Studying Is Hard

Especially when you'd much rather be checking out all things Hobbit-related.

Not my art again. Credit goes to kaciart at Tumblr. Wish I could figure out how to link it directly. Hmm. Grr.

Anyway, I felt like Kili today. I did several hours of calculus homework. The good news is, once I actually looked at the study sheet the teacher gave us, I realized I should do fine. The really messy math wasn't on the list.

Of course, now watch it be on the test tomorrow...

The good news is, tomorrow I think I shall go buy Hobbit LEGOs. Or Hobbit figurines. Or something. Because my addiction to Dwarves cannot be cured. And I'm not sorry. Hahaha. I'm never going to be sorry.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

An Observation

Ladies, let's not wear frilly, black lace, thigh-length dresses and high heels on rainy days. Let's just not.

I Finally Looked It Up, This Quote

FRODO: 'I knew danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can't a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?'

GILDOR: 'But it is not your own Shire. Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.'

-- The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter Three, 'Three Is Company'.

If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge and become much clearer. Yes, I am soothing my frustration with beautiful hobbit pictures and Tolkien quotes. I should also listen to Celtic Woman music. We listened to it in the car Friday. If everyone listened to Celtic Woman while driving, incidents of road rage would drop abruptly, I am convinced.

On that note, I need to go to Books-a-Million and complete my collection of little Hobbit action figures by getting Gandalf and Balin. I have Thorin, Fili, Kili, Dwalin, and Bilbo, as well as Legolas and Tauriel. The latter two are standing off by themselves, being all Elvish-ly disapproving of the Dwarves and their shenanigans.

Figurine Bilbo refuses to stand up. I had to take off all of his unnecessary accessories to get him to even half-heartedly stand up. And something's wrong with his vest. It won't stay put. Sting is pretty flimsy, too, and the figurine doesn't even look like movie!Bilbo or Martin Freeman in the least. His outfit has very few details, too. Of course, I realise that he doesn't have many designs on his clothes that they could put on the figurine, but still... In comparison to my Dwarf figurines, he looks unloved and plain.

In contrast, my Dwarf figurines are awesomely detailed. Even without his fur coat, Thorin is majestic. MADE OF PLASTIC. STILL MAJESTIC!

Not sorry. I love this meme.

Anyway, Thorin has his Dwarvish sword and Orcrist, but not his Dwarf axe. I think it's called 'Deathless', or so I read somewhere. If so, it's a nod to the founder of his race, Durin the Deathless. You can even see Thorin's two braids in the front and his twintails in the back. (There have seriously been posts devoted exclusively to Thorin's hair on TheOneRing.net. XD)

Dwalin is suitably awesome. His axes still have their names on them! Ukhlat and Umraz, Grasper and Keeper. He also has his hammer and his knife. I like how he uses his hammer as a post to lean on whenever he's just standing in the movie- note it when he's giving Gloin a disapproving glare for his 'long-term deposit'.

Ironically, I didn't think Kili's figurine was as good as those of the other Dwarves. The face just didn't look like Kili to me. o.O Dunno why. At least his figurine had fairly good balance and remaining standing on top of my alarm clock/radio while Fili and Dwalin kept doing backflips and plummeting off the back of my dresser, losing their fragile grip on their tiny plastic weapons in the process. *headdesk* I had to pull all the drawers out of my dresser and move the massive thing in order to fish out Fili. While I had it out, I vacuumed under it. The snakeskin wasn't under there anyway.

Yes. I have a snakeskin. It's become a family joke. At one time, I kept it under the dresser. I can't remember what led up to the occurence, but mom was looking for something that had fallen under my dresser. She pulled out the snakeskin. I'll just let you imagine her reaction...

At least I keep it in Ziploc bag now.

Anyway.

I was most pleased with the Fili figurine. I guess I just really do have a soft spot for Fili. But his figurine seemed really detailed- I love his expression and his hair. Also, all the little designs in his clothes were captured well, and the fact that he has his dual swords means I can stand him up on my dresser looking all fierce and ferocious with them in his hands. Dwalin just looks grim and serious, while Thorin is doing the whole I-am-majestic face, while Kili just has the blank-eyed plastic look. Fili looks like he means business.

Yeah, I like Fili.

Once again, not my art. Done by EM-MIKA on Deviantart. This artist does wonderful work! Seriously, go check it out. Support the Hobbit fandom and all that.

I also need to get the Hobbit LEGOs. If LEGO Bag End gets away from me, I will be inconsolable. I REALLY want LEGO Bofur with his little LEGO hat. I have also heard that the Bofur hat has been defictionalized. I want one for my birthday. Will someone get me one? I'll love you forever if you do. And I will wear it all the time. Even to class. I promise, I will. I'll also braid my hair like Bofur's and wear a scarf like him.

Just the fact that I'm blond will ruin it, though... Maybe I should cosplay as Fili instead.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Smidgens of Glory on a Dreary Day

So today wasn't all that great a day for me. It was fine all the way through calculus and human geography. As I walked into Bibb Graves, I ran into Dr. Bibbee and Mrs. Howell.

I miss them so much, Dr. Bibbee especially. I loved his history lessons. He could discuss uncomfortable truths without being insulting or offensive. And we stayed on topic. And we weren't 2100 years behind.

I guess running into them was the universe's way of apologizing for what was about to ensue.

I just don't agree with Dr. Makowski's philosophy of people only having two kids. I am the oldest of four and I can't imagine the two youngest in my family not existing or not being wanted. Pardon me while I go cry in the corner again and hug my knees.

I love my family, okay? And I can get very defensive of them. I'm all timid and nerdy normally, fairly harmless, really, but if you insult my family or something or someone else I care about, watch out... I'll turn fiercer than a Dragon on you.

And then I had to spend three hours in the frigid depths of the language lab. I have grown to loathe that place with every fiber of my being. At the very least, I finished reading my literature assignment in there. It was excerpts from Gulliver's Travels. Why do people think that is a children's book? It is not a children's book!!! It is a satire on England and English society.

In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that Jonathan Swift hated people. But here is not the place to rant about that right now.

The universe apologized to me later, as well. I asked the vending machine for a candy bar. It gave me two.

*cries with joy*

Also, while I was in the language lab, I checked on Sons of Durin. It was that Hobbit fanfiction I advocated so earnestly, remember? Well, it's complete now. I will ignore the Thilbo Bagginshield ending, since the whole thing was simply GLORIOUS. And now the author is going to do daily oneshots as well! *happy dance*

And it was glorious is going to become my new catchphrase, I think. Our lives need more glory in them, anyway.

I noticed in one of the student apartments the shuttle drives through in the morning that someone still has a skeleton hanging from their porch from Halloween. Seriously. That could have been taken down a few months ago... And a funeral home we passed still has a wobbly Christmas tree of white lights in front of it, too.

Okay, our family leaves all our Christmas decorations up until the Epiphany, but we DO take them down after that! Sheesh.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

P.S. I love blogging. It gives me somewhere to vent. Unfortunately, I seem to lean towards Brutal Honesty. I need to work on my prudence and my charity...

So Adorable

Not mine - I think it's the work of piiib on Tumblr. At least, that's where I found it. Be that as it may, this picture is adorable beyond words. Fili's cat smile, the two of them crawling over the Oakenshield, and Thorin's face as he watches them...

Beautiful.

It was called, 'The Oakenshield Is Just a Toy To Them'.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Armitage Army, Because Reasons

So. I have mentioned in several blog posts that I have pretty much joined the Armitage Army (that is, the fans of Richard Armitage, who seem to be rather... militant). If the matter was in any doubt, the way I was yelling at the screen, "Go, Nazi guy! Go!" when Heinz Kruger (yes, the spy has a name) flees from Steve in Captain America would probably clinch it.

This comes to the conclusion that:

I love memes.

Anyway, I am here going to make a list, in no particular order, of reasons why I went from not having any clue whatsoever who this guy was to considering myself part of said Army.

(1) He's a Tolkien fan. A diehard Tolkien fan. He has admitted in interviews that the first book he remembers really reading was The Hobbit.

(2) The first stage production he was in was an adaptation of The Hobbit.

(3) He's read The Silmarillion. In an interview where the cast was asked to state the most obscure piece of Tolkien trivia they knew, most of the guys spluttered, paused, or admitted they had no idea of what to say. Richard Armitage, on the other hand, started calmly riciting the whole incident of the Nauglafring from The Silmarillion, which incident led to most of the hatred between the Dwarves and the Elves.
Put it this way, this fact alone could have made me a fan. One does not simply read The Silmarillion. It is not a simple book!

(4) Ladies, one of the best ways you can judge a man's character is by how he treats his mother and his sisters. RA took his mother to the London premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I saw pictures.

(5) Let me just quote this interview:
Q: How did you keep the character in check?
RA: I do it by always staying with the novel. I am one of those readers that read that book as a child, read it as an adult, one of the fans that doesn't want to see this character ruined by some actor who thinks he knows better than Tolkien. I had the book with me through filming, if I ever got lost I was always back at the book, it was the only way I could honor the character.

(6) Another interview:
"I think the craziest thing I used to do is drive my car around Wellington, a Maori chant playing on the radio, and I used to scream very loudly, so I could get a kind of gravelly sound going in my voice. The reason I used to do it in the car was I didn't want to disturb the neighbors. So, yeah, that was part of my preparation."
He has also mentioned that he used lines from Shakespeare plays trying to get Thorin's voice right.

(7) He mixed up Fili and Kili. (Stone giant scene: the situation calls for him to be yelling, "FILI!" And he says, "KILI!") And he admitted it. This is adorable, and completely honest since most people mix them up as well.

(8) Did I mention he has read The Silmarillion?

(9) The poor guy actually seems to be rather embarrassed by how good-looking he is. He's always looking for roles where he can play a character who is not attractive. Word is he's been after Peter Jackson to have Thorin adversely affected in his physical appearance by the dragon sickness in the third movie. We all highly doubt PJ will let this happen.
The poor guy. That fact, coupled with The Silmarillion one (I just can't believe he's read it!), clinches it.

(10) He had a relationship with his horse. He said they had a bit of a "hair thing" going on. I have little gifsets of he and his horse flipping their hair. So cute.

(11) I love people who admit they're not great with technology. In an interview with Martin Freeman, one of his questions went like this: "Have a Twitter account, or I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you?" He responded, "I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you." Also, before the Wellington premiere of TH:AUJ, he sent a message to the fans on TheOneRing.net (or, at least, that is where I read it), which ended with: "Fumblingly sent from my iPad."
Isn't that adorable?

RA is awesome, people. You just can't convince me otherwise.

Why did I just post another picture of him? BECAUSE I CAN. I'm making the most of Google's fixing the error on Blogger before it stops working again.

Oh, and because the picture's cool, too.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

I'M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!!!

That's what I say every morning when I leave the house. I don't usually run off without a handkerchief and trailing a contract, however.

Oh, and I'm usually wearing shoes.

But it's the spirit of the moment that counts!

Now, whenever I get a DVD of TH:AUJ, I shall have to see about learning to make little gif files for myself. I want to rule the Internet with Tolkien memes!

I'm having remarkable success at my house.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Hallelujah!

 

Leave me alone with my delight/ To store up joy against the night…

 

- Oliver St. John Gogarty, “The Plum Tree by the House”

--- Dun, dun, dun, HAAAAA-LAY-LOO-JAAAAAH! HAAAAAAA-LAY-LOO-JAAAH! HA-LAAAAAY-LOOOO-JAH!

Blogger is letting me upload pictures and gifs from my computer again!!! I do not know how and why this miracle occurred, but I am not complaining!

Let us hope it continues!!

If it does, I shall spread even MORE Tolkien goodness with all of you peoples!!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

I Don't Even Know Why I Am Sharing This

Whenever I have dreams that I remember, they're always... interesting, to say the least.

One of my personal favorites was a dream I had, shortly after Nick Saban started his glorious dynasty of national victories and effortless steamrolling of opponents at Alabama, where I was trapped in a bookstore on the UA campus (I have actually been there, ironically, while I have never been to Auburn). For some reason, there was a copy of the book Gone with the Wind in the bookstore. The author was different, however. I was curiously flipping through it when Saban found me and started expostulating at length about why I should leave my Auburn heathenism and convert to the Church of Roll Tide.

Needless to say, my family loves reminding me of that.

There was also the dream I had where I was being chased by Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and various other Star Wars villains through a historical landmark house. For some reason, I had a lightsaber, which I had absolutely no idea how to use. Stupidly, I was also running with it while it was lit. (Lit? Extended? How do you describe a lightsaber when it is 'on'?") Worse than running with scissors... I think some random family members were with me, too, being chased. A few others were arranging a display of brochures, very unconcerned at the fact that I kept running past them with Sith on my tail.

Yep. That's the sort of dreams I have.

I used to have a lot of dreams about being underwater and panicking at the fact that I was apparently breathing underwater. That's right. I didn't have dreams about drowning. I had dreams about being able to breathe underwater and panicking about that.

I also had a dream where there were these terrifying giant clams. No exaggeration. They were in an airport with bad lighting and escalators to nowhere. Cousins were also involved. (I love my family. This means they also appear with me in my dream adventures. Not so happily for them, I guess.)

Anyway, last night I had another equally interesting dream, which, for whatever reason, I am about to relate. I suppose I am putting this all on here for the amusement of my friends (I like making people laugh), and also so someday I will look back on this pathetic little blog and smile at the things I thought were funny then.

Anyway.

So my dream last night started dramatically, like the beginning of The Two Towers movie where Frodo and Sam are climbing over the rocks of the Emyn Muil. However, this time it was Frodo and Bilbo. They climbed up to a pinnacle of 'rock', me following them for whatever reason. However, the 'mountain' turned out to be a wall of Sauron's castle, and it was built out of giant LEGO bricks, orc skeletons in wire cages, and random concrete blocks and rusted girders. Not too sturdy.

As you might have expected, I was not near so nimble as the two hobbits, and so I sort of caused the wall to collapse. I don't know what happened to Frodo and Bilbo. I guess they vanished. I walked over to Sauron's castle. (It was also a school. That fact would explain a lot about our present day education system.)

Inside Sauron's 'castle' it appeared to be your average institution, with concrete block walls, tile floors, and drop ceilings. I think there were vending machines. At any rate, Sauron did not see me, which is good. What is bad/amusing is that I saw Sauron.

Just guess what Sauron looked like.

I blame Amy.

Sauron was Benedict Cumberbatch. In jeans.

At that, I lost my Willing Suspension of Disbelief while in the dream. That's right. I was dreaming and I thought to myself, "This is ridiculous. I don't believe this was happening." I may or may not have actually realized it was a dream, but it was hilarious, so I went along with the ride.

(Oh, and I still do not find Benedict Cumberbatch attractive at all, for your information. Martin Freeman, on the other hand, is adorable.)

Anyway, Sauron/Ben Cumberbatch was running around trying to clean up his 'castle', which was a wreck. Why was he doing this? Galadriel had just had a telepathic conversation with him, telling him that she was coming over to check on him, like a mother making sure that a naughty child had actually cleaned his room when she told him too.

Cue even more hysterical laughter from me. While in the dream, mind you.

Unfortunately, I woke up at that point. I really, really, really would have liked to see how that dream would have ended.

And then I could have blogged about it.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Bidding Farewell To Warmth

Hello again, langauge lab on the third floor of Wesleyan. Your pale walls and white boards, your pale cabinets and pale computer benches, all are so familiar to me. The French people are not yet in here dancing, and the end-of-semester rush to get in all one's hours have not yet started, yet the added atmosphere is not necessary.

Yes, I remember you. I remember you all too well. I have spent 90 hours of my life in your heartless, Antarctic depths, with the very breath of Boreas himself emanating from the vents on the ceiling.

I remember walking out into 90-degree weather and bending my fingers uncertainly, for they had gone numb with cold.

I remember hours of listening to songs from the 70's and 80's because it is so hard to find a German station that actually plays German music.

I remember the awkward keyboards and the institutional lightning.

I remember the cheerful laughter of free students out in the halls, taunting me.

I remember memorizing all the posters for Spanish festivals, since there was nothing else in the room to look at.

I remember how you tossed 500 of my minutes into the Void last semester, consigning them to the oblivion of Melkor, 'He Who Arises in Might', known to the Noldor and all of the posterity of Arda Marred as Morgoth. I remember how I had to spend an extra 500 minutes above and beyond the call of duty in the lab due to your negligence.

I remember how your computers refused to let me do my homework while I listened to corny 80's German songs.

I remember the pale blinds over the windows, allowing no blessed sunshine in.

I remember the squishy, squeaky chairs, and how I could not move in them without causing an uproar.

But, mostly, I remember the cold. I remember your frigid wastelands with the same dread that a cold-blooded reptile would hail an early frost. I will never forgot the wintry air blasting in my face from the vents, the way it would circulate around the benches and freeze my toes through two layers of socks.

I will never forget, and I will never forgive.

Hello again, language lab.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Ooh, Look, A Hobbit Video!!!

I thought I was done with Hobbit spamming for today, but I wasn't. And I'm not sorry. I'm still not sorry. I shall never be sorry.

I've been looking for this video for some time, and I finally found it. It's a hilarious interview with eleven of the Dwarves (Ken Stott, mysteriously enough, never appears in any interviews, and there's plenty with just Richard Armitage- usually with the female interviewer fangirling him- for you to look up). The bits with 'Milli or Vanilli' and 'Galadriel'  are priceless.

Oh, and just watch Aidan Turner laughing in the background. He is adorkable. I rest my case.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Ooh, Look! ANOTHER Hobbit Picture!

I'm not even sorry. Lalalalalala. I'm so not sorry.

And I did it. I looked up Being Human last night. This is coming on the heels of looking up BBC's Sherlock since a friend recommended it (and it had Martin Freeman). I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE FANDOMS TO EAT UP ALL MY TIME!!!!

But it's too late.

The good news is that from what I saw of my research on Being Human (thank you, TVTropes!) I wouldn't like it much, anyway, other than Aidan Turner's facial expressions. The guy is made of adorkable. And adorable.

I also looked up The Almighty Johnsons, which Dean O'Gorman was in. I am now laughing hysterically at the fact that he was Anders/Bragi.

Speaking of BBC Sherlock, to return to an earlier tangent, I apparently harbor the unpopular opinion that Benedict Cumberbatch isn't really that attractive. Just sayin'. *flees as people throw things at me*

I just had to get that off my chest, okay?

I also found a Sherlock/Hobbit crossover fic which postulated that John Watson is the reincarnation of Bilbo Baggins (no surprise there) and also that Sherlock Holmes is the reembodiment/ reincarnation of Sauron. Complete with Ring, but hopefully not out for world domination. It was quite funny. There was also one where a closet in their flat led to Erebor. Bilbo turned up looking for a dragon, and then John wandered in saying he'd just been talking to Smaug. Priceless.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Because Dwarves Make Everything Better

Seriously, Snow White got gipped. She missed out on all these guys. According to swordwhale on Pinterest, Dori could also have been 'Grumpierest'. If you don't understand 'majestic', clearly you haven't been to The Magnificent Home of Majestic Thorin Oakenshield, despite my recommending it several times. (Despite the fact that 50% of the vocabularies of people on Tumblr is composed of swear words.) And if you don't understand 'Point Break', you obviously haven't watched The Avengers.

Oh, and in the book Bombur is usually either asleep or eating.

In other news, the daily updates of 'Sons of Durin' continue. Frustratingly, the story is now taking a Thilbo Bagginshield turn, which I am not pleased with. However, I have come so far, I suppose I shall see it through to its unknown end. *salutes* I shall go down with H. M. S. Sanity.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

A Few More Hobbit Fanfic Recs

And by 'recs' I mean 'recommendations', for your information.

Since apparently there are others out there like me who are non-shippers, I thought I would perform a valuable service for mankind and post a couple of links.

 

Firstly, there is Taking Wagers, which fills in a small blank in the movie by portraying the scene when the Dwarves made bets on whether or not Bilbo would show up. It's a cute one-shot, and definitely recommended! I love the fact that Bofur is the one who gets the ball rolling. Bofur is so adorable, isn't he?

Secondly, we have Third Watch, which describes Bilbo and Kili sharing a watch on the Company's way to Rivendell. This fic perfectly portrays Fili and Kili's sense of humor (poor Thorin!) and also addresses the issue of Kili's beard. Or lack thereof, as it were. The last line is pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh.

I'd also like to recommend We're Looking For A Green Door. Like Taking Wagers, it addresses a small matter that the movie didn't show. In this case, it explains how and why half a dozen Dwarves ended up on Bilbo's doorstep at once. Getting lost in the Shire is apparently very easy for Dwarves to do!

As a final recommendation, I simply must mention this little gem: Can You Roast It? After all, there has to be an explanation somewhere for how and where the Dwarves found the sausages and firewood to set up camp. Again, the last line is hilarious.

Amazing authors, all. Some day maybe I shall finish a fanfic of my own and post it. I don't know. It'd either be the Yu-Gi-Oh one I fiddle with while waiting in between classes or the Fire Emblem one that has bugged me for quite some time (and which I did finish five chapters of). I'm just one of those authors who can't do one-shots. I have to make epics out of everything. Which is very troublesome, let me tell you.

Oh, and I also have to do my research. I look up everything. For my Fire Emblem fanfic, I looked up the price of the items, the timeline of the two Tellius games (which were the only ones I was concerned with), the estimated ages of various characters, any lines of dialogue hinting at their motives and past actions... etc. It was a hassle. But it works!

Hey, and at least I know proper punctuation. Most fanfic writers don't. Put it this way: If I see comma splices or a construction like this, "Blah blah blah." Said Insert Name Here," I don't even bother reading any further. And if the author claims to write horrible summaries in the summary itself, I don't even bother clicking on it. If the author can't write a summary, he/she probably can't write a story, either.

Just sayin'.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

P. S. My strategy of trying to make everything Tolkien take over the world seems to be working! Mwahahahahahaha.

My 250th Post - A Tribute to Tolkien

Hello, peoples, and, yes, in honor of my 250th blog post on here I am writing a tribute to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and the pure amazingness that is everything he ever wrote.

Primarily, most people only know that he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but he also wrote The Silmarillion, along with various other works (such as Farmer Giles of Ham and Roverandom) that have nothing to do with Arda/Middle-earth. Someday I shall have to get my hands on copies and read them all, but for now I shall confine myself to Middle-earth. Otherwise, I would be here all day.

Now, we can argue about the movies until we're blue in the face, and we can also argue about the books until we're blue in the face. I am of the general opinion that whichever medium the story came out in first is the better, and this usually means that the books are better than the movies, since the books came first.

(As far as Star Wars goes, the movies came first, and so are generally better than the books. The books get really messy and complicated. Narnia may be my dubious exception. I'm sorry, C. S. Lewis, but your writing could be very dry and boring. The movies became really good action-oriented adaptations. No doubt they lost a lot of your symbolism and meaning, but... ah, well, we'll be arguing until we're blue in the face.)

Anyway, I thought I would compile a list of my 10 top Tolkien quotes, and try (as far as possible) to remain spoiler-free. They will all be from the books (which are better for qutoes that are sheer moving and eucatastrophic in nature, although the movie has given us memes). They will undoubtedly not contain all the quotes others may find most moving, but these are some of the ones that always have the potential to make me tear up.

 

1. Thorin Oakenshield: "There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

 



2. Gandalf the Grey: "Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."
Frodo Baggins: "I wish it need not have happened in my time."
Gandalf: "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

3. Frodo: "What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile [Gollum], when he had a chance!"
Gandalf: "Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity."

4. Frodo: "[Gollum] deserves death."
Gandalf: "Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many live that deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment, for even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part yet to play, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not the least."

5. Eomer: "I had forgotten that. It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?"
Aragorn: "As he ever has judged. Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house."

6. Faramir: "...I will not trouble you now. If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then. Until that time, or some other time beyond the vision of the Seeing-stones of Numenor, farewell!"

7. The land seemed full of creaking and cracking and sly noises, but there was no sound of voice or foot. Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping amogn the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to hime.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.

8. Hurin: "Aure entuluva!"
- This is from The Silmarillion, where Hurin fights a rear-guard action at the Nirnaith Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. His capture and subsequent cursing by Morgoth spark the tragedy of the Narn i Hin Hurin, the Tale of the Children of Hurin, in which everyone dies horribly and pointlessly because one man would not bow to Morgoth.
I find it so sad and ironic that he fought so hard that day, crying over and over again each time he felled an Orc: "Day shall come again!"
Yet he did not live to see that day.

9. Samwise Gamgee: "Where are you going, Master?"
Frodo: "To the Havens, Sam."
Sam: "And I can't come."
Frodo: "No, Sam. Not yet, anyway, not further than the Havens. Though you too were a Ring-bearer, if only for a little while. Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do."
Sam: "But I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years, after all you have done."
Frodo: "So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you... You will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone, so that people will remember the Great Danger and so love their beloved land all the more. And that will keep you as busy and as happy as anyone can be, as long as your part of the Story goes on. Come now, ride with me!"

10. Gandalf: "Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
    Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
    But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart.

And now I want to go cry again...

Our hearts can never thank J. R. R. Tolkien enough for allowing the stories of Middle-earth to be written through him. He shared so much light, joy, wonder, and indescribable beauty with us.

All hail the victorious dead!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

A Small Tolkien-Related Amusing Thing(s)

This is just something I found on Tumblr that I thought was pretty good:

Shout out to Thorin Oakenshield for getting lost in the Shire not once, but twice.

| #not all those who wander are lost #(but some are)

|| too majestic to ask for directions

||| Even the Ringwraiths asked for directions.

|||| Love this fandom.

In other Tolkien-related new, a war has erupted in the fandom- a war between the Aragorn fans and the Thorin fans. I'm not kidding. There are some who think Aragorn is the best possibly character ever, citing his Messiah-like qualities and praising him to the skies. To them, he can do no wrong, and Thorin can do no good.

Then there's the Thorin fans, who grudge Aragorn his happy ending, complete with Elven bride and reunited kingdoms. Said fans look down on Aragorn for 'having everything easy' and write essays in defense of Thorin and his motives.

Personally, I have to agree with points on either side. Aragorn didn't actually have everything easy, but Thorin does have his good qualities (which the movie emphasizes). Also, I don't know why everyone keeps saying that Thorin's pride and greed will lead to his downfall, because, if you've read the book, that's not what happens at all. Granted, it does lead to the Arkenstone Debacle, but it doesn't cause Thorin's downfall.

And since the rest is spoilers I suppose I'll have to leave it there.

However, I can say that I'm on neither the Aragornites' side nor the Thorinites' side. I would love to say that I am on the side of reason and logic, and nobody is altogether on my side (to paraphrase Treebeard). That being said, Thorin does have Aragorn absolutely beat in the contest of sheer majesty. Majestic Thorin is majestic.

In Pace Christ,

Elyse

Even MORE Random Things About My Day

There's been one good thing about the cold and the wet. It's kept the Jesus people away. Seems they don't want to stand in 30-degree weather at the foot of the amphitheater, do they?

Either that, or my debate with them that one time scared them off. I doubt it. However, if it did, you may all thank me for the great service I have done for the campus community.

There was a copious amount of flurrying done by the weather today, which was very pretty to look at and made for a nice change from the rain. Fortunately, the roads did not ice over. Unfortunately, the snow did not stick. It was only on my way home that I noticed tiny dustings of snow on the sides of the road. My family informed me that we had had almost an inch of snow at home and that they had gone out to play in it. Without me. Sad face. :(

However, the sun has come out now, for which I am very grateful. The temperature jumped about 10 degrees within an hour or two. Seeing patches of blue sky again was a very wonderful thing. My mom told us to look outside, that there was a big flaming ball of light in the sky. Humorously, the first thing I thought was, "Is it the apocalypse?" while my sister thought of the Tessaract-powered portal in The Avengers.

So, yeah, we felt a little silly.

Concerning yesterday in history, I just want to say one thing... There is NO EXCUSE for not being able to spell 'Thucydides' when the teacher has written it out on the board.

*bangs head on desk*

Literature today was a festival of geeky references. Doctor Who was mentioned. (Amy would be so proud- the other day, a guy in Lafayette made the motion that everyone should watch one episode of Doctor Who during their lifetimes.) Future Apple products and potential translucent phone screens were discussed. (The big benefit of which being- besides the fact that it would look like you had access to Tony Stark's technology- you could watch where you're going as you text and walk.)

And the desks had been rearranged again. Where I usually sit was an enormous wooden desk, presumably placed there for a handicapped person, complete with a cushioned spinny chair. At first I was going to move it, but then I just plopped my backpack down on the desk and claimed it.

Of course, since the chair was the spinny kind, I had to spin around. Quite a few times, as a matter of fact. (I cut down on that once Dr. Brewton walked in.) But, c'mon, spinny chairs are MADE to do that. It's their purpose in life! However, after I knocked the desk behind me (unoccupied, thankfully) askew, I admitted, "This is why spinny chairs should not be in classrooms."

Also, I was apparently the only person who has heard of Franz Kafka or Ovid (we were discussing the theme of metamorphosis). Or, at least, that I thought of them and mentioned them. I have no life, obviously.

Obscure reference to some minor point of etymology, history, or literature? Yup, I've got that covered.

Modern culture? Not so great with that.

One of the other literature themes we were discussing in connection to The Nutcracker was that of uncanniness, of the familiar in a strange setting/the strange in a familiar setting. Dr. Brewton alluded to the fact that there is a German word to describe such a thing, and, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but blurt it out. Unheimlich. To me, it appears to translate literally as 'unhomelike' (which it may not actually do), but which I nevertheless find an evocative and thought-provoking definition.

Oh, and yay for Austin, who sits behind me, for bringing up The Hobbit and talking about how the juxtaposition of familiar musical themes and leitmotifs from The Lord of the Rings with new themes for The Hobbit reminded him of this 'uncanniness'. I applaud anyone who can drag anything Tolkien into class. It instantly makes class 30x more awesome.

(I would insert my gif of Bilbo running through the forest, contract trailing behind him, with the caption of LET ME LOVE YOU, but, alas, Blogger isn't letting that happen anytime soon, because I don't have a stupid URL.)

On my way home from school, I stopped to buy batteries for my calculator. I noticed on the clearance DVD rack a copy of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I know next to nothing about the Fantastic 4, other than that their powers are lame. Really. Mr. Fantastic can super-elongate his body. Laaaaame. And the Thing is basically an orange Hulk stuck in Hulk-mode, minus anger issues. The girl who can turn invisible and/or use force fields is less lame. Johnny Storm? Fire powers are awesome, and flight is practically a prerequisite for most superheros, so he escapes the 'lame' label.

I love fire powers. The fire guys in stories are always my favorites. (Unsurprisingly, my favorite character in Avatar: The Last Airbender is Zuko. This is also because he is a dork. The adorkable guys are always the cutest, aren't they?) Bonus points if the fire guys were evil but have turned to the good side.

This is, perhaps, fitting, since I think I would be a water person myself. Opposites do attract, they say.

At the checkout, I noticed a magazine. I usually don't look at them, since they're all stupid. (They are. I dare you to contradict me on that one. I remember a black-and-white tabloid that proudly proclaimed in large capital letters: "BABY PARTS LAKE MICHIGAN!") However, this one just so happened to catch my eye. I have no idea what the guy's name is (I'm sure my nonexistent readers could inform me of it), but it was a picture of the guy who's usually captioned with something along the lines of, "Hey, girl."

Yes, that guy.

And I automatically thought, "Dean O'Gorman is way better-looking."

And then I stopped short and did a double take. "Did I actually just think that to myself?"

Apparently, I did. I actually found this most amusing.

And now, since most of you nonexistent readers are wondering who in the world Dean O'Gorman is, I suppose I shall have to inform you. He plays Fili in The Hobbit. (Yes, everything comes back to Tolkien in my little world. Tolkien is like the black hole at the center of my universe.)

I was going to post a picture (I have links for this) of Dean to demonstrate why he is better looking than that other guy, but I couldn't decide which to post. So I'll post both. XP

 

 

Dean is the one on the right, of course, if you ignore the reporter and various other random people. Audrey, at least, should know who the guy on the left is. If she doesn't, I shall be very disappointed.

 

It's Aidan Turner, by the way. Kili, from The Hobbit, in other words.

 

I dunno. Tumblr is, at the moment, infatuated with Kili/Aidan Turner and Thorin/Richard Armitage. (Someday I shall have to make a post detailing my reasons for joining the Armitage Army.) I actually saw a post where someone calculated the percentage of people on Tumblr in love with various fictional characters and celebrities. Aidan Turner was high on the list, I assure you. In all, it was an amusing post.

 

For me, though... *sigh* I just can't join them. Kili looks like an adorable little boy to me, so the idea of someone, anyone, holding romantic feelings towards him (or the actor, for that matter) is to me either hilarious or very uncomfortable. (Oh, and people aren't just shipping Fili and Kili together now. It was bad enough when it was the brothers. NOW they're shipping the actors!!! O tempora, o mores!)

 

And let's just say Thorin is a little bit out of my age range, shall we?

 

Moreover, I feel Fili is underappreciated anyways, so I may have to decide ultimately that he is my favorite over Kili and Thorin. I haven't decided that yet, but I may. We'll see. But, hey, give the older, responsible blond brother some attention, too. (I'm waiting for the, "If there is a key, there must be a door," line to be labeled Fili's blond moment, though...) He has dual swords and four throwing blades in his boots and is altogether cool.

 

Plus, I love Fili's hair. It's just as drool-worthy as Thorin's. Kili obviously can't be bothered to do more than pull his back with a clip (I bet there's some story behind the little metal clips, rings, and other hair accessories the Dwarves wear), but Fili and Thorin have awesome braids. Yes, the Dwarves are probably a lot of the reason why I braid sections of my hair randomly during class now. (Mostly during history class.)

 

So, yeah, in summary, Dean O'Gorman is, in my opinion, much better-looking than that other guy. Whoever he is. AND, before any of my nonexistent readers taunt me, I do NOT have a crush on him. That is stupid. I haven't had a crush since, oh, probably second grade...

 

Having a crush would be creepy to me now. It'd feel so weird. I mean, my mind would be going, "You don't even know this person!!! Why on earth do you think you like him??? You are infatuated, and if you've read any work of fiction whatsoever, you know that infatuation is BAD!! It makes you do stupid things and endanger the galaxy/cause a disturbance in the Force!!!"

 

On that note, the other day in Lafayette we somehow (??) got into a discussion about what would happen if Matthew actually used the Force to knock someone (i.e., me) into the door to open it. LOL, gotta love Lafayette and the honors people. There's no shortage of entertainment in the lobby there.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Still Working On This

Well, here's another fun gif for you all of Fili tossing the plates and singing, "Blunt the Knives."

In other news, Blogger still won't let me upload new pictures. I have to paste in an URL. This is getting very annoying. I have just compiled an extensive list of links for Hobbit pictures and gifs. Not all of them, however. This is very annoying.

I shall kill Google.

In style.

With tossed plates!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Literature & Princess Tutu

So I have to keep a blog for my literature class. I have dubbed it Der Schreibblock Einer Leseratte for whatever reason. It's nothing much to look at it now. I doubt I shall use it much, except when I have to. I'm not real sure exactly what Dr. Brewton wants us to put on there, but anyway.

So today in literature we discussed the whole Nutcracker story by E. T. A. Hoffman. It was a little... trippy, let us say. Also, I could not take the mouse queen Mouserinks seriously. With a name like that... really. Mouserinks. *snicker* Mouserinks. It just sounds stupid.

Let's just say that most fairytales should NOT be read by children in their original format. Hans Christen Andersen missed his calling. He should have been a horror writer. He would have done very well in that genre, let me tell you. Very well indeed. He would have outwritten Edgar Allen Poe.

Oh, you don't believe me? Well, let me make a believer out of you. Yes, I know what I am talking about. Once, I had the misfortune of checking out an anthology of Hans Christen Andersen's stories out from the Florence library and suffered through it.

Here's my favorite (paraphrased) example of why Mr. Andersen missed his calling:

This girl has a fiance. Her brother does not like said fiance, so he cuts off said fiance's head. The girl finds the body and the head. She is very sad and cries. She takes the head, puts in a flowerpot, puts dirt in the flowerpot (on top of the head, mind you) and plants a rosebush/flower of some sort in it. The plant grows. (Have fun imagining the roots sucking nutrients out of the dead guy's decaying head.) The plant bears flowers. Little fairies come out of the flowers and kill the brother with tiny poisonous darts. Neighbors come in and see the dead body of the brother laid out on the floor. One of the neighbors knocks over the flowerpot. The head rolls out. The neighbors then say, "Oh, now we know that he killed this guy!"
Moral of the story: do not kill people, lest fairies come out of flowers that grow from their dead bodies and kill you.
Also: do not contemplate how the neighbors were able to recognize to whom the dead head belonged.

Now, have I made a believer out of you?

Anyway, I found it hard to concentrate on the story of the Nutcracker, since my brain kept insistently wandering to the anime Princess Tutu. I believe I have mentioned it before on this blog. Well, it needs to be mentioned more. In another effor to make believers out of my non-existent readers, here is a really awesome video with a foreign language song (it may be Swedish) someone made in tribute to Princess Tutu. It manages to cover both seasons with very few spoilers.

 

 

I love Fakir so much. Fakir is the guy with the greenish-black hair and the darker skin, by the way. Any scene involving him, Uzura, Duck, and water is absolutely hilarious. It's actually Fakir's fault that I am a fan of this anime. I kept seeing it referenced on TVTropes and so I finally looked it up. That one guy in the characters sheet looked cool. And here I am now, posting this video on my blog...

 

Sigh...

 

One authentic touch I liked is that Mytho (the white-haired boy with the blank expression) has his name pronounced more or less like, "Mew-toe." This annoyed me at first, but then I realized that this is how 'Mytho' would be pronounced in German, and the anime is supposed to be set in Germany. (Fakir says something in German in Akt 8, but I haven't been able to figure out what.) So now it's one of my favorite little bits about it.

 

Oh, and Mytho's nickname in the fandom is 'the Pantsless Wonder', due to his habit of running around in a long white shirt and nothing else. Also, he jumps out windows. A lot.

 

Anyway, the main reason I kept thinking about Princess Tutu is that there is also a Herr Drosselmeyer in it. This Drosselmeyer, however, has written the story in that Prince Mytho comes out of, and is subtly controlling everything in the town from behind the scenes. Unfortunately, he's also rather sadistic and wants his characters to suffer for his own entertainment. Leads to... interesting revelations in season two. Let's just leave it at that.

 

Oh, and the Nutcracker march is played as his leitmotif. Yeah.

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse

Some Random Stuff

Blogger is STILL not letting me upload any new pictures from my computer. If any of you tech-savvy people out there can explain how to do this to me, I would love to know how! There HAS to be a way, after all. I just haven't found it. It's probably something really obscure and stupid.

Anyway! Now for a series of random observations!

It has been raining for a week. UNA has flooded. The animals shall be pairing up two by two and walking into an ark any time now. The parking lots have water up to one's ankles and the hill to the math building has turned to slush. Seriously. There are mudslides. The water is carrying the benches behind the amphitheater away. Seriously. The water is carrying them away. I went past them in the morning and when I came by there again a few hours later the benches had moved. And I doubt a student would stop in the middle of the rain to move the benches onto the walkway.

Also, I apparently open doors with too much force. The door on the side of the GUC next to Lafayette keeps hitting the cigarette ash can every time I open it. Uhhh... I suppose I don't know my own strength.

For my next random observation, I would like to submit this: my friends and I have been doing a Marvel movie marathon and have finished up with The Avengers. We are very entertaining to watch a movie with since we tend to snark a lot, question things ("Movie logic!" "Superhero logic! It's the only explanation!") and generally be funny.

During the part after, "You listen well, brother..." *crash* "I'm listening..." while Iron Man and Thor are fighting, Iron Man headbutts Thor. Thor is barely dazed and headbutts Iron Man right back. This sends Iron Man flying backwards. Also, if you look closely, you can see that Iron Man's helmet is dented. That's right. Thor dented Iron Man's helmet with his own head.

Also, when Captain America shows up to break the fight, he throws his shield at them. If you look closely, it ricochets off Thor's forehead, hits Iron Man on his (already dented) helmet, and returns to Cap's hand. That's right. Thor got hit in the head with Captain America's shield and it only startled him. Didn't seriously injure him or anything.

Later, in NYC, when something is exploding with a big fiery kaboom in their faces, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Cap are all hiding underneath Cap's shield. Thor, on the other hand, just raises his arm to block the flames.

The Mighty Thor? Nah, that's not what they should call him. He should be called the Indestructible Thor! Just about nothing can damage him! He's a literal Flying Brick. They had to depower him in Thor to build the tension, and once he got his hammer (Mjolnir... which I can actually pronounce without blinking- I do believe it is Old Norse for 'lightning') back, he completely curb-stomped the Destroyer.

Yes, I am sharing links to TVTropes. Wonderful website, and a great way to research stuff or waste a few (or several) hours of your life looking up random things. As I obviously have.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

No, Google, You're Still Evil

Sooooooo, I found a way to put this on here. I had to find a URL for it and paste it into the box. Because saving the gif to my laptop and then trying to upload it (per Blogger's instructions!) apparently wasn't enough.

At least, Bilbo can tell off Google until I return.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Okay, I Shall Not Kill Google Slowly And Painfully. I Shall Merely Kill It Quickly

Ohhhhhhhhh, so NOW Blogger is letting me put pictures on here. Thank you for that, I suppose. However, it only lets me post pictures I've ALREADY posted on here.

That's annoying.

Oh, well, anyway, enjoy this nice picture of Kili being fierce, while I try to figure out how to put new pictures on here.

I should be able to do that, right? After all, surely I can outsmart a computer...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Third Day And Counting

Sooooo, today was the third day of this semester. Whoop-de-doo. No calculus today, just the boring classes. The day was, however, enlivened slightly by Lion Alerts of a manhunt in downtown Florence by the Florence police department. Fortunately, the hunted man never came to campus. If he had, as the teacher in human geography (I suppose we are to call her Mrs. Phillips) pointed out, we were probably safe. You'd have to be pretty stupid criminal to enter the ROTC building...

However, stupid people exist. And they are stupid. And do stupid things. Lots of stupid things.

Then there was history. Fortunately, Dr. Makowski stayed more or less on topic today. WHY does he write half of a word on one white board and half on the other???? It makes no sense. It annoyed Olivia too.

Also, the students help with his whole getting sidetracked thing. Freshies. Pretty sure I wasn't blurting out stuff about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra in Dr. Bibbee's class. Oh, and *snerk* it was Marc Antony, not Alexander. He lived about 300 years beforehand.

I also got a review of a bunch of stuff I just covered in geography with Dr. Mikey and some other stuff I'd heard in Dr. Bibbee's class. Felt very sleepy. I am in the corner of the room so maybe I could doze off without anyone noticing...

Then again, I'm pretty sure Dr. Makowski was looking right at me while I was pretty bored. I have no poker face whatsoever and so my boredom was probably apparent. Apologies, but it's not my fault you're all 2/3 of a semester behind.

An interesting linguistic point was brought up when Dr. Makowski mentioned that the words in modern Greek for various things related to the sea do not have the same origins as the rest of the Greek language; instead, they are remnants of the language spoken by the people of the Aegean peninsula who were conquered by the invading/migrating Greeks. Someone asked for an example; he admitted he didn't have one. I sort of absent-mindedly said, "Thalassa," (which means, "sea"), which prompted Dr. Makowski to tell me I was going to get an A. Protests from other members of the class that he said something like that every week sort of lessened the honor, but the thought counts.

What's rather amusing was that I found that word in a really pathetic dictionary that I keep in my room. (Honestly, the thing doesn't even have, "psychosomantic"!) I looked up "Panthalassa" (which, for your information, was the global sea that covered the Earth at the same time all the continents were lumped together into Pangaea- which is also a Greek word). Pan, of course, means "all", and thalassa was glossed as "sea", with the disclaimer that the word was not of Greek origins. So there you have the story, folks.

Yes, I'm a world-class nerd.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

First Two Days

Hello, we have survived our first two days back at UNA.

It's so nice to see that all the people who park at Darby are being transferred to the Woodmont parking lot without being informed by the bus drivers or by email. You FAIL, UNA! Did you hear that? YOU FAIL. EPICALLY. YOU FAIL FOREVER. I only knew about it because I saw it in the paper. That's right. In the Times Daily.

Just. Gah. Not. Enough. Words. To. Describe. The. Fail.

Blogger also fails, since it refuses to let me upload a gif I found of Kili rolling his eyes. I was going to use it at appropriate points in this post to express my exasperation. However, it looks like I won't be able to now. So that stinks.

Oh, and it's a really good sign when it's raining the first day of class. That morning, I greeted my sister with, "And have you noticed that, on top of everything else, it's raining?" That may very well be my favorite line from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

However, as I left the house, I made sure to tell my family: "I"M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!!"

Sorry. I've seen The Hobbit four times and I am completely nuts.

And Wednesday was odd. Very odd. The most interesting part of the day was Calculus. There's eight people in the class (only seven showed up today... hmm...) and the teacher is Dr. Bowie. She told us that her husband's 5th great-uncle was the Jim Bowie from the Alamo. How's that for a claim to fame?

So far we've done parabolas and ellipses. This is good. I'm like a hobbit in the respect that I like things I already know, set out fair and square without a contradiction.

Then I had a break. I sat in Lafayette for an hour and read my book. I ignored everything around me. I'm good at that.

Then I had to go to the Wesleyan Annex for human geography. I wasn't exactly thrilled about going in there becauase it is the ROTC building. I guess the ROTC people won't bite, but even so... Will they order you to do ten push-ups for trespassing in their building?

It doesn't help that there are about 30 people in the class and some of the desks are literally six inches apart. COME ON NOW.

After that, I rushed over to Bibb Graves (snickering to myself as I took the three flights of stairs two at a time in my boots- take that, you sissies who want elevators!) for history. Apologies to everyone who had Dr. Makowski last semester, but I miss Dr. Bibbee. I really do. And I am severely disappointed. Dr. Makowski informed us, rather unashamedly, that they are 2/3 of a semester behind.

Lol whut. Seriously, dude. Lol whut?

THIS CLASS IS SUPPOSED TO PICK UP AT 1500 AD AND YOU ARE STILL STUCK AT 600 BC??????

I am disappointed beyond words. I really am. Olivia and I just looked at each other like, "Is this for real?"

You'd think, what with 2100 years of history to catch up before he actually starts what we're supposed to cover this semester, Dr. Makowski would jump right in, us being honors students and all, and get cracking on it. And it seemed he would at first. He was talking about the importance of the classical age and its effects upon western civilization... then he went off into a rant about why other countries hate the West, the various branches of Islam and the heresies thereof (Islam is actually itself in its origins a heresy of Christianity, believe it or not), quoted the philosopher Hobbes (who had a dim view of humanity), and shooed us out the door with a tale about the Battle of Omduram (or something like that) where Muslims died en masse.

Lol whut. Seriously, dude. Lol whut.

Olivia and I weren't really sure what it all had to do with anything. And I already knew about Sufi Muslims.

...I SO WANT to use my Kili eye roll gif right now. I really do.

Today, however, was a good day. I had calculus and literature. And lunch. Having lunch is always good. And there was ice cream when I got home. We'd forgotten it was in the freezer.

I think literature will be good once again. There are guys in the class who aren't afraid to talk (I LOVE class discussions! Even if they get a bit strange). Except we have to keep another blog. Oh, very well, another blog it is. Too bad I couldn't just lump it in with this one.

Dr. Brewton wants our blogs personalized and interactive? Well then, he'll get that... if Blogger will let me put up pictures, that is... grr...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Hello, I'm Back

...If anyone even bothers to read this pathetic little blog.

I haven't updated in a while. I've been satisfying my Hobbit feels by lurking on TheOneRing.net, Tumblr, and fanfiction.net. I think little dubious awards should be given for various milestones in a fandom. Particularly on fanfiction.net. The LOTR fandom has truly come alive again, like a zombie. Or rather like the Balrog in Moria. It has been awakened, and there's no stopping it now.

It has... escalated quickly, shall we say.

It seems at times that almost everything is either bad slash or Mary Sue OC romances. Gah. However, there's a surprising number of good ones, too- becoming fewer and fewer in percentage as the days go by, true, but still there. Apparently, the fandom LOVES baby!Fili and baby!Kili. I cannot point a finger of blame at anyone since I love them too. They're just so unspeakably adorable!!!

Anyway, so the Hobbit needs little fandom awards. Like awards for having virtually the entire movie in gif format on Tumblr. Or an award for the first thousand Fili/OC, Kili/OC, and Thorin/OC fanfics. Or an award for the fact that shippers had already come up with the terms 'Thilbo' and 'Bagginshield' hours after the movie came out.

This is why fandoms scare me!

Some attention is positive, though. Really. I have discovered a couple of really good fanfics, one of which actually involves (gasp!) an OC! However, it is so good, focuses on Bofur (who has not attained memetic status as Ridiculously Lovely Bofur for no reason), and has snarky Bifur! It's called The Toymaker and the Widow. It has practically become my headcanon as far as Bofur, Bifur, and Bombur goes. And I'm not alone!

As for a really good modern-day AU fic set in Scotland, I recommend The Sons of Durin to the nth degree. Seriously, it's amazing. The characterization is brilliant, and the way the story mimicks the book itself at points is bonus points. The story is even vouched for on TVTropes, if that makes you feel any better.

Also, the parodies of Mary Sue stories have started very earlier, which makes me proud again of all the Ringers (LOTR fans) out there. One of the best is probably To Choose A Burglar. It seriously made me laugh out loud at how Gandalf handled the situation with Narya. The 'Bonus Chapter' doesn't hurt, either. XD I love seeing Mary Sues meet their messy commueppances, so you can see why I love the Protectors of the Plot Continuum.

(It doesn't hurt that continuum is very Latin.)

I also found a bunch of extremely adorable fanart of Thorin with baby Kili and Fili, but Blogger refuses to let me upload pictures from my computer. It just says, "You can uploud JPEG, etc." with the little buttons for, "Add Selected," and, "Cancel," but not, "Browse." So I shall kill Google once again. I shall strangle it slowly and painfully.

In fact, it freezes up when I try to repost a picture that's already on my blog! Is there a limit or something???

Stupid Google.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse