I'll preface this post by stating that I have filed more than 400 chapter 7 bankruptcies for Central Ohio residents in the past 3 years. I have seen many different kinds of chapter 7s; Business, individual, rich individual, poor individual, medical related, job-loss related, and everything in between.
A chapter 7 bankruptcy resets all* your debts to $0.00. Many Ohio residents are burdened with tens-of-thousands-of-dollars in driver's license reinstatement fees, medical debt, credit card debt, personal loans, payday loans, utility balances, old phone bills, old cable bills, car repossessions, evictions, lawsuit judgments, bank overdraft fees. All of those, and more, will be completely forgiven in a chapter 7 bankruptcy. AMAZING. In my experience, a very high percentage of Ohioans have more than $10,000 in debt. Why live with this stressful, burdensome, ever-growing debt? YOU SHOULDN'T!
Federal & Ohio law combine to protect many, if not all, your assets (property, belongings, etc.) and still file chapter 7. Does that sound too good to be true? Yes, but it's true. The amount of people that could benefit tremendously from a chapter 7 bankruptcy is staggering. I think the only thing standing in the way of many more Ohioans filing bankruptcy is lack of knowledge of their bankruptcy rights. Every time I tell someone about the benefits of chapter 7 the response is the same: "Why doesn't everyone do this?!" EXACTLY.
It's a sad truth that most people will not be able to get out from under their debt without coming into a windfall of money. The reasons for that are: (1) criminally high interest rates, (2) unfair late fees, (3) fraudulent administrative fees, and the list goes on. (Not-so-funny story: I recently filed a bankruptcy in which a credit card company filed a claim with a principal balance of $0.50, and late fees/interest/administrative fees of $9,500+. I, of course, objected. But that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about!!). In fact, many of my clients have exhausted all their assets over years to attempt to pay off their debt, only to find themselves in the same situation they started. The problem with using all your assets PRIOR to contacting a bankruptcy attorney, is that MANY times I can protect those same assets, as I mentioned above, EVEN IF you file bankruptcy. That means all your debts would be forgiven, and you would still have your 401(k), IRA, pension, house, car, etc. Of course, I understand the idea of trying to pay your debts to avoid filing bankruptcy, but it's also very beneficial to be realistic in these situations and save yourself as much money as possible through the process.
Maybe the best feature about a chapter 7 (vs. a chapter 13) is that it only lasts about 4 months. From the day I file your case, to the day you receive a discharge from all* your debts, it is only about 4 months. And it only includes 1 court hearing (this hearing often takes less than 5 minutes, and is only designed to ensure that you didn't conceal any assets).
Another reason I like chapter 7 so much is from a fairness standpoint. I like the way the Federal government set-up the chapter 7 code. Unlike a chapter 13, not everyone is allowed to file a chapter 7. "Access" to the chapter 7 bankruptcy benefits is protected by the "means test." Simply put, the "means test" is a calculation of how much money you make. The result of the "means test" determines whether or not you qualify for the chapter 7 benefits.
*All figures as of 7/27/2017.
So although many of us do qualify for the benefits, those that make too much money do not qualify. I like this barrier from a fairness perspective.
Take my advice and find out how a Chapter 7 (or chapter 13) can benefit you. Call/Text me, Attorney Lucas Ruffing, directly on my cell phone @ 740-815-1114. Thanks for reading!


text:
2000 Population and Housing Census (PHC 2000) ( (REL 2000)) was a census that was carried out during 31 March 2000 – 9 April 2000 in Estonia by Statistics Estonia.

The total actual population recorded was 1,370,052 persons and 67.9% of them were Estonians. Compared to 1989 Estonia Census population was decreased by 195,000 persons (12.5%).

See also
Demographics of Estonia

References

External links
Results at Statistics Estonia

Censuses in Estonia
Demographics of Estonia
Ethnic groups in Estonia
2000 in Estonia
Estonia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: C# regular expression to NSRegularExpression I have the following regular expression that gets me the table name and column details of a create index statement:
        Regex r = new Regex(@"create\s*index.*?\son\s*\[?(?<table>[\s\w]*\w)\]?\s*\((?:(?<cname>[\s\d\w\[\]]*),?)*\)", RegexOptions.Compiled | RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

I would like to use this in Objective-C. I have tried the following:
            NSError * error = nil;
            NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern: @"create\\s*index.*?\\son\\s*\\[?([\\s\\w]*\\w)\\]?\\s*\\((?:([\\s\\d\\w\\[\\]]*),?)*\\)"
                                                                                options: NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive | NSRegularExpressionSearch
                                                                                error: &error];
            if(nil != error)
            {
                NSLog(@"Error is: %@. %@", [error localizedDescription], error);
            }

            NSRange rangeOfFirstMatch = [regex rangeOfFirstMatchInString: createStatement options:0 range: NSMakeRange(0, [createStatement length])];

            NSArray *matches = [regex matchesInString: createStatement
                                              options: 0
                                                range: NSMakeRange(0, [createStatement length])];

Which partially works. It gives me three ranges. The first one contains the entire string and the second one contains the table name. The problem is that the third one is empty.
Anyone have any ideas where I'm going wrong?
Edit: The string I'm trying to parse is: CREATE INDEX cardSetIndex ON [card] (cardSetId ASC)

A: The problem you seem to  have is that the second capture group is being overwritten by the last itteration of (?: )*. Since its optional, its always blank.
Your regex:
 create\s*index.*?\son\s*
 \[?
     ( [\s\w]*\w )
 \]?\s*
 \(
     (?:
        ( [\s\d\w\[\]]* )
        ,?
     )*
 \)

Change it to:
 create\s*index.*?\son\s*
 \[?
    ( [\s\w]*\w )
 \]?
 \s*
 \(
    (
      (?: [\s\d\w\[\]]* ,? )*
    )
 \)

Compressed and escaped:
create\\s*index.*?\\son\\s*\\[?([\\s\\w]*\\w)\\]?\\s*\\(((?:[\\s\\d\\w\\[\\]]*,?)*)\\)

A: Your question is sort of vague about what you actually want to grab, and that regex is quite gnarly, so I wasn't able to glean it from that.
CREATE\s*INDEX\s*(\w+)\s*ON\s*(\[\w+\])\s*\((.+)\)
That will grab the table name in group 1, the ON property in group 2, and the following property after that in group 3.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
NYC during the American Revolution- Online Class with Brooklyn Brainery
Boston, Philadelphia, Yorktown… these are the places that usually star in the American Revolution, but New York City has a story to tell as well! NYC was burned, abandoned, repopulated, and put under martial law; it became home to pirates, runaway slaves, and smugglers; its churches were turned into hospitals, its warehouses into jails, and its cemeteries into pleasure gardens. Even our rivers played a part, allowing us to be surrounded with fireships, floating pens for prisoners of war, and, briefly, the French navy. The British occupied NYC for seven years, longer than any other part of what would soon become the United States. It was also the last place they left, not until over two years after their 'final' defeat.
New York City during the American Revolution is the story of people like William Franklin, Ben's illegitimate and disgraced son; Colonel Tye, a black raider who led a feared guerrilla force; and Haym Salomon, a Jewish Polish immigrant who used his language skills to spy for George Washington.
You think you know the American Revolution? Think again! Not all history happens on the battlefield – though we have one of those, too. The Battle of Brooklyn was the largest military engagement of the entire war. Come learn about the archaeology and history of New York City in the American Revolution. Whether you've already seen Hamilton or couldn't afford tickets, this is the class for you.
Community, History
American Revolution, Battle of Brooklyn, history
Old Stone House & Washington Park
www.theoldstonehouse.org
"Belonging" – A Textile Exhibition EXTENDED DATES!
Mannes Moments Concert Series
An event every month that begins at 7:00 pm on day Second of the month, repeating until May 10, 2023
Mozart for Munchkins
One event on March 19, 2023 at 10:30 am
One event on April 23, 2023 at 10:30 am
One event on May 21, 2023 at 10:30 am
« Bloomsday Lock-In Fundraiser for CHiPS Soup Kitchen & Women's Shelter
Virtual Life Drawing on Zoom »
Bloomsday Lock-In Fundraiser for CHiPS Soup Kitchen & Women's Shelter Virtual Life Drawing on Zoom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Johan Axel Fridell, född 6 november 1894 i Falun, död 26 maj 1935 i Stockholm, var en svensk konstnär.

Biografi
Axel Fridell var son till möbelsnickaren Per Johan Fridell och dennes hustru Johanna Karolina Söderberg. Han arbetade först som springpojke och senare i Falu koppargruva. Under tiden vid gruvan började han studera konst vid aftonskola, och fick som kurskamrater bland andra Hans Norsbo och Bertil Bull Hedlund.

Från 1909 började han på egen hand utbilda sig till konstnär. Tidigt fick han stöd från Anshelm Schultzberg och Gustaf Ankarcrona. Fridell var en stor beundrare av Ankarcrona och besökte honom flera gånger. 1913 flyttade Fridell till Stockholm där han studerade vid Wilhelmsons målarskola. På inrådan av Schultzberg sökte han till Konsthögskolan där Axel Tallberg kom att bli hans lärare i grafik, och inspirera Fridell själv att börja arbeta inom grafikens rår.

Under sitt första år i Stockholm bodde han tillsammans med Helge Zandén, 1914 återupptog han här kontakten med Bertil Bull Hedlund och David Tägtström, som studerat i Paris men tvingats hem sedan första världskriget utbrutit. I sällskap med Bertil Bull Hedlund började han nu att försumma studierna för uteliv i Stockholm på Novilla, Berns och Hamburger Börs. Det ledde till att Bertil Bull Hedlund och Axel Fridell 1916 relegerades från Konsthögskolan. Genom sina kontakter med Axel Tallberg fick han dock möjlighet att fortsätta trycka grafiska blad vid konsthögskolan.

Sin första utställning hade Axel Fridell 1914 tillsammans med Bertil Bull Hedlund i en bokhandel i Falun julen 1914. Den innebar ingen större framgång. Våren 1915 hölls en utställning på biblioteksgatan i Stockholm med verk av Fridell, Hilding Linnqvist, Axel Nilsson och David Tägtström. 1917 ställde han ut tillsammans med Ruben Nordström i en lokal i Birger Jarlspassagen varvid han uppmärksammades av August Brunius. Det innebar att efterfrågan på Fridells grafik ökade, särskilt hans torrnålsgravyrer. 1918 deltog han tillsammans med Tägtström och Eric Detthow i en utställning på Konstakademin.

Under de följande åren minskade hans produktivitet i takt med att utelivet upptog allt mer av hans tid. 1921 reste Fridell till Italien, där han särskilt besökte Florens, San Gimignano och Venedig. Efter återkomsten till Sverige bosatte sig Fridell i Falun. 1923 reste han dock åter utomlands och slog sig ned i Paris, där han stannade till 1925. Efter återkomsten till Sverige slog han sig på nytt ned i Stockholm. Samma år lärde han känna Thorsten Laurin, vilken kom att influera Fridell genom att intressera honom för den engelska grafiken.

Förutom grafik målade han även i olja, bland annat självporträtt, interiörer med figurer samt landskap med motiv från Stockholmstrakten eller Falun, ofta lätt och luftigt hållna och i en blond och ljus kolorit.

När Fridell dog 1935, bara 40 år gammal, hade han på knappt två decennier hunnit nå samma konstnärliga höjder som det tagit till exempel Anders Zorn en hel mansålder att nå. Dödsorsaken var spridd lungcancer. Han dog på S:t Eriks sjukhus i Stockholm på söndagseftermiddagen den 26 maj 1935. Fridell är begravd på Norslunds kyrkogård i Falun.

På Dalarnas museum i Falun finns stora samlingar av Fridells verk och han finns representerad vid Nationalmuseum i Stockholm, Värmlands museum, Kalmar konstmuseum, Norrköpings konstmuseum och Göteborgs konstmuseum.

Grafikern
Det var som grafiker Fridell gjorde sin viktigaste insats och han räknas till en av våra främsta grafiker. Han arbetade vanligen i torrnål men även med etsning. Hans stora läromästare på detta område var Rembrandt, James McNeill Whistler, Charles Méryon och Seymour Haden.

Under de tidiga åren, kring 1917, arbetade Fridell i en ganska luftig grafikteknik med kraftiga draggningar, tunna torrnålslinjer och effekter med färgplumpar. Denna teknik syns både i porträtten och landskapsbilderna från denna tid.

I mitten av 1920-talet anlade Fridell en ny stil, med mera genomarbetade plåtar. Flera av stockholmsbilderna från denna tid, till exempel Stadshuset i Stockholm II (1926, Haskel 223), hör till denna kategori.

Den första englandsresan ägde rum under åren 1926–1928, och under denna tid fann Fridell sin mogna stil. De engelska dimmorna och stämningarna i London för övrigt gjorde att bilderna fick ett hemlighetsfullt skimmer över sig. Likväl är bilderna genomarbetade och detaljerade. Speciellt intresserade sig Fridell för motiv kring Themsen och de stora parkerna. Ett av de mest storartade bladen från detta londonbesök är Old studio (1927, Haskel 253).

Fridell längtade utomlands igen. Nästa resa under 1930 ställdes framför allt till Nederländerna och Frankrike. Även i Paris fann Fridell stämningen vid floden, i detta fall Seine, spännande. Flera stora blad kommer från denna resa, till exempel det mörka Quai de Montebello I (1930, Haskel 300), där Fridell avbildat kajernas människor på ett dystert sätt. Bladet Flickan i fönstret II (1930–1932, Haskel 308), påbörjades även i Rotterdam under denna resa.

Åter i Stockholm producerar Fridell fina blad från sin ateljé vid Stadsgården, till exempel torrnålen Stadsgården (1931, Haskel 330), där han kanske försöker men inte till fullo uppnår stämningarna från London.

Den sista utlandsresan går till London 1933 och Paris 1934. Nu tillkommer Fridells kändaste blad, Mr Simmons (Tidningsläsaren) (1933, Haskel 365), som gavs ut på frimärke 1974 när Publicistklubben firade sitt 100-årsjubileum. Bladet Glebe Place (Haskel 364), med en skum och mystisk förgrund, härstammar också från londonbesöket 1933. Från parisbesöket 1934 kommer några fina studier av broar, bland annat Le Pont Marie (Haskel 371).

I Fridells grafiska produktion ska även nämnas de många porträtt han utförde, bland annat av Selma Lagerlöf, Gustaf V, hustrun Ingrid och ett antal självporträtt. Ett av de bästa porträtten är av konstnärskollegan Olof Hjort (Dalmasen, 1933, Haskel 350).

Fridell är den konstnär som fått flest grafiska blad (26 st.) utgivna i Föreningen för Grafisk Konsts årliga grafikportföljer, mellan åren 1915 och 1962.

Minnesutställning
En minnesutställning över Axel Fridell hölls på Nationalmuseum under hösten 1936. Den flyttade till Falun efter nyåret 1937.

Referenser

Tryckta källor
Karl Asplund: Axel Fridell. Nordstedts 1947.
Karl Haskel: Axel Fridell - Bilder I-II. Föreningen för Grafisk Konst 1986 och 1989. Del I innehåller en förteckning över Fridells grafiska verk.

Externa länkar

Fridellsällskapet

Svenska grafiker under 1900-talet
Svenska målare under 1900-talet
Falugrafikerna
Representerade vid Nationalmuseum
Representerade vid Göteborgs konstmuseum
Representerade vid Norrköpings konstmuseum
Konstnärer från Falun
Födda 1894
Avlidna 1935
Män


text:
Category: RPG business
How long does it take to make an RPG?
March 9, 2021 March 9, 2021 Josh Fox	Leave a comment
Over the last couple of years I have been keeping a regular record of the time I spend on RPG design projects – especially the larger ones. During this time I've taken two big projects to conclusion: Flotsam – Adrift Amongst the Stars and Last Fleet.
I've combined the data from these two to make a rough chart of how I spend time on a big RPG project. Specifically, most of the post-Kickstarter campaign data (layout, art management, printing, shipping) comes from Flotsam while the rest comes from Last Fleet. This is because I only started keeping records partway through Flotsam's lifecycle, while one impact of the current pandemic has been that my Last Fleet record keeping fell apart post-Kickstarter – though anecdotally it looks pretty similar to Flotsam so I feel comfortable combining the two.
The data isn't perfect. Realistically I sometimes lost track of time and wrote down a best guess on how long I'd spent working on a given occasion. I also likely failed to catch some smaller bits of working time.
With the above caveats in mind, I estimate that one of these projects takes about 300 hours from start to finish. That's just my time – not the wider project contributors (stretch goal writers, editors, artists etc). That's how long it takes me; I would think every designer is different. Others may do more or less playtesting, take more or less time iterating their design ideas, or do more or less marketing work. So this is just one example, but hopefully it gives some sense of how long it might take you, dear reader.
As you can see from the chart (blue segments), I spend about half of my time on design (34.5%) and playtesting (17.2%) combined. That encompasses all the thinking and writing that goes into creating the draft game text, all the planning for the playtests and the actual time spent in playtest sessions. It's likely more of an underestimate than the other segments, because who can really quantify time spent thinking – I do a good chunk of that in between formal design sessions.
The next biggest chunk, in red, is publicity (13.8%). That includes time spent on interviews and the like, but excludes time spent refreshing Twitter during the Kickstarter campaign. This is because I figure the latter is something I would have done anyway. I find Kickstarter campaigns very stressful. Perhaps in theory I should attempt to account for that stress and the time it eats up, I don't know. However part of the reason for doing this accounting is to consider how much I might reasonably charge someone else to run their campaign, so it's useful to know the actual hours spent working as opposed to time wasted because of the psychological impact of crowdfunding.
I've separately accounted for time spent setting up the Kickstarter page (in purple), doing Kickstarter updates and suchlike, which you could consider publicity but are often actually taken up with more admin type tasks. At any rate – quite a small category (5.2%), probably because it's mostly writing down stuff I've already worked out elsewhere and communicating it to backers.
After that, in orange, you have editing (10.3%) and layout (3.4%). The editing time is huge! To some extent the figure is arbitrary, because design work itself includes a great deal of editing. I have counted the time I spent re-reading the text after I had notionally settled on a final ruleset, polishing it, and also time I spent reading my copy editor's comments and implementing them. (Aside: that's how long it took me as someone very close to the text: imagine how long it takes a copy editor who has never even read your text before. Pay your copy editors well, folks!) Layout was mostly done by my layout artist but there was a bit of review, comment and editing to make stuff fit within a particular page template.
Art (grey) also took up a surprisingly large amount of time (8.6%). This covers generating the ideas for the illustrations, liaising with the artist(s), and reviewing their work and providing comments. Given that Flotsam has about 25 pieces of art in it, that's over an hour per piece, which seems like a lot – I guess quite a bit of it just thinking.
In the "surprisingly low" category, in green, is printing (1.7%) , shipping (1.7%) and admin (3.4%). This covers tasks like setting up all my products on Backerkit, liaising with the printer and warehouse, fixing errors, dealing with customs, etc. I think this excludes post-Backerkit admin, such as setting up the new product on itch, Drivethru and our website, and handling orders. So in that sense, it's probably an underestimate over and above the caveats mentioned further up. And since neither project was my first rodeo, there's an element of familiarity with the admin systems that might take a newbie publisher longer to get to grips with (not least because you can copy data over from previous projects in Backerkit).
One bit of "lessons learned" from this is that I need to create "how to" guides for some of the things that I do as part of a Kickstarter project. For example, I wasted a small but nonzero amount of time figuring out how to complete customs forms for Last Fleet that I had done for previous projects but forgotten. Now I have a customs template of my own to make the process easier. It's well worth your time to systematise this stuff if you're planning to do multiple projects, as there are all sorts of fiddly details that can be hard to remember (and indeed, if you forget them, can cause problems).
Anyway, I did this analysis for my own benefit but hopefully someone somewhere might find it helpful.
Lovecraftesque – a kickstarter retrospective (part 4)
June 10, 2018 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	2 Comments
This is part 4 in a multi-part series looking back on our RPG kickstarter, what went well, what we'd change, and so on. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. This time, we're talking about the quality of the product and the post-kickstarter phase.
Delivery phase – quality
Quality-wise, I couldn't be prouder by what we achieved. The game has met with a very positive reception, including several award nominations. I continue to get a massive buzz every time I hear about people playing it. I believe it stands up in comparison to any other horror game out there.
The production values met our very high standards. The book is beautiful, filled with gorgeous art and an evocative yet readable layout, both of which mirror and reinforce the structure and themes of the game. The physical product looks and feels great.
One of the illustrations from Lovecraftesque
I also want to say here that our stretch goals massively enhanced the game. The finished stretch goal material was high quality, incredibly evocative, and provided a powerful set of diverse support materials for the game. We had one review whinge that the game itself was just a third of the book: but that really fails to recognise the benefits of these extra materials. The book has a massive 17 scenarios – you have so much choice, and they're all so good; many people have commented that the quick-start scenarios are their favourite way to play. Plus the essays, which offer a really in-depth analysis of how to handle race and mental health in Lovecraftian games – issues which were a major focus of the campaign, and very dear to our heart. So the stretch goals were a major success for this project.
Post-kickstarter phase
Honestly, we didn't really plan for what would happen after the kickstarter. That might seem funny given all the detailed planning described so far, but we really were focused on the campaign.
After the dust settled, we set ourselves up on Payhip, on DrivethruRPG, and (using Paypal buttons) on our own website to directly sell the game to customers. We reached out to Indie Press Revolution in the US and Esdevium in the UK, to get the books out to retailers.
All this basically worked ok. However, one thing new game designers should know is that retail distributors ask for a very hefty discount in the region of 50-55% on your product. This is because retailers ask for a 30-35% discount. I'm not being critical – retailers and distributors have costs to meet and presumably try to make a profit too. It can be pretty tricky to make any money on sales to retailers if you haven't factored this into your planning – which we hadn't. At one point we realised that we would make a loss on US retail sales, and had to make some changes to keep this viable. It would have been better if we'd planned that in advance – and it's another reason why a print run would probably have been a better choice for us, since we've sold hundreds of books this way, many at a negligible profit margin. We're glad to support retailers, and have the books out there, but next time we'll do better out of it too.
I'll also mention accounting. Once you make money, you're going to have to report it to the authorities. In the UK that means submitting accounts and a self-assessment tax return to HM Revenue and Customs. This is a faff. Even if you pay someone to do it, in practice you will do a lot of work. If you pay someone, it will cost you, and probably more than you think. Just, you know. Think about that, and plan time and money around it.
Just for fun, here's a graph of our sales during and after the kickstarter. It includes PDFs, but is I estimate over 80% physical copies. You can see that retailer sales are a large share of post-kickstarter sales, which makes my earlier remarks about planning for those even more salient.
April 1, 2018 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	2 Comments
This is part 3 in a multi-part series looking back on our RPG kickstarter, what went well, what we'd change, and so on. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 4 is here. This time, we're talking about how we delivered the product, particularly how we managed the delivery timetable and our costs.
Delivery phase – time
We did ok with keeping to our timetable. We delivered it late, but only by about 1.5 months. In the end this came down to a single delayed workstream which we couldn't have known in advance would hit problems, and which was too critical to the project to work around. Seen in that context, 1.5 months delay is not too bad – though we would aim to get that down to zero next time.
We did several things to keep the project on track, and they largely worked. First, we calculated that there might be delays, and included that in our project timetable. We'd seen so many Kickstarters delivering many months or even years late that we were trying very hard to be realistic or even pessimistic about our timetable. We actually doubled the time estimate we'd been given by one of our contributors, because we felt it was too optimistic.
Second, we ensured that everything that could be done early was. So we wrote the game in advance of kickstarter launch. We had planned all of the art and layout in advance, and initiated work on them as soon as it was apparent we were going to fund. We had the layout completed for everything we could, even while waiting for some material to come through. In short, we ensured that we could concentrate on delivering the difficult stuff, by getting the easier stuff out of the way fast.
Now before I mention the next factor, this is a good point to recognise that people – and you should include you, the designer, in this category – are a major risk factor for any project. Everyone has a real life that can distract and delay you or even take you out of commission. Health issues can spring up, family tragedies… these are realities in an industry where almost nobody does this as their day job, so we're all trying to squeeze out work in our spare time. (In fact, our second child was born right in the middle of fulfilment – though we did at least get 9 months notice of that!) I hope it's clear that I don't regard this as something to blame or shame people over: it's something that you as the project manager have to do your best to mitigate. It turned out to be a significant factor for Lovecraftesque.
So, third, we had said up front that we weren't guaranteeing any of our stretch goals. We would drop a stretch goal or deliver it electronically rather than let its non-delivery delay the project as a whole. I think that was a good thing to do. We didn't have to drop any, but because we'd said we might, we didn't need to feel too bad about having to take on authorship of one stretch goal ourselves, supported by a couple of additional consultants that we took on at short notice. We didn't get any complaints about this, and we think the resulting product was high quality and – crucially – didn't delay publication.
Fourth, we were very active in managing our contributors. We set deadlines, we reminded people about them, we nagged them if they were late, we negotiated additional time for those who needed it. We worked with contributors to make sure their work meshed with the vision for Lovecraftesque, giving comments and drafting assistance. I hope and believe that this was done in a supportive way, to get the very best finished product.
There is a final thing to recognise in our delivery timetable. While the books were ready and delivered to many backers in October, some of them went missing for about 7 weeks. We don't know exactly what happened. The records suggest that books destined for the US were shipped from Britain to continental Europe, and then – for some reason – send to Budapest, where they sat for a long time. They were eventually (most of them) sent on to their US recipients. But this caused us a lot of stress and worry, since for a long while we thought they'd simply vanished. And it meant that some of our customers received the product 3 months late rather than 1.5 months. My guess is that this could happen to any project (it certainly seems to be a common problem, watching other projects). In future we would consider paying out on more expensive shipping to allow us to have greater confidence about this.
We'd originally chosen Lightning Source as our printer because they had branches in the UK and US. We planned to ship our US backers from the US branch, which would probably not have been subject to delay in this way. It was a great plan – but one which we had to abandon because of cost. Fluctuating currency values, which we'll return to later, made the US print branch unviable for us. Post-kickstarter, we've offered our US customers the option to pay a (small) premium to get the product printed in the US and therefore delivered faster. Perhaps we could offer that as an option in future kickstarters – though as against that, this strikes me as potentially confusing for customers.
Delivery phase – cost
Next, let's talk about cost. Our carefully costed project was almost exactly on-budget. Our costings – which all included error margins for inflation, currency conversion and suchlike – came in literally on the money, pretty much every time. And yes, that includes shipping: as mentioned earlier, we shipped directly from the printer at very reasonable cost. Runaway shipping costs were my biggest fear throughout the project, and we dodged that bullet thanks to a forensic examination of the costs in advance.
And yet, as I mentioned earlier, we spent our entire 10% contingency fund. Why? Well, the single biggest factor was: Brexit. The value of the pound dropped by a total of 20% between the launch of our project and delivery. 10% of that was pre-referendum, but in retrospect was probably reflecting uncertainty about the referendum result. The rest came after. Most of our stretch goal writers, plus both our artists, were paid in dollars. The resulting exchange costs came to about £600.
The other major factor was to do with the Special Cards. Basically, we underpriced them. Or to look at it another way, we underestimated demand for them. Let me unpack that. From examining previous RPG kickstarters, we thought about half of people who purchased the physical book would want cards as well. In reality, well over 80% did – and in response to backer demand we created a "PDF + cards" tier that we hadn't planned on. Now, the cards had a very low profit margin on them, which we'd taken into account in our planning – but when we sold a lot more of them than we anticipated, that cost us a bit. Plus they were priced in dollars, so this came together with the Brexit factor in a bad way. After the kickstarter we raised the price of the cards from £5 to £8, because of this.
The cards also added complications to delivery. They were printed and shipped separately to the books (Drivethru Cards is a separate printer from DrivethruRPG). They were an extra bit of admin, an extra delivery risk, one more thing to track and worry about. So, with the above… I'd dearly like to avoid using cards in future. Or rather, I'd like to try and stick to one physical product: cards or a book, probably not both.
So with all this, plus a handful of much smaller things, our contingency fund was spent in full – plus £5 over, to be precise. Sigh. At least we had one. But despite this, we did not make a loss. We included payment for ourselves in our funding goal, and increased it with each stretch goal – something I would always urge you to do, if you're planning to kickstart something – and so we actually made a very respectable amount of money from the kickstarter itself. And of course, we never had any money-related problems delivering the product.
By the way, I should also mention that we used Backerkit to do our customer survey. This allowed non-Kickstarter backers to purchase books after the campaign ended and enabled existing backers to upgrade their initial pledges. True to what Backerkit estimate, we sold a sizeable additional chunk of books through them. A good choice, which I'd recommend to others.
The next article in this series is here.
Lovecraftesque – a kickstarter retrospective (pt 2)
March 17, 2018 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	3 Comments
This is part 2 in a multi-part series looking back on our RPG kickstarter, what went well, what we'd change, and so on. Part 1 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. This time, we're talking about how we worked to support diversity and inclusion, and tackle Lovecraft's bigotry; and how we ran the Kickstarter campaign itself.
One of our goals for Lovecraftesque was to be an exemplar on diversity and inclusion, in as many ways as we could. Aside from this aligning with our politics generally, we specifically wanted to punch Lovecraft's bigotry in the face – to make the kind of game he would have thoroughly disapproved of.
We did this in a number of different ways:
We directly addressed Lovecraft's racism and the attitudes towards mental illness that are embodied in his writing and (to a much greater extent) Lovecraftian roleplaying games. We had written some basic guidance on this ourselves, but included as stretch goals more detailed work on this, which (once funded) we included in the game book.
We included in the art specification a requirement that the art be diverse, showcasing characters who are female, ethnically diverse, LGBTQ and disabled. We specified ratios for these characters to deliberately put white dudes in a minority in the book's art. We also asked our artist to avoid casting these characters as weak, submissive or sex objects – although the nature of the game meant none of the characters were kicking ass, as all were potentially going to be victims of something nasty.
When advertising for artists we specifically asked PoC and LGBTQ folks to put themselves forward. When approaching individual artists and writers, we aimed to draw on a diverse pool, again keeping white dudes in a minority. We weren't sacrificing quality to do this – there is a great pool of diverse talent out there.
We paid all of our contributors the same highly competitive rates – well above what we understand to be the industry average – because we'd like roleplaying design and writing to be something people get properly rewarded for, especially for people who don't have the privilege of a rockstar reputation (i.e. most of us).
Although we didn't exactly set out to do this, the diverse team we'd recruited was probably directly responsible for the very diverse set of scenarios that came with the game – from those with a fairly traditional Lovecraft-ey setup to stuff HPL would never have dreamed of.
To judge by the enraged response of some less reconstructed gamers, and those who affect to be tired of political correctness, we succeeded in branding the product as diverse, inclusive and tackling bigotry. I believe we did more than that – we embedded those values in the game itself.
Did I mention I love our art?
The Kickstarter
Thanks to Kickstarter preserving everything in aspic, you can go and look at our campaign page now if you like. We tried to hit all the information someone might want to understand the product, get enthused and feel confident in us. So: a clear pitch that highlights what the game feels like to play, what makes it different, and what makes it fun; a clear explanation of what you'll get if you back; a simplified version of the game for free download, to try-before-you-buy; samples of art and layout work; a detailed explanation of how we planned to spend the money; and an explanation of the risks including how we planned to mitigate them. Plus a video, because apparently that's a good thing to have (I personally am not at all motivated by videos, but statistically I'm in a minority apparently). We got feedback from friends and more experienced people on the page prior to the launch and made changes in response. You know, this stuff isn't really rocket science, but you do need to check these boxes to maximise chance of success, and we did.
We worked hard to publicise the game from a relatively weak starting position. We had established a presence in Indie G+ circles, over a period of 2-3 years, so we weren't exactly invisible. Even so, as far as I can tell, we weren't well known, nor did we have (much of) a following. So we wanted to counteract the newcomer disadvantage.
One way that we did that was by approaching people who were better known than us for stretch goals. This conflicted a bit with another goal of ours, which was to have a very diverse stretch goal team. Early on we deliberately went for an approximately 50/50 split between people with star power and other designers – all of whom, to be clear, we had chosen primarily for their talent and the fact we admired them. We also leaned towards people who seemed interested in horror gaming. I think the presence of both of these groups will probably have helped to generate interest from a broader community than we could have reached ourselves. The "star" writers will have reassured people who like reliable industry quantities. In addition to helping fulfill our mission to create a diverse and inclusive Lovecraft game (see above), the broader set of writers probably attracted backers who like to see a diverse team and who were fans of the somewhat more niche indie game design community.
Another thing we did was to approach a wide range of podcasts and blogs. In retrospect, I wonder if we actually undersold ourselves here. Having seen a friend's recent media engagement plan, it was significantly more wide-ranging than ours. Possibly we didn't reach as broad a roleplaying audience as we might have. But that's not to underplay the level of activity – and quite frankly it's hard to imagine how we could have done much more than we did, given the stage of life we were at (tiny children limited what we could realistically do). We are enormously grateful to people who hosted us on their shows or interviewed us for their blog, and I strongly suspect that this had an impact on our support – though I can't prove it. Also, talking to people about our game was fun!
On top of that, we managed to attract interest from some big-name websites including the Mary Sue, Boing Boing and (after the campaign) Geek & Sundry. It's still a bit of a mystery how we did this, other than having the bare-faced cheek to ask. I suspect the concept of a Lovecraft game that tackles diversity and inclusivity head-on helped. With that said, I saw precious little evidence in our referral data that these websites had an impact on our sales. We had google analytics set up on our kickstarter page, showing where people viewing the page had come from, together with kickstarter's own analytics saying where our actual backers came from. So for example, Boing Boing got us a whopping 600 website referrals over the course of the campaign – but to judge from Kickstarter's analytics, zero backers. On the other hand, the Mary Sue got us 160 views and 17 backers. These media splashes widened our reach beyond our wildest dreams, and probably did get us some backers (after all, some may have come back to the page later on, rather than being directly referred by an article). But it didn't generate the deluge you might imagine, perhaps because they mainly extended our reach to people who weren't that interested in roleplaying games – and so less likely to actually buy a copy.
While we're on the subject of where backers came from… where did they come from, anyway? About 250 of our backers had got there from Kickstarter itself: the search page, the "discovery" pages, other campaigns, and so on. That's nearly half our backers. We also got a lot from G+ and Facebook; some of these will have been friends, but not all. Again, not knowing if people were coming back having seen the campaign through a link but then looked it up later on, means we can't be confident how they originally found out about the project.
We aimed for a steady flow of activity during the campaign, including stretch goal announcements, interviews and so on. We tried to strike a balance between regular updates, keeping things ticking over, and not overloading our backers (and social media feeds) with constant Lovecraftesque stuff. Again, this didn't really have a visible impact on our stats, which conformed closely to the standard pattern, i.e. a big rush at the start, a lot of people jumping on at the end, and a pretty steady (low) rate of uptake in between. Again, we're enormously grateful to everyone to shared our campaign and contributed to the buzz by talking about it, and I assume it had some impact. But nothing we did showed up in our stats particularly.
So… did any of this publicity work help? I mean, in a way it must have. Clearly, if you don't talk about your game, nobody will know about it, so nobody will buy it. But despite collecting lots of data, there is very little evidence on which of this activity had an impact, and which didn't. So I can't say we really learned much, other than that the campaign obviously succeeded, so we got something right.
One thing we did not do is advertise. I've noticed recently some Kickstarters showing up as adverts in my Facebook feed. And I know at least one designer who has had some pretty good sales figures (not on Kickstarter) from advertising their RPG that way. We did consider doing this, but decided that spending a non-existent budget on advertising probably wasn't the best plan. But I do wonder, having seen other people's success, whether this was a mistake. It's certainly something we'll consider for the future.
One final interesting thing to ponder is the grabbiness of the game. People say that you can sell roleplayers anything with Cthulhu on it. We were in the weird position of effectively saying "Come and buy our Cthulhu game! Surprise, it doesn't have Cthulhu in it, and it doesn't work like a normal Cthulhu RPG, and we spend a big chunk of the text criticising and addressing HPL's bigotry." We know that at least a few people bought the game having not looked beyond the Lovecraftian brand (though we were excruciatingly clear on the campaign page what we were selling) and were then disappointed when they got the product. We could equally conjecture that some people were put off by the Lovecraftian brand, not having registered the ways that the game addressed the things that give Lovecraft a bad name. Still other people may have been drawn in by Cthulhu and not backed us when they saw what the game was really about.
In the end, we just don't know how these things interacted. We had a very successful first Kickstarter, and we're delighted by that.
In part 3, we'll look at how we delivered our successfully funded kickstarter. Click here to read it.
Lovecraftesque – a kickstarter retrospective
March 4, 2018 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	3 Comments
Just over 2 years ago, we launched the Lovecraftesque kickstarter. If you didn't follow it at the time, it was a success – we raised £15000, over triple our funding goal. As we're slowly moving towards a position where we might kickstart some more games[*], it seems timely to talk a bit about what went well, and what went less well.
It turns out there's quite a lot to say, so this is part one in a multi-part series. Part two is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. This part looks at the planning we did ahead of the kickstarter.
Design phase
We started writing the game a good year before the kickstarter. We had a clear concept, and clear design goals.
We were very fortunate to get a lot of interest from potential playtesters, many of whom actually playtested the game. We asked clear, focused playtest questions. As a result, we got great feedback which allowed us to refine and streamline the game. I think this is visible in the quality of the design.
We already had a completed draft ready when we launched the kickstarter. I suspect that knowing the game was written was a selling point, for a debut project. It also meant that we had one less thing to worry about in the delivery phase.
Planning phase – printing and shipping costs
We put a great deal of thought into planning the kickstarter.
We identified potential printers, and took quotes from a few. We plumped for delivery through Drivethru's printer, Lightning Source aka Ingram Spark. (We went direct to the printer rather than through Drivethru because the prices were slightly lower.) We've been delighted by the quality of the books they produced, and the price was reasonable – albeit a lot higher than if we had done a print run. They ship directly to customers, which is keeps things simple for us logistically.
In retrospect, however, we may have got this wrong. We now know that we could have got a significantly lower price per unit than we actually got if we had gone with a print run instead of POD. The sample of non-POD printers we looked at didn't appear competitive, but perhaps our sample was too small, or maybe we should have asked for recommendations. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea; for smaller numbers, which is what we had anticipated, Print On Demand makes a lot of sense. It reduced our exposure to the risks entailed by up-front expenditure. It allowed us to produce as many copies as we wanted after the Kickstarter, because we didn't have to decide on a number of copies in advance. However, knowing what we know now, we probably could have saved £1000s with a print run. This would be particularly true if we had gone for a single format rather than offering both softcover and hardcover.
Specifically: we priced our initial funding goal for just over 100 physical copies. In practice, we funded at triple our goal, including 400 physical copies. But perhaps more importantly, we underestimated the number of copies we might sell after the campaign. As of now, we've sold 1100 copies, and are still selling a steady stream. That's easily enough for a print run. This would have entailed an up-front cost. But the cost reduction per unit (excluding shipping) would have been huge, at around a £5 saving per unit. A print run of 1500 would not have been much more expensive than producing 400 copies by POD. This excludes shipping, so may overestimate the benefits of a print run: but the lesson is that you should think ahead and at least consider whether a print run might work out better for you.
On which subject: the huge plus of using Lightning Source was that their shipping costs were very, very low. We had done our research and got the message: shipping can be expensive, especially international shipping. Lightning Source delivered to anywhere in the world (with a very small number of exceptions) for about £2-3. If we had a comparably successful product in future, this would be the one factor that might decide in favour of POD over a print run.
Planning phase – art and layout costs
For both art and layout, we researched and selected a shortlist of 3-4 individuals to approach for a quote, based on work they'd done before. We actively solicited a diverse pool of artists to shortlist from – something I'll cover in more detail later on. For layout artists, this was based on looking at games we owned; for illustrators, we looked at the artist's online portfolio. We selected partly based on price, and partly based on how much we liked the artist's work. They were all great, or we wouldn't have looked at them. We are really happy with the work our artists did.
I love commissioning art SO MUCH.
We set specific goals for book length, and number of illustrations, for our basic funding goal and each of our stretch goals. took into account the extra printing costs that this would mean, and got specific quotes for each goal, including for extra illustrations, scenarios and so on, from our artists, so that we knew in advance exactly how much we would be paying, even for stretch goals that we hadn't set at the start of the project.
Planning phase – other stuff
We had looked at a dozen other (completed) RPG kickstarters of a range of types, to get an idea of what the likely distribution of rewards chosen would be. We had a good idea of what percentage would be PDF-only, softcover, hardcover and so on: and these predictions were largely right. This helped us to ensure we were setting the correct funding goal, because the amount of money you keep varies by reward level (simply put, PDF has no print or shipping costs, so you keep 100% of the money, while physical copies vary in their costs).
We sought advice and views from lots of people in the run-up to the campaign. The biggest source of advice was Google Plus, where people generously gave their views on a wide range of issues we were worrying about – including many experienced people sharing their knowledge of how to run a kickstarter. We were super-grateful for all the advice we got, which hugely enhanced the research we ourselves had done.
We approached a handful of designers we knew and admired to write scenarios and essays for our stretch goals. We were gratified by the response – almost all said yes. We had set ourselves a goal to offer rates that would be significantly above the market rate for RPG writing, which may have been a factor in people accepting work from a couple of randos they'd never heard of. We set a word limit for our stretch goal materials, and stuck very closely to it, which meant that again, we knew in advance how much we would be paying for this work.
Finally, we had a contingency fund of 10% of our total funds raised, to cover stuff that might go wrong. This was a very good decision that we took early on, and – by fluke – we spent it almost exactly. (I'll mention here that we'd planned to give an equal share of any remaining contingency money to ourselves and our artists. It didn't happen, because there was nothing left, but we still think it was a pretty good idea, and will likely take the same approach in future campaigns.)
The next part covers how we ran the campaign itself – and how we supported diversity and inclusion. Click here to read it.
[*] Yes, plural.
Crowdfunding calculator
April 30, 2015 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	2 Comments
In the run up to our planned Kickstarter of Lovecraftesque, I've been busily crunching numbers to make sure that the whole thing will fly financially. All of our figures have gone into a spreadsheet, where I can easily update the costs as I get better information, and tweak the prices of the rewards to reflect those costs. In turn the spreadsheet works out how much we need to ask for.
Anyway, having gone to the effort of creating it, it seemed like other people might find it useful. If you give it basic information about your crowdfunding campaign (like reward levels, costs and so on), it will work out your reward levels for you.
I've included instructions on how to use it (at the top and in comments on the relevant cells). In brief: fill in the yellow bits and then read off the information in the green bits.
EU VAT for indie roleplaying publishers
April 1, 2015 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	Leave a comment
I first noticed the changes to EU VAT when they started being shared all over my social meejas around about December last year. Everyone was all doomy about it. It didn't seem that relevant to me at the time, partly because I don't sell digital stuff on the internet, and I suppose mostly because I assumed it would blow over.
It hasn't blown over, and now I'm contemplating selling digital stuff on the internet. So I've been doing some research into this. For the uninitiated, it basically means that anyone, anywhere in the world who sells digital products or services to customers in the EU is liable to pay VAT at the local rate to the member state where the customer lives. Phew! That's a lot of people. And in due course – scheduled for 2016 – it will apply to physical goods too, though one might hope they'll make some improvements to this confusing and opaque law in the interim.
I have seen some people, mostly Americans I think, rolling their eyes and saying "how do you plan to enforce that". Well, I wouldn't want to put my business in the position of breaking the law in the EU, even if I was in America; but as it happens I am also in the EU, so that makes it… pretty easy to enforce, actually.
Anyway: my research is, essentially, a bit of googling, a fair bit of looking at the website of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and an email conversation with same. HMRC's answers can probably be considered as definitive as it gets at this point, for UK businesses at least, and probably for everyone.
And before I go any further: I'm not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. I am not responsible if you mess this up.
Why is this so hard?
Well for one, it's not that easy to determine where your customer is. You're selling them digital goods, so it isn't like you can easily tell by looking at them. And the VAT rate is different in different EU Member States, so it's pretty much easy to mess this up.
The HMRC online guide to the new rules says that except in some weirdly specific circumstances (it's along the lines of, if the customer is buying through their mobile bought from country A while flying in a plane from country B to country C but is in the airspace of country D when the sale is made…) then you have to "obtain and keep 2 pieces of non-contradictory information to support and evidence the member state where the customer is normally located."
And, "Examples of the type of supporting evidence that tax authorities will accept include:
the billing address of the customer
the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device used by the customer
customer's bank details
the country code of SIM card used by the customer
the location of the customer's fixed land line through which the service is supplied
other commercially relevant information (for example, product coding information which electronically links the sale to a particular jurisdiction)"
So, that might be easy or difficult, depending on how you handle your payments and so forth. Administratively, it's definitely not going to be easy for anyone who has an appreciable number of EU sales.
Oh, and you're required by law to include the correct rate of VAT in your prices, too. In theory that means you need to get the above bits of information in advance of sale and then work out the correct VAT and include it in your price which, let's forget about that. I can't see any reason why you can't just quote a blanket price to all customers and say "if you're in the EU, we'll pay the VAT", but then you have a tricky balancing act to set a price which ensures you can afford to pay the VAT, when you won't know how many customers you're going to get from each country; plus you'll be marking up your prices for non-EU customers to make sure you have the funds to pay VAT for the EU customers.
I don't like the sound of this! What can I do about it?
There's a lot of ways you might legally avoid having to worry about all this.
First off, if you're selling bundled products, and the digital product is only "ancillary" to the main product, then you don't have to pay, at least as long as the law only applies to digital stuff. But you have to be careful, because the definition of when a component in a bundle is ancillary and when it's part of the main thing you're selling, doesn't seem to exist. My guess is that a hard copy RPG sold with a PDF version counts as primarily a physical product, but I wasn't able to get a straight answer out of HMRC so I'm not 100% confident.
There's a sort of loop-hole in the law – I say loop-hole, it seems to have been deliberately designed this way to catch the likes of Amazon but miss smaller operations – which says that if your product isn't delivered automatically then you don't have to pay VAT. Emailling an attachment doesn't count as delivering automatically. Emailling a link to a download site does. I can't really see the logic, but that seems to be the rule. Still, you probably won't want to manually email attachments to large numbers of people if you can help it. Also, you may want to check up on your email providers policies, as some email providers (e.g. gmail, or so I'm told) blacklist people as spammers who send too many such emails.
What about selling through a third party? Or crowdfunding?
A third way to get around the tax is if there is an intermediary in your sales process. This is crucial for a lot of roleplaying games, because they are frequently sold through online platforms such as DriveThruRPG, Indie Press Revolution, or through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. I wasn't clear on whether digital products sold through such a platform would be subject to the EU VAT rules, so I asked HMRC. I am going to quote their reply in full:
"If the platform operator identifies you as the seller but sets the general terms and conditions, or authorises payment, or handles delivery/download of the digital service [my emphasis], the platform is considered to be supplying the consumer. They are therefore responsible for accounting for the VAT payment that is charged to the consumer."
I think that's pretty clear. In the case of sites like DrivethruRPG and Indie Press Revolution, they will handle the payment and delivery of the digital service, so they are liable to pay the correct rate of VAT. In the case of sites like Kickstarter, they set the general terms and conditions and authorise payment, so they are liable to pay the correct rate of VAT.
[edited to add:] The HMRC website also has this to say "
If you operate a digital platform through which third parties sell e-services you are liable to account for the VAT on those sales unless every one of the following conditions are met:
the digital platform and everyone else involved in the supply must identify who the supplier is in their contractual arrangements
the invoice, bill or sales receipt must identify that supplier and the service supplied
the digital platform must not authorise the charge to the consumer
the digital platform must not authorise the delivery
the digital platform must not set the general terms and conditions of the sale"
Again, this seems pretty clear to me. [/edit]
Kickstarter have specifically said that they will not do this, and that the campaign promoters are responsible for dealing with EU VAT. However, I think HMRC's advice makes it pretty clear that they are wrong about that. This may not be particularly good news: after all Kickstarter is a big enough target that at some point someone may go after them for the VAT they have said they won't pay. VAT is generally paid at around 20-25%, so the bill could be pretty big. If I were Kickstarter I think I'd be thinking pretty hard about this. But HMRC's advice strongly suggests to me that you, as the campaign promoter, do not need to think about this.
Finally, it's worth noting that there are payment platforms out there like Payhip, who as well as being legally bound to deal with EU VAT, have said that they will do so. Where possible, you should consider using such providers, simply because those who are still in denial may be on a rocky road, and if you use them you may take some bumps along the way.
Will people like your game?
February 21, 2015 January 26, 2021 Josh Fox	3 Comments
I've recently been playtesting a game, and the difference in response to that game and the previous one I designed got me thinking about what makes a game successful. The diagram below massively simplifies the process:
Notice that if your ideas aren't engaging, you're already at a disadvantage. I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I think its an important observation.
Notice also that if you fail to communicate your ideas (or your design) then once again you are hampered.
There's also feedback loops between these three streams. If people don't buy your game (or download it, or sign up to play it at a con, or whatever) then you don't get past the first hurdle, and people never play it. If people don't play your game then they obviously won't get to enjoy it. If people enjoy your game then they will talk about it, helping you get your message out and get more people to buy your game.
So, every element in all three chains is vital. And, unless you're hiring someone else to do parts of the process for you, you need to be able to do all four things – ideas, communication, networking and design.


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text:
What is Bomber?
Why Rock Climbing Grades are Dumb
by Derek Williams November 19, 2019
Welcome to our very first HVS article, hooray! For those of you who don't know, HVS is part of the British trad grading system. It stands for Hard Very Severe, so it only makes sense that we're going to be taking a hard, very severe look at some of our favourite climbing topics. If you're ready to get smacked in the face by a sandbag, read on because we're diving into rock climbing grades!
Grades can be motivating, but there's more to climbing than numbers.
The Basics Of Rock Climbing Grades
Before we get into why grades are as dumb as cramming your feet into shoes five times too small, let's take a quick history lesson. The Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) was originally created in the 1930s by the Sierra Club to classify hikes and climbs in the Sierra Valley. They developed a five-class adventure system that ranges from walking (class 1) to technical rock climbing (class 5). When climbing started to take off in the 1950s, the class 5 portion was further divided, with 5.1 being the easiest and 5.9 being the toughest. Here lies the first flaw in the system.
For over a decade, climbs that were 5.9 or harder were all given a grade of 5.9! Sure, some climbers would add the 5.9+ to the end, which roughly translates to "get fucked." But, most leave you to figure out the real difficulty for yourself. If you've ever been the Gunks in NY, you know exactly what we mean. The following photo is what a 5.7 looks like in the Gunks.
Eventually, climbers realized there was a whole world above 5.9 and started grading 10s, 11s, 12s, and so on. Then, in the 1960s Jim Bridwell thought, hey let's complicate the living fuck out of this thing and add ABCD to the end of grades above 5.10. Great idea Jim.
So now we have this ridiculously complicated grading system, and this is just the tippy-top of the garbage pile that is climbing grades.
How Grades Are Assigned
Most crags around North America base the route grade on the hardest individual move. Someone does the first ascent (FA) and assigns a grade. Sometimes, that's it! In other situations, members of the community climb it and give their input. Maybe they find some neat beta to make it a lot easier, and a consensus is reached. Then, the grade is locked into lore.
This style of grading based on the hardest move is not universal. Some crags take into account the length of the climb, pump level, rests, etc. We also have areas that are known to be graded harder, like the aforementioned Gunks, and areas that are graded easier. Yes, I'm looking at you Tonsai!
Keep in mind that assigning a grade is completely subjective. It's definitely more art than science, so take them with a grain of salt.
The Art Of Sandbagging
Has this ever happened to you? You just cruised a super fun 10b and you're ready for a little jump to 10c. It's only one grade harder - you got this!
You start climbing, and about halfway up you're gripped out of your mind, pulling on a pinky mono to throw to a slopey ramp that a bird just took a big shit on? It's definitely harder than 10c. What a sandbag!
I was listening to a podcast where John Sherman, the inventor of the V-grade boulder system, spoke about the art of sandbagging. In the discussion, he said that climbers putting up first ascents would purposefully mess with the system - just because! What they would do, is establish a bunch of routes giving them accurate grades, luring climbers into a false sense of security. Then once in a while, they would purposefully assign a route a few grades easier than it really is, just to mess with people. Nasty!
You hop on a chill cool-down at the end of the day and WHAM. You're hit with a sandbag.
Other first ascensionists would always assign routes two grades easier because they are just that good and it wasn't hard for them.
Grading Fosters Egos
John Sherman went on record stating that publishing the V-grade system for bouldering was one of his biggest regrets. Back in the early 90s, John was writing a guidebook for Hueco Tanks and wanted to leave his grading system out. However, he was pressured by his editor who said the books wouldn't sell without a grading system. John reluctantly threw in the grades.
One of the main reasons John didn't want to include climbing grades in the guidebook was because he knew that ego-driven climbers would only chase hard climbs. They wouldn't care for much else, and would just boast about the hardest climbs they've ever done. Instead of campfire talks about an amazing move or sequence, they would become full of numbers as climbers try to one-up each other.
You can check out which climbers have egos for yourself. The next time you're on a climbing trip or at the gym, ask a fellow climber for route recommendations. More times than not, the conversation will look something like this:
"Hey, you're a local, I'm climbing in the 5.10 range can you give me some recommendations?"
"Oh totally man! Dude, I just sent this 5.12 coming out of a cave, you crimp off this gnarly shark tooth and throw to a ledge that a homeless man lives on. It's super rad!"
"Oh...Ok. Well, anything else?"
"Ya my man! My friend is projecting this 5.14d. You do a pinky mono campus move through a waterfall. He's got all the moves down, you can totally come project with us!"
"Thanks, I'll think I'll pass."
Is it so hard to give a recommendation without the ego?
Another way you can observe the massive egos that climbers have is by asking, "Hey, what did you get on today?" Unless the climber you're talking to took an absolutely chill day at the crag, they will start by talking about the hardest climbs they got on. Regardless if they sent it or not! Why would they tell you about anything else? Who cares if they did a super classic 5.8 when they hang-dogged an obscure 5.13d!
Climbers rarely recommend or discuss routes that are below their absolute limit. Their egos just won't allow it. That being said, I would totally want to try a route where halfway up you arrive on a ledge that a homeless man named Harry lives on. That would be rad.
Climbing Gym Grades
If you're a gym climber and want to continue living in your little bubble, you might want to stop reading, because I'm about to blow the doors off of gym climbing grades.
For context, I worked in a gym for a few years and know how they run so this isn't speculation, this is how the industry works.
Gyms need people to keep coming back to their facilities. They are, after all, businesses that sell memberships. So, there are a few tricks that setters use when grading routes at your local gym.
Gyms Assign Soft Grades
Let's say a climb could be considered a hard V5 or an easy V6, guess which one a gym will choose? The V6 of course! Why? If a member climbs a harder grade, they'll feel better about themselves.
It can take a lot of effort to move up climbing grades. Even going up a single number/letter can take years of dedication, training, and sacrifice. But for regular gym members, if they don't see steady improvements, they might cancel their membership. To counter this, gyms will squish their grades together so their members see fast improvements.
Gyms want people to feel good inside so climbers keep buying memberships and coming back for more. At the gym I worked at, we graded things more accurately than other gyms in the area. Unfortunately, we had someone write us a bad online review on the basis that our grades were more difficult than what he was accustomed to. He chalked it up to setter inexperience. I'm not sure if he would have felt this way if he knew our setters set for national competitions, have climbed 5.14 sport and V13 boulders.
I administered this particular individual's belay test and when it was his turn to climb, he struggled up a 5.8. Typically 5.8 is an easy warmup for experienced climbers. At his regular gym, I'm sure he climbed 5.8 there because of soft grades. Now, at a gym with grades being "tough," he became upset. His poor bruised ego just couldn't take looking like a beginner, so he took to the interwebs to complain.
Gyms are now worried about hurting their members' feelings so they can avoid a 0 star Google review. Are climbers really this fragile? Perhaps this grade-chasing culture is to blame, or maybe people just suck?
Assigning Soft Grades Outside Is A Climber Faux Pas
In the outdoor world, one of the worst things that a first ascensionist can do to themselves is set too soft of a grade This will undoubtedly give them a bad reputation as a grade inflater. Want to give a route a higher grade to make yourself look strong? Go for it, but prepare for the backlash.
Colorado is notorious for hard 5.12ds that could easily be 13a's but the first ascensionists didn't want the bad publicity just in case the route wasn't a real 5.13.
If you want to look more into this phenomenon, check out James Pearson Redemption.
Grades That Are Close Together
In gyms, it's very common for grades to be so close together that there is only a slight difficulty increase between them. Gyms want their members to see progress, and a simple way to do this is to make each letter grade only a teeny tiny bit tougher. This makes members feel good and keeps 'em coming back for more. The alternative is a realistic situation where climbers actually have to work hard to get better. Who wants to do that? A world based on working to achieve your goals? I'm a Millennial so I'm basically allergic to hard work.
What Gyms Should Do
My personal opinion for gyms is that they create their own grading system. This way, they can do whatever you want and nobody can really argue. Have a scale from 1 to infinity, use an emoji-based system, who cares? If anybody asks what the equivalent of an eggplant emoji is to the YDS, just tell them 5.9+ ;).
What Should Climbers Do
If climbers want to climb hard and chase grades, go for it! Just don't be a dick about it. If you're so fragile that you can't even bare trying that stout 5.10, or the grades at your local gym make you leave a bad review, you have bigger issues than figuring out the crux of your current project.
Fun climbing can be at any grade. This 5.9 multi-pitch above a river can attest to that - Star Chek, Squamish.
Also, everyone will know if you're cherry-picking the "easy" hard climbs anyways. Or, even worse, if you only talk about grades from Tonsai where everything is immediately four grades easier to keep tourists happy.
What you should be doing, is hopping on routes that make you smile. Climb routes that are fun. Climb routes outside your comfort zone. Send - don't send - whatever. Work on your weaknesses. This is one of the best ways to become a better climber. Do you climb overhung 5.12? Try a friction 5.10 slab. Want some type two fun? Hop on an off-width. Some of my favourite and proudest climbs have been way below my limit. And at the end of the day, nobody really gives a shit about how hard you climb. What should matter, is the enjoyment you get from a sport you love.
Also if someone asks you for recommendations, give them real recommendations instead of selfishly promoting how good you are.
Agree or disagree? Have an idea for a future HVS topic? Hit up Bomber Climbing on Facebook or leave us a comment below and let us know!
Hey Sisyphos,
I hear ya. Grades are important so people don't get in over their heads! And I'm all for that! Climbers should take responsibility and get as much information as possible for new routes or climbing areas they'll be going to. This one's not about the safety aspect of grades, it's more about people's attachment to grades being the end-all-be-all of climbing. Rock climbing can be fun, and safe no matter if you're climbing 5.5 or 5.14!
Derek Williams December 12, 2019
I'm all for the arbitrary act of going up and down things, and I agree that it doesn't matter how hard you climb yada yada.. but for me it is about the process and personal growth. Often that requires concerted effort and challenge. It's nice to have a ball park before you get yourself killed on a blind run out. Usually there's enough information to assess risk to some extent, and grades are an important part of that assessment. Grades help with objective decision making. We shouldn't have to go in with the mindset of an FA every time.
Sisyphos November 29, 2019
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Also love late summer when the weather finally cools to pleasant temperatures.
It's 65° F (13°C) right now, but going to be 73°F (22°C) this afternoon.
Going hiking in the woods today! Must enjoy it while we can!
Good Maen Sudokuland. Hand a lovely morning stroll with my little fella. Now we are getting gussied up for a lunch with some girlfriends. Thank you all for the Birthday Wishes.
Happy Advancing in age day.
Does she pop in any more?
I agree, Lee! Meet you on the beach???
Lovely place. I could sit there for hours and get nothing done.
I love those temps dropping too, Shiela.
Woke up in the middle of the night to major SKUNK odor...they've been pretty active this summer. Hard to get back to sleep once that odor comes into the house.
For those on the site who know these conversions... It was 56°F this morning, not 65°F! - got my numbers transposed!
Oh, Vici! HATE those nights!
Skunks, Vici and Shiela? Didn't you first check across the bed from you??
All that said... Hope I don't meet up with one in the woods today while hiking!
Shiela, If you go down in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise.
I forgot to say mAen so I've just said it (I must be gong deaf because I didn't hear it).
Maybe the 'gong's caused the 'going'!
We don't have skunks come in the yard, thank goodness, but they love spending time in my barns.
If you don't smell them, it's because the dogs have learned not t chase them.
Just for you, Judy...a picture of hubby and me - hehehe!
Cute snag of 22, Heidi! Congrats.
Hope it is raisins Judy.
I'm a CAT, Judy...mistaken for a Skunk by my dear hubby! Can't you see me trying to escape????
all - Anybody remember Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiian - live from Waikiki (Royal Hawaiian)?
Ukes, Hula & Torch Dancers....Pretty bubbles?
Seems the skunk population is in full force. We went on a family late night ride the other night, passed more skunks than I wanted to. Whenever we saw one, Man would tell me to speed up. Not being one to listen to him, I waited till the those high furry tails went off into the woods.
"drove equal oprah horse ocean tuber". Well done to Neil, Phantom, CynB, V. Viv, CG, Glenn and Kathy, in that order reversed, so my little grasshopper gets the cigar, and no complaining within the ranks please.
Hi all.When does the page turn?Hmm.
aussie.chick- I live on a bush block.
Anne- We recieved 0.2mm this morning.
It's just costing three million aussie dollars to do - a drop in the ocean I suppose, but would be interesting to hear what the down under crowd think of it.
Fiona, Loads of US tourists visiting Oz - will they be able to understand each other??
Ok, I'll shut up moaning now and do what I'm good at - today's puzzle is so easy it's sad, but what the heck. Answers (and I expect lots of them) to the 'what a waste of cash' inbox please.
Until I'm caught or the war is done.
Good Maen to all. I want to go to the beach too!
Fiona, Two twangs don't make a twight - is that right?


text:
in partnership withKOMOnews.com
Cocktail of the Week
RUFFined
(Image: Jones Original BBQ)
Jones Original Barbeque serves up serious Southern style in West Seattle
by Karen Rose
The best barbecue is undoubtedly found in the American south, usually alongside stellar biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, pecan pie and maybe even a jug of moonshine or glass of sweet tea.
Andreque Jones, owner of Jones Original Barbecue in West Seattle, brings his family's southern roots to the meat smoker to serve up some of the tastiest BBQ right here in our city.
"My dad and grandfather started barbequing back in Arkansas, where they're originally from," said Jones. "They would cook for family and friends, and parties. I was born and raised here in Seattle. In 1989, my father, who is a retired Seattle firefighter lieutenant, opened John's Barbeque over in Rainier Valley. I was in junior high school and would work for him. I've been barbequing ever since."
Jones enjoys the challenge of smoking the meat and ensuring its perfection. When he removes the meat from the bones, it's tender and moist. He takes pride in his work and the end results pay off.
"The biggest challenge is making sure all the ingredients going into the sauce are perfect," he said. "Everybody loves the sauce, so perfection and consistency is important. The most enjoyable part of this work is people saying it's the best barbecue they've ever had. I love when people enjoy my food."
Customers, many of which are regulars, are seen lined up out the door at lunchtime. In the evenings, delicious smells waft out the front entrance as diners hope to snag what's left of Jones' creations before they sell out.
"We're an all family-owned business started by my grandfather, then my dad and I carried on the tradition," said Jones. "We really care about the community and bringing the best barbecue we can to our customers. We offer good old' Southern hospitality, mixed with Seattle hospitality, giving our customers an authentic experience when they come into the restaurant."
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In addition to feeding many of Seattle's local celebrities and professional athletes, there's one celebrity Jones would still like to cook for.
"If I could choose one person to cook for I think it would be Oprah," he said. "I would make her beef brisket, mac and cheese, ribs and baked beans with the medium sauce. It's a little spicy but not too hot."
So, if you get a hankering for some down home barbeque, be sure and check out Jones Original Barbeque in West Seattle. After all, it's not just for those with roots in the South. In fact, anthropologists think barbequed meat predates Homo Sapiens all together. This means cooking over flames is in our DNA!
Jones Original Barbeque is located at 4417 Fauntleroy Way in West Seattle. Looking to support other diverse local businesses like Jones'? Seattle Refined is proud to collaborate with Intentionalist, an online guide that makes it easier for you to find and connect with diverse local businesses owned by women, people of color, veterans, members of the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities.
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text:
Hugh Freeze resigns as Ole Miss football coach after 5 seasons
Mississippi football coach Hugh Freeze was at Jackson Country Club on Wednesday night, giving his yearly rah-rah speech about the Rebels' overcoming adversity and getting ready for the season.
Less than 24 hours later, he resigned.
Ole Miss announced Freeze's resignation Thursday night, bringing a stunning end to a five-year tenure that saw a Sugar Bowl victory, but also a wide-ranging NCAA investigation into rules violations.
Assistant Matt Luke has been named the interim coach. A press conference was scheduled for late Thursday. A reason for his resignation was not immediately given.
The Rebels had a quick rise under Freeze, recruiting at a high level and reaching an apex with a Sugar Bowl victory over Oklahoma State following the 2015 season.
But an NCAA investigation — alleging 21 charges of academic, booster, and recruiting misconduct — has overshadowed much of that success, especially over the past year. The school has already self-imposed several penalties, including a one-year postseason ban for the upcoming season.
Freeze — who was making more than $5 million per year — had a 39-25 record over five seasons, including a 19-21 mark in the Southeastern Conference.
The 47-year-old Freeze's shocking exit — just a few weeks before preseason camp begins — completes a stunning fall for a coach considered one of the profession's rising stars a few years ago.
Freeze took over after Houston Nutt was fired during a miserable 2011 season that ended with a 2-10 record. Ole Miss immediately improved under Freeze, finishing 7-6 in 2012 and winning the Birmingham Bowl.
The Rebels continued to surge on the field and on the recruiting trail over the next several seasons. They signed some of the nation's top recruits in 2013, including defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche, receiver Laquon Treadwell and offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil. They helped push the program to eight wins in 2013, nine in '14 and a 10-3 record in '15.
But Ole Miss' newfound ability to recruit at a high level drew the attention of the NCAA, which was already investigating the school for a handful of violations that occurred during Nutt's tenure.
The school has received two Notice of Allegations letters from the NCAA over the past two years. The first alleged 13 rules violations, including nine that were classified as Level I, which the governing body deems the most serious.
But the case expanded in April 2016 after Tunsil became the story of the NFL draft after a bizarre video of him smoking from a gas mask-bong contraption was posted on his Twitter account just before the selections began.
There was also a post on Tunsil's Instagram account showing an alleged text conversation with a football staff member about arranging payment for bills.
Though the NCAA didn't appear to find much from that particular exchange, the governing body did reopen its investigation, sending a second NOA earlier this year that expanded the case to 21 allegations, including 17 that are Level I.
Freeze, a north Mississippi native, had an unlikely rise to major college coaching, spending about a decade as a successful high school coach in Memphis, Tennessee, before landing a job at Ole Miss in the mid-2000s under Ed Orgeron. After Orgeron was fired in 2007, Freeze became the head coach at Lambuth, a tiny NAIA school in western Tennessee.
He became Arkansas State's offensive coordinator in 2010 and was promoted to head coach in 2011, leading the Red Wolves to a Sun Belt Conference title before being hired at Ole Miss.
Freeze's specialty was on offense and the Rebels were especially efficient on that side of the ball. Behind quarterbacks like Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly, Ole Miss was consistently one of the best schools in the SEC through the air.


Today was the last day of Free CrossFit at CrossFit Lakewood, and we still had a great turnout! After 3 straight days of newbies, we guessed some may have been a little too sore to come back, but the crew that came out still did an awesome job!
Orion warming up the class!
The workout today introduced some people into new movements that one could incorporate into their daily workouts: Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Ball Slams and Jumping Rope.
Alon doing Ball Slams for the first time ever, using a 40 pound ball AND catching them on the bounce!!!
Pati did Double-Unders throughout the entire workout for the first time ever… 150 of them!
All of the people who were new to CrossFit REALLY pushing themselves.
Thanks everyone who made this week a huge success!
The name Sunday Funday has officially spread, so… WELCOME TO SUNDAY FUNDAY!
We hadn't been using barbells much on Sundays, so I decided that we'd change that this week. The workout tonight included some short-distance rowing to really get our heart rate up, and then three other movements. We did Squat Jumps to simulate exploding up from the bottom of a squat, then we did Push Press so simulate getting a weight off of our shoulders, to locked out overhead powerfully. The final movement combined all of those movements; it was the Slam Ball Toss. You'll see in the videos what exactly that is, but let me just tell you it's harder than it looks.
Check out Alon and Andy rowing their 250m distance during this round. For guys who are very new to rowing, especially at high intensity levels, these guys are CRUSHING it. Well done!
Freddy Camacho at CrossFit One World is one of CrossFit's original firebreathers! With his trademark tattoo sleeves, awesome personality and incredible shoulder strength, he can be picked out by most of us from a mile away.
After this week's CrossFit Games Open Workout #2, there were some scores posted that literally blew minds away. I mean, people were absolutely floored. I don't need to get into the little details of the workout since I've already posted what it was on my blog, and since Freddy covers it in the post, but he wrote EXACTLY the same thing that I've talked to most of you about in person over the last 5 days.
I am very curious as to what you guys think about this. Just like him, I'm not saying people are lying and that it's impossible to score these numbers. What I AM saying, is that to do so is just short of super human work capacity and that I just want to see one of these performances and marvel at it's greatness.
Great stuff, Freddy! Let me know what you guys think, too.
"Don't worry if your submitted results aren't showing on the Leaderboard.
If you have submitted and/or validated results for Workout 11.2, don't worry if they are not showing on the Leaderboard. The Leaderboard still needs work, but our database has collected all of these submissions and validations. There is no need yet to email your results to our support staff.
Our IT team is fixing the Leaderboard and it will be functional soon. When the Leaderboard is fixed, it will reflect the most recent submissions and validations for Workout 11.2.
Right now we're 1/3 of the way into the 2011 CrossFit Games Open. While we were all crushing WOD #2 yesterday, though, I realized something.
How do you like to warm up?
How do you like to be judged during a workout?
What kind of encouragement do you like during a workout?
How do you like to be treated immediately following a workout?
These questions may seem sort of trivial to some people, but to others, the workout environment can have a serious impact on one's performance.
Do me a favor please, guys and gals. Take just a few seconds and reply in the Comments Section of this post and share your personal preference. That way, when next Saturday rolls around, we'll all know how to best approach one another to create the best environment for our team!


text:
Lawrence Siew
MD, MBA, FAAP
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics; Medical Director, Children's Emergency Department
Lawrence Siew, MD, MBA, FAAP
lawrence.siew@yale.edu
Yale Pediatric Emergency Medicine
100 York Street, Suite 1F
Dr. Siew serves as the Medical Director of the Children's Emergency Department at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Multicultural Studies (East Asia). He went on to attend medical school at Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. Dr. Siew completed his pediatric residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell, where he served as chief resident, and followed by a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at Yale. During his fellowship training, he was awarded the Ken Graff Young Investigator Award from the AAP for his project evaluating telemedicine and its reliability in assessing seriously ill children. In addition to his role as medical director and attending physician in the Children's Emergency Department, Dr. Siew has experience in clinical documentation, coding/billing, and revenue generation. He is a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and has an MBA in Health Care Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Health Care Administration (2021)
Yale University School of Medicine (2012)
Residency / Chief Resident
New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell (2009)
Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (2005)


Agnes Martin is generally known as a desert artist. The Tate Modern, where the first major retrospective of her art in years is on show (through 11 October), emphasizes her time spent in the American Southwest - and especially in land-locked New Mexico. But throughout her career Martin named work simply Islands - and this was often at pivotal moments.
Through her Islands one traces Martin's movement away from figuration, to line and to void and ultimately to the stunning 12-piece series you may have seen in the mid-2000s, when it was shown in the US and in Germany, or which you can presently see in London.
And then there is a reason her works are described in terms of their washes, patterns and luminous quality that seems to transcend the media from which she built them. They move and sparkle in grids utterly contrary to their borders, like complicated water - like the Thames outside the museum building, like the sea.
Martin's 1979 Islands series at the Joseph Albers Museum in Bottrop, Germany.
In my best moments I think "Life has passed me by" and I am content.
Walking seems to cover time and space but in reality we are always just where we started. I walk but in reality I am hand in hand hand with contentment on my own doorstep.
Beauty illustrates happiness; the wind in the grass, the glistening waves following each other, the flight of birds, all speak of happiness.
The clear blue sky illustrates a different kind of happiness and the soft dark night a different kind. There are an infinite number of different kinds of happiness… Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life.
With many thanks to my brilliant friend Audrey for sending me a copy of this beautiful book several years ago.


Good news for all those who are facing different kind of difficulty while paying passport fee. Now you can pay your passport fee with Mobilink Mobicash. Mobicash is branch less mobile banking service by Mobilink in Pakistan. And it is more convenient as compared to conventional banking system.
To pay passport fee you need to visit any nearest Mobicash retailer or by using your Mobicash Mobile Account. You need to give details to retailer for payment.
Mobicash passport fee service is currently available in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. If you are living in any other city than you have to wait for few months to use this service.


text:
«Петер и летающий автобус» — нидерландский фильм для детей 1976 года.

Автор сценария — Пит Гелхуд, режиссёр фильма — Карст ван дер Мейлен. Главные роли исполнили Лекс Гаудсмит, Йост Принсен и Мартин Брозиус.

Фильм участвовал в конкурсе детских и юношеских фильмов на Московском кинофестивале в 1977 году и был хорошо принят прессой, в дальнейшем демонстрировался в кинотеатрах СССР на русском языке до середины 1980-х гг. (в частности, упоминается в повести В. Крапивина «Журавлёнок и молнии»).

Сюжет
Петер — мальчик, который передвигается в инвалидной коляске, у него мало друзей. Он знакомится со старым изобретателем, профессором Дрейфхаутом (Лекс Гоудсмит) и его любящим конфеты сыном и помощником Феликсом (Мартин Брозиус). Изобретатель изобрел машину невесомости: устройство, которое может заставить вещи плавать с помощью так называемых нулевых лучей. Изобретатель делает все возможное, чтобы скрыть свое изобретение, опасаясь, что кто-то другой может им злоупотребить. Однако у Петера в распоряжении случайно оказывается мешок волшебных шаров, содержащих лучи. Когда во время школьной поездки класса Петера волшебные шары рассыпаются по автобусу, автобус взлетает, и у класса начинается самая приключенческая школьная поездка в их жизни.

Актерский состав

Критика
Увлекательный молодёжный фильм, в котором молодые актёры играют лучше, чем профессиональные актеры Гаудсмит и Брозиус. Третий успех для режиссёра ван дер Мейлена.

Превосходная фантазия, придуманная со скромными средствами. (An excellent fantasy, contrived with modest means.)

Фильм более интересен для 40-летних, чем для сегодняшней молодежи. По старым актерам, причёскам, голосам и интонациям.

Примечания

Источники
 Peter en de vliegende autobus  // televisiegeheugen.nl
 Peter en de vliegende autobus  // cinemagazine.nl
 Peter en de Vliegende Autobus

Приключенческие фильмы Нидерландов
Детские фильмы
Фильмы Нидерландов 1976 года