So it’s Tuesday evening and I wasn’t 100% what I was going to write about, but then I was scanning my junk email folder and I saw that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was available for digital purchase.

I have always had a hate/love history with Harry Potter. As in…I hated it for no reason initially.

See, I can be a bit of a contrarian when it comes to what’s popular. I KNOW! You wouldn’t think so coming from me.

But let’s go back to when the Sorcerer’s Stone first arrived on US store shelves…1998. I was 16, and it took a little time for it to gain traction. I remember my younger cousin having the first book, and then the second. It was my YOUNGER cousin, and I was already in high school and such, so I wrote off the idea of ever getting into this story.

So when the movie came out in 2001, it really wasn’t on my radar. But I was 19, and my radar was college and work. So I didn’t see the movie.

In fact, it probably was somewhere in 2003 when my folks had a special month or two free trial of the premium cable shows that I actually ever first watched the first two Harry Potter movies. After I watched it, I’d watch it again. If I was flipping through the channels and saw they were on, I watched them.

Fast-forward to about 2006 and some of my roommates are discussing when the final book is supposed to be out. I actually saw on the shelf books one through six. These were people my age, and they knew the story, read the books, and looked forward to the next one like I anticipated the next game in the Halo series.

This is where it gets hazy. I don’t remember if I watched the available movies with those friends or not. I do know that at one point I got caught up on all of the movies, and even took my wife to the theater to see Deathly Hallows Pars 1 and 2.

Now all movies are out, and I have the bluray set of all eight films. I know I have a favorite movie, being Deathly Hallows 2, as it’s the end of the story, and it was good to finally get some resolution. Second favorite may be The Sorcerer’s Stone, or possibly even Prisoner of Azkaban. I got burnt out on Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire from watching them too much. And I really want to have Order of the Phoenix higher on my list. I’m guessing that it’s because of my disdain for Dolores Umbridge, who was a truly horrible character. Half-Blood Prince is seriously good as well.

A while back, I was close to pulling the trigger and buying the Kindle version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. My biggest issue right now is that I already know how the story ends. So I’m not sure if I’m willing to invest the time and money to read the books.

So…convince me.

A new episode of the Nerds United Podcast will be a little later than usual in the day, since it’s almost midnight when this post was finished. So be looking for that.

Truth be told, I had hoped to have this post done by about 8pm. My son fell asleep early, and so I got the laptop out. But it was a long day and apparently I needed the sleep too, as I dozed off and on (while sitting relatively perfectly upright) for about three hours. So here I am, putting a bow on this post. Your Fresh Content tomorrow will be the podcast, and I’ll be back writing on Thursday.

Remember to have Iron Man handy tomorrow.

Oh yeah…I went ahead and bought Fantastic Beasts. Looking forward to watching that this weekend with my family.