#and I had weird traditions like I would play Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets for the pc every thanksgiving like I HAD to

[fawn-paws]

I think it’s so funny my parents never suspected I was autistic meanwhile I used to act like a cat up into my teens and I used to watch caturday meme compilations on the wii in the living room every Saturday and then eventually tf2 gmod videos (sometimes the same ones over and over) right there in front of them

[storysims]

FIFTY SEVEN FACTS TAG

Rules: Post 57 facts about yourself and tag at least ten people. 

My sweet bb @rachirdsims tagged me in this forever ago, but I’m an awful slacker and have no idea how to talk about myself? Anyways, let’s give it a go!

I always wished that my name was spelled Mollie.

My middle name is Anne.

It bugs me to no end when people leave off the “e”.

I was born in Landstuhl, Germany.

I used to speak a little German, but now I remember basically nothing.

The first movie I ever saw was the Lion King.

Mulan is my all-time favorite Disney princess!

I used to be afraid of the sand tiger at the beginning of Aladdin.

I read Harry Potter for the first time in 1999.

I got every book from Chamber of Secrets forward on release day!

11. I re-read Harry Potter once a year, every year. 12. I used to steal my brother’s HP toys and hide them in my closet. 13. He didn’t even like HP, but I’m definitely not still salty. 14. My grandma taught me how to crochet at 7, and I’ve done it since. 15. I’ve crocheted everything from blankets to Cthulhu to a lightsaber. 16. My BB-8 Pop figure has a crocheted scarf on because he looked cold. 17. I saw Star Wars so many times as a kid that I wore out the VHS tapes. 18. I still have those VHS tapes somewhere... 19. We moved into this apartment in Oct ‘17 and I still haven’t unpacked. 20. The apartment before this we didn’t unpack either. 21. I just really hate unpacking + packing? Whoops. 22. Despite working in a bank for years, I couldn’t do math to save my life. 23. Honestly the computer did all the math for me, I just had to count $$$. 24. The most $ I’ve ever held at one time was almost $250k. 25. At some point, it honestly stops being money and is just really dirty paper. 26. We had a stripper client who would bring money in covered in glitter. 27. I’ve had a lot of weird interactions while working in banking, lmao. 28. One of my favorite jobs ever was working as a nurse’s assistant. 29. I’ve been a nanny for a few months now, and I love it almost as much. 30. My boys call me “Miss Molly” and I think it’s the cutest thing ever. 31. I cut my foot today before work and they were REALLY concerned. 32. I put a Yoda band-aid on it, which in hindsight just made it stand out. 33. I’m currently listening to Brendan Urie sing Disney songs. 34. My husband & I have this thing where we sing Duck Tales to each other. 35. Like we do the entire song, and it’s so weird. 36. I started dating my husband in 2011! 37. We met while working at Best Buy~ 38. I also had a boyfriend at the time, whoops. 39. He proposed in the parking lot of our fav comic book store. 40. When we got married, we walked down the aisle to the Imperial March. 41. There were only 13 people at our wedding and it cost us $300. 42. We didn’t do a bridal party or anything traditional. 43. My best friend since birth signed the license and it meant the world to me. 44. Her mom + my mom were best friends in high school! 45. So we were highkey doomed from the start, haha. 46. I’ve never had any real musical talent, but I own three ukuleles. 47. I could even kind of play them at one point?  48. I was in choir, though!  49. My “thing” growing up was definitely dance. 50. I danced competitively for just over 7 years! 51. I wanted to continue and become an instructor, but I destroyed my knee. 52. I’ll have to get surgery at some point to try and restore some cartilage. 53. I’ve had my tonsils and gallbladder removed! 54. I had pneumonia twice in 6 months last year because my body hates me. 55. On the plus side, that’s how they diagnosed my fibromyalgia?  56. My health is a LOT better lately, though! Knock on wood? 57. At what point did this stop being factoids and start being word vomit?

I’m not going to tag anyone, because this was INSANE. ≧◡≦ But if you want to give it a shot, have at it!

[heartofaquamarine]

Slytherin and Eton: A Primer on the British School System.

Slytherin occupies an odd place in the Harry Potter fandom. In canon, while it is the house with the second most development, that development is almost entirely negative, with the house and a large quantity of its students acting antagonistically throughout the piece. Heck, Hagrid, the lovable gruff figure who acts as Harry’s (and thus the audience’s) introduction to the magical aspects of the series explicitely calls them the most evil house before Harry has even seen the castle. This, along with Draco Malfoy’s terrible introduction (Malfoy will be covered in detail later in the piece) and the fact that Harry is already having to distance himself from Voldemort by the time of the sorting, is the major reason that Harry chooses anything but Slytherin. While the house, or rather its representatives, are sort of given more naunce later with Slughorn, Malfoy’s Draco and Narcissus, and Snape, the core example of how it is treated in the series comes just before the final battle, when the entire Slytherin student body either sides with Voldemort (Crabbe and Goyle, and to a lesser extent Parkinson who is willing to hand over Harry to save herself) or refuses to fight the good fight at all. 

The weirdness comes from the fact that Slytherin is probably the most popular house to self identify as within the active fandom. Aside from having traits many consider positive associated with it (cunning, loyalty and ambition), it is also treated as the outcast house to the rest of the school, particularly the Gryfindors. The treatement of Slytherin therefore sticks in a lot of fan’s nerves, and understandably so. The notion of Houses, defining people at age 11, is already a weird way to handle things, after all, and defining an entire group of them as evil from the start? Yeah that’s not great, particularly if you identify with aspects of them. I myself would probably be a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw, so I can understand this distaste. But...here’s the thing. The reasons for treating Slytherin this way are not entirely diagectic in nature. The house is the centre of a massive pile up involving world building, characterisation and most importantly some fairly blunt and pointed social commentary about the British School system and society at large. 

It’s been a running gag that what racism is to the American political discussion, classism is to the British. This is not entirely true (for one thing we are certainly not over racism or xenophobia here), but there is a nugget in there. British society is heavily class stratified society. We have some of the worst mobility in the developed world, and much of our political system is dominated by a very small part of society.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is that there is a particular branch of the schooling system that dominates government, known as the Public Schools. That name can be confusing at first. The original group of Public schools vastly predate the mandatory schooling system; the oldest of them predate Columbus’ birth by over a decade. Not his voyage to the Americas, but his birth. The original idea was that they would take promising boys who normally would not get an education, due to them not coming from families who could afford them to be educated, hence the name Public Schools. Nowadays these are all elite private schools, not linked to the department of education. While approximately 7% of the population attend these schools, 33% of the members of Parliament (MPs), 50% of the Peers in the second chamber of government and 70% of the top judges are educated here. Heck, of the 54 Prime Ministers who have led the country, 32 were educated at one of three Public schools; seven at Harrow School, six at Westminster School and nineteen at Eton College. Compare that to the 9 prime ministers educated, as I was, in state schools. These institutions form part of the basis for a web of connections that defines a lot of the elite parts of British society, not just in politics but in business, in media and in higher education as well; the “old boy’s club” that provides a barrier to entry for a vast swathe of society. While supporters of these systems will note that efforts have been made to overcome this, with around 310 of Eton’s pupils receiving financial assistance, but that means that the remaining 1,000 students come from families that can afford the £12,000 per term fees, and these students are only male. The idea that this system is anything close to meritocratic is not just laughable, it is the equivalent of starting a discussion on orbital dynamics with the word’s “assuming a heliocentric universe”. Another point to make? The entire House structure comes from these schools. Eton has 25 Houses, and in this case they are literally houses; they are where the boy’s sleep at night, since it is a boarding school. While not unique to Public Schools, they are heavily associated with them in British culture. I’m adding this in because Rowling didn’t just make up the concept of splitting the children into groups. As a teenager she attended Wyedean School, which notably historically had a four House system (oh look it’s almost as if there might be a connection), before abandoning it as the school grew (I can’t find anything about when this happened, but it could well have been after Rowling studied there). Hogwarts itself, while it is an individual school, is also a condensation, celebration and condemnation of the British School system as a whole, being the only wizarding school in the UK. Umbridge isn’t just a single throughly unpleasant inspector, she is a stand-in for OFSTED, the body responsible for school inspections. It’s notable that in Harry’s year in Gryfindor,  you have, among others, the dirt poor Ron, the muggle born Dean and Hermione, the Irish half-blood Seamus Finnigen (and given that this was written in the 90′s holy shit is UK and Irish relations another can of worms I am not going to open here because this already too long but will be glanced a bit at in a later bit of this essay). It’s honestly hard for me to not read Gryffindor and Hufflepuff as stand-ins for the UK state schools, Ravenclaw for the private schools, and Slytherin as the public schools. Remember what I said about how Slytherin is treated as the outcast part of the school? Well, it is honestly treated much like the rest of the UK school system treats the private school. How is that? Well, when it snowed in my school days and we all went to the main park, the one thing that would immediately unite all the state and a lot of the private schools was the arrival of the public school kids (particularly since they tended to try and pick snowball fights with everyone while throwing classist insults around). Slytherin is in many ways the house of privilege, and not necessarily earned privilege. Lucius Malfoy, until his ousting when he plays his hand too hard in the second book, is the leader of the Board of Governors and escaped Azkaban despite his crimes, while it is explicitely stated in the first book that Slytherin has won the House cup for repeatedly in the previous years, mainly due to Snape bestowing preferential  treatment on his own House (and yes I do think it was fine for Dumbledore to pull that last minute switch, since Harry Ron and Hermione had just legimately just prevented Voldemort from returning. That kind of deserves some credit. The Neville bit might be pushing it but again, the timing was just pretty tight). But there’s more to what Slytherin represents, and this comes back to what I was saying about how charactisation is involved in this pile up, particularly the characterisation of Slytherin himself. Specifically the characterisation of him as a rascist shitfucker. I know that’s blunt but so it is the characterisation. He left a giant monster behind for the sole purpose of having it one day unleashed on a load of kids for the crime of not being born to magical parents, and Slytherin the house has historically been defined as much by its stated qualities of cunning and ambition as it has been by this continuing tradition of racist ideology. The Sorting Hat song is not the full picture as to what defines the Houses; they have grown beyond that, both in universe and in fandom. This characterisation comes back into social commentary because, yes, the UK has had and still has a long history of racism and xenophobia, from our imperial history to the Troubles in Ireland to how Eastern European and muslim immigrants are treated now. So why does Slytherin House still bare a stain from Slytherin the man? Well, in a word, it’s tradition. Remember what I said about the age of these institutions? Yeah, that’s not a joke. The Public School system, the Oxbridge higher education that it feeds into, are heavily influenced by traditions that have grown up over the ages. Heck, it used to be that in Eton, the youngest boys in the House were basically servants to the older students and staff, a practise known as “fagging” (I am not even joking). Wizarding society in general is also heavily steeped in the past; the steam train of the Hogwarts express, for instance, or the very concept of the Houses themselves. Heck, while it is never confronted directly, quite a few characters talk about how the Sorting isn’t the best idea, most notably the Sorting Hat itself. Slytherin the house has passed down the ideals of Slytherin the man in its culture, just as the UK has passed down racism, classism and xenophobia in ours. If Voldemort is the embodiment of these issues at their most violent, then Parkinson is them at their most passive; she is willing to go with Voldemort’s demands to save herself, and is willing to accept the racism and classism throughout the books. This is what I meant by a collusion between characterisation, world building and social commentary. The books were written while Rowling was viturally penniless, and a lot of the social commentary in them reflects this, including the way Slytherin is portrayed. Is it fair to the characters of Slytherin? Should she have been more naunced about it? Well, yes. There’s a reason I called it a pile up, but if you are treating the resulting mess as simply being in universe, you are going to miss a lot of important aspects about why she created it the way that she did.

[coffeebreakstatement]

Poland Summer 2017 #8: Excursions

Last weekend we had our final excursion of the summer school. It was bittersweet because although it was the one I was looking forwards to the most, it was the last one. This excursion was also longer than the previous ones since it was two days instead of one.

On Saturday, we went very early in the morning to Oświęcim (Auschwitz). I had visited this place last year as well, but it was a different experience because last year when I went all the interiours were closed so we could only walk around outside. Still, it was a haunting experience then as it was this time. Our guide was fantastic and had an amazing way of narrating the tour like a story and I really learned a lot from him.

Before I went to Auschwitz last year, my grandma told me about their visit to Auschwitz and how the most striking part for her was seeing the room where they have thousands and thousands of shoes piled up. Since she had told me about it, I was anticipating that part of the tour. It was shocking to see the vast number of shoes collected in one location, each with an owner who didn’t know they would be parting with them. Even though the number of shoes they have is incredible, it is only a small fraction of the shoes that went through this camp. Most of the shoes were grey and worn out, but there were a few that stuck out because they looked almost fancy, as if they were reserved for special occasions. They undoubtedly danced their last dance unaware of their fate.

As we continued on the tour, there were many staircases that we had to ascend and then descend to see new exhibits. I was struck by the fact that each step had two distinct dips, one on the right and one on the left, where so many people had walked that each visit was marked on the stone. It almost made it difficult to walk up the stairs.

Another poignant part of the tour for me was when we went into a hallway where on either side there were photos of people that were taken upon their entry to the camp. They all had shaved heads, striped clothing, and empty faces. Each photo had their birthdate, the reason there were there, and the day they died. One man only lasted one day. There were twin girls with their pictures side by side near the end of the corridor. It stuck out to me because it made me think of my sisters. I wish I had thought to remember their names. Every face on that wall was an individual with a favourite colour, foods they disliked, and dreams for the future. As I have reflected more on the tour, this part stood out to me the most.

Another important moment on the trip was seeing the starvation chamber where St. Maximillian Kolbe stayed during his time in Auschwitz. For anyone reading this who does not know who he is, Maximillian Kolbe was a Catholic priest who volunteered to take the place of a stranger who had a family and had been chosen to die in Auschwitz. He lasted for two weeks in the starvation chamber before he was killed by lethal injection because he had lasted too long.

My roommate was in the same tour group as I was and when I saw her crying as we walked around Birkenau I went to talk to her. She didn’t speak any Polish before coming to the summer school and was here because she got a scholarship and thought it would be an interesting experience. She told me that while she had studied this in school, she had never imagined that she would be in the place where it all happened. Even when we are standing in the same place that other millions did it is so difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the atrocities that happened at this place.

I only took a couple photos in Auschwitz of things that I really wanted to remember and show my family when I return home. Even then, I always had a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I hit the shutter. Our guide kept encouraging us to take photos if we wanted to, but something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. I won’t post any of the photos I took online, which is why I am not including any of the pictures here.

When our tour was over, a number of us took a bus to Kraków instead of going back to the University. My friends from France, Cyprus, and Taiwan were there. It was strange getting off the train in the main train station and having such a familiar feeling. We passed the McDonald’s where the son of my friends worked when I stayed with them last year. As we reached the Rynek (the main square in every city in Poland), the number of people grew exponentially and it was almost overwhelming how many people were milling about. There was some kind of festival with live music and a market happening at that time.

We were really hungry so we went to eat some traditional Polish food (I really wanted to eat something authentic). After we ate, we walked around the market to buy some souvenirs. Last year I bought a calendar for 2017 when I was in Poland and this time I bought the same calendar but for 2018. Maybe I can make this a tradition every time I go to Poland. There was a Hungarian group playing folk music on the stage that was really amazing. I took a video to show my Hungarian friends because they weren’t there with us.

I took my friends to the Leaky Cauldron café in Krakow. My friend from Cyprus is also a huge Harry Potter fan, as evidenced by the plethora of Harry Potter related t-shirts she owns, so it was really great to share my favourite place with pals who appreciated it. They have really improved their decorations and the menu from the last time I was there so I was very impressed. I got the Iced Butterbeer, which is my favourite, and I am happy to say that the recipe for this was not one of the changes they made (since it was already perfect).

After sharing this magical experience, I hopped on the tram to go to my friends’ house for the evening, whom I met last year because they were my host family in Kraków during WYD. Everything was exactly how I remembered it so it was a weird experience. It almost felt like no time had passed since I had been there last. I even slept in the same room I did last time. I ate pierogi (which were heavenly) and fresh plum cake (which was even more heavenly). We drank tea and beer and ate some snacks and it was just so lovely to have a really good conversation.

They speak really good English but I showed them some of my Polish and they said that my accent was really good which made me very happy. Sometimes when we are speaking they do this thing where they can’t agree on the English translation of a Polish word so they get competitive to see who has the correct translation. It’s very amusing to watch. They always say “Czekaj”, which means “wait” when they are trying to think of the English word, and it was very appropriate that we learned the imperative, which is the verb tense of that word, that week in class.

They also introduced me to “Discopolo”, which I had heard before at our university parties but I didn’t know the name. Apparently, it is the kind of music that no one actually likes (and you are shamed for actually liking it), but everyone knows the words to when it is played at a wedding. Kind of like “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”, except no one is ashamed to say they love that song.

I really feel so blessed that I was able to meet this family last year because they really are the kindest, most generous people. I don’t have the words to explain how amazing they are so you will just have to take my word for it. I love just talking with them about their experiences and my experiences and learning from each other. In some ways, I have a bit of a home away from home here in Poland. I’m hoping that I will be able to see them again in the future (soon I hope!) and that my Polish will be better so we can actually have a conversation in Polish. Maybe then I can help translate words between English and Polish.

In the morning after breakfast, it was just me and the younger daughter of the family. She doesn’t really speak English, so I got her to teach me all of the words for the things on the table. We moved onto the living room when we were done. I need to make a list of the words she taught me so I don’t forget them.

I met up with my school that morning and we took a tour of Wawel castle. I was there for three days last year and since it was so busy, I didn’t really get anything new out of it. We had free time later, but since we didn’t have a lot of time, my friends and I just walked around. 

I took them to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarters, which is in my mind a short walk, but not so in theirs. Thankfully, I knew a really good ice cream place in Kazimierz so I think I was redeemed. 

We took the tram back to the centre so we didn’t need to walk more and then we spent our time buying souvenirs, taking photos, and enjoying our time together. It was raining all day which I think made it difficult to really enjoy the city, especially for those who were there for the first time, but I was really glad to be back in my favourite city.

[myheartisbro-ken]

Hi. 💙 I think you said you have classes on Froday, so I hope they were bearable 🐻. Wow, you broke your nose. I've not broken a bone yet. Well, I guess your nose is cartilage or something, but you get my point. I burned myself once as a kid because my Mom said not to touch the clothing iron because it was hot...I then touched the iron to verify that statement. Yeah, I was hot. 🔥😅 Those are some interesting/intense stories for a kid. My grandma more so baked with me...I don't think she told(1)

-me stories as a kid. Maybe of growing up in a farm, idk. You know a lot about the ancestry of the Harry Potter characters. I didn’t realize the Weasleys lineage. I’ve not read the books in forever…I should reread them eventually. Also, have you seen that new fantastic beasts movie? I haven’t. I’m still conflicted on the new school ilvermony school. I need to learn more about it to see if it was actually necessary/well supported with traditions etc. like Hogwarts. Do u like the new one?(2) 💙 I’m going to read up on the Chambers of Secrets Wikia because you’ve made me more interested in it. 🐍 Also, I would probably agree with you on your least favorite Harry Potter film. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I always liked the earlier ones better. I felt the film adaption was a bit stronger. Supercorp 🌈: Yes! I don’t want Lena to be subjected to non-con. As you said, it’d be terrible if they did that to her, especially with fans already grieving over Kara’s character death. 💙 (3) I guess we will have to wait and see how they elect to play it out. Hopefully, they don’t hurt Lena like that. I love her. I’m pretty sure Jack’s going to die in that episode. 💙 Nice choices! Maria Hill is awesome along with Cat and Lois. All good picks. I know a bit about Deadpool (he’s kinda zany). I haven’t seen the film though. Have you seen the new Thor trailer? 🌩⛈ A lot it people are mad they aren’t including Jane or Darcy. 😐 What do u think? I’ll miss them both, especially Darcy. 😊(4) (end) That makes sense. Well, I guess that past is in the past and we will have to let it go~😏❄. (Idk if it’s even obvious what I did.) Hmm, let’s see. My fair lady, I wish you a joyous and blessed day as well as evening. May your path be full of beauteous bounty and unhindered by any toil. (I still have characters). ⚔🛡 Hmm, okay. Morgana deserved better. 🗡 Lucy deserved better. 🌸Zara deserved better. 🐊 Harriet deserved better. 💀 Kate needs a hug.🌈 Offtopic, but Kara deserves better.🌅 💙

I didn’t have class today because it’s a holiday, next Friday as well, which is good since I have to read an entire book so I can impress my teacher (she’s hot, don’t judge me)

I broke my nose, it’s still broken, it’s weird, I can feel it. And both my middle fingers, only bones I actually broke, but I put like over 40 casts on my legs and arms (I stopped counting at 40) I also drank nail polish remover when I was 3 to see what was up with it… not cool.

I don’t she told me the folklore, but she was mostly saying ‘my mom told me these to scare me’. I was scared of sleeping and the dark, so she used to lay down with me and make up stories, I remember a blue rabbit named chico who was friends with a giraffe. 🐰

I haven’t seen the new movies, and I sort of don’t want to. Also didn’t like the new houses, they seem silly, idk. I watched a video about the story of the school and I thought it was sort of dumb.

Oh nooo, the first two movies are the best and the closest to the books. ⚡ Didn’t like what Christopher Columbus did much, but it was a decent movie, PoA. I mean, if you compare it with the first two and take up with the book, it’s too different, but I like the plot and Malfoy getting rekt. ⚡

A minute of silence for Kara’s character development and the feminist part of the show that is now known as The Daxam Prince  😢

…

.

.

.

…

done.

I don’t want to see Lena hurt, but Kara comforting her is a good thing. It seems to be the main thing going around, that jack will die by the end, Idk, I think he could, but who knows. I sort of think Snapper will die because I think it’s him in the car with Kara (haha, Snapper Carr is in the car. I’m a loser, I know).

I really liked Deadpool 💀💩L, it was one of my favorite superhero movies in a while, and I liked how they played the love interest for once, not over dramatic and annoying like say some superman movies did with Lois and MJ for Spiderman or Wolverine origins… yeah, that’s not a good example for anything. It was nice, idk I liked him, they say they are both fucked up and they work because they are fucked up instead of playing it out like a perfect #goals couple, like say Joker and Harley and a couple of aliens who worship a red sun called Rao…👽

Haven’t seen Thor’s trailer, but I really want a superhero movie without an unnecessary romantic plot (looking at you, Age of Ultron). It annoys me how the use every freaking superhero movie basing heavily on the romance and the saving the damsel in distress, guess that’s why I liked Deadpool, his journey is not to save her, it’s to fix himself, yes so he can be with her, but she’s no damsel in distress, even as he saves her she still doesn’t act like a weak girl who falls down a huge height and yells ‘save me [insert superhero name]’ same goes for Peggy, she’s the love interest, but she’s Cap’s equal, she fought alongside with him, she wasn’t saved by him she helped him, instead of being sheltered for protection like most, and she never took shit, and the movie wasn’t too centered on their relationship, they had this little slowburn going on, but it was about Steve wanting to help his countrymen and then saving his friend. But I’ve never been that much into Thor. Darcy is cool though.

You know what’s crazy? I was just watching Frozen with my parents, in fact, they are still watching it. Also it’s kind of unfair because I can’t think of anything cool to say it back in medieval style (only thing that comes to mind are quotes from GoT, that’s not useful here) But I hope you have a cool evening anyways, sorry, I’m sleepy I can’t think.

Okay, Morgana and Lucy totally did deserve better, my poor bbies🌸. Zara was the first woman to die onscreen in a Jurassic movie, so I’m still bitter, like WHYYY did it have to be Katie, but she had fun doing it, so good for her. Hmmmmmmm, well, a hug is not the first thing I think of when I think about Kate 😏 🌈*gay sigh*🌈. Also Kara deserves the whole universe.

Random question, have you read The Cursed Child ⚡ ? If so, what did you think about it?