In the last two weeks, I have learned....

[heidi]

Prologue of Importance re Azkatraz: If you have submitted a programming proposal for Azkatraz and have not been sent an email about the presenters' Yahoogroup, or some other email from flourish you need to get in touch with the programming team at submissions @ hp2009.org (without the spaces) so you can get your confirmation and release sent in by June 10, or you will not be able to present at Azkatraz. We need to finish the program and we can't do it without the confirmation paperwork in hand.


1. When taking kids to a kids-camp thing on a cruise ship put their names on their shoes - they might get taken by another kid who's about the same size late on the first night but you'll have an easier time claiming they're yours the next day at the pool.

2. What a thunderstorm looks like coming over a tiny bahamian island, and how a daquari tastes with a little sand in it (not terrible)

3. What the prices are for badge holders at ten different imprinting companies

4. That "Waking Up in Vegas" might make for a cracktastic HP vid, but I'm still looking for prompts to vid for Azkatraz. If you have a dream HP vid, tell me the song and a prompt in comments and if it inspires me, I'll vid it for the vidding show that chaeche is organizing for Azkatraz.

5. What a house looks like when balloons float it to South America.

6. That there still is no six. SQUIRREL!

7. That Chris Pine played Bill Pullman's son in Bottleshock, which also starred Alan Rickman.

8. The possible and/or proper size of a stage for Wrock performances

9. Some scheduelish things for Comic Con

10. Disney's put out a Wilderness Explorers' Guide that contains all the badges from the movie, and how to earn them - plus how Russell earned each of them. Make sure you look at the last page, and any kid or grownup who loved UP will adore all the stickers. I still hope Disney makes them into pins - I would love to pretend-earn them with my kids. I know some of you have kids who do boy scouts, but we wouldn't because we disagree with many of the national positions and mandates. Our kids get a lot of the same activities and information via temple activities, but this is different, and it's a terrific way for a former Girl Scout like me to share the enjoyment of badge-earning with my kids. Sometimes, I am so thankful that the Girl Scouts movement doesn't have the same issues as the boys.

11. How to change the pitch on an audio track.

12. What it feels like when your kid has only one more year of elementary school, and wins the award for most books AR points accumulated in the school for the year.

13. What it feels like to break a pinky-toe on the diagonal. Unlike copperbadge I have decorated my boot in pink sparkly heart stickers made of foam. But we agree that we should start a club for Fandomers With Broken Bones In Their Feet. We will call it the Club Foot (Sam's idea).

14. That I really should have been watching AI all season because I sort of adore Adam Lambert and Kris Allen more or less equally, and think that parallels the fact that for the last two years the two artists I've listened to most on iTunes are the Scissor Sisters and Jason Manns.

15. That YouTube won't allow the song Tall Cool One on a vid, but iMeem is ok with it, so I've posted my livelongnmarry vid commissioned by the fantastically patient yourlibrarian set to said song here. Formal posting sometime tomorrow or later tonight if I'm not exhausted by the time the kids go to sleep.

16. That the occupational license people here require a copy of the back side of my Bar Card even though there is no personalized content on that side, thereby necessitating extra walking by me and my broken foot. Fail, city.

17. That my sixth grade class was very trendsetting because on the way home from my 11th birthday at a skating rink in south Miami back in 1982 me and all the girls in my class sat in the back of the school bus we'd rented for the day singing "Don't Stop Believing" over and over and over. Oh, GLEE!

18. Oh gosh, so much more. I have recs and squee and OMG Azkatraz news and photos from Universal of the fantabulous Wizarding World of Harry Potter (under construction) and so much love for the sandy beach on Disney's Castaway Cay and at Universal's Portofino Bay hotel but I have four or five more vids to edit, some ephemera to create, kids to get to sleep, a camp duffel to finish packing and stuff to write for the Azkatraz program and popcorn to make (on the stove, with olive oil)

19. Total Eclipse of the Heart! Have you seen the Literal Version of the vid yet? If not, GO NOW! ETA Oh, look! There are now t-shirts, and it just hit over one million views! Go, them!

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

How did you break your toe? Oweee!

Would you say UP is appropriate for age 5 and almost-7, who are sometimes a bit easily frightened by visual images? I've heard conflicting reports as to how intense some scenes are in the movie and am not sure whether to take them or not.

I can't believe Harry is so close to middle school. O_o When I met him, he was only three!!

[abigail89.livejournal.com]

7. Chris was wonderful in 'Bottle Shock', as were Bill & Alan. Did you know Alan and Bill immediately then did 'Nobel Son' together? And once again, their paths barely crossed in the film.

13. I got the surgical shoe I'm supposed to where after my surgery next Friday. I need ideas on how to spif it up. It's very black.

[amaterasu.livejournal.com]

Re: 10. Eeee! That book makes me want to be 10 years old again. Or have children immediately.

**loves**

[blaidd-drwg.livejournal.com]

1. good to know that tip. i'll have to pass it along to my sister.
2. haven't had that problem, but I've learned that cooking chicken in a frying pan on the windy beach w/o keeping the lid on the entire time, gives you gritty chicken that might crack your teeth. Yeesh!
3. you've learned your something new for the day.
5. is UP! good? or should I just wait til it comes out on tv in a few years?
6. You want squirrels and squirrel excitement? I'll give you all our neighborhood squirrels for free if you can round them up. They had this bad habit of jumping from either the front or backyard tree nearest the house, running over the roof (and as they store up food and gain weight as fall/winter come)and jump into the opposite tree. They 'thud' rather alarmingly as they jump onto and off of the roof. Right over my head as I'm typing this.
7. I've got to remember to put that on my Netflix list. I keep forgetting. I want to watch it just for Rickman. Ah, I could listen to him read the phone book and be happy. The trailers I saw seemed like it might be a good flick.
8. You made me watch the Yule ball scene in GoF last night b/c of this.
11. you're so smarter than me.
12. Wow! Congrats to your kid and you must be very proud indeed. I wish we'd had the Accelerated Reader program & points when I was in elementary. Now I live viacariously through my nephs and nieces.
13. Ouch, so sorry! Best wishes on a full & speedy recovery.
14. xof1013 got me watching AI (somewhat toward the end of the season, but hey, I dialed my fingers off for the final vote) for the first time since season 2 with Clay and Ruben.
17. What's past is new again (notice how I avoided calling you and me 'old' there *wink*)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I slid in a wet patch and smashed my foot into a door, and my pinky-toe sorta went like this: ||||/ instead of the normal |||||. UGH.

All three of my kids loved UP, even the begining which I thought might bore them. There is a bit with some blood and some scary moments, but the visuals are so gorgeous. Does taking off the 3D glasses help them separate from the movie if it gets too intense? THat works with catie sometimes.

And yeah, Harry? SO grown up. It's amazing and scary. He is my TWEEN!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Ah, casting directors - you do such wonderful yet weird things sometimes.

I recommend foam stickers. They come off easily if you need to get de-spiffified for whatever reason, but they're cute and you can always blame roving armies of little girls.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

It is SUCH a wonderful book. I want Wilderness Explorers to be REAL! Ooooh, I do love DISNEY so much.