Thinking of The Hobbit

So, ten days from now I'll know what I like and don't about the movie "The Hobbit". Chickie and I have our tickets for the midnight show and we may (or may not) be joined by Meghan and Joe. The Hobbit has never been my favorite book of Tolkien. I fell in love with Tolkien about three-four years after I owned The Hobbit. That's when I picked up "The Fellowship of the Ring" and was pulled into Middle-earth, never to leave it again. I have read "The Hobbit" a couple of times, but I've read "LOTR" more than 100 times, so "The Hobbit" is the poor relative in my closet.

So, since I'm not fond of the book, why go to the movie, especially because it's the midnight show and on work days? Well, because I'll be able to return to the visual beauty and fun of Middle-earth. There are lots of things about Peter Jackson's vision that I may not like...but damn. He pulled off what nobody else was able to - he made a full, coherent, visually beautiful and relatively close to the text version of LOTR and made it popular, well attended, and watched/rewatched time and time again. I'll have another chance to see Middle-earth. I'll be sleepy, but I'll be happy.

I think Gollum is brought to life beautifully and

that Andy Serkis is phenomenal in the role.

I've been working on my LOTR Community Gen Fic Yule exchange. I had a solid start, then had to pull away for a week. Looking back at it, I realized I had written myself into a corner. So yesterday, when I opened it again to work, I feared that I would have to toss a lot of solid work. Fortunately, it worked out to be much less throw out than I had originally feared. I'm back on a solid footing and ready to continue work on it this morning.