Hey everyone, I am excited about reading a book

The long-anticipated final book in the Harry Potter series will be released Saturday morning at 00:01. I've long been a fan -- since shortly after the first books came out, I guess. I remember in second or third grade, some lady was showing my class this book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and saying that it was a big hit in England and that it would be coming out in the US soon. Little did anyone know that Harry Potter would still be so popular ten years later. I'm eager to read each new book as it comes out, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is no exception. I think I'll go with my sister and her friend on Friday night to get the book the moment it comes out. I won't be able to read it then, though, because my sister has called first dibs on the book, and she plans to read the umpteen-hundred-page tome through without stopping for sleep. I'm a pretty slow reader (compared to her), and I have to take breaks, so I'll need considerably longer time: a few days.

After an incident that my friends Luke and Brian instigated a few months ago, I decided that, upon release of the book, I would try to avoid contact with any source that could spoil the book for me until I'd reach the last page myself. What had happened was that Luke and Brian kept tormenting me with what they claimed was a major spoiler. Since this was months ago, they couldn't have really known, but now they can... and do. On Tuesday, I learned from a number of sources that the entire book had been leaked onto the Internet, and that Luke had learned the spoilers. Needless to say, I haven't talked to him since then. I've been on high alert, putting away my cell phone, not checking my e-mail, and blocking my access to any web site that might give away the ending. Luke, you know it's hard for me to sound polite when I'm trying to avoid you, but it's not like I don't trust you in particular. I don't trust the world. I don't trust Wikipedia. Did you notice there were no Wikipedia links in the last paragraph? It's hard not to go to Wikipedia. I couldn't even look up how many pages the book was, so I went with "umpteen-hundred."

I don't mean to portray Luke and Brian as rabble-rousing troublemakers whose goal is simply to spoil plot details for others. Although they can rouse the occasional rabble, they arguably have a moral and ethical basis for what they're doing. Apparently, two years ago, a store in Canada accidentally sold a few copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a few days before it was supposed to be released. The publisher got a court order saying that the people who had bought the book early couldn't read it or divulge any plot details until the official release date. Some people, among them Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman, said that this was illegal and called for a boycott of the Harry Potter books. (If any of the preceding details are wrong, it's because I'm writing this by memory as I'm afraid to Google anything related to Harry Potter right now.)

Am I going overboard with the whole thing? Maybe. But I really, really don't want to know what happens in the last book until I read it myself. All I want to do is let the book have its full effect on my emotions, as the author intended, and maybe enjoy a glass of butterbeer. I don't think that's unreasonable to ask. This will all seem pretty silly in retrospective, but I wouldn't have to resort to this silliness if there weren't such a threat. In fact, I'm even a little afraid to go to the bookstore tomorrow night because I don't want someone to open their copy of the book to the last few pages and shout out what happens. Okay everyone, I am paranoid. Go ahead and laugh. Oh, wait, you can't -- I turned off the comments.

Here's some art that looks like a pile of junk... that, is, until you shine a light on it at the proper angle.

A few weeks ago, some toll-free number wouldn't stop calling the main landline in our house. Finally, after looking at the caller ID and searching for the number with Google, I found that the number had an entry at 800notes. The entry had comments from other people who had been called by the number and their experiences trying not to be called by the company on the other end. The next time you get a telemarketer calling, submit the number to this site; maybe someone else will find your information useful.