I finished building my aquaponics system! To get all the gory details, CLICK HERE! - Thanks! Lúthien
15 · MAY · 10
Just made a massive update to the AQUAPONICS page. I was a few months behind so I've got that up-to-date, and there's lots of pictures of the actual valve system in progress! - Thanks! Lúthien
14 · APRIL · 10
OK, I think I've gotten all the missing pictures and what-not fixed here, all except the Guestbook, which is still down. If you find any pictures of broken links, please let me know? You can email me HERE. Just remember to remove the [REMOVE BRACKETS] before the com before you send it!
So anyway, I've still got to work on the Guestbook, which isn't something I can just upload and have done with it. I'm going to have to spend some time on the phone with my domain host because they have to change the settings from their end . . . I'll get to it when I have a minute! That won't be until after the new computer is built, running and moved into. On the upside, it's for all intents-and-purposes, built 
- Thanks! Lúthien
13 · MARCH · 10
If you've noticed that this site looks a little - raggedy - right now, I apologize! I'm in the process of an emergency switching of web hosts (more on this later), so some of my pictures etc. have been lost for good I'm afraid. I promise I am in the process of getting everything fixed, but as this site has gotten rather large over the years, so it's going to take me some time to get it all done.
I'm also smack-dab right in the middle of building a new computer, as the one I'm using right now got badly damaged surfing around Facebook (also, more on this later.) I need to strip it down and rebuild it to make it 100% functional again, but until I get the new one built and running, I cannot strip this one down. I'll put pictures up of the new one when I'm finished with it, it's gorgeous!
And finally, to put the cherry on the top of all this trouble and bother (when it rains, it pours), the State of Colorado very recently passed some hinky internet sales tax laws that Amazon.com took extreme offense to, the end result being that they have canceled all Colorado-based Associates accounts, so that is yet another thing I'm having to weed out of my web site now. Why Amazon felt they should penalize their Colorado-based Associates for something that we had no vote on, or choice on, I fail to understand. Trust me Amazon, had I had a say in the matter, I most vehemently would have voted it down.
Oh, and Beren my dog cut his foot, but it doesn't seem to trouble him, so that's something I guess, but I do have a very ''funny'' story to tell you all about him, and the police, and how he got me into trouble, then got me out again! But that will have to when I have a little more time!
And I broke my toe. - Thanks! Lúthien
08 · February · 10
Very little to add today. I've made a small update to the AQUAPONICS page. A couple of new pictures, and my messy scribbles, err, carefully detailed building plans. Yeah. Anyway, I've also started making the Sims 2 page easier to navigate. DROP IN AND TAKE A LOOK!
Then last, but certainly not least! I've added link on The Dragon Cave pages back to a new site I've been going to (though not as often as I'd like, life keeps getting in my way, and FarmVille!) Anyway, if you play Dragon Cave (or are interested in leaning more) go visit:
They are the nicest and most helpful bunch of people over there! So don't hesitate to go say hi!
Well I guess in the end, I did have a few more things to add today than I had realized! - Thanks! Lúthien
13 · JANUARY · 10
Squeeeeeee!! I finally got my first Vampire dragon! It's taken me almost two years to get one! (OK, a year and some months, but still, a long time either way!) And I might add, it's not only a Vampire, but it's a Dorkface as well! Lofa61 also gave me a 3rd generation White Dorkface and I'm so excited I'm just sitting here grinning like an 'idjit' LOL!
Now I know some of you are reading this and saying ''WTF?'' I understand 
If you really want to know what I'm talking about, check out the DRAGON section of this web site, or just admire my new babies right here:
Aren't they just beautiful? 
MUCH thanks going out to Lofa61 for breeding/biting these dragons for me!! I'm so happy! - Thanks! Lúthien
06 · JANUARY · 10
I've added a new Sims 2 Lot to the line-up! It was a lot I created for a Tropical Garden contest I'd entered, that actually got cancelled twice because no one was able to meet the deadlines! (Well, for except me of course, since the lot is obviously done!) I packaged it up and am offering it for download now because there are a few people who've been patient enough. They have wanted to get their hands on the lot since the first contest ran last June! It'd just be mean to make them wait any longer 
Anyway, if you'd like to see/download it, click HERE. - Thanks & Happy New Year! Lúthien
05 · DECEMBER · 09
I've added a new page, which has nothing to do with Middle-earth, but everything to do about Aquaponics! Hey! Growing vegetables, fruits and herbs is a pretty elven thing to do after all! I haven't got the menu links up yet, but you can find the page itself by clicking HERE.
And in other news, there are three new dragons out at Dragon Cave! They are ridiculously hard to catch, but I've managed to get one each of all three and am working on getting one each of the opposite gender for them to have mates. Took me nearly two weeks just t to get the first three! I don't even want to admit how many hours I wasted doing it too 
- Thanks! Lúthien
10 · NOVEMBER · 09
Nothing much to add here, just letting it be known that I've added a new section to the Dragon page, the 'SEASONAL' BREEDING DRAGONS. This is where I put the dragons which cannot be bred year-round, only during particular times of the year. I did this because, well, I acquired my first pair of these for Halloween this year.
Ain't they purdy? - Thanks! Lúthien
Thiir Thrael
30 · SEPTEMBER · 09
Just a quick update. I've done a little reorganizing to the Dragon page, and added a second page there which explains my little project, the Terrified Medieval Dragon Lineage. For details, go visit it! - Thanks! Lúthien
28 · SEPTEMBER · 09
Well it's been a few months since I've updated this, I've been busy with this-n-that (nothing really 'newsworthy' however!) Beren is growing like a weed, he'll be 10 months old in a few days, and he's around 75-80lbs. He's also taller and longer than any of the other Labs in our family, including my sister's Rex (who in his prime got up to 110 lbs.)
Beren is a typical Lab puppy - chewing up everything he can sink his teeth into (including one of the sofas last Friday.) He's bad about stealing things when he wants attention - why he thinks he needs to do this I've no clue, he gets plenty of attention, and all he has to do is ask when he wants more! Ah well, he'll out-grow it eventually. He had a big day today - I started cleaning out my greenhouse today and this worried him to no end. Crying and whining and running around like a hanyak. He kept stealing sticks/pots/dead cactus I'd thrown away. I only got 2/3's done (and filled up a truck bed doing that much!) because I was busy convincing him to ''put down the cactus and back away!'' - little dork!
But on the upside, Beren is just the sweetest dog you'd ever want to meet! Not a mean bone in his body. He's going to be one helluva dog when he gets a little maturity on him! He's also a pretty quick learner (though that doesn't mean he feels he necessarily needs to do what he's learned when he's told to do it!) He's also sooo very handsome! But then, I may be prejudiced
OK - now on to site news! Well, sorta site news anyway lol. I finally acquired another Split dragon, and YAY! it gendered male! And as the final clincher, he gets along with my female Split, Thuror, and they've produced offspring! 
Meet Thuror's new mate:
Allviss
- Thanks! Lúthien28 · JUNE · 09
Edit to my entry of Jun 11, 2009. I now have a Spit dragon! YAY! Thanks CareBear!
Thruor
So not much going on around here really. It's summer, it's hot and it's been raining a lot. So of course we've got mosquitos out the HMM HMM now, which is awesome because our skeeters all carry the West Nile Virus. I've been looking high and low for 'mosquito bait' but it's been sold out every place I've tried. Guess I'm going to get the West Nile and die now 
Seriously though, it's not a laughing matter, that is one nasty disease to get. There is a guy at the rec center I go to that caught it 2 or 3 years ago, and it damn near killed him. As it was, it nearly destroyed his body, and he's still recovering from it. This was a healthy guy too, worked out, ate right, the works. At least he is able to walk a bit without the use of a cane now, but still - not a disease you want to get!
I got a copy of The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff today, because you know I need more stuff in my game (like I need another hole in my head!) What can I say? I like garden stuff. So I think on that note, I am going to upload this update, then go install my new stuff pack! - Thanks! Lúthien
16 · JUNE · 09
WOO HOO! I've got Sims 2 content back up on the site! This time, in the form of a house I entered in a contest, and won! Yay me! Anyway, if you'd like to see the house, and/or download it, click HERE! - Thanks! Lúthien
11 · June · 09
Well, still no word from Amazon.co.uk, guess they realized they screwed up, and rather than admitting it, they've chosen to ignore me instead. That's an awesome way to do business doods! 
Anyway, that's the last I have to say about, or have anything to do with them.
SO, big news ''at the Wieden Ranch.'' I've got high-speed internet now! Comcast saw a golden opportunity and realized there are thousands of potential customers in the area I live in, so they said "hey! let's offer them decent internet access!" I'm not sure their exact numbers, I'm just counting the neighbor's houses their vans have been parked out front of, but within about a month everyone on my street signed up. Why should we wait for AT&T to get their act together? Last I heard they had us slated to ''improve'' the phone lines in my area ''within the next 20 years''. The fun bit about that, the phone lines in my area are already older than I am, and I was born in 1967! Heck, they are so old and worn, that the insulation is coming off them. Looks real nice, mangy old wires with a bunch of old black crap hanging off them. It's no wonder the best speed I could get on dialup was 24.6 Kbps. The week before Comcast came out, I was down to 16 Kbps. Let me put it this way, you've got a better chance of winning the Kentucky Derby with a 2-legged donkey than you have with downloading a picture at 16 Kbps! I get anywhere from 100 to 54 Mbps now. For those who've forgotten, 1000 Kb = 1 Mb.
The Dragon page is perking along really nicely now! I've been putting up the dragon eggs/hatchlings I've got available on the page, so if you're playing Dragon Cave, drop in and take a look! If you're not playing Dragon Cave, drop in and consider joining! It's not a terribly strenuous game really - so if you like shooting things, it's probably not for you. It's really more of a ''collecting'' game. As for dragons, I've got nearly every one that is currently available (I don't have a Paper or Splits, and I'm not interested in collecting Dinos or Chickens.) I can pretty much breed anything now. Well, except a Red Striped egg apparently! I've had zero luck breeding one of those so far!
BTW, The Bitter End by Black Stone Cherry is a kick ass song! Hell, Black Stone Cherry is kick ass! Go buy their CD's, they are sooo worth it! - Thanks! Lúthien
27 · May · 09
Wee hoo! Well as you will soon see, I've totally updated the entire site! Blame Amazon.co.uk (or perhaps thank them?) I'd been meaning to re-design everything for quite some time, but simply got busy doing everything else (not the least of which has been raising the new puppy Beren.) But anyway, 2 weeks ago now I received a ''nasty gram'' from Amazon.co.uk, vaguely threatening me with legal action if I didn't update their 'Free Super Saver Delivery' threshold from £15 to £5 (love to see them try to sue me from the UK over such a silly thing!) They advised me that I've had since October 2008 to do so . . . etc. etc. etc.
Well, the whole problem with that is the only 'advertising' for Amazon.co.uk I've ever done has been THEIR search box! I've got NO control over what pages people land on when leaving my site. So I wrote them back asking them exactly where they saw that I'd been advertising £15 'Free Super Saver Delivery' instead of £5 (I knew damn good and well that I had no such ads up on my site!) They have yet to respond, so as far as I am concerned, to hell with them. The whole thing has been nothing but a waste of my time, space and money - and I haven't made a single dime off it. So to that end, I went through every page I've got and removed any and all references to Amazon.co.uk (except for right here of course )
Just to be clear, Amazon.co.uk isn't Amazon.com. I'm still working with Amazon.com, never fear!
- I've found a purpose for the Dragon Gallery. I've renamed it to just ''Dragons'' and I've put loads and loads of dragons there! I won't say more here, just go visit it!
- I've gotten rid of the chat room. No one was using it anyway. If you were using it, and would like it back give me a shout and I'll put it back! Frankly though, I was never terribly happy with it, and had my suspicions that the host was planting spyware. Anyway, I've got a couple others I've been looking at, but I'm in no big hurry to re-implement a chat room here.
- I've gotten rid of the banner ads that were scattered around this site. I hated them from day one, they were not effective, and they never worked right. They also required a lot of fussing on my part to keep the things functioning properly. So if you find yourself looking for someplace to buy Middle-earth related goods, but just can't find them anywhere, let me know and I'll help you out.
- Say buh-bye to mouseover .gifs! They were un-wieldy and sucked bandwidth, so I got rid of them all.
- Say buh-bye to sounds as well! The reason for it - I couldn't get it to work on both IE and Firefox, and got tired of wasting my time trying to figure it out.
- Say hullo to Firefox! I started using Firefox quite-some-time-ago, and the old version of this site looked horrible on it! So now I've gone through and changed a bunch of coding so that while they don't like identical (that's just the way it is between the two) they at least look pretty darn close. I've also stopped using Avant Browser. I used to like it a lot, but it would work great, a new version would come out and it would be buggy as hell (and I tend to get angry when my browser keeps crashing every 15 minutes!) So unless the developer of Avant Browser can get his P's & Q's together and stop releasing such buggy software, I can't recommend it anymore. Though in all reality, there really is no point to using it - Firefox does the same things, only much better.
- Cleaned up the Tolkien Links and Mathom House pages. The first because there were three links there that were no longer valid, the later because there was some stuff there I no longer support.
- Misc. small stuff and ''behind-the-scenes'' things that no one by me will probably ever notice!
I've still got some work yet to do, and I want to put up the Sims page again but I've badly got to go through the ''Middle-earth Merchandise'' pages, they are nearly useless right now. But I think for now, I've done a fair bit - Thanks! Lúthien
30 · January · 09
Well I never intended for this to happen, but it's been a year since I've updated around here! I got badly sidetracked obviously lol! Anyhow, I've got a minor update to the site, but a couple major updates to my life to announce.
The first is some sad news, I lost my dog Sam on New Years Eve. As some of you may know, he never had the best of things when he growing up, but this was before my friend Allie saved him from certain doom from an animal shelter. She couldn't keep him and asked if I could almost 6 years ago, and so, Sam moved in with me. He had a good life here, never wanted for anything ever again but unfortunately his previously rough life didn't do his health any favors and it finally caught up with him. He went into kidney failure - my vet reckoned it had been going on for some years, most likely before he'd even been picked up by the animal shelter in the first place.
The second news is a whole lot more cheery, I've got a new family member! This one would be a little poo-and-pee-machine I've bestowed with the grand title of Beren B Good, and he would be an 8 week old male Chocolate Labrador Retriever! And because everyone likes puppy pictures, I've set up his own page here. Hope you enjoy the pictures! - Thanks! Lúthien
07 · January · 08
WOW! It's been long awhile since I've done anything at all around here, shame on me! Anyway, I have for you a tiny little update (that you can see anyway) on the Mathom Page.
Sound the trumpets! The 2008 Calendar is out!
I even made a calendar for 2009 too! So surf right on over to the Mathom Page and download a copy right now!I am also taking ''votes'' (suggestions) as to what accent colors to convert this site to. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the black/blue/mint theme and it's way past time to change it! So far the ''votes'' stand thus:
| Forest Green | = 3 | Green | = 1 | Orange | = 1 | Purple | = 3 | Red | = 3 | Sky Blue | = 1 | Tan | = 1 |
| Yellow | = 2 |
SO, if you have a color or three you'd like to suggest, or want to add your choice for one of the above, feel free to email,
21 · June · 07
I made a small change to the Avant Browser skins so that they are now compatible with the new Avant Browser version 11.5 which was just released. If you have updated to v11.5, you will need to re-download the skins to be able to use them again. Just have them overwrite the old files. I've tested the updated skins on my browser and they work just fine, so there should be no problems. To download the skins just head for the 'Mathom House' section. The link is in the Menu on the next page (click Lúthien above). - Thanks! Lúthien
06 · April · 07
OK! So no one had any suggestions whatsoever for a song to represent this page. I'm not feeling the love people! Anyway . . . I just went ahead and slapped something together, so now you all get to listen to birds in the woods If you have any other suggestions, they are still welcome.
I also wanted to re-mention advertising. About a year and a half ago, I broke down and finally allowed outsiders to advertise on my web site. I never wanted to do it and I still don't, but frankly running a web site is not a cheap proposition and I had to do something to help defray the costs. At first they worked quite well, enough of you clicked the ad-links, I got a little bit of commission and was able to pay the bills to keep this site online. For that, I thank you all!
But now we've come to a spot in the road (so to speak), and no one is clicking anymore 
. Several months have gone by without one single click. I know people are visiting this site, the page counters tell me this! So I ask you all once again, if you like this site and would like to see it remain online, please do me and my advertisers a huge favor and click a few of the ads! Again I stress, this will cost you nothing. You won't have to part with a dime, you won't be coerced into buying something you do not want. You won't be taken to some weirdo hacker's site that will infest your computer with every evil known to computer-kind. You will probably find another site that is interesting and informative if you do follow a link or two however! I'm not looking to get rich doing this, just to make a bit so I can keep the site open for us all. Show you care! Click, click, click! - Thanks! Lúthien
20 · September · 06
I made a small and rather insignificant update to the Guestbook today - I added 8 new emots (smilies) for you to choose from if you so desire to leave a comment! Silly, but they're fun, so enjoy!
In other news . . . I am looking for a new song to put on this page - the entry portal. I never was a big Pink Floyd fan, so I've gotten heartily sick-to-death of this one by now! So, I am looking for suggestions what to put here instead. Only please don't suggest Enya, I don't want any songs from The Movies on this site. - Thanks! Lúthien
02 · September · 2006
PAGE UPDATE! I got a new monitor yesterday (helluva deal! You want one of these too!), and it's great, but one thing I found was the skin I was using on my browser was a little skewed with the new monitor, so I set about to fix it. While I was about it, I had an idea for an entirely new skin, which came out way better then I expected, so I'm sharing it with y'all! It's located on the Mathom Page here, it's marked with the ''NEW!'' icon so you can find it - Thanks! Lúthien
27 · August · 2006
Oh my DEEPEST and most SINCERE apologies for those of you patiently waiting on the Sims 2 cheats eBook I've been working on. I'm not sure if it's going to get done at all now, tragedy has struck! Recently I installed ZoneAlarm v6.5, which apparently is NOT compatible if even the WORD McAfee has been breathed in the quietest of whispers around it! Don't get me wrong, I really like ZoneLabs firewall, it blocks a lot of ''bad stuff'', and I wouldn't be without it. Not to mention the price is certainly right *G*, but if they think I'm going to dispense of my virus protection software, which I pay a rather lot of money for, for their free firewall, they are deluding themselves! Anyway, I ramble on.
What happened (the tragedy), was the ZoneAlarm v6.5 completely corrupted all my OS software in it's ''snit'' with McAfee. This meant I had to completely wipe everything from my hard drive and reinstall it clean. Luckily I had just gotten done backing up all my important files like the good girl I am (not?) . . . or so I thought. All my months of research of the Sims 2 eBook were safely tucked away on a completely different hard drive, waiting safe and sound for me to reinstall them once I got the computer back up and running again . . . and when I went to grab them again, they were gone! I don't know where they went, and believe me, I spent the next 5 days combing every byte of hard drive space (and I have nearly 300 GB!) with no less than four different data recovery programs in an attempt to get them back, but they are gone. So now I have to start my research all over again from the beginning . . . except for this ONE piece of paper I happened to print out to take notes on while I was playing the game, that's it, and it's not much! - Sorry again! Lúthien
* Turns out I was wrong, it was McAfee that had the snit, not ZoneAlarm. So go download AVG instead, and do away with McAfee!
08 · February · 2006
The site navigation menus have been updated/changed. In addition to the plain-text HTML version located at the bottom of (most) every page, there is now a drop-down menu versions at the top of (most) every page as well! Just look for the 
button near the top of each page, and hover your mouse pointer over it. If the drop down menu does not appear, then you probably need to update your browser. This new menu is supposed to work with FF1+ IE5+ Opr7+ - I don't know about NS however. If you're using it, and want to let me know if the new menus work (or not) for you, I'd be interested to hear from you. A Thank You goes out to Dynamic Drive for supplying the code for the new menus, and to Ilya S. Lyubinskiy for creating it!
In other news . . .(lol), I have been a ''little'' delayed in researching the new Sims2 cheats and hints guide. My brand-new hard drive decided to take a nose-dive, so I wasted a whole lot of time (and money) getting a new drive installed, rescuing data and all that fun stuff off the bad drive, so that I can send it back to the manufacturer for replacement. I have to admit, I've never had a new Western Digital drive crap out on me like that before! Sure I've had them go down when they were old before, but brand new? WD is usually better than that. Good thing it has a 3 year warranty I guess! - Thanks! Lúthien
03 · January · 2006
As you can see, I've updated the dancing Lúthien Tinúviel graphic (above) on this page. The old one - which I'd spent a fair amount of time cutting out of it's surrounding background (one pixel at a time!), putting feet back on (there were grasses painted over one of the feet in the original painting by Ted Nasmith) and generally cleaning up for use on my site, got swiped without so-much as a ''may I borrow that?'' from some guy to use on his site. I've asked him to remove it, give credit for where he got it - or at least rename it, but I was completely ignored. I suspect the guy doesn't speak English, but still, he knows where he got it, and when an email came from the domain where he got it . . . anyway. I also replaced the picture because it was cumbersome. The old version was part of a ''mouseover'' - in other words, when you moved your mouse pointer over it, the imaged flipped, if you did it fast enough, it looked like the figure was dancing. That works great on fast internet connections, and flops like over-boiled pasta on dial ups! I still use mouseovers in many places on my site, but for the front page I wanted something else. If I knew how to do Flash animation, I'd do that, but I haven't gotten around to learning that yet, so animated .gif's will have to do! Oh, and for anyone trying to swipe it this time, the code is so encrypted, that even I couldn't dig out the name if I didn't have the master files!
I also wanted to address a little something about this site in general, something that has come up a couple times in the Guestbook. One person asked for more content on Beren, and another would like to see this site more developed. The thing is, as far as Lúthien and Beren go, this site is as complete as it possibly can be. The Lay of Leithian is an incomplete poem. Tolkien never finished it before he died. So as for adding more content about this particular story? There is really nothing more to add (beyond a few minor details here and there). This is a site about one character in Tolkien's world - not the entirety of Middle-earth. Someday, I have in the back of my mind, to add some content about Lúthien's contemporaries, things that were happening in and around the time she was alive, but OMG what a undertaking that will be! I might as well just illegally copy the entire Silmarillion here, that would be easier then trying to explain who was related to whom, what all their many different names were, why they did what they did, and to whom, and when. As I mentioned before, the story is incomplete, and there are several conflicting rough drafts of it (bear in mind that even The Silmarillion is not complete, it was released after J.R.R. Tolkien's death, he never finished it to his usual perfection, he never intended it to be sent to the publisher as it was. - Thanks! Lúthien
28 · December · 2005
I'm back! I do apologize in the delay on updating this site (with the Google AdSense), I had to unexpectedly leave town on an emergency. But I'm back now, and the updates are finished. Currently I am working on the new Sims 2 Cheats & Hints Code Directory eBook, I expect I'll have all my research done within a month, and the eBook written shortly thereafter. So those of you looking for the Sims 2 cheats, be patient! It's coming! I promise! - Thanks! Lúthien
02 · December · 2005
Welcome to Lúthien's Middle-earth! If you've been here before, you can see that this «waves hands around at the journal-box» is all new. I felt there was a need to put a journal up, to keep visitors informed of what's going on around here!
I am making some MAJOR changes to this site. I'm afraid the time has come, after some 10 years this site has been online, that I've finally broken down and will now be putting up advertisements. This is a move I didn't want to take, but I just cannot afford to maintain this site on my own any longer. I've been out of work for almost 4 years now, so this is a last-ditch effort to save luthien-tinuviel.net. The PayPal/Amazon.com donations are not working (I've received a whole $5 from that in the 6 years I've been shaking my cyber tin-cup around!) I will leave them up for the time being, but they will probably be scraped before too long (especially if the Google AdSense works!). So if you like my site, and you want to see it remain online, do me - and my advertisers - a huge favor and click a few of the ads! It costs you nothing, but I get a few cents from it. Show you care! Click, click, click! - Thanks! Lúthien