Nada mucho aqui

I got nothing much here tonight. Few quick notes:

--Yesterday was very fun, and I thank you all for your kind words on my birthday post. And I thank my new friends at the Hut in Meiners Oaks, who insisted on buying me several Tom Collins beverages when they found out A) my name is Tom Collins and B) it was my birthday. The bartender made the first one with vodka, though, instead of gin. That's not a Tom Collins! That's a Vodka Collins! Other variations on a Tom Collins, in case you're interested, can be found here, at the H2G2 site (H2G2 stands for HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy; it was the Wikipedia before there was a Wikipedia).

I wrote that entry, by the way, when I was briefly fascinated by H2G2, about seven years ago. Good times, good times.

--I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows almost two weeks ago, but never put up a review here. SPOILERS ahead:

It was mostly enjoyable, with some big drawbacks. The main one is the book felt poorly structured and meandering. The whole first half is basically Harry, Hermione, and Ron moving a tent around. It's 400 pages before anyone even mentions the word "Hallows." 400 pages is a lot of time-killing before getting to the actual, you know, plot of the book, an actual direction to move in and everything. And the seventh book is pretty late to be introducing that idea in general, these three items that have control over death and are basically the key to defeating Voldemort. Felt like a lot of stuff was getting dumped on us awfully late in the game.

I also didn't care for the fact that pretty much every time our three leads actually do anything, they're in disguise. They keep hiding under the invisibility cloak, or taking the shape-changing potion. It was like one of the Mission Impossible movies, with the masks they always wear. That gimmick just got hammered into the ground. Also, it's not especially heroic; you kind of want Harry Potter to kick some ass and take some names in this last chapter, but instead he's spending all his time hiding under a blanket.

One more thing -- I didn't go back and count to make sure, but I swear there is not one single chapter in which Hermione doesn't cry. She never stops crying. Seriously, try to find a chapter with her in it, in which she's not weeping at some point. Bet it's harder than you'd expect! We get it, she's a girl. Please stop making her cry to prove that point, Rowling. It felt decidedly anti-feminist to me, which is a little weird, coming from the most popular female author in the world.

It gets exciting at the end, and I was happy some minor characters, like Neville, got their chance to shine, and I loved the scene where Harry learns Snape's whole back story (a little too late to do any good, but still), and Dobby's death was surprisingly moving. I even liked the fan fiction epilogue, in which Ron & Hermione and Harry & Ginny are married and have a million babies.

If anybody else still feels like talking about the book, please chime in. There must be a few of you out there who didn't read it all in the first day, and are still interested in discussing it.

--I bought several books at the comic shop yesterday, as a birthday gift to myself: American Elf: Book Two; the new Fables collection; and Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.s. I actually have all the individual Alan Moore WildC.A.T.s issues, but they're packed away in storage, and I really, really wanted to read the story again. It's some great superhero action. Right now, I'm reading Kochalka's American Elf collection, and I love it.

--That's about it for now. Oh, yeah, one more thing: STUPID DODGERS!!! A couple weeks ago -- on July 23rd, to be specific -- they were in first place and looked like they'd be cruising to the postseason. As of yesterday (meaning before tonight's come-from-behind win), they had lost 11 out of their last 13, and had dropped to fourth in their division. Why do you hate me, Dodgers?