I finally watched the Hobbit ...or did I?

I finally watched the first two movies in the Hobbit movie trilogy.  I knew they had added new story elements but I was not prepared for the hatchet job they made of mr. Tolkien's work.  Given how faithful to the original material Jackson was with "Lord of the Rings" I was astonished to see him butcher "The Hobbit".  Over half the film is comprised of completely made up story or heavily modified pieces of the book.  Very little of the original work makes it through untouched.  The result is a movie that loosely follows the story outline of "The Hobbit".  They even change minor story points that don't need changing.  It's as if Jackson said to himself "Tolkien did some good work, but I can make it better for the screen".  I feel like Azog the orc was added to the movie for merchandising purposes.  I will always treasure Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but I wouldn't wipe my ass with his version of "The Hobbit".  The fact that "The Hobbit" started as a two movie production and then was later changed to a trilogy smacked of a cash grab as far as I was concerned, so I was already prepared for some changes.  The original book would barely fill two movies, so to make it into three meant they would have to add a lot of material never in the books, which is just what they did ... in spades.  I expected better from Peter Jackson.

It's an ADD World

With informatin overload these days we've become a bit of an ADD culture.  I definitely feel that way myself when it comes to my hobbies, and life in general.  It's the "Ooooh Shiny!!!" sindrome.  I've definitely been guilty of that with programming, video games, table top games, etc.  I think some of it is just the age old addage "The grass is always greener on the other side".  As people, we are fascinated with new things, and that's not necessarily bad but perhaps we should also try more to focus on the tried and true as well.  Along those lines, I'm going to force myself to focus more on some of my neglected projects over the next few weeks.  My C/Side project certainly deserves a publish of the latest build.  I think I'll make myself a big bullet list of unfinished projects and see how much I can accomplish when I organize myself.  I'll probably be surprised with the results as would most people if they did the same I suspect.

Weekends are over too quick

Went to see "The Ugly Truth" yesterday.  It's a pretty good movie, worth seeing in the theatre if you are interested.  Butler's character is very funny and Heigl is great as always.  After the movie I went to Minado with my friend and had some awesome sushi.  If you love sushi and there is a Minado or Nori Nori near you, you MUST GO.  It was definitely an excellent Saturday.  Think I'll start the day off today with some scrambled eggs and toast ....maybe curl up with some of my unread comics, or maybe the One Piece manga I picked up at Otakon.