Pottermore - Goblet of Fire - Section 1

Intro

That's right, it's time again for another Pottermore Update! This came out yesterday and I figured I'd go through the sections that had interesting new stories/information attached to them and tell you what you should definitely check out, if collecting stuff and looking at all the pretty art isn't your thing.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, please leave the blog, read it, and come back. I will inevitably spoil things because of the overall nature of Pottermore and because I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews and what not.

The Weasley's Arrive

The first thing you'll want to click on is the fireplace. There's an interesting little article-thing on the Floo Network. We get a story about a woman who, after ending up in the altogether wrong fire, essentially ditches her husband for the man who's fire she ended up in. The story is, of course, a lot more interesting when you read it, so I encourage you to do so.

I was pleasantly surprised by the two sound clips found after the main article. J.K. Rowling herself tells the story I mentioned above and talks about her inspiration for the Floo Network! The sound clips are in English only, though there are transcripts provided. I'm not sure if the transcripts translate, but I'm sure someone's done that somewhere if you don't read English.

After checking out the Floo Network article, be aware that there is a very loud crash that happens when you click the fireplace again. I jumped a couple times when things crashed and fell so I figured I'd warn you.

The Misty Moor

Again we get an article/story about wizarding transportation. This time, it's Portkeys. The short tale is about a pair of dog walkers who end up at a Celestina Warbeck concert. One of the Muggles writes a Muggle version of Warbeck's "Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love."

Also, because of my rabid listening to Mugglecast and using Mugglenet.com as a resource for my Harry Potter goodness, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Emerson Spartz, the founder of Mugglenet, got a mention at the end of the Floo Powder article.

The Campsite

Okay so... Pottermore is gorgeous. Like, I'm extremely impressed by the artistry that goes into it. Yesterday I was extremely impressed with The Campsite scene. It was the most gorgeous piece of artwork I've seen on Pottermore. It's a lot cooler than how the scene looked in my head and on film. All the tents mentioned in the books are there. And I thought the clover-covered tents looked rather like Hobbit Holes. It was gorgeous. If you don't look at anything else I've talked about today, go have a look at this scene.

Of course, the gorgeous artwork made a perfect place to have an article about colors in the Harry Potter books. There's a bit of discussion about why wizards prefer emerald green and purple, why Aunt Petunia's house is largely salmon and peach, and what the colors of the Hogwarts Houses represent.

The Golden Stadium

The only thing I have about this section is a warning. The crowd noise is really loud and it's hard to find the items to pick up.

Morsmordre

Yeah... another gorgeous piece of artwork that looks a lot better than it ended up looking on film. The Dark Mark is just so sparkly!

A Hundred Horseless Carriages

I liked the artwork in this scene. It was really intricate-looking. However, I didn't want to stay on this page even long enough to grab my items because the sound of the storm was ridiculously loud. Pottermore seriously needs a volume control thing.

Housekeeping

Okay so... I apparently missed that The Vampire Diaries was premiering tonight. Thank you, Vampire Hype for making me look it up. I am planning to watch it live and review it tomorrow... and I suppose I'll rewatch The Originals pilot as well, and re-review that... maybe. Next week, however, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland takes precidence over TVD and so I'll switch to reviewing TVD on Saturdays.

From here on out, due to the usual length of my reviews, I'll be putting each one in a separate post. Unless I get lazy, and then I won't.

Love ya, Jessie

deviantART Folder Descriptions

Intro/Overview

I am addicted to browsing deviantART. I totally admit to this. I'm not ashamed of enjoying art.

If you aren't familiar with deviantART, you should get familiar. It's awesome. However, in order to show your appreciation for the art you like, you either have to add it to your "Favourites" or comment on it. I prefer adding things to my "Favourites." I've also gone and divided my "Favourites" into a bunch of folders with rather generic titles that can sometimes be confusing because a title is just a title and not a description.

The mood struck me today to go ahead and give descriptions for my deviantART folders for both my personal gallery and my favorites. So that's what I'm going to do with this blog post.

Personal Gallery

Avatar Art

I do art for the people of Gaiaonline and myself based off our avatars on the site. Mostly, this gallery contains ponies, because I specialize in turning your humanoid avatar into a pony-shaped version. "If it exists, there's pony of it." - Rules of the Internet #780

Commissioned Murals

I sometimes do murals for people. This includes painting furniture in a mural-like format.

Painted Corkboard

Corkboard can be both functional and pretty. The corkboard I've painted goes here.

Icons

I discovered how to further personalize my computer with icons and decided to make my own to fill in the gaps from the other sets I found.

Sketches

Where my pencil-on-paper art lives.

My Little Ponies

Any My Little Pony art I've done goes here, even if it's also in the Avatar Art folder.

Perler Creations

I like messing around with Perler Beads. Anything I've made with Perler Beads gets to live here.

Customs

I sometimes customize My Little Pony figures, mostly with paint.

My Room Murals

My bedroom is covered in murals I created with a lot of help from my friends.

Miscellaneous

What the title implies, essentially. Anything that doesn't fit in the above categories lives here.

"Favourites" Gallery

MLP

Anything that features canon My Little Pony art goes here.

OC Ponies

Every fandom has it's own sheaf of Original Charaters. Ponies created by the fandom go here.

Crossovers

Art featuring things from two or more fandoms goes here.

Humanized

People like to take ponies and redrawn them as though they were human. At least, that's how this folder started out. Might also contain humanized Pokemon or something.

Comics

My favorite webcomics that are posted on deviantART.

Customs and Sculpture

A catch-all for custom toys, sculpture, books, plushies, etc.

Cosplay

A catch-all for people in costumes or fur-suits.

Anime or Game Based

If it's Anime, it goes here. If it's based on a board game, it goes here. If it's based on a video game, it goes here. If it's Pokemon, it goes here.

Animals

I love looking at animal photography and art.

Miscellaneous

If it doesn't it anywhere else, it goes here.

Book Based

Uhm... yeah... this started as a place to put my favorite Harry Potter art and then morphed into anything that could come out of a book, but it's still mostly Harry Potter art.

Superhumans

If the character comes out of a comic book, it finds its way to this folder.

Landscapes and Buildings

Photography, art, or renderings of landscapes, buildings, and other stuff related to those two things.

Doctor Who

I'm a Whovian so it follows that I'd like Doctor Who art.

Jewelery

Shiny stuff you can wear.

Clothes

People make pretty wearable stuff that doesn't necessarily have to be used for Cosplay but sometimes is... and stuff.

Tutorials and Patterns

A depository for stuff I'm using to learn how to do art.

Gender Bent

Anything that was male is now female and vice versa. "For every male character there is a female version. No Exceptions." - Rules of the Internet #63

Disney Based

If Disney made a version of it, that version has then been used to create art.

Resources

Textures, brushes, stock images, etc.

Conclusion/Housekeeping

Did I mention that I'm extremely organized and annoyed that deviantART doesn't have folder descriptions? Yeah so... if you'd ever taken a look at my "Favourites" and wondered why a certain piece went where I put it, now you know... unless I made a mistake, which I am sort of prone to...

Also, have I mentioned I take commissions? If you're interested, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do for you.

Uhm... I think that's pretty much it for now... I'm just about to finish the first Season of Batman Beyond, so I'll be reviewing that in the very near future... and jumping on a couple book reviews I haven't gotten around to yet...

Love ya, Jessie.

Things That Annoy Me: Internet Stuff

GIANT DISCLAIMER

• This will basically be a rant. A well structured rant, but a rant nonetheless.
• This is what happens when TV shows go on hiatus and I start thinking about stuff.
• I know I'm not going to change anything be writing this, I just feel the need to get it out there.
• Don't send me comments about how wrong I am about this stuff... I don't care and will ignore you.
• All opinions expressed here are opinions. If you don't know exactly what "opinion" means, you need to go look it up.
• There's swearing. Deal.
• There's also some over-explanation just in case people don't know what I'm talking about.

 INTRODUCTION

As stated in the disclaimer, this is what happens when TV shows go on hiatus. I start thinking about stuff that really has nothing to do with anything else I might post about. This time, I started thinking about the internet and how people interact with other people through it... and whatnot.

PAYING FOR PIXELS

What annoys me most about people paying for pixels is that they then get pissed off when whatever they paid for doesn't then pay off for them in turn.

Example: I play OviPets. OviPets uses credits as their currency. There is only one currency. You either spent tons of time "turning eggs" to get credits or you pay for credits. Credits are used to buy traits for your pets. These traits can then be passed on to the offspring of the pets. Credits are also used to generate and research pets. It takes a lot of credits to essentially get exactly what pets/traits you want. Also, unless you pay actual money for credits, you can't do anything with your earned credits but research, generate, and trait your own pets. You can't "buy" pets from other people using credits.

Still the Example: One of my friends on OviPets got annoyed because she spent a lot of actual money to get credits to pay for a "project" and no one was "buying" the results of that project. I saw her complaining about this and thought to myself: "Most players aren't paid players and therefore can't buy your pets. Also, you paid for pixels. Essentially nothing. So... why don't you just stop spending money on the game. It's obviously not worth it."

I didn't articulate this to her, of course, but you get my point, right? Yes, actually paying for pixels supports the webite/game/whatever but at the same time, it's completely within that website/game/whatever's rights to just up and shut down, leaving you with less money and none of those pixels you paid for. I'm not sure if people don't understand this or think their website/game/whatever won't go under or live up to expectations.

My personal feelings: Don't actually pay for something you're not going to get physically if you're the type who's going to get pissed at companies for doing what they do. Or, if you are going to actually pay for pixels, make sure you really, really like the thing you're paying for and that the thing is stable.

OTP FIGHTS

Most people probably aren't familiar with the term: OTP. OTP is an acronym standing for "One True Pairing." The term is mostly thrown around by people in fandoms who write fanfiction or have very strong opinions about which characters should be in a pairing together. I hadn't actually heard it until I started listening to podcasts run by people who were very immersed in the fanfiction scene.

Anyway, OTP fights border very closely to evangelical religious types. "Let's take this thing and shove it down your throat 'til you either get pissed or start agreeing with me."

I just don't understand why people get into fights over them. Granted, I have a few OTPs myself, but a) I have very few of them and b) I'm not going to shove them at you and make you believe they are THE OTP.

HEADCANON WARS

This basically goes along with the OTP thing. A "head-canon" is something your head does to explain why something happened or how something you would like to have had happen in actually canon came to be in your head. Basically: fanfiction.

People get so attached to their head-canon that they will argue with you about it for hours on end until you either agree with them or get the hell out of the conversation. No one wins these things. People walk away with basically the same head-canons they came into the fight with.

Even worse, people create a head-canon that ends up not meshing with what the original content ends up being. Example: Vinyl Scratch/DJ-Pon3 from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic cartoon. Vinyl Scratch wears these sunglasses all the time. We, as a fandom, had no idea what color her eyes were. We sort of collectively decided that Vinyl's eyes were red, because they looked cool with her white coat and bright blue mane. However, Hasbro had other ideas and her eyes ended up actually being magenta. Hello giant uproar. Hello disgruntled fans.

SHOWING DISABLED CHARACTERS IN CARTOONS

Of course, talking about My Little Pony brings me to talk a little about "The Derpocalypse." And yes, I will be using the not exactly PC term of "disabled" because that's the word I've used all my life and I don't see a problem with using it.

Okay so... there's this pony who started out her life as an animation error. One of her eyes pointed up and the other one pointed down. She's this gray pegasus with a blond mane and gold eyes. The fandom took her and named her "Derpy Hooves" because her eyes are, as the internet has coined, "derped." She appeared in a lot of episodes in the background, as a lot of ponies do. But then there was this episode in which she got to hang out with Rainbow Dash for a bit. Derpy was clumsy, oblivious, cute, and actually got her name. Her voice was done by the same woman who voices Rarity, though she sort of talked in a sleepy drawl that might have made Derpy sound disabled in addition to her eyes being funny and all the clumsyness. Otherwise, Derpy was treated as just another pony. Yes, Rainbow Dash got annoyed when she kept breaking stuff, but she wasn't sent to sit off in a corner with "safety scissors and glitter."

Cue overprotective mothers calling Derpy offensive. Cue the episode being pulled. Cue the episode being slightly re-written and slightly re-voiced. Cue episode being re-released and aired with the new edits. Cue fandom losing their shit.

Derpy lost her name and now sounds like a blond airhead. Yeah... cuz that's not at all stereotypical or offensive or anything. All Derpy merchandise has now been labeled "Best Pony"... not that it was ever labeled "Derpy," but that would have been nice.

My point, I guess, is that there is more wrong with disabled characters not being shown in kids cartoons, or in fact in most TV shows or movies, than there is with them not being shown at all. At most, there's that one kid in Glee with Down Syndrome and a random smattering of people in wheelchairs. I personally have a more realistic expectation of disabled people by being around them than I do from watching TV.

And no, I'm not saying TV is realistic at all, I'm just saying it's ridiculous how upset people get over "offensive" content.

THE END

Okay so... yeah... that last one was only tangentially internet related, but my point is still valid, I believe. But yeah... that's it from me for tonight.

Love ya, Jessie.

 P.S. Derpy Icon by Pix3M of DeviantArt.