The mind is not a book to be opened at will and examined at leisure.
- Severus Snape, OOTP.

onsdag den 28. december 2011

AIDS Awareness.

Firstly, I am sorry for my inactivity. I've been writing a big assignment for two weeks and right after I handed it in I had to go to my father's place. So I haven't had the time to blog and for that I am sorry. Secondly, this entry will be about a concert I went to before I started on my assignment and about what the money from the concert went to.

No, the picture is not from a Queen concert. Unfortunately. It is from the concert I went to the first of December. The band: Queen Machine, which is, as you can probably guess, a Queen cover band. I went with two of my friends and we had a ball! The Band is probably the closest you'll ever get to a Queen concert after Freddie Mercury's death - at least in Denmark, since I don't know any other cover band. The lead singer has copied Freddie Mercury's style, stage performance and even his way to sing. The show was just like it would've been if it had been Queen. It was the best concert I've ever been to, which probably isn't saying much, since I've only been to one before that. One thing is for sure though: I'm going to their next concert near me!
The concert was arranged by the band and the aids fond to make people aware of how you get AIDS and what needs to be done. Not only in finding a cure, but also in the way people look upon the one who has aids. The profit of the concert would go to the danish AIDS fond and the band would personally hand over the money to them. The profit was 300000 Danish kroner.
I didn't start this blog to tell you about my personal experiences, and you probably don't want to hear them either, so this is not what I am doing. This is just the main reason as to why this is a subject that you find here. After the concert which is now 27 days ago I've been thinking a lot about Aids and I've wanted to write about it in my blog. Freddie Mercury is one of my idols. And as you probably know he died of aids, which was the reason this band was working with the aids fond. AIDS is something we all should know about, but we should have our facts straight and not believe in all the stigma!
We all get 'the talk' when we're old enough, or that's at least how it should be. I remember when my mum had the talk with me. She told me about safe sex and all of those things. Of course it was awkward but it is a necessary thing. My mum told me about aids, and I don't think I understood everything at the time, but I knew I would be safe when I started having sex. It is my opinion that every mother or father should have this talk with their children and explain to them, that there can be risks when you don't protect yourself.
As mentioned we should have our facts straight, so if your reading this and thinking: 'Why's this girl even thinking about it? It's only a gay disease.' Then you clearly don't have your fact straight and I will tell you some things. First of all, this disease is not just for gays. It is something both heterosexuals and a homosexuals can get. Second of all, it starts as HIV. HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system. The virus place its own genetic material in some cells that are an important part of the immune system. By doing that the virus insures that it will be reproduced by these cells. The genetic material that the virus places in the cells will be a part of the cell, and the cell will therefor copy the virus as a part as its own in the new cells. This is they way that the virus spreads. As there comes more and more HIV infected cells there will be fewer and fewer cells that can protect and the immune system will be broken. This will make it easier for the person to become sick or be infected by infections.
These infections can lead to AIDS. AIDS is some specific infections and types of cancers, that especially people that are tested positive for HIV can get. These are not dangerous for people with a healthy immune system, but can be very serious for those with HIV.
The stigma is not about what AIDS is exactly though. The world is AIDS-phobic. What do I mean by that? We are afraid of AIDS and we fear the people who are affected by this disease. We should be afraid of the disease because it is so serious, but we should not be afraid of the people who are affected by it! The stigma is that these diseases transmits through hugging, kissing, drinking of the same cup or other social contact. This is not true. It transmits through unsafe sex, sharing needles, blood transfusions in countries where they don't check for these diseases and such.
Do not be afraid to talk to a person that is tested positive. They are just like you. You can hug them just as any other person. You can help them. Many are afraid to say that they have the disease, they don't even dare to tell their parents, if you show them kindness and treat them like you would any other person you could inspire other people to do the same, and they would gain the courage to talk about it. You could help make the world just a little better.
The first part of this interview with Lady Gaga is about AIDS if you read all of this please take a few more minutes and watch it.


tirsdag den 29. november 2011

Sorry!

I'm so sorry for not updating! I've been, and still are, quite busy with a very important assignment. I'm reading lots of books about Horror, vampires and Dracula. I'm starting to stress cause I'm behind on all my work. The assignment starts the 7 december and ends on the 21. When it is handed in and over with I promise that I will make a proper entry!
Back to work.

lørdag den 29. oktober 2011

Pottermore - A unique online Harry Potter experience from J.K. Rowling


Pottermore will soon be open and therefore I thought I would write a little about it. I was one of a million people to get a Beta profile. I stayed up for 24 hours to get the second clue.
Pottermore is a website from J.K. Rowling to all of the Potterheads in the world. It is a website where you 'play' yourself through the books. So far only The Philosophers' Stone/The Sorceress' Stone has been released and Chamber of Secrets is expected to be released sometime next year.
On Pottermore you get the chance to be a Hogwarts student. You get your Hogwarts acceptance letter from Hagrid, who takes you shopping in Diagon Ally. In Diagon Ally you buy your school things and just like Harry you get to buy your own wand in the end.
The process of getting a wand is really exciting. You have to take a sort of test, which varies from user to user, so no one can tell you what to answer to get the wand you want. After taking the test you get to see your wand. You have to answer these questions truthfully to have a wand that will work.
This is one f the most exciting thing about Pottermore. It sounds boring, but it's not! One of the other exciting things Pottermore gives you is never before seen or known information about certain places, object and characters from J.K. Rowling herself. And of course the sorting!
The sorting is like the wand a test. Again this changes, so no one can give you the answer on how to become a Gryffindor. Sorry. These tests are not obvious like the tests you can take on several websites, so you can't figure out how to become a Gryffindor either.
When you get your potion book and cauldron you can start making potions. The only thing you need is to stop by Diagon Ally to get your ingredients first. Trust med when I say.. Potions is not easy. You have a time limit and if you aren't done before time runs out your cauldron will melt. If you do it wrong your cauldron will melt or the potion will begin to smoke.. When you've gotten your wand, which you get after buying books and more, you can practice spells and duel friends. At the moment dueling is down, but will hopefully be up in time for you guys to join us.
I've heard people say that they find Pottermore boring.. And it will be if you are expecting new information about every character, every object etc. and if you are expecting games in every new scene.
I think Pottermore is quite fun. Of course it is run through quite quickly if you want to.. But the new information is amazing and it is really fun to make potions and gain house points. The sorting was for me one of the best things. I was sorted into Slytherin, as I had hoped, so no tears there.
Now as a beta user we have been going through main points in chapters, just as you will, and we have commented on the information. We have given our feedback and Pottermore will probably change somethings. A good start would be the long brewing time for the potions..
If you are a Potterhead I will strongly recommend you to get a profile in here! Read the book as you go through the chapters because it will make the book so much better. The backgrounds are absolutely beautiful and you will love to zoom in and out to see the amazing details.
This is what I will reveal about Pottermore.. The rest is for you t figure out when Pottermore opens. As for when it opens.. No one knows.. But if you want to know then keep an eye open and go to Pottermores website or go to their blog, Pottermoreinsider

lørdag den 8. oktober 2011

Online Friends Are Not To Be Undervalued

First of all: I am so terribly sorry for not posting anything for nearly four months! I've been a little busy and I've had little to no inspiration to write.
Second of all: I'll try to update more. I can't promise anything but I will promise to try.

Online friends are not to be undervalued.
-Tom Felton.

My closest friends are people I've met online. They are the people I tell my secrets, talk about my everyday problems with and they are the people I laugh the most with. Unfortunately I don't see them as often as I would like, but when I see them I have the most incredible time. 
I've never been one of those social people. I've never really been outgoing, but as I got older I think I got more.. awkward socially. Which probably was one of the reasons I really didn't have any friends as a child and most of my teenage life. At the age of ten I found a chat filled with Potterheads. People just like me. People who wanted a place to go to escape the day and it's problems. This is where I found my friends. I met most of them later on and became friends with them outside the computer too. I think I remember each meeting - which says a lot, since I don't remember well.
Talking to these people was so different from talking to people you met in real life. Most of them didn't judge you and those who did would never talk to you anyways. It was a little like a double life if you want.. I was a socially awkward girl who was judged and hated by most of the school from 8 till 2, but as soon as I came home and logged onto the chat I was a totally different girl. I was the evil, sarcastic Slytherin girl whenever the play began and private chat.. That was just me not being judged by anyone.
I remember hating one of my now best mates- let's call her Nancy. I used to bitch about her to my mum all the time. It wasn't because I didn't like the real her.. I just hated her character in the play. And trust me.. She hated me just as much. Later on Nancy and I decided on a truce, and now we can't stand to leave each other by the end of our visits. Another of my best mates was one of the very first people I talked to in there.. She was also the first one I ever met outside the chatroom. She'll always be my friend because I know she'll always be there for me and I'll be there for her, not matter what happens. It's just the same with Nancy. 
These people has helped through rough times and they've made me laugh when I most needed it. They've helped me form who I am today and I am proud to say that they are my friends. They may be the ones I take out my stress on, and they may find me scary under great stress and while studying for exams.. But no matter how mean and sarcastic I am towards them they stay by my side.. Their friendships are those which has lasted the longest and the ones I couldn't live without.
My online friends means everything to me! And even today, 10 years later, I still make friends online. I've got a friend on the other side of the earth! We started emailing over the summer holidays and even though the emails only come once or twice a month I still consider her my friend. Of course I haven't met her. But she's my friend all the same - even if she doesn't thinks of me as a friend.
As Tom Felton says. They are not to be undervalued. They can make a great difference. 

søndag den 26. juni 2011

It all ends here

People ask me if  there are going to be stories of Harry Potter as an adult. Frankly, if I wanted to, I could keep writing stories until Harry is a senior citizen, but I don't know how many people would actually want to read about a 65 year old Harry still at Hogwarts playing bingo with Ron and Hermione.
- J.K. Rowling

As I've said in earlier posts and as can be seen just by looking at the design of this blog, I am a Potterhead and proud of it. Don't get me started on all things Harry Potter, cause I can go on forever. I will try to keep this post as short as possible though.
As the days goes on the finish of this epic series is coming to an end. The last Harry Potter book was released in 2007 and now the film was the only thing called Harry Potter that one could look forward to. I have to admit that I, at first, did not want to read the last book. Those of my friends who had read it before me, had reviled so much of the plot and who died that I did not want to read it. A year or so later I read it. I loved it just as much as the first six.
I can't put my love for the series into words. I can say how much I love it, but it would never measure up to the way I actually feel about it.
At first I didn't know what Harry Potter was. It was first when the first movie came out I heard about it. I thought it was a thing for boys only but my mum convinced me to either see the movie or read at least one book. So I did. I read the first book and watched the movie and I've been hooked ever since. It's now ten years since I became a massive Potterhead when I was nine. Now the ending is coming and I've become a sobbing mess every time I've seen a poster, picture, clip or trailer for the last movie. Imagine how it will be when I actually see the movie ending.
When I started reading Harry Potter I was in the middle of transferring to another school. Transferring to another school is hard enough in itself, but when you're not the most outgoing person and you don't have the right clothes it gets even harder. I had no friends at my last school and at the new one it didn't get any better. So I hid myself away in the Harry Potter universe. I hid myself away from the bullies and it helped me get through every day. I did not leave without a Harry Potter book in my bag. I read all of the books that was released at the time. When I finished them I started over. When a new book was released I read until I finished it and then started over on the series.
The series was the reason I got friends. Real friends. Most of my friends are people I met on an online chat room where one could roleplay as a student at Hogwarts. I met them years later and now most of them are still my friends. The series also gave me something to relate to. I've always been a sucker for the bad guys - Ask my mum if you don't believe me - and even though Draco Malfoy were a bully in the books he was the one I could relate to the most. I could relate to how his father had high expectations of how he had to be, what he had to become and what he had to do. My father is more like Lucius Malfoy than anyone thinks. That is why I like Draco Malfoy so much. And as many others the Harry Potter taught me how fun it could be to read. I had a place to go when I felt like the world had turned it back on me. Harry Potter made my hard days easier to go through.
I owe J.K. Rowling a lot. Her books made the life of a nine year old girl easier to go through and helped the same girl finding a place in life and taught her what real friendship is all about.
There was a girl who came up to me on the street the other day, she bloomed out of the pavement...
and she must have been in her early twenties, and she said to me 'You are my childhood.' About the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.
-J.K. Rowling.

søndag den 12. juni 2011

Money

Money is a nice thing to have.. That's what most people say.
But what would we do to get the money? Obviously we go to work to get the money. We need the money so that we can buy the fancy things we want, feed our family, pay the rent and so on. But even though money are to have they seem to show us the most ugly face of a person.
We will do anything to get money.
Some people will sell their most beloved friends and family to the police if there's a reward. Some will do a tax fraude and others will rob a bank. There's many thing one will do just for the sake of money.
I talked to my mum about jobs, and how I still don't know what I really want to work as. My mum doesn't care what I become. Well.. That's a lie. She does not want me to become a prostitute or something along those lines. But other than that, she doesn't care. She keeps saying that since not many here in Denmark can speak Chinese, and since I study it as a second language, I will be able to pick how much I'll get paid by myself. I like the idea. But as I said to her: "That's almost the same as whoring myself out. Just without the sex." She agreed with me.
But again. Is there anything we will not do for money? Og course we are talking about a big sum of money. No one would do something for a small sum, which one would use on a pice of gum. Many may say: "Of course there is! I would never kill another person for money" or they might say: "I would never sell my body! Not for all the money in the world" But isn't both things the same as going for the one who offers you the most? As Belle/Hannah in series Secret Diary of a Call Girl says:
"Aren't we all going through the motions for money, aren't we all whoring ourselves out for the man?"
I would say she's quite right. I'm not trying to be a saint here. Because I am doing the exact same thing. If I could get a better offer in another firm, I would take the offer! Highest bidder is the one who wins.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you disagree or agree with me.

fredag den 10. juni 2011

Stuck in the past

Stuck. To be stuck.
I know there is probably a lot of bloggers out there who have made an entry like this. So forgive me for doing the same.
Ever since I found out my parents never would get together again I've been intended on never getting stuck in the pas again. What once was will probably never be again.
For me it is okay to think about the good times in the past. But I am careful of never getting stuck in them. Good times from the past helps me through bad days and they are fun to talk about. But nothing more. Getting stuck will never get you moving. You will be where you are or were.
I never thought I would break my own rule. But for about four months I've been stuck in the past, and it ended up hurting me. A relationship that once was should never be again. That's what I learned. About four months ago I realized that I actually never moved on after my ex broke up with me. I had convinced myself that I would be just fine. But I wasn't and admitting that to myself and to him is what got me stuck.
He played the role of the ex missing his ex-girlfriend perfectly. I was the pathetic ex-girlfriend. After a while though he stopped all contact. I was actually fine with it. But just as I had decided to cut all contact it would all start over again. Well.. Almost. Except that this time I would not break. I had finally moved on! But as said, he played the role perfectly. The only flaw was that he could not give me a good reason to trust him. Well.. That is actually not the only flaw. He was perfectly fine with me not trusting him and he did not deny that he had actually tried to date to of my friends.
Getting stuck in the past once again hurt me. And I believe that the past should be just that. The past. Good times should be remembered but one should never try to get them back. One should accept the way of life and play their cards right to get to new and good times. Getting stuck will only result on the world passing you by. Move along instead of thinking of what could've been and what you could have done better.

Have you ever been stuck in the past? Be it wishing on getting a relationship back, like me or be it something else.

P.S. I would like to apologize for not updating so often but I've got quite a lot to do at the moment. But vacation is coming closer and I will try to update more.