Maedhros

Boyhood A bit long, and some of the scenes were really cheesy - but overall it was a great film. Haven't seen anything quite like it. I can definitely see it winning a couple of Oscars this year.

Nope. Swedish and Norweigan you can guess your way through with varying success. Finish might as well be Russian. Denmark, Norway and Sweden historically traded a lot and was ruled by the same kings on occasion. Iceland was a Danish possession until they decided to mine their harbor and we decided not to bother contesting their rebellion. Interesting, so are you saying that Icelandic is like the old Danish language (because it was a Danish colony) which modern Danes don't understand? Yeah Icelandic is very similar to Old Norse. Guessing it was more similar to the Norwegian dialect though, as most of the settlers on Iceland were Norwegians. All Scandinavians spoke Old Norse during the 900-1300s, but Norway apparently had a different dialect than Sweden & Denmark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse#mediaviewer/File:Old_norse,_ca_900.PNG But yeah, Norwegians/Danes/Swedes don't understand old norse at all, while Icelanders can read the old sagas in norse writing fine (as far as I know).

Looking forward to it very much. I don't really support any particular national team, but kinda hoping for Uruguay to win it, with Suarez controversially scoring the matchwinning goal. If only to annoy the predictable whiners.

Wow, did not see that coming. I thought the previous one was pretty much the most unneccesary film ever made, and didn't really offer anything that the previous triology didn't. What was good about this new one?

Great cast. Pretty excited about this actually - guys like Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and Domhall Gleeson (About Time) are very impressive up-and-coming actors. Looks like Mark Hamill is getting into shape as well.

Crusader Kings 2 is a better RPG than pretty much any RPG.

Pretty much every "beloved" oldschool crpg plays terribly now. Clunky controls, ugly graphics, boring dungeon grinding, etc. Even newer ones like the Kotor games, and NWN 2 are horrible to play now. Jade Empire passed the test of time slightly better. I thought Dragon Age handled controls and combat better than pretty much any crpg released. Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 were horrible games. Waste of my time, both. Same goes for Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege III.

True Detective is fantastic. Sunday's episode was the best one so far.

Therese Johaug, yeah. Such a beauty.

Yeah, Marit Bjørgen is a beast. Best female skiier of all time pretty much. Dat arm.

Looking forward to it. Then again, I'm Norwegian and we've always liked the sports no one else does. Gonna watch curling (hypnotizingly fun), hockey (gogo Zuccarello!), cross-country skiing (crushing Sweden is always fun), and biathlon - with the best biathlete of all time still competing at 40, and having a real chance at gold.

A bit strange that Rush didn't get a single nomination. One of the best films this year. Then again, Formula 1 isn't very big over there I guess, could have something to do with it.

American Hustle. Hilarious performance by Bradley Cooper. The movie was good, as is pretty much always the case with David O. Russel nowadays. The ending was a bit underwhelming though. 7/10

Eyecandy is indeed important! One thing I liked with her addition is that she's a silvan elf. As opposed to all the other major elven characters in the movies, who are of very royal elvenkin. I liked one of her initial scenes, the one where she talks about how the elves love starlight (any Tolkien geek knows why). My favorite scene in the movie actually, except the ending of it with Legolas' jealousy stare. Seriously, why did they have to make that silly romance triangle? So ridiculous. A small scene with Kili and Tauriel bonding would suffice, and then later have that dismantled when both choose loyalty to their lord/race over friendship, thus not undermining that insane accomplishment Legolas' and Gimli's friendship in LOTR was supposed to be.

Has anyone tried Aarklash: legacy? Party-based RPG that's on sale now (40%). Might wait for an eventual 75% discount, but is it any good?

There's nothing from The Silmarillion (or Unfinishes Tales) in the movies, as they don't have the rights to it. Some of the background information comes from the appendices in Lord of the Rings, but it's mostly just fan fiction from PJ . I just wish they'd make two movies instead of one. There's too much new material that makes little sense, and doesn't make the movies better. Gandalf going to High Fells (why?), Silly romance triangle, Radagast Binks, drawn out fights, etc. Bilbo says it best: "I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread." I'm obviously arguing from a Tolkien fanboys' point of view, but I loved Lord of the Rings despite of all the changes they made there. Those actually made sense for the most part. I can't shake the feeling that the studio producers have had much more influence on this triology, sadly. One positive thing though, I loved Thranduil! Lee Pace being impressive as always.

Oh is that out now? I won't see it in the theater but I suppose my usual "I saw the first one" means I'll see it when it's on PPV. I didn't like the first one much tho. It wasn't bad, exactly - just boring. Sometimes magic can't be done twice. The first Hobbit film suffered from poor pacing due to all of the shoe-horning of Silmarillion material in there to pad it out to a trilogy. Most of the scenes that aren't in the novel is just fan fiction from Petter Jackson, with a few exceptions. They don't have the rights to Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. Agree that all those new scenes totally messed up the pacing though. Desolation of Smaug as a movie fails because they're trying to make a lighthearted adventure novel into an epic to match Lord of the Rings. Never gonna work, and they should've focused on what makes the Hobbit a good novel - Bilbo's adventure. All that other stuff is irrelevant to the story of The Hobbit. They had the right idea when they expanded the Bard character, as he kinda appeared out of nowhere in the book, but pretty much everything else just lessens the experience. Why did they think it was a good idea to keep -------- Top 5 movies this year: 1. The Act of Killing 2. Prisoners 3. Rush 4. Before Midnight 5 The East

Desolation of Smaug. Worst movie made in the Middle-earth universe so far (and that includes those cartoons from the 70s).

Bernadotte. Not one of the better marshalls and he actively hated Napoleon despite, iirc, being his brother in law. In a vaguely on topic observation it was one of his descendants who the Stern Gang (or was it the Irgun/ Haganah?) murdered just prior to the partition of Palestine when he was trying to mediate for the UN. Should have gone for one of: Davout- as best marshall MacDonald- could establish a chain of restaurants equivalent to Ikea in ubiquitousness, also possibility of forming United Kingdom of Sweden and Scotland in a year or so time to compensate for losing Norway's North Sea petrodollars. Plus Etienne MacDonald is a very cool name. Poniatowski, despite being a mere general- epically trolling P/Russia and Austria and as a sort of reverse Gustav Adolphus, plus lots of free cores on Poland and Lithuania. Bernadotte was probably more suited to be king than most of the other marshalls. In many ways he was similar to Napoleon, with that "larger than life" quality that made him such a good leader of men. Skill in the field doesn't necessarily mean you're suited to be king though. Someone as cold and stern as Davout isn't king-material for example. In general, the french marshalls under Napoleon were mostly all pretty badass, here is one example: http://www.infobarrel.com/The_Silver_Tongued_Frenchman_Marshal_Lannes_Stunning_Capture_of_Tabor_Bridge

Not sure what you mean by there not being a lot to do? Dota can be a very hectic game, you're always supposed to do something. The charm of it is the endless potential of how good you can play as a team. Playing it alone, with random internet strangers isn't very fun. Considering buying Europa Universalis III, but I'm still having so much fun with Crusader Kings II. How does it compare to it?

He also happens to be an accomplished actor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOV3ghVxVkY (How to embed youtube videos here?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF6J1afUzjQ

In no particular order: The Smiths - The Queen is Dead Radiohead - Ok Computer Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot The Eels - Electro-shock blues Beach Boys - Pet Sounds The Cure - Disintegration Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Led Zeppelin - IV Pink Floyd - Animals

I think the death penalty is one of those things you have to leave behind if you want to head towards a better society. Humans shouldn't have the lawful right to kill other humans. However I suppose it's easy to be naive about these sort of things, when you live in relatively peaceful Norway. After the Breivik-massacre the mantra in the country, including the people who lost their friends and family was "more humanity, more democracy, more love" etc, rather than "off with his head". So it's definitely possible to be anti-death penalty even if you've lost loved ones.

I've heard death penalties are usually more expensive than giving someone lifetime without parole. Googled it: http://www.acadp.org/contents/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40:costs&catid=14 http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42

Finished Heart of the Swarm. Was alright, but nothing special. If you didn't like WoL, chances are you won't like this one either. For me the quality of Starcraft lies in e-sport. Watching the pros play in front of large audiences is awesome. To the people worrying about a Starcraft MMO - don't. Blizzard has said their next MMO is going to be something completely new, and not related to SC/WC/Diablo.