I really love this song a lot. 

thoughts on HP5: written while listening to the book

"Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know." - Moody

I would want Dumbledore for my lawyer.

Moody has a spare invisibility cloak?

I love that the punishment Fred and George are 

most afraid of is that Hermione will tell 

Mrs. Weasley :)

I love that Professor Grubblyplank smokes a pipe.

Why would Malfoy think his Quidditch team 

being reinstated would have anything to do 

with influence at the ministry?

I've never thought potions sounded 

that hard. Just like trying a new recipe.

I HATE PROFESSOR UMBRIDGE!

"Harry allowed him 30 seconds of reminiscence 

before clearing his throat." (referring to Hagrid 

talking about Mdme Maxim)

I find it hard to believe that they snap your 

wand when you get expelled from Hogwarts but 

not when you're sent to Azkaban. (as in, how 

does Bellatrix still have her wand?)

"Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood."

- Hermione to Harry

Harry is such an idiot. (when he looks into 

Snape's pensieve)

"The girl sitting behind [Sirius] was eyeing 

him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have

noticed." Of course he didn't notice - she was 

sitting behind him.

Harry, don't break into Umbridge's office! 

Just use the mirror!  I don't understand how he 

could've forgotten about that. I would've 

used that thing like, everyday. 

It's so sad when Harry thinks he'll be able 

to talk to Sirius again in the mirror :(

Luna makes me so happy :)

the age-old Christmas question -

Who tells scary ghost stories on Christmas?

Dear Santa,

Please push play on this video and scroll down while listening to see pictures of what I want for Christmas. 

a really cute pygmy hippo

another really cute pygmy hippo - the size of a puppy!

"Most sincerely yours - especially on this holiday season - 

Your Pal, who's been very, very, very, very, very good all this whole year long, 

Alison 'I'm not kidding about how good I've been' MJ

P.S.  I really have been good.  Please believe me, Santa, please!  Please and thank you.  I've practically been an angel." 

P.P.S. Name that movie! and Merry Christmas!

Christmas songs

I love Christmas songs!  I have been listening to them almost exclusively since before Thanksgiving.  I like pretty much every Christmas song.  Some exceptions: Santa Baby (I always think of when Hope was singing it in show choir in high school and the choir teacher told them to sing it to their dads.... WEIRD); Baby, It's Cold Outside; the weird version of Deck the Halls that I have that Carrie and Joel hate.  I love the Carpenter Christmas album. It's so Christmas-y!  And Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" is a must-play.  "Joy to the World" from The Preacher's Wife makes me wish I were black.  Bing Crosby, Faith Hill, Polar Express, David Archuleta, and Darlene Love ("It's a Marshmallow World") also have some great ones.  This is the one, besides "Marshmallow World," that I really love right now, introduced to me by Nick Walter.  Enjoy!

And just for fun...

what I look like when it's cold outside

I was at school when I took this picture, so I was trying to look natural... so this is what I look like when I stare at a computer screen :) And wearing the best hat EVER.  I always feel really cool when I wear it to school.  Also, it is so comfortable and warm. So comfortable and warm, in fact, that sometimes it makes me take a nap.  Probably the best $1 I have ever spent.

stockings

here

One of the current topics of discussion on blogs I read right now is new stocking styles.  I think it's more fun when everyone has their own stocking that never changes than to make/buy new stockings every year to match the decorations in your house.

tears

As you know, I read quite a few crafting/sewing blogs.  Since it's the Christmas season, there have been a lot of posts lately about fun homemade presents to give, homemade Christmas tree ornaments, and fun ways to wrap presents.  In the past two days, I have seen several ways to decorate your house (wrapping presents, making wreaths...) using pages from old books.

That makes me want to cry.

I can hardly imagine tearing pages even out of some of my textbooks, let alone old and pretty books, to do something as worthless as wrap a present with them.

About me: Books are special and not to have their pages torn out, especially on purpose.

twins

Katy Perry & Zooey Deschanel

Have you ever noticed how much these two look alike?

Free Christmas Music!

You all know I'm a sucker for free stuff - well, here's a link for free Christmas music! from People.com.

https://www.peoplecmg.com/countryplaylist/

Enjoy! 

**I downloaded them but haven't actually listened to any of them, so I don't actually know if they're any good.... but hey, they're Christmas! :)

Livejournal

So, besides this blog, I also have an account on a website called Livejournal that I use as my journal when I'm not at home and also as a backup for my on-the-computer journal.  There's always a "stuck on ideas?" question on the log-in page.  I always read it, but I don't think I've ever answered it before.  Well, today I decided to.

Q:

What is your favorite Beatles song and why?

A:

Although some of their songs are more fun to dance to or sing to, etc., for as long as I can remember, I have always loved "Eleanor Rigby."  Every time it comes on the radio or on my computer when my songs are on shuffle, I get excited, more so than with any other Beatles song that I can think of right now.  It's kind of like "Brandy," by Looking Glass in that respect. Why do I love it? Honestly, I'm not really sure.  I like imagining situations songs might be written about when I listen to them, and what I imagine for that song is very... poignant.  That's not usually why I love songs, but I think that might be why I love "Eleanor Rigby."  It's definitely a winner.

I don't know why, but I get them all the time here!

I currently have the hiccups for the third time today.

Books to read...

Well, this little list is going around the blag-o-blag lately and I have been challenged to post it.  Apparently, the BBC made this list and said that most people had only read ten of the books on it.  I have bolded the ones that I've read... They add up to 17.  

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (and Brothers K)

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo



c'mon people.

All I want to know is, WHO decided it was okay for us to start tucking our scarves into our belts?!

And I thought the current fads couldn't get any more ridiculous.

alisonism #11: burglar!

Sometimes I get scared that someone's in my house when the heater turns on and moves pieces of paper that we have in the trash can.  And even though I know no one's there, sometimes I'm afraid to look over there and make sure. (like just now)

alisonism #10: necks

If my scarf (or hoody or anything) touches the sides of my neck too much, I feel like all the blood is getting trapped and that I'm going to die of strangulation.  My neck area is super sensitive, I guess; I don't know why it happens.  But it does.