There were, of course, all manner of geeks there to be found: leather-wearing geeks, role-playing geeks, literature geeks, sports-watching geeks, younameit. Only two types of women there, though-- Girl Geeks and Girls Who Love Geeks, mine wife, naturally, being of the latter ilk. Not that she isn�t a fan of the series, but she so does love geeks. And ain't I the lucky one that she does.

TV crews showed up sporadically of course, and I�m told our visages were caught on screen at some point by friend Matt�s sister. Naturally the cameras mainly focused mainly on the freaks who dressed up for the occasion, branding the lot as wackos. Damned sensationalist media. I challenge them to instead talk with someone insightful that might have even conveyed the inspirational effect the movies have had on the not-too-overly-critical. But nope�it�s jut a costumefest. Sigh.

There was a rep from New Line there who would be handing out freebies at he end of the trilogy. She made the announcement before the start of RotK and was, apparently, standing by during the trailers that preceded the film. The first one was a shockingly bad preview for 'The Mask II' (it so happens that it's a New Line release), which got a hearty and resounding boo and shoutdown from the crowd. The New Line lady was laughing at the response, but I can only hope that it was nervous laughter and that she'll be taking the reaction home with her to her idiot corporate scumsuckers that thought 'The Mask II' was a good idea. So there.

Anyway, the gifty thing turned out to be something pretty cool-- a standing stylized frame with three real film frames, one from each of the films. Look up 'film frame collectible' on eBay and you'll see what they look like. Mine is almost perfect; the first is a clip from the scene in Lothlorien where Elrond is bitching at Gandalf about the One Ring still hanging in Elftown; the second is from the overhead shot just after Aragorn and Gimli jump onto the ramp leading to the outer gate of Helm's Deep; the third... the third is of a couple of backdrop people slugging down ale. So it's not perfect. H's is a from a night at the LotR slot machine-- Sauruman, Gimli, Gimli, all head shots.

So we managed to get home and into bed by just before 3am. And I managed to get up just before my alarm at 630am. Amazingly, I'm not totally strung out and uber-tired. Yet. I imagine that I'm not long for this night, however. I think a hearty slice of cheesecake will help the process along nicely.

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