A continuous reading aloud of the LordoftheRings? of JrrTolkien?, loosely modelled after the DickAThon. Traditionally takes place the weekend before finals fall semester. The Hobbit takes about 8 hours to read, and The Lord of the Rings about 40-45 hours. See also: SilmarillionAThon.

LOTRaThon 2001

Start: 7:09pm Friday, December 14, 2001
End: 12:41pm Sunday, December 16, 2001
Place: BigBeckman?

Memories of LOTRaThon I

ChrisLundberg, reading The Council of Elrond:

 "And here in the house of Elrond more shall be made clear to you," said Aragorn,
 standing up.  He cast his sword upon the table that stood before Elrond, and the blade
 was in two pieces.  "Here is the Sword that was Broken!" he said. *clunk*

And yes, there was in fact a broken katana sitting on the table in front of him. How Chris managed to smuggle that down to Big Beckman in his coat and read with it hidden, I'll never know; but it was excellent theater.'' --WillShipley

Falling asleep in Lothlorien, drifting awake for thirty seconds as Boromir confronts Frodo, and fully waking with Merry and Pippin en route to Fangorn . . . ah, the magic. We're doing this again, right? --WillShipley

Hearing WillShipley doing different voices for each member of the fellowship just before Moria. Also, hearing him singing Sam's Gil-Galad song(the BBC version).--DanielKagan

LOTRaThon 2002

Start: 7:00pm Friday, December 13, 2002
End: 12:30pm Sunday, December 15, 2002
Place: GalileoPryne?
Schedule: /2002Schedule

LOTRaThon II was a great success. Just slightly under 41.5 hours in all. Audio streaming was up and running right from the start, though an Internet outage prevented off-campus access for part of the time. In addition, audio was saved to disk, so a complete recording of LOTRaThon 2002 is available! (Audio has been compressed so it all fits on a single CD.) Talk to me if you are interested in a copy; I will probably say more about this once I am back on campus. --MichaelVrable

Memories of LOTRaThon II

Having StephGrush place a giant origami spider (skillfully made by ArielBarton) on the shoulder of the chair I was sitting on as I read Minas Tirith...hearing NicholasCarbone? creepily speak Gollum's parts...bursting into laughter due to the silly and disruptive antics of the foolish ChrisKay as I started reading The Muster of Rohan. -NickHerman

Strongbad the Snaga, in The Land of Shadow. -MicahSmukler

Random Comments on LOTRaThon 2002:

Is anyone else surprised that Book 4 filled up first? I would have thought it would be either 1 or 5.--MicahSmukler Book IV has the best time slot, of course.

No, Book IV has some of the most fun chapters to read as well as a lot of Gollum. Hmmmmmm, My Preeeeeeecios! --NicholasCarbone?

Being as I tend to find Book 4 the most irritating of the 6, yes, I am surprised. Not entirely sure I agree about expecting 1 or 5 to go fastest, but I'm not entirely sure I disagree either. Hmm. --RobinBaur

LOTRaThon 2003

Start: 5:00pm Friday, December 12, 2003
End: 9:13pm Sunday, December 14, 2003
Place: GalileoPryne?
Schedule: /2003Schedule

LOTRaThon 2003 marked the first time that TheHobbit? was read in addition to the LordOfTheRings?.

Once again, a live audio stream was provided, and audio was saved as well. A CD containing the complete recording will be available at some point, after basic editing has been done. Audio is in the OggVorbis format (as before). --MichaelVrable

Memories of LOTRaThon III

Much fun, but I need to practice my elvish next time. --JonathanBeall

Stick figures of key characters. And the obligatory x-ing them out as they died. (Not to mention x-ing items as they were destroyed) --NickJohnson

Appendix A, anyone? Also, I have a few good pictures that will be online once I get back to East and my beloved scanner. --RichardGarfinkel

Fricking ConcertChoir? performance... Just needed to get that out of my system. Hopefully they won't conflict again next year? --AdamField If they don't, it'll be the first time they haven't...

LOTRaThon 2004

Start: 5:00pm Friday, December 10th
End: on or around 10:00pm Sunday, December 12th.
Place: Big Beckman
Schedule: /2004Schedule

Anyone working on audio streaming this year? --MichaelVrable

Streaming is up for those on campus at rtsp://134.173.55.24/lotrathon.sdp. The stream has been tested using QuickTime? player on Mac and Windows. No word on whether it plays on Linux. Still need some headset mics.
If you have a headset microphone, please bring it before Fellowship starts!
EliBogart expressed some interest. Personally, I think he does enough as it is, but you might speak with him. --RichardGarfinkel
- I can't do it in time for the Hobbit. Possibly I'll try tomorrow night. --EliBogart
  - In fact, given that my OS does not recognize my sound card for reasons slightly beyond my ken, and I suspect I need a boot CD with a different kernel burned to persuade it, an object I lack the time and inclination to create this weekend, I withdraw my bid to stream audio, unless someone wants to loan me all weekend a linux machine which is not so compromised. -- EliBogart
    - Further updates: none of us bothered to make sure we had a machine accessible from the outside world. So on-campus streaming and recording could perhaps happen, but off-campus would require some effort, and at the moment I'm really not up for it. I encourage someone with more actual skills to take up this project.

I haven't signed up for chapters yet, but it occurred to me that perhaps (due to the apparently somewhat lessened interest from last year), maybe we should cut Hobbit this time? -ClayHambrick

For those who are not seniors: I suggest that next year, we cut '"Hobbit'' and use the extra time to skip the Timeslots of Death (4:00 - 8:00 AM). This isn't the first year we've had a dearth of awake people during that time. - StephGrush

LOTRaThon/AverageSchedule now has an expected schedule compiled from all 4 years. I also have data on average reading speed of various people (based on the pagination in Will's edition of the books, as it has page numbers that increase monotonically)--I haven't put it up, but I can if people are especially interested (summary: Robin is slow, Eli is fast).--MicahSmukler
- This year, at least, that was deliberate on my part. -- EliBogart
- Robin is slow because she reads Treebeard the way it was meant to be read. -- RichardGarfinkel
  - Interestingly, Robin is still slow even if Treebeard is neglected (albeit less so). Eli appearing fast was the result of a typo on my part; it looks like Vrable is actually the fastest of the reasonably frequent readers (unless there are other typoes I haven't caught; I don't have a good way of automating this bit of things yet, so this is quite possible...) Most people seem to cluster enough that dynamically updating estimated times based on who's reading is probably not particularly helpful.
- Hey now, there was no call for that. -- RobinBaur

LOTRaThon 2006

Start: 7:23pm Friday, March 31
End: estimated about 4pm Sunday, April 2
Place: Jacobs B136

Yes, it's here! This academic year, I'm shaking things up a bit and scheduling this for a weekend not before finals week. Instead, we'll be starting on March 31, 2006, Cesar Chavez Day. It's a three day weekend and everyone has hopefully gotten past all of their midterms. We'll also be leaving out The Hobbit this year, because I don't think we'll have the readers for it (if I hear lots of objections, this plan can be changed). The schedule listed below is the /2002Schedule, because it's the last schedule to not include The Hobbit, and I'm lazy. If you feel like being not lazy, feel free to adjust the times from /AverageSchedule to fit the start time of 7:00p. --RichardGarfinkel

I would totally read for The Hobbit. A lot. Probably not the entire thing, but... half? Anyway, a lot. -- HannahHoersting
I'd be up for Hobbit-reading as well. --MaxGibiansky

Is anyone willing to set up an audio stream? (More specifically, one that I can listen to--an Icecast/Shoutcast? Vorbis or MP3 stream.) I'll gladly offer assistance, but can't (for spatio-temporal reasons) be the one to actually run it. Though I will see if I can make it in person for some of the chapters... --MichaelVrable
- I've got a server that could do that, and I'd be happy to learn how Icecast works and set it up. Then we'd just need a computer with a mic on the scene. --BenJencks
  - I can probably dig up the Icecast configuration file I used for the server. That part wasn't too difficult; as I recall, the more difficult parts were on the laptop used for the actual audio recording. A couple of years ago, the only reliable way I found to update metadata during the stream involved feeding metadata on stdin, which meant that I hacked up a few scripts to output the right metadata to a file and have another program (piped to the recording application) write out the right data... I can dig those scripts up, too. Or someone can try to find a more elegant solution. --MichaelVrable
    - You may search for a more "elegant" solution, Vrable, but I was thoroughly impressed by the effectiveness of that year's setup. Have you managed to find the scripts? I wager they'd be much appreciated. --WillShipley
      - I've been delinquent in my duties, but have sent you (and Ben) an e-mail with the scripts. Not guaranteed to be understandable, but hopefully worth something. --MichaelVrable
        
        Has a laptop to hold the mic and stream source been found? I'd be happy to do the setup on it, Windows, Mac or *nix should be fine. If the docs on icecast.org are remotely accurate, there shouldn't be too much to do.
        
        StephGrush has volunteered a laptop. I've tested streaming from it, so it should work.
Ok, it looks like the stream is going to be at http://hera.st.hmc.edu:5269/lotr.ogg which should be available from off-campus.
- Nice. I'm back in California, and will probably give the stream a try tonight. Tomorrow I hopefully won't need it... --MichaelVrable
  - Yes, it's working. Thanks! --MichaelVrable
I just updated the times to match the /AverageSchedule ones. If anyone wants the spreadsheet I used to compute them, let me know; it's kind of messy, but adding to it is probably easier than starting over from scratch (especially since timing information for the 2001 LOTRaThon isn't actually on the Wiki anywhere). If you've signed up already, note that the new estimated times for most chapters are 30-60 minutes later than the old times were.--MicahSmukler
Could someone who knows what room has been reserved let the rest of us in on the location? -- EliBogart

Lord of the Rings begins: Fri 7:00p

0.0 (Fri 7:00pm/7:23pm) Introduction (Word auto-summary) --RichardGarfinkel

I.1 (Fri 7:09pm/7:25pm) A Long-Expected Party (AdamField) [Finished]
I.2 (Fri 8:01pm/???) The Shadow of the Past (MatthewLawson) [Finished]
I.3 (Fri 9:01pm/9:27pm) Three is Company (HilaryDavidson) [Finished]
I.4 (Fri 9:53pm/10:25pm) A Short Cut to Mushrooms (HilaryDavidson) [Finished]
I.5 (Fri 10:22pm/11:00pm) A Conspiracy Unmasked (BrianKirkpatrick) [Finished]
I.6 (Fri 10:48pm/11:27pm) The Old Forest (BenFogelson? - I'm probably gonna be able to do these. If not, I'll know soon and change it.)
- By which you mean, you'll know if you'll be able to talk for three and a half hours straight? I don't think you'll have much of a voice left after the third chapter or so, but if you think you can do it, go you. --RobinBaur
  - Well, I did debate in high school for three years and I'm used to speaking. I mean as long as I bring a glass of water I'll be fine. But I'm dropping three of the chapters for other reasons.
I.7 (Fri 11:23pm/11:58pm) In the House of Tom Bombadil (DavidLapayowker) [Finished]
I.8 (Fri 11:50pm/12:23am) Fog on the Barrow-Downs (BenFogelson?) [Finished]
I.9 (Sat 12:24am/12:56am) At the Sign of the Prancing Pony --RichardGarfinkel [Finished]
I.10 (Sat 12:56am/1:23am) Strider (StephGrush) [Finished]
I.11 (Sat 1:27am/1:53 am) A Knife in the Dark (BenFogelson?) [Finished]
I.12 (Sat 2:20am/2:37am) Flight to the Ford (BenFogelson?) [Finished]

II.1 (Sat 3:02am/3:16a) Many Meetings (StephGrush) [Finished]
II.2 (Sat 3:47am/4:05a) The Council of Elrond (JulieWortman, WillShipley, EliBogart) [Finished]
II.3 (Sat 5:15am/5:37a) The Ring Goes South (BrianKirkpatrick) [Finished]
II.4 (Sat 6:13am/6:35a) A Journey in the Dark (StephGrush - Contact me if you want this, I'm not sure I want to be up at 6-7AM)[Finished]
II.5 (Sat 7:14am/7:25a) The Bridge of Khazad-Dum (BrianKirkpatrick) [Finished]
II.6 (Sat 7:47am/8:17a) Lothlorien (WillShipley) [Finished]
II.7 (Sat 8:35am/9:20a) The Mirror of Galadriel (WillShipley) [Finished] (Sorry, Will! I was supposed to show up for this one, and I was up writing thesis until 6 a.m. and I completely forgot! Thanks for reading it. ScrippsieCypress)
II.8 (Sat 9:14am/10:05a) Farewell to Lorien (StephGrush) [Finished]
II.9 (Sat 9:47am/10:50am) The Great River (StephGrush) [Finished]
II.10 (Sat 10:25am/11:30am) The Breaking of the Fellowship (WillShipley) [Finished]

III.1 (Sat 11:06am/12:02pm) The Departure of Boromir --RichardGarfinkel [Finished]
III.2 (Sat 11:27am/12:24pm) The Riders of Rohan abandoned (was WillShipley) (still is WillShipley) [Finished]
III.3 (Sat 12:26pm/1:29pm) The Uruk-Hai (MartinPyne) [Finished]
III.4 (Sat 1:08pm/2:12pm) Treebeard (AdamField - I get to read my favorite chapter, finally!) [Finished, finally!]
III.5 (Sat 2:31pm/4:00pm) The White Rider (KevinOelze) [Finished]
III.6 (Sat 3:17pm/4:45pm) The King of the Golden Hall (DavidLapayowker) [Finished]
III.7 (Sat 4:12pm/5:36pm) Helm's Deep (RichardMehlinger) [Finished]
III.8 (Sat 4:50pm/6:17pm) The Road to Isengard (HilaryDavidson) [Finished]
III.9 (Sat 5:35pm/7:04pm) Flotsam and Jetsam (StephGrush) [Finished]
III.10 (Sat 6:18pm/7:42pm) The Voice of Saruman (BrianKirkpatrick) [Finished]
III.11 (Sat 6:53pm/8:14pm) The Palantir --RichardGarfinkel [Finished]

IV.1 (Sat 7:32pm/8:49pm) The Taming of Smeagol (KevinOelze) [Finished]
IV.2 (Sat 8:17pm/9:30pm) The Passage of the Marshes (MartinPyne) [Finished]
IV.3 (Sat 9:00pm/10:12pm) The Black Gate is Closed (MartinPyne - yay, lots of Gollum!) [Finished]
IV.4 (Sat 9:34pm/10:46pm) Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit (JulieWortman) [Finished]
IV.5 (Sat 10:06pm/11:22pm) The Window on the West (EliBogart) [Finished]
IV.6 (Sat 11:01pm/12:20am) The Forbidden Pool (DavidLapayowker) [Finished]
IV.7 (Sat 11:30pm/12:45am) Journey to the Crossroads (LindsayTice) [Finished]
IV.8 (Sat 11:55pm/1:06am) The Stairs of Cirith Ungol (DavidLapayowker) [Finished]
IV.9 (Sat 12:30am/1:40am) Shelob's Lair (LindsayTice) [Finished]
IV.10 (Sat 12:59am PST/3:10am PDT) The Choices of Master Samwise (KevinOelze) [Finished]

V.1 (Sun 1:32am PST/3:44am PDT) Minas Tirith (BrianKirkpatrick) [Finished]
V.2 (Sun 3:39am PDT/4:58am PDT) The Passing of the Grey Company (AndrewHunter) [Finished]
V.3 (Sun 4:30am/5:42am) The Muster of Rohan (MichaelVrable) [Finished]
V.4 (Sun 5:09am/6:22am) The Siege of Gondor (AndrewHunter) [Finished]
V.5 (Sun 6:08am/7:27am) The Ride of the Rohirrim (MichaelVrable) [Finished]
V.6 (Sun 6:32am/7:53am) The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (AndrewHunter) [Finished]
V.7 (Sun 6:59am/8:21am) The Pyre of Denethor (MichaelVrable) [Finished]
V.8 (Sun 7:19am/8:42am) The Houses of Healing (MichaelVrable) [Finished]
V.9 (Sun 7:52am/9:17am) The Last Debate (MichaelVrable) [Finished]
V.10 (Sun 8:19am/9:45am) The Black Gate Opens (BrianKirkpatrick) (actually MichaelVrable) [Finished]

VI.1 (Sun 8:47am/10:14am) The Tower of Cirith Ungol (RichardGarfinkel) [Finished]
VI.2 (Sun 9:36am/11:06am) The Land of Shadow (WillShipley) second time reading [Finished]
VI.3 (Sun 10:20am/11:54am) Mount Doom (StephGrush) [Finished]
VI.4 (Sun 11:01am/12:35-ish pm?) The Field of Cormallen (MatthewLawson) [Finished]
VI.5 (Sun 11:27am/1:02pm) The Steward and the King (RichardGarfinkel) [Finished]
VI.6 (Sun 12:04pm/1:44pm) Many Partings (EliBogart) [Finished]
VI.7 (Sun 12:49pm/2:21pm) Homeward Bound (HilaryDavidson) [Finished]
VI.8 (Sun 1:08pm/2:44pm) The Scouring of the Shire (HilaryDavidson) [Finished]
VI.9 (Sun 2:02pm/3:45pm) The Grey Havens (WillShipley, JulieWortman)

Finish: Sun 2:28pm/4:09pm

LOTRaThon 2005 [2006] Discussions

So, LOTRaThon 2004 definitely did not go optimally, what with four dropped chapters, low attendance, and no streaming. I'd like to do a little bit better next time around, and I've got some thoughts in mind, but I'd like some comments, especially while last weekend is fresh in our memories. --RichardGarfinkel

More publicity. A large number of usual readers are doing that whole graduation thing. This means that we'll be needing more readers. I'm talking about doing some postering, e-mail to students-l, etc, etc.
DOS funding. In making it a big, publicized event, get DOS to buy snacks, and possibly even pizza or something for dinners during the event.
Putting signups on their own, standalone Wiki. Part of the problem with signing up people outside the greater East community is the issue of spreading FunWiki at the same time. I mean, I don't think anybody thinks it's a good idea to send a link to FunWiki to students-l. In making a separate Wiki, external readers wouldn't have to go through a middleman and would just be able to sign up for a chapter.
Here's the big one: Move it to a different fucking weekend. I know, not having it conflict with the choir concert, heresy. But there are no LotR? movies coming out in December anymore, and the weekend before finals has a tendency to suck. I kinda like the idea of doing it Cesar Chavez weekend, after spring break when people have had a chance to recuperate and should hopefully have a workload on the lighter side. Comments?
- I definitely support the first three points, and think they are good steps towards making the LOTRaThon self-sustaining. I have always been fond of traditional date, though. (I doubt I would have managed to camp out for ~90% of LOTRaThons in the past had they not been the weekend before finals. I may be an unusual case, though.) --MichaelVrable
  - By unusual case, you mean the fact that you're a robot, right?
- Yes, yes, yes. I didn't read this year, and was saddened. But this was not a good weekend for me. --JiBB
New thought. There are trilogies other than LotR? (I know, blasphemy), and it might be a good idea to do a test run of some of these thoughts before running the next LOTRaThon. Compound this with the fact that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie comes out May 2005. I am vaguely considering running a HitchhikersGuideaThon? over Cesar Chavez weekend, complete with a public sign-up Wiki, maybe some DOS funding, and an audio stream. Are people interested?

I assume that this will now happen in Spring 2006, given that I'm writing this with two days left in the fall semester? --MartinPyne
- It could if someone organizes it. It certainly won't just happen on its own. --MichaelVrable (somewhat sad there was no LOTRaThon this year to come back to)
  - Stop whining, it's going to happen on Cesar Chavez Day weekend, because that's a less stupid time to have it. --RichardGarfinkel
    - Sorry, didn't intend to come across as whining. I would like to see the tradition continue--if it moves to a different date because that's better for more people, no complaints here. Let me know when it happens; perhaps I'll be able to make it for some of it. --MichaelVrable (doing my part to be a SketchyAlum??)

LOTRaThon 2006 Post-Mortem

Found book I have in my room a paperback copy of Fellowship of the Ring with a green cover that was left after the LOTRaThon. Whoever owns it; please contact me so I can give it back to you. While I'm on the subject, I have a hardcover copy of The Hobbit (with a stylized, green-heavy landscape as its dust jacket) that has been on my shelf since LOTRaThon 2004.

BrianYoung has claimed his copy of Fellowship. The copy of Hobbit, however, remains in my possession. --WillShipley

One more LOTRaThon down! While more successful than last year--we had streaming audio and all chapters taken--we certainly have room for improvement for next years. I'd like to open the table to discussion to what we can do (and in some cases should, must, or shall do) next year to MakeItEvenBetter!

First off, are people actually interested in doing the LOTRaThon again next year? Certainly it's for some a great experience and an excellent tradition; at the same time, Peter Jackson isn't acting as a shill for us anymore and we seem to be losing more readers to graduation and ream than we're gaining. (Zombie Vrable aside.) Is the LOTRaThon still sustainable, or is its age passing?
- I do agree with this point somewhat; it seems as though it really only seems to be going on for its own sake at this point. At any point when I was in the room, I saw at max 4 other people, most of whom were sleeping or who had a chapter coming up. Now, I don't know how many people were listening via stream, but unless the numbers are fairly substantial, it may be that this really isn't a tradition worth keeping. I like tradition as much as the next guy, but keeping it alive just because it's a tradition seems kind of silly and counter to the point. And as was said, there aren't any movies to keep the interest up. -- DavidLapayowker
- As a frosh, I'd be quite supportive of having LOTRaThon next year (to the point of helping to organize it if that became necessary). Per the statistics, there were quite a lot of frosh that read this year. --MartinPyne

Some statistics: of the 17 unique readers we had this year, 8 were frosh and 6 were either seniors or alums. Six readers read 5 or more chapters. In 2002, we had 24 unique readers, 4 of which read 5 or more chapters.

StephGrush and I read a combined total of 8 chapters between midnight and lunch on Saturday. AndrewHunter and MichaelVrable read 9 of the 10 chapters in Book 5 on Sunday morning; Vrable read the last 4 of those chapters consecutively. That's a lot of chapters and not a lot of people; I can't speak for anyone but myself, but given that Steph and I are graduating this year and Vrable's an alum, you may have problems finding people who are insane enough to want to do that to themselves to keep the mike from going dark. --WillShipley
- I'd have been quite happy to help out with Book 5 had I not had a TechReport due Monday, which ties into Will's point below. Although I'd concede that I'm insane. --MartinPyne
  - I felt really bad about abandoning Vrable after Pellenor fields, as it was clear he would have a long solo stretch, but at that point, I had gotten about 6 hr of sleep in the last 60, and needed to crash. I almost fell dead asleep while reading the Siege of Gondor. It would have been nice to have a few more people...even one. --AndrewHunter
    - No problem. Sleep is important. I at least had gotten a decent amount of sleep the previous night, and got a bit of rest before Book V started. The only real problem was that when you left, no one else had yet appeared. Ideally, we should have several extra people around at all times (possibly asleep) for emergencies like that, so that you could leave without any trouble at all. --MichaelVrable

Did the move to Cesar Chavez weekend help out the scheduling conflict? We didn't have to contend with finals and the choir concert, but we did lose people to essays, tech reports, and grad school visits.

Three suggestions from last year's LOTRaThon that were not implemented this year. Should we implement them next year?
- More publicity. A large number of usual readers are doing that whole graduation thing. This means that we'll be needing more readers. I'm talking about doing some postering, e-mail to students-l, etc, etc.
- DOS funding. In making it a big, publicized event, get DOS to buy snacks, and possibly even pizza or something for dinners during the event.
- Putting signups on their own, standalone Wiki. Part of the problem with signing up people outside the greater East community is the issue of spreading FunWiki at the same time. I mean, I don't think anybody thinks it's a good idea to send a link to FunWiki to students-l. In making a separate Wiki, external readers wouldn't have to go through a middleman and would just be able to sign up for a chapter.

Mad props to BenJencks for organizing the streaming audio year. Next year I'd like to improve the stream by using either Vrable's scripts from a couple years ago (2003?) or something similar. If I recall correctly, Vrable's scripts allowed the readers to very easily change the info tag on the stream, so the stream was always up-to-date with the chapter title and the name of the current speaker.
- I couldn't figure out how to get metadata to work with [Oddcast], the source client I used. Oddcast was the only free (in any sense) source client I could find for Windows, so I used it. I got metadata working just fine with IceS?, but that needs *nix on the computer in the reading room. The laptop we used didn't have a CD drive to boot a LiveCD?, so I used the only Windows tool I could find. If you want metadata next year, find a laptop with at least a CD drive, and possibly *nix.

Other awesome suggestions I heard:
- An AIM chatroom (or other chat client) for alums and other people listening in on the stream. One of the streaming computers in the room could be logged into the chat client, giving the listeners on the stream the chance to communicate with the readers. (I imagine everything from "Hee, Eomer sounds like a cowboy." to "Hey, the stream's dead! Is the mike off?!")
- A website portal for the LOTRaThon. Does not necessarily need to be on-campus, and could be run by an alum. Contains: a link to the audio stream, a link to the chatroom, the current schedule (see the "standalone Wiki" suggestion above), possible storage between years for necessary files like a to-do list for organizing the LOTRaThon, Micah's AverageSchedule? spreadsheet, or Vrable's metadata stream scripts.

Also, I really like the suggestion that we cut out the "dead" periods, from about 4-9 AM or so, when only the truly dedicated read. This ties into what I said above about it existing for its own sake. It seems that if people are sitting at the mike reading just so it would keep going, it seems to defeat the purpose. It would still make it end on Sunday (particularly if we started a little earlier), and would mean that we could camp out for more of it, and could listen to the best parts without throwing off sleep schedules. -- DavidLapayowker
- I'm completely agreed on this point. I enjoyed the parts I went to, and I enjoyed reading, but it takes a lot to lure me out of bed once 5 passes. --KevinOelze
  - I don't know if I buy this. It seems to me that while yes, it's a bit contrived, the point of this is to keep it going without stopping, and cutting the mornings defeats the purpose. --AndrewHunter
    - People (you and Will) keep saying that, but I don't like that there are some cool chapters that are always on the dead periods and therefore I'm always reading Moria to an empty room, when it's a nifty bit that people should come to. Anyway, is the point of the LotR?-a-thon to say "I participated in a nonstop reading of Lord of the Rings" or to actually hear Lord of the Rings read aloud (and be able to stay awake for most of it)? I may be weird, but I'm more in favor of the latter. There are awesome parts that I miss every single year, and I'm one of the more dedicated people. Also going away, though, so my opinion actually doesn't matter except for the feed ;) -Steph
    - I agree with my roomate here. It's cool to be able to say we read LOTR alound nonstop, BUT, there's no real point other than that. Let's get it DOS sponsored and cut out the dead hours. --RichardMehlinger

I'd like to suggest that we try next year (this year? Finals week?) the earlier suggested Hitchhiker's Trilogy (or maybe even all five?) marathon. It'd make a good change (fresh material) and has two advantages over LOTR: it is slightly cheaper^W shorter, and comes with Don't Panic on the front. Any takers? --AndrewHunter
- I think this idea was shot down because most people don't have nearly the sense of comedic timing necessary to pull it off, and it would just sound kind of stupid. I would personally love to have a HarryPotterAThon? stretching through the entirety of DeadWeek, but I'm also a complete nut about those books, and I don't know that we could get nearly enough readers. -- DavidLapayowker
  - I would gladly read for either Harry Potter or the Hitchhiker's Trilogy during dead week. --RichardMehlinger
  - You know, I'm still somewhat in favor of the EndersGameAThon idea... -AdamField
    - I dunno... [this interpretation] forever ruined EndersGame? for me. -AndrewFarmer
      - Not to exonerate Card completely, for his politics and philosophies are rather insane... but that article was just as on crack as Card's personal beliefs are. Ender is not Hitler, and Card - while I might disagree with him on just about every important belief he maintains - is very much not a fascist. And I'm not sure I trust someone who claims otherwise, to know what Card did or didn't write. Yay for (doubly) off-topic discussion! --AdamField

LOTRaThon 2010

Occurred on Cesar Chavez weekend, March 26-28. Seemed to be a success.--LauraPoindexter?

Any comments/memories, anyone?

ProfessorLynn? was awesome. She did voices for characters, and stayed later than me on Saturday night. -LauraPoindexter?

Schedule at /2010Schedule

LOTRathon 2014

Start: 9:00am Sunday, March 16, 2014 (hopefully)
End: 6:30pm Tuesday, March 18, 2014 (hopefully)
Place: Shanahan 1430(The new Auditorium)

This will be the first LOTRathon in the new building! It'd be great to get lots of alumni and people from other campuses. I'll be advertising it at Oldenborg to try to get every race in "The Council of Elrond" to be in a different language. Sign up at http://tinyurl.com/ndoxeuk

If you want to get involved this year, email me (Luckeymorgan@gmail.com)--MorganLuckey