Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I haven't read the answer in question, I just think it is kind of cute that Harry Potter questions tend to be more controversial than just about anything else on the 100 hour board.

I'm just confused that someone would take the time to send you a private e-mail, Concorde, in order to express their dissatisfaction. As if you thought everyone was going to agree with you, anyway. It was also clear to me that you were just "thinking out loud" and not saying everything there was your opinion. To anyone who wrote you such an e-mail, I think they're way too invested in their personal interpretations of the series (or their knowledge of trivia/"canonical" information about the series). That's lame. (If anyone reading this actually sent such an e-mail: I admire your fandom-ness, but I think you just took it too far, that's all!)

I was really fascinated to hear about the different theories, especially the idea of "having a soul fragment in Harry is different from Harry's being a Horcrux." That made sense to me and I found it fascinating, so now it's my personal canon. It's like, he's a Horcrux, man, but he's not a Horcrux, but we call him a Horcrux because he's mostly like a Horcrux. But he's not. Deep, man...

Haters gonna hate. If you still decide to retire I respect that decision, but I hope you won't be doing it because of somebody who probably wrote their answer to you while drinking Butterbeer and wearing Coke-bottle glasses.

Thanks. I was very puzzled and peeved by the email. It was clear it was a throwaway, but to take the time to make one just to tell me I'm completely misinterpreting Harry Potter? I really was just thinking out loud. This is why I'm not overly passionate about anything. It makes people crazy.

Also I am still retiring. It was coming, anyway. I've just been a grump on the Board lately and it's just my time to go. I'm being retired on Friday. I'm not posting a retirement answer, though. I'm just skipping out.

Concorde wrote:Thanks. I was very puzzled and peeved by the email. It was clear it was a throwaway, but to take the time to make one just to tell me I'm completely misinterpreting Harry Potter? I really was just thinking out loud. This is why I'm not overly passionate about anything. It makes people crazy.

Also I am still retiring. It was coming, anyway. I've just been a grump on the Board lately and it's just my time to go. I'm being retired on Friday. I'm not posting a retirement answer, though. I'm just skipping out.

If you're still looking for apartments in my area, stop by and hang out and I promise I won't talk about The Chosen One. ;-)

I just looked at your stats: that's impressive. You are the funniest writer since Skippy, easily. You'll be missed!!!

Hah, thanks. I wil say that it's nice to leave with 50% of the last year's most popular answers being mine. A reminder of when I was a better writer than I am now. Unfortunately I don't think I finished very strongly in terms of voice and style and content, but c'est la vie, non?

Wow, people. I come up with a groundbreakingly insane theory about Harry Potter (namely, his near-immortality) and I don't get a single hate email? Once again, Concorde has stolen all of my haters.

Come back, haters. I miss you. And Concorde, I think your answer was awesome.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot that I had credited you for that idea. Seriously people! Go after Yay for that one. That hadn't even occurred to me until he brought it up.

Yayfulness, your immortality theory was incredibly stupid and I hate your guts.

Everyone feel better?

I felt uncomfortable just typing that. How do people be mean on the Internet? /Canadian

Zedability wrote:Yayfulness, your immortality theory was incredibly stupid and I hate your guts.

Reminds me of this Emo Philips joke showing hyperintolerance of differing opinions on minutiae.

Whoa, whoa, hold it there, Concorde (this is why I shouldn't post things in the wee hours of the night). I did think that answer was amazing. Like super awesome amazing. I just remember reading the first part and being confused when I got answers to questions that I never asked and I couldn't see how they related. But eventually you did connect things back and it sang and you kept giving me delicious looks at more people than I would have thought of. Hermione as a lonely headmistress is brilliant and Snape's life being even more sad--that made me choke up. So many things I agreed with you about that I can't even say. It's a hobby of mine to speculate about these sorts of things and I guess I just got it in my head that people should speculate this stuff the same way I do, that the nitpicks should be "corrected" to my viewpoint. I'm sorry, Concorde. I was acting selfish when I should show that I'm actually grateful for all the work you did instead of complaining about it. I sent in the question fishing for ideas, not expecting much more than a few paragraphs, and you poured out your heart and brain and fingertips and then I just attacked you for not perfectly fitting my idea of an answer. I couldn't do what you did, and certainly not in four hours. This is why you are the Board Writer and I'm not. So please, ignore my Inner Jerk that says it wasn't good enough. It was, and more than good enough. I just got scared that you were going to save the answer to my actual question for a footnote, which you didn't and I shouldn't have doubted you.

I thought this question and its attendant answers about resistance to change were interesting, because I am extremely afraid of stability.

Somehow, I've managed to get an apartment less than 10 miles from where I grew up, have a stable group of friends, many dating from the early 1990s through about 10 years ago, and now have been in a relationship for over two years. All of these things freak me out, but I like Salt Lake County (and have lived elsewhere, so feel more confident actually settling here), I like my friends, and you can only suffer from so much grass-is-greener syndrome before you realize, bird in the hand, &c.

It's weird, because I feel like now is definitely the Best Years of My Life, and I'm finally to a point where messing that up (baby? house? dog? cruise? AHHH, NO) would make me extremely unhappy. It's odd, but I know that I ultimately won't be satisfied if 37 looks the same as 27.

Yayfulness's "36" story reminded me of the Red Dwarf episode Dimension Jump. (Not that he's like Arnold Rimmer, but what ended up helping Ace Rimmer)

Nothing less than phenomenal answer by Katya on types of trials and social anxiety

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/81860/

I liked Katya's answer as well, except my biggest trial went different from her order in the first paragraph (reaffirming what she said about not every trial fitting this narrative)

Katya wrote:In the LDS Church, we have some common patterns for the way we talk about certain experiences in our life, particularly trials. The standard LDS trial narrative (the kind of thing you might hear in Fast and Testimony Meeting) roughly follows this pattern: (1) I was going along in my life, trying to be a good person, (2) I had this really difficult trial come up out of nowhere, (3) it was so hard that I even started to doubt my faith, but then (4) I decided to double down on prayer/fasting/temple attendance/etc. (5) I finally made it through my trial with the help of the Gospel, (6) now I understand why I went through it or why it was “meant” to happen, and (7) I'm in a better place than I was before because I have learned so much about myself and about the Gospel and my faith is stronger than ever because of this trial.

For me, the order was 1, 4, 2, 3, then 5. Sadly,I'm not sure I have a 6 or 7. Eventually I had to 'make up' a reason for my trial by convincing myself that the purpose is for me to help others through the same trial. Frankly, Katya's answer was a great help to me and a reminder that I really need to get help for some closure over what happened.

I think I might have to move to Canada to send my kids to Zedability's school.

Frankly, I loved all the answers to this question and Zed's school is basically already doing what I wish more schools were doing. I've especially recognized this as I've seen my husband struggle with some of the more 'pure' classes but he loves the 'applied' classes he has. Plus, he is a great blue-collar worker and actually likes what he does, he would be driven mad if, after school, he had to sit at a cubicle all day.

Portia wrote:Nothing less than phenomenal answer by Katya on types of trials and social anxiety

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/81860/

Thank you! It took a ridiculously long time to write (and is probably my longest answer ever).

Shrinky Dink wrote:Frankly, Katya's answer was a great help to me and a reminder that I really need to get help for some closure over what happened.

I'm glad it helped and I hope that you're able to find to some peace with your situation.

Katya wrote:

Portia wrote:Nothing less than phenomenal answer by Katya on types of trials and social anxiety

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/81860/

Thank you! It took a ridiculously long time to write (and is probably my longest answer ever).

I also really liked it! It's helpful to have language explain frustrating things like where trials come from and how they work in our lives.

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/81917/

Wow, Katya. Just... wow.

I feel like I should be raising some sort of courtroom objection about asked and answered.