Thinking About an Old Friend, Long Gone

My on-line friend and fellow author, Fiondil, died on this date in 2015. Arthur and I chatted on-line, he was a good friend who allowed me to play in his playground occasionally. He was a deeply religious man who was well traveled (he taught school in China for several years and traveled elsewhere as well). He was a writer with a passion in Tolkien's broader universe, and his Namo is the vision of that character that I'll carry with me forever. His tales are collected on the "Stories of Arda" website. I highly recommend them. He had a deep knowledge of Tolkien's universe, but put his own stamp on it. RIP Arthur. 

Internet Friends Who Are No More - Memory

Today I remember two friends who I never met in person but who enriched my life in many ways. It's the nature of our new tech-savvy world to interact with people in all lands and cultures without thinking twice about it. That's a luxury that didn't exist in my life until the mid-1990's, when I got a laptop computer and plugged into the internet for the first time. It was a VERY different world than what we take for granted today. 

Do you remember dial-up modems and chatting with other
people through a B/W screen on a BBS? Things were quite
a bit different then. 

In those days, we gathered together in small groups and chatted - exchanged tips, emails, and posted on Bulletin Boards. In those days we bonded over common traits and likes such as books, or art media, or ... beads. In the early days of beading there were congregation points - AOL's crafting boards had a very active beading group, many members of which I'm still in contact with today. There was a website named about-dot-com where "experts" answered questions and posted projects. The head of the beading board, Emily, would post a pattern, and if it was cute, I would get several customers over the next week wanting the purchase the supplies to make it. And there were writing boards - places for authors to post original works and fan-fiction works. I got into those a bit later, in the mid-2000's. 

Do you remember the early days of AOL? I recall this
specific splash screen circa 1998. 

Helen was a lovely person - even tempered, sweet-natured, with a desire to live life to the fullest. She had a heart filled with love, that ended up betraying her in the end since her Congestive Heart Failure cause her sudden death. Before that happened, however, her husband took her on a cruise. One of the shore events they signed up for was swimming with dolphins - she was so excited. After arriving at the oceanfront, Helen realized she had forgotten her swimsuit in her room on the ship. She went into the water in her shorts and t-shirt. She wasn't about to miss the experience of swimming with dolphins and her smile rivaled the gleam of the sun. She was dead within a year of the experience. 

Swimming with dolphins is actually harsh on these fabulous finned
wonders, but at that time it was still accepted behavior and to be
that close to an animal that she loved was the fulfillment of a dream
for Helen. 

Arthur, aka Fiondil, was a prolific author of fan-fiction in the Tolkien universe. I fell into his "War of the Valar" head-first, followed by "Elf Interrupted". He was a prolific author, very detail oriented, and extremely familiar with the source material. He and I messaged back and forth often enough that I considered him a friend and I was shocked when he passed suddenly. I still think of him often, and that means that in my mind, he is immortal because his name still echoes through the Halls of Darkness. 

By today, the Halls of Namo probably come closer to this
endless maze. 

So here's to you, my dear Helen and Fiondil. Today I celebrate the day of your deaths with a piece of chocolate cake in honor of Helen, and a raised glass tonight for Fiondil. Thank you for enriching my life, although we never actually met in person. 

It's Friday, so have a good one. It's negative 9 degrees out right now, and our high will be 3 degrees above. ACK! Time to seriously bundle up. I'll be back tomorrow unless I turn into a pillar of ice in the gym parking lot. Be safe, be relatively good, and be happy! 

Success and Memories

I was SUPER busy yesterday, starting by bringing the box containing the new printer into the computer room at 9:00 am yesterday morning. Soon the floor was strewn with packing materials and I was unplugging and disconnecting the old model, ready to install the new. It took THREE HOURS! Not that the install was that difficult, but getting the printer to talk properly to both of the computers wasn't easy. A shelf needed serious cleaning also, and it is the better for it. Around noon I finally test printed from both computers and they seem to be happy now. The printer is slightly smaller than my previous one, but I like it and think it will do well for us - at least for a few years.

Now that I finally have a functional all-in-one printer
again, I can start scanning in my holiday cards
and sharing them with all of you. Look for some
posts on those in the next week or two. 

Today is the anniversary of the deaths of two good friends, both of whom I never met in person, but both of whom I spoke with in cyber-space quite often. I'm remembering them today because they were important in my life and also in the lives of other cyber friends.

Helen was such an amazing person. When she had the chance
to swim with the dolphins, she realized she had forgotten
her swimming suit back on the ship, so she jumped into the
ocean in her shorts and t-shirt. Nothing was going to keep
her away from this experience. 

Helen was a member of the original AOL beading board, an amazing warm and wonderful person with a heart issue. She loved the ocean and chocolate cake, and one of the last things she did before she died suddenly, was swam with dolphins when on a cruise with her husband. The smile she had in that photo just gleamed.

We lived far away from each other and never met in
person, but I remember Arthur often as a friend and
a brother, a mentor and an inspiration. 

Arthur Boccaccio was probably better known as Fiondil on the Tolkien Fan Fiction boards. He wasn't one to join in our daily back-and-forth dalliances, instead, returning from his day job, going to his room, and writing amazing fiction. He was a friend, a brother, a mentor and adviser, and he gave me my name - Erulisse. When I had a question I knew I'd get an answer from him, usually in very fast time, and his fiction is still some of the best I've read in many years. Arthur left us in on this date in 2015 and I'll never forget him.

Please join me in a virtual slice of chocolate cake in
memory of two wonderful friends who passed into
Namo's hands on this day. 

I always celebrate Helen by eating a piece of chocolate cake, joined by many of my on-line beading friends who also remember her. I always celebrate Arthur "Fiondil" by remembering conversations we exchanged in text back and forth. For a while I played in his universe and it was a beautiful one.

Have an excellent Thursday and go eat a piece of chocolate cake to celebrate the life of a woman who swam with the dolphins. I'll be back tomorrow.

Allowing Nature to Sing - A Photo Blog

One of the many items that Arthur (Fiondil) and I discussed before he died was Aeolian harps. We talked about this because of a short story he wrote that featured an Aeolian harp, but I've always been fascinated by the voice of the wind as I stood in so many places throughout the Southwestern US where wind rules. Yesterday Aearwen and I were discussing unusual instruments and I got pushed back into thinking about these wonderful harps. I've been wanting to build one for several years now and it's still on my to-do list. Since I can't find the time to build one right now, and since some of you may be unaware of what an Aeolian harp is, I thought a photo blog and some links might be helpful.

This large Aeolian harp is located in Ireland. If you follow the link,
you can hear what it sounds like. 

This outdoor harp is located in Launceston. It fits so
well into the environment. 

This lawn sculpture could be placed in anyone's back yard without taking
up the space of the larger public installations. Yet, the wind is just
as happy to play on these strings as on those of the big harps. 

This harp is on the Brighton Jetty and was built in 1999. It was
designed and built by Gavin Malone who specializes in
works of public art. 

This giant Aeolian harp was installed in Cornwall as part of the
Eden Project. The artist, Luke Jerram, is from Bristol.
There's a nice article about it here. 

The harp doesn't have to be large to be effective. This 10-string box-style
harp is only four feet long, but equally effective if the wind is in the mood to play it. 

Are you intrigued? Do you want to make one of your own?
Here's a link to a lovely page of several patterns, a bit of
history, and some You-Tube videos to help you along. 

Allowing the wind to not only have her voice, but to play songs through taught strings intrigues me. I'm quite sure that the harp Arthur envisioned in his tale was a larger, more elaborate public work, but it really doesn't have to be elaborate to be successful. Do a general image hunt on Google to see hundreds of styles of Aeolian harps. Maybe you'll be inspired to make one of your own.

Happy Thursday to all. Today will be a bit of a mess, but the weather should be decent as we head into a weekend of possible RAIN with temps approaching the upper 40's F. Time to melt some of the snow piles :-)

Fiondil and Schedules

One year ago, my friend and mentor Fiondil was found dead in his room by his housemates. My writing world was pulled into a tailspin with the news. I still feel as if I lost an anchor and have written very little since his passing - my heart is still hurting.

Fiondil brought Lord Namo to life, not as the Grim Reaper
pictured above (on Deviant Art by Maris-cz), but as
an impeccably dressed, smooth talking Vala, with
a wicked sense of humor and limitless compassion. 

Two people were responsible for my love of Tolkien fan fiction. Nilmandra wrote a truly wonderful history of Elrond in which he is the true tragic hero, almost in a Grecian format. So excellent! And then there was Fiondil, who took on the superhuman beings called the Valar and gave them form, personality, and the occasional sense of humor. His "War of the Valar" has been, and still is, one of my favorite stories of his, but there were many, each beloved, each chapter relished.

In honor of his passing, his long-time editors have started posting his final, unfinished, story on Stories of Arda. They will post one chapter a week (time and health allowing) and I'll have a chance to read Fiondil's words once more, as if he is still only a quick email away. And weep once more for the friend I lost and miss so much. I think both aspects will be well worth the doing and I'll be reading chapter one later this morning after ...

My driveway is twice as wide and another section long, but you get
the idea. Fortunately, I think we only got a few inches to deal with.
Still, that means I'll have to be outside shoveling at 4:30 am to get to the
gym by 5:00 am. 

Schedules are sometimes difficult. Today, for instance, I have to build snow shoveling into my morning routine. Of course, the amount of snow is nothing like what my friends in the East Coast have had to deal with over the past few days. We just got a few inches - normal for this time of the year. But I'll want to have the driveway cleared before I set out for the gym. A few extra calories, but also an additional 30 minutes before I can leave the house.

When I have extra tasks added to my schedule, I often dream of it all night. It makes for a restless night with less sleep than I should have. Given that I usually get about six hours of sleep normally, things that cut into that should be banned from my life - LOL. But, unfortunately, my subconscious pays no attention to "should be's".

So today's post is short, but heartfelt. Here's hoping each of you has a Tuesday of happiness and wonder. For those of you buried under the East Coast snow, I hope you can start to get yourselves shoveled out and that you can enjoy the snow a bit before you have to get back to work. Happy Tuesday, everyone!