The Camporee

Summer camp was pretty cool. Hikes and backcountry camping trips were our bread and butter. But the event of the year for Boy Scouts was the Camporee (pronounced camp-o-ree).

The Crock Pot Battle

When we got married, my wife and I both owned Crock Pot slow cookers. Both of us had received these cookers from our parents; I don’t know about hers, but mine had actually been given to my parents as a wedding gift. Both of us feel quite fondly toward them.

Our family of two does not, strictly speaking, need two slow cookers. Hence the on-going friendly battle over whose is best.

A battle which I am winning.

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What happened to the Nine Rings at the end of the Second Age?

After Sauron’s defeat at the hands of Elendil and Gil-Galad in the last alliance of Elves and Men, his body was destroyed. It would take him nearly a thousand years to regain power, and over two thousand years to fully reincarnate in Middle-earth. During that time, the Nazgûl retreated to the East, then slowly began filtering back into Middle-earth to cause problems for the Men of Gondor.

But…what happened to the Nine Rings?

The importance of escapism (or: why obsess over Tolkien’s work)

Amanda Hocking once wrote, “I like to obsess over things that don’t matter because it’s more fun than obsessing over things that do.” I think there’s a germ of incredible truth to this statement[1].

Why did Treebeard say that nobody cares for the woods?

Treebeard seems to think he got a bit of a raw deal. He says:

I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me: nobody cares for the woods as I care for them, not even Elves nowadays

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, “Treebeard”

This statement seems a bit odd, considering that the Sylvan Elves of Mirkwood and the Galadhrim of Lothlórien lived not too far north of his domain. But I think this oddness is intentional on Tolkien’s part, as diving into it helps us understand life from the perspective of a tree.

Is Tom Bombadil one of the nameless things?

I know I have a whole different website that I use to talk about Tolkien, but sometimes in writing I get a bit stuck. Oddly, perhaps one of the best ways to become unstuck is to write. I beg your indulgence as I write my way out of my hole.

Spell “Silhouette”

When I was in high school, I competed with the academic challenge team known as Scholars’ Bowl. We traveled to other teams in the area to play in tournaments, and even participated in a PBS-televised tournament each year. Imagine Jeopardy!, but with teams.

Less Brown

As I’ve occasionally mentioned before, while in high school I played on the academic challenge team, called Scholars’ Bowl. It was pretty fun and generally one of the more positive memories from that time.

The Unexpected Party

For a few years (quite a few, actually, since post-graduate education can take the better part of a decade!) my brother was remotely working on a doctorate program offered by a college not too far from where I live in North Carolina. This was nice, since it meant that occasionally he would have to stop by in person and he would often spend the night at my place while doing so.

The Road to a Marriage, Part 3

I am slowly but surely working my way through the story of how I proposed to my wife. Last time I told about talking to her parents. But I had two more tasks to complete: I needed to buy a ring, and I needed to find a place to propose. This is the story of buying the ring.