Why I support Severus Snape:

Dumbledore would have been hard-pressed to find a spy as good as Snape. He's a brilliant wizard, able to fool even Voldemort with his Occlumency. Nobody else could have done that, and having such a good spy was extremely helpful to the Order.
Snape helped Harry and co. defeat Voldemort. He couldn't outright help them, but he sent the sword so they could destroy Horcruxes.
Snape was Dumbledore's most trusted confidant. They had it planned so that the Elder Wand would never have another owner. Granted, it didn't work out exactly according to their plan, but it still worked out because Harry gave it back to Dumbeldore's tomb in the end.
Last but not least:
Without Snape, Voldemort would never have heard the prophecy. If Voldemort hadn't heard the prophecy, he wouldn't have "marked Harry as his equal" and "given him the tools" he needed to defeat him. If Voldemort had not marked Harry for this destiny, Voldemort would have risen to power unchallenged. Also, because Snape loved Lily, she was given the choice to live. As we all know, she chose to die, giving Harry the protection he would need to keep himself safe from Voldemort.

Yes, Snape is still a jerk, but can you blame him? You can't say "He may not have ended up with Lily" when every other Hogwarts couple we know (Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, James/Lily, Arthur/Molly) ended up together. He looked at Harry every day and saw what he could never have. Plus he's forced to lie at every turn, to go among Death Eaters when he hates them so much. He has to live his life in darkness so that he can bring about the downfall of the Dark Lord. In the words of Don Quixote (in the musical version): "To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause." If that's not admirable, I don't know what is.

"Now that it's over...

...I don't know what to do with the rest of my life." --Inigo Montoya

Two all-nighters, 3 printed manuscripts, 86 pages, and 24,573 words later, I have finished the first draft of the Our Story novella.

I never thought I would say this, but I'm sorry to see it end. Maybe because I never actually believed I would finish it.... Who knows.

But I'm really wondering what to do with the rest of my time. I suppose I do have several essays that need writing, and some of them are pretty long... Well, I say "pretty long," but I've just written 86 pages.

Maybe I'll catch up on sleep with all of this extra time...

Marathon Sessions

Aside from sleeping and being awake,

what is the longest consecutive amount of time you've spent doing one thing?

What was it?

Well, I've just spent 5 hours revising my novella. If anyone's interested, those 5 hours have been from midnight to 5 in the morning.

On Thursday, I wrote my novella from 7 pm to 5 am the next day, so there's a 10 hour session (holy crap!)

I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 9 hours straight when it first came out...

I went on an 18 mile hike once from about 1 am to 2 or 3 pm, so there's 13 or so hours spent hiking...

Evidiently, I'm crazy.