I haven’t even read any of the Harry Potter books, and have only been somewhat conscious for a couple of the films…but c’mon. Dumbledore is gay?

J.K. has been watching too much of the Super Duper Special Dolby 5.912 Star Wars Awesome now with more fiber! Edition.

Leave it alone, Mrs. Lucas. Just leave it alone.

A good man died today; I’m very blessed to have known him.

I hope he’s eating all the Strawberry Shortcake he can handle and fixing every broken computer he can find.

Goodbye, Tom.

I like flags. Really. No joke. And it’s a little strange, but we all need something.

So, in order to get better at knowing about flags, and to keep blogging so Kris doesn’t kill me, I’m going to post about them on a regular basis. Probably nothing along the order of every day, but a couple times a week. Writing about them helps me learn more about them (more then just reading about them) and I can share some of my fascination with all things vexillological with everyone else.

Without further ado, I give you…

The Brazilian flag has always been one of my favorites. Good color variety, design variety, plus it includes some interesting facts about not only the founding of Brazil but its’ history as well.

The banner crossing the blue globe is “Order and Progress”, a nod to Auguste Comte, famous French sociologist, whom many of those who designed the flag found particularly worthy of mention.

The colors of the flag recall not only the green of the Amazon forests and gold of the nation, but the royal colors of Emperor Pedro I of Portugal and Empress Leopoldina of the Habsburg family.

The lozenge design (yellow diamond) also pays tribute to the old Portuguese imperial flag.

Of particular interest to me are the stars. The US flag has 50 stars for 50 states; the same is true of Brazil’s flag, but each star corresponds to a particular state, and there are five different sizes of stars. The overall pattern of stars is patterned after the night sky on November 15, 1889, the day that Brazil became an independent nation.

(Summarized from Wikipedia and my Encyclopedia of World Flags)

I don’t have much of a list at the moment, but here’s something.

DVD — Samurai Jack Season 3 (Wal-Mart, F.Y.E., online–$15 – $20)

PC Game — Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete + HOMM 4 (eBay–$20-$25)

Book — The Zombie Survival Guide (online, bookstores–$15)

Book(s) — Smithsonian Handbooks: Flags by William G. Crampton
Flags of the World (Spotters Guides) by William G. Crampton
Flags of the Fifty States and Their Incredible Histories: The Complete Guide to America’s Most Powerful Symbols by Randy Howe
(all the flag books are cheap, especially if they’re used. I don’t care if they’re used, because that just means I can get more of them. Amazon.com is a great source…oh, and I already have Znamierowski’s Encycolpedia on Flags)

Board Game — Tikal (specialty game stores, online — $25-$30)

Clothing — Bucket Hat, gray or beige (online probably, it probably needs to be XL in size for my noggin)