Walk to Mordor 35

Or, 400 miles and still a long way to go

Week #___35___ Day ___23-25____ WTR Goals: Mileage___20___ Weight __265____

Starting Weight	Current Weight	Goal Weight	Projected Goal Date	Day
270	268.3	175	2017	23-25

Date	Activity	Duration Miles	Beginning Mileage	Ending Mileage	Location*
5/25	walk	1.35	384.06	385.41
5/26	walk	3.88	385.41	389.29	Day 24 Rain stops. Strider scouts. Start late. Turn SE, scrambling over rocky ground. Find a valley, but it ends in a high ridge. Climb ridge and camp in a saddle at top. COLD. Build a fire under a gnarled pine. Day 25 Slope beyond ridge is much easier. Bright, fair day. Strider briefly sees the Loudwater/Bruinen in the distance. Reach a trail.
5/27	walk	1.04	389.29	390.33
5/28	walk	3.26	390.33	393.59	Find Troll-hole. Continue on level path through woods. Stone Trolls. Rest. Sam recites “Old Troll.” Continue in afternoon. Woods.
5/29	walk	3.59	393.59	397.18
5/30	walk	2.83	397.18	400.01	Return to the Road.
5/31	walk	1.45	400.01	401.46
Totals	This week:	17.4	Total miles:	401.46

So, last week was fun. As you can probably tell from my earlier posts, we had a lot of rain, so it was hard to do anything outside. It has finally stopped being so wet out now so I might do some more outside this week. I have walked over 400 miles! (do a little dance) I hope to hike a lot this summer in North Carolina, so that number will just keep going up. I have gotten to the trolls. I love the trolls! there is nothing better in a story than tricking people using natural phenomena. The sun has the power! Anywho...

I watched a lot of movies this week including Skyfall, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Iron Man, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. As you can tell, all of these are action movies. I love action movies! I find the fast paced action and thriller/ suspense aspects are riveting and make the stories better.

I love everything Bond. Except for Quantum of Solace and The Living Daylights, I've seen all the movies (most of them several times). I watched them with my dad when I was little, so I have some great memories of watching Sean Connery and Roger Moore running all over the world seducing blondes and making up escape plans on the run. I still watch them with my dad when he has time, like this past weekend, and we had fun watching Daniel Craig shoot people and blow up buildings. Skyfall finally sold me on Craig. I loved how he played Bond and the connection that he shows with Judi Dench's M. Silva was probably one of the creepiest and nasty Bond villains. When he takes out his teeth (ugh, so nasty) and keeps calling M his mother, I get the "creepy chills" that won't go away. Because he was a former MI6 agent, his attacks are so much more personal than some of the other villains who just want to take over the world. For Silva it is personal. It is an obsession. It is planned and twisted and pointed. When Bond finally kills him I wanted to cheer!

 

One of the awesome parts of Bond movies happens to be the song for each movie. "Skyfall" is wonderfully somber and melancholy, while "Goldfinger" is forceful and sultry. The latter is my favorite song, but "You only live twice" and "Die another day" are on up there in great theme songs.

I also finally watched the first Iron Man movie this week. I know, I know, I watched that backwards, but I missed it in the theaters and they never showed it on TV, just the second movie that I've seen at least a dozen times now. I really liked it and I'm glad I finally saw it. I still haven't seen the second Thor and I'm very close to just buying it. I was really mad that I missed that one in theaters, but at least I saw Captain America 2. I think Marvel has done a really great job making these movies recently and I hope the bar is kept high throughout the 2nd and 3rd phases of their movie making plans.

Because I've been watching more movies and TV, I haven't read as much recently. I'm still chugging my way through several different large books (The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe) and other smaller books that are just taking me a long time to finish. When I do finish some more books I'll review them here (Tolkien's Beowulf and the fifth Green Rider book are getting big reviews, I promise!) so you can look forward to that.

I'm working on my May Makeup Empties post (trying to keep it from being forever long) and a few other posts on my interests. Stay tuned for more fun posts this week!