Written by My Middle-earth member, thechadillac.
Greetings community, this week I interviewed Jeff known as Cheeseshirecat on My Middle-Earth. Jeff is in his fourties and lives in Portland, Oregon. He studied film and animation in school and has worked as a freelance web designer for over a dozen years. Jeff added “The Web pays the bills but the life of a Hobbit is for me. I enjoy good food and particularly good drink and am an avid fan of making it all from scratch, be it beer, wine, cheese, bread, or what have you. Weather permitting I’m in my garden or tending to the woods around my little house, weather not permitting I’ll play my drums, read, sketch, watch a movie or 3 or as is a favorite pastime of mine, to day dream and laze about enjoying many a home made brew.”
Jeff then told me about how he came to be apart of MME. “I’ve always enjoyed on line communities and podcasts from the perspective of an outsider/lurker. I listened to all the Founders podcasts so came to My Middle-earth when it launched, but I lurked for quite awhile. The more I logged in, the more I explored My Middle-earth and the more I came to like what I saw and the people that were there. The common thread of a love of Tolkien and Middle-earth of course kept me feeling at home. Though I don’t comment often, I’ve greatly enjoyed many of the personal and LotRO themed blogs, the writing, occasional pieces of artwork and that My Middle-earth is an overwhelmingly friendly community. I’m a particular fan of the live interviews as I really enjoy hearing artists talk about their passions be it music, visual media, writing, etc..”
Many of us can be found playing on the Landroval server in Lord of the Rings Online, Jeff has more than one home or character for that matter. “For those that play LotRO you can find my namesake on Landroval, though she’s just a little Hobbit that doesn’t do much exploring outside of The Shire, her long lost cousin Febrithil (Hunter) is who you need to hunt down for questing. Meneldor is my LotRO home and where I’ve played for a couple years now. Yaam (Warden) is my main along with Pudgins (Minstrel), but I have one of every class though I seldom play any but my mains.”
I loved his response when asked what fictional character he admired. “My favorite fictional character always will be and always has been Treebeard. I read LotR when I was a kid and the image of a walking, talking tree (yes I know, not really a tree!) really struck a creative chord with me. Trees have always held great interest to me (they’re easily the main focus of my drawing as well as my burgeoning bonsai hobby) and suffice to say, I’m a tree hugger at heart.”
I had a great time getting to know Jeff this week, as a fellow Oregonian and Drummer, I felt a kindred spirit between us. I leave you with the closing statement of one Cheeseshirecat. “I have greatly enjoyed My Middle-earth and look forward to the few free moments I get to log in and poke around some and hope to enjoy the community for a very long time.”
