Ah... Vegas. It has a special room in my heart. It wasn't so awe-inspiring new this time, but it was still fun. I put a buncha money in Megabucks (it was about $17.3 million) but only got out a few bucks. I haven't quite counted yet.

Anyway, can't write something fancy now, but one quick news. The most exciting part of our trip was actually at the very end when Brandon and Shalyn decided to get married! (They were already engaged, but they were planning on a regular ceremony later, which I guess they will still do.) But the problem with eloping is that when you tell people, they'll want to come. So this was suppose to be something quick and quiet on our last morning in Vegas, and it turned into various family members (of theirs) piling into cars and driving down to meet up at Brandon's former pastor's house, and then having a quick draw ceremony on their front yard. Crazy.

Shalyn's response to this: E-lop-ing, people, this was suppose to be e-lop-ing!

Heh heh. It was highly amusing, and more so if it wasn't so hot and we weren't so tired.

Alright, alright, no spoilers here, though mainly cuz I can't quite think of what to say about Harry Potter that hasn't been seen already. Well, actually, there's one thing that I want to talk about the Harry Potter world. I promise, no spoilers.

So, we've read in previous books that Charlie Weasley was off studying dragons. Well, I'm wondering, what does that mean? Cuz from what we've read, there's no mention of wizard university. It's kinda weird to think that people's careers begin at high school graduation. I mean, sure they study a lot, and they probably know a lot about magic upon graduation, but I don't know any Muggle that knows what he wants to do after high school graduation, so what would make wizards any different? I did a lot of growing up and finding myself in college (not as hokey as it sounds, but in essence, true). I remember in Prisoner of Azkaban that the third years had to start taking different subjects (kinda like electives, I guess), and lot of the people just chose topics at random cuz at thirteen, you don't know what you want to do in life. Anyway, my point about Charlie was that was he studying dragons at some wizard university, or was he in the field studying it, like Jane Goodall?

Oh, and I wonder, why don't these kids study non-magical subjects like English and math? Cuz, I'm thinking, even if you can do magic, you should be able to write and do arithmetic. I was looking through jkrowling.com, and in the FAQ, she said that most kids from wizarding families are home-schooled until the age 11, when they go off to Hogwarts. That's kinda funny to think that you go from this insular setting of being at home 24/7, and then you go off to boarding school.

Ah well... I guess I'm just getting picky. After all, the whole point of the novels aren't to describe "real life as if there was magic" but more of this fantasy world where all you really needed to worry about are various spells and potions and other magical things.

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I'm off to Vegas next week, so I may not be able to post all week (yeah, like what's the difference, right?). But I'll try to keep things up-t0-date. There are so many thoughts throughout my day that I would like to blog about, but when the time comes, I either forget, or it's not interesting anymore, or there's something else I want to blog about.

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One more thing about Harry Potter, it's been so long since I read Order of the Phoenix, that as I was reading Half-Blood Prince, I was I couldn't remember what happened in the previous book. I mean, I couldn't remember what the D.A. was, or barely what happened at the Ministry. I just know that Sirius died, though his death was a little too quick and uneventful to be fishy. Well, it looks like I shall have to stop by my parents' place to collect my Harry Potters. Perhaps even introduce them to my housemates. Heh heh. I can just imagine looking at the sheer page count of all the books so far.

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.


OMG!!!

I'll publish comments (and have it contain spoilers) once I get some sleep.

Yes, the korean-american actress from Battlestar Galactica is Grace Park. Boy, she got a few head turns when she appeared in Maxim. Her role is nice and meaty and complex, too. I thought it was funny that her name is Sharon Valeri, so obviously where she was from, there was no ethnically distinctive names. And what's also funny is that both Starbuck and Dr. Baltar are from Caprica (which technically is a planet... I think), but Starbuck speaks with an American accent while Baltar speaks with a British one. And Commander Adama (played by Edward James Olmos) is a Latino, but his son, Lee (aka Apollo) is white.

But really, I'm not complaining. It's a great show. I mean, the Cylons are monotheistic while the humans are polytheistic, and the Cylons are devout while the humans have become secularized. Religious machines. Heh.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter is keeping me up way too late.

Six days 'til Vegas! If you want me to get you something from there, speak now or forever hold your peace. Oh, and keep in mind that I have no money, so it can't be worth more than two bucks.

Battlestar Galactica season two premiere tomorrow at 10 pm!

If I feel up to it, I might even catch Ben Browder on SG1. For those of you non-geeks, he was the star of Farscape.

So tired, sleeping funny (as usual, but more funny than usual), and gotta do homework. Blah.

Green Tea Frapp personally sold count: 1

91% Humidity... explains a lot.

Long awaited Green Tea Frapp Day. Erg.

Eating not well. Sleeping too oddly.

Oh yeah, remind me to talk about the squid at the City of Heroes party.

Hey Beno (et al) --

This is the second time I heard about "ask your barista for a free sample" and while it's true that you can ask your barista for a free sample, it don't mean you'll get one. Cuz for one thing, you can't make a 4 oz frappuccino. The smallest you can make is 12 oz (which is a tall), and besides, there's no way that we have the time to make a tiny frappuccino like that.

What is true, however, is that when there's time, we will make samples (about ten of them), put them on a tray, and go around the store giving it to people.

So, your best bet for a free sample? Go to your neighborhood Starbucks, go up to your favorite barista (when they're not busy) and ask if they will be sampling the Green Tea Frapp any time soon. If they're like me, then I would most likely say, "Well, since it's not busy, sure, I'll sample some out in a few minutes." And then it's first come first serve.

But DO NOT BUG US WHEN IT'S BUSY. For me, my response will be, "We might later, but not right now." And then I'll think in my head, "...now go away, you annoying bastard."

iTunes now supports podcasting, and boy, every podcast now mentions that their subscribership has exploded. I've got issues with it still (it won't automatically download them to my Shuffle), but I'm glad that podcasting is getting the support that it deserves.

Speaking of which, my church is podcasting its sermons.

For those of you unsure of what to do, just copy the link and use a subscribing software (like iPodder or iTunes, even) to download the episodes. Or just do a search for "Pillar Bible Church" on iTunes. I thought we were being all high-tech and all, but then I did a search on iTunes music store for Religion&Spirituality->Christianity, and boy, there are tons of podcast sermons!

Anyway, as much as I am having issues with my church and my faith, there's one thing I do not doubt, and that is the strength of my pastor's sermons. Yes, sometimes he is too conservative, and perhaps even inflexible, but he studies the Bible very strictly, and his sermons reflect that. So while I may not agree with all he says, I do have to say, he makes a damn good argument.

Alright, homework awaits.

Oh, and no, you do not need an iPod to listen to podcasts. They're just mp3s... you can listen to them on any mp3 player (like winamp).