The Comic Scholar's Corner

What qualities must a good friend have?
Submitted by Alexandra.

There's saying: "A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a real friend will be sitting next to you saying '&@#$, that was fun!"

Hey peeps! It's time for me to give a long and nerdy review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. While I think it was all in all really great, I do have some criticism. My main annoyance is that they skimped the funeral and the siege of Hogwarts. To keep things PG they cut the cruelty of the Death Eaters,and poor Bill's wounds. All they had was killing Dumbledore and burning Hagrid's hut. The Death Eaters acted more like naughty teenagers rather than the most deranged and dangerous witches and wizards in the world. Other than that, it was good. Some people complain of the amount of relationship drama and the Ron-Hermione-Lavender love triangle, and that is a valid vexation, but at least it was done with the proper awkwardness and confusion appropriate for the situation, unlike certain Vampire-Teen romances and yes I'm looking at you Twilight. So, in conclusion, I really liked it, despite its faults. I particularly liked the setup, the Pensieve, and the acting of those under the affects of certain potions (e.g. Ron in love and Harry using Felix)

Greetings and welcome to another edition of The Human Safari. In this episode we will be delving into the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. WARNING: Contains spoilers!! The series begins when Isabella "Bella" Swan moves to Forks, WA. She doesn't like there until she meets the incredibly attractive Edward Cullen. Let's stop right there and have a character analysis of Edward Cullen. You know from the back of the book that Edward is a vampire. That means he is really strong, eternally young, drinks blood, really fast, and really sexy. He is also emotionally abusive and obsessive. Yes, I am prepared for hundreds of teenage girls to throw rocks at me, but that doesn't change my opinion. Edward isn't all that. He is n empty vessel into which we can stuff our hopes and dreams, but in the end he will only disappoint because no one but yourself will ever fill the holes inside of you. Also, when I say emotionally abusive, I mean emotionally abusive. Over the course of the series Edward abandons Bella to protect her from him and his family. Even though he and his family are "vegetarian vampires", which means they only slaughter innocent animals (Barfs in mouth), they still want to kill her. So Bella is entirely reliant on Edward because they're "made for each other" Edward leaves her and takes all traces of his existence with him. After several months of wandering about with no memory of anything she does, Bella wakes up from her sort of trance and realizes that she hears Edward's voice in her head when she is about to do something stupid. So of course she begins doing incredibly stupid things just to hear his voice, including jumping of cliffs and learning to ride a motorcycle. And all during this time she becomes emotionally attached to Jacob Black, an American Indian boy a bit younger than herself. But then when Edward returns to Forks Bella totally drops Jacob like a baby giraffe and returns to the abusive Edward. Edward and Jacob have a competition not only because they both desire Bella, but also because Jacob is a werewolf and werewolves and vampires are natural enemies. Also, Bella describes herself as plain, average, and awkward, yet when she moves to Forks five boys (Including Jacob and Edward) become very flirtatious with her. She also specifies more than once that she is exactly one-hundred-and-ten pounds (Below is a SisterSalad video that goes deeper into that subject.) The Twilight saga, as a book series, is just plain poorly-written. Example: Meyer uses the word "Masochist" way too often, and not just when it's someone like Edward, who is meant to speak differently than your average high-schooler, is talking, but when someone like Jacob is talking.  Well, that about sums up my views. If I think of more I'll post again. Toodles,
Comic Scholar

Hello Peeps,
Sorry that I haven't updated since... wait, let me check... April 25th. So now I am updating. You probably don't know this, but I have become obsessed with the Vlogbrothers on YouTube. It's these two brothers, Hank and John, who regularly post video-blogs to each other. Their fans are called Nerdfighters (who fight for nerds, not against). Brother Hank post songs he writes on Wednesdays. He also released an album, So Jokes (Jokes meaning cool), which I am listening to right now. Today, Hank was in Cambridge, MA, so my mom and I went to see him since Cambridge is only forty minutes away. And it was awesome. You know when you meet a celebrity you react in a certain way as aposed a regular person that you know. Well, when I meet a famous person I clam up. My mouth shuts. My muscles clench. I can't speak. But when I met Hank, I didn't because I had watched him on YouTube so many times that it seemed like I knew him already. I have to go. It's 9:07 p.m. and my turned off the lights.
C.S.

If you could pick between the superpowers of flight or invisibility, which would you choose?
Submitted by aynge.

Invisibility.

What is worse? Ignorance or apathy?
Submitted by SavageBart.

They usually travel hand-in-hand.

Days after his inauguration, President Barack Obama signed into effect plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within the next year. What do you think should be done with its remaining detainees?
Sponsored by “Inside Guantanamo” on National Geographic Channel. Premieres Sunday at 9P et/pt.

They should be tried by a jury.

What superpower would you most like to have?

Force Fields

Hey folks,
Sorry I haven't posted for a while, it's been kinda busy here. Saturday we went to Spark at MIT. Spark is when a bunch of students at MIT teach classes on super random things, from Breakfastology to Quidditch for Muggles. I took "Balloon Animal Bonanza", "Quidditch for Muggles", "Conversational Latin", "Why Matchmaking", "The Chemistry of Poisons", and "Pipecleaners". I'll post more about these later. I'm still really sore from walking so much that day. On Sunday, we had the "Coming of age service" for my older sibilings and their Religious Education class. That means that they don't attend RE anymore. So now it's Monday, and a freak snow storm has hit. Saturday it was 56 degrees and right now it's 33! Sheesh, talk about Global Weirding.
Well, I'm going to "Make like a bannana and split",
C.S.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Please, let us have a moment of silence, in order to remember those who died in the concentration and work camps. Remember it today, and always so we never let it happen again.