Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1

I have been waiting for this moment for the longest time and on November 17th I was ready. My friends and I all got together and went out for a drink. Anticipating the movie, we kept singing the song "Mysterious Ticking Noise" from Potter Puppet Pals on YouTube. My favorite part is "Ron, Ron, Ron WEASLEY!" Anyway, I digress.

At 10:30pm, we lined up outside of the theatre and jumped up and down (mostly to regain heat since Kansas was down in the 20s that night) from giddiness. I just wanted in. Finally, the theatre opened the doors and we were in. Because it was so cold outside, the theatre let us in almost 2 hours prior to the midnight release in which we were very thankful for.

The lights dimmed and the previews started. We all became quiet and were hypnotized by the screen. The previews mattered very little. We were hypnotized by the fact that in 15 minutes, we would be seeing the first part of the greatest last movie in a series ever (in our opinion, of course). The WB logo flashed, and the entire audience fell into an eerie hush. The movie had started.

From the first minute, the movie was everything I had hoped for. Because the movie has been split into two sections, the first part was able to follow the book more closely than any other Harry Potter movie before it. The traveling scenes, in which I was actually worried would be too long and too boring, ended up being just what the movie needed. The characters were shown in different locations, walking and camping, but spent little time showing the progression of the traveling itself. This, in my opinion, was fantastic because the book became a bit slow during all of the traveling. I understand that this was to make the reader just as anxious and frustrated as the characters, but I felt like in the movie the characters portrayed this feeling without having to draw out the camping segments.

The dynamic between characters was also something that I had hoped would be better than the last few movies. I felt a different type of connection. It wasn't something that could be taken lightly. The trio's dynamics were intense and when they were sad, I was sad. When they were angry, I was angry. The overall feeling of the movie was there.

I'm definitely not very versed in reviewing movies, but I thought I had to put this up since it dealt with my favorite series of all time. I absolutely love the Harry Potter books and movies, and so this is something that I feel strongly about.

I hope to all who have seen it enjoy it and agree that this movie is the best that has been produced within the series. If you haven't seen it, get ready to be in love with the characters all over again.

My Five Minutes with Tucker Max

Tonight I had the privilege to be in the presence of Tucker Max. For those who do not know him, Max is the author of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell and most recently, Assholes Finish First. The books are a retelling of events that have actually happened to him, including everything from awful things he's done to women (mainly bizarre sexual experiences) to random really duchy guy things. In a single phrase, the man truly is an asshole if you just read the books, blog postings on his website (which are what the books originally are), and watch the movie version of his first book.

But when you meet him, it's totally different and exactly what you would expect.

I arrived at the Borders where the signing was to take three hours early. Apparently all the speculation on the Facebook event page was a load of malarkey. They started giving out wristbands to see the order of the line at 10 am, not six, and at four o'clock there were only 10 other people there. Altogether there were most likely 50-100 people there, and who was first in line when they called for line up at 6:30? You guessed it. Me.

As I stood there in line I looked around me, the majority of the people that were there were women, myself of course included. What drew all of these women to this event, nay to read his books in the first place? They all said the same thing. He's hilarious and I agree.

I personally got into Tucker Max at one of my lowest points in my life. I was never happy, I was very pessimistic, I hated everything, my life was literally falling to pieces around me. One day I happened across his book in the store and I read the sushi pants story in IHTSBIH. I have to this day laughed so hard throughout an entire book. Plus the fact that he straight up tells you he's an ass. He makes no apologies for who he is and completely honest, well unless he's trying to get you into bed. =) Now for the past four years I have been addicted to his hilarious and not so moral antics and I can't wait for more.

When he arrived at the store no one really knew it was him walking in until he started talking mainly because the pictures of him do not do him justice. He is soooo much better looking in real life than his photogenic self leads on. Also he's my height! (Which is short for a guy, but okay for me). I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for to actually meet him. He was sooooo nice! He really is. He's so great to his fans. They actually took away the post-its for our names to be written in the book only so that we, the fans, could have more time with him when it was our turn!

He signed my books and exchanged small talk. He also poked fun at me because I said I was confused by Facebook after he asked how long I was there. What I really meant was I was confused by the people on the event page saying what time people should get there. But he was so cool and I was totally fangirling it wasn't even funny! When we were done, I started to veer off but then turned back to give him a hug which almost turned into a tackle. I just couldn't believe how happy was to see this guy! The only time I had ever been that happy was when I first saw my boyfriend and I was ecstatic then!

All in all the moral of this story, not all assholes are complete jerks and can be great guys too and Hi, I'm Lydia Hall and I am a Tucker Max fangirl! =D