Legolas!!!

I have been a huge fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings since I was a little kid. In many ways I had a crush on all of the Fellowship (well, except Boromir) as well as Eomer and Eowyn. However, my crush on most of them was pretty platonic - I simply would have loved to have hung out with them, gone adventuring with them. (One of the biggest problems with LOTR is its lack of kickass female characters, although Eowyn is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. I also have to admit that I didn't fully understand her until I was 19 and went through my first serious case of heartbreak. And really, what was Aragorn thinking?) But when it comes to fantasy crushes, I must admit that I have always been rather obsessed with elves. And not the type of elves that hang out with Santa (those are more like Tolkien's dwarves), but the tall, androgynous, other-wordly beings of Middle Earth. (There are certainly other fantasy writers who have depicted elves in a similar fashion, but none with the beauty and elegance of Tolkien's. After all, in the Tolkien mythos, elves were the first of Eru's (er, "god's") flesh and blood creations. I'd had quite a dreamy crush on Legolas, as the elven representative in the Fellowship, and when I first heard that Peter Jackson was going to film the LOTR trilogy, my first thought was a worry that Legolas would be presented in a way that would simply kill my longterm crush. Luckily for me, Jackson's choice was perfect:

And speaking of hotties with bows and arrows, I know I mentioned a while back that I quite enjoyed Season One of the BBC's latest incarnation of Robin Hood, and am avidly awaiting Season Two. Anyway, I have crushed on Robin Hood pretty much all of my life, although I must say that the choice of Jonas Armstrong was most excellent.

And, of course, this is my original crush right here.

Now, something I should probably mention... I've also had a bit of a thing for The Bad Guy over the years. When I was a kid, watching Star Wars for the first time, I totally thought that Leia should get with Darth Vader and turn him from the Dark Side. That was, of course, before I saw Return of the Jedi and learned that Vader was her father. Whoops. Believe me, that fantasy went away right then and there.

Since I frequently imagined myself as a tenth member of the Fellowship when I read LOTR, I also managed to create a Sauron-converting fantasy. It wasn't a particularly long-lasting fantasy though.

Now I wouldn't really call this a fantasy, but the dude is hot and his character - despite being an evil bastard - actually has depth and I found myself feeling rather a bit sorry for him. I can totally understand fantasizing about changing him... although luckily for me, I've grown out of that phase. Dating one "bad guy" in real life was enough for me.

I still think he's pretty damn attractive though!

Then there's Gaius Baltar of Battlestar Galactica. I don't hate him, per say, but I strongly dislike and wholeheartedly despise the self-serving little shit.

Frack you, Gaius.

A day late and a dollar short...

Whoops! Apparently I was supposed to start off this week's discussion. I realized this last night and opted for bed instead of wracking my brain for something intelligent and witty to stick here. However, after having slept on it, I do actually have a topic for all of you readers and co-bloggers to muse on: addictions.

In general, I do not think that I have an addictive personality. I smoked cigarettes regularly for several years because I enjoyed blowing smoke out of my mouth. In 2000 I came back to the US after having spent seven months in Russia - land of super cheap smokes - to Tennessee, which had just instituted a new cigarette tax. I decided that I was simply too poor to continue that habit, so I stopped. No patches, no Nicorette gum, and (aside from occasionally when drinking) no cravings. I've smoked pot a handful of times, although I never really saw what the big deal was. I always thought I'd rather be drinking booze. And speaking of booze, I certainly drank a lot during my college years (I went to Sewanee after all!), but I can pretty much count on one hand the number of times I've been drunk in the past year. Okay, maybe two hands, but you get the point. I simply can't imagine desperately craving smokes (legal or otherwise) or booze, although obviously there are many people in this world who do.

But just because nicotine, THC and alcohol aren't the driving forces in my life, that doesn't mean that I don't have addictions. My most obvious addiction is to the Internet. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is turn on the computer. Seriously, I turn it on before stumbling into the bathroom to pee. I check my email, MySpace, and my blog trackers several times a day while at work. The first thing I do when I get home is turn on the computer, and the last thing I do before I go to bed is turn it off. Unless of course I'm downloading something large while I sleep. I'm currently planning a roughly three-week long trip to Russia when my time in Korea is finished. Because I'll be in some rather remote places in Siberia, I'm assuming that Internet access for those three weeks will be nil. And Oh. My. God. Three weeks with no Internet? Not sure I can make it!

Then there's Jack White. I am thoroughly addicted to that man and everything he touches. I know Laurie will back me up when I say that the latest album from the White Stripes, Icky Thump, is the most addictive thing since crack. I simply cannot stop listening to it... nor do I want to. It might actually be *better* than Get Behind Me Satan - and I didn't think such a thing was possible. Also, I would totally bear Jack White's children, starting right now, without a second thought.

My most recent TV addiction is Battlestar Galactica (frequently abbreviated as BSG, kinda like BlogSuperGroup, so it has to be awesome, right?). Anyhow, too many people whose opinions I trust told me that I absolutely *must* watch Battlestar Galactica, so I finally gave in and started watching (on the Internet - surprise! - from the beginning). I'm currently almost finished with Season Two. (Don't any of you dare tell me what's coming - I want it to be a surprise!) In fact, I think I have to stop typing so I can watch some more BSG right frackin' now.