As with every Member Spotlight, we want to know about what made someone join the Tower, and beyond that, how they found it in the first place. Azi says that he "first heard about TarValon.Net from the naming rights charity auction back in... ‘09? I had joined the site after my triumph, but didn’t go much farther than a few posts." He then tells us that at JordanCon II in 2010, he and Laura "didn't know anyone, except that Marty & Randah had offered to have dinner with us on the JordanCon forums.
While she may have joined the site in 2002, she wasn't raised to Accepted until May of 2006. When I asked her about the long gap, she had this to say: "Back in the day I didn't have internet at home and my access to the site was restricted to times I was in college. Later, we got dial up at home but it was nearly impossible to get a chance to be online for more than 20-30 mins as my Mam didn't like the phone tied up for that long and also there were eight people who wanted to use the computer (I'm the eldest of six kids).
Long and Checkered, Yup.
If you take a gander at his Who's Who page, you might notice a few things about Darim. One, he's been hanging around since 2002. Two, during that time he's held down quite a few jobs, from small to large: Art Museum Curator, Chat Operator, Moderator, Warder Councillor, Honor Guard, Captain of Recruits, Director of Community Development. (Going to apply for CC sometime, Darim? I don't think you've done enough yet!)
While Aran has been here for five years and most people have a least seen him, I thought I would still go back to the beginning and explore the background behind his interest in the Wheel of Time. When he was 14, his father brought him a set of books that included the Norwegian first part of the Lord of Chaos, book six in the series. “[He] read it, not really knowing what…was going on, but really liking the elements and style, so [he] kinda bugged [his] parents about finding the first book.
Did you know that the human eye can distinguish about 500 shades of gray? In addition, gray “is considered a color of compromise, perhaps because it sits between the extremes of black and white. Gray is a perfect neutral.” (source) I personally think the color gray shines, especially when talking about our very own Gray Ajah at TarValon.Net.
While he does possess one of the more complete Who’s Who pages, there was still a lot that we felt we could find out about this often-Councillor-to-the-Hall. I volunteered to go on this bear hunt, and found that he was more than willing to come out of the cave and talk awhile.
Editor's Note: As a twist, this month's Member Spotlight was pretty much handed to me fully formed. Instead of just answering the questions I asked of her, she researched our older Member Spotlights, decided what we wanted from the data, and did it herself. Because I think she did such an excellent job of it, I've decided to publish it in the entirety. So happy reading about this awesome woman! -Erin
I had a talk with Commander Euriel and some who know him best, to learn more about this august fellow. First, a little history: Euriel Than came to TarValon.Net in early 2008, and climbed the ranks to Recruit and then Soldier about as fast as one can. Then he seemed to pause, taking over a year to become Gaidin, and in that time flew over 13 hours to 8th Anni in Washington State. That piqued my curiosity; what was his experience as a solider here like?
Well, the more recent creations at least have been the work of the Department of Marketing, with Meilen Gevedon of the Blue Ajah in the lead as Director. Before she was Director of Marketing – before there even was such a department – she was the Visual Resource Lead, which means she was responsible for providing all graphics that the site required. Now she has, and I quote, "a bunch of crazy people who are fun to work with", and they're all contributing in various fashions.
