2016 News Archive

Merry Christmas!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien V/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-V/ArPharazonV, Elladan-V/Scott92027 (After-meeting), Eonwe Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web
Gaming
    Eonwe's report on general gaming news.
Tolkien:
    Topic: How did people show good cheer, or even celebrate?
After-meeting:
    More fun linking related to the Tolkien topic.
    Members gaming together in LotRO while some are still in AIM.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming Ar-Pharazon

    Changes in studios: LotRO and DDO have been moved from Turbine to newly formed indie Standing Stone Games, using many of the same people previously handling the games. Daybreak Games, an experienced company, will be handling global publishing.
    Here's the FAQ, showing that mostly how it affects us visibly is in logos and some upcoming maintenance downtimes. We'll be on the same servers with no change to such things as VIP or Lifetime. Permissions are all good and the games will continue going at full speed ahead..

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien V/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-V/ArPharazonV, Lenwe-V/perseid28 (After-meeting), VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Christmas next Sunday, so we're having a very short meeting.
Web:
    Art
    Link for Middle-earth style cookery
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: unsung heroes (more in After-meeting)
After-meeting:
    Personal gaming Arien
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming Ar-Pharazon
    More on the Tolkien subject of unsung heroes

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda to be posted.
Attending:
    Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe (presiding first hour and a half), Varda (presiding the last half)
Web:
    Stories:
       "Learning to Smile" chapter 6 by Little Jewel-(T) posted today during the After-meeting.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Feanor's oath and what it caused. [Thanks to Arien for the topic, grats to Pharazon on this one, and grats to the group for all pulling their books out..]
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Elladan, Eonwe, Varda (presiding)
Membership
Web:
    Stories:
           "Learning to Smile" chapter 5 by Little Jewel-(T) posted after the meeting, story no longer being edited by Varda who continues to do the webwork.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Dwarves.
    Size in Valinor, dimensions.
After-meeting:
    More on dimensions.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

On October 20th, I was discussing household finances with my girlfriend of 3 years, considering merging our finances. I was at work at the time, so we were discussing this over Google Hangouts.
I realized what we were talking about, and asked her “…do you just want to make it official?” followed up with “I’m not sure if I’m joking.”
Yes, I proposed over Google Hangouts.
We’re getting married on July 16th, and I couldn’t be happier!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien V (AriehnV), Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV), ElladanV/Scott92027, Eonwe Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Folders moved: News Archives, Humor, Links (problems with Links to be repaired)
    Timeline, as one of the ways of tying the Tolkien Site together and for its own sake.
Gaming:
    Eonwe's report on general gaming news.
Tolkien:
    Topic: Demarcation of the Ages.
    Tangent topics: What would have happened if an Orc had gotten the One Ring? Also, Orc afterlife. (mixes in a bit with the main topic)
After-meeting:
    More on orc afterlife.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming Ar-Pharazon and Arien.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending (7):
    Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Elladan, Eonwe, Lenwe, Marigold, Varda
Membership:
    Marigold's "few words"
    More membership news at the end of Gaming (sightings, Thanksgiving) and After-meeting (Elladan moving).
Web:
    New story chapter.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Marigold the Hobbit
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda
Attending: (3)
    Arien V (AriehnV) (presiding), Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV), Varda Valar (VardaValar1)
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Tolkien Moment: the light that started Theoden moving again. Question: What was that flash?
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (3)
    Arien V (AriehnV) (presiding), Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV), Varda Valar (VardaValar1)
Membership:
    Silmarillion spin-off books
Web:
    Nothing new put online this week.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Book: Beren and Luthien mentioned under Membership, for 2017
    Topic: Dior's twin sons: Elured and Elurin
After-meeting:
    More on the Ulysses poem mentioned during Tolkien.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Happy Halloween!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda
Attending: (5)
    ArPharazonV, EonweValar, ElladanV/Scott92027, Lenwe, Varda Valar (presiding)
Web:
    Story by Little Jewel-(T) (chapter from Oct. 26)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic 1: What are a few of the kinds of places that various beings lived in? And would we enjoy living there?
    Topic 2: Morgul-knife: But why, if the Nazgul have such technology, do we not hear of many other junior wraiths wandering Middle-earth?
    Topic 3 (tangent from Morgul-knife): Rune-magic and other types of magic.
After-meeting:
    Google game
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Varda Valar (presiding)
    ElladanV/Scott92027 (side window)
Web:
    Stories by Little Jewel-(T)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: New Tolkien book out
    Topic: romance in Tolkien's world
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

"Waybread"

"Gems and Jewels"
"Stealing"
"New Race"
"Run and Run and Run"
"Filling in the Gaps"
"Documentation"
"Metal"
"Connecting the Dots"
"Wayward"

"Count Up"
"The Lion and the Mouse"

LotRO Launcher news:

Sunday Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    AriehnV, ArPharazonV, ElladanV/Scott92027, Eonwe Valar. Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda Valar (presiding)
Web:
    Stories by Little Jewel-(T)
    Humor page open for business again.
    Be sure to have your forum presence figured out or be ready to use AIM in case things go wonky with our website coding update!
    Tolkien Site / Stories:
      Short stories by Little Jewel-(T) posted today:
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: the war in the North during the Lord of the Rings
After-meeting:
    We played with fancy smiley emoticons that don't show on the transcript.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar. Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda Valar (presiding)
    The traditional AIM marathon of keeping the chat room ends tonight. The Anniversary was Oct 4 between those two meetings.
Before-meeting
    A taste of the chat marathon.
    New link for LotRO players on figuring how to maximize stats.
Membership:
    Anniversary talk and looking forward.
Web:
    Forum
    Anniversary page
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: What gave contentment or happiness in Tolkien's works to animal-types and the Valar?
       Bill the Pony
       Shadowfax
       Huan
       Yavanna
       Orome
       Tulkas
       Manwe
       Ulmo
       Aule
       Varda
       Eru
       Morgoth (After-meeting)
       Nienna (After-meeting)
After-meeting:
    Continued discussing the Valar.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Happy 19th Anniversary, Valar Guild!
Thank you for making this possible. :)

Lord of the Rings theme shot of Erkenbrand-(V) (left) and Lenwe-(V) (right)
taken by Lenwe-(V) in Forochel, LotRO.

Click the above image for the full shot.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda in progress

Attending: ( 3):
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Eonwe Valar (presiding)
Membership:
    Varda is back two days early, joining into the annual anniversary chat room marathon about three and a half hours after meeting time.
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Stories:
       "Pet" by Little Jewel-(T) (also on Sept. 28 News)
    Games Site:
       Mass update completed. Previous info wiped and the info you just sent is now online. Please check to make sure it's correct.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: In a few sentences, why did you choose your guild name?
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the King Under the Ground, and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Eonwe Valar, GilraenV/Iryenth, LenweV/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    The traditional AIM marathon of keeping the chat room begins next meeting, ending Oct 9. The guild's 19th Anniversary is Oct 4 between those two meetings.
Membership:
    GSMU. Please update your gaming info, emailing Eonwe (or Varda if the email is confidential) before Sept 30 to be included in the State of Valar Gaming report given for the Anniversary.
    Anniversary Oct 4. Please email Varda with articles, art, stories, poetry, etc for the Anniversary.
Web:
    Art:
       From the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
          "Crown of Sauron". Sketching, figuring out how to make a golden crown of fire show up on golden hair with a hint of an Eye forming.
          She is sharing a YouTube video of artists, including herself , from Illuminating Tolkien, which is an art exhibition of 12 international artists. She's representing Portugal and is the first one in the video (Soni).
       From Deep Groover-(T):
          He put up some of the awards for his model painting and modifying on his family's living room wall on either side of their picture window; the ones on the right include the latest from the National modeling contests (USA). Left and right side.
    Stories:
       From Little Jewel-(T) this last week. See the News for September 20.
    Site coding:
       We plan on changing the site coding for the Anniversary or just after it in case of confusion to bring it into a more modern and slightly more secure system.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Bilbo and Frodo's birthday.
    Forum rp story planning.
After-meeting:
    A bit more Tolkien.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming

Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!

"Bag End" by the Bohemian Weasel-(T)

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
   New Tolkien member: Little Jewel-(T)
Web:
    Art: from the Bohemian Weasel-(T) (see Sept. 17)
    Story: from Little Jewel-(T) (See Sept. 17)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Forum rp. New post.
    Link for Tolkien books and art, other fantasy stuff. Recommended by Arien-(Valar).
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon-(V)
    Personal gaming

-RT raid on every saturday (17th, 24th), west bree gate at 3:30pm servertime. Glewyn is our officer in charge of it, send her a mail or a tell if you want to know the regions beforehand :)

-Story Tell Cafe on sunday september 18th, 1pm servertime, at our kinhouse (8 long street, haynwater, bree land homestead). Aneluki is in charge of it. It's a RP event where people sing, tell stories, meet friends and have a good time! :D Everyone is invited, listeners, tellers, singers! :D

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, ElladanV, EonweValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership News
Web:
  Tolkien Site / Art: (put up today)
    Cave of the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
        "Curufin" framed version of the painting for Curufin.
        "Fëanor" framed version of the painting for Fëanor.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Forum rp story
    Discussion: Silmarils, why were they important enough for a book to be named after them?
After-meeting:
    Personal gaming
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V (presiding), Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, LenweV/perseid28, VardaValar1
Membership
Web:
    Art:  from the Bohemian Weasel-(T) (See Sept. 2: Thingol)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: named weapons in the H & LotR
After-meeting:
    Personal gaming
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda in progress.
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, EonweValar, LenweV/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Tolken Site / Art:
       Cave of the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
          "Eöl, the Dark Elf" completed, on Eöl's page. (Sales available.)
          "Radagast" what she calls a "sketch", plus an animated work-in-progress for him on YouTube, all on a new page.
Gaming:
    Watch your inbox for an upcoming Games Site Mass Update email from Eonwe-(Valar). The mail will also be posted to the News for those that can't receive the mail.
Tolkien:
    Radagast the Brown.
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon

RT raids, on saturdays (august 27th and september 3rd) at 3:30 pm, west-bree gate. This weekend should be Angmar region. Come get your First Age there! :D
Story Tell cafe, on sundays (august 28th and september 4th), at Alliance kinhouse (8 long street, Haynwater, Bree-land). Come roleplay a bit, share a story, or a song!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda (in progress)
Attending:
Membership
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Art:
       Elwing-(V):
           New photos by DeepGroover-(T) of Elwing-(V)'s "Wizard" Saruman.  Photo 1, Photo 2.
            "Gnome Family"
       Bohemian Weasel-(T):
             Painting of "Curufin the Crafty", with a new page.
             Painting of "Eöl the Dark Elf": cropped detail, work still in progress, on the Eöl page.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Was Smaug the last of the dragons?
    Forum rp story: potential storyline for a third installment.
After-meeting:
    Personal gaming
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Pictures added to the Tolkien Site

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Elladan V/scott92027, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web:
    See Tolkien for Links
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Link: Tolkien: The Official Online Book Shop
    Link: The Terence Tiller Tolkien Trivia Quiz.
       Hard Tolkien questions from Michael Martinez of the Tolkien Society. A few of these would not be ones we'd include, as we prefer to do our questions on the stories, but still interesting. Be ready to grab your books if you want to answer these!
       Some discussion of the quiz questions.
After-meeting:
    WoW Demon Hunter
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.
    WoW books.
    Kenny Baker

Subject: Alliance inter-kin events
    Good day master! My name is Rhanti Heftymouse, I was recently appointed as Ambassador of the Alliance kinship. My work is to find other kin leaders and offer them to join our events considered inter-kin's, while I might ask them about some of their events that Alliance could take part of.
    If you agree, please respond as to how I should notify you of our events (monthly mail, bi-monthly mail, or mail a few days prior to our events).
    As for now, our inter-kin events include a RT raid going on every saturday at 15:30 servertime, west bree gate. Glewyn is our officer in charge of it, and the run starts usually around 15:45 (regions depend of people joining).
    On every osunday (except august 14th), we have a story-tell Cafe at our kinhouse at 13h servertime (8 Long street, Haynwater, Bree-land), a kind of small ales and tales where people talk, sing, tell stories. Can be a great way to introduce yourselves!
    Hope to keep in touch!
    -Rhanti

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (3)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Welcome to Ancalime-(T), our new Tolkien-only member. See "Web" below for her contribution to the Tolkien Site's Languages.
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Languages:
        Ancalime-(T) joined us today with her Common Speech Wordlist. You thought you knew Common Speech? Maybe not as much as you thought. Enjoy!
    Tolkien Site / Art:
        Congratulations again to the Bohemian Weasel-(T) for her art's being on the cover of the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society.
        Congratulations to DeepGroover-(T) for his modeling wins at the Nationals yesterday, and for having one photographed for Fine Scale Modeler Magazine.
Gaming
Tolkien chat:
    Topic 1: Languages of Tolkien
    Topic 2: Why did Sam's wife (Rosie Cotton Gamgee) not marry someone else while he was off battling and adventuring as no respectable Hobbit should?
After-meeting:
    National modeling art contest results for DeepGroover-(T), additional news.
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Elladan-V/scott92027, fladrifv , VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Forum story rp: post made by Arien this week, another by Ar-Pharazon during After-meeting. Link to forum page.
    Tolkien Moment: Sam carries Frodo
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, fladrifv , VardaValar1 (presiding)
Before-meeting:
    Hearthstone
Membership news:
    Fladrif
    Ar-Pharazon - Grats on his volunteer job (internship).
Web:
    Tolkien Site:
       New art:
          Cave of Elwing-(V):
             "Wizard". Painted model of Saruman with a craban spy and palantir.
Gaming:
    Reports from Eonwe, Ar-Pharazon, Arien, Fladrif, and Varda
    Chess: Fladrif won the chess championship. Cheer him on as he goes for Grand Master!
Tolkien:
    Forum rp story
    Comment: The temptation of Frodo
    Discussion: Why Sam could hand over the One Ring to Frodo even after using it for a while.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including personal flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv,  ElladanV, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Art:
       New today:
          DeepGroover-(T):
              "La Hire" - model put together and painted by DeepGroover-(T): two views One, Two
          Elatan-(T):
        New section: Woodcutting - woodcut work in progress: "Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits". Also, navigation work done for his sections.
    Tolkien Site / Languages:

Gaming
Tolkien:
    Dwarves page
    Forum rp story (new post made)
    Discussion: In Middle-earth, do they have a moment or two where they have to stop and think about mortality?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda

“Turbine is transitioning into a free-to-play, mobile development studio, and as a result we are eliminating some positions. The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons online games will continue to operate as they do now. Re-focusing and reducing the studio size was a difficult decision for the company, and we are grateful to all of the Turbine staff for their considerable contributions.”

Meeting Transcript planned to put up by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv,  Eonwe Valar, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Eonwe may be able to show up now and then for Sunday chats again, made it today!
Web:
    Art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
       "Thranduil Enthroned" preview, about to go up on her Thranduil cavern.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Question from Before-meeting: How can we say "rune-keeper" in Quenya elvish? Segued into languages of orcs (Black Speech) and dwarves (Khuzdul), and on to which elves knew dwarvish and then to Thranduil.
    Topic: Thranduil
After-meeting:
    Tolkien chat continues, warning of spoilers here for movie_Thranduil. To enter the After after spoilers, start with Arien's news below.
    Arien has more EVE news
    Eonwe has more WoW news
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending:
    Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Elladan, Lenwe, Varda (presiding)
Membership:
    Arien
Web
Games
Tolkien:
    Lenwe's topic: Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon's flashgaming reviews and personal gaming.

Happy Father's Day!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv,  ElladanV, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Interesting link: "The Silmarillion Series", a suggested adaptation for how to put the Silmarillion, Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings on television, by episode with credited images from around the web as illustrations. Added to our Links page.
    New art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T): an exercise of 25 expressions for a character, in which she used Sauron. Legolas art animated, on the table.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Tolkien moment and discussion: Treebeard's farewell to Galadriel and Celeborn.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

[World] Nelariel: 'Shirefest starts at 2pm EDT on Friday, June 24th at the iconic pillars that rise to the south of Scary in the Shire. The 3rd annual Shirefest features over two dozen of the best bands in the game over a three day weekend.'

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (3)
    Arien-(Valar), Ar-Pharazon-(V), Varda-(Valar) (presiding)
Web:
    Art:
       New by the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
            "Fëanor in the firelight" animated portrait of Fëanor, new folder. Large file. Includes the rough sketch.
            "The Dark Elf, Eol". New folder.
            "Battle Under the Trees". Elves and orcs battle in the forest. A battling archer elf and a fallen swordself. New folder including progress and details. To be used as a trading card for Perna Studios' Spellcasters II: Enchanted Realms.
            "Eowyn and Eomer at Meduseld" - saying goodbye to their Uncle Théoden. A happy picture, in the Eowyn folder. Includes progress, details in the folder.
Gaming
    WoW movie review, relatively spoiler-free.
Tolkien:
    Topic: That feeling of being uplifted, of joy in heroism. Do we feel that reading Tolkien?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews. 

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv,  Elladan-(V), VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    News before June has been moved to the News Archives. Enjoy the increased speed for the News page!
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Since we're a fan club that likes to put up lore info and make creative efforts from those, it might be fun to comment on how that can be done.
After-meeting:
    Arien with gaming news.
    More on Tolkien and archaeology.
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Eonwe Valar,  Elladan-(V), VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic 1:  JRRT's own time in the service for his own country means for us readers that he really understood what he was talking about when writing of war.
After-meeting:
    Tolkien continued: Topic 2: The Arkenstone and the Silmarils.
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.
    Arien with more gaming news.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/Arien V (presiding), Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Eonwe Valar,  Lenwe-(V)/perseid28
Membership:
    Varda
    Arien
    Helm
    Fladrif
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: "Animals in Tolkien , especially the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring"
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcipt by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Ar-Pharazon-(V) (presiding), Elladan-(V), Eonwe-(Valar),  Fladrif-(V)
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moment: two quotes from "The Houses of Healing", about Eowyn's arm. Covering diagnosis and treatment.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Happy Mother's Day!

Meeting Transcipt by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar), Ar-Pharazon-(V), Gilraen-(V), Lenwe-(V), Varda-(Valar) (presiding)
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Art:
       Cave of the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
          "Between the Midgewater Marshes and the Weather Hills" Four Hobbits, Strider, and Bill the Pony crossing a stream, with a little mishap.
Gaming
Tolkien:
  topics from Gorlim-(V):
    Topic 1 :  Does Aragorn remake Gondor in the elven image or is there a revived culture that doesnt partake of elven lore?
    Topic 2:   Is there a world exploration effort on the seas in the new age?
    Topic 3:   If Arwen and Aragon marry and have kids, and one of those marries a Beorning (I assume there is more than one) what would the effect be?
    Topic 4:   Do the elves from The Hobbit leave with the high elves (Elrond etc) at the end of the Age?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (7)
    Arien-(Valar), Ar-pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), Fladrif-(V), Lenwe-(V), Elladan-(V), Varda-(Valar) (presiding)
Membership:
    Fladrif
    New member: Erkenbrand-(V)
    Eonwe (tangent about the Lost Valar of Tolkien)
Web:
    Elf cooking (tangent Tolkien chat)
    Games Site
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic : Erkenbrand
After-meeting:
    Arien and Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda-(Valar)/VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Art:
       New today:
         Cave of DeepGroover-(T):
          "Conan": painted model; page for Conan including detail and work in progress.
Tolkien:
    Topic: Weather
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/arpharazonv, ElladanV/scott92027 (real life name removed), Varda Valar/VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Slight problem with the latest image for the site, being fixed.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Did Woses have contact with Ents at some time?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Varda (not yet completed on formatting)
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, arpharazonv, ElladanV/scott92027, Varda Valar/VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Nifty links.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic : Ringwraiths/Nazgul are a real oddity as far as what they must do to interact with the material world. How do they do it?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, arpharazonv, ElladanV, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda Valar/VardaValar1 (presiding)

Web:
    Tolkien / Art:
       Sneak peek at a work in progress by the Bohemian Weasel-(T): Eowyn and Eomer
Gaming:
    Lots of April Fool's jokes going on in the Blizzard games especially. Thanks to Eonwe for collecting them along with his regular gaming news.
Tolkien: "Death and afterlife - Return from the dead". How is it handled in Tolkien's work in Middle-earth from the Silmarillion, over the Hobbit up to Lord of the Rings?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Arien and Varda
Attending: (2)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV (presiding)
    Ar-Pharazon (side window)
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Planned for next time: "Death and afterlife - Return from the dead". How is it handled in Tolkien's work in Middle-earth from the Silmarillion, over the Hobbit up to Lord of the Rings?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic : Unusual jobs in Middle-earth.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/scott92027, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Art from the Bohemian Weasel-(T)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic : Riding animals
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Before-meeting
    Pidgin and Skype suggested as more for consideration for meetings.
Membership
Web:
    Shoutbox up for those logged into our Forum.
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Fall of Numenor
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

"Discord is missing a few features that I'd like to see, but is more than complete enough for what we need.
"Slack isn't meant for us, really, but will work just fine. I think either of these options (or our own hosted HipChat or similar) would make it far easier for folks to join and participate in the meetings.

Dear Players,
Now that we have been in the new datacenter in New Jersey on the new hardware for several weeks now, we have learned a lot about how our service works with domestic and international ISPs. Early efforts at tuning have been showing progress, leading to measurable improvement in latency for both US and EU players. Based on this early information we believe that players will be best served by us focusing on improvements to the new datacenter, rather than moving the EU servers to Amsterdam.

Going forward we’ll continue to work on with the technology team at our datacenter as well as key regional ISPs to improve the performance of LOTRO for all players worldwide. The next step of this process will have us on a new routing system in the next few weeks. This is expected to improve performance for players in much of the EU, and certain parts of North America as well.

For those players experiencing issues in PvMP we are adding in client side optimizations with Update 18 that we hope will lessen the strain on client and server alike when in battles with large groups. We are also looking into the cause of client crashes when traveling and changing instances. We will continue to optimize the configurations of our servers to improve service stability. These efforts will not be over night, but should improve the situation over time so that your play experience will be even better than it was prior to the move.

Once again we thank you for your patience and understanding while we work through this construction.
Thank you,
Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters”

Meeting Transcript by Arien and Varda

Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV (presiding), ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/scott92027, Gilraen-(V)/(Iryenth), PallandoValar
Membership:
    New member: Goldilocks-(V) (see Feb. 11 news)
    Elladan-(V) is very ill.
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Tolkien Moment
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Arien and Varda
Attending: (2)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV (presiding), ArPharazonV
Membership:
    Varda is traveling.
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: We need an article on Festivals in Middle-earth.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/scott92027, GwaihirValar, PallandoValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Many are watching the Super Bowl game.
Web:
    Art with comments on the Tolkien aspect
Gaming
    Digression into sports in Middle-earth
Tolkien:
    Topic 1: Gaming in Middle-earth continued
    Topic 2: Gandalf says he's a Servant of the Secret Fire and Wielder of the Flame of Anor. He calls the Balrog "Flame of Udûn". What are the various fires he's referring to?
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: more gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV (presiding), ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V), Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28
Membership:
    Varda and Fangorn are out of town, back Tuesday.
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Foods in Middle-earth.
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Article work
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Medicine
After-meeting:
    Art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T) of David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King. Proceeds to to cancer research.
    Ar-Pharazon: gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV (presiding), ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/scott92027, PallandoValar
Membership:
    Varda, Fangorn, Elwing
    Fladrif
Web:
    Art
    Link
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Battles in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
After-meeting:
    Ar-Pharazon: gaming news including flashgaming reviews.

Happy New Year!

A little longer – here’s Boromir’s sword put to the test…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGRpq0kxrCM<>
Don’t stand in front of Boromir  .. .you will be sliced & diced….  No wonder Uruk-Hai fell over ….
Fun, games and slicery….