I’ve added a new stylesheet for large resolution users (recommended for 1280×1024 and above). It’s the same theme, it just features larger text and a larger content area. If for some reason you click that link and didn’t mean to you can reset your theme choice on the set theme page.
Thank you for the comments on the last post. I didn’t mean to whine (thank you Echo :p) I was just caught up in worries — actually caused by having to upgrade a version of phpBB (that didn’t have any secure issues itself). I don’t know why that sparked it off. You’d think after having developed God only knows how many scripts at my last job, I’d be more confident. I guess there’s a big difference between developing for a few hundred staff and opening up your script to millions of people world-wide. I’m investing in a new book on PHP security anyway, hoorah.
Talking of books — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was on the TV yesterday and when it finished I tried to read one of the HP books again. I don’t quite know what it is that JK Rowling does, but there’s something about her style of writing that bugs the crap out of me. If the plot for the Harry Potter series wasn’t so good, I don’t think her books would have sold half as many copies.
Happy Easter everyone. :)
16 Apr at 6:41 pm
I think it’s only my fascination for Hogwarts that made me read her books. *sighs*
16 Apr at 8:36 pm
I can’t stand Harry Potter. I don’t mind the movies so much (Actually, I’ve only seen the first one, but I liked it) but the books bug the crap out of me.
16 Apr at 9:39 pm
it’s the plot, definitely the plot, but other than that… her writings ain’t all that marvelous.
16 Apr at 9:40 pm
oh by the way, I think I found a bug with your new theme (for users with high res.) the main page looks fine, but when I click on other pages, it went back to the default theme…
16 Apr at 10:13 pm
No, you don’t need a great style in order to write a bestseller ;). A much finer book about magic school is Ursula LeGuin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’.
16 Apr at 10:15 pm
Thanks Jennifer.. I uh, forgot to test it. *shifty eyes* It’s the way the cookie is stored I assume.. hmm, I’ll fix it. :D edit: fixed now :)
16 Apr at 10:21 pm
I think LoTH are far better books. Tolkien’s writing is fantasmic. I won’t read the HP books.. I listened to them on tape, and I’ve considered seeing the movies… But I think its way over… obsessed about? Mmhmm. Then again, I’m not much of a reader… I could be but I’m online too much. (*cough* lovely sites don’t have anything to do with that addiction.. no, not at all)
16 Apr at 10:33 pm
I prefer the books over the movies, personally – but I do sense an ‘annoyance’ in Rowling’s writing. She sucks at writing about romance too.
16 Apr at 10:33 pm
The movies bug the crap out of me sometimes. I mean, dude. It’s pretty entertaining, but sometimes, they mess it up so badly. Like Dumbledore in the fourth movie. Actually… his character there was so messed up that I kept laughing at him. But yes, J.K. Rowling really isn’t a great writer. I just love the plot. and she’s good at slipping things in that you might not think is important, but it is. I really like the little tidbits you miss until you’ve read the books 123894032 times. And JKR should work a little bit more on word choice. There’s only so many times you can use the word “said.” And yes, the stylesheet seems to switch on and off on random pages. Sometimes it’s the default, sometimes it’s the big one.
16 Apr at 11:29 pm
I no likey harry potter. The book sounds like a great investment, and should be quite interesting too! :) Happy Easter…. Well, Happy Easter Monday!
17 Apr at 12:40 am
As much as I love Harry Potter, I am the first to admit J.K. Rowling is by far not the best writer on the planet. She totally gets away with breaking some of the most basic rules of writing simply because she is an amazing story teller. She is definintely way too wordy…I mean I like reading a long book as much as the next person, but I also don’t like wasting my time reading stuff that isn’t necessary to the plot (not to mention all her plot “twists” tend to follow the same format, which gets old…that and she tends to drag at the end–especially in her last book, that last chapter made me want to barf).
17 Apr at 2:44 am
You’ll want to be careful critiquing Harry Potter. :P The online fandom is insane. “OMG HARRY/DRACO IS MAH SHIP OMG!1!!” — THAT bugs me more than any flaws in the book. I do remember not really liking the first and second books, so try not to be put off by them. Trust me, it gets better. The series starts off kinda slow, but it really picks up in the third book and it gets better from there, until it gets to the sixth book. I must admit the sixth book would definitely have to be the weakest one in the series (unless the seventh book is even worse… god I hope not, it would be a shame to have such a wonderful series fall flat on its face). A lot of background was revealed in the book, but it was still substandard in my opinion… and the last chapter was shocking. I’m not sure how people draw the conclusion that she’s not a real fantastic writer… she’s sold six bestsellers. People who aren’t all that good at writing don’t sell any bestsellers… If you like fantasy, Jem, then you might like Emily Rodda’s Deltora Quest books. She’s a popular Australian author, though I have no idea if she’s very “big” in the UK. I know that they sell her books at Angus & Robertson and Dymocks. Try looking in bookstores that sell children’s novels.
17 Apr at 3:17 am
I love Harry Potter. Beyond belief. =P But what bothers me, though, is how people are like, “OMG I AM OBSESSED WITH HARRY POTTER” and they haven’t read a damn book. =D
17 Apr at 3:20 am
(I forgot to say this…) and they say that just because they’ve seen < 4 movies. Oh yeah, the series starts out very slow. But it picks up a lot after the first 3 books or so, and gets a lot better. I actually like all the backgorund information, and how she 'drags' on lol. It makes it more interesting for me, because I like to put the pieces of the puzzles together, you know? Sorry for the double comments... *shifty eyes* Happy Easter!
17 Apr at 4:41 am
An old english teacher of mine said there must be some kind of drug in the pages that gets people reading Harry Potter, so maybe you’ve caught onto the plot and aren’t buying it? But was as a previous commenter said, they do pick up after the first three. The first two I didn’t like but kept reading and now I’m hooked. I’m surprized people disliked the last chapter of the sixth as I thought it was fascinating, but the fourth and fifth are my favourites.
17 Apr at 4:53 am
The sixth wasn’t really that… action-filled because JKR wanted to only use that book as a kind of… “set-up” book, so that the seventh one would have the perfect… “stage” or something. So that the story would be good. And I also get annoyed with those “OMG HARRY POTTER IS SO HOT AND DRACO IS TEH SHIP OMGOMG!1!” –things you see nowadays. It’s as annoying as the people who haven’t read a book (but have seen the movies). And it tells you something that only one paragraph of this post was about Harry Potter, whilst the rest of it (the post) was about… web things… and yet, almost all the comments are about HP.
17 Apr at 10:37 am
I couldn’t bring myself to read the HP books. When the first one came out I had heard some people griping about it so I wanted to pick it up… I think it was when the first one came out, maybe the second one, but I just couldn’t read it once I had it. It sucked- there were these debates going on about having it in schools and whether or not it was ‘religious’ and I couldn’t say anything because I couldn’t stand it : P I saw the first movie and I thought it was o.k… I didn’t like the way things would happen and the characters would point them out. I mean, o.k., so you have some 3 year olds watching the movie- let them have the fun of watching it over and over and seeing the details themselves *grr*. Anyway, here was my original comment- ‘She said my name… JEM SAID MY NAME!’
17 Apr at 1:11 pm
Oh, I love Harry Potter. It’s just something you have to get into – the writing is by no means spectacular (structurally, I mean), but they’re just… fun. The plot is awesome, of course, but it’s really the characters that do it for me. You just fall in love with them. (And the books do get better as the series progresses. The sixth book is infinitely better than the first few.) I just love the Weasleys =D All of them. ‘Cept Percy right now, but that’s to be expected.
17 Apr at 1:14 pm
I saw the movie too (seen it before obv.) and was having a similar discussion with K about JKR’s books. I agree with JKR being poor in her ability technically as a writer. As wordsmiths go, there are far more talented writers and novelists out there that sell far fewer books than she does. I think it’s the content itself that captures people’s imagination, not the execution. I think some of her ideas are wonderful and there is something attractive about being consumed by a whole other world and alternate take on reality. However, I really do not understand how adults can stomach her (lack of) writing style. They _are_ children’s books and (lack of) language choices are made accordingly. I adore the films for the imagery and the imaginative story, but for me, she really doesn’t communicate the richness of the plot and its landscape in her books as is evident on film. In contrast, it all seems very flat in print. I would love it if a different writer could have taken her ideas, concepts, plot and all its (intended) imagery and atmosphere and written the books in a way that would have done them justice. Sorry for the rant/ramble..I’ll go now…
17 Apr at 2:14 pm
The new stylesheet doesn’t really do much to me. I have a res of 1280×1024 and it can get higher when I’m on my other computers but your website is not one of those that are hard to read. I don’t like Rowling’s work. I was forced to read it (or listen to it being read to me) back when it came out and there was something so ridiculously simple about her writing. Of course, you can’t really expect anything… it is meant for younger readers.
17 Apr at 7:38 pm
I don’t think you whined. Echo likes to tone down people’s excitement (which is why we all love her ;) ) Heh, regarding the Harry Potter books, no I don’t think JKR’s style is special or anything. It’s actually the plot and the idea behind everything that makes things more interesting. Oh AND the funny quotes (provided a link – site URL- for some on ‘mugglenet’). And did you read Chamber of Secrets? I found that one rather dull. Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix were so much better…. so OK I’m a sucker for anything related Sirius Black… but that’s beside the point ;-)
17 Apr at 7:42 pm
P.S. Happy Easter (blushes) Hm… no URL for my site now, as the new domain doesn’t seem to be functional (dies of frustration).
17 Apr at 8:11 pm
Yay for the new stylesheet. My resolution is 1440×960, so this helps a lot. Thanks :D
17 Apr at 11:15 pm
I must agree about the J.K. Rowling thing. Apparently none of us really like her writing, eh? Her books seem almost…remedial. I suppose that’s why she’s a children’s author. (The high-res version looks swanky, BTW.)
18 Apr at 1:19 pm
Stop being so creative! *sniffles* ;) I actually like the first HP books, but the recent ones are soo, I dunno, disturbing…
18 Apr at 2:19 pm
Look what I did to your website whilst procrastinating from my degree work: Very mature I know. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/ariel_thelittlemermaid/looky.jpg I’m going to do my essay now :(
18 Apr at 6:20 pm
I’m sure you’ll soak that php security information right into your brain. You have a gift, a great one and no one that visits your site has any doubts in you. Even if bellabook did manage to get a loophole in it no one would hold it against you. Hackers and spammers are getting smarter every minute of the day so it wouldn’t be your fault some crafty, devious spam wizard managed to weasle their way in ;) I’m with ya on the Harry Potter books. My younger cousin let me borrow the first book but I was so put off by the style I handed it back to her after a few chapters. I found a similar problem while reading the chronicals of narnia ‘the lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ The storyline was spectacular but the writing within the book was horrible. It is kind of strange that some of the best stories of our generation come from badly written novels. Where is the never ending story or the hobbit writers of our time? They must be hiding…
19 Apr at 3:08 am
You know, the stylesheet’s funny. It’s only useful if you browse full-screen on your 1280×1024 monitor… I don’t, so I’ll just stick to the default, shall I?
15 Mar at 11:12 pm
JK Rowling should make more Harry Potter books and turn them into movies as well. i also think that the all 3 Deltora series and rowan of rin series into movies. these books r by an author named Emily Rodda. she is a great witer. u should start reading same of her books lie all 3 Deltora Quest series and Rowan of Rin series. they r fantastic and interesting to read.