Treebeard's Lament

Treebeard has much to face in the new world.  Certainly Aragorn will expand his empire and certianly growth must come.  The questions he faces have been but slowed with the overthrow of Saruman and of Sauron.  Ultimately his forests will suffer under the progress of men.  Neither elves nor anyone else will protect his charges in the new world though the changes have been delayed for perhaps a few centuries.

Theoden King

Where does Theoden rank among the characters in The Lord of the Rings?  He is a king, certainly, but in many ways he is also at the mercy or whim of other, more important, characters.  Aragorn, Gandalf and Saruman all seem to direct his doings.  Even Grima, a mostly worthless person, has his way with Theoden.  One must then ask why he deserves the great honors he receives.  The answers are as complex as the times he found himself living, and to have simply survived and to have done so on the right side is certainly worthy of recognition.

Samwise

Samwise Gamgee was, by far, the most predicatabe of the hobbit characters.  In many ways they were one or at most two dimensional.  One might draw some criticism of Tolkein for his treatment of them though it was very clear that he had a great love for the idea of hobbits and hobbitry.  Samwise was always loyal, unflinchingly so.

The Battle of Helm's Deep

The Battle of Helm's Deep is a poem that reflects the true spirit and essence of the original story, but is told in a manner that might be sung by the riders of Rohan as they remember their honored dead in the years after the return of the King.  Helm's Deep is a place and event that holds great mystery for all Lord of the Rings fans.

Great Free Online Fantasy Novel

I love to read, and I really love to read good fantasy.  The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep really has held my attention.  This is top quality fantasy, and you can't beat the price - free!  Obviously a lot of work has gone into this work, I just wish I could find it in print somewhere, though of course then I would have to pay for it. 

Here is a link to the novel.  The action is good, but the plot is very well done.  Colter, the main character, really develops throughout the story.  The world is a rich environment rife with details and lots of sparks for the imagination.

Entrecard's Ability to Drive Traffic

There are a lot of things to say about Entrecard, but one thing that I have noticed is that it will actually get you traffic and free traffic at that.

Now, depending on your luck and which friends you make you can actually get a LOT of traffic through Entrecard. If, for example you manage to get yourself onto one of these lists that are floating around the net where people drop on you then you have it made. You will get hundreds, if not thousands of visits each month just from people doing their drops and you won't have to do any advertising.

On the other hand, if you don't have the time to go out and do a bunch of dropping, and your site isn't the greatest and you haven't gotten onto a magic drop list scheme then you won't be seeing much traffic from Entrecard or anywhere else.

Flowers

Flowers are pretty darn awesome - especially when the wife is pissed at you because you forgot something.