As you may have noticed, we have updated the forum software and along with it replaced the old skin design with a new one. If you notice any problems or errors please pm an admin.

For a short time, the website (not the forum) will be offline while we switch over to new software so bear with us while we work on the changes.

Thanks.

I like the new darkblue xmas skin
Request: would it be possible (in the near future) to have a choice of different skins for the board? I've always been using the MacOSX skin on the other boards so, maybe...

I want old muhq =[

it's possible to change back to the old skin?
i didn't find a skin menu yet .. :S

We can only run 1 skin because of the time needed to make modifications to each individual one. The original MuHQ skin is not available for this version of the forum software which is the reason we have changed it.

oh =/

colors are confusing me .. i guess i have to get used to it

Its very good as all work MuHQ do.
Good job guys!

i wish K2 was half as good as the MUHQ staff

I like new look
But i gona miss old one ;(

I think the new colors/looks very ugly

this new software/upgrade just like GMO forum which i never liked and always prefered muhq, the old muhq website one was more easy 2 use.

plz change back!

King Arthur and the "roots of troubles"

The traditional treatment of women in the Arthurian saga is interesting to note in its severity. Guinevere is an adulteress, Morgan Le Fay is a witch, Morgause is an incestuous schemer, and the Lady of the Lake is the leader of a terrible, backward pagan religion. This is, of course, the treatment that has been handed down to us from the medieval writers who gave us the Christian infusion that spawned the story of the Holy Grail. ffxi gil

　　But if we go back to the historical writers——the writers who were treating Arthur as a historical character, not a target for pious retribution or moral sermonizing; we find that women do, more or less, have quite an important role to play in the overall health and well-being of Arthur the King.

　　Inherent in this last statement is this feature of earlier stories: Arthur's story did not end badly. In the earliest of stories about Arthur the King, he wasn't even the Once and Future King. He was a great warrior and won many great victories. He was a great king who had a great queen, and they both ruled a great kingdom.

　　 maple story mesos,Arthur's queen didn't even have a name in the earliest of stories. She was simply the queen. But she didn't, as so many modern stories tell us, have a part in the downfall of the kingdom. Even Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the happier parts of his story, has Arthur and Ganhumara (his name for the queen) holding court in a great castle in a great city called the City of the Legions. (Geoffrey later gives Guinevere a bad name, but she is all that glitters when the story opens.)

　　Also showered with the light of good in earlier stories is Morgan Le Fay. In the earliest of the Cornwall stories, Morgan is the Queen of Lyonesse, where Arthur is taken after his final battle. Morgan is the leader of a group of healers, all women, who will undoubtedly heal Arthur. It is perhaps out of this part of the story that William of Malmesbury crafted his vision that Arthur would come again. (William, you will remember, is the first one to mention that Arthur's grave has not been found; even though he says nothing more, he gives a strong hint that the Once and Future King part of the legend has begun.) wow gold

　　The Lady of the Lake as well fares rather better in the older stories. She it was who gave Arthur his first sword. She it is who is guardian of the old ways, the ways from which comes much of the magic of the original Arthurian stories. The Christian writers wanted to make Arthur a Christian king, and they didn't want any other religions getting in the way of this. Naturally, they made the Lady of the Lake a questionable character solely because of her "religious" ways.

　　The question then becomes one of why. Why do the women come off so bad in medieval stories? What happened to make the writers change their image of people who were so vital to the story? The answer probably lies in the spiritual realm and its resulting scriptures. The same writers who were reading the Bible and discovering that Eve was responsible for all the world's problems probably thought that they should blame Guinevere for all of Arthur's problems. Why did Arthur have a bastard son in the first place? wow gold, Because the scheming Morgause tricked him into it. Why did Morgan Le Fay hate Arthur so? Because she was jealous of the magic wielded by Merlin, Arthur's advisor. Why was the Lady of the Lake suddenly to be reviled, not revered? Because she was the head of a religion that medieval writers didn't understand or want to understand. The teachings of the Bible were such that one religion was possible (in the minds of these writers); anything else was unacceptable. (It must be said here that Arthur, Lancelot, and all the rest of the male characters take quite a beating at the hands of the medievalists as well. The whole story becomes a morality play from which only Galahad, the purse and chaste, emerges unscathed. Arthur and Lancelot, the perfect king and the perfect knight, are undone by their shared imperfect morality.)

　　ffxi gil, The result is that in the modern tales, women are still pretty much blamed for Arthur's troubles. Arthur's dallying with Morgause has come to be seen as something akin to the Adam and Eve story. Lancelot's love for the queen has come to be seen as equal in its devastation to the queen's own adulterous actions (that is to say, it's the woman's fault). Morgan Le Fay is reviled as a witch who wants nothing more than to ruin the kingdom of the wonderful Arthur. And the Lady of the Lake recedes ever further into the background. (Some traditions hold that she is Nimue, whose claim to "fame" is that she enchants Merlin into submission and takes him from Arthur when Arthur needs him most.)

　　If you want to role-play in Arthur's world, you'd better choose a male character. At least people will feel sorry for you. aion gold

Jacob Have I Loved
Our story is called Jacob Have I Loved ,by Katherine Paterson. It received the Newbery Award for the best book written for young people in the United States. The story takes place on Rass Island in the Chesapeake Bay along the eastern coast of the United States, near Maryland and Virginia. The story is told by Sara Louise Bradshaw, a 13-year-old girl who lives with her parents and her twin sister Caroline. Here is Gwen Outen with the story.
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Rass Island lies as low as the back of a turtle on the dark green water of the Chesapeake Bay. We Bradshaws have lived here for more than two hundred years. I love Rass Island although for much of my life I did not think I did.

During the summer of 1941, every morning McCall Purnell and I would get my small boat and go out to catch shellfish called crabs. Watermen on our island sell crabs and eat crabs. Call and I were right smart crabbers and we could always come home with a little money as well as crabs for dinner. My mother was pleased with money I made.

"My!" she said, "that was a good morning. By the time you wash , we'll be ready to eat!" I like the way she did that. replica rolex,She never said I was dirty or that I smelled bad. Just by the time you wash up.

She was a real lady my mother, she had come to teach in the island school and fell in love with my father. What my father needed more than a wife was sons. What my mother gave him was girls--twin girls! I was older than my sister by a few minutes. I always treasure the thought of those minutes. They were the only time in my life when I was the center of everyone's attention. From the moment Caroline was born, she took all the attention for herself. When my mother and grandmother told the story of our births, it was mostly of how Caroline had refused to breathe.

"But where was I?" I asked my mother. replica rolex,
"In the basket," she said, "Grandma dressed you and put you in the basket."

Caroline's true gift was her voice. Our teacher, Mr. Rice, said she should have singing lessons. I was proud of my sister, but something began to hurt me under the pride.

One day, Mama and Caroline came back to the island on a boat after Caroline’s singing lesson. There was an old man on the boat whom I'd never seen before. Our island held few secrets or surprises beyond the weather. But all the old people agreed that he was Hiram Wallace . My friend Call and I started visiting Hiram Wallace. We decided simply to call him the Captain.

The Captain stayed at our house when the big storm hit in 1942. Afterward, we took my little boat heading straight for the Captain's house. But nothing was left at the spot where the Captain's house had stood the night before. Even with his white beard the Captain looked like a little boy trying not to cry.
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Not long after that, the Captain married Trudy Braxton who lived on the island. She was not well and did not live long. Soon the Captain came up the path to our house, his face red with excitement. He told my mother and me that Trudy left a little money. ''There is enough for Caroline to go to boarding school in Baltimore, Maryland and continue her music.'' said the Captain.

I sat there as surprised as if he had thrown a rock in my face! ''Caroline!''

My grandmother came up close behind me. I stiffened at the sound of her hoarse whisper. ''Romans 9-13,'' she said. She repeated the saying from the Christian Bible about the competition between two brothers for their father's love. ''Jacob Have I Loved, but Esau have I hated''.

I had always believed the Captain was different. But he, like everyone else, had chosen Caroline over me.

In the autumn I left school, I spent the winter catching oysters, another kind of shellfish, with my father. That strange winter with my father on his boat was the happiest of my life. I was, for the first time, deeply satisfied with what life was giving me. Part of it was the things I discovered. Who would have believed that my father sang while catching oysters! My quiet father whose voice could hardly be heard in church sang to the oysters! It was a wonderful sound!
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I did not want to go back to school, so my mother taught me at home. I passed the test for graduation with the highest grades recorded from Rass Island.

The war in Europe ended in 1945. At the end of crab season Call came home from the war. The body of a large man in uniform was filling the door.
''Call,'' I cried, ''Oh my blessed Call, you have grown up!'' ''That's what the navy promised,'' he said.

Call told the Captain he had stopped to see Caroline. His face burned with happiness when he told the Captain ''She said YES to me,'' he said softly, ''I guess it is hard for you to think someone like Caroline might like me.''

I went back to the crab house. Soon after Call and Caroline were married, the Captain said to me, ''This is hard for you, isn't it? What is it you really want to do?''

I was totally empty. What was it I really wanted to do?

''Your sister knew what she wanted,'' said the Captain, ''so when the chance came she could take it. Do not tell me no one ever gave you a chance, Sara Louise. You can make your own chances. But first you have to know what you are after, my dear.''

''I would like to see the mountains,'' I said, and then my dream began to form along with the sentence, ''I might, I want to be a doctor.''

''So what is stopping you?'' the Captain asked.
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I realized that under all my dreams of leaving home, I was afraid to go. My mother had told me that she had chosen to leave her people and build the life for herself somewhere else. ''I certainly would not stop you from making the same choice,'' my mother said to me now, ''but all we will miss you, your father and I.''

I wanted so to believe her, ''As much as you miss Caroline?''

Jacob Have I Loved