It's almost DVD time!

I preordered, so I'm not sure exactly when I'll finally see it, but I'm OK with just hearing about it and looking at the screencaps for now. Just hope ONE of us has it in time for our DVD party next weekend. Should be lots of fun. I did get in my Aussie copy of "Chain of Fools" (less than $20 even with shipping from Australia), so we're all set on that and don't have to watch the subtitled VCD. I mean, it wouldn't be a gathering of LOTR fans without "Chain of Fools", would it?

Yeah, I finally did it

Blame Cody--she gave me the code. LiveJournal....

Want a personal start page?

You know, like you can get with Yahoo or MSN, or any of the various other folks who tried to get us to use THEIR page (only to sneak in all kinds of stuff we didn't like). Try this website: CheatSheet . It was recommended by Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome fame, and it's great. You pick your own links for the page, colors, zip code (for weather), etc., and it generates the text for you. Save it as an HTML file, put it on your desktop or wherever, and you're good to go.

I'm just way too old for this...

Worked a night game Tuesday night and a day game on Wednesday, both close to 100 degrees even *before* the temperature/humidity index was considered. Which means now I'm sick and can't do anything else but sit at the computer, and even that for not-too-long. I have to wonder whether this is worth it, for barely over minimum wage. I have SO much to do and I can't do it...

Ha! I was right...

I've always talked about two of the movie changes in tandem, and about how they affected the Frodo/Gandalf relationship: Gandalf making Frodo decide between going through the Mines of Moria vs. The Gap of Rohan (yes, I know, there is no Gap in Rohan--not even a Banana Republic), and Frodo solving the riddle of the door to Moria rather than Gandalf. See Sir Ian's latest e-post for his opinion of this. We don't see it *exactly* the same way, but close enough, and he also sees the two changes as linked.

Read on for some goings-on at the Decipher fanclub boards. Geez! I really wish they'd get their act together on this and SO MANY other issues. San Diego ComicCon, for example. OK, I realize Dom wasn't confirmed, but even a hint from them sent out to the fanclub membership that there were some special activities planned for the LOTR fanclub would probably have been enough to get me out there. They do not think, they do not plan, and they react badly...

Rings-Thing

Are you buying both the August and November DVD (or VHS) releases of the film? If you are just buying one, which will it be and why? Is the content of the different versions (different cuts of the film, different extras, etc.) good marketing or corporate greed?

OK, are any of us that are geeky enough to 1) keep a weblog, and 2) participate in Rings-Thing NOT geeky enough to get both versions of the DVD? Exempting anyone who simply cannot afford it, of course. I THINK not.

I VERY briefly debated about just holding out for the Collector's Edition, and making do with either the VCD or watching other people's copies or renting until November. Uh uh. Heck, we're having a party to celebrate the release of the DVD in a couple of weeks--gotta have it, don't I? Second theory was that I'd try to resell my original DVD once the November release came out, but how likely was THAT? Yeah, snowball's chance.

Is it corporate greed? Somehow it doesn't really feel like it, entirely. We do know that some of it is PJ's perfectionism. I mean, they had to refund some initial orders for the August release because the fanclub members names aren't on it because the SPECIAL MUSIC wasn't ready in time? Huh? That's just TOO PJ. So now I don't get to see my name until NOVEMBER, darn it! But at least I won't have to sit through all that scrolling--sometimes being in the first 10% of the alphabet is a GOOD thing. Some of the variations are just trying to offer something for everyone--I mean, even most of us real geeks aren't buying ALL the possible combinations.

I think the most likely explanation is, August is *already* a long time to wait for the DVD release. Let's get something out now for the general public, and the less geeky (and the *truly* geeky who get everything). The real fans will wait for the full release. I'm actually rather glad they've made the "extras" a bit different, since it helps justify something I was already going to do...

PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.30

1. What is your favorite snack food? Does anyone you know have weird tastes in snacks?
My favorite snacks are cheese (nearly any kind) and Pepsi or Mountain Dew. What's weird taste?

2. Ever caught yourself saying "well it can't get any worse" and it does? What's the story there?
As Roseanne Rosannadanna would say: It just goes to show ya, it's always somethin.

3. I have a super-short attention span, and it always was my downfall in school, especially math class. What's your attention span like and how has it served you?
I used to have a great attention span. As I get older, I find my patience (like the fellowship's list of allies) grows *thin*.

4. Do you believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials?
I find it difficult to believe that they *cannot* exist. Not so sure I'm as rabid a believer was I was in my youth. I think it was "Dark Skies" letting me in on the fact that aliens were behind the JFK assassination that made me a bit cynical. (Remember your George Carlin: several cats were seen in the immediate vicinity of the grassy knoll.)

5. What do you think of the whole "crop circles" phenomenon?
I think it was hobbits. Maybe invisible hobbits. Or time-travelling hobbits. But it seems hobbit-like to me.

6. Ever had a time where you begin visiting with someone you don't know all that well and just find you "click" like long lost pals? Tell me about how that came to happen, and who was it? What kind of things do you have in common?
Most recently it was Cody, who I had never met in person (just via our blogs, and only fairly recently at that) until I went out to San Francisco Pride. We like a whole lot of the same things, we know and/or read several of the same people, we've been in several of the same fandoms, and it even seems like half the time I run a search for something on ebay, I come up with one of her items!

7. When I was at the cemetery a few weeks ago, I began to recall my Dad's funeral so many years ago. It is so vivid, sitting there in the family room as his friends passed by and paid their respects, the music, his face, the tears. What funeral do you remember most vividly?
I tend not to do ceremonies of any sort--graduations, christenings, weddings or funerals. The two deaths I remember most clearly, having followed everything on TV, are JFK and Princess Diana.

BONUS: How can I forget you, girl?
Take a letter, Maria.

Swiped from Dargie, who got it from Shirene, who got it from...

10 bands you've seen live:
* Erasure
* Duran Duran (only *with* JT)
* Power Station (both versions, Palmer and Des Barres)
* Eagles (in 1975)
* Genesis
* Grass Roots
* Jon Bon Jovi
* Midge Ure
* Lyle Lovett and His Very Large Band
* kd lang and the Reclines
* Dead or Alive

9 Things you're looking forward to:
* "Lord of the Rings" on DVD
* Our DVD release party for LOTR
* Opening of "The Two Towers" in December
* Sir Ian doing another play on Broadway (I hope!)
* "Equilibrium" finally being released
* "Ash Wednesday" finally being released
* My next trip to NYC
* The end of the baseball season
* Putting together my new desk & installing new computer on it

8 things you wear every day:
* One Ring on silver chain
* Timex watch
* sterling ring
* my glasses
* purse or backpack
* shoes or sandals
* underwear
* barrettes, scrunchies, or some type of hair "thing"

7 things that annoy you:
* Public transportation that is wildly off schedule (not just a little late)
* People that throw their garbage in the street (or sidewalk, or el stop)
* Children to whom discipline and/or self-control are obviously foreign concepts
* Clipping of fingernails on public transportation
* Spraying of perfume or hairspray in places where one cannot avoid being inundated by it
* People who *claim* they mean one thing when their words/actions clearly indicate otherwise
* When the internet suddenly, for no apparent reason, turns into molasses (Billy cancelled it again?)

6 Things you touch daily:
* My cat
* My alarm clock
* All the things I wear (see above)
* My CTA pass
* The doors to my apartment and my office
* My computers at home and at work

5 things you do every day:
* Shower
* Dress
* Drink lots of soft drinks
* Put down food and water for the cat
* Clean the litterbox

4 people you spend the most time with:
* Toni and Akilah (I supervise them at work)
* Dargie (via IM, at least)
* Daphne (again, mostly via IM) cowebmaster of one of my sites
* My mother (although not as much now that she's quit her job at Wrigley)

3 movies you could watch again and again:
* Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
* Wuthering Heights (Timothy Dalton version)
* The Moon Spinners (Hayley Mills, Peter McEnery)

2 favourite songs of the moment:
* "My Fallen Angel" Midge Ure
* "Breathe" Midge Ure

1 person you could spend the rest of your life with:
* Fantasy or reality? I suspect I could be endlessly fascinated with the bloke at the top right. Live with, though? Who knows...

I Love the Internet...

Just finished placing an order with HMV UK for the first two seasons of Robin of Sherwood and the first two episodes of The Champions. Yes, I am a happy girl with a multi-region DVD player. Next up will be The Professionals, the Ioan Gruffudd version of The Forsyte Saga and... Why the heck isn't Blake's 7 on DVD, anyway? I have already ordered Chain of Fools from HMV Australia and that should arrive any day now. Not getting rid of the VCD, though, since that's fun to watch on the laptop.

Honk if you're surprised...

What Kind of Frodo Are You?

This quiz created by Trianne

Woo hoo! I'm Elrond *again*

I am Elrond, Lord of Rivendell. I chose Elvenkind over Humanity and was gifted with great wisdom. During the War of the Ring, I called a Council of the free peoples of Middle Earth and founded the Fellowship of the Ring, all the time wearing a tiara. In the movie, I'm played by Hugo Weaving.
|| Which Lord of the Rings Elf are you? @ X.com ||

Your magical style is Faery.

What type of Magic do you work?. Take the Magical Style Quiz by Paradox

The Friday Five

Last week I made the first 100 (for the first time), but I knew that couldn't last...

1. How long have you had a weblog? I *think* I got my first one about a year ago. I had purchased a PDA that runs on Windows CE, and couldn't get an FTP program to run correctly on it. Having to e-mail my reports to someone else to post was a real pain, then I read in the Lockergnome newsletter about Blogger, and it was just what I needed. I started my first blog for my figure skating websites, so that I could report on competitions without having to take the full laptop with me. I haven't used that particular blog in some time, and now post pretty much exclusively to this one.

2. What was your first post about? A figure skating competition--can't remember which any more. My first one in this blog (and nearly every one since) has been about The Lord of the Rings.

3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? For any particular blog, none. Both still reside where they were originally set up, and I have yet to come up with a snappy name for either.

4. What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try something else? I use Blogger Pro, with an occasional assist by w.bloggar (which lets me handle some updates from my desktop rather than the Blogger website). I'm quite happy with it. I'd love to go to Greymatter or Moveable Type for the increased flexibility, but I know my own limitations, and just doing a new template for THIS blog pretty much overtaxed my geekness. I am thinking of adding a LiveJournal, not because I prefer it (I definitely don't, and I find *way* too many teenies there) but so that I can exchange links and comments with other LJ folk.

5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? I don't know a lot of people who have both. But I'm lazy, so I suspect I'd not remember to read both, if they had them.

More photos added to the calendar page

I've been in a scanning frenzy

I got my new Cedco Page-A-Day Calendar earlier this week, and yesterday I saw that it had hit the retail stores as well. There were quite a few photos in it that I hadn't seen before at all, and several more that were variations on the more familiar ones, so I thought I'd get them scanned and online, both for people who just wanted to look, and for those who might be considering it but wanted a better idea of what they were buying. I put the majority of the more interesting ones up last night, but I'll probably add more.

Quite a few new ones of Aragorn and Legolas and Gandalf, while not *quite* as many of Frodo, although I love the one at left. It was also interesting to see that the ones of Frodo in the tree, which I assumed had been from a different opening (instead of him reading sitting under a tree) were instead excised from the flight to Bree.

Woo Hoo!

Guess who is going to be on the cover of the upcoming issue of Empire??!!

I am *so* recommending Tolkientown

I put an order in with them about 10 days or so ago, for the trade-size movie cover paperback book set of Lord of the Rings, a hobbit magnet, the new page-a-day calendar, and a Sting keychain. Good prices on everything, and a lot of stuff I couldn't find locally.

So, when I go to the post office yesterday, my order is there. But instead of the 3-volume trade-size paperbacks, I have the 4-volume mass market ones. I go back to the office and check my order, but I had indeed ordered the correct set. However, it's rather hard to prove since the item numbers that appear on the shipping list don't appear on my online order, nor on the items themselves on the site. So I sent an e-mail to their customer service department, and hope they believe me.

Today I received a reply: they are sending me the correct set, along with a label to return the incorrect set at their expense. What more could one ask? After all, as we're so often told (and for once, it's true): the mark of a person or a company is NOT that it never make a mistake--it's how it deals with the mistakes it makes. I'm rating Tolkientown a 10 out of 10.

I finally watched "The Prophecy"...

after having had the VCD for several weeks. It's been way too hot to venture out of my bedroom (the one room cooled by my small window air-conditioning unit), and watching TV or VCR has been impossible. So when I ended up spending the evening in bed with a migraine, it finally occurred to me that I could drag my laptop into the bedroom and watch a VCD on it (my desktop computer is Win95 and doesn't support the DivX program).

As everyone had warned me, what a great movie! It was perfect for a semi-invalid--engrossing enough to take my mind off my ailment, but not so convoluted that I couldn't follow it with a fever. Everyone was perfectly cast, with the possible exception of Virginia Madsen (whose part was so simplistic that nearly anyone could have played it): Christopher Walken as the angel Gabriel, who has a score to settle with humanity; Eric Stoltz as angel Simon, not unsympathetic to Gabriel's quarrel but now having only his duty to his god to sustain him; Elias Koteas as Thomas Daggett, once nearly a priest and now a cop who must both find his faith again and stop Gabriel from destroying more souls; and most especially Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer--the coolest, baddest, most beautiful angel of all.

These could all have been stereotypes in the hands of lesser actors, but they're not. Christopher Walken, who is capable of both understatement and the most incredibly OTT acting, delivers a performance that absolutely walks the line it must in being larger-than-life (he *is* an angel, and a powerful one--not some human villain) but not cartoonish. Eric Stoltz is heroic and tragic and loyal, and imbues the character with so much sympathy for all sides of the struggle that you can feel his pain in even the briefest of scenes. Elias Koteas has a role that's been done to death--he was literally about to be anointed a priest when he left the church (literally, and possibly figuratively as well) and he's now a worldly-wise cop who has to solve the case of several strange deaths that seem to be mysteriously linked to him. Viggo has the least time on-screen of any of them, and makes the greatest impact as Lucifer, truly the son of the morning in his beauty and charm. He shows us how he is far greater than the angel Gabriel, and has no quarrel with humanity, but in fact *needs* humanity. Easy to see why he was most beloved...

Today it's finally cooler and I can go into the living room tonight--I think I'll take the opportunity to watch "The Prophecy" on the DVD player instead of the barely-adequate old laptop screen!

thanks to Dargie -- Two For Tuesday

OK, so I'm doing it on Wednesday. Sue me.

1. What sound do you love to hear and why?
Water, almost any kind (except the annoying faucet-dripping that I can't get to stop in my kitchen sink). I have one of those noise-making machines I keep next to the bed, and it's almost always set at either "rain" or "surf." When I go to the beach (OK, it's been a couple of years--when I **used** to go to the beach), while I occasionally take my Walkman, I almost invariable end up going out as far as I can on the most remote pier in my area, as distant from the sound of screaming children as it's possible to get in Rogers Park (I don't mind the screaming seagulls I get instead) and turning off the tape in favor of the sound of the waves breaking. Why do I love this sound? I have no idea. Always have. Cannot bear the thought of living very far from the water.

Second favorite sound is the sound of the blades of a very good figure skater, moving very fast. Like when ice dancers are warming up before practice (just before you hear the crash...) The love of this sound is much easier to track--about a 14-year history of being a major figure skating fan, and I'm never happier than when I'm sitting at a practice at a major event.

2. Is there a smell that you find particularly unpleasant? Why?
My sink always smells mildewy, which I don't much like (but then, who does?). I can't think of any particularly idiosyncratic smell preferences I have...

Rings-Thing

What do you think of "Mary Sue" type fanfiction? Is it possible to write a good one, theoretically? Have you ever *read* a good one? Have you ever written one (good or bad)? What do you think about original characters in general?

You know, I've never been terribly conflicted about Mary Sue's. Don't read them, don't write them, don't condone them. Not that I don't *understand* them, mind you. I have fantasies myself, including ones in which I interact with the characters (or the actors). But I try to keep these in my head, or occasionally share them with my friends as the daydreams or fantasies they are--I don't write them up as fanfic to share with a wider audience. And I don't appreciate it when other people *do*. The closest I've come to a "Mary Sue" myself was a piece of fanfic in which I very strongly identified with one of my two protagonists--but I don't believe I changed the character because of that, or that my writing suffered. In fact, it's the best work I've ever done. I think identifying with a canon character can be a valid way of "putting oneself into the story" if handled correctly. Of course, if the reader doesn't see the character the way you do, you may still be charged with turning him or her into a Mary Sue. (But then, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.)

When I read fan fiction, it's almost always to see authors explore the characters I love (or even sometimes those I don't), in situations or relationships that either didn't exist in the canon, or weren't developed, or were handled (as defined by fans) "badly." In general, I'm not interested in original characters, even if they help flesh out a side of a canon character that might not have been developed any other way. I know that's a flaw in my nature, and I totally understand it when people tell me that's what their OC is for, and I generally *believe* most of them when they tell me that. But I'm just not usually interested (OK, if I love your writing otherwise, I might give it a chance. Briefly.). I don't go to concerts to hear the audience sing, and I don't read fanfic to learn about characters *other* than canon ones.

So, can a Mary Sue fanfic be good? I suppose theoretically, anything is possible. But I haven't seen one. Even the funny ones are all takes on the same old joke, and that was old (for me) 25 years ago. Can a fanfic with an OC be good? Of course. I just (generally) choose not to read them -- and that's MY problem and not the author's.