Birthday Party Idea

My 21st birthday is in the next couple of months... and for the first time ever, I have thought of something I really want to do for it!

Usually ideas/planning is left to my friends and family, and they have always turned out lovely; including a surprise party by my friends one year, and my family taking me out to an amazing 'around the world' buffet. But I'm even happy with something as simple as my flatmates buying me a caterpillar cake and singing Happy Birthday as loud as they can over a couple drinks!

The reason I am posting this on here is because this party idea runs with the theme of this blog.
Here it is:

I want a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit inspired birthday party!

My heart fluttered when the idea popped into my head, and it won't go away! I've thought about doing it before, usually just while musing about ideas for Halloween costumes. They even did a LOTR kids party on the show 'Gilmore Girls'.
But is it too "geeky"? Even as someone who has generally been accepted as a 'geek' by friends, since being at uni I have been forced to almost wipe out these 'die-hard' tendencies. But with a new set of friends this year, most being Tolkien fans, not to mention my family and a couple of old friends at home, I feel like now is the time to do something like this- now or never!
I say this, as I also had the idea, if this one didn't roll out, of having a 'computer games' themed party, which would be equally awesome, and perhaps a little more accessible.

In planning this party, and coming up with ideas for it, I would expect the whole 'shabang'! I mean dressing up, decorations, food, perhaps films or background music too. I would want to do full-out dressing up, and I don't think this would be too difficult for me and everyone else, though I wouldn't be unrealistic in expectations of how far people would go about buying or making costumes.
In 'Gilmore Girls' they provided basic dressing up tools, such as Elf ears, toy weapons, they watched the films and had cardboard cut-outs of the film characters!

I will be browsing the internet for other Tolkien fans' party ideas, and try to base my ideas realistically off theirs, perhaps.

To say that I haven't already tried my best to dress up as an Elf, specifically Arwen, would be a fierce lie... makeshift ears and all!

I'll update with ideas when I have the time!

ALSO: If anyone knows how to get any members of the film cast that do party visits, or perhaps Gandalf and his famous fireworks, let me know! ;)

*insert my name on sign*

'The Hobbit': What I Should Have Said

I sort of wish I had kept updating this blog on the progress of Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit', but alas, a fatal flaw of mine is to start something but never have the dedication or incentive to see it through to the end.

If I did have the dedication to have updated this blog as news regarding 'The Hobbit' broke through, undoubtedly this is what I would have reported:

• What I made of Peter Jackson's Hobbit production/behind the scenes videos that were uploaded monthly/bi-monthly.
• What I made of the prospect of 'The Hobbit' being filmed and produced in 3D, instead of 2D as The Lord of the Rings was, and what an exciting prospect of it also being filmed in 48fps, instead of the usual 24fps.
• What I made of the news that PJ planned on turning The Hobbit into a THREE part film series as opposed to the previous two part.
• What I made of interviews and Sir Ian McKellen's live Q&A Twitter feeds.
• AND most importantly, what I thought of the long-awaited film when I finally got round to seeing it! After years of waiting and eager anticipation!

"Should have, would have, could have".

This isn't to say I didn't follow the news regarding this film almost constantly, and reported it to my friends, but there are of course far more dedicated and knowledgeable sites that I felt had all the necessary news, which I have referred to before. Not to mention I didn't have the time or willpower to make this blog complete, clearly shown by the lack of fine-polishing and lazy writing of my blog posts, which I take pride on when doing my academic work. Each blog post is simply first-draft standard, and will continue to be as such, should I decide to pick it back up at any point, so I apologise for that.

I would also like to apologise for the disappearance of pictures and the linked sites from said pictures on my previous posts, especially the post which linked to various fantasy armouries/weaponries sites, which seems to be popular.

I may decide to pick this blog back up again, as there are still TWO more Hobbit films left to go! And I feel like I owe it to Tolkien and Jackson to pay homage to their hard work, but we shall see.

A Game of Thrones - first-time watcher

I watched the HBO series 'A Game of Thrones' a couple of days ago, for the first time.
I'd seen adverts of it, heard people talk about it, but didn't look too much into it in case I spoiled it for myself. Thought to myself whenever it was brought up 'it seems like exactly the sort of series I would love'.
I was not wrong.
I'd gathered that it was, to put it into internet terms, very much NSFW. So I watched the first episode one morning while it was quiet in the house. Had to pause it a couple of times just in case of badly timed intrusions. But I fell instantly in love! And began planning when I could watch the next episode. I watched the next two that night, in fact, when everyone had gone to bed and I could have the lounge all to myself to revel in my new found love, in all its blu-ray glory on the widescreen TV. I wondered if I should perhaps spread the viewing out a bit, rather than watching the whole series in one go. But in all honesty I think I could watch the whole series in one day, I'm already wanting to re-watch the first few episodes!

I just wanted to express my new found fascination without spoiling a single thing. But it's definitely NSFW, I most definitely do not recommend watching it with your parents or children. Some parts, the first episode especially so far, were shocking, and made me cringe, thinking 'woah, that's just not right!'
But otherwise, it's glorious.
I may write a half-decent, literate and comprehensible review sometime, but for now this 5-minute first-time watcher blab will do.

It's the end of the world... or not.

I could think of a million different quips regarding this 'rapture' nonsense, and the lack of it. But I will spare you and my few, approved twitter followers, even if this is probably the only time such a topic will ever arise in the foreseeable future. Though I do enjoy reading the hilarious tweets other people have come up with, as Twitter users have been going crazy over this. But then you get some people who seem to genuinely believe that there will be a rapture! I am resisting the urge to blab on about my viewpoints on religion, life and how other people shouldn't live it, but I am too tired to dive into that sink-hole. I feel like I'm treading on hot coals as it is.

Weird Dream

Was at a sort-of amusement park in my dream last night. There was a game where you could shoot live orcs with guns. After going a second time and seeing some girls dressed up as elves, I took a peek in some rooms where the people who worked there got ready. Found a weird, long ginger wig for dressing up as an elf. Then I was basically kidnapped and made to dress up as an elf, though the other girls were whispering amongst themselves, saying I wasn't pretty enough! Next thing I was trying to escape with a boy, and we were both dressed in protective csi suits. Weird.

The Hobbit - Start of Production

Peter Jackson is keeping all of his and Tolkien's fans up to date with the production of his two part film adaptation of The Hobbit on his own Facebook page. His updates started with announcing the beginning of production back in March. In other 'notes' he has discussed shooting the film at 48 frames per second, casting news and has given fans the chance to submit questions for him, 20 of which he will answer. He has also put up a few pictures, but what is most exciting is the ten minute video blog... which I won't spoil for you! I admit, I was a little more than excited; I had the biggest grin on my face and felt all warm and fuzzy inside while watching it! Having a behind the scenes, during-production tour from the director is more than any dedicated fan could ask for, and we (the fans) greatly appreciate it! He doesn't give too much away and will be releasing another video in the future...

Get Well Soon P.J.!

From The Press Association:

"Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson is in stable condition in the intensive care unit of Wellington Hospital after undergoing surgery for a perforated ulcer.

Publicist Melissa Booth said that Sir Peter was "doing well" but would be in the hospital for at least a few more days.

She said doctors expected Sir Peter to make a full recovery.

Sir Peter was admitted to Wellington Hospital last Wednesday after complaining of acute stomach pains.

His illness has delayed the start of filming of The Hobbit, the two-part prequel to his Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Production of The Hobbit had previously been troubled by financial issues and the departure of its initial director Guillermo del Toro."

Copyright © 2011 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

From theonering.net:

Sir Peter Jackson’s stomach ulcer scare – UPDATE

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