#swg read & review | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spiced-wine-fic · 3 years

Text

Fic Writer Review

Tagged by@effervescentdragon Thank you, that’s so sweet 😘

How many works do you have on AO3? 39

What’s your total AO3 word count?

2576954

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I’m monofandom. Tolkien only.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1) A Far, Fierce Sky, which is a sequel to A Light in The East and unfinished!

2) Magnificat of the Damned III.

3) Fragments of Fate and Fire (Basically art, kudos to the artists!)

4)Dark Prince

5) Magnificat of the Damned IV.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

In the last couple of weeks I’ve turned them of for several reasons, (not to do with hate comments).

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Magnificat of the Damned IV: Anvil. Dagor Dagorath and the end of the universe.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, oddly considering what I write. When I began on LORFF.com and then Faerie most people seemed far more interested in just reading and writing and willing to give the stories a chance. (No filters!) There was a sock on Fragments last year. Fairly certain it is a sock as the person I believe it to be has a long, long history of sock puppets and his writing and terminology were the same.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I write sex scenes if the story calls for it. M/M or multi. Not really into PWP for the sake of it. I need a bit of a run-up 😂

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Someone’s translated Dark Prince into German on Wattpad and used some art I commissioned for the cover, cheeky bastard 😂 I have given permission to some people to translate fics but they all sent me the link to the site’s the fics are uploaded onto (Which in itself is funny as I couldn’t possibly understand anything, and might have been reading War and Peace in Chinese or something!) But they are all sites hosted in those countries. Wattpad is not one.

I’ve had ‘in ‘verse’ specific (as in they make no sense outside my ‘verse) ideas claimed by someone else, except that it’s so obviously a lie (as the ideas were posted years before I was unlucky enough to know this person). But apart from the Wattpad one, I’m not aware of it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, Russian, German, Romanian, I think, and Chinese.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I wrote Dark Lands and part of Dark Blood with Anwyn. She was lovely to write with. @naryaflame and I do write in a shared multiverse but that is case of checking things with each other rather than co-writing.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Fëanor/Fingolfin.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don’t want to finish a Far Fierce Sky but I feel I ought to. It almost is finished really, but it and the prequel were a gift fic based on Anestel by Esteliel and I tried to write Legolas like her own vision of him. The trouble is I can’t stand timid, shy characters. I enjoy reading them but I get so bored writing them. That’s a whole other ball game. (Elgalad (an OC) comes across like that in my fic, although not as intensely, but I could write that as I know Elgalad’s not really like that). ‘Sky’ has the most kudos of anything I’ve written just because it has Legolas in it, (typical) which irks me as I’m not that interested in him as a character 🤷 So I really doubt I’ll finish it. Still, I enjoyed writing in Khand in that fic exploring a little of their culture, and the young Variags who became Khadakhir, I loved writing Sauron. It was the first fic I really delved into his relationship with Vanimörë, which is exceedingly complex. Also that was the first story my OC Bainlaph appeared in. He’s a sub minx and I do like writing him. So the fic wasn’t a waste, or not to me.

What are your writing strengths?

Perseverance, I think. Although there are a couple of fics that are incomplete and abandoned, I mostly do finish.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I dwell far too much on the gorgeous flowing hair, the beautiful eyes, the tall bodies…okay stop 😅 I just enjoy imagining that, and not in a lustful way, not at my age! It’s more like the way I appreciate art, or Michaelangelo’s ‘David’ or ‘The Charioteer’ of Delphi.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve done that once in a fic I took down, which was just bits of French, I asked Narya to check it as she speaks French, which she kindly did. Usually, I don’t write dialogue in another language because I’m only monolingual and aware that Google Translate is hilarious. One curse word might be fine, try a sentence and people who do speak the language will laugh.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Summerland, which was a gift for @naryaflame an AU crossover of her wonderful The Ways of Paradox and my ‘verse.

It was 2018 and a gorgeous long, hot summer and I was absolutely in the ‘zone’ when I wrote it; it just flowed. It was set on the Devon coast and I could just smell the air, see the characters as if I was watching them and every scene built itself. It felt effortless. That doesn’t usually happen — or only for certain chapters. Most fic is work (to a greater or lesser degree). Tagging: @keiliss, @lucifers-cuvette @awesome-bluehair-universe @naryaflame @lumeriel-666, @skyeventide @cycas @thisshadowprevails @idrilsscribe @nuredhel @formerlyknownasredacted @thisshadowprevails @melkors-4th-silmaril If anyone has a separate name for their AO3 or SWG account and wants to do this, please do, the name differences just confuse me sometimes and I’m not sure who’s an author and who isn’t.

#Fic #Writing #Fanfic #Long Post

8 notes · View notes

jane-ways · 4 years

Text

Of Things Made to be Destroyed, Ch 1

Read it on AO3 and SWG!

Title and description from Fuckmylife666 by Against Me!

In fairy stories, the kind he used to tell his nephew, the handsome prince sees the beautiful princess and falls instantly in love. She is radiant, and he, burning with passion, strides purposefully towards her, mind made up to ask for her hand in marriage. They dance, because they are at a ball (these sorts of things always seem to happen at balls), they kiss, and then they are married, and live happily ever after. (“What happens in the happily ever after?” Celebrimbor had once asked. Caranthir, stuttering, had told him to ask his father.)

This was not a fairy story. The first time he saw her, she was little more than a blur covered in blood and filth as he swept past her on horseback. In the back of his mind, Caranthir registered that she appeared to be the person in charge, and after his initial assault drove the attacking orcs back, he turned his horse, searching her out amongst the rabble. She fought close to the front lines, screaming orders to her soldiers above the din of the wind and rain, voice raw with the kind of fury that most often masks fear. (Something in the ragged edges of her words caught his notice, and he heard in them first his father and then himself.) He made to catch her eye and saw he had already caught hers. (Well, Caranthir reasoned, trying not to make too much of it, he was a mighty Elven lord on horseback who had just swept in from the rear with half his cavalry. Eru knew what he seemed like to this mortal woman.) Riding up to meet her, he spared no time for pleasantries and cut straight to the point, shouting the first words of his message even before he had quite reached her. Belatedly, it occurred to him that she might not speak Sindarin. He prayed that by some miracle these people had encountered friendly Avari who might have passed on Thingol’s language.

Luck, it would appear, was on his side. Slashing at an orc who had broken through the defensive line, she shouted back her reply over the howling of the wind. Battle plans thus agreed on, she returned her attentions to the orc as Caranthir charged forward to his soldiers once more, surging into the fray.

By the time the battle was over, the storm had subsided to a drizzle, no less damp and miserable but at least less noisy. Picking his way through the uneven ground, Caranthir guided his horse around the bodies of the dead and injured. Mannish and Elvish soldiers alike scoured the battlefield for fallen comrades, either to tend or to bury. The orcs they left. The woman stood a ways off, surrounded by a contingent of other Men, whom he guessed to also be women by the obvious swells of their hips and chests. (He wondered if perhaps that was why Men seemed to take so much stock of whether one was male or female—those being the only two options, as he understood it, although in truth he found Mannish sexual dimorphism, and the extent to which it seemed to govern their genders, their societies, and their daily lives, utterly mystifying.) With Elves he would not have so easily known, but then, with Elves it would not have mattered. Perhaps these women were considered more suitable counselors or bodyguards for a female leader? Or perhaps this was a society governed by women? Had Findaráto or the twins mentioned any tribes of the Edain with matriarchal systems of leadership?

His thoughts thus occupied, Caranthir did not notice when his horse failed to stop completely as he dismounted. Tripping ahead with the forward momentum, his leather riding boots slipped in the wet mud, and he stumbled with an “oomf” directly into the woman’s outstretched arms. Peering down at him, she blinked. For the first time, he could see her face clearly, and he found himself preeminently occupied with the sheen of sweat and rain on her skin, and how it seemed to glimmer as it rose in thin wisps of steam into the cold air.

She coughed politely and he realized with embarrassment that he had been staring. “You, ah,” he stuttered, “you fight well.” Regaining his composure, Caranthir righted himself awkwardly, all the while praying silently he would not slip again. “Thank you.”

“I am Haleth, daughter of Haldad, by right of succession chieftain of the Haladin.” She gave him a once over, flicking her eyes from head to toe and back up. Without thinking, he felt himself stand up straighter. “Who are you?”

“I am Morifinwë Carnistir, called Caranthir in the tongue of Elu Thingol; Prince of Thargelion, fourth son of the First House of the Noldor. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady,” he replied in what he hoped was the correct mixture of grandeur, magnanimity, and pleasantness. First contact protocol was an inexact science at the best of times, and he had met few Edain before—certainly not as the ranking prince in his side of the exchange. And certainly not having just tripped into their arms. Gazing at her again, he noticed the same intensity he had first seen on the battlefield, a veneer of authority with its foundation in insecurity. By right of succession, she had said. Even though her Sindarin wasn’t perfect, that much had come across clearly. So her parent had likely died in this battle, or at least recently enough that she had not been formally recognized as leader in her own right. Dimly, Caranthir recalled the name Haldad from the depths of his memory: a man’s name, he thought, so not a matriarchy—another reason for her overcompensation. Haldad—wasn’t he the one who had united the Haladin? Not a long or well-established line of leadership either, then. A wave of sympathy swept over Caranthir. Poor woman. At least his father, in all the blustering and recklessness of his last years, had been secure in his right of succession by birth and the strength of his line.

All these thoughts came and passed in the blink of an eye. Haleth, too, had been making her own mental review, and now she spoke. “Thank you for your aid, Lord,” she said carefully, picking at each syllable, although whether to better her pronunciation or bide for more time to think, he was unsure. “You have been generous in your help today, and in letting us settle your southern lands,” she continued. Caranthir saw that she aimed to go on, but he interjected, hoping to reassure her (and spare himself further effusive comments, which he found embarrassing—he had had enough embarrassment for one day).

“It is well enough to me that you should be settled there, Lady. My people make little use of these lands and your presence discourages more aggressive invasions from—” In the background, he heard the snarl of a wounded orc who had regained consciousness. There was shouting, more snarling, the clashing of metal, and then all fell silent again. “…More unsavory peoples than yourselves,” he finished pointedly. “In fact,” he found himself saying, in one of those all-too-common moments where he could feel his lips moving faster than his mind, with apparently no ability to control the words coming out of his own mouth, “it would not displease me if you were to remain here.”

“It would not displease you?” Haleth’s tone was unreadable but decidedly lacking in enthusiasm.

“With your own fiefdom, of course,” he added hurriedly. Why am I like this? he wondered mournfully. It’s like dropping something and just watching it fall. “You would be free to rule your people and live as you see fit, with as much or as little involvement in my affairs as you wish. I believe it would continue to be mutually beneficial for us both.”

“My Lord,” Haleth spoke deliberately, choosing her words carefully but firmly. “My Lord, is that not already what we have been doing? Living as we pleased, with as much as involvement in the affairs of Elves as we desired?” That is, Caranthir surmised unhappily, none at all.

Caranthir felt a surge of—annoyance? disappointment?—rise up in his throat. “Yeeess,” he answered slowly, drawing out each sound in an attempt to calm down. “To a degree. But as you have been living on my lands without leave—that is,” he caught himself as anger flashed across Haleth’s face—“without formal, legal documentation, you have also been denying yourselves access to certain special protections, public works and improvements projects, tax benefits, etcetera…” As he felt himself slip into what his brothers called “Accountant Mode,” he stopped and took a deep breath. He did not have the time or patience to teach this woman the finer details of administration. Either she had learned what she needed from observing her father, or she would now have to learn the hard way. And he would be damned if he begged a Man to stay on the lands she had already been illegally squatting on. (Even if that squatting had substantially kept the orcs at bay. And resulted in the land being cultivated and cleared of unwanted flora and fauna. And thus increased its real estate value.) Caranthir took another deep breath and settled himself.

Haleth gazed at him silently, considering her options. He guessed that she was not foolish enough to say aloud that she didn’t need him, and he certainly wasn’t foolish enough to insist aloud that she clearly did. One did not get to be as rich as Caranthir by being that stupid. So, what would it be, then?

“My people need time to recover before we can begin making plans for the future,” she said at last. A non-answer, then. Wise decision, he thought. It would give her time to consider her options while receiving more goodwill aid from his people. He would have helped her anyway, of course—he wasn’t a monster, despite what his tempter and his actions at Alqualondë might prompt some to say—but it was clever maneuvering not make that assumption. Perhaps she had learned more than he had first assumed.

He bowed and took his leave, remounting his horse and guiding it over to his lieutenant. There was a tightness in his chest that he couldn’t explain, and for some reason he couldn’t pinpoint, his mind was filled with the fairy stories he had once told his nephew, and how when his father had first seen his mother, she had been covered in the soot of the forge.

#caranthir #haleth #caranthir/haleth #tolkien #silmarillion #silm fic #My fic

19 notes · View notes

independence1776 · 6 years

Text

Middle-earth is Our Earth

This is a collection of quotes from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and the History of Middle-Earth series dealing with the fact that Tolkien explicitly set Middle-earth in our world from the very beginning of his Legendarium, not in a constructed or imaginary world as is common in many fantasy novels. Due to the amount of material, this is not an exhaustive compilation. Furthermore, if a book doesn’t appear, it simply means that in my skimming I didn’t see a reference, not that none exist (though obviously that can also be true). THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN ~ Letter 165: “’Middle-earth’, by the way, is not a name of a never-never land without relation to the world we live in (like the Mercury of Eddison). It is just a use of Middle English middel-erde (or erthe), altered from the Old English Middangeard: the name for inhabited lands of Men ‘between the seas’. And though I have not attempted to relate the shape of the mountains and land-masses to what geologists may say or surmise about the nearer past, imaginatively this ‘history’ is supposed to take place in a period of the actual Old World of this planet.” ~ Letter 183: “I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd > middle-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumene, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically oppose to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary. The essentials of that abiding place are all there (at any rate for inhabitants of N.W. Europe), so naturally it feels familiar, if a little glorified by the enchantment of distance in time.” ~ Letter 183: “Mine is not an ‘imaginary’ world, but an imaginary historical moment on ‘Middle-earth’-- which is our habitation.” ~ Letter 184: “I can only say, for your comfort I hope, that the ‘Sam Gamgee’ of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic. So that perhaps you will not be displeased by the coincidence of the name of this imaginary character (of supposedly many centuries ago) being the same name as yours.” ~ Letter 211: “All I can say is that, if it were ‘history’, it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or ‘cultures’) into such evidence as we possess, archeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire, for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region (I p. 12 [compiler’s note: the second quote in the LotR section below]). I could have fitted things in with greater verisimilitude, if the story had not become too far developed, before the question ever occurred to me. I doubt if there would have been much gain; and I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap* in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for ‘literary credibility’, even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of ‘pre-history’. “*I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years; that is we are at the end of the Fifth Age, if Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh. “I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in ‘space’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-earth is (by the way & if such a note is necessary) not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration (New English Dictionary ‘a perversion’) of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the oikoumene: middle because though of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between the ice of the North and the fire of the South. O. English middan-geard, mediæval E. midden-erd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet!” ~ Letter 257: When C.S. Lewis and I tossed up, and he was to write on space-travel and I on time-travel, I began an abortive book of time travel of which the end was to be the presence of my hero in the drowning of Atlantis. This was to be called Númenor, the Land in the West. The thread was to be the occurrence time and again in human families (like Durin among the Dwarves) of a father and son called by names that could be interpreted as Bliss-friend and Elf-friend. These no longer understood are found in the end to refer to the Atlantid-Númenórean situation and mean ‘one loyal to the Valar, content with the bliss and prosperity within the limits prescribed’ and ‘one loyal to the friendship with the High-elves’. It started with a father-son affinity between Edwin and Elwin of the present, and was supposed to go back into legendary time by way of an Eädwine and Ælfwine of circa A.D. 918, and Audoin and Alboin of Lombardic legend, and so the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of the corn and cultural heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats (and their departure in funeral ships). One such Sheaf, or Shield Sheafing, can actually be made out as one of the remote ancestors of our present Queen. In my tale we were to come at last to Amandil and Elendil leaders of the loyal party in Númenor, when it fell under the domination of Sauron. Elendil ‘Elf-friend’ was the founder of the Exiled kingdoms in Arnor and Gondor.” ~ Letter 294: “[In response to the following comment in a letter Tolkien received] ‘Middle-earth… corresponds to Nordic Europe’ “Not Nordic, please! A word I personally dislike; it is associated, though of French origin, with racialist theories. Geographically Northern is usually better. But examination will show that even this is inapplicable (geographically or spiritually) to ‘Middle-earth’. This is an old word, not invented by me, as reference to a dictionary such as the Shorter Oxford will show. It meant the habitable lands of our world, set amid the surrounding Ocean. The action of the story takes place in the North-west of ‘Middle-earth’, equivalent in latitude to the coastlines of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. But this is not a purely ‘Nordic’ area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of the Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy.”

My original intention was to post the entirety of this compilation on Tumblr for those who prefer this site, but due to its length (over 7000 words), it is simpler to link to the rest of the document. You can finish reading the compilation here on SWG.

#silmarillion #lord of the rings #LOTR #the hobbit #tolkien #Middle-Earth #meta

144 notes · View notes

dawnfelagund · 6 years

Text

Women & Art & Permission to Speak

Yesterday, a friend of mine who is an art teacher and does paint-and-sips as a side hustle told me a story about a guy who took one of her paint-and-sip classes sold his painting at an art shop for $35. We chuckled over it at the time, that a painting produced in under two hours while knocking back Long Trails and using the kinds of paints that come in gallon jugs with pumps would be anything a person would think to sell, much less would sell.

But then I thought: Well, a man would think to sell it.

The last two weeks have seen fit to throw at me example after example of the differences between how men and women view permission to exist and speak in various intellectual and creative spaces. I have two articles open in my browser right now because I had a vague idea that I wanted to write something about them about women and fandom and entry into scholarship.

In The Atlantic, Caroline Kitchener wrote about how women write fewer letters to the editor than men, even when “[i]n many cases, the confidence men have is not particularly warranted”:

The disparity, several experts told me, stems from “the confidence gap,” a phenomenon covered by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman in The Atlantic in 2014. Women are less likely to think that they’re, one, skilled enough write something worthwhile, and, two, able to offer insight other people should care about, Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State, said.

Then Amanda Taub wrote about the manpanel on Vox, including all sorts of depressing data about how, in any and every manifestation of expertise--conference panels, quotes in the media, senior staff in organizations--men are overwhelmingly present, creating a vicious cycle where men are quoted more often because they hold more positions of power and authority, and we view men as more fitting for roles of power and authority because we see and hear them more often in those roles.

Which reminded me that I recently got an email about an education conference that looked interesting and, when I clicked on it, all but one of the highlighted presenters was male, despite the fact that teachers are overwhelmingly women.

Then, bringing it home to fandom, the SWG published a reprint this week of my friend @heartofoshun‘s essay Women Find a Room of Their Own in Tolkien Fanfiction:

This is not to say that there are no areas of genre fiction (like Young Adult, children’s literature, and romance novels) that are not dominated by women writers. ... Katharine Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University, who moonlights as a romance fiction novelist, provides a list of words which she find offensive when reading discussions of the romance fiction genre. "These terms not only cast judgment but devalue the craft."11 Her list includes: bodice ripper, dirty, trashy, beach reading, smut, garbage, and Chick lit. Fair enough. It’s no accident that words like these are used when speaking of a genre of literature dominated by women writers. Most women have read mystery, spy, thriller, and adventure novels, written largely by and for men. (Women read a variety of books—in general women read a wider selection of genres than men do.) These manly specimens of popular literature are not categorized as dirty, trashy, smut, garbage, or jock lit, although they may include explicit sex scenes, often more graphic than those in romance novels. They tend today to be described simply as mystery, spy, thriller, and adventure novels.

American novelist, essayist, and literature professor Meg Wolitizer has written an excellent article about the status of women in the U.S. publishing community which makes a series of significant points showing the ways in which women writers still today are not treated equitably in comparison to men, one salient point is that women are far less likely to review or be reviewed by the most respected publications. "No wonder that when we talk about today’s leading novelists—the ones who generate heat and conversation and are read by both men and women—we are talking mostly about men."12 ... Fanfiction, on the other hand, is disproportionately female.

Then a fandom friend mentioned to me that they’d been contacted by a male academic interested in some of their research because the male academic wanted to build something specific with fanfic in mind. The male academic had no experience with fanfic, fan cultures, or fan communities.

Which reminded me of the time I was approached by a man with no experience with Tolkienfic (or fanfic at all) who wanted to help with the HASA Rescue Project (which was an attempt to save HASA’s stories before the site admins had committed to Open Doors) but not actually help with the HASA Rescue Project. Rather, he wanted to throw out what I was doing and do something completely different. He continued to badger me with “solutions” to HASA’s problems (as though despite the decades of experience between HASA’s admins, one of whom was a professional programmer, none were capable of contriving very basic solutions), and when I finally told him I couldn’t help because I was not a HASA admin but would be happy to have him volunteer for the HASA Rescue Project, he listed a half-dozen reasons why he wasn’t available. So he wanted to build a new HASA site but couldn’t commit to spending an hour saving and uploading stories? It’s not as much fun, I guess, when you don’t get to save a bunch of fluff-brained women with your ideas but instead simply pitch in to help a woman with her idea.

All of this has been stewing in my brain because, in recent weeks, most of my fannish effort has gone into the SWG Reference Library upgrade, and every time I post asking for essays, I can almost hear all of the authors who write beautiful meta and would love to be a part of the Reference Library talking themselves into why their work isn’t good enough. To hearken back to Kitchener’s article about the confidence gap, this means that women’s ideas aren’t being discussed, and since most fan-scholars are women, this is a problem if getting fan voices heard more is a goal, which for me it is.

#women and fanfic #tolkien fanfic #be brave my sisters

101 notes · View notes

bitcoinminershasrate · 3 years

Text

Antminer DR5 Review 2021: Hashrate| Profit | Config | Settings

Antminer DR5 Review 2021: (Hashrate or Watt)Power, Profitability and Tuning (Configuration): New mining machines continue to appear despite the temporary stagnation in the virtual payment asset market. This means that not only miners-enthusiasts, but also business sharks are confident in the bright future of the cryptoindustry. Otherwise, no one would have invested huge sums in the development of the next series of ASICs. Bitmain is setting the pace for the cryptocurrency arms race. Soon after the release of miners on 7 nanometer chips, under the SHA-256 algorithm, the company put on the market a batch of antminer dr5 devices working with Blake256R14. Antminer DR5 specifications | Hashrate | Watt In appearance, it resembles S15 and T15... Two-section case, with front-facing 120mm fans and a power supply attached to the right on the brackets. Let's take a closer look at what a miner has, characteristics and features of work. Hashrate,(maximum performance)35 TH/sHashrate,(power saving mode)25/26 TH/sPower consumption1610WattPower consumption(in economy mode)1000/1040WattEnergy efficiency(in maximum performance mode)46 J/THEnergy efficiency(in economy mode)40 J/THNumber of hash chips216Number of hash boards3Network connectionRJ45 Ethernet10 / 100MDimensions (edit)238/178 / 297mmNet weight)7.7 KGNoise level76 dBAmbient operating temperature25 - 40C Bitmain Antminer DR5 ASIC Miner 1800W 34TH/S for DashCoin with Power Supply Antminer DR5 Review Hashrate Profitability Config Settings The bitmain dr5's dimensions, weight and power consumption are quite acceptable. The miner develops a good mining speed, the operating room temperature is standard for this type of device. Official Stores You can buy antminer DR5 miner in Moscow from your regional Bitmain dealer, on the website https://ibmm.ru, or order directly from the manufacturer. At the time of this writing, the price of antminer dr5 is in stock Bitmain 1316 $, you can pay with dollars, euro or bitcoins. Top 3 Question and Answer on Amazon - Antminer DR5 Review Top 3 Question and Answer on Amazon - Antminer DR5 Review Question 1: The hashrate is 34 Th/s, is this correct? And this miner is for Dash right? Answer: Hi, yes Sr the Hastrate is between 34 TH/s and 35 TH/s, Is for Dash.By MAQUINARIA BITMAIN Customer Answer: That is NOT CORRECT! antminer DR5 can ONLY mine DECRED. THIS DOES NOT MINE DASH! Question 2: Will this mine btc as well or only dash?? Answer: BTC is mined with the SHA-256 algorithm. This does not support that algorithm and can only mine Dash and other Blake256R14 related coins. Question: Solo mina dash? Answer: Si.. Step-by-step guide to set up and connect When you receive a new miner, the first thing to do is to inspect the packaging. Take pictures of the damage, if any. Inspect the device in the same way. Make sure that all chip cooling heatsinks are firmly glued. To do this, it is enough to turn the miner over several times, the parts that have fallen off will immediately make themselves felt. Then we check the fixing of the cables in the connectors, and proceed to configuring the antminer DR5. If you have already worked with devices on integrated circuits, you will not learn anything new from the instructions. Configuring antminer DR5 begins by defining the IP address. - Download the utility to find IP, on https://service.bitmain.com/support/download - Unpack the archive, run as administrator and click "Start». - On the miner panel, click the "IP Report»And you will see the address in the program window on your PC. - Copy the received IP address into the address bar of the browser, and go to the miner control panel. It is recommended to use utilities Google Chrome or Firefox... Username and password "root"Are installed by default. If you have three or more devices, enter static IP address, subnet mask, SWG, DNS, then click “Save and apply». Go to the pool settings - Open the "Miner Configuration" tab and then "General settings». - Enter the pool url and miner name (in the Worker section). It is not necessary to change the password. - Press again "Save and apply", And connect to the selected pool. If you have several rigs, you can group or differentiate them by adding the miner's IP address to the miner's name. Supporters of work in the hive will have to upset, unfortunately, the dr5 miner is not yet included in the list Hive OS client for ASICs. Overclocking the device To change the power mode go to Miner configuration, then Advanced Settings, select: - Normal high performance; - Low economical consumption. Click Save & Apply to save the hardware configuration. Configuring antminer DR5 is now complete. It will take 5 to 30 minutes to start mining. During normal operation, the status "O" will be displayed. An "X" indicates an error, and (-) means the device is offline. To determine the version of the installed antminer DR5 firmware, go to the section Overview... The filesystem version displays the date your miner was last updated. To update the firmware: - Go to Upgrade. - Uncheck the box if you need to reset the miner settings. - Press the button with the hieroglyphs and navigate to the update file. - Select the update file and click Flash image, if there is a new antminer DR5 firmware, a green marker will light up. - When finished, execute Reboot. This completes the antminer DR5 firmware. You can restore factory settings using the physical Reset button on your device. Press and hold it for 10 seconds, if the reset is successful, the red indicator will flash. Versions of the alternative firmware bitmain antminer dr5 34 Th / s have not yet been found. However, the speed of the antminer dr5 is 34 TH / s, with a power consumption of 1610 Watt, a good indicator. The previous dr3 developed only 7.8 TH / s. What you need to know about DR5 Speaking about the advantages of antminer dr5, one cannot fail to mention the prospects of the mining algorithm. Blake-256 is one of the five finalists in the prestigious NIST technology competition. According to experts, Blake-256 outperforms algorithms, SHA256, Scrypt, Groestl in many respects. The miner itself, like all Bitmain products, is assembled with high quality and easy to configure. Of course, if you turn on the DR5 miner in a residential building, the noise will be heard throughout the entire entrance. Therefore, it is necessary to take additional measures of noise isolation, and it is better to place such devices in special mining hotels. Calculation of ROI DR5, profitability in 2020 ASIK's review will be incomplete without calculating the current profitability. We go to the calculator known to all miners WhatToMine and find it in the Miners (beta) section of Bitmain Antminer DR5, the yield at the time of this writing is $ 0.61. Do not panic, the service calculates electricity at a rate of $ 0.1 per hour, if you take a tariff of $ 0.06, the profitability of antminer dr5 will grow to $ 2.33. Low profit, but winter in the cryptocurrency market is coming to an end and the money invested will return a hundredfold. The readings of the profitability calculator antminer dr5 may change tomorrow. There are still few reviews on the bitmain antminer dr5 miner on cryptocurrency forums. ASIK has recently appeared on the market and has not yet been appreciated at its true worth. Nevertheless, the device, according to the WhatToMine profitability calculator, ranks second in the rating of equipment for the Decred cryptocurrency. Main competitor MicroBT Whatsminer D1 costs $ 4,199 and brings in $ 3.21 per day. This means that antminer dr5 will pay off faster anyway. Well, for those who still think that cryptocurrencies are just a "soap bubble", this is not a big excursion into history. Back in 1998, a well-known programmer and doctor of jurisprudence Nick Sabo wrote: "Digital currencies can be dramatically improved with cryptographic signatures that make each coin unique and eliminate the possibility of copying, double-spending and other theft." Read the full article

0 notes

essayevaluation380 · 4 years

Video

youtube

professional writing service

About me

Resume Professional Writers Reviews

Resume Professional Writers Reviews The predicted findings had been that relationships between personality type and professional genre selection can be found that differentiated writers of different genres. That said, it boils the blood to learn of scammers concentrating on the most vulnerable. Surely, the relative shortage of suitable employment makes writers notably susceptible. No doubt, each time a author falls into the lure, he/she wonders initially if the “company” offers a loophole others haven’t discovered. Sure, we may face an issue in different areas of our lives, however these issues are way more linear than the blurry, confusing recesses of the creative thoughts. It has causes and cures, which do sometimes quantity to banging out awful shit and hating your self till something happens. Sometimes you need to do something else for awhile, then bang out terrible shit and hate your self till one thing occurs. The objective of this group is to provide resources to help students' transition into the professional world. The group sponsors different occasions and helps students join with members of the advisory board. Accordingly, knowledge had been collected by way of interviews with and surveys of professional writers. Experienced enterprise writers know what works to influence and motivate people, what's going to make your good ideas clear and engaging for a particular target market. So, particularly when the potential benefits or risks are massive, many managers seek the help of specialists. It was a painstakingly lengthy and troublesome course of to construct that cv and demonstrate my work’s worth to skilled publishers based upon it—just saying. In my home province, Saskatchewan, I was properly-served by the assorted writing organizations. The Saskatchewan Writers Guild funded me for numerous faculty and library readings; for residencies; for its manuscript editing service; and as an editor for the publications Spring and WindScript. And it made a huge monetary difference that I was not dwelling alone. Quietly provides a portfolio features for writers, where you possibly can simply upload PDFs or scrape links to compile your content. You can add a biography part, social media hyperlinks and pursuits as a author. We simply don’t experience the same block in school, work, and so forth the way in which we do in writing. The SWG purchased my profiles and articles for its monthly e-newsletter, Freelance. Saskatchewan Publishers Group paid me for evaluations and for marketing Saskatchewan-published books at artisan fairs and academic conferences. Sage Hill Writing Experience employed me repeatedly as a Youth Writing Camp Instructor. I additionally freelanced for myriad markets, bought work to CBC Saskatchewan, labored for three years as a radio promoting copywriter, and constantly led workshops. When you can drag her away from her laptop, you’ll probably find Laura swimming laps or rollerblading. She and her husband stay within the Seattle space and are the mother and father of two young-adult sons. The legendary Joe Sugarman discovered that altering only one word in advertising supplies typically dramatically improved buyer responses. Indeed, what and how we write directly influences sales and relationships of all kinds. Telling a blocked writer it’s a personality defect is like telling a diabetic they need to eat extra sugar until they get good at it. Anyway, point is, you’re possibly sitting over there pondering it’s time to hike on the ol’ hip-waders and go slogging via the mire that's the life of the skilled author. Nine out of ten writers discussed when in the course of the day they write. Several writers described the afternoon as a mental useless time helpful just for exercising and, perhaps, modifying. From October to December of 2017 I wrote two books. And I can inform you from recent expertise that it is so a lot harder to do this when you aren’t doing it daily. Even going a few days without approaching your keyboard may end up in a recent dose of writer’s block the following time you do. According to Maberry, less than one % of writers make a dwelling at it. In the novel-writing world, Maberry stated he is aware of writers who're turning out one or two novels each year, making wherever from $5,000- $10,000 per book. The Organization for Professional Writers was based in 2012 in an effort to create a neighborhood for skilled writers at Grand Valley State University. When you make a consistent habit of “going to work” as all professionals do, and sitting down at your desk, you’ll get into a flow state. But if you want to turn into an author, a professional writer, then you have to do extra. You should put pen to paper and develop the habits that may take you from unpublished , to being a full-blown pro. Edgar Allan Poe was some of the important and influential American writers of the 19th century. He was the primary writer to attempt to make an expert living as a author.

0 notes

heartofoshun · 6 years

Text

minimum-amatrix-ingenii-sui asked: For the Fanfic Ask Meme: 7, 14, 21?

7. longest completed fic you wrote this year -- it was a year of short stories, sadly not touching my pile of WIP novels. Weighing in at around 10,600 words is I've Hungered for Your Touch (featuring Caranthir, Haleth and Nerdanel) Caranthir is offered a chance to read an unpublished diary entry--ancient manuscript apparently written by Haleth the Hunter.

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write -- I wrote almost entirely responses to the Silmarillion Writers Guild monthly challenges--which meant I got pulled in many directions I had not intended to go. False Spring probably surprised me most because it’s a subject I’ve avoided it for years. Wanted it to be so good and thought it would be so hard (still reserving the right to write another version as a novel!) and I still cannot believe I cracked my resolve on took it on as challenge with a short deadline. “The prelude to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. . . the return of hope for my protagonists and yet the beginning of the end of the struggle of those rash and heroic Noldor whose deeds made me fall in love with The Silmarillion.”

21. most memorable comment/review -- I don’t get the number of reviews the popular Silmarillion writer on AO3 get, but I do get some epic ones that make me love this fandom! I get most of my best and longest reviews on the SWG (many of those by you and Dawn Felagund and other long-time fandom friends). I’m picking this one, because--OMG! a long review on AO3! Wow! On False Spring mentioned above.

NelyafinweFeanorion -- Wed 11 Oct 2017 09:17PM EDT The occasion of the feast made me so sad--poor, dear Finrod. I was glad to read Maedhros was so incensed with his brothers he could not bring himself to speak of their transgression but ugh what a miserable job for Fingon, although fitting as High King. I'm glad he did it the way he did. I love seeing his insight into Feanorion relationships.

Maglor singing Finrod's song and the remark about so many dying so far from Tirion brought tears to my eyes.

Oh Maglor--how he makes me laugh with his commentary on verses and song. But I adore the idea that he is the forbidding gatekeeper guaranteeing Maedhros and Fingon some privacy. And just so Fingon--running out half naked, not caring who sees, excited about his gift.

What a lovely description this is, encapsulating so much:

"To the constant vexation of his father, Fingon had never been bound by propriety or modesty since he was himself a boy struggling to be recognized among his even brasher Fëanorian cousins."

And then Maedhros--sigh. The description of him, rested, well-loved, relaxed and as beautiful as in his youth just broke me.

I love fiesty cranky Erestor--it's how I write him too. Maedhros' trusted friend and assistant.

Once again the tenderness of this line just got me: '"And, anyway, Finno likes to braid it.' His heart softened at the thought."

I liked the interaction between Finno and Tyelko and the rawness of it--the gutter language Quenya and the word choice itself. It really worked here and got Tyelko to where Fingon wanted him. But I really sympathized with one thing Tyelko said--I am of the opinion that Fëanor didn't understand this son very well and that his gifts were not judged as highly as those of his brothers by Fëanor--a harsh fate in this family.

This line made me so sad/angry because it is so very true and so very unfair to him in so many ways:

"His legacy as the oldest was that his parents, perhaps unfairly at times, had expected him to act as a disciplinarian to the younger ones. While he didn’t think any of them doubted he loved them, he did tire of being the hard one."

Damn it it's so poignant to see them talking of Turvo and his warriors perhaps coming from Gondolin and all I can think is how HAPPY Fingon was for that brief moment when he saw his brother's troops.

Dear valiant Fingon. And capable resolute Maedhros. It should have even better. It could have been better. Aargh. So many feels and a masterful rendition of this council of war. Splendid and funny, poignant and loving although unutterably devastating because we know how it ends.

The last line though. So hard to read that. My heart hurts.

Sorry I wrote you a novel of a review here!

There can be no such thing as a story comment or review that is too long.

#@minimum-amatrix-ingenii-sui #silmarillion fanfiction

4 notes · View notes

nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui · 6 years

Note

1, 4, 14, 21, 23

(For the fanfic end of the year ask meme)

1. Favourite fic you wrote this year

The Embalmer’s Apprentice (which I picked up again after a three-year hiatus) continues to be my special baby, even though I’m seriously embarrassed about its current state and it’s in desperate need of revision (not to mention completing). As for completed/stand-alone fics, I can’t decide between Looking Up and We Were Not Born In Cuiviénen. I am rather pleased with them both.

4. total number of words you wrote this year

I’m taking this to mean “number of words of fanfic” because it would be rather hard to keep track of the actual words (e-mails, articles, LJ/DW entries, comments, …) I wrote this year! So in terms of fanfic and (rarely) fannish essays, we’re looking at 98,124 words. Whew! Let’s see if I manage to crack 100,000 before the year ends!

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

Actually, most of the fics I wrote this year were unexpected, due to the SWG challenges and Silm40… but I suppose the most unexpected would be The Snakes and the Flowers, because Amarië definitely wasn’t on my inner fic-writing radar. The rest was at least vaguely familiar.

21. most memorable comment/review

That would be one I got on We Were Not Born In Cuiviénen - it was enthusiastic and absolutely lovely, the commenter basically said that she’d been waiting for a fic like that for a long time and picked up on a few cultural details I had worked in, so that was awesome in and off itself. But the really memorable thing was that this was actually the first ever review this person had written in five years of reading fic at SWG. So that was quite a lovely feeling.

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

I had really hoped to continue working on Golden Days but it didn’t work out. I hope it won’t take another three-year hiatus until the muses cooperate again on that one. >_> And of course I’ve been meaning for years to finally tackle the sequel to The Tempered Steel. Sigh. Maybe this month’s SWG challenge will help to kick that loose? Dum spiro spero etc…

Thank you for the ask! And happy Hannukah!

#memery #fanfic asks #indy1776 #lyra rambles #vaguely ashamed self-promotion #tolkien fanfic

3 notes · View notes

squirrelwrangler · 6 years

Note

10 and 21 for the meme!

10. shortest wip of the year

As in which wip has the least amount done? Probably Gadwar’s story aka #10 on the Band of the Red Hand. It’s officially more than a paragraph. Barely.

21. most memorable comment/review

Oookay. I don’t get many reviews or comments on my fic (small fandom, not a bnf, not writing the popular characters or ships), but I did receive some reviews this year and thus so many were memorable (and got to interact with new fans and readers! hello, @chestnut-filly and @sindefara, for example) I got a lot of thoughtful and kind comments, lots of readers documenting tears and how much I made them sad (of which I crowed over like I was Morgoth, I admit) Having multiple people review that Consael’s story made them re-evaluate and appreciate Beren is the one that makes me personally proud, and related to that getting a rec from Dawn Felagund was nicely ego-stroking if unexpected. (I may have lurked and read Dawn’s work on LJ back before SWG was even a thing, but we don’t interact as fans or in the same circles and honestly I don’t have an interest in doing so)

...okay, honesty? You want true honesty? Any time I got a comment complimenting Fingon in something I wrote. Followers know why.

#meme replies #Anonymous

2 notes · View notes

silmarillionwritersguild · 10 months

Text

Although we know Tolkien as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, the progenitor of the modern fantasy genre, he would have likely defined himself by his academic work, as a professor and scholar of Old English. The recent posthumous volume The Battle of Maldon includes his prose translation of that text, a fanfiction (yes, really!) based on it, and a lecture on Old English poetry.

In the latest article in our occasional Read & Review column, @naryaflame reviews The Battle of Maldon. What can you expect to find in its pages? And as a non-Middle-earth book by Tolkien, is it a book you should consider adding to your collection?

You can read Narya's review of "The Battle of Maldon" here.

#tolkien #battle of maldon #swg read & review

6 notes · View notes

ten-summoners-fails · 7 years

Photo

“If anyone told me that our Counsellor’s patience had an end, I wouldn’t believe them,” Maglor raised his brows in a way that bordered insolence. “But now that I know it has, I would rather not find out what is beyond.”

Fanfiction | Ao3 | SWG

...and now I’m off to read & review & answer messages :) / might take a few days /

Cover art by Catherine Chmiel

#tsg #fanfiction #silmarillion #maedhros #maglor #tyelcano #oc #noldor #family life at its finest #AngryNoldorinLordsTM #i can't believe i'm back with this

7 notes · View notes

backtomiddleearthmonth · 7 years

Text

Seeking Input into the Future of B2MeM on LiveJournal

As we’re sure everyone is aware at this point, LiveJournal has changed its Terms of Service with the new User Agreement. This new agreement says that any content deemed adult under Russian law must be marked as adult on LiveJournal or the journal/community risks deletion without prior warning; “adult” can mean any LBGTQ+ content, no matter what the actual rating is.

We-the-mods have already changed the adult content settings on the LiveJournal comm to protect the members of the community. This is not a change we agree with; we simply have dozens of members who have not participated in recent years and we do not want to risk their work being deleted. We have not and never will require slash, femslash, and poly fanworks to be rated higher than gen or het fanworks.

The new “adult content” setting means that minors cannot participate on LiveJournal and any person who isn’t logged into LJ must click an age-check banner both to enter the community and also to read individual posts.

Another part of the new ToS says any post that receives more than 3000 hits in 24 hours is subject to review under Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-03. (Go here for an English translation of the law.) While we do not and cannot know how any B2MeM posts fare hits-wise and we believe that fandom is not the target of this law, it is something we are wary about.

Furthermore, there was a recent report that LiveJournal has implemented a new spam blocker. We do not know what the algorithm detects. It is indiscriminate and targets both locked and unlocked posts. This has resulted in some journals and communities in another fandom being deleted without warning; some of them have not been restored despite asking.

We do know that AO3 and DeviantArt are on the whitelist. It appears that smaller fandom archives such as SWG or Faerie are not and links to them are thus considered spam.

Given the above information, we are seeking your input on the future of Back to Middle-earth Month on LiveJournal. We are interested in your opinions on importing the LJ comm to Dreamwidth and which site you would prefer B2MeM to be hosted on.

***Please click here to fill out a five question survey about this.***

You do NOT need to be a member of B2MeM on LiveJournal to participate; the survey is hosted offsite. We encourage everyone interested in the future of B2MeM no matter your primary platform to answer these questions. We also encourage you to signal boost this survey so that we can reach as wide an audience as possible.

If the decision is made to move to Dreamwidth, we will not delete B2MeM from LiveJournal. The LJ comm was created as a way for multiple groups to participate in B2MeM without needing to be hosted by a particular group. As B2MeM became its own thing, not run by the groups, the LJ community became even more a necessity. There are half a dozen years of history on this community, as well as an untold number of links pointing to it. This is not something we take lightly.

If Dreamwidth becomes our new home, the LiveJournal community will turn into a mod post only mirror for 2018. No participant content will ever be deleted from LJ by the mods unless we are explicitly asked by the creator. There is a way for LJ participants without DW accounts to comment on Dreamwidth posts via OpenID.

If you have questions or would prefer to talk about this via email, please contact the mod team at [email protected].

The poll will close on JUNE 26 at 11:59 PM Hawaiian time. We will post a reminder a few days before then.

#tolkien #LOTR #silmarillion #the hobbit #b2mem 2017

21 notes · View notes

jane-ways · 5 years

Text

The Love of Small Things, Ch 5

In which Erestor is a little less fussy librarian, a little more Indiana Jones; or

Restore, verb. 1) To bring back, reinstate; 2) to return; 3) to repair.

Read it on AO3 & SWG!

The first thing that Erestor noticed was the shadow across his page. “You are blocking my light,” he said, not bothering to raise his eyes from the work in front of him. Then, it occurred to him that the rest of the room was nearly as dark as the shadow. Looking up, he saw one of his assistants standing before him, wringing the hem of her sleeves between her fingers.

“Um,” she started.

“No, it’s quite alright,” Erestor interjected, anticipating her request. “I’ve been quite negligent in keeping track of the time. Please, everyone, enjoy your evenings, and I’ll see you all in the morning.” He gave a small smile, hoping he had spared the shy assistant from some of the anxiety of asking. Erestor may have had a reputation for being exacting, and he himself was known to burn the candles low, but he did not think himself inconsiderate. He saw the wave of relief that swept across the room, visible on his assistants’ faces even in the dying light. Calling out their farewells, they slowly filed down the stairs, out into the night, and Erestor was left alone.

If, by chance, a passerby on the street below would have happened to glance up at the highest floor, they would have seen a vast room with many windows, lit by a single, flickering candle, the only star in that dark expanse.

The candle sputtered, flaring up in one last valiant attempt at brilliance as it burned its last inch. Sighing, Erestor considered letting it burn out completely, but decided against it. If he stopped now, he would still have time to record the day’s progress in his research log. Stretching, Erestor thought wryly that he wasn’t the young man he had been a few millennia ago. He walked to the window, gazing out over the streets and plazas below. Beneath a cloudless sky, the city was quiet, and the scent of spice wafted through the open window on a warm breeze. The moon seemed high and very, very far away.

The research log—at this point too ponderous to be easily lifted and carried about—occupied a place of prominence on a lectern below a large window. There, it could by lit by the moon and the stars, on clear nights, should Erestor have burned through his last candle of the night. The last several pages had been filled in the course of the past week: ruin-divers had returned with several cartloads of artefacts from their latest venture at Tol Himring, and he and his assistants had been busy organizing, cataloguing, and cross-referencing. Soon, they would be ready to decide what pieces would be installed in one of Lindon’s several museums, which would be reserved for continuing study, and which would be archived. Any personal or family effects would be returned to next of kin, if possible.

Erestor reviewed yesterday’s log in preparation for today’s entry. Below the date, a few short lines, barely qualified to be called sentences:

Assisted in deciphering faded engraving on item #187356 (plate—fragment). Appears to have been either commemorative plate or celery dish.

Cross-referenced items #187893 – 187945. Catalogued items #188372 – 189125.

Made significant progress in restoring item #187432 (vase). Displays similarities to vase Elrond and Elros broke as children. Same studio/potter? Part of set? (I don’t remember a set?) Further inquiry required.

But as he moved to pick up his pen, a burst of wind swept through the window and over the room, whipping the pages of his log book back. Across the room, loose papers fluttered to the floor, rustling as they settled, and Erestor let out a tightly-controlled sigh. He felt tired, more tired than he remembered having felt in a long time, and he made no move to begin cleaning up the mess, or to find his lost place. A date on the page caught his eye, and almost without meaning to, he began to read.

—truly believe we are making significant progress at restoring what was lost, if only in part. Great was my grief at the sack of Nargothrond, and greater still at the fall of Gondolin for my friend and rival Pengolodh, but no longer does my task seem insurmountable, or the knowledge we bore out of the West lost beyond all memory. Every day my hope increases.

Erestor paused, his fingers slowly tracing the words he had written millennia ago, at the dawn of the Second Age, when this world seemed born again, new and full of potential. Slowly, he turned the page, skimming his account of that first expedition to Himring—Tol Himring, as it has become. There had been little need for a librarian during the construction of a city, and so, after arranging the design of libraries and museums with the city planners and architects, Erestor undertook his first official act as the freshly-appointed Chief Loremaster of Lindon: he gathered up recruits and set off for the coast. As it turned out, they were wildly successful, and their burgeoning realization that there would be enough artefacts to sustain several ventures—not to mention the lure of lost treasure untold—bolstered their spirits even further. It represented a reclamation that only a few months before had seemed impossible.

—pleasure at our success has led to the immediate discussion of subsequent ventures, not only to Tol Himring but reconnaissance missions to determine the potential accessibility of other underwater sites, as well as land expeditions to sites rumored or assumed to contain weapons, jewels—

As the expeditions continued, Erestor began to garner something of a curious and unexpected reputation. His strong sense of propriety, immaculate personal grooming, and devotion to organization had always lent him an air of primness. And accordingly, many at first assumed Erestor would take a managerial approach to leadership, leaving the dirty work—literally—of excavation to his assistants.

But Erestor had, for many years, almost until the end, been a loyal member of Maedhros’s household, which made him not only a veteran but a survivor; he had endured much hardship with little complaint, and—as had all the Fëanorians and their followers—he had learned by experience that nothing of value is without its price. (He had learned also that when one’s heart is set, no price is too dear.)

So what was a little mud to help clean up the mess of history? Stains did not matter on clothes worn expressly for outdoor work; hands accustomed to hard labor could still be softened with proper daily care; living and working in a tent was not mutually exclusive to running one’s household and community with order and hygiene. He was not to inflexible as to break at pressure.

In fact, the tenacity and dedication (and indeed, particular-ness) that made him so formidable in the library translated well to the field: he worked the hardest for the longest, rising early and staying up late. He volunteered for the most treacherous missions with no mind for glory. He was generous in his guidance and fearless in his leadership, and he approached the task at hand with a single-mindedness that inspired awe and concern in almost equal measure. Quite accidentally, Erestor’s example had encouraged a whole generation of would-be adventurer-scholars.

No artefact seems now too small, or too insignificant. For those who are young, and did not live through that age of glitter and gore, these shards and fragments make real what was once little more than a fairy tale, and offer a supplement to the memories of those who were there—immeasurably valuable but always partial and incomplete. And for those of us who were there, they offer the small comfort that our lives mattered—not only the lives and deeds of great lords and kings, but the lives of ordinary people, people we knew and loved, many of whom live no longer, except in us.

Turning the pages, he continued to skim, skipping over the centuries like a stone on the waves. Over time, the entries grew shorter, their sense of wonder and depth of feeling slowly replaced by a sense of mundane routine, and where each recovery had once seemed a miracle, they came to be seen as pleasantly inevitable. More and more, he remained in Lindon, leaving the quests to be headed by others.

As the centuries rolled on, it was taken for granted that new discoveries would turn up, or that backlogged archives would yield fresh insights. That the past was another life, a separate life, to be dutifully catalogued and meticulously analyzed—gloves on, please! not too much light there, now!—but never to be felt, experienced, enjoyed. Artefacts sat in museums above little placards with dates and explanations, but no real connection to the people who made and used them. Their lives, too, had been dutifully catalogued—dictated and taken down, organized, analyzed, archived, and left to gather dust, these fragments, the bones of their memories.

Dawn was breaking over the city, the sky blushing into day. Erestor blinked the soreness out of his eyes. He had slept not a wink, but he felt more awake than he ever had after a good night’s rest.

A few hours later, as the last of his assistants filtered in and took their seats at their desks, he cleared his throat, and standing, called out in a loud, clear voice, “I have an announcement to make.”

“Well, I think it’s just splendid,” remarked Gil-galad as he adjusted his crown. It was one of his nice ones—nice, but not too nice. I-want-to-make-an-effort-without-being-showy-because-tonight-is-not-about-me kind of nice. “Do you think this looks alright?” he asked Elrond.

“It looks fine,” replied Elrond, without looking.

“You didn’t look!”

“You always look nice,” called Maglor from the hallway. His voice carried a firmness wrapped in mirth. “Come now, or we shall be late, and Erestor is like to scold us in front of everyone.”

“He would scold his own lord, High King of all his people in Middle Earth?” Gil-galad asked, a laugh pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“It’s never stopped him before.”

En route to the city’s main theater, Elrond picked up the threads of their earlier conversation. “It’s truly a novel idea, I’ll give him that.”

“Yes,” said Maglor, “I was quite intrigued when he approached me as a consultant. By now, you know, there are so few of us who remember what it was like—I mean not just the history, but the intimate details, how people lived their lives.” He let out a short laugh. “It’s odd, the things you remember.”

“Was…were your relatives able to provide any assistance?” Gil-galad inquired cautiously. Inwardly, he cursed himself for hedging. He had still not quite worked up the courage to speak to Maglor about the “Maedhros situation,” as he had taken to thinking of it. After his first attempt had failed—not in the sense of Maglor finding out, because of course he had, but failing in the sense of actually having a real conversation about it—Gil had just never been able to find quite the right moment, and as the weeks slipped past, it seemed more and more uncomfortable to raise the subject. By now, he had resigned himself to wait hopelessly for Maglor to spare him the agony and simply bring it up himself.

“Oh yes,” Maglor replied airily, seeming to catch on, “Maedhros was especially helpful. He has such an excellent memory. In fact,” Maglor continued, “he took the opportunity to inform me of many new and interesting details of the First Age, of which I was previously unaware.” Gil-galad’s heart skipped a beat; his meaning could not be misunderstood. “But perhaps in not telling me,” Maglor added softly, “he meant only to let others tell their own stories in their own time.” He turned his head to look at Elrond and Gil-galad, and gave a knowing smile.

“You mean, he trusted you would have absolutely no respect for privacy and read his letter to me, like everyone else in this family,” said Elrond.

There was a startled pause from all of them—even Elrond himself, who looked like he could hardly believe what he’d just blurted out—and then Maglor laughed; they all of them laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all, and then they laughed for joy.

On the stage, Erestor cleared his throat, and the murmurs of the audience quelled to a respectful hush. “Thank you so very much for joining us,” he began. “As Chief Loremaster, it has long been my duty, and my privilege, to preserve and restore manuscripts, artefacts, and indeed first-hand accounts of our world’s history.

“But what does it mean to truly restore, and how does one restore a memory? A manuscript may have its faded letters re-inked, or an artefact may be cleaned and polished, but repairing is not the same as reclaiming. Nor indeed can the frayed edges of stories be repaired without being rewoven.

“It is in this spirit that I present our latest endeavor: a recreation, as it were—an attempt to bring our collection to life. Each vignette at this performance centers on an object, a person, an event, or a location, using both artefacts and personal accounts—often multiple ones, intertwined with one another—to re-construct a narrative. In other words, to make history real.

“All of the stories you will hear, and all of the objects you will see, belonged to real people. Some of them were my friends. Some of them may have been your friends. All of them were loved by someone. Today, we honor them, and we honor the stories yet to be told.”

Afterwards, Erestor joined Gil-galad, Elrond, and Maglor in the king’s apartments. Stirring his drink, he said casually, “You know, it’s been rather a long time, but I’m considering leading the next archeological mission myself.”

#silmarillion #silm fic #tolkien #tolkien fic #erestor #elrond #gil-galad #maglor #the love of small things #my fic

19 notes · View notes

theconservativebrief · 5 years

Link

Not long ago, my wife, a composer, asked me if I would ever advise a student from a low-income family to pursue a career in the arts. I am a writer, librettist, and an arts and literature teacher. I thought the answer was obvious.

“What do you mean? Of course.”

“But they don’t have money.”

“If a student were really passionate and talented, she’d figure out a way.” That’s always been something my parents told me. “Think about what you’d do if money were no object, and then work hard. You’ll find a way to make money.”

“Your parents give you $28,000 a year. They paid for your tuition. They made it possible for you to do what you’d do if money were no object — because money was no object for you.”

I got a little defensive at this point.

“Well, my parents did it themselves. They started out with nothing. My dad worked at a bookstore and taught himself to program computers by reading books about it. He started two companies, one from his garage. My mom helped and provided additional income by teaching—”

“Right. Your dad loved technology. He loved business. He did not try to go into the arts with no money. Do you really think it would have been the same?”

“You sound like a Midwestern grandpa,” I said. “Not mine — he was the one who said the thing about ‘what if money were no object’ to my dad in the first place. But like a stereotypical conservative Midwestern grandpa. ‘It’s time ya quit that artsy-fartsy stuff and get yerself a useful degree.’”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“You would tell a low-income student to go for it? Take out the loans?”

The truth is, I’ve never actually been asked that by a student from a low-income family. despite the fact that I have taught English, drama, and opera composition in low-income communities — and a few students have even enjoyed my classes. The reason, I’m guessing, is that for the most part, they’ve already ruled that out, likely because they have never met someone who actually acts, sings, writes, or plays an instrument for a living.

For the most part, students say they want to be doctors or social workers or lawyers, sometimes professional athletes. When students tell me they want to be professional athletes, I always ask, “What’s your backup plan?” Sure, some might make it. But most of them won’t. With sports, though, it sorts itself out pretty quickly. The students get the college scholarship or they don’t. I don’t really have to discourage them. I just have to say, maybe have a backup.

But if students want to pursue the arts, they may be accepted to an arts program without a scholarship and find themselves $200,000 in debt before realizing they aren’t going to be able to get a real paycheck with their arts degree — at least in the next decade. Sure, there are exceptions. But for every exception, there are many more people who are impoverished by their arts education or by working part-time or temporary jobs as they struggle early in their careers.

“Don’t you think conservative Midwestern grandpas occasionally have a point?”

It’s not a point that I conceded lightly, but my wife, who lived with student loans, pushed me to continue thinking beyond the often unrealistic narrative that all it takes is talent and work.

We spend a lot of time in the New York City theater scene talking about ways to create more performance opportunities for “new voices,” meaning historically underrepresented groups, such as women and people of color. We talk about ways society as a whole tends to favor straight white guys and how that manifests itself in the arts. And while these conversations are important, and while I agree that society is, often, skewed to favor those SWGs (bless their hearts), it’s amazing how little time we spend discussing the largest, most obvious barrier to new voices in the arts: money.

After college, I was expected to earn my own living. My parents had paid for tuition and room and board through my undergraduate degree in English at Yale, which, because we didn’t quite qualify for the school’s generous financial aid, meant something like $180,000 a year. I was able to graduate debt-free, unlike 71 percent of American students who graduate with student loans.

After school, I worked as a receptionist, then as a public high school teacher and coach in Baltimore making around $45,000 annually. For me, it was plenty. My rent was low. I never ate expensive meals, almost never shopped for clothes, bought my groceries from Aldi, and was able to pay off my heavily subsidized MA in writing at Johns Hopkins. Baltimore City paid 75 percent of my master’s degree cost; I covered the rest.

I was able to pursue my goal of writing in a very part-time way during the academic year and in a more serious way over summer breaks. I finished drafts of three novels and a short story collection, but I didn’t have time to think about publishing my work. I didn’t have the energy to do the submission/rejection/revision routine (an extremely time-consuming, somewhat expensive process with low returns). I didn’t have any connections to the publishing industry, and I didn’t have the time to go to conferences or do additional networking. So, aside from a couple of stories that I managed to get published in small literary magazines, most of my work sat on my hard drive, where it still is today.

Then my dad received several million dollars from his shares in the sale of his second company. That’s when my parents told me they were going to give me about $2,000 a month — ultimately, this grew to $28,000 a year.

$28,000 is a dollar figure familiar to children of the wealthy. It’s the maximum amount a couple can give to an individual tax-free. Wealthy individuals are frequently advised by their accountants to do this to avoid the (quite low) inheritance tax. It results in free income for wealthy kids. I don’t even report it to the IRS — and that’s entirely legal. I could get this money every year for the rest of my life, or as long as my parents choose to give it to me, without having to lift a finger. I took the money, spent part of it helping my then-boyfriend pay off his student loans, and put the rest in the bank.

After three years of teaching, completely exhausted from my crazy schedule and the emotional toll of teaching in a broken system — and frustrated by my inability to finish or publish any major projects — I decided to move back to Missouri to see if a normal “9 to 5” job might leave me time to pursue my creative writing career. It didn’t. I still couldn’t find a foothold. I ultimately managed to scrape enough time together to self-publish a novel, but I didn’t have the extra time to market it. Despite positive reviews and feedback, the book didn’t sell many copies outside of my friends and family.

I needed to change tactics and mediums. I decided to bite the bullet and move to New York to pursue writing for theater full-time. This time, I knew I’d need regular feedback and networking connections. I started a graduate degree: an MFA in musical theater writing at New York University. My parents agreed to pay the remainder of my tuition after a small scholarship, spending another $70,000 or so for the two-year program. I was nervous, but I was driven. And I had enough money — $28,00 a year, to be exact — that taking a “risk” wasn’t exactly risky.

Of course, New York is expensive. When my boyfriend suddenly left me, I had to pay $1,450 a month, or $17,400 a year, for rent on my own, not including utilities. I quickly drained my savings and found myself dependent on the gift money from my parents. My work-study position and stint as a brunch hostess — all I could manage during my intensive program — were not enough to cover basic living expenses.

Still, when I graduated, I had a huge advantage over many of my classmates. I was debt-free, and the $28,000 kept coming.

$28,000. A person in my home state of Missouri can work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and make only $16,328, and still have to pay tax on it. So what does this $28,000 a year mean to me as an artist? The biggest thing it buys is time. Instead of working 50 to 60 hours a week at “survival jobs,” like many of my art school friends, I was working 20 to 30 hours a week, which included reffing for an adult sports league, “matchmaking” for a dating company, typing payroll for a law firm, and coordinating for a youth tennis league.

I was able to use the remaining time to write. I was able to take fulfilling, career-enhancing teaching artist residencies, participate in a well-connected biweekly workshop, and network through an unpaid internship, all of which helped get my career started — none of which I could have done with a full-time job.

I could also cover the “little things.” When my hard drive crashed, I just went to the Apple store that day and picked up a new $1,000 MacBook Air. I had money to pay for recordings and submission fees for workshops and contests. I wasn’t living extravagantly, and I wasn’t putting away enough to retire, but I could keep pushing ahead in my career in those crucial years immediately after school.

I finally made those connections. I got my work to increasingly bigger stages. I did that without the financial anxiety that so many of my friends have — anxiety that can lead to panic attacks. I did it without having to rely on a partner for steady income. My parents always spoke of the gift as an investment, and I did my best to make it pay off.

Still, it wasn’t until I got married this year, moved to an affordable part of Connecticut, and took on a new full-time teaching position, that I felt financially stable and responsible. Shortly after we started dating, my wife began her graduate program at a music school that covers tuition and provides a stipend and teaching opportunities for all of its students. Between teaching and commissions, we now make enough in combined income that we no longer live off the gift but can pass it along to others.

We can also start planning for a family and saving for retirement while continuing to work in the fields we love, oftentimes together. We still have to put in long hours — and we certainly aren’t famous — but we don’t have to worry. Finally, at age 33, I can earn my own way and still move forward in an arts career.

All it took was a hell of a lot of work and nearly half a million dollars from my parents.

Of course, I don’t like to talk about money around my colleagues who are struggling. It’s uncomfortable (to say the least) to think about our financial advantage. When people asked me how I made it work, I would mumble something about my teaching artist gig paying well. (It did, but it wasn’t that many hours.) If I were feeling honest, I might have said something vague like, “Well, my parents help a little.” When the talk went to student loans, I would go silent or say something super helpful like: “Well, almost everyone has them, so they probably won’t hurt you in the long run,” or, “Yeah, it’s a crisis.”

But I think it’s important for us to have real numbers to think about, which is why I’m sharing mine. We should understand the reality of the situation we’re in. Or rather, the different realities of the situations we are in. My friends are out there hustling and making all kinds of sacrifices to get a foothold and, when it’s not working, feeling like failures.

Their voices are the “new voices” we are losing. Theirs and the those of the people who gave up long before. Musicians who couldn’t afford lessons to begin with. Actors who couldn’t pay rent and eat on temp work. Singers who couldn’t afford to go to unpaid young artist programs. Writers who couldn’t afford to take a risk.

There’s a romanticized view of the bohemian lifestyle — but it’s one thing for a person to go for a while subsisting on ramen and food squirreled away from work events if she knows she has family, a spouse, or people she can fall back on or a regular paycheck ahead of her. It’s quite another if she doesn’t have that support — or if she has others she needs to support. So many potential “new voices” fall into these categories.

Many of them are also the “new voices” we frequently speak about — people of color, queer people, or women. There is a significant intersection, which makes sense considering that people of color and women were not even allowed to own property for a long time. Many white men had a huge head start — similar to the head start I have now, despite being a queer woman. Historically marginalized people also have additional factors working against them, making it even harder to get by as artists — fewer roles, unacknowledged biases, societal pressure, “biological clocks” — all problems that are exacerbated if they don’t have financial support and a safety net.

We need to be advocating for more far-reaching solutions. We need to fight for free tuition for all higher education. This solution frees not only artists but all people from a major financial burden that derails those living paycheck to paycheck and prevents them from moving forward toward their goals. Artists, of course, are not the only people suffering from student loan debt and low wages. We need to find ways to make any job that requires an educational investment accessible to all in a financially responsible way.

These solutions cost money, but it’s not hard to see where the money is. Wealth inequality is mind-boggling and getting worse. At the very least, we can require the children of the wealthy, people like me, to pay a reasonable amount of taxes on their income. Employers and contract workers have to report wages of $600. Why wouldn’t we require rich kids to report gifts of $28,000 and pay taxes?

We can also lower the amount of inheritance that can be passed along tax-free upon death. The latest tax bill just increased the amount that kids can inherit tax-free from their parents from $10.98 million (per couple) to $22.4 million. (Money above that is taxed at 40 percent.) That’s $22.4 million of unearned income for the children of the rich. The wealthy, including my parents, paid taxes when they earned it, of course. And they are entitled to give it away as they please. But we adult children of the wealthy should have to report our income, regardless of the source.

If we work to reverse this income gap through public policy, we also help disrupt the feudal artist-patron problem, which, again, is a barrier to new voices. People other than a handful of wealthy donors and producers might be able to have a say in what is funded. People other than the wealthy might be able to afford tickets to performances. I know it’s incredibly difficult to “bite the hand that feeds us,” but if we don’t, we will never be able to feed ourselves. We can’t be free if we are constantly in debt.

I do not want to continue teaching in a world where I have to caution a talented but poor student against pursuing a career in the arts. I don’t want to succeed as an artist because no one else can afford to hang around. I want to be surrounded by art that I can’t even imagine. By truly new voices. By perspectives that I have no access to, or that have no access to me. It will make me a better artist and a better person. Everyone will benefit deeply and meaningfully from sharing — even those of us who stand to lose an initial competitive advantage.

This essay is adapted from a blog post.

E.J. Roller is a writer, librettist, and educator. Feel free to share this article, but be sure to cite your source. (I’m an English teacher, after all.) Find her at ejroller.com.

First Person is Vox’s home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines, and pitch us at [email protected].

Original Source -> We need to talk about how family money can make or break an arts career

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

0 notes