I hope everybody had a very happy Christmas. To be honest, I'm in the Christmas spirit every year, but my family aren't. Although we put up the generic tree each year, we do not do anything special for Christmas. My Christmas experiences in China are worse.

I grew up in Beijing and I do not remember Christmas during those years. The only Christmas I can remember is when I went back for a visit 4 years ago with my brother. Almost every shop had Christmas lights and greetings up, but there was no sense of Christmas in the air at all. There was not one person that wished me a Merry Christmas, not even my own family. I'm sure there are families that celebrate Christmas in China, but my family does not, and it's a shame as I do not have any Christmas holiday memories from my country. *coughorpresentscough*

That aside, we did go out for a BBQ yesterday. It wasn't for Christmas, however, but for the fact that my parents only get 3 days off work together each year so we invited everybody that worked at our restaurant. It was a fun day, though very windy. I don't know how he managed, but my dad burnt my hand with his cigarette and I'm sure the scar will be shining for a while.

I know, I know, a boring entry, but whatever.

Potter

Wow, another Harry Potter post. Very original, Nina. But hey, it's something to blog about.

We all know that Jo hand wrote 7 copies of Tales of Beedle The Bard, and one of those books were going to be auctioned off for charity. Well, the auction was held yesterday in London and it got auctioned off for £1,950,000 ($3.98 million)! Effing $3.98 million!

And, Mugglecast, again. iTunes names Mugglecast 'Best of 2007'.
Tunes has put together a collection of podcasts that are the "Best of 2007," and Mugglecast is on the list of "Classic" podcasts that are still going strong. Click Here and then scroll down towards the bottom to see them listed.

YAY

So we put up Christmas lights last night (finally!). My dad was madly drunk, and he still insisted on climbing up a ladder. It went fine, thankfully. For some reason, 3 of the lights don't work, but they aren't noticeable, so it all worked out well. But aww, no pictures because I'm too lazy to go get my camera.

Someone needs to seriously recommend me some T.V. shows. I've been meaning to watch.. something but I don't know what. I need to catch up on Prison Break so every time I catch it on TV I don't want to spoil it for myself so I change the channel. Any... shows?

This is going to be a short entry, but for those who are into K-Pop (any?), go check out I The Tri Top's if you haven't already. They are awesome. Don't ask me about the name, I also have no idea.

And end?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

So, this week has not been the best week for me, the main reason being that I found out that the strongest singer in my favourite group was replaced by another, and what's worse is that the company decided to take a person from another group and chuck him in as a replacement. What? This is not the first time a member in this group has left the group - one of the most popular members left back in July. So I'm thinking, this company must be doing something wrong.

And, being a big fan of Harry Potter, I visit HP sites a lot. This piece of news intrigued me.
Having shot a special piece on Wizard Rock back in June, MTV has now released a Top 10 List of their favorite Wizard Rock bands:
1. Switchblade Kittens
2. Harry and the Potters
3. The Parselmouths
4. Remus and the Lupins
5. Ministry of Magic
6. Draco and the Malfoys
7. The Moaning Myrtles
8. Catchlove
9. The Owl Post
10. The Whomping Willows

Not sure if I agree with the list, but hmm...

Apparently, Wizard Rock has become quite the genre. I knew that it was popular and I know a few groups, but I never listened to any of the music. I must say that besides The Moaning Myrtles (great), Remus and the Lupins (awesome) and Oliver Boyd and the Rememberalls (double awesome, and sadly not on the list) none of the other groups appeal to me. Maybe it's the genre, maybe the music, and maybe it's the fact that they're singing about books. Hmm..

Can I just quickly say that I was very surprised that my film got chosen to be made. So random. It's boring, too.

And on an unrelated note, I'm totally sun burnt. T_T;;

Guitar Idol

So firstly, Australian Idol. As all of you should know, the finale was this past Sunday, and Natalie took it out. Despite myself spending money on voting for Matt (a small amount, but still), I was glad that Natalie won the title. I feel as though she wants it more and perhaps even deserves it more, though it's not my place to judge. It's merely my opinion. Some of you guys may know Matt has had some issues regarding Idol, and I feel that he wouldn't of been as... happy (?) as Natalie if he won. So I'm quite happy with the result.
Oh, and can I just say that was some poor stuff from Idol's tech group on Sunday. xD

Secondly, and lastly, something that's been consuming most of my time - Guitar Hero. What an addictive game. I'll admit that I've been spending a lot of time on it, and not just lately. My friend's PS2 has been taking shelter at my house for a while, and I've been indulging in the addiction that is Guitar Hero. She doesn't have the guitar, so I've been using the controls for the game, until recently, when I bought Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the 360. Sadly, my 360 was in the hands of a friend who lives very far for quite a while, so besides the coveted Halo 3, I didn't have any games for it, mainly because I couldn't be bothered buying them. I finally got it back last week, and having bought GHIII a few days prior, I've been playing madly. Though I can only play medium on the guitar (No problem on expert with the controls), it's still very amusing.


So I guess I'll end it here. I'm sorry this hasn't been a very interesting post. Gaming? Idol again?

Bandwagon Goodness

The infamous Matt Corby. You either love him or you don't. Personally, I love him to death. Now, I know quite a few people who don't like him at all. It's understandable; every person has their own opinion, and I can see why some people might not like him. But all I see now is people bashing him because of his hair and clothing style. Of course, that's bound to happen, but it's getting a little bit ridiculous now. If you surf Idol sites and forums, a lot of the discussions are circled around Matt and his appearance.

I try to stay away from Idol sites because they talk about the most ridiculous things, and sometimes I just can't read on.

Anyway, we all know which two Idols are going to the Grand Final - Matt and Natalie. I think they both deserve to be there, and it's what I predicted after Ben left (I originally thought Matt and Ben were going to be the final 2. Or maybe I was just biased seeing as how they're my two favourite Idols). I'm can't say that I'm a fan of Natalie, and I have no idea why. The woman's a great singer, she looks decent and she's got a great personality. But I just can't come to like her. She looked so cute when I met her at the Parramatta event. I kind of even wish I was a fan of her.

So, I think I've ranted enough about Idol (for one week, anyway). So to end this entry, here are the songs Matt and Natalie are going to sing next week.

Matt - Mind’s Eye by Wolfmother, High & Dry by Jamie Cullum

Natalie - Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush (Placebo version) , Apologize by One Republic (Timbaland Remix)

And uh, I've just been hearing One Republic's Apologize everywhere lately. I'm not complaining, it's an awesome song, but it's bound to annoy the hell out of me come 3 days.

EDIT; Okay, I lied, I didn't end the entry with that. I finally got around to changing to design for Green Ice Box. I needed a new header for it, because plain text as a header just doesn't look good. I had some trouble with the colours, as the hex codes I wanted to use wouldn't work. I'm not exactly sure why, but maybe Blogspot has limitations on colours. That's really too bad. ):

Mugglecast Down Under

Being the big Harry Potter fan that I am, I recently (and by recently, I mean a while ago) discovered a particular Harry Potter podcast called Mugglecast. For those who do not know what Mugglecast is, here's the description in a nutshell:

"The number one Harry Potter podcast online. Winner of several podcast community awards and recognition, discussing the latest in Harry Potter
news, theories, rumors, and more!"

The show gets approximately 50,000 listeners per show and they are all ages, ranging from 11 to about 70.

Now, I've become quite the Mugglecast fan, ever since I discovered it back in July. Fortunately for me, Eric, a host of the show, planned to have two live Mugglecast shows in Australia - One in Sydney and one in Melbourne. Of course, I had to go, and I must say, I had a blast. Even though it was only one out of seven of the hosts hosting the show, it was great fun. We basically talked about Book 7, though there were also other discussions, about the podcast itself etc.
I also bought myself a nice little 'Mugglecast Down Under' T-shirt and got it signed. I don't think I'll be wearing it any time soon, though. I don't want the signature to wash off, and also, the T-shirt actually flaunts a silhouette of a Kangaroo on it, which makes me look like a hopeless tourist. x:

Anyway, so if you're a Harry Potter fan, I urge you to go check it out at mugglecast.com.
It's a branch off mugglenet.com, which is the biggest and most popular Harry Potter fan site online.


/endmassiveplug.