Parma en Laire

A few things...

2010-01-03T17:32:56Z

1: Thank you for all the birthday wishes, if I missed thanking anyone- I've been so busy, I haven't had any time to even relax this break!

2: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I don't have any resolutions or anything beyond "keep trying my best" and "remain positive"- no resolutions because I never follow up on them XD

3: Happy birthday, Professor Tolkien. Thank you for changing my life. I'll be going down to the annual toast in LA, as I did last year.

4: I saw this in my spam this morning. Apparently Elven Light received Second Place in Genres: Romance: Imladris Elves. Thank you very much for everyone who was kind enough to vote for me! That was a pleasant surprise; I had forgotten about the MEFAs. I blame RL.

5: TORn has been releasing some very interesting news over the past few days. PJ was knighted in New Zealand, and there was a fake call for auditions; they shall not be auditioning for extras until around February, apparently. Still, keep an eye on TORn- 2010 is going to be big!

6: I've been spending the free time I have basically updating the Tolkien group on dA. Check it out- with the new group system, it's categorized nicely, and some of the artwork in here is absolutely spectacular!

7: I haven't checked my LJ friends in the last few days, so I'll be catching up there too :P

I feel like I am forgetting something that I said I would do, but for the life of me I cannot remember what. If it's something I said to someone here, send me a private note... (anyone else ever get those naggy feelings in the back of your head and hate them?)

So. 20 years today.

2009-12-30T14:48:53Z

I was a late morning baby, IIRC. My mom was inconvenienced with my early arrival- a dozen days earlier than expected- sometime after midnight. I have vivid imaginings of what my parent's reactions were then.

My mom says I was a small baby, the size of a doll. Exact opposite of my younger brother, who (rumor has it) was so large that he was bigger than the tape measurer went. I grew up (obviously), for the most part enjoying life. My family- my mom, dad, brothers, and more recent little sister- have made my life beyond awesome. My friends- both in the "real world" and here online- have only enriched it more. Thank you for being around- you guys make life worth living.

I scheduled my tutoring appointments so to avoid working on my birthday, so my parents ultimately knew why I did not want to work on the 30th. Two of them actually bought me a birthday gift, which was, frankly put, completely unexpected and really touching.

Today I won't be doing much- getting a long-needed haircut, a massage with a coupon I've been saving, and then dinner out somewhere, perhaps with a friend if she contacts me.

One of the most amusing things about birthdays is getting a bunch of "happy birthday" automated greetings from websites and forum boards you haven't visited in years XD

Alright. Time to see if I can con Dad into making pancakes. And buy myself a cake. Over and out :)

Commentary: "Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues"

2009-12-24T16:27:22Z

Hey all, and Happy Christmas Eve. Last minute Christmas shopping has been going on in the household, the little one is bouncing with joy over the best day of the year, and the year of 2009 draws to an end. But that is not what this post is about.

On Tuesday I had an hour at the library before my next tutoring session and so I looked up some Tolkien-related books (always located in 820 or 823 in the Dewey Decimal system, it seems; encountered Tolkien there in three different libraries). I came across a relatively short read, published in 2002, called "Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues" by Mark Eddy Smith. I began to scan it, as I got to the second part, realized that I actually liked quite a bit of it, and wrote down some notes. Here is, expanded from my original notes, my thoughts about this book.

I do not like mixing my religious beliefs with my fandoms; I view them very separately. I do not rue others who do, but I prefer to keep religion separate. When I read the intro of this book, I was a little wary at first, because the author made it clear that this was going to touch upon religion (Christianity). However, near the end of the intro, he mentions very clearly that he is not applying Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as an allegory, but rather looking at the applicability of the series to some themes in the Bible, as well as the real world. Considering that Tolkien coined the word applicability (and the author notes this), it made me much more willing to continue on and see what he did.

I was pleasantly surprised by the results. While there are certainly Christian references scattered throughout the book, they tended to be in their own paragraphs, and did not overshadow the LOTR references. Also mixed in was simple morality that does not necessarily have a religious connection. It was also split up very cleverly with virtues following the book's progress. In other words, rather than coming off as preachy, the books format seemed to allow you to take what you wished from it, and I liked that.

It was split up into 6 parts- to correspond with the 6 parts of LOTR- and (an average of) five virtues were looked into in each part, corresponding with events that took place in that part of LOTR. One interesting thing you may note is that not all of these virtues are necessarily ones we consider happy, yet the author points out their necessity, which makes them virtues in that sense.

Following are both mine and the author's thoughts on each part. I didn't start actively writing notes until part three, so the rest are my own thoughts or from memory.

Part One: Ordinary Virtues
I: Simplicity- as you can imagine, the author speaks about the hobbit's way of life and how they enjoy the simple things it provides.
II: Generosity- Bilbo's party is mentioned, IIRC. I am not sure if it is mentioned here, but one thing that comes to mind about Hobbits is that they give to others on their birthdays rather than receive. Tom Bombadil and Barliman Butterbur are also generous in their own ways.
III: Friendship- You see the signs of it early on in the story, and, of course, what does Strider wish for when we first meet him? Friendship. This ordinary virtue is one of the big contributors as to why the Quest succeeded, IMO.
IV: Hospitality- Hospitality is such a big part of the first part of LOTR. Farmer Maggot, Tom Bombadil, and Barliman Butterbur are all bit players, and yet without their hospitality our heroes would not have done nearly as well as they did in the first part of the book- and they already had quite a few adventures.
V: Faith- I am afraid I do not recall what the author said here, but one does not need to do much speculation to realize that faith does play a large part in the books- faith in the hobbits, for example.

Part Two: A Good Beginning
I: Perspective- One reason the Council of Elrond is so important. We see many different viewpoints and perspectives concerning history- the feud between elves and dwarves one of the greater ones, but also the one between Aragorn and Boromir concerning who has the more dangerous job, and perhaps more to lose. Drawing these out gives the story new dimension, and seeing an issue from all perspectives should be followed more in RL, perhaps.
II: Community- What the Fellowship is initially made out of. A community representative of each race.
III: Sacrifice: Gandalf's, of course. And without Gandalf's sacrifice, and his eventual return as the White, could the heroes have come out as well as they did? Would Gandalf have been able to help Theoden as only the Grey? His sacrifice certainly helped move things forward.
IV: Wonder: Lothlorien. And I think that wonder is a great virtue, for wonder often leads to questions, and questions lead to discovery and knowledge.
V: Temptation: Of course Boromir's, but the book focuses on Galadriel, who definitely has an interesting case. She ends up laughing at the temptation (one thing that the Bakshi film portrayed), but the laughter is not what you would call joyous, I think.
VI: Failure: It first starts off mentioning Aragorn's failure- he first failed to notice that Frodo and Sam were lagging behind when going to Lorien, and then fails to keep the Fellowship calm when Frodo disappeared in Parth Galen, and then fails to note that Sam falls behind. I had not really noticed all of this until mentioned, but these failures, while minor, end up altering the plot to what we have now. However, failure can only be considered a virtue (I think) when something is learned from that failure and it is somehow atoned for, which brings us too...

Part Three: A New Beginning
I: Atonement- Boromir's failure is covered in the previous chapter, but his atonement is the important part. He atoned with his life- a common theme in stories. There is also the case of atonement while yet living (which can arguably be considered the harder road), which is Aragorn's path. His way of atonement is going after the hobbits and going to save them, and in the process of three days go through both mental and physical toil to get there.
II: Suffering- Merry and Pippin. It is a fact of life that we on this earth suffer (and the earthly suffering doesn't last forever for good people, according to the general Christian belief). The suffering of Merry and Pippin, however, does allow them to grow- the idea that growth comes from suffering I know can be applied to my own life, and I imagine many of you are the same.
III: Resurrection- The author got two brownie points for avoiding the obvious in this chapter. Very little is said about Gandalf and Jesus was not mentioned at all. Rather, in a twist I did not expect, he equivilates resurrection as to "waking up", in LOTR with Theoden and Treebeard. One is woken up from a spin of cobwebs and lies, while the other is woken up from apathy. In RL, the author compared it as to someone "waking up" from a drug addiction, which I thought was a suitable comparison.
IV: Providence- Providence is a big part of LOTR. It can be argued that providence is what brought Merry and Pippin along, for they certainly had no forseeable role in the Fellowship other than being moral support. And, as Aragorn says in the book, "Yet dawn is ever the hope of Men." The characters are constantly looking towards the light, towards an entity not quite of this world (this entity being canon for Middle-earth, considering what is written in the Silmarillion). In RL, millions of individuals do the same thing, and the author describes providence as "a virtue of God".

Part Four: Help Unlooked For
I: Trust- One of the more powerful themes within the book is trust of the unknown. Strider turns out to be a great decision. Gollum is even more suspicious than Strider, and yet Frodo trusts him. Also noted in this chapter is that 'good' things, such as the sun, light, things made of elves, and even the simple truth hurt Gollum. Perhaps this is why trust was so powerful- Gollum did not know how to combat such trust. Frodo's compassion, too, gave Gollum the chance to repent, which we see nearly happening a few times.
II: Trustworthiness- The rule of thumb is that it is better to be trustworthy than to seem trustworthy- Strider in Bree is an excellent example of this. In this part of the book, this is Frodo to Gollum. Frodo literally does the best thing he can do for Gollum concerning Henneth Annun, and ultimately kept his word, even if it doesn't seem that way to Gollum. Faramir could fall under here, too.
III: Wisdom- Paraphrased: 'The good who are wise understand evil, for they know the evil within themselves; evil cannot understand good, for evil does what is best for him, and best is "good".' Also, there is a big difference between intelligence and wisdom; wisdom often comes from the heart as well.
IV: Hope- Now here's an obvious theme, and virtue in LOTR. Hope, however is not a feeling; it is a choice. You must choose to have that hope, and the characters in LOTR, for the most part, do choose. One of Denethor's downfalls was his loss of hope. It is also hope that drives all the characters forward at many times in the story. That is arguably one of the big reasons Aragorn remains sane over his long years of wandering.
V: Imagination- The imagination does not tell us how to live so much as how it is possible to live. It is the imagining of a world with Sauron that helps spur characters forward. It is also remembering and imagining the Shire that keeps Frodo and Sam going.

Part Five: The Good Fight
I: Submission- Now here's an odd virtue, and one that I am not fond of, myself, and certainly lack in some cases. The author points out that it is rather submission to the higher good than to human authority that proves to be best in LOTR. Merry disobeys Theoden to help his friends, and Pippin disobeys Denethor to save Faramir's life. Beregond, too, submits to rather the common good rather than to mortal authority.
II: Stewardship- You have tons of rulers in LOTR. But remember that 'steward' basically means 'house guardian', according to old etymology; the job of a steward is to guard and protect the house- in these ruler's cases, the people of their country. This guardianship is not a case of dominating, but rather being a public servant for the citizens of the country. In modern times it is unfortunate that so many politicians seem to have forgotten that they are public servants there to preserve the interests of the people, not their own interests.
III: Courage- I completely agreed with the author that while it takes certainly some courage to fight when you are presented with it, it argubly takes more courage to simply show up when you have a choice. One scene that still remains with me to this day is the fearful men of Aragorn's army, and Aragorn allowing any who wish to turn back without shame, and to defend another point. Some were able to muster courage and follow him from there. And indeed, on a lesser scale, how many times have we, as individuals, bailed out on something due to lack of courage? I still regret not sending in an entry for something in my junior year of high school- I was too afraid to.
IV: Mirth- It's a strange case in LOTR. Mirth is often seen with, well, not very nice things. The Rohirrim were singing as they were slaughtering their foes on the Pelennor. Galadriel laughed at the temptation of the Ring, and Gandalf laughed at Saruman's attempt to bring him over. It is, perhaps, a way for people to deal with the truly terrible in life- meet it with laughter.
V: Foolishness- LOTR runs on this virtue. I mean, how foolish is it to send a group of 9 to the most dangerous place in the world to destroy the Ring? How foolish is it to allow only two of them, neither of them warriors, alone? I'm not sure if I thought this or if he wrote this down, but in my notes I have "hope is often born of foolishness".

Part Six: The Road Goes Ever On And On
I: Perserverance- all LOTR characters, it seems, yet he points out Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Frodo and Sam's perserverance was of the good type, and Gollum's of the bad (though it turned out that his bad perserverance ends up affecting the world for good). And it is often the most perservered people that seem to have it well in life- whether that perserverance was to reach a goal or to get over troubles of the past. It is a strong human virtue.
II: Celebration- Self explanatory, I think. And made all the better with friends.
III: Justice- The author emphasizes the mercy part of justice, and notes that Aragorn gives grace, and that true justice leads to healing. He also says that it is useless to meet revenge with revenge, such as the mercy Frodo gives Saruman in the Shire. It ended up turning on him anyways. I am not sure how logically applicable this is to RL- I honestly think it depends on the severity of the crime, as well as the individual being judged. Due to this world not being perfect, karma does not always give people what they deserve, and sometimes merely forgiving and letting ago is dangerous. So, while in a perfect world justice would always work like this with no negative consequences, people don't work quite like that. Most people are innately good IMO, but there are always a few that will simply perceive mercy as weakness and attack again.
IV: Love- The ultimate source of healing. The author mentions Arwen, who he claims is possibly the most important minor character simply due to her role in Aragorn's life. The love stories are completely veiled, and yet so essential to the characters- some claim it a weakness of Tolkien, but this author did not. He ends the chapter mentioning that Aragorn's and Arwen's love was based off of Beren and Luthien, and that Tolkien and his wife have their names on their tombstone. If that does not convey the importance of Arwen, though a character little scene and created late in the process, nothing will.

So yea. It was a really interesting book with a lot of fuel for thought, as well as some eye-opening views on LOTR that I had not completely considered.

I love how there is always more to explore in Middle-earth.

Your Big Break- Please Vote!

2009-12-20T07:49:51Z

Edit: It seems they fixed the earlier "certificate error" problem; I am not getting it popping up anymore.

Hey guys,

Tourism New Zealand is hosting a film contest, judged by Peter Jackson (yea, that one) and produced by Barrie Osborne (a produer on LOTR). Basically the film contest is for NZ, and the film has to be 3 minutes long. 5 people- 1 voted on by the public- get to actually go to NZ and film their movie if selected.

So I would be really, really grateful if you could vote for my film. Now, to vote, you need to register with your name and email address (basically to prevent spam-voting). And, for US residents, there's something in it for you! Tourism New Zealand is giving away 5 sets of two plane tickets to New Zealand to everyone who votes! I don't know why it's US only (sorry my international friends), but for everyone else, this is something extra for you! And to the rest of the world, I hope you can vote for me out of the goodness and love of your heart? Signing up, confirming that you are a real person, and voting takes only a couple of minutes!

Also, uh, tell your friends! Your family! Your cat! Anyone :) And thank you so, so much in advance- I really appreciate it! You all know I want to be in the film industry, and, well, if you could help me get there, that would be amazing. Thanks!

Funny article

2009-12-15T19:18:11Z

A very funny (and completely tongue-in-cheek) article about the "character flaws" in the LOTR films: http://www.cracked.com/article/237_6-lord-rings-characters-who-totally-dropped-ball/

NSFW language in the article, and the last image of the 2-page article is a good load blood splatter from a B-film (looking rather cheesy, but thought I ought to warn you). But article worth it :P

Easy Step-by-Step On How To Make Your Computer Faster

2009-12-05T02:28:01Z

Hey folks!

I recently discovered, through LifeHacker.com, two free programs that have successfully fixed, cleaned, and over-all made faster *all* the computers in my house. I know that not everyone watching this is not completely techno-savvy, and even people who *are* moderately techno-savvy may not know about these programs, so I have provided a How-To guide on how to work these programs and over-all how to make your computer run much more efficiently.

So rather than take your computer to a repair shop, follow these steps and please tell me some of the results! I'm interested in knowing if they work as well for you as they did for me.

The results so far:
*Freed over 5 gig of space on my Toshiba Vista laptop, along with slightly faster loading time.
*On the HP XP computer, sped up the loading processes *a lot*, cut the start-up time in half, and even corrected a color problem on the monitor that seemed to be connected to something in the registry.
*On the eMachines XP computer, cut the loading speed of a webpage from 7-10 seconds to 1-3 seconds, stopped its constant freezing, and now it loads correctly every time when it usually froze.
*On the HP XP laptop, decreased loading time from about 5 seconds to about 1 second as well as allowed my father to download Windows Service Pack 3, something he wasn't able to before.

Note that these are all Windows computers. I don't know how it works for Macs, or if they are made for Macs; you'll have to check yourself.

Best part of all of this? It's all FREE!

CCleaner

Step 1: Go to www.ccleaner.com and download the program.

It's a simple process; the downloader is on the front page in bold letters. You're taken to another page that gives you the option of donating to the site. This is completely optional, and if you do not wish to donate, you can click "download from FileHippo". Once you go there, you will see "Download Latest Version" with a green box in the upper right hand corner. Click there. If your computer tends to block pop-ups, you should get an alert of something trying to download. Allow the download to proceed, click "save", and after it downloads click "run" (make sure the checkbox on the Download window is *not* clicked, otherwise the box will close before you can run it and then you'll have to find out where in the world you saved it in the first place).

Step 2: Insall CCleaner.

Once you click "run", you'll go through a quick installation process of CCleaner. You can basically continue to click through it without reading until you get to the end, where it will have about 6 check-boxes already checked. Un-check the ones you don't want (for instance, I un-checked "Download Yahoo! toolbar" since I have no interest in it), and then after that, finish the installation process and click "Run CCleaner" at the end.

Step 3: Clean the computer using CCleaner.

With fancy screenshots and all. And MS Paint.

Step 3A: Click Anaylze. You can look through the two tabs "Windows" and "Applications" if there are certain things you don't want to be analyzed.

Step 3B: Run cleaner.

You'll have a bunch of results. You can un-check anything you don't want to be deleted, though it's wise to clean up Temporary Internet files, as well as cookies, every now and again. Those files simply bog down your computer. Cookies, however, *do* save passwords on such things like LiveJournal, so if you don't have your LJ password, or your email address, memorized, you will want to memorize them sometime soon before you delete your cookies.

Step 3C: After the cleaner is finished, click "registry" on the left side. Click "Scan for Issues".

Step 3D: "Fix selected issues".

The reason I don't have many issues on my computer is because I just ran the registry cleaner a few days ago. When I originally ran it I had about 500 issues, which was about the same for the other computers I ran it on. Don't be alarmed; most of these are just remnants of old programs that programs leave behind, or other "leads to nowhere" files.

However, the registry *does* contain important things, so when you press "fix selected issues", click YES on creating a back-up. Save the back-up somewhere where you can find it easily; I recommend "My Documents".

The Defraggler

Step 1: Go to www.defraggler.com and download it.

You may have heard of "defragmentation" and "defragmenting a computer" before, but you may not know what it is. Using Wikipedia's handy-dandy explanation, "defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file close together and contiguously."

Defragmenting, or defragging, is something that all computers (of at least the Windows type) need occassionally and it helps to speed up a computer as well as create more free space. It's basically the equivalent of organizing a messy file cabinet.

Windows comes with its own built-in defragging program, but that program sucks. I have played with 4 other defragging programs, and the Defraggler, created by the same people who make CCleaner, is my favorite.

You'll go through the exact same process as you went through when downloading CCleaner (again donations are optional), so just follow those steps when you are on the Defraggler website.

Step 2: Install the Defraggler.

Follow the same steps as CCleaner, being sure to read through and un-check anything you don't want downloaded (such as the Yahoo! Toolbar). Run the program when you're done installing it.

Step 3: Run the Defraggler.

When you open up the program, it will look something like this:

Press "analyze", and after it is done analyzing it will look something like this:

If you have never defragged before, that Fragmentation percentile will be a lot higher than 5%. The highest I got on a computer that has not been defragged in at least a year was over 30%.

Right by Analyze you'll see "Defrag", and if you click that arrow right by Defrag, you have another option- Quick Defrag. If you have never defragged your computer, I recommend the thorough "Defrag" rather than the quick one. It will take a few hours, but you *can* run normal processes in the background without too many problems (I have IE, Firefox, iTunes, Paint, an IM program, and the Defraggler all running right now...).

After running these two programs, my computers are running so much faster now. There are other programs that I already run that I recommend for *any* computer user. If you do not have a type of these programs, download and run it ASAP.

*An anti-virus program. The majority of anti-virus programs cost money (though many computers nowadays have free trials on new computers), but AVG does have a free option at http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage. It has been working well for the computers that we use it on. And, basically, if you don't have some sort of anti-virus program, you won't be able to browse most of the internet without being constantly attacked by viruses and malware. In other words, if your computer is ridiculously slow, you get pop-ups very often, or strange "virus" attacks, this is a likely problem.

*A spyware-removal program. These you can get for free easily. Two of the top rated (free) ones that my father and I personally use are Ad-Aware Free Edition (http://lavasoft.element5.com/products/ad_aware_free.php) and Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html). If you have never run a spyware-removal program, do so ASAP. You can easily have this running in the background while doing other things.

You'll want to run these programs regularly for simply keeping your computer running smoothly- I recommend once a month at a minimum.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me one. I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

Also, I'd love to know some of the results some of you get, or even some other recommendations (or warnings) about other computer clean-up and protection programs.

Born of Hope review- and Hobbit delayed?

2009-12-02T05:36:41Z

Wow. Just... wow. I watched it first in lecture (I would have skipped lecture if she didn't take roll, but since she does, I just took my laptop and enjoyed myself). I just finished watching it a second time now in the comfort of my room, and I have gathered my thoughts about it.

Spoilers ahead XD

My natural reaction was to compare it to Hunt For Gollum, and while I thought the fight choreography was better in HFG, as predicted, I liked this film a *lot* more for various reasons:

A. Character development and interaction. Both the original characters and canon characters were really great. My favorites ones were Arathorn, Dirhael, and Ivorwen of canon characters, and I really enjoyed the Dirhaborn and Elgarin. The orcs, of course, were awesome.

B. The story! The thing that really lacked in HFG was the story-telling- while it definitely had interesting moments, they really could have had an awesome story with that extra Ranger, adding a whole new element to Aragorn's personality and the chase. Born of Hope had a great story. Naturally, to keep in canon there was a bit of skipping about, especially in the first part of the film, but I think they managed it very well, especially considering the budget.

C. Uhm, everything else! XD I love how they created an original story with a relatively small amount of canon material, and created a plausible conflict for the Enemy to follow throughout the whole film. I love the character interactions, the scene of normal life at the village, the fact that the film did not rely on merely battle, but actual characters and their own choices, to go on...

My favorite scenes:
A. One of Elrond's sons casually tossing over the bow to his other twin. It was *perfect*. Not silly, but it was just so natural, like showing how they always go to battle, this is the norm... that scene was just beautiful. The small things, man!

B. Arathorn and Dirhael. Hahah, the first time Arathorn confronted Dirhael about Gilraen... I was grinning like a moron. Whoever played Dirhael was friggin perfect for the part. I loved Ivorwen and Dirhael too, though the moment when Dirhael looks at Arathorn like that... it was magical. XD So good to know that even Chieftains can be cowed by gruff fathers.

C. Arathorn's death. While not anything I imagined it like, it was *really* fitting for a film setting. The best part was is that, technically, they followed canon. When the orc actually pulled the arrow from Arathorn's chest and went down and the camera went dark.. wow, that was powerful!

D. Ivorwen's lines about Aragorn's name meaning Kingly Valour and the green stone. The director did the research!

E. The end of the dream sequence when Arathorn wakes up. I thought that was a wonderful scene for both Arathorn and Gilraen, and he really seemed to have a look of terror upon his face.

My biggest complaints of the film, barring things that were unpreventable (such as the digital animation not being as good as Weta's; of course it wouldn't be, Weta beats everyone, but they did a fabulous job for what they had) would be the slow-mo and the orcs mentioning Sauron by name. The latter I understand; since this film is trying to appeal to not just die-hard, "read the book a million time" fans, it makes sense that he was mentioned. I would have preferred he was just called "The Dark Lord" or "The Eye" or something similar rather than "Sauron", though. What I found very interesting is that Arathorn overheard Sauron being in Dol Guldur; however that wasn't discovered by the Wise until a decade or so later. A little annoying that he failed to mention this to Arador, who would have said something to Elrond, but it is something that I can ignore.

The slow-mo, well, it's a pet peeve of mine if used a lot in fights. That's just an artistic decision, but I personally believe slow-mo is more effective if only done for certain scenes. The second large fight of the film, the one at the end in the village, used a little too much. I think it would have been more appropriate simply having it for select scenes, such as the one where the little boy was crying over his dad (which was OMG wow). Elgarin's death scene seemed also a little overlong, but I'll forgive that on the fact that throwing over Dirhaborn's head at them was so amazing and so unexpected, yet so canon... yea, that was a great addition. Really showing the brutility of the orcs.

I ended up liking Gilraen more than I thought I would, I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome Dirhael and Ivorwen were, and Arathorn was just as awesome as I hoped him to be. The older Halbarad? He was cute. I approve.

In the end, I can only hope that we see more fan films such as this in the future. This was absolutely spectacular. I am very, very much content.

And a quickie- TORn just released a rumor that, due to the delay in filming of the Hobbit, that the Hobbit *might* be delayed to 2012. No confirmations or anything, of course, but that just means I have an extra year to save up to study abroad and stay around the country for the Hobbit premiere... *biggrin*

And, of course, there is some sort of news being released on the 8th of December, so keep your eyes on TORn!

Happy happy joy joy.

A Touch of Good News, and BoH

2009-12-01T02:26:20Z

Thanks for all your well-wishes. We found out that my grandma did *not* have a stroke, thank God, but that there is most definitely a tumor in her brain. However... it is apparently benign, even though it's... growing? I don't understand it all, but the facts that I was most concerned about:

A. Gramma is conscious and not in any pain (what happened is that basically the left side of her body stopped responding, thus all this various theories and blah).
B. She still has a good couple of years to live, though we don't have any date.

So, we're really relieved that she hasn't passed on yet; she has told me many times that she still enjoys life and doesn't plan on leaving yet, that wonderful 88 year old :) And I want my lil sis to have some memories of her.

She'll be living with my aunt now rather than alone (yea, she lived alone for a long time :P), but she'll be taking meds for her brain and all, and she'll live as long as she is meant to. But now, well, we sort of know. Good ol' gramma. Love her.

I will be scarce for finals weeks (especially this week, due to tutoring, woot woot), but I do plan on getting to some messages I have left for too long- hopefully I won't pass out when I come home. I'm sorry I've been so negligent to my friends >_>

In fandom news, Born of Hope, a really well-made fan film, is being released tomorrow. Love who they selected for Arathorn, he looks great. Go to www.bornofhope.com to check it out- I know that I'll be watching it soon as I get back from my job (job, yes! Woo hoo!)

Hugs and kisses to everyone,
Me

Gramma

2009-11-28T23:55:56Z

My grandma- my last living grandparent... is in the hospital. Her brain cancer came back.

I don't think I can handle this- not with my estrangled grandfather dying just last month, after we assumed him gone for so long.

Not the one that I love so.

I need many prayers sent her way that... that she'll live on.

Oh God.

Viggggggooooo

2009-11-14T08:47:29Z

I love that name.

Apparently he isn't as bad about signing autographs as I thought he was. He was ranked #2 in the Toronto Film Festival's autograph signing rank. He just refuses to sign with a blue pen since autograph sellers have them XD Hmm. Must remember this next time I see him (there will be a next time *nod*)

So, anyways, two crappy pictures that show that I need to stop toting around my huge camera when it's going to be dark because I can't take pictures without a sweet flash to save my life. Time to invest in a cheap, fits-in-your-purse-takes-pictures-in-the-dark camera.

He does not look like he's 50. At all.

And I still will not forget the little head nod and thank you he gave me (I said he was an artistic inspiration, which he is, doing all that arts and going on with his bad self)... such a nice guy! I would love to go to one of his gallery showings. I'll have to keep an eye on when they're around, now that I have the ability to actually drive down to LA whenever I want...

Pegasus and Sauron

2009-11-09T11:46:52Z

I think you guys will enjoy these. Completed painting and my Halloween pumpkin:

Pegasus- Final by *AinuLaire on deviant ART

The Eye of Sauron Pumpkin by *AinuLaire on deviant ART

Today, since there is no school due to an early-celebrated Veteran's Day, I am going to attempt to go to a screening of "The Road", where afterwards there is a Q&A with Viggo Mortensen. If I'm successful you will see a report here :)

NYC: The Official Post

2009-10-17T21:14:59Z

Well, where to begin? Ah, yes. Concerning... Wednesday.

Wednesday was the day I received news of being accepted into the job. I got an email right after school with stuff I needed to fill out, and so I had my fingerprints done just before I left for the airport. Poor little Sini was sad to see me go, and my mom was, well, acting motherly, hehe. I was traveling to NYC in the same plane as my friend Cathy, and she had enough points for a free hotel room so we didn't have to wake up too ridiculously early for our 7:25 am flight.

Right just as he was about to leave my dad took my laptop away from me :( So I was left without internet for four days :P It's fine, the 'net at the hotel cost a whooping 14 bucks a day. Pshh.

So we woke up around 5:30 on Thursday and didn't encounter any problems or delays for our flight. I had the nice aisle seat, though I'm thinking I want to do window next time so I can take pictures with my awesome sweet camera. The flight was rather uneventful- an hour or so of sleep, some music, some gaming, some drawing... the usual. We landed on time in JFK at 4 EST, waited until 5 for two people coming from Germany, and then took a taxi to our hotel right near southern Central Park in Manhatten.

I had, by this time, realized that I had forgotten my memory card at home, so after we ate something in the cafe across the street we went to Best Buy a few blocks away so I could buy myself a memory card. After that I went to sleep while my roommate went to the Beecake (Billy Boyd's band) concert. I'm glad I decided to sleep rather than go- the sleep was much needed xD

Down the street of my hotel. See that hotel to the left? Yea, the WELLINGTON Hotel. I hope I wasn't the only one who thought immediately about NZ when I saw it :P

I woke up around 7 on Friday and decided to get something cheap to eat. That led to going outside and getting some donuts and a drink from a stand. Cheaper than Starbucks. After eating, I had a 9AM appointment to see the Tolkien manuscripts from the Marquette University (which is apparently located in Chicago, not England! The more you know...). Photography was *not* allowed in the exhibit, and so I took extensive notes so I wouldn't forget anything. All for you, inzilbeth_3319.

So I went with TORnsib Entmaiden and the wait was relatively short. Behind two glass cases were the notes. My first observation was that Tolkien's handwriting was absolutely gorgeous- even his shorthand was lovely. Much nicer looking than my own handwriting. He could also write very straight, even without lines to help him. Lucky...

The documents were apparently from 1941 to 1944... though my notes says that these were from 1944. I believe most were from 1944, but there were certainly some older pieces:
*4 colored pages of the Book of Mazarbul (complete with Dwarvish runes...)
*3 translations of pages from the Book of Mazarbul (complete with gaps in text)
*2 LOTR Title Pages (on one of them is the crossed-out title "The Magic Ring". I prefer LOTR too).
*2 drawings of the top of the Doors of Durin; they were very similar other than being done in different pens and having different tree designs. I drew the designs, but it's raining outside and so no pictures for now. One looks like a symbolic flame with a crescent moon on top, the other design is closer to the film's White Tree of Gondor only thinner with less branches. Also has crescent moon on top of it.
*Drawing of Balin's tomb; I'm pretty sure it was the same one used in the book.
*Sketch of the book of Mazarbul (and it was once called the Book of Moria).
*A sketch of Isengard; I copied the sketch in 5 minutes, so while it's not perfect, it's... something. Will also be photographed when it's not raining.

In the second case were definitely pages from later on in the process, but not very late. Important things to know:
*Faramir and Aragorn exists. Eowyn seems to live, not sure if she was paired with Faramir at this time.
*Halbarad + Rangers and Arwen do NOT exist! I was like... OMG!
As for the documents...
*2 pages of chronology, basically a snippit of what we see in Appendix B. It was a timeline of earlier events, around the time the Hobbits meet Aragorn. I remember that, crossed out, was Gandalf meeting Bombadil. It was replaced with him going to Bree. Most of the rest, to my memory, was the same as in Appendix B, though it only went to part of October.
*4 back/front pages of charted timelines. Going down the side of the page were dates, while across the pages, depending on the time, were groups such "enemies", "the company", "Frodo/Sam", "Gollum", "Men and Friends", "Enemies", "Aragorn", "Gandalf", etc. The timeline was very similar to what we have in LOTR, except, as mentioned, missing Arwen and the Rangers' in ROTK.
*2 Hobbit measurement charts (this man was so thorough).
*Another Appendix, this time Appendix... E IIRC. Basically wherever Tolkien has all of the Elvish pronounciations. There was two versions of the first page of that appendix, one of them called "Queries and Nots".
*Another page on pronunciation of words and names.
*Shire calendar. I think it was the same as the one we have in Appendix D, but I'm not 100% sure.
*Something historically interesting- the time of the moons in LOTR on the back of "Air Raid Precautions" that I believed dated from 1944. Wow. Talk about... crazy.
*One of my favorite items on display- a calendar comparison chart. It compared these calendars: Modern, Shire, Gondor, Elessar, Rivendell. Elessar's was redone 3 times (in different color pens, too, heheh). The only date (that I saw) that was the same on all of theirs (other than Elessar's) was Feb 1. I don't know if this chart was ever updated or if this was the final draft for calendar conversions, but oh man, I wanted it XD

After that awesome experience, I knew I had a few hours before meeting up with suzll, so I decided to attempt to go to Ground Zero through the Subway system. I asked for directions and was told to go to 53rd street. I took the subway at 57th. Oops.

It ended up being a 2 hour trip through New York, walking a good couple of miles from subway to subway attempting to find my way back uptown. It rained on and off, though while I didn't have my umbrella, I did have an awesome coat I ~~stole~~ borrowed from my mother. I also got to experience China again with, instead of fake Rolexes being shoved in my face, rather fake Gucci bags by immigrants from Caribbean countries. Very interesting.

But by one I was able to find my way back to my hotel. Just as I was about to go on the elevator to rest my feet, I got a call from suzll saying she was in the lobby. I forgot my tired feet and pounced her when I found her. I took a quick stop to my room and she was cool with what I wanted to do (yay, thank you for being awesome). We got a quick bite to eat at a diner a couple blocks away, and then headed to 5th Avenue. Did I want to see Tiffanys? No. How about the Gucci store? Nope.

Random chandeleir says hello.

Trump Tower. Best botanical design on skyscraper building, ever.

No. I headed straight for FAO Schwartz. And I quickly found how awesome suzll is when she didn't give me a weird look, but promptly took out her own camera. :D

You're so perty :D

Harry Potter lifesize Legos = awesome.

I want it all! And I want it naaaoooo.

Harry Potter Geek in me is apeased. Rachel, you'd love this store...

Very appeased.

OMG dragon! Stuffed, too.

AGGGHHHH!

Wonder how much it costs? I'm guessing 5 digits, but no more than 50,000. I'd buy it. If I had, like, a ridiculous amount of money. Bill Gates probably has a copy.

Barbie runway. The little girl in me was appeased.

Hogwarts Express! Tolkien Enterprises, please give license to FAO Schwartz, kthx.

I bought Sini a bear (who is sitting with me right now, heheh), and then afterwards we went to the Apple store right next door... which had the coolest. Entrance. Ever.

We were rather disappointed with the inside, which just looked like any normal Apple store. With such a cool entrance I was expecting something wicked-awesome inside :P So we left up the awesome elevator.

We walked down 5th avenue until we came upon an awesome cathedral. I'll post the pics of it on my stock account and post the link when I have them up. It was so gorgeous. Here's a little teaser.

Afterwards we went to the Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller center, which I recommend over the Empire State Building. It's cheaper and a lot less of a line- you don't have to wait a whole day for it. We were there an hour, at most. The films at the beginning were interesting, I suppose... they were mostly there for crowd control, so I appreciate the effort of the Rockefeller Center to keep the waiting crowds busy while we waited.

Then we went up a very fast elevator to the 69th and 70th floors, and the view was absolutely amazing.

I'll be doing the real perty, post-production-editing ones on dA and I'll mention it here when they're posted, but for now, a couple teasers...

Yep, central park and empire state building...

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and I rested a bit before the dinner that night. The dinner was with a bunch of TheOneRing.net members, and it was absolutely wonderful. Not much cuisine-wise, but it was great talking with so many different people and putting faces to screen names. Afterwards we went to Times Square- wow, it's so big- and there were MnM and Hersheys stores there. Chocolatey goodness! I went to bed relatively early again, because I had lots of plans for Saturday.

And Saturday, what a day! Saturday was just as great as Friday, and I didn't get much lost this time XD I woke up a bit later than I intended, but I was determined to see Ground Zero. So I called periantari and we decided to meet up around the area- and she led me basically in the right direction, which was good :P. I took the right subway this time and ended up near St. Pauls (which I didn't take pictures of, for some weird reason). It was way cool- I've never seen graves from the 1700's before, and while that's nothing compared to graves in Europe and whatnot, it was something for me.

Right across the street from St. Paul's was Ground Zero and... wow. I didn't realize how large the site was until I was actually, you know, there. They were doing construction there, and the new tower has a frame a few stories high now.

Close by was a place that had the plans of the new WTC, called the Freedom Tower, as well as the designs for the memorial for all of those lost on 9/11. Also nearby was a fire-fighters monument; I imagine that the police one was there too, but I didn't see it.

Plans of the new Freedom Tower; the two waterfalls fall into pools where the original towers once stood.

Wow.

The story below it is about how the firefighter survived the collapse of the North Tower while 20 storeys inside.

Building being done...

What really struck me is how many foreigners were here- America is really a country of foreigners, which is what I really love about it.

I felt a bit ill inside reading all of the names. 90 nationalities, ages 2 to 80.

People still leave memorials here- 8 years later, and a month past its anniversary.

And my only picture of the church across the street, because I'm a moron...

Right by Ground Zero I met up with periantari, her little sister, and speedyhobbit, who ended up being made of awesome. Yay new friends! We ate New York pizza; I've had that supposed pizza in CA, and it doesn't taste very good. I was very surprised when the pizza turned out being bloody delicious. NY pizza = frigging amazing.

Since it was rainy and we were running out of time, we took the subway straight to the Metropolitian. Uhm, ART HISTORY GEEK LOVE. My thanks to my friends for letting me drag them all over the museum for a few hours. I took a good 200+ pictures there, and most of them will end up in my dA stock art account, which I'll link here once I get the pictures up.

So BIG! Met love!

After the museum I grabbed a hot dog from a vendor. Ended up being very disappointed with the hot dog. How could you fail me, NYC?

Then this guy co-erced me into a photo. He didn't mention until half-way in that it was 3 dollars. Clever, Mr. Liberty, very clever. My mom loves it, so it was well worth it.

speedyhobbit and I went back to my hotel and she hung out while I got dressed in my fancy-shmancy dress and... heels. Then I decided that I didn't want to spend money and walked to Radio City Music Hall which was .5 miles away.

I'm. A. Moron. I basically moaned the whole way. Thank you, Cher, for being so tolerant.

But I felt very accomplished at the end of the walk, even though the wait was very annoying, to say the least. Along with going to the wrong line at first (and diverting it to a whole new area single-handedly because I'm amazing), we did manage to get in there. And wow, wow! What a theatre. No food allowed, of course, because they needed to sell us very expensive food and drinks (and I got to chug down a drink just before getting in there, which was an interesting experience...). But anyways, the theatre was absolutely huge and, frankly put, exceeded my expectations.

And the art display of my winning art? Turned out they displayed all three pictures I submitted... on two huge screens in the main hall right before the show. Talk about being absolutely surprised and flattered. I sort of want to enter again next year :P

Howard Shore + Doug Adams before the show

TORN :D

These photos were stolen from someone else... the peeps displayed all three of my drawings O.o

The show itself? Worth every single penny. Alongside being able to talk to and meet awesome people, the music was just... wow. They were absolutely flawless. Different, of course, and a few of the times you couldn't hear the dialogue very well (they had sub-titles for that reason), and they dimmed down the music track which also held the sounds of various creatures, so the troll and watcher weren't nearly as loud as they usually are. Still, it didn't matter, because the music was just... wonderful.

The woman soloist, while I did not like as much as the one used in the films (but I'm a big fan of Enya so I'm a bit biased), was still bloody brilliant in her own right, and the two boy soloists used brought chills, absolute chills. So talented, so wonderful. I also heard chorus in places I did not know they existed (the prologue when it shows the mountains, in the beginning when it shows Bilbo's map, and some parts with Boromir...).

I am a big fan of the chorus, and their impact really was brought home during Moria. There was tons of applause after that (though, to be fair, we broke into applause around every 20 minutes or so, and on Saturday's performance only once for a character- thankfully it was not obnoxious Aragorn fans, haha, though I did do a little 'yay' from my seat, but it was a quiet one :D). Also, for the first time ever, I got chills from the Watcher scene due to the music. The special effects in the film really mutes it, but hearing the violin strings live... I was chilled for the first time during that scene.

In the end, it was like watching the film all over again. I am so, so grateful that I was able to experience it. If you have the opportunity to see TTT either in London or NYC next year, I HIGHLY recommend it. Also, if you don't believe me, just take a look at any of the reviews of the performance- you will see great reviews from everyone who attended and appreciates music. Just amazing. Well worth every penny. I would love to go again, but unless something magical happens, I doubt I could afford it and college at the same time :P Here's for hoping it comes to LA!

After the concert, I went for a late-night dessert at a nice restaurant close to our hotel. I walked again. I refused to take off my heels because I was wary of the streets and, well, I wanted to prove... something. Lord knows what. O.o I met and spoke with a wonderful couple who lived there, exchanged information with the folks I sat by during the show, and of course hugged tons of TORnsibs. It was so magical.

Sunday wasn't bad at all, either, though since I had a flight at 5pm I was a bit rushed. TORn was hosting this little event a bit of a distance away from our hotel, but it wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be for a taxi ride. When we got there we watched presentations from Colleen Doran about Tolkien artists, David Salo about the languages, Howard Shore's wife with a documentary of her husband working on ROTK music, and Howard Shore and Doug Adams.

I don't really have much on this, so just a few notes:
*Colleen Doran was able to give me excellent legal advice on the How To's of selling Tolkien-based artwork. Apparently people like the Hildebrandt Brothers, Howe, Lee, and Nasmith were specially selected by the Estate. For the rest of us, it's all about avoiding copyrighted names (only exception: commissions with no plans of reproduction). It was absolutely wonderful to get this advice, especially if I plan on doing illustration on the side.
*David Salo was a pleasure to speak with. I worship his knowledge only as a Tolkien linguistics geek can :) It would be wonderful if he works on the Hobbit; I think he certainly has the knowledge to.
*Mrs. Shore's documentary was wonderful. We heard from Annie Lennox some earlier versions of Into the West (including some small differences like "hearts are calling" or something like that. We also heard unused music (Annie Lennox singing "Seven stars, seven stones, and one white tree"- a total geek moment there.) It was absolutely fascinating to watch and I hope it gets released somewhere in some point of time in the future.
*Howard Shore and Doug Adams (author of upcoming book Music in LOTR) talking about various themes, difficulties coming up with this and that... at this point in time I was trying to get over the fact that I was right next to Howard Shore. I really should start taking notes at conventions... I bet Magpie has a better account.

I also got all of their autographs. Consider me very much pleased. XD

My pics are terrible. Here are the best of the batch, without extensive post-editing...

David Salo

Howard Shore's wife.

Howard Shore and Doug Adams

And then Cathy, Georg, and I went straight from there to the airport. Taxi saw us and pulled over for us right away, which was, of course, awesome. Georg went back to Germany and then Cathy and I went back to LA.

It was on the return flight that I discovered my iPod earphones work in the airplane jack AND that drinks of non-alcoholic sorts are free. I was much pleased with these discoveries.

All in all, one of the best times of my life. It's up there with China, ORC 2006, and Comic Con 05 and 08.

... I've been an incredibly lucky person. I have the best of friends- and the coolest parents in the world (since most of these would not have happened without their constant support).

I dedicate this post to them and to all Ringers everywhere. Hope the wait was worth it a little XD

Good News and Bad News

2009-10-17T00:12:20Z

The Good News is is that I found a program that will transfer all of my pictures from one computer to the other through email (my laptop's USB ports are busted permanently).

The Bad News is is that it's going to take the whole night if it stays at the speed it's going now. The whole NYC report is written; I just need to add the pictures.

But another Good News: LOTR SECRET SANTA ON LJ. I saw last year's results and, while I respect all genres, I think the gen/het community needs to do some serious representing here- plus, I don't want to be the only person who is *not* looking for romance in their request :P So sign up, yo! 1000ish words for a fic is nothing... :D

My own fic news: been distracted by crossover- want to get that finished, hah. And MyLifeIsAverage.com. Sorry :P

Art news: Political cartoon about Roman Polanski coming up (shouldn't get anyone who disagrees with my thoughts here, methinks). Bard... uhm... well... anyone have any good reference sites for medieval-esque clothing that's similar to Jackson's LOTR but not an exact copy? XD I was drawing designs for his face and he kept on coming out looking very Asian, so I think I need to focus on something else.

I GOT A FARKING JOB

2009-10-07T21:26:02Z

I GOT A FARKING JOB. Yes that deserves capslock because I've been searching for a friggin YEAR. AND I FINALLY GOT ONE.

I'm like, a "sub-contractor" to the state for some education company... in short I tutor kids. I still have to do more paperwork and the like, and get cleared by the FBI/Justice Department/yadayada (you know, just in case I turn out to be a serial killer, yea?) Hopefully the list I get is of people who just signed up for the service so I won't be getting people who already have a tutor...

BUT WHO CARES I HAVE A FARKING JOB WHEEHEHHHEHEHE.

Not sure if I'll have 'net access when I'm in NYC. So this may be my last post until Sun/Mon.

Soo... toodleloo!

:D :D :D :D :D

2009-10-01T21:56:17Z

Got an email today...

My name is Peter ******. I'm Director of Industry Development with the New York Comic Con. I'm writing today to congratulate you -- as you've won First Prize in our Lord of The Rings Art Contest!

:D :D :D :D

Prizes and such listed here.

It was my Fellowship of the Ring piece that won- the pastel one. I think people know that one...

Now, I already have a ticket for Sat, so I'll figure out how to donate them/raffle them/etc once I get a response from this guy. I'm sure there are plenty of charities around NYC... or maybe there's this cute sick kid who would like to go. I dunno- I don't need them, I have a ticket already :P I'd suggest to give it to second, but there are 3 second prize winners listed.

But quite honestly, I entered the contest to try and get a signed book about the music of LOTR, which a lot of people get if they place. This- plus it hanging up in the fragging Radio City Music Hall- is an added bonus :D

Now if only this darn cold would go away... XD

... ps. I'm still doing commissions XDDDDD

*dances away, coughing and hacking her lungs out*

Pegasus Line-art

2009-09-30T21:41:42Z

As promised, the lineart. Click for big pic.

Pegasus- line art- WIP by *AinuLaire on deviantART

I'll have the colored piece uploaded by Monday. That's when it's due XD Hopefully I won't be sick the whole weekend.

New Drawing!

2009-09-21T23:55:28Z

I love dA's new share option... makes it way easy and cool to share my arts.

The Final Battle by *AinuLaire on deviantART

Click for large view. And yea, it's just as weird as it looks.

In other news, got my appointment set: will be going to see the Tolkien manuscripts on Friday, Oct 9 at 9am. Which equals 6am PST. I best start going to bed early and rising early a week in advance...

Going also to TheOneRing.net party on Friday. I'll be going to the Saturday concert. While I have plans for Saturday (Central Park/Metropolitian FTW), basically from 10am to 6pm Friday I have nothing slotted thus far, at least nothing set in stone. Not sure what I'm going to do yet... so many things to do!

Life drawing pics will all be up by this next weekend. Getting photos off the camera too... finally... and yes, that's all for now for the public post. Toodles!

Oh, the irony

2009-09-11T01:29:59Z

I'm driving to school a couple days ago, climbing a small slope. From behind comes a truck- not one of the huge ones, but still a good 20 ft-long trailer- comes speeding up, varying between 70 and 75. Considering how large it was and the terrain it was going fast enough to be considered dangerous. As I slow down and get some distance between us, it passes...

And in huge, green letters, painted on the back of the truck: "Please drive safely!"

I LOLed at the irony.

Speaking of irony, one of my biggest annoyances of music-heard-on-the-radio-all-the-time would be Alanis Morissette's song 'Ironic' because all of the situations she lists are unfortunate incidents, not situations of irony. As has been stated plenty of times before, the real irony here is that a song called "ironic" is not about irony at all.

Lern2dictionary.

But comedian Ed Byrne (with a great accent) pointed this out and changed the lyrics to fit real ironic situations beautifully. Light-language warning- nothing too bad, but hey, if you're YouTubing at work...

And, on a completely unrelated note, it's Sini's birthday today. She turned 5. She's such a big girl... growing up so fast. ^^

... and 1 month until NYC SQUEEE.

Brilliant!

2009-08-30T22:51:30Z

I knew I started watching Digg for a reason! Safe for work, hehe.

In other news, Guillermo del Toro, once again, debunked 3D Hobbit rumors. It doesn't matter what James Cameron is doing, the Hobbit will not be in 3D.

David Tennant and Tom Cruise are not scheduled to play Bilbo, either. Said Bilbo decision is supposed to be very pleasing to fans, though, so we'll see where it goes! I'm sorta rooting for Martin Freeman myself, especially since Ian Holm likely won't do it due to his age. Ian McKellen knows who is playing Bilbo.

Hobbiton has started being rebuilt. Filming is not scheduled to start until next spring and is supposed to last around a year.

Now I really need to do some bio work and art. Over and out.

I lack eloquence on the microphone

2009-07-31T17:10:11Z

Hahaha. Guess what I found? I appear in the first 30 or so seconds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6CRUwtvoc8&feature=related

Yea, the whole I'm talking to Peter Jackson thing turned me into a stuttering idiot.

No 2005 videos I could find. Before YouTube became big, after all... XD

Yay stuttering idiot :D

Comic Con 2009: Public Post

2009-07-28T06:40:39Z

As the header suggests, this is the public post. Friends-only, with more stuff about friends, family, etc, will come when I'm not feeling utterly exhausted. I just want to get this up before I forget everything...

Thursday:
I drove down to San Diego Wednesday afternoon and spent the night at a friend's. I was up by 5 am and out of the house around 6 on Thursday morning in order to make it in time for TheOneRing.net panel, and I am insanely thankful that I left as early as I did. I had a parking spot by 7 am, and the line to get a badge for registration was about 4000 people long. It extended to Seaport Village (map) by the time the line started moving. Thankfully the folks at the con realized that they could not get away with opening registration at 9, and so they opened it at 7:30. It took only about half an hour for me to get to the front of the line, which is extremely impressive considering how many people were in front of me.

I felt sorry for all the Twilight fans that didn't get into the Hall H line at the beginning of the day. It was packed, and there were people camping out the night before (which can be lots of fun, actually...). But in the end, if you basically were not in line by 9 AM, you were not getting into that panel.

I was about the 8th person in line for the TORn panel and talked with the people around me to help pass the time. I met an old friend and we sat down together. I got quite literally the best seat in the house of the 400-seating room, which led to awesome pictures. At the panel were Calsuri/Chris, MrCere/Larry, Quickbeam/Cliff, Richard Taylor, and Ian McKellen's, Andy Serkis', and Sean Astin's website manager. The panel itself was mostly a re-iteration about the facts of the film, when we can start expecting stuff to happen, and we also got a video message from Guillermo. Ian McKellen's rep also had messages from Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen basically saying that they certainly want to return to the project (and, heh, likely will, eh?). After the panel I spoke around 10 minutes privately with Richard, which I'll talk more about in my friends-only post. I also spoke quite often throughout the weekend with his father, who was absolutely charming, and some time with his assistant, who was also very nice.

The rest of the day was spent basically roaming the Exhibit Hall, which was nuts. A lot of kids- more than last year, certainly- made it all the more interesting. At 4PM I won the grand prize at a raffle- a $500 gift card to Sideshow Collectibles. It certainly made my day even cooler. Throughout the weekend I basically spent a good amount of time hanging around the Sideshow booth talking with TORn members Calsuri and CAHobbit... partially to take breaks from the crowds :P It was fascinating watching the whole process of how the booth ran, listening to Calsuri's radio-announcer voice that can compete even against MrCere's...

I also saw some dA reps and said hi to them- I had seen them just last Saturday so they recognized me pretty quickly XD

Friday:
Managed to be as awesome as Thursday, amazingly. It did help that I got 8 hours of sleep the night before, and while I had to pay higher parking, in the end I got in the hall in time for the Neil Gaiman signing drawing. Because the demand for autographs is so high, and time is limited, they often have drawings for the autograph tickets. There was 300-400 people in line for his, and there were 100 tickets. If you did not win one the first pull you could get back in line.

Someone gave me a tip on how she always managed to get a ticket, and so I followed it. Lo and behold, I got an autograph ticket with the first pull! ^^ After getting the wristband I went to the room where the Coraline panel was being held and got a decent seat in the middle of the room that sat some 1000 people. Since it was still an hour before the panel began I drew the people around me. A family behind me had a 12-yr-old girl that noticed this and she stayed wonderfully still. I noticed she also had a wristband for the autographs and so we began talking, and decided to stay in line together for the autographs.

The panel had Neil Gaiman, the director, voice of the mother Teri Hatcher, the voice of the cat, and a couple artists. They showed some DVD extras concerning the art, the voice acting, and the adaptation from book to film. It was really interesting and I highly recommend that people buy the DVD- Coraline was an excellent film, and visually amazing. After the panel I got in line for the autographs with my new friend, Emily, while her family waited nearby. We mostly spoke about history throughout the hour, jumping from the Magna Carta all the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall. O.O I have no idea how the conversation started XD

After the signing with all of the cast (I was able to give Neil my digital drawing), I headed with them to the Hall H line. Her father, Steve, was gracious enough to buy me a water bottle when my nose started to bleed from dehydration XD Unfortunately they missed the panel they wished to see, so after exchanging emails left me in line. I spoke with others around me and ended up finally speaking with a fellow named Alex from Canada. He was alone as well and so we decided to sit together.

Three hours of line-waiting later, we got into the hall during the panel for 9, the new Tim Burton film. Elijah Wood was on the panel for that, but since I have seen him 3 or so times in the past I wasn't too worried about seeing him. The 9 film, however, looks absolutely brilliant, and I want to see it. Alex and I jumped a few thousand seats forward after the 9 panel ended for the District 9 panel, which are two different films :P

I left my stuff at my seat to go ask a question for the District 9 panel, since this was the panel Peter Jackson was on. Basically everyone in the line already beginning to be formed had forgotten about the other panel before District 9 (hehe) for a film called Legion. It was basically about the Apocolypse Bible-style, only... the angels had machine guns. I am not quite sure what to make of it, and I couldn't tell if the angels were good guys or bad guys in the film; I'll likely wait until the critics say something about it. Doug Jones, however, is in this film WITHOUT a mask! He was so thrilled :P Absolutely hilarious guy. He is the ice cream man.... queue ominous music.

Anyways, after the Legion panel was District 9, and Peter Jackson was the first to come onstage. The cheers were deafening. We were told quite explicitly in line for NO LOTR/Hobbit questions (thankfully mine wasn't that...), but PJ actually addressed the Hobbit before the official panel began. He said that the Hobbit hasn't even been officially green-lit and had no budget thus far because the script wasn't completed as of yet, so there was no casting news. However, the Hobbit's first draft is being turned in sometime in August. If I had to guess, I would expect casting news sometime in winter of late this year/early next year.

District 9's trailer does NOT do it justice. We saw a 7-min preview there and, while this may seem silly, I felt literally sick over the clear parallels to reality. The premise of the story is that a group of aliens come not as enemies or delegates, but as refugees to Johannesberg, South Africa. While the race itself is, of course, sci-fi, it touches on the very real subjects on segregation, science vs human rights, racism and injustice, and other such things. I'll need to hold someone's hand when I see it in theatres, to say the least. This director, Neill Blomkamp, is, for sure, going to be big one of these days. It was great to see him, too.

I was lucky enough to be the last person to be able to ask a question due to the person in front of me having a very short question. I welcomed them to the Comic Con (got some claps, which was humbling) and asked Peter about the differences he encountered in the production process as opposed to the directorial process and if he enjoyed one over the other... I only wish I could have said it that eloquently! I don't quite remember his response, but he did speak about how he would do some things differently than the directors he works with, but that he enjoyed watching other directors work. Well, I remember him saying something like that- correct me if I am wrong, my mind is incredibly fuzzy. It was a pleasure just listening to him speak in person, though.

Some advice from someone who has sat through Hall H a couple of times now, and has had the opportunity to ask 2 questions at the mic: DON'T BE PERSONAL. If you say ANYTHING about the person you're speaking to being an inspiration, keep it at 5 seconds at most. The best personal addition I saw this year was the man who said "I'm a graphic artist and designer, and I was wondering..." Short and sweet. WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR PERSONAL STORIES. A good half of the audience considers the people onstage inspirations- don't babble about it. You can only get away with this if you are under the age of 13, and even then you have to be cute and still short- cuteness only lasts for so long.

Also, don't go ask a question every single panel. That's annoying. We will boo you off the stage. If I ever stayed in Hall H all day, the most I would ask is 2, and even then that is a long shot. One a day is the safest way to go.

While I was in line I met (again) the woman I'm staying with in NYC this October, Garfeimao. She had some seats up in the front of stage, and after the District 9 panel I got my friend and we joined her. After the Distict 9 panel was a Star Wars thing, where they announced new products such as games, the show and the like, and after that Alex left and the people in front of us left... leaving Garf, her sister, and I to the front row. To my right was about 5 seats, completely empty due to their hard-of-hearing status.

The last panel of the day was Peter Jackson and James Cameron. Just as they entered, from backstage ran Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, and a couple friends... and they sat right next to us O.O Elijah was in the seat to my right. O.O I nearly had a heart attack simply because it was so unexpected. I shook his hand, said hello, and then left him be for the rest of the panel for obvious reasons.

At the beginning of the panel some fellow jumped on stage- a magnificent leap on the 5 foot plus stage, by the way though not in this footage of the event... I didn't notice the toy gun when he was up there. At first we thought he was an act- I thought he was Seth Green or something XD In the end, security came out pretty dang fast- they likely had to check to see if it was legit or not, especially seeing as he went for their *water* (he said "I'm so parched"). I thought he was mentally ill; my friend that I told later thought he was high. My mum just watched the video and she said he was likely both, heh.

I just found out, thanks to Youtube, that it was actually a publicity stunt, sort of like Sasha Baron Cohan. Eh. I wasn't impressed. Anyways, during the panel they talked a lot about the state of the industry, how 3D and motion capture are going to play in the future of film making, some on how theatres and the film industry are going to combat against piracy with new technology, all of that. It was absolutely fascinating to listen to. The fan questions during this time were actually very good. I recommend looking up stuff on Youtube about their panel, it was great.

Uh. Sat and Sun I didn't really do that much that would interest the general public. I did go to a Sideshow panel as well as a panel on a concept artist. Sideshow is coming out with a lot of cool things, and when the Hobbit comes out... ooh boy, that will be fun! :D

More things happened with friends and whatnot, especially during the evenings, but that will be for another journal entry. I didn't forget about all of you ;) Some more pictures will be up within the next few days, too!

Cheerio! <3

Quick update!

2009-07-25T12:59:21Z

LINK FIXED.

6 am and about to leave, but I'll leave you what I left with TORn.

First off:

Front row seat at both the TORn panel and the PJ panel. So pictures = not too bad. Especially since my flash has been funky... anyways, I just sent the link to the spymaster, but you guys reading this can check it out. NO hotlinking :) http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f390/ainulaire/Comic%20Con%202009/

Second off: Guess who sat in the seat right to my right? Elijah. As in our Elijah. For the PJ/James Cameron panel. Why, yes, I did a double take when he (and Dom) quietly snuck out. Oh, and I got to ask PJ a question, which was awesome :D

Third off: Won raffle for 500 dollar Sideshow gift card! Aragorn bust, here I come...

I'll post a full report likely on Monday after my test (hah). But there you go for now!

Drawings!

2009-07-14T00:21:21Z

I forgot to post this up here: The Eye of... well, drugged-out-ness. Done in pastel on red paper. Love colored paper :D

And I FINALLY FINISHED THE FELLOWSHIP. All of my comments are noted in the link, but in short:

*I found myself greatly disliking hobbits.
*Frodo has garnered my deep hate.
*I can't draw chain mail to save my life.
*I really liked Boromir's picture.
*Aragorn is still hawt. Not just hot, but hawt.
*Gandalf was surprisingly easy. Gimli took forever, but wasn't very challenging.
*Merry's photo ref made him look incredibly odd.
*Legolas' lack of looking-like-Orli is made up by the fact that he looks awesome.

On a completely and utterly unrelated note, my Mom and Dad are Made of Awesome. More awesome than you :o :D

I love life. Heart it, even. *nod* Cheerio people! Less than two weeks to the Con!

Comic Con

2009-07-10T03:33:05Z

Good News:

The schedule is up! I'll be looking at it and talking with my friend about it tonight.
Edit: Only Thursday is up right now. The rest will likely come this weekend. San Diego people, expect messages from me around Monday.

Bad News:

The TORn panel is at Thursday at 10:30. The house we're staying out won't be available Wed night. I'm going to have to leave home at 5 am to get there on time. *headdesk* Oh life, why oh why...

... anyone know someone who has a floor to offer for (likely) allinthecookies and I for one night within a 20 mi radius of the convention center? XD

Everything is amazing, Nobody is happy

2009-07-08T16:58:19Z

This is brilliant: Everything is amazing, nobody is happy. Hilariously delivered and so true!