Happy Holidays!!
Hey everyone!
I've got good news, and I've got bad news. Actually, kind of just… news? (Eh, I hate this game, too).
The holidays are here, and -- as we've been doing the past few years -- we're not holding our celebrations until Daddy joins us in late January, early February 2013. Which is fine; Mom lives for the after-Christmas sales, and has been dragging me out to the Mall and every other store in between to find great deals and cool new things and fun games and awesome new outfits. Frankly, I'm not a shopper to begin with, so this is a bit… stressful, for me. BUT! I was rewarded for my patience by her taking me to see the Hobbit!!! SO FUCKING GOOD OMG.
Ahem. So, points:
1) THE HOBBIT.
Awesome movie, I loved it so much. I feel like if you haven't read the
books, the beginning of the movie will seem… slow? They introduce Bilbo
(as played by Ian Holm) as he is penning his adventures in The Hobbit,
and show Frodo poking around, being young and carefree, trying to get a
glimpse of what his uncle is writing. There are tiny flashback scenes,
and then the movie is shot forward as Bilbo is narrating the beginning
of his adventure. It unfolds wonderfully, and the actors are all
brilliant. I've just recently started re-reading The Hobbit and
was delighted to see just how many lines stay in the story, especially
in the beginning. When the dwarves are arriving, they come in twos and
threes, and finally the rest of them in a large pile. It's adorable.
Bilbo is so flustered and overwhelmed, but his good manners prohibit him
from throwing out his guests. :D I LOVE THIS STORY, YOU GUYS. The
dwarves are so lively and fun, and yet they get serious quickly when
Thorin asks it of them. We get to see Erebor as the dwarves remember it,
and meet Thorin's father and grandfather. It's gorgeous. We spend quite
a while in Bilbo's hobbit hole, singing and being merry, which I think
people unfamiliar with the book will find a tad indulgent, and probably
unnecessary. I loved it, but to each their own. FILI AND KILI ARE EQUAL
PARTS ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS. They're very close, as brothers,
and Kili has a line very early on that just cracks me up. I just love
all of the dwarves, and Gandalf, and just everyone. The battles are
amazing, and some of the story is different, yes, and Peter Jackson
expanded on the storyline by grabbing pieces from the many appendices
Tolkien has written, incorporating things that happen at the same time
as The Hobbit, and aren't necessarily in the book itself. Seeing
Saruman sitting in Rivendell, nonchalant as you please, really tickled
me. :D I had to keep whispering to Mom, "He's not evil yet," because she hates how he sided with Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, and basically every time we see him he pisses her off. But, yes. The film was amazing, and lovely, and long,
as many critics are complaining. Yes, it's long; it's the same length
as each part of LotR. I'm not sure yet if there'll be two movies or
three to finish off the franchise, but from where this one ended, my
guess is two. I keep hearing there'll be three, but I just don't know
yet.
tl;dr - AMAZING MOVIE. WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT AGAIN. CANNOT FUCKING WAIT FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT. TOLKIEN IS THE BEST EVERYONE ELSE GO HOME.
2) My grandfather on my father's side passed away on Christmas Eve. It's supremely sad, and Dad's devastated. He's all the way around the world right now, though, and we can't offer any other comfort aside from our words. I wish he were here now more than ever. Grandpa's passing was terrible, but in a way it was also a blessing. He's been suffering from Pick's Disease (a kind of dementia) for close to a decade now. It's a debilitating disease that messes with his memory, and when I'd seen him last summer, he didn't remember who I was. Not just my name, but my relation to him, no matter which way we explained it. He'd just look at me and smile a polite, I-don't-know-you-but-I-guess-it's-nice-meeting-you smile. It was heartbreaking then, and it's just as bad now. But, on the slightly less dark side, he's definitely bound to be in a better place now. He's been drifting away slowly, and in a way that's good. We've been saying goodbye to him for so long -- he hasn't been himself for almost the entire time -- and so it feels like we'd already said our goodbyes, and it was just finally time for him to go. We're all grieving in our own way, and Dad's flying out there during his visit home to see his brothers and attend the funeral.
So anyway, see what I mean? News, of a sort. I have fond memories of my grandfather, and when I think about him I don't think about his last years on this Earth. I think about when we'd visited as a family, back when I was a pre-teen. We'd go out to eat, and Grandpa had this bad habit of chewing on his glasses. He'd absentmindedly pull them off and start to chew on the bit that tucks in behind the ear. Only one side, though. Eccentric that he was, it was just on the left. He'd chew on them until they no longer fit his face. :) He was such a kind, thoughtful, and straightforward person, and he will be dearly missed.
--
I've got good news, and I've got bad news. Actually, kind of just… news? (Eh, I hate this game, too).
The holidays are here, and -- as we've been doing the past few years -- we're not holding our celebrations until Daddy joins us in late January, early February 2013. Which is fine; Mom lives for the after-Christmas sales, and has been dragging me out to the Mall and every other store in between to find great deals and cool new things and fun games and awesome new outfits. Frankly, I'm not a shopper to begin with, so this is a bit… stressful, for me. BUT! I was rewarded for my patience by her taking me to see the Hobbit!!! SO FUCKING GOOD OMG.
Ahem. So, points:
1) THE HOBBIT.
Awesome movie, I loved it so much. I feel like if you haven't read the
books, the beginning of the movie will seem… slow? They introduce Bilbo
(as played by Ian Holm) as he is penning his adventures in The Hobbit,
and show Frodo poking around, being young and carefree, trying to get a
glimpse of what his uncle is writing. There are tiny flashback scenes,
and then the movie is shot forward as Bilbo is narrating the beginning
of his adventure. It unfolds wonderfully, and the actors are all
brilliant. I've just recently started re-reading The Hobbit and
was delighted to see just how many lines stay in the story, especially
in the beginning. When the dwarves are arriving, they come in twos and
threes, and finally the rest of them in a large pile. It's adorable.
Bilbo is so flustered and overwhelmed, but his good manners prohibit him
from throwing out his guests. :D I LOVE THIS STORY, YOU GUYS. The
dwarves are so lively and fun, and yet they get serious quickly when
Thorin asks it of them. We get to see Erebor as the dwarves remember it,
and meet Thorin's father and grandfather. It's gorgeous. We spend quite
a while in Bilbo's hobbit hole, singing and being merry, which I think
people unfamiliar with the book will find a tad indulgent, and probably
unnecessary. I loved it, but to each their own. FILI AND KILI ARE EQUAL
PARTS ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS. They're very close, as brothers,
and Kili has a line very early on that just cracks me up. I just love
all of the dwarves, and Gandalf, and just everyone. The battles are
amazing, and some of the story is different, yes, and Peter Jackson
expanded on the storyline by grabbing pieces from the many appendices
Tolkien has written, incorporating things that happen at the same time
as The Hobbit, and aren't necessarily in the book itself. Seeing
Saruman sitting in Rivendell, nonchalant as you please, really tickled
me. :D I had to keep whispering to Mom, "He's not evil yet," because she hates how he sided with Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, and basically every time we see him he pisses her off. But, yes. The film was amazing, and lovely, and long,
as many critics are complaining. Yes, it's long; it's the same length
as each part of LotR. I'm not sure yet if there'll be two movies or
three to finish off the franchise, but from where this one ended, my
guess is two. I keep hearing there'll be three, but I just don't know
yet.
tl;dr - AMAZING MOVIE. WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT AGAIN. CANNOT FUCKING WAIT FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT. TOLKIEN IS THE BEST EVERYONE ELSE GO HOME.
2) My grandfather on my father's side passed away on Christmas Eve. It's supremely sad, and Dad's devastated. He's all the way around the world right now, though, and we can't offer any other comfort aside from our words. I wish he were here now more than ever. Grandpa's passing was terrible, but in a way it was also a blessing. He's been suffering from Pick's Disease (a kind of dementia) for close to a decade now. It's a debilitating disease that messes with his memory, and when I'd seen him last summer, he didn't remember who I was. Not just my name, but my relation to him, no matter which way we explained it. He'd just look at me and smile a polite, I-don't-know-you-but-I-guess-it's-nice-meeting-you smile. It was heartbreaking then, and it's just as bad now. But, on the slightly less dark side, he's definitely bound to be in a better place now. He's been drifting away slowly, and in a way that's good. We've been saying goodbye to him for so long -- he hasn't been himself for almost the entire time -- and so it feels like we'd already said our goodbyes, and it was just finally time for him to go. We're all grieving in our own way, and Dad's flying out there during his visit home to see his brothers and attend the funeral.
So anyway, see what I mean? News, of a sort. I have fond memories of my grandfather, and when I think about him I don't think about his last years on this Earth. I think about when we'd visited as a family, back when I was a pre-teen. We'd go out to eat, and Grandpa had this bad habit of chewing on his glasses. He'd absentmindedly pull them off and start to chew on the bit that tucks in behind the ear. Only one side, though. Eccentric that he was, it was just on the left. He'd chew on them until they no longer fit his face. :) He was such a kind, thoughtful, and straightforward person, and he will be dearly missed.
--