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difference between tired evening self and cheerful rested morning self: hm! those burger king goblets are kind of funny, maybe i'll get some.

[slap]

three weeks! three weeks to go!

I thought I was seeing a new Lord of the Rings commercial, a new one! joy! And then it turned into a punning Burger King commercial - collect all four goblets whose bases light up! - horror!

'behold [character, repeat a couple times]! be - holding your own goblet of [aforementioned characters]!' ow. oh, ow. I suppose it's the flippancy that irritates me more than anything else, even the tackiness of light-up goblets.

Hm. Why does flippancy irritate me? Why do I care? ... I guess it's that I love the book so much, and find depths in it that most people seem not to expect to be there -- I'm afraid that people who still haven't read it will not bother, get the wrong impression, that it's nothing more than a book like any of the other books whose genre it created.

That's almost it, but not quite. The deepest reason is pure frustration. The makers of the commercial, and others who laugh outwardly or inwardly at those who love Tolkien's world (which is our own world) as deeply as I do, trivialize this thing which is so much a part of me. I first read it when young, and I have read it more times than I can count because it speaks to me of the deep beauty and strength in the world (especially the natural world). The older I grew, the more I also recognized it was singing of so much beauty's loss, the diminishing of so many things ancient and wonderful. And yet there were echoes, and memories, and consequences that would endure, such that struggles of old would not have been in vain. The song of the world, of beauty and strength and courage holding back chaos and nothingness: I am frustrated that they cannot hear it, or do not recognize it. I wish everyone could love the book as I do, for it makes me so happy.

But. It could be worse. They could have (a) not made any movies at all, (b) made only one movie and sliced over half the story away, like the last one. whereas this so far looks to be (c) the first of three remarkably faithful (within reasonable expectations) and well-made films. I guess I can tolerate 30 seconds of shudders.

all this over a burger king commercial. they just want to sell their little plastic glasses. they weren't meaning to upset me. how silly i am. it could be worse. it could be worse. it could be worse. ow.

I meant to do this before but forgot. Have you seen any of these Lord of the Rings 30-second commercials on TV? I haven't, but happily they're on the web (note: Quicktime needed):

here is one focusing on the Ring

this one focuses on the Fellowship

this one focuses on Aragorn

are they tasssty, my precious? are they scrumptiousss? yessssss...

My parents don't have anything to play in their new DVD player yet, so they requested I bring some of mine for the weekend. Given that their player is progressive scan, the discs might look even better than on mine, not to mention their 36" TV to my 27". fun fun. I took the opportunity to add a few bits to my dvd page, also linked to at right.

four weeks! four weeks to lord of the rings! no i haven't seen harry potter yet; if I wait one more week I have an AMC coupon with which to get in free. gotta like that. It's going to expire Dec. 31 so I have a limited number of chances left to use it. Too bad LOTR won't have been out two weeks yet at that point, or I could use it for one of my expected repeat trips.

happy thanksgiving, y'all!

past weekend: pilgrimage to Joshua Tree to observe Leonid meteors. more details later, but the show was even cooler than the night air (which was pretty damn cold, though not as bad as in the winter/spring).

one month! one month to go! on wednesday i can start counting down by weeks!

don't know why the one-word subjects. just feel like. ditto fragments 'n' no-caps. thursday. night. tired. insecure about chronic singularity but that's neither here nor there. sleep would help but i'm not that smart this moment. websurfing tomato nation, trying to absorb smart via computer-screen-to-eyeball osmosis.

new paragraph. non sequitur. learned today that dad got new toy 36" tv delivered n set up. (certain family members will admire greatly on thanksgiving.) also a dvd player. the old tv was fried, along with parents' vcr, computer/monitor, two cooktop burner lighters, garage door opener, some other things, when the neighborhood transformer went insane and let 220v in on the 110v lines, back on the monday before halloween. opportunity for new toys, purchased partially by electric company repair-estimate reimbursements, is a fat shiny silver lining for dad, almost bigger than the cloud. meanwhile mom wishes for new refrigerator to replace one that is almost my age but it did not get zapped, so. if it aint broke.

overheard today, just down the hall:

D (approaching C's desk, sounding tentative): "Um... have you heard?"

C (hesitant): "No ... what?"

D: "Oh. No, no, I mean, have you heard about [some current work stuff]?"

C: "Oh. No, he's still in the meeting, he hasn't called yet."

13 November 2001: shiny.

good rain last night. bright clear crisp morning. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Joss Whedon is a god. kudos to the songwriter(s) also. and other writers. and way to sing and dance, actor peoples.

and waaaay to liplock! yum. envy envy.

The weather in New York City was perfect. Most of the days were sunny last week, and the couple days after Halloween were even warm. I got to spend lots and lots of time with my brother, whom I haven't been able to hang out with for ages and ages, as well as other wonderful friendly people. I didn't manage to do half the things I would have liked, but I knew that would be the case, only spending a week (and a saturday-night to saturday-morning week at that).

Tired. Blister on pinkie toe. Happy happy joy travel pictures new city friends familiar sights never seen before. I'm going to make a travel journal, if I can manage it - the parents' computer where the scanners are got fried last week, though happily the scanners seem to be ok - and will post details as they become available.

whew.

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