I'm going back to ~roryvincent. I apologize for the irritation. The reason I left is no longer a very big deal, and people are more familiar with me there, so I figure it's the logical thing to do.

Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry It won't happen again. And if it does, I'll just throw myself off a building instead of make a new DA, and save you all a lot of time. Lol.

I'm sorry again.

See you back there~

1. Why didn't Luna Lovegood ever put her wand behind her ear? The character and the actress playing her were the uber cutes, but would've been made all the more so if she'd been allowed to do her odd and cute trademark.

2. Why didn't the director ever deem it fit to come back to Cho and resolve her hanging plot lines, once the revelations explaining her behavior were made clear 30 minutes before the film ended? That's bad on so many levels.

3. For fuck's sake, Hollywood, when are you going to give Ginny a role in these movies? I mean, sure, I like her quarter-of-a-second, mid-camera-pan stares at Harry whenever he does something romantic with another girl. But did she have a line in the film ... at all? She did a few spells. But she didn't have one speaking part. Where is she replacing Harry as Quidditch seeker after that bitch of a Professor bans him? Why isn't she shown as suggesting the eventual name for Dumbledore's Army? I can understand omitting the first for time restrictions, but the second would've been simple enough, wouldn't it? And people aren't going to buy Harry and Ginny when you never take the time to create sexual tension. These things don't just happen automatically.

4. Please, can we get a little bit more emphasis on people that have been killed by Riddle? It's not enough that everyone is afraid of him, or that everyone is training so that they can be "ready for him" and his Death Eaters. They should be extremely pissed off, and regularly rallying around fallen characters of earlier books (Cedric especially, and Neville's parents). It would be a little more moving, if not inspiring.

5. I demand more Voldemort-as-Riddle. He was cooler when he looked normal. I always thought it was a mistake for Rowling to turn him into an unidentifiable snake-man. He comes off as a monster, if not more or less than human, then differently human. Extremely powerful badguys are at their best when it is made clear they are *no different* from any of us, except in their powers. I'll be the first to admit, though, the Voldemort v. Dumbledore fight was pretty freaking sweet. The ridiculous powers of Riddle really come across pretty well.

All in all, complaints aside, I liked the movie. It was entertaining. The first one of these I've actually seen in theaters, so that was nice.

*Puts on his Ravenclaw tie.* Ravenclaw for life, bitches. Heil, Luna.

And that is the Specter... of my five-year plan."

That is a cult-reference-joke many will not get. I forgive you.

While I spent the last week in a fit of sickness shaking hysterically on my bed, I had a lot of time to think, and I believe I have sorted out a lot of what I want to get done in the next five-seven years. Some of this may apply to you, if I know you in real life; some of this may interest you, if we're friends regardless; some of this may fly totally over your head and bore you to death: you're likely the luckiest, because you won't have to read this long-winded pontification. If you were unfortunate enough to be caught in either of the former two categories, I have organized this plan/life-reevaluation/treatise-of-hope into blocs, so it will at least be easier for you to navigate. Without any further ado:

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS:
I recently got some exciting news from my mother. She was apparently offered, and accepted, a position in Paris for 8 months (with the option of an additional 8 months) beginning on August 14th. Not only will I be able to visit her for a few weeks at some point during those months, but like the last time she went to France, all her living expenses are taken care of over there, so she still makes more than enough to keep up everything back home. My sister is moving back to my Dad's, because she doesn't trust her here, and my brother is actually going along with her for four months, and then likely moving in with his friend. So, in essence, I shall have a four-bedroom house... to myself. For more than a year. Excuse me while I dance.

I also talked to her about the prospects of Ian and I paying $200 a month for rent -- essentially, asking if it would be all right for him to move in here, since we were planning on getting an apartment with one other person in the next 6-12 months anyway. She was fine with the idea. We don't need a third roommate now, but if we found someone we liked that needed a place, can you imagine the rent? It would literally be something like $125 per person for a four-bedroom house. That's a freaking sweet deal, just going by what I know of the harsh costs of simple apartments in Florida.

I'm going to start saving money immediately for a pool table (goddamn right!), a full-working bar for Ian to practice being a bartender (the drinks never stop!), and an enormous television set (ENORMOUS!). We're going to layer that thing with so many damn video game systems. Seriously, I want hooked up, simultaneously to a bigscreen TV, a Playstation, a Dreamcast, a Super Nintendo, a XBOX 360, and a Wii. I'll make it happen. This abode shall be so ridiculously pimped out...! We'll even have a computer room with Macs (thanks to me) and PCs (thanks to my caveman friend Ian), tee-hee. Now we just need to find a third roommate we like, if we decide to get one. But anyone that qualifies as that generally has other plans. So this may wind up being the ultimate-est bachelor pad evar.

SCHOOL:
I'll keep this brief, since it doesn't need any drawn out explanations. 5 classes a term, done by Summer '08, transfer to UCF in Fall for a degree in Legal Studies, graduate transfer to applicable Law School of the highest caliber in early '11, work as a paralegal during Law School, graduate with a JD in '14, Esquired, Lawyer it up.

WORK:
I was offered a part-time job at my college a few days ago, and I think I'm going to take it. It doesn't pay a lot hourly (just above minimum wage), but it does give me $300 per semester toward school, which will help when I'm taking 5 courses per term. I plan on getting another part-time job in addition, and that should take care of rent (we don't have to pay utilities ), and leave me plenty left over for "life enriching activities" (read: strip clubs? --kidding).

That's about it. Boom-shaka-bang, bitch! I'm excited.

After all the delays, I was finally scheduled for surgery on the 11th, today. Proving yet again that I do have the worst luck of any person in the known universe, after about a year of no sickness of any sort to this point, I get strep throat. Tuesday. A day before my surgery was finally to take place.

Now I've got a rescheduled appointment for surgery on the 25th, a fever and the chills, and I can barely swallow anything.

~_~; Sonfabitch.

I know that I promised not to change my DA user name after the last time, but due to miserable circumstances, I have, again. I'm not capable at the moment of dealing enough with the drama to explain everything in detail, and I doubt many people want to hear another person on the internet bitch and moan about heartache, so I won't bother. Sufficed to say, I'm trying to move on from things -- things to which my former user name and pen name were unfortunately connected. Out of sight, out of mind is my modus operandi. If you know me well, you know that already.

Again, if you're familiar with me, you'll know that I have literally half a dozen pen names at any given time, and I'm constantly adding more when a name strikes me. This one, L.B. Simoni, I've been fond of for quite some time -- it's dignified, looks pretty, and sounds even prettier -- but my attachment to Rory Vincent kept me from switching up. Whereas Rory sounded kind've tacky to me, though I liked it initially, this one really strikes me as a keeper, and I can realistically see myself sticking to it permanently. I hope you think it's neat, but even if you don't, you'll have to cope, because I adore it.

I've sent a note to everyone I would have liked to follow me here, informing them of the move. Hopefully they don't consider it too much trouble, but if they do, that's understandable, and I won't hold it against them.

In any event, I've got plans for a "personal reinvention" journal entry after my surgery on the 11th (yes, it was delayed again). When things change drastically in your life, you've got to reevaluate it and your goals, or you'll be crestfallen and living in the past forever, so that's what I'm working on, emotionally, right now.

I've been working on a few longer story concepts (think novellas) and their corresponding first chapters over the past few days. I'm planning to begin serializing them once I'm out of the hospital. One deals with dreaming and lucidity (vague because I'm pretty proud of the story and I don't want to spoil anything), and the other, set in an alternate future of our solar system, with the murkiness of "gray area" morality. I've got high hopes for both, but the latter has some pretty shocking, horrible twists to it, and I'm not sure how people will take it. (When I told Ian one of the twists, he nearly dropped his cigarette, and just kind've stared at me for ten seconds.)

That's about all I've got to report at the moment. Thanks for listening, and for following me here.

L.B. Simoni. (God, I love how that sounds.)