'The Hobbit' and talks concerning Middle Earth

Very recently, I have been the proud recipient of an iPad to help with work. They say that it's for work. 13G of music and a whole bunch of personal downloads later, and I have started wondering exactly how much for work this really is...

However, on my list of downloads are a large number of free lectures I have been listening to on iTunes U. The most interesting (to me) so far has been a series of lectures by one Corey Olsen.

Setting aside that this man is a brilliant public speaker, his lectures are so fluid that you really feel like he's speaking to you about something he's passionate about, rather than words printed to a sheet. His subjects are largely to do with Tolkien, and the series of lectures I have been listening to lately have more specifically to do with The Hobbit.

This is a very exciting time for us Hobbit fans. (I include myself in this group not so much as a fan of the books, but as a fan of talks surrounding Middle Earth and, of course, the pretty pretty actors that seem to populate its lands. I am firmly of the opinion, however, that I am just not grown-up enough yet to appreciate this literature, and it is something my brain with eventually work itself around to when the requisite amount of time has passed.)

One of the reason why it is an exciting time is that it is only two months now until the inaugural second movie of this new trilogy makes its way to our screens.

Secondly, it is only a little more than a week since the second of The Hobbit trailer videos were released to the masses.

For those who missed it, there was another trailer that was released about four months ago, in June:

It's going to be fun to see the likes of Christopher Lee and Orlando Bloom present in the cast for these stories once again come December.