Saving the environment

one tree at a time.

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is attempting to set a world record by planting 10 million trees in a single day on Tuesday- July 31. It is an effort to be applauded whether they set the record or not. The previous record by the way is 852,587 trees, planted in 6,284 locations in Tamil Nadu state in 2006.

Trees and vegetation provide us with the oxygen we breath. Just as important, trees and vegetation inhale the carbon dioxide we exhale. It's a nice cycle as we provide what the other needs to live.

But as the earth's population of humans continues to increase, the earth's population of trees continues to decrease. That isn't a formula for success. We hold the future of the world in our hands today. It is nice to see the reforestation effort by India and others.

There are no easy solutions to the world's problem with environmental pollution. Countries that are poor are often asked to bear a larger portion of the social costs of preventing deforestation. Why? Because the richer nations have already cut their trees and profited by it -- at least in some forms -- while the poorer nations did not and still have their trees. They are now asked to not cut theirs so that the damage can be halted. The solution? Support reforestation and support efforts to slow down the cutting of the rain forest and other old wood forests that remain. But recognize we are asking those nations who have the rain forests such as brasil to do what many of our nations did not -- protect our forests.

Planting trees like the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is doing is a step in the right direction. If the world is to survive, we must learn to live in harmony with nature. We must give back and not just take. Economic interests of today must be weighed and balanced against the costs to the future generations of tomorrow. And those asked to make the economic sacrifices of today, should in some way be compensated. But the costs to the environment of economic development should never be ignored. We should all bear the burden of saving the environment.

So say a big Thank You to India and its officials for bearing some of the burden we all owe to life here on Planet Earth. And if you have the opportunity, plant a tree.

A Journey into Forgetfulness

A Journey into forgetfulness

Have you ever had an experience where you knew …

The name of the person, it was on the tip of your tongue as they say, but ….it just eludes you, just stays slightly beyond your grasp.

Or you just had those car keys, sun glasses, …. but now what did you do with them? Where did you put them?

Now imagine …. that is your life. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, that is your life.

You just can’t quite recall. It is something you should know but. …. It eludes you.

And day by day, week by week the things that slip just into the shadows of your mind where you can sort of glimpse them but can’t quite make out what they are grow and grow and slip further and farther away.

Alzheimer’s


I had promised my next blog would have a more serious subject - Alzheimer's. After thinking it over, I decided to create a stand-a-lone blog just for Alzheimer's. My father has Alzheimer's. If you have a family member or friend who has Alzheimer's or cares for a victim of Alzheimer's, please visit and participate in this blog. It is truly a debilitating disease. The blog is called Living With Alzheimer's and the above post is identical to the first post there.

One last Harry Potter blog - It's the Little Things

One last Harry Potter blog --

at least for now. The next blog is planned to be about a more serious subject although it does have a Harry Potter connection. Alzheimer's. The connection with Harry Potter? It is the model JK Rowling uses for Neville's mother.

Back to Deathly Hallows. Some people have questioned WHY? Why are you and others disappointed. So I have decided to try and answer. This next part is from what I posted recently on orkut's Harry Potter for Adults
(with a few modifications):

If you were the parents of Hermione, would you be excited if she suddenly had test scores that were acceptable rather than outstanding? Wouldn't you be just a bit disappointed? Wouldn't you expect more from her?

Never in 6 books did JKR write anything that was not completely consistent with what she had previously written. She was no average writer. She excelled at writing a story that was interesting yet complex. She gave details and dropped hints and clues and always when you looked backward you could see how everything aligned and made sense.

Book 7 departs from that. Suddenly things that should not happen, happen; things that should, don't.

IF this had been the first book I had read of JK Rowling I would be happy. It is better than most of the books I read. But it is not to the higher level she has previously written. It is like Hermione getting a mediocre grade rather than outstanding. Something is just out of whack! It doesn't fit.

Entertaining? Sure. Just as the movies are entertaining. Are the movies as good as the books? No. Do they make as much sense as the books? No. Is this book as well written technically as the previous 6? No. Does it make sense as the previous 6 books? No.

There are parts of the book that are signature JK Rowling. Maybe 90 percent or more. But it is those bits and pieces that just do not fit that bring it down for those of us who loved her because of how well she wrote, how consistent she was.

It's the little things. JK Rowling has always been a master writer of the little things. It is one of the reasons I loved reading her books. In book 7, the little things are what disappoints. They are no longer consistent. The story is still good but not as good as if the little things remained as before -- consistent. For example, in previous books we learned that James fought Voldemort in an effort to give Lily time to escape with Harry. We were told he put up a valiant fight. But not in Deathly Hallows. In Deathly Hallows, there is no fight. James does not even have his wand, and Voldemort simply kills him. Little things like this in the past have always aligned and made sense with her previous writing. In book 7, it doesn't. They are out of alignment. They contradict.

I loved to read before JK Rowling ever wrote the first Harry Potter book. I read more than the average person, and most of what I read is not nearly as well written as Deathly Hallows. One day (hopefully soon) I plan to add an extended book section to my website that lists some of the authors and books I find to be worth recommending. JK Rowling will still be there. So don't take what I have written out of context.

JK Rowling is like Hermione. She is brilliant enough to always get Outstanding. But here she doesn't write to her normal standards. The Little Things that have in the past bolstered her writing now magnify the short-falls. It's the little things we have come to expect from her. That is why I and others are disappointed with Deathly Hallows. It's the Little Things.

Polls - updates

Many of you have voted on the various polls I have listed: New Wonder of the World you'd most like to visit; How Harry Potter had afected your reading habits; Whether you were disappointed with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Which of the Harry Potter books was your favorite and which was your least favorite.

This is just a snapshot look at these polls.

Of the 7 new Wonders of the World, which would you most like to visit?

18 Votes

India's Taj Mahal leads with 7 votes

Peru's Machu Picchu and China's Great Wall both have 3 votes

The Colosseum in Rome and Brasil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer both have 2 votes

Jordon's Petra has 1 vote and

Mexico's Ruins of Chichen Itza has received 0 votes.

I wish there was some way to match up the votes with geography -- where the voters reside. Without any comments on why they chose the ones they did, can't really say alot. Machu Picchu would have received my vote IF I had voted followed by the Great Wall of china. Why? I love remote locations away from the crowds. The Ruins of Chicken Itza would probably have been my third choice for the same reason -- away from the crowds.

How has Harry Potter affected your reading habits?

20 votes

This one surprised me. I had heard so much about how Harry Potter and made people who did not like to read into readers. But the poll shows that of the 20 votes, 14 loved to read before ever reading Harry Potter. I would be in this group also. The other 6 liked to read some but Harry Potter increased their love of reading. Maybe the ones who started to read because of Harry Potter still don't like reading other things including my blog?

Did Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows disappoint you?

13 votes.

The early votes were all disappointed but later voters not as much. Currently 8 of the readers are disappointed, 4 are not (2 of whom loved the book) and 1 neutral

What is your Favorite of the Harry Potter Books?

9 votes

I was surprised here. Half-Blood Prince leads the way with 3 votes; Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire both received 2 votes; Order of the Phoenix 1 and Deathly Hallows 1.

Which is your least favorite of the Harry Potter Books?

10 votes

Again I was surprised. Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire tied with 3 votes each. Order of the Phoenix received 2 and Deathly Hallows 2.

Polls are still open so if you haven't voted, feel free to vote. If you have voted and want to explain your choices, just send me a comment and I'll add it.

JK Rowling Disappoints

Many fans of JK Rowling and her Harry Potter books are disappointed today. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did NOT continue her previous dazzling ability to write both cleverly and logically. In past books, everything made sense - at least in hindsight. There were no giant leaps of logic, no major inconsistencies in the plot. That ended in Book 7. Harry Potter carrying around a piece of Voldemort's soul for 16 years unaware? Let's face it - that is completely inconsistent with a Professor Quirrel who could not even touch Harry without enduring intense pain in book 1 because he was possessed by Voldemort's soul OR Voldemort possessing Harry in Book 5 and having to flee because of the Mortal agony it caused for Voldemort's soul to be in contact with Harry's. IF a piece of Voldemort had been embedded in Harry, that piece should have been constant pain for Harry -- if the plot was to be consistent. In fact, it should not have been able to survive the contact. IF the magical protection given to Harry by Lily's scaricfice was sufficient to block the Avada Kedavra curse AND prevent Voldemort from touching Harry, then no piece of Voldemort should have been able to enter Harry either and certainly not survive without pain. That was the biggest inconsistency and biggest disappointment for me personally. But there were others.

JKR does a complete reversal in book 7 on the fidelus charm and how it works. This is NOT an inconsistency within the books as much as an inconsistency with her explanation on her website which her many fans relied on for information between books. On her websites she says:

Result of F.A.Q. Poll

(SPOILER WARNING)

What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?

I was surprised that this question won, because it is not the one that I'd have voted for… but hey, if this is what you want to know, this is what you want to know!

When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.

Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is

"an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.

from JK Rowling FAQ

IS this how the fidelus Charm is depicted as working in book 7? No. Suddenly with the death of the secret keeper, Dumbledore, every person who previously knew the secret became able to reveal the secret. There suddenly became multiple secret keepers any of which could reveal the secret. Why the reversal?

And why did Fred have to die near the end during a lull of the battle? How did his death further the plot? Especially in such a manner? Having kept all of the Weasleys alive until then, was it really necessary to have one of the twins die? Was that required to have Ron go beserk or for Molly to duel Bellatrix? It's the only death I really question other than I wish Harry's owl Hedwig hadn't died. Dobby's death at least served a purpose.

But once again, the deaths were largely one sided until the end. How is it that death eaters never died during the battles with Order of the Phoenix members? Was it because the Order was not seeking to kill, just disarm? Even during the final battle at Hogwarts? And once disarmed and disabled, why were they constantly able to escape and resume fighting?

Having started the article negative, let me say JK Rowling has achieved a lot. Writing a 7 book series with hundreds of characters and not having a lot of inconsistencies is remarkable. This is especially true since book 1 was indeed her first book. I just got the impression in reading book 7 that she finally realized that she had too many loose ends that should be closed but did not know how to close them and stay consistent. How to explain the connection between Voldemort and Harry without it conflicting with the "Voldemort can not touch Harry" protection established in Book 1 and Book 5?

Other loose ends and inconsistencies:

How did Voldemort get his wand back after being Vanquished in book 1? (She never explains this). There were a lot of questions by fans before the book about HOW Hagrid was able to get Harry in the first book. If the location was protected by a fidelus charm, then how was Hagrid able to go to Godric's Hollow and retrieve the baby? Obviously Pettigrew the Secret Keeper did not reveal the secret since no one but James, Lily and Sirius knew James had switched to him as the secret keeper. So how did Hagrid find Harry in book 1? And how did Dumbledore and all of the others suddenly know Voldemort had Vanquished or that Harry had survived? Why did it take so long for Hagrid to get Harry from Godric's Hollow to Privet Drive? What did James and Lily do for a living? Why did Snape who supposedly loved Lily treat her son like trash? Just because he resembled his father James? Is that how you would treat the child of someone you truly cared about? So many questions remain.

Thank you JK Rowling for giving us the World of Harry Potter. Because of you, many children today enjoy reading who otherwise probably would have gone through life not reading books for enjoyment. Maybe we as fans came to expect too much from you. Maybe it is our higher expectations that have left us feeling disappointed rather than your ending. Did we expect too much? Sort of like Harry being disappointed with Dumbledore because he had not lived up to how Harry viewed him. There were flaws in his past. Maybe after the dust has settled, the disappointed will likewise settle.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Discussions

This post is more of a warning for the Harry Potter fans out there who will be reading the books over the next few hours and in some cases days. Many of you will read the book virtually non-stop once you have it and many of you will wait hours at some store tonight to get a copy as soon as you can. I had originally planned to drop in a Wal-Mart at about 2 or 3 am local time and get a copy and then try to read it. BUT it turns out, a copy of the book was "leaked" and this time the leak was authentic. I received photos of the book about 2 days ago and the first 10 chapters in pdf. SO I admit, I have already read the book. After I read the photo version of the last 20 or so chapters, the complete pdf version appeared. It has some typing errors but the text of the book was clear enough

Which is why I am posting a Spoiler warning. Over the next couple of days, I will be posting some thoughts about the book and some polls to get your opinions. SO please, if you have not read the book and do not want to learn what is going to happen, avoid reading this blog until you are prepared to discuss book 7 or at least hear about what happens in book 7. I won't begin posting anything about it until sometime tomorrow (saturday) which is when I would have finished reading the book anyway. And yes, I am buying the book! I just won't be visiting Wal-Mart in the wee early hours of the morning to do so. In fact, I have already bought 2 copies from Amazon UK and they are enroute as I type. I hope to save up and get the deluxe version also. So if you have read the pdf version, or the photographed version, please go ahead and get the book also. Fair is fair.

Spoilers * Photos of Deathly Hallow

*Spoilers*

Read no farther if you do NOT wish to have any advance knowledge of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Someone has taken photographs of the Table of Contents of Scholastic's version of the book. Below I transcribe those photographs except I use a : rather than a period since the period in the photos is elevated to the midpoint of the text - I couldn't figure how to replicate that so I use a colon instead. The Photos show the Table of Contents beginning on Page *VII* and ending on page *X* . The font and typeset appears very similar to that used in Order of Phoenix - I checked one recent book to compare.

Yesterday I wrote about avoiding being spoiled. And there are different levels of "Spoilage". To me, knowing the Table of contents is minor. I don't mind knowing which is why I don't mind sharing the information. But in fairness, if you don't even want that small bit of tainting of book 7, please don't read this post.

For months people have been circulating a fanfic by Melinda as the real book. It isn't and she had no involvement in the scam. There have been other efforts by people to fool everyone with fake versions of the book or fake versions of the Table of Contents. This may be yet another fake, but it passes my intuition test. I think it is the real book's table of contents. This list is directly from the photos posted.

Contents

One
The Dark Lord Ascending : 1

Two
In Memoriam : 13

Three
The Dursleys Departing : 30

Four
The Seven Potters : 43

Five
Fallen Warrior : 63

Six
The Ghoul in Pajamas : 86

Seven
The Will of Albus Dumbledore : 111

Eight
The Wedding : 137

Nine
A Place to Hide : 160

* VII *

Ten
Kreacher's Tale : 176

Eleven
The Bribe : 201

Twelve
Magic is Might : 223

Thirteen
The Muggle-born Registration Commission : 246

Fourteen
The Thief :268

Fifteen
The Goblin's Revenge : 284

Sixteen
Godric's Hallow : 311

Seventeen
Bathilda's Secret : 330

Eighteen
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore : 350

Nineteen
The Silver Doe : 363

* VIII *

Twenty
Xenophilius Lovegood : 388

Twenty-One
The Tale of the Three Brothers : 405

Twenty-Two
The Deathly Hallows :424

Twenty-Three
Malfoy Manor : 446

Twenty-Four
The Wandmaker :477

Twenty-Five
Shell Cottage : 502

Twenty-Six
Gringotts: 519

Twenty-Seven
The Final Hiding Place : 544

Twenty-Eight
The Missing Mirror : 554

Twenty-Nine
The Lost Diadem : 571

* IX *

Thirty
The Sacking of Severus Snape : 589

Thirty-One
The Battle of Hogwarts : 608

Thirty-Two
The Elder Wand : 638

Thirty-Three
The Prince's Tale : 659

Thirty-Four
The Forest Again :691

Thirty-Five
King's Cross : 705

Thirty-Six
The Flaw in the Plan : 724

Epilogue
753

* X *

That is a transciption of the photos. I did not post the photos here. I can not verify they are true photos of the book but they seem to me to be. If you want to see the actual photos, drop me a note with a valid email address and I'll try to email you the links.