Went to see Lord of the Rings, Return of the King New Years Day. Though I am not a rabid fan, I haven't even read the books; I've always had a passing interest in LOTR and Tolkien. I've understood the supposed allegory in the tale and have an appreciation for the use of fantasy/myth to tell the story. Having seen the first two installments, Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, at home on DVD, I wanted the full experience with the final episode.
I pretty well followed the story line through yet still have had difficulty in some areas making the allegorical connection. Though Peter Jackson and the actors claim to remain true to Tolkien's work, I've no doubt that a reading of the full work will help. Though I don't have it in my library, I intend to acquire it. I've also begun checking out resources on the web to try to fill in the gaps. To that end, FaithandValues.com seems to have an extensive site dealing with LOTR. After doing all this, I'll rent the DVDs and view the whole work again to see what I've gained.
I know that seems like a lot of work, my wife will undoubtedly think I'm nuts for investing so much into this, but I do feel that a literary work as important as this requires some personal effort to gain the most from it. Not all things come easy, nor should they.
I will have to say the movie seemed to have several false endings that of themselves left you pretty satisfied, but then the cinematic experience continued through another part of the story line to wrap up more ends. When we finally reached the real conclusion, I wasn't so sure I was really there, or if more was to come. I supposed had I read the book and known the tale, would have been prepared for the bumpy start/stop ending. Be sure to empty your bladder and watch how much you drink during this film. Its 3-½ hours is a test for both butt and bladder.
The one line that stood out for me was when Sam and Frodo are making the final assault on Mordor and Frodo is so exhausted he can go no further. Sam, who has been a faithful friend, companion and protector of Frodo this long journey but does not have his friends resistance to the ring, declares, "Though I cannot carry the ring, I can carry you" and with that picks up his friend and begins making his way up the steep, rocky crag of the mountainside.
I see in those words the depths of true, committed and wise friendship. We may not be able to carry our friends (and family's) burdens for them, nor should we. But we can commit ourselves to be strong and true to them, carrying them through the darkest of times. We must know those times when our friends have to carry the burden themselves and be there to encourage and support them in their personal struggle. In that struggle they may find in themselves the strength to move forward and learn to reach out to God for his strength. In doing so they, and we, grow deeper and stronger in our faith and character.

For good reviews of the trilogy check the following:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Background on J. R. R. Tolkien

Happy New Year to all. 2003 is now history but many of the stories and events of 2003 will continue through 2004 and beyond.
I look forward to watching as they unfold, not failing to remember their history even as some would try to revise and spin that history.
And to my wife, Happy Anniversary hon, I love you.

Feeling kinda wiped out after a couple rough days at work, I thought I'd vegitate in front of the tube. The future looks bright for Blockbuster.

My wife just saw an interview on FoxNews and pointed me to a new blog, Through A Soldiers Eye by SPC Nally of the 10th Mountain Division. He is stationed in Iraq and his words give a new perspective to the situation over there.
What we see and hear in the regular media is not the whole story. I've heard of political types who have gone over and returned with similar stories but this is different. This is one of the guys who has been there, I and I suspect if given the chance will return, on the ground doing the job.
Make his first entry, The Basics, your first read. Tells why he's blogging the conflict. You can hear the frustration with the media in his words.
I've added a link on my blogs page.

With the press of the holiday business now behind us, we'll be looking back, like the rest of the business world, to evaluate how things went. My feeling, no hard numbers yet, is that volume, especially parcel volume, was down. The way mail is processed now days it is harder at the delivery office level, to get a feel for things unless you are a carrier.
So my seat of the pants evaluation of letter/flat volume would be of little value. However, parcels are still sorted by hand at the delivery office so I can evaluate volume much better. To other clerks, supervisors and managers, and myself the feeling is that parcel volume is down over SPLY (Same Period Last Year). If that is the case, and for it to be as noticeable as it was for us, the downturn has to be significant.
If this is true, the Postmaster General Potter’s commitment to hold rates till 2006 is going to be sorely tested. Productivity gains will be increasingly harder to achieve and there is less than full confidence that the plan to fully automate flat mail will reach full implementation. If sufficient productivity gains can not be achieved to offset possible revenue losses, management will be reevaluating the plan for the balance of this year and the years to come, probably adjusting work hours, capital expenditures, and so forth downward.
We've already cut pretty close to the bone in a lot of areas. While there are more consolidation of processing centers to go, there is a lot that can be saved through consolidation of many of the small, none contributing (net loss revenue) offices. The problem here is congress. Whenever we try to close these types of offices the patrons petition their congressman who gets on the phone with the PMG and ultimately puts a stop to it.
We cannot operate under good business principles with congress involved. (Surprised?) It's not that service would discontinue to these customers, they already have free home delivery available which would continue and they would be able to move their PO Box to another office it they needed one. The biggest objection is loss of community identity. Well, if that is dependent on the presence of a post office...need I say more.
The competition, UPS, FedEx and so forth have been lobbying congress heavily to prevent any reform plan from going forward that would allow the postal service to compete on a level field. They were able to hold up Rep. John Mc Hughs house committee that was making great progress until his term as chair was up and the process had to essentially start over.
Delivery services like UPS and Airborne are able to transfer delivery of non-productive areas to us by drop shipping deliveries to sparsely populated rural areas at the local post office for delivery. We always go by every delivery point on the route and gladly take their revenue. That revenue helps us, but we cannot, because of congress, consolidate where these other services can.
I don't want to see delivery service discontinued to certain areas, I just want us to be able to do so efficiently. Until congress is out of the decision making process, efficiency will be difficult to come by in these critical areas.