He's a Lost Cause

an experiment in rambling. like professional grade rambling yo.

[ohgodsalazarwhy]

Which Is It: Prescription Drug or Tolkien Elf?

Can you spot the prescription drug names among Elf names from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium? Test your Elven race IQ with this HowStuffWorks quiz.

Holy shit… please…take this quiz…

[thaxted]

My mom is a pharmacist and got 16 out of 30. SHE’S SO MAD.

[note-a-bear]

HAH! I got 18. Barely. But I think one I got wrong by accident (like the screen was still loading when I pressed the answer but still, 18 isn’t bad?)

[countrycity-deactivated20190115]

23 out of 30. nice :D

[iocane]

26 out of 30, half of them were based on “I dont think JRRT uses x or z in his names that much …”

[stjude]

SON OF A BITCH I can't believe I missed Imil. 29 of 30.

[quetessexe]

Tolkien Community on Imzy, a new Social Platform

I know theres been angst lately around here about whats next for tumblr, so i thought i’d put this up. I’ve gotten involved in a new social media platform called imzy. 

You can learn more about it in this recent Ars Technica article. I got onto it via @xplainthexmen (who are amazing and you should be listening to their podcast) and I’m trying to rustle up some activity as its a bit quiet. It’s presently in closed beta but I’ve got a barrel of invites so if you’re into that hit the link below. 

https://www.imzy.com/tolkien

[stjude]

relevant to the interests of some of my followers (do i have followers?)

[shakespeareandpunk]

last night i was explaining to my mom the idea of @god and she said “shouldn’t you at least @mary first? you can’t just @ god directly for all your problems”

#catholics

[vegaofthelyre]

#@saintanthony where are my keys

[cathrine-rose]

@stjude must think I’m a spammer at this stage

[stjude]

I'd be a pretty poor patron saint of lost causes if I didn't have patience.

[enochliew]

Shadowbrook Bathroom 3D Faucet by DXV

Made with a 3D printing method called laser sintering, where a laser beam fuses powdered metal into the shape.

[stjude]

this is awesome and all, but WHAT KIND OF MADPERSON SPENDS 18K ON A FAUCET?!

[stjude]

putting my quenya bullshit in a new blog

for those of my paltry followers who have an interest: http://quetessexe.tumblr.com/

[stjude]

Something for one half of my favorite X-Men explaining podcasting team, who seems like they maybe had a pretty intense week. When I’m stressed out, for reasons passing understanding, I translate things into quenya, so for Jay, here is “Cyclops has a good day”. 

Cornahenite antaina manë árë ná

Which translates literally to: “The round-eyed (i didn’t know this was the etymological origin of the name cyclops but there you are) is given a good (in this case i chose a version that means something like ‘a blessing’) day”

[stjude]

I don’t know if maybe i just wasn’t paying attention to it before, but watching TV since i got clean has turned into a goddamn gauntlet. Every show it seems has an alcoholic or addict character, and no matter how maudlin, preposterous, genuine or grotesque, its all fucking uncomfortable. 

because whatever degree of accuracy, its all familiar. 

[stjude]

[pointyearedelvishprinceling]

“Oromë is a mighty lord. If he is less strong than Tulkas, he is more dreadful in anger. He is a hunter of monsters and fell beasts, and he delights in horses and in hounds; and all trees he loves, for which reason he is called Aldaron, and by the Sindar Tauron, the Lord of Forests.”

in which Oromë can take a form of an enormous stag, the Lord of Forests

[stjude]

Absolutely agree with you on the whole “fearsome” subject. I’ve always liked the somewhat unusual dichotomy between the relationship the Eldar have with the Valar, which is close even compared to the myth Tolkien was drawing from, and then what the Valar actually ARE. This quote is among my favorite in the Ainunlindalë:

And this habitation might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle;

[stjude]

Fighting off a panic attack over my inability to find a decent karaoke bar

[stjude]

I’m supposed (for values of “supposed” that equal “for funsies”) to be taking notes on “Laws and Customs Among the Eldar” for a paper i’m writing that was about tolkienian eschatology but has a definite bent towards elven existential angst at this point. In any case, along the way i went to type the name for the elves that never made the journey west with Oromë and no word was forthcoming from my brain and now as a consequence i’m making flashcards with the various groups and kindreds of the elves on them. 

its THAT kind of night. 

[tabitha]

in spite of feelin a lil down on myself lately, things are actually going pretty a.o.fricky.k! this weekend i’m going to vegas to get cute and drunk with some angels because LISA IS GETTING FRICKING MARRIED to FRICKING SERCHO/LOVE IS REAL, bendik gets here next weekend and we’re going to have two amazing weeks together and i love him so much and he’s the actual best and makes me feel like a fucking princess and i’m completely head over heels, next week i’m going to ask my boss if i can move to new york, and also big brother is heating the FUCK UP and this microwave panera soup i’m eating right now is so good. life is good. i love u all. bless

[stjude]

You're only moving to New York so that the flights to Europe will be shorter, aren't you...

[lintamande]

People have talked before about how the Silmarillion is ridiculously well-suited to a space AU/science fiction adaptation but I’m taking a science fiction creative writing class right now and it’s really driven home that it totally is.

You start with an apocalyptic world-shattering war between...

[stjude]

I’ve got a version of this floating around in two different evernote folders in which the Valar are benevolent AI. Came out of a late night reading of the Osanwe-Kenta bit from Vinyar Tengwar, and the POV character was one of the Noldorin analogs, a telepathic navigator on one of the Teleri ships. The idea was to show the events from someone important enough to be close to the famous characters, but not actually famous himself. I may still get around to this one day. 

The second one is more ridiculous. its what i’d call a spiritual sequel to both the notion club papers and the Silmarillion, mashed up with Dune. 

[dduane]

Doctor Strange demonstrates a familiarity with the Young Wizards universe. (From Chris Claremont’s run on the book in 1985. Chris and I were swapping a lot of cross-references in our fiction around then.)

In any case the Sorcerer Supreme would always be welcome in the YW ‘verse, as he is working, shall we say, the correct side of the street. I have no problem at all imagining him sitting down for a beer and a long chat with Irina Mladen in some quiet little cafe in Prague.

[stjude]

The Internet Is So Fucking Cool. I got to chat with dduane on twitter about how Dr. Strange is apparently a Young Wizards fan, and how she and Chris goddamn Claremont are buds. All this, as it happens, courtesy of rachelandmiles‘s podcast. 

[stjude]

In reading chapter 17 of the Silmarillion, entitled "Of the Coming of Men into the West", a parallel occurred to me between the discovery of Men by Finrod and the discovery of the Elves by Oromë...

The first of my short posts series is up! Longer posts are coming once i'm done with this move. Thanks to Ainulindalenya for confirming my quenya for the series title. 

[stjude]

I've started a blog as a repository for my Tolkien essays. First up is gonna be a piece on Elven Kingship that may end up being more about the elven tendency towards hierarchy and how we can measure corruption in the elves by the aberrations in their natural hierarchies. 

I've got half a dozen ideas lined up that i'm working on in parallel, but if you have something you want to know more about, or something you think would make a good essay, please pass it along!

[nemertea]

I was totally going to do more Valaquenta translation, but then I got hung up on the fact that Tolkien doesn’t have a general word meaning ‘plant’ in Quenya. Olva, the best possibility, means "growing things with roots in the earth"

Which is rotten for my purposes of needing to construct a word...

[stjude]

HAHAHAHA that is amazing.