A Tolkien Blog Party

Go here if you would like to learn more learn more about this or get a blog button. (The "party" ends on the 28th).

I first heard of The Hobbit when I was about five and found it on our family's  fiction bookshelf. I was, if I remember correctly, bored, and asked my mother if I could read it. She, not having read it recently enough to remember how "climatic" it was, and knowing I was an easily frightened child, told me to ask my dad. I guess she asked him herself, because not long afterwards, when we had a power outage due to a thunderstorm, he began reading aloud the first chapter to us by candlelight. I wasn't as intrigued as I had expected to be, and didn't mind that he wasn't able to read anymore from it for a while after that. A few years later, after we had moved, my mother began it over again for our nightly reading, and I liked it well enough. Still, I didn't like it enough to read to myself, and I hardly liked Lord of the Rings at all.

Bet you've never seen John Ronald Reuel as a baby.

My mother never got further than the first part of The Two Towers, as none of the smaller ones wanted to listen, and so were rowdy, and it isn't her favorite style of literature, either. I didn't even think of it for another three years, although I did learn that I wasn't paying very good attention as she read, as I thought Merry was *Mary*, and, therefore, a girl. I remembered that Frodo used to steal mushrooms from someone and something stabbed him.

Then, when I was eleven, my dad mentioned that they were filming The Hobbit and, as I was looking for new books to read, I decided that should be the next one I read. We had just moved again, and so I had to wait for it to be unpacked, and when it was unpacked, I decided to wait another two weeks, so I could begin it on the first day of Fall. Which, I later found out, is Bilbo and Frodo's birthday!

I began The Lord of the Rings on my 12th birthday, October 2nd, 2013, and from the first chapter I was appalled at myself that I could ever have found it boring! I finished The Return of the King on January 8th, 2014, and finished watching the Trilogy soon after. Even before I finished, I knew the Lord of the Rings trilogy was, and always would be, my favorite bit of literature and one of my favorites in the way of film, and I have now read 13 other works by Tolkien. It's been a few years since I have seen the films, but I'm sure re-reading the books will put me in the mood to watch them again sometime soon!

Now to fill out the tag....

1. What's your favorite Middle-earth story/book? 

The Return of the King. One of my favorite parts from that being:

"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 Eleven-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." 

2. Do you have a favorite subplot? 

Probably Aragorn's story. Not so much his story with Arwen, but his story of being very much the same type of "servant king" that Jesus was. In the films he even looks like the popular portrayal of Jesus- not that it's accurate...

3. What's your favorite theme in Tolkien's book? 

One that can be summed up in a quote from the man himself: "The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair."

4. Do you have a favorite weapon in Middle-earth? 

Elbereth's name. You can just scream that and the bad guys flee, no need for blood.

5. Would you like to be a Hobbit? 

An intelligent hobbit such as Bilbo, Farmer Maggot, or Merry (who's only so in the books)? I'd be fine with it, I guess. Your average idiot hobbit like Lobelia or Ted Sandyman or half the others? Definitely not.

6. Do you have a favorite romance/couple? 

I guess Faramir and Eowyn.

7. What's your favorite Middle-earth creature? (Can be "real" or "imaginary")

The dragons as a theory, but they're all bad....

8. What character do you like the most like? 

An orc .

9. Are there any books about Middle-earth of Professor Tolkien (but not written by him) you recommend? 

The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, by Alan Lee.

10. List up to ten of your lines/quotations from the Middle-earth books and/or movies.

Barring the two I have already listed...

"I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil." 

""I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. 
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

"And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring!" And they'll say: "Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the famousest of hobbits, and that's saying a lot." 

From the movies, I'd pick Sam's speech (you know the one), but it's far too long to type out on here.

Happy Fall, and Happy Hobbit Day!

Handwriting, Painting, and German

I started this post about three months ago. I had written done some things I had done since I last blogged, hoping I wouldn't forget them. I come back to it today and realize I may have wanted to be more specific in my outlining. I remember doing almost none of these things. I must start from scratch, I guess.

The year began with my siblings and I finishing up reading through the bible in three months, although it actually took us four. We had calculated at least four times how many chapters a day we would have to read in order to finish in January, the calculations being done by three different people, yet, by following those deductions, we found we were still in Isaiah at the time we should have been finishing Revelation. No one has yet figured out how that transpired, although it may have something to do with the fact that none of us like doing math. We may not have put our hearts and souls into our work.

The next book I read was A Case For Christ. I had somewhat read it before, but it had been a while, and I wanted to reread it before I saw the 2017 film based off of it. There were so many juicy tidbits of things I had never of before, and I stored many arguments away in my brain for if the time ever comes when someone questions some of the things Lee Strobel was questioning. It was one of the most intelligent books I have ever read, and I don't even mean just from a Christian viewpoint. Lee Strobel had some pretty compelling, incredibly thought through arguments himself, but they were all dispelled with equally thought through truths, it all the more certain that Christianity is based, not on fickle feelings, but on proven facts, making it all the more trust worthy, adding a little more sight to the faith we walk by. The film was good as far as it goes, but I would recommend reading the book, as well.

I have also been working on my handwriting, this year seeing a vast improvement in both my casual print and "fancy freestyling".

We watched The Last Jedi in April. It wasn't my favorite installment in the franchise, but it was definitely decent. I wrote a post about it here on my art blog. (By the way, I changed that blogs URL, so if you were following it, you'll have to follow it again.)
And speaking of art...

I'd taken a bit of a break from drawing for about six months. Not really a hiatus, I still drew at least once a week, but I wanted to start drawing at least a small doodle a day again. I haven't really done many big drawings, not anything very realistic, but I have been doing a lot of doodles, and practicing drawing realistic faces without a reference.

Lately, I have enjoyed doing the entire hair and shirt with a solid color in marker. I don't know, I just like the look.

I did use a reference for this one.

My pen was leaky for this one, but I think it's still okay. 

Although I have practiced almost no shading this past month, I have been doing more painting than usual...

I painted this in February (using a reference), on a 30×36" canvas to hang above my bed. I have also painted some gifts for people, and painted a bit just for fun. I rarely use acrylics, but I've had a lot of fun with them this past month!

Other than that I haven't had many personal projects going on. We've had some family things we've been working on, for instance; celebrating my cousin's birth and my sister entering her teens, but the only other thing I've been working on alone is practicing German and finally getting  finished with graphs in math! (For the time being, anyway....)

By the way, does anyone have the problem of Blogger adding a bunch of letters to the words you type? I have to edit almost every word I write. To illustrate, I will leave you with this unedited sentence:

I will nnot eedit this ssentence at all, nnot even if it puts a bbunch of uunneeded letters innmy wowrds aand ddeletesthe spaces.

Liebster Award Tag

I was tagged in this by https://moviesmeetmatch.blogspot.com/ (Great blog if you love movies, by the way.), which was kind of surprising, as I haven't known her for very long. But I love films and pretty much anything to do with films, so as I was reading her post I was sort of hoping that maybe someone would tag me in one of these. So it was nice to discover that she herself had tagged me, and some of her questions have to do with movies!

 The Rules:
~Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award. (Done)
~Answer the 11 questions that the blogger gives you
~Give 11 random facts about yourself
~Nominate 11 blogs. (Do I read that many blogs? To everyone I tag: know that you absolutely do not have obey me. Only do it if you really want to.)
~Notify those blogs of their nomination
~Give them 11 questions to answer (all part of the fun!)

 What is your 2nd favorite hobby?
Hmm... that depends. In a way, drawing is my second favorite. But, in a different way of thinking, drawing is my first favorite. For now, I'd have to say that drawing is my first favorite hobby, and music is my second.
What is your 2nd favorite movie?
Ugh, I can't think of my second favorites of things... maybe The Fellowship of Ring? The first being Return of the King. If two movies from the same series counts.  
What is your 2nd favorite book?
Seriously?
....Maybe The Fellowship of the Ring? The first being Return of the King. If two books from the same series counts.
What is one of your nicknames?
 Tori-Story, also the name of my first 3,405,897 blogs. (Or just the first three.) My sister Bethi calls my Vector, instead of Victoria, because of the guy in Despicable Me, who, I may say, acts a lot more like her than he does me.
Who is your favorite acting pair?
This is a hard one. I'm having to ask my sister for ideas. She says Ali Hillis and Drew Fuller in The Ultimate Gift work pretty well together. I'll go with that, I can't think of anyone else. 
Giraffes or Zebras?
 Zebras.
Black and White movies, or Color?
 Color movies for every movie except a James Stewart movie, because I like to pretend that James Stewart really did exist only in black and white.  Hugo is one movie I can think of that had very wonderful colors in every scene.
Animated or Live Action?
That really depends. If it's a super "thematic" movie, I'd rather it be animated, because you can make a lot more "unrealistic" things look real with animation than with live action. And movies like Lilo and Stitch wouldn't work well with live action, because Stitch would be terrifying. But if it's more story based than drama based, I like live action because I like to watch real actors. (The above rules do not apply to thematic movies such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. This is what happens when you animate Tolkien's works. Country music dwarves. Not to mention Green Gollums.) 
What is your favorite dessert?
At this point in time, ice cream. But it's always changing. 
Reading or watching movies?
Watching movies, although that apparently turns your brain to mush. But I read a lot of books in order to keep my brain about the consistency of oatmeal.
Snow or Sun?
50% of my previous four blog posts have made my answer of "Snow!" very clear.

And now, 11 facts about myself: 

1. I keep my window closed on sunny days and open it on rainy ones. 
2. I am currently learning German, and am supposedly 60% fluent, but I find that rather hard to believe. 30% at best. 
3. My favorite piece of music is Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique and I listen to it almost everytime I am doing math. 
4. I can turn my feet backward. 
5. I'm fairly good at imitating voices, and can sometimes sing bass. (Not all the time, though.) I randomly started quoting Dory from Finding Nemo one time when I was nine, and my dad said I sounded just like her, and I then attempted Ellie from Up, and after that I just started doing it all the time. (and, and, and.)  For some reason, I absolutely can not do Elsa, but Bri (my sister) says my Kylo Ren is pretty good if I practically choke myself while doing it. (No Daddy, I will not show it to you when you get home, I have perfect it.)
6. When I'm drawing a face, I don't envision it before I draw it, I just draw whatever I feel like, because I know that if I have an idea of how I want it to look, I'll be disappointed with the actual finished piece.
7.  I have promised myself never to say "h*ha" or put any kind of emoticon on this blog. (Almost had break my promise, but asterisks saved the day.) 
8. I can only use one kind of toothpaste. Any other kind gives me really bad cold sores. I have a scar in my mouth from one really bad one when I was ten.
9. When listening to the radio, I often can't tell if a singer is male or female unless they have a really high or deep voice. 
10. Until I was thirteen, I copied Bri in my ideas for my future, because I was very bad at coming up with my own ideas: I followed her in wanting to be an author, who lived in the country, owned a farm, and sold knitted afghans. That does sound like a nice life, (although I'm not sure that's what she's planning on anymore) but now I cannot imagine anything less suited to my personality. I have no desire to be a writer, would much rather live in the city, hate farms, and can't knit. Ergo, my original life dreams are more of a bullet list of what I should not be doing. 
11.  I hate being hot and love being cold. Which is why I hate summer and love winter. (I think this blog is turning into a "down with summer" campaign.)

 Now to nominate people...
I nominate
Bri
Bethi
Noami
Natalie 
Eva
And Simple Impossibilities
and you other five people, just nominate thyselves if thou wishest.
(Remember, nobody has to do this if they do not wishest!) (Except for you, Bri and Bethi. You have to do it.) (But you don't have to nominate anyone, Bethi.)

Questions:

What is your favorite time period for fiction books to be set in?
Fictional movies, or movies based off a real person?
Favorite preacher/pastor? (e.g., Charles Spurgon, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur.)
Least favorite movie character?
What do you think about Van Gogh's paintings? (Just curious, I've heard differing opinions about them.)
On a similar note, do you feel like Charles Dicken's works are intriguing or dry?
Favorite language? (Even if you don't understand a word of it.)
Are you able eat white meat or grapes without inspecting them thoroughly first?
Dream job?
Favorite name?
Thing you're best at? (Or maybe thing people tell you you're best at, even though you think you're better at something else.) (And it has to be something NICE.)

Hope those questions are fun to answer!