Recently, author John Scalzi* watched a Lord of the Rings marathon and sort of inadvertently live-tweeted it.

Orcs vs. Stormtroopers. GO. On second thought, never mind. Neither side aims well enough for it to be interesting.

They could have just distracted the Wargs by throwing a bunch of red bouncy balls and yelling “fetch.”

I wonder what ents do when they come across a book. I imagine there’s a lot of screaming.

Sitcom proposal: Frodo and Sam are roommates, Gollum is their cranky landlord. Gandalf as the wacky neighbor with a cat.

He’s gathered them all up into one epic (no pun intended) post. And in response to his tweet, “Dear world: I am deeply disappointed there is not a dubstep version of the Smeagol Fish Battering Song.” one of his fans stepped up to the plate.

Heh.

*If you aren’t familiar with John Scalzi, go read Old Man’s War or The Android’s Dream right now. Now. Stop what you’re doing and go read them. Right now. Go.

Bat Plushies – Tutorial and free pattern for making adorable little stuffed bats.

Dearly, Departed – A young-adult steampunk love story with a zombie as the male protagonist. The author’s Big Idea makes it sound quite intriguing.

My Daguerrotype Boyfriend – “Where early photography meets extreme hotness.” (Hat tip to Beans)

Halloween Haunted Mirror – Neat half-silvered mirror with a faint “creepy child” in the background.

Jeweled Skulls – Interesting collection of jewel-encrusted skulls. pdq, who sent the link, suggests trying something similar with a cheap plastic skull and varicolored candies.

Apple Pie Cookies – These really aren’t cookies, just teensy little pies. I’m wondering if the same method could be applied to other fillings, such as pumpkin.

Genres – Surviving the World makes me giggle.

Bone Cathedral Chalkboard – Great tutorial for making a chalkboard decorated with bits of miniature skeletons. (Hat tip to Maven)

Cthulhu Christmas Calendar – Smartphone app that lets you “count down till the stars are right and presents can be opened from their evil slumber.”

Bloody Pumps – These look a little more “paint splatter” than “murder” to me, but they’re still rather pretty.

George R.R. Martin writes about food in his A Song of Ice and Fire books. A lot. A whooole lot. So the obvious thing to do is to re-create every dish mentioned in the series and then blog about it.*

The Inn at the Crossroads is taking a very scholarly approach to the subject, carefully reading the descriptions of the foods and then reverse-engineering them. They use a lot of Medieval cookbooks and techniques, so even if you don’t read Martin the site is worth a look as a period cooking resource.

They’ve also got recipes for interesting foodstuffs like grilled snake and honey-spiced crickets, which should appeal to the more adventurous. They generally provide information on their sources, so if you’ve ever wondered where to procure rattlesnake meat, you need look no further.

The site is wonderfully engaging, even if you never make any of the recipes. Food geeks should definitely check this one out.

(via BoingBoing)

*Y’know, before the Internet, people with weirdly obsessive hobbies toiled along in obscurity instead of being able to share the fruits of their labor with the world. Those were dark times.