The Fireside

The Sens have made it to Round 2!! As great as this is, I will also examine the rest of Round 2 and give my thoughts on who I want to see win, and move on. Ottawa had a few close calls against Boston, but they made it through. So, without further ado, the rest..... Washington vs Pitssburgh: Washington I'm sorry, Pens, but you're not all high-and-mighty, or holier-than-tho. Nashville vs St Louis: St Louis I'd love to see St Louis advance!! Anaheim vs Edmonton: Edmonton This round will be tricky.... So, here's hoping Round 2 will go as I hope. Ottawa facing off against Washington for the Eastern Final, and Edmonton facing off against St Louis in the Western final. I would love to see an Ottawa - St Louis cup game, or an Ottawa - Edmonton one. We'll see.....

So I've been playing quite a bit of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  lately. I enjoy taking my time with these games, and doing non-essential stuff as I progress through the main game, which takes a longer time to progress story-wise. There are 4 Divine Beasts, each of which is...influenced by a scourge, called a blight. You have a Waterblight, a Fireblight, a Thunderblight, and a Windblight. Those serve as your 'dungeon boss'. I have conquered 2 of the 4 blights thus far. 2 more remain before I even consider myself ready at the earliest to take on the darkness itself. Oh - and yes my blog post title is a Pirates 2  quote. Once you're off the Plateau, which is where I left my previous 'progress review', the world is literally your oyster. You can head in any direction you wish. Storywise, you're to head to Kakariko Village next. I did that, while using my amiibo for the first time. At the very worst, I do 'daily' scans if I can't "play" the...

[click to enlarge] So the time has come - the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been announced. The board is set, the pieces need to move. I am also quite glad that my Ottawa Senators have made it in. In fact, so have Montreal and Toronto, much to the fans' delight. As is somewhat custom, I will break down my first round bracket for which teams I'd love to see advance onto the next round. THE EAST Montreal vs NY Rangers As an Ottawa fan, I'm not a Montreal fan. As long as Ottawa keeps moving forward full-steam, the other Canadian teams don't matter to me 'just because' they're Canadian. This one looks iffy, though. Either team could move on, so it'll be interesting. I'm calling that it'll be the Rangers, in 6 or 7 games. Ottawa vs Boston THIS will be a great round. Not just because it's the Sens, but because they'll be up against the Bruins. Of course, I'd lvoe tos ee Ottawa move on....but it could be a tough round. W...

I this post, I'm going to give a rundown of the Tolkien books coming up in the next while worthy of note. First up, as I previously reported, is what will most likely be this year's main Tolkien event, the publication of Beren and Luthien . It will be available in hardback and deluxe edition formats. Also, coming out, is Hammond + Scull's revised edition of their Tolkien Companion and Guide . It will be 3 physical books total, with the Reader's Guide being split into two. The ISBN for this set is 9780008214548. There will also be a sketchbook of John Howe's artwork titled A Middle-earth Traveller , with an ISBN of  9780008226770. David Harvey's book about Tolkien, myth, and Middle-earth, The Song of Middle-earth , will be publishing in a print-on-demand hardback from tolkien.co.uk with an ISBN of  9780008184834. Finally, for 2017 that is, Jemima Catlin's colour illustrated edition of The Hobbit  in paperback is arriving in September, just in time for The Hob...

As time goes on, I like to recommend more and more items to people. This could be due to age, social circles of various areas expanding, or the openness of geekdom within the past 5-10 years; [compared to, well, ever.] where cons have been popping up more and more often, and more and more people attend them. I also somewhat got the idea from the famed TV, one of the few early ones, that made geeky 'cool' - The OC . Not for sake of being cool, mind you, but the fact that it shows you don't have to, or should, change who you are. I am of course referring to Seth Cohen. In particular, come the Holidays "Chrismukkah", to be precise) Seth finds himself dating two girls at once. It's been a while since I've watched, so I forget which 'stage' of the relationship he's at with each woman. Because of the fact he can't [immediately] choose, he gifts them both the exact thing: "The Seth Cohen Starter Pack.". Now, my situation is vastly differ...

Well, I thought I'd provide an update thus far, to let everyone know how the year is so far. I generally post news that interests me, as well as others, but I wanted to provide a general summary. I've been playing the heck out of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  on wii u. If there are any wii u owners have a hard time tracking it down, may I suggest buying it off the eshop? It's going quite well....I want to talk about it, but I don't want to ruin anything though! Perhaps I'll share my thoughts closer to when the first DLC batch rolls around...that way, hopefully, very mild spoilers will be known. It's officially spring now! Even though it may not seem  like it, due to winter weather not wanting to leave.I love winter, and the snow. But enough is enough. I suppose I wish we always had all 4 seasons lasting the same amount of time, weather wise. The reading has slowed down a tad, in favor of my playing Zelda . I'm reading on the ereader when I trave...

We finally have a look at what the deluxe edition of the forthcoming Beren and Luthien  deluxe edition will look like! It is a dark green. The Children of Hurin  was blue. So, if I am correct to assume, that should The Fall of Gondolin  be published in a similar style, that the deluxe edition will be coloured dark red, almost maroon. Appropriately enough, this was revealed on 'Tolkien Reading Day', one of the dates celebrated by Tolkien fans. the others include Tolkien's Birthday, ad well as Sept. 22 [Bilbo 's & Frodo's Birthdays, as well as the publication of the The Hobbit , the first book to be published that is set in Middle-earth.] Apparently, it features a nightingale motif, which is appropriate considering the fact that "Tinuviel", Luthien's last name, is Elvish for "nightingale." This motif is most likely designed by Alan Lee, who also provided similar motifs for the deluxe editions of The Children of Hurin  and Tales From th...