Trying Different Shampoos Again

The summer is a really shitty time for my hair.  It's constantly frizzy.  Nothing I do really makes a difference.  No shampoo/conditioner/product really gets rid of the frizz.  Even when I tried going no shampoo, my hair was still frizzy.

I bought this Organix shampoo and conditioner called Brazilian Keratin Therapy.  Well, I don't know if I got really hot and sweated a bunch last night or if it was extra humid in the house (even with the air on, it gets damp) but I woke with some pretty terrible frizz.

I've been showering at night as an experiment in waking up with nicer looking hair as opposed to washing it in the morning and letting it air dry.  Gravity is also unkind to my hair (weight of all this hair pulls the waves out.  Laying flat to dry on a pillow allows it to dry nice and wavy without frizz).

This didn't work last night, and I don't know if it was because of the new shampoo and conditioner or if it was just a one off.  I'm going to continue using the stuff until it's gone, but I'm a little nervous that it did something bad to my hair.  Feels like it might have dried it out.  But I'm suspecting that I might have left it in the towel too long before putting my curling creme in it, which I've also found a great balance in using.  My hair feels super soft, but it's still super frizzy.

Once I'm out of this stuff, I might switch to the Macadamia Oil.  Dunno though, have to see if this stuff ever works at all.

Feminist

Most people, Feminists included, don't like that term anymore.  It's gained such a negative connotation, linked to psychotic women that everyone thinks are out of their god damned minds.

Alright fine, let's call it something else.  Equalist?  I'm making that word up now if some random-ass political party hasn't done that already.

I'm an Equalist.  What does that mean?  I think that men and women should be treated equal in everything.  If men and women want to compete together in some sport, they're equal.  No special rules for either gender.  If a man and a woman want to work in the same company, in the same department, doing the same work as one another, they're equal as long as they have the same qualifications, skills, experience, etc.

I even think that both genders, men and women, should get the same time off when they have a baby.  They should both get 3 months.  It's unfair to men that they only get 2 days.  Or whatever it typically is.

Anyway, what really irritates me is that when a woman is accomplishing this equality in a public sphere, the most common thing you will here about her is how attractive or ugly she may or may not be.

How often do you hear that when a man accomplishes something in a public sphere?  When some guy is being interviewed about who cares what, how many people actually say "Jeez, that guy's got a face like a fucking bulldog" or "I'd fuck that guy until the cows come home".

You don't.  You very rarely, if ever, hear that about men in the public sphere.  But if some woman is doing this, especially in a male dominated field, you hear "Holy shit, I can't listen to this old ugly hag, I wouldn't fuck her if my life depended on it" or "Damn, I'd fuck that pussy all night long".

o.O

... da fuq?

The worst example of this is Jade Raymond, managing director at Ubisoft.  She was a Producer on Assassin's Creed and EXECUTIVE Producer on Assassin's Creed II.

This is Jade Raymond.

She's married and has a daughter. :)

Yup.  She's pretty damn good lookin'.  She's got the whole package: intelligence, wit, humor, and beauty.  The problem with that last part though is that whenever there's an article about her or her work, it is entirely derailed by said beauty.

It is hard to find articles about Assassin's Creed or Assassin's II that is centered on Jade that talks about Jade and the game and all the work she's done on them.  It boils down to a bunch of neckbeards saying "hur hur pretty gurl is smrt, so she's even prettier".

I know this is old news (2007?), but it got to the point to where someone posted a rumor that was completely unsubstantiated, stating that Jade was slated to pose for Maxim's December issue of whatever year in which this started.

Ubisoft and Maxim both came out stating that this was not true after the rumor went viral and then these man-children got mad at Ubisoft for "using a pretty woman to promote their game".  AS THOUGH SHE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME, THEY EQUATED HER TO A BOOTH BABE.  (If you don't know what a booth babe is, go look it up, they've been banned at PAX.)

The harassment she faced when she didn't even do anything that warranted any kind of attention (except for, you know, making an awesome video game and being female at the same time) was abhorrent.  Men that do this shit should be ashamed of themselves; they are the lowest scum of the earth, only scant millimeters about those that physically attack women.

So then this whole Anita Sarkeesian thing happened.  Oh you didn't hear about it?  Yeah, that's probably because it's buried in nerd culture so it never really went "viral".  Until someone was so pissed off at her that he created a video game that allows you to punch her in the face and you'll see livid bruising and bleeding as a result of your punching.

His reasoning?  He felt that Sarkeesian was cheating people out of their money with a very selfish goal in mind.  She started a project on Kickstarter to raise money in an effort to create a video that studied the Tropes vs Women in video games.  This man thought that she should just have used her own money to create such content, and that because he felt she was cheating people out of their money to achieve her own ends, created that game.

All that happened, and then Anita raised way more money than she ever thought she would because of all the publicity it garnered.  Now she probably has extra and I just hope she donates it to a charity so she doesn't have to deal with more crap.

I want to know what it is we are teaching boys (children, teens, and young men) that allows them to think this type of behavior is acceptable.  Where are they getting that it is okay to verbally harass a woman simply because she thinks that there are really crappy stereotypes of women in video games and this makes gaming much less enjoyable for women?

I feel bad for these males that are so verbally hostile about this specific topic.  There are gender stereotypes of both men and women in video games.  Any man that says "But what about the mens!?" in response to a woman complaining about female stereotypes in video games has a valid argument.  What guy on the planet wants to be some meat-headed lout that is only good for beating the crap out of the enemy?  Especially when these fictional male characters are given the body that only a fraction of bodybuilders have achieved, I don't blame any guy for speaking up and saying they've got a problem with it, as long as it's done so seriously and not in an effort to mock the feminist.

Men and women need to come together on these stereotypes and abolish them.  No, women, you cannot do it alone.  Do not try to put yourself above men.  That is stupid.  We are equal.  We may not need men to succeed in this, but it will be a much better outcome if the two sexes and come together and say, collectively, we want to put an end to this kind of behavior and content in video games.

I'm not even referring to the shit women have to deal with in the online gaming community.  After learning the hard way, I do not disclose my gender to anyone I don't know on the interwebz unless it's a close-knit guild in which I know act like adults (more often than not, there are other women in the group that have disclosed the fact that they are women and their husband's are usually in the group too).

It's the kind of stuff on the other end of the game, the things that the writers and producers come up with that makes me want to punch a baby:

Yes, she has a chainsaw for a right hand.  I don't know what the glow-y stuff in her left hand is though.

That's Juliet, protagonist of the game Lollipop.  She kicks the shit out of bad guys and rips them up with her chainsaw and has way too large of tits for that upper body size (waist and shoulders are too narrow).  But she does kick some major ass.  It's a very weird game; I'm torn on it's level of female empowerment and the sexism that is totally rampant in the entire concept of the character because, to be sexy you apparently have to have huge tits and be in a state of undress.

She couldn't, for instance, wear proper clothing for going out and beating the shit out of the bad guys with her chainsaw hand.  That's absurd!  Nobody would want to play that game.

Then you get crap like this:

That's the opening credits of Ninja Gaiden II.  A woman, capturing another woman, both of which are showing ample bosom in the process.  Neither of them are properly dressed for any kind of combat action and yet, here they are bouncing around like fucking retards.

The camera forces you to look at the captured woman's breasts as the bounce around.  The character is reduced to nothing but that.  Bouncing boobs.

There's nothing I can do about that.  There's nothing I can do to the camera angle so I don't have to be subjected to that distasteful crap.  Look, I like bouncing boobs as much as anybody else on the planet (really, I do, I have my own, and they're fun), but I like them in certain places.  I don't like them objectifying female characters in video games.  At all.

What I'm really getting sick of is this:

Male ninja

vs

female ninjas

WHAT.

THE.

FUCK.

No.  Seriously.  I want to know why the fuck the gaming industry still has the artistic capacity of a 14-year-old boy that has never seen a real rack before.  And don't even try to argue that the chick on the left is clothed anywhere remotely properly for ninja-type combat, that girl would get the shit kicked out of her after they deflated her breasts first.

I wish I could do that!

There.

That is a real mother fuckin' female ninja.  And she will kick the shit out of anybody.

Holy shit.

SEE!

Kick you in the head!

I want to see THAT in a video game!

I don't condone violence against women.  Don't get that idea out of all this.  However, if you're playing a video game and the story has gotten to the point where the protagonist (usually the character you're playing) is set up to fight against a woman, there should not be a problem with this as long as the fight is well scripted (no boob shots, no nut shots, no pulling hair, and DEFINITELY NO THREATS OF RAPE).

The new Lara Croft game would have been pretty great if it did not have the following:

1.)  Lara Croft grunting and moaning and screaming ever two seconds

2.)  Lara Croft being captured and threatened with rape and you have to fight your way out.

Urgh.  That's just distasteful.  Look, yes rape does occur in the real world.  But so do a shit ton of other really horrible things like genocide and famine and tons of homeless people, and you don't see that kind of shit making it in to a video game (okay maybe some games have hobos on the city streets, but I don't know of any game in which the protagonist is homeless).

Then whats-his-face, the produce of this game, tries to pull a fast one by saying that nobody projects themselves on to Lara's character, they think of themselves as Lara's protector.

WTF I DON'T WANT TO BE HER PROTECTOR, I WANT TO BE HER AND I WANT TO KICK ASS.

-.-

I suppose that's enough for now.

Note:  I started this a few weeks ago and I'm glad I waited to publish it because a lot of new articles have come up with men that are now fed up with all of this sexism because it's making them look like fucking neanderthals.  See, it's bad for both genders, not just womenz.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (3rd Reread)

Last summer, when I was in Canada, I was rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in an effort to prep for the second half of the last movie.  I finished rereading it for the third time earlier this week.

I cannot believe there are so many things that I missed the second time through.  I picked up so many more things on this third reread that I'm really surprised I read books only once now.  I think I need to slow my reading down.  I might be missing out.

I wish I had been able to take notes on my tablet.  Turns out the margin note feature doesn't work on a tablet or other device.  Only works in a browser on a computer.  A couple things that are completely clarified for me now:

1.)  Harry was able to return from death because Voldemort has Harry's blood in him (from Goblet of Fire) which contains Lily's sacrifice.  It had nothing to do with the Resurrection Stone.  It was simply because Voldemort screwed up again.  That which he found unimportant, he never took the time to learn.  However, I also feel that Voldemort using the Elder Wand against Harry when Harry was the correct owner also plays a part.  It even states that when Voldemort tried to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry's "corpse", Harry prepped for the pain, but he felt none.

2.)  Voldemort's curses do not work on the crowed of fighters at the castle when he arrives with Harry's corpse not because he's not the rightful owner of the Elder Wand, but because Harry willingly went to his death, faced it, and died (but returned).  He sacrificed himself to protect them, just as his mother sacrificed herself to protect him.  That is why Voldemort was never able to properly hit Harry, ever, with a spell.  And now all of these people that Voldemort threatened prior to Harry's "death" were protected from Voldemort's curses because of Harry's "sacrifice".

3.)  I really wish the movie had stuck much closer to the book in the last few scenes.  Harry disappearing from Hargid's arms using the Invisibility Cloak would have been much more interesting.  And all hell breaking loose in the middle of that would also have been more interesting.  And the fight ending in the Great Hall would have been really amazing.  As well as the entire conversation Harry has with Voldemort.  I'm not sure why they didn't just use that verbatim.

So a few things that I was unsure about totally and completely make sense now.

I made a bit of a mistake in my review of the previous book.  I made a note in Half-Blood Prince where Dumbledore tells Harry that the night that Voldemort killed his parents and tried to kill Harry himself, he failed in making that last Horcrux that would have given Voldemort seven pieces of his soul (six Horcruxes).

I figured that Dumbledore hadn't yet known at this time that Harry was a Horcrux.  He did.  He was fully aware.  He straight-up lied to Harry to prevent him from learning this too soon.

However, there is also a mistake near the end of this book that states that Dumbledore never discovered the "secrets" that Harry and Voldemort had found of Hogwarts.  This is in reference to the Room of Requirement.  But Dumbledore had discovered.  In Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore goes on a bit of a tangent when telling Harry about a wrong turn he had taken in the wee hours of the night while looking for a toilet.  He turned right in to a most glorious room full of perfect chamber pots.  He went back on several occasions in an attempt to find the room again but to no avail.  Maybe Rowling meant that Dumbledore never truly learned what the room was and how it worked.  But he definitely knew it existed and even hinted at the fact that he understood how it might operate in that the room is not always available and that it might only appear based on the needs of the person searching for it.

Oh well.  Just thought that was a bit curious.

Again, I love this book, it is my favorite.  Goblet of Fire was my favorite until Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows.  But Rowling outdid herself with the last in this series; a more proper ending for this story couldn't possibly exist.  I was glad all over again that Harry didn't stay dead.  It would have been a little anti-climactic, or too predictable.  However, bringing him back from the dead was done perfectly.  No silly ritual, nothing Harry actually had to do.  He simply made the choice to come back because it was available to him due to Voldemort's mistake.

I'm returning to the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series now with The Enchantress.  I'm a little lost in starting it but I'm sure it'll all come back to me soon.

Razer Black Widow Ultimate Keyboard

Last week, my Logitech G15's (first gen) finally took a shit.  The number pad has been having back-lighting issues, flickering on and off, and the keys not responding.  It's gotten to the point now where it's so bad, I can't really even use the number pad reliably.  So I caved and bought a new keyboard for my desktop and shifted the old one up to the music box.

I invested (understatement) in a Razer Black Widow Ultimate keyboard.  It is a mechanical keyboard.  It is very loud when I type.  But after only a day with it, I've gotten used to the feedback and am starting to like it.  And I love the way the mechanical key stroke feels.

I don't use macros much.  And honestly, when I game, I use the Nostromo, which has been amazing in combination with the Razer Naga Epic.  So I simply use the keyboard for communication and some other games that are too clunky on the Nostromo.

Can't really say much else about it except that the first one I bought had faulty back lighting on the Q.  I brought it back and got another one, realizing that the first one was probably open-box (some tape was missing on the internal boxing of the original keyboard).

I'll keep using it and see if anything comes up that bothers me.  So far, it's great.

No Poo Movement Fail

So I was going to do the No Shampoo thing but, in a nutshell, I failed.  Here's what happened.

I was on week two back in June of the No Poo Movement, just before going to Canada.  I hadn't had my hair cut since April, so I went in for a cut.

Well, as they do at salons, if you're getting all of your hair cut and you're like me and have a shit ton of hair, they wash it.  Needless to say, shampoo was used on my hair, regardless of the fact that it may or may not have had sulfates in it.

Prior to this, I was dealing with some greasiness and buildup on my scalp that was becoming unbearable.  You're not supposed to brush your hair anymore either when doing the No Poo Movement. What I don't understand about that is how oils are supposed to travel down the hair shaft to moisturize the rest of the hair. If you have super frizzy hair that's kind of mop like, you know what I mean.  All the grease and buildup just sits at the root of the hair.

Well, I looked for solutions to this and most people, when in transition to no shampoo, use a baking soda "shampoo" and an apple cider vinegar "conditioner".  Really it's like 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water and 1 table spoon of the vinegar to a cup of water as well.

I tried this.  It fucked my hair up terrible.  I have really strange h air.  I'm not even sure if it's frizz or not; I have multiple textures of hair on my head.  Some are very fine and straight.  Some are very course and spiral-like.  Some are so course they look like they couldn't possible have come from my head but a different part of my body that I'd like to not mention.  Yes, some hair comes off of my head looking like that!

So with all these varying textures of hair that make up this incredible mass of hair on my head, it's hard to find products that tame it and keep me looking like I, at least, take care of myself.  Well, the baking soda shampoo rinse whateverthefuckyouwanttocall it destroyed my hair.  It sucked every ounce of moister that was in my hair at the time out of it.  Completely.  The vinegar was too acidic and also acted like a stringent, stripping more oils out of my hair.  But my scalp felt very clean, so I was happy about that.  It even stopped itching.

However, my hair looked terrible after about an hour wrapped up in a t-shirt.  (I was also trying to do the "Plop" method of drying my hair, which accomplished nothing).  My frizzy halo was back in full force.  It was worse than it has ever been in the past.

I highly warn against ever using a baking soda rinse with apple cider vinegar as a conditioning solution.  It does not work for dry hair that needs moisture.

The major problem is that, with going to the No Poo Movement, you're also not supposed to use products on your hair at all.  The transition period was tough as it was, so I continued to put product in the ends of my hair, starting at about the nape of the neck and down through the ends.  Well, that didn't really help ANY of the frizz that surrounds the top of my head.  And I couldn't see that really improving much after a week and a half of no shampoo anyway.

So all this lead up to the visit to the salon, which is always nice; Whitney is a great stylist and knows my hair pretty well.  But with shampooing it, I didn't realize how much of a step backwards that would be.  I also picked up a lightweight cream for my hair that day to try to enhance the curls but tame the frizz.

I later attempted to find a organic product line called Intelligent Nutrients but the salon I went to was phasing it out of their line of products and didn't carry the conditioner anymore.  So I picked up some organic conditioner.  I like the way it smells, and you know, my hair feels super soft, but I still have a terrible frizz halo all over my head.

While in Canada all I did was rinse my hair with water and used conditioner once out of the three showers I took there (over a period of 8 days).  By the second shower, when my hair had dried, it was so oily and greasy and felt so incredibly unclean and itchy that I could stand it.  I caved and stole some of Melinda's shampoo (she offered when I complained to her about it) and took another shower the following evening.

I'm back on shampoo now.  Currently I'm switching between Nuetrogena's T/SAL for scalp cleaning (I'm almost positive I have like eczma of the scalp) and L'Oreal's Sulfate-Free Ever-Creme shampoo, which is supposed to be super moisturizing.  And I still use the organic conditioner once a week.

But the frizz hasn't changed at all.  Really, it hasn't gotten any better (except for when it recovered from the dry-shocked it experienced with the baking soda rinse), and I'm back where I started.  I don't know if I can live completely product-free when it comes to my hair.  That first week and a half without shampooing was okay, but I don't think I could NOT put product in my hair after getting out of the shower.

I've tried this on occasion and I've experienced something very interesting.  When I shower at night and go to bed within an hour of doing so, my hair is still pretty wet (even if I leave it in a towel the whole time).  I make sure I don't sleep on the length of my hair, but keep it lifted up away from my head, so I'm only sleeping on the roots.  The hair dries over night and frankly, looks fucking baller first thing in the morning.

Within five minutes of waking up and getting dressed, frizz will appear out of no where and the awesome beach bummy waves that were there a few minutes ago fall lank and I end up with triangle-head (big bulky poofy hair at the ends that narrows and lays flat at the top of my head).

I tested this again last night after having this experience a few times; I put product in it this time before going to bed (that same cream I bought at the salon) and then immediately upon waking up went in to the bathroom, parted my hair where I wanted it, and then sprayed the shit out of it with my hair spray (Bumble and Bumbles soft but strong hold.  It's the non-sticky stuff).

That accomplished nothing but preventing the frizz from setting in until I went into to my car.  Living in Minnesota has it's pluses (really awesome diversity in seasons) but the one thing I hate the most is the fact that winter lasts 9 months, spring and fall are usually skipped, and summer lasts only 3 months.  And the biggest gripe is that it's ridiculously humid throughout the entire summer.  So my hair simply doesn't do anything I want it to.

So with that absolute failure, I've gone back to shampoo.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I just finished reading this book over lunch and I'm reeling a bit.  It's a very emotional book, the ending is a very profound turning-point for Harry and was difficult to read without breaking down into tears.

This book was one of which I remembered least in the entire series.  There are very distinct things that happen in each of the first three novels.  The fourth was my favorite before the last book was released.  And I prefer the movie of the fifth book over the book itself.  I think I must have read Half-Blood Prince so quickly after it had come out that I didn't absorb anything from it.

This time I did.  It is so vastly different from the movie.  I loved this book so much and enjoyed every second of it.  Slughorn, Potions, the Half-Blood Prince, Felix Felicis, Dumbledore's private Lessons with Harry.

What I love most about this book was how deep Harry and Dumbledore delve in to the psyche of Voldemort.  We learn so many things about him, first about his mother and grandfather and uncle, then about the child Tom Riddle, and then the teenager, the adult, and then finally the monster he becomes.

Harry and Voldemort are alike in so many ways yet so dissimilar at the same time.  Both orphans, raised in unpleasant environments, owning little, nothing belonging to them.  But for two children to grow up in similar circumstances, Harry and Voldemort turn out to be the two complete opposite sides of the same coin.

Reading about Voldemort's early obsession with objects, trinkets, of which he stole from other children at the orphanage was creepy.  I know it's kind of creepy in the movie, but it's creepier reading about it.  That leering, excited smile that Tom has when he is overly enthused turns his perfect features in to a mask of ugliness.

Attending Hogwart's at the behest of Dumbledore, he is a top student, Prefect, and Head Boy.  He seemed to far exceed Harry in academic capacity, but had no friends.  Those that associated themselves with Tom did so out of fear and coercion or because they were weak themselves and wanted to be associated with a strong leader.

Harry is completely the opposite.  He knows love.  He has friends that love him deeply.  Tom loved no one, and no one loved him.  Only one person on the planet ever cared for Tom, and that was Dumbledore.

Reading memories of Tom's time at Hogwarts was enlightening all over again.  Just like Harry, Tom felt that Hogwarts was his first real, and only, home.  But no two people were ever as different as Harry and Voldemort were.

While reading these memories I found that one thing the movie lacked was the emphasis on Horcruxes.  There were only a few brief mentions of them.  They were actually much more important in this book than I remembered.  So I started thinking about them again and, when reading about the memory of Slughorn's in which Tom asks about Horcruxes, I realized there was something very important here.

Tom wanted to know if it was possible to split his soul into seven pieces, since seven is such a magically strong number.  Slughorn, aghast, didn't quite elaborate on this, only stuttering about killing that many people to achieve such ends and that no wizard has ever done something like that.

This idea embedded itself at that time into Tom's mind.  He was hell-bent on creating seven pieces of his soul using six horcruxes and the remaining seventh piece of his soul in his body.  He had already started on this adventure, for by that time he had created his first Horcrux: his grandfather's ring.

Tom had returned to Little Hangleton prior to his fifth year at Hogwarts.  He murdered his Muggle father and grandparents.  This was a very significant death for him and with it, he turned the ring into a Horcrux.

The second Horcrux was his diary, using the death of Moaning Myrtel during his sixth year at Hogwarts after successfully opening the Chamber of Secrets.

At this point, his Horcrux count is already at 2.

So I decided that, while reading the rest of the memories, I'd piece together exactly when each Horcrux was created so I can see if Voldemort ever reached his goal of six Horcruxes (seven pieces of his soul).

Shortly after leaving Hogwarts, and after being denied a teach position at the school by Dippet as well as Tom himself turning down a few Ministry positions, Tom is stated to have disappeared for a few years.  It is at this time that an Albanian peasant was murdered and Ravenclaw's Diadem was turned in to a Horcrux.


Horcrux Count:  3


Tom returned to London and went to work at Borgin and Burkes.  He was being repeatedly sent to an old woman named Hepzibah Smith at the behest of the shop owner to obtain powerful magical artifacts from her home, of which she was loaded.

The last time he visited her, she showed him her two most prized treasures: a gold cup with the symbol of a badger on it, Hepzibah claimed it was Helga Hufflepuff's, from whom she was descended; a locket with a serpentine S on it, Hepzibah claiming it to be the locket of Salazar Slytherin himself.

Again, Tom's passion for trinkets and trophies seizes him and he must have them, especially because he felt he had a right to the locket since it was originally his mother's.  Two days later, Hepzibah was found dead, and the case was similar to the death of the Riddle's (Tom's father and grandparents).  Tom had modified Morfin's memory to make him believe he had killed them, and he confessed.  Tom had modified Hokey's, Hepzibah's house-elf, memory to make her believe she had poisoned Hepzibah by mistake, and she confesses.

After doing a little digging, I determined that the cup was turned in to a Horcrux first using Hepzibah Smith's death.  Tom later found a Muggle tramp, killed her for what appears to be no good reason, and turned the locket in to a Horcrux at that time.

Horcrux Count: 5

When I got to this point, reading Harry and Dumbledore's theories on further Horcruxes, I continued to piece the puzzle together.  He has undergone most of his physical transformation due to the ripping apart of his soul and looks not much like his former self.  He returns to Hogwarts once more to ask for a teaching position, and Dumbledore sees right through this.  However, after Dumbledore and Harry revisit this memory, Dumbledore's conclusion was that Voldemort's desire was to return to the school and remain in an attempt to search for two more items to turn in to Horcruxes, when in all actuality, he only required one.  And on top of that, the whole reason he returned was to simply hide the Diadem in the room of requirement.

Voldemort, at that point, is one Horcrux shy of seven pieces of his soul (six Horcruxes).  Many years after achieving the fifth Horcrux, Voldemort sets out with information from a prophecy Snape overheard, to kill Lily and James Potter, and their one-year-old son, Harry.

He kills James, then Lily.  He turns his wand on Harry, and the Killing Curse rebounds upon Voldemort, tearing his body to pieces.  There is nothing left but that sixth, now seventh, fragment of his soul, and so he flees.

There is a phrase in the sixth book that makes me laugh at this point.  Harry and Dumbledore are discussing the night of Harry's survival, and Dumbledore states:

"He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths.  You would certainly have been that.  He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined.  He believed he was making himself invincible.  I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death.  As we know, he failed ..."


Wrong.


Voldemort unknowingly succeeded in his plan in creating a sixth Horcruxes, achieving seven pieces of his soul, by turning Harry himself in to a Horcrux.


Horcrux Count:  6


However, Voldemort's physical body is ruined.  He doesn't regain his body until after one Horcrux is destroyed.  So now we venture down that time-line.


Eleven years later, during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets is reopened through the powers of Voldemort's diary.  Ginny Weasley was being controlled by the diary, carrying out its bidding, and creating quite a mess.  Harry destroys the diary with a basilisk fang, shattering that piece of Voldemort's soul.


Horcrux Count:  5 

Two short years later, Voldemort returns to his full body, but not before he creates Nagini-The-Snake-Horcrux with the death of Bertha Jorkins.

Horcrux Count:  6

Voldy then gains his full body back at the end of that school year during the final Triwizard Tournament test.  It is here that Voldemort, with a full body back, and six Horcruxes, is at the height of power.

And all through Order of the Phoenix, Harry feels it.  He can feel it seething within him, raging, nearly exploding with desire to rip and tear apart Dumbledore when he they make eye contact for the first time the entire book.

At the end of that summer, as Harry prepares to enter is sixth year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore finds the ring and, with the help of Professor Snape, destroys it.

Horcrux Count: 5

And wouldn't you know it, Harry is no longer a moody prat for an entire book!  Actually, he seems to be quite a reasonable young man considering his godfather, the last remaining "family" he could have, was murdered only a few months ago.

/facepalm

The rest of the Horcruxes are destroyed in a random fashion, each by a different person as they are found (and an implement is available with which they can destroy a Horcrux).  The actual locket is finally retrieved after about half of Deathly Hallows passes.

Horcrux Count: 4

They obtain the Cup and destroy it as soon as Ron and Hermione can obtain a basilisk fang.

Horcrux Count: 3

Harry finally remembers that he saw the damn Diadem in the Room of Requirement his previous year at school, and Crabbe's Fiendfyre spell destroys it.

Horcrux Count: 2

Harry, now with the Resurrection Stone in hand, willingly faces his death, having learned that he is a Horcrux and is killed by Voldemort.

Horcrux Count: 1

Neville remembers Harry's instructions, and when all hope was lost, PULLED GRYFFINDOR'S FUCKING SWORD OUT OF THE SORTING HAT and chopped off the head of Nagini.

Horcrux Count: 0

Harry, returned from the dead, kills Voldemort with his (Voldy's) rebounded Killing Curse, again, but this time ol' Voldy's left with no Horcruxes and actually dies.

The end.

Needless to say, I love this damn book and am very glad I reread it because a lot of stuff makes even that much more sense.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Last night, which was Sunday, June 17th, I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ... thankfully.

The book was pretty much as I remembered it in terms of tone: very depressing.  The entire book was a lesson in moody teenage drama.  However, I learned something new this time around.  I realized that Harry's incredibly down-trodden and pissy mood the entire book (excluding a few rare times where he did smile actually) was due to the fact that Harry is a horcrux.

It's not even that Harry and Voldemort are "connected".  That barely scrapes the surface of what is going on in Harry.  A scene from the movie that, sadly, isn't in the book is a conversation between Harry and Sirius, where Harry asks Sirius if he's turning "bad", if he's becoming like Voldemort because he always feels so angry and frustrated about everything.  Sirius explains to Harry that people aren't inherently good or bad.  It's the things that we do that make us such, one or the other.

This is the crux (pun intended) of the whole book.  Voldemort eventually learns the Harry has the ability to see in to his (Voldy's) mind during times of hightened emotion (angrer or pleasure).  With that, he convinces Harry that he's captured Sirius and is torturing him (Sirius) to get Harry to come to The Department of Mysteries.

So as a plot device, I get Harry's mood now.  It totally makes sense.  BUT, I truly hate hate hate the plot of this book.  There is one glaring hole in it that I cannot stand.

The prophechy is contained in a glass sphere that is held in The Deparment of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic.  The only people allowed to remove the sphere containing the prophecy are those of which the prophecy speaks.

Asked in the book by who I don't remember is why Voldemort doesn't just go get it himself?

Seriously!  Why doesn't he?!  What the fuck?!  When Harry shows up with his crew, the Ministry is EMPTY.  There isn't a single living soul in there until we find out there are Death Eaters present.

Oh so the Death Eaters found it okay to be in there, but Voldemort didn't?  Voldemort, who is probably a master of disguise and concealment when it comes to shit like this, won't go in there, by himself WHEN THE PLACE IS FUCKING DESERTED?!

The prophecy is also absolutely useless to Voldemort, too!  Even though he didn't hear the rest of the prophecy, he's fulfilled it now and the only thing he can gleen from it is the fact that either him or Harry will have to die in order of the other to continue living.  He's already hell-bent on killing Harry anyway so why the fuck is that even important?  Oh wait, it's not.

So the plot point that thoroughly irritates me in this entire book is why Voldemort tricked Harry at all and why the hell didn't he just go down there and get the damn prophecy himself?  When the entire place is completely deserted and the DEATH EATERS MANAGED TO GET IN UNDETECTED as well as SIX FIFTEEN-SIXTEEN YEAR OLD KIDS, why wouldn't Voldemort just pop on in, find the sphere, and head out.  Nice and clean.

And fo realz, why did Sirius have to die?  There is no point.  All it serves is to make Harry even pissier and moodier and angstier than he already is.

For some reason, I thought Harry was the only person who could pick up the sphere with the prophecy in it, but now I think that's wrong.  The prophecy has both Voldemort and Harry as its subjects.  So, I'm almost positive either one of them could have picked it up.  Maybe Voldy didn't know which one it was, or where it was for that matter.

But then how was Harry having dreams about number ninety-seven?  Voldemort was planting those visions in him, he (Voldy) had to know which prophechy sphere it was.

What bothers me more is that Voldemort does show up eventually, but only until after all the damage is done.  What a big chicken-shit.  Dumbledore shows up and just about kicks his ass, and he turns tail and runs when the fight goes south for him.  Yeah, that's cute.  Show up when it isn't important any longer (prophecy sphere was shattered at that point) and get in a fight with your second-in-line arch nemesis, the most powerful wizard ever.

Voldemort is an idiot.  He could have kept ALL of those Death Eaters out of Azkaban again if he hadn't had them do his dirty work.  He could have just taken the damn prophecy sphere himself, listened to it, put it back and poofed away again.  DUMB.

So yeah, I hate this book, and hate that Sirius died.  Oh and I hate it when Harry and Ron don't listen to Hermione.  That is incredibly annoying, too.

Note: This is being posted nearly half a month after finishing it.  I was in Canada when I finished it and immediately started in on Half-Blood Prince.  I'm almost done with that one, probably will finish today and do the write-up.