Wow, it’s been a really long time since I have posted something here on my blog. And now I’d like to tell you some new, exciting stuff but actually there’s nothing going on. Nothing at all. That makes me kinda sad. Seems that my life is quite boring at the moment. So I must stick to some old news.

I was finally able to finish redesigning my web portfolio on www.carmen-brenner.com. It’s nothing special and I already got some comments of people that don’t like my checked background. Well, I guess that’s always a matter of personal likes and dislikes – I actually like it. So it will stay until a muse kisses me again and I can think of something else cool. Despite this comments I am content with the result. The projects list is a bit short right now, but I hope it will grow in the future.

End of January the Nordic Combined World Cup took place again in Seefeld. It was the last competition before the Olympic Games in Vancouver and a very successful weekend for the Austrian team – maybe because that the Finnish, French and US Teams were not present. Marina and I had a lot of fun as every year. I am looking forward to next year when the new ski jump will be available for the first time in a public competition. I hope we can see a lot of new records.

But… the biggest news is likely to be that Rowanfair, Saerwen and I have decided to make a trip to Wales, UK to the Festival in the Shire. The website homepage states that it will be “A celebration of all things Tolkien inspired!”.

Announcing the biggest and most exciting event for Tolkien enthusiasts in 2010: Festival in the Shire! This will be the most comprehensive event ever held for the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, with a conference, a collector’s exposition of original art, rare books and memorabilia as well as a large festival with stalls and entertainment.

Our tickets for conference and festival are already booked as are our B&B and our flight tickets. And I cannot wait for August – it seems to be an aeon until summer. *sigh* There is but one question: Should I get done a new Elven dress for this event? I have this in mind since some time now, but there are always doubts if it will be worth the cost.

The dress I want to have is only seen in a very short scene of the SEE of FOTR (where the Fellowship gets the presents in Lórien), and there exist only two other photos of it taken at a LOTR movie exhibition. On alleycatscratch.com – THE source for all LOTR movie costumes – it has been titled as “Light yellow lace gown“. I think it is not made from lace, nevertheless, but from something crushed (silk maybe, but it is really hard to tell, also from the screenshots I took). I have first considered to sew it myself, but actually I cannot sew. On the other hand to get it done by a sewer is very expensive. So you see I don’t really know what to do now, especially as I don’t think there will be nearly enough time to do it myself.

In war, victory
In peace, vigilance
In death, sacrifice

- Grey Wardens’ motto

The Blight has finally reached my home and I gladly accepted Duncan’s offer to recruit me into the ranks of the Grey Wardens. But great sacrifices came along with this decision. I lost what was left of my family, and the destiny of Ferelden is on a knife-edge as the king and his army were destroyed in the battle of Ostagar, and with them all remaining Grey Wardens – all despite Alistair and I.
But can we stand alone against hell’s creatures? Can we unit Ferelden against the plans of Teyrn Loghain, against the man who betrayed the king? Will we find allies in elves, dwarves and the Circle of Magi? Was there only once a chance that the archdemon could be destroyed?

I don’t know on what path my feet will lead me, or what lies behind the next corner, but I know that my destiny awaits me in the end – what ever end this might be.

Ankantoiel,
last of the Grey Wardens of Ferelden

Sorry for this little discourse. I hope you don’t mind, but I really want to share the great experiences I made with “Dragon Age: Origins”. I usually am not that passionate a player. To be honest I seldom find I game that fascinates me more than a few hours. But Dragon Age is the first game since World of Warcraft that could hold me for days, weeks, maybe also months. It has vivid characters, great possibilities to make your own decisions, it has a nice battle system and a great story.

It all started before christmas when Alex decided to buy a Xbox360. Well, what should I say about consoles? I only own a PS2 and I hardly played more than a bit Sing Star and Need for Speed – so generally spoken I never was a fan of consoles. But I was very surprised how comfortable and easy to use the Xbox360 is. You don’t need to install every game or hope that the graphics are at least working on worst settings. You can get movies and music simply over your Xbox Live account ( to more or less reasonable prices). And of course, the game controls are so much easier compared to PCs (this is at least true for Dragon Age). After all I now use the Xbox360 nearly every day and more often as our Wii which after all, lost its fun-factor some time ago.
It was a good decision to buy a Xbox360. The exclusive titles for this console focus more on RPGs (compared to PS3) and that’s exactly what we were looking for. We both love RPGs and have already Fable 2 and some others ready to play. And the price was more than fair – a special offer from Amazon.co.uk with Xbox360 Elite, Xbox 360 Wireless Entertainment Pack and two free games. Dragon Age: Origins was one of these two free games, and we started right away as soon as we got the console.

Dragon Age: Origins

As you start playing, you will have the choice of different social backgrounds, classes and races. Of course there will be restrictions to the classes regarding your choice of social background and race – this will also influence experiences throughout the entire game. The character creation process is very similar to most other RPGs, and you can change nearly everything concerning the look of your character. It’s a lot of fun and it took me nearly an hour to decide what I wanna look like.
The first steps into Dragon Age: Origins are related to your taken choices, and each possibility opens you a new story – so it’s worth to make more than one play-through. You soon will meet Duncan, a Grey Warden who is searching for new recruits that wanna join the ranks of the Grey Wardens to fight the upcoming Blight. But with that the story only begins…

I don’t want to give any spoiler here, but be sure that you will encounter several problems and a great number of foes on your way to your destiny. You will meet allies in places you never expected, you will befriend them and may experience also love – but in the end, after all your choices – and they are nearly countless – you must stand against the archdemon.

Finally, we also got a bit of snow on Christmas Day – not much, but better few than no snow at all – and I have tried the first time in my life cross-country skiing, skating to precise. It was so much fun that I bought me my own skis and equipment. It’s no cheap sport at all and I am sure that I spent over 600€ for everything: skis (Fischer), boots (Salomon), binding (Salomon), sticks (Swix), Björn Daehli pants and jacket. Nevertheless, I am now very proud of my first tries and I am getting better already. It also helps very much that my dad and my sis’ are doing that sport some years and that they can give me tips. Hopefully, next weekend will be not that cold at the last – -10°C were nearly too cold for skating – then I can train again.

Before I end the first post in the new year I want to congratulate myself to the third place in the fanfiction winter contest of FF@OBL. The task was to write a ficlet containing ten given words. My story “Zauber der Winterzeit” was selected on the third place and that was quite surprising for me. Therefore I will post the story also here on my blog under writings – it couldn’t be that bad.

On Sunday Alex and I came back from London. To be honest, I am really glad to be home again. From all the cities I have visited in the last years I was never more disappointed. Don’t ask me why but London couldn’t show me that it is something special. I didn’t have the feeling to be in Great Britain, and I have never seen a city where you find houses and places that look like slums between skyscrapers – that was so weird. It was a strange trip in all aspects. Also the Indian food wasn’t what I was expecting – I have tried the Murgh Makhani in every restaurant we were and it tasted everywhere absolutely different and not what it should.
We have visited the British Museum, the Design Museum, the Tower Bridge, Harrods and some other places, and from these the British Museum was the most impressive. I always loved ancient cultures and it was so amazing to see huge statues and relicts that endured thousands of years. I wonder if people in the future will have a museum of our cultures, and what they will think about us. They may think that we were decadent – at least this is what I was thinking about us while seeing the non-sense stuff in Harrods that costs more than a single-family-house. It’s kind of perverse how our society had evolved, and I feel more repelled than ever from the way things are going nowadays.

Well, I don’t want to say that it was a waste of time to make this short trip to London – but it was not at all what I was expecting and I surely will not visit it soon again, despite what all people told me about it. Nevertheless it was interesting to see this place and to made my own opinion. I guess I still prefer Scandinavia over Great Britain – and not only because the people there are 24/7 surveyed by cameras.