Quick Takes

The "I must post something or there'll be no entry for July in the Archives" edition.

Happy 33rd Birthday, Harry Potter!

In honor of his 33rd birthday, we present some titles from the forthcoming series Harry Potter and the Midlife Crisis:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Gallstone
• Harry Potter and the Bedchamber of his Secretary
• Harry Potter and the Tax Auditor of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Urination of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Cholesterol Panel
• Harry Potter and the Rancorous Credit Card Debt
• Harry Potter and the Reliving of the Glory Days
• Harry Potter and the Ex-wife's New Husband
• Harry Potter and the Rising Hogwarts Tuition
• Harry Potter and the Bright Red Sports Car
• Harry Potter and the Speeding Ticket

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Apparently, Fr. Barron has new glasses. This must be addressed with memes.

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I see that the Dodgers are up 3½ games, and 10-1 since the All-Star break. I'm tempted to start watching them again, but am afraid that'll jinx them. Typically, the best thing I can do for the Dodgers is pretend they don't exist. In fact, me even acknowledging them here has probably doomed them to a 10-game losing streak.

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The Murloc's cosplay has been doing well. She had an awesome "DC Villains" photo shoot, which produced these masterpieces, among others:

This one's starting to go viral.

Although my favorite is this Joker and Harley photobooth set:

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Related: Comic-Con came and went. Ho hum. The Murloc arranged a DC photoshoot similar to the one at Wondercon. Same old, same old. It made the front page of Reddit. And a full-page spread in Entertainment Weekly.

Achievement Unlocked.

The Murloc also met one of her favorite comic arts, Lar Desouza of Looking For Group. He drew her this awesome picture of her and her favorite character from the comic, the panther Sooba.

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The Murloc and I were busy busy for the last two weeks (one of the reasons, in addition to Kerbal Space Program, that I haven't been updating). I was in Houston the 16th-19th on business, Murloc was at Comic-Con 18th-21st, we said "hi" on the 22nd, then I was in Detroit from the 23rd-26th.

When leaving Detroit (over the boys' birthday week!) I tried to buy some toy cars from them at one of the airport gift shops. Y'know, Detroit → cars? Would it surprise you to learn that none of the gift shops (at least in the "D" terminal) sell toy cars? I guess Detroit doesn't make cars anymore.

Also, all the books in the gift shops were missing all the pages except those in chapter 9. I wonder what that was about.

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Speaking of The Boys (who just turned 4 and 2), a photography company came to our parish offering free photo sessions, ostensibly for a parish directory; you get a free 8x10 and a copy of the directory just for attending. But seeing as how we'd never had a family portrait (!!!!) we took advantage and bought their package deal thingy.

The photographers are either magicians or witches. How else would you be able to get a 3 & 1 year old to sit still long enough for this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

They laughed at my moustache. I laughed at their funeral.

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Ah, potty-training; that magical time of a child's life when a parent's thoughts turn towards strangling their kid.

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Apropos of nothing, at some point I learned to sight-sing. Latin Schola is all but on vacation for the summer, and without rehearsals, we haven't been practicing any cool renaissance polyphony. One Sunday, the Schola Mistress brought in some sheet music for a piece we were to sing. She intended for us to sing the melody in unison, but since the xerox copies had the SATB parts, a few of us just sight-read the harmonies. Each Sunday since, she's done the same thing. I'm a little surprised that I picked up this ability.

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And because it's not a quick take without Minecraft, here's a video I made of a mine cart ride designed and built completely by Damien, with absolutely no input or assistance from me: