DONALD J. BINGLE

Finally got around to watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug via Netflix a few days ago. Why didn’t I go see it in the theater? After all, like many of my generation, I was a big fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a kid (I, of course, also read The Hobbit) and loved Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy so much that I also watched the extended cuts and some of the commentary and making-of tracks (the one on armor was especially cool). But, I hadn’t really

It’s a staple of writing thrillers that the stakes and the difficulties for the protagonist must keep ratcheting up throughout the story. After all, if the protagonist is faced with a difficulty, comes up with a plan to overcome it, and executes that plan seamlessly, there’s not really that much tension/suspense. Heck, there’s not even much of a plot. There’s a whole raft of things that can be done to thwart the protagonist’s efforts. He can have underestimated the difficul

They say that recognizing that you have a problem is the first step in getting help. Screw that. I am a control freak and I like it that way. I see nothing wrong in trying to control the things that you can control. For example, when I travel by car, I prefer to be the one driving. It's not that I think other people are bad drivers, just that I'm more comfortable being a driver than being a passenger. (Since I'm a non-drinker, that makes me a handy designated driver, to