I have debated this point back and forth for over a day now, and have decided to rank both wizards on a variety of categories. I thought that might be fairest.
AGE: Gandalf has been alive for “300 lives of men” in the Two Towers. Men in Middle Earth live to be around 90- at least. Therefore, he’s roughly 27,000 years old, and eventually goes to the undying lands. He’s pretty much immortal. Dumbledore can live well into the triple digits, but just can’t compete. Point: Gandalf.
ONE-LINERS: Here, I would argue that Dumbledore takes the cake. He has an uplifting quote for any situation, and has a wealth of deep and moving quotes throughout the series. Gandalf on the other hand, talks a lot but a relatively low percentage of them are profound, merely one or two every movie. And Dumbledore can also be dunny- something Gandalf lacks. Point: Dumbledore.
AWESOME MAGIC-NESS: Lets be real. Gandalf can do anything. While I will agree that Dumbledore can do practically anything, Gandalf is not limited by spells or “good vs. evil” magic. And he has a staff. Staffs are awesome. End of story. Dumbledore has mad skills, that cannot be denied. Even if his wand was the most powerful ever made, it cannot compete with Gandalf’s Staff. Point: Gandalf.
WARDROBE: Not doing to lie- I love Dumbledore’s outfits. They are simply unique and hilarious. And Gandalf never changes his, so they are understandably dirty and worn. Point: Dumbledore.
SMOKING: Gandalf is pretty much a chain smoker. Dumbledore doesn’t smoke. Point: Dumbledore.
HANDS ON: Dumbledore does a lot of crap I don’t understand. He continually ignores Harry and other key characters, but is remorseful afterwards, but changes his habit when it is practically too late. Gandalf, on the other hand is in the trenches with the other lead heroes for the entirety of the trilogy (minus the time he spent in limbo, but he more than makes up for that). Point: Gandalf.
Overall, Gandalf to me is a better warrior/fighter and takes a hands on, by your side approach in the mentor department. Dumbledore makes a great icon- he looks cool and says the right things. He encourages through words, not actions, and completely ignores angsty teens that desperately need reassurance and guidance. So I pick Gandalf for kicking butt and Dumbledore for words of wisdom. Is that even allowed?
A special PS to Alex- I formatted my post after that episode of Deadliest Warrior we watched, I hope you appreciate it :)
In an effort to avoid writing about food again, I have fallen back on the universal back-up topic: Harry Potter.
With the release of the final Harry Potter movie, I have had to admit to a number of people (and now the world at large) that I don’t remember seeing movie 5, and I never bothered to watch 6 or 7.1. Several people have been outraged about this, so I’m currently in my living room watching The Order of the Phoenix with Denise and Morgan.
I remember when I was in the third grade or so Mom took me to Media Player and bought me the first two Harry Potter books in paperback. From the first chapter I was hooked. I was one of those millions of kids that pre-ordered her book months in advanced, and went to book release parties, got my book at midnight, and then stayed up to read it through the wee hours of the morning. Kim and I would get into great debates on all sorts of Harry Potter related topics, and read all of the hidden meaning/conspiracy theory books that came out. I read the 4th book so often I broke the spine and my copy fell into 7 pieces. Up until 5th grade Harry Potter was my life, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Then, Lord of the Rings came out. I refused to see it in theaters with my mom, because “it looks stupid”. (Shows what I knew). Then she bought the first one on VHS (crazy, right?!) and watched it in the living room. I again refused to watch it with her and went to my room to read. I came out around the Council of Elrond, and I was instantly hooked. I watched the second half- constantly asking questions because I missed the majority of the exposition. Then we rewound it and watched it again. My obsession was born.
We bought Fellowship on DVD, and then the extended edition. I read the books, and loved them just as much as the movies. I learned everything about the films, and was eventually banned from watching any of them when my mom was home, because she was fed up with my insanity.
Having become fed up with Harry Potter movies for their inaccuracy and inability to follow the books, and fell in love with the Lord of the Rings movies, and haven’t looked back. The Hobbit: Part One comes out next December, and I anxiously await its release.
Now that you understand the history of my childhood better, I pose to you the question Kim and I debated yesterday. Which do you prefer, Movie Gandalf or Book Dumbledore?
I have been checking tumblr for hours so that I could post on a non-food related topic. Yet every time I have checked for the past 10 hours, tumblr has not been functioning. And now that I’m braindead, calling it quits, and going to bed, its up and running again.
So my promise to all of you is that tomorrow when I am awake, I will post something that has nothing to do with food. Until then, good night, and good luck.
My word to the wise- DON”T WEAR BLACK WHILE BAKING!!!
I do this every time I make something- baking, cooking, making puppychow…..and Every. Single. Time. I get my black shirt full of whatever it is I’m using. Its pathetic.
On the other hand, I am currently in the middle of making apple cinnamon cupcakes. Except the cupcake part fell through, so hopefully it’ll turn into equally-yummy apple cinnamon bread-ish type thing.
Make sure you don’t go to the site below when hungry. You will find yourself in the kitchen cooking something before you can say yum. That’s how nice the pictures look.
I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have a kitchen that I don’t share with a million other people. Don’t get me wrong, cooking throughout high school was an invaluable experience. But now that its just me, Jess, and Denise, life is so much better. There aren’t as many people in it, its cleaner (although Jess will disagree), and best of all, there is more time for trying new things!!
In the last couple of weeks I’ve tried my hand at making bagels, pretzel bites, cookies, and various main dishes for dinner. Its been awesome. I used to hate baking because the recipes are much less forgiving than cooking recipes. But I love pretzels and cookies, so I did it anyway and now I’m kinda hooked :)
The other thing I’ve run into is that our kitchen is very young, it does not have all the experiences or supplies that an older kitchen takes for granted. For example, as I pulled my first batch of cookies out, I had nowhere to put them because I had already used up all the counter space. Inexperienced kitchen indeed. Then, when breading chicken so we could have chicken parm last week, I learned we had used up all the eggs, so I had nothing to bread chicken with. So I googled egg substitutes, and found out you can mix baking power, flour, and “some liquid” (thats my favorite part) until its the desired consistency and use that instead. Or, again last week, my room mate Jess was making spinach with dinner, and she needed lemon juice. We’ll, we didn’t have any lemon juice, so we substituted lemonade. Besides being sweeter than normal, it turned out fine.
Having our own cooking space, combined with willing room mates has probably been the best part about our apartment. We’ve gotten to share each others family dinner and experiment with random things that I find on the internet- thank you stumbleupon!
For example- next week I’m going to try my hand at making a homemade garlic chicken pesto pizza from scratch (besides the chicken- I’m buying those pre-killed). I’m hoping it will be amazing, I’ll settle for really good.
One random blurb to the world before I go to bed. I have recently been on a baking kick, and have enjoyed getting to try my hand at bagels, pretzels, cookies, and more. Along with that, dinners in the apartment have been an opportunity for Jess, Denise, and I to try our hands at various family and/or new recipes. Overall, our kitchen has been creation station central, and many wonderfully delicious foods have come out of it recently.
In talking to Denise, I decided that to increase my procrastination ability, and share my thoughts with people who care to hear them, I should start a blog. Here one will occasionally find my daily activities, thoughts, random quotes, funny anecdotes, and anything else I find worth sharing. Enjoy!!
