The Adventures of T1M

        

T1M

Tim was a robot, but didn't know it. In fact everyone in New York was a robot, they just didn't know it. If they did they certainly didn't show it. If they knew that New York wasn't the real New York they didn't show that either. So even though Tim was a robot and that should've been an odd fact, it wasn't because everyone was and that made all of them odd. So Tim wasn't odd at all.

What was odd was the relationships Tim had with other robots. He didn't have parents. He didn't know he was supposed to have any. Actually, Tim did have parents. Build Station 1 and Build Station 2. 1 built his body while 2 built his brain. They were rather bad parents, who never sent birthday cards, because if they sent them to Tim they'd have to send ones to their 7 trillion other children. Alas, Tim didn't have any parents. What Tim did have were friends, two of them. Kim and Jim.

Quality Control

8:00 am

Park car. Swipe security card. Put on gloves, mask, suit. Time on line 8:00. Watch the parade.

Yellow. Yellow. Yellow. Goldenrod. Yellow.

Wait, Pete thought. That's not right.

He quickly pulled the off-colored Twonkie from the conveyor belt and added it to his report. 

REASON FOR SCRAP: Discolored snack cake. SOLUTION: Maintenance check on Oven

He sighed and threw it away. To anyone else being a Quality Assurance Technician at a snack food manufacturer would be a dream job. It paid decent. You got free samples. There was no union. Supervisors left you alone for the most part.

But to Pete it was hell. 9 long months of hell. Pete didn't want to watch snack cakes one after another. He wanted to play guitar. He'd always wanted to play guitar. Instead he made excuses.

No time. No money. No venue.

It didn't help that Pete's “office” was small. Secluded with white sterile walls, his room stood apart from the rest of the plant and best of all had no windows and only one door. It was the perfect place for people to come, hide out, and complain about their jobs. Pete inevitably became their sounding board, their psychiatrist, their Quality Control.

When word spread there was a good guy in QA who listened, folks came out of the wood work to see the guru.

There was Ralph from Packaging with his incessant need to talk about his rash. Darlene from Logistics and the tales of her dating just about man in the place. Jim Dean from Maintenance and his drug binges.

No topic was taboo.

Watch out for Gollum, he'll bite off your finger

If you've been sleeping under a rock you probably don't know that "The Hobbit" just started shooting in New Zealand. After much delay with Actor's Unions, Peter Jackson's health, and the notorious battle of intellectual property, Tolkien's first journey into Middle Earth is at last begun production.

I am very excited.

You can tell how excited I am by the fact that I am writing a blog to say how excited I am. I don't write. However, I will write for 'The Hobbit." I remember 12 years ago when a friend of mine looked at tons and tons of production stills from this big budget movie called "Lord of the Rings." I had of course heard of the books, but hadn't read them. I was a Star Wars guy you see. Prick me back then and I would bleed Yoda quotes, statistical analysis on AT-AT design, and midi-chlorians... well maybe not those, I tend to still believe the Force binds us all without explanation.

Anyway, I was impressed by my buddies love of the production, the story, and the world this guy named J.R.R. Tolkien made up. It wasn't until two years later that my mind was completely blown. "Fellowship of the Ring" gave me a feeling. A feeling I hadn't felt since...

Fast forward a few more years and I have now read five of Tolkien's Middle Earth works, including "The Silmarillion". I know that makes me a die hard fan and that's cool. I AM A DIE HARD FAN.

Now it is me who watches Peter Jackson's blog from the set of "The Hobbit". Now it is me who drools over production stills. Now it is me who has plans for a Middle Earth themed tattoo... right across from my Star Wars one.

 Enjoy the first installment of Jackson's blog from the Set.