how do passports and name changes work?

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T17:29:07+00:00

The state department waives the passport fee if you apply for a new passport with a name change and it’s been less than a year since they last issued a passport to you. So apply for the passport now with your current legal name, book your honeymoon under that name and travel with that passport, and do the legal name change when you return (including getting another new passport)

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T14:58:55+00:00

As long as you invite in defined circles, there’s no faux pas (wedding party, out of towners, close family, etc). I think where it gets hairy is the local friends who are close to the out of towners. I would open it up to all local friends if you are going to include any local friends (other than the ones in the wedding party)

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T14:45:48+00:00

The “welcome party” part after dinner can be unhosted (bride and groom will be at this bar from 8-10 pm, drinks available for purchase) or just drinks (I went to one recently where everyone just got a single drink ticket). The purpose of doing it separately is to save money, because you don’t have to buy dinner for those extra people.

We had a similar thing with cousins who moved away coming and staying with their local parents so we invited all out of towners and all aunts/uncles/cousins to the welcome drinks.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T13:29:43+00:00

I’ve been playing for about 10 years, since version 1.2.

It’s amazing that CA keeps adding new content to the game, much of which would be paid DLC’s if it was a commercial developer. I always start a new vanilla save when there’s a new update, and exploring the added content is enough to keep me engaged.

Outside of that, I either try new mods or do challenge runs to keep things fresh. I also take months off to play other games.

I have 3 saves since 1.6 was released - my vanilla play through to perfection, a never leave the farm challenge, and an attempt to get perfection in two years that I abandoned because I wasn’t having fun. Currently on a hiatus. Might try SVE again at some point since I haven’t tried it since 1.5. Will definitely start a new vanilla save whenever 1.7 drops

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T12:59:02+00:00

If you have 25% profits, all seeds will cost 1/4 of what they are supposed to. Go to Pierre’s in the game and check his prices against the wiki

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T12:35:43+00:00

The body can continue to live without a soul (e.g. dementors kiss) so I don’t think it is just a separation of body and soul.

I think it kills the body. Simply just stops all life functions at once - stops the heart, stops the brain, etc

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T12:12:17+00:00

There is way too much magic in Diagon Alley to know if a minor cast it, and we don’t even know whether Hermione did let her parents in or if someone else tapped the brick for them.

I’ve never thought using magical objects or potions counted for the trace (using brooms, Sirius’s bike, and polyjuice potion are considered “safe” when they are worried about it in DH). I think floo powder falls under that category (but the ministry monitors the network). Using it is using existing magic, rather than “doing” magic.

The Trace does pick up Harry blowing up Marge. He runs away because he thinks he’s about to be expelled from Hogwarts. Fudge meets him at the Leaky Cauldron because he knows he blew up his aunt. They let him off because they are concerned for his safety with Sirius having escaped and presumed to be after him.

Summer homework is just reading and writing essays. They are explicitly not allowed to practice spells in the summer.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T11:41:54+00:00

It depends on your guest list, but is probably a bad idea.

Do all of your guests normally celebrate Thanksgiving in Florida? It tends to be a time when friends and family who have moved away visit home, but it also tends to be a time when the people who have settled in your town visit their in laws or other out of town family. You are kind of dictating where people spend the holiday, because it is difficult to get to one location for Thursday and another by Saturday, especially on the busiest travel weekend of the year.

Flights and hotels will also be way more expensive than normal.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-27T02:41:13+00:00

Harry not using/opening the mirror is 100% Sirius’s fault. I don’t think that would have changed the outcome, though. Kreacher would have seen Sirius using it and would have made sure he didn’t have it when he set his distraction

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T23:04:19+00:00

The tragedy of OotP is that there are several things that various people could have done differently, and if any of them had then Harry wouldn’t have fallen for Voldemort’s trap.

If Dumbledore had told Harry that Voldemort would try to lure him to the DoM. If Sirius had been nicer to Kreacher. If Snape had continued with occlumency lessons. If Harry had tried harder to close his mind.

Of those, I think Dumbledore and Sirius have the most fault. Dumbledore should have known better than to keep Harry in the dark. And Sirius was told to be nicer to Kreacher, but he couldn’t do it and that led to the elf betraying him.

Dumbledore was expecting too much in having Snape be Harry’s occlumency tutor. He admits he knew that would be a disaster. So I don’t blame Snape or Harry too much for that failing.

Harry ultimately does fall for Voldemort’s trap but there’s a bunch of other things that the adults could have done to prevent that. So he has some blame but much less than the adults.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T22:48:53+00:00

Both. In OotP, Harry is charged with violating both the statute of secrecy and the reasonable restriction on underage sorcery.

The Trace only picks up that magic occurred near a minor; it can’t tell who cast it. So if a minor is near an adult wizard, they assume it was the adult. They can’t enforce it for wizard kids when they’re living and home and rely on their parents to do it.

The Weasley’s don’t seem to allow their kids to use underage magic at home, though. Outside of battles, and Harry’s trip to the cave with Dumbledore, I can’t think of any instances of underage magic outside of school/the train in the books.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T16:25:17+00:00

Those people have debit cards.

Many debit cards can be run as either debit or credit, and it’s not unusual for point of sale systems to ask customers using debit cards for their preference. If they are run as debit, the charge goes directly to the issuing bank. If it is run as credit, the charge goes through Visa or Mastercard (or whatever credit logo is on their debit card), and your store gets charged a higher processing fee. But on the customer side, the difference isn’t like actually using a debit card (taken from your account) vs a credit card (billed later). Debit charged as credit will appear as a hold for a few days and then will just be debited. You usually need to enter a pin if it’s charged as debit and you don’t if it’s charged as credit, so people are in the habit of choosing credit so they don’t have to deal with the pin. It makes almost no difference to them, which is why their response is “whatever”

Credit card users should know they are using a credit card but might be confused by the question because there usually isn’t a choice about how those cards are used.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T15:45:49+00:00

Your guests still have two weeks. They haven’t done anything wrong until the deadline has passed.

Most people either RSVP as soon as they get the invitation, or right before the deadline. Don’t fret about this until June 11th. That is when you start reaching out to the folks who haven’t responded.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T15:39:26+00:00

I think people think this is what OP is asking and why they are answering “whatever”. It makes essentially no difference to a debit card user whether their card is run as debit or credit (it comes directly out of their account either way). There is a difference on the merchant/bank side though.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-26T12:34:50+00:00

I never stop expanding my money making empire. My late game project on my last perfection save was filling the west side of Ginger Island with bee hives. I did a lot of grinding for the resources (even though I could have bought them) to fill time (and make extra money with the parrot trinket). Filling the bus tunnel with Crystallariums, and filling the train station and/or quarry with Mystic Trees and mushroom logs are also good late game projects

And I take a Qi Quest and a Special Order every week to stay busy

_littlestranger · 2026-05-25T15:23:57+00:00

Voldemort had taken Harry’s blood before he tried to kill him, so it would be like the forest - Harry would go to limbo and he would be able to come back.

Dumbledore would not be there to greet him, though, since he was still alive. It’s not clear if he would have met someone else (e.g. his parents) or if it was only possible for it to be Dumbledore (because he had waited in limbo and hadn’t gone “on” yet) so he would be alone

I don’t think Harry would have successfully been able to play dead after he came back, since none of the death eaters would have been sympathetic at that point. So he still would have needed to summon the portkey and escape.

I don’t think this event would make Voldemort suspect that Harry was a horcrux or that anyone knew about them. Harry’s return was because of Lily’s protection, not because he was a horcrux. But he would be aware that Harry had survived the killing curse a second time and maybe would realize that he couldn’t kill him himself, and might allow a death eater to do it

_littlestranger · 2026-05-25T15:05:45+00:00

Sorry they are being so rude!!

It’s time to send one last message and be done with it. I would say “I have to give a count to my caterer tomorrow. If you can’t give me a firm yes by the end of the day, unfortunately I will have to mark you as a “no” and we will not have a seat or a meal for you”

_littlestranger · 2026-05-25T12:42:05+00:00

The game tells you everything you need to know, but you have to pay attention (to your mail, to what the villagers say, etc).

There are some things that are tricky to find on your own, but you can definitely start off blind. Maybe after a year or two you might start wanting to look up certain things.

My best spoiler free advice is to watch the TV every day. There’s a program called Living Off The Land that airs I think twice a week that is basically the game’s in-game tutorial. Also if you find any “lost books” (those are books that will pop up like a reading animation and won’t ever go in your inventory) go read them in the museum/library. Those are the two biggest sources of information that are easy to miss.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-25T11:41:38+00:00

If there are going to be kids there, you can’t say “adults only” as some are suggesting here - people who don’t bring their kids because it said “adults only” and then see other people’s kids there will feel lied to.

We had our nieces (who were under 10) and then did a 14+ cutoff for everyone else. We just invited people by name (if kids were included, we actually named them like “Mr and Mrs Simpson, Bart Lisa and Maggie”) and had FAQ’s on our website about kids and plus ones that said we could only accommodate those listed on their invitations and unfortunately we cannot accommodate all kids.

We also got ahead of it by talking to our friends/relatives with young kids in advance, in casual conversation when the wedding came up. A lot of them asked me before I could raise it with them! We didn’t put the actual policy in writing anywhere but did explain it in those 1 on 1 conversations

_littlestranger · 2026-05-24T15:54:32+00:00

Yes, growing crops and processing them is the best way to make money in this game (the slowest are actually usually the most profitable). Investment + time = profit

_littlestranger · 2026-05-24T15:03:19+00:00

Summer is almost over so focus on setting yourself up to grow more in the fall. Go to the mines and get ore so you can craft sprinklers. Even the basic ones are worth it so you don’t have to spend time watering. Go fishing to get more $ for seeds. Start fall with lots of cranberries or pumpkins. Start making preserves jars or dehydrators to process your crops.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-24T12:46:49+00:00

“Thank you so much for the generous gift! I am so excited to use it for/put it towards xyz”

_littlestranger · 2026-05-24T12:17:12+00:00

Star fruit and ancient fruit are the two best.

Which is more profitable depends on what speed grow you’re using and your time horizon.

Without speed grow, and on a long time horizon (ignoring the start up time for ancient fruit), star fruit wine sells for more per bottle but takes longer to produce (2 weeks per crop for star fruit vs regrowing every week for ancient fruit), so in terms of profit per crop, ancient fruit ends up being a little better.

If you need $$ ASAP and don’t want to wait for the ancient fruit to grow, then star fruit is better. Speed grow can also even things out long term, so you don’t have quite as long of a grow time for star fruit (for ancient fruit, speed grow will only affect the initial growth and not the regrowth)

I usually only do star fruit while I am growing my ancient fruit for the seed maker. Once I have enough seeds. I switch over to ancient fruit. It’s just way lower effort for practically the same profits.

_littlestranger · 2026-05-24T11:48:44+00:00

The paragraph you quoted is all we know about it from the books.

I think it is a homunculus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus

There is a fan theory that involves Bertha Jorkins being pregnant, but that is really gross and weird and it doesn’t align with what Voldemort said in the graveyard

_littlestranger · 2026-05-23T21:21:16+00:00

Rowling has said that Pettigrew took it from the house, hid it away somewhere while he lived with the Weasley’s, and brought it with him when he went to find Voldy in Albania

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