HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER!!!

So that was fun!  Upon reflection, I would have to say that this was FOR SURE my favorite movie so far.  Mostly because it successfully combined two of my great loves, Harry Potter and depressing movies, but also because there actually wasn't anything really wrong with it?  I mean, sure, they left a couple things out, and there was definitely some laughably awful and misguided use of CGI in a certain pivotal dramatic scene (seriously, HAHAHA!), but overall?  SO GOOD!  Here are some THOUGHTS I had about it:

• It looked really nice!  So many pretty camping locations! 
• Lots of good acting!  Especially from Ron.  He was acting up a fucking STORM in there!  If you had said to me way back when the first movie came out "Hey Lauren, who do you think will act up a storm in the second-to-last movie?" I would have been like "I dunno, Hermione's eyebrows?  But not Ron, definitely not Ron!" BUT THEN JUST LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!
• There was a Nick Cave song featured prominently in that one part!  How very unexpected but also strangely appropriate!  Nothing says "GLOOMY!" quite like Nick Cave.
• Speaking of which, the music was really nice!  Or, the SCORE, I should say.  I don't usually notice these things, but during that part where they're running through the forest and there is a very noticeable lack of jaunty chase music, I thought to myself "Oh wow, this is a really nice score!" 
• DOBBY!
• Neville was there!  When I sort of went to meet Neville the other day I thought about asking him if he was even in the movie he traveled to Chile to promote, but that did not happen.  But he was there (for five seconds!)!  And he was being a total badass!  I don't remember what he said but I remember thinking "Oh look at Neville!  How very Gryffindor of him to say that!"
• DIRIGIBLE PLUMS!
• Luna and her dad!  
• A++ on the massive amounts of CREEPY oozing out of the Bathilda Bagshot scene.  So good!
• What happened to Dean Thomas???  He was supposed to be hanging out with Luna in the Malfoy basement!  THIS REALLY BOTHERS ME.  I mean, I suppose it's a good thing that my biggest complaint is that they forgot about DEAN THOMAS, but still.
• HEDWIG EXPLOSION!  THE FUCKING HEDWIG EXPLOSION!!!

Also, while we're talking about Harry Potter:

• So, this morning I bought like three Harry and the Potters albums (actually, one was a FREE remix album!) because it turns out they are all only 5 bucks over here and that is very reasonable!  So good!
• Here's a fun link! 
• AAAAAAH I CAN'T WAIT FOR JULY!!!

SKINS: Family drama and some other stuff!

It's been a few weeks since I watched the last episode of Skins, so I don't remember EXACTLY what happened.  There wasn't anything terribly exciting or ridiculous, otherwise I would have RECAPPED it sooner.  Oh well.  Here goes!

This was a Katie episode.  You will remember that she is one of the twins, but not the lesbian one.  Also, Effy tried to kill her last season.  So.  Katie is helping out at her mom's wedding planning business, but it's not going so well because the bride is like, a total bitch that she knows from school.  Then Katie goes to the doctor with her boyfriend (Katie has a boyfriend now, apparently!) because she thinks she's pregnant.  But she's not pregnant.  Oh good!  Hold on, though!  There's more news!  Turns out Katie can't have babies?  Oh no!  So that's pretty sad.  She breaks up with her boyfriend (five minute-relationships are very short, even for Skins!) and heads back to working the wedding planning grind, this time at a HEN PARTY.  

The bride, who's like a total bitch, starts making fun of Katie for being so poor and working class?  She doesn't look very poor.  Then the bride, who's pregnant BY THE WAY, starts swigging down the alcohol, and this makes Katie all mad but the bride is like "Yeah, I've got a baby in my belly, but I ain't care!  I'll just have another one if this one becomes deformed as a result of my excessive alcohol consumption during its most important and formative growth period!" (probably) and so Katie is like "OH FUCK YOOOOOOOU" and beats her up, like hardcore.  This is all very bad for business, of course, so Katie and her mom are fired and now her family has no form of income in this stressed economic time (you will remember, of course, that her dad lost his job).  WHOOPS.

Also, Effy was there, too, and she and Katie talked for the first time since Effy nearly killed her?  AWKWARD!

A List of Things I Realized I Must Do After Visiting Easter Island

1.  Visit more tropical islands

       a) specifically Polynesian islands

       b) but Caribbean ones WOULD ALSO WORK

2.  Go to New Zealand

       a) watch Whale Rider

       b) and also some rugby

3.  Watch some Lord of the Rings, but mostly the third one

4.  Watch some Lost (well, technically I am always wanting to watch some Lost, but spending four days on a tropical island made me want to watch Lost EVEN MORE!) 

5.   Read something by Thor Heyerdahl