Lord Of The Rings (Extendeds) Marathon - Disc Timing
My New Year's Eve tradition for the last several years has been the same. A full bottle of white wine, some plain rippled chips with french onion dip, and the 12-hours marathon of the Lord Of The Rings extended editions on DVD.
Because yes, at the end of 2023, my DVD player still works very well, and I still own several precious DVDs to use on it that you won't find on any streaming service.
Naturally, after a couple years, I decided to figure out the timing for when to start the last disc, so that the ring was destroyed right at midnight. Planning this out through the day, and including breaks between each disc for snacks and washroom, as well as a reasonable time for a nice dinner with my parents upstairs, you have to be a nerd like me to be so focused on the timing of when to start each disc for.
Well, aren't you all lucky. My math and timetables are below the cut!
So first things first, we need the runtimes for each disc for each movie. I have these extended editions that were distributed in Canada in 2002-2004 (yes, it has indeed been 20 years since Return of the King was in theaters).
The published "runtimes" include the credits at the end, I skip these minutes since I'm ready to switch discs right away.
Fellowship Of The Ring - 208 minutes official runtime
Disc 1 - 1 hour 46 minutes
Disc 2 - 1 hour 35 minutes
The Two Towers - 223 minutes official runtime
Disc 1 - 1 hour 47 minutes
Disc 2 - 1 hour 48 minutes
Return Of The King - 251 minutes official runtime
Disc 1 - 2 hours 8 minutes
Disc 2 - 1 hour 54 minutes
Now that we have those, the next thing we need is the timing of the ring's destruction on Disc 2 for Return of the King. My DVD player shows that these two key events happen at these times:
Ring dissolves into lava - 1:26:50
Sauron bursts into flames - 1:26:53
This makes 1:26:51 into Disc 2 the key moment you want to have play at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. Working backwards from this math, Disc 2 needs to start playing at exactly 10:33:09 PM!
Next, I'll provide a couple sample timetables for when to play each disc through the day. I have shorter breaks in the afternoon, as I don't need as much to worry about in the afternoon. In the evening, I allow a dinner break, as well as longer snack/washroom breaks between each of the later discs.
There are certain traditions associated with New Years that ppl around the world to. They help bring good things for the year to come. This year (and last year too) I followed certain ones:
1) Bucket of water: throwing water out of a window before the new year to remove bad energy from the house
2) New Undies: the color you wear depends on what you need most for the new year. I wore a blue (for good health) and white(for happiness) one
3) 12 Grapes: Gotta eat them for good health. I placed them in the suitcase before eating them (keep reading to see why)
4) Moneys: for fortune! They also go in the suitcase
5) Suitcase: along with grapes and moneys, once the ball drops you run around with the suitcase in a circle around your place if you want to travel the next year
6) NYE Flair: just to be festive!
Bonus: cleaning your place before the new year to start the new year fresh and clean away the previous year
Anyone else have their own traditions they follow for NYE? Lemme know!
I’m watching an episode of Twilight Zone: The Next Generation (not the real name) where this woman is on a game show called “How Much Do You Love Your Kid?”. You can probably guess the plot.
helping my dad into his kilt (it is 32 years old), jools holland's hootenanny, meg's mon & fireworks, a beautiful family (only little arguments), champagne champagne champagne
