Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the thirty-eight edition of the alcarin.com newsletter.
There is an archive of the previous newsletters in the Townhall and the columns are added to the Town Square, so you can always read it again.
It's been really quiet on the site this month. University has been keeping me really busy with my MSc thesis, working on a project on risk communication on climate change, and most of the time on Alcarin went to the Forums. For the people who have an opinion on climate change... I'm running an online questionnaire on the matter; see http://www.alcarin.com/climate.php or use the link from the index or Forums pages. J.W. vd Broek (Forums' Great Cthulhu) has been quite busy as well and therefor the MUD has been slowing down as well. We have finished all 17 planned races and all skills. Hopefully next month will bring more news. In this month's columns, Wouter writes on one the Lord of the Rings 3 movie.
Enjoy reading.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Column: Men with a Mission

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WHAT'S NEW:

10/12/2003 - new poem in the Temple: "The gift of flight"

Visit http://www.alcarin.com/townhall/updates.htm for the latest updates.

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COMING UP:

The main development plans for the coming month are the two major projects that are currently running: the Elfstone MUD and the Landlord Mass Combat RPG.
We are still trying to get the MUD working again or to find another, preferably free, MUD host. We've finished a large part of the game design, now having finished the races we plan to implement over time. Having finished those, we're working on spells. Probably that will take a lot of time, but that isn't our main concern at the moment. We could always implement more spells later. The main things that are causing delays at the moment are lack of time and the MUD not working.
I've got some tables ready for the Landlord RPG, but I hope to write a new chapter first. If I do have the time, I'll work on that in the coming month.
Furthermore, I've got some nice ideas for new spells for the RPG Archives section of the site. We'll see what gets finished.
For up to date news on these major projects and other major developments on alcarin.com, see the Announcements forum at http://www.alcarin.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

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COLUMN: MEN WITH A MISSION
A column by Wouter vd Zandschulp; wouter@alcarin.com

"Inspire greatness"

Sauron's troops are approaching. Orcs destroy innocent people. The entire Middle-Earth soon will be dominated by evilness. Hope seems very small. If Sauron gets the One Ring, all hope will be gone.
"You do not seriously think a hobbit could contempt with the will of Sauron?" Saruman said to Gandalf to show how stupid he was being.
Two hobbits and Smeagol then got all the way to Mount Doom with the Ring. Though not being able to throw the Ring in themselves, their brave actions, among those of countless others, resolved in the rescue of Middle-Earth. Frodo couldn't have done it without Sam. Sam couldn't have done it without Smeagol. None of them would have succeeded without Gandalf the Grey/White. Four simple hobbits from the Shire. A timid gardener who doesn't dare to ask Rosie to dance. Two of them with silly accents, who are called a fool more then once in this epos. And master Frodo. And then great men of Gondor and beyond follow the example of their king and bough before them. And they deserve it.

Our world today. Murder in the streets. People without hope. Bombings, war, stupid people in charge, who above all else desire power. Big time politics seem to be beyond our reach. Yes, so it seems. But in fact, as Sam told, we have to keep fighting when there still are things worth fighting for. All we have to do is do the best with the time that has given to us. We all rule the fate of our world.
We are like those little hobbits. Think about it. And don't give up, believe that a small person can make a difference.

If I took anything away from seeing 'Lord of the Rings - Return of the King', it was that. The Lord of the Rings saga is truly inspiring. It inspires the greatness in all of us. And that's really cool.

It had nice effects too: Legolas killing an elephaunt (that still counts as one), bits with Gandalf and Pippin (yay!) and nice effects. Kind of silly though that we never got to see that Denethor owned a palantir. Now he just seemed to be crazy and desperate and knowing things he normally could not have known. And I missed Saruman, of course.

It had become some sort of tradition for me to be inspired by Lord of the Rings for my last column of the year. I have been writing them for over three years, anyhow. December 2001 I wrote: 'Growing by experience', about the simple little hobbits and the power they gained while returning to the Shire (in the movie they did only need this to gain courage to talk to female hobbits), and in December 2002 I wrote 'Friends between race', inspired by the friendship growing between Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. And now 'Inspire greatness', inspired by the inspiring of greatness of this third movie.

So next year, I will have to find something else to write about. And there will be other movies in the cinema's. Well, we had fun those three years, while it lasted. Though some things where quite stupid, Peter Jackson did make the best LotR-movies in existence and he did bring Middle-Earth to see before our eyes.

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Well, that's it for this month's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it.
Lord Gildor
"May the stars guide you on your journeys"
http://www.alcarin.com

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