By Will Potter
Yep, it�s that time again! The time where everyone scrambles to get in their house staff applications. Many students want to be part of the house staff, and many are eligible. HOH�s inboxes fill and students wait patiently for a response. This year, there are a few extra changes too.
First, applications are being accepted for the positions of Head Boy and Head Girl. Not as many students are eligible for these jobs, but they are extremely important. Without the Head Boy and Girl, the school could not function. Second, applications are being accepted for the new house of Paddington. A large turnout is expected for this new house.
If you feel you are eligible send in an application for a staff position in your house. You won�t be disappointed. Good luck to everyone!
By Hermy_own
How is your house pride going? That's right, it's getting near the end of term and each and every house needs to show some pride. There are many varieties of ways you can do this, and it really doesn't matter. From posting over and over and over and over again your house smiley or turning in points (excellent idea, by the way,) you're helping promote your very own house. Some favorite house pride ideas are:
- Earning points
- Decorating your avy/siggy with house-related items
- Posting smileys
- And most of all, earning points!
No matter what you do, just remember, your house will appreciate it!
By Adrianna Reyes
My name is Adrianna Reyes, a Penshire house student. I arrived here on April 3rd, 2008. I had some pretty rough times and some pretty easy times to arrive and get settled. First, I went to my the dining hall to have myself sorted into my house. Obviously, I was sorted into Penshire, home of the crane!
Right after the gathering in the dining hall, I instantly dragged and lugged my belongings up the stairs, and to a dorm. I had found a lot of room in a cozy dorm, and placed my things on a wooden chair. I was too anxious to just sit there, so I left to go explore the rest of the school.
I came back later to see a girl playing cards by the name of Bryony Casten with a dog named Faith sitting there beside her. Bryony directed me to my bed and I began to unpack. I unpacked everything from my studies, to my pet frog, Loretta. I soon left my dorm to do other things such as set up my locker and make friends in the common room. I was very happy with the new friends I had made!
Don't believe that I had the perfect life in Hogwarts. I had my rough patches! For example, I was too late. I was going to be without any classes until September! I was very close to making the deadline, by five days to be exact! I also had a nasty encounter with a mouse! It was everywhere! It followed me�EVERYWHERE! I was starting to get over the fact that I was being stalked by a small rodent right before it decided to bite me on the ankle! Let's remember, though. This is my bad luck! Not something that will happen to everyone that enters Hogwarts!
On the positive side, everyone was polite and friendly! They were also extremely patient when I didn't get something at first. Especially Bryony Casten and Samuel Craft! I had other people like Sapphire Lyze, Billy Raven, and Makayla Malfoy also help me. I would also like to thank Professor Ripley for keeping me on the ball with getting help or giving me great advice! I hope all of our new Hogwarts members from all houses have a positive and welcome stay!
By Summer Raine
Early this April, Gryffindors own Leah Black created a topic called "Are You Like Your Character?" Many people answered this question, here are their responses:
Leah said:
For me, anyway, I see a lot of myself in Leah -- not necessarily in every aspect of her, thank god, but she was my first and I definitely see certain traits of myself popping out in her. Like all of a sudden I'll just go, "Oh, no, she sounds just like me!" and wonder whether I should get help. X_X On the other hand, there are probably people who use their characters as a way to be different from how they are in the real world, to get some variety, whatever. And that's cool, too.
Lily expressed herself a lot. This is what she had to say:
Since PADs is my first ever RPG site, I did make Lily a lot like me. We are uber alike, but we're also very different. Some ways we're alike is the fact that we both just want to see good in the world. We both know that the world can be a cruel place, but there's people and places that show otherwise. We both tend to ignore the bad things about a person and try to bring out the good ^.^ As far as physically, we pretty much look alike, except Lily is more extreme. I have brownish hair and light eyes, but Lily has dark rich brown locks with piercing blue eyes. And we're both uber short >.<
But we're VERY different. Lily is a lot shyer than I am. Heck, I'm not considered shy at all xD And Lily isn't as good as making friends as I am. She's awkward and silent, while I'll go up to a stranger and give them a hug. I think it makes it easier to write if you're related more to your character, because you know how they would think, and what sort of things he/she would do. But it would be fun to be someone totally opposite from you, to get another state of mind.
Kristin said this, but she might not have put in everything since she was trying to eat nachos:
Just like Lily, PADs was my first RP site (besides the WB boards, but we won't go there...)
Kristin and I are really alike, though I'm not quite as emotional as Kristin can sometimes get.*hides from Leah because she might argue We have the same personality, and most of the time I pull what I'm feeling into my character. Though I must admit, at times she is MUCH more confident than I am.
Even though DOZENS*exaggeration* of others waiting to be in this article, this 1st Year Gryffindor decided to make this article into a continuous collection of articles. So check in next month to see what other Gryffies said about their similarities & differences with their character!
By Moaning Myrtle
There�s a dilemma I have in the Penshire Common Room. It lies in the very first section of the room, the small spot of carpet that students step on their first time entering. That small spot of carpet� every time I see it I wince, because I never know what to do, how to react.
It�s easier when it�s students that are just returning from a vacation� or even after a day of classes. I can easily ignore the ones coming in from classes, and those who are returning after a short absence know me well enough to not do anything stupid.
But the new students� they are, quite possibly, the most awkward thing I�ve ever experienced. They step into that spot of carpet and stand there looking around in awe or fear until everyone in the common room drops what they�re doing and rushes to greet them. Or, if not everyone, a few people, and they gradually move from their spot of carpet further into the depths of the room to meet everyone else sitting on couches or at the tables.
I never know what to do. Frankly, I�m not inclined to be nice to them, because either first-years have horrible preconceptions about me or they think that they are God�s gift to the earth and that everyone shall love them the minute they step foot in our common room. These two things put together lead to very awkward and less-than enjoyable introductions for me.
I know I should at least be �civil� to them. And sometimes I am. I don�t want to scare them all away, after all. But� I don�t want to give them a false impression either. It wouldn�t do at all to have first years coming up to me all the time expecting me to want to listen to their problems. If anything they should listen to my problems, because they�ve got it easy compared to what I go through!
There you have it. My Introduction Dilemma. Beware that one, worn spot of carpet. That�s where the Dilemma hides, preying on only the unlucky few. I know it holds a grudge against me� does it hold one against you too?
By Amber Thatcher
All of us have a name that we use. Whether it is from the Harry Potter books, imagination, or another source, we all chose our names for a reason. I wanted to find out, and share those reasons; the stories behind our names can be very interesting, and the history and origins are just as rich!
Here are the stories between two more Raven's and their names!
First up, Gwen Tatham! Followed by the wonderful Gemini Huggle!
Gwen
Her first name may not have too much of a story behind the choice, "I've always liked the name Gwen, and as I can't get anyone in the meatworld to call me Gwen, I pretty much always use Gwen when I've gone silicon," but there is a rich history behind the name.
Gwen is often the shortened form of several different names: Gwenda, Gwendolyn, Gwyneth, Gwynne, Guinevere, and more. This opens up a lot of names to look into, so I'll only do a couple.
Gwendolyn is Old Welsh meaning "White-haired one; lady of the new vision." Gwendolyn was the wife of Merlin the magician in old Welsh legends.
Gwyneth is Old Welsh as well, meaning "White, blessed one."
Guinevere is once again Old Welsh, meaning "White wave, white phantom." The wife of King Arthur in English legends was named Guinevere. Another tidbit that might be interesting is that "Ginerva" (like Ginny Weasley) is an Italian version of the name Guinevere.
Tatham
Her last name in her very own words was, "the name that most appealed to me when I was considering joining Second Life."
Tatham is of an Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational last name. Tatham is a place in Lancashire near Lancaster. Locational last names are generally names given to the lord of the manor of the area, to those former tenants of that area who moved elsewhere, but were more suited to being identified with their previous living area or birthplace. The origins of this name can date back to 1208 on the document 'Pleas before the King', Yorkshire, during the reign of King John.
With other names related to Gwen, this is what she wrote, "For the siblings: Sarah fits in name-wise with the rest of the family--conservative names, some Biblical, all in use by Brits; Nick was the only name my brother would accept when we were considering both signing up here before we realized that he couldn't because he's grounded for forever and it's also short like Gwen is.
That's the out-of-character explanation, anyway. The in-character one is that my mum kept her name when she married and Mum and Dad agreed that the kid/s staying with each of them would keep the name of the head of the residence after the divorce. (Easier that way.) Hence, Sarah Harper, Nick Tatham, and Gwen Tatham. Mum's a fan of Arthurian legend but didn't want to deal with the endless variations on spelling out the full name so she picked the short name out of it; Gwen is more aesthetically pleasing than Guen, and no doubt Dad was glad enough to get his children outside of the Protestant naming tradition plaguing him, his brother, and especially his sisters. (Mark and Matthew aren't so bad of names; Hope, Faith, and particularly Charity are probably not so appreciative of theirs.) As far as the sibs go: Nick was somewhat unexpected--the surprise twin, lucky thing Mum's side of the family has always had smallish babies--and they wanted a similar type of name to mine, but Arty? Lance? Winnie? Not much to work with, y'see. So they settled for the "just the nickname" trick for him and they both liked the name of the delivering doctor--Nicholas Krosp, I think it was--so, Nick. Sarah I think is named after a distant ancestrix."
Gemini
This is her story behind her name, "About five years ago, my sister and I joined the HP fan site. Her name was Gillyweed, and she suggested Gemini for me. And, since this was the first RPG site I joined, and it was HP the name Gemini was just the first thing I thought of."
Gemini is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, which originates from the constellation of "Gemini". In astrology, Gemini is considered the "masculine" sign. Often, "air" is the element associated with Gemini. Gemini is also closely related to the number two (the astrological symbol for Gemini is the Roman numeral two), and therefore often associated with twins.
Huggle
I think that for this name, the only explanation that can be given is the one stated by Gemini herself! "I don't even remember how I can up with this one. I think I was just typing words together, trying to find something that sounded nice together. And, tada! Huggle. Lol"
By Amber Thatcher
All of us have a name that we use. Whether it is from the Harry Potter books, imagination, or another source, we all chose our names for a reason. I wanted to find out, and share those reasons; the stories behind our names can be very interesting, and the history and origins are just as rich!
Which names will be looked at now? Well, two more Ravens, Ariene Callahan, and Jacyn Corbin are up now!
Ariene
To start off, here is her story behind this name! "Well my character is of Irish background, and I looked up Irish names until I found one I liked. However, as Ariene developed I also discovered the name Ariene is of French origin as well. It's a pretty name, and I wanted a name that wouldn't be too common."
I have found that there are many different versions of the origins of the name Ariene (or a slightly more common version of Ariane). For example there is the Welsh origin meaning "silvery". Then there are the Greek and French origins meaning "Very holy one". Some thoughts on the original version of the name are Arianne, Ariana, and Ariadne (who in Greek mythology helped Theseus to escape from the Cretan labrynth). In Irish names, the closest I could find was "Areinh" which is Gael meaning "pledge".
Callahan
In her words: "I was on an RPG HP site before I found PAD's. The site went on hiatus, and one of the characters on the site had the last name, Callaghan, I really liked the sound of it. But I took out the 'G' and liked the spelling better as Callahan. That's pretty much it."
Callaghn is an Anglicized form of the ancient (and honourable) Irish surname "O'Ceallachain". This Gaelic name has the components of "O" meaning "descendent of" and "Ceallachain" a version of the personal name "Ceallach" meaning contention or strife. One of the original bearers of the name is a tenth century King of Munster, whom many people with the name O'Callaghn or Callaghn descend from today. There have been a number of distinguished Irishmen of the name; among them Father Richard Callaghan (1738 - 1807), the Jesuit educationalist; two historians in the persons of Edmund O' Callaghan (1797 - 1883) and John Cornelius O' Callaghan (1803 - 1883); and Sir Francis O' Callaghan (1839 - 1909), the engineer. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John O' Callaghan which was dated 1605
Jacyn
According to Jacyn, "I always like taking names and giving them different spellings. Like: Mykala, instead of Micheala, or Hanah instead of Hannah, or Luci, instead of Lucy. I have a relative named Jason, and I originaly made the name Jacen. Then, I decided that there had to be a female spelling, too, so I added a y."
Well, Jason is Greek, originally being "Iason" which means "healer". Jason was among the ancient Greek Heroes.
Here is a fun fact that not many people may realize, there are around 2000 females in the United States that have Jason as their first name.
Corbin
This is Jacyn's story of how she got the name Corbin, "I always liked the sound of the name Corbin. I actually had a friend with the first name Corbin, but I like it better as a last name."
Corbin originates from the name "Corbett". This came from the Old French version of "Corbet" which means "Raven". The raven symbolized wisdom and was used on flags and shields of the Norse Biking conquerors of Normandy and northwest France. It is not suprising then that when a Coat of Arms was granted to a Corbin family in Guernsey, which depicts three black ravens on a gold chief, with a silver shield or three ravens proper on an engraved chief, with a red and blue shield. The family motto is "Deus pascit corvos", God feeds the ravens. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Corbun, which was dated 1086, in the "Domesday Book of Essex", during the reign of King William 1, "William the Conqueror".