Okay, all the blogs I have been following reappeared on my dashboard. Really weird.

And you wonder why I wish to kill Google?

Has Blogger decided to randomly delete the fact that you were following people's blogs with anyone else?

Because it has done that to me. Most unusual.

Now I have to go hunt them all down again.

Grr.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Okay, I Have Lots of Funny Things to Share

A post title like that is always encouraging, I think.

No, I didn't post over the Memorial Day weekend. I was too busy! We had family over and things. I love my family, so out-of-towners staying with us is a joy, not a chore. They are always fun to be around. We had more of a get-together on Sunday, but Memorial Day itself was spent doing work and cleaning and various other things.

Plus, haying season has started. The bales are beginning to pile up in the barn. It's amazing how much warmer it is in the barn once only two layers of bales have been laid down in one half of the barn. If the bales were still a little wet when they were put in, the tight atmosphere makes them continue to decompose a little and possibly burn. Yes, bad things can happen. Also, bales must be stacked on their thin sides, not the wide sides. It makes for stabler rows of bales.

Yeah, yeah, so I obviously live on a farm and am proud of it...

I am also proud of all past and present members of our armed forces!

And now on to the fun stuff (i.e., what everyone comes here for anyways, because it certainly isn't my inane commentary).



Bag End door cookies! I want some!

So I've decided to start putting the less necessary bits of my commentary as captions. Will it work? Dunno. But it's something new and different - anathema, I know. But I want to play around with captions for today, so bear with me... There may be a lot of captions...

The resemblance is undeniable.

Where else?

I just find that one genuinely funny for some reason. ...And for those of us who live under rocks, the guy's name is Nicholas Cage. The National Treasure guy. Because, seriously, that's all I know him from. And I liked Riley Poole better.

I have a gif of Riley, too.

My brother imitates it randomly.

Sometime I should post it.

But I already have about 30 more pictures to post... Obviously they will not all be done today... And I keep finding more... Help, I'm back on Pinterest and obviously today is not the day I close it and do something productive...

Okay, I might go shopping if Gandalf showed up to take me. That would be fun. Perhaps I could buy a pointy hat (so I could do a pointy hat trick) and also long robes, because I think those would be fun (for a while) and I have always wanted a cape. Cloak. Whatever. Capes are brightly colored and belong to superheroes; cloaks are for warmth and protection (and occasionally camoflauge) and are useful.

Plus, I could buy a big stick, and use it to whack people when appropriate.

Shopping with Gandalf it is!

Ironically, I hate shopping in real life, and I only like places like Books-a-Million and Tractor Supply Co.

Yep.

I love these things that appear on FailBlog's School of Fail. Can you see why?

So true.

If Bilbo had tried to explain how he got past the goblins.

Because Thorin is just that awesome.

Now, I wonder which of these Nazgul is Jed Brophy?

This should be self-explanatory.

Success Gandalf

Who thought giving Sam a gun was a smart idea?

I also want to know who thought putting Theoden in charge of a boat was smart.

Fili & Kili are some of the best reasons why Tolkien is better than Twilight.

Just sayin'.

Dwarves make for a better party. Always.

Oh, Martin...

Phew! That's a lot of pictures. And I have a lot more to post... Yippee!

I should probably also warn you that there is another Richard Armitage appreciation post in the works.

Not that I should have to warn anyone by this point.

What's that? You're asking me to do a Dean or Aidan appreciation post? Well... I would. If I didn't feel so embarrassed about it. RA is safely out of my age range. Posting pictures of Dean and Aidan seems more like stalky fangirlism to me... so I try to avoid it.

That being said, I did find some nice pictures of them, and of the cast in general...

Should I share? ;)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Moria Tribute

This is something random I did weeks ago when I was having fun going through my LOTR EE DVD's (if you do not know what the acronyms stand for, you are on the wrong blog).

Okay, there are also some Hobbit pictures involved. I know they are of Erebor, not Moria, but I need something to show the Dwarves at their best, and unless Peter Jackson decides to ever show us Moria at its best (which would be supremely awesome) Erebor will have to suffice. By the way, that prologue of The Hobbit is awesome.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, while the Fellowship is in Moria and Gandalf has lit up his staff to expose the enormous dark pillars and they contemplate the former grandeur of Khazad-dum (the Mansion of the Khazad, or Dwarves), Gimli sings a song about it. I took the words, took some screenshots, played around with Paint, and this is the result.

 

Elves are so last year. Yeah, I like the Dwarves now...

Yes, yes, I know my spacing on the pictures is rather bad, what with just two lines on some and then three on others; it doesn't help that I usually chopped the lines into two segments. Dunno. I originally planned to just do the one picture (the second-to-last one), which explains why the font is a bit different there - I couldn't remember which one I'd used. Ah, well.

If you get the words stuck in your head now, my work here is done. At least you won't be alone. In the book, Sam really likes the sound of the poem too: "I like that! 'In Moria, in Khazad-dum.'"

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Majestic Thorin, Just Because I Can

So I decided that some people (i.e., the members of my family who occasionally look at this blog and shake their heads over what I am doing in my spare time) needed a greater appreciation of Majestic Thorin. Oh, they know what it is all right; it is an impossibility to share a residence with me for any extended period and not know all about everything pertaining to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The reasons why should be blindingly obvious by now.

It has eaten my life and I'm so not sorry.

However, I realized that they had not actually seen many of the Majestic Thorin memes, and I decided to remedy this appalling situation. In consequence thereof, this shall be a long, silly, and picture-filled post, with me commentating for whatever reason.

...Why do I use pretentious language and big words to convey stupid concepts, you ask? Because I think it's funny. I'm just weird that way.

TELL ME someone didn't do that on purpose. TELL ME.

SHEET MUSIC. It's in SHEET MUSIC, guys. It's in the soundtrack music book. Someone actually decided to write it in there. Granted, it probably happened before the meme did, but even so... It's everywhere! So get used to it.

Look what Google Images is doing now. Just look at it. Even Google knows about Majestic Thorin by know. I told you it was everywhere!

I love gifs. I love them so much. I collect them, doncha know? And this is a nice one of Thorin being his usual Spinning Wheel of Doom, as I have labeled it. Orcrist is slicing more goblin necks... 1001, 1002, 1003...

Nope. You can never be more majestic than the big brother. Big brothers always have more dignity. And more majesty, more importantly. It's a well attested fact, as all younger brothers know.

In fact, I think we can extend the greater majesty to all big siblings. Which is nice in my case, since I'm the oldest and therefore have the greatest majesty.

LOL.

SO not majestic, Kili... Hahaha, I don't know why, but this meme always struck me since the captions seemed to fit their facial expressions so well... Haha... I don't know, you could put so many funny captions to these screenshots. Kili's look of, "Oh, noes!" and Fili's face... ahaha, Fili's face is priceless. He's perfect at giving great, "Are you for real?" expressions. I mean seriously...

Sometime I should have to do a gallery of Fili's expressions. Anyone want me to?

 

And that one, as you can see from the white tag to the lower right, was down by PeckishOwl on Deviantart, so all credit goes to him/her.

 

To top this majestic post off, I shall have to share what someone said on Tumblr:

 

So I feel kind of awful because I went to church with my parents the other day and in one of the songs the chorus just started with a long drawn out “MAAAAAAAAAAJESTYYYYYYYYY” Aaaaaand I definitely thought of Thorin and not Jesus and I’m pretty sure this just adds one more hole in my “go to hell free” punchcard.

 

I probably could have wrote that. Because it's a true story (minus the song, since I don't know that song, but yeah... whenever I hear the word, there my thoughts go...).

 

So, do you all have a better appreciation of Majestic Thorin now?

 

Good. I hoped so.

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse

...And So I'm Putting Up Hobbit Pics To Cheer Myself Up

Enjoy!

Too bad it's so small. You really should click on it to get the full benefit. Heehee. In other words, this is 1/2 of the Hobbit cast acting completely normal... In a clockwise direction, beginning with the bald guy at the top left: Graham McTavish (Dwalin - I actually almost typed Dwalin McTavish, can you believe it?), Jed Brophy (Nori), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), John Callen (Oin), Dean O'Gorman in yet another of his flannel shirts (Fili), Adam Brown being adORIble, and Mark Hadlow (Dori), with Sylvester McCoy (Radagast) in the middle.

These guys... can't handle 'em. Just can't.

From left to right: Jed Brophy, Stephen Hunter, Dean O'Gorman, Graham McTavish, and Adam Brown.

Speaking of Stephen Hunter (who wants to see more of Bombur in the next movies? I do!), he often finishes his tweets with "Team Bombur". Awww. Bombur seriously needs more appreciation, guys. He cooks wonderfully, he is the only married Dwarf other than Gloin (and apparently has a passle of kids), and he can lay into goblins like nobody's business.

At HobbitCon, Stephen Hunter talked about how Dean and Aidan would invade his trailer to play FIFA on his game system. LOL. Typical boys.

Chillin' Like a Bombur

The best (and most accurate) captions I saw for this pic on Tumblr?

Dori: *resigned to this fate*
Nori: *drunk - happily drunk*
Ori: Why, brothers, whyyyyyyyy?

I still giggle shamelessly when I see this picture, because I think of the captions every time! *gigglesnort*

 

At the end of HobbitCon they sang "Misty Mountains" for all the fans... *sniff* Really wish I could have been there...

 

 



 

If you can't read it, it says, "If there's a key, there must be a door. - And if there's no key let's hope there is a mailbox."

 

XD To explain... (according to someone on Tumblr):

 

So basically what happened was: It was like 5 in the morning and he forgot his keys and thought that he could open the door from the inside out through the letterbox (it was one of those letterboxes in which you can put both milk and letters). When he realized he couldn’t reach the door handle he wanted to push himself back out, but there was nothing to push against. He yelled for his flatmate, an older Irish woman who was drunk all the time, who came downstairs and walked past him to open the door. And when he told her he got stuck she said, “Maybe I’ll pull you out”, but she couldn’t because she was “a woman, older and, you know, drunk” so she sat down in a chair next to him and suggested to call the fire brigade. So the fire brigade turned up and the people in the apartment thought, “Oh, no, there’s a fire!” and they came downstairs and all they could see were his feet sticking out, so people thought a body had been stuck into the letterbox. The fire brigade couldn’t pull him out, so they had to cut a hole in the wall to get him out. He wasn’t injured, “But you know, my dignity was gone.”

Bahahahahaha... The fandom will never let him forget the mailbox incident now... Ahahaha....

 

Some other fun stuff from HobbitCon:

 

Tidbits from Sylvester McCoy:

 

Fan: So is Sebastian okay now?

Sylvester: Bloody upstaging little animal.

--

Fan: So what would you do if you were given a Ring of Power?
Sylvester: Someone actually did give me a ring once. But not my agent. He thinks I'm dead.

--

Sylvester: And then a twelve-year-old stole my TARDIS.

--

Mark Ferguson: And we have a question on the balcony.

Sylvester: Jump!

Random tidbits:

 

- Adam Brown did dance moves from "All the Single Ladies" music video.

- Graham bowed to the audience and said, "I will remain at your service," at the end of HobbitCon.

- Jed and Adam acted out a scene from Ori's childhood (Nori trying to teach Ori what to do if he encountered a warg) when Mark crashed their panel and started reprimanding them about how there were going to get hurt.

- WETA guy: "Azog is the Aidan Turner of the orcs."

- Jed said THERE WILL BE AUDIO COMMENTARY ON THE EXTENDED EDITIONS!!! HALLELUJAH!

- Graham apparently had problems with his pony (it's white and fluffy... and it's named Harley. Like the motorcycle). He has a new movie coming out sometime; it's a Western. Adam and Jed decided to heckle him and asked, "But if it's a Western, how do you deal with the horses?" He said: "I shot them."

- Mark: “You know, in the film, Ori tries to get away from Dori and starts to listen to Nori more and more. *audience laughs* And you know what!? It’s beginning to happen in real life as well!” Cue Jed and Adam running out from backstage.

- Question to Dean at Hobbitcon panel: How did Fili and Kili really lose the ponies?

    Dean: …Hobbiton weed. I don’t want to say who gave it to us but he’s tall and has a pointy hat. But nice try. It was not what you were thinking.

- When the cast played a game where they had to name Tolkien characters who died (easy, if you've read The Silmarillion; practically only Cirdan, Elrond, and Galadriel survive) (this also demonstrated that Dean fails forever at Tolkien trivia), Jed said, "Gil-galad!" right off the bat. The moderator, Mark Ferguson, played Gil-galad.

 

Hmm. You really don't see Gil-galad much in the Fellowship - a bit more in the EE, sure, but he's never named and has no lines.

 

Time to post pictures and explain who he is!

 

 

That's him on the right. His name means 'starlight'. He was the High King of the Noldorin Elves at the time of the last alliance, and after he died... there was no one left to take his place. He was (in The Silmarillion; it may have been mixed up with Tolkien's revisions) originally called Ereinion, and was the son of Fingon, son of Fingolfin, son of Finwe. (Fingolfin was awesome, by the way... He fought Sauron's boss and managed to wound him so badly he was lame ever after. Oh, Fingolfin died, of course, but he went out awesomely...)

 

Gil-galad's uncle, Turgon, was the King of the City of Gondolin. The sword Gandalf has - Glamdring? Yeah, it belonged to Turgon. Fans speculate that Orcrist, which Thorin uses, and Sting, which Bilbo has picked up, were originally a set that belonged to Ecthelion of the Fountain, one of Turgon's Elf-lords, who gave his life to kill a Balrog. Yeah. Elves of the First Age... not to be trifled with!

 

If you look closely, you can see Gil-galad earlier in the prologue, when the three Elven rings are shown. Galadriel is the focus of the shot, of course, but the silver-haired guy in the back is Cirdan the Shipwright, who was given Narya, the Ring of Fire (which he passed on to Gandalf), and the dark-haired guy is Gil-galad. Gil-galad was given Vilya, the Ring of Air, and luckily he gave it to Elrond, who was his herald at the battle in Mordor, for safe keeping before he died.

 

Gil-galad also went out in a really unpleasant way. I had expected that it would show his death in the FOTR EE, but no such luck. In the book all it says, other than that he died, is a throwaway comment by Isildur as he's describing the Ring and how its markings fade when the Ring is cool: "Maybe it misseth the heat of Sauron's hand, and so was Gil-galad destroyed."

 

I cannot help but imagine that Sauron grabbed Gil-galad by the throat, lifted him up, and literally set him on fire so that he burned to death. Yeah. I have a pleasant imagination. I guess they didn't want to put that in the movie.

 

Gil-galad must have dropped his spear, Aiglos ('icicle'), since Elrond was able to take it home with him. I think it was kept with the broken Narsil (has anyone spotted it in that scene in FOTR?), which would be a nice symbolism of the way their owners were friends in life.

 

Sam recites in The Fellowship of the Ring the beginning of a poem about Gil-galad:

 

Gil-galad was an Elven King,

Of him the harpers sadly sing;

His realm was the last that was fair and free

Between the Mountains and the Sea.

 

His sword was long, his lance was keen,

His shining helm afar was seen;

The countless stars of heaven's field

Were mirrored in his silver shield.

 

But long ago he rode away

And where he dwells none can say;

For into darkness fell his star,

In Mordor where the shadows are.

 

Me again, quoting Tolkien poetry from memory. Please excuse any errors.

 

Here's another picture of Gil-galad.

 

 

Probably facing Sauron... There's pictures of Gil-galad of footage that clearly never made it into the movie; can't this stuff be released? Geeks want to know!!!

 

Gah.

 

Maybe I should go hunt up more pictures...

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse