Miscellanea

[rowyn]

I love The Lord of the Rings. The books, not the films. The films were okay but I haven't really wanted to see them again. I've read them at least a dozen timen, the first time being in fifth grade. I can pick them up at any point and read happily for several pages. I can't explain why I love the books so much; I'm aware of many failings in them that I wouldn't tolerate from another author. Sometimes I wonder if it's just sentiment, that I love them for being one of the first adult fantasy novels I read, the way some people love Star Wars for being the first mainstream sf film they saw. Maybe it's not so much that it was great as that it was good enough to make the genre flourish.

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Why didn't anyone warn me about X-Men 3? We should've gone to see Cars instead.

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Lut and I bought freeweights and a weight bench yesterday. And Weight Training for Dummies. I picked out dumbbells. Barbells would be more versatile, since you can add and remove plates to them. But I have come to an ever-increasing appreciation of exercise equipment you don't have to mess with. Exercise is its own roadblock; avoid making additional ones if at all possible.

We're setting the weights up in one room of the Basement of Doom. On top of a 12mm foam garage mat. That should be enough to keep them above water level, even if it floods again. Haven't had a significant flooding problem since the Plumbing Incident, actually.

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I put up a new default icon. This one is from a picture of me taken at ConQuesT. Got a batch of photos a couple of days ago that were taken by one of the other congoers, and I rather liked the expressions in some of them. I may finally add some new icons and fill a few of my umpteen remaining slots.

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I should go write another Silver Scales entry, but I expext I'll play Puzzle Pirates instead.

Comments

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

Did you finally get Tracy's pics?

[rowyn]

Yup! There's rather a nice one of you and I, in fact, although unfortunately your head and face is completely hidden by your hat in it.

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

Feel free to send it along anyway if you like. :)

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

(Plus, you know, it probably looks good precisely because my head and face are hidden by the hat. :P )

Your Basic Compliment

[zorkfox.livejournal.com]

It's quite a nice photograph of you. :)

[prester-scott.livejournal.com]

Why didn't anyone warn me about X-Men 3? We should've gone to see Cars instead.

I believe I did.

[rowyn]

Alas, your movie review was tagged for spoilers, so I didn't look at it figuring I'd probably see it anyway. :/ More fool I! Say, would you mind putting the "recommendation" line in front of the cut-tag for movie reviews with spoilers in 'em?

[kirzen.livejournal.com]

*chuckles and prods*

Should have read my entry on the things I hated about X3

[rowyn]

Well, your entry (like Scott's!) was cut-tagged for spoilers, and you didn't say it was a bad movie up front, so I didn't read it figuring I'd see the movie first.

[kirzen.livejournal.com]

Did you stay past the end credits?

[rowyn]

Y'know, I heard from a few people that I should, but we didn't. Lut may've been too disgusted to stay anyway. I was more "meh" on the film than really appalled at the time, having successfully shut off my brain for most of it. ;)

[zaimoni.livejournal.com]

They have yet to come out with neoprene-coated barbells.

That alone makes a set of dumbbells in the low weight ranges interesting.

[rowyn]

I didn't get the neoprene-coated ones -- they're cool but about four times as expensive. O_O

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Oooo! Weights! Weight Bench, and that is a good book.

I'll get those pictures I took of you when you visited online tonight.

[rowyn]

Whee, pictures! Yes, I like the book. I'll have to remind Lut to leave it home so I can play with weights tonight.

[ltwarhound.livejournal.com]

Book is in the kitchen on the bar stool, where you put your bag, hopefully you won't cover it up and miss it :)

[krud42.livejournal.com]

>Why didn't anyone warn me about X-Men 3?

Yeah, I expected better from the director of "Rush Hour 2"...

(Oh wait, no I didn't. Which is why I didn't go see it*.)

[* - Actually, the REAL reason I didn't go see it is that I almost never go see movies anymore. ':( ]

Lord Of The Rings: The Novel(s)

[krud42.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if I would have enjoyed the books had I read them when I was younger (or at least before I'd read any other fantasy novels.)

I'm told (by various sources) that I gave up on them right before they get really good. But I can't help but think that now that I've seen the movies, I wouldn't be able to read the books without thinking to myself, "I prefer the FIRST way I experienced this storyline" (mainly since I saw the movies first. Not that I loved the movies, per se. The first one, yes. The 2nd and 3rd ones, not so much.)

Ironically, Tolkien is too "Tolkienesque" for me. ';P

Lord of the Rings: The novel

[menziesclan.livejournal.com]

LotR is one of my comfort books (see my post about that if you want to comment). I enjoy reading Tolkien followed by a Glen Cook, in the same way I enjoyed reading Zane Grey followed by a Louis L'Amor. Same genre but totally different styles, and the contrast makes me like each style even more.

As a Tolkien purist I didn't like the way a few things were handled in the movies, but approaching them from an outside viewpoint I thought the movies were very good. They captured the essence of JRRT's epic, and maybe some folks who weren't interested will pick up the books, read them, and find all the things that the movies had to leave out.

[And I would hate to reveal how many times I've read LotR since I discovered them in high school... 8^) ]