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DEATHBLADE AND WUXIA ROCKS INTERVIEWS
For this interview I've done something a bit different. It is a two-part interview, with the first half featuring Deathblade (a translator at Wuxia World), and the second half featuring Wuxia Rocks (a longtime wuxia fan and writer who posts on the subject online).
DEATHBLADE INTERVIEW
Brendan Davis: Can you tell me a little about your background and your work at Wuxia World?
Deathblade: I'm a Californian born and raised (not of Chinese heritage) who started studying Chinese in around 2007. Believe it or not, one of the main things that got me interested in Chinese culture was the release of the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Eventually, I even moved to China, where I still live right now. As the years went by, I decided to try my hand at translating some wuxia fiction into English. Initially I did it to improve my reading and vocabulary, but then it turned into a hobby. I started out with some lesser-known Gu Long books, and eventually even tried my hand at a modern novel by Taiwanese novelist Giddens Ko.
Later, I was contacted by the owner of Wuxiaworld, translator RWX, who was looking for someone to work on translating a popular Chinese web novel called I Shall Seal the Heavens, or ISSTH for short. ISSTH is a classic xianxia novel about a young Confucian scholar named Meng Hao who gets caught up in the world of Immortals. The novel was incredibly popular in China, and has also become one of the most popular web novel translations currently being released.
BD: Web novels seem particularly popular with Chinese audiences. I've seen a number of series that started as web novels. Can you talk about some of the more well known web novelists and the place web novels have in the culture (which seem to be taken more seriously there than over here)?
DB: Honestly, as far as the popular authors go, it's a huge topic. Some of the top authors known to the English-speaking world are I Eat Tomatoes, Tang Jia San Shao, and Heavenly Silkworm Potato. I Eat Tomatoes is probably the most well-known. It was the translation of his novel Stellar Transformations that started the entire Chinese web novel translation scene. The author of ISSTH is Er Gen, and although he's relatively popular in the English-speaking world, he's actually a newcomer to the web novel scene, and is sort of a rising star.
Actually, I think web novels are popular in China the way that comic books or pulp sci-fi/fantasy novels are popular in America. They are are highly profitable and have huge audiences, but aren't necessarily viewed as "literature." For however many people love them, there are plenty of people who ridicule them.
BD: Wuxia is used somewhat broadly in the US to mean a range of genres, can you speak a little about the definition of wuxia and talk about related martial arts genres that are popular in Chinese media?
DB: Wuxia generally refers to martial arts stories that do not take place in modern times. Usually they feature fantastic martial arts abilities and skills that make the heroes capable of performing feats similar to western superheroes. Although there are occasionally magic and fantasy elements to wuxia, the most typical and classic wuxia is a bit more grounded in reality. Although the heroes accomplish impossible feats by means of manipulating the Qi in their bodies, they usually do not possess powers of high magic.
A genre very similar to wuxia is xianxia. Whereas wuxia literally means "martial heroes," xianxia means "Immortal heroes." The protagonists practice magical cultivation techniques, with the goal of becoming Immortals, or even beyond. Many times the characters literally become gods. Have you seen movies with guys flying around on giant swords, shooting energy out of their fingers, summoning dragons, etc.? Chances are you were watching a xianxia movie.
In addition to these two, there is another popular genre called xuanhuan or "alternative fantasy." These stories take elements from wuxia and xianxia and mix them with Western fantasy, sci-fi and other genres to create a mash-up genre that is incredibly popular.
BD: What genre is of most interest to you?
DB: Wuxia always has and always will hold a special place in my heart. I specifically prefer stories with wandering swordsmen who have adventures in Jianghu. Recently, I have been draw to xianxia, mostly because my current translation is considered classic xianxia. Xianxia transports you into a mythological world that far exceeds the bounds of the usual fantasy, or wuxia, setting.
BD: Why are official translations of wuxia and similar genres so scarce in English? Do you think we will see more printed translations of writers like Gu Long and Jin Yong in the future?
DB: I think there are a many, many reasons. Perhaps the most obvious is that these stories are difficult to translate. You either end up with something that differs in many significant ways from the original, with the goal of making the novel more readable to general audiences, or you end up with something awkward-sounding in English, but more accurate to the original Chinese. The easy-to-read translation misses out on a lot of the "heart" of the original Chinese, and angers dedicated wuxia fans, whereas the accurate version is not something wider audiences would be attracted to.
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils
Another reason printed translations is scarce is that the wuxia genre itself is not relevant to the general English-speaking audience. In China, wuxia stories are like stories about knights, pirates, or Robin Hood in Western countries. It clicks culturally. For English-speaking audiences, wuxia is exotic and strange, sometimes even unbelievable or silly. Without explanations of why the wuxia heroes can fly, shoot needles out of fans, immobilize people by hitting pressure points, etc., many Western readers tend to pass it off as "not realistic."
After the release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon there was a surge in popularity in wuxia, which is one of the reasons a handful printed translations appeared. That popularity has long since dwindled. Without something in mainstream popular culture driving an interest in wuxia, xianxia and other Chinese genres, I think it will be difficult to create a demand for printed books.
BD: I've often found explaining the reasons for the powers goes a long way toward getting American viewers to give the wuxia genre more of a chance. Could you elaborate on some of these elements and maybe discuss how some of them have been misunderstood in the west?
DB: I agree, and one of the problems is that in wuxia movies or books, the powers and abilities usually aren't explained in detail. Such things are so deeply ingrained in Chinese culture that it's not necessary. Take, for example, "qinggong," the ability to make the body lighter and faster to the point where flight and other superhuman abilities are possible. This is a martial arts skill based on real techniques, exaggerated in Chinese fiction to superhuman lengths. However, such abilities can be read about in Chinese books thousands of years old!
Essentially, the source of the wuxia special powers comes from manipulating the Qi and energy of the body in various ways. Again, this is an actual practice in martial arts, just exaggerated in wuxia.
It's easy to make the argument that wuxia heroes have powers that are no different from many comic book superheroes. While that is true, there is a major difference between the two that tends to cause Western audiences to be put off. In comic books, there is always an explanation for the super powers. A spider bite, a mutation, cosmic rays... there is always a "logical" explanation for the powers. In wuxia, there is no "explanation." The powers are just there, the result of "practicing martial arts" or finding that "secret manual." Because wuxia is generally presented as taking place in the "real world," Western audiences find it hard to reconcile. Like you said, I think the only way to solve the problem is for wuxia lovers to do their best to provide explanations and be passionate about sharing what they like with friends and family.
I think a third problem is special effects. With a very few exceptions, the visual portrayal of wuxia abilities has been poor. In some of the blockbuster movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers and Hero, the flying and other special abilities was portrayed in such an artistic way that it seemed more like dancing than fighting. Alternatively, in other movies where it was supposed to be "cool," the effects were so poor it just looked stupid. All of this leads to further misunderstandings and distaste on the part of general audiences.
BD: How long does it take to translate from the original language into English and what are some of the challenges that may not be obvious to readers?
DB: For the current story I'm translating, each chapter is about 2,500 or so Chinese characters, which tends to result in an English translated version of 2,000-2,300 words. Considering I've already translated over 600 chapters, I've gotten quite used to the author's writing style and quirks. I translate a lot faster now than in the beginning. Currently, if I focus and work quickly, and no difficult passages come up that I need to research, I can finish a chapter in 1.5 hours. Sometimes I run into Chinese characters, expressions, slang etc. that require further research, which can lead to a chapter taking 2 or even 2.5 hours. After that, the chapter gets proofread by my proofreading team, then I edit it, which takes about 20 minutes. Therefore, the total time from when I begin translating a given chapter to when it is ready for release usually costs me about 2-3 hours.
The ISSTH translation started out relatively slow, with only 5 chapters being translated and released per week (the author usually releases 3 chapters per day in Chinese!!) As the translation gained popularity, I began to increase the chapters per week, first to 7, then 12, finally to 14. Recently, I made the decision to leave my regular full-time job here in China to focus solely on translation. Right now I release between 14-17 chapters of ISSTH per week, and expect to increase it a bit more in the coming months. The novel has a total of over 1,600 chapters, and I just recently passed the 600 chapter mark, which means that at my current rate, I should be able to complete the translation in a little over a year.
Many readers are probably unaware of how different Chinese is from English. There are no formal grammar rules in Chinese, which often makes it difficult to figure out what any given paragraph is talking about. Chinese writers don't use periods except at the end of paragraphs. Usually a paragraph is a bunch of sentences connected by commas, which makes it hard to figure out where one thought begins and another ends.
Chinese has no true past, present or future tense. You have to rely mostly on context to figure out when something happened. Generally speaking, there are no plural nouns. Does the sentence mean "the most powerful warrior in China" or does it mean "the most powerful warriors in China." Big difference in English, but in Chinese, you have to rely on the context to figure it out.
BD: I am curious about some of the translation issues you've raised in the interview, in particular, humor. As a viewer, one thing that sometimes troubles me is I don't know when something is intentionally funny or when it is due to translation difficulties. How do you find humor translates from Chinese to English and what did you think are some of the biggest misconceptions here among American readers/viewers?
DB: Whether you're talking about movies or written stories, there will be two types of humor. One is situational, the other has to do with language. The situational humor (into which I would lump physical humor for movies and such) seems to come across well regardless of culture. ISSTH is filled with a lot of funny situations that the English-speaking audience tends to find completely hilarious.
In contrast, language-based humor is often hard or impossible to translate. Chinese is so full of idioms and expressions, complex characters, homophones, etc. that it can make it very difficult. However, a clever translator should be able to overcome that challenge. In novels, it can be handled with clever translating or use of footnotes. In movies or TV shows, the translator might have to be a bit more creative.
In my opinion, the audience shouldn't be left wondering if something is supposed to be intentionally funny or not. Although misunderstandings are bound to crop up, a good translator should make the humor come across for the majority of the audience. And of course, things that aren't supposed to be funny... shouldn't make the audience want to laugh.
BD: For English speakers reading this interview who may be interested in learning more about these novels and web novels, but not sure where to find them or where to begin, what do you recommend?
DB: Well of course they could go to wuxiaworld.com which is the home to some of the most popular translations out there. One good place to start is the novel Coiling Dragon, which is one of the only completely translated web novels out there. Some of the other popular translations are Against the Gods, Tales of Demons and Gods, and Desolate Era.
Other than that, I would recommend the website novelupdates.com, which features reviews, ratings, and rankings that should help newcomers find a title that is a good fit. There is also a very active Reddit subreddit /r/noveltranslations. Every few days, someone on the subreddit asks for recommendations of novels to read, making it a good place to start the search for a novel.
You can find out more about Deathblade at:
Death Blade's Index
Death Blade's Twitter
WUXIA ROCKS INTERVIEW
Brendan Davis: Can you tell me a little about your background and experience with wuxia?
Wuxia Rocks: Yes. I was born into a family who enjoyed watching Wuxia series. At the time we were friends with the owner of an Asian video rental store, so my family would pick up various Wuxia series. That's pretty much how I got into Wuxia. My first introduction to the genre was a series called The New Adventures of Chor Lau-heung 1984, by TVB, an adaptation of Gu Long's Wuxia novels. Of course at the time I didn't even know what the genre was called. I was a kid entertained by all the colorful costumes and martial arts sequences. I was hooked. And from there I would watched just about every Wuxia series as they were release. Interestingly, I moved to a different state in the early 90s, but we somehow ended up making friends with another owner of an Asian rental store. So we continued to get Wuxia series throughout the 90s. Even now, I still watch Wuxia and still keep up to date with each series, even as early as they get in production.
BD: Can you talk about your family and why wuxia was important in your household?
WR: I wouldn't say it's important, it's just that when we first moved to the state, we didn't know English very well, so we just watched Wuxia for entertainment.
BD: As a kid, did you watch the shows in their original language or with English Subtitles?
WR: Neither. At the time the only options I got were dubbed. Thankfully, it was in another Asian language I understood, so it's fine. There were no English Subtitles for these shows back in those days.
BD: How do you define wuxia?
WR: Martial Arts Adventure. Or as it is define, 'Martial Hero.' I would describe Wuxia as stories set in ancient China, with people who practiced Martial Arts for various means, whether to protect the weak and oppressed, or to become the world strongest.
BD: What do you think are some misconceptions about wuxia?
WR: I haven't spoken to many outside of the Wuxia fandom, but the most recent misconceptions I came across were some who think Wuxia is about Ancient heroes in fantastical settings, with magical elements, such as spells, summoning, sword riding, and mystical beasts. The reason for this misconceptions is because they are not very familiar with Wuxia to begin with, and they only caught glimpse of recent Mainland China series. The genre is 'Xianxia', 'Immortal Hero', which is different from Wuxia, as it is more fantasy base. But the genre has become very popular in recent years, thanks to series like 'Chinese Paladin'. Of course the genre has been around long before that. But Mainland China has been producing a lot of them now, and to those who is not familiar with Wuxia, they might think that is Wuxia.
BD: For English-speakers who are interested in learning more about wuxia series produced in the 80s and 90s, before the boom of mainland series, what shows and resources might you recommend?
WR: Too many to list. But majority of them were produced in Hong Kong by TVB. While I enjoyed them growing up, I don't think they'll be as great to modern viewers, especially those who enjoyed the newer Mainland produced series. Not to directly compare them since they were made in different era, but those older series are low in production quality. Though they made it up with plot and acting. For anyone interested, I would recommend checking out their adaptations of Jin Yong stories. Demi-Gods, Semi-Devils 97, State of Divinity 96, Legend of the Condor Heroes 94, Return of the Condor Heroes 95, Duke of Mount Deer 98. As for the 80s, The New Adventure of Chor Lau-heung 84, Legend of the Condor Heroes 83, Return of the Condor Heroes 83, The Return of Luk Siu-fung 86, New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre 86. There's a lot more, too many to list. For where to get them, that I don't know. Maybe some online sites. If you can find an English sub version, you're in luck. As they are pretty rare.
BD: For those who might not be familiar, can you give an overview of some of the different genres beyond wuxia?
WR: Beside Wuxia and Xianxia, I don't know as many. Historical is among them. They're mainly focus on historical events and figures. With a mix of martial arts sometimes.
BD: What kind of wuxia series, movies and books do you enjoy?
WR: Honestly, I enjoyed any Wuxia, as long as the story is good to me. The ones I loved most are stories written by Jin Yong; Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, Smiling, Proud Wanderer. And a few Gu Long's stories as well.
BD: What makes Jin Yong in particular so popular? How would you compare his stories to those of Gu Long in terms of style and focus?
WR: I think what made Jin Yong's stories popular are their universal themes. Such as family, loyalty, right and wrong. They are relatable. His stories plays heavily with ironic tragedy and poetic justice. Example being, one character who uses poison all his life, in the end dies by his very own poison. Another one, the most vicious man ends up dying by the hands of the most innocent. Men with straight face carries hidden agendas. There's a well balance of action, drama, humor, romance, intrigue. I think it's these elements that made Jin Yong stories so well loved. They're filled with adventures of heroes and heroines going through trials and tribulations. Where as Gu Long's novels they are mostly about mysteries and crime solving detectives. His characters usually starts out powerful right away. Also his novels are often split into several different arcs. These are some the differences between Jin Yong and Gu Long's stories.
BD: What aspects of wuxia do you think sometimes get lost in translation?
WR: Probably the terminology. Sometimes not every words can be translated accurately. Or at least convey the exact meaning. I don't usually get bothered by these little things though. Wuxia are hard to come by as is already, any decent translations is better than nothing.
You can find out more about Wuxia Rocks at:
Wuxia Rock's Tumblr
Wuxia Rock's Twitter
Posted by BEDROCK GAMES at 9:16 AM 1 comment:
AGE OF HEROES (RPG REVIEW)
I owe the author of this book an apology as it was sent to me some time ago with the hope of me doing a review and I haven't had the opportunity to write one until now. I feel bad in this case because William Butler (my business partner who passed away in 2014) was particularly interested in this game when I showed it to him and had been planning to run some sessions of it. So this review is one I should have done about two years ago.
The game is Age of Heroes and the author is Brian Gleichman. Brian is someone whose intelligence and consistency I've come to respect a lot over the years and this game is a clear demonstration of those two things. It is not a system for those who want rules light or who eschew realism. This is a game for people who want realism supported by legitimate crunch where it counts. That said, the game is pretty good about knowing where that crunch ought to be, so if you are worried about games that go overboard and have fiddly bits in all the wrong places, that really isn't a concern here despite the comprehensive nature of the system. This review is based on Age of Heroes version 5.0.1.
If you gamed during the 80s, Age of Heroes will feel familiar. It definitely is written in the spirit of the systems I grew up playing and loving. It reminds me of games like Hero System, Basic Role-play and Rolemaster. This isn't a game like D&D but more like the other systems that attempted more realism. These days these kinds of games might be thought of as too rules heavy, but I tend to think of them as just very precise and complete. Reading through age of heroes it is like Brian Gleichman continued with that trajectory of design evolution. So if you aren't a fan of that style, this won't be the game for you. Mechanically it is a bit baroque, but I think that is a strength here.
One thing to keep in mind if you haven't played a game requiring real math in some time: Age of Heroes values math and uses it to achieve its objectives. Games tend to avoid that now and I was actually surprised that I had to refresh some of my math skills while reading the book to make sure I was doing the formulas correctly. It isn't difficult, it is just something a lot of gamers might be out of practice with. Just to give a quick example so people know what I mean here. The game uses Location Points, or LP, for taking damage in combat and the formula for figuring them out is:
LP=(cube root of character's weight)-.3
There is a handy chart too. But then the Stun Levels (or SL) also use a formula:
SL=(LP+CO+(WP/2))/3-2
Other aspects of the game like Cumulative Hit Points and Movement Rate use similar methods. This isn't stated here to critique or deter. And the whole book doesn't read like this. But parts of character creation do involve math, do involve the kinds of formulas you might not have seen in a game book in a while, so just be aware of that going in. To his credit, Brian Gleichman very clearly states this in the introduction.
The aim of Age of Heroes is to simulate a world of high fantasy and to do so in a way that allows for long term campaigns that can span generations. It places strong focus on tactical skills and it very much rooted in a war-game approach to RPGs.
The game has ten stats: Strength, Quickness, Agility, Constitution, Will Power, Aptitude, Intuition, Magic Strength, Charisma and Physical Appearance. While these range from 2-12 in value (with an average of 7) they are arrived at by rolling a percentile die and consulting a chart. This might feel a bit counter-intuitive or like an unnecessary step to some, but I rather like this. It allows the designer to set the frequency of each result in the game. So 12s come up 3% of the time because on the chart they are in the 98-100 column. Each stat value is clearly set to where the designer feels it ought to be. NPCs use a different column on the chart (with 'unusual' NPCs using the same results as PCs and standard NPCs having a higher range between 5-9). Stats impact a number of things from skill point costs to your ability to lift and your defense modifiers. Importantly they are not the last word in anything. While strength matters when determining Lift Capacity, so does your character's weight. One can quibble over choices like this but personally, as a slightly smaller than average guy who used to spend a lot of time in gyms sparring with bigger guys, I think a lot of his choices are sound here.
After Stats, you handle things like Race and Culture. These are somewhat campaign specific but base cultures and races are provided. They are basically templates that provide restrictions, size ranges, weight modifiers, stat modifiers, character points, etc. These do include modifiers for sex, which can be a touchy subject. However it also provides an optional rule for getting around these issues. Basically male characters are baseline and female characters have stat and size modifiers (some are positive like Constitution, some are negative like Strength).
Following this you get into secondary traits which include age, spell points, height, weight, effective strength, hit points, movement rate, etc. This is where a lot of the math I mentioned earlier comes into play.
Past this point there are sections on family, social class, character points, character classes, and skills. Character Points are important because they help set individuals apart from others. These can take the form of re-rolls or modifiers, special items, and special abilities. They are a nice way to help flesh out a character.
Character Classes are pretty important as well in the game. They don't limit what you can do, but they do control how well you can do any given thing. So your combat modifiers, magic combat modifiers and your access to magic and skills filter through the character class. It doesn't appear anything is restricted. If I understand the skill system and the magic system correctly, you can generally still access these things even if they are not listed on your character class, they just cost more. In some cases this can impose a heavy modifier to cost. For example a character taking non-classed skills (Skills not listed as Primary or Secondary for the class) pays 50% more for them. Classes seem to be mainly about aptitudes toward certain skill sets. Other things like weapon familiarity, XP advancement and special abilities are covered by class as well.
But the heart of making your character appears to be in the skills. This is the last section of character creation and the most lengthy. Skills cover everything from combat to crafting and magic. Some skills have their own resolution methods but the core system is a d100 roll where you must roll under a number (called the Base Skill Chance). I personally like roll under systems. I do realize many consider them counter-intuitive but I've always found them fairly easy to work with and grasp. There are basically five ranks for skills (though these can be exceeded) that help set the base skill chance at different increments. So a rank in a skill of 3 gives you a rank base of 80. Like other aspects of the game, the skill roll section is somewhat involved but it is pretty clear and all makes a good deal of sense. For example skills have learning time (and there is a formula involved). Results can be broken up into failure, success, extraordinary success, and (in rare cases) critical success. The guidelines for these are fairly simple and straightforward, understanding that the GM really needs a lot of room to interpret what extraordinary success means based on circumstances.
Combat is very tactical in nature. There are rules for facing, zones of control, etc. Combat flows in five steps which begin with deciding your action but allow for the defender to make a parry or dodge attempt. On a successful round you would roll for hit location and damage. Of note there are many combat options listed. So the first step of combat actually holds 28 officially listed possibilities. These include things like Normal Strike, Full Swing, Dive for Cover, Disarm, Trample, etc. You can only perform one combat action in a round. It also offers up a number of optional rules to crank this up even more (things like Bleeding rates, combat formations, etc). In addition there are number of "Special Cases" rules for close combat, withdrawing from combat, taking friendly fire, and more.
You will definitely need a GM who understands the system fully to run it. There are a number of important distinctions to keep in mind as you deal with things like wounds, combat modifiers and hit locations. It is a system designed to reward players who make sound tactical choices and it does so with an aim to simulating a feeling of reality. Players can probably get by knowing a bit less than the GM, but they will definitely benefit with more mastery of the rules.
Magic system looks solid to me on first reading. I think given what is being emulated here, the division into subtypes would work well for a number of campaigns. Spells are divided into types and these determine how they are cast as well as special rules for them. These are the categories: Battle Spells (single target attacks), Combat Spells (area attacks), Characteristic Assault Spells, Defense Spells, Instant Spells, Non-Combat Spells, Talent Spells, and Ritual Spells. These types have mechanical weight to them. The spell descriptions are varied and flavorful.
After this are the campaign rules which cover everything from overland movement to magic items. It covers all the key challenges like falling off cliffs and breaking objects. Healing is also found in this section of the book and it can be pretty gritty. Healing is dealt with based on the where you were wounded. So you have to track a damaged arm and head separately. Healing times are tracked and can have varying effects on you. What is more, characters can face the prospect of permanent disability from such wounds. Again, there is a bit of a detailed method to this (though it comes with a chart).
While this is complicated at times, my experience with such things is they really do give characters a palpable history. When you have a system for dealing with bum legs that can arise naturally, unplanned, through the course of combat, that creates characters who feel real. If I understand the healing rate correctly, how wounded you are impacts how much you recover each day. Being tended regularly by a physician also affects this. I'd have to run it live though to really get a feel for it, so my impression is based on the charts and text.
There is a bestiary which comes with a nice list of common abilities that look like they make customizing your own creatures easy. The bestiary looks fairly complete to me, especially given how much the rest of the book covers. It includes selections of horses, elementals, goblins, monsters like trolls, demons, and humanoid threads such as dwarven adventurers, human lords and wizards. There is also a section of mythic creatures.
This is followed by the appendices. The first is a one page character creation checklist which is actually rather useful. This page clarified a lot for me, because it helps you see all the steps in a clear plan. But even better are the design notes. I'd even go so far as to say the design notes are worth buying the book for even if you have no interest in running the system.
When I first got to this section I was anticipating they might be harsh, because I know Brian Gleichman has strong views on his gaming style. But this was a very compelling read that clearly laid out what his goals were, and did so in a way that didn't feel like an attack if you happened to disagree. He presents five clear design goals but one thing that stands out is the game was designed to reward players for making good choices. It is the kind of style where success isn't assumed simply because you are a hero. You do have to earn success and part of the fun comes from the GM presenting legitimate challenges to overcome. This means a high kill rate (which he puts at 15-40% in his own campaigns). I rather like this style of play myself, though I recognize it can be a difficult sell these days. To me, it means more to be a hero when the risks are higher and the chances of death ever-present.
Something he addressed here is the mechanics he chose not to add to the game. One of his design goals was to avoid mechanics that interfere with players running their characters, so he felt in some instances that meant knowing when not to have rules if they can be handled by GMs and Players naturally on their own (for example rules for romance).
Gleichmann also addresses styles that are not well-suited to Age of Heroes. He acknowledges those put off by math, non-dramatic outcomes, combat and the rewarding of player skill, might not enjoy the game. Over the course of the section he explains his decisions for various mechanics.
The appendix also includes a history of the hobby, suggestions for modifying the system and a recommended reading/viewing list. The history section is notable because you can get a clear sense of what the writer likes and doesn't like from it. The reading list is not overwhelming but offers some interesting choices. For example, for Paladins one of its recommendations is Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. When I was young my father developed a fascination with this book and I certainly can't object to it being on the list. For general reading there is a lot of what you'd expect for high fantasy but also selections like The Princess Bride (which I think is a book worth reading if you like the film). With the films, again I can't object. All movies I think are great fantasy and adventure films and I can definitely see how all the recommendations match the flavor of the book.
This is definitely worth checking out if you want something with a little more crunch where tactics and choice matter. If math is a huge deterrent for you, this may not be a great fit, but I am not super into math myself and didn't find it difficult once I got back into the groove of it. If you gamed during the 80s, and feel maybe we've thrown out a bit of baby with the bathwater in the intervening decades, this is also worth checking out. If you want to run a high fantasy system, with a robust ruleset, that doesn't compromise on mechanics, then definitely give it a try.
In terms of writing, I found the book very engaging and well written. I particularly liked the design notes section in this respect. The organization of the book is quite clear. While it is a complex game, you shouldn't have any trouble finding the section you need during play. I haven't had a chance to play it myself. It is certainly on my short list of games to run when I have time away from the game I am currently working on. So do take my opinion with the necessary grain of salt.
Age of Heroes is available on lulu for those who are interested: HERE
Posted by BEDROCK GAMES at 11:19 AM No comments:
WANDERING HEROES OF OGRE GATE: PROFOUND MASTER AND IMMORTAL LEVEL CAMPAIGNS
I've been a bit silent on the blog lately, mostly because I've been working on the finishing touches for Ogre Gate and making sure it goes smoothly into layout. However I also made more of an effort in the last four to five months to refrain from posting unless I have something I really want to talk about. So aside from campaign logs, design/campaign notes, and the occasional review, I've been staying away from posting here as much as I used to. This helps keeps me more focused on finishing out books (devoting a set amount of time each day to blog entries takes away from that).
But today is too hot in Boston for design work (this was written on Friday). At least for me. It isn't scorching but it is nearly 80 and I don't have the AC set up yet, so I've mostly been watching Kung Fu movies and taking care of other things. For me, 80 with any amount of humidity is hot.
So I figured I'd take some time to talk about what I've been learning as we've started to really delve into the Profound and Immortal levels of play in Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate. Much of this is just preliminary thoughts on my part in terms of campaign structure, but interesting because it is very much the opposite of my experience with our other game, Sertorius.
In case you haven't seen my posts before on the subject, the Profound and Immortal book is going to address higher level campaigns for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate. The low levels of the game focus more on wuxia-style campaigns, while the higher levels allow for campaigns in the style of Immortal (Xian Xia) and martial arts fantasy genres. Even at the earlier levels, these fantasy elements are present, but they become much more pronocuned when you reach Qi ranks 7 and beyond. There is material for this in the core rulebook, but to address it completely, it needs its own book. These levels begin at Qi rank 7 and go to 24, taking you all the way to becoming immortals or demon heroes. This is very much the point in the game where you become more of a super-being, and get into godlike territory.
Our other game, Sertorius, features characters who start out with this level of power, and as they grow the campaigns tend to open up, becoming more freeform and sandbox as the players amass power and can do what they want. But the cosmology there is different, the gods are not as involved. In Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate it is inspired by the Heavenly Bureaucracy from Chinese sources, so there is more of a celestial structure and hierarchy in place. The result is players start out in the lower levels having more freeform sandbox-like play, but once they hit those profound levels and attract the attention of immortal forces and sects, things become more structured (at least in general).
So you have an arrangement where characters shape their own destiny early on but then eventually, when they hit a certain apex of power, settle into the celestial hierarchy and have to work within that. This doesn't mean they aren't free to roam; they are, they just have to contend more with the rules put in place by various deities (or be really clever about it if they want to break them). A Monkey King style campaign is certainly possible, where the players rebel against Heaven or something. But those are more rare, because they come with such risk for the players.
The shift in exploration also shifts a bit. At earlier levels there was a lot of exploring the local environment, but at higher levels the players are exploring realms mortals would have great difficulty accessing. So the landscape changes and that makes for a different kind of expiration.
There are still investigations, city adventures, crawls across the kingdom and so on, but because the players are becoming more important, have attracted the attention of deities and immortals in a world with a fairly centralized cosmology, it produces a very different experience than similarly powerful characters in Sertorius.
This has been my experience at least.
MAGIC BLADE (MOVIE REVIEW)
Magic Blade is a 1976 Shaw Brothers release that blends wuxia and mystery. It was directed by Yuen Chor* (Killer Clans, Heroes Shed No Tears, Legend of the Bat) and stars Ti Lung (as Fu Hung Hsueh), Lo Lieh (as Yen Nan Fei), Lily Ho (as Yu Chin), Tanny Tien Ni (as Moon Heart), Ching Li (Chiu Yu Cheng), and Teresa Ha Ping (as Devil Grandma). The storyline is based on novels by Gu Long.
Like Killer Clans, Magic Blade is a perfect blend of Gu Long story and Yuen Chor directing. It is gritty wuxia in that the ruthlessness of the characters and their passions are on full display on screen, it is fantastic wuxia in its swordplay choreography and use of elaborate weaponry.
The story is fairly simple, two swordsman, Yen Nan Fei and Fu Hung Hsueh, meet during a festival to have a duel. In their previous duel a year earlier, Fu Hung Hsueh had been the victor so they are meeting for an appointed rematch. As they trade sword strikes, assassins leap in and try to kill Yen Nan Fei. This unites the men against a common threat, Master Yu who wants to rule the martial world. First he intends to kill the two swordsman who could stand in his way (Yen and Fu), then he wants to possess a mighty weapon called the Peacock Dart. This thrusts the swordsman on an adventure where they must elude Yu's assassins and obtain the Peacock Dart before he can get his hands on it. Along the way they meet Chiu Yu Cheng, the daughter of the Peacock Dart's protector and the three brave their way to Master Yu's manor. I don't want to give too much way away but the movie culminates in a wonderful final confrontation with fun twists and surprises along the way. The film itself is dark, moody but endlessly inventive with its antagonists and ambushes.
Ti Lung as Fu Hung Hsueh
The movie puts a good deal of emphasis on the realities of a world where people spend all their time fighting. These are heroes with scars, who have drunk their fill of both wine and blood. Right from the start of the film the dialogue reveals the blood soaked haze that martial world has cast on them as Fu Hung Hsueh declares "I came prepared to kill, but I forget why I want to kill you." Yen then informs him that it is the other way around, that he is the one who wants to kill, because Fu Hung Hsueh beat him in their last match. The movie is filled with these kinds of lines and the opening does a good job setting the tone for the rest of the film.
Devil Grandma taste's Fu Hung Hsueh's
blood and steals the show
One thing that truly sets this movie apart is the number of memorable villains. Gu Long is exceptional in this respect but in this film in particular the characters are all stark and entertaining. All the antagonists have a flair and gleam that works, everyone from the five assassins sent by Master Yu to Moon Heart, lady of the Ming Yueh Restaurant. Many are great chess players, poets and painters. But the most notable in my view is Devil Grandma played by Teresa Ha Ping (sometimes known as Hsia Ping). She is so cruel, wicked and unrepentantly nasty that is a pleasure anytime she makes an appearance. Devil Grandma is a terrifying side villain who works for Master Yu and loves to eat her foes after the've been defeated. Mid Battle she ruminates on the possibilities of 'stewed Fu Hung Hsueh, fried Yen nan Fei and braised Chiu Yu Cheng'. For me this character really steals the show. Later in the movie she tastes the wounded hero Fu's blood and declares "Your blood is delicious!". I've seen characters like this plenty of times, but rarely done this well.
Yen Nan Fei (left)
Fu Hung Hseuh (right)
The Peacock Dart, which the heroes spend most of their time finding and protecting is a marvelous weapon. At first the viewer thinks it is simply some particularly well crafted dart or dagger, but in truth it is a metal disc fitted with darts that look like flower petals. How it works exactly is initially unclear, they state that it kills 'mysteriously'. When it is first used at Peacock Fortress by Master Chiu (the dart's original protector) it is particularly stunning and unexpected.
But the Peacock Dart is just one among many weapons here. Weaponry has the ornamentation of costume here. Yen's sword is gilded and fitted with an unusual basket hilt, while Fu uses an elaborate spinning sword that allows for some truly spectacular choreography.
Fu Hung Hsueh and Chiu Yu Cheng (Ching Li)
The fight scenes are all very well done. This is full throttle mid-70s style wuxia (so in a lot of ways it is reminiscent of other Yuen Chor films from this period, but everything seems particularly well oiled in Magic Blade. The action choreography was done by Tang Chia (also known as Tong Gai), who also did the choreography for Killer Clans, Avenging Eagle and many other notable films. In this particular case, I think the action sequences are quite good.
But the fighting here is more than just swordplay. The scenes are engaging not only for the grace of movement and choreography but because they each present their own unique, chess-like, challenges. At one point there is a literal chess board incorporated into the battle. These set-ups work wonderfully because they also give the characters opportunities to exchange dialogue. Given the plethora of colorful foes, it all comes together well as a result.
Magic Blade is a lot like Killer Clans and movies like it in that its focus is the dark underbelly of the martial world. The hero, Fu Hung Hsueh is good-hearted but perhaps weary of the bloodshed (or at least not attached to the pleasures of the world the way the other characters are). It certainly has its share of carnage and nudity (though not as much of the later as one finds in Killer Clans). But it is a touch sentimental in its approach (and I don't mean this as a criticism). There is one scene in particular, where Fu Hung meets a woman who hasn't eaten for three days and offers to sleep with him if he buys her a bowl of noodles. The whole exchange sort of shifts the focus from the martial world to the he real one, in a very interesting way. And we find that it is a world with just as much pathos and beauty as the martial one.
Master Chiu and his daughter
Chiu Yu Cheng
Sometimes the wuxia films can load too many characters into a 2-hour film. This is especially a challenge if you are not acquainted with the source material. But Magic Blade manages to brim with characters from the very start and not overwhelm the viewer. I think part of this is because it does a good job establishing who each character is (even listing some of them clearly in the dialogue). Really though, I think the reason it works is because the characters are all so memorable and all contribute to the flow of the movie in their own way (and the important ones usually back again and again).
Moon Heart (Tanny Ni Tien)
I personally love this movie. I think some people might be put off by certain elements but I still highly recommend it to wuxia fans, martial arts enthusiasts and gamers. If you like action, there are no big lulls. If you love colorful martial heroes, this film has them in spades. If you want clever dialogue and some sentiment to go along with your bloodshed, Magic Blade surely has them. It has everything I usually look for in a wuxia movie and more.
From a gaming point of view, this is pure gold. You should be able to get five adventures and countless encounters (not to mention NPC ideas) from this. I didn't really get into them in my review much but it also has lots of inspiring locations (temples, villas, fortresses and inns).
*I have been very inconsistent with ordering of surnames on this blog, using this ordering as it has appeared this way in previous reviews on this blog page. Similarly the other names are simply in the order I most naturally lean toward. If you research these names online, surnames sometimes appear before personal names and vice versa. For example, Lo Lieh, is sometimes written as Lieh Lo.
WANDERING HEROES OF OGRE GATE: PROFOUND MASTER AND...
DEMONS OF CELESTIAL HEART SECT SESSION THREE: THE ...
APRIL SALES
OGRE GATE CAMPAIGN NOTES: HOUR OF THE PHOENIX
DEMONS OF THE CELESTIAL HEART SESSION TWO: THE DEA...


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The Demand for Death by Bryce Tapp
The sound of the SUVs tear across the horizon. It breaks the stillness that covers the dawn. Dust trails follow their tracks as they burst from the sunlit savannah. Their guns are loaded— some with tranquilizers, some with bullets. A mother and her calf scream and run from the speeding SUVs but they are separated. A group of the poachers keeps newborn from her mother while it watches as the mother collapses onto the ground with a heavy and deep thud that reverberates out toward her wailing calf. Soon, her tusks, in their strength and vivid white colors that stand out against the burnt soil, are stolen from her aged face and tossed into the SUV without care. As they came, they leave. The mechanical roaring drowns the screams of the pacing calf and as they leave its small legs run toward her fallen mother. The calf's eyes show its misery and its confusion and its panicked spirit as the mother lies still without movement and without her ivory tusks. The calf will grow in the years to come. But the mother will not. Those tusks, which will soon be made into a small charm or a piece of jewelry, had saved her many times before but will save her never again. Once again silence returns to the savannah. But it is a silence that echoes with the screams and cries of horror.
A Fat Girl's Guide to Body Image by Jordan Sheets
 I grew up overweight. From the time I was in second grade I knew something was wrong with me. A group of boys in the fourth grade would chase me around the playground pretending to shoot me like I was an escaped zoo animal. "Why me?" I would ask over and over again while staring up at the sky. Why did I have to be different? Why did something about me have to stick out so obviously? But more importantly, why did everyone seem to hate me because of it? Suddenly I was a freshman in high school and it seemed like life revolved around boys, parties, and anything we could do to rebel, that is except for mine. My life revolved around food, dieting, exercising, and cutting out pictures from Seventeen magazine to glue onto the inside of my notebooks
Courage Through Covering by Nur Isa
Growing up in a household when soccer was on all the time, I felt the need to follow suit. My three older brothers played, so I joined my local team as well to carry on this family practice. But it wasn't until 7th grade I began to play while covered, when I began wearing the hijab permanently. At that moment, I wore leggings under my shorts, long sleeves under my jersey, and a hijab on my head.
In all honesty, I was terrified. I felt that people would judge me as soon as I stepped on the field. I was already used to the stares at school, but soccer was where I got away from the gawking I received. This next step in my life was a big change for me. From this point on, it meant fully covering. I would be an actual Hijabi. Some might not get the importance of that for me, but it was greatly important. I was not only changing my appearance, but also my mentality. Some see it as a simple piece of cloth, but the meaning is much more spiritual and profound than one might think. By doing this, I was speaking for something bigger than me. This meant I represented Islam in everything I did and said. My religion is so important to me, so I took this responsibility head on (pun intended).
Working My Way Through High School and How It Taught Me the World by Mandy Mellinger
Much of Port Orange knows me as the friendly neighborhood Chipotle worker who scoops guac, rolls burritos, and tries to smile through some of the annoying and rude customers that I deal with every night. Okay, so maybe not so friendly…sorry guys, but if you walk in at 9:00 p.m. and I'm ready to go home, I probably will roll my eyes when you ask for four side tortillas.
I'm completely unsure as to why I wanted a job so badly when my sixteenth birthday came into view. About a month off of the big day I decided that the day before I turned sixteen, I was going to be the proud new owner of a part-time job. This goal was not an easy one to achieve, especially when you had to explain to the places where you interviewed that you "almost have a license and can't work for the next month." My current boss laughed at me when I told her that; she took me over the 26-year-old interviewing next to me, though, and I have been grateful (for the most part) every day since.
It's Not the End of the World by Priya Gurjar
I vividly remember sitting in a Target parking lot, anxiously counting down the seconds to 6:00. The moment I looked at the words displayed on my phone's small screen, I felt the tears start to form.
The Committee on Admissions has carefully reviewed your Early Decision application to Columbia University, and we are sorry to inform you we cannot offer you a place in Columbia's Class of 2020.
"It's not the end of the world", I tried to tell myself, and in a catatonic state of shock, I drove myself home thinking one thing and one thing only: Why?
It's Not Actually a Funny Story by Lindsey Breneman
Firstly, I'm not bashing It's Kind of a Funny Story whatsoever. It's a quality portrayal of a teenager who has lost his way but finds it through the beauty of the healthcare system. Read the book. Watch the movie. Enjoy it. Laugh. Zack Galifianakas is in it; if that does not tempt you I'm not sure what will.
I was sitting crisscross applesauce, locked inside a bare room wherein everything was bolted down, besides the pillow without a case. A video camera was pointed at me sitting on the bed in their polyester, oversized shirt and pants, and one size fits all socks with grips on both sides (so one was unable to slip purposely or accidently thereby harming his or herself) attempting to calm my hyperventilation in the psychiatric wing of Halifax hospital. Unlike Craig Gilner, my adult treatment was not due to an operation on the "teen wing" (there is no teen wing at Halifax; it is simply adult or child), but my eighteenth birthday only six days before. The big black orderly with a friendly smile opens the door and says, "You don't look like you belong in here honey".
Things I Wish I Knew Before Beginning the College Admission Process by Alex Hanflink
The college admission process can be extremely daunting. From ACTs and SATs to supplemental essays to college interviews the entire process is long and arduous. With over 65% of students graduating from high school attending college the competition is more intense than ever. This is why it's important to be smart and start early.
We Don't Need No Education by Sophia Semensky
Some things are so embedded in our society that they are difficult to question, even to the point where questioning them becomes offensive. But why should these topics be off limits to questioning, especially if they are such a vital part of our lives? To blindly accept the premises upon which we live is chillingly Orwellian and undemocratic.
One of these topics is education. I'm not solely talking about reforming the education system or changing our testing policies or even fixing the university process. These things are important—trust me, I am the first in line to bemoan the anxiety soaked atmosphere of the school system—but they are hiding the real question that nobody seems to ask. Why are we educated this way? **In other words, it is imperative to question why we as a society strongly favor our established, standardized system over any other types of learning. It is almost unthinkable to remove your child from school, and even many homeschooling programs are modeled from textbooks, strict subject separations, and fact-based knowledge. However, this process of learning is only one in an excess of options we could also use.
What I Understand About Nothing by Vanessa Poulson
I was born and raised in a devoutly Christian household. My mother was raised a Jehovah's Witness, my father a Presbyterian. Both my brother and I were baptized into the Christian faith before we'd even spoken our first words. Both of us were prescribed to a family of believers before we'd even managed to take our first steps.
I attended Sunday School from the tender age of three, all the way up until I was twelve. I was instructed to stay away from books like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings because they contained tellings of "witchcraft" and it was instilled that I would become possessed by the devil upon pulling back on one of the fragile covers. I was taught of the wonders and miracles of god; some supernatural, all powerful being that hadn't shown himself in thousands of years, but loved each of us unconditionally.
Lone Justice by Bryce Tapp
His opinions spoke to the millions in their unifying and grand prose; his dissents scathed many of "the somersaults of statutory interpretation" he vowed to protect the Constitution from. Justice Antonin Scalia's life was an act of devotion to not just the Untied States and its laws, but to the governing principles written in the Constitution over two hundred and twenty years ago. For Justice Scalia, to abandon the founding document of the United States would be a "threat to American democracy."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This is a great write up by IBCrazy's VAS website. If you want more information check out his website as it contains a wealth of great information!
Circular polarization is used by NASA and many HAMs to communicate with satellites that orbit the Earth as the orientation of the satellite is consistently changing. This is very similar to an FPV aircraft in flight. Circular polarization has two distinct advantages: it rejects multipath interference (which is the most common reason for video issues), and does not lose polarization when a plane banks to turn. If you are having trouble with video scrambling or random drop outs, this is likely due to multipath interference. MULTIPATHING IS NOT FUZZ IN THE VIDEO! MUTIPATHING IS SCRAMBLING OR SUDDEN DROP OUTS!
Linear polarization is very common and is the easiest to implement. It is capable of longer range than circular polarization, but is more susceptible to multipathing. The range advantage is seldom realized due to multipath interference. The antennas tend to be more compact and easier to build (as well as cheaper to buy).


Freewall encompasses two variations of Masonry-style layout. In a masonry layout, thumbnail cells need not be the same height; images will rearrange themselves to close unused space, like stones laid into a wall.
Thumbnails expand, contract and reflow to best fill the full-width of the gallery container.
Thumbnails maintain their size while the number of columns adapts to the viewport width.
Customization options will vary slightly between the two layouts, though to a minimal degree. If you want to frame your thumbnails with thick borders, then use the Rigid layout.
If the thumbnails do not update size in Lightroom's preview, you can force the Web module to re-render the images by toggling Watermarks on and then off again, or vice versa.


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Ricardo II da Inglaterra foi retratado na cultura popular muitas vezes.

Literatura

 Ricardo é o personagem central de Ricardo II, uma peça de William Shakespeare que data de cerca de 1595.
 Ricardo é também o principal antagonista em uma peça anônima e incompleta, frequentemente conhecida como Thomas de Woodstock (peça) ou Ricardo II, Parte 1, cuja composição é datada entre 1591 e 1595.
 Ele é o protagonista da peça Richard of Bordeaux de Gordon Daviot.
 Ricardo aparece no romance The New June de Henry Newbolt, junto com Henrique IV e William Langland.
 Ele é um personagem do romance The Named, de Marianne Curley .
 Ele é um dos personagens principais de The Crucible Trilogy de Sara Douglass.
 Ele é um dos personagens principais de The Gentle Falcon, de Hilda Lewis.
 Ele é um personagem importante em Das Lächeln der Fortuna, da escritora alemã Rebecca Gablé.
 Ricardo é o personagem principal de Within The Hollow Crown, de Margaret Campbell Barnes.
 Ricardo aparece com sua mulher Anne da Bohemia e seu amigo Robert de Vere na peça de Anthony Minghella Duas Tábuas e uma Paixão.

Televisão
Ricardo foi retratado muitas vezes na televisão, principalmente em versões da peça de Shakespeare. Neste contexto, ele foi interpretado por:

 Alan Wheatley em uma versão da BBC, The Tragedy of King Richard II (1950)
 Maurice Evans em uma versão americana, Richard II (1954)
 David William na série da BBC An Age of Kings (1960), que continha todas as peças de história de Ricardo II a Ricardo III
 Ric Hutton em uma versão para a TV australiana de Richard II (1960)
 Hannes Messemer em uma versão da Alemanha Ocidental, König Richard II (1968)
 Ian McKellen em outra versão da BBC, The Tragedy of King Richard II (1970)
 Tamás Jordán em uma versão húngara, II. Richárd (1976)
 Derek Jacobi na versão de Shakespeare da BBC, King Richard the Second (1978)
 Michael Pennington na série da BBC The Wars of the Roses (1989), que incluiu todas as peças da história de Shakespeare interpretadas pela Shakespeare Company inglesa
 Aleksandr Romantsov em uma versão russa, Richard Vtoroi (1992)
 Fiona Shaw em um filme para a TV britânica, Richard II (1997)
 Michael Maertens em outra versão alemã, Richard II (2001)
 Mark Rylance em outro filme da BBC, Richard II (2003), transmitido ao vivo do Globe Theatre em Londres
 Ben Whishaw em Richard II (2012) como parte de The Hollow Crown da BBC, uma série de quatro peças da história de Shakespeare que também inclui Henrique IV parte 1, Henrique IV parte 2 e Henrique V.

Ricardo também foi interpretado na televisão por:

 Andrew Osborn em uma adaptação para a BBC de Richard de Bordeaux (1938)
 Peter Cushing em outra adaptação da BBC de Richard de Bordeaux (1955)
 Roger Allam em um filme da BBC, Henry IV (1995), uma versão de Henry IV de Shakespeare, Parte 1

Vídeo

 Ricardo foi interpretado por Mattie Osian em uma adaptação cinematográfica direta para o vídeo de Richard the Second, de Shakespeare (2001).
 David Birney o interpretou em um vídeo americano Richard II (1982), que pretendia simular uma encenação elisabetana da peça.

Representações culturais de monarcas da Inglaterra

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


What happens when you place a dog and a fan together in the same room? Apparently some pretty hilarious expressions and a few magical moments! Ontario-based animal photographer Illona Haus of Scruffy Dog Photography has been exploring the surprising and often humorous way dogs interact with these portable wind machines in her newest series BLOW. Responses range from confusion to playfulness to utter relaxation! Take a peek at a few of our favorite images from this series below and be sure to check out more of Illona's work on scruffydogphotography.com.
Bark Out Loud: Would You Wear a Sweater Made from Your Dog's Fur?


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Commentary FaithA NEW BEGINNING
Mothers: A national treasure
Exclusive: Greg Laurie quotes 4 presidents on the impact of their moms
President Theodore Roosevelt said, "When all is said and done, it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen even than the soldier who fights for his country. … [She] is the one supreme asset of national life; she is more important by far than the successful statesman or businessman or artist or scientist."
Our first president, George Washington, said, "The greatest teacher I ever had was my mother." President Abraham Lincoln said, "God bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her." And President Ronald Reagan said, "From my mother, I learned the value of prayer, how to have dreams and believe I could make them come true."
This weekend, of course, we're celebrating Mother's Day. Think of all of the things we've learned from our mothers over the years.
For instance, our mothers taught us about anticipation when they said, "Just wait until your father gets home." They taught us about logic when they said, "Because I said so, that's why." Our mothers taught us about prayer when they said, "You'd better pray this will come out of the carpet!" And they taught us about justice when they said, "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you so you'll see what it's like."
Mothers play such a vital role in our society. They not only impact their children, but they also impact their grandchildren and maybe even their great-grandchildren.
And even if our mothers aren't with us anymore, even if they're already in Heaven, they still influence generations because of the truths they pass on.
The apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy about the impact of his grandmother and mother on Timothy's life. Paul said, "I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you" (2 Timothy 1:5 NLT).
So Timothy's faith started with his grandmother Lois, went to his mother, Eunice, and then to him. And Timothy passed that faith on, which shows us the importance of a godly heritage.
But maybe your parents didn't pass on that godly heritage to you. Even though the Bible tells us to honor our fathers and mothers (see Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2–3), we know that dads and moms are not always honorable people.
However, we should honor our parents, whether they deserve that honor or not. Most of them do. But even if they don't, we should honor them and offer respect to them.
I know that Mother's Day is a hard day for some people. Maybe your mother has died, and you miss her. Maybe your mom wasn't a very good mom, so your relationship is strained. Maybe you've suffered the loss of a child, so Mother's Day is painful for you. Or maybe you're dealing with some other issues that make Mother's Day difficult.
If you're a mom, maybe you feel as though you aren't doing your job as a mother all that well. Just remember that children are a work in progress. Just keep praying and never give up, because your impact is greater than you may realize.
As parents, we need God's help, because we live in a culture that is largely hostile to the family. It certainly doesn't support the role of the mother and father. In fact, in many ways our culture (and by that I mean music, movies, television, and other things) tends to undermine the role of parents.
Kids need their parents, but they don't need their moms and dads to be their best friends. Rather, they need them to be parents.
Both of my boys knew that when they lived under my roof, they lived by my rules. That included always showing respect to their mother and me. If they had a disagreement with us, that was fine. But they were not allowed to be disrespectful toward us.
I also reserved the right to go anywhere in my house that I wanted to, including my kids' rooms. Someone might say, "That was their private space. Parents shouldn't invade their kids' private space."
Well, I invaded any space I wanted to. Was I snooping? You'd better believe it. And if I happened to find something that was destructive to my sons, I would bring it to their attention so they didn't go the wrong way. That's part of my job as a parent.
Friends come and go, but parents are there for life. And parents have a very important purpose in the lives of their children.
Parents are to teach their children right and wrong, provide for them and prepare them. Parents are to lay a foundation in their children's lives. And a parent's most important job is to lead his or her children to Jesus Christ.
I thank and honor godly mothers who have done their part to raise their children in the way of the Lord. What a blessing they are. What a treasure they are.
Proverbs 31 says of the godly woman, "Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: 'There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!' Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised" (verses 29–30 NLT).
Husbands, when is the last time you praised your wife in front of your kids? How about in front of complete strangers? It goes a long way.
So make sure you call your mother on Mother's Day. Tell her that you love her. And honor her on this special day that has been set aside for her.
Check out Greg Laurie's books and movies in the WND Superstore
Greg Laurie is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, with campuses in California and Hawaii. Greg hosts the nationally syndicated radio program "A New Beginning," and he is also the founder and featured speaker for Harvest Crusades and Harvest America. Over 600,000 people have made professions of faith through these outreaches. Greg has been married to his wife, Cathe, for more than 40 years, and they have two sons, Christopher and Jonathan. Greg and Cathe also have five grandchildren. Greg also speaks at a special Sunday morning online service every Sunday called "Harvest At Home." You can see it and other resources from Greg Laurie at www.harvest.org.
@greglaurie
Growing in the valleys
When life goes sideways, God is still in control
Marching orders for the New Year: Walk with God
The story of a gift more than a birth
Jesus' birth: It's more about the 'why' than the 'where'


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Homes in Bucks is focused on empowering house-hunters with a website dedicated to property in Buckinghamshire Founded in March 2015, we aim at becoming the one-stop property marketing solution for builders, real estate agents, landlords and home owners to buy, sell, rent or let properties in Buckinghamshire. For potential buyers looking for properties in Buckinghamshire for sale or rent, we provide a feature-rich interface with advanced search functionality to explore and identify properties that match their needs. We boast unrivalled property exposure in a dedicated site helping users to buy and sell properties across Buckinghamshire by letting users select the town, property type and a multitude of criteria. For example, if you are want to search for a property sale in Aylesbury, simply select the town name as Aylesbury and property type as commercial or residential, and you are good to go. It's that simple! Whether you are looking for a small two-room apartment or a luxury villa, a commercial high-end office or a small retail unit, we have everything you are in search of!
Homesinbucks.co.uk offers a full range of Buckinghamshire properties for sale and to let covering Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, High Wycombe, Buckingham, Marlow, Chesham, Burnham, Lavendon and all other towns in Buckinghamshire.
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Being solely dedicated to property marketing in Buckinghamshire, Homes in Bucks helps the potential buyers to search and find properties exactly in their town of choice. Unlike other generic websites that deal in property rent/sale, we attract more attention of people who really want to buy or sell property in Buckinghamshire specifically. We also pride ourselves in understanding the aspirations of our customers and help them find their dream property in Buckinghamshire right here, right now. Whether buying your first-ever property or just making a property investment, we offer you the widest and latest choice of properties in Buckinghamshire to choose from!
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Stretching from the River Thames in the south and the outskirts of London in the south east across the ridge of Chiltern Hills, thence across the fertile Vale of Aylesbury and a low sandy ridge to the valley of the Great Ouse in the north—Buckinghamshire is situated in southern England. Buckinghamshire – The Most Filmed County in England – is also turning into one of the most sought-after property hotspots for potential real estate property buyers in UK.


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Q: How to View Visio Thumbnail using getpreview.ashx? Is there any way to preview the visio document in Sharepoint Online.
I have tried using the below url
https://{tenant}.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/getpreview.ashx?path={pathToTheDocument}
but can't view the preview of visio. Is there any way to preview the visio in SharePoint online?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

A: Per my test, I am able to preview visio documents in my end.
Are you unable to open it in the Document library? Is there an error message?
If it is opened in the app, you can set it as the default browser to open in the Library settings>Advanced settings>Open in the browser.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Singapore's private home resale prices continue to soften in October
The weakness in demand for resale private homes in Singapore has continued into October, as new projects draw buyers away from the secondary market. -- ST FILE PHOTO: DESMOND LUI
Melissa Tan
Nov 8, 2013, 10:46 am SGT
http://str.sg/KbY
The weakness in demand for resale private homes in Singapore has continued into October, as new projects draw buyers away from the secondary market.
Private home resale prices slipped 0.1 per cent in October from the preceding month, mainly due to a price decline in the suburban region, flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange showed on Friday.
This was after fallling 1.6 per cent month-on-month in September.
The decline in October was mainly due to a 1.4 per cent price drop for mass-market homes from the preceding month, on top of a 1.5 per cent fall from August to September.
Prices in the city centre also slid 0.5 per cent in October after rebounding 2.5 per cent in September month-on-month.
In the city fringe, however, resale prices increased 0.4 per cent from September to October after falling 3.5 per cent from August to September.
An estimated 486 non-landed homes were resold in October, which was 13.5 per cent higher than September's 428 units sold. However, this figure was still only a third of the 1,435 private homes resold in October last year.
Overall rental prices for private homes also fell 1.5 per cent month-on-month in October to reach their lowest level since June last year.
Suburban rents fell the most, declining 1.9 per cent, while city centre rents sank 1.3 per cent. City fringe rents remained flat.


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Forbidden Games
by Lucia Dailey
One of the main requirements for taking the life of another is to dehumanize and brand them as inferior, evil, stupid; gook, swine, rat, dog, coon, raghead–because the difficulty and psychological pain of killing someone recognizably the same is so great.
Pictures from Iraq showing the dehumanization and sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners by US and British soldiers have outraged many, and many are wondering how this could happen.
Military officers and politicians have tried to explain these horrifying actions as a "breakdown in command," and "aberrations." US Brigadier General Janice Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison where most of the pictures originated, asked how could people do this? I want to ask her if she remembers basic training, when the military teaches ordinary people to repress normal feelings and empathy in order to kill.
Much of the verbiage offered by American pundits to a bewildered public claim that such abuses would not happen in a well-run military, because officers would be able to check the more perverse and base impulses of the average Joe and Jane (who suddenly find themselves in the extraordinary and dreadful psychological conditions elicited by war). As if it is better to kill cleanly than torture. As if killing itself is not the supreme abuse. The grotesque irony of such logic has eluded these analysts, but the psychological problems stemming from turning our young into killing machines–whether "sloppily" or "cleanly," "undisciplined or "disciplined"–will not be eliminated by semantics and wishful thinking.
The truth is much more unpalatable and much more frightening: civilized behavior, what we like to call human(e) behavior, is spread like a thin veneer over the land, and the killing ape–who also knows how to mock and abuse and humiliate and torture–is not just the "enemy" without, but is also the enemy within each of us. Not facing that unpleasant psychological truth will always make us worse than hypocrites, as we play the part of shocked innocents while secretly allowing others to act out that part of human darkness we refuse to deal with ourselves.
I have already seen the female reservist who laughingly holds a mock gun at a naked Iraqi man's genitals virtually described as "trailer trash" in some US media reports. But I have not seen any mention of the residences or names of US intelligence officers and politicians in Iraq and Washington who wanted information so badly that they have allowed or ordered the torture, humiliation and concentration camp imprisonment of thousands of Arab men and boys in Iraq and elsewhere since 9/11. Nor have I seen charges of cruelty and sadism, by means of an unprovoked war against a people innocent of any wrongdoing to the US, leveled against the US president, vice president, secretary of defense by any of the current hand-wringers.
When I was fifteen my friend and I went to our after-school hangout. At the soda counter two GIs in uniform with nearly shaved heads were sprawled. They looked about eighteen. They struck up a conversation with us and asked if we'd like to see pictures of Viet Nam. One of them pulled two kodak photographs from his shirt pocket and handed them to me. I thought I would see some Vietnamese countryside. The first picture was of a man, Vietnamese, lying on his back on a dirt road in a pale green landscape. A lit cigarette was stuffed in his mouth, painted on him, in blood or something red: WE GOT YOUR ASS. The second picture taken from a different angle showed the entire top of his head missing. I was speechless, weak. My friend and I yelled: "How could you do this?" The soldiers were nervous, laughing, angry: "That's what they do to us."
That day I saw what war does to everyone who comes in contact with it. Boys barely men with blank eyes and faces like masks, full of mockery, anger, horror, fear, cruelty, and the anguish of the mad and barbarous killing our leaders were inflicting on innocent people on the other side of the world. And the fear, anger, and cruelty spread and carried like contagion.
I have sometime wondered what became of those two boys. What of their memories? Are they abusers? Addicts? Dead? Healed?
In Viet Nam civilians were killed–hundreds of thousands indiscriminately, in carpet bombings, whole villages massacred by US military. No Vietnamese child, woman, man, was safe from the fury and terror of US weapons. According to former US Senator Bob Kerrey, when he served in Viet Nam special forces there "were instructed not to take prisoners." Such a "breakdown" in the "civilizing" effect of officers on soldiers' behavior was no breakdown, but part of a plan made in Washington for winning the war by deliberately using terror and indiscriminate killing–as if war isn't always terror enough even when played by the "rules." If US soldiers' minds were laid waste, if the worst aspects of their make-up were thus freed from the constraints of civilized behavior in trying to carry out Washington's master plan, they were expendable after all, "collateral damage," so much human flotsam, unimportant, necessary "sacrifices" for the "war effort."
What Washington refuses to see is its own face reflected back in each act of barbarism committed by its soldiers–while utterly denying its responsibility for the destruction of so many lives and psyches, both foreign and domestic, in its aggressive actions through the years.
The soldiers at Abu Ghraib have said they were following orders to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation by military intelligence. We are rightly shocked by their perverse execution of such orders. If only we were as shocked by the orders themselves, and by the killing of innocent people in an unprovoked war. Then we might demand the removal of those leaders who perpetrated this war, and not be content with a scapegoat offering up of those they sent to do their dirty work.
LUCIA DAILEY is a poet and writer living in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Howard Zinn called her first novel, Mine Seed, documenting the violent labor struggles in the anthracite coal fields: "a powerful story…something extraordinary in literature." She is currently at work on a book set in World War One.


All businesses which are engaged in Import and Export of goods are mandatorily required to register for Importer Exporter Code (IEC). One doesn't need to be a registered entity to apply for one; you can apply even as an individual. The IEC does not apply to export of technology and services.


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Le château de Boulémont se trouve sur le territoire de la commune d'Herbeville, dans le département français des Yvelines. Il se situe dans un lieu-dit du même nom, entre Herbeville et Crespières.

Histoire
Le premier château de Boulémont a été édifié  à l'emplacement d'un ancien fief d'Herbeville, mais fut reconstruit au , et remanié en 1861. Il appartenait en 1819 au baron de Lanusse, lieutenant général du roi.

En 1996, il fait l'objet d'un inventaire du Ministère de la Culture au titre des jardins remarquables.

Jardins

Les vastes jardins de Boulémont, qui comptaient 37 hectares au XVIIIe siècle, comportent entre autres un potager, une serre, et d'autres monuments d'agréments comme un bassin ou une fontaine.

Notes et références

Boulemont


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Drinking Water Colombia
Flash Light Study Lakes and Climate Change
Microplastic in Lakes
Wastewater Treatment Plant Jordan
Drinking Cups for Drinking Water
Water Project Malawi
Drinking Water Gumbi
Drinking Water Cambodia
Hygiene Infrastructure, India
Living Lakes Web Seminars
Water Project in Blantyre City, Malawi
Initial situation
In the three schools where the project is being implemented there were no alternative sources of water to obtain drinking water, apart from two broken wells in the Mayera and South Lunzu districts. The pupils were therefore asked to bring their own drinking water. This is a measure that is unsustainable and hygienically problematic.
The project objective was to improve access to clean, safe drinking water for three primary schools in the town of Blantyre in Malawi. This will benefit 3,160 pupils of the Chisombezi Primary School, 4,600 pupils of the Mayera Primary School and 6,900 pupils of the South Lunzu Primary School. Furthermore, 600 households will share the water supply of the schools and benefit from clean water.
Repair work successful – water at two primary schools
The repair works on the wells of the primary school in Mayera and South Lunzu have been successfully completed. At present, the pumps of both wells are working perfectly, the water produced is free of mud and pathogens, and the flow rates also cover the daily drinking water requirements.
Prior to the project start in March 2020, the structural conditions of wells, boreholes and damage were recorded and assessed at all three facilities. The individual drilling sites were checked for possible sources of contamination due to defective wastewater disposal systems on site so that the quality of the groundwater is not endangered.
Despite Corona Pandemic
In March 2020, our partner organisation Action for Environmental Sustainability (AfES), together with Blantyre City Council, organized a meeting with school administrations and parent-teacher associations to discuss and plan the way forward for the implementation of project measures during and after the Corona pandemic.
Despite the pandemic, all parties involved declared their willingness to continue with the activities under strict safety and hygiene measures, as there was no danger to the project implementation despite the closure of schools by the Malawian government. Instead, the time off from school was used for construction work so that the students would have access to clean drinking water when they returned home.
New well for 3,160 primary school students
At Chisombezi Primary School, clean water has been flowing from a newly drilled well for the 3,160 students since fall 2020.
This was preceded by an extensive hydrological study to identify a suitable reservoir for drawing water from a depth of around 40 meters.
Smooth operation of all pumps is guaranteed. Our partner AfES has trained several local mechanics in operation and maintenance.
Global Nature Fund (GNF) - Office Bonn
Phone: +49 228 184 86 94 11
Project Partner:
Main Funder:
Cooperation Partner:
Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
The project should make a concrete contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
Project Period:
Project Country:
March 2020 – December 2020
Action for Environmental Sustainability (AfES), in co-operation with the City Council of Blantyre
Sika AG
City of Hannover, Germany


Students who select this module will expand on analysis, strategy and decision-making with regard to the sourcing process and procurement within logistics & supply chain management. Globalization is a mega trend that is shaping our supply chains and logistics networks in a way that was unthinkable just thirty years ago. In this module, the students will learn how to select and manage suppliers. The class covers various topics from strategic sourcing decisions to day-to-day procurement and supplier management.


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Q: how many types of strings in visual c++ How many types of string classes are there in visual c++. I got confused when i was going through the msdn center.
I found this type under the namespace system
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string(v=VS.71).aspx
and then in the headers section, i found the string header definitions. This seemed different from the above. One thing i noticed, this one comes under the STL.
(pls see the comment for the link, i cant post two links in the same post)
which one is normally used? I'm finding a hard time getting around with the different string classes
Thanks in advance :)

A: Different libraries come with different string types:
In plain old C you would use char*, the C++ standard library provides std::string which is widely used in C++ development. (string is defined as typedef basic_string<char> string;)
Microsoft created the MFC CString class which is (was?) used in MFC style programming, Qt has its QString which is used in Qt programs. What you're mentioning with System.String is a .net string class which can only be used in Managed code (with .net).
I'd suggest to stick with std::string (#include <string>) if you're new to C++. It's standard and platform independent.

A: String types in common use in Microsoft code are char*, wchar_t*, LPSTR, LPTSTR, LPWSTR, LPCSTR, LPCTSTR, LPCWSTR, BSTR, OLESTR, UNICODE_STRING, String, string, wstring, _bstr_t, CString
The last 5 are classes.  You pick the one that gives you the least conversion headaches, depending on what API you need to use:

*

*std::string and wstring, standard C++ library

*System::String, the string type for managed code

*_bstr_t, wrapper for a BSTR, used in COM automation

*CString, string type for the ATL and MFC libraries.

You're likely to encounter additional string types when you work with other APIs.


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We are very proud to say that St Catharine's was grading outstanding in our last SIAMS inspection in April 2016.
The inspector highlighted that 'The outstanding and distinctive Christian ethos permeates all aspects of school life and has an important and affirmative impact on pupils' personal and spiritual development. This is evidenced in excellent pupil behaviour and relationships.
He also commented on 'The exemplary Christian leadership of the Headteacher ensures that the school's Christian character has a strong impact on pupils' academic achievement and spiritual growth'.
He enjoyed our worship and said in our school we had 'Inspiring and inclusive daily worship is central to the life of the school. Its quality and vibrancy have a significant contribution to pupils' spiritual development. Strong links between school, home and the local churches, underpinned by gospel values, provide a positive Christian witness in the wider community.'
St Catharine's Church.
Our RE curriculum is designed to be distinctive and ensure our Christian values are deeply embedded in our daily school life. Our staff and governors use these core gospel values by example which is seen through our excellent quality of relationships between all members of the school community. This, together with the emphasis on caring for others, ensures we make an exceptional contribution to the pupils' social and moral development.
Religious education lies at the heart of our school curriculum. The focus on high-quality teaching has a significant impact on pupils' spiritual, moral and cultural development. The governors have adopted the Liverpool agreed syllabus which reflects national guidance and alongside this use 'Understanding Christianity' in all year groups. We also use the 'Values for Life' in our daily and class worship.
Impact is clear in the way our children live their lives through out Christian values and how this permeates in everything they do. Our outstanding SIAMS report confirms the great teaching that goes on here at St Catharine's. We are very proud of our school and how it is helping our children to become great Christians.


In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves in Passenger. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she's inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she's never heard of. Until now.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken is a brand new book, published on January 5, 2016 by Disney-Hyperion. Alexandra Bracken is fairly well known for her The Darkest Minds series, which I have never read. Passenger is the first book in a duology. The second half, Wayfarer, is due to be published in 2017.
I read this book as a part of the #readwomen group on Goodreads. It was the book that was voted on for this month, so if you want to see more reviews, please go check the group out!
I bought a Nook copy of this book, and looking at the cover, I wish I'd bought the hardback, because it's stunning. Seriously, Disney-Hyperion's team did an amazing job on making this beautiful. The typography is great, the image is awesome, and I love the way that the title goes slightly off the edge of the cover. It's a really great piece of design work.
I had no idea what this book was about when I started reading it. This book revolves around two characters and their family drama, which happens to be their time traveling powers. That's right, time travel. Much like our heroine, Etta, it took me a while to really understand what was going on and get into the right mindset to enjoy this, but once I did, I loved it. The rules that all of the time travelers had to follow made so much sense. The tunnels only traveling to specific years was a nifty way to make everybody's lives harder and make the tunnels sort of realistic.
Etta really took to time travel in a way that I didn't expect, especially given how much action they ended up in, but I got as caught up in the mystery as she did. This action-packed novel sucked me in just like the tunnels did, taking me from my room to the Atlantic Ocean in 1776 to Cambodia and back.
I loved Nicholas and Etta, and I enjoyed the relationship that grew between them throughout the novel. It was a little bit of insta-love, but it took long enough to really grow that it worked for me. I also liked Sophie as a character, because I can't not love someone that power-hungry and self-serving, especially when that's exactly who they needed to be to get what they need in life.
The writing in this novel was great, and I loved that Bracken noted the huge differences in Nicholas and Etta's perspectives, since they are very different characters. Nicholas is a black sailor from revolutionary America, and Etta is a white violin prodigy from 21st century New York. As their relationship grows, both characters make note of the fact that in Nicholas's "natural time," they would not be able to be together, but outside of it, they would be hard-pressed to be able to sail the way he loves to. It's a dilemma that will definitely come back in Wayfarer.
I find myself looking forward to meeting Etta's father and figuring out what the Thorn's really want from the world, other than the destruction of the Ironwoods. I also can't wait to see what happened to Etta, and where the story leads from here.
I'm rating this one 5 stars, because it kept me enthralled the whole way through, and I have no real complaints. I can't wait to read Wayfarer!


Principal Guest Conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Fritzsch was the QSO's Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2013. Almost concurrently, he was Chief Conductor of the Graz Philharmonic and Graz Opera (Austria). Previously, he has held the position of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director with both Nuremberg State Opera and the Freiburg State Theatres and Philharmonic Orchestra. Johannes Fritzsch was born in 1960 in Meissen, Germany, where he completed his musical education. He has conducted orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. Opera companies with which he has worked include the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper, Komische Oper Berlin, Opéra Bastille, Royal Opera Stockholm and Opera Australia. Over the past 20 years he has given many masterclasses for the German conductor training and development organisation, Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrates. Similarly, he has been actively involved in nurturing up-and-coming conductors in Australia through training programs run by Symphony Services International. In January 2015, he joined the University of Tasmania as Adjunct Professor, Conservatorium of Music, Tasmanian College of the Arts. He is the Course Leader of the recently founded Australian Conducting Academy in cooperation between UTAS and the TSO.


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Scheidt & Bachmann Equips the Parking Lot of Santa Creu University Hospital in Vic.
Scheidt & Bachmann Ibérica has recently been awarded the adjudication of the parking system of the Hospital de la Santa Creu, located in the Catalan town of Vic. Our company has a large presence in Catalonia, where it disposes 47 facilities, five of them in Vic, and one more in the nearby town of Manlleu.
The project will include the latest parking solutions, including the signalling system and lighting guidance, as well as VIA-T technology. The devices to be installed are part of the latest generation of Scheidt & Bachmann equipment, characterised by their great reliability, resistance and ease of configuration.
The Hospital de la Santa Creu de Vic was founded in 1348, and has a rich architectural heritage, preserving a Gothic nave, the Renaissance façade and courtyard, and a Baroque cloister. The architectural complex is protected as a Local Cultural Interest.
In 1987 a process of renovation began, and IT currently comprises a nursing home for the elderly, a day hospital, and a socio-health hospital, with a palliative care unit, a model for this type of care in Spain. The Hospital de la Santa Creu de Vic Foundation, the hospital's titular institution, received the Sant Jordi Cross in 1998.
The awarding of this project is a great incentive for Scheidt & Bachmann and its expectations to continue growing in Catalonia. We look forward many more installations during 2019!
About Scheidt & Bachmann
The family-owned company with its headquarters in Moenchengladbach, Germany was founded in 1872 and is now managed in its fifth generation. In the four divisions Fare Collection systems, Signalling Systems, Petrol Station Systems and Parking and Leisure Centre Systems, Scheidt & Bachmann is setting worldwide standards. The Parking Systems division dominates the international car park market by nearly 22,000 installations; it is the system provider for more than 75 airports worldwide. Scheidt & Bachmann provides with its brand "entervo" integrated, modular general solutions consisting of up-to-date JAVA software and innovative equipment.
Sigune Heinze
www.scheidt-bachmann.com/
lighting guidance Santa Creu University Hospital parking lot Scheidt & Bachmann Manlleu signalling system