Tag: elrond

And I’m Back With Easter Greetings!

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From your friends at the Empire, here’s to wishing you a happy Easter!

Imaged edited by good old Microsoft paint. 😉 You can never go wrong with the classics.

Fantastic News
More than you ever wanted to know about my new motherboard, CPU, and ram.

Last time I posted, I was lamenting over my computer situation. I lament no more! I have a tablet, and it helped feed my addiction to the Internetz, but it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as a full blown computer. Tapping and scrolling are okay for simple, mindless surfing, but for anything more than that… *pulls at hair*

Elrond taking a selfie with the new goods.

I had a lot of help from my comrade in arms getting all of this installed. I learned a hell of a lot about installation! I ended up deciding to replace the essentials. For less than $400, I have a working computer that is twice as powerful as my old one. I had to give in because I need a computer!

My review of everything is posted below. If anything changes, I’ll make an update. So far I give everything 5/5 happy computers.

I’m still trying to find Photoshop. I found an ancient Photoshop disc from from the early 2000s (possibly earlier!). I want to do some more searching before I install my retro copy. 😉

CPU: Intel core i5-4460 (quad core!)
I could have gone for a beautiful (yet pricey) i7, but I am not running any virtual servers or dummy terminals, and I highly doubt Lord of the Rings Online needs an i7, ha ha! So far this little chip is awesome.  I was terrified of installing it (my comrade in arms did the installation and showed me how to do it). It’s not so scary after all because it’s mostly a matter of “the round peg goes in the round hole; the square box goes in the square hole!” You just put a dab of the thermal past onto the heat sink and install the fan.

Motherboard: ASRock z97 Pro 4
My old motherboard was about ten years old. I had to get new ram (DDR3) to accommodate it. Eventually I will get a new video card (thankfully it has a regular PCI slot). It is a little smaller than the old one, but it still fits in my case beautifully.

I just want to rave about and praise how lovely the bios looks and how easy it was to install the drivers from the disc that came with it. The bios is more advanced than any bios I had seen before. You can navigate with your mouse, and the graphics are a step up from the old blue and white standard.

The driver disc came with a tool set that allows you to easily monitor the temperature of your CPU (among other things). FYI: you want your CPU to stay below 50 degrees Celsius (this is important if you do a lot of gaming or video/photo editing). It also came with Chrome. I am the queen of lazy. With the click of a few buttons, I had all the drivers, the tool set, and Chrome installed.

Oh, and the Operating System install? Within 30 minutes, it was up and running!

Ram: Two 4gig sticks of GSkill DDR3
It’s ram…It’s fast. It does what ram does and fits in the DDR3 slots. 😛

There you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about my new computer setup. I will shed tears when the credit card bill comes, but it was all worth it!

Weekly Roundup: All the Reasons Why Elrond is Awesome

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Elrond takes a selfie at Club Silmaril

This week’s roundup is dedicated to the awesomeness that is Elrond. He is one of the most underrated characters in all things popular right now.

Why is he so awesome? For starters, he is one badass elf. He managed to create the great elven refuge, Rivendell, and successfully lead it (warding off any attacks and keeping the general populace content) for thousands of years.

He is keeper of one of the three elven rings of power (the only three rings that The One Ring cannot control) and is a card carrying member of the powerful White Council. I am just itching to see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies because Elrond and the White Council kick some major Necromancer butt. I cannot wait to see him as a warrior in the limelight! And yes, I am always late to the movie party…

“Elrond: Son of Earendil and Elwing, who at the end of the First Age chose to belong to the Firstborn, and remained in Middle-earth until the end of the Third Age; master of Imladris (Rivendell) and keeper of Vilya, the Ring of Air, which he had received from Gil-galad. Called Master Elrond and Elrond Half-elven. The name means ‘Star-dome’.”
–The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien

 
Despite his power and prowess as a respected warrior, Elrond was kind hearted. Rivendell was a refuge, after all, and he treated his guests with honor.

“He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves and as kind as summer.”
–The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

So what if he’s a little grumpy, he is awesome.

He didn’t exactly appreciate his selfie being uploaded. He especially didn’t appreciate the cute chibi drawing. 😉

Weekly Roundup: Hashtag Fab

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I have been a bad sci-fi fan and geek lately. I haven’t been keeping up with the latest and most awesome geekdom news. *Slaps wrist* The most exciting thing to happen to me this week was getting my bus card in the mail. You have no idea how excited I am about it…It will make traveling easier.
I am putting the finishing touches on The Emerald Dress! Keep your eyes out for it because it is sauntering its way into existence soon. 
I did learn of something of note this week, so all is not lost to the ever distracted maze that is my mind. Apparently you can pay to have an envelope of glitter anonymously mailed to your enemies. Wut? Yes! Google it and laugh.
I couldn’t help but put my own twist on it.
A Tale of Two Elf Lords
Thranduil mails his frenemy, Elrond, a scroll of glitter because Thranduil is
Elrond is not inclined to appreciate Thranduil’s sparkling gift.

Then again, Elrond doesn’t have a special 24/7 glitter taskforce at his beck and call.

Weekly Roundup: Ain’t no Party Like a Mirkwood Party

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~ A quick recap of things around Empire Earth over the past week.

This week is going to be a little different. I worked nine days in a row, so I didn’t have much time to keep up with all things geeky, sci-fi, and awesome. The good news is that I’m on Day 1 of a 4 day weekend! I have done absolutely nothing productive today unless you count the misadventures of my action figures as detailed below…

Ain’t no party like a Mirkwood party.
Some of these things may or may not belong.

Nothing like an Elvenking dance off. 

Blooper reel! 
Elrond, this isn’t your shot!

#TagIt!
Want to join in the fun? Caption or tag this one!
#HeHasMyVote

I can’t do a Weekly Roundup without a video of the week. Let’s just keep with the silly Middle Earth theme I’ve got going on today:

My personal favorite is his Gandalf costume.

How to Recover From a Really Bad Day

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Yesterday was one of those days where nothing went right, the spirit of Grumpy Cat was in the air, and I seemed to screw everything up. Ah, yes. It was one of THOSE days, the dreaded sort that come once in a blue moon.

♣  Make yourself an awesome dinner. Leftover pizza and hot wings never fails to satisfy a foul mood.
♠  Go on a YouTube binge and put your favorite song on repeat. I went on a Let it Go cover craze.
♥  Pick a hobby and create something (I updated an old Elrond drawing I did last year).
♦  Last but not least, go crazy in a video game! I find this method to be the most therapeutic one out there (aside from taking a walk, but I don’t take walks at night…no thanks on that!)

Screenshot is from Star Trek Online

While these ideas may not completely erase the pent up anger a bad day builds, they sure as hell help. Your mind is always going to dwell on every little aspect of things when Grumpy Cat lingers in the air. When it does, combat it with some of the things I mentioned (combine them with things that make you happy), and that pesky voice will eventually die off.

A wild Elrond appears!