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Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”A Day in the Life” is on the BSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and authorship was 60% Lennon and 40% McCartney. The song was inspired by two newspaper articles. The Mellotron, a keyboard that electronically produces programmed taped sounds, was used for the first time. The final piano chord lasts either 42, 43.5, or 45 seconds, depending upon your source or your sense of hearing.

Today, at long last, sees the end of Beatles Week. Since I’ve procrastinated so long, it happened to fall on the day I’m hosting a Lord of the Rings marathon. As a result, you get to bear witness to a conflux of pop culture heretofore not seen – a Beatle-titled liveblog of The Lord of the Rings.

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9:02p – Everyone left a while ago, but the credits just now stopped rolling.  Full-day attendees were Kim, Marshall, Jen, Lance, Eric, Jeremiah, Pete, Wendy, and me, with a few others coming and going in-between.  It was a fun day.  I’m not sure what next year’s marathon will be…

8:41p – Movie done!  Credits are apparently 20 minutes long?

8:37p – Frodo saying goodbye always makes me tear up.  Not gonna lie.

8:26p – Aragorn: “Second official act: smooch this-a-here elf lady.”

8:24p – Aragorn: “As my first official act as king, I would like to sing y’all a little song.”

8:14p – The One Ring: “I’m melting, I’m melting!”
Sauron: “Aww, dang it :( “

8:13p – Aaaaaaand Gollum saves the day.   Inadvertently.

8:04p – Nutmeg has taken turns throughout the day glaring at different people.  It’s Eric’s turn currently.

8:00p – Aragorn ends negotiations.

7:41p – Sting is a way cooler sword than a musician.  I mean, the sword glows blue when orcs are around!  Does Sting the musician do that?  I doubt it.

7:36p – Lots of Princess Bride references now.

7:30p – Legolas just took down an Oliphant by himself, once again proving that Elves are Middle Earth’s ninjas.

7:28p – Nazgul King pwned by Eowyn, film at 11.

7:22p – Oliphants are the AT-ATs of the Lord of the Rings universe.

7:19p -Gandalf 2, Denethor 0

7:12p – Most of the battles now are being discussed in terms of RPG bonusus – +100 this and -30 that.

7:04p – Sam to the rescue!

6:55p – None of us like Shelob much.

6:36p – Gandalf 1, Denethor 0

6:33p – There was just a skull avalanche, but none of us are really sure why.

6:28p – Ordering pizza for a large group is complex.

6:03p – Poor Sam :(  All he wants to do is help.

5:58p – Denethor is slimy and a jerk.

5:38p – Gothmog just showed up.

5:30p – This part is too talky.

5:19p – Just discussed: Aragorn’s sword Narsil is way legendary, so it probably has a pretty low drop rate.  Like, less than a half percent, probably.  We’re also not sure if Aragorn is leveled-up enough to use it.

5:14p – Random elf: “Lady Arwen, we cannot delay!”
Arwen: “Nertz to that!”

5:04p – I’ve been neglecting to blog people exits.  There are 11 of us here currently: Ruth, Lance, Jeremiah, Eric, Dana, Jen, Marshall, Pete, Wendy, Kim, and me.

4:55p – Gotta give Eowyn props for persistence.

4:40p – Andy Serkis looks kinda creepy just regularly, not just when he’s Gollum.

4:35 – Beginning of The Return of the King.

4:10p – End of second movie.

4:04p – The arrival of Dana!

3:57p – Orcs: “Hey, trees!  We’re safe!”
Trees: “NOM NOM NOM”

3:49p – The Ents attack on Isengard is one of the most awesome things ever put to film.

3:44p – And now a Poltergeist reference – Frodo announces the arrival of the Nazgul, “They’re here.”

3:40p – Ruth showed up.

3:24p – Totally just heard the Wilhelm Scream!

3:22p – Battle of Helm’s Deep has officially begun.

3:04p – Seriously. elves are awesome.  

2:27p – Aragorn: “…so she (Arwen) went with her kind.”
Eowyn: “So… you’re available?”

(Interpretation courtesy of Eric)

2:34p -Eowyn: Great fighter. Lousy cook.

2:14p – “Potatoes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew!”

2:08p – Poor Eowyn.  She can’t possibly know she has no chance with Aragorn because he loves an elf. Pointy ears FTW!

1:48p – You’d be surprised by how many ties to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Star Wars, and Spaceballs have been mentioned.

1:37 – Somewhere along the way Lee has fallen asleep.  Marshall looks like he might soon follow.

1:24p – Gandalf’s back!  Wooo!

1:14p – It has been decided that Gollum is like an overdramatic middle schooler.  “It hurtssssss ussss!” and “I’m famished!  I mussst starve!”

1:09p -Arrival of Treebeard, my favorite thing about this movie.

12:50 – “They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!”

12:45p – Gollum is always freakier than I remember.

12:30p – Start of The Two Towers.

12:03p – Longest scheduled break of the day. Time for some Seinfeld Scene It.

11:53a – End of first movie.

11:41a – See ya, Boromir.  Thanks for playing!

11:22a – Samwise kinda gets the lousiest gift from Galadriel. I mean, Elven rope is cool and all, but everybody else got cool knives and stuff.

11:09a – Galadriel is awesome and scary at the same time.

10:58a – “You shall not pass!” Gandalf rocks.

10:53a – Enter the Balrog.  Run, dudes!

10:32a – The Fellowship is at the door to the Mines of Moria.

10:25a – The demon bird swarm spawns discussion about how demon birds probably poop fire.

10:12a – “One does not simply walk into Mordor.”

9:50a – Arwen is riding her horse for all get-out, and Pete makes a Monty Python-coconuts reference. FTW!

9:47 – Gandalf (still Grey!) talks to a moth. Saruman is mining for orcs.

9:30a – The Hobbits have arrived in Bree.

9:15a – “This is it.  If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest from the Shire I’ve ever been.” – Samwise Gamgee

9:11a – Poor Frodo.  He just found out the ring is eeeeeeeevil.

9:09a – We have two people here who haven’t seen these movies, and at least one who hasn’t seen them more than once.

8:53a – Wendy and Pete show up.

8:37a – Abby shows up.

8:33a – Jeremiah, Kim, and Marshall show up.

8:30a – Start of The Fellowship of the Rings.

8:29a – Greg shows up

8:26a – Jen shows up.

8:15a – First guests show up: Lee, Eric, & Lance.

7:00a – Up and at ’em.

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”Paperback Writer” is on the Rubber Soul album and was written mostly by McCartney after helping some friends set up the Indica Bookshop. This was one of the first songs on which Paul played a Rickenbacker bass, and it is emphasized in the song.

We didn’t watch a lot of TV when I was growing up. I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons when I was very young, but it was some time around kindergarten that the decision was made. [Update from my brother: “I believe the TV thing was related to a poor conduct grade on my part. You are welcome to blame me freely.”] I remember being bummed about it at times (like when the kids at school talked about how cool The A-Team was), but for the most part it was fine. I read a lot, so I think it accomplished what it was supposed to.

I mean, I read a lot. I would go to the library any time I could and come home with a stack of books, which I would have read way too quickly. I read all the time. Our babysitter used to have to kick me out of the house to be outside, and when I went, I took books with me. I used to love to read through the encyclopedia, even. I just loved to read.

Somewhere along the line, all that reading made me want to write. I remember writing a story in fourth grade about the Nativity scene from a mouse’s point of view. Then, in eighth grade, I wrote about an elite trio of soldiers who were called back into active duty to rescue an old buddy, and in the process, they blew up Saddam. An interesting four-year interval, to say the least.

In high school I still wrote some short stories (mostly about guys who didn’t get the girls they wanted), but I leaned more in the direction of poetry. At the time, I was convinced I was really representing what it felt like to be a teenager and that some day it would help other people understand what it was like. Reading them now, I see I was right… but not for the reasons I thought I would be. The stuff the poems were about wasn’t the picture, the bad poetry itself was the picture!

I had an English teacher in college who made me fall in love with literature. Somewhere in there I really took to Steinbeck, and he remains my favorite author. I know I liked other authors, but I can’t really remember who. I know I was more in the Hemingway (sparse) camp than the Dickens (wordy!) one.

I lost my appreciation for poetry somewhere in there, too. I used to like Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson just fine, but e e cummings drove me nuts. The more poetry I read, the less I liked. I couldn’t decipher the symbolism, and it got to the point where the fact that there was symbolism irked me. This makes it pretty awkward around my good friend who writes a lot of poetry, as you might imagine. He’s been pretty good about being patient with me and helping me understand stuff, though. I’ll never be a poet, aside from the silly off-the-cuff rhymes I do for the cats, who also don’t seem to appreciate poetry.

I’d like to write – a novel, a short story, a screenplay – but I can’t seem to. I have ideas I can’t put into action. I attempted NaNoWriMo once, and stopped after about two pages. I’ve had a children’s book written in my head for about 5 years now that I haven’t typed out at all. The closest I get to structured writing are my game reviews, and even those I do kind of unstructured-like.

That’s why I blog, I guess. This is my book, spread out over almost six years of entries. It’s disjointed and freeform and all over the map, just like me. I guess I just needed to wait long enough for a form of writing to come along that suited me. If this is all I ever end up writing, I think I’m okay with that.

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”Drive My Car” is on the Rubber Soul album and was 70% written by McCartney and 30% by Lennon. Not much else to say about it, really, so here’s a link to the song.

If you’ve read my blog more than, say, three times, you’ve probably read about how much I don’t like driving. I’m not entirely sure where it comes from. It’s kind of like sleeping, I guess, one of those things you have to do that requires your full attention. You can listen to music (or an audiobook, if you’re so inclined), and that’s about it. Can’t play Scrabble or watch a movie or knit or whatever else. Then there’s the fact that cars are small enclosed places, and the fact that no one is a good driver (even though everyone thinks they are), and, well, it’s a recipe for nervousness on my part.

I passed my driver’s test the first time I took it, which I remember being a while after I turned 16. Not sure what the holdup was, other than the fact that I didn’t really need to get my license any sooner. The very first night I drove by myself after getting my license, I ran over a rabbit. I was on my way to help a family in the church hook up their VCR and it hopped out in front of me. All these years later, and I can still hear it. Poor rabbit :(

My dad’s been a mechanic since forever, and I grew up never knowing what kind of car might be in the driveway. My first car was a 4-door two-tone diesel Buick Century. It wasn’t speedy, by any stretch, and it’s hard to drive crazy in a diesel. It was a reliable ride, until February 1989 when I put it in a ditch. From then on, it never drove exactly right again, and had a weird thing where I had to keep more than half a tank of fuel in it or it wouldn’t work, especially in winter.

I’ve often wondered if having a “family” car as my first vehicle set some of my driving habits. I have only gotten one speeding ticket in my life, and that was in the fall of 1990. It was a construction zone on a weekend, and I was doing the normal posted speed. $74 later, I learned that construction zone speed limits count on weekends, too. To this day, people call me “slowpoke” and “grandma” when I drive. I have two thoughts about that: a) I’ve got other things I’d rather spend $74 on and b) Speeding’s breaking the law like stealing is breaking the law.

I spent five summers in a van with 5-6 other people while I was traveling for college. We spent 12 weeks a summer traveling to churches and schools to sing and perform dramas. The 7 of us and all our luggage fit into a 15-passenger van with the last row of seats removed, and it was a pretty tight fit. I’m not sure why I kept signing up for that, but I must have used to like traveling. Perhaps traveling all over most of the 48 contiguous states got my traveling bug out of me in a serious way.

Driving through or even around big cities stresses me out like very little else does. There’s too much going on with 4+ lanes of traffic all going at once, and my brain doesn’t apparently deal with it well. If there’s any kind of traffic jam, well that just makes it worse. There’s something about stopping and starting that have an effect on me, both physical and mental. It wears on me much like painting seems to.

I can drive a stick shift if I need to, but I’m not very good at it. One of the first times I ever had to drive a stick shift – a huge pickup – I was stuck at a stop sign on a hill for twenty minutes or more. Folks in the Midwest are usually fairly friendly, but the kinds of waves I got during that 20-minute stretch as people went around me were not the neighborly sort.

These days I drive a Saturn station wagon. It’s a good car and hasn’t needed much work. My only complaint is that it sits a little too close to the ground, and I have a hard time getting up out of it some days. That…might be more a function of my getting older than the car being too low, I suppose.

I doubt I’ll ever like driving, but having someone along for the ride usually makes it nicer. I feel guilty asking them to drive, as I figure if I hate it so much, it doesn’t seem fair to ask them to do it, especially if I’m going to enjoy my not-driving by sleeping or reading. Here’s what I figure, though: GPS is the first step towards self-driving cars. If the car knows where it is and where it needs to go, it should be a fairly simple prospect to have it get itself there. Once self-driving cars are commonplace, driving becomes riding, and I’ll get a lot more reading and sleeping done.

Hurry it up, scientists! I ain’t getting any younger, and I’ve got places I need to get to.