The Lord of the Rings, among other things....

I have nothing significant to write about today. In fact, the only thing you might find even remotely interesting is that my family has been watching the extended version of "The Lord of the Rings" which, when watched consecutively is about 12 hours of movie. They finished "The Return of the King" last night, to the delight of all. And, in spite of my daughter exclaiming to me this morning that "The Lord of the Rings" is her favorite movie, I still can't help but tell everyone I know that they should read the books, including said daughter. It's amazing to me how much gets overlooked in movie adaptations from characterization to coherent plot. Not that the characters in "The Lord of the Rings" movies were bad; they were just done so well in the books. My biggest beef is the character of Faramir. I happen to know (because I'm a geek) that in the extra commentary/documentary, one of the writers talks about making sure that the audience, especially those without a knowledge of the books, could understand how terribly bad the ring is. But I feel they did that by sacrificing essential character attributes in certain characters, especially in Faramir. At the risk of spoiling it for those who may not have read the series, in the books, Faramir never tries to take the ring to Gondor. In fact, he never tries to take the ring from Frodo at all. The point, I think, of their encounter was 1) to give Frodo and Sam some extra help before they actually get into Mordor, 2) to show how important it is to Frodo to keep Gollum with them, and 3) to show that the ring isn't all-powerful. In fact, you could say that we see this theme throughout the entire series of people being offered the ring or being in its presence and their reaction to it. First, Bilbo gives up the ring on his own even though he'd owned it so long. Frodo offers the ring to Gandalf, who declines. Then, Boromir tries to take it, but fails, though he ultimately proves how valiant he is in the end. Frodo then offers it to Galadriel, who declines. Then we see this interaction with Faramir, who happens to be Boromir's brother, and his reaction to the ring is 100% different from Boromir's. Faramir is the epitome of good and the way the movie people twisted his character was very disappointing.

But, enough about that. I'm in a rare mood today, otherwise known as cleaning frenzy. Yes, my house is relatively clean due to me cleaning last night from the moment my kids went to bed. Something clicked in my head and in the space of 1 1/2 hours I got my kitchen and living room back to good. If you'd seen the state of disaster they were in, you'd know what an accomplishment that was.

And, I've been writing to boot. :)