Diary of a Tolkien Fiend

Taking some time out from downloading porn

2009-01-12T01:42:00.003-05:00

to post this extremely important blog entry. *sigh* I'm so used to MySpace now that I almost wrote "post a new blog". What the heck is with that anyway, Tom? The word "blog" refers to the entire blog, not each individual post. It's short for Weblog, get it, you young whippersnapper? You don't "post a blog" you post to a blog. Sheesh!Anyway, the new official URL for my dark Tolkien

Holy shit, I'm back

2009-01-08T01:41:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm back in black, and blacker than ever. ;) I've decided to resurrect my message board, Lugburz.yuku.com. Go register an account (if necessary) and post something, ye bastard sons and daughters!

Shadow of the Past

2007-01-19T00:26:00.000-05:00

Long ago I had a thriving message board... well, thriving is a relative term. But then it died a long, slow gasping death. The final blow came when someone launched an attack on the message board service I was using which caused most of our posts to be deleted. But luckily, I had foreseen such a catastrophe and saved many of my favourite threads to my hard drive. Anyway, a couple of months ago

And now this: An Excellent LotR/MST Parody

2006-09-21T22:33:00.000-04:00

From Cuddle Me - LotR MST/Parody:Here's a very funny slash parody in which characters from The Lord of the Rings movies comment MST-style on a story involving Van Helsing and his lovelorn sidekick, Faramir-as-Carl...Full Moon RisingThere are other LotR MST/parodies on that site of course, but I haven't had a chance to read them yet.

Kontraband

2006-09-21T02:08:00.000-04:00

I was bored the other day so I started looking for I don't even remember what, and I came across this site. I'd actually been to it before but forgot all about it. There's a lot of stuff there that isn't worth the time it takes to download, but it's such a huge site, that's bound to happen. Besides, the more files the site has the greater the chance that you'll find something that makes all

Once again this blog has been severely neglected...

2006-08-31T18:31:00.000-04:00

I find it amazing that people actually still come here and even leave the occasional comment! Keep it up and you may actually tempt me to come back and post more often.Anyway, as promised, here is an update on the King of Men ring I bought on eBay. It's even better than it looks in the pictures! I'm sure the stone must vary, but in all the pictures it's bright red, so it almost looks like

Darth Maul Dual Lightsaber Now Available!!!

2006-05-13T02:36:00.000-04:00

Darth Maul Dual Saber*drool*

King of Men Ring discontinued

2006-05-12T23:26:00.000-04:00

For a while now I've been considering getting the King of Men Ring, but kept putting it off. But recently I came across a couple of sites which listed my birthstone as carnelian, and because the pictures of this gemstone resembled the stone set in the King of Men Ring, I thought it might be the same stone. So I googled 'King of Men Ring' and Tolkientown came up... this is becoming my favourite

Another spam bites the dust

2006-05-11T20:08:00.000-04:00

Well, once again it's been a while since I've posted. I guess I'll never fulfill my dream of posting to this blog regularly. But when people try to spam my blog, I get notifications by email, and I squash 'em before they appear. But in order to do that, I have to log in to my blogger account. So I figured, while I'm squashing this latest piece of spam, I might as well post an update.I haven't

My Aragorn pipe arrived today!

2006-02-11T17:54:00.000-05:00

Today my Official Aragorn Pipe arrived via Express Mail. It came with a black felt draw-string bag with the words "Der Herr Der Ringe" on it. It also came with a box of filters, a bag of extra-long pipe cleaners, and instructions in both German & English. Beginning pipe-smokers would do well to read & follow the instructions, which give good advice for the care and maintenance of the pipe (you

I have chosen...

2006-02-09T20:44:00.000-05:00

When I quit smoking, I thought I only had two choices: stop smoking altogether, or continue to chain-smoke for the rest of my life. There was no such thing as moderate tobacco use. Well, that may be true, but I have decided to give pipe-smoking one more try. See, I may be deluding myself, but I have this theory that the reason smoking pipes led me back to smoking cigarettes again all those

Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars...

2006-02-07T17:52:00.000-05:00

I've always liked Star Wars, but lately I've become obsessed with it to the point that I think I can now actually call myself a Star Wars fan. It started with Battlefront II, where I play online as Darth_Bane (Gamespy ID). Then after I quit smoking, for some reason I started becoming nostalgic for my childhood (maybe because I've smoked since I was 16) and decided to start collecting Star Wars

Oops!

2006-01-29T12:36:00.000-05:00

In my next to last post, Star Wars Battlefront II, I was wrong about two things. Number one: the Rancor doesn't just stand there and roar. If you get too close to him, he grabs you and eats you! I was right about not being able to kill him though.Number two: although it is extremely difficult, it is not impossible to win the Assault Mode in Mos Eisley while playing the villains. I won it once

I Quit Smoking! Yes, again...

2006-01-28T12:42:00.000-05:00

My New Year's resolution this year was to quit smoking, so I started using the nicotine patch on January 1st. I actually stayed smoke-free for three whole weeks that time, but alas, I wasn't nicotine-free because I was using the patch, so I relapsed. This time, however, I have decided to quit cold turkey. It's been more than 36 hours since I smoked my last cigarette. Anyway, rather than fill

Star Wars Battlefront II

2006-01-07T12:31:00.000-05:00

I've been playing this game almost constantly lately. In many ways it's just like the first Battlefront game, but there are a few important differences. For one thing, some of the units that I find the most fun to play, like the Jet Trooper and the Dark Trooper, both of whom can fly for short periods using a jet pack, have to be unlocked before you can play them. While I don't really like that

Gifts I got...

2005-12-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, here's what I got for Christmas/Yule:DVDs:Battlestar Galactica (2003 Miniseries)Dark Shadows - The RevivalWar of the Worlds (2005)Games:The Matrix: Path of NeoStar Wars Battlefront IIMiscellaneous:2006 LotR movie calendarAnd I also got this for myself:Ralph Bakshi's Fire & Ice Limited Edition DVDBeen waiting for it to be re-released on DVD for years. Thank you, Blue Underground!

Yuletide Carols

2005-12-24T15:53:00.000-05:00

These are my favourite CDs for the holiday season.Loreena McKennitt - To Drive the Cold Winter AwayI am a huge Loreena McKennitt fan, so of course I have put this at the top of my list. If you've never heard her music, I also strongly recommend what I consider to be her two best albums: The Mask and the Mirror, and The Book of Secrets. Anonymous 4 - Wolcum YuleCeltic and British Songs and

Good Yule

2005-12-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

It's crazy here in New York City right now, because of the transit strike. We have to car-pool to work, so I've been having to get up at the butt-crack of dawn every morning. But otherwise it's been fun; I hate taking the train anyway, and it's nice to have some company during the ride to work.However, having to get up so early means I have to go to bed earlier than usual, so I haven't had any

Mouth of Sauron site quotes me...

2005-12-19T01:31:00.000-05:00

Just did a Google search for "Mouth of Sauron" as I often do, and found this site:The Mouth of SauronThe webmaster quoted me on the About page of the site:The Mouth of Sauron's part in The Lord of the Rings is quite small. In fact, Tolkien devotes little more than three pages to him. Yet with masterful strokes he paints the Mouth of Sauron in such a way as to make his character plain, telling us

Blog Search

2005-12-18T19:48:00.000-05:00

Time to introduce a new regular feature I plan to... well, include regularly: Blog Search! Yes, when I'm bored and have nothing better to do I sometimes use Blogger's search engine to look for posts on other blogs about stuff I'm interested in. So here's what I found today:LOTR Flash Videos from Albinoblacksheep.comEye of Sauron found in deep spaceAlan Lee, and a rewrite of "The Mouth of

My LotR stuff

2005-12-18T13:06:00.000-05:00

I think I must have posted these pictures on my board not too long ago, but the attack against ezboard probably wiped those posts out. Click on the thumbnails to see the full-size images.The top of my computer armoire. From l. to r., top: Nazgul with steed; limited edition polystone statue of Gollum; Treebeard; GandalfClose-up of top shelf. From bottom left: Miniature Man of Rohan, Eowynn &

Lawsuit against New Line settled

2005-12-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd post an update to my previous post, Saul Zaentz sues New Line Cinema, even though it's old news now. From Rotten Tomatoes:According to Variety, Producer Saul Zaentz will receive about $20 million from New Line Cinema (on top of the $168 million he earned from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), thereby ending a lawsuit before it goes to trial. So that's nearly $190 million bucks for

Finally, something to complain about...

2005-12-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

Recently I said that since my promotion I haven't had anything to bitch about for a while. Well, I spoke too soon.A while ago one of the managers asked me to put in a ticket to have some computers moved from the north side of our office to the south side. You have to put two tickets in, actually... one to Corporate Real Estate, and one to the Help Desk, or as I like to call it, the Helpless

Cool Matrix screensaver

2005-12-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

I found this free Matrix screensaver at Kelly Software. It's the best I've seen so far.I installed it on my computer at work, and then went searching for a cool desktop background to go with it. Imagine my delight when I found this LotR/Matrix wallpaper at desktopia.com...By the way, if you like this desktop background, why not take a second or two to rate it? In my opinion, it currently has a

I've always wanted a job title with the word "Master" in it...

2005-12-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is my tale of how I officially attained Webmasterdom (unfortunately, I lied about it being an exciting tale; I hope you can forgive me). Several months ago the company I work for let it be known that they were looking for a Webmaster to re-design our district's website on the corporate intranet. I applied for the position, and as an example of my work I submitted Lugburz.com.

Life After "The Lord of the Rings"

2005-12-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

... does not exist. Because I don't consider there to be any "after" Lord of the Rings. Yes, the extended versions of all three movies have been released on DVD. But does this spell the end? Of course not! There are still the books, and I for one still have hope that there will be a movie version of The Hobbit someday. In any case, Lugburz.com will go on, its message board will go on...

Saul Zaentz sues New Line Cinema over LOTR Trilogy!

2004-08-19T23:19:00.000-04:00

LOS ANGELES -- Pay up, Frodo. So says Saul Zaentz, a Hollywood producer who has sued New Line Cinema for $20 million in royalties from the blockbuster "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Zaentz says New Line Cinema owes him that amount based on a partial audit of the first movie in the series, "The Fellowship of the Ring." Read more:

2004-03-21T19:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back at last. I would've posted sooner but I couldn't remember my password. I haven't done much work on the site because I've been busy with other things, and I had planned to do some catching up this weekend but then I came down with the flu.

2004-02-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Once again I've been lazy about posting in this weblog... but I haven't had anything to say lately anyway. Also, a lot of my time has been taken up by working on the The Black Gate. I want to add new content at least once or twice a month. Right now it's slow going though, because the pages I'm currently working on contain basic information about the dark side of Middle-earth, and that requires

2004-02-03T15:43:00.000-05:00

I just found out that Mordor - The Land of Shadow may have to close down due to lack of funding. Ring Lord Rules, the webmaster, has posted a notice about this on his news page, the Palantir. He is requesting donations in order to not have to shut his site down. Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated, so if you don't want this excellent dark Tolkien site to disappear forever please

2004-01-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

The voting link to TolkienWorld.com is working again, and our new site, The Black Gate, has finally made its long-anticipated debut on that top sites listing. As of this writing, we are in seventh place with two votes (mine and Witchking's). To stay in the top ten we need your help, so please take a moment to vote for us. Thanks for your support!

2004-01-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't been online for the past couple of days because I've been under a lot of stress lately in my personal life so I needed to take a break from everything else and play video games. ;) But this weekend I plan to work on the next addition to the new site, and maybe even have it up before Monday. By the way, Ring Lord Rules has plugged the site on his news page at Mordor - The Land of

2004-01-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm currently working on some new content for the scrolls section of The Black Gate, so updates to my home page have had to be put on the back burner for now. Anyway, I should be done in about a week or two, depending on whatever else commands my attention in the meantime.

2004-01-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

Made some minor adjustments to the new site, mainly the redirect page which I felt should be blank (and apparently having no text on it makes it load the site's home page quicker, too), and a few errors here and there which I hadn't noticed before. In other news, I'm happy to say we're still number four at Tolkien Top 100! TolkienWorld.com, the other top sites listing we belong to, has

2004-01-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

Our new site, The Black Gate, has been on the top ten of Tolkien Top 100 all week! We're currently holding steady at number four on the list. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who voted for us, and also for the encouraging feedback. I've been sick all week, so I haven't felt like working on the site, but I promise you there's more evil on the way, so stayed tuned! Also, there will be a

2004-01-14T01:09:00.000-05:00

So much for New Year's resolutions. I've gone back to smoking two packs a day again. As an act of self-reproach, I've started stacking the empty packs up next to my computer desk, taped together so they don't fall. I call it my Tower of Shame. I really have to quit though, and this time for good. Maybe I should try a combination of drugs and alchohol. ;)

2004-01-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted for so long but I was rushing to get the new site ready for its debut. Witchking had already finished creating all the images and the interactive Flash movie, and I was holding things up because most of the stuff I'd been working on wasn't anywhere close to finished. And I don't think I need to tell those of you who know him, but Witchking is a cruel taskmaster.

2003-12-23T02:53:00.000-05:00

There's a new official Summoning Homepage, with its own forum.

2003-12-19T07:14:00.000-05:00

When Wiki and I got to the theater on Tuesday night, four hours early to beat the crowd, there was no one lined up to see RotK yet, so we went to the bar to have a couple of drinks. The guy taking tickets had told us to come back at 11:15, and we laughed about that, because we knew from past experience that by nine o'clock a line would already be forming outside the theater. And sure enough,

2003-12-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

Witchking and I are going to see The Return of the King tonight at midnight. I can't believe it's all over. We've been living and breathing these movies for four years now, even before the first one came out. Anyway, I just hope it doesn't suck. And I hope there are no assholes in the audience, or Witchking might flip out on them and get us ejected from the theater. I'll let you all know how it

2003-12-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

There's a review of The Return of the King going around, but so far I've resisted reading it, because it contains spoilers. If you're interested in reading it, Master Morgoth of Morgoth's Lair has posted it here. Though, as I said, I haven't read it, I did skim through it once, and it seems to be more of a Q & A than an actual review. Oh, and should you discover some disturbing news about a

2003-12-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

As some of you probably know, I've been trying to quit smoking for years, with little success. I've tried quitting cold turkey, using nicotine patches, taking Welbutrin, smoking reduced nicotine cigarettes, smoking weed (which is just as bad for your lungs if you do it often enough) and switching to a pipe (which I smoked without inhaling). Nothing has worked. A few years ago I developed

2003-12-10T08:32:00.000-05:00

Master Morgoth of Morgoth's Lair has an idea to create a new forum at his board for the discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's books on a chapter by chapter basis. You can read about this project here. I will be one of the three forum hosts selected to represent the boards that have been invited to participate. Besides Morgoth's Lair and Lugburz, Morgoth has also invited Mordor: Dark Messages to

2003-12-06T13:25:00.000-05:00

It's snowing here in New York City, which is mostly a good thing because it means I've been hibernating for the past few days, and that's given me more time to work on my various online projects. I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy, though, but it helps to have the internet to keep me occupied. I have some minor news regarding the Lugburz Message Board: I've renewed our CSC Gold (the

2003-12-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

With only fifteen days left 'till The Return of the King, I'd thought I'd post some links to a couple of my favourite LotR film-related humour pages. The first two are from a great source of Tolkien humour on the web, the redoubtable Tolkien Sarcasm Page. The third is from Jerry the Frog Productions. In case you'd like to take a trip down memory lane, so you can remind yourself how far movies

2003-12-01T02:26:00.000-05:00

Usually I work five days a week, eight hours a day, but recently I decided to change my schedule so that I only work four days a week, which means that from now on I'll be working ten hours a day. While this will give me an extra day off during the week to work on the site, it may prove too tiring in the end. Not only that, but I've always been a night owl, and now I'll have to get up even

2003-11-30T13:48:00.000-05:00

For those of you who may not be aware, the Lugburz Message Board has a roleplaying forum. Previously this forum was only for Middle-earth roleplaying, but I've decided that other types of RPGs should be allowed. So whether your interest is in D&D campaign worlds like Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, or other fantasy worlds (or even sci-fi worlds) you can start your own RPG there if you wish. You

2003-11-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

I've updated the links section of my home page.

2003-11-29T00:32:00.000-05:00

I've been playing Baldur's Gate for years, but I've never finished a game, because I keep getting bored with the character I've created & end up having to start over again with a new character. But this time I decided to create the ultimate party, the one I would finish the game with. So I started a new game with a party of six characters (you can do this by setting up a multi-player game &

2003-11-28T15:33:00.000-05:00

Ah, Thanksgiving. The warmth of family and friends gathered together in celebration, the smell of turkey roasting in the oven, the frantic preparation of the rest of the meal, the obligatory alchohol-fueled bickering culminating in the occasional death-threat, the exhausting clean-up after everyone has gone home, and of course the mother of all hangovers you have the next morning...

2003-11-27T05:27:00.000-05:00

I have some news to report concerning The Dark Legion. As many of you may know, previously the Legion was only accepting dark Tolkien sites as members. Recently, however, Shagrat decided to include metal sites as well. In addition, the Legion has a brand new message board. It's not an ezboard, so members of the original Durthang will have to re-register. I've already registered (as Mouth of

2003-11-21T22:05:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been living under a rock, the extended edition DVD of The Two Towers is in stores now. If you're interested in what I thought of it, you can read my review of it here. In other news, I've finally bought the new 3D Castlevania game for PS2. My review of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence will be added soon, as promised. Another game I will probably review soon is Sierra

2003-11-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

Well, Halloween is over and all the participants in the Fourth Annual Lugburz Halloween Masquerade have been unmasked (either by other participants, or by themselves). I have to say that despite the depressing turnout, this year's Masquerade was better than last year's. As I recall, even I wasn't around much last year, because during the last few days of October Witchking and I were both in

2003-10-24T22:04:00.000-04:00

I have amended the Lugburz Halloween Masquerade info page so that it mirrors the email I sent out to our members yesterday. Previously the webpage in question had instructed members to sign up for temporary local accounts in order to participate in the Masquerade, but ezboard is no longer allowing new local accounts to be created. So in order to avoid confusion, the info page now includes a

2003-10-17T23:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I got my DSL connection back, and at last I can begin working on my home page again (not to mention the long-awaited main website at www.lugburz.com). I've missed posting on the boards, working on the site, chatting in the chatroom, deleting spam from my email inbox, etc; but most of all I've missed my porn. Anyway, while I was unable to get online our third anniversary came and went

2003-08-30T02:55:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, I do not currently have a connection to the internet (except when I'm over Witchking's house), which is why I haven't been on the boards much and haven't been updating my home page lately. But my addiction to the internet can't allow this situation to go on much longer, especially since the third anniversary of the Lugburz Message Board is coming up in September. So I plan

2003-07-25T08:10:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long delay in updates. First I was on vacation for two weeks and didn't have access to a computer, and then when I got back I had so much to do that I just couldn't find time even to post to this weblog. In any case, for those of you who aren't already aware, I've added a new forum to the Lugburz Message Board. It's called Runes & Scrolls and it's a place for our members (and

2003-06-17T07:50:00.000-04:00

Just added another review: Enter the Matrix for Playstation 2. Haven't had a chance to play the PC version yet. Anyway, I rented this game over the weekend and played it until I was seeing liquid bullets every time I closed my eyes. Then I bought it this morning but when I got home and tried to play it I got a "Disc Read Error." My PS2 is moody - it only plays certain disks, and once it

2003-06-14T15:13:00.000-04:00

Added two new entries to the Reviews section of my site: The Matrix Reloaded and House of 1000 Corpses. In other news, EGM is releasing a new version of Castlevania for PS2. It is produced by Koji Igarashi, who also worked on Symphony of the Night. But unlike SotN, this new Castlevania game will be 3D. You can expect a Mouth of Sauron review of this game shortly after its release.

2003-06-10T01:06:00.000-04:00

Return of the Shadow, a celebration of the past and future of Lugburz, has begun! The festivities will take place all this month on the Lugburz Message Board. You can read more about it here.

2003-05-28T21:45:00.000-04:00

Witchking has finished giving the Lugburz Message Board a much-needed makeover, and we are planning a celebration to which all members of Lugburz are invited (but of course, newcomers are welcome, too). During this celebration our archives forum, which has long been inaccessible to the public, will be re-opened. So it is a celebration of our past as well as our future. Long live Lugburz!

2003-05-23T22:23:00.000-04:00

Something wicked this way comes! The new and improved website for The Dark Legion is finally here. If you like dark Tolkien sites or have one yourself, this is the place for you. Lugburz is a proud member of the Legion, which is run by Shagrat. I am an also an administrator of its message board, Durthang. I'd like to see the Legion grow to encompass many more sites, so head on over there and

2003-04-13T23:31:00.000-04:00

Witchking re-did my home page for me, adding his own custom-made images to it, such as the torches and the frame around the painting of Yours Truly, as well as the navigation buttons. We'll probably make the rest of the site more visually interesting in the near future.

2003-03-16T20:18:00.000-05:00

I've added lessons 1-5 to the Black Speech Dictionary for those of you who are interested in learning how to speak, read and write in the Shadowlandian dialect of the Black Speech. If you haven't visted this part of the site yet, I strongly recommend that you do. In addition to the lessons and the dictionary itself you will find plenty of information about Tolkien's original Black Speech as

2003-02-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

I've been made an administrator of Durthang, the message board for The Dark Legion. For those of you who remember the original Dark Legion Webring, this will be a new and improved version once it opens, and will cater only to Dark Tolkien sites as opposed to dark fantasy sites in general. It is run by Shagrat.

2003-01-07T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here's to those of you who remember my old site on Geocities; I hope you like this new and improved version. If you were one of those unfortunates who never got to see the original Mouth of Sauron's Home Page, however, don't worry. I plan to reproduce it faithfully in my archives, where you will also find much of the material originally posted to that site. Check this page periodically for