She gave up her immortality to be joined with him.  1,000 years had passed and eternity to come.  His mortality was inevitable.  His life may be “thrice that of mortal men” but even still, mortality was his doom.

His wife passed into Eressea centuries before.  He grew weary of the conflict that ensnared the lives around him.  His only daughter was to sail unto eternity with him.  He now would choose to accept the grief of this departure.  She had chosen mortality.  However, he gave an Ultimatum to the mortal man.  He must accept the Kingship to which he is heir to.  His exile must cease.

She gave up her immortality for his hand in marriage.

He gave his daughter to a mortal man.

He must rise the occasion, become who he was born to be, and claim the Crown that was lost centuries ago.

—–

What will she sacrifice?   Will her father bless the union?

Will I lead courageously and claim the Responsibility that I am heir to?

—–

Where is Tinúviel? Undómiel?

~Tulkas

Cyber-Monday Super Sale!! 

Save 5%-20% Off Your Order!*

Take 5% off $25.00-$49.99, 10% off $50.00-$74.99, 15% off $75.00-$99.99 and 20% off $100.00 or more!* Monday, November 30th ONLY.

* $25.00/$50.00/$75.00/$100.00 minimum order is before shipping and/or taxes. Order must contain $25.00-$100.00 or more of product. Discount does not apply to trades. Discount will be automatically applied to your order once minimum amount has been reached. No coupon code required.

Sale is one day only – Monday, November 30th, 2009.

Une alternative intéressante…

Les graphismes n’ont pas l’air super, un look général un peu désuet, mais comparativement à ceux de WoW, dont ce n’est pas la plus grande qualité, que dire sinon que ce jeu peut s’avérer intéressant à tester ?

En plus, je commence à lire des sites web, des blogs et des forums sur le Seigneur des Anneaux Online et je constate que le vocabulaire employé par les connaisseurs ressemble beaucoup à celui utilisé sur WoW, ce qui peut rapidement faciliter la transition.

Allez, 9Go de téléchargement et c’est parti pour 2 semaines…

-Cc

I know that most of these picks are fanboy picks, but that’s just the way it goes.  I’m a fanboy.  Sure I don’t have critically acclaimed films making up my list, but I don’t care.  These are the movies I liked the best from the last ten years.

10. Minority Report (2002)

Spielberg really outdid himself with this modern sci-fi classic about a crime unit which uses seers to stop murders before they happen. This is a wonderfully crafted film with some very interesting ideas inside a great chase movie.

9. The Dark Knight (2008)

I know that I see like a fanboy for including this on my list, but my higher choices will make me seem like more of a fanboy, so I’m not bothered by this. Batman Begins was the Batman movie I have always waited for, and The Dark Knight took it up a notch, creating a great atmosphere and wonderful performances along the board.

8. Wall*E (2008)

WallE may be my all-time favourite animated film. I was blown away when I saw this movie. I did not expect to fall in love with these characters and become so engrossed in the story and moral background. But I did. WallE is amazing, through and through.

7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Martial arts films have never reached this level of artistic and literary brilliance. This film transcended genres and languages and became one of the most emotionally gripping films of the last ten years. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful, the story was enrapturing, and the over-all style was just incredible.

6. Children of Men (2006)

Its hard for me to pinpoint what I love about this movie so much. It might be the unyielding vision of the director, the fascinating psychological ideas and questions which arise from this situation, or the intensity of the action throughout. What a brilliant film.

5. The Passion of The Christ (2004)

Mel Gibson set out to make a massive, gripping, emotional religious epic, and he succeeded in every way. The Passion tells the story of Jesus’ last day without holding anything back, bringing the full weight of his suffering and sacrifice to the screen.

4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a major milestone in movie history. The Tow Towers, as the middle piece, suffers from certain downfalls that the middle has, yet still succeeds on a very epic and visual level. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of the great battle scenes, which the ongoing struggles of the fellowship held us to our seats.

3. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

I just can’t justify not having a Star Wars movie on this list. I am too big of a fan for that. Sure I had my problems with the first two prequels, however the third gave me exactly what I hoped for from the final installment of the Star Wars Saga. I was moved visually, cinematically, and emotionally.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The final piece int he Lord of the Rings trilogy saw all of the story lines come together for one great climax. Sure there were parts which bothered me as an avid fan of the books, but the massive scope of the picture and the hard-hitting emotional punches left me awed.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy came onto the screen late 2001 and conquered the movie-going world. The epic scope and huge vision for these films was apparent to all who saw it. The quality of production was at the highest levels that film can reach, and Tolkien’s story and characters entranced audiences everywhere. Fellowship of the Ring is the best of the trilogy and set a new standard for movie-making which in my opinion has yet to be surpassed since its release.

I love this picture. I think this is what a mallorn tree would look like if they existed.

I have been playing over and over again a lecture by a guy named Peter Kreeft.  Kreeft is a professor of Philosophy at Boston College.  He is an extensive writer and a great thinker and synthesizer of millenia of philosophy and thought. 

On top of being an academic, he is also clever and humorous. 

A few years ago, on recommendation I downloaded a lecture he gave called “Wartime Wisdom: Ten Uncommon Insights about Evil in Lord of the Rings.”  You can read it here.  Or, as it is meant: heard.

It is a spiritual message right up my alley:  nerdy, thoughtful, theological, inspiring, educated and just enjoyable.  I don’t know if you’ll enjoy it as much as I did, but I am putting it up here for those who’d be interested.

Va cer ajutorul intr-o chestiune de viata si de moarte . Ce credeti, ce ar trebui sa incep mai intai, dupa terminare cartii TUNELE 3: IN CADERE LIBERA – romanul acesta este exceptional, o sa il devorez in timp record – la care am terminat deja prima parte?

1. SFIDAREA de SUZANNE COLLINS

2. CIRCUL FANTASIA de MARGARET MAHY (la care nu am apucat sa citesc decat 50 de pagini pentru ca apoi a sosit – neasteptat de repede, spre fericirea mea – TUNELE3)

3. SPLIT de TARA MOSS (pe care am tot amanat-o atata timp…)

4. QUANTICO de GREG BEAR

5. THE BOOK OF LOST TALES VOL. 1 de J. R. R. TOLKIEN

6. EVADATE DIN CASTELUL CANT de K. P. BATH

7. REGINA MARGOT de AL. DUMAS

8. DUNE de FRANK HERBERT

9. THE GREAT GATSBY de F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

10. UN VEAC DE SINGURATATE de GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

11. THE LORD OF THE RINGS de J. R. R. TOLKIEN (de recitit a treia oara pentru ca maestrul TOLKIEN scrie exceptional)

Nu-i asa ca este greu de decis?

Transparency in New Zealand is  such   that   no one dares speak the truth  , those who do  are beaten up for it.

This process appears to be supported by lawyers and judges  alike who do not give  the opportunity for the truth to be exposed.

Just last night on Chanel 7  a journalist said the same .

Not one of us can do this on our own  we all have to make a stand and say enough is enough. we are living a fiction-  we want reality.

One by one New Zealanders are picked off   sued and bankrupted ,   will you speak up only when it comes to your turn?

we have a lot to learn from animals  my favourite   example is in   Battle at kruger if only humans  could  collectively  get behind each other    then we can turn the lions back

Our world is not about  transparency  honesty and truth. Our  world is  about lies and deception and  it would appear  that those in power go all out to protect that.

Zelda and I made it! We finally saw New Moon! Yesterday we went to the premiere here with a couple of friends and Mama Soul. We saw some people wearing Twilight-shirts, a couple of Twimoms and even a Twidad. I didn’t even know they exist until yesterday… And a lot of girls wearing plaid. Coincidence? A subtle tribute to Rob? Who knows? (I do!) Our premiere outfit? A blue blouse just like book-Bella, Ray Bans like Edward and the original Bella-bracelet from Italy (Great story concerning that one, I’ll tell you soon in another post!). So today we’re gonna present you our New Moon review part 1. Part 2 will follow soon… and include a lot more details cause we’re gonna see the movie about 23 more times before writing that. Just in case you haven’t seen the film yet (You better got a good excuse for that!) and want to have the real surprise when watching it for the first time: SPOILER ALARM! Starting now and ending at the end of this post. So here we go:

Taylor Lautner sometimes wears a shirt in New Moon...

First of all, down with Cathy the Cougar! Chris Weitz, do you want to marry me? What an enormous improvement in comparison to Twilight! I’m not going as far as to say it was the perfect movie, but honestly Chris, you’re so down with the kids! Or rather the Twilight-fans. Or Zelda and me. This is how vampires should look when they sparkle! Like diamonds and not that ringing and tinkling in the woods crap. Two minutes into the movie and I already love Charlie so much. How sweet when he almost started to sing, or when he came to look after Bella when she was screaming in her bed. We even got the names of the months after Edward left. Something I had really been hoping for!

... but most of the time doesn't, because he shouldn't!

And the e-mails for Alice idea to show how Bella feels, what an incredibly clever move of you, Chris! And I loved that Harry Clearwater, the king of homemade fish-fry, died as a hero trying to protect Charlie from Victoria. And oh how Rachelle looked awesome with her flaming red hair. Zelda totally liked the cliff diving scene. When Bella first sees Victoria under water and then there’s Edward beside her… epic! And the funny stuff, like the cinema scene or the “You like older women, huh?”. Not exactly as funny as the spider-monkey line but still… And Jasper and Emmett were so much… uhm, cooler, cuter? Whatever, better anyway!

Ok, there were a few things that were kind of strange and I think we got to mention them as well in order to try and stay honest. Sometimes it was a bit too cheesy. Cheesier than the books. I even felt kind of 2nd-hand-embarrassed for Edward being so hardcore romantic. I noticed that Edward’s abs seem to have looked a lot better on the pics from the set we saw a few months ago. In the actual Volterra scene, they were barely visible. So what happened there? I mean, isn’t Edward supposed to have at least a six-pack? Jacob even got an eight-pack, so in comparison to that… sorry to say Rob, but Taylor wins this one!

Caius Malfoy and his Volturi friends

Did anyone else think Marcus and Caius looked like Denethor, Faramir’s dad from Lord of the Rings, and  Draco Malfoy’s older brother? Did the Volturi fight scene between Edward and Demetri remind you of the Gandalf vs. Saruman battle in the LOTR?

And there’s another thing. Not your fault Chris, this is just how Stephenie Meyer wrote Bella and the reason why this girl sometimes annoys the crap out of me in the books: Who do you think you are, Bella “don’t hurt him, kill me instead” Swan? Why should the Volturi treat Edward’s life against yours? You’re nothing but a weak clumsy girl, okay? Sorry to say, but deal with it!

All in all, we got everything we wanted… Well, almost. Taylor Lautner wore a shirt in at least three scenes. BIG FAIL! Sorry Chris… But don’t worry, Zelda and I enjoyed the movie a lot. We’re probably going to watch it over and over again for the next few weeks… Only because of important blog journalism of course so that we can present you a more detailed review soon. Wanna know what Mama Soul said about New Moon? She made so many great hilarious comments that she will get her own post this week. Don’t miss it! There’s no better way to watch this film than sitting in between her and Zelda. We’ve got enough stuff to write about for at least four weeks, so keep coming back to check what else we got in store for you!

a

Off to call Zelda and ask her when we’re going to the cinema again

Saveyoursoul

a

PS: We rate New Moon 4 out of 5 Heineken bottles

How did you like New Moon? Do you wanna marry Chris Weitz as well? Because I do… Which scenes were your favorites? Could the movie live up to your expectations? Any details or thoughts you want to share? Leave a comment or write an e-mail!

(images: google and me)

From: Grace Haden [mailto:grace@verisure.co.nz]
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 4:08 p.m.
To: ‘Daniel Grove’
Subject: RE: a blog which exposes corruption

Daniel

The situation as I see it

Your mother and Sarah  were trustees of AWINZ.  I suspected that the trust was a sham. I called it a sham   and was sued.

It was not   Wells who sued me it was  the trustees of AWINZ . or at least  those claiming to be AWINZ

Your mother and  Sarah   lent their names to a trust ( AWINZ)    which  has law enforcement  abilities  and  public responsibilities, they cannot claim to be ignorant of the  significance of AWINZ.   It must have been discussed  what the trust was and how it was  applying for approved status   under  section 122 Criteria of the animal welfare act.

You of all people  should know  of the legal responsibilities of trustees and I hope that   your mum and Sarah  were aware of their responsibilities to  legislation  especially if the trust had legislative powers and responsibilities  to law enforcement.

I will be more than happy  to  amend  the page if the evidence I requested is provided,  other wise in absence of that evidence  the  public documents I have  show that  Sarah and your mother  were  two of four trustees  of an organisation which monitored the  animal action of the lord of  the rings and applied to the minister  for  approved status.

As trustees  they must have  met and discussed the actions of the trust ,the way the animal welfare officers were employed and the  discussion about  providing the accreditation, the  discussions with regards to the  animal welfare officers under their control  the accountability to the government .

Of course  if they were not involved in that way then the only other possibility which  exists is that Neil Wells acted on his own in which case   the trust was a sham trust and I  was wrong fully sued. If your Mother and Sarah are happy to  let that be  then they should remain silent. But then that would  conflict with  what a Humanitarian person would be expected to do.

I have  lost $200,000  my marriage and half my family because of AWINZ  and you complain that the people  who hold the truth  wish to   conceal it  from the world.

If  Sarah and your mum would  like to  do the decent thing  then they would make me very happy.  I have  had enough of AWINZ    but I will not give up until it is totally exposed.

I am not unreasonable  I worship GOOD , I support transparency and   truth   I hope that your Mother and Sarah  can too.

Regards

Grace Haden

Phone (09) 520 1815  Please note new phone number
mobile 027 286 8239
visit us at  www.verisure.co.nz

From: Daniel Grove [mailto:DanielGrove@45chancery.co.nz]
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 3:38 p.m.
To: Grace Haden
Subject: RE: a blog which exposes corruption

Neither my mother nor Sarah Giltrap have anything to do with your dispute with Mr Wells. They do not know what it is about and do not want anything to do with it.

I fail to see why you are involving them in this matter.  They have no interest in getting involved in litigation, however, if defamatory comments are published by you, an appropriate application will be made to the Court.

========================================

Chancery Street Chambers

P O Box 130

Shortland Street

Auckland

T + 64 9 362 0101

F + 64 9 362 0102

NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION:

The information in this electronic mail message is confidential and may also be legally privileged.  It is intended solely for the addressee.  Access to this electronic mail message by anyone else is unauthorised.  If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful.  If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please notify me by email and destroy the original message.

From: Grace Haden [mailto:grace@verisure.co.nz]
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 3:31 p.m.
To: ‘Daniel Grove’
Subject: RE: a blog which exposes corruption

Thank you very much for your response

I believe that it is  important to  identify those  involved  with AWINZ . The  details I provided on the blog were obtained  from public sources and  there fore are not in breach of privacy .

People need to be accountable to the truth .  If they do not wish to be found  they should stay out of the phone book  and  off other public records.

Your clients are aware of the circumstances      and   chose to stand by while  I was under attack from those  who  sued me in the name of AWINZ, the trust  which  they are shown to be trustees of(  and  there is  no record of them having resigned from .)

If you could please supply me   with evidence that they were not members of AWINZ at that time and had resigned   and

If you  could please point out   that which you consider to be defamatory   I will happily amend  the blog

For the record  I   had spoken to your mother about her signature on the trust deed , I asked your mother a simple question as to when she had signed the trust deed   she told me  that all she could say was that it was her signature.

I was wanting to find out if the deed  was signed in 2000 or some  later time and retrospectively dated.

Her truth  will make a lot of difference to many people , what has she  got to hide?

I will be posting these  emails on the blog .

Regards

Grace Haden

Phone (09) 520 1815  Please note new phone number
mobile 027 286 8239
visit us at  www.verisure.co.nz

From: Daniel Grove [mailto:DanielGrove@45chancery.co.nz]
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 2:02 p.m.
To: Grace Haden
Subject: RE: a blog which exposes corruption

I refer to the email below.  I write on behalf of Nuala Grove and Sarah Giltrap.

Your article is defamatory and breaches the Privacy Act.  Your reference to Mrs Grove’s and Mrs Giltrap’s contact details and addresses is both surprising and concerning.  I assume that the reason you have included these private details is to assist third parties to locate my clients.  Your publication or their contact details appears, on its face, to be sinister.

Mr clients have no idea about your dispute with Mr Wells and do not want to be part of it.

I write to ask you to delete forthwith all references to my clients on the website.  If you are not prepared to do so voluntarily my clients will have to consider their positions.

Yours faithfully

Daniel Grove

========================================

Chancery Street Chambers

P O Box 130

Shortland Street

Auckland

T + 64 9 362 0101

F + 64 9 362 0102

NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION:

The information in this electronic mail message is confidential and may also be legally privileged.  It is intended solely for the addressee.  Access to this electronic mail message by anyone else is unauthorised.  If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful.  If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please notify me by email and destroy the original message.

Good morning all   please read this    It is  important to  you  and your client

For the past three years I have been held in court with litigation   taken against me by AWINZ in an attempt to  silence me.

The price I have paid for the injustice I have suffered  and for the crime of speaking the truth and   questioning corruption has been simply too high.

I am now left with  only one option but to take  this to the court of public opinion   in the form of a blog  which   each day exposes the players and their part

This afternoon  I will be adding another chapter.  Since this chapter  mentions you  or  in the case of lawyers    your clients I am advising you  of this fact before I post – the draft is attached

The link to the site is

http://anticorruptionnz.wordpress.com

Regards

Grace Haden

Phone (09) 520 1815  Please note new phone number
mobile 027 286 8239
visit us at  www.verisure.co.nz

Sadly we did not get very good photos from Legends in the Fall…my iPhone doesn’t do that great of a job. I am hoping my wife gets me a digital camera for Christmas that can render my miniatures better. I took a few photos of a few of the models after the fact…here are a couple:

Erkenbrand, Gamling and a Royal Guardsman of Rohan

One of the new GW plastic Ents...I have named him Strongbranch

I was at the airport this morning and I looked down at my feet and saw a black leather suitcase. Upon opening it I discovered a thick manuscript titled ‘Twilight 3: Scrappy-Doo Makes A Boo-Boo’. Obviously someone had made a huge mistake and left an item of great value behind.  However a quick skim and I found out that in a jealous rage Scrappy attacks Edward with a meat cleaver and then forces himself on to Bella. Now I thought this was odd as Scrappy, other than being an asexual minor, was in fact a fictional cartoon character. Would it be like when Paula Abdul danced with MC Skat Kat in the ‘Opposites Attract’ film clip? It just wouldn’t work. Surely this version was a clever decoy to keep the “Twihards” guessing. So I installed the latest copy of Microsoft Decoder on my laptop and proceeded to retype the whole script. A day later when I hit DECODE I was presented with ‘Twilight 3: Hot Runnings’. I noticed it was fairly similar to that Disney movie about the guys that form a Jamaican bobsled team, except this was set in Iceland and Edward, Bella, Jacob, Hitler and Gandalf form a relay team that hopes to compete in London 2012. Hilarity ensues when Gandalf realises he was in a superior movie trilogy and plots the deaths of his teammates. After succeeding he has a tea party with Jude Law and Bono. Ha! Nice try, I figured this was also a decoy script as there would be no way Gandalf would let this pass – he would not kill off Hitler and then dine with Bono.

Even though both decoys proved to be of a higher quality in comparison to Twilight 1 and 2, I was still sick of being stuffed around by jackass writers. I was ready to give up. But I decided to give it one last go. Luckily as the true plot was revealed titled ‘Twilight 3: Edward vs Dracula’. Edward is enjoying a quiet nighttime read of ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ at a local beatnik cafe when the Count comes up behind him, taps him on the shoulder and asks him “are you serious with all this shit?” before ripping his head off and feasting on his jugular. As the petrified cafe patrons look on Dracula boldly declares: “Who is glittering now, bitch?”. The end. Turns out it’s a short film that they plan on running during the halftime show of the 2010 Superbowl.

In conclusion how much did my blog hits just go up? Would it be as much as a post titled ‘2 and a Half Men Is  Abreast Of The Rest’? Results in a few days.

Dragon Age Origins cover

It’s been a few weeks and I’ve played about 63 hours. I’ve wanted to play more, but haven’t had the time. I also appreciate how this game lets me completely disconnect from work and school. It makes me go offline. Well, that’s not true, but my FF tabs aren’t open, so I don’t read feeds, tweets, nor email, which is basically offline.

There is a fine line between being a Diablo-like game and something more of an RPG. There is no doubt that from time to time, DA becomes a little too much like Diablo¹, but the fact of the matter is that it’s more of a game like Oblivion.

I’ve just gone into the Deep Roads in Orzammar, the Dwarven city. I’ve never played a game that simulated so well the Mines of Moria in Middle Earth. The Deep Roads are quite fun, compared to what I expected. The road to Branka is quite long, but it’s interesting.

It reminds me on how long it was when I went into the Lair of the Werewolves in the Elven Ruins in the Brecilian Forest.

My main character is Level 15 and I’m about to spend my other specialization point into Arcane Warrior. I’m already a shapeshifter, and although Blood Mage is unlocked, I won’t take it in this game. Apparently two of your companions will leave or try to kill you outright if you activate this.

I’m about 63 hours into the game and I’ve completed 20% of the game. That’s quite surprising. Does this mean that this game could be played for over 200 hours? I am unsure. We will see once I complete the “A Paragon of Her Kind” quest.

I still don’t have enough gold to purchase the more expensive items. There are items available that cost over 100 gold pieces. The Ring of Ages, 78gp, Robe of Reavers 98gp, a dragonbone staff worth 131gp at The Circle tower. I’ve never had enough gold to get those big ticket items. My money just goes on supplying up and slowly buying better armor. I’ve completed the Drake Armor quest and wonder if I will be able to wear the Drake Skin Armor that was made for me, when I become an Arcane Warrior.

I also expected to generate more money in Orzammar, but I didn’t. There isn’t a trick like potion-making that will generate large amounts of money, like in Oblivion. It’s good and bad. The most gold I’ve spent is about 23 gp on a book that gives you an extra spell point.

My go-to party is always composed of 2 fighters and 2 mages. One mage is my player character, an offensive Primal magus. The other one is Wynne and she specializes in healing spells. The two fighters are either Sten/Alistair or Oghren/Alistair. Since Morrigan doesn’t have enough healing spells, she’s just a bit useless in fights. I’ve never taken out Leilana nor Zevram. I miss out on chests, but most quests need quite a bit of fighting, for which my Champions are best suited.

The most challenging tasks were killing Flemeth, Morrigan’s shapeshifting mother, and killing a Revenant as part of the Juggernaut’s Plate Armor quest. The enemies level up as well, so they get more challenging as you progress. Ogres and Ogre Alphas are fine now.

Supplies are limited, often necessitating a trip back to the Party Camp or Denerim, where all injuries are healed. If you die during combat, but one of your party survives, you end up with a serious injury, which can only be healed with an injury kit. Injury kits aren’t easy to find and not plentiful, although you can make them yourself, finding Elfroot is another matter. There was a lot of it around before, and now there isn’t. The plants that I collected haven’t regrown and, if I’m correct, almost a year has passed in-game.

The Urn of Ashes was challenging as well, especially the Drakes in the wyrmlinglair. Drakes are smaller than dragons, but bigger than dragonlings. They are immune to sleep and do colossal damage. I’ve come up with a technique that works well. I use the Waking Nightmare spell on them, confusing them. Usually, if I’m attacked by three, two are affected and start attacking each other. This leaves 2 of my party to deal with one drake, which is OK, and 2 others to back the drakes up a bit while they kill themselves. It’s important to immobilize those types of foes so that they can’t outflank you and surround you. The same works for Revenants, though Revenants are more resistant to Waking Nightmare and those types of spells.

I’ve decided not to do the Mage’s Collective and Blackstone Irregular quests. They sounded fishy to me. In the Mage’s Collective, you often are involved with blood mages, a bit too much for my character. There is more to the Blackstone missions, especially with the one involved with dereliction of duty, but I haven’t found out much and stopped doing them.

The Deep Roads… It’s taken quite a few hours before I decided to get onto them. I dreaded them because I imagined that they were like the Mines of Moria from Middle Earth. To be honest, they are almost exactly like them. The Deep Roads are one of the few places that I’ve visited, the other place being Denerim, that have another internal map. The Deep Roads used to link different parts of the Dwarven empire, but they have long been abandoned and overridden by darkspawn.

Whispers in the dark… Finding the Anvil that Branka is looking for looks pretty challenging. I’m currently at Orthan Thaig and I have to get through this place, plus the Dead Trenches, the remnants of a city that has been overrun by darkspawn, to get to the Anvil of the Void. Pretty far away.

The game is pretty good. Definitely worth playing in my book. My only problem is with the controls on PC. You can’t have a 1^st person view to look around, which is pretty annoying. I’ve tried looking through the controls menu and couldn’t find it. I tried the up/down, left/right keys but that didn’t help.

* * * * *

[¹]: The Elven Ruins, in the Brecilian Forest, are an example. It takes hours upon hours before reaching the ultimate end of that quest.

Our latest member of the Viking Fellowship is an old friend.   I have known and played with Cap since I first started playing MMOs back in 2001.  Back then he was Cappy the Ogre Warrior of Norrath and he later became Capron the Barbarian Shaman.  Huge change in Lord of the Rings Online he is playing a Hobbit Burglar.  Capron started playing with us just a few weeks ago but is already level 44.  He is a MMO pro.  I am overjoyed that Cap has joined us.  He is an excellent player but also he is the life of the party.  Cappy is the funniest player MMO Viking has ever played with.  Smart comedy like 30 Rock not dumb comedy like 2 and a half men.  Cappy used to play Everquest in the back of his classes on his laptop which Beo and Nin thought was awesome.  I also love the fact he chose a Hobbit Burglar.  The fellowship really can use a burglar well for all the conjunctions, specially due to the fact Red seems to always be low on power.  Red will say this is due to the fact he is using all his warden skills possible and getting every inch out of it.  I think Red needs to drink more power potions!   And we needed a Hobbit.  This is Lord of the Rings dammit, sequel to The Hobbit.  This time the hobbit isn’t hired by Gandalf and 13 dwarves to burgle but by Redranth and 2 dwarves!  My favorite races in lotro in order are dwarves, hobbits, female elves, female humans, male humans, male elves.  I don’t know why people play an MMO to play a human that seems boring.  There might be a third dwarf, another old friend added to the mix if he ends up enjoying lotro.  MMO Viking hopes so.  You can never have too many dwarves!

I was terribly disappointed in The Two Towers, the second installation of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.  Perhaps it would be fine on its own, but in my humble opinion, it ripped out a great deal of what made the book not only interesting but also genuine. 

I understand the need for certain cuts for the sake of time, but I vehemently believe there is no reason at all to change the very essence of a character as it was written by Tolkien.  Take the Ents, for example. Part of what made them so cool in the book was that they had long memories and deeply hidden but powerful emotions.  In the movie, it’s made to seem as if their innate slowness hinders the action, and furthermore, that it is only a shallow device for concealing their cowardice – not true in the least!  This theme is carried on with the elves, as if Elrond considers himself too lofty to be burdened with aiding Middle Earth in its hour of need.  True, in the book an entire army of them never forms, and it’s worthwhile to question why they only send one or two at a time to fight, but it is also obvious that as a race their existence was tied to the destruction of Sauron and they couldn’t avoid getting caught up in mortal troubles even if they wanted to.

The greatest travesty is the terrible transformation of Faramir, Boromir’s brother.  The movie accurately depicts the feelings their father Denethor had toward the two (loved and admired Boromir, despised Faramir), but distorts their reactions to that love in a way that only Hollywood could.  They try to make it seem as though Boromir defended his brother and thought ill of his father’s forceful, conniving ways, when in reality, noble as he may have been, Boromir was very much like Denethor in his desire to be king and in thinking of the well-being of Gondor before all else.  I doubt he ever questioned anything his father may have thought.  By the same token, they give Faramir a very ugly edge: he wants nothing more than the love of his father and will do anything and everything to get it.  But in the book he very matter-of-factly rejects the ring – not because he doesn’t desire it mightily, but because he is GOOD.  This script needlessly creates “drama” when it should be extolling the occasionally achingly beautiful nature of humanity.

 Lastly, I’ll complain about a minor point.  Why did the movie-makers feel a need to make Theoden King a puppet, controlled entirely by magic?  I mean, come on, like there aren’t enough mystical things already going on in this story!  I think it should have been just fine to show that he was a  fallible human being who was manipulated by another.  Not to mention, even after the spell was broken they didn’t show him in a particularly positive light.  He was basically a quitter who kept needing to be prodded into action by Aragorn.  Boring!  Apparently Peter Jackson didn’t want to overwhelm the audience with too many heroes. [I'm so rolling my eyes right now.]

 There may indeed have been some very lovely aspects of this film, but I can’t remember any of them so I’m not going to go to the effort of trying to find some to talk about.  Anyway, no matter how wonderful they happened to be, for me they could not possibly redeem The Two Towers as a whole. End of story.

Es el título del libro que me ha regalado mi madre hace unos días. Los hijos de Húrin es una obra póstuma de J. R. R. Tolkien, rescatada en 2007 por su hijo Christopher a partir de unos manuscritos y notas que dejó el autor al morir en 1973. Según se lee en wikipedia Tolkien podría haber comenzado a escribir esta obra durante una convalecencia de una enfermedad que contrajo durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, en agosto de 1917. Nada menos que 90 años transcurrieron entre el momento de inicio de la obra y su publicación.

Ahora mismo no estoy leyendo nada de manera que a pesar de que tengo varios libros en espera (entre los que he visto que me interesan y algunas buenas recomendaciones que me han llegado en persona por amigos del trabajo y por lectores del blog) me parece que este va a ser el elegido.

Esta edición me gusta un montón por el encuadernado en tapa dura con tela e inscripción en dorado solo en el lomo. Además de llevar unas ilustraciones bien majas en el interior.

The highlight of any Las Vegas trip, the huge number of them makes it impossible to visit every single one of them on two nights. Or maybe it is possible if you stay up for 48 hours straight. There were so many beautiful ones out on the strip that we weren’t able to walk into, but the favorites of mine that we did have the chance to visit were Paris, the Luxor and the Bellagio (no surprise there). The stinker about casinos is that you can’t take any pictures on the playing room floor because they have such a beautiful setting, especially the Bellagio.

Luxor
It’s been around for quite a long time, and the last time I was there they had a little boat ride inside the hotel for people to ride. The tour boat ride is now gone, but that’s good though, you get to focus on the casino and the hotel itself, and the hotel is quite the setup.

Inside the pyramid you can see that all the doors to all the hotel rooms, which I can imagine is pretty sweet to have a view of the lobby floor and the casino as soon as you walk out of your room. The view from the outside is awesome with the pyramid and the ancient Egyptian statue.

Paris

Now i’ve never been to Paris, but from just how the casino tries to model the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, I think I may definitely want to take a trip and slam a few bottles of wine.

The Eiffel Tower has an elevator ride to get to the top, where you can take some great pictures of the Las Vegas skyline. I wish I had more time to check the view, because I can only imagine it being very beautiful.

The casino inside is pretty interesting as soon as you walk in. You see a part of the foundation of the Eiffel Tower come through the casino floor, where people have access to the elevators. As you walk through the casino floor, the ceilings sport clouds and a blue sky that brightens up the playing area, which is a welcome change from some of the dark and drab casino room floors at other hotels.

The hallway of shops and restaurants inside Paris I can only assume models some of the city streets you can find overseas. As you walk through it leads you to the casino room floor of Bally’s, which is right next door. Now right across from Paris is the Bellagio, and the awesome Bellagio Fountain.

The Bellagio

The cream of the crop is what I gotta say of the Bellagio. The fountain was the main draw to me, because once again playing and gambling isn’t my thing. But the hotel and casino is just gorgeous from inside out. Walking through to the casino floor I passed the shops inside, and with the shops they have you know only the people with good money stay here. The Bellagio was the main hotel target in the film Ocean’s 11, which made it just as cool walking through it. It’s kinda like walking through Chicago knowing that it was the site of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Upon walking up to the registration desk, on the ceiling is a beautiful arrangement of artificial flowers. The colors are eye catching and vibrant, and a photo doesn’t do it justice.

Right across from the registration desk is the site of the Bellagio Conservatory, home of a crapload of fresh flowers and one cool light display that changes every so often, complimenting the flowers, ‘lawn decorations’ and water fountains that is inside the conservatory. Currently it’s in it’s Fall theme, with a very scarecrow greeting you as you walk in.

The lawn decorations I speak of are the things that stick out of my head when thinking about the conservatory. It’s not a bad term I’m giving it, it’s just pretty interesting to see a couple of talking trees inside. it’s something I haven’t experienced since watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

It was definitely a fun trip out there and to get away from Chicago for a few days. If you’ve been reading my last few entries, just remember that if you head out to the Vegas desert, check out these spots on top of the other places you see, and don’t take Spirit airlines!