In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

I've written 38 pages for my four classes' final papers, and I have about four pages to go, which I intend on finishing later today. My Cartography paper was one of my favorite that I've ever written, my Intro Geography written final was pretty average, my Russian written final (of which I've written 8 of 12 pages) is going pretty well, and my Qur'an paper may well be the absolute worst paper I have ever written. I hope I don't get a C in that class, but I can't say I wouldn't deserve it.

I fly to Salt Lake City tomorrow, and Park City's forecast (on your left) is looking truly spectacular. Bear in mind, that's the forecast for the town of Park City, which is at about 7,000 feet. We'll be skiing a couple thousand feet above that, so it will be even better.

Also, I get to see that thing pictured on the right. Yeah.

I'll be back in Newport some time right before Christmas. Not sure when yet. You'll know when the time comes.

End of the semester class reviews:

History of Cartography
One of my favorite classes I've ever taken. Basically extending one of my favorite hobbies (looking at maps) into the classroom, writing about it (something else I like to do), and getting credit for it.

Golden Age Russian Literature
A solid class. I'm glad I took it because I don't know if I could ever muster the determination to read some of those books without being graded on it. And I really enjoyed Pushkin, Lermontov, and Dostoevsky. I thought Tolstoy was a good writer, but, and I make no apologies for what I am about to say, Anna Karenina is just flat out boring. Takes way too long for anything to happen.

Place and Society
Well, I'm glad I took it because it's the intro geography class and is therefore required for the major, so I had to take it at some point. The workload was sometimes overwhelming and not super interesting, but then sometimes we learned some things that were super interesting. The professor was really good, too.

The Qur'an
I took this class because I wanted be aware of what's actually in the book. Same reason I took Biblical literature last year. Except Bib lit was taught by maybe the best teacher I've ever had, ever. And we read almost nothing but the Bible, whereas in the Qur'an class we read a lot of commentaries on the scripture. If I could do it again, I'd sign up for some other class and hopefully get around to reading some of the Qur'an at some point. But it's done now, so unless it absolutely tanks my GPA, I'm okay with it.

And now for the most important thing ever: the movie I watched from midnight to 3:00 am this morning. Starring these dashing young ladykillers.

I don't have the time to do a full review here, but suffice to say, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is all of the following:
1. Awesome. Wickedly entertaining.
2. Not The Lord of the Rings. And let's face it, how could it have been? LotR is a monument. Hobbit is a really good movie.
3. Able to spend a lot more time on each scene than LotR was, because it's three hours for just the first six chapters of a book, rather than three hours each for three much longer, full books.
4. Hilarious. More so than LotR.
5. More of a fairy tale feel than LotR. More absurd, more Lewis Carroll-esque, less epic.
6. Less predictable than LotR.
7. Less emotional than LotR.
8. More eye-popping than LotR.

Radagast is hilarious. You will love him. Imagine Max Muehlhauser if he were master of the universe and could be anyone he wanted. He would be Radagast.

The stone giants scene was ridiculously awesome. It could never have fit into LotR. It's too absurd. But spectacular. Absolutely spectacular.

Ian McKellen is predictably fantastic, just like he was in TT and RotK. But not the greatest performance of all time, like he was in FotR.

Well, second-greatest. The Gollum sequence in this movie topped all of the Gollum sequences in all of the LotR movies. Yeah, I went there. You'll believe it when you see it. And you will see it. All of you.

The goblin tunnel battle felt like the greatest video game of all time. Which is still a video game. An epic video, to be sure. Lots of fun. But like the stone giants, it fit in The Hobbit because it's more fairy tale than epic.

The entrance to Rivendell is more spectacular this time around than last.

Having a bunch of Dwarves around makes it a lot of fun. Imagine a bunch of variations on Gimli. Speaking of which, Gloin did not get enough screen time. Hopefully he does in Part II.

Balin is my favorite. If you remember that when you watch the movie, you'll be thinking, "Of course this guy would be Derek's favorite."

Going back to Gollum. That's the best scene in the movie. Incredible. It pays for the nine dollar ticket all by itself. Oh, right. You're not in Middlebury. Twelve dollar ticket. Speaking of which, I don't think the Midd theater showed it in 48 fps. Fine with me.

Okay, time to go run in the dark, eat, finish a paper, pack, sleep, eat, catch a ride to Burlington, fly to Detroit, eat, walk to a different gate, fly to Salt Lake City, catch a ride to Deer Valley, eat, sleep, eat, and then . . .

Merry Christmas.