking — how easily could I have got my cell phone, snapped a few pictures, and plastered the ending over the internet?  Just think, I could have set off a web-wide firestorm!  I could have literally ruined people’s lives.

I’m an honest man, though, and I believe heavily in Karma.  So no spoilers from your friendly neighborhood Shawn M.

Still, though, it was pretty cool to hold the book five days before the rest of the world could.