How Peter Jackson, JRR Tolkien, and Fellowship of the Ring changed my life

No, I'm not exaggerating. Fellowship of the Ring changed my life. I still remember the first night I watched it, I had gotten home from work around midnight or so, popped the VHS (that's right, I said VHS) into my VCR, and watched it, after heavy prodding from my brother for weeks. It was awesome. So good, I decided to watch Two Towers directly after (this was probably Winter/Spring 2004, well after RotK hit theatres), also on VHS, and went to sleep about 6:30 am.
Well, I bought the Extended Editions for my birthday, and watched them many times over. Read the trilogy. And not able to find Return of the King bootlegged and out of theatres, I waited patiently. Well, FINALLY, it hit DVD, and I bought it (and a cool Sauron figurine that's still in my car).
So, a tweaker in everything I do, I decided to script a Rise of Nations scenario, and tried to join a Middle-earth mod team (but because of my lousy skills I was ignored... upset at the time, but understood soon after).
BTW, you can get the scenario for Rise of Nations vanilla at http://ron.heavengames.com/downloads...php?fileid=327
I would call it a success... I also almost finished scripting a Battle of the Golden Wood, but never finished.
So, I went through another semester of Architecture, learned 3dsmax, and, to hone my skills, joined Fourth Age: Total War.
I worked on the mod for a month or so, and each day that inched closer to the end of break left me more and more in despair. I was an A student, and loved Architecture, but did I want to make this a career?
More than an entire week into the semester, I decided: no. I do not want to be an architect. I want to make games. And I fought tooth and nail to switch my major, in the middle of the school year, more than a week (almost 2) into the semester, and I did. And I earned an A in all my Computer Graphics classes.
So, I kept working, and working, and working, not on school work, but on FATW, and my skills increased week by week, and I learned all aspects of the digital art realm, all sorts of programs and all sorts of techniques, my head always in an art theory or application-tutorial book, and my skills increased, and soon I greatly surpassed my peers. And now, because I watched Fellowship of the Ring, I am one of the favourites of the CG faculty, and have one of the most supported and anticipated Senior Thesese, and I'm going to make video games instead of buildings, and have my greatest job in the world.

And, perhaps, another time, I'll write about how Xenosaga Episode 1: Zur Wille dur Macht changed my life as well.

Does anyone have stories this seemingly absurd?

I do, but it's far from the realm of digital creations. It was this last year, around Christmas when one of my friends offered me a cigar. I was reluctant at first, but I remember the sensation as I lit my first puff. The flames leaping wildly from the tip of the match, slowly turning the coffe colored tobacco to a bright red inferno, as smoke billowed from the seams of my mouth. As the aroma of the burning tobacco overtook me, I too had a similar feeling. Since then the art of cigars has been a prevalent theme in my life. I learned the different types, sizes, and flavors of cigars. How they're made, maintained, and sold. The whole production of tobacco products has been a fascination of mine ever since. Now, with the money at my disposal i've begun to grow my own tobacco and begin construction on a small shed to cure it. Soon I will begin to roll my very own custom cigars, and I hope that I one day can own a tobacco farm and perhaps a cigar label. :hmmm:

Interesting prof, I figured you for a LoTR fan, but I had no clue it actually had that big of an impact on your life.

You're a Jackson LOTR newb!!! I always took you for a true Tolkien pure breed!!!!