The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I'm thinking about doing just that...

Crawling under desks and re-wiring our network has worn me out though. Time for a shower, I think.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

No...I'm not Opus-ing. I'm just signing off for about a week, heading off on my grand road trip for my interviews in Boise and Salt Lake. I admit to a bit of nervousness...probably (hopefully) just enough to keep my edge of concentration and no more!

Thank you all for your prayers and words of support...I feel like there's an army behind me!

I will be sure to get right back to the HH on Friday night (if not exhausted) or next Saturday to fill everyone in on my trip and it's successes or lack thereof (if even known by then).

You guys are the greatest in the world, and I'll feel your backing all during the time that I'm in front of my interviewers.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well someone may have to talk me thru it. I am computer illiterate. Mack may know how to do it and he is the one that would do it anyway as I am not allowed to touch his computer:) just the webtv. If you have pictures on a disk, do you need any other special equipment to post them. We don't have a scanner.

Becky

[ksen]

Basically, I am just woolgathering about the complexities of peoples thoughts:) Why HP caused so much negitive response and LOTR didn't.

Hi Becky. I saw that you went to your son's and watched FoTR. Did you like it?

I don't know if anyone has answered your question above yet, so I will give it a try since we seem to hold the same views about God, the Bible, church, and such.

LoTR is not the same as Harry Potter, because in LoTR the only ones who use "magic" would be, in Tolkien's cosmology, angelic beings. For example, Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron are not very powerful humans who decided to use magic. They come from a race of beings known as "Maiar." In Tolkien's universe there were two classes of "angelic" beings, the "Valar", who would probably correspond to the Cherubim, and the "Maiar" who would probably correspond to the Seraphim. They were both servants of the one true God, who Tolkien named Iluvatar.

So when Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron use their powers it is no different than say one of God's angels using their powers. We wouldn't criticize the angels for using "magic"-like powers when they destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, when Gandalf et.al. use their powers it is in the same class.

One of the beauties of LoTR is that when "normal" people try to use "magic" nothing good ever comes of it. "Magic" is not aggrandized, instead there is a warning for those who would meddle with it.

Another thing I like about Tolkien's universe is that there are not two "gods", one evil and one good, that are battling and trying to throw the other one down. There is only one God and He is completely good. The trouble came when the chiefest of the Valar, one "Melkor", rose up in rebellion against Iluvatar, sound familiar?

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. Let me know if these answered your questions or if they just raised more. ;^)

[HairOfTheDog]

Good luck!

Don't forget to be succinct!

[Overtaxed]

Best of luck to you! We'll be here waiting for you.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Very good reply, thanks. Makes sense. So we don't have to get into anything big here, becasue I sense a wide varity of opinions, here and there is no sense discussing it deeply, but just a quick, does your reply mean you are not thrilled with Harry Potter? I haven't read or seen it either. I am going to finish The Hobbit, then read the LOTR books too/still.

I liked LOTR enough to want to see it a few more times. What I told Mack was after all three have been released I am sure they will comeout with some kind of special package of all of them. That's when I want to buy them. But I may rent the first one again before the second one comes out on DVD and watch it a few times so I can sail right in to the second:) Sound like a good plan?

Becky

[JenB]

Oh, you got the 666!

[HairOfTheDog]

If the pics are on a disk you have to be able to upload them to a place that will store pictures (there are free photo hosting places that we use) and then you link to the pictures with HTML code that we can show you how to do.

We can walk you through it from here, or 2J can walk you through it probably quicker in person.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Speaking of narcoleptic behavior, When the first batch hatched, I thought some of them had something wrong with their eyes. Even when I picked them up they did look right. Turned out they were asleep:) Didn't even wake up when picked up.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

The package with all three wont be out for over a year! I think you can probably find the extended edition FoTR cheap now since it has been out so long. I do believe that will be the definitive version. I am not expecting an "even more extended" extended edition!

[2Jedismom]

I'll do what I can to help ya!

[ksen]

I do think the different stances on HP and LotR are just hypocrisy.

Oh well, call me a hypocrite then. HP just makes me nervous. ;^)

But maybe some people see the only "magic" in LotR being used by Gandalf or the bad guys, none of whom are human. (That's not quite true, though; what do we call - oh darn, Becky hasn't read it yet - Aragorn's healing abilities, if not magic?).

Just excellent medical training. ;^)

Seriously, since Aragorn is part Maiar, and can be seen as a parallel to the returning Christ, then his miraculous healing abilities aren't all that to get worked up over.

I save most of my foaming for "Quidditch." ;^)

[2Jedismom]

Today, they would walk around in the yard...then stretch out one wing, one leg, then fall over asleep! Both of them did it or I might of thought it was a seizure or something!

Very humorous.

[2Jedismom]

BTW!! I keep meaning to tell you...I caught those bunnies that were in our back yard...that were born in our garden. I hauled them OVER the river to the park and released them there.

You know I used to shoot them. Just couldn't bare to do it to these that were in our yard...but they did bring fleas.

[Overtaxed]

Just hope they aren't homing bunnies. :)

Did the Sevin dust work?

[2Jedismom]

Yes it did! Steve sprinkled it all over the area and the fleas are gone. It was just one small area where their nest was before they abandoned it, I guess...I thought they'd died when I moved the compost.

That's why I took them over the river! They either have to cross a wide open bridge or swim to get home!

[HairOfTheDog]

The lawn and the pasture fenceline are ALL mowed! I am pleased.... There is a flower bed I still want to work on this afternoon, but the place outside looks as good now as it ever does.

Celebration.... playing with pets in the yard.... Gidget getting attacked by the cat on a retrieve:

But makes the retrieve! HA! cat foiled.

Over the jump!

Even got my 'back 40' mowed! That was all brambly, and nettles, hadn't wacked it down since last year, now I can at least walk back there.....

[2Jedismom]

Ha! The kitty actually looks foiled! Very funny!

Wow...do you have ticks?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

You would love to watch a whole batch of them. When they all get under the light there is alot of pushing and climbing all over each other to get the best spots. There will be one sound asleep and another will climb over the top and push and worm his way till the one asleep (and its still is sleeping) is pushed to the edge of the heat then he wakes up and he starts worming. It's like an endless cycle to get to the best spot.

I would sit in front of the dog crate and just watch them alot. I put the new ones in a big dog crate I have with a lamp and pine shavings. My dog lays in front of the door and stares at them too, but I don't think it's because she thinks their cute and fun to watch:) I wonder if it tramatizes them to be stared at so intensely

Becky