Chapter 18: The leader of my Harry Potter book club pointed out that Hermione sounds a lot like Mrs. Weasley in this chapter, chastising Sirius for taking unnecessary risks. Oedipus much, Ron?? Chapter 19: It’s interesting that teaching is the first thing that Harry has been really good at since flying. Now that I thinkContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 18/19”
Author Archives: Bryan Guido Hassin
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 11
I wonder why Slytherin House remained at Hogwarts after Salazar Slytherin left. It would seem that someone so passionate about his views on the worthiness of students might have left and started a competitive school – and surely the students/parents who agreed with him would have followed him. Along the same lines, it seems weirdContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 11”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 10
On the topic of thestrals, this continues the theme of “mundanization” of magic found in the last book. The first books are all wide-eyed wonder at magic: carriages that pull themselves, a majestic feast that magically appears on the tables. Now we pull the curtains back and realize that those are the results of theContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 10”
Innovating to Solve Two Crises at Once
The world is locked down. My calendar, which weeks ago was full of flights and meetings, is now back to back to back Zooms. And yet – while so much has stopped – the glaciers are still melting, the emissions are still climbing, and the climatetech startups that are our best hope of reversing bothContinue reading “Innovating to Solve Two Crises at Once”
Follow-Up on Facebook
To follow up on my recent post about considering leaving Facebook, I have decided not to leave but to change/refine my rules of engagement. Broadly this means only visiting facebook intentionally for a limited scope of reasons. Specifically, for each of the use cases I laid out in the previous post, this is my currentContinue reading “Follow-Up on Facebook”
RIP Max the Golden Retriever
Tonight we lost Max, our English Cream Golden Retriever of nine and a half years. We adopted Max in 2010. Back then he was an energetic three year old with a penchant for counter cruising and eating things he wasn’t supposed to. He had more than a little separation anxiety from having been abandoned byContinue reading “RIP Max the Golden Retriever”
Leaving Facebook
I’m considering deleting my Facebook account and am seeking advice on a tech stack to replace its various functions in my life. Facebook provides a valuable service, but unfortunately its business model is not aligned with the value it provides. It makes decision after decision that I disagree with ethically and it has been weaponizedContinue reading “Leaving Facebook”
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker Review
Tonight we attended the first showing of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker and boy do I have some thoughts. My TL;DR non-spoiler review is that the film isn’t terrible, but it’s very disappointing. It was mostly an OK film, but then a couple of key decisions ruined it for me. In hindsight,Continue reading “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker Review”
So Proud of Katie!
Tuesday I had the enormous privilege of attending Katie’s public Ph.D. dissertation defense. What an incredible moment it was as my wife stood before her colleagues and presented her research findings, the culmination of her last six years of work and the reason for our cross-country move to North Carolina! To be clear, Katie’s dissertationContinue reading “So Proud of Katie!”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapter 4
Can we talk about how OP Hermione is? She’s the smartest (IQ) of the Power Trio by far and then this scene (when Harry arrives at 12 Grimmauld Place and Hermione anticipates how he must be feeling / how to talk him down from his lashing out) demonstrates how she has the highest EQ asContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapter 4”