Valar Guild

August 16, 2015 Sunday Meeting

5pm EDT (UTC/GMT - 5)

AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (3)
    ArPharazonV, PallandoValar, Varda Valar (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Tolkien Site: New art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T)
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Discussion topic: In the books, some people (any race) give discouraging words (sometimes professionally) and others give encouraging words (sometimes professionally). Can we come up with some examples?
After -meeting:
    Gaming news from Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya :-) Twenty minutes yet, no worries!
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: :-)
ArPharazonV: Raid finished, just doing one of the Harrison quests from the garrison.
VardaValar1: Fun :-)
VardaValar1: Finished webwork, dropping into LotRO. Never know, might interest someone in the meeting. ;-)
ArPharazonV: *checks bnet* Urwendi, last online 24 days ago
VardaValar1: wow
VardaValar1: Hope she's ok
ArPharazonV: She's lasting a long time without gaming!
ArPharazonV: Indeed.

VardaValar1: Topic suggestions: from Dis: weaponry.

VardaValar1: Gorlim suggested how about whether or not jrrt and csl were good christian theologions.
VardaValar1: He said there was a /World chat about the quality of christian view of the inklings..
ArPharazonV: Can't help you there. I'm not a Christian, and don't know all that much about the finer theological details :-)
VardaValar1: it was a discussion of anglican vs american world view
VardaValar1: Just passing on stuff from the LotRO crew. :-)
VardaValar1: JRRT was a Roman Catholic, traditionalist moderate, so that affected some of what he wrote.
VardaValar1: He also was a big student of the Norse, which also affected what he wrote.
VardaValar1: But mainly he need a historical/religious excuse/explanation for his languages. :-)
VardaValar1: He was creating a mythology for England, as it didn't have one.
ArPharazonV: And using multiple religious systems in one to build it. Quite impressive. And open-minded.
VardaValar1: Agreed

VardaValar1: Here's another from Gorlim:
VardaValar1: whether or not a paperback format book is better or worse than the trade or library bound copies..
ArPharazonV: There, enough WoW for today. Got some good stuff done.
VardaValar1: Huzzah!
ArPharazonV: I like paperbacks. I buy almost everything in paperback. It stacks better, and there's less worry of damaging it.
VardaValar1: And fits my shelves better.
ArPharazonV: Hehe.
VardaValar1: From Gorlim:
VardaValar1: i had a copy at one time that was in 8x11 format.. it was like the book frodo and bilbo write in in lotr
VardaValar1: (He's typing while fighting. Impressive.)
ArPharazonV: Paperbacks also tend to fit in my pocket better if the book is small enough (or my pockets large enough)
VardaValar1: Also fit my purse better for waiting around at offices, doctors.
VardaValar1: The hardbacks last longer, I'll admit. And nicer to offer the author for an autograph.
ArPharazonV: I don't use a purse... that's why I wear coats with many pockets.
ArPharazonV: Yeah, that's true.
ArPharazonV: And they look fancier.
VardaValar1: True that.
VardaValar1: Sauron stuffs paperbacks into his pockets and backpack. :-)
ArPharazonV: When I use a backpack, sure :-)
ArPharazonV: I've read a lot of Tolkien and Pratchett on the train or bus.
VardaValar1: Good plan
VardaValar1: We read to each other in the car on long trips
ArPharazonV: I've always preferred my literature in visual form rather than audio.
VardaValar1: Great when you can do it. Hazardous while driving.
ArPharazonV: That's true :-)
VardaValar1: Gorlim: Has a 2 vol set of the lotro/hobbit and..the silmariion in the other
VardaValar1: He's been playing too much LotRO. :-) I do that slip too sometimes.
ArPharazonV: hehe
ArPharazonV: It could be "Lord of the Rings Original"
VardaValar1: There you go!

VardaValar1: Maybe I should do the traditional meeting stuff now. Kind of did it in reverse. :-)
PallandoValar has entered the room.
ArPharazonV: I just see it as pre-meeting, even though it's later than normal :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Aiya Pallando :-)
VardaValar1: You're gaming in Eve with Sauron right now?
PallandoValar: sadly not, he didn't bug me, and the fleet is over
PallandoValar: it would stillb e going
VardaValar1: Gorlim, Elwing, and Dis are with me in LotRO
VardaValar1: ?
VardaValar1: I know he was waiting for you quite a while.
PallandoValar: but someone else ended our fun
VardaValar1: o ok
VardaValar1: Joys of a pvp style game.
ArPharazonV: Hah, was just thinking that too.
ArPharazonV: That's what you get for playing a pvp game :-)
VardaValar1: The little drawbacks while having fun in space.

VardaValar1: Membership:
PallandoValar: Wasn't pvp that stopped us, actually. :-P
VardaValar1: Dis-V came back to LotRO and put a batch of her characters in our kinship. Elwing's back after not being able to play much from health problems.
VardaValar1: oh dear
VardaValar1: Hope you get to play again.

VardaValar1: Web:
ArPharazonV: Did we actually have the meeting-opening?
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site. We have new art from the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
VardaValar1: I wrote it way back there. :-)
VardaValar1: Not sure I hit enter...
ArPharazonV: haha

VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: just in case. ;-)
ArPharazonV: There ya go.

VardaValar1: The first link is the pic itself, the links right after take you to the page where it is and lots more pics on the character or place.
VardaValar1: Those collections are handy to link to in our Tolkien Encyclopedia.
VardaValar1: "Hall of Meduseld" Éowyn at Meduseld in Rohan.
VardaValar1: "The White Lady of Rohan" "Like a morning of pale Spring still clinging to Winter's chill" Éowyn
VardaValar1: "I told you to take the wizard's staff!" GrimaWormtongue
VardaValar1: "Your friend took a little tumble..." Orc brags to Legolas
VardaValar1: "These are no soldiers." Aragorn hears Legolas' warning at Helm's Deep and takes offense.
VardaValar1: "‘There is nothing for you here, only death.’" Arwen hears Elrond's warning about marrying Aragorn.
VardaValar1: "Arwen's farewell" Arwen
VardaValar1: "Rivendell" "Our people are leaving these shores..." Rivendell
ArPharazonV: You failed the link on "These are no soldiers" in my screen.
VardaValar1: This suggests a topic: the discouraging word vs the heartening word.
VardaValar1: Uh oh. Checking on that.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Aragorn/soni-top ps-lotrm2-219_Aragorn_notsoldiers.jpg
ArPharazonV: Yay!
VardaValar1: At least it showed up on Aragorn's page. Thanks for letting me know to fix it!

VardaValar1: Pallando has web news. Go ahead!
PallandoValar: I'm partway done with converting the Leithian script to a better coded version
PallandoValar: I've done proof of concepts on the first two parts, and I hope to finish the rest sometime this week
PallandoValar: That said, I'm mass-converting a novel's worth of text. I've gotten pretty good at it, but I still make lots of errors.
PallandoValar: Once I have a few more parts (because. thinking about it, I probably won't be done this week) I'll put them in a special section, and I'd appreciate folks helping me read it all and make sure everything looks right.
PallandoValar: Probably next meeting I'll have enough done to present, so if you've been putting off reading it.. put it off for one more week! Then you can help me while you read it. :-)
ArPharazonV: With the original on the side, I assume?
PallandoValar: It'll just be two different pages, so you'd have to look back and forth. I'm just redoing the formatting, not the content, so it should be pretty obvious when it's broken.
VardaValar1: I read it before and would be happy to again. It'll take a while.
ArPharazonV: Right. But I meant, for missing words, typos, etc.
PallandoValar: Speaker names showing up where there should be other stuff.
VardaValar1: Might put the link here again for anyone reading this transcript.
VardaValar1: or hold off til next week... :-)
PallandoValar: Yeah, sure. This is the main page, with all of the old versions: http://rustbucket.net/leithian/index.html [Note: more under Gaming]
VardaValar1: Thanks.
PallandoValar: Check out the first part and get ready for next week. :-D
VardaValar1: :-)
VardaValar1: rustbucket, heh
PallandoValar: That's it for me.
VardaValar1: Thank you, was taking another peek at it. Quite fun. :-)
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: Did you have any comments for Eve Online?
PallandoValar: Not really. I'm back in and running things, and when plans go well we've got nice big fleets doing things. As ever, my offer of a free month and a half (including the trial) is valid, and I'll shower you in information and isk, as Sauron can attest. :-)
VardaValar1: He can indeed. :-)

PallandoValar: Oh, and I actually did upload the first test run of my reformatted stuff: www.rustbucket.net/leithian_test/leithian_script_1.html
VardaValar1: Ah hah!
PallandoValar: If you scroll through it fast, you can see that the formatting for Gower is wrong after the first time.
VardaValar1: oops
PallandoValar: That's part of the work in progress. I don't think that'll actually be fixed this week, but hopefully everything else will be good.
PallandoValar: I'm trying to do it in passes.. anyways, back to gaming.

VardaValar1: For internet info, Sauron says Windows 10 was killing his tabs in Firefox, but Firefox is ok now.
VardaValar1: Passes are a good way to handle it.
VardaValar1: So I'm considering Windows 10, in case you wonder why everything disappears later. :-)
VardaValar1: Without Firefox tabs, it wasn't going to happen.
ArPharazonV: Yeah, I value my firefox tabs too much as well.
ArPharazonV: Got hundreds of em, I think.
VardaValar1: Also worried about other programs I have that are ancient.
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: bunch up right now.
VardaValar1: Be sure and put in a restore point before trying it.
VardaValar1: Ok, back to gaming. :-)
ArPharazonV: I make regular backups of my firefox profile, just in case.
ArPharazonV: Something goes wrong? Plonk, here's the session history again.
VardaValar1: I may ask you where that is...
ArPharazonV: Oh, somewhere in the users folder. Shouldn't be difficult to find with the search function.
VardaValar1: Thanks

Games Site info:
VardaValar1: World of Warcraft aka WoW:
VardaValar1: If you're trying to get ready for flying in Draenor, see the new blog Draenor Pathfinder: Prepare for Flying. Check out the 6.2.2 PTR patch notes as well.
VardaValar1: You can also check out a blog showing coming mounts and pets.
VardaValar1: Check out the latest hotfixes.

VardaValar1: Diablo 3:
VardaValar1: Blizzard wants us to have a first look at Season 4.
ArPharazonV: Hmm, not really prepared for flying myself... but the way things are going I should enter Tanaan in a week or so.
VardaValar1: There's also a new Patch 2.3.0 preview of items and set changes and additons.
VardaValar1: Good luck, Phar. :-)
ArPharazonV: thanks :-)

VardaValar1: Hearthstone:
VardaValar1: There's a new blog on The Grand Tournament: The Joust.

VardaValar1: Heroes of the Storm:
VardaValar1: Check out the PTR patch notes.

VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: This is just from me. We're busily trying to fix up our armor with essences and scrolls, upgrade jewelry, and talk to refugees coming in from other servers for potential recruits.
VardaValar1: Any other gaming, web news? Anything for any kind of business? Suggestions? Complaints? Kudus? Kudzu?
VardaValar1: Ok, kudzu then. :-)
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: We had some chat for Tolkien earlier in the meeting for those wanting to scroll up to the Before-meeting part of the transcript where it is.
VardaValar1: Discussion topic for tonight (with probably tangents):
VardaValar1: In the books, some people (any race) give discouraging words (sometimes professionally) and others give encouraging words (sometimes professionally). Can we come up with some examples?
ArPharazonV: Ehr, I suppose Gandalf was pretty good with the encouraging words.
VardaValar1: Aye, and he could be considered professional at it too. :-)
ArPharazonV: In fact, Bilbo came in contact with both types of words regularly ;-)
VardaValar1: True. :-)
VardaValar1: Some of the kings needed to encourage their people professionally as well.
ArPharazonV: Some steward was less than professional about it, too.
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: Sauron was giving him discouraging pictures in his Palantir.
VardaValar1: Sauron did that for Saruman too.
ArPharazonV: Even though a fleet full of black ships holding Gondorians and Rangers should be encouraging, the way it was presented made it discouraging.
VardaValar1: True. It looked as if the enemy was coming rather than help.
VardaValar1: Theoden (after repair) and Aragorn were good with the troop encouragement.
VardaValar1: Strider, though, often said stuff like "Don't speak of such things!"
ArPharazonV: And before repair? :-)
ArPharazonV: Oh, that is true. Seems a bit less professional.
VardaValar1: Theoden was not encouraging to Gandalf when he came in at all.
VardaValar1: Full of recylcled words from Saruman passed to him by Grima Wormtongue.
VardaValar1: *recycled
ArPharazonV: Who also spoke words of discouragement, yet masked as encouragement.
VardaValar1: Tricky
VardaValar1: Sam was a master of encouragement.
ArPharazonV: Even to Faramir, as I recall.
ArPharazonV: But not sure on that.
VardaValar1: Faramir could really talk. JRRT almost had to shove him mostly to the Appendices but got him under control.
ArPharazonV: Hah, yes, like the pipeweed.
VardaValar1: Too good for explaining JRRT's world. :-)
ArPharazonV: Boromir was less encouraging than he'd hoped.
VardaValar1: Drat, Pallando's link is too interesting - and funny. :-)
ArPharazonV: hehe, took a look at it earlier. Funny indeed.
ArPharazonV: I might not be the best person for proof-reading though. I had no idea what that formatting issue he mentioned earlier was supposed to be.
VardaValar1: Maybe we should make a stab at some one panel comedy for our Humor site like that.
VardaValar1: Not really a concern until next week.
ArPharazonV: Just saying, maybe I don't know enough about text formats to be of much help if I can't even find the errors he's pointing to as an example.
VardaValar1: Maybe some of us could think of some funny comments, and maybe our artistic bunch could be inspired.
VardaValar1: If something looks out of place, that's what we need to mention. If it looks fine, np.
VardaValar1: Think it's about time to pick up that gavel over there and let you give your gaming news.
ArPharazonV: Then it's about time I found some flashgames to link.
VardaValar1: *drags out a hammer, leaving a trail in the dirt*
VardaValar1: *oops*
VardaValar1: *adds fusion power to arms*
VardaValar1: *swings gavel*
VardaValar1: *ka-thoooomie!*
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
VardaValar1: *replaces gavel and the shelf falls off*
VardaValar1: *Hey, Aule! Could you come over here a minute, please?*
VardaValar1: Free chat.
ArPharazonV: My personal gaming!
VardaValar1: (Power went off briefly. Yay battery.)
ArPharazonV: Ooh.
ArPharazonV: Using a laptop, then?
VardaValar1: Nope
VardaValar1: I have a big APC backup, due to our frequent power outages.
ArPharazonV: Ahh.

ArPharazonV: Flashgaming!
VardaValar1: (thunder rumbling outside) [Note: at this point, Bilbo's computer's motherboard fried.]
ArPharazonV: Not that kind of flash.
ArPharazonV: I'll give you two platformers for this week, fun but they soon get challenging. Up to you to see how far you get, I suppose!
ArPharazonV: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/bubble_boy has you floating around in a bubble. Quite tough to maintain the uplift needed.
ArPharazonV: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/inversia is slightly easier; flip gravity around to avoid obstacles and enemies.
VardaValar1: Ask Glinda the Good Witch for help?
VardaValar1: (Pardon, in one movie she transports people in Oz with huge bubbles.
ArPharazonV: Ah :-)
ArPharazonV: Right. Hm. What's next.

ArPharazonV: Heroes of the Storm! Event still going on. Was looking at the patchnotes, happy about some, especially for Abathur's Hivemind.

ArPharazonV: D3 event, that is, with treasure goblins.
ArPharazonV: Not bought anything new yet, though I could if I wanted to. Might wait for the patch to fill up the last few combination-slots.
ArPharazonV: Diablo 3: New season is still almost 2 weeks away, so not done anything yet, though I am looking at what I want to do in season 4 ;-)
VardaValar1: Alll of it!

ArPharazonV: Hearthstone: New brawl this week, but I think it's one we've already had in the past. Casting a spell gives you a random minion of the same cost on the board.
ArPharazonV: I went with a deck with all spell cards, and it worked quite nicely ;-)

ArPharazonV: WoW: Much progress made this week, with certain little projects. I'm down to 3 missing music rolls for the Garrison jukebox, all coming from weekly raids, so that'll give me something to do each week.
ArPharazonV: I got the complete achievement for Pepe as well; if you bring the little bird along to a lot of various bossfights and raids without dying, you get a toy as a reward with which you can summon him at any time. Had to do a lot of raiding and instancing for that this weekend!
ArPharazonV: No new pets this week, no luck with the old raids; as for the new raid, we're making progress on Heroic difficulty in Hellfire Citadel.
ArPharazonV: The first 5 bosses down now, seems to progress quite smoothly.
ArPharazonV: There's a new Timewalking event this weekend, too, if you want to go for it! Old Burning Crusade dungeons. Quite fun.
ArPharazonV: And I'm only one step away from finishing the Garrison Campaign. This week I should be able to finish that, get some pet battling done, and then I'm on my way to the new zone, Tanaan!
ArPharazonV: And now for one last game to mention:

ArPharazonV: Legends of Equestria has another open server weekend, this weekend.
ArPharazonV: Quite a bit of new RPG-style content: gear with stats, and a levelling/experience mechanic from combat.
ArPharazonV: It's really shaping up!
ArPharazonV: http://www.legendsofequestria.com/
ArPharazonV: A bit too much content for me to do over one weekend, I only got a few levels instead of level 50, and didn't get nearly enough gold for some of the gearpieces I liked... but if that's all going to be in the full game, I'll have something to work for :-)
ArPharazonV: Annnnd that's my gaming for this week!
ArPharazonV: Oh, I'll say there's still a lot of work to be done. The quest journal and map don't seem to be functioning well, and the gear items could use some information on them, like the stats they provide. Combat system is still a bit flaky too, and there's no way to tell how far to the next level you are.
ArPharazonV: But it's looking very promising now.
PallandoValar has left the room.
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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