Valar Guild

April 21, 2013 Sunday Meeting

5pm EDT (UTC - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (8)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(T), EonweValar, fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Poetry and Art from Luthien-(T)
Gaming:
    SWTOR
    League of Legends
    SC2
    WoW
    LotRO
Tolkien:
    RP
    Tolkien discussion: Nienna, the Gray Lady. We always hear of her weeping. Yet she's a Valie. What is her main function to make her so highly placed amongst the Ainur?
After-meeting:
    Gaming, webwork.
    Fun url.
    Fladrif gets us to try to find the plastic tree in Hobbiton.
    More WoW news

Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
Eonwe Valar has entered the room.
GwaihirValar has entered the room.
Eonwe Valar: Heya.
GwaihirValar: hullo
ArPharazonV: Aiya
fladrifv has entered the room.
fladrifv: Aiza
fladrifv: eh Aiya
ArPharazonV: different keyboard layout, Flad?
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
Iryenth has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
Eonwe Valar: Heya
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Great to see you here. : )
VardaValar1: Arien and Eonwe may both be facing problems with lateness or being here in the future due to work shifts.
VardaValar1: Airen, for that reason, expects to be late today.
VardaValar1: Any other membership news?
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VardaValar1: Web News:
VardaValar1: Luthien-(T) has been busy this past week. : )
VardaValar1: She sent in two poems written in Sindarin for rhyme and meter, then translated to English for us. She's from the Netherlands, making that even more impressive.
VardaValar1: She also illustrated both.
VardaValar1: One is about Nienna, a Valie we rarely hear about.
VardaValar1: The Grey Lady
VardaValar1: Pardon, having problems getting the text format back to normal.
VardaValar1: There we go :-)
VardaValar1: Chiril Vith: The Grey Lady
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/poetry/TheGreyLady.htm
VardaValar1: A Elbereth rîn elenath / Oh Star-Lady, Queen of the Heavens
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/poetry/OhStarLady.htm
VardaValar1: Pretty heavy on the graphics there, so it's tough on a slow computer.
VardaValar1: The Nienna painting is new to our art site.
VardaValar1: She also sent in another new painting "Sunrise at Mount Taniquetil" This is hi-res too, so it loads slowly.
ArPharazonV: Impressive, especially the Sindarin.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/LuthienTV/Valinor/rotr_2_sunrise_taniquetil.jpg
VardaValar1: Agreed!
VardaValar1: Her entire art cave is now redesigned to handle the content a little better.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/LuthienTV/caveLuthienTV.htm
VardaValar1: Those are all direct links, rather than in the framed version.
AriehnV has entered the room.
AriehnV: aiya all :-)
VardaValar1: She was feeling uncomfortable about keeping the photos of Tolkienesque areas on the site, but we both liked them.
VardaValar1: Welcome home, Arien!
AriehnV: :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
fladrifv: Aiya arien
VardaValar1: Flad tells me there's an error messages, checking it now. Meanwhile,
VardaValar1: Fladrif has adventures to tell!
fladrifv: The otherwise so fast ent been traveling a bit
fladrifv: and visited the NZ Lord of the rings scenes
fladrifv: among them hobbitton , mount doom a
fladrifv: lake or 2 used for shooting
fladrifv: and been standing inside hobbit holes
ArPharazonV: Hitting your head on the roofs?
fladrifv: psst they are empty inside
fladrifv: or used for storage
fladrifv: learned that the tree on bilbo's mansion is a plastic one smiles
fladrifv: hopefully I can send the pictures today to varda so all can see them
VardaValar1: That would be fantastic! They would go into Fladrif's art cave.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/Fladrif/caveFladrif.htm
fladrifv: also shot one of gollum at the airport
fladrifv: been also at the effects studio serving all the effects in the movies
fladrifv: no pictures allowed inside
ArPharazonV: Aw.
fladrifv: was a great travel around the world of the movie including sauron and the witchking harnas
AriehnV: wow happy happy ent
fladrifv: bows and walks of stage
fladrifv: leaving some rooty footprints in the soft stage floor wood
VardaValar1: That is fascinating. Thank you for sharing and for being williing to let us see the photos!
VardaValar1: Going to have to strengthen this stage floor!
VardaValar1: Maybe Aule and Yavanna would be willing to petrify it?
VardaValar1: Any other news? Not that his can be topped. :-)
fladrifv: the golden king should have enough wood to spare...
VardaValar1: How about it, Ar-Pharazon? :-)
ArPharazonV: I think all my boats sank.
ArPharazonV: Might be able to find some shipwrecks just off the coast if you want to look, but you know... that abyss you made...
ArPharazonV: Most of em are probably in there somewhere.
VardaValar1: Guess we'll have to drag for the wood.

VardaValar1: Arien is having difficulties reaching the forum. I went right in. Is anyone else having difficulty?
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.proboards.com/
AriehnV: It seems to haved gotten through folks
VardaValar1: It might be coming up slowly.
AriehnV: but it took a while
VardaValar1: The main site was slow earlier this week, but seems to have perked up.
VardaValar1: ProBoards is updating all over and might be slow while that's going on, now and then.
AriehnV: ah i see
AriehnV: anyway short rp post frali ^^
AriehnV: carry on
Eonwe Valar: Forum loads fine for me.
VardaValar1: ah hah, the forum has a post on it after logging in:
VardaValar1: Between April 29th and May 29th this forum will be upgraded, bringing new features and functionality. You will need to login to your account again after the upgrade. Your account username is .... If you are unsure of your account password, visit Profile > Modify Profile to update your account password. Thank you!
VardaValar1: argh
VardaValar1: lol - guess I'll be removing part of that post. Luckily all of you are trustworthy. ^^
VardaValar1: Yours may show your own username
ArPharazonV: As if we've got much use for your username without password :-)
VardaValar1: True that.
GwaihirValar: And, as if the username is terribly secretive ;-)
VardaValar1: You know me, always in hiding. ;-)
VardaValar1: On top of mountains, etc.
AriehnV: behind cloudds
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: Any other web news? Looks as if I need to do repairs to Luthien-(T)'s Netherlands links, but otherwise seems ok.
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: Gaming other than WoW or LotRO:
VardaValar1: Star Wars: The Old Republic aka SWTOR has the expansion for "Rise of the Hutt Cartel" available.
VardaValar1: (I was on SWTOR this week as Tintalle)
VardaValar1: Here's all sorts of notes from their own site:
VardaValar1: http://www.swtor.com/
VardaValar1: Any other news or additions?
ArPharazonV: for that game?
VardaValar1: Bilbo and Sauron were on SWTOR also. We all found ourselves on The Ebon Hawk rp server.
VardaValar1: Feel free to switch to other games than SWTOR. : )

GwaihirValar: The League of Legends finals are coming up very soon for anyone interested in e-sports. This would be the first time a company has actually held a proper tournament season for professional gaming, so these finals could be a big deal for e-sports in general.
VardaValar1: Intriguing.
ArPharazonV: Well, in that case mostly a bit of flashgaming... probably most of the flashgame time spent on a Zelda-based game called Hero's Arms at http://www.kongregate.com/games/BerzerkStudio/heros-arms so if you like such games, give it a try :-)
GwaihirValar: There have been a lot of smaller mini-tournaments and short-term things, or on-going 'drop in drop out' type seasons like the GSL for Starcraft, but Riot's LCS is something I've been keeping a close eye because it is something completely unique. A proper, formal regular season leading up to a tournament with establishe teams, qualifiers, and well... proper organization. It's big.
VardaValar1: Guess that's bigger than the old Diablo 1 tournaments. : )
ArPharazonV: Isn't that kinda like the WoW arena seasons and tournaments?
GwaihirValar: ya, E-Sports have grown quite a bit, but this is the first attempt I've seen for a company to take their own game and try to really, truly formalize it.
GwaihirValar: Not really, because anyone can participate in a WoW arena season.
GwaihirValar: Who is and isn't in it changes from moment to moment.
ArPharazonV: So this LoL season has a fixed roster from the beginning?
GwaihirValar: With the LCS the teams are established at the start of the season and those teams are only allowed very limited changes over the course of the season.
GwaihirValar: Yep.
ArPharazonV: Ahh.
GwaihirValar: There are 8 teams in the NA and 8 in the EU. The teams all won the pre-season qualifiers to get in, and once they're in they're in until the end of the season.
GwaihirValar: It's being treated very much as if it is a real sport. And that's a huge deal
VardaValar1: It is a real sport, just online. : )
GwaihirValar: Try convincing most of the world of that ;-)
GwaihirValar: Which is actually why this is such a big deal. If it's successful, it will go a long way towards building a level of legitimacy to e-sports in general.
VardaValar1: We're not enough? ;-)
GwaihirValar: And, entertainingly on a side note, Blizzard has taken heed and is trying to do something a little bit similar with starcraft II in the coming months. :-)
ArPharazonV: Pff, why do people always need to be accepted by the world in general to feel like they're worth something?
GwaihirValar: Well, it's not so much to 'feel like they're worth something' but to make businesses take heed of it
VardaValar1: I think it's the money, actually.
GwaihirValar: and actually fund it.
VardaValar1: No money, no events.
GwaihirValar: Because this stuff requires funding, and right now the only organizations interested are people like Curse, like Raidcall... companies already involved in the electronics scene in a big way
GwaihirValar: For it to really explode, it has to get more varied sponsors.
GwaihirValar: And legitimacy will help with that a lot.
VardaValar1: All businesses are struggling right now, pretty much, so this could be a shot in the arm.
ArPharazonV: I wonder if it'll end up being shown on tv.
GwaihirValar: It already is in some places, but in North America I doubt it.
GwaihirValar: Not after the only remaining truly gaming-themed channel just admitted it was a losing fight and completely cut out their gaming content
VardaValar1: I watched the last show for them. /headdesk
GwaihirValar: Well, on the plus side, all of the former G4 employees seem to have hit the ground running. Particularly pleased to see Sessler in charge of Rev3Games.
Eonwe Valar: XPlay just wasn't the same without Sessler, in my opinion.
GwaihirValar: Honestly, I think he's the most intelligent man in the Video Game media, and it's good to see him actually have real control now.
GwaihirValar: But ya, the original topic... the LCS finals are next week ;-)
GwaihirValar: NA starts on Wednesday I believe, and the EU finals start Friday
VardaValar1: Do we have a handy link?
GwaihirValar: http://www.youtube.com/user/lolchampseries
GwaihirValar: also http://na.lolesports.com/ or http://euw.lolesports.com/
VardaValar1: Thank you. :-)
ArPharazonV: There's something interesting about a game known as LoL, with "lol" in every url, that desires to be taken seriously in the world.
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: And one has to remember what gaming is for. : )
VardaValar1: All sports are meant to be enjoyed, not just thought of as something serious.
ArPharazonV: That's true :-)
GwaihirValar: Indeed

GwaihirValar: mm my dinner smells so good... pulled pork in the slow-cooker and bread in my breadmaker... nom nom nom...
GwaihirValar: getting so hungry. lol
GwaihirValar: That is, by the way, not news. ;-)
VardaValar1: ohhh! We'll all run in there and help you with that. Generous of us.
VardaValar1: awww : )

VardaValar1: WoW news. Eonwe, go ahead.
Eonwe Valar: We have a Bastion of Twilight run scheduled for tonight, if we have enough show to pull it off.
Eonwe Valar: Start time is 54 minutes from now.
Eonwe Valar: That's it from me.
ArPharazonV: Ooh, good luck.
ArPharazonV: Well, luck. It's Bastion. With a decently sized group you shouldn't need luck.
VardaValar1: Thank you.
VardaValar1: We tend to run pretty undermanned. Makes the runs interesting though.
ArPharazonV: Hmm, true.
VardaValar1: In LotRO news:
ArPharazonV: We actually did a quick Throne of Four Winds this week with 4 people.
ArPharazonV: Which is the same difficulty as Bastion.

VardaValar1: Lord of the Rings Online has been having it's 6th Anniversary. : )
ArPharazonV: *shuts up*
VardaValar1: sorry, didn't mean to step on your toes. Sort of a lag due to typing speed.
VardaValar1: So you know what I mean about being undermanned making it more interesting. : )
ArPharazonV: Indeed, though it still wasn't very hard, but then, we're well raid-geared.
VardaValar1: Most of the LotRO festivities end today.

VardaValar1: WoW report from Eonwe. : )
VardaValar1: is done. Thanks!
VardaValar1: Any further gaming news?
AriehnV: got me legendary weapon [Note: LotRO]
AriehnV: on the guardiamn
VardaValar1: yay! Congrats. : )
AriehnV: and started in Eregion :-)
ArPharazonV: Last raidwing for Throne of Thunder LFR unlocked this week :-) and good fun it is too, though can be hard
ArPharazonV: And congrats Arien!
VardaValar1: Grats to Phar's server too. : )
VardaValar1: Any further news? : )
VardaValar1: Tolkien:
ArPharazonV: It's not just the server, it's the entire world I think.
VardaValar1: Nice. Grat to the entire world!
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: We've already touched on Tolkien several times during the meeting, yay us. : ) What is this, a Tolkien fan club?

VardaValar1: Arien was checking the forum. Any fresh posts?
VardaValar1: ah hah! yes! Thank you, Arien. : )
VardaValar1: One hopes Frali was able to march off in a straight line. : )

VardaValar1: I did want to comment on one thing from the books.
VardaValar1: Nienna, the Gray Lady. We always hear of her weeping. Yet she's a Valie. What is her main function to make her so highly placed amongst the Ainur?
ArPharazonV: I believe her tears were quite powerful, aiding in the creation of the Sun and the Moon.
AriehnV: hehe aye
ArPharazonV: She also grieves for the world, and, well, someone's got to do it...
VardaValar1: Gandalf refers to her with reverence. Notice that when he says Pity, he says it with a capital letter.
VardaValar1: She is compassion, comfort, caring.
ArPharazonV: Pity and mercy?
VardaValar1: Aye.
VardaValar1: It was Pity that stayed Bilbo's hand when he could have slain Gollum.
VardaValar1: She's an immense force for kindness, for good.
ArPharazonV: Valar interference ;-)
VardaValar1: Interfering ol' busybodies. ;-)
VardaValar1: That was my bit for the evening food for thought. : )

VardaValar1: Those who would like to post on the Forum rp, please feel free. Thank you to Arien for her Frali post!
VardaValar1: Any other comments, suggestions, etc?

VardaValar1: Fladrif is sending stuff for the site. I hope to be able to share it all with you later!
AriehnV: heh i just put frali out of the breakfast room on the way to the smithies in search of gimli and gloin
VardaValar1: He's on the move!
AriehnV: plenty of time for the others to run into him or bump inot auros
VardaValar1: We should be about to the point where we can bring Auros and Meren back together to get us going on the actual mission. Huzzah!
VardaValar1: If we have any other business to wrap up in Rivendell, we need to do it right away.
VardaValar1: *picks up the gavel*
VardaValar1: *it doesn't seem to be Eonwe's. too dainty*
VardaValar1: *raises the hammer*
VardaValar1: *smacks the hammer down!*
VardaValar1: *tinnnnnngggg*
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
VardaValar1: LotRO revelers, enjoy the 6th Anniversary!
VardaValar1: WoW folk, we have an instance to run!
VardaValar1: and I have a bit of webwork during quiest moments, heh.
VardaValar1: Namarie!
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
VardaValar1 has left the room.
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Internet went out for a bit there, sorry.
AriehnV: oops
VardaValar1: heh : )
VardaValar1: Wore it out. ;-)
Eonwe Valar: :}
VardaValar1: ok, Luthien's photos should be working again. Links corrected.
fladrifv: yay
VardaValar1 has left the room.
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Gahh, going to have to call the repair guys out for an intermittent connection again. That seldom goes well.
ArPharazonV: Ouch.
AriehnV: bah technicians ...
VardaValar1: Bah, intermittent problems. :-)
ArPharazonV: Bah, internet..
fladrifv: bah strawberry milkshakes :-)
VardaValar1 has left the room.
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fladrifv: wb
VardaValar1: Thanks
AriehnV: router restart folks pfft
AriehnV: talking about internet problems ...
ArPharazonV: Bah, router restarts.
AriehnV has left the room.
VardaValar1: Contagious? heh
AriehnV has entered the room.

fladrifv: http://youtu.be/SBFbUDDFfAM
fladrifv: for anyone that is bored :-)
VardaValar1: heh, thanks.

VardaValar1: At least I'm getting your page worked on. Not too good on the instance run.
fladrifv: ty for setting the priorities that way varda
VardaValar1 has left the room.
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VardaValar1: Family, work, Tolkien, other. : )
ArPharazonV: Heh, domino... always seems like so much effort for a few seconds of fun.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/Fladrif/caveFladrif.htm
VardaValar1: May need to hit Reload/Refresh.Check 'em out!
VardaValar1: and the second one isn't working. back I go.
ArPharazonV: Hmm, New Zealand looks nice :-)
VardaValar1: left out the letter p in a link, heh. Fixed
VardaValar1: Aye. Let's go fly New Zealand Air!
AriehnV: yes lets meet in IMladris :-D
ArPharazonV: Or Edoras, that looked nice.
AriehnV: mh
VardaValar1: If those few seconds refer to webwork, people may look at in sometime in the next 15 years for the first time and go wow, look at that. :-) Happens.
ArPharazonV: Hehe. Was just thinking.. if you take a video like that, multiply the length of the video by the views, and see how many hours in total people have spent looking at it... maybe it was worth the time :-)
fladrifv: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/Fladrif/hobbitton.jpg
fladrifv: find the plastic tree
fladrifv: ;-)
VardaValar1: Would it be the Party Tree up top?
ArPharazonV: I'd guess so.
fladrifv: been sitting in that one
fladrifv: its real
ArPharazonV: More prominent, different color of leaves...
ArPharazonV: Hhmm...
ArPharazonV: How about the small lighter colored tree next to the hobbit hole?
ArPharazonV: In the center that is.
fladrifv: a hint
fladrifv: its on top of things
ArPharazonV: Or what about the smaller tree at the top, some way to the left of the big tree?
fladrifv: you mean above bilbos home?
ArPharazonV: If that's Bilbo's home, then yes.
fladrifv: it is
fladrifv: the green door
ArPharazonV: *nod*
fladrifv: yes its a plastic tree
fladrifv: having many plastic leaves
ArPharazonV: Not bad.
fladrifv: it looks real as aye
fladrifv: as they would say in NZ
ArPharazonV: heh
VardaValar1: Maybe they had to do that after working on the hobbit stuff.
ArPharazonV: Allright, time for some pet battling in WoW.
ArPharazonV: If my calculations are correct I should be levelling 3 more pets to the maximum of 25 tonight.
AriehnV: :-)
AriehnV: well time for me to sleep :-)
AriehnV: Namarie all#
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
AriehnV has left the room.
VardaValar1: Namarie Arien!
Iryenth has left the room.
Iryenth has left the room.
fladrifv: Namarie both (hope they read the chat log :-) )
ArPharazonV: If not, we'll tell them to ;-)
Iryenth has left the room.
VardaValar1: :-)

VardaValar1: WoW news: Childrens' Week next week. :-)
ArPharazonV: Hmmyes, should be fun, but I've not heard anything about Pandaria kids this time around.
ArPharazonV: Missed opportunity perhaps.
VardaValar1: Maybe we'll see the little tykes this time around. We know they have little ones in their homeland running around.
fladrifv: Growing treeish
fladrifv: namarie
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
VardaValar1: Namarie :-)
ArPharazonV: There, 18 lvl 25s now. Getting closer to the 30 I need :-)
VardaValar1: Yay!
fladrifv has left the room.
Eonwe Valar: On Pandaren children: there are plenty you rescue as Alliance in the starting quests.
VardaValar1: Aye. Plenty they could put in Children's Week.
VardaValar1: Seems like I get the human boy each time. Probably from being in Stormwind for the quest.
ArPharazonV: It's the human boy for alliance in the original world and the draenei girl in Outland. You can do both each year.
VardaValar1: ah nice. :-)
VardaValar1: Suppose they have more for the other areas?
ArPharazonV: There's also a wolvar or oracle in Northrend.
ArPharazonV: That's why I'm wondering if there'll be panda kids.
VardaValar1: Sounds like there may be!
Eonwe Valar: Unfortunately, if there were, it would've probably been datamined and posted on MMO-Champion by now.
ArPharazonV: True.
VardaValar1: Maybe it'll be a last-minute sneak-in. :-)
VardaValar1: Would be nice if folks would allow our games to give us a few surprises. Seems like people have to know everything ahead of time.
VardaValar1: I'm sure it helps guilds plan.
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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