On The Hobbit Sequel

Following up on yesterday’s announcement from MGM and New Line that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will be producing two Hobbit films, I wanted to muse, for a few moments, on what those two Hobbit films will be. It’s been rumored for a while that MGM wanted two Hobbit films — indeed, theirContinue reading “On The Hobbit Sequel”

On Long-Expected Parties

I fired up Opera this morning, looked at my own website, and there, in the sidebar, was the usual “this day in Middle-Earth” feature. And lots of things happened in Middle-Earth today. A few years ago I wrote a BASIC program to convert Gregorian dates into Shire dates. No, I can’t tell you why —Continue reading “On Long-Expected Parties”

Again, On Shire Reckoning

I’ve been asked if my Shire Reckoning WordPress plug-in would ever be available as a WordPress widget. As of today, it is. Installation is a snap. Download the .zip file. Extract the file and upload it to your widgets directory. Activate the Shire Widget plug-in. Then on your widget management screen, drag it to yourContinue reading “Again, On Shire Reckoning”

December’s Greatest Hits

The top fifteen reasons people checked out allyngibson.com in the month of December. 15. “John Lennon atheist.” I wouldn’t call Lennon an atheist, per se, but he certainly had his issues with organized religion. Witness this quote–“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I am right, and have been proven right. We’re bigger thanContinue reading “December’s Greatest Hits”

For Geekoid Fanboys Only

In the summer of 1999 I reread The Lord of the Rings for perhaps the dozenth time. With that particular reading I studied, really studied, Appendix D on the calendrical systems in use in Middle-Earth in the Third Age. I was drawn, in particular, to the Hobbit calendar and decided to write a quick-and-dirty computerContinue reading “For Geekoid Fanboys Only”

Trewsday, 25 Winterfilth

The idea of Lord of the Rings Christmas cards still fills me with a sense of dread, but as Geoff Trowbridge pointed out in his comment to my entry of a few days ago, “[o]ne musn’t forget that Christmas is a profoundly pagan tradition dating all the way back to ancient Babylon, when the ‘FeastContinue reading “Trewsday, 25 Winterfilth”