Theater of the Soul

Now that I’ve had a chance to re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I’m going to post my predictions for book 7 here.

1. Dumbledore is dead and will most likely stay that way. I don’t think it’s the last we’ll see of him but I really doubt he’s somehow alive.
2. Snape is still loyal to the Order…there’s no doubt in my mind. It looks like he betrayed Dumbledore but he didn’t. The one thing that convinces me of this is that we now know that Snape is a half-blood…why would he want Voldemort the Elitist in power?
3. Neville still has a very important part to play in the whole scheme of things.
4. There wasn’t any mention of the mysterious mirror that Sirius gave Harry in OotP, so I expect that that will be fully explained in Book 7.
5. The reason that Dumbledore trusts Snape without question will be revealed. I expect it’s due to an Unbreakable Vow. I also think that Snape has been saving Harry’s life all this time due to the life debt that he (Snape) owed James.
6. Dumbledore spoke with the Dursley’s as though it would be his last chance to do so. I think it’s possible that Dumbledore knew of the plot to have Malfoy attempt to kill him and Snape’s Unbreakable Vow to help him do it.
7. I think everyone else has figured out that R.A.B. is Sirius’ brother and is the one who found the locket first and that it’s the locket spoken about in OotP. Mungdungus has probably pawned it by now, not realizing what it is.
8. It’s obvious to me that Snape has been making Unbreakable Vows left and right. I predict that he will die in HP7, saving Harry’s life for the final time.
9. The fact that Voldemort used Harry’s blood in GOF will have unexpected consequences.
10. I don’t believe that Harry, or his scar, is a Horcrux.
11. We’ll get the complete version of the scene that Dumbledore is reliving as he drinks the potion covering the locket. I believe Dumbledore was reliving a memory of pleading with Voldemort not to kill Harry and his parents and was in Godric’s Hollow that night.
12. Ollivander is missing because he was kidnapped by Voldemort to try to find a way around the adverse effects of Voldemort’s and Harry’s wands when they meet.
13. If Dumbledore and Snape polyjuiced each other, I’ll eat my stinky tennis shoes. It’s too obvious and I’d be terribly disappointed in Rowling if she made it that simple.
14. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the author ends the series by destroying the wizarding world where this all takes place. Rowling has been incredibly protective over her books (rightly so) and I think she’ll make sure that this alternative universe is closed forever by the end.

More as I think of things and make connections.

UPDATE 08/07/05: For those who wish to know the last word of Book 7, click here.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

Doohan inspired the phrase “Beam me up, Scotty,” although Capt. Kirk never issued that order until the fourth movie. He told his family he wanted his ashes blasted into space, Stevens said. Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, said it would send Doohan’s remains, along with 125 others, aboard a rocket later this year.
~SFGate.com

I shed a wee tear this afternoon when I heard this news. I grew up watching Star Trek and Scotty was my absolute favorite character. The news that his remains will be blasted into space just seems like such a beautiful tribute.

The VelociGod sayeth:

I’ve been broke.

But I’ve never been poor.

And I cry, “AMEN!”. There is a huge difference between the two. Poverty isn’t about money…it’s about attitude. I’ve chosen life as a single parent and, of course, that means that the flow of money waxes and wanes. Most of the time, I make enough money to keep us quite comfortable and to keep the wolves from the door. But there have been times where it’s been hard, no doubt about it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is no fun and I’ve done that dance more times than I can count.

But on the other side of the coin, I’ve never looked at not having a fancy car or my own home as a sacrifice. I don’t lose sight of the riches that I have in my life that money can’t buy. My boys are at the top of that list, obviously. They don’t always understand the flow of money, but they do understand the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. Sometimes they pout and try to pull a guilt trip on me, but they definitely know the meaning of ‘no’. There are two things that I will never deny them, and those are books and fruit. I’ve rolled coins to buy a book before and if they want a piece of fruit 5 minutes before dinner because they just can’t wait, then so be it.

I’ll never be a rich woman…but I’ll never be poor either.

Six Camp Counselors Charged With Murder In Boy’s Death

CLEVELAND, Ga. — Murder, cruelty and manslaughter charges have been filed against six counselors at a camp for troubled boys in the northern Georgia mountains.

The counselors are accused of restraining a 13-year-old boy face-down and denying the boy his asthma inhaler. He died the next day.

I worked in a rehabilitative juvenile facility for almost 8 years and, although this kind of stuff never happened where I worked, I’ve seen things get out of control several times at other facilities that I worked at. I was a supervisor at my facility, but since we had other branches all over the eastern seaboard, I’d sometimes have to provide coverage in other cities. I’ve seen a 250lbs counselor sitting on a 12 year old kid because the counselor never recieved proper training. I’ve seen it take 4 full grown women pounce on a 14 year old girl who, although she wasn’t being compliant, was posing no threat to herself or anyone. You only ever put a kid in a restraint if he/she is being a danger to themselves or someone else. I’ve seen a male counselor get frustrated and almost grind a kid’s face into the floor in the middle of a restraint because the kid spit at him. He caught himself, but it was obvious that he wasn’t prepared for the job. These facilities literally hire anyone as long they pass a criminal record and background check because the turnover rate is so high. Burnout runs rampant, which is why I no longer wish to work with troubled kids or foster parent (I was a specialized foster parent for 5 years).

I learned how to perform restraints on out-of-control kids from people who had absolutely NO clue what the hell they were doing. The practice sessions were treated more like a joke than anything else. You don’t learn how difficult it is to restrain a kid from practicing on your fellow counselors who are treating the whole thing like a joke, so my first physical restraint was a huge eye opener. It was only when I took a class from the Department of Juvenile Justice that I received any useful training in the use of restraint methods, but no one at my workplace was required to take it. I took it because I was also working towards a job with the state’s Juvenile Justice division.

A textbook physical restraint includes one staff member on each of the kid’s extremeties and one staff member supervising. That’s 5 staff members total to control ONE kid. It just doesn’t happen that way when you only have 6 staff members on duty at a time (where I worked). The kid is also ALWAYS supposed to be on his back once he’s on the floor, in a spread eagle position. The Department of Juvenile Justice passed a law quite a while back prohibiting the use of ‘basket restraints’, where the child’s arms are crossed in front of their chest, then placed face down and counselors literally sit on them. In around 80% of the restraints I did or supervised, we used the approved method. But there were a few kids who you’d swear were made out of rubber and could get themselves twisted and contorted into some of the most creative positions ever. And then there were the spitters and the biters. And the pukers, who obviously couldn’t be kept on their backs in case they choked. We’d never use a basket restraint, but sometimes, no matter what we did, we’d end up in a face down spread eagle restraint. Still, I find it unusual that the cause of death for this 13 year old would be the restraint, given that the kid was alive until the next day, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

The article then goes on to say that the boy had been denied food and his inhaler. That would be a HUGE fuck up if that’s what actually occurred. In my facility, if a kid was acting up so badly that he needed to be isolated, food was offered…ONCE. If the kid threw the food or refused to eat, that was their loss, but food was NEVER withheld. Allowing access to a doctor prescribed medication is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, most kids have been allowed to use their inhalers whenever they feel like it, but once they’re in care, the meds are confiscated and counselors are taught to follow the directions on the prescription to the letter. If the kid had already used the inhaler once, or if the counselors didn’t believe him when he was in the midst of a hissy fit that he needed it, I’m not surprised that there was a fuck up. One of the things I always did was to be on the look out for lips or extremeties turning blue during a restraint if the kid was saying he couldn’t breathe and had a history of asthma. But no one ever taught me that…it was common sense to me.

These facilities aren’t a chamber of horrors like they’re so often made out to be, but there are a few bad eggs out there that should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The outdoor programs are the worst, in my opinion. It’s difficult enough to follow the rules of handling juvenile inmates in a controlled environment. I can’t imagine trying to maintain order within a group of delinquents AND try to keep them safe in the wilderness on top of that.

Taking a group of troubled kids who already have little to no self control out into the wilderness, where there is also little accountability for staff members is an accident waiting to happen.