Well that last entry was a bit of a downer eh? Ah well, it was my mood at the time. Money sucks unless you’ve got some. but I’m feeling more upbeat today so I won’t be whinging. Much. Except maybe about my gran who I’m none too pleased with atm.

Nah, I can’t even be bothere dot moan about her. 24’s back on tonight after a 2 week break and I’m dying to see what happens next. In my other blog I was going on about how FOX is horrible about using spoilersin their ads and I’ve managed to inadvertently find out key plot points before an episode has aired. Well that pisses me off. So in the little hiatus the show’s been on I’ve been attempting to remain spoiler-free. Mostly by just not watching FOX which isn’t really that hard to do given the plethora of shite reality crap they churn out. But I’ve also had to studiously avoid 24 forum spoiler threads and avert my eyes when some eejit gives something away in a non-spoiler thread.

I guess I’m just one of those types that prefers to be surprised. I refuse to give spoilers away myself to people who ask me ‘what happens next?’ (as KathrynAnn knows only too well.) I like to just go along for the ride.

Anyway, time to fix dinner (read: I can’t think of anything else to write about.)

I love Google’s little logos they occasionally use on their main search page. They always bring a smile. Over xmas, I think they did a snowman theme for a few days that was amusing. I’ve seen them do special ones for holidays and today’s is kind of fun with the Mars theme.

Anyway, I think they’re fun. Even though Google turned me down for a job. Ah well.

I don’t feel like writing much right now. I hate money. I hate Nebraska. I hate student loans. I hate death. I hate my bank. I hate check-cashing shops. I hate far too many things right now.

I’ve been a bad blogger. I know. But I don’t feel guilty because frankly, no one reads this anyway so who the hell cares 🙂

So it’s a new year. New start, resolution time and all that. Blah. I’ve never been one to do the resolution thang because I know me and I’ll never keep up with them. So why put myself through the stress? I’m all about eliminating stress. I’ve been doing well at not sweating the small stuff and having a more laid-back at-the-end-of-the-day-who-cares kind of attitude. Things that used to bother me, I mean really get under my skin really haven’t been an issue lately. And this wasn’t a conscious decision either. It just started happening. Weird eh? maybe that happens when you get old. I don’t know.

Anyway, we finally ended up seeing ROTk five times in the cinema and I’m afraid that’s about all my bank account can handle. I’d love to go more because there’s nothing like seeing it on the big screen. But I’ll have to be content with a crappy downloaded copy.

Ohhh the download debate. Everytime I see Sean Astin on telly telling me not to download pirate copies I feel a twinge of guilt. But here is my justification and you can buy it or not buy it, I really don’t care:

As I said I spent a lot of ching (ching I really shouldn’t have spent btw) going with my daughter to see my beloved movie in the cinema five times. I think we did 6 or 7 times in the cinema for Two Towers and again several times for Fellowship. I bought the theatrical DVDs, and then I turned around and bought the extendeds. I’ve bought merchandise. I own a beautiful handmade map of Middle Earth. I own Sting and the One Ring and the Evenstar necklace. My daughter saved up her allowance to buy Arwen’s dress so she could go as an elf for Halloween to her first real school dance. I will buy Return of the King Theatrical and Extended DVDs. All told, I’ve spent hundreds of dollars lining the pockets of New Line cast and crew for these films so I don’t think I should be begrudged an opportunity to download a crappy cam version of the film so I can appease my greedy nature that wants to be able to see my cherished film even after it’s out of the theatre. I have no patience whatsoever and I hate waiting months on end for the DVDs. I don’t make copies and sell it. It’s just for private viewing.

So Sean, I’m sorry. I know you care about the script girls and the security guards and all the other ‘little folk’ affected by ‘piracy’ but really… I don’t think anyone involved with Lord of the Rings is hurting 😉

Having said in an earlier post that I didn’t feel the same overwhelming excitement to go see ROTK on opening day as I have for the last two films and that I would probably wait a day or two before going to see it, I completely negated that statement by going to the midnight premiere with my daughter. Turns out that on the Tuesday before it opened, I caught a whiff of that excitement and made a total last minute decision to go. I am so glad I did. It was worth feeling like a zombie the next day because I didn’t go to sleep when we came home. I knew if I did, I’d never get up for work and I couldn’t miss a day so close to xmas. So I just drank coffee and flitted about online.

Anyway, neither I nor my daughter felt tired or restless during the 3 and a half hour film because we were mesmerised from the very opening image. This was, for me, a culmination or anticipation, excitement and complete faith that Peter Jackson would make it exactly right for devoted fans. Did he ever. I’ve never followed the journey of a film as much as I have this trilogy. I’ve never delved into the filmmaking process as much as I have with this either thanks in large part to the bountiful extras included on all of the DVDs. I feel in some small way, a part of these films and they’ll always be a part of my life just as the books are.

I knew I would cry during ROTK, I just didn’t know what elements would do that to me. Well I sobbed like a girl pretty much through the entire last hour of the film. The majesty of the moments, the emotional courage and strength shown by even the smallest of people. It was simply incredible and such a joy to be in some small way a part of this magnificent undertaking. We’ve been to see it twice now, and I’m sure we’ll go at least a couple more times after the crowds die down. I was taken out of the moment now and again by some absolutely horrible wanker teenyboppers sitting behind us who thought this was a Rocky Horror event and proceeded to crack jokes between dialogue. It was the first time in my life I’ve ever been angry enough to turn around and hiss, ‘Shut the FUCK up!’ at someone in a cinema and I think I scared them. I got an apology anyway. So please, if you’re in a cinema seeing a film, just watch the fecking movie and save any snide/rude comments for after it’s over. Don’t talk during it. Turn your damn mobile phone off, most of all, don’t sit behind me if you’re prone to any of the above. I’ll kick your ass. 🙂

Anyway, I’ve already seen the nitpick threads appear in a few forums online, mostly written by anal bookpurists. Argh. I can’t understand how one cannot simply let go of the purist in themselves and just enjoy the spectacle of accomplishment that’s been done with turning those wonderful, but somewhat convoluted, full of a million different characters, and thousands of pages long books. I always say to one particular purist I know, ‘When you’re a filmmaker, you go right ahead and turn those books into films yourself and see if you can do it better. Oh and be sure to have a film studio breathing down your neck whinging about the length of your true-to-the-book films, the money you’re spending, execs who want to add completely irrelevant plotlines to hook that coveted 18-25 year old male demographic, etc etc.. Until then you do all of that, shut the fuck up and enjoy it already, sheesh.’

I’ve mentioned before I love the books. I’ve read them over and over for years and years. But I don’t understand why it’s so hard for some book fans to comprehend the monumental tasks involved in turning something like Tolkien’s work into films. Why the hell hasn’t it been attempted before now? Because it’s fucking hard, that’s why. Why is it so hard for the purists to grasp that single, simple factor? Sure we’ve all got favourite bits in the books we would have liked to see brought to life. But at the end of the day, everything that did make it into the film was so grand, and so wonderful, that that is enough for me. I would have liked to see Eowyn and Faramir fall in love too, but hey, it’s a separate plotline that would have made the film even longer than it already is. We got a glimpse of it anyway during the crowning sequence. Let go your anal ways you wacky purist types.

Well I dunno why I went into a rant there. I guess because it just irks me that people would rather rip something wonderful apart than actually sit back and think, ‘Hey you know? That was a pretty cool film.’ Why would anyone want to spend their lives looking at the negative stuff? How… sad.

And I can’t think of a decent title for this entry. Oh well.

TPS goes off the Net on Sunday. *sniffle* I had a lot of fun with that site. But I’ve got plenty of other things to keep me busy so I’m not gutted or anything. I said earlier here that I can’t compete with the big boys when it comes to movie news. And that’s okay.

So what else is going on… Hey – still poor! Woohoo! Although I was recently invited to speak in front of my freelance site members and give them the basics of how to log on to their own websit/forums and for that I got a nice chunk of change. It’s all gone now though. Fecking bills. I’ve been spending inordinate amounts of time at home screencapping Kiefer films. How… sad. Why on earth am I doing that? I can’t answer that. I’ll try, but I’ll fail to explain the reasoning behind it. I discovered the joys of sccreencapping when LOTR came out and I realised there were a lot of fans wanting to capture their favourite moments of a certain actor or moment in a film. So there’s the ‘I can provide something the fans will like’ factor. As I started doing it, I discovered I was pretty good at it. Not that it takes any kind of skill, just the right equipment and a working knowledge of photo tweaking in case the scene you want is a bit blurry or dark.

Then I stopped doing it for whatever reason. Along comes 24 to provide some much-needed escapism during a rough patch in my life, and the talent and gorgeousness that is Kiefer just lends himself to screencapping. I find that I actually enjoy the tediousness of looking at a film frame-by-frame and capturing a look, clarifying some background set piece or picture, igniting the loins of the multitudes of Kieferettes out there (myself included) who demand beautiful pictures of him – it’s a bit of a rush really. I like all the editing – no, I love it. I love to capture an image and stick it into my software and make it better. I love to take sound files and mix them, edit them and make them available for the drooling masses (and yes I count myself among them.) And in the process I can forget my troubles for a few hours every night. It’s a win-win really.

Anyway I told you I’d fail to explain it properly and I still probably come off as quite sad for doing it. I don’t care much though. It’s a hobby, a weird one, but a hobby nonetheless and it keeps me off the streets 🙂

Ugh I put far too much Smiths on my Winamp. So depressing.Ah – Falco, Rock Me Amadeus in German. Much better. Very peppy 🙂 Anyway I’m not getting much work done right now so I’d better snap to it.

I have to shut down my movie site 🙁 My friend who’s hosting it is giving up his server thingie which means I either need to move thepictureshow.org or stop it altogether. I decided to just stop doing it. Maybe I can pick it up another time but right now I don’t have the energy to deal with moving the whole thing. Nor do I have the time to maintain it. Besides, I can’t compete with most other movie news/review sites out there. I gave it a year to take off and it did to some extent, but I didn’t manage to accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish on it. Ah well, valiant effort and I will save everything in case I ever want to start it back up someday. We’ll see.

In other news, 24addict.com is flourishing all on its own. I seem to be finding myself linked all over the place on other fan sites which I think is uber-cool. Also found myself linked at the BBC as well which was pretty cool too. So hmmmm.. building a fansite for a popular tv show = lots of hits. Who knew? 🙂

What else is happening… Oh yeah, I’m still dirt poor. But I won’t dwell on that. I haven’t decorated for xmas yet. I actually kind of forgot about it until this morning when I began seeing everyone’s lights up. Usually the kid and I decorate the day after Thanksgiving but I had to work it this year. So maybe we’ll get that done this weekend. I still don’t feel very festive but maybe the lights and ornaments will help.

ROTK premieres in 15 days. Of course I’m excited, but for some weird reason I don’t feel the overwhelming excitement for it I felt last year. I wonder why that is. I’m even considering waiting to go a day or two after it opens so we don’t have to wait in huge queues. We’ll see, I may feel differently the day before it opens 🙂 I really am excited to see the big finale. From all accounts it actually lives up to the hype. Even the most jaded reviewers seem to be over the moon about it. Definitely bringing kleenex though.

Anyway off for now. Lots to do.

We nearly made it through the semester without getting sick. My daughter had a simple goal this semester, and that was to have perfect attendance. I believe her ulterior motive for it is some kind of party for the kids who have perfect attendance. Ah well, we’ve blown it with a lovely chest cold. I hope I’m not next getting it.

So yeah I am staying home today to look after her. I know that she’s capable of staying home by herself – we did it all last summer. But it’s just different when the kid is sick you know? She needs her mommy 🙂 I should keep it short. She’s waking up now and I can hear the poor thing hacking up a lung.