Life has been pretty busy for the last few years, with a demanding DevOps job at Adobe, working on a Ph.D. and teaching classes on the side (not to mention family and church work). I have had to find a few ways to diversify my downtime so that I could keep going. Photography and hiking are two of these (which should be obvious to anybody who has looked around this site). Reading and gaming are two others. Obviously, I have not had a lot of time to follow any of these activities too much, but I have wedged them into various slices of spare time. Each of these activities have been helpful in keeping my sanity during times of stress.

As a youth, most of my reading was in the fantasy literature of the 70s and 80s, and Tolkien's works were the bedrock of much of that literature.  (I've always loved that in Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, the name of a stone in the "true speech" is tolk--so fitting an homage.) I have added a lot of other types of literature to that list since them.  Being a Japanese literature major for my undergraduate work certainly impacted that, but as much as it broadened my reading, it also deepened my reading. It provided a framework for analyzing what I read.

With these two aspects of my history, I have been a fan of Dr. Corey Olsen, the Tolkien Professor, for most of the last decade.  My regular commute being about 45 minutes each way, I've had a nice time slot for wedging in his podcasts podcasts over the years. It has been fun delving deeper into Tolkien's works with Dr. Olsen.  He does in-text analysis that helps to lend even more depth and meaning to these stories than I already had.

In particular, and have been following his Exploring the Lord of the Rings podcasts for several years.  It's a deep-dive into the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  And when I say deep dive, I mean that sometimes he only discusses one or two paragraphs in an hour-long conversation with his online followers.  It's the kind of analysis that would drive my wife absolutely crazy, but which I love.

Without the commute this year (Adobe has had us working from home since last March), it's been hard to find time for these podcasts, but I still find time for one every so often (e.g. I was teaching on-campus [socially-distanced, of course] in Provo, so I had that commute for listening).

At the end of each episode of Exploring the Lord of the Rings, Dr. Olsen (and others) then go into the Lord of the Rings Online game and explore that created world. Imagine going into Middle Earth and wandering around like a fantasy archeologist--while being aware that this is a story. They get to talk about how the story is being told, and to try to unearth the history of the world, as found in the landscapes and structures.  It's probably an odd stretch for a real-world scientist, but just plain fun for a lit major.   

So, a few years ago, in addition to reading through a number of Tolkien works, I created LotRO account and started wandering around Middle Earth as well.  I now have characters on both the Crickhollow and Landroval servers.
On Crickhollow:
Lengifbuck - a level 112 Man Hunter
Arvistir - a level 56 Elf Lore Master
Barmarvir - a level 34 Dwarf Champion
Curamil - a level 25 High Elf Warden
Stekrin - a level 21 Stout Axe Dwarf Guardian
On Landroval:
Nestor - a level 25 High Elf Hunter
 
As a youth, most of my reading was in the fantasy literature of the 70s and 80s, and Tolkien's works were the bedrock of much of that literature.  (I've always loved that in Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, the name of a stone in the "true speech" is tolk--so fitting an homage.) I have added a lot of other types of literature to that list since them.  Being a Japanese literature major for my undergraduate work certainly impacted that, but as much as it broadened my reading, it also deepened my reading. It provided a framework for analyzing what I read.

With these two aspects of my history, I have been a fan of Dr. Corey Olsen, the Tolkien Professor, for most of the last decade.  My regular commute being about 45 minutes each way, I've had a nice time slot for wedging in his podcasts podcasts over the years. It has been fun delving deeper into Tolkien's works with Dr. Olsen.  He does in-text analysis that helps to lend even more depth and meaning to these stories than I already had.

In particular, and have been following his Exploring the Lord of the Rings podcasts for several years.  It's a deep-dive into the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  And when I say deep dive, I mean that sometimes he only discusses one or two paragraphs in an hour-long conversation with his online followers.  It's the kind of analysis that would drive my wife absolutely crazy, but which I love.  (Someday I hope to catch up to the live stream--right now, I'm up to early 2019.)

Without the commute this year (Adobe has had us working from home since last March), it's been hard to find time for these podcasts, but I still find time for one every so often (e.g. I was teaching on-campus [socially-distanced, of course] in Provo, so I had that commute for listening).

At the end of each episode of Exploring the Lord of the Rings, Dr. Olsen (and others) then go into the Lord of the Rings Online (LoTRO) game and explore that created world. Imagine going into Middle Earth and wandering around like a fantasy archeologist--while being aware that this is a story. They get to talk about how the story is being told, and to try to unearth the history of the world, as found in the landscapes and structures.  It's probably an odd stretch for a real-world scientist, but just plain fun for a lit major.   The world is absolutely gorgeous and impressively massive--after 3 years, I feel like I've only seen about half of it.

So, a few years ago, in addition to reading through a number of Tolkien works, I created LotRO account and started wandering around Middle Earth as well.  I now have characters on both the Crickhollow and Landroval servers.

If you know me and happen to be in LotRO on one of those servers, you should reach out via LotRO IM and add me as a friend. I don't know many other people who play LotRO right now, other than my son, so it'd be a nice surprise.

As of 1/1/21 -- On Crickhollow: Lengifbuck - a level 112 Man Hunter Arvastir - a level 54 Elf Lore Master Barmarvir - a level 35 Dwarf Champion Curamil - a level 26 High Elf Warden Stekrin - a level 21 Stout Axe Dwarf Guardian On Landroval: Nestor - a level 26 High Elf Hunter Emmalith - a level 14 Man Captain Ronivert - a level 12 Hobbit Warden Athegn - a level 8 Beorning