Crappy Week, but..... 15 Day Countdown to The Hobbit

This was one of those weeks where everything seemed to go a little sideways. After 15 years of IT work, I know an awful lot about computers and networks, but there is also a lot I do not know. Anyway, on to more fun things...

(This is my first time writing this blog on my iPad. So, if there are weird autocorrections, sue me ☺)

I am a gigantic nerd for the works of JRR Tolkien, and I don't mean I am just an avid watcher of the movies, though they are my go to most of the time. My first experience was with that somewhat awful, yet charming, Rankin Bass cartoon of The Hobbit from the 80s. While it has not withstood the test of time, I still get chills from the scenes with Bilbo and Smaug. The cartoon was my gateway drug to the works of Tolkien, and while I do love The Lord of the Rings, though the Frodo and Sam portion of The Two Towers kills me (not in a good way), I far and away love The Hobbit the most. The book is just a lot less serious, no worlds ending here, though you see the mounting evil around the fringes that ultimately lead Tolkien to his magnum opus. Granted, when he devised The Hobbit in the trenches of World War I, he had no plan other than to entertain his children. So, in a lot ways, The Hobbit is only a prelude due to some character overlap and a bit about a ring. Anyway, I lived and breathed these stories and all of the ancillary materials that Christopher Tolkien shepherded to publication, though I never was able to penetrate the creation stories and epic poems of The Silmarillion. My senior year in high school, when I was president of speech team, I developed the confrontation of Bilbo and Smaug into a prose presentation piece. It was the best I ever did in that event. Then my freshman year in college I took a Tolkien & Medieval Lit course. Needless to say, it was amazing!

Soooo.... I have the Tolkien bona fides. Obviously, I am excited for the movie. While I wish it wasn't being stretched out over three movies and years, I trust in Peter Jackson and his team that they were able to cull enough material to make it so. I will warn you now that his blog with be counting the days. Brace yourself!