I'm not sure exactly what Peter Jackson was thinking with the bit of orc axehead embedded in Bifur's head. (It apparently makes him only speak in Dwarvish. ???) However, I shall still trust in Peter Jackson, who is rapidly gaining a lot of respect in the cinematic world that was formerly accorded to George Lucas, who has earned the undying ire of his fans by betraying them in selling Lucasfilms to Disney Of All Companies.

The first thing, actually, that struck me about Bifur is the multicolored arrangement of his beard and mustache. The actors of The Hobbit are predicting that beards will come back in style; if they don't, it won't be for their lack of trying. The Dwarves all look very cool, and fans who bewail Fili and Kili's comparative lack of beards should just be quiet. They still look very Dwarvishly cool.

So now we know who we're going to have as president for the next four years. I'm not really surprised. I am also not surprised at learning of voter fraud yesterday. Apparently, some lady who works for ACORN was helping UNA students register to vote, but held back the registration forms for Republican-oriented voters. So they went to the polls yesterday and couldn't vote.

SHAME ON THEM! This should really be publicized more. In addition to more Hobbit coverage.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Aaaaaaaand I am pretty sure everyone who stumbles across this tiny little blog knows exactly who this is. If not, there is a helpful caption in the top right corner of the poster that spells his name out for you, and a helpful caption in the bottom right corner of the poster that tells you in what movie he shall be appearing soon.

In other news, my piano teacher (who is not much of a LOTR fan herself but whose husband is) knows Gollum as "that creepy little man", which I find hilarious for some reason. I am willing to bet that a large percentage of the American population knows Gollum only as 'the Precious guy' or some permutation thereof. "My Precious!" is, after all, his iconic line.

*sniffle* I am getting close to the end of rereading The Hobbit. The Battle of Five Armies has just concluded, with all its drama and loss. I won't spoil the ending for you, since I urge you all to go read it yourself. But I will say that I felt like crying since, in rereading it, I have picked up on a lot more nuances that I missed in the past. A children's book? Children can read it, yes, but no adult who picks it up will find it stale. The Hobbit does not deal with sentimentality; it has true emotional depth. And then there's The Lord of the Rings...

I had a literature test today, and two of the passages I analyzed were from Beowulf, both illustrating very well the prevalent theme of loss in said poem. So I went at them from that angle. The theme of loss is a very beautiful, tragic, and poignant theme if done rightly (if not done rightly, it ends up being mostly snark bait... like, say, Hamlet). There are few things in my opinion that can rival the end of the timeline in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings for sheer heart-breaking capability: "Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien and sailed over the sea, and it is said that with him went Gimli, son of Gloin. And at that was truly come the end of the Fellowship in Middle-earth."

Now pardon me while I go bawl my eyes out.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

How do you like this one? This is the next in a series of character posters for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I'm going to try and make my own little countdown of sorts with pictures for The Hobbit on my blog. We've seen Thorin's poster, so now it's Bilbo's turn! Doesn't he look so brave and adorable with his hobbity clothes and Sting?

It's kind of funny. I started out with The Lord of the Rings and not The Hobbit, actually. (By the way, for any of you out there reading this blog- if there are any lurkers, I mean-, I do not recommend doing that. By all means, read The Hobbit first. Everything will make much more sense that way.) I had seen, but not understood very much of, the animated Hobbit movie, and there was a short explanation in the Prologue of LOTR that I thought would tell me everything I needed to know. It didn't. So I was a little confused when I read LOTR the first time. I didn't know what was the deal with the Eagles, and I didn't have much appreciation for Bilbo. To me, LOTR was everything.

I did go back and read The Hobbit later, though, I assure you.

However, I have recently taking to re-reading The Hobbit before classes in preparation for the upcoming movie. Even though the narrator's voice (absent in LOTR) kind of turns me off, I have been amazed at how good The Hobbit actually is. I love Bilbo now, I seriously do! He's such a plucky Hobbit for someone who didn't even really want to go on the journey. He didn't even know how to use a sword at the beginning of the book, and then in "Flies and Spiders" he's chopping away at them like nobody's business, trying to save the dwarves. And then he tells off the dwarves when they're complaining, and taunts a dragon. He gets a little singed for it, but that tells you just how amazing Mr. Baggins really is.

So, yeah, I am now a Bilbo fan. BEFORE the movie comes out!

As another note, yes, I do like Fili and Kili. They're the youngest two dwarves, and they're just as adorable as Bilbo. However, I consider myself to be of a different caliber than the fangirls they will inevitably attract in the movie, since I liked them BEFORE I saw pictures of them from the movie. They're the most cheerful dwarves in the book, always running around with Bilbo (and Balin), helping him and scouting around. All the older dwarves always make them go do stuff they don't want to do themselves, but they don't really complain. Just gotta love Fili and Kili.

Plus, there is one moment I found rather heartwarming- the scene where Smaug is ravaging the slopes of the Misty Mountains in an attempt to find the secret door and kill all the dwarves. Thorin orders the dwarves to help him haul up Bofur and Bombur, as well as their supplies, to get them inside the secret door before the dragon spots them. However, he sends Bilbo, Fili, and Kili already inside the door, saying that "at least some of them should live". I just went, "Awwwwww," when I read that. Since Fili and Kili are young dwarves, they're always being told to do stuff since they're stronger. However, in this moment, when their youth and strength would be an advantage to rescuring Bofur, Bombur, and the supplies, Thorin gets them out of the way, trying to keep them safe. It's like, see, he really does care about his nephews. Awwwwwww.

And that makes the end of the book all the sadder. *sniff*

...I think I'm going to have to console myself with watching all the trailers and TV spots again.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Not-So-Much-Of-A-Dud Honors Forum

I'm not entirely sure if we're supposed to blog about forum tonight, since our speaker did not show due to helping with Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. 'Frankenstorm', but to be on the safe side I am blogging anyway.

One might have thought that the forum tonight would have been a dud, but it ended up being rather entertaining as Dr. Brewton vented (as he put it) about various organizations that have ended up disillusioning people who want to do charitable work. As he put it, when that happens you have three options (1) apathy - not recommended (2) starting one's own organization to do the same work - not recommended as it divides the resource pool and (3) hanging in there. I know about hanging in there...

Anyway, our speaker tonight would have been Elizabeth Moore from Red Cross. Dr. Brewton gave us a little info about Red Cross regardless. It of course works in disaster relief, and is primarily known for the blood drives it sponsors and its role as the official liason between the civilian population and the military.

Dr. Brewton also made a point that made me think of a line early on in The Lord of the Rings (then again, a lot of things make me think of LOTR). I'm not in the mood to go up two flights of stairs and hunt down my copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, but it's in the chapter "Three Is Company" when Frodo, Sam, and Pippin encounter Gildor Inglorion. Gildor warns Frodo (and I paraphrase): "The wide world is all about you. You can fence yourself in, but you cannot forever fence the world out." So of course my thoughts went off into la-la land about LOTR and I missed the rest of Dr. Brewton's point. Sorry!

Dr. Brewton then proceeded to call on people at random and ask them what volunteer work they've done so far. I was sure he would call on me, if for no other reason that because I was the only person sitting in the front row. College students seem to have something against sitting in the front row. Maybe they're terrorized of being called upon. It's the same thing in church, too, I notice... Everyone lurks in the back pews and tries to slip out early. Well, not me! I actually prefer to sit in the front. I prefer being attentive (mostly... I have been known to nearly fall alseep in Floyd- in my defense, the room tended to be very warm- and I have headdesked once or twice in speech), and sitting in the front row without rows of people in front of me as potential distractions helps in being attentive.

Plus, in one class I inadvertently chose a desk behind a girl who tended to sit way, way back in her desk with her hair covering half of my writing space. Not anxious to wish that fate upon anyone else, I have developed the habit of leaning forward in my desk. I also usually scoot my desk up a little.

Be that all as it may, if Dr. Brewton had called on me, I would have had a good reply for him. I would have been able to say that every week I go to Merrill Gardens and play the piano for at least 45 minutes for the residents. I had a dedicated few who listened to me every week, but yesterday the time change threw them off, I think. For a while, there was no one in the lobby but the receptionist. That didn't bother me much. (I felt kind of bad that the regular people would be let down at missing it, true.) I love playing the piano in any case- I guess you could say it's a passion, although I don't use that word excessively like most people- and I view music almost as a sacred thing. For someone who has read The Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan creates the world in song and The Silmarillion where the Ainur, with the One, sing the world into being, I cannot view music neutrally. Good music is a holy thing in my eyes. That explains why I have such a visceral reaction to bad music. It is like sacrilege to me. That's how seriously I take it.

However, I was not (semi-)alone in the lobby forever. One resident came and sat to listen to me. She made a point of applauding or otherwise making her approval known after each song. Since she obviously liked hearing me play, I played longer than I have in the past. I only stopped when I ran out of songs. If I had brought more books- and I usually do-, I would have played longer for her, since she liked it so much.

I know it's not a big difference that I'm making in people's lives. I'm not out building houses or distributing food or whatnot. But it's tiny little moments like this that make any hardship worthwhile. I haven't done a big thing. But I brought a bit of joy to an old woman's morning. And, yes, that thought does make me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

P.S. This is my 190th post. Go me!

Okay, Blogger is slightly less evil. It let me do this. Mwahahahaha. Slowly but surely, I shall catch up with my peers as far as mastering techology grows. That doesn't mean I'll join the hordes of Facebook mind-slaves, hunched over the lurid glow of their cell phone screens. It merely means that I'll have more creative ways of spreading my mania. Because the world needs more clueless enthusiasm.

As an aside, Richard Armitage plays Thorin, pictured above (hopefully, that is- *crosses fingers and hopes Blogger pulls through*). Same guy that played the Nazi submarine spy in Captain America: The First Avenger. LOL.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

THE PRECIOUS IS LOOOOOOOST!!!!!

*sob* It's so horrible, I can barely talk about it. But I found a countdown widget for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to put on my blog, and STUPID BLOGGER WON'T TAKE IT!!!

It's such a tragedy. *sob* I shall now have go console myself with watching both trailers (the latter with its five alternate endings) and the three TV spots, even if I've only found the third with Spanish subtitles.

Man.... I do have Hobbit fever, don't I. That would explain why I am spending hours lurking on TheOneRing.net, hoping for some new little tidbit I can seize upon and tell my family about. I've already memorized the actors' names of all the dwarves (seriously, I have... the last one I learned was Oin, for whatever reason. Poor Oin).

AND I WOULD HAVE THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO DISPLAY MY LOVE FOR EVERYTHIING TOLKIEN, BUT STUPID BLOGGER WON'T LET ME PUT UP THE COUNTDOWN! It cited 'illegal characters' or something like that. Apparently, / ^ < >, etc., count as 'illegal characters', and while they work perfectly fine on the web, it won't work in putting in a widget. I hate Blogger. I used to not see any problem with it, but now it has become my enemy. It has taken the Precious from me.

Thief! Thief! We hates it, we hates it forever!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Halloween

No, I did not dress up in a costume today, and I certainly didn't go trick-or-treating. Now, if I had a hobbit costume, I might have done the dressing-up part. As for trick-or-treating, I find it much simpler to go buy what I want.

HOWEVER, I did see some interesting costumes today on campus, beginning with the green-haired fairy from Fairly Odd Parents (I do not know the name). I also saw a witch, Ronald Weasley, a girl who may have been Alice in Wonderland (or Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, who knows?), Cindy-Lou-Who, and another girl in Christmas attire. I heard a few other girls were going around as 'sorority girls'; not sure how they managed that but it mustn't have been too hard.

Another reason why I did not join a sorority: I heard that the Zeta Tau Alphas went around painting their letters (and those of Sigma Chi, for whatever reason) on people's cars. Apparently, the police showed up and would have charged them with vandalism if they didn't start cleaning it up. The sorority was tired of it by then, so they made Sigma Chi clean it up. At least, so went the gossip in computer class Tuesday.

The best costume of all today was undoubtedly the Willy Wonka and the four nigh-identical Oompa-Loompas going around with him (Wonka's little green-haired minions are called the Oompa-Loompas, right? Or is that the candy?). Their costumes were first-class. Wonka's was especially nice, with the hat, the purple coat, and the cane- the whole nine yards. I just managed to catch a glimpse of them as I headed for the shuttle- they were strolling by in front of Bibb Graves as if they owned the place.

I heard they were a sensation on Twitter. Wouldn't know myself, as I am not on Twitter. Wish I had thought to take a picture, though... Sigh.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Yay! New Book!

As you may surmise, a new book came out today. Of course, I had to go to Books-a-Million and get it. The people there should know me by now; I'm always there the Tuesday anything I want comes out.

Well, today Brotherband Chronicles 3: The Hunters came out today, and I've just finishd it. It was, as expected, amazing. John Flanagan is a genius. His writing continues to become better and better with each book; it is simply a pleasure to read his books. The characters' interactions are natural and hilarious; historical details are well-researched and realistic. Action sequences are plenty and flow well. As for suspense... what can I say? Ranger's Apprentice 9 was, to put it mildly, nerve-wracking, and I rarely get that feeling when I read.

My favorite character from the Brotherband Chronicles? Hmm... I like Stig. He is the perfect combination with Thorn in a fight. Watching him single-handedly attack eight men was priceless. Even if his dad failed at becoming the Maktig (the greatest warrior in Skandia, chosen at a special competition each year), Stig should get it in the future. He's got the potential to be another Thorn, I think. Edvin might be the "unrealized potential asset" of the story, but Stig is always running around in the background, making sure things run well for Hal and the others.

Plus, Stig somehow manages to be in a lot of the funny moments. For instance, I'll share with you the funniest line of the book, and urge you to go buy a copy for yourself:

"You know, I've been thinking..." Stig began slowly.

Hal called to Edvin, who was sesated amidships. "Edvin. Note the time and the date, please. A unique event has just occurred."

"Very funny," Stig said.

Edvin glanced up briefly from his knitting and shook his head.

And, yes, Edvin's knitting is sort of a running gag throughout the book. XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Who knows but life be that which men call death, and death that what men call life?

 

– Euripides

Honors Form Post, 10/29/12

I have had the hardest time today not writing down the date as the 30th. I am not sure why that is so, other than that I have a book coming out tomorrow. And, I assure you, I shall go buy it tomorrow. Three cheers for John Flanagan, Ranger's Apprentice, and the Brotherband Chronicles!!

Anyway.

Tonight's speaker was Bradley Dean, 'Creative Director' at Billy Reid's. He began with explaining that it is very hard to define his job description, as he wears so many hats. I think it could be summed up with: guy that comes up with crazy awesome ideas that work. Apparently, burning down a small forest counts as a crazy awesome idea, and who am I to argue with such crazy awesomeness?

They also grow organic cotton. That is points in my book any day. He spoke of sustainability, and entirely rethinking the way cotton is grown, harvested, and processed into a finished garment. He spoke of long-term goals, such as possibly reintroducing clothing manufacturing back to the shoals (Tee-Jay's, anyone? That rang bells with me, at least). I can understand that very much.

What I discerned of his talk was that he was led to civic engagement, and participated in it, through both his work and his home and town. When he 'destroyed' his house downtown in order to renovate it, he was surprised that no one asked him what he was doing. He admitted he rather liked that (I am not sure what a libertarian means. I should look up libertarianism. I do not think it is the same thing as distributism, which I adhere to. Distributism is similar in that it is in favor of small government, however) but wanted to ensure that houses on his street had a certain quality. Including putting trash cans away. That prompted a small amount of admitting we were making him feel old, which was amusing. I cannot say much to that however as I was no older than 15 or 16 and talking about 'kids these days' with a couple of friends of mine, however.

And anyone who wants to preserve old things and foster small town growth and hates the tackiness of Wal-Marts (IS ANYONE ELSE SERIOUSLY IRKED AT THE WAL-MART GOING IN NEXT TO THE DARBY DRIVE PARKING LOT????) and parking lots and strip malls is fine in my books.

I really liked Mr. Dean's message. I liked how he admitted that he learned from his elders and continued to educated himself after graduating from college. I believe that a lot of wisdom can be learned from one's elders. I am not a chronological snob, to borrow G. K. Chesterton's words: I do not believe merely that because someone is older than me that they have nothing of importance to say to me. In fact, I think our society should accord a lot more respect to old people. Youth is great and everything- but it really is wasted on the young. Age should be given its credit- it's learned the lessons we're still taking.

I also liked that Mr. Dean predicted that people would shift back to smaller towns with vibrant downtowns rather than the urban sprawl with Wal-Marts and heavy traffic and long commutes. I really do like that. I also think he's right. There's only so much not-big-city not-little-town horrible cookie-cutter subdivisions a soul can take before it rebels and must go either way. (As you may infer, I am of the opinion that subdivisions are horrible. This is because I have seen far, far too much good farmland- and good farmland, properly cultivated, is a beautiful site- sold to land developers by children who didn't want to carry on the family farm and which is then carved up piecemeal and made into subdivisions. Subdivisions can be done right. Older ones with large trees and unique houses are quite nice. But the new ones only have like 4 floor plans and 1 style of brick and 1 color siding and 1 color roof and regulation mailboxes and shrubbery and tacky little anemic crepe myrtles instead of trees. And they are hideous. There is no excuse for them. They are little pits of Gehenna.)

Oh, and that, my friends, was a bit of semi-comic hyperbole. See, I know my rhetoric terms.

Back to the forum tonight, after my mini-rant about urban sprawl and the horrors thereof, Mr. Dean brought up something I have mentioned before on this blog when he showed us a video on YouTube entitled: "First Follower: Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy." In short, the message went like this: The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. The second follower turns two nuts into a movement."

Another thing I liked that Mr. Dean mentioned was something he alluded to briefly at the end: some limitations are good. Yes, I believe that kids should tell their parents where they're going and when'll they'll be home (to quote a song called 'Things Like That These Days'). And when they prove they can handle responsibility and behave themselves, the limitations can be relaxed somewhat.

But there are some limitations that should never be removed, because they are written in the natural law and in our very hearts and souls. Some people call the core of them the Ten Commandments.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse