LOL!!

Not meaning at all to detract from the simultaneous gravity and joy of my post below, BUT.... I cannot resist the opportunity to bash Twilight at any given opportunity.

Oh, and Gandalf's joining in!

YOU! SHALL! NOT! PASS!

...Hey, I'd be running.

#Reblog ALL the anti-Twilight!!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

HABEMUS PAPAM!!

WE HAVE A POPE!!

VIVA IL PAPA! LONG LIVE POPE FRANCIS!!!

I heard this morning on the radio on the shuttle (we had a new driver today and he was listening to old oldies; he was a mite clueless but that is to be expected if it was his first morning driving the shuttle) that a papal ballot had been taken this morning and that the black fumata (I hope I have that word right!) arose from the chimney. Still not another Pope!

It's really amusing how many people were desperately hoping for an American Pope. LOL. I mean, really. There has only been ONE English Pope (I want to say it was Adrian IV, but although I am fairly sure about the Adrian I am not so sure about the IV). I mean, what sort of ego/ethnocentricism do Americans have, that we think we are so important that the next Pope MUST be American? I mean, our country is actually pretty young in the whole scheme of world history. We've only been a major player since WWI or so.

Idiots. The world does NOT revolve around America. Or, more precisely, the world does not revolve around Americans, which are mostly what is wrong with America.

Okay, okay, I was kind of cheering for Cardinal Timmy Dolan from NYC. Why not? I have heard great things about him. (Plus, he has become memetic on Catholic Memes for his 'Cardinal Batman' moment.) I even heard he might be a contender on the radio. No such luck.

However, I suppose you could say that, technically, we did get an 'American' Pope...

I had not been home long when one of mom's relatives called to say that white smoke had risen from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel. She sent me off to go look up the news on the computer. However, I wasn't apparently doing it fast enough so she shooed me off her iMac (we all loathe that computer, by the way. It must have been made on the Friday before a major holiday or something. It works only when it feels like it, and it doesn't feel like it very often) and searched for a live news feed herself. We finally found one, and got to listen to the inane chatter and speculations of the news people while we waited for the Pope to come out onto the balcony.

I am a great and/or terrible person at these times. To distract from the stupid commentary, I started talking about the history of St. Peter's Basilica, the various architects it went through and who built what (Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Della Porta, Maderno, Bernini, etc.). Yes, I give free history lessons all the time. Someone should just grab a roll of duct tape and shut me up.

Anyway, finally a cardinal came out on the balcony and began to read the proclamation of the new Pope in Latin. It was echoing badly and a translator picked up halfway through, so I couldn't catch who the Pope was, although we did hear 'Francis'. We decided pretty quickly that there had never been a Pope Francis before, but the media, amusingly enough, did not, and for a while kept "Pope Francis I" on the title. *snerk* You only add the distinction of "the First" after there has been a "Second". Lol...

Anyway, commentary soon supplied that the cardinal who had been elevated to the papacy was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from Argentina. When it was mentioned that his father was from Italy, I will admit that all I could think of was Petrus Romanus- the last of the papal prophecies of St. Malachy. Yikes!

Pope Francis soon came out and gave his first Urbi et Orbi (to the city and to the world) blessing- it also counts as a plenary indulgence, with the usual conditions. I had better make it to Confession this Saturday. Anyway, I don't think he was necessarily freaked out on the balcony. To me he seemed a bit sad, looking out at crowds of errant children, but kind.

He is the first non-European Pope since Pope Gregory III who reigned from 731 to 741. (We have a Pope chart. I just looked that up. Do not freak out. My knowledge is not that encyclopedic.) He is also the first Pope to have an original name since Pope Lando in 914. Yes, Pope Lando. Surprise, surprise.

Pope Francis asked us all to pray for him- he asked for the crowd's prayers before extending his blessing to them, and it was amazing how silent they all became. So let us all rally behind our new Pope and support him whole-heartedly with our prayers.

And, since I can't resist the urge to add a few funny things, enjoy these gems from Catholic Memes.

One can only imagine all 115 voting cardinals wearing those buttons around Vatican City. XD
And here we have the return of Cardinal Batman!!!

In Pace et Jubilatione Christi,

Elyse

Y U NO HAVE HOBBIT MOVIE NIGHT, UNA???

I desperately wanted to put a rage comics meme with the little stick figure going, "UNA, Y U NO SHOW THE HOBBIT FOR MOVIE NIGHT??" but everything refused to allow me to put the meme together. So, obviously, I cannot post it. Instead, I shall have to just rant about it.

UNA IS SHOWING BRAVE INSTEAD. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Brave. But The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is better. It just is. It is in its own category of epicness, along with the LOTR films. There is no way UNA should be passing up on it. It showed The Avengers and the last Batman movie last semester. Surely, I thought, it would show TH: AUJ, which has earned over $1 billiion and is still being shown in some theaters around the globe because people love it and are still going to it, even when it's coming out on DVD on the 19th.

But no.

I would also put here a picture of Sokka saying, "The universe just loves proving me wrong," but nothing allows me to find a picture of that, either.

Well, the universe just loves proving me wrong. About everything. But I have not never been so wrong in my life. I think there's things I have been more wrong about before.

Grr.

I mean, WHY?! You just don't do this to meeeeeeee!!!

There is always an occasion for the Bilbo No gif. Always.

However, since I have a keen sense of irony, here is a Fili & Kili tribute, set to a song from Brave.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Since I Haven't Done a Quote In Forever

To make it even better, I have this book. What convinced me that it would be an AWESOME book was the very first line of the introduction, which went, "Oh, no! Not another Tolkien book! Why should we read this one?"

And it turned out to be the best book about Tolkien and his words that I have ever read, and I have read about half a dozen by now.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

*SCREAMING*

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Do you remember that fanart of Thorin as a Celtic warrior I posted the other day? The one that I said was immensely distracting during history class?

THERE'S MORE. THE PERSON DID FILI AND KILI AND DWALIN, TOO.

...Suffice it to say that I made a little screaming noise when I discovered this on Pinterest. It is therefore imperative upon me to post the others as well. (The Thorin one is still the best, though.)

Nice red color... and awesome axes. In fact, I think the axes are the best part. ...I like fancy weaponry, okay?

It's nice to see that Fili and Kili share Thorin's nice blue color...

 

Ah, what the heck, I'll repost the Thorin one, too.

And here's all of them.

I wish I could find who drew them originally, but until then here's a link to something other than Pinterest. Unless the person to whom this blog belongs did actually draw them. If so, kudos to them. These drawings are seriously amazing. And they have seriously ruined any chance of me ever taking history class seriously again.

Just. Gah. Reduced to incoherence. AGAIN. What is it with these sons of Durin? WHY????? I mean, seriously. Dwarves. I used to love Elves. (The Silmarillion will shatter any illusion that they are perfect, however. *coughFeanorcough*) I did decide that Eomer had become my favorite LOTR character before TH:AUJ, but even so... Now it's like, "Elves, who cares?" Fangirls are squeeing that Legolas will be in The Desolation of Smaug these December, and I'm just like, "That's nice. ...Oh, look, majestic dwarf!"

Seriously. What IS it with these Dwarves? WHAT IS IT WITH ME???

Why I am even discussing this on my blog? Ah, well, it's not like I've hidden my Tolkien obsession on here before.

*final parting shot* Fili totally has better hair than Legolas!!

*flees*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Exams

Yeah, pretty much.

I love how you can find practically anything applicable to your present situation in life in your desired flavor of LOTR. The Internet is just that awesome.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Further Proof of the Abject Inferiority of Sparkly Vampires

Bofur from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on the left (a.k.a. the Hat Dwarf, also known memetically as Ridiculously Lovely Bofur), and, well... you-know-who (lower caps!) on the right. I mean, yeah... All he does is sparkle. Sure, he runs really fast and is really strong, but all your average superheroes can do that. You might as well go for Thor or Captain America or something. At least Cap is a gentleman and not undead.

Oh, and Edward reads minds. Which is creepy. I have never understood if it happens automatically and he can't shut it off, or whether he deliberately tries to hear everyone's thoughts. Let's hope it's the former, because the later option is scary.

Really, though, let's just turn this into a Bofur appreciation post! He's so sweet. He's a miner and a toymaker- what's not to love about that?

Ooh, and since I happen to be listening to it at the moment, I think I'll share a video by an amazing-sounding group.

It's called "You Say", and it's by Claude Rains. They have several different versions of this song with various shenanigans going on in the background. In this one about half a dozen of the Dwarf actors from TH:AUJ have apparently decided to crash the filming of the video and try to make the singers laugh. Adam Brown is simply adorable.

Go on, click on it! Go check out more of their stuff. This song is so nice and peaceful. It's a good change from the jarring music heard so often nowadays.

I just love sharing videos and pictures and stuff now that I've learned how to do all this!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

LOL

This is for Audrey. I just came across a treasure trove of Pinterest pins labelled Daylight, as in the antithesis of Twilight. I simply must share my favorites. There's no way I can't.

Couldn't resist. Reading a good bit of Twilight bashing is a great way to improve your mood exponentially. Someone should scientifically prove this. I know they've proven that Remus Lupin is right: chocolate does cheer you up, so it's the perfect remedy for being attacked by emotion-draining Dementors!

I always did like Remus. Primarily for the chocolate, yeah, but also because he seemed sometimes to be the Only Sane Man.

No, I don't hate Harry Potter. Hate is a strong word. I just like poking holes in its plot holes.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

True Story, 2.0

Just change that to "last 5 minutes of the class hour" and you have the average feelings of your average college student during your average boring class.

Gotta love Gollum. "Is it taaaaasty? Is it scruuuuuuummmmptious?"

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Tolkien Fangirl Problems

So.

Today was actually a really interesting day in history. We actually started Rome. Anyway, so we got a brief overview of the linguistic and racial differences of Europe as originated by the Rhine-Danube border between Roman civilization and Germanic/Celtic barbarism.

The teacher mentioned how the Romans tried to invade across the Rhine but how they didn't succeed. Inquiring minds want to know, of course, so he was requested to explain some of the theories why they failed.

Amusingly, the first theory he trotted out before us was that which can best be summed up by the Roman mindset of, "Real men wear skirts." Apparently, and unsurprisingly, the Romans continued to wear their man-skirts, cold metal armor, and hobnailed sandals as well as build in their traditional Roman style, which is very much designed for the hot Mediterranean climate, even in the forests of northern Germany and in their stations along Hadrian's Wall in England. Additionally, at least early on before the Roman armies consisted mostly of barbarian auxilliaries, they were Romans unused to the cold. Long story short: they froze. And so the barbarians who were used to the cold could defeat them.

One girl then pointed out that the 'barbarian' Celts also wore kilts. The teacher acknowledged this point.

MEANWHILE, my mind jumped to this fanart:

It's Thorin Oakenshield as a Celt, for those of you who haven't seen it yet on Tumblr or Pinterest. (Oh, goodness, Pinterest is a bottomless pit, too...)

DO YOU KNOW HOW DISTRACTING THIS MENTAL IMAGE WAS?????

Let's just say my mental composure was shot for the rest of the hour.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse