Random Questions Tag!

Hello, everyone!  Guess who has internet on vacation! :D
Miss Elliot of Puritan Observer tagged me with the Random Questions tag invented by Naomi Bennet--thank you, Miss Elliot!  Randomocity is one of my favorite things. :-)

The Rules:
~Paste the button onto your blog post.
~ Leave a new list of questions (or just pass on the question list you answered) and tag a few people of your random choice (and say why you tagged them, if you have time!) (Be original and nonsensical in your question-creativity – make the blogging world a cheerful place :-) And be disastrously random.)

Now for the fun…

~Write down three facts about you – one of them is WRONG. Let your commenters guess in the comments which one is wrong (and tell them in the comments after a while)
~Answer the questions of the person who tagged you – make it all super random and interesting :-D

Okay, facts first. ;) 
~Eddie Redmayne is my favorite Marius.
~My favorite color of ink is pink.
~I love chocolate-mint-flavored tea.

Now for the questions...

Are there flowers in your bedroom?
I was going to say no, but I do have several hats with flowers on them--does that count? ;)  Oh, and I used to have a pot of African violets...I don't remember what happened to them, though. :P
Who was your first - really first - (fictional) crush?
Ahhhmmm.  I've had so many that I really don't remember...
{Here I sat for a long while, trying to recall whether my whole-hearted adoration of Disney's Snow White when I was five included a crush on the prince.  Finally I decided not--I wanted the castle and the sunset and didn't care about the boy. :P}
Okay.  I thiiiink that my first-ever really-truly crush was on Martin the Warrior from Redwall.  I don't even remember how old I was, but I wore my copy of Mossflower (one of the Redwall books in which he is the main character) to bits and pieces within the year.  Oh, or maybe it was Sherlock Holmes.  I had to read a couple of his stories in fifth grade and ended up reading the entire compendium.
What is, in your opinion, the prettiest Little House Book cover?
I think this one:

 It's not the most aesthetically appealing cover, but there's just something in it that captures the spirit of the book. (Also Plum Creek is my favorite of the Little House books.)
On pictures, do you smile with your teeth or without?
With my teeth.  I tried to do a toothless smile for awhile, but I always end up looking bored and/or murderous. :P
In 'Return to Cranford' Miss Matty gets a turban. What do you think of her in a turban?
Ummm...no idea. :P  I haven't seen RtC (or Cranford).  I know, it's shocking.  But there, now you have another (true) random fact about me.
Did you get fooled this year on April the 1st?
Nooope.  Haha.  Actually, the only April Fools' (or is it Fool's??) joke I encountered this year was my parents switching out salt for sugar and vice-versa, but nobody used either of said foods that day, so it didn't work. :P
Do you think it's rude when girls re-do their whole hairstyle in public?
That depends.  I certainly don't think it's rude for someone to put a ponytail in or fix their braid in public, but if it's something that takes a long time to do so that they ignore everyone around them, then yes. 
What's your least favourite song in 'The Sound of Music?'
I've only seen TSOM once, when I was Very Little, so...can't answer this one either. *shocked gasps from everyone reading this*
Oh well.  You're learning a lot about me today. ;-)
Do you chew your inside cheeks when you're thinking?
...Maybe?  I never notice what I'm doing when I'm thinking hard. :P
Your how-many-ieth post is this?
My 173rd.  Wowwww. :D
What's your favourite Dickens movie?
Oh dear.  I haven't seen any Dickens movies either. :P  I've read a few of his novels, but that's it...oh, and I've watched the gorgeous "A Tale of Two Cities" musical adaptation, so I guess that's my favorite.
What should you be doing right now?
I'm on vacation, so I'm good.  HAHAHA.  Actually I could be practicing violin right now...oh well.  Or I could be watching "The Hollow Crown", which is amazing and beautiful and seriously go watch it now. :D
Do it. ;-)
Okay!  Just let me finish this first. ;-)

Now for my questions!
~What color do you most enjoy wearing?
~If you were a detective/superhero/&ct. and could pick any book character as your companion, who would it be?
~Do you prefer scarves or hats?
~List a few movies you'd have loved to be an extra in.
~If you could visit any time period and bring back one souvenir, what would it be and why?
~Least favorite type of weather?
~Favorite hairstyle?
~What's your least favorite Disney movie?
~What point-of-view do you most enjoy reading?
~Favorite place to read?
~List three of your favorite non-human book characters.
~Is there a villain you think you'd get along with wonderfully?  If so, who and why?

My nominations:
~Eva.  Because she is my Science Bro and she's very cool in general.
~Melody.  She always does nice long tag answers. :D
~Ashley.  Tags are great when you're busy! :) 

Now let's see how many people actually read all the way down to the end. ;)  Today is my second blogging anniversary!  This isn't the best time to share stats since I've been gone for so long (next year I will hopefully do better :D) but goodness, all you lovely people, you've helped make these two years go by so fast and I've enjoyed every minute of it.  I praise God for the blessings He's given me, and thank you all for every minute of time spent reading and commenting on my posts.
~Miss Jane Bennet 

Ummm...
Hello, my lovely lovely patient readers. :)
Sooooo I have at least three posts half-finished at the moment that were SUPPOSED to be done by now, but unfortunately I can't publish them for a week because we're leaving on vacation in about an hour.  Therefore, my hiatus is extended (again), and I'm super sorry.  I WILL get at least one post finished and published before May ends if at all humanly possible.
Please don't unfollow me?  As a little bit of a peace offering, here, have a preview of my post subject(s) when I get back. :)

...And a bit of this ship. ;)

These beautiful people...

An Announcement

Hello, my patient followers.
I am back (briefly).  Haha.  You see, I have been trying this year to post more, but as you may have noticed, it isn't working. :P  I'm quite busy at the moment and feeling entirely drained, and when I do post, I don't feel that it's really up to scratch.
Therefore, I am taking a hiatus during the month of March.  I may pop in briefly once or twice, but other than that, I shall be absent.  Hopefully, I'll return in April re-energized and slightly less busy. ;-)  I shall miss you all greatly--thank you very much for your patience and encouragement this year.
See you in April! :-)
~Miss Jane Bennet

MEMM: Day 7

Day 07: Lines you quote most often in real life
  Hmm...I (and all my family) quote Tolkien a LOT, especially at the dinner table.  When I like to make a dramatic entrance, I say, "The dawn will take you all!"  When we're talking about cooking, "Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew..." always comes up, and everyone in my family likes to try to use a Gollum voice once in awhile and talk about our Preciousssses. :D

Apart from that...I use "But it is not this day!" a lot. For...pretty much everything.  I'm very good at procrastination. :P

MEMM: Days 5 & 6

Day 05: Favorite soundtrack
Confession time: I have yet to listen to the complete soundtrack of any of the movies.  Part of this is due to time constraints, and the other part is that most of the pieces are so gloomy-sounding that I can't listen to them too long. (This is not to say that I don't like them--this is coming from a crazy Les Mis fan, after all.  But even I have my limits.)
However, based on my limited knowledge and my end-credits-song preferences, I'm going to say that the BotFA soundtrack is actually my favorite--it has more variety in mood than the other soundtracks.  I especially like "Fire and Water".  The FotR soundtrack is a close second, though.  My favorite piece there is "Concerning Hobbits".

Day 06: Favorite moment/line in The Two Towers
Yes!  An easy one! :D  I love a lot of things in TTT, but the "Po-ta-toes" exchange between Sam and Gollum (with Frodo going, "You guys...what even..." in the background :D) wins, hands-down.  It's hilarious and touching and just a small bright moment in a movie that's growing steadily darker.

MEMM: Days 3 & 4

Day 03: A location you love
Well, I waffled for a long time between Rivendell, the Shire, and Rohan, but finally picked Rivendell.  It's gorgeous, it's a center for learning, and lots of interesting people visit it.

Day 04: Favorite sword
My favorite "sword" is a tie between Sting and Legolas's knives--but as neither of them are actually technically swords, I'm going with Andúril.  The scene where Elrond bestows it on Aragorn gives me chills every time.

MEMM: Days 1 & 2

Hamlette has started a Middle Earth Movie Meme Lineup for the month of February, and I am very happy to be joining in!  I won't be going on any particular schedule; I'll just post as I have time and make sure I finish before March. ;-)  So, I'll be doing the first two days today.

Day 01: Favorite moment/line in Fellowship of the Ring
Oooh.  There are so many great moments!  I think my favorite would have to be the bits before the council of Elrond, when everyone is riding in and you can feel the tension building and everything coming together.

Day 02: Favorite characters from each race

Elves: Legolas, no question.  Elrond is a close second, though.

Dwarves:  Ehmmm...Fili, probably, with Bofur, Thorin, and Kili tying for second and Gimli in third place.

Hobbits: Frodo, though Bilbo is a close runner-up.

Men: FARAMIR.  He's absolutely amazing.

Istari: Gandalf.  Not much of a choice here, is there? :P 

Orcs: Azog.  He was a very good antagonist. (Too good, unfortunately.  I still haven't forgiven him for BOTFA.)

And that concludes those days--I shall probably be a bit more verbose as the month goes on, haha.  Speaking of months going on, I do apologize for yet another prolonged absence.  Perhaps someday I will actually blog as much as I say I will. :P

"Because it was real."

Reyna Nicole at A Peace of the Past tagged me for a Battle of the Five Armies Q&A!  Thank you very much, m'dear! :-) 

Rules:

1. You must be tagged in order to take the Q&A.

2. You must tag (notify) at least three other bloggers (or whatever they are on) for this Q&A.

3. You must answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

4. You must have seen The Battle of the Five Armies to be tagged/take the quiz.
 (A quick warning before I begin: there will be Significant Spoilers.  So if you haven't seen BOTFA yet and don't wish to know what happens, this post is Not For You.)

Questions: 

1. Tell the story of how you came to see the movie(s) or got 'into' Tolkien in the first place.  

Ooh.  Well, I became a Tolkiendil when I was in fifth grade--I'd known of Tolkien for a long while, and finally I decided to read LotR when I came across it at a library book sale.  It completely captured my imagination, and I finished all three in short order.  It took me quite awhile after that to read The Hobbit, for whatever reason, but as soon as I did, I fell in love with that too. 
Well, after a year or two, my family saw the LotR movies, and we've watched them at least once a year since--every person in my family who can read has read at least one Tolkien book.  So even if my interest in Tolkien dimmed, I've never completely dropped out of the fandom.

A year and a bit ago, though, I got completely crazy about Tolkien in a way I'd never been before, and it was mostly because of--you guessed it--the Hobbit movies.  When we saw AUJ, I wasn't a big fan...well, that's an understatement.  I re-read TH just so I could point out all the inaccuracies between the movie and the book.  But then I met a few other girls who really liked the movie, and they persuaded me to give it another chance.  I proceeded to do so, and found I really, really liked it.
This was just a few months before DOS came out, so I got caught up in all that excitement, and I really loved that movie; it was the first Tolkien movie I'd seen in the theatre, and the cliffhanger at the end--!!  Well, I was totally hooked on the Hobbit trilogy after that. ;-)
...Wow, that was long.  It's really hard to stop myself once I get started on Tolkien stuff, hehe.   
 

2. Who are your three favorite characters in the Hobbit Trilogy? 
...WHAT.
I can't chooooose!  But...erm...okay.  
First off is Bilbo, because Martin Freeman was PERFECTION as Bilbo.  Oh my wooord...I loved Bilbo in the book, but Martin Freeman added whole new layers to his character and made him so complex and loveable and...yeah.   I'm a solid Bilbo fan now. ;-)

Secondly...Fili and Kili.  They still only count as one! :P  I love Kili for his youth and joy and reckless spirit (and also because he and Tauriel are SO ADORABLE.) and Fili for his loyalty and trustworthiness and courage.
 
Thirdly, Thranduil.  Yeah, he was kind of a jerk in the movies, but he's one of my favorite characters in the book and they made him sympathetic enough in BOTFA for him to keep on my list. ;-)
Honorable Mentions go to Gandalf, Bofur, and Bard (and Smaug!  He was so cool :D), and the award for My Favorite Cameo is tied between Elrond and Frodo.  Hahahaha.  Yes, that was way more than three.  No, I'm not sorry. :P

 

3. Did you cry in the Battle of the Five Armies, and if so, which scene(s) and what type (sniffling, sobbing, choke-crying)?  
Um, YESSSSSS.
I actually didn't cry until after Kili's death. I was really expecting to cry all the way through the movie, but the tears didn't come--rest assured I was crying inside, though. :P
Anyways, after Kili died it suddenly hit me: this is the last Middle-earth movie.  And it was like the shock of Kili and Fili's deaths just wore off and I just started sobbing.  I ended up curled up in my seat, crying into a friend's shoulder while doing my utmost to cut off the circulation in her hand by squeezing it so tightly. :P
I did stop crying at the auction scene at the end because one does not simply stay miserable when all those hobbits are being hobbity on the screen. ;-)  But I started again at the end because THEY ACTUALLY DID THE "WHAT ABOUT VERY OLD FRIENDS" AND I LOST IT.
And then "The Last Goodbye" was very emotional, obviously. :P 
 

4. Were any deaths compelling to you, and if so, whose?  
Well, they all were.  Smaug's actually was CRAZY dramatic--my attention was riveted to the screen. Thorin's was very much the climax of the movie, really, so it was compelling as well.  Fili's death completely grabbed my attention because it was so sudden and harsh, and the moments leading up to Kili's death were so suspenseful that I was practically hyperventilating. ;-)

 
















5. Over all, were you satisfied with the movie itself? 

YES, definitely.  There were a few things I'd have changed--Thranduil ought to have been nicer and I'd have appreciated a bit more closure with the whole Tauriel thing.  But other than that, I thought the movie was practically perfect.

UNASHAMED SHIPPER RIGHT HERE.

(However, I might be just slightly biased, SNORT.  So I'm waiting to give a final opinion of it until I can see it on DVD.  Maybe the Extended Edition will satisfy all my nitpicks. ;-))
  

6. Describe the movie in one word.
Oh goodness, it was such a big and complex thing that it's very hard to sum it up, but the first word that comes to mind when describing BOTFA (and the trilogy in general) would be "epic".  Huge and mind-blowing and ground-breaking and just...epic.  Haha.

Now to tag some people!  Okay, so I don't know who all in the blogosphere has seen it yet, but I'll just tag some Tolkiendils anyway and let them do it at their convenience. ;-)
Elizabeth Anne D.
Eowyn

And if you would like to do this tag, just comment and I'll add you to the list. :-)

Blogger Recognition Award

I've been tagged by the amazing blogger Beth over at ad majorem dei gloriam. Thank you very much, m'dear! :)  This tag was originally from the blog Edge of Night.

   RULES AND REGULATIONS:

+ Select 15 blogs to nominate
+ Thank the person who nominated you
+ Give a brief story of how your blog got started and a piece or two of advice for new bloggers. 
+ Attach the award
+ Comment on each nominee's blog and let them know that you've nominated them
+ Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night (link above)

Okay, so.  How my blog got started...two words: Jane Austen. :D  In late winter/early spring of 2013, I discovered JA and became a giant fangirl.  I started to look up fansites for it, and found some Jane Austen blogs that I loved (the first two being Yet Another Period Drama Blog and Regency Delight, in case you were curious).  Through them, I got introduced to other blogs, and still others, and I began to want to blog myself--it looked so delightful! 
Around that time, I started to annoy everyone around me by constant talking about my fandoms, as I was rapidly developing into a Typical Fangirl and couldn't think about anything else. :P  So, I finally gave in and started a blog, first just as a chance to talk without danger of interruption, and then as an activity I really enjoyed.  

As to the piece or two of advice...goodness, I still think of myself as a new blogger, but I suppose I'm not exaaactly new anymore.  Haha.  Well, I think one bit of advice I would give anyone who's starting to blog is to get connected.  Rather cliched advice, I know, but I think that blogging is very much a social activity.  So look around for other blogs you enjoy, comment often, host events, and just generally make your presence known.  Obviously don't throw yourself at other bloggers, but blogging is a lot more fun when you have other people giving input on your posts.  In my opinion, at least. ;-)

My nominees:
Yet Another Period Drama Blog
Regency Delight
Inklings Press
Coffee, Classics, and Craziness
Hamlette's Soliloquy
Incidents of a Literary Nature
Wonderland Creek
Spilled Ink
Period Drama, &c.
Me, Myself, and I
A Peace of the Past
A Lantern in Her Hand
Lianne Taimenlore
However Improbable
The Story Girl
Puritan Observer

~Miss Jane Bennet

Happy Late New Year's...

Happy 2015, everybody!  Good grief, it's amazing how fast 2014 went.  In any case, this is not a New Year's post per se--more just an Update Post.
I did succeed at my Tolkien Challenge, though I did not post as much as I'd have liked.  However, maybe I'll do another one this year.  In any case, I can still post about such things, just not exclusively. ;-) (Yes, I saw The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the Friday after it was released.  Yes, I loved it, yes, I cried, and yes, I ship Kiliel.  I've been putting off reviewing it until it's released on DVD so I can review the trilogy as a whole.)
I'm making it my goal this January to publish all my tag answers--hopefully I'll get some more things in, but there's a lot of IRL busyness I've pushed aside over the holidays that now needs attending to, so we'll see. 
I think that's about it for now; I hope everyone had a lovely New Year's!