Harry Potter...Riddle Me This

So, as many of you know, I am a pretty big Harry Potter fan. I own all the books and movies, and have watched them more times than I care to count. Some people say it isn't cool, but they aren't wizards anyway so what the hell do they know? I'm always bringing up Harry Potter in my classes, and my students are aware that I invited Harry Potter to my wedding (he didn't come by the way). I feel pretty confident that I can answer just about any question that has to do with Harry Potter. When it comes to that sort of thing, I am kind of like the bastard love child of Jack Bauer, Chuck Norris, Jason Bourne and Don Corleone....Basically, I am a bad ass when it comes to HP.

My friend Molly is also an avid Harry Potter follower, and she posed a rather vexing question to me. It went something like this:

"If Harry is a Horcrux, then technically he should have been indestructible to all harm from the moment he became one and the only way that Voldemort could have killed him was either by stabbing him with the fang or the sword or with fiendfyre. Conversely, in the Chamber of Secrets being bitten by the Basilisk should have killed the horcrux inside him, even if Fawkes brought him back to life...What say you good sir?"

Molly, a great and perplexing question. It is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Allow me to attempt to answer your question, and see if you like what I'm throwing at you.

I will try and address each part of what you stated or asked. First, a part of Voldy's soul is indeed inside of Harry. However, I would not go as far as to say that would make him indestructable from harm. In fact, it would simply make Voldemort (theoretically) indestructible. Here is what I mean. Voldy has part of his soul float into Harry. This means that you cannot totally kill Voldemort until HArry is dead. Now, that piece of Voldemort's soul doesn't make Harry any more impervious to harm or to death. Nothing about having a horcrux inside you makes you stronger, or your soul any stronger. Now, if a piece of Harry's soul would have flitted back into Voldemort, then it is possible that your logic would be correct. So basically, Harry wasn't protected from dying any more than anybody else. Being a horcrux is actually the absolute crap end of a magical deal. You hold someone's soul and they basically get really strong and then try to take over the wizarding world. It's basically like being a bartender, and trying to tell Charlie Sheen it's last call....Nobody wins in that situation.

Now, onto the second part of the question. You mention the different things that could have killed the horcrux inside of Harry. Now my logic could be completely wrong, but let's give it a shot. I think Harry could have been killed in any normal way. Normal, of course, is a relative term in the wizarding world; but as wizards go I think conventional methods would have done the job. Here is why. To destroy a horcrux you have to damage it beyond magical repair. So, in order to destroy Harry (or the part of Voldemort's soul that was inside of Harry) you would have had to damage the magical object (Harry's Body) beyond all magical repair. Avada Kedavra would have done just that. Seeing as how there is no way to bring people back from the dead (ghosts and priori incantatum people withstanding), killing Harry via magic would have destroyed his body beyond all magical repair, thus killing the horcrux inside of Harry. Since Harry did not die, I think that is the reason why the horcrux inside him was not killed, he wasn't damaged beyond magical repair.

I base my argument on this idea. However, I do admit there is evidence that makes what I think a little murky., When we first learn about the dementors, we are introduced to the idea that you can live without your soul. In fact, in the books they say "you can live without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you will have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no...anything. There is no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist, as an empty shell." I think that this means that the opposite would not hold true. If your physical body dies your soul dies, but your soul can die without your physical body dying. So although Harry's soul could have died without him dying, I still think destroying a horcrux is all about damage beyond the realm of repair.

I think of this much like this. Imagine Harry is in the Chamber of Secrets and instead of stabbing the diary, he rips out a couple of pages and stabs those. Though he would have injured the vessel that the soul was housed in, he would not have destroyed it beyond magical repair, and thus that part of Voldemort's soul would have continued to exist. Now, if Harry would have died in the chamber, than the horcrux would have died, and at that point I think any old wizard could have finished off Voldemort.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Let me know what you think...

MLH

The Weight Loss Plan

So here is my plan to be under 300 pounds by the time that Garrett gets here. It is based on Body For Life but I will modify it a bit.

1. For every meal I will have a protein, carbohydrate and vegetable.
   
2. I will eat red meat only once a week. The rest of the time it will be chicken, fish and pork.
   
3. No fried foods, no fast food
4. One day a week I can eat anything that I want for that day. On the other days I will adhere strictly to the Body for Life eating plan: 6 meals a day

--> Meal 1: Weight Control Oatmeal/Oatmeal
--> Meal 2: Protein Shake
--> Meal 3: Lunch (Protein, Vegetable, Carb)
--> Meal 4: Protein Bar
--> Meal 5: Dinner (Protein, Vegetable, Carb)
--> Meal 6: Protein Shake

1. In terms of Workouts I will weight lift 3 times a week and do cardio at least 3 days a week

• I will alternate between upper body interval circuits and lower body interval circuits
• Cardio I will alternate between interval workouts and fat-burning cardio workouts.
  

I will keep you posted with weight and measurement updates every week. Hopefully that will motivate me. Alright, last serious post for a while. Enjoy!

The Biggest Loser

So I have been trying to lose weight. There was a time where I was skinny and fit and had puma like agility. People see pictures, and are surprised that I was that small. I look back on those days with fondness. I had clothes that I liked wearing, and going shopping was a very enjoyable thing. I could wear pretty much everything in the store, and damn near everything fit well. I was athletic, and could go out and play pretty much any sport, after a night of drinking and partying, with only 15 minutes or so of notice. Now, I have told myself that everyone is like that in their early 20's. The older you get, the more likely you are to gain a little weight....And now we fast forward to today.

There are a lot of reasons that I have gained weight. The obvious one is I became less active. Post football and inter-murals I just do a hell of a lot less. Unfortunately (for a long time) I ate exactly the same way as I did when I was practicing football for 3-5 hours a day. That has led to some of the weight gain. Second, when Katie and I were dating I lived in Morgantown and she lived in Chicago. Since we did not see each other that much, we always went out to eat when we were together, almost every time we ate. It was our way of celebrating being together. We ate at some great places (go to Catch 35 if you are ever in Chicago, it's phenomenal). Finally, I just dig food. Good food makes me happy. Finding a restaurant we have never eaten at before, trying cuisine is a good feeling for me. But that hasn't helped in the keeping off the weight department.

So here I am. I had lost 30 pounds, but I have gained 12 of them back. I have set a goal. I want to be under 300 lbs by the time the baby comes. Garrett is supposed to be here August 20th. So about 2 months. I have a plan for how I am going to do this, that 'll lay out in the next post. I'm gonna need support, prayers, thoughts and all that other good stuff. I will keep you posted of how the journey is going. Let me know what you think of my effort, or if you have some tips for me. So the journey begins again...

True Grit

So this weekend I watched the movie True Grit. Now I am told, that in some High Schools across this great nation, people were required to read this little slice of Americana. Now, I don't remember this book at all. That means one of two things. First, Upper St. Clair High School was way behind the times and we were too busy being rich (by we, I mean not me) or second, I was too busy cultivating my pimp stache and hitting on the ladies (picture included for your viewing pleasure)

Drink it in America, Drink it in....

Now that you are done drinking that in, I will continue with my movie tale. My wife briefly filled me in on what the movie was about, and the commercials I had seen made me think that this could be something worth watching. So I pop this movie in and I am immediately met with some smart ass little girl mouthing off to pretty much everyone in this town. Hold on here, why is there a 12 year old girl mouthing off to people. This isn't an episode of ICarly (or whatever the hell shows the kids are watching these days), this is the wild west. I've seen Tombstone. They shoot people for fun in the Wild West. Wyatt Earp just walked into random bars and started slapping people in the face like an episode of Jersey Shore. Why doesn't someone just punch this little girl in the face (Note I am not advocating beating children, but in the Wild West you can do things like that).

So as though that isn't enough, then in comes Matt Damon. I'm not sure who did costume design for this movie, but I feel fairly certain that if you looked up child molester, there would be a picture of Matt Damon from this movie. Let me put it this way, if Matt Damon's character were walking down the street, and I had my child on that same side of the street...I would pick my child up, spray mace in Matt Damon's face and then sprint (which would still be slow, I know) to the other side of the road. Nothing is good about that character. As if to support my theory, one of the first interaction Matt Damon has with the girl he tells her he almost kissed her while she was asleep. Oh I'm sorry, where I come from that is called statutory rape/creepy. Then in the middle of the woods, he starts spanking her. Oh and, he is an idiot. Who in the hell walks into a group of 4 men (who are all on horseback and look shady as hell), in the wild west, and try to talk to them. Again, I saw Tombstone, and when 4 guys are all hanging out in the Wild West they are going to kill someone or rob something. Matt Damon, you should know better.

I think this picture pretty much sums up everything I said....

Finally, the main character. Rooster Cogburn. He is drunk, he is mean, he is angry. Obviously, I loved him.

The movie ends rather abruptly. I won't tell you what happens, but pretty much as soon as you get invested in the movie it ends. I give this movie 6 out of 10. It's no Harry Potter, but it's no Batman Begins either (the former being good and the latter bad). I learned three things from this movie:

1. I want to watch Tombstone.
2. If you are ever going bounty hunting, a 12 year old girl who can't shoot, scavenge, make anything of note and who mouths off to everyone may not be your best companion.
3. I want to watch Tombstone.

A Third of the Way There....

Yesterday was my birthday. 31. It's pretty remarkable that I have already lived 1/3 of my life. It has been a hell of a ride. I made some pretty bad decisions and some pretty great decisions. I've loved people, I've thought I was in love and I've obsessed. I've helped, I've hurt and I've hindered. I've drank...well I drank a lot. All in all, it was a hell of a ride. However, as I reflect back it does a couple things...

First, it makes me smile. I have made some of the best friends that anyone could ask for because I went to a school that I never even knew existed. I moved to Morgantown, and met some people who I am proud to call my friends. I reconnected with someone I had lost in my past, and found my best friend and my wife.

It also makes me think of where I am now. I am an Assistant Professor at a job that I really like. I've always wanted to work with kids, these ones are just a bit older. But I feel good about the job I do, and I feel like I make a difference and that's why I wanted to teach. We have a house that we love, in a neighborhood that we like. We have lots of pets (something that I always wanted) Baxter and Bella (the cats) and Cricket and Tucker (the dogs).

Finally, it makes me think of where I am going. The thing I am most excited about is the baby. Katie and I are having a little one in August. Countdown is on, 10 weeks to go. I've always wanted to be a dad and I am crazy excited for the opportunity. This blog will talk about all of those things, where I've been, where I am, and where I am headed..Cuz hell, life has been good and I'm going to rock it out until the end. After all, I am a third of the way there....