Fragments

It's a smashing success. In the week since the post detailing my writing playlist, the use of said playlist enabled me to add 12 pages to my WIP this week, a rate about  ten times faster than I've ever achieved before.
Note: Just to confirm; I am a pessimist at home so my first reaction to a film is invariably focused on what bugged me and I tend to find a film more fun if I ever watch it again. However this does not detract from the fact that is my genuine belief that most DoS is just bad.
Secondly, I have been to see Desolation of Smaug already. Although I will grant that those who have never read the book will find it a blast, even if the continuity editing is choppy in the beginning, if you have read the book the middle part of the story is almost unrecognizable and you will have to reconcile your enjoyment of Tolkien's timeless classic with the alternate universe version the Peter Jackson has produced that has the same name. My personal opinion is that this film as an adaption of a book is a diseased piece of junk that needs to be remade as soon as anyone gets up the nerve to do it. In contrast to the LOTR, a longer version of this move would actually make it even worse instead of making it more comprehensible. (Minor spoiler hidden by whiteout) In particular because the Tauriel /Kili relationship does not work and the cgi is particularly obvious during major sequences, making it feel like one is watching cutscenes from a modern video game.
Related note: I hope Peter Jackson has given up claiming that he's honoring Tolkien's legacy, since his latest statements in defense of Tauriel were 1) a claim that Tolkien would have added an empowered female character, but this slipped his mind. and 2) that it is somehow commiting gender discrimination not to add said empowered female into a movie that already has plenty of characters nominally based on a story that has its share of hordes of female fans already. For one thing, not being a member of Tolkien's estate, Jackson has no business making even an implicit claim that Tolkien left anything out by accident. Second, in my perspective, he seems to be devaluing all the current female fans if he claims that they need a character inserted just for them. Can you say PC?

Desolation of Smaug: The atrocity people like.

Also adding this picture I took three Christmases ago b/c it reminds me of the line "The trees like torches blazed w/ light" Pretty close don't you think?