The Hobbit Book Log #4

10/25/2012

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 55-63

            In this section, our group of adventurers embark on a journey through a mountain.  Soon after they enter a cave to escape the weather, they are abducted by goblins.  They try and fight back, but it’s no use and they are all brought to the Great Goblin.  The Great Goblin interrogates the dwarves (and Bilbo), but won’t believe that they aren’t spies.  Just before the Great Goblin has them killed, Gandalf bursts in, kills some of the goblins, and releases our adventurers.  In the flurry of they fight, Bilbo sees someone kill the Great Goblin.  Bilbo jumps on one of the dwarf’s back and they all follow Gandalf.  In all the commotion, the dwarf drops Bilbo down a hole and he loses consciousness.

            “Now, goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.  They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.  They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty.” This excellent description of the goblins gives us a great idea of what they are like.  It gives us a feel for the goblins’ attitude and how they might treat our adventurers when they are confronted by the Great Goblin.  It makes us worry for all of our characters and wonder if they will all get out alive.

            In this section, I can relate to the needing to find shelter from the weather.  One time I was stuck outside when it suddenly started raining. It is not something that you want to happen, especially when it’s a flash storm.  It comes in without warning and is really quite freaky.  You get a feeling of helplessness, and it you get scared, especially in my case where I was out on my boat. We were able to get in quickly and got lucky because right after we got in, every other boat began to follow.  This experience helped me to understand how the dwarves felt getting caught in the storm.

Mark Zuckerberg

          I am writing about Mark Zuckerberg because the origin of Facebook seems like it could be interesting.  I recently watched some of the movie “The Social Network”, and I’m curious to see how much was accurate.  Also, Mark Zuckerberg has had a big affect on the world.  His social networking system has made it so people can communicate easier and tell each other about events and information quicker.  Whenever you go on a web-page you see “Share on Facebook” or “This page has (insert number here) likes”.  It would be interesting to figure out how the internet evolved with Facebook. 

The Hobbit Book Log #3

10/18/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 43-51

           

           In this chapter, our group of dwarves (and Bilbo) stops and rests at the house of some friends of Gandalf.  These friends of Gandalf are elves. They arrive here after a near fatal encounter with some trolls.  While at these elves’ house, they spend fourteen days resting, eating, and stocking supplies.  Bilbo was relieved to have this rest and wished he could just stay while everyone else went on, but he knew he couldn’t.  When it was time for the dwarves to leave, the elves gave them travel advice and told them origins behind the weapons they had picked up.  Then they were off.

            

           “They stayed long in that good house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave.  Bilbo would have gladly stopped there for ever and ever – even supposing a wish would have taken him right back to his hobbit­-hole without any trouble.” This is an important quote from the book because it tells us that the group wishes to rest longer and reminds us about Bilbo’s feelings for this trip, he would rather stay where he is than keep going and he wants to go home.  It also tells us that the dwarves wish to stay and relax longer, too. 

I can relate to the dwarves in this part of the book because I also like to just relax.  I especially would like to just relax after an encounter with some trolls, if they were real.  Still, I am able to relate to Bilbo with his wanting to be back home, not going on this adventure that he was dragged into.  Although, at this point I think I would have learned to just deal with it and brace myself for the rest of the adventure.  I feel bad for Bilbo, mostly because he didn’t have much of a choice whether or not to go on this journey. 

The Hobbit Book Log #2

10/11/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 27-42

                This chapter has Bilbo and the group of dwarves setting out on their adventure.  While on their adventure, the horses get spooked and run into a lake.  By the time the group of adventurers get the horses out of the water, they have lost most of their food.  When night begins to fall, they see a faint light in the distance.  They send Bilbo in to investigate, and he discovers that it is a group of trolls.  While trying to steal from one of the trolls, Bilbo is discovered and is grabbed by the neck.  The trolls begin arguing over who gets to eat Bilbo and then drops him on the ground while they argue.  The trolls stop arguing when they hear the dwarves looking for Bilbo, and then they hide and wait for them to come into the light of their fire so they can capture them in a sack.  The trolls successfully capture most of the dwarves, when Gandalf, the wizard, starts throwing his voice to confuse the trolls and starts another argument.  They argue until the light comes up and turn into stone.  The group is freed and then they find the troll’s home and take some food and weapons from it.

                “I had not gone very far when I met a couple of friends of mine from Rivendell….You will get there in a few days now, if we’re lucky, and find out all about it.” This quote is important because we learn more about Gandalf.  We learn that he has traveled around quite a bit, and has connections in many places.  As I read on I’m sure that I will find out more about Gandalf and the depth of his character.  Aside from being a powerful and wise wizard he is also quite old.  At one point he refers to a hundred years as if it is nothing.  

                At the beginning of this chapter, Bilbo sleeps in later than he meant to.  Because of this, Mr. Baggins misses something important that happened.  I can connect to this because I’ve also slept in too late before.  In the morning I slept in too late once and I was late to school because of this. Luckily, I haven’t slept in too late to the point where I was late for my job on the weekends.  For Bilbo, however, he was still right on time when he got to where he needed to go, so he must be luckier than me.

The Hobbit Log #1

10/10/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

Pages 3-26

            The book begins with a description of our main character, Bilbo Baggins (who is also a hobbit).  After we know some things about Bilbo, he meets a wizard named Gandalf.  Gandalf asks Bilbo if he wants to go on an adventure.  Bilbo doesn’t like adventures, so he nervously says no, and then invites the wizard to tea for the next day.  When tea time comes the next day, Bilbo doesn’t find Gandalf at the door, instead it’s a dwarf.  Being someone who welcomes company, he lets the dwarf in.  Very soon, another dwarf comes, then another, then another, soon there are about a dozen dwarves.  After all the dwarves have arrived, Gandalf appears.  There is a big party, complete with singing and food, but all of it is unexpected by Bilbo.  After the party, they talk about plans for getting back something that belongs to the most important dwarf, and they plan to pull Bilbo into it.

            “Let’s have no more argument.  I have chosen Mr. Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you.  If I say he’s a burglar, than a burglar he is, or will be when the time comes”.  This is an important moment in the story because it not only tells us how highly respected, wise, and powerful Gandalf .is, it also sets the journey in motion for our main character Bilbo Baggins. Also because of how the book described Bilbo, we know that this is something that he would never want to do, thus setting up an interesting story for us ahead. 

            Like Bilbo Baggins, I am not always so eager to go on adventures.  Now, adventures that I am possible to get pulled into are not quite as large in scale as what Mr. Baggins is being pulled into.  Something that I got pulled into was going for an extra hour long car ride than expected so we could go to a haunted house.  I still wasn’t very happy about it even it all was over, but sometimes we just have to deal with these things.  I’m sure Bilbo isn’t all that excited to go on his adventure, but I’m not all that sure of how he will feel about it once it’s over.

Apollo 18

Before I begin, I just want to say that while quite scary and suspenseful, Apollo 18 isn’t the scariest movie ever; I just don’t see many scary movies because I don’t have the stomach for them.

Apollo 18 is a “found footage” sort of film, meaning it the whole thing takes place through a camera, or multiple cameras.  It begins with three astronauts heading up to the moon on a secret mission in the very late 1900’s.  Two of them go down to the surface while one stays at a space station circling the moon.  Once there, they set up cameras around their space pod.  We very soon start seeing strange things such as rock moving on their own.  One day when they got out of bed and went out of the pod they found the flag they set up all torn up.  Baffled, they decide to go for a ride on one of those moon carts.

While looking around, they find a soviet space pod!  Upon further inspection, they find that while it is in decent working condition, the inside is completely trashed and has blood on the inside.  One of the astronauts decides to investigate a crater right next to the soviet space pod.  When he gets into pitch black deepness, he needs the aid of a flashing camera to see, but only in split-second increments.  During one of these flashes, he sees the dried up face of the dead cosmonaut. 

They pull the dead body up out of the crater to investigate it.  They find that his suit was punctured by a rock.  They take the rock back to their pod to observe it better.  The next day it’s missing, but they quickly find it lodged in one of their arms.  They carve it out of his arm and from that point on, the one who had the rock in their arm starts loosing it.

As things continue to progress in the movie, suspense builds and makes the end of the movie intensifying and even a little terrifying.  The thing that really builds the scariness of this movie is the fact that it tries to get you to believe that the entire movie really happened, and it does a pretty good job of doing that, however, it’s obviously not true because there was absolutely no way for all of the footage to get back to Earth, but good luck trying to think straight like that during the movie!

A Day in the life (Of Someone Else)

            I’m staring at the mirror, shocked.  I've never seen this hare, these eyes, or this face before.  Suddenly, the cell phone on the nightstand starts ringing.  I answer it, and hear a gruff voice barking at me about being late to work. Still shocked, I remain speechless.  The man tells me not to bother coming into work today because they already got someone covering my shift, but now I’m in hot water, then he hangs up.
After the phone call I frantically search the room for an ID card of some sort so that I can find out whose room I’m in.  Finding nothing in the room I quickly go downstairs a see a wallet on the kitchen table.  I open it a search I t to find a drivers license.  I’m in the body of Rich Goldberg, who is 6’1”, 21 years old, and also an organ donor.  Now I know whose body I’m in, now what should I do?My stomach suddenly growls. I look at a clock on the wall, and it reads 12:00 pm. 
          I decide to change out of this man’s pajamas and into a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.  I throw on a jacket and start driving around town looking for a restaurant.  I stop at a Noodles & Co. near Rich’s house and get lunch.  He must have gone there a lot, because many of the employees kindly greeted me.  I replied in a kind tone, pretending I knew who they were.  
           When I left I was still completely baffled. On my way back to the house, I suddenly realized something.  I was the campus of the University of Minnesota.  I knew this because my dad had brought me here before, also there was a football stadium that said University of Minnesota on it in big letters.  I arrived at the house still not sure what I should do. Rich’s phone rang again and I answered it. 
          The person on the other end sounded like a teenager and asked if I was Rich Goldberg.  I said yes and he suddenly started cheering on the other end saying something cell phone brain switching being a success, then I felt a shock and fell unconscious.  I woke up the next day in my own bed, and more importantly, my own body.  While I was relived, I still was quite confused.  I grabbed my phone and checked recent calls.  I saw a number I didn't recognize, a figured that was Rich’s number. I wondered whether or not I should call and ask, or leave it be.