I Need A Laugh

*sigh* It was another grumpy day at school. Actually, it started off happy and ended up grumpy. It started off well in calculus (you know something's weird when that is possibly my favorite class this semester. Actually, the fact that we are a very small group - there's only nine of us! Nine Nazgul! - probably helps since we - mostly - know each others names and can commiserate). Instead of having our normal lecture, we went to Research Day to check out the various exhibitions done by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Which was very convenient, as our assignment in human geography was to go to Research Day and write about two of the exhibits we saw there. So I sat in the library and did that. Very good.

Then it went downhill from there. *headbang*

...Hmm. I don't seem to have any grumpy gifs, other than the one of Scar going, "I am surrounded by idiots." Which is probably a good thing. So, instead, I think I'll post some happy gifs and then some funny stuff I've found on the Internet and hopefully get myself in a better mood.

Here is Andy Serkis (a.k.a., Gollum), apparently dancing happily through a field of flowers near Matamata, New Zealand (or, at least, that looks very much like the location of Hobbiton to me...). I'm not really sure what he's doing here, but this definitely qualifies as a happy gif. Also, Andy Serkis needs more love. He's been snubbed by the awards people so many times on his role as Gollum; maybe one day he'll make it big as a director and will be able to win awards there.

Why this gif? I like Fili. He's the responsible older brother. I can relate to that. He also has better blond braids than Legolas. (Whaaat? Elves are so last year!)

I just like Fili, okay? Even if he does have a brief blond moment (i.e., "If there's a key, there must be a door," although I think that could actually be a valid deduction, since the presence of the door was previously unknown).

And this gif makes me smile. It's adorable.

So on this blog it goes!

I'll have you know I looked a very long time for it. There's another gif of Fili I've been looking for, too. I'm just lucky I found the Dwarf boot camp gifs I've been looking for a very long time. Everywhere I saw them, they were just pictures. I didn't want the pictures. I WANTED THE GIFS! And so I finally found them. Here they are, in all their glory:

How can you not love this gif?

(For your information, that is Richard Armitage/Thorin on the left, Mark Hadlow/Dori in the center, and Graham McTavish/Dwalin on the right. No, I don't know who the dude int he back is. He bears a passing resemblance to John Howe, one of the concept artists, with his glasses, beard, and hair, but I HIGHLY doubt that it is him.)

This is a link to John Howe's website. He does wonderful art. Go check it out.

And, as for the other gif:

This gif doesn't show the beginning of the clip, but Graham basically jump-tackled Richard like a football player. It's nice to see that the trust and loyalty between Thorin and Dwalin (they are almost always together in fights, and when they're stuck in Rivendell they trash-talk about it to each other... watch that part again and tell me that's not what they're doing!) extends to behind the scenes as well.

Plus, I just love the hit-their-boots-together thing the actors do. It's hilarious.

As an added bonus, I have to share something that Amy shared with me. I honestly cannot give any description of this video; it is too funny for any attempt at a witty explanation.

There. I think I'm in a better mood now.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

LotR Pics of the Day

Lalalalala, it's spring break and I can do whatever I want, lalalalala....

Ahem. *composes self* Now that we have banished that fit of giddiness, let us proceed to more interesting stuff than me twirling about the room and celebrating no homework.

First off, I found this a long time ago, but it was so tiny and of such poor quality that I could never do anything with it. Now that I have discovered how to use Paint, I could just find the picture and add the caption myself. So, without further ado, here it is:

I feel so proud of myself. *giggles* This one has been a favorite of mine for some time (really, why is Boromir looking at the camera and Faramir looking off as if to say, "Oh, no! Here comes dad!") and so it's a delight to share it without it being the size of my thumbnail...

So, in other Tolkien-related new, the other week a few of the TH actors (namely Richard Armitage/Thorin, Andy Serkis/Gollum, and James Nesbitt/Bofur) held a live Twitter interview, some of the results of which are priceless. For one thing, the fanart:

Whoever drew this (it looks like piangchan.tumblr in the bottom left, or something like that), I salute you! Especially for the little question mark by Thorin's head. PRICELESS. In an interview with Martin Freeman, the question being, "Have a Twitter account, or I'd much rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you?" Richard Armitage said, "I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you."
I don't blame him. I hope he NEVER, EVER gets a Twitter account. He would be inundated by creepy fans. Can you believe that in the Twitter interview someone apparently asked him if he knew about the Bagginshield pairing?? O.o I can't believe someone did that. That's just cruel. I mean, one of my guidelines for Sane Shipping is: Always Leave the Actors Out of It. Amusingly enough, Martin Freeman may know about Bagginshield. Apparently, he caused a mass panic in the Sherlock fandom when he admitted to reading fanfiction.

Me: Ahahahahahahahaha...

Anyway, if I ever met someone from LOTR or TH and if I were brave enough to say anything to them (so that's two impossibilities), I would just want to say thank you. And ask if I could hug them. Maybe. And then I would grab a flamethrower and help them chase away the creepy fangirls.

Anyway, back to the Twitter interview. So someone asked RA what was his 'recipe for life'. His response?

"Chocolate ice cream. Treat others as you would like to be treated. And lots of chocolate ice cream."

Can I get a resounding AMEN? Is any other reason needed to like this guy?

Sooooo. Now that I have had my say about various Tolkien things, yesterday was, of course, Palm Sunday. (If you do not know what Palm Sunday is, there is this little thing called Google...) My brother has dubbed it 'Facepalm Sunday' and took the opportunity of saying it several times throughout the day. So, in honor of Facepalm Sunday (which I seriously doubt will be adopted into the liturgical calendar anytime soon), I must share something I found a long time ago on Catholic Memes:

No irreverence intended! It's just so appropriate. I try to read a chapter of the Bible every day, and currently I'm in Exodus... or is it Leviticus... Nah, I think it's still Exodus. Y'know, all the rules and regulations- this is unclean, don't eat this. Don't do this, you'll become unclean. If you become unclean, kill a bunch of animals and it will all be okay...

Once again, no irreverence intended, but even once all the rules and regulations were set out straight the Israelites just couldn't stay away from the idols, now, couldn't they? You'd think they'd go for pagan religions that didn't require burning your first-born alive to Moloch, but then again... Of course, how much better are we today, now, mmm?

Yesterday was also the sneak peak for The Desolation of Smaug! I was expecting ten minutes of footage, with a few questions at the end, and we got so much more! It was great to see Jed Brophy and Peter Jackson carry on, particularly with the jibe about New Zealand and England's cricket match (lol) and how time travel was involved since it was early Monday morning over there during the live event.

We got to see a few nice clips of Martin Freeman doing one line half a dozen different ways (prompted by Bilbo noticing Kili is injured, which I'm betting leads in to the reveal that Thorin really didn't want to take his nephews on his epic Erebor quest- SAYING IT NOW, just as I predicted, "If there's a key, there must be a door," would be labeled Fili's 'blond moment'). We also saw pre-recorded videos from various cast members (the one of Dominic Monaghan outside his house was pretty funny), including one from Stephen Fry that apparently went on and on... so much so that they switched to a couple of other videos in the meanwhile, coming back to it twice to find that he was still talking! LOL.

One of the best parts had to be seeing greenscreen clips of Thranduil. XD Him lounging on his Moose Throne (as I have dubbed it) as the Dwarves are brought in. Neener neener neener, I have a throne, Thorin, and you don't, lalalala... And then the scene where he got right up in Thorin's face to yell at him! I had to clap my hands over my mouth since it was like seeing fan speculation brought to life!

I was giggling insanely afterwards. I mean, the fans are going to love Thranduil. The same people who brought us Majestic Thorin are also bringing us Thranduil Sass. Behold.

I was also pleased to see Legolas (not because of his looks; I've moved on from Elves) since I always thought that adding him to any movie adaptation of The Hobbit was a no-brainer. It looks like we'll have some nice scenes with him, including scenes of him disagreeing with his dad. Since I've been seeing fan-made gifs of Legolas in the background of the infamous moose scene going, "Daaaaad! You're embarrassing meeeeee!" and other things in that similar vein, it was priceless. To add to the fun, I found this:

That sword twirl... Okay, I'm officially dying of laughter. Better sign off before my gigglesnorting wakes up everyone else...

Oh, no, I can't! First I have to post my Bofur Optimism Meme of the Day!

Cheers!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse