Joy and Chaos

Got a refill of Black Blood of the Earth. Tremble before the POWER of the Dark Side!

Seriously. I've been jonesing for it.

---

This is easily the most disorganized I've ever been for Xmas. I'm at a complete loss as to how to deal with certain Xmas gift obligations.

Why is this time so goddamn frustrating?

---

Stress, stress, stress. Work stress. Holiday stress. Health stress. No wonder people drink like fish this time of year.

Yes, I'm justifying the booze. Don't judge me.

---

Soon the Doctor Who Xmas special will arrive and we Whovians get our fix. Sooooon...

The Tainto

As I previously indicated I received my order from Zombie Tools over the weekend.

The Tainto.

Modeled on the Japanese Tanto, the Tainto is fourteen inches (35 cm) of hefty goddamn steel with a six-inch handle wrapped in black leather and an eight inch, single-edged blade of distressed-looking steel that oozes badass.

To say I was giddy this weekend does not quite cover the joy I felt.

It's a solid knife and in my many years of blade-collecting, probably the highest-quality piece I've obtained (with the possible exception of some smithing work done by a buddy of mine).

It's got great balance and a nice feel to it. The edge could be a bit sharper, but some work on the whetting stone should fix that up nicely.

I now need to save up for an Apokatana and a matching Zakasushi. Want. So. Badly.

One day...

Lovecraftian Holiday Songs

Ia Ia Solstice F'tagn.

It Has Arrived!

Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Saw The Hobbit last night in 3D with the new higher frame-rate.

Thoughts (I'm not sure if these are spoilers, so be warned anyway):





























It was a beautiful film, just as the Lord of the Rings films were. Martin Freeman is an excellent Bilbo Baggins. I personally loved seeing Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown (even though HE DOESN'T APPEAR IN THE DAMN BOOK!!!!).

Those were the best parts.

The story was vaguely true to the original in an "inspired by" sense. The Dwarves... well, I guess they were fine in their own way.

Mostly they didn't look very "Dwarfish" to me, but I guess that's a personal thing.

The story plodded along. That's mostly because a small book is getting broken into three ridiculously-long films and getting padded with a lot of unnecessary stuff.

The frame-rate made everything look kind of off and wrong. Most people I talked to said you don't notice after the first half-hour. Personally I found the effect really hit me towards the later half of the movie. The later parts seemed jarring and really took me out of the experience.

Personally I wouldn't recommend seeing it in 3D or at the higher frame rate. It's not worth it.

Overall, I give the film a solid 'C'. Adequate as an adventure film but not great. Nowhere near as enjoyable as the Lord of the Rings films. Not even by a little.

Ten Hours of Awesome

You're welcome.

A Smattering of This-and-That

The holidaze are upon us. Ah, Xmas shopping.

*sigh*

---

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.

---

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!

---

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

---

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.