Weekly Roundup: 17 – 24 October

~A quick recap of things around the Empire Earth over the past week.

This week in…
Things I Find Newsworthy

I missed the partial solar eclipse on Thursday. In my defense it was raining. I came home to a lot of awesome pictures on Twitter–everything from professional photographs by astronomers to snapshots of pinhole projections. Want to see some awesome pictures of it? Let me press the magical Ctrl V keys: Gallery: The Partial Solar Eclipse of October 2014

 …And then there is the tale of yet another white house fence jumper. The number of these is starting to edge away from comical to ruining-it-for-the-rest-of-us. This particular jumper kicked and punched a Secret Service dog. I’m sorry, but that is Grade-A douche baggery right there. The dog is fine if anyone would like to know! I wonder if the dog and his K9 partner get special treats for taking this guy down. You can read more about the incident here: Meet The Hero Dogs Of The Secret Service.

Images posted by the official Secret Service twitter: @SecretService

Geekdom
I’ve been noticing a huge increase in leaked pictures from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies lately. I have no complaints whatsoever. I loved Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy and the first two installments of The Hobbit trilogy. I look forward to seeing Elrond, Thranduil, and the others kicking some you-know-what. …I’m also excited to see what new action figures will be coming out…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about such childish trifles. 😉 My favorite leaked picture is the one of Elrond in his battle armor. It is by far the picture to rule them all.

Currently Reading
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card — Okay, I haven’t actually cracked it open yet, but I borrowed it from the library when I turned A Dance with Dragons (ADWD) in. Yes, I’m finally done with ADWD! It’s a door stopper of over 1,000 pages, but it was a thrilling read. It gets 4/5 Valyrian blades.

Matters of Opinion
My blunt, unabashed thoughts in 140 characters or less:

I don’t want October to end. I love Halloween. The weather isn’t freezing yet, and It’s the last month of the year before the holiday craze.

Video of the Week
The second I saw this one, I knew I had to share it! And yes, this is the most epic safety video ever. Some might even say it’s the safety video to rule them all.