And one more thing…

My younger brother (Read) is in need of approximately $500 in order to go back to school this semester. If you would pray for him, we would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

Walljm.com and A Blog Apart are currently in the middle of switching registrars. I wanted to let every one know that if walljm.com is unavailable for a few days over the next couple weeks, that is why.

We apologize for any inconvience this might cause, and we hope every had a great Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year. :)

on another note… this was spotted on a mezzoblue discussion:

Three DIVs for the design-gods painting on macs,
Seven for the usability-lords in their websites of grey,
Nine for windoze geeks doomed to debug,
One for the zeldman on his *page of orange,
In the land of New York where the pundits cry.
One DIV to size them all, One DIV to pad them,
One DIV to colour them all and in their browser style them
In the land of W3 where the standards lie.

(hat tip: zeldman)

*the original said "One for the zeldman on his orange page" and I edited it for poetic meter.

The Return of the King: In depth review

Just so you know, this is very much a working draft. I’d like to perhaps expand it to include all three movies, and to become a much larger review and critique. But I don’t have a draft feature built into my CMS, so it falls that I must do it publicly. I want it online because I will almost certainly forget or lose it if i try to keep it on a computer somewhere, so here goes. Don’t expect any real cohesiveness yet, or completion of thoughts and issues I raise. Oh, and feel free to comment, or flame me if you like… :)

Of the three books, The Return of the King has always been my favorite. Tolkien’s intention was to present the story as a single epic, and was dissappointed with the need to split it up into three. ROTK is thus the culmination of the prior two stories, and is almost entirely about the climaxes of the various plot lines.

On the whole, Peter Jackson’s translation of the books to film is a good one. Without picking on some niggling details, his dedication to the spirit and quality of the books is laudable. In the artistic arena, the work is unparalleled and, in my opinion, the very essence of what the Tolkien intended to paint with his words. Jackson’s translation fails fundamentally at the philisophical level though. In all aspects of how the characters were portrayed, Jackson sought to emphasize the frailty and weakness of men. And although Tolkien does address evil in all the races, his characterization of men was not biased in that manner. Aragorn never doubted his heritage, nor struggled with who he was, though he did struggle with the enormity of his quest as anyone would.

Laying aside those objections, lets address ROTK specifically. Of all the movies, ROTK strays the least from Tolkiens story line. There were a large number of circumventions of smaller sub plots, but they were nicely done, leaving room for them to have happened without indicating they did thus pleasing both the fan and the newly initiated.

The films high point and the most mature people of the film were definitly the Rohirim. We have little time to explore the personality of Denethor, or the reasons why he is overcome with grief. Not enough time is spent of Aragorn, though what time is spent is nicely done. Too little time is spent with Frodo and Sam on the long toilsome journey across the wastes of mordor. In most of the characters, you are left with only just enough to see the surface of their depth and emotion. But the Rohirrim benefit from the time spent on them in the Two Towers, and the character of Theoden and Eowyn are of central importance until the death of the Witch King towards the middle of the movie.

Jon argues that any real emotion people feel is probably supplemented by their knowledge of the book because of the speed of the movie when addressing so many complicated themes and characters. He might very well be right, but I’ll contend that the movie offers a very real experience, even if it does not quite approach that of the books in terms of its depth.

Some other points I’d like to discuss further:
Jackson’s treatment of the Aragorn/Arwen relationship, specifically her near rebellious attitude towards her father. I’m not sure what my thought are exactly, but it seemed like he painted it in a much less subissive way to authorities than it should be.

In a related topic, I’d like to discuss Jacksons treatment of Aragorns self-doubt (which was mostly non-existent in the books).

Why did Jackson feel it necessary to engender some sort of animosity between the Elvish and Human kindreds?

After listening to the rationale behind their treatment of Farimir, I still think it was a mistake. It could very well be a result of the writing process and partially out of their control. I know its hard to keep the big picture in your mind, especially when so many things are pulling at you, and there were genuine concerns and reasons for their approach, but to some degree it put in serious danger some very important plot points, and I don’t like it.

Its a Girl!

Noelle Arwen Wall was born just a few hours ago to Jeremy and Julie. More details as I get them…

In a review of the Return of the King, it is said by Roger Friedman of Fox News that:

The “Lord of the Rings” trilogy does exactly what “The Matrix” didn’t: It’s improved with each film, fleshing out the characters, simplifying plotlines and making them plausible. The human dimension of the trilogy is what has made it such an incredible hit. Jackson and everyone involved at New Line Cinema – most especially composer Howard Shore and co-executive producer Mark Ordesky – can take pride in having made three landmark movies that are instant classics.

Julie’s water broke completely, at 9:00am or so by the looks of it. As of right now, they are at the Hospital waiting. Things are going well. Prayers and such are in order… happy times…

Are you a CSS Geek?

If you were a CSS element, what kind would you be?

#jasonwall {
  color: #D9B46F;
  src: Richard and Priscilla Wall;
  background: Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems;
  height: 5112px; /* using the 72px per inch standard */
  width: 2448px; /* using the 72px per inch standard */
  padding: to-little;
  size: medium;
  position: absolute;
  speech-rate: slow;
  speak: infrequent;
  volumn: soft;  
  stress: high;
  richness: low;
  elevation: 600ft;
}

Sister-In-Law Update

For those of you who know my sister-in-law, otherwise knows as PokeyPixie, you might be interested to know that her water broke last night. As of this morning at 8:00am, she was leaking amniotic fluid (i don’t know what that means), and the doctors were going to try to stop the contractions and discover the cause of the amniotic fluid leak (sounds like i’m talking about a car!?!). If they can stop the contractions, they will send her home, otherwise she will have to stay in the hospital for a while. That’s all I know for now, further updates as they come available.

Further notes of interest: PokeyPixie has historically delivered early. The baby isn’t actually due til the middle of January, but even given the fact that she delivers early, its better if she gets as close as possible to the due date. She didn’t expect to deliver till a little after Christmas, so this is a bit earlier than expected. We request your prayers for her safety and misc things involved.

Thanks in Advance,
Jason Wall

He could be my brothers body double…

This photo by Khoiuong is freaky only because it looks so remarkably like my older brother. Seriously… too weird.

In light of the recent google bombing of the Presidents Biography, I just want to point out that the Democratic Party is also a miserable failure. (Hat Tip: Jeremy)

Jason’s Daily Links

• Greg Apodaca Photoshop Portfolio is currently blowing my mind.
• The No Font Experiments seem to indicate an intelligent and curious mind. I especially liked the ergonomics of a book.
• A Hobbit trailer by fans made from pieces of LOTR.
• The Evolution of Type
• Fixed Width Designs have distinct advantages.

New Wallpapers for your computing pleasure!

Of Poetry and Free Verse

Thoughts of poetry and the problem of free verse are once again brought to the forefront of my mind. In a comment by Ashley, she makes reference to my dislike of the form.

Before describing my thought on the matter, I want to make this preface: I do not consider myself a better poet than writers whose form is primarily free verse. I do respect them and value their insight a great deal.

My issue with free verse is that its over used and terribly misunderstood. Speaking in generalities, the majority of free verse, by far, that I’ve read is better presented as prose without the line breaks. To give them credit, free verse is much harder to write well than more structured forms form of poetry, whose form lends itself also to the meaning of the words.

The truth is that I like free verse very much. The book of Psalms (as presented in the authorized version) is one of the best examples of exemplary poetry without a defined rhyme or structured rhythm. But there are some distinct differences between the Psalms and much of the free verse writtentoday. The Psalms are full of poetic devices such as alliteration, parallelism, and cadence. Most free verse (at least the ones I’ve read) are devoid of many of such devices, especially cadence. The lack of cadence makes it difficult to read and thus enjoy. The majority are better served when presented without line breaks as a coherent paragraph, making them much better prose than verse.

For Further Reading:

• Robert Frost’s definition of free verse

• Definition of free verse as prose written in cadence
• on free verse and poetry

On the KJV and Poetry:

• on the poetic qualities of the Hebrew Language
• on the position the KJV had in the English language
• on how the KJV influenced the English language
• on the character of the KJV