John_Anderson

And that's why I got them. :) But I think I know what Fred doesn't like Elves, they remind him of Vulcans. And maybe he doesn't exactly enjoy Vulcans. :D. Probably all that nonsense about Logic. :) It must be the pointy ears :)

((OOC. This log is also before we left from Starbase 331 also. Enjoy)) John remained with the Arcadia after it had arrived to Starbase 331, vying out of going off to some place with the leave that he had. He didn't want to go back to Earth since the only person that was there that he would want to visit would be his sister, Michelle, but she was probably enveloped in her studies at the Academy. He also hadn't heard anything from his mother since her last message a few weeks ago about her new job. He didn't know if she was back on Earth or not, but he was sure that she was fine. Over the two weeks he meandered about the base visiting all the vendors in the market that were selling items. He picked up a few things here and there but nothing of significance, mostly small trinkets. He also traveled through the casino during his daily trips, but he was never much of gambler. He would run into crew members every once in a while and he'd chit chat for bit, mostly small talk, and he would head off on his own. On the final day of leave, before the rest of the crew was due in, he received a message in his quarters. It was a typed message that said. "Meet me in 'Coca Cabana' restaurant on the upper deck of the station. At 1500 hours. Dress to impress, no uniform." It wasn't signed and there was no return address on it, so he wondered who it could have been. So he did as the message said and went up to the restaurant in a suit and tie that he had brought with him when he boarded the Arcadia. He walked up to the host and the gentleman acknowledged him "Welcome to the Coca Cabana. May I have your name, sir?" "Yes, of course, John Anderson..." "Ahhh yes, the person expecting you is waiting." he called for one of his helpers. "David, can you take Mr. Anderson to his table." David nodded and asked for John to follow him. John still had no idea who had invited him to come. He progressed along following David to a table that was near one of the view ports that looked out into space. As he approached there was a marvelous women sitting at a table all by herself gazing out into space. When they made it to the table David spoke. "Madam your guest is here." She looked and around and then John noticed that the women sitting there was his mother, Julia. "Thank you", she replied to David as she stood. John couldn't't believe it, he went over to her and gave her a tremendous hug as she hugged him backed. "Hello dear, sorry about all the secrecy but I wanted it to be a surprise." she said. "You have no idea Mom how surprising this is. We haven't seen each other in person for almost a year. How'd you get here?" he asked her. "Well, my ship that was taking me from Kronos to Earth was called away on urgent business to the Neutral Zone, so they dropped me off here. Just a day ago. I was surprised to see that on the registry a 'USS Arcadia' was docked here and prepping to leave in two days. So I thought it would be best to invite you to dinner, John, and surprise you. Please have a seat." she said. He sat down and John and his mother proceeded into a long conversation on what had happened since she left. On all of his final courses and exams at the Academy and his graduation. She also exchanged stories on how things were going on Kronos. "Yes yes, Ambassador Worf has settled in just fine and everything in between the transitions went smoothly. Seems as though Ambassador Daniels was ready for his retirement. He sends his congrats on your graduating from the Academy. He also wants you to visit the ranch that he has now in Texas. Apparently it just so magnificent that everyone needs to come and see it." they both chuckled. John also went on about his first mission aboard the Arcadia. Julia was fascinated in hearing about the female society running the planet Arcady and on how they ruled the men of the planet. After dinner, they took a walk through the market area and talked here and there about this and that. After their walk, Julia invited John to her quarters. Apparently she had a gift for him that she wanted to give him on his graduation, but she didn't have the opportunity to. "I know you'll love it" she said and they arrived at the quarters she was staying in. As John walked in a orange chester cat came running up to him with a little bell around his neck that was ringing as he came. "Hey! It's Chester! I was wondering if he came with you." said John as he picked up the cat and proceeded to pet him. "Yes, he came along with me. He's been just fine, even though every now and then the Klingon's would try and eat him if they saw him. But since I'm going back to Earth to take on my new job, and since your dad hates Chester, I'm going to let you take him on the Arcadia. I'm sure the Captain won't mind." she said with a wink. "Thank you, mom. Is this the surprise you had for me?" he said. "No, no, no. That's only part of it. There something else I want to give you. No one has ever known that I have it. When I married your father he asked me to store it away, since he didn't want it in the house. It's an antique and a family heirloom that has been passed down in our family for generations and I feel it's time for you to have it." John wondered what it could possible be as she walked into her closet and pulled out a long rectangular suitcase that was almost twice her size. "What is it?" John said with a curious look on his face. "Go ahead, open it." replied Julia as she placed the huge suitcase down on the ground. He put Chester down and walked over to the box and opened it up. It was an old musket that seemed to have been created in the late 1700's. It was still in good condition and even had gunpowder and bullets in the case that were never used. John was flabbergasted, he knew what it was. "Mom this thing is over 600 years old." She smiled and nodded "Yes, it was used by one of my ancestors during the American Revolution. It seems as though he served all through the war from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the Victory in Yorktown. It's been passed down in my family for generations and was nearly destroyed during the Civil War and World War III. But it has survived the test of time and has traveled with me everywhere I went. Even to Kronos. But I kept it a secret. John you have grown up into a marvelous person, I am so proud of you and it's time for me to pass this onto you." she said. He stood and embraced his mother. "Mom I don't know what to say. Thank you for trusting me with this. I promise I won't let anything happen to it." "I know John, it's starting to get late. You should head back, you probably have to be into work early." she said, giving John another hug. "Bye Mom, if you can write me when you get to Earth please do." he said,"I will, make us proud John." she replied with wink. John put Chester into his little carrier and he picked up the suitcase and headed out of his mom's quarters making his way back to his quarters on board the Arcadia. His mother visiting him made his day, and he was amazed that she would trust him enough to take care of her family heirloom. This friendly visit was something that John needed and it helped.

Quickbeam was the one of the more younger Ents. He was named Quickbeam for being "Hasty" once with one of the older Ents. He's also the one the keeps Merry and Pippin company during the 3 day Entmoot. Happy you liked that I kept you was Legolas. Couldn't think of anyone better. :wub:. Thank Nem for that one.

Well here's my list, with a few additons and the way it should go. I'll keep a few that Nem came up with though. Frodo Baggins- HyperDrive Samwise Gamgee- Jcin Peregrin Took- Dumbass Meriadoc Brandybuck- Garnoopy Gandalf- Sovak Aragorn- John Anderson Legolas- Seiben Gimli- Travis Boromir- Trichon Bilbo Baggins- Lo'Ami (the wisest Hobbit) Tom Bombadil - Nemesis Bill the Pony- Ziggy (Fans of the books will get it ) Rosie Cotton- KBear Gollum- Images Theoden- Jorlis Eomer- GromVik Eowyn- Kara Denethor II- Ndak Faramir- Webbie Saruman- Fred(I guess this is Nem's version of a joke :lol:) Galadriel- Dacotah Elrond- Moose (Very wise and offers his guidance to all :)) Arwen- Huff Witch-King of Angmar- BluRox (Fits her perfectly, all fear her power, and on her command they would throw themselves on their swords :)) Treebeard- A9 (Just like his old title said, 'Older than you know, Wiser than you think' this fits him just perfect. :wub:) Gwaihir - Precip (Blu's request. Her explanation fits him well :)) Now that's better. Got Quickbeam laying around if someone wants to claim him. Ofcourse big props to Nem for coming with most of the list. I just revamped it a bit. :wub:

HA! Don't make me laugh. Your the last person I'd even think would be close to being Aragorn. You'd fit better as Smeagol/Gollum than Aragorn. :wub: :wub: But once again that's just me. :lol: . ::Mumbles:: Didn't even know what Aragorn was saying at his crowning when they placed the crown on his head.....Pffftttt....Even I knew that.....

I can see Faramir as me. As long as it's Faramir from the books. He was much more interesting and wiser and more loved. :). I loved Faramir from the films but Faramir in the books is just so much more awesome. :). Even though the Faramir in the films looked just like I imagined him. So we'll keep those nice looks of his. :wub: Not to mention he got Eowyn..... ::Looks over at Kara:: :lol: :wub: <<Even though I think I'm more like Aragorn, but that's just me :)>>

Wow how cool. I got Elvish on mine..... That's so frickin Awesome!! :wub: Wonder if anyone was shocked by that one. Cause I wasn't :lol:

I can answer that! :wub:. It's simple most critics have never read the books so they are critictizing the film purely on it's cinematic impact, not weither the movie was acurate to the book. The book is simply the catalyst that lead to the creation of the films. Most people haven't read the books (I have but I gave it an unbiased review. I gave a biased one though) so they just look at Return of the King as the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. Not the Return of the King completely based on Tolkien's book. And when you look at it as a non-fan of the book it is truley an amazing film. That's why it's on so many top ten lists. Most critics try to remain as unbiased as possible when it comes to critizing the film, it should be judged on the impact it left on you and how you felt leaving the theater. Jackson can't always satisfy the diehards. The films would be too confusing for the non-ringers. We knew Scouring of the Shire wouldn't be done, it would be completely anti-climatic to the film and not a whole lot of people would like that. I mean people are whining that it's 3 hrs. 20 mins. long. Imagine if it was done verbatium from the books! People would hate it! It probably be close to 5 hours long. And that would not a flown very well with the folks over in New Line. I felt as though Jackson did the best he could within the power that was given to him. And if you look closly to some of things P.J. did he snuck little things here and there into the films that only readers of them would pick up. (I mean I knew the instant I heard Viggo singing that solemn elvish song at his crowing that it was the phrase Elendil himself said when he came to Middle Earth, If some have noticed it's on the bottom of my signature in Elvish. :wub:) And that's my defense to ROTK being so popular with the critics. Hope that helped :lol:.

I completely forgot to tack this onto my original post (And since I want to bump up my thread :lol:) These are films that garnish honorable mention on my top ten. I enjoyed them but not as throughly as the ten I picked on the list: Mystic River (Wonderful actors, not as wonderful story) Cold Moutain (Left me a little in the cold) Whale Rider House of Sand and Fog The Barbarian Invasions Shattered Glass Monster American Splendor Winged Migration Kill Bill Vol. 1 Veronica Guerin The Human Stain Seabiscuit X2 X-Men United. Those are the films that I believe deserved honorable mention on my top ten list. All were good movies but just didn't break through onto the list. So if you can I'd recommend going and seeing them anyway in whatever format they're in. :wub:

LOL. No I'm not crazy. I'm a film geek and every film deserves a fair chance as long as it isn't some insane attempt for some morons to make money by creating a movie to milk some money out people. (i.e. American Idol film).

I refused to see the American Idol one that is why I didn't bother mentioning it. And I saw Gigli on DVD, my sister was upset that it bombed so horrifically that she went out and bought it. ::Shiver:: Even she hated it and she's a big Jennifer Lopez fan.

ROFL!!! Oh my god here comes the wrath of GM's. This hasn't happended in a while I hope they don't blow up another galaxy like last time. :(. Or maybe they'll go off on another killing spree..... ::Ducks and covers:: Just take out the young ones! I've been around too long and I'm too beautiful to die! :) :) ;)

Well I've always been biased since I just enjoy the Arc so much. Even back when there was twenty or so ships in the olden days (I'm sure I'm wrong, it was a while back. But there was still a lot of ships) It was my first choice then and still is today :). Don't get me wrong all the ships and stations on which people are on are amazing, and they all do wonderful jobs. But home is where the heart is and that's the Arcadia for me. ;) And come on how can you pass up having a Moose for a captain and a goddess for an Xo!? :(.

My Christmas was amazing. I got everything that I wanted. Even my lifesized Gandalf! And my sister got her Lifesized Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn!! lol I'm just kidding. We didn't get either one of them. I did get a smoothie maker though. It's really cool, it's much faster than a regular blender. Only thing is that we are all out of fruit now. ;). All and all it was a great christmas :(.

Well I can answer that. I'm going to be at a New Years Party with my Mom and my sister at the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios. How can one pass up a crab leg buffet?? :( A major change from last year, when I was in New York in Times Square watching the ball drop. That was fun even though my feet were killing me in the end. And my butt was grabbed several times and I still couldn't figure out who it was. :). It was much fun though seeing all the people there standing in the freezing cold. I met a lot of new people. I was so mad though that we couldn't see the ball drop from our hotel, which was in freakin Times Square! Stupid 'W' Hotel has to keep the Single Bed rooms facing towards Times Square and all the others facing in the other direction! GRRR! We did have a nice view of Central Park though :). Oh well. Twas fun but something one should only do only once. If you want to see it the ball drop in Times Sqaure. Get a hotel room and watch it from there ;).

Alright ladies and germs I am extremely exhausted from my day today (Saw ROTK twice! I couldn't contain myself) so I decided to post up my non-spoilerish review of Return of the King as a common moviegoer. (My hardcore LOTR fan review will be up tomorrow. With all the yummy spoilers). And now for your reading pleasure!! Mr. Anderson goes to the movies! :) I just have one word to explain the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. "Amazing". Yes ladies and germs this movie completely blew me out of the water. From the amazing opening up until the "The End". This movie reminds me of a rollercoaster. The first hour pretty much establishes what is going to happen in the movie. Much like you would riding a rollercoaster to the top, that's how the first hour felt. But once the ball got rolling it was a non-stop two hours of action and suspense, like riding through the rollercoaster. You don't have time to even catch your breath it just goes round and round until we reach the end and the Ring is on the slopes of Mt. Doom (Ain't getting much more than that till tomorrow :)). Then we have 30 mins worth of ending in which all the loose ends are tied up and we get our 'The End'. I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of the movie. I laughed, cried, gasped, hid, jumped, cheered, and every other possible thing through out the entire movie. This is only the second movie to ever have moved me to tears (The first being "Philadelphia". What a powerful movie.). And that's saying a lot. :D The acting in this movie is superp. Viggo Mortensen, Ian Mckellen, and Sean Astin do the best work in this movie out of all three. Of course Elijah Wood did a spectacular job as Frodo. Pippin and Merry, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, both shine in this movie and finally rise up and show that hobbits can kick butt and that even the little person can change the world. Miranda Otto as Eowyn shows that women can kick some major butt, such a hot sword wielding babe! Bernard Hill as Theoden does a spectacular job as the King of Rohan. Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davis stand in the back ground during most of the movie but when they get there time in the limelight it is amazing. Liv Tyler and Hugo Weaving parts are small but interesting and help add to story a bit in the film. Newly introduced John Noble as Denethor, Steward of Gondor, does a great job as the slightly insane lord of Gondor. David Wenham as Faramir 'shows his quality' in this film. A particular moving part of the movie, and one of my favorites, is when John Noble sends Faramir on a suicide mission to Osgiliath, and Faramir goes just to prove his love for his father, what made it so moving was while Faramir rode to Osgiliath, Denethor sat down and started to pig out while Pippin, Billy Boyd, sang him this rather sad and depressing song while we see Faramir march to Osgiliath. That scene was so moving that it brought tears to my eyes. Of course last and not least Andy Serkis as Gollum.....Wow....Just wow he was amazing as the gangrel creature we have grown to hate. The graphics and all the shots in this movie were just amazing, I felt as though I was in Middle Earth. My favorite scene was the lighting of the Beacons, it was just spectacular. Minas Tirith is just amazing and left me in awe it was such a gorgeous city. The Battle of Pelennor fields was in a class of its own and and the level it's on is one that no other film may ever reach. It will just knock you off your feet. While I was watching it I was ducking all over the place as though I was actually in the movie and in the battle it was spectacular. Shelob is probably the scariest creature that I have ever seen in my life and is just a horrifying creature, she still haunts me :D. Bonus points to Peter Jackson on creating her, she was astonishing. The charge of the Rohirrim gave me chills and goose bumps. And the Army of the Dead was just so creeping and gloomy, they were just amazing. The final installment of the Lord of the Rings is the most ambitious and spectucular film in modern cinema history and a thrilling conclusion to a already great trilogy. Well beyond even those popular triliogies like Star Wars or even the smoldering ruin that was the Matrix. Shell out of the money and go see it. You won't regret it. On a scale from 1 to 5 stars, this movie gets 5 stars! My only complaint is not the length or the 5 endings at the end of the movie. My only complaint was not seeing Saruman in the film, I wanted to see what was going to happen to him or what did but I know I'll see it in the Extended Edition of the film. And that ladies and germs is my not so spoilerish review of Return of the King. Go out and see it! Before you see my spoilerish hardcore LOTR fan review of it! :)

Now as everyone can tell I did see it, and now that we are in the spoilers I'm entering my hardcore LOTR fan mode... As a fan I thought the movie was okay. I was mad that we didn't get Prince Imrahil and that they turned Denethor into a madmad rather then a broken ruler. They just made it seem like he gave up. They should have talked about the Palantir in the Minas Tirith, even though John Noble did say "The Eyes of Minas Tirith are not blind" and that just struck an accord and I thought we'd see the Palantir on the Pyre, but no dice, and then him just jumping off the cliff in a ball of fire was just a bit much for me. I also wanted to see the Wild Men of the Forest, Ghan-Buri-Ghan and all his fellows. Also another gripe of mine was how the time concept on the movie was a little strange and everyone just kinda poped out of nowhere to save the day. We Also get no Mouth of Sauron, we don't get Houses of Healing which I thought would have expanded Viggo as Aragorn a little better. I also wanted to see Aragorn use the Palantir to show himself to Sauron, but no dice there. Also no Faramir and Eowyn romance which really ticked me cause we just got like this 10 second glimpse of them after Aragorn was crowned. I wanted to see Saruman get killed by Grima at the beginning but Christopher Lee was just kinda thrown off to the side. I knew we wouldn't get Scouring of the Shire since it would be kinda of Anti-climatic at the end of the films and that was understandable but dang it! I wanted to see Saruman dead!! :). I also was just a little ticked when Frodo got his finger bitten off by Gollum, I just wanted to see him fall in because he finally got his precious back, not get shoved off by Frodo, that was another thing that ticked me off. Besides those gripes everything else was just spectacular I enjoyed watching the film and sheded tears four times during it (Boromir's Suicide mission, when Theoden died, Sam picking up and carrying Frodo up the mountain, and the final farewell) They were soo moving and just perfect. I love how the stayed faithful to the fight with Eowyn and the Witch King. It was verbatum from the book, another perfect thing. And the encounter with Shelob. I also loved how we got the Eagles at the Black Gate, I didn't think they were going to make it, but I was happy to see them. Just like I said everything, besides my gripes, was just awesome, loved it to death. As a Tolkein fan on a scale from 1 to 5, the film gets a 4. Would have been a five if they kept a few things. But I just loved the movie, and plan on watching it again during the weekend. :). The people in the theater that I was in definetly enjoyed the movie, lots of cheers and applause at the end. I clapped a little but I was trying to hide my tears of saddness that it was all over. ::Gets a little choked up thinking about:: :(. Let it go on! Just for me! ;) Can't wait for the Extended Editon!! :)

I'm sorry but I use to be a coffee junkie. I'd drink coffee almost every day. Thanks to the Starbucks that's right across the street from where I live. But as of late I've been drinking green tea with ginseng. I haven't touched a drop of coffee in months and I feel great. I don't know what the tea does but the ginseng helps wake me up in the morning and I've never felt better. Coffee is just really bad for you with all that caffeine being put into your system. Another wierd thing is that even though it's Flu season, and I've always been the first person in my family to catch the Flu for the last decade, I have yet to have gotten the Flu while almost everyone in my family already has or just got it with the incoming cold weather. How strange, maybe it's cause I don't drink coffee or soda anymore. I guess it's all those anti-oxidants in the tea. :) ::Knocks on wood:: Gotta keep this wierd luck going :)

Webby, I'd like to change mine. I'd like to have We come to it at last, the great battle of our time..... Just like that. Thanks Webby! :)

Well since there is now less than a week until the epic conclusion of one the greatest cinamatic trilogies of all time. I decided to post up a little question and answer thread on the boards. Sure it's not releated to trek but I've found that many of us are quite interested in Lord of the Rings (LOTR, it gets quite tiresome to type it out all the time B)). I thought this was a good idea, since last weekend, when I sat through both the Extended Editions of Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers with my sister. She had about a billion questions about some of the specifics things in the movie. I have read all three of books simulatenously, including the appendices at the end of Return of the King. I've also read The Silmarillion (more on that later) and the Unfinished Tales (Not really relevant to the books but just provides some specifics on them). And of course the book responsible for them all, The Hobbit. Now don't be shy to ask a question even if you think it's a silly one (I keep getting one about who is Saruman and Sauron, sure it's annoying to answer, but people just get the two confused). If anyone else wants to answer any questions, as long as they are 100% sure they are right, go ahead. But just don't jump to conlusions. As a forwarning my elvish is just horrible and I've read the Silmarillion but it was a while ago that I did so my knowledge of the First Age of Middle Earth is a little rusty ( I don't remember much of the specifics) but I still remember a lot of it. If you don't have a question feel free to post a comment about what you've thought of the last two movies, since I just love hearing other's insight. Sure as a Ringer (as we are called) I am annoyed a little by some of Peter Jackson's decisions about the movies. I understand though that it is all for the sake of cinema and I applaud him for doing the books justice and for created three(I've seen two but I keep hearing rave reviews from critics on the third) amazing movies. I'll be posting up a review as soon as I've seen ROTK (which will most like be either on the 16th or the 17th depends on my finals) it will be half non-spoilerish and half spoilerish. But you'll get fair warning on when to stop reading when I post it. Now any question you have about the LOTR movies is fair game. Well everyone ask away! B)

Don't worry Huff they both will be clearly marked in very large letters. So you don't stumble across it. :D Trust me I know how you feel. But I'm going to need somewhere to vent either my frustration or my absolute joy for it. :) Another warning I do not doubt that my spolierish one is going to be long since in that one I plan on going over almost all the movie. So once again as another warning if you don't want spoilers and/or do not want to read a long article do not read the Spoiler one, read my non-spoiler one (Which as I said will be clearly marked as well). Well here I go!! See most of everyone later tonight! :) ::Heads off to the theaters to make sure he gets a good seat incase the theater gets crowded.:: :D

I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows.....Return of the King is out today!!!! I'm just making sure some of you remember :) Incase anyone was curious I'm still going to do a review of the films. I decided to do two different reviews, one very spoilerish and the other non-spoilerish (Since I know that I'm going to have a million things to say about the movie). My spoilerish one is going to be my review of it based on the Tolkienite that I am and the non-spoilerish one will just be my thumbs up or thumbs down of the movie as just a regular moviegoer (Trust me I can pull if off :)). It'll probably be up before the big Arcadia party, since I'm catching a 5:30 show of the movie (After my final....ummm final :)). Just can't wait!! ::Does his dance not believing a year has already gone by:: :D EDIT: And any of you Trilogy Tuesday folks can stay silent until I've seen it. Don't ruin it for me! :):D

Sorry Tino, but I have never seen short elves before. They are mostly tall and mystic. Maybe your thinking about Santa's Elfs.... That would make more sense :).

Yea I think it is a little off topic. But I think we'll let is slide even though it wasn't about hobbits and wizards :). Very scary to think about though. :)

I don't know where in the heck you people are from but at my high school last year the semester final was 10 % of your final grade in the class (Might be the final if it's a semester class, but if's a yearlong class it's the midterm) and the school year final was another 10% of your final grade. I have never heard this nonsense of opting out of the midterm or final, they are all mandatory here. Even if you were a genious (Trust me I know......::Shivers thinking of all his AP classes last year:: ) You foreigners are soooo wierd.... Of course this year in college all of my finals are mandatory if not you get a WF (Withdrawl Failing) for the course. Meaning they drop you out of the course and fail you even if you were there every single day and had a 100% in the class. The WF doesn't hurt your GPA, but you get no credit for the class, and it looks horrible on your transcripts if you want to go to graduate school. I sure know that isn't going to happen to me. ::Scoffs, thinking of how easy young people today have it:: :):)