A Smattering of This-and-That

The holidaze are upon us. Ah, Xmas shopping.

*sigh*

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My dad gave me a bottle of Alaska Brewery's smoked beer over the weekend. I cracked it open for... um... with... dinner last night.

Tasty stuff!

Could have stood to be a bit more smokey and it's not as bacon-y as Bavarian rauchbier, but I enjoyed it all the same.

The right side, too. Big ol' bottle. Left me in a nice mood.

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Somewhere along the way, I got the DVDs for the "Dark Angel" TV series.

No sense being coy about it. Jessica Alba was totally the main draw.

Despite the cheesy acting, dubious plot, and annoying subplots, I truly enjoy this show.

I find it eerie how they predicted drones being used as law enforcement tools.

We need a leather-clad Jessica Alba to save us!

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I'm regretting reading "Cold Nights" so quickly. Now nothing else really draws my attention.

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Reviews of The Hobbit are buzzing about the Internet. I haven't read any in great detail, mostly so I can be surprised when I see the film on Friday.

I've heard more than a few reports that The Hobbit: There and Back Again (that's the name of the first film?) is a bit slow and plodding.

Can't say I'd be surprised to find that to be true. I really don't know what they were thinking making this into three films.

The novel "The Hobbit" is a tiny thing when compared to even the appendices of "Return of the King" (which are a bit more than 1/3 of the book, if memory serves). There's just not a lot of story there when compared with the trilogy.

I get that Jackson hopes to pad the story by going into what happened "off camera" using Tolkien's notes, but I find myself wary of how that's going to play out.

Oh well. I'm over-thinking it. Martin Freeman will rock as Bilbo Baggins. The rest should be entertaining.