Altivo

I should have known better. Gary asked me last night if I wanted to watch Serenity with him (the film, not the series which he's already seen.) He'd found it remaindered for $5. I agreed.

Not ten minutes into it, I got up and left the room. The gratuitous violence, which I guess the majority of film watchers feed on, was making me ill. Sometimes I really think there must be something to this otherkin idea, because I sure don't seem to belong to the same race as most people.

Oddly enough, in real life, Gary doesn't deal well with violent emotions. In fact, he doesn't react well to raised voices. He's also an arachnophobe, and won't watch video or films with giant spiders or spiderlike creatures because it gives him nightmares. Yet he can sit through two hours of people hacking, stabbing, shooting, and otherwise destroying each other without blinking. Had I watched the whole thing, I would have had bad dreams. In fact, I think I had some dreams about it anyway, in spite of choosing to read something soothing before going to sleep.

Finally saw Bolt last night. Predictable Disney in some ways, but the characters are well done, most especially Bolt himself of course. I really liked it. Squeaky carrot, anyone?

This time I really have a cold. Yesterday I started feeling symptoms about mid-afternoon. This has happened several times this winter only to back off after four or five hours, but not this time. Not much sleep for me in the past 24 hours, even after taking stuff that should help.

Snow is supposedly headed in again. Yesterday they issued a winter storm warning for up to six inches of snow to commence last night and go all day today. Like the last one, they seem to have cried "wolf" at the chihuahua. There was a slight frosty film of snow overnight and that's it. They backed down to a winter weather advisory and said it would start at 1 pm. It's now 3:30 and still nothing, though the temperature did drop from 48F to 37F over about an hour's span. They've cut back the predicted accumulation to two inches now, overnight, but are still calling for continued snow all day tomorrow and overnight into Tuesday or longer. I'm sure no one believes it any more.

Saw a golden crowned kinglet about 1 pm today sitting in the wire of the dog fence. These are tiny birds, only a bit larger than a hummingbird, grey with dark wing bars and striped faces, and a bright yellow stripe like a mohawk down the crown of their heads. They can erect that crest like a bluejay or cardinal but usually it lies flat and nearly escapes notice. Typically they seem just to pass through here when migrating. I should be watching for their cousin, the ruby crowned kinglet, too. Similar but without the stripes and wing bars, and the mohawk is bright red. I've seen both before, but not for many years.

Gary is doing barn chores for me, though it's my day. I don't feel too guilty though, as I've done them for him pretty regularly of late due to his school schedule. Strawberries still not planted. Probably just as well if we're having another round of snow and ice. They will dry out in the shipping package though if held back much longer.

Went back to the fair at 9:30 this morning and except for a 45 minute lunch break with Gary, stayed until just before it closed at 5:30 pm. Today I got to see most of the exhibits and vendor booths. There were some interesting things, but the only one that I was inspired to buy (after passing it up twice, I went back for it) was a plush llama about a foot high. I'll try to get a photo of him later.

Again most of the questions were reasonably well-formed and showed some understanding of process and materials. Only one person was somehow unable to understand that sewing can be done without a sewing machine, but spinning is not sewing.

We watched The Golden Compass on DVD last night. I was prepared for the worst, but didn't find it as horrendous as Prince Caspian was. It leaves out about half the book, of course, but doesn't invent major plot or character elements that weren't in the original. I really don't see how it could make sense to anyone who didn't read the book, though. So much is omitted that it leaves an extremely superficial summary of the plot and characters.

Seems to have stopped, perhaps we'll get a dry day or two, though more is predicted for Thursday.

Finished the guild newsletter, thank goodness.

And we watched City Slickers, which neither of us had seen before. I decided to get it at the library and watch because there are so many references to it in McKinley's Coyote River comics. It wasn't bad, actually, or at least, not as bad as I'd feared. Nothing got blown up, there was no car chase (but instead there was a stampede,) the bad guys were mostly just weak, and one of the heroes did get the girl at the end. The story wasn't much more believable than National Treasure but for me it was warmer and funnier at least. Oh, and I thought Jack Palance's imitation of Clint Eastwood (or maybe Charlton Heston, but I think it was Eastwood) in the role of "Curly" was right on target. Especially in the scene where they find out he's dead and you can't tell the difference.

We watched Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring tonight. (The extended DVD edition.) Of the three films, I thought at first, and still do, that it was the best. That's because it sticks more closely to the book than the others, and seems to leave out the least. Even so, it suffers from pointless alterations to Tolkien's much-polished prose.

I realize that it is necessary to leave things out, because film can never be long enough to contain the entirety of such a massive work. Sometimes the cuts require small changes elsewhere in order to clarify things that would otherwise be confusing. But Jackson and his writers made many small changes and some larger changes that I find most irritating. As an example, replacing Glorfindel with Arwen herself simply makes no sense. Perhaps Jackson thought it somehow forwarded the romantic element that he so much exaggerated over the original, or perhaps he thought he was somehow simplifying, but all he did was confuse the character of Arwen herself. making of her something that Tolkien never intended.

Replacing Galadriel's gift to Sam, which was a box of earth from her own garden, and turning it into a coil of rope destroys a major plot element, because Sam carried that earth with him to the bitter end of the tale, when he used it to restore the Shire, in part, to it's former garden-like quality. Worse, while the rope was mentioned in the book and Sam had declared his concern at the lack of it, that concern was omitted in the film, yet he was given rope as a gift.

Likewise, small changes to the dialog, substituting words for instance, can be extremely distracting to those who are familiar with the original. This happens far too often, though it is difficult to say whether the screenplay changed the wording or the actors merely ad-libbed the changes which were then allowed to stand. For instance, when Gandalf translates the writing on the doors of Moria, in the book Merry asks, "What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?" But in the film, the question is shortened to a pointless "What does it mean?" Thus losing the foreshadowing hint. In the film, it is left to Frodo to prompt Gandalf in the end with "What's the elvish word for friend?" This is something I'd have expected Frodo to know already, and a pointless hand-off to him. In the book, Gandalf realizes his mistake on his own, and then actually gives credit to Merry for being on the right track after all.

One odd thing. Galadriel's words as she gives the light of Eärendil to Frodo end with "May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out." This is true in both the film and the book, yet both Gary and I consistently remember it as "when all other lights fail." I have to wonder if this is a variorum between different editions. I know there were some corrections made at Tolkien's instruction at one point, but I've never seen an explicit list of them. Gary probably read the Ace paperback edition first, while I know I read the Ballantine. We have neither available now, and the Houghton Mifflin hardcover volumes we have do say "revised edition" on the cover.

Took the day off work, went to the dentist this morning to have my teeth floated (cleaned.) Got back earlier than expected, and my mate was home (unusual for Thursday, he's usually at his Mom's in the city, but was there Monday so stayed home today.) We decided to go have lunch at Bennigan's and see Nick Park's film Curse of the Were-Rabbit with Wallace and Gromit. It was good. Perhaps not quite as good as Chicken Run but very good and well worth seeing. It even has fursuits! Honest! I give it four apples.

Came home, took care of the various critters, had dinner of leftovers from the freezer and salad from the garden with sliced pears and blue cheese (yum) then back to work on the novel. I'm quitting for the night at 4800+ words, still within reasonable range of steady progress. I suppose this being the third day of 30, I should be at 5000. But things are starting to fall in place so I think it will pick up soon.