# lord rings (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 12 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover lord rings. Page: Feed: --- ## [A Back Against a Wall Is Always Straight](https://nik.art/a-back-against-a-wall-is-always-straight/) _2026-08-30 · nik.art_ I spent most of my Master’s working. I’d be in the college study room all day, but I rarely began looking at slides and scripts before 4 PM. Minimizing the time I spent studying forced me to focus on the essentials. I’d go through the material end-to-end, try to capture every page in one sentence, \[…\] ## [The Highs Are Relative](https://nik.art/the-highs-are-relative/) _2026-08-29 · nik.art_ My fiancée’s last birthday was a lucky day. After making breakfast for her, giving her my gift, and spending some time together, I opened a lot of Pokémon booster packs I had bought from someone on a local chat group. It was a rare opportunity to get some packs in English from a coveted set, \[…\] ## [Ship Self-Contained Work](https://nik.art/ship-self-contained-work/) _2026-08-28 · nik.art_ “And for part two of this training, be sure to join my online course,” the creator says on the webinar. Except the course costs $500, and, without it, you can’t really exercise the skill she promised to teach in the free online session. “I promise, after you’ve read part three of this blog series, it’ll \[…\] ## [Sunglasses on Top](https://nik.art/sunglasses-on-top/) _2026-08-27 · nik.art_ In my 20s, I always wore contact lenses, even though I spent most of my time staring at a screen. I was never extremely worried about my appearance, but I paid a lot more heed to it than I do now. Part of that was being single, I guess, and waiting for Mrs. Right. But \[…\] ## [Walking Into a 3-Star Chef](https://nik.art/walking-into-a-3-star-chef/) _2026-08-26 · nik.art_ After 10 years of living here, the list of local restaurants in Munich I enjoy is already quite long. Still, there’s always room for new recommendations. During my sister’s wedding, my cousin made some. She had seen a Youtuber, “Schmiddi Schmeckts,” gather tips from Michelin-starred chefs in the city for a day, then try their \[…\] ## [When the Next Chapter Never Comes](https://nik.art/when-the-next-chapter-never-comes/) _2026-08-25 · nik.art_ In the fall of 2023, I was three months away from my next chapter. After many years of juggling different income streams, I had finally doubled down on the one that was working best, Four Minute Books. Everything was going swell. The business had several legs to stand on, and traffic and revenue were growing. \[…\] ## [Something Lost, Something Gained](https://nik.art/something-lost-something-gained/) _2026-08-24 · nik.art_ The black widow spider is one of the few poisonous spiders you can find in Germany. This morning, I was in for a shock when I spotted one on my living room wall. I went closer, tried to see if I correctly guessed its colored pattern, and attempted to take a picture with my phone \[…\] ## [Pecking at Justifications](https://nik.art/pecking-at-justifications/) _2026-08-23 · nik.art_ A Swiss vendor wrote “can ship from Germany” into his profile. “Amazing!” I thought. He had cheap prices for Pokémon cards, and if he could mail items from Germany, there wouldn’t be the usual hassle with customs, never mind the additional fees. We went back and forth a bit, then I placed an order. A \[…\] ## [Star Trek and the Christian Imagination](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/star-trek-and-the-christian-imagination) _2026-08-22 · Nonnobis - Blog_ As a child, one of my favorite television shows was the science fiction series Star Trek (the original series), which I have written about previously. I was too young to have seen the series when it first aired in the mid-1960s, but I did watch it in re-runs a few years later. One of my favorite episodes of the series was "Bread and Circuses," which appeared near the end of the show's second… ## [When It’s About To Get Worse Before It’ll Get Better](https://nik.art/when-its-about-to-get-worse-before-itll-get-better/) _2026-08-22 · nik.art_ The worst part of worse-before-better is not the worse that’s about to come. It’s the time we spend trying to avoid looking the worse in the face. Once we expect another downturn before we can resume our path back up, the rest is…not easy—but easy enough. You can go back to hoping. To waiting for \[…\] ## [Meet Claude, the AI assistant (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/8BNO9ictSBPO) _2026-08-22 · **Sponsored**_ Conversational AI to answer questions, brainstorm ideas, and help with tasks. ## [If Gandalf Was Your Navigator on a Road Trip](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/if-gandalf-was-your-navigator-on) _2026-08-21 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ The road goes ever, ever on ## [The Clearest View of a Man Is From Below](https://nik.art/the-clearest-view-of-a-man-is-from-below/) _2026-08-21 · nik.art_ It’s a good thing Odysseus went literally everywhere before going home, because “everywhere” includes the underworld. Only there could he find out that Agamemnon, his leader and king in the Trojan War, had been dead for a decade, murdered immediately upon his return to Mycenae by his vengeful wife Clytemnestra and her new lover. Granted, \[…\] ## [When You’re in the Game, It’s Always Both a Good and Bad Time](https://nik.art/when-youre-in-the-game-its-always-both-a-good-and-bad-time/) _2026-08-20 · nik.art_ Pokémon finally released the product lineup for its 30th anniversary trading card game expansion. The theme will be “day and night.” As a result, the two most prominent pokémon representing this theme will be featured in the flagship product, the Ultra Premium Collection. Those pokémon are Espeon and Umbreon, two evolutions of Eevee, first introduced \[…\] ## [The 2 Problems With Arbitrage](https://nik.art/the-2-problems-with-arbitrage/) _2026-08-19 · nik.art_ I once tried to profit off arbitrage in the most literal way possible: I bought a cryptocurrency on one exchange, where it was newly listed, sent it to another, and sold it there for a profit. New coins permeated slowly across the ecosystem at the time, and, for a few hours, you sometimes had a \[…\] ## [You Don’t Have To Contribute Immediately](https://nik.art/you-dont-have-to-contribute-immediately/) _2026-08-18 · nik.art_ “Leaving soon,” the label read on my Netflix screen. “Alright,” I thought. “It’s as good a time as any to finally watch The Truman Show.” I pressed play and received 103 minutes of world-class storytelling. I knew the movie was about a man whose entire life turns out to be a TV show. I knew \[…\] ## [Sometimes, the Obvious Answer Is Right](https://nik.art/sometimes-the-obvious-answer-is-right/) _2026-08-17 · nik.art_ At the very last minute, German national football coach Julian Nagelsmann dropped a world cup bombshell: Manuel Neuer, the 40-year-old, retired goalkeeper of legend, would return to grace the team with his presence once more. Neuer had withdrawn from the national team two years prior but agreed to play. The public didn’t think it was \[…\] ## [Being Grateful for Your Own Creations](https://nik.art/being-grateful-for-your-own-creations/) _2026-08-16 · nik.art_ Whenever I manage to wake up at 5 AM, I find myself immensely grateful for those extra morning hours. There s magic in being awake when no one else is. You feel as if you have all the time in the world and, in a sense, you do—for the world is still asleep, and you re off \[ \] ## [A Moment To Talk About It](https://nik.art/a-moment-to-talk-about-it/) _2026-08-15 · nik.art_ Herbert s parents once ate takeout for an anniversary dinner. The mindset stuck with him, and he struggles to spend money even when it s an obvious life improvement or small investment to fix something necessary. Maladaptive frugality, he calls it. Herbert shared the idea on his blog and posted it to Hacker News. There, it sparked \[ \] ## [Getting the Last 10%](https://nik.art/getting-the-last-10/) _2026-08-14 · nik.art_ My favorite Pokémon cards to collect are those belonging to so-called subsets. These are mini collections within, or sometimes across, the larger, official sets released by The Pokémon Company every two months or so. Sometimes, these sets are deliberate, for example with a designated rarity. At other times, Pokémon just throws in a bunch of \[ \] ## [The Moment We Change Forever](https://nik.art/the-moment-we-change-forever/) _2026-08-13 · nik.art_ We can rarely identify it as it happens. Usually, it takes hindsight to point and say: That s when it happened. After that, I was a different person. For 25 years of my life, Howard Shore s iconic theme of the Shire in Lord of the Rings was just a song to me. A nice, familiar song, \[ \] ## [Snapshot Showdown on Google Play (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/9sJWaVWn2oYJ) _2026-08-13 · **Sponsored**_ Available on Google Play for Android devices. ## [Don’t Swing Your Sword in the Dark](https://nik.art/dont-swing-your-sword-in-the-dark/) _2026-08-12 · nik.art_ The main plot point of Devil May Cry, a hack-n-slash video game series revolving around demon hunter Dante, is revenge. The king of the underworld, Mundus, killed both of Dante s parents, one to see through his plan of conquering the human realm, the other to enslave Dante s brother Vergil as his ally. That s a lot \[ \] ## [Watching Clouds](https://nik.art/watching-clouds/) _2026-08-11 · nik.art_ When s the last time you did that on purpose? For me, it was years—until yesterday. I sat on my sunbed in the garden, working. It was mid-afternoon, and I got tired. I closed the laptop and laid down. I shut my eyes and listened to the environment. When I opened them, whoa! There they were. \[ \] ## [Let Your Feedback Ripen](https://nik.art/let-your-feedback-ripen/) _2026-08-10 · nik.art_ After day one of our annual company get-together, I already had a lot of feedback. The food was not as nice as the year before. The sessions were more work-focused, which was good, but the event now lacked the human element altogether. There weren t enough breaks to digest information, let alone meaningfully recover in some \[ \] ## [A Little Lion Can Still Roar Loudly](https://nik.art/a-little-lion-can-still-roar-loudly/) _2026-08-09 · nik.art_ Yesterday, I sent off a big Pokémon card order, then closed all tabs. I wanted to hit pause on my collection for a few months to better focus on writing. There s always another card to chase, another set coming out, but, most of the time, you don t miss too much if you lie dormant for \[ \] ## [Is It Humans' Ability to Understand the Universe That Makes Them "Something Very Special"?](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/is-it-humans-ability-to-understand-the-universe-that-makes-them-something-very-special) _2026-08-08 · Nonnobis - Blog_ The late Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), the British cosmographer and theoretical physicist, was arguably the most famous scientist in the world in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Despite suffering from motor neurone disease (ALS) for most of his adult life, he made major contributions to the understanding of black holes, general relativity, and quantum physics. He was also a popular author… ## [A Craving for the Analog](https://nik.art/a-craving-for-the-analog/) _2026-08-08 · nik.art_ Don t you have one? Perhaps it s just me with my overly digital lifestyle. Often, the moments I appreciate the most go back to nature and the natural. Stepping outside into my garden. Touching grass, touching my tree. Turning paper pages in a real book. It s nice that, while reading The Lord of the Rings, I \[ \] ## [Start Another Timer](https://nik.art/start-another-timer/) _2026-08-07 · nik.art_ My goal is to write this daily blog in 15 minutes. Every morning, I start a timer and try to finish before it rings. Sometimes, the fight is lost before it begins. Today, I was looking for Star Wars music. I got sidetracked into a movie trailer, then a fellow author s latest income report. By \[ \] ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/08/01/norton-yields-no-ground-to.html) _2026-08-01 · Joe Ross_ Norton Yields No Ground to Members Who Deny D.C. Residents Their Rights - YouTube ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/08/01/norton-yields-no-ground-to.html) _2026-08-01 · Joe Ross_ Norton Yields No Ground to Members Who Deny D.C. Residents Their Rights - YouTube ## [Where Is the Good Worth Fighting For in Rings of Power?](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/on-rings-of-powers-biggest-darkest) _2026-07-31 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ Season 3 presses into the darkness ## [Code Faster with Clear Tutorials (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/nbkvWdiueSmW) _2026-07-31 · **Sponsored**_ Short, step-by-step coding videos you can follow along ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/07/27/of-course-just-as-i.html) _2026-07-28 · Joe Ross_ Of course, just as I consider going all-in on Tapo and Kasa, they abandon one of their most useful features, IFTTT support, for more AI garbage. 🔗 tp-link.com ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/07/27/of-course-just-as-i.html) _2026-07-28 · Joe Ross_ Of course, just as I consider going all-in on Tapo and Kasa, they abandon one of their most useful features, IFTTT support, for more AI garbage. 🔗 tp-link.com ## [open sauce review: the bay area festival has lost its spark](https://cjleo.com/blog/open-sauce-review-the-bay-area-festival-has-lost-its-spark/) _2026-07-24 · CJL · Game Design Blog — Cheryl-Jean Leo_ It’s 10:15am on Saturday, and William Osman takes the Main Stage at Open Sauce along with Kevin, NileRed and Allen Pan. The four YouTubers, who are known for posting science-related content to their individual channels, frequently collaborate on a podcast called Safety Third. While Osman takes the lead on Open Sauce, having spearheaded the event since its debut in 2023, these four creators appear… ## [Does Laughter Provide a Clue to the Origin of Human Language?](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/does-laughter-provide-a-clue-to-the-origin-of-human-language) _2026-07-18 · Nonnobis - Blog_ For many years, evolutionary biologists have struggled to explain how the human capacity for language could have evolved, given that every other species--including our supposed evolutionary relatives the great apes--lack this ability. One approach to addressing this problem has been to identify characteristics shared by humans and great apes that could arguably be viewed as the starting point for… ## [The Fellowship of The Good, the Bad, and the Funny](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/the-fellowship-of-the-good-the-bad) _2026-07-09 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ A feature I used to do here at Jokien with Tolkien is a Reader Mailbag, where I answered questions from you, readers! ## [Ben Folds Five: The Complete Sessions at West 54th, 2001 - ★★★★★](https://joeross.me/2026/07/08/ben-folds-five-the-complete.html) _2026-07-08 · Joe Ross_ Ben Folds spends a non-stop hour swinging wildly between being virtuosic on, and literally violent, with a capital V, to, the piano, while he and his bandmates tear through 15 absolutely unskippable 90s bangers as if they share one brain, twelve limbs, and three perfectly synchronized hearts. Top it all off with a bunch of dancing dudes showing up about halfway through the set in the back of every… ## [For Independence Day: Why "All Men Are Created Equal" Is a Profoundly Biblical Idea](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/for-independence-day-why-all-men-are-created-equal-is-a-profoundly-biblical-idea) _2026-07-04 · Nonnobis - Blog_ Today (July 4) is Independence Day in the United States, commemorating the day on which the Continental Congress finally approved the Declaration of Independence, announcing to the world that the former thirteen British colonies in North America were now independent of their mother country. Of course, this year's Independence Day is particularly special since it marks the 250th anniversary (the… ## [disneyland’s pirates of the caribbean ride: on skeletons and stillness](https://cjleo.com/blog/disneylands-pirates-of-the-caribbean-ride-on-skeletons-and-stillness/) _2026-06-27 · CJL · Game Design Blog — Cheryl-Jean Leo_ The latest controversial change to Disneyland was unveiled today, and it s a skeleton that moves in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. And the issue isn t the new animatronic: the technology looks sophisticated and the scene is funny enough. The real problem is the storytelling. Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson breaks down storytelling into three pillars: plot, character and setting. While there… ## [For Juneteenth: The "Scientific" Argument for Slavery in the American South](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/for-juneteenth-the-scientific-argument-for-slavery-in-the-american-south) _2026-06-19 · Nonnobis - Blog_ Today (June 19) is Juneteenth, a holiday in the United States commemorating the date in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in the state of Texas learned they were free. It is also more generally a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. In previous years on this date, I have written on the role of evangelical Christians in the 19th century abolitionist movement, the ancient roots… ## [Entering the Perilous Realm](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/entering-the-perilous-realm) _2026-06-18 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ On Why We Should Read and Reread 'The Lord of the Rings' ## [Would the Existence of Aliens Make Belief in God Untenable?](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/would-the-existence-of-aliens-make-belief-in-god-untenable) _2026-06-12 · Nonnobis - Blog_ Recently, there has been a lot of interest in the topic of UFOs (unidentified flying objects) in the United States. This interest has no doubt been prompted, in least in part, by the U.S. government's release to the public of its UFO-related files, a process that began last month (May 2026). Another contributing factor may be the interest generated by the release this month of famed director… ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/06/09/facebook-has-been-caught-with.html) _2026-06-09 · Joe Ross_ Facebook has been caught with its hand in this cookie jar over and over again. It’s like Zuckerberg doesn’t think anyone outside the company can… read computer code: The most recent version of Meta AI, a companion app for its line of smart glasses, strips out the unactivated software components that powered the system Meta internally called NameTag. The version published the day… ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/06/09/facebook-has-been-caught-with.html) _2026-06-09 · Joe Ross_ Facebook has been caught with its hand in this cookie jar over and over again. It’s like Zuckerberg doesn’t think anyone outside the company can… read computer code: The most recent version of Meta AI, a companion app for its line of smart glasses, strips out the unactivated software components that powered the system Meta internally called NameTag. The version published the day… ## [Third Breakfast Unanimously Approved in Latest Shire Election](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/third-breakfast-unanimously-approved) _2026-06-04 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ HOBBITON HERALD #009 ## [My trip Japan. A bit of glazing, talking about issues and reminiscing about a country that does not exist](https://tearoom.earth/feed/my-trip-to-japan-a-bit-of-glazing-talking-about-issues-and-reminiscing-about-a-country-that-does-not-exist) _2026-06-01 · tearoom.earth's menu_ In April 2026 I went on a trip to Japan. Here's a short article about what I personally think are the aspects of Japanese society and culture that stood out as the most fascinating for me, what we could learn from them in Europe, and what Japan could learn from us. I'll also reminisce about Japan I've known from various old media and technology I own that are largely defunct or forgotten. ## [Abyss by PASTEL GHOST](https://tearoom.earth/feed/abyss-pastel-ghost) _2026-06-01 · tearoom.earth's menu_ ## ["Secularity" in The Lord of the Rings and the Book of Esther](https://nonnobis.weebly.com/blog/what-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-the-book-of-esther-have-in-common) _2026-05-23 · Nonnobis - Blog_ The fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings (LOTR), written by J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), is one of the most popular works of literature even written. One of things that makes the trilogy so powerful is that in it Tolkien creates an entire world, with its own history, geography, ethnic groups, and languages. Tolkien even developed a creation story for his imagined world--Middle Earth--although that… ## [A Peter Jackson Silmarillion Movie? And Other Tolkien Treasures](https://www.jrrjokien.com/p/treasures-027-may-2026) _2026-05-21 · JRR Jokien · Jokien with Tolkien_ Treasures #027: May 2026 ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/05/20/mike-masnick-of-techdirt-but.html) _2026-05-20 · Joe Ross_ Mike Masnick of Techdirt : But at a time when the Supreme Court keeps telling us we shouldn’t believe that they make decisions on partisan grounds, it sure would help if they actually stopped doing things differently depending on the partisan valence of each case – something Alito seems to do quite regularly. Absolutely right. 🔗 techdirt.com ## [(untitled)](https://joeross.me/2026/05/20/mike-masnick-of-techdirt-but.html) _2026-05-20 · Joe Ross_ Mike Masnick of Techdirt : But at a time when the Supreme Court keeps telling us we shouldn’t believe that they make decisions on partisan grounds, it sure would help if they actually stopped doing things differently depending on the partisan valence of each case – something Alito seems to do quite regularly. Absolutely right. 🔗 techdirt.com