Another element of the teeming horde that comprises Terry Pratchett’s Diskworld novels, The Truth would probably be grouped with the subset featuring Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch.  That’s not entirely accurate, because the story really revolves around William de Worde’s newspaper, but the Watch is involved to a large degree.

I’m not entirely sure what to think about this book.  The whole thing is very Pratchett, with plenty of sections that left me literally laughing out loud (sometimes to the concern of those around me).  On the other hand, there were parts that I didn’t feel really worked, such as Mr. Tulip’s manner of cursing (“Too —ing right”).  I’d say that, on the whole, the book’s satirical bent tended to interfere with the storytelling.  It was good in pieces, but not necessarily in large chunks.  Still, it’s quite funny.  Go ahead and give it a read.

Sometimes, it seems that everyone except me had to read The Diary of Anne Frank in school.  (The fact that I probably got more out of the book because I didn’t is a piece for another day.)  While I was reading, I learned from a friend of mine that I was reading an edited version.  Though it is not indicated anywhere in the copy I have, it was edited by Anne’s father before publication.  (This despite the declaration “unabridged” on the title page.)  I am told Anne’s father removed much about Anne that was specifically Jewish or related to her burgeoning sexuality.  (The former because he wanted her to be a more religion-neutral hero, the latter presumably because he didn’t want people reading that about his daughter.)  So I suppose I’ll have to read the fuller version at some point.  Regardless, this one is quite good.

Anne Frank was a talented writer.  She does a good job of expressing what her life was like during the two years of her family’s hiding from the Germans.  At times, I did feel that I was an interloper in someone else’s thoughts, especially during the time when she was exploring her feelings for Peter, but that lends to the feel of the book.  It tells the tale of a young girl thrust into a situation where she has little control over her life and how she manages to live with that.

I’m not sure what I think of the translation.  Anne originally wrote in Dutch, which doesn’t work well for a sadly monolingual American such as myself.  The translation is very much one for a British audience—in addition to things like footnotes translating guilders into shillings and pence, much of Anne’s translated language usage involved very British phrases like, “had a jolly good row with so-and-so.” For the most part this was relatively unnoticeable, since the phrasing flowed very smoothly through my understanding, but occasionally I was struck by the contrast inherent in a Dutch girl being given a British voice.  I understand the reasons for the mode of the translation, but I do wonder what exactly Anne really wrote.  (For a real answer, I’d have to learn Dutch, and for a real answer, I’d probably have to grow up in Holland.)

What strikes me most is Anne’s generally unflagging optimism throughout the whole book.  In one of her final entries, she waxes very introspective, examining her thoughts and behaviors carefully.  Near the end of that entry, she writes, “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out.  Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.  I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death.”

Excel Saga 03 continues along the path set by volumes one and two: weird situations, not-so-smart Excel, not-so-healthy Hyatt, not-so-successful Il Palazzo, some satire, some plain funny stories, and so on.  The excellent footnotes make their return, with comments about The Prisoner, Astro Boy, Blaise Pascal, and many other wonderful things.

Now I have to wait for volume four to be translated and published.

So, yeah.  Being the giant Tolkien fanboy I am, I went to see the third Lord of the Rings movie at 12:01 am on opening night.  Despite some setbacks, I did manage to see the whole movie.

It rocked.

In my eyes, at least, Peter Jackson has redeemed himself for all the changes he made to The Two Towers.  (I’d link to my thoughts on that movie, but they got deleted by accident and no one had a cache of them.)  The plot details were all right and beautifully executed.  Almost all of the stuff I wanted to see was in there: the Balttle of the Pelennor Fields, the Paths of the Dead, Shelob, Mount Doom (duh), and so on.

I’ll discuss some details below the spoiler barrier.

Spoilers

I did really want to see Jackson’s treatment of the fall of Isengard, but I’ll have to wait for the DVD release to see it.  And, as with Bombadil, I can’t really fault Jackson for excising it.  Likewise for the Scouring of the Shire.  I would have liked to see it, but I didn’t see any good way to work that in and still keep the pace of a movie.

In addition to the big things, there were lots of little things that I liked.  The struggle between Gollum and Frodo on Mount Doom could easily have come out very silly looking.  It didn’t.  A neat little touch was the fact that while the writing in the Red Book was in English (<cough> Westron), its vowels had the appropriate Tengwar diacritics.

No, not really much to this post.  I didn’t have any complaints about the movie, and it would take too long for me to list all of the things I liked individually.  Suffice it to say that the whole thing was really, really excellent.

This is the current name of the movie theater located at the Owings Mills Town Center (also known as simply “Owings Mills Mall”).

In December of 2001, I went to see Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring at this theater for a 12:01 am showing on opening day.  While things went well for most of the movie, one reel near the end of the film was played with the audio extremely desynced from the video.  After several minutes of this, the theater stopped the film, fixed it, and played it to the end.  They offered vouchers for a free movie at the theater to everyone at the showing.

In December of 2003, I went to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King at the same theater, also for a 12:01 am showing on opening day.  Approximately an hour after it started, the film began displaying images upside down and running backwards; presumably a reel had been threaded in backwards.  When the problem persisted for more than a minute, a friend left the theater in search of someone to notify of the problem.  He found no one but a security guard.  Several minutes after that, the film was stopped.  About a minute later, a manager entered and apologized for the problem, stating that we would all receive vouchers for a free movie as we left.

Five or ten minutes later the manager returned and asked everyone to leave so they could hand out the vouchers.  Several people objected, desiring to finish seeing the movie.  After a minute or so, he returned, saying that they would be about twenty minutes in restoring the film, but they would do so for anyone who wanted to remain.  Most people remained and at 2:08, the movie resumed.  (I believe it stopped sometime between 1:00 and 1:15, but I’m not sure of that time.)

That alone is enough of a problem, but the women next to me in the line out said that they’d had problems in 2002 when seeing Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers at that theater.  I didn’t get details on what had happened.

I will probably not return to that theater, except to use the voucher.  I will certainly not spend any more money there, nor can I recommend that anyone else do so.