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In principle I object as strongly as is possible to the ‘translation’ of the nomenclature at all (even by a competent person). I wonder why a translator should think himself called on or entitled to do any such thing. That this is an ‘imaginary’ world does not give him any right to remodel it according to his fancy, even if he could in a few months create a new coherent structure which it took me years to work out. […] May I say at once that I will not tolerate any similar tinkering with the personal nomenclature. Nor with the name/word Hobbit.

Tolkien, on the progress of the Dutch and Swedish translations of the Lord of the Rings, especially as it related to proper names (via wikipedia).

Someone at Wikipedia must be a big Middle-earth fan. Yesterday’s featured article was on J. R. R. Tolkien. Last October 5, The Lord of the Rings was the featured article.

There was news a month before all this that J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien, just completed editing The Children of Hurin, an epic started by Tolkien in 1918 which he had later abandoned.

Today’s featured article on Wikipedia is the History of the Philippines.

On this day, October 20, sixty-two years ago, General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines as promised. In 1955 on this day, The Return of the King was first published. The Monterey Bay Aquarium first opened its doors on this day in 1984. The Oakland Hills firestorm also happened on this day in 1991. This day also happens to be my birthday.

I waited for my link to the History of the Philippines to appear as a post using del.icio.us’s built-in daily blog tool but it failed for some reason. I just have to post links like this manually, I suppose.

Okay, this is way overdue. I was tagged by Arnold a couple of weeks ago. Without further ado, here it is:

Total Number of Films I Own on DVD And Video
I’ve been waiting to come home to tally them up: I’ve got a paltry 60. I’m not looking to build a DVD library. There are really only a few DVDs that I find I want to watch over and over (most of these are the ones I watch with the children often). I’d also buy a DVD if I know it’s hard to find. If I’d like to watch a really good movie again all I have to do is rent it.

The Last Film I Bought
Constantine. This DVD was heavily advertised in video stores in Manila. I bit. I hadn’t seen the movie, and at the local price, it was cheaper buying it than renting it in the States. My mistake: I forgot about the regional coding. Aaarghh. I’d have to wait until I get my hands on a region-free DVD player in order to watch it. I’ll probably just give in and rent it anyway. (To add insult to injury, the movie was one of the in-flight movies on the JAL plane I was on the other day but with all of the distractions, I never got to watch it in its entirety.)

Five Films Which I Watch a Lot / Mean a Lot to Me
Bladerunner - groundbreaking sci-fi film.
Fifth Element - Euro sci-fi so derivative, yet so strangely unique (Chris Tucker gotta go though).
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring - the delicate way Jackson handled the opening Shire scene let me know that the rest of the movie, and the trilogy, was going to be special.
The Prince of Egypt - the burning bush scene gets me everytime.
Okay, this one’s a guilty pleasure: The Sound of Music *cringe* - I actually force my kids to watch it in order for me to hum along to “The Lonely Goatherd.”

(Three) People I’m Passing the Baton to
It took a while for me to answer this I’m hesitant to pass it on (Is this how memes die out?). The lukewarm potato goes to Mark, Ariel and Sunny (his movie quizzes are so good, I’d like to take a peek into his collection).

Filipino and Danish researchers “have found a way to generate helico-conical, or spiral-shaped light beams.” Hmmm, will this lead to Lasik surgery being an even quicker procedure? Maybe Lucas should delay the release of Star Wars Episode III and insert a scene featuring spiral laser whips. Oh wait, the Balrog got there first, didn’t he?

(via geekpress)