hello, schweet schmookies. I wrote a bigfat rant full of links celebrating Tolkien's b'day (and happy birthday to Linda, too! woo!) but for some !@#$ reason, it is taking its !@#$ sweet time publishing, so... sorry. it will be there eventually - and for some reason, it is already showing up in the archives. if you want to go ahead and read it (kaysha, there's a spaschul message for you there...) please do. otherwise, sorry for the delay!
xoxox
-s

Kaysha, this one's especially for you, Love.

The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter IV:
"And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness."

Greetings, Denizens of Middle Earth! Today’s rant has Tolkien- AND “yellow-” fever (LOTS o’ links!)
For those of you that didn’t get my e-unbirthday card this morning, today is the one-hundred and twelfth birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien!
So, to celebrate, today’s rant is full of links and pics and quotes to delight the most hardcore (URUK-HAI, URUK HAI!) Tolkien fans.
The Tolkien Society has a great webpage, and tonight everyone is asked to toast the same thing at the same time…
So at 9pm (local) join me in raising a glass to “The Professor”!
There are LOTS of happy sites that celebrate the Professor’s great works.
This one is fatly rich with art, mmmm! (and do NOT miss the excellent flash MAPS under the ‘Artwork’ dropdown, Wetrats! Oh, and there’s a great “Beat Gollum” Riddles in the Dark quiz, too! Whee!)
There’s all sorts of fun stuff here…
and this one has a nice “Tolkien Timeline”.
Here’s a very SERIOUS (and nice) fan site, and Hamilton, you’ll love this one – songs and poems! And lots of good links, too!
On this one, I can’t read the text, but MAN, is this some lovely art!
This GREAT “Gandalf” pic is from Ian Mckellan’s own site, where he posts photos from all his sets…

Here are a couple of typical Geek-Queen miscellaneous tidbits…
Why does this pic make me think of Very Secret Diaries and Very Secret Journals? :)
(sorry. Had to make the joke, but this is BEAUTIFUL art… :)

And who EVER thought that THIS guy
could play OUR (mmmm!) Aragorn (ohhhh!) King (ahhhh!) ? Puh-lease!
oh, sorry, 'don't know how THIS got in here! :D

If you ever start feeling like you might be going too far over the edge, just check out this site, and you will realize that you’re a perfectly healthy, normal geek like the rest of us. Heh heh heh…. (despite some bad Elvish wigs* this site is pretty dang cool – for a buncha !@#$ costume freaks. :)

And finally, some quotes that I think help to sum up the whole of how we, Geek Nation, feel about the gifts that J.R.R. – and now P.J. and Crew, have given us.

The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 1: Many Meetings
“Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that [Frodo – and we] had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above the seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more and more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitudinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned him. Swiftly he sank under its shining”

From The Return of the King -
Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

Elrond
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."

Celeborn, to Boromir on the subject of old wive's tales.
"But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know."

and the words of the bard, himself:
J.R.R. Tolkien - On Fairy-Stories
”Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted. The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beast and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is a dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.”

And on the lighter side, just from the whole "Sam, UrukHai-practical" viewpoint...
I’m not sure who this girl is, someone on the film production crew, I believe, but I like the way she thinks!
Christy M.
”In matters of money, it is better to be mistaken for an Orc than an Ent.”
:)

Much love, Geek Nation!
-Magpie the Uruk-lo!


*”Uhh, thankyouverymuch. Dang, this toadstool is cold! TCB!”

Lovely day yesterday, perfect way to start the new year. Big gathering of friends at Bruffy's for games and gossip, adult beverages and a wonderful dinner. I will say it again and again (sorry if you get tired of it), I am so blessed and grateful to be a part of their family.
Tomorrow night, X comes home (!!!), Sunday night, back to Bruffy's for yet ANOTHER big gathering, THIS time to celebrate HEATHERNESS!!! Yes, that's right, the elusive red-headed spinner and High Priestess Extraordinaire has been cornered and is coming to play! ALL the boys will be there, too, so they can geek out and play Magic (or possibly ANOTHER game*... :) and carry our refreshments up and down the stairs so that we don't fall and bruise our delicate heinies. :D Also, Heather and Ken will finally get to satisfy their curiosity about my fabulous beau...
In other words, "YAY, US!!!"
Ok, I will shut up and go away now, but before I do, I will leave you with two good poems to start off your year. They are both about subjects that mean a lot to me...
Books and pragmatic love.
Enjoy!

xoxoxoxoxoxox
-Miss 'Pie

*i can't tell yet! it's a secret!

*****
Books

From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit, alphabetical shelves,
Giovanni Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low, gigantic chord of language.

I picture a figure in the act of reading,
shoes on a desk, head tilted into the wind of a book,
a man in two worlds, holding the rope of his tie
as the suicide of lovers saturates a page,
or lighting a cigarette in the middle of a theorem.
He moves from paragraph to paragraph
as if touring a house of endless, paneled rooms.

I hear the voice of my mother reading to me
from a chair facing the bed, books about horses and dogs,
and inside her voice lie other distant sounds,
the horrors of a stable ablaze in the night,
a bark that is moving toward the brink of speech.

I watch myself building bookshelves in college,
walls within walls, as rain soaks New England,
or standing in a bookstore in a trench coat.

I see all of us reading ourselves away from ourselves,
straining in circles of light to find more light
until the line of words becomes a trail of crumbs
that we follow across a page of fresh snow;

when evening is shadowing the forest
and small birds flutter down to consume the crumbs,
we have to listen hard to hear the voices
of the boy and his sister receding into the woods.



*********************
Any prince to any princess

August is coming
and the goose, I'm afraid,
is getting fat.
There have been
no golden eggs for some months now.
Straw has fallen well below market price
despite my frantic spinning
and the sedge is,
as you rightly point out,
withered.

I can't imagine how the pea
got under your mattress. I apologize
humbly. The chambermaid has, of course,
been sacked. As has the frog footman.
I understand that, during my recent fact-finding tour of the
Golden River,
despite your nightly unavailing efforts,
he remained obstinately
froggish.

I hope that the Three Wishes granted by the General
Assembly
will go some way towards redressing
this unfortunate recent sequence of events.
The fall in output from the shoe-factory, for example:
no one could have foreseen the work-to-rule
by the National Union of Elves. Not to mention the fact
that the court has been fast asleep
for the last six and a half years.

The matter of the poisoned apple has been taken up
by the Board of Trade: I think I can assure you
the incident will not be
repeated.

I can quite understand, in the circumstances,
your reluctance to let down
your golden tresses. However
I feel I must point out
that the weather isn't getting any better
and I already have a nasty chill
from waiting at the base
of the White Tower. You must see
the absurdity of the
situation.
Some of the courtiers are beginning to talk,
not to mention the humble villagers.
It's been three weeks now, and not even
a word.

Princess,
a cold, black wind
howls through our empty palace.
Dead leaves litter the bedchamber;
the mirror on the wall hasn't said a thing
since you left. I can only ask,
bearing all this in mind,
that you think again,

let down your hair,

reconsider.



*************************************************************
Poem: "Books," by Billy Collins, from Sailing Alone Around the Room (Random House).
Adrian Henri, from The Loveless Motel (Jonathan Cape).

well, howdy folks! and happy almost new year!
i hope that everyone's christmas was duck lovely. mine was pretty great, except for christmas day, but i will not torture y'all with the sad details. suffice it to say that we're all alive and fairly fit, fat, and sassy, so that's all that matters, right?
i had a very nice xmas eve. stewart and i delivered the results of our (and mr. x's) hard labour of love to bruffy's house. unbeknownst to them* we have spent a good part of the last two months (and a GREAT part of the last two weeks before xmas) BUILDING A DOLLHOUSE!!! :D
and it is beeee-yoo-tiful! i also did a special "Stewart's Day Off" as a xmas and thank you prezzie for Wet Rats, so with that and the pics i'm getting from buff tomorrow, and the digi pics of the dollhouse and a special diary comic i did years ago, we should have a totally updated Day Off SOON! woo! and YOU will get to see the dollhouse!
we had a lot of fun building it. and it was a lot of hard work, but it was worth every minute to see buffy bawl the second she tore the wrapping! yee-hah!
i also made a lot of jewelry this year. pretty necklaces and bracelets to adorn MY jewels. and they have all been sparklin', let me tell you. i've still got one project to finish and i shall do that tonight, 'cause the Wonderful BF comes home on "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not that i really CARE or anything... i mean, i've hardly even noticed that he was gone... for at least a whole minute. one day. last week. when i was really really busy doing something else, or maybe when i was asleep.
*sigh*
:)
now, before y'all go and start giving me hell about liking and missing a boy this much, i want y'all all to think back real far, real hard, and try to remember when i was this happy and comfortable and content and pleased and had someone who was really worth missing and being a schmoo over, and THEN give me some lip!
he is so great. kind and thoughtful and funny and smart and nice and not boring (despite the six previous adjectives) and he likes me, and his family seems to like me, and he has a job (pretty much THREE jobs), and he's responsible and punctual, and he calls me, and he apologizes when he's wrong, and he accepts my apologies gracefully when i'm wrong-ish :) , and he stands up for himself when he needs to, and he is both a pimp AND a professor-type**, and he (at least pretends to) like(s) my cooking, and he listens to me AND remembers what i said days later, oh, and did i mention that he is DROP DEAD !#@$ gorgeous? there is that. AND he has good taste in movies and music, and although we don't agree on everything, he liked Waterworld and when we don't agree, we are learning how to fight in a fun way. and he likes my friends, and they like him, and he's a complete and utter geek, and he takes me out and brings me treats and writes me notes, and he helps around the house, and he likes to go shopping and he dresses VERY cool (in a punk-rock/professor kinda' way), and I DIDN'T MAKE HIM UP. i swear!***
so, SHUT UP! ;)
it's true. i've not liked a (different) boy this much since i was 16. and i don't mean LURVED or wanted or w.t.f.e., i mean liked. and cared for and all those other things too. he's great. in fact, the ONLY bad thing about him is that he's NOT HERE! and has been gone for almost TWO WEEKS! moo!
so, in other words - DON'T CALL ME ON SUNDAY! (or maybe monday, either! ;)

i hope this new year brings you all good things. happy babies, and baby-mamas,
good outlooks on your job-fronts (my BIGHUGEFAT*** raise kicks in next week!!! OW!) happy love, even if that means your pets and parents, a good mental-health outlook and easy (and hopefully no MORE) jail-time (you know who you are), warm houses, fit bodies, even if that means someone elses' (OW!), good weddings, easy moves, safe soldiers, lush gardens, successful shows, miracle recoveries, easy passages, happy cars, good books, patience, some 'woo' and plenty of 'WHEEEEE!!!'*****

and cross your fingers for me, too. if the 'stars align properly' (ie: mandy can come), i will get to be together with ALL of my siblings, all five of us, in mid-january in san antonio texas. that would be the first time in MANYMANY years, and it would be a true-blue dream-come-true! all stories have to start somewhere - even sequels.

bless us all!
-sam

*and most of you, too, 'cause i couldn't talk about it here in case they read it
**i tell him that he's a cross between richie and fonzie. :D
***on my father's bream bed.
****i'm talkin' Gilbert Grape's mama-sized, for me.
*****jen, looks like you might your "Whee! and Woo" wish to the right Goddess on the right day of the year, girlfriend! xoxox