I basically have all the same problems. But if we still have a chance to do it, then I'm all for it.

I will take LotR with me tomorrow and try to find some good passage for reading. I think if we can start around the time I said, 9PM GMT is ideal for me. Basically I will likely come and put my Skype on, I think I have at least some of your addresses there...

I have the same problem too and my time is later than yours! :p I'd much prefer 8pm to 9pm GMT (11 to 12 pm my time) but I guess I can be around for a while in either case...

Will possibly be around for this. I will just have to remember to sign into Skype. :D

I am basically online from now on, although trying to catch up with Werewolf and do about million other things I needed to get done... but once there are more of us, we can start doing something - there is always time to dedicate to Bilbo and Frodo's birthday!

There's five of us gathered on Skype now, anybody about to join?

Sounds cool! I don't have enough time to be actively arranging this, but if you decide to do this, I'd like to be in if it fits my timetables

Thanks to our latest spambot for reminding me to report on Wednesday's reading!

Despite some severe time constraints, we managed to honour Baggins Day by reading the final couple of pages from The Council of Elrond. The cast, in order of appearance:

Lommy as the narrator and Frodo;
Gwathagor in a schizophrenic debate with himself as Boromir and Aragorn (which of them played the banjo?);
TGEW as The Great Elven Loremaster, Elrond, and his counsellor, Erestor*;
yours truly as Gandalf (his lungs and throat obviously suffering from centuries of smoking the weed of the Halflings);
Legate as Glóin (continuing the tradition of Slavic accented Dwarves**) and Sam;
Hookbill as Glorfindel*** and Bilbo (also provider of musical interludes).

Everybody was fabulous, as usual. Due to the above-mentioned time constraints, our habitual explorations of the borderland between profound discussion and collective insanity were somewhat curtailed this time, but I'm confident that we'll more than compensate for that in the future..:D.

*I don't know if anybody's mentioned it yet, but TGEW has a real badass voice! Her Elrond sounded like, "Use the Ring against Sauron? Nah, young Boromir, we'll have none of that nonsense here!" (By the way, I feel I should probably apologize for repeatedly mistaking her family members for pets (and vice versa?) - somehow I never remember who is which!:o)
**They beat the Scottish ones anytime (pace John Rhys-Davies)!
***Forget the Gondolin backstory - Yorkshire is where he's from!

Yep, it was fun. I should take part more often. :)

And I have to agree about TGEW's badass-Elrond, he was just gorgeous! :D

You know what this means, TGEW? We'll have a Skype date and you read parts of The Council of Elrond to me. :p

I'm glad that my voice is Elrond-esque. :D I didn't have the time to read over his, er, lines, so I messed up a bit. But I'm glad that I was able to pull it off!

Oh, and I do have a pet. His name is Seth, and apparently he spouts out words of wisdom during those calls. He's been part of the last three. I am really sorry that I never can get him to be quiet. :o

Haha, okay. I can so be Elrond again!

I'm sorry I missed the last call, but for some reason they wanted me to show up at class that day. :(

Any ideas for when we might be doing another call? I suggest going back to the Saturday/Sunday schedule, I think that works better for most people. Perhaps weekend after next? :)

Weekend after next sounds fine to me.

It does not to me, since I am going to be away for most of the next week, unless it is Sunday evening (GMT). But of course, depends how everybody can participate...

I can't be around weekend after next either because I'll be in Madrid. :cool: But I don't mind you doing a reading without me, just pointing this out!

I'm available this weekend if anyone wants to join me then.

I won't be available this weekend, but maybe the next...

Well then Eönwë, how are things looking for you? I'm thinking we could do the call on the 30th of October, or this Saturday. If not, we could always put it off for another week to see if we can gather more people. Would 18.00 GMT (also known as James/Eönwë Standard Time) be good? That's 10.00 Laurinquë time, 9.00 Alaska time, and 20.00 Helsinki time.

Would this weekend work for most people? Or should we put it off to next weekend in hopes of getting the Great Thinlómien and her voice of awesome to join? :D

This weekend works fairly well, as does the next one. After that any attempts at orginization or prediction go poof. :p I might be decorating at church for a few hours, but I'm not sure what time that is, and I skate in the afternoons on Saturdays. Next weekend, as far as I know, is basically clear (other than the skating thing)...

I have a working Skype of my own these days too (though I probably won't know how to use it, with my computer skills :rolleyes: ), I'd love to participate but this weekend is impossible for me. The next might work. But of course if this weekend works better for you guys I can wait until next time too! :)

I'd much prefer the weekend after this one, since I'm playing in Boro's current WW game, and our firewood for the winter is due to be delivered this Saturday, and I've just ordered the penultimate volume in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant from Amazon (due to arrive on Thursday), which will be heavy competition for both WW and RL activities without adding Skype to the mixture. Weekend after that should be fine for me, if that works for the rest of you.
Don't worry, it's really rather simple, unless you try to use some Evil Recording Software of Doom which wreaks havoc on it and you have to fix it with a Sonic Screwdriver;). As long as one of us has you on their contact list, we can just add you to the call, and if you have any problems we can try to walk you through somehow via the text box.

Next week would be better for me too because I'm hanging out with a good friend who doesn't live in Helsinki any more on Saturday night, but I don't really mind missing the reading if this Saturday works best for everyone else.

The consensus (thus far) seems to be for weekend after next, or Saturday the 6th of November. That's quite a long ways from our last call, but I suppose this is what I get from waiting around for someone else to do the organising. :rolleyes:

Right then, Saturday 6th November at 18.00 GMT. Be there or. . . um. . . I shall be rather cross. I can't remember if we've read it before, but is anyone besides me going through another Ent-mania phase? If so, we could consider reading Treebread.

Great, thanks! It should work out.
I will most definitely try to make it! Shouldn't be a problem though. Ent-mania - well now you mention it, I have been kind of doing Ent-related stuff lately (accompanying a friend in a song she composed for the Ent-Entwife-song), so yes, I kind of have something of an Ent-mania and wouldn't mind Treebeard in the least! I'm also fine with other chapters, really.

Don't worry, that's more or less what everybody involved in this does all the time, so kudos for taking the initiative!:)

The Treebeard chapter would be a nice choice for a rather smallish cast - just a narrator, Merry, Pippin, Treebeard, and Quickbeam if we include the Entmoot; and I already hear us all joining the chorus for the Ents' war chant!
Greenie, what instrument did you accompany that song on? You may have noticed that music is always welcome at these sessions, and music that's actually related to the text would be beyond awesome!

Erm.. the kantele - an old Finnish instrument with thirty+ strings. You might be disappointed to hear though that what I played there was basically just the chords, albeit in a complicated fashion. Not sure if I could make it work so that you could actually hear more of the song than just the chords as they are a bit boring by themselves. :D I can try to work it out if you want, not sure if it's possible though.

I'm fine with doing a call this or next weekend; just as long as my internet decides to be fast enough for a call, that is. ;) I am also very open to feeding Lauri's Ent-Mania phase. Go Ents!

If we are doing something only next week, then I should be able to participate, too... or at least I think so... so great to see such an interest rising :) I'm all for ents or even kantele-background ents :cool:

Sounds good - even though the call might take quite long, given how quickly ents speak. :p

I can show up if you need another voice in the mix. :)

Excellent, excellent. We might have to pick something else what with all these fantastic people planning to show up! :D Eight so far, hmm. Any ideas? We could always do Ents anyway and switch parts or something (because I love Ents and consider myself a well-disguised Entwife), but I think another part might be best. :)

I will be there as well.

Because I am a bad mod-person with a mind like a sieve-tube element, I just remembered about this. I should probably try getting sleep sometime before the next glaciation.

Anyway, so far we have:
Greenie
Lottie?
Pitchie
TGEW
Legate
Aganzir
Hooky
Eönwë


And probably, Laurinquë as well. Be there! I'll certainly try to. :p

Ahhhh, really sorry, but stuff came up, and my Saturday suddenly filled up...and I won't be able to make it. :(

6pm GMT, right? See you then. :)

Okay, ye people who Skype! It's time now for epic happy fun Skyping times. Agan, Lauri, and I are already at it. Come soon before you miss all of the fun! :D:smokin:

Ai, sorry, I'm afraid I'll have to drop out. Just got online and have some serious Werewolf-thinking to do in the few hours before DL (how Agan manages both is beyond me). If there's anything going on after 11 pm GMT, I may still join; if not, have fun everybody!

I don't know myself either, but I'm going to try. :p

Hey Pitch, if you're still around, come and join. I don't think we've done a reading yet... :D

We have a call now.