What brings out the Gollum in you?

[Folwren]

Fascinating, Mith. A ring found in a secret drawer with inscriptions on it. I had a family heirloom of sorts - necklace charm with my name carved into it. My name has been passed from generation to generation and my Mom gavei t to me when I was fourteen or so. Unfortunate, this last summer, the chain broke, and it was lost.

I never considered it my precious, though, and never acted like Gollum over it, so I fear this doesn't entirely belong in this thread.

-- Folwren

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I thought that I have nothing like that when the thread is started. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal" is a motto I can identify myself with, and speaking of purely material "treasures" there is hardly anything I could call like that. However, when I was younger I used to have lots of Middle-Earth collectible game cards (don't confuse with these silly LotR movie cards; the ones I have come from around half of the 90's, they were issued by Iron Crown Enterprises before they went bankrupt). Several years ago (around the time the movies came out) I ceased to care about them much (also for that new editions were not released anymore). Around that time, one of my younger brother's nassty friends stole a pack of them from me - he probably did not even know what it is, I believe he mistook them for Magic. I don't know which one of his friends it was and the cards are still lost - there were all the Items I had in that pack; all these swords and Hauberks of Bright Mail that I don't care of that much, but also my three Dwarven Rings, Glamdring, Orcrist, Palantír of Orthanc and Palantír of Elostirion and Palantír of Minas Tirith, I believe (?), well and Aiglos, yes... A few years after that, I realized that someone probably stole from me even most of the rest and I was left only with a few (well... let's say 60 or 70, but most of them were the same) silly Event cards. And all my beautiful Characters, like my fine collection of all the five Fallen-Wizards (fallen Saruman, fallen Radagast, fallen Alatar... even fallen Gandalf, yes, in the game that was possible) were gone.
But since I considered them hopelessly lost, I forgot about them, mostly, only from time to time I complained that I can't look at them. The art was beautiful, the composition of the cards, the pictures... *sigh* And a few days before, once again this feeling came on me. And tonight, I had a very vivid dream, imagining lots of the cards' names and pictures, seeing exactly how they looked like, and in the dream I pitied, oh, how could that be that you'll no longer see that... I precisely remembered how some of the cards looked like, and however odd (or dangerous) this may seem to you, it is fact that it was beautiful when I was collecting them, always opened the pack I bought and saw: "Wow! I have the Witch-King! Wow! I have Isengard!" It's the memories... well, at least you have the memories, I said to myself. No one's gonna steal you them. But it will be nice to have at least a look at them, to hold them - maybe I could find that brother's friend if he still has them, whoever it was, I could find who it was, he probably does not even care for them...
And with these thoughts I awakened to a sunny morning, and lead by an unconscious impulse, I went and opened the bed (we have a bed that you can open and inside there is a space where you can put things into. I used to place old stuff in it). I dug deep and found a large paper box - what's that? I thought - and opened it. And there they were!!! No one stole them (just that first pack, these Items, that's true, they were really stolen) - but silly me put them probably a long time ago in that box and then thought that they were lost! Oh, how happy I was! How happy I am! I have them all now with me. All the five Fallen-Wizards! All the places - Isengard, Moria, Lórien - with beautiful illustrations! Orcs, trolls - Grishnakh, Lugdush, Gorbag, Shagrat!!! Boromir, Wormtongue, Éowyn, Balin, Sam... Smaug... my seven Ringwraiths... I will put them now all in these protective card sleeves... for they... are my precious.

[Durelin]

I'd have to say my phone and memory stick/flash drive/usb drive/whatever, too, but I'm a little surprised to see no one has mentioned their computer.

If there might be anything wrong with my computer, I tend to freak.

Still, the phone is probably the biggest deal. It is my connection to a significant other three+ hours away, so...ya. I constantly check to make sure it's still wherever I last had it whenever I go anywhere... Though mostly I only take it everywhere with me because it is my major time-keeping device. I bought a watch, but....

Ah, Legate...I think I know a bit how you feel...I am a collector/pack-rat through and through. I have so many different sets of cards from various games and the like (and I never play the games), and I get a little worried if I haven't stumbled across them at all in a while, even though I never actually go looking for them... Those sound quite a bit more special than mine, though.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Folwren

Fascinating, Mith. A ring found in a secret drawer with inscriptions on it. I had a family heirloom of sorts - necklace charm with my name carved into it. My name has been passed from generation to generation and my Mom gavei t to me when I was fourteen or so. Unfortunate, this last summer, the chain broke, and it was lost.

If the charm was lost locally you never know ...My aunt lost her wedding ring on the beach and found it there by chance a year later .. she has a habit of running her hand through the sand - which is how she lost it in the first place....
It is sad to lose something with family links which is why I am so cautious about wearing the bequests of deceased foremothers and jewellery is so personal - My excuse for not getting my mum's engagement ring altered to fit me is that I need to grow my nails to be worthy of it but really I just don't feel ready to wear it.

The engraved ring is a mourning ring and I have just remembered that another reason for stopping wearing it was becasue the hallmarks had worn so much and I wanted to look them up to see if I might be able to trace the person it is dedicated to - they give the year and place of manufacture and since the poor girl's name and age is inscribed inside there is a chance. The words round the outside are "may every blessing attend your grateful heart" - which is really much nicer than the One ring's....

[Brinniel]

My laptop

It is the most valuable item I own and it is very precious to me. About a month and a half ago, my dad was helping me fix my wireless, which never worked properly, and suddenly the screen went black. Apparently, my video card had issues and finally just completely broke. The only option was to ship the computer back to the company so they could fix the problem. To make matters worse, I was flying out 3,000 miles back to college the next day. At the thought of going back to school without my laptop, I went completely gollum. For the first week at school, I had to do without a computer and for the second, I had to manage with just a rental; not exactly a fun experience. But the good news is that I finally did get my laptop back, and despite that I had to reinstall everything, I was relieved. Now that my precious is back in my arms, I never want to let it go again..

[Lord Halsar]

My precious, eh? I think that mine are my binder (I don't know why, I don't keep anything really personal in it. I simply go berzerk when someone takes it. luckily for them, noone has tried to rummage through it or anything... they'd better hope that it stays like that...), the stand for my bass clarinet (People are always taking it when I'm not looking and calling it an 'anal-probe' which it sadly does resemble... in a somewhat-frightening way), and my most preciousss of precioussses, my copy of the Silmarillion that I carry around with me at all times, my friends have seen it so often that they call me the local 'Preist of Tolkien' and that the Silmarillion is 'My Bible'. I am 100% serious about this. I even figured out how to tell people to "Burn in Hell" in elvish (Okay, I admit, it's actually "Burn in the Abyss, but you get the point...)

[Wanderer of Light]

My preciousss....... I think it is my Rubiks Cube, I tend to take it everywhere I go, and solve it everytime I got three minuts to do so., that's about the maximum time it takes me to solve it..... Also, I always get annoyed when people touch my cube.... IT'S MY CUBE, MY OWN!!!

Also, my Binas... Well, I suppose only Dutch people who took Chemistry at school know what a Binas is, so I'll have to explain it. Basicly, it's the bible of science, every possible formula one can get at school is in there!!! As it says on the front 'Het Informatieboek der Natuurwetenschappen' (The Informationbook of Science).... Basicly, you're unable to do your Chemistry homework, make Chemistry test, or do anything with Chemistry without that book . (you also use it for Physics and Biology, though a lot less).

I suppose I would also completely go insane if I lose my NIV-bible (WHICH I HAD TO IMPORT OUT OF ENGLAND!) or even worse.... my Statenvertaling (a certain Dutch bible) from somewhere between 1637 and 1657......

[Mithalwen]

Despite my sentimental attachment to jewellery and panicking over my data stick (which was only cos I thought I was going to need my CV and I am getting to the stage where is hard to remember jsut what I have done with my life), the real precious, the thing I have to have and carry around is my fountain pen. All the way through my schooling I struggled with my handwriting (only when I was doing teacher training did I found out that I probably had dyspraxia) and unless I write with a decent pen my handwriting can still be pretty bad (leading to sarcastic comments that I should have been in the medical profession).

Somehow now that I so seldom have to write longhand, it becomes more important that I have my special pen -preferably the ink one but if necessary I have a goodish ball point. It does make a huge difference to the legibility and speed but I do have a psychological dependency on it and nearly had a panic attack yesterday when it wasn't in my bag and I was so relieved to find it on my desk at home.

The other thing I worry about is keys but I think that is quite reasonable since muddling up a set once nearly led to being trapped on the stairs of the office where I worked for the weekend..... which is the sort of thing that is liable ot happen to me and not to normal people.

[Diamond18]

My cats. I pet them and call them precious on a daily basis.

But I suppose I ought to be talking about an object. In that case, my laptop. It has a name (no, not Precious; Frostine) and until I got internet at my apartment last week, I always carried it to work to use the wireless, so it went with me on errands and pretty much everywhere. My whole life is contained in this slim little white computer. I would be lost without it.

Forget Gollum. Doesn't that make me Sauron?