Pondering between classes

My last class of the day is due to start in about, oh, half an hour, and I'm currently sitting at a circular stone table just waiting. Not THE Round Table, of course--for one thing, there aren't any chairs, just benches--but still it's a bit more fun to sit at than one of those boring rectangular ones I can see just a little distance away.

All my classes so far are promising. I'm not much of an Anthropology enthusiast but we do get to go to the Honolulu zoo to look at monkeys apparently, so that's nice. All of my other classes are English classes, which means I have an insane amount of reading and writing to do this semester. I'm happy about it now, but just wait until a few weeks have passed; I'll probably be rueing the day I decided to sign up for a full schedule! Oh, and I have an Honors seminar but I honestly don't know much about what that entails other than it's supposed to begin my Final Senior Project process, so I'm withholding judgement until I learn more. I have my first one this Thursday.

The weather's been shockingly pleasant, especially since I just came back from home where it's cold and somewhat rainy right now. Today in fact has been very hot, so much so that I've had to put my hair up and am continually thirsty. This is really odd, as I'm used to bundling up after my three weeks home. I'm breathing a lot easier now that I'm back in the tropical warmth, though; the cough that plagued me all Christmas break has mysteriously vanished. I'm like Robert Louis Stevenson, retreating to Hawaii for my health!

Nothing much else to report right now. Life is moving along placidly and without untoward disturbance, and I'm just going with the flow. I do have to refocus and get back to exercising rigorously and eating healthily, though--during Christmas break it's not much of an exaggeration to say that I was living entirely off of butter, sugar, caffeine, and chocolate.

Oh, wait, one more thing! Last Sunday's episode of "Sherlock" was brilliant, and I am extremely excited about "The Reichenbach Fall", hopefully it doesn't let me down. Last week I went to the movies with some friends and watched "War Horse" (which was extremely good, by the way, if you haven't seen it you should, despite the slow beginning, it's honestly all worth it by the end) and seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston dressed up as British WWI cavalry officers galloping side by side on some splendid horses with John Williams music playing was one of the greatest things I have ever seen ever. Huzzah the Brits!

New Year's Resolutions

Are overrated.

But in the interest of procrastinating on unpacking and other necessary things I am made some up for myself anyway.

1. Stop procrastinating.

2. Write every day.

3. Don't put things off for later, that only leads to headaches and panic.

4. Finish "The Outlaw's Hand" by the end of the year.

5. Don't get lax about classwork halfway through the semester like you usually do. I know it usually works out fine in the end but just don't do it.

6. Sew those Hobbit plushies.

7. Never forget your watercolor paints and fabric pens in California ever again.

8. Read at least 5 new books per month.

9. Make Irish dance more of a priority.

10. Exercise every day.

11. . . . Write every day some more.

My Grades for Fall 2011 are in

And the final verdict is: 3 A's, 3 A+'s. Which I am super happy about because I was worried that a year's break from school would make returning to classes difficult and cause a drop in my grades or something. Apparently it doesn't. What a nice early Christmas present.

Also I put cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in my tea today and it was delicious. Just right on a chilly and very windy day.

Happy Christmas, fellow Tolkien-lovers!

Christmas came early today with the release of the first teaser for "The Hobbit". I am overjoyed. It's been like seven hours and countless reviewings since the trailer was released and I'm still overjoyed, that's how brilliant it is. I've been waiting for this since I was five years old and all that waiting was worth it. I couldn't be happier, really. And I can't help but wonder what the actual trailer will look like if this is only a teaser! The trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" that was released a few days ago was really good, and I also love the "Hunger Games" trailer, but nothing. Nothing comes close to this. Nothiiiiiiiing.

I have a hunch that Fili, Bofur and Ori will be my favorite Dwarves, aside from the incomparable Richard Armitage as Thorin. And Freeman looks splendid as Bilbo, and I get to see more of him in action soon too with the release of series 2 of "Sherlock" (finally!), yay.

I'd better get to bed, it's incredibly late right now and I want to make rice pudding tomorrow morning. Brown rice pudding. Because, you know, I'm eating healthy and all ;)

Anyway, Happy Hobbit Day! And I hope to post lots of new writing over Christmas break, so if you are on the Radish Room, look out for that. And I also have to post my summary posts about 2011, my book round-up and all. I'm sad I didn't make it to 100 books read this year but honestly I'm quite pleased with my final total as well. I got basically no reading done in November/December because school was INSANE. It's a strange feeling to have no homework now.

Posters!

The new poster for John Carter was released today and it's absolutely gorgeous, very retro-scifi-feeling in all the best ways and super brightly coloured (a joy compared to all the dark and pretentious posters out there). Just like how I have this weird love for movie trailers I love a good poster. My favorite poster of 2010 is probably the one for War Horse, a film I can barely wait to watch:

Colors, composition, the contrast between the emotion on the boy's face and the serenity of the horse, the beautiful amber lighting . . . it's beautiful. My runner-up would have to be the poster for The Artist, another film I've been eagerly anticipating for over a year now:

I guess I have a thing for dramatic lighting. But look at it! It's gorgeous, I love how elegant and classical it looks. And I love profiles of any kind, so that too. I'm seeing both of these movies over Christmas break, it's going to be wonderful!