The Hobbit : an unexpected journey

After the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we have all eagerly been awaiting to venture back to Middle-Earth. Most of the Tolkien fans danced of joy when Peter Jackson announced that the prequel The Hobbit would be poured into 3 movies also. Finally, I had a chance now to see the first part of The Hobbit, called 'An Unexpected Journey'. And it's brilliant.

A lot of criticism mentioned the slow pace of the movie, but that did not bothered me once. What a beautiful role for Radagast, the odd hermit wizard which hardly got any attention in the Tolkien books. The attention to the Tolkien world has again been so intense, that after the movie I dove into the books to check on some details (who were the two blue Istari which Gandalf says he forgot the names of ? Has Radagast really been into Dol Guldur ? And so on). And Martin Freeman is just brilliant as the young Bilbo, wandering around in the magnificent scenery of New-Zealand.

Are there no bad points to give out ? Sure, some of the digital hocus-pocus really disappointed, such as the character of Azog, which always remains rubbery and never comes to life. Also, the goblin cave is just a digital splatterfest, and just feels too crammed and noisy onto the screen. The humor that was so prevalent in the book has been cut down drastically so the movie feels a bit too much of Wagnerian proportions. There has also been taken way more freedom into diverging away from the book : Radagast has never been into Dol Guldur and Galadriel was never mentioned in 'The Hobbit'.
But that's nitpicking.

Drupal 7

It has been a very long & bumpy road, but I have finally managed to upgrade this site to Drupal 7. Just in time, as Drupal 8 is getting finished and polished. There is still stuff that needs to be converted, most noticeable are the taxonomy_browser and taxonomy_image functionalities, that will be fixed in the next couple of weeks.

If you see anything abnormal, just leave a note in the reply section !

John Wed, 02/27/2013 - 10:15

Congrats with your Drupal 7 install !

Dirk Fri, 03/01/2013 - 11:00

The upgrade to Drupal 8 promises to be even harder. Just warning you ;)

Linux 3.8

Where's the time that we spent ages in 2.6 ? Linux 3.8 has been released today.

Tomatin, 18yo

Long time since I tasted some Speyside whisky - Tomatin is one of Scotlands highest located distilleries, nestled between Aviemore and Inverness. The name 'Tomatin' comes from Gaelic and means 'the hill of the juniper bushes'. At least, that's what I have been told and am inclined to believe due to my naive and romantic character. Whatever. This Tomatin is newly formulated in 2009, with an Oloroso Sherry Cask finish, and bottled at 46% non chill-filtered.

Color : dark amber, almost like red gold
Nose : Vanilla, fruity, maple syrup and sweet smoke.
Taste : Oooh, much sweeter than the smell predicted, a whole orchard is coming trough life with some chilled water added. Citrus, orange zest, dark chocolate and some faint smoke in the background.
Finish : Long and sweet, slightly bitter (that zest again) and a bit of pepper.

Niiice - quite complex for a Speyside (the Highlands are not so far away after all), but extremely well balanced. I expected more peat and smoke, but it turned out a true Speysider on that matter with its fruitiness and sweetness.
I like this *a lot* : the sweetness of Speyside combined with the complexity of the Highlands.