Long, lazy meals by the sea, complemented by wide smiles. By Tatyana Leonov.
Together with executive chef Jona Ravasakula, Talala crafts a variety of traditional dishes at Yasawa Island Resort and Spa (yasawa.com) and comes up with innovative meal concepts. The enticing menu at this tranquil resort is on a 10-day rotation – more than 50 different main course recipes are prepared over the span of 10 days. And guests are never limited to three-course meals. "If a guest wants three desserts, that's fine, or even five – it's all inclusive here," Talala says, gazing out at the waves gently rippling against the powdery white-sand beach – a scene straight out of a honeymoon catalogue.
Yasawa Island Resort and Spa is the only resort on the idyllic Yasawa Island, the biggest island in the Yasawa archipelago (a chain of volcanic islands stretching 80 kilometres in the Western Division of Fiji). It's a wonderful showcase of just how good food in Fiji can be. Guests come to unwind and eat to their heart's content.
Fijian food is the unscripted sum total of absorbed influences from different ethnicities arriving in Fiji at various times throughout history. The Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians came first, and then the Indians, Europeans and Chinese travelled to this island country. Some stayed, some departed, but everyone left behind a splash of their culinary practices.
At resort restaurants, you'll find Western, Eastern and fusion dishes all on offer, but the constant is the produce, mostly from Fiji. Island resorts like Yasawa work with local fishermen and farmers to harvest organic, fresh food. Many mainland resorts grow herbs and vegetables in gardens and get other produce from markets.
The daily Nadi produce market is where to go to get a sense of what's in season. Unlike countless markets around the globe, it's not frantic or noisy – a nod to the relaxed Fijian culture.
Hawkers convene on the ground, casually chitchatting with each other, their fruits and vegetables tidily bundled together – finger eggplants with a deep purple lustre, sweet papayas, plump mangoes, red and green chillies, plenty of coconuts and more. In the seafood section, fishermen hawk the daily catch: wild-caught fish, pipis, clams and lobster.
At Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa (sofitel. com/gb/hotel-5706-sofitel-fiji-resort-and- spa/index.shtml) on bustling Denarau Island, French chef Jean-Marc Ruzzene uses fresh-picked herbs and vegetables from the restaurant garden, local seafood, and some imported produce when the dishes call for specifics (like lamb, which comes from Australia or New Zealand). "It's about supporting Fiji and forming the best possible flavours," he explains as he strolls into the elegant V Restaurant.
Local chefs in Fiji work hard to stand out. Some jazz up their dishes with an assortment of garnishes for visual oomph, while others let the flavours do the talking. There's no right or wrong – just the desire to create dishes that dazzle.
Every October, young chefs from all over Fiji gather in Nadi for the three-day Moffat Culinaire Salon, a prestigious internationally judged competition. Last year, four chefs from Peter Kuruvita's Flying Fish restaurant at the Sheraton Fiji Resort (sheratonfiji.com) walked away with medals. Gold medals went to Akshay Kumar for 'Static Main Course' and Munish Rahul for 'Live Beef Dish', and silver medals went to Sumeet Chandra for 'Live Salad' and 'Live Curry' and to Ashnil Kumar for 'Live Dessert'. Even the category names are imaginative and point to Fiji's desire to learn, to grow, to astound.
The head chef at Flying Fish, Pawel Klodowski (who hails from Poland), can't wipe the wide grin off his face when he chats about his staff. "They are amazing. Without them, there would be no Flying Fish," he gushes, gazing at the superbly situated waterfront restaurant. Inside, staff members whizz past guests and distribute aromatic dishes, cheerful diners savour both the food and the view, while chefs smile, knowing that their handiwork is being appreciated.
In Nadi, at Tata's Restaurant (tatasrestaurant.blogspot.com), chefs also smile as they work – a Fijian trademark. Owner and restaurant manager Dinesh Pillay started his fast food empire by the side of a road with just a few wobbly tables under a corrugated tin roof. Hetalked to customers to gauge their palate, practised, cooked more and cooked better. Today, Dinesh owns three Tata's restaurants and serves up some of the best South Indian cuisine in the country. Locals and travellers alike gather here and order colourful curries that they mop up with crisp, freshly baked roti bread. And they smile – like everyone does in Fiji.
1 Kava ceremony: A kava ceremony holds great significance in Fijian culture (historically kava was drunk at religious events or when esteemed guests visited), and Fijians by nature are welcoming and happy to share their culture. Creative Holidays (creativeholidays.com) specialises in customised Fijian holidays and offer a cave tour that includes a visit to a small village where guests can join a local family in a kava ceremony.
2.Lovo: Fish, vegetables and meat are cooked in an underground oven, which is basically a hole in the ground lined with fire-lit coconut husks and covered by stones. Customarily, lovo was prepared for communal celebrations, such as weddings and festivals. Today however, many resorts hold special lovo nights so that guests can sample this special traditional dish.
3. Kokoda:Fresh white fish (usually mahi-mahi or snapper) is marinated in coconut milk and spices. Most resorts offer kokoda. Fijians love it; it's healthy and a great showcase of local seafood.


Edgewood NM has great schools, Great affordable housing and you can feel like your in the country and minutes away from Albuquerque. The Town's commercial zoning district, part of which is located along the longest remaining stretch of historic Route 66, is home to supermarkets, national drug store chains, several modern service stations, fast-food and full-service restaurants, banks, professional offices, dental and medical practices, an automobile dealership, and a variety of shops, lodging opportunities, and other businesses. Edgewood's close proximity to technology-oriented assets such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Sandia Laboratories Corridor (Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Sandia Technology Park) make it an ideal location for technology and professional services enterprises.


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Healy és un cràter d'impacte que es troba més enllà de l'extrem nord-oest de la Lluna, a la cara oculta del satèl·lit. Està situat al sud-est de la plana emmurallada del cràter Landau, i a l'oest de Lorentz, una altra plana emmurallada.

La vora de Healy està poc desgastada, amb un petit cràter incrustat en el seu costat nord-est. Les parets internes i el sòl manquen de trets distintius, sense impactes ressenyables.

Cràters satèl·lit
Per convenció, aquests elements s'identifiquen als mapes lunars col·locant la lletra al costat del punt mitjà del cràter que està més pròxim a Healy.

Referències

Quadrangle LQ06
Cràters de la Lluna

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


9.50 & 9.55am 10 mins and 5 mins warning bells – NO entries can be accepted after judging starts at 10.00am.
5.45 – 6.30pm Entrants may remove their produce and exhibits which are not to be included in the auction.
8pm Marquee closed, Hall closed. Live music in the beer tent.
All timings are approximate and may change during the day.
For on-the-day information about entertainments, full list of stalls and any changes to scheduled events, please refer to the FREE PROGRAMME which will be available at the entry gate, in the village hall and at the Raffle tent.
Starting at 7.00pm in the marquee, it will be your chance to bid for a bag of home grown or home-made produce, kindly donated at the end of the show, by many generous exhibitors. Expert auctioneer, Mr Nick Cragg, has agreed once again to run the auction and try to keep order! Please come and bid at this fun event. Even if you leave the showground to return home, re-entry is free and you could bag some great prize winning fruit and vegetables, a selection of cakes, handmade bread, home-made wine or bunches of gorgeous flowers. ….and, of course, a marrow!!
Nick Cragg gives his time for free at the produce auction – which is hugely appreciated by the Show Committee. Nick is a chartered surveyor, and is head of Country Property, based in Chipping Sodbury, which specialises in selling, managing and letting properties in and around South Gloucestershire.
In June this year, Nick was the guest auctioneer at a Charity Auction organised by Chipping Sodbury Rotary Club. Almost two hundred people bid for 60 lots, which varied from home–made marmalade to champagne and flutes, courtesy of Prince Charles. The event raised £10,000 for the Southmead Hospital prostate Cancer Care Appeal.


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History & Overview
Haldimand Chapter
Individual Giving Options
Reasons to Volunteer
New Volunteer (Register Here)
Existing Volunteer (Login & Postings)
Group Build Day Opportunities
Home Build Program
Our Development Model
Habitat Hamilton Homeowners
Current & Planned Home Builds
Our Future Sherman Build
Apply for a Home
Donate Skilled-Labour, Material or Land
About the Hamilton ReStore
Donate Product
Kitchen Salvage Program
Habitat Hamilton Hands Over Keys to the Waterdown Townhomes
(August 21, 2019—Hamilton, ON) – This Friday marks the completion of another successful home build for Habitat for Humanity Hamilton. Three Habitat homeowner families will officially receive their keys, and their mortgages, to their new homes this Friday. The perfect way to kick off a new school year!
The townhome is Habitat Hamilton's first build in the Flamborough region, located in a beautiful neighbourhood, conveniently located close to the public library, grocery stores, pharmacies and parks.
Home title sponsor, Mikmada Homes, has been an incredible supporter of Habitat Hamilton during this home build. Mikmada provided site supervision as well as access and support from its industry partners. Beyond the significant support from Mikmada Homes, Habitat Hamilton also secured a very large donation from the REALTORS Association of Hamilton-Burlington, whose members fundraised over $77,000 for the build. Other major donors ($10,000+) for the Waterdown Townhome Build include Excel Heating and Air Conditioning, Genworth Canada, CGC Inc., Dulux Paints, Quality Sterling Group, and the Rotary Club of Waterdown.
"I'm very delighted that our Waterdown Townhome Build is now complete and that we'll be able to watch three families' lives change, for the better, upon receiving the keys to their new homes," says Sean Ferris, Habitat Hamilton's Executive Director. "We owe much thanks to our community of volunteers and supporters, for helping us build strength, stability and self-reliance through homeownership, here in the Flamborough region."
Habitat Hamilton's three homeowner families were selected based on each family's level of need, their willingness to partner and their ability to pay an interest-free and geared-to-income mortgage. Our new homeowner families have also completed 500 hours of volunteer support with Habitat Hamilton.
Irene, Francis and their two children are one of three homeowner families designated to move into the Waterdown townhomes. The family currently lives in a local apartment building, but their space is overcrowded, making it an unsuitable fit for the family. Already Waterdown residents, Irene and Francis are happy that their children will be able to attend the same school, especially their eldest son, whose school accommodates his special needs. Remaining in his school's catchment area means he will be able to continue to receive an education at his current school, which is a great reassurance to his parents. This family of four can't wait to move into their new home, start a vegetable garden, and have enough space for the kids to have their own rooms.
Mike and Anita, are the grandparents and guardians of three children, all of whom are very happy to become new Waterdown residents and homeowners. The couple are the embodiment of selflessness, currently sleeping in the living room of their rented apartment so their grandkids can have the bedrooms. Mike and Anita are looking forward to becoming homeowners, which they say has been a lifelong dream. The opportunity to be Habitat Hamilton homeowners solidifies their belief that if you work hard enough, opportunities will come your way.
"We're very excited to hand over the keys this Friday to three Habitat homeowners, capping off our inaugural build in Waterdown," says Habitat Hamilton Board Chair, Tom Vert. "I have been fortunate enough to take part in many home sale celebrations throughout my three years on the board, but I never get used to the heart warming and fulfilling feeling of knowing a family's life will be forever changed. Seeing the faces of young people light up when they see their new homes, while knowing the parents or guardians will be able to afford their mortgage, is priceless."
This week's Home Sale Celebration will take place on Friday, August 23rd, at 10:00am, at 10 Dennis Avenue, Waterdown. Media are welcome to attend, with photo and interview opportunities available.
About Habitat for Humanity Hamilton
Founded in 1991, Habitat for Humanity Hamilton is an independent, not-for-profit housing program that builds strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. Habitat Hamilton has accommodated 29 Habitat homeowner families locally (including the Waterdown homeowners), since its incorporation, and is one of Habitat Canada's fastest growing affiliates, with several builds and developments forthcoming. For more information, please visit www.habitathamilton.ca.
Sean Ferris, Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity Hamilton
Email: sean@habitathamilton.ca
Habitat Hamilton Hands Over Keys to the Waterdown Townhomes2019-08-212019-08-21/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/habitat-for-humanity-hamilton-logo.pngHabitat For Humanity Hamiltonhttp://habitathamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/in-the-am.jpg200px200px
Habitat for Humanity Hamilton and Government of Canada making Homeownership more Accessible for Black Families
Habitat Hamilton Announces Affordable Homeownership Partnership with CMHC
Habitat Hamilton hands over the keys (and mortgage) to its newest Beach Community homeowner
Habitat for Humanity Hamilton & the Hamilton ReStore
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The Hamilton ReStore Opens Online Store for Contactless Curbside Pickup
Gifting Build Materials to our Home Build ProgramNews
Legacy Build Casino Night set to raise funds for Habitat Hamilton's next home buildNews

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App Development & Design
App Monetization
Cost per Install: The Pricing Model Every App Marketer Should Know
Mobile App Marketing Strategies, Distribution & Promotion
Peter Kua
What Is Cost per Install?
Factors That Affect CPI
How Do You Calculate Cost per Install?
Cost per Install Formula
What Is a CPI Campaign?
CPI vs Other User Acquisition Costs
Key CPI Stats to Know in 2020
General Cost per Installs Statistics
Global Average CPI for Android and iOS Apps
Average CPI by Region
CPI for Android Apps
Average CPI by Country
Top 10 Cost per Install by Country and Category
CPI for iOS Apps
Factors to Consider While Choosing a CPI Network
1. Category
2. Coverage
Top CPI Networks in 2020
1. Google Ads
2. Facebook Ads
3. Twitter Ads
4. Snapchat Ads
5. Pinterest App Pins
6. Tapjoy
7. InMobi
8. Chartboost
9. Smadex
10. PubMatic
11. Headway
12. AppLovin
13. Applift
14. AdColony
15. AppBrain
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is a crucial metric that can cause nightmares to app marketers. If CAC is equal to or higher than the lifetime value of the acquired user, it means the app marketing strategies have a negative return on investment (ROI).
Higher CAC does more harm than good and means it costs more to acquire a user than the total revenue the same user will contribute during their entire association with the app.
While spending on app install ads, advertisers have numerous pricing models to choose from. They can follow cost per mille (CPM) if they wish to pay for every thousand impressions their ad receives or cost per click (CPC) if they want to pay for each click the ad gets.
Out of these, one of the best pricing models is the cost per install (CPI). As the name suggests, you have to pay only when a user successfully installs your app. In this article, we'll dig deeper into CPI, look at the average rates around the world, and see whether it's the best pricing model ever or not.
Image Credit: phunware.com
Cost per install or CPI for short is a pricing model used while running app user acquisition campaigns for mobile apps. It is safe to say that CPI is used only in the mobile apps business as the advertisers are charged when a user installs an application.
Since the advertisers have to pay only when users install their apps, the ad publishers or ad networks will be forced to serve the advertisement to the right target audience and in places where the conversion rates are the highest.
And as expected, CPI is usually higher than other pricing models as the action is highly specific and could be even as high as US$3.
Ad network
We'll discuss how these factors affect CPI in a bit.
CPI is calculated by dividing the total ad spend within a specific time period by the number of new app installs from the advertisement within the same time period. Here's the formula for calculating CPI.
Cost per Install = Ad spend / Number of new installs from an ad.
For example, if you spend US$1000 on app install ads and gather 200 new installs, then the cost per install would be calculated as, CPI = US$1000 / 200, which is equal to US$5.
CPI campaigns are those marketing campaigns that use cost per install as their pricing model. In a CPI campaign, digital ads will be placed by publishers across multiple platforms in order to drive installs of the advertised mobile app.
However, many app marketers are still sceptical about CPI being the holy metric for measuring app marketing success. That's because installing an app alone won't do the trick – instead, users need to engage, retain, and perform the desired in-app actions. Only then can mobile app developers or businesses profit from their creation.
The same is not true for paid apps as users will have to pay to install the app in the first place. In that case, developers would have already reaped profits, and it wouldn't make much difference if they uninstall the app.
Since more than 90% of apps available in both the App Store and Google Play are free, users will have to engage, watch in-app ads or perform specific in-app actions for the developers to gain profit.
In a simpler sense, app cost per install can be viewed as a pricing model that introduces users to an app and successfully makes them install it. Among all the other pricing models that require advertisers to pay when users install and perform a specific action, CPI is the most cost-effective.
To put that in perspective, the average cost to acquire a user who would make a purchase in an iOS app is US$87.31.
Global average mobile app user acquisition costs. Image Credit: statista.com
Looking at other acquisition pricing models will give you a better understanding of why CPI is one of the best models available. Of course, there are numerous pricing models that are superior to CPI and require advertisers to pay only when a specific, desired action is performed. Let's take a look at some of them.
Cost per mille (CPM) – Advertisers pay a fee for every thousand impressions an advert receives.
Cost per click (CPC) – Advertisers pay a charge for every click an ad gets.
Cost per action (CPA) – Advertisers pay a fee if a user performs a particular in-app action after viewing the advertisement.
Cost per registration (CPR) – Advertisers pay a fee for every user who registers for the app after viewing an advert.
Cost per subscription (CPS) – Advertisers pay a cost for every user who subscribes to the app or a feature after viewing an ad.
The average CPI across the world is US$2.24. Of course, this figure takes into account multiple parameters such as region, platform, and devices. Let's take a look at some of the cost per install statistics around the world.
Average CPI on Search Ads is US$1.
The average cost per install on Facebook Ads is US$1.8.
Average CPI on Instagram Ads is US$2.23.
Average CPI on Twitter Ads is US$2.53.
Image Credit: statista.com
The global average CPI for iOS apps is US$0.86. Whereas, the global average CPI for Android apps is US$0.44. The massive difference between CPI rates of both the dominant mobile operating systems is probably because of the number of users each OS has.
Since the number of Android users are more than the number of residents in China – the most populous country in the world – it makes sense that acquiring an iOS user will be more challenging and hence expensive.
Region CPI (USD)
North America US$2.59
South America US$0.75
Africa, Europe, and Northern Asia US$2.46
Southern Asia and Australia US$1.22
CPI by territory. Image Credit: adparlor.com
Take a look at the average CPI for Android apps across different countries.
Country CPI (USD)
United States US$1.20
United Kingdom US$0.80
Canada US$0.73
Australia US$0.90
Switzerland US$0.78
Japan US$1.48
China US$0.22
Germany US$0.52
Italy US$0.22
France US$0.49
Thailand US$0.10
South Africa US$0.40
Sweden US$0.43
New Zealand US$1.00
Norway US$0.78
Egypt US$0.06
Denmark US$0.75
Puerto Rico US$0.19
Brazil US$0.09
Peru US$0.11
Country Action Advent. Casino Educ. Family Music Puzzle
Macau US$2.40 US$1.54 US$3.54 US$0.70 – – US$2.49
Japan US$2.01 US$2.37 US$2.59 US$1.09 US$1.58 US$1.02 US$1.77
Australia US$1.29 US$1.47 US$2.72 US$1.10 US$2.33 US$1.57 US$2.15
Norway US$1.50 US$1.65 US$2.09 US$1.15 US$1.84 US$0.70 US$1.69
Switzerland US$1.39 US$2.06 US$1.59 US$1.11 US$1.47 US$0.34 US$2.03
Iceland US$1.17 US$0.18 US$1.49 US$0.49 US$1.40 – US$1.50
Denmark US$1.12 US$2.29 US$1.89 US$0.98 US$0.62 – US$2.11
Singapore US$1.38 US$0.78 US$3.45 US$0.74 US$0.45 – US$1.14
New Zealand US$1.05 US$1.85 US$3.06 US$0.82 US$0.85 US$0.63 US$1.75
United Kingdom US$1.12 US$1.61 US$1.70 US$1.06 US$1.30 US$1.07 US$1.68
Take a look at the average CPI for iOS apps across different countries.
Northern Mariana Islands US$3.03 US$0.35 US$0.37 US$1.50 US$0.60 – US$1.42
Canada US$1.68 US$2.64 US$3.84 US$1.74 US$2.01 US$1.52 US$2.79
Saint Vincent and The Grenadines US$0.35 US$0.25 US$1.93 – – – US$0.28
Germany US$1.66 US$2.59 US$2.82 US$1.51 US$1.49 US$1.55 US$2.66
United States US$1.51 US$1.91 US$4.18 US$1.26 US$2.54 US$1.40 US$4.45
American Samoa US$1.14 – – – – – –
Austria US$1.53 US$1.99 US$0.85 US$1.29 US$1.33 US$0.69 US$2.22
An ad network is a company that connects advertisers with publishers. If you're a publisher, you can use ad networks to place your app install ads on other websites or apps. Google AdMob is an excellent example of an ad network.
Let's take a look at some of the critical factors you need to consider while choosing an advertising network that lets you run app install ads with the CPI model.
Since the majority of apps in both the app stores are gaming apps, the majority of ad networks you consider will have most of their ad spaces for in-game advertising. If you're marketing a mobile game app, then advertising inside games will be favourable.
But if you're running app install ads for productivity or educational apps on game apps, then it may not be beneficial. As a rule of thumb, fully understand your app's target audience and choose the CPI networks with the app categories your potential users are more likely to use.
Again, you must consider those ad networks that serve ads in regions where your target audience lives. Additionally, you must also find the ad formats (banner, video, interstitial, and more) your potential users interact with the most and choose the CPI networks that offer those formats.
Lower customer acquisition cost is an app marketer's dream come true. But going behind the cheapest may do more harm than good. You must make sure the CPI network is known to deliver high-quality users that will engage and retain with your app for long. If a user installs the app and immediately churns, all your efforts will become futile.
Although the cost per install for mobile apps is currently considered as a vanity metric by many, it still is a better pricing model as opposed to CPM or CPC as there is at least the assurance that a user has installed your app.
If you want to pay only when a user performs a specific action such as in-app purchases, signing up for a subscription, or buying a product, you can always go for the cost per action model. But CPA is incredibly expensive as compared to CPI and may exhaust your ad budget in no time.
Also, the cost of any user acquisition campaign you run will depend on the advertising network you choose. Make sure you find the best CPI networks that fit your budget and succeed in delivering customers with high lifetime value.
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Frequent App Updates Prevents Hedonic Adaptation And Keeps User Happiness Elevated
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The Cost of Developing a Mobile App in 2020
10 Incredible App Install Ads That Drive User Acquisition
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Mongabay Series: Indonesian Palm Oil
RSPO accused of letting palm oil firm proceed with dodgy audits in Papua
by Alice Cuddy on 14 April 2017 |
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is the world's largest association for ethical production of the commodity, found in everything from chocolate to makeup and laundry detergent.
The RSPO's credibility rests on the quality of its system for ensuring its member companies actually adhere to its standards.
Two years after the RSPO finally acknowledged deficiencies in its certification system, observers say the organization has done little to follow up on its commitment to address the issue.
The world's flagship certification body for the palm oil sector is undermining its own standards for plantation developments, according to a group of leading environmental and indigenous rights NGOs, who say the value of the organization is increasingly in question.
Greenpeace, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Pusaka and the Forest Peoples Programme have criticized the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for allowing a member to post public notification of new planting plans, despite knowing it hadn't met the required standards set by the body.
New Planting Procedure (NPP) documents submitted by PT Nabire Baru, a subsidiary of Singapore-based palm oil company Goodhope Asia Holdings, for plantation development in West Papua are "incomplete, substandard, insufficient, and in places factually untrue," the coalition say.
Among issues reportedly highlighted by the NPP documents are extensive illegal development and ongoing non-compliance with RSPO rules.
The issues highlight "failings by the certification body BSI which approved sub-standard NPP documents for submission to the RSPO, and the subsequent failings of the RSPO Secretariat to prevent the publication of the NPP notification on its website," the NGOs said in a recent letter to the RSPO's Board of Governors.
Goodhope, an arm of Sri Lanka's Carson Cumberbatch, has already been linked to environmental and human rights abuses in Indonesia, including complaints last year that Nabire Baru grabbed land from an indigenous community in Papua.
The NGOs say the NPP submission sheds light on "fundamental failings" within an organization created to promote sustainability in an industry dogged by such issues, and are calling for "robust" action against the Secretariat, which handles the day-to-day running of the RSPO.
A worker on an oil palm plantation on Indonesia's main western island of Sumatra. As the industry runs out of land in the country's western and central regions, it is increasingly expanding eastward into Papua. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay
The RSPO confirmed to Mongabay that its Secretariat commissioned an independent review of Nabire Baru's NPP submission before it was published. The review found that its High Conservation Value assessment, required under RSPO rules, was "unsatisfactory" and should be re-done. The assessment was carried out by a team of Bogor Agricultural University lecturers led by Nyoto Santoso, whose RSPO audits have been repeatedly exposed as filled with misleading claims.
However, despite its findings, the RSPO said it agreed to requests from Nabire Baru to post the NPP documents on its website.
"This is in the right of the company," said RSPO communications chief Stefano Savi.
He added that the notification allows stakeholders to provide comments for 30 days after its publication, which in turn "helps the RSPO to gain more information and better understand the situation on the ground."
An oil palm plantation in Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay
Greenpeace forests campaigner Richard George urged the RSPO's Board of Governors to "investigate, publish its secret dossier on Goodhope and sanction the Secretariat."
However, Savi said it was not possible to release the review due to "current procedure."
He maintained that the RSPO's commissioning of the unpublished review in itself shows that the organization "fulfilled its duties in checking the quality of the assessment and identifying any shortcomings."
Edi Suhardi, Goodhope sustainability director and vice president of the RSPO, said the company was committed to meeting the necessary standards, and was beginning new independent assessments this month on its Nabire Baru concession.
He denied any allegations that his position within the RSPO could influence decisions about the NPP submission.
"To be perfectly honest, I am personally very much disappointed to know that the posting of the Goodhope NPP was only done in March 2017 or two years after its submission in 2015. This is concrete evidence that…I am incapable to influence neither process nor decision of the RSPO Executive Office," he said by email.
The NGOs say central to the issues with Nabire Baru is the RSPO's apparent failure to implement a resolution adopted in 2015 to ensure the "quality, oversight and credibility" of assessments.
"To date, the RSPO Secretariat has shown no coherent plan for the implementation of Resolution 6h, while simultaneously pursuing the roll-out of policies and standards that cement many of the problems Resolution 6h was intended to resolve," the groups said in the letter.
The RSPO said it was making progress with this, and would be sharing updates soon, but the coalition warned that without serious action the organization's future could be at risk.
"We are increasingly of the opinion that RSPO is in danger of losing the limited support it enjoys, due to the increasing evidence of the unreliability of RSPO certification," they warned the Board of Governors.
"We consider the debacle surrounding the NPP at [Nabire Baru] to be symptomatic of the problems undermining the RSPO."
Banner image: The stocky, flightless northern cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus) is one of the birds-of-paradise for which Papua is famous. Photo by Rhett Butler for Mongabay
Article published by Philip Jacobson
Activism, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Governance, Land Grabbing, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rspo


The Riad can provide a "table d'hôte", that is, a traditional moroccan dinner with a single menu, changed each day (first course, main course and dessert). Drinks are included but no alcohol is served .
Prices: 13,50 euros per adult, and 9 euros for children under 15 years of age.
If you wish to dine on the evening of your arrival, please inform us at the time of your reservation.


I met an engineer in the the lift the other day when i was on my way up to my unit . Our conversation started only when he was about to reach his level , which was the 18th floor .
He initiated the conversation by asking me if I was a medical student from IMU , and which year i was in . Seeing that he was friendly and did not show any signs of pervertness , i reciprocated his questions .
After a while , he was talking to me about how he completed engineering school faster than others . He told me that he finished his course faster because when others were happily enjoying their holidays , he and a bunch of his friends were ahead others , studying to pass the next semester of studies under a professor who tutored them .
He suggested I do the same . Upon those words , I was thunderstrucked . @#$%^& How was that possible for my case ?! Holidays are the only time the word "study" isn't in my list of vocabulary . NO NO NO .
By the time we finished our conversation on academics , he was already on his floor and my index finger was on the " open" button of the lift for 5 minutes . But after that , we continued talking about his life , where he stayed and bla bla ... He even told me how he got cheated by a student who did not pay the rent .
Thankfully , our conversation did not last up to an hour . Otherwise , my index finger would have lost its function and remained bend for the rest of my life .


1. "the best way to spread christmas cheer is..." being cheery! i am always so happy around the holidays, and i think the best way to make other people cheery is being cheerful yourself.
2. the holiday season is definitely my favorite time of the year. this year is a little weird with graduation and the move, but we are making the best of it.
3. when it comes to holiday decorating... i go all out! our décor is a little bit more wintery – lots of golds and silvers. but there are some wreaths and red and green candles and things we put out. i love it all.
4. the thing i look forward to most about the holidays is family, gift giving and christmas caroling. i know that's three things, but i could never just pick one!
5. my favorite holiday tradition is probably our christmas cocktail party. this year is our 6th, and each year it gets a little bit bigger and a little more fun. my family has a lot of great traditions, but they have been changing over the past few years with the death of my great-grandmother (she was our family matriarch), so we are trying to come up with new family traditions. with four sets of parents, we don't have too many traditions that we do year after year besides our own christmas cocktail party.
7. my favorite holiday food is champagne.
so today is friday, which is normally awesome. especially because i don't have school tomorrow and just have to work half a day. but thanks to my stupid flu shot yesterday, i am actually sick with the flu today. nothing like the flu hitting on a friday afternoon, right? boo. but at the same time it's a good excuse for a night in with my bestest husband.
1. the last thing i ate was a honeycrisp apple with organic, all natural creamy peanut butter. i was too sick to eat my whole lunch so that's what i've had today.
3. my last vacation was to new york just about 10 days ago. i never really know if visiting family counts as a vacation or not, because we spend our entire trip running around to see all the people we love and don't get to see often enough. but it was an awesome trip.
4. the last place i drove was home from work. i love leaving work!
5. the last song i listened to was perhaps one of the greatest songs ever [but not better than U2] - 'awake my soul' by mumford & sons on pandora.
6. the last thing i watched on tv was last night's season premiere of 30 rock. i thought the kenneth-hazel-tracy storyline was super weird and not funny, but i am always loving jack and liz's shenanigans. especially because jack donaghy is like my dad. but we are about to turn on a twilight zone marathon - perfect way to spend a cold colorado october night.
7. the last time i said 'i love you' was to PI about 4 minutes ago. he finished unloading the dishwasher for me because he knows i feel like a walking ghost.
hey all... it's that time again!
1. my first memory is [super good question] random flicks of our house in new york, the 'yellow house.' the red carpet, the couch, drinking apple juice on the couch watching sesame street, my pop coming over on saturday mornings, just little things.
2. my first love was complicated. we were best friends who did everything together, and he was never even my boyfriend. but we were totally inseparable to the point where he'd climb up my balcony at night just to hang out with me. the weird part was that it wasn't until years later that i realized i was in love with him. but my first actual love i had who i dated was my high school/college boyfriend; we were together for five years. we had some pretty messy times, but when i look back i realize it was all just because we were so young. i don't know how anyone could marry their first love - you just go through so much before getting to the person you grow up to be.
3. my very first favorite color was blue, still is!
4. the first time i really felt like a 'grown up' was when i traveled by myself. but ironically, it wasn't when i was living in prague and traveling then. it was when i had moved home and i was flying out to california to meet philip's family for the first time, so i just booked my tickets and paid for them and that was it. and i felt super grown up [despite the fact that i had been doing that for a year in europe].
5. the first thing i do when i wake up in the morning is hit the snooze button, then check my email.
6. the first CD i ever bought was U2's achtung baby.
7. my first car was a blue volkswagen jetta, the year they came out with their new body style. i loved that car. her name was louise and she only lasted a few short years.
tonight we are heading out to a new place to celebrate our anniversary - yesterday was our FOUR YEAR wedding anniversary! school this weekend and then it's into a homework coma - LOTS of big projects coming up. ugh.


text:
Q: Deploy Jar to remote server from Jenkins Build Job I currently have a Jenkins job that does the following successfully:
1: Check for new commits in git repo ✓
2: clone repo ✓
3: Build repo jar with maven ✓
4: scp jar to remote server ✓
The 5th step is to run the jar, I am currently doing something like:
nohup ssh user@remotehost "java -jar some.jar" > /dev/null 2>&1

This works technically, it will run the jar, however the jenkins job is not finishing, I assume it is waiting for an exit code.
What I wish to achieve is, fire a command to a remote server over ssh without waiting for a response or output. I'm not sure if this is possible, is there a better way to do this?

A: You can try using the screen command:
screen -d -m ssh user@remote "java -jar -Dserver.port=9090 ~/jar.jar"

From manual:

-d -m Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


As allergy awareness has spread in recent years so has the availability of allergy-friendly candies and sweet treats for Valentine's Day. Whether you've had your gifts picked out and purchased for weeks or need to stop by the store for last minute gifts, you're sure to find something for your Valentine.
Here are a few allergy-friendly sweets & treats to give your sweetheart this Valentine's Day. You'll find candies that are free from gluten, peanuts, dairy, egg, and tree nuts.
The Vermont Nut Free Chocolate Company was founded by a mother of a little boy with a peanut allergy. The company prides itself on the fact that its entire selection of candy is safe for those with peanut and tree nut allergies. (Some products may contain dairy, soy or eggs.) You can purchase a variety of Valentine's Day themed products from the Vermont Nut Free Chocolate Company, including a heart-shaped box of chocolate truffles and a Valentine's Day Gift Box.
Gimbal's Fine Candies has a spicy treat for all allergy sufferers. Their Cinnamon Lovers heart candies are free of the top eight allergens and are also gluten-free and gelatin-free. They are available across the United States in major grocery stores.
Divvies makes their candies in small batches in a dedicated peanut, tree nut, egg, and dairy free bakery. If you want to share a sweet treat with your Valentine, a candy from Divvies could be just the ticket – their name comes from "divvying up" treats (one-for-me-and-one-for-you) and they offer heart-shaped chocolates.
Premium Chocolatiers create gourmet chocolates that are dairy, nut, gluten and egg free. They offer a range of Valentine's Day chocolates, including traditional heart-shaped boxes of chocolate along with chocolate lollipop hearts and boxes of truffles.
If you have questions about resources available to people with food allergies, give us a call. Or, if you are looking for an allergist, we'd love to meet you. We can be reached at 212-729-1283 or send us an email at info@hudsonallergy.com.


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News / Reviews / The Ink House – review
The Ink House – review
By Rory Dobner
Published by Lawrence King ISBN 978-1-78627-076-4
Reviewed by Spencer Hill
If you shop at Liberty's, Fortnum & Mason or John Lewis then you may already be familiar with the work of Rory Dobner. His work is sold in various formats in those prestigious retail outlets, and in fact you would recognise the images from this book on prints, cards and homeware. The Ink House is a children's book written by the illustrator, and it is a pleasing hardback format which promises quality and attention to detail the moment you pick it up. It also suggests a level of sophistication which you would expect from an award winning artist whose clients include the aforementioned retail outlets, plus many more. I love the cover of this book, and I am particularly pleased with the die cut which reveals one of the beautiful illustrations on the first page within. This is how to design a cover which entices you inside.
Upon entering The Ink House you begin what the publishers describe as 'a journey through a curious and creative world'. The story itself immediately made me think of Lewis Carroll and the nineteenth century literary nonsense style, as the tale meanders through this magical house and all the animals which visit it. I imagine it would be read by the late great Arthur Lowe, or perhaps Stephen Fry, and it is their voices which I hear in my head as I follow the alliterative antics of all the animal characters. It doesn't make a great deal of sense, but it doesn't really need to as it is whimsical and imaginative and fictional. All sorts of creatures are superbly rendered in ink including snails, a caterpillar, various dogs, an owl and my favourite, the amazing octopus bathing in a basin.
What elevates this book to a keeper are the sixty illustrations produced by the author, and if you are already in possession of a teapot or side plate designed by him you will know what to expect. The drawings are beautifully produced to a high level of detail in ink (as the title suggests) using traditional techniques. This level of skill and attention to detail is why I chose to be a cartoonist, because I find that spending more than an hour on something gives me the heebie jeebies. The thought of producing illustrations to this level of finery would make my hair stand on end, if I had any. They are drawings which you would hold up in front of prospective inkers as examples of 'what you are striving for'. Yes, I would hang one of these on my wall (particularly the spiral staircase, the aforementioned octopus or the front of the house in the early pages), and I believe that Rory Dobner could produce some amazing Batman illustrations if he put his mind to it.
You don't really notice the predominant absence of colour in this book (other than the occasional blue here and there) because you are too busy geeking out over the skill and precision within the illustrations. The story for me was a useful device to string them all together, and it does that very well and with a calming rhythmic pace.
If you are an inker, a lover of traditional brush and pen methods or have aspirations to dabble in this medium then you need this book. If you also have young children then you now have a book which serves two purposes, and there is no excuse not to go out and buy it. One for the coffee table in a very nice nursery (teapot from Fortnum & Mason optional).
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February is all about hearts, but not just for Valentine's Day. Parkland experts took advantage of the month to educate about heart health. Satyam Sarma, MD talked about warning signs and symptoms with KTVT-TV (CBS). James de Lemos, MD talked about the ABC's of heart health – types of heart problems, who's at higher risk and symptoms with WFAA-TV (ABC). Margaret Bryant, PT, shared tips about heart-healthy physical activity with WFAA-TV (ABC).
Some 5 million people arrive in the ER each year with symptoms similar to a heart attack. Parkland is one of the first hospitals in the country to use a new test to diagnose heart attacks, according to KDFW-TV (Fox). The test provides more precise, as well as faster results, according to D Healthcare Daily.
Susana Lazarte, MD talked with KUVN-TV (Univision) about the flu in North Texas. She also spoke with KXTX-TV (Telemundo) about possible complications and how to prevent the flu. In addition, WFAA-TV (ABC) asked about whether you should change your toothbrush when sick.
Parkland's Correctional Health Nursing Residency program is a unique training program in which nurses train to treat a full range of correctional health issues ranging from chronic disease to psychiatric illness, according to D Healthcare Daily.


The material shared on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for professional medical care. Please consult your health care practitioner for any health concern. Opinions and treatments suggested here are not a reflection of an official view of the board. For further consideration regarding alternative remedies or New Age approaches, see the Vatican's document, JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE: A Christian reflection on the �New Age�.


text:
Right Actions
The Universe's Proven Meta-Principles For Sustainable Prosperity and Success: How 5 Minutes a Day Experiment Will Dramatically Improve Your Life.
Read more about The Universe's Proven Meta-Principles For Sustainable Prosperity and Success: How 5 Minutes a Day Experiment Will Dramatically Improve Your Life.
The Universe Principles of Right Action and Sustainable Prosperity for Creating a Just and Meaningful Civilization
One uses the Universe Principles of Right Attitude in wise and balance application with the Universe Principles of Right Action. To see the companion Universe Principles of Right Action, click here!
Read more about The Universe Principles of Right Action and Sustainable Prosperity for Creating a Just and Meaningful Civilization
The Universe Principles and the Open Source Model (Intermediate)
In open source software terms the Universe Principles are the Open Source Kernel of all Kernals! They are the most basic rules of evolution's core "operating system." They are the "core software program and core evolutionary algorithm: of the successful universe evolution of life itself and everything that creates, sustains and thrives it.
Read more about The Universe Principles and the Open Source Model (Intermediate)
Footnotes, Qualifications and Additional Resources and Information Regarding the Universe Principles Right Actions (Intermediate to Advanced)
1.) The principle of Progressive Evolution is derived in substantive part from evolutionary science.
Read more about Footnotes, Qualifications and Additional Resources and Information Regarding the Universe Principles Right Actions (Intermediate to Advanced)
The Universe Principles and Our Key Human Virtues (Easy)
In one way or another the Universe Principles of Sustainability and the value interests of progressive evolution also embrace most all of the key human virtues in one way or another.
Read more about The Universe Principles and Our Key Human Virtues (Easy)
What the New Universe Principles of Sustainable Prosperity Will do for Your Life!
When you apply the universe's 13.7 billion-year-old science and time-proven meta-principles for sustainably evolving and thriving life in the universe as found within what we call the action and attitude guiding Universe Principles these meta-principles:
Read more about What the New Universe Principles of Sustainable Prosperity Will do for Your Life!
The Core "Value Interests" and Meta-Principles Found Within The Universe's Progressive Evolution (Intermediate to Advanced)
(If you have not read about progressive evolution, we have provide this additional section to give you the minimal basics.
Read more about The Core "Value Interests" and Meta-Principles Found Within The Universe's Progressive Evolution (Intermediate to Advanced)
The Universe Principles of Right Action. The Keys to a SUSTAINABLE Personal and Business Success
Read more about The Universe Principles of Right Action. The Keys to a SUSTAINABLE Personal and Business Success
Our future depends upon adapting or cultures to the realities of modern life at an unprecedented spatial and temporal scale. The idea that we can do this without a detailed knowledge of genetic and cultural pollution will appear laughable in retrospect --- if we are lucky enough to persist in our current maladaptive cultures for so long. Perhaps someday we will confidently steer ourselves into the future like Capt. Kirk and the starship Enterprise. Until then, we will be like the Wizard of Oz in his hot air balloon, who doesn't know how it works.
nike air max 2019 youth
David Sloan Wilson, From Evolution for Everyone


text:
Home / Ember Press / Letters from Happy Valley (autographed copy)
Letters from Happy Valley (autographed copy)
Letters from Happy Valley (autographed copy) quantity
Category: Ember Press
Fifty years after leaving the family homestead in Happy Valley, Alaska, Dan Walker unexpectedly received a shoebox full of letters penned in 1958 by his parents as they traveled north from Sugar Tree Ridge, Ohio, to build a new life on the Last Frontier. Reading the letters, Walker remembered how, as a small boy, he watched with wonder as his family built a home, harvested moose, and learned the ways of the north country. A quiet thread of melancholy weaves through Walker's story as he reflects how his father's untimely death forced their large family to leave behind the life he loved. As much as the book is a quest to recall Walker's early years on the homestead, it is a search for the father he hardly knew.
Visit Dan Walker's website
Hello Water!
Our Perfect Wild: Ray and Barbara Bane's Journeys and the Fate of the Far North
(University of Alaska Press, 2016)
A Tender Distance: Adventures Raising My Sons in Alaska
(Alaska Northwest Books, 2009)
People, Paths, and Places: A Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska
© 2021 Ember Press | Powered by Beaver Builder


text:
void CharacterEditor::determineEntryViewButtonPositions(int *initialX, int *initialY)
{
	// Determine the layout of buttons for the entry view
	*initialX = (Game::getInstance()->getWindowWidth() / 3) - (ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH / 2);
	*initialY = (Game::getInstance()->getWindowHeight() / 3)
		+ (Game::getInstance()->getWindowHeight() / 3)/2
		- (ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT * 3 + ButtonConstants::VERTICAL_SPACING*2)/2;
}

CharacterEditor::CharacterEditor(LoaderParameters* parameters) : GameObject(parameters)
{
	// Determine the layout of buttons for the entry view
	int initialX = 0;
	int initialY = 0;
	ButtonConstants::determineInitialButtonPositions(&initialX, &initialY, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT, 3, 3, 2);

	gotIt = false;
	newCharacterButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(initialX, initialY, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT, 0, 0, "newCharacterButton"));
	loadCharacterButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(initialX, initialY + ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT + ButtonConstants::VERTICAL_SPACING, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT, 0, 0, "loadCharacterButton"));
	mainMenuButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(initialX, initialY + ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT*2 + ButtonConstants::VERTICAL_SPACING*2, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT, 0, 0, "mainMenuButton"));

	//New view
	strengthText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,100,100,20,0,0,"strengthText"));
	strengthValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,100,20,20,0,0,"strengthValue"));

	dexterityText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,120,100,20,0,0,"dexterityText"));
	dexterityValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,120,20,20,0,0,"dexterityValue"));

	charismaText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,140,100,20,0,0,"charismaText"));
	charismaValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,140,20,20,0,0,"charismaValue"));

	inteligenceText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,160,100,20,0,0,"inteligenceText"));
	inteligenceValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,160,20,20,0,0,"intelignceValue"));

	constitutionText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,180,100,20,0,0,"constitutionText"));
	constitutionValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,180,20,20,0,0,"constitutionValue"));

	wisdomText = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,200,100,20,0,0,"wisdomText"));
	wisdomValue = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(505,200,20,20,0,0,"wisdomValue"));

	rollButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(100,100,ButtonConstants::SMALL_WIDTH,ButtonConstants::SMALL_HEIGHT,0,0,"rollButton"));
	playerNameInput = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(200,100,120,20,0,0,"playerNameInput"));
	saveCharacterButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(50,500,ButtonConstants::SMALL_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::SMALL_HEIGHT,0,0,"saveCharacterButton"));

	characterClassification = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(400,50,75,20,0,0,"characterClassification"));
	changeClassificationButton = new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(500,50,60,40,0,0,"changeClassification"));

	currentView = CharacterEditorView::ENTRY;
	loadTextures();
}

CharacterEditor::~CharacterEditor()
{
}

void CharacterEditor::drawEntryView()
{
	int initialX, initialY;
	ButtonConstants::determineInitialButtonPositions(&initialX, &initialY, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH, ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT, 3, 3, 2);

	mainMenuButton->getParameters()->setXPos(initialX);
	mainMenuButton->getParameters()->setYPos(initialY + ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT*2 + ButtonConstants::VERTICAL_SPACING*2);

	TextureManager::getInstance()->draw(new LoaderParameters(0, 0, Game::getInstance()->getWindowWidth(), Game::getInstance()->getWindowHeight(), 0, 0, "mainMenuBg"), Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());

	mainMenuButton->draw();
	newCharacterButton->draw();
	loadCharacterButton->draw();

}

void CharacterEditor::drawEditorView()
{
	mainMenuButton->getParameters()->setXPos(Game::getInstance()->getWindowWidth() / 2 - ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_WIDTH / 2);
	mainMenuButton->getParameters()->setYPos(Game::getInstance()->getWindowHeight() - ButtonConstants::VERTICAL_SPACING - ButtonConstants::MEDIUM_HEIGHT);
	mainMenuButton->draw();
	rollButton->draw();
	saveCharacterButton->draw();
	playerNameInput->draw();
	characterClassification->draw();
	changeClassificationButton->draw();
	strengthText->draw();
	strengthValue->draw();

	dexterityText->draw();
	dexterityValue->draw();

	wisdomText->draw();
	wisdomValue->draw();

	charismaText->draw();
	charismaValue->draw();

	inteligenceText->draw();
	inteligenceValue->draw();

	constitutionText->draw();
	constitutionValue->draw();
	loadCharacterTextures();
}

void CharacterEditor::drawSaveView()
{

}

void CharacterEditor::drawLoadView()
{
	string curr_directory = "saves\\character\\";
	string extension = "xml";
	//Getting the directory listing.
	if(!gotIt){
		int currentX = 100;
		int currentY = 100;
		int increment = 35;
		gotIt = true;
		DIR* dir_point = opendir(curr_directory.c_str());
        dirent* entry = readdir(dir_point);
        while (entry){                       // if !entry then end of directory
               if (entry->d_type == DT_REG){                // if entry is a regular file
                   std::string fname = entry->d_name;        // filename
                                                                                // if filename's last characters are extension
                   if (fname.find(extension, (fname.length() - extension.length())) != std::string::npos){
					   saves.push_back(new GameObject(new LoaderParameters(currentX,currentY,300,25,0,0,fname)));             // add filename to results vector
					   currentY += increment;
				   }
                }
                entry = readdir(dir_point);
        }
        loadSaveFiles();
	}
	mainMenuButton->draw();
	drawSaveFiles();
}
void CharacterEditor::drawSaveFiles()
{
	for(vector<GameObject*>::const_iterator iter = saves.begin(); iter != saves.end(); ++iter)
    {
        if(*iter != 0)
        {
			//drawing the texture for each xml save file.
            (*iter)->draw();
        }
    }
}

void CharacterEditor::handleEntryViewEvents()
{
	newCharacterButton->handleEvents();
	loadCharacterButton->handleEvents();
	mainMenuButton->handleEvents();
	if (newCharacterButton->isClicked())
	{
		c = new Character("",1,enumUtility::Fighter);
		currentView = CharacterEditorView::EDITOR;
		newCharacterButton->resetClicked();
		loadCharacterTextures();
	}
	if (loadCharacterButton->isClicked())
	{
		//Load character
		gotIt = false;
		currentView = CharacterEditorView::LOAD;
		loadCharacterButton->resetClicked();
	}
	if(mainMenuButton->isClicked())
	{
		mainMenuButton->resetClicked();
		Game::getInstance()->setCurrentView(enumUtility::Main_Menu);
	}
}

//handles
void CharacterEditor::handleEditorViewEvents()
{
	mainMenuButton->handleEvents();
	rollButton->handleEvents();
	changeClassificationButton->handleEvents();
	saveCharacterButton->handleEvents();
	if(mainMenuButton->isClicked())
	{
		mainMenuButton->resetClicked();
		currentView = CharacterEditorView::ENTRY;
		Game::getInstance()->setCurrentView(enumUtility::Main_Menu);
	}
	if(rollButton->isClicked())
	{
		rollButton->resetClicked();
		string name = c->getName();
		enumUtility::characterClassifiction charClass = c->getClassification();
		c->~Character();
		c = new Character(name,1,charClass);
	}
	if(changeClassificationButton->isClicked())
	{
		changeClassificationButton->resetClicked();
		if(c->getClassification() == enumUtility::Fighter)
		{
			c->setClassification(enumUtility::Mage);
		}
		else if(c->getClassification() == enumUtility::Mage)
		{
			c->setClassification(enumUtility::Tank);
		}
		else if(c->getClassification() == enumUtility::Tank)
		{
			c->setClassification(enumUtility::Fighter);
		}
	}
	if(saveCharacterButton->isClicked())
	{
		saveCharacterButton->resetClicked();
		c->saveToFile();
		std::cout << "saving character object" << endl;

		Game::getInstance()->setCurrentView(enumUtility::Game_Main);
	}
	string input = InputHandler::getInstance()->getInput();

	if (input != "") {
		string name = c->getName();
		char inputChar = input[0];

		// Handle backspace events
		if (input == "Backspace") {
			if (name.length() > 1)
				c->setName(name.substr(0, name.length() - 1));
			else
				c->setName(string());
		}

		// Ensure we only get alphabetical characters.
		if (input.length() == 1 && inputChar >= 'A' && inputChar <= 'Z') {
			if (name.length() <= 8)
				c->setName(name + input);
		}
	}

}

void CharacterEditor::handleSaveViewEvents()
{
}

void CharacterEditor::handleLoadViewEvents()
{
	mainMenuButton->handleEvents();
	if(mainMenuButton->isClicked())
	{
		mainMenuButton->resetClicked();
		currentView = CharacterEditorView::ENTRY;
		Game::getInstance()->setCurrentView(enumUtility::Main_Menu);
	}
	for(vector<GameObject*>::const_iterator iter = saves.begin(); iter != saves.end(); ++iter)
    {
        if(*iter != 0)
        {
            (*iter)->handleEvents();
			if((*iter)->isClicked())
			{
				(*iter)->resetClicked();
				cout << (*iter)->getParameters()->getId() << " will be loaded change view to game view with new character" << endl;
			}
        }
    }
}

void CharacterEditor::draw() {
	switch (currentView)
	{
		case CharacterEditorView::ENTRY:
			drawEntryView();
			break;
		case CharacterEditorView::EDITOR:
			drawEditorView();
			break;
		case CharacterEditorView::LOAD:
			drawLoadView();
			break;
	}

}
void CharacterEditor::handleEvents() {
	switch (currentView)
	{
	case CharacterEditorView::ENTRY:
		handleEntryViewEvents();
		break;
	case CharacterEditorView::EDITOR:
		handleEditorViewEvents();
		break;
	case CharacterEditorView::LOAD:
		handleLoadViewEvents();
		break;
	}
}
void CharacterEditor::loadTextures()
{
	// Load textures for entry view.
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/buttons/new_character_medium.png", newCharacterButton->getParameters()->getId(), Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/buttons/load_character_medium.png", loadCharacterButton->getParameters()->getId(), Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/buttons/main_menu_medium.png", mainMenuButton->getParameters()->getId(), Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/main-screen.png", "mainMenuBg", Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());

	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(strengthText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Strength");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(dexterityText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Dexterity");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(inteligenceText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Inteligence");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(wisdomText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Wisdom");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(constitutionText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Constitution");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(charismaText->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), "Charisma");
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/buttons/roll_small.png", rollButton->getParameters()->getId(), Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/Character-editor/change.png",changeClassificationButton->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());
	TextureManager::getInstance()->load("images/Character-editor/save.png",saveCharacterButton->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer());

}
void CharacterEditor::loadSaveFiles()
{
	for(vector<GameObject*>::const_iterator iter = saves.begin(); iter != saves.end(); ++iter)
    {
        if(*iter != 0)
        {
            TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont((*iter)->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), (*iter)->getParameters()->getId());
        }
    }
}
void CharacterEditor::loadCharacterTextures()
{
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(strengthValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getStrength()));
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(dexterityValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getDexterity()));
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(inteligenceValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getInteligence()));
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(wisdomValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getWisdom()));
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(constitutionValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getConstitution()));
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(charismaValue->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), to_string(c->getCharisma()));

	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(playerNameInput->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), c->getName());

	string classification;
	switch(c->getClassification())
	{
		case enumUtility::Fighter:
			classification = "Fighter";
			break;
		case enumUtility::Mage:
			classification = "Mage";
			break;
		case enumUtility::Tank:
			classification = "Tank";
			break;
	}
	TextureManager::getInstance()->loadFont(characterClassification->getParameters()->getId(),Game::getInstance()->getRenderer(), classification);

}

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text:
D&D General Styles of Roleplaying and Characters
Thread starter overgeeked
Heh, @Aldarc and @pemerton, you have rightly hit the nail on the head.
For some reason, it is perfectly acceptable for the mechanics to dictate your actions, but, for some reason, things like emotional responses, while just as involuntary and beyond a person's control as missing with an attack, are completely unbelievable and rip people from their immersion.
I would LOVE to meet people whose control over their emotional responses were so completely under their control that no matter what, no matter what the stimulus or in the face of anything, they are 100% in control at all times.
But, apparently, that's more believable than having the mechanics tell you that you believe a lie or that nameless horror from beyond is just really damn scary and makes you wet your pants. Hell, even apparently being beaten literally to death, and then being ripped from whatever just rewards you have shuffled off to to reinhabit your scarred, broken, body has zero impact on a person's psyche.
Reactions: hawkeyefan, heretic888, pemerton and 2 others
Manbearcat
Hussar said:
This is something I've talked about pretty regularly on ENWorld in the past.
This "agency-purifying idea" (not sure what else to call it) in D&Dville whereby humans suffer neither hijack nor undue influence by the endocrine system, cultural layer pressures, badly formed heuristics, and decision-tree work offloaded onto automaticity and unconscious process…
…well I certainly don't see how it produces either more realism or more habitation of cognitive/emotional workspace (the phenomenon of capture…which is largely not opt-in/voluntary). It resembles nothing like what life is like. Taken to its ultimate conclusion it should wipe out a whole host of troubling human conditions that routinely haunt lives captured by them (like variations of Stockholm Syndrome, peer contagion, addiction, and plenty more).
Reactions: ad_hoc, hawkeyefan, Campbell and 5 others
Swarmkeeper
No, it isn't apples to oranges. The DM is telling you that your character is falling down (after being tripped by another character). Your DM is telling you that you cannot fight anymore.
In every case, the DM, through the mechanics, is telling you how your character is behaving, within the limits of the mechanics. You failed your check, so, you trip on the wire strung across the hallway and fall on your face, take D4 damage is the DM telling you how your character is behaving.
In the context of 5e, a DM narrating to the player the result of their PC's stated action is definitely not the same as the DM telling the player what their PC is saying, thinking, or doing (really, trying to do). Falling on one's face is not typically an action the player would state for their PC. That is to say, falling on one's face is not a behavior, it is a meaningful consequence of failure of a player-declared behavior. That is the difference.
I guess I'm just having a tough time seeing the difference. Your character is a high dexterity acrobat Rogue who routinely walks on tightropes, can climb a waterfall and has the reflexes of a cat. And I just made him look like a Keystone Kop because you failed a Perception check. How is that not impacting the portrayal of that character?
I would hope the DM has a good reason that the rogue fell on their face and that this adjudication of a declared action is not just some kind of "gotcha" to flex their DM power. In the former case ("good reason"), the player can choose to have their Rogue respond however they like to such an embarrassment - the DM should hold no control over that portrayal. In the latter ("gotcha"), we're treading into bad faith play territory which I don't think is the point of the discussion.
Xetheral
Three-Headed Sirrush
The whole, "the character is writing itself" thing is all well and good and it sounds really profound, but, at the end of the day, it doesn't really mean anything. It's just a shorthand way of saying that the character was easy for the writer to wrap his or her head around.
I disagree that the meaning of the "the character is writing itself" is that it was easy for the author to write that character. From personal conversations with authors who have expressed such sentiments, my understanding is that those authors were expressing that they were surprised (both in the moment and upon reflection) by how they wrote that character. In other words, the author wrote the character differently than they would have expected in advance. And rather than the author at some point making an analytical choice to write the character differently, the difference from the original expectation came about incrementally as certain elements of the character followed naturally from what had already been written, and in the moment the author instictively went with that new, more-natural seeming option rather than writing the character the way they would have previously expected.
Obviously I've not had personal conversations with all authors who have expressed the feeling that a character was writing itself, so perhaps the phrase is used to mean different things by different authors. But the above is my best understanding of what the authors I've talked to meant by expressing the feeling that the character was writing itself.
From my perspective, in such circumstances the authors are very much engaged in act of discovery. Specifically, they're finding out what the most natural response of the character is to any given situation, and learning that it is different from what they would have expected even mere moments prior.
Reactions: Oofta
pemerton
Back in my hardest of hardcore Rolemaster days - the first half of the 1990s - our aspiration as a group was to have the most realistic depiction of our PCs and their actions that we could.
As part of this aspiration, we had addiction ratings for various drugs and herbs, and one of our dearest PCs became addicted.
We had the Depression critical table (from RMC III, which was always part of our game) and these would be used in two ways: sometimes I as GM would decree that a PC should suffer a Depression crit; sometimes a player would think that that made sense for their PC and would call for a roll.
Some of the more sinister PCs and NPCs had access to "Mind Disease" spells, that could inflict neuroses or phobias on their enemies. We understood these to be like physical injuries caused by a fireball spell - ie not a charm that could be dispelled, but a change to the brain/psyche that would need healing to recover from.
And Cure Mind Disease was a spell that saw plenty of use: to heal addiction, to heal neuroses and so on, to help recover from the more severe effects of Depression crits.
TL;DR - the idea of emotional impacts on PCs as something that might result from factor outside their control, and not under the players' control, isn't just something I associate with "new-fangled" RPGs.
Reactions: heretic888, hawkeyefan, Aldarc and 2 others
From my standpoint I entirely agree that it is more believable that the character is impacted by events in the fiction rather than that the character has perfect control over their emotional responses.
I merely think that leaving it up to the player who best understands the character to decide how the character is impacted by events allows for more believable nuance than any game mechanic ever could.
I personally don't see any increase in believability from simulating the character's inability to control its responses to traumatic events by also mechanically preventing the player from controlling the character's response to those events.
Reactions: Lanefan, Maxperson and Oofta
Desdichado
pemerton said:
Ah. But I rant to the wind against denials of your proper agency every time you and your fellow RPGers agree that your PC missed on an attack because of a failed roll.
Thus do I beat you in quixotic universalisation of my preferences.
If you can't express your preferences, then what's the point of this conversation at all? Stating preferences doesn't mean that someone else can't have different preferences that would make their actual playing at the same table incompatible, and that's fine.
In any case, I'd argue that this conversation (as is common here) was devolved from a discussion about preferences into one about semantics and pedantry anyway. I usually agree with Ovi on a lot of things, and find him a sensible fellow, but this whole exploration of your character has to involve something other than authorship of your character, otherwise it's not exploration seems to be lost in the weeds of some kind of semantic nuance that escapes me entirely.
Desdichado said:
I'm not responding to anyone stating their preferences. I'm responding to people stating my preferences for me; and/or stating their preferences as universal ideals.
Reactions: heretic888 and Aldarc
Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
Oofta said:
Funny. You keep telling people that what they can't do, despite people telling you that they do indeed find their PCs taking unexpected turns.
I'm not claiming people are channeling someone, but the decisions people make aren't always conscious ones. It may never be true for you, but it's part of the creative process for a lot of people.
Believe it or not, people aren't all like you. When I get into role playing, DMing or writing stories, there's times when it just flows out without conscious forethought. It doesn't really matter how you label it, but your "it's all you" only tells part of the story.
So, yes, you're agreeing that you are capable of surprising you -- a point I wholeheartedly agree with. The character isn't doing any surprising here, it's you being surprised at your own choices. You're making choices and pushing them onto the character, and when you're surprised by your choices, you then reify this onto the character as the character's choice. It's that latter reification I'm pointing out as flawed.
Xetheral said:
Are you claiming that it's not litterally true that those authors' characters write themselves? Or are you claiming it's not true that those authors feel that the characters are writing themselves?
If the former, sure. It's trivially true that fictional characters aren't writing anything, but that's completely missing the import of authors describing how they feel when writing. If the latter, I reject your claim on the grounds that you can't possibly know those authors' feelings better than they do.
The latter, and not in the sense that the author is surprised, but in the reification of the character. I'm often surprised by my choices, but, in the context of playing a game where character is never at stake, I don't confuse my surprise at my choices for the character doing anything at all. The character in this approach is a vessel to hold my thinking. It never pushes back.
So, you asked me about why I consider my approach to include exploration, and then after reading my response you conclude that I'm not actually exploring my character, I'm just dressing up my playstyle flowery-like?
Possibly an error in wording. I meant I'm not trying to reify the character as the owner of my thinking.
Wouldn't the more natural conclusion be that we're clearly using incompatible definitions of what it means to explore a character?
That was the entire thrust of my post, yes. That you're using exploration as a term for being surprised at a choice you made, and I'm asking if it should instead mean being surprised by character in a moment. I don't see how the latter can occur in a game where I have total and absolute authority over character for my character, because then it's only from me to the character. There's no feedback or pushback possible. I can rationalize anything I want to justify any bits of character I desire. That I don't fully understand my own thinking and so occasionally (or often) surprise myself in these choices of rationalization or justification doesn't have anything really to do with the character. To me, this can still be loads of fun, but my purpose here isn't to find out who this character is -- to explore why they do things -- but rather to put together a fun performative package to share with the other players during the game.
Reactions: Manbearcat, heretic888 and Aldarc
I also think the authorship vs exploration is flawed, because it rests on the concept of having total control over your character. You NEVER have total control over your character, even in the "default" trad way of playing D&D. You might find that some evil entity with magical power polymorphs your character into, say, a gorilla. That is not something that you had any control over; the only control is, what does your character do about that now? The answer is an exploration of character, at least according to any but a highly unusual definition of that phrase.
And this kind of stuff happens all of the time in D&D. You don't sit around thinking about your character in D&D, you are exposed to stimuli beyond your control, either from the DM, or sometimes from the other players. I don't understand how that is NOT exploring your character. Sure, it's not the same as using mechanics to explore your characters reactions with mechanical stimuli, but stimuli beyond your control is stimuli beyond your control.
Some players may not find certain types of stimuli fun to use, but to me that seems little different than saying something else about mechanics, like "I don't like Action Points" or "I don't like advantage/disadvantage" or something like that. It doesn't fundamentally change anything about what you're doing, just about how you're doing it.
Reactions: hawkeyefan
I've been studiously ignoring the "but magic" arguments for the lack of total control over your character due to the fact that it's a clear blindspot and just gets handwaved away as "but magic." The point is that the most haunting performance of the saddest song cannot ever move a character to tears without player approval without magic, but a crone with a charm spell means you're in love. The former is nodded at and approved as obviously correct, while the latter is given just a "sure, it's magic," level of excuse.
Reactions: Manbearcat, heretic888, hawkeyefan and 3 others
Ovinomancer said:
I used an example that included magic, but I didn't have to. If you're in the middle of a tense negotiation scene with a local Lord Mayor and another player decides that it's boring and his character shouts, draws his sword and kills the Lord Mayor in frustration, then your character is now exposed to stimuli that he neither expected nor can control. Most likely, he's going to be seen as an accomplice to murder and will become a wanted person in the setting because of something that he didn't do, didn't choose, and had no control over. What does he decide to do about it? The answer to that is also, I believe, exploration of the character.
Reactions: Lanefan and prabe
loverdrive
Makin' cool stuff (She/Her)
It became kind of confusing, with all that mixing of mechanics telling what the PC feels and GM doing the same. I'll focus on the first case, as the second is a bit more debatable.
So. Mechanics, rules, dice, all that fancy jazz.
Is there really any meaningful difference between using dice to determine whether the character can hit a head-sized target at 800m and using dice to determine whether the character can actually pull the trigger, knowing that this head-sized belongs to her lover? I, honestly, don't think so.
I can't see how something like
When you aim to hurt someone you love, roll +Cold. On 10+, go ahead, you heartless bastard. On 7-9, you hesitate — give up or mark Trauma and do it anyway. On 6-, you just... can't. Drop your weapon and mark Trauma. Getting too soft for this job, huh?
is somehow different from
When you attack someone unsuspecting or helpless, ask the MC if you could miss. If you could, treat it as going aggro, but your victim has no choice to cave and do what you want. If you couldn't, you simply inflict harm as established.
After all, dice is a tool to choose between two equally interesting outcomes. If one of them is uninteresting, then there's no point in touching dice. Any rule out there exists to allow you to disclaim decision-making, after all.
Reactions: ad_hoc, heretic888, hawkeyefan and 1 other person
At which point everything is an exploration of character. You're in a fight and want the killing blow but the wizard did it, how does that make you feel? If a choice is enough to trigger you exploring your character, then we're on trivial ground. And, even here, it still you making this choice and then mapping it to the character.
Reactions: heretic888, Aldarc, tetrasodium and 1 other person
Swarmkeeper said:
he player can choose to have their Rogue respond however they like to such an embarrassment - the DM should hold no control over that portrayal.
I agree. The DM shouldn't have any control.
The mechanics on the other hand...
Reactions: heretic888
No one is confusing anything when an author says that it feels like a character is writing itself. It's a statement about feelings and perception.
Bold emphasis added. Why does what explore "should" mean even enter the picture here? If we agree that we're using the word "explore" differently, then we're just discussing different concepts using the same terminology. We could discuss in more detail the concept each of us is describing, but I see no value in a discussion of which of our conflicting definitions of "explore" is superior. By what metric would we ever resolve that difference of opinion, and what would be the value even if we could?
Trying to address our underlying differences rather than focusing on our different usage of "explore", I have a substantive question regarding what you wrote in the quoted post. You object to the idea that surprise felt at one's unexpected choices for a character can be described as "being surprised by the character" on the grounds that doing so is problematically reifying the character. But doesn't describing surprise felt at the result of a game mechanic that tells you about your character as "being surprised by the character" require exactly the same degree of reification? In both cases the surprise originally results from something external to the character--why do you consider it ok to ascribe that surprise to the character in one case but not in the other?
Well... yeah. D&D and D&D-like games are fundamentally, unless you play in a pure, Talisman-like hack-n-slash format where characters are just game pieces, games about the exploration of character. I mean, obviously your example isn't likely to be one in which character exploration is very deep, complex, or likely to be further explored by any but the most petty of characters. But still.
This feels a bit like reducto ad absurdum, but maybe you don't see if that way unless I turn it the other direction. If exploration of character only involves you NOT making choice and then mapping it to the character, then the only valid exploration of character happens when you're completely passive and finding out about the character through decisions that you don't author. You have to essentially become a spectator watching SOMEONE ELSE author the character. Curiously, in a trad D&D game, EVERYONE ELSE at the table gets to explore your character except for you, because you aren't exploring him, you're AUTHORING him.
Better yet, it becomes very difficult to actually explore characters in a gaming set-up. If you want to explore characters, put down the dice and go read a book so you can explore the character that you are not in any way whatsoever authoring!
Reactions: Lanefan
Because the player is never objective.
No matter what the player decides, it will always come from the very subjective position of the player. Even players who delight in torturing their characters are still making choices based on that particular preference of play. IOW, the player will nearly always choose a response that the player thinks of. Obviously.
Take a DM's example. The monsters have downed a PC but there are still standing PC's around. The monster's turn comes up. Now, as the DM, you could instantly kill the downed PC - two automatic death fails kills the PC in this example (assume the character has already failed one death save). So, as the DM, do you whack the PC or attack someone else? Well, either way you decide is tainted by your awareness of the table. If you choose to kill Dave's character, he might be kinda pissed off. OTOH, if you choose not to kill Dave's character, are you making that choice because it makes sense in the fiction or because you just don't want to kill Dave's character? But, if you kill Dave's character, are you doing it to avoid looking like you are avoiding not killing a character - on and on and on, around in circles.
So, if you're me, you let the dice decide. 1-2, kill Dave's character, 3-6 move on to the next target. It's objective and fair and doesn't put me, as DM, square in the spotlight for whacking Dave's character.
The same goes for players. Players will never choose something that they don't think of themselves. They can't. Obviously. So, that's where mechanics come in.
Reactions: tetrasodium and heretic888
pure, Talisman-like hack-n-slash format where characters are just game pieces, games about the exploration of character.
Wow, why does EVERYONE get to say this except me?
Reactions: Maxperson, heretic888 and pemerton
There's obviously some context here that I'm missing and I don't really know what you're talking about specifically. But as a general rule when something unusual happens and you think it's EVERYONE ELSE except you that's the cause of it, chances are it's actually you.
Reactions: Oofta, Maxperson and prabe
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