throw the dwarf

Instead of being in class this afternoon, I was in the movie theater for the first time in months. I was there to see The Two Towers and I was a little surprised at how many people were there since it was a matinee. Then again the movie did just open yesterday so the interest level is still high.

The quick answer would be that I liked the movie, which would be the second surprise of the day. My expectations hadn't been that high since for me the most impressive part of the first one was the scenery. New Zealand always looks like New Zealand to me even though they want me to believe that it is Middle Earth.

As I was sitting there I started to wonder if it was the Tolkien zealots who have been driving up the cost of airfare to New Zealand. Let me explain. There was no way that I was going to pay two thousand dollars for a plane ticket to Auckland. Both of my trips to Europe were less than that amount and that included food and lodging. This was a point that I argued with the travel agent before I stopped everything and said that I wasn't going anymore because of the cost of the airfare.

Over the weekend I had found out that I could go to Stockholm for five hundred dollars and was tempted for a moment or two. It was the prospect of six hours of daylight that stopped me from going. In my mind that much darkness meant a lot of vodka drinking. I also found airfare to St. Petersburg for six hundred dollars, but that limited daylight concept was still there along with even lower temperatures.

Moving back to Pacific destinations I found a flight to Tokyo that was cost fourteen hundred dollars and threw that figure at the agent. What I wanted to know was why Japan cost less than New Zealand since they are roughly the same distance. The argument that I got back was that staying in Japan would cost me far more than New Zealand.

Okay, I guess the point of this tangent was that I wanted to blame my not going to New Zealand on the fanaticism of Tolkien zealots, but that probably isn't the only reason for the high airfare.

Getting back to the movie itself, one of the parts that appealed to me the most had to be the elves. For me they have always been the most interesting part of the books and I was happy to see that even on screen they stay that way. The arrogance and style of their race can not be denied. Now if only they would make a film version of The Silmarillion.

...

The third surprise of the afternoon had to be the choice of previews that were shown. Bad Boys II and Old School seemed very out of place for the fantasy audience, but I'm not a marketing guru either. Terminator 3 however made sense and I was not at all shocked to see that the bad guy this time around wasn't a guy but a woman.

...

I had a sex dream about Ann and I have no idea why either. I haven't thought about her in weeks nor have I heard from her, but it was clearly her with me in the dream. Now I don't want to be too critical about something that never happened, but it wasn't that passionate of a dream. The sex itself was almost entirely devoid of emotion and she seemed to be doing it just to keep me with her.

Somehow the two of us had come to live together and things were as chaotic as ever with her in terms of her job and home life. The difference this time was the instead of being at the edge of the storm I was much closer to the center. The change in perspective did not make me happy.

 
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