The Hobbit!

Woohoo!!! It looks like we will get the chance to see the horror at left rectified! Yes indeed, it seems that Peter Jackson and New Line have struck a deal to produce The Hobbit in the very near future. Not one, but two pictures! I am awaiting collectibles, do you hear me Weta!?

LOTR Film Cel

It's been a long while since I've had any new LOTR purchases, so I am pleased to bring you this find. :) I was out carousing at Dave and Busters with my family when I saw this in the prize shop. At only 1500 points, this was a real bargain (a small plush Hello Kitty was more!). The film cel is of Arwen. All the ones I looked at had the same scene, though the girl at the counter said there were different ones. Since this is the Two Towers set, I'd like to see if I can get one for Fellowship and Return of the King, if they're out there. It's about 5x7 inches and comes in a clamshell packaging with COA.

Toys for Tots Toy Drive

As a reformed toy collector, I feel that all kids should get to experience the joy of that new toy smell!

From November 6th to the 11th, Walden Media is sponsoring this great toy drive for Toys for Tots. They plan to break the Guinness World Record by collecting over 12,000 pounds of toys from 10 US metro areas. If you are affiliated with a school, library, or community center, see what you can do to get them to participate. Even if you don't live in one of the areas, they will still help you collect and donate the toys, they just won't be weighed for the record. Or, gather some toys and find out who is participating. This is a great cause to support!

To host a drive, sign up at the website below by September 28, 2007.

http://www.walden.com/walden/properties/magorium/toysfortots/toysfortots.php#

I am going to see if my school will host a drive and I might donate some unopened LOTR figures. :)

My Lazy Ass...

As you can see, by the fact that it's been nearly a month since I bothered to make a post...I've been a 30-year old lazy ass. :)

I am, however, in recovery. I joined a gym. Wha??? Yeah, after handing over a major chunk of paycheck (no more collectibles for a while :( ), I am a card-carrying 3-year member of . No, I'm not telling you which one so you can come to point and laugh. I've been going to personal training sessions and I do pilates and yoga every week. I must admit, I do feel somewhat less like a lazy ass, though many, many of my body parts are unhappy about this turn of events. The best part was when my brother's friend (he used to work there, so we decided to hook his friend up with a commission) was entering my info in the computer, looked at the DOB on my CADL and said, "Oh, you've just had a birthday." Waits a few beats and then goes, "Wow, a big one!" Yeah, thanks dude. No need to remind me. At least I still get carded at bars. Though no longer young, I can still look the part...

My brothers and I had some time on our hands today, so we went to see "Shoot 'Em Up," the new Clive Owen movie. I am not typically a Clive Owen fan, but we were thoroughly entertained. I'd been wanting to see it since the panel at Comic Con, where they previewed at least 2 of the major action sequences. It's an over-the-top wink-wink clever action flick, that has very little downtime and a very little running time (1 hr 20 min). Owen's character, Mr. Smith, is Bugs Bunny to Paul Giamatti's Elmer Fudd. Hilarious. Ooh, and a bit cringe-worthy. I'm a pretty jaded movie-goer and even I had to burrow a few times. I really didn't care too much about the characters' backstories, which were blatantly obvious. They really didn't need to explain any of that! :P I'm surprised that it didn't do better than 4th place in its opening weekend against 3:10 to Yuma (I like Russell Crowe far less than Clive Owen, so good luck catching me watching any of his movies!). I don't think it was marketed very well to the target audience, which I'm assuming is males 17-35. Then again, the R rating and post-summer release isn't helpful either.

Oh whatever. I'm going to bed. My lazy ass won't be up again until this afternoon, in case you want to join me for drinks (don't tell my trainer!) tonight! :D

Last Wednesday

I was editing my profile and noticed that the number next to "Age" has changed. This sucks. This couldn't possibly mean that I have to start acting, gulp, my age, does it?

Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsive Collecting

Okay, so I realized after my last post that I have a problem. It's called "Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsive Collecting" or AROCC for short. Here's an example of what I mean:



"What's that about?" you might ask yourself. That, obviously, is a pile of business cards. I started picking them up when I was in high school, I think. They're free, they want you to take them, and they're small. I very rarely pass up a business card that is just sitting out in the open. If you're not careful, and you did not offer, I'll sneak one out from off your desk when you're not looking. Most are just from stores and restaurants or from friends and business associates, but I've got some from artists, museums, and I don't know who else. Every once in a while I'll unearth a little stash of them while "cleaning" in my house. That's the obsessive compulsive part.



To serve their useful purpose, I devised this oft-neglected organization system. I have a binder with these card sleeves in it. Business cards are sorted by type. From the picture, I think you can tell where I usually shop for my wardrobe. If you're in the know, you can probably also guess that I'm a UCLA alum (mmm...cookies). Originally, I thought this would be useful. Like, "Oooh, I want to go to -fill-in-the-blank-restaurant-here- tonight, I should make a reservation. Let me get my business card book." Yeah right. I never use this thing. I also haven't put a new card in it since 2002. It may have something to do with increased internet use. Yet, I still compulsively gather the cards. My anal retentiveness makes me feel like it must be perfect or I won't do it at all, so now I have cards sitting in boxes and bowls all over the house.

You may have noticed that it also says "Menus." I collect these too, under the assumption that I might want to order take out sometime. I haven't in years. Now, you might say to yourself that you have a menu drawer or folder too. Well, do you laminate them? Alphabetize them? I didn't think so. I do this with directions and maps too. For years, whenever I went somewhere, I pasted the map into Word and added directions to/from my house. After printing it, you guessed it, laminate and alphabetize. This way, I never had to print the directions again, they were spill-proof, and they looked uniformly tidy. In fact, nearly everything I own that can be alphabetized will at some point in time, be alphabetized.

Okay, enough about my neuroses...I think I've over-shared.

;P

Other Things I Collect

Besides debt. :P

Before I became a "collectibles" collector, I had various and sundry little things that I liked to collect. I amassed a big tangle of keychains, flirted with stamps and coins, but I didn't get obsessed with anything until my Lord of the Rings habit. It was weird because I didn't have a lot of toys growing up, I had moved on to books at about the age of 5. The toys I had would collect dust on a shelf. My brothers were the toy guys (GI Joes, HeMen, Transformers, all that 80s goodness), so it's crazy that I was the one who wound up with hundreds of little plastic men. :)

I do still have a couple of other collections which I cultivate: postcards and shotglasses. I pick them up to mark my travels, but I receive many as gifts as well. Above, a few new items I got in Vegas this week.

With the postcards, I like to get one postmarked, so I mail them to myself. Lame, I know. I will often just stick an address label and stamp on it and draw a happy face. I've mailed myself postcards from Canada, Scotland, England, Wales, and all over the US. When I was studying in London, I brought a sheet of address labels so I could easily send cards to all my friends. There are a few old Chinatown and Disneyland ones from my parents and from friends around the world. A while back I bought a postcard spinner at Pottery Barn that I LOVE! The sales guy tried to sell me on its uses as a photo display, but I really wanted it for postcards. :P Of course, my collection has already outgrown the thing, but whatever. I just signed up for http://www.postcrossing.com/, which sounds promising. Only, I recently discovered that it costs 90 cents to mail a postcard internationally (via a returned-for-additional-postage card), which is more than double the 26 cent domestic rate. What's up with that? I normally would just put two postcard stamps if mailing overseas. Sigh.

As you can imagine, the shotglass habit started about the time I turned 21. Hehe. I had long stopped collecting keychains, but I still wanted a small, ubiquitous collectable I could pick up on my travels, in addition to the postcards. It didn't hurt that these could get some practical use. ;) Since they are breakable, I get a little nervous about using the "irreplaceable" ones. I try not to spend too much on them. The ones I got in Britain usually cost . Whenever possible, I get one that is $1 or less. One favorite is from Maui. My best friend picked it up on her honeymoon, I think, and it has a little island sculpture inside. Another is from Stratford, with a "gold" rim that I paid one pound for at a shop near Trinity Church. I like the standard single and double shot shapes best, though I do have a few novelty ones.

See? Some people are just born collectors. :P