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Then again, think about why they called it "Lord of the Rings".  

Well...

Um, about the moon thing: none of the arguments used by those who believe it was a hoax hold any water. Seriously. I can explain in more detail if you want. List the ones you're tempted to believe in if you do.
If that's not enough for you: the Russians believed it, you know. Never protested. If there was a fierce enough competition for the US to lie, you can be sure that they'd have pounced on any hint that it wasn't the truth.
If you're looking for US government conspiracies, look elsewhere. Nothing to be found on the moon.

But Boyd, this is really, really basic stuff. I don't necessarily think everybody who makes any kind of music should be familiar with it, but it's very much simple enough to be part of tune contest rules. (unlike that one time when I asked people to make twelve-tone music, I admit that was maybe a bit over the top)

Good one, I think I'll be entering.

That was all from memory, yes. I don't know what details you're talking about, though, as most of what I posted was merely summarising and talking about general themes.

blargh, accidentally used reply with quote instead of edit

This is completly false.  Frodo nevers died and came back to life.

Yep, forgot to talk about this one... I'm not sure how people arrived at that conclusion. I've seen the movie, and I didn't get the impression that they changed it to have Frodo actually die.

I have to check the appendices, but IIRC, Sam leaves for the Grey Havens many years later since he was a ring bearer(even though for a short time.).

But I do remember that Legolas builds a ship and he takes Gimli with him to the Grey Havens a few years after the end of ROTK.

Yes. The latter is true, and the former is also, although this information is only given by way of "speculation".



I'd like to emphasize again that Arwen became mortal by her choice to stay with Aragorn, because that is a rather important bit, as it only happened twice - once in the First Age with Lúthien and Beren and once at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in LotR. The second movie (haven't seen the third yet) has Elrond threatening Arwen with the prospect of Aragorn dying and her, being an Elf, remaining forever in the world and being divided both from him and from the other Elves. Now, I don't know what they made of that in the third film, but either Elrond isn't realizing how deep her choice to stay with Aragorn went, or he's talking nonsense because he doesn't want to be parted from his daughter, or they changed that. If it's the latter, I'm going to be a bit annoyed.
All the other elves stay immortal within the world, and can't leave it until the end.

There is one case where the reverse happened - Tuor (father of Elwing, mother of Elrond and Elros; Elrond and Elros were called the Half-Elven and allowed to choose their allegiance after the First Age. Elrond chose the Elves, so he is still around at the end of the Third Age. Elros chose Men and was the first king of Númenor, and the remote ancestor of Aragorn) was numbered among the Noldor, one of the kindreds of the Elves.

Yes, there's quite a bit of inaccuracy in Barcik's post.

Here's a summary of the relevant mythology:

The Elves didn't come from Valinor; they awoke somewhere in the East of the continent Middle-Earth, and the Valar summoned them to their country Valinor when they found out. Not all of them came, though.
The reason the Elves have to leave is not that they have "lost their eternal life"; sorry, but that is complete nonsense. The life of the Elves is bound to the universe, and is eternal within it - as far as that goes. What happens after that is unknown. Humans are mortal, which was intended as a gift by Ilúvatar, the creator, as it means they're not bound to the world and leave it, although it is never said where they go (it would make little sense if it was, as nobody within the universe would know).
The reason the Elves are leaving is that the world is to come under the domination of Mankind. This has been so since the Moon and Sun were made (beginning the First Age (LotR describes the end of the Third); which was *not* the beginning of the world, just to make that clear), and there were rather few Elves left already at the end of the Second Age, when Sauron was defeated by the remaining Noldor under Gil-Galad and the surviving Faithful of Númenor under Elendil (they messed up this part in the first movie's prelude a bit). Arwen's choice to stay with Aragorn meant death because she chose to become mortal, as their common ancestor Lúthien did in the First Age, about seven thousand years earlier.
Frodo is leaving because he was too deeply hurt by the ring to be healed in Middle-Earth, and also because of the dominion of Men - all this old Elvish nonsense about magic and Rings and such was leaving along with the Elves.

And the Silmarillion isn't tiresome, it's AWEsome. A common typo.

Loxx0red. Time for January.

I've only seen the first movie so far (on DVD; I'm very reluctant to go to the cinema for these, as they'd be German versions and I hate translations from languages I know, especially since for some reason they're always bad, no matter how much money there is to be made), but if that's any indication I'll probably like the others.

...but Tolkien gives waay too much information about the history of middle earth...

For many exactly that is an important part of what makes Tolkien's work so great. I, for example, would have been happier if he had found time and room for more details on some matters. Remember - it's not as though LotR is the central work, and all the rest just stuff surrounding it; the novel is merely the largest individual story.

Spoiler

(quote author=Isegrim) (not using proper quote tags because the spoiler tag doesn't work on quotes)
After having read the book several times (eight times so far and not having enough), I found out that the journey leaves Frodo a broken man (Hobbit). He even fails to resist the Ring's power in the final moment.
(/quote)

I don't think they would be horrible enough to change THAT. If they did, there would be no point in letting Gollum tag along at all, except for comic relief... but I've read reviews by people who know the book, and I'm sure they would have yelled bloody murder about this, which they haven't; so it probably didn't happen.

I'm very annoyed to hear they completely dropped the Scouring of the Shire, though. That's a major mistake to my mind. I know the movie isn't the book and all, but I do think the movie should have something to do with the original book if it's going to call itself based on it, and I'd say the Scouring is a very important part of the story.

[close]

Basically, I'm in two minds about the movies... on one hand, they're insanely great, and insanely great movies are always a good thing. On the other hand, they're leaving such a big impression in the audience's minds and in the film world in general that nobody's going to make an attempt to be truer to the book for decades, which is sad.

Great news for all the countries that were threated by his madness and his intentions to use chemical and biological weapons against countries and to taske over countries. And also great news for the Iraqi people who can now make a democratic Iraqi government for the good of the Iraqi people.

He wasn't the only obstacle to that, you know. His supporters may well drop off now, but they aren't the only troublemakers in Iraq, nor even the majority among them. It won't be magically all good now that the big evil overlord has been captured.

(as for the rest of your post: pre-war Iraq wasn't really a threat to any other country, but that's been debated 8457 times before and after the war, so let's keep out of this issue.)

It's about you complaining about people misspelling your name and then misspelling someone's name in the same post.

Here's a classic:

PLEASE HELP THIS BOY

Hello -

I am a very sick little boy. My mother is typing this for me, because I can't. She is crying. Don't cry, Mommy! Mommy is always sad, but she says it's not my fault. I asked her if it was God's fault, but she didn't answer, and only started crying harder, so I don't ask her that anymore. The reason she is so sad is that I'm so sick. I was born without a body. It doesn't hurt, except when I go to sleep.

The doctors gave me an artificial body. My body is a burlap bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that was the best they could do on account of us havin' no money or insurance. I would like to have a body transplant, but we need more money. Mommy doesn't work because she said employers don't hire crying people. I said, "Don't cry, Mommy," and she hugged my burlap body. Mommy always gives me hugs, even though she's allergic to burlap, and it chafes her real bad.

I hope you will help me. You can help me if you forward this e-mail. Dr. Johansen said if you foward this e-mail then Bill Gates will team up with AOL and do a survey with NASA. Then the astronauts will collect prayers from school children all over America and take them up to space so that the angels can hear them better. Then they will go to the Pope, and he will take up a collection in church and send the money to the doctors. The doctors could help me better then.

Maybe one day I will be able to play baseball. Or maybe just use my lungs and heart, when the doctors make them. The doctors said that every time you foward this letter, the astronauts can take another prayer to the angels. Please help me. Mommy is so sad, and I want a body. I don't want my leaves to rot before I turn 10.

If you don't foward this e-mail, that's OK. Mommy says you're a mean heartless person who doesn't care about a poor little boy with only a head. She says that she hopes that you stew in the raw pit of your own guilt-ridden stomach. What kind of wretched person are you that you can't take five lousy minutes to forward this to all your friends so that they can feel guilt and shame for the rest of their day, and then maybe help a poor, bodiless nine-year-old boy?

Please help me. This really sucks. I try to be happy but it's hard. I wish I had a puppy. I wish I could hold a puppy.

Thank You. Billy 'Smiles' Evans, The boy with just a head.
... and a burlap sack for a body.

Maybe it'll help explain the situation somewhat if you send the people responsible something of this kind and make it clear that any chain letter they may receive and feel the urge to forward is very, very unlikely to be more credible.

(and maybe spam will stop being profitable! And maybe pigs will learn how to fly!)

Mike.

And I agree, it's one of my favourite episodes as well. "Pumaman can rip through pure contact paper!"

I imagine a lot of people have seen the MST3K version. Can't say anything about the original, but this one is probably delicious even without the commentary.

There are many MUCH more important things to worry about than a frickin' designation on a computer hard drive which has connotations of something that hasn't existed in over 200 years.

I basically agree with your points, and I do think it's absolutely silly to get offended over this, or any, piece of technical terminology (within reasonable limits), but I'd like to point out that the 200 years thing is very, very incorrect.

One, slavery in the US in fact ended much less than 200 years ago - formally, the end was 1865, or 1863 if you count the Emancipation Proclamation (I don't think there's any real reason to do so).

Two, I'm alarmed how many people don't seem to know that that wasn't the only instance of slavery in the history of the world. Slavery has always existed at any point of history you might care to name, probably in a way even before the homo sapiens, and it still exists.

Again, post the getstats and setstats you're using. It certainly looks as though that's where the problem is.

[-]

If it's supposed to be 3 plus random, you should use getstats(2,2) - getstats(1,3) - Random(3).

Concerning the actual problem, I'm not sure. Could you post the getstats and setstats you're using now? If you're doing it differently in each, that might be it.

Code: ags

setstats(2,2,getstats(1,3)-Random (3));

This seems to be the problem. Using getstats(2,2) - getstats(1,3) + Random(3) should fix it, I think. As for the chance thing, you don't really need it. Just use the Random(20) directly and leave out the second if.

Also, remove the setstats out of the second block.

Whitespace isn't a problem, no.

Seems Gilbot and I both overlooked the extra ( before the second getstats.

I'm not sure... what's the exact error message? Could you post that getstats function?

(Also: this code might be wrong for what you're trying to do - I don't exactly know what this is, of course, but it looks as if you should remove the second if.)