The lyf so short

(hat gut gefegt)
(ham wir zersägt)

What better way to spend a sunny afternoon in October than to plod down to the local sports pitch to watch a bunch of athletes running around and scoring goals in the blinding autumn light?
ABOUT A THOUSAND WAYS I would have said, until yesterday.


Just a normal afternoon down at some small-town pitch

Because yesterday I went with my olde Ring*Con pal Judith, her housemate and the housemate's boyfriend to watch the end-of-the-season games of the German Quidditch League.


I am not shitting you, this is real

We had timed our visit sort of randomly, but it turned out to be perfect because we arrived just before the finals. Since we were watching these matches in the shadow of the mighty Drachenfels, we decided to root for the most local team available, i.e. the Rheinos Bonn, which turned out to be a good choice, but tbh I was perfectly willing to cheer for everyone since Cologne wasn't involved anyway.


I love approximately everything about this

The first match (for third place), Looping Lux Leipzig vs. Hamburg Werewolves, was moving reasonably slow - not slow enough to be boring, but slow enough to give us a chance at figuring out the goings-on and the rules. (Judith had brought her copy of Quidditch through the Ages but strangely it glosses over the singularities of Lawn Quidditch, boo.) By a mixture of garbled book memories (made more complicated by the fact that half of us had read the books in English, and the other half in German), conjecture, questions to the assorted camp-followers and other experienced observers, and downloading the official rulebook of the German Quidditch Federation (yes, really), we managed (or thought we managed) to more or less know what was happening. At least until the snitch appeared and we got so distracted by watching what was going on there that we missed half a dozen goals that got scored in the meantime? Can't see everything at once, no wonder they have almost as many referees as they've got players.


The Rheinos are ready to rumble

The second match, Darmstadt Athenas vs. Rheinos Bonn battling it out for first place, was moving a lot faster; these really were a league of their own, and if anyone wants to question whether Lawn Quidditch is a real sport and can be taken at all serious, the answer after having seen this is a big, resounding Yes.



Bad quality but this is what the hunt for the Snitch looks like. (The Snitch is worn in a sock attached to the butt of the guy in gold, which has to be torn off, kind of like in flag football?). Here, he is "hiding" behind the Rheinos' Seeker, who has no interest whatsoever in catching the Snitch because her team is (as yet) too far behind.


Scenes of general pandemonium

Once the sun dropped behind the mountain, it got rather cooler than we were prepared for (though Judith had brought a cloak and I had my trusty Ravenclaw scarf to keep me warm, haha), but we heroically stayed through a very exciting catch-up race. When the Snitch entered the pitch, Darmstadt was leading 100:30 but the Rheinos managed to score a lot of goals while Darmstadt were distracted by trying to help their Seeker, and in the end, they forced a tie break by catching the Snitch (only 30 points in Muggle Quidditch) and going into overtime, where the Rheinos remained the superior team and deservedly won. There were a lot of Snitch catches (by either Seeker) that weren't counted for some reason that I, being a total newbie to Lawn Quidditch, cannot guess at, but the Rheinos deserved the victory simply for the way in which they managed to turn the tide and power through.

In conclusion, A++ way to spend a Sunday, would do it again.

And how did y'all spend this very fine October weekend?

I suspect this may be the happiest thing of the week! Seriously, I love these photos. You can see that the kids are taking it really seriously! Beautiful.
(Except now I want stories based around Indian Hogwarts REALLY BADLY. Like, URGENTLY. I haven't craved HP fanfic this much ever since the days of the glorious Shoebox Project, holy cow!)

Other than that, I caught the tummy bug that made Felix sick last week. Also, I planted a hedge. Mostly before being struck the tummy bug. I DESERVE MY INDIAN HOGWARTS FIC!

When on Monday I bought (among other things) a bottle of white wine, I was - wait for it - asked for ID.

Now this is Germany. Meaning, wine and beer may be bought from age 16 onwards.
And the lady at the register asked me for ID to prove that I had, you know, reached that age.

The situation was so absurd that I was not in the least offended. At the ripe old age of 26 I am beginning to feel flattered when I am, in other words, told that I may be mistaken for 15.

- - -
Must be those Elves in my head.
- - -

Accordingly I (and other equally young at heart people) went to the so-called "children's showing" of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. Now the term "children's showing" is misleading: It's the same movie (rated 12+) that's shown at any other time. It just takes place in the afternoon, not in the evening/ at night like the "grown-up showings". Basically it means that you get to share the theatre with a lot of kids. Well, teenagers, and a few kids with their parents.
Which was surprisingly unproblematic. Although I'm not sure I'd reccommend the movie to ten-year-olds, parental supervision or no.

And that's not just because the translation had some... um... sketchy bits. I hope it's just the translation. I hope the English version doesn't also come across like Hogwarts is full of paedophilic paedagogues. "Dumbledore wants me to get close to him." --- "So, you and Hermione-" - "Just friends! Why?" - "Oh, no reason..."
...um, WHA?

( Cut for spoilers, click at own risk )

Flist, I am disappointed.
There's a new Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince trailer and NOBODY posts about it? What's up with that? It isn't even a bad trailer! I mean, it's downright epic!

- - -

In other news,

30,956 / 50,000 (61.9%)

Heck yeah. I am so going to win NaNo this year.
... it doesn't matter that those almost 31000 words are ALL one chapter, and there's practically nothing but dialogues and character development and laying the tracks for later events, right?

Now I have to write a sex scene. I hate writing sex scenes. I fail at writing sex scenes.
My poor protagonist has earned it, though; after all he's had to go through 44 pages of angst, hostility and humiliation in order to get there (and he's been secretly dreaming about it for roughly 70000 words, and over three years, actually). So a fade to black would be kind of unfair.
Eh. We'll see.

Ratlos in Rohan 15

- - -

I dreamt this night that I had the new Harry Potter book and it only had 180 pages and I'd read the whole thing within an hour. It was disappointing.

I almost had a panic flash at work when I thought my evil co-student assistant was going to read out actual spoilers.

I thank the WAZ for not printing actual spoilers, because if they had, he probably would have.

I am slightly miffed that, due to the boyfriend's jûdô camp preparation, I probably won't have time to start reading the book before tomorrow night.

I think that "Potterdammerung" would be a lot funnier if, you know, the original wasn't actually Götterdämmerung with the funky little dots on the letters that are NOT just for decoration but actually mean a difference in pronunciation. In other words: Potter doesn't rhyme with Götter. Totally not. I know the English-speaking world is unaware of this difference although it extends to meaning as well. I have read an anthropological text where the author (Victor Turner, for those who know anthropology) blathers on about the wonderful term of ausdrucken used by a German philosopher (Wilhelm Dilthey, for those who know philosophy). Except Dilthey uses ausdrücken. This word means "to express" (and Victor Turner doesn't tire of saying how clever the word ausdrucken is, seeing how it literally means "to press something out of something". WELL NEWSFLASH, IDIOT, "EXPRESS" LITERALLY MEANS THE BLOODY SAME THING IN LATIN). Ausdrucken, on the other hand, does NOT mean "to express". Ausdrucken means "to print out". So yes, those two dots are IMPORTANT. And if you're incapable of producing them on your keyboard, you replace them with an "e" right behind the letter you want to umlaut. It is not that hard.

I shouldn't get annoyed about a simple and innocent joke. Except it is also an ignorant joke.
There is a great deal of ignorance in the world. (What is there in the world, boys?
A great deal of ignorance.
A great deal of ignorance what?
A great deal of ignorance, sir.)

Browny points to whoever first comments with the title of the book that is from.

...
QotD:
tzaaihta (dressed up as Snape): ... Severus Snape has got a problem. His bra is slipping.

So, yesterday was the Night! The One! Where we went and dressed up and confused and bemused people at the UCI in Bochum. We are probably the only group of freaks dressing up for Harry Potter night in the vicinity who do NOT have a massive surplus of Gryffindors. We had only two of those - rahja was Hermione and nefantoiel was Ginny. We also had two Ravenclaws (Ench and me), one not-yet-sorted-but-to-be-Hufflepuff, a Professor Trelawney (Cele), abovementioned Snape (rowr!), a very sparkly Gilderoy Lockhart, Dobby the house-elf and four Death Eaters (Nim, Aniree, Bilbo and Wolvie). And when we were waiting to be let in, some random guy came towards the latter and asked what movie they were going to see.
"Well, Harry Potter, of course."
"But what are you?"
*eyerolls, because we'd heard that question a lot of times at that point* "Didn't read the books, did you?"
"YES I DID! I read the first three."
"Well, we're Death Eaters. They only show up in book four. Voldemort's followers."
"Ok...." *backs away*
Another guy came and asked how the Death Eaters are called in English. (In German they're Todesser, which means the same.) We told him - all at once. Heh.

Soooo, the film.
( Spoiler spoilered spoilery spoilers. Click at own risk. Potential spoilers for film #5 too-but only if you haven't read the book. )

... Nefa? Elbey? May I steal some of your photos? *bats eyelashes*

= = =
Oh mein Gott, ich hab Harry umgebracht!

...
QotD:
tzaaihta (verkleidet als Snape): ... Severus Snape hat ein Problem. Sein BH rutscht.

Gestern war die Nacht! Die Eine! Wir sind also zum UCI in Bochum gefahren, und haben dort verkleidet die Leute erschreckt und verwirrt. Wir sind vermutlich die einzige Gruppe verkleideter Potter-Fans, die keinen Gryffindor-Überschuss haben. Wir hatten nämlich nur zwei Gryffindors - rahja als Hermine und nefantoiel als Ginny. Dann hatten wir zwei Ravenclaws (Ench und meine eine), eine noch-nicht-zugeordnete-aber-zukünftige-Hufflepuff, Professor Trelawney (Cele), den oben erwähnten Snape (rowr!), einen wunderbaren Gilderoy Lockhart, Dobby den Hauselfen und vier Todesser (Nim, Aniree, Bilbo und Wolvie). Und als wir auf den Einlass warteten, kam auch prompt wieder jemand und fragte die letzteren, für welchen Film sie sich denn verkleidet hätten.
"Harry Potter natürlich."
"Aber was stellt ihr dann dar?"
*augenrollen, denn die Frage hatten wir zu dem Zeitpunkt schon öfters gehabt* "Aha, die Bücher nicht gelesen?"
"HAB ICH WOHL! Die ersten drei."
"Also, wir sind Todesser. Die kommen erst ab Buch vier vor. Voldemorts Gefolgsleute."
"Ah ja..." *rückzug*
Jemand anders kam und fragte "uns als eingefleischte Fans", wie denn die Todesser in Englisch hießen. Wir alle gleichzeitig: "Death Eaters." Heh.

Aaalso, der Film.
( Spoiler. Wer weiterliest, ist selbst an schuld. Sogar möglicherweise Spoiler für den nächsten Film, aber nur wenn man das Buch nicht gelesen hat. )

... Elbey? Nefa? Darf ich ein paar von euren Fotos klauen?

- - -

GoF trailer! OME YAY!

Also, Ring*Con is nearing. The Japanese reexamination is on October 11th, with the Con taking place from October 7th to 9th, so, fun. Have to finish my costume, this time, as ladyelleth kind of talked me into being Fëanor this time. This is so not going to work, but it's an excuse to see what I look like with black hair, I suppose.

... also, ladyelleth, this is what it looks like. After 10 hours of embroidering. Which I was, obviously, not born to do.

Mother dear,

In my foolish daughterly fondness, I tend to love you dearly in spite of the astonishing amount of time you manage to spend getting on my nerves even though we don't see each other all that often.

If, however, you don't desist from telling me just how much I need to find a job right now, I swear I shall test the ballistic faculties of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on you.

By the bye, the more you tell me about it, the less I will do it, even if you happen to be right. Have we understood each other?

Yours in exasperation,
Me.

Grrrr.

- - -
( *nerv* )
- - -