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Posts that will remain open to the public will be my writings, my artwork, humorous finds, and fandom news/blurbs.

Most RL photos (including photos of myself and Sini, the adopted little bundle of joy), entries expressing opinion, and entries about my RL (college, family, etc) will now be under lock.

If you want to be added, please comment to this post. I'm not picky about who I add, but I want my own little safe corner of the internet in which I can express myself freely without being condemned by others.

If you are already on my friend's list, viewable on my profile, you need not comment.

All my replies to my post were in my spam box. WTF LJ. You never did this before.

Anyways, I'm done with Arwen, and got nearly 200 faves in less than 24 hours O.o And I was STILL declined from this "elite art" club. Blah. Obviously popular opinion doesn't make something good enough- I've given up on them :P

Well, whatever, I know you guys will like it :P


Arwen Reading- Colored by ~AinuLaire on deviantART

Next up... other stuff :P

First, this was taken from the LJ Markov Random Text Generator... you get some interesting combination of sentences XD Still, you can see what I basically talk about :P Bold are my comments...

( Snip )

What They Said is a hilarious site that has some great quotes really spoken in the courtroom, written on insurance claims, and other gems. You have to read it, it's hilarious!

English is a hard language, but this gives absolutely no excuse for this book being published. Then again, it was the 1800s, so there you go. In modern day terms, you can see the destruction through translating through Babelfish and back again.

To give you an example, I translated Aragorn's poem into the various languages... and translated them back to English. It's amazing:

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

( Click here for the mis-translation hilarity, and yes, some snarky commentary )

Also, I switched permanently to Firefox; I have an Aragorn theme! Why in the world was I still using IE for anything?

I know I just posted like, less than 24 hours ago, but I had to post this XD

Any fans of MST3K? Or just making fun of really bad fiction in general? Well, I found a really well-written (aka hilarious) MST of The Eye of Argon, one of the most renowned pieces of terrible fantasy fiction ever made public. And it really is terrible- the only way you can get through it is reading it with hilarious commentary. You can find the glorious trainwreck here. A couple excerpts from Ch 4...

However, when the actions of the body are restricted its needs are also affected.
Mike: Here to explain is Channel Seven's own medical correspondent, Dr. Dean Edell.

The food, if you can honor the moldering lumps of fetid mush to that extent,
Crow: Why not? We're calling this moldering lump of fetid mush a story.
was born to him by two guards who
Tom: --loved each other very very much, and then one day--

as they succored to unravel to him no means of escape which stood the slightest chance of sucess.
Crow: Tragically, he had overlooked the door.

The rodent let out a tortured squall,
Tom: Grignr hadn't heard such a tortured squall since the Alanis Morissette concert.


Enjoy! XD

On an RL note, my writing muse (currently Staff Elf) is being completely overpowered by my art muse to complete the Arwen drawing (just guess who my art muse is right now...). So I'm going to do that. I should be done by the weekend at this rate XD And it looks really good, ngl :P I think you guys will like it.

Cheers!

you are aqua #00FFFF

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Yea. Basically. And optimistic most of the time, though there are always moments... LOLed at the first part. Thanks, ego-boosting meme.

Also, a real reason to post. I basically just cranked this out, well, right now. At this time of night. Yep. Because of the time of night, I chose the one who used the word "wacky", which I assumed to mean "I can get away with whatever the hell I want". So, here's to you, lady_roisin. Why not Arwen and Luthien? This is going to be... fun.


While Arwen knew she 'carried the likeness of Lúthien', she was not quite expecting to look so similar to her. Of course there were subtle differences between them- Lúthien was taller, her eyes a different shade of grey, and her nose was perhaps a little more pointed, but those aside, the two could easily be twins.

"You must be Arwen," said Lúthien. "I heard the rumors, but I was not expecting them to be so... true."

"Your thoughts echo mine," answered Arwen, desperately looking for other signs of difference.

"Eru has a strange sense of humor," the elder mused. "You look so alike to me, and you followed in my footsteps."

"I wasn't planning to," she rebutted, "but then Aragorn came along..." She glanced over to her husband. He was currently in some sort of staring contest with another man who- "Oh Valar. Please don't say that is Beren."

"It is." Lúthien stared alongside her. "And I am pretty sure he is the one on the right."

"Yes, I think so too, Aragorn is wearing the Ring of- no, wait, your husband wears it too. Well, Aragorn is wearing the elf-braids, unless Beren took to wearing those, as well?"

"No, no, he never adorned his hair. Well, I never thought I'd say this, but it would be rather useful if he only had one hand still as he did back on Arda."

"Indeed. What was it you were saying about Eru and his humor?"

"Forget humor. This is outright hilarity."

Arwen nodded in agreement. "Well, great-great grandmother, I must say you have impeccable taste."

"You as well, child. You as well." They fell silent as they continued to watch the two men stare at their near-identical image, trying to understand the One's sense of humor and utterly failing to understand it.



Hahah. Not sure where that came from. And yea, triple-drabble. I cannot write short things. XD

Happy Birthday Cairistiona!

I'm not going to even try to compete with you, screenshot wise, so I instead typed Aragorn for you in the 'Most Popular' search bar on dA and you can look at all the beautiful pictures of Aragorn! Including mine on the third row. And there are over 8000 drawings with 'Aragorn' in them! Granted, not all of them are good, but just search the first few pages and you'll see some lovely stuff, the stuff that's popular.


Speaking of drawings, I finished one! A Tolkien one! And it was all from my imagination and it didn't turn out looking like complete crap! XD


Strider vs Trotter by ~AinuLaire on deviantART

Tonight I started on Halbarad and Aragorn which actually isn't turning out bad, either. I'm going to see if I could get my brother to pose for me for like, 3 minutes just so I can get it as accurate as possible.


vamp_ress posted a really interesting post about women and their place in fanfiction, especially Middle-earth. Go read it! Interestingly enough, I have never fallen into this pithole. I *liked* film!Arwen (especially the first one) and how it gave her, well, a friggin personality, which then transcended into my own fanfiction. With brothers like she has, a father like she has, and grandparents like hers, how could she *not* be made of awesome? I mean, Galadriel and Elwing are her grandmas! I'd like to think Aragorn didn't fall for her simply because she was pretty, but also because was intelligent and, well, confident. I also think it would be awesome if they clashed on issues, especially when they wedded. Arwen, meek? No. No no no no no. Even bitchy!Arwen is better than meek (though not by much). Besides Arwen, I like Eowyn and Galadriel. I like Gilraen and Ivorwen. Heck, I love Ioreth.

And, of course, looking back on my own works, many of the characters I write, OCs included, are women. POTR stars Elizabeth and Anamaria, and I don't shy away from Arwen or Eowyn when they're around. The Writer's Mind (oh god, I wrote that at 15) and its sequel (which went really nuts) have more women than men in them. Granted, it was a humor story, but nonetheless. Plenty of my oneshots also have females. I gave Legolas a sister in one humor story (and no, no romance). I even squeezed in a mom and girl into The Better Huntsman. And the next big-chapter story I get up, once I'm done with POTR, has four OFCs, one that plays a major role for a good half of the story. Yea, there's like, 25 OMCs, but most are there for only a chapter or two. Only a handful play a big role.

So yea. I was never really afraid of the Mary Sue thing- when I was, I never really wrote, but I'm certainly far from that fear now.

Google stops censorship in China

Read. Just... read!!

But the tipping point didn't come until Google recently uncovered hacking attacks launched from within China. The apparent goals: breaking into the computers of at least 20 major U.S. companies and gathering personal information about dozens of human rights activists trying to shine a light on China's alleged abuses.

Holy friggin A China. You basically just declared war on Google. Google has basically the smartest minds in the world- more than Microsoft, I'd argue. YOU JUST MADE WAR WITH GOOGLE.

This is going to be the virtual battle of the century. If China retaliates further, Google can easily take China off of the virtual map, considering their connections with Cisco. Holy crap! Holy crap! This is more exciting than all that health care bill crap going on in town halls and on Capitol Hill. DUDE! I can't wait to see what happens.

Stolen from someone else :D Ask!

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general. Favorite character, favorite moment, unpopular opinion, something about a fic of mine... whatever. Subparts allowed. Wackiness encouraged.



Finally finished transcribing Andy Serkis interview, will post up if it comes up anytime soon- there are still some holes to be filled, lots of noise in it, so someone with better audio equipment than I will likely look it over. Still, the bulk of the work there is done.

Check out- and join- the Tolkien club on deviant art today :D

I posted chapter 37 of the never-friggin-ending POTC/LOTR crossover. But I only have like, 7 or so chapters left! Woohoo! Next chapter is the Houses of Healing (one of my favorite chapters in the book). Then I can devote all writing time to other stories :D I was rereading earlier parts of the story again, and while it's a far cry from the awfulness it was when I first wrote them in 03-04 (there was a lot of tense issues and horrible characterization then), I think I'll likely give them one last edit before finishing it off.

Also posted a G-rated, Yuletide one-shot that features all the Fellowship plus a couple residents of Rivendell.

So, when I finish the crossover- hopefully in the summer, if I can somehow do a chapter a month and the muses flipping cooperate- I'll work more on Teh Unnamed Epic. Epic because it's already too long and maybe a fourth written XD Stars Aragorn, Faramir, minor canon characters, and a bunch of OCs. Chapters 1-3 are completely written, 4 is almost done (finally), 5 is getting there, and I don't even know what I'm doing with 6 and 7 (beyond some main points). Once I get to 7 I'm sending off the whole thing to my beta. I don't imagine it coming any earlier than the summer. And after that I have so many things to write I don't know where I'll begin XD


Starting school tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can somehow balance work, school, and all this fandom stuff- volunteer work with communities, art, and writing- together! XD Cheers!

1: Thank you for all the birthday wishes, if I missed thanking anyone- I've been so busy, I haven't had any time to even relax this break!

2: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I don't have any resolutions or anything beyond "keep trying my best" and "remain positive"- no resolutions because I never follow up on them XD

3: Happy birthday, Professor Tolkien. Thank you for changing my life. I'll be going down to the annual toast in LA, as I did last year.

4: I saw this in my spam this morning. Apparently Elven Light received Second Place in Genres: Romance: Imladris Elves. Thank you very much for everyone who was kind enough to vote for me! That was a pleasant surprise; I had forgotten about the MEFAs. I blame RL.



5: TORn has been releasing some very interesting news over the past few days. PJ was knighted in New Zealand, and there was a fake call for auditions; they shall not be auditioning for extras until around February, apparently. Still, keep an eye on TORn- 2010 is going to be big!

6: I've been spending the free time I have basically updating the Tolkien group on dA. Check it out- with the new group system, it's categorized nicely, and some of the artwork in here is absolutely spectacular!

7: I haven't checked my LJ friends in the last few days, so I'll be catching up there too :P


I feel like I am forgetting something that I said I would do, but for the life of me I cannot remember what. If it's something I said to someone here, send me a private note... (anyone else ever get those naggy feelings in the back of your head and hate them?)

I was a late morning baby, IIRC. My mom was inconvenienced with my early arrival- a dozen days earlier than expected- sometime after midnight. I have vivid imaginings of what my parent's reactions were then.

My mom says I was a small baby, the size of a doll. Exact opposite of my younger brother, who (rumor has it) was so large that he was bigger than the tape measurer went. I grew up (obviously), for the most part enjoying life. My family- my mom, dad, brothers, and more recent little sister- have made my life beyond awesome. My friends- both in the "real world" and here online- have only enriched it more. Thank you for being around- you guys make life worth living.

I scheduled my tutoring appointments so to avoid working on my birthday, so my parents ultimately knew why I did not want to work on the 30th. Two of them actually bought me a birthday gift, which was, frankly put, completely unexpected and really touching.

Today I won't be doing much- getting a long-needed haircut, a massage with a coupon I've been saving, and then dinner out somewhere, perhaps with a friend if she contacts me.

One of the most amusing things about birthdays is getting a bunch of "happy birthday" automated greetings from websites and forum boards you haven't visited in years XD

Alright. Time to see if I can con Dad into making pancakes. And buy myself a cake. Over and out :)

Hey all, and Happy Christmas Eve. Last minute Christmas shopping has been going on in the household, the little one is bouncing with joy over the best day of the year, and the year of 2009 draws to an end. But that is not what this post is about.

On Tuesday I had an hour at the library before my next tutoring session and so I looked up some Tolkien-related books (always located in 820 or 823 in the Dewey Decimal system, it seems; encountered Tolkien there in three different libraries). I came across a relatively short read, published in 2002, called "Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues" by Mark Eddy Smith. I began to scan it, as I got to the second part, realized that I actually liked quite a bit of it, and wrote down some notes. Here is, expanded from my original notes, my thoughts about this book.

( Cut )

So yea. It was a really interesting book with a lot of fuel for thought, as well as some eye-opening views on LOTR that I had not completely considered.

I love how there is always more to explore in Middle-earth.

Edit: It seems they fixed the earlier "certificate error" problem; I am not getting it popping up anymore.

Hey guys,

Tourism New Zealand is hosting a film contest, judged by Peter Jackson (yea, that one) and produced by Barrie Osborne (a produer on LOTR). Basically the film contest is for NZ, and the film has to be 3 minutes long. 5 people- 1 voted on by the public- get to actually go to NZ and film their movie if selected.

So I would be really, really grateful if you could vote for my film. Now, to vote, you need to register with your name and email address (basically to prevent spam-voting). And, for US residents, there's something in it for you! Tourism New Zealand is giving away 5 sets of two plane tickets to New Zealand to everyone who votes! I don't know why it's US only (sorry my international friends), but for everyone else, this is something extra for you! And to the rest of the world, I hope you can vote for me out of the goodness and love of your heart? Signing up, confirming that you are a real person, and voting takes only a couple of minutes!

Also, uh, tell your friends! Your family! Your cat! Anyone :) And thank you so, so much in advance- I really appreciate it! You all know I want to be in the film industry, and, well, if you could help me get there, that would be amazing. Thanks!

A very funny (and completely tongue-in-cheek) article about the "character flaws" in the LOTR films: http://www.cracked.com/article/237_6-lord-rings-characters-who-totally-dropped-ball/

NSFW language in the article, and the last image of the 2-page article is a good load blood splatter from a B-film (looking rather cheesy, but thought I ought to warn you). But article worth it :P

Hey folks!

I recently discovered, through LifeHacker.com, two free programs that have successfully fixed, cleaned, and over-all made faster *all* the computers in my house. I know that not everyone watching this is not completely techno-savvy, and even people who *are* moderately techno-savvy may not know about these programs, so I have provided a How-To guide on how to work these programs and over-all how to make your computer run much more efficiently.

So rather than take your computer to a repair shop, follow these steps and please tell me some of the results! I'm interested in knowing if they work as well for you as they did for me.

The results so far:
*Freed over 5 gig of space on my Toshiba Vista laptop, along with slightly faster loading time.
*On the HP XP computer, sped up the loading processes *a lot*, cut the start-up time in half, and even corrected a color problem on the monitor that seemed to be connected to something in the registry.
*On the eMachines XP computer, cut the loading speed of a webpage from 7-10 seconds to 1-3 seconds, stopped its constant freezing, and now it loads correctly every time when it usually froze.
*On the HP XP laptop, decreased loading time from about 5 seconds to about 1 second as well as allowed my father to download Windows Service Pack 3, something he wasn't able to before.

Note that these are all Windows computers. I don't know how it works for Macs, or if they are made for Macs; you'll have to check yourself.

Best part of all of this? It's all FREE!

( All in here... )

Wow. Just... wow. I watched it first in lecture (I would have skipped lecture if she didn't take roll, but since she does, I just took my laptop and enjoyed myself). I just finished watching it a second time now in the comfort of my room, and I have gathered my thoughts about it.

Spoilers ahead XD


My natural reaction was to compare it to Hunt For Gollum, and while I thought the fight choreography was better in HFG, as predicted, I liked this film a *lot* more for various reasons:

A. Character development and interaction. Both the original characters and canon characters were really great. My favorites ones were Arathorn, Dirhael, and Ivorwen of canon characters, and I really enjoyed the Dirhaborn and Elgarin. The orcs, of course, were awesome.

B. The story! The thing that really lacked in HFG was the story-telling- while it definitely had interesting moments, they really could have had an awesome story with that extra Ranger, adding a whole new element to Aragorn's personality and the chase. Born of Hope had a great story. Naturally, to keep in canon there was a bit of skipping about, especially in the first part of the film, but I think they managed it very well, especially considering the budget.

C. Uhm, everything else! XD I love how they created an original story with a relatively small amount of canon material, and created a plausible conflict for the Enemy to follow throughout the whole film. I love the character interactions, the scene of normal life at the village, the fact that the film did not rely on merely battle, but actual characters and their own choices, to go on...

My favorite scenes:
A. One of Elrond's sons casually tossing over the bow to his other twin. It was *perfect*. Not silly, but it was just so natural, like showing how they always go to battle, this is the norm... that scene was just beautiful. The small things, man!

B. Arathorn and Dirhael. Hahah, the first time Arathorn confronted Dirhael about Gilraen... I was grinning like a moron. Whoever played Dirhael was friggin perfect for the part. I loved Ivorwen and Dirhael too, though the moment when Dirhael looks at Arathorn like that... it was magical. XD So good to know that even Chieftains can be cowed by gruff fathers.

C. Arathorn's death. While not anything I imagined it like, it was *really* fitting for a film setting. The best part was is that, technically, they followed canon. When the orc actually pulled the arrow from Arathorn's chest and went down and the camera went dark.. wow, that was powerful!

D. Ivorwen's lines about Aragorn's name meaning Kingly Valour and the green stone. The director did the research!

E. The end of the dream sequence when Arathorn wakes up. I thought that was a wonderful scene for both Arathorn and Gilraen, and he really seemed to have a look of terror upon his face.


My biggest complaints of the film, barring things that were unpreventable (such as the digital animation not being as good as Weta's; of course it wouldn't be, Weta beats everyone, but they did a fabulous job for what they had) would be the slow-mo and the orcs mentioning Sauron by name. The latter I understand; since this film is trying to appeal to not just die-hard, "read the book a million time" fans, it makes sense that he was mentioned. I would have preferred he was just called "The Dark Lord" or "The Eye" or something similar rather than "Sauron", though. What I found very interesting is that Arathorn overheard Sauron being in Dol Guldur; however that wasn't discovered by the Wise until a decade or so later. A little annoying that he failed to mention this to Arador, who would have said something to Elrond, but it is something that I can ignore.

The slow-mo, well, it's a pet peeve of mine if used a lot in fights. That's just an artistic decision, but I personally believe slow-mo is more effective if only done for certain scenes. The second large fight of the film, the one at the end in the village, used a little too much. I think it would have been more appropriate simply having it for select scenes, such as the one where the little boy was crying over his dad (which was OMG wow). Elgarin's death scene seemed also a little overlong, but I'll forgive that on the fact that throwing over Dirhaborn's head at them was so amazing and so unexpected, yet so canon... yea, that was a great addition. Really showing the brutility of the orcs.


I ended up liking Gilraen more than I thought I would, I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome Dirhael and Ivorwen were, and Arathorn was just as awesome as I hoped him to be. The older Halbarad? He was cute. I approve.

In the end, I can only hope that we see more fan films such as this in the future. This was absolutely spectacular. I am very, very much content.



And a quickie- TORn just released a rumor that, due to the delay in filming of the Hobbit, that the Hobbit *might* be delayed to 2012. No confirmations or anything, of course, but that just means I have an extra year to save up to study abroad and stay around the country for the Hobbit premiere... *biggrin*

And, of course, there is some sort of news being released on the 8th of December, so keep your eyes on TORn!

Happy happy joy joy.

Thanks for all your well-wishes. We found out that my grandma did *not* have a stroke, thank God, but that there is most definitely a tumor in her brain. However... it is apparently benign, even though it's... growing? I don't understand it all, but the facts that I was most concerned about:

A. Gramma is conscious and not in any pain (what happened is that basically the left side of her body stopped responding, thus all this various theories and blah).
B. She still has a good couple of years to live, though we don't have any date.

So, we're really relieved that she hasn't passed on yet; she has told me many times that she still enjoys life and doesn't plan on leaving yet, that wonderful 88 year old :) And I want my lil sis to have some memories of her.

She'll be living with my aunt now rather than alone (yea, she lived alone for a long time :P), but she'll be taking meds for her brain and all, and she'll live as long as she is meant to. But now, well, we sort of know. Good ol' gramma. Love her.

I will be scarce for finals weeks (especially this week, due to tutoring, woot woot), but I do plan on getting to some messages I have left for too long- hopefully I won't pass out when I come home. I'm sorry I've been so negligent to my friends >_>


In fandom news, Born of Hope, a really well-made fan film, is being released tomorrow. Love who they selected for Arathorn, he looks great. Go to www.bornofhope.com to check it out- I know that I'll be watching it soon as I get back from my job (job, yes! Woo hoo!)


Hugs and kisses to everyone,
Me

My grandma- my last living grandparent... is in the hospital. Her brain cancer came back.

I don't think I can handle this- not with my estrangled grandfather dying just last month, after we assumed him gone for so long.

Not the one that I love so.

I need many prayers sent her way that... that she'll live on.

Oh God.

I love that name.

Apparently he isn't as bad about signing autographs as I thought he was. He was ranked #2 in the Toronto Film Festival's autograph signing rank. He just refuses to sign with a blue pen since autograph sellers have them XD Hmm. Must remember this next time I see him (there will be a next time *nod*)

So, anyways, two crappy pictures that show that I need to stop toting around my huge camera when it's going to be dark because I can't take pictures without a sweet flash to save my life. Time to invest in a cheap, fits-in-your-purse-takes-pictures-in-the-dark camera.





He does not look like he's 50. At all.

And I still will not forget the little head nod and thank you he gave me (I said he was an artistic inspiration, which he is, doing all that arts and going on with his bad self)... such a nice guy! I would love to go to one of his gallery showings. I'll have to keep an eye on when they're around, now that I have the ability to actually drive down to LA whenever I want...

I think you guys will enjoy these. Completed painting and my Halloween pumpkin:


Pegasus- Final by *AinuLaire on deviantART


The Eye of Sauron Pumpkin by *AinuLaire on deviantART

Today, since there is no school due to an early-celebrated Veteran's Day, I am going to attempt to go to a screening of "The Road", where afterwards there is a Q&A with Viggo Mortensen. If I'm successful you will see a report here :)

Well, where to begin? Ah, yes. Concerning... Wednesday.

( The whole story, plus many pictures )

All in all, one of the best times of my life. It's up there with China, ORC 2006, and Comic Con 05 and 08.

... I've been an incredibly lucky person. I have the best of friends- and the coolest parents in the world (since most of these would not have happened without their constant support).

I dedicate this post to them and to all Ringers everywhere. Hope the wait was worth it a little XD