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Palladium Books® Weekly Update – Nov. 21, 2018
By Kevin Siembieda
Holiday Sales – one game system – countless worlds – endless adventure
If Thanksgiving Day is here already, that means Christmas is a scant 4 weeks away and the holiday gift buying season jumps off this weekend with Black Friday sales quickly followed by Cyber-Monday. Please don't forget about Palladium Books® this holiday season. We've got sales too.
Palladium has 3 BIG Sales going on this weekend
1. Palladium's Black Friday Sale is NOW thru Tuesday – Our Black Friday and Cyber-Monday sales start right now. Almost ALL Rifts® books and metal miniatures are on sale starting NOW through Tuesday, November 27, 2018.
2. Palladium PDF Sale NOW till Tuesday morning on DriveThruRPG.com – Most Palladium PDFs are available at a 33% discount for awesome savings – offer ends Tuesday morning, November 27, 2018.
3. Christmas Surprise Packages have been delighting gamers for 20 years. Each book is signed by me and available staff and freelancers if you want autographs. I do not believe I have sent out a Surprise Package with less than $95 worth of product – most have been closer to $100 or more! Our holiday season gift to you. And if you are lucky, you may be able to turn items from ONE Surprise Package into gifts for 2-3 gamers in your life. With only four weeks till Christmas, time is starting to run out, so please tell everyone you know! Offer ends December 24, 2018.
4. Plus a sale at Kevin's Ebay store – http://stores.ebay.com/kevinstoys-artandcollectibles – though technically not a "Palladium sale," you can find original art by Charles Walton II, Kevin Long, and other artists, as well as Palladium collectibles from my (Kevin Siembieda's) personal archives, signed books, one-of-a-kind book negatives, action figures and toys, all on sale now through Tuesday.
Note: If you are ordering books or Christmas Surprise Packages as gifts for the holidays – please remember to allow a week for shipping (more if ordering via Media Mail). That means it is really more like THREE weeks till Christmas and Kwanzaa, and a little more than a week till Hanukkah.
AVAILABLE Now – 3 fun RPG books back in stock for the first time in decades – but just for the Holidays
- Systems Failure™ RPG – Yep, the complete, whacked out game of survival and alien invasion. 144 pages – $22.99 retail – Cat. No. 650. Available now.
- Shadows of Light™ – A Nightbane® sourcebook – 160 pages – $22.99 retail – Cat. No. 734. Available now.
- Boxed Nightmares™ – A sourcebook for Beyond the Supernatural™ 1st Edition rules, but easily adapted to BTS, 2nd Edition. Mostly adventures and adventure ideas. 112 pages – $17.99 retail – Cat. No. 701. Available now.
Just for the holidays, Palladium is doing a limited short-run of three out-of-print titles that have been out of print for years. Two of them have been out of print for decades! We are printing enough that they should be available now thru December, and probably into January – available only while supplies last – so order 'em while you can. All are available in Palladium's online store and will be considered as requests in Christmas Surprise Packages while supplies last. We expect to print enough to get us through the holiday season. Enjoy. Ho, ho, ho.
Only 4 Weeks till Christmas – Order your Palladium Christmas Surprise Package NOW!
Can you believe it? It's that time again for the Palladium Christmas Surprise Package offer. Palladium Books® has been doing Christmas Surprise Packages, or "Grab Bags," for 20 years! And what a great tradition it has become.
It enables you to get several RPG titles ($90-$100 worth) for ONLY $46 (plus shipping and handling) as gifts for others or for yourself. It is our way of saying thank you to our many fans for being so kind and patient, and for your years of support. You are appreciated more than you may realize.
Christmas Surprise Packages are not just for Christmas. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Winter Solstice, or you're looking for that special gift for a birthday, anniversary, graduation, or any special occasion that falls between now and February, a Surprise Package may be the ideal way to go. You get a ton of stuff on the cheap, you can get a bunch of autographs (if you want 'em), and you look like you spent a fortune.
This is also a great way to try that game setting you've wondered about (Splicers®, Dead Reign®, Chaos Earth®, Palladium Fantasy®, Nightbane®, Mechanoid Invasion®, Rifts®, After the Bomb®, etc.), or to get something for your favorite Game Master. Or perhaps, to get your player group to consider a new game or setting.
Your "Wish List" is vital – The Palladium Surprise Packages are designed to simulate the joy and surprise of the Christmas Season of Giving. To do this, you submit a list of 12-15 Palladium products (or more) FOR EACH Surprise Package you order. This list of 12-15 items for EACH Grab Bag is critical, because you will not know which items we will select to send you. That makes it just like a Christmas gift because it's a surprise. Plus, Santa Kevin, who personally hand-picks every item for every Grab Bag, may toss in something extra like a limited edition print, or color maps, or T-shirt, or issue of The Rifter®, or something else he thinks you'll enjoy.
Autographed books. For those of you who want them (which are most people), available members of the Palladium staff, and any freelancers we can lasso at the time, are happy to autograph each and every book in your Surprise Package. This is the only way many fans, especially those in other countries, can EVER get signed books.
Send us your brief comments. There is a special form and format to fill out for Christmas Surprise Packages, including a place where you can offer your brief comments, suggestions, greetings and salutations.
It only costs $46 plus shipping to get $90-$100+ worth of Palladium products! First-timers are always nervous until they see the great value in their first Surprise Package. A typical Grab Bag has $90-$100 worth of product, sometimes more! Yes, sometimes more. Many people order 2-3. Some order 4-6, and some maniacs order even more! It makes sense, because it is a great way to fill holes in your own collection, treat yourself, get autographs, try new games and settings, and get your gaming pals gifts. PLEASE spread the word about this great offer.
To those of you outside the USA, the X-Mas Surprise Package is a way to get books and circumvent the damn high cost of shipping from the United States. Since you are getting $90-$100 worth of product and only paying $46 plus a small handling charge, shipping via Priority Mail International (required for packages weighing more than four pounds) to most locations in Europe, Canada and many other countries is around $50-$60 US dollars. HOWEVER, because the cost of the product is so low, that's the equivalent of paying retail for the products and only $0-$30 for shipping. A very good deal. Plus you get autographs if you want them! X-Mas Surprise Packages are the way to go for those of you outside the USA. Please take advantage of it to get all those products you've wished you could get except the shipping was too prohibitive. We feel your pain. Game on!
IMPORTANT NOTE: The X-Mas Surprise Package is a Grab Bag. As such, while we always try to send you items from your Wish List, you may NOT get everything you ask for and you are likely to get one or more items NOT on your list, like The Rifter®, or other item(s) we think you should enjoy. PLEASE give us a long Wish List and fill out other questions (favorite Palladium games, would like to try X, and so on) because it helps us to make your Surprise Package special. If you need or want specific items, do NOT use the Surprise Package; place a regular order at full retail to guarantee you get the books you want. Offer ends December 24, 2018.
Please tell everyone about the Christmas Surprise Packages. We want to put smiles on the faces of gamers around the world.
UPDATE: The Rifter® #82 – ships November 26
The Rifter® #82 is at the printer, but we have not gotten the ship date confirmed. We know our printer is slammed with work and on an extended turnaround schedule, but we still anticipate The Rifter® #82 to ship next week. You can see a FREE Sneak Preview of it on DriveThruRPG right now.
The Rifter® #82 is epic. Most of it is "official" source material and fun as can be: the reprinted Wujcik gaming advice, the Pyromancer O.C.C., the 50+ Pyromancy spells, the HU2 and Nightbane material, the preview monsters from Rifts® Bestiary, it's all top-notch and fodder for adventure. Numerous people who have seen the proofreader's copy have said the Erick Wujcik Remembrance is wonderful. Some said part of it brought tears to their eyes, while other parts made them chuckle and smile. All of it is a celebration of life and imagination. So I highly recommend The Rifter® #82 to everyone. The preview is up and available on DriveThruRPG.
The Rifter® #82 contains official source material for the Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One (a sneak preview of just a few old and new monsters and animals), official source material for Rifts® Chaos Earth® (Pyromancer, 50+ Pyromancer spells, the Zone Twister, notable characters, and adventure ideas), official source material for Nightbane® (age modifiers and tables for selecting skills based on a Nightbane's age, and more), an expanded revisit of the Physical Training character for Heroes Unlimited™, gaming advice from Erick Wujcik, a historically significant, fun and touching Remembrance of Erick Wujcik, 10 years after his death, some cool photos too, plus news and more.
- 112 pages – $14.99 retail – Cat. No. 182. Ships November 26, maybe sooner. See the new and updated description elsewhere in this Update.
In Production ...
The Rifts® Bestiary Volume One, In the Face of Death™ for Dead Reign®, The Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume Two, Garden of the Gods™, Chaos Earth® Psychic Scream™, Rifts® Antarctica, The Rifter® #83 and #84, The Disavowed and much more is in the pipeline and being worked on. Plus a couple of surprises. But this is Thanksgiving Weekend so we are going to try to keep this update short.
New on DriveThruRPG.com – Dead Reign® Paper Miniatures Volume One: Survivors AND see The Rifter® #82 FREE Sneak Preview
New: Dead Reign® Paper Miniatures Volume One: Survivors is the first in a series of new paper miniatures from Michael Leonard. There are also paper miniatures for Heroes Unlimited™, Palladium Fantasy® and Rifts®. The Rifter® #82 FREE Sneak Preview gives you a look at the Pyromancer O.C.C. and Pyromancy magic, some Rifts® Bestiary monsters, HU heroes, bad guys, Nightbane®, and Erick Wujcik remembered.
Recent PDF additions include Nightbane® Dark Designs™ sourcebook with 60 new Common Talents, 38 new Elite Talents, 18 new Morphus Tables, all other Morphus Tables collected and more. Systems Failure™ RPG, a 160 page RPG that deals with alien invasion and a post-apocalypse setting that is fun and dynamic. Civilization is on the verge of collapse when the so-called "bugs" invade and turn humans into zombie-like slaves. Monsters, heroes and fun. A complete RPG and setting. Rifts® World Book 34: Northern Gun™ Two: 256 pages of technology and fun. 30+ power armors, 30+ body armors, 15 combat vehicles, 45 vehicles (hovercycles, etc.), 10 robot haulers, the Robodome and more. Bizantium and the Northern Islands™: the northernmost part of the Known World, the Cold Born, Necromancy ships made from dead sea serpents, 15 creatures, Random Sea Monster Generator, and more. Rifts® Northern Gun™ One. This fan favorite might be thought of as the big book of giant robots – an in-depth look at Northern Gun, 70+ weapons, 27 robots, NG O.C.C.s, key people and places, and much more. Mysteries of Magic™ Book One: The Heart of Magic™ with Wizards, their Apprentices, nearly 60 new magic spells and remember, magic and monsters in the Fantasy RPG are easily adapted to Rifts®, Chaos Earth®, HU2 and other settings. Wolfen Empire™ Fantasy sourcebook, the Great Northern Wilderness and Killer Winters, 12 Wolfen Tribes, Wolfen military and society, 15+ creatures, 5 full adventures, 101 adventure ideas, random encounter tables, notable people, places, plus FREE Sneak Previews of The Rifter® #80 & The Rifter® #81, and more on DriveThruRPG.com.
- Rifts® is a genre-bending setting that combines science fiction, fantasy, horror, post-apocalypse survival, magic, and endless possibilities for adventure. Imagine a near perfect world of advanced technology 100 years in the future. Then imagine that world crashing down overnight in an apocalyptic upheaval not seen since the formation of the planet. A Great Cataclysm caused by the explosive return of magic. Now fast forward 300 years into the future where magic, dragons, and mythic gods coexist with cyborgs, giant robots and super-science rediscovered from humanity's Golden Age as humans rise from a lengthy Dark Age. But they must contend with countless alien life forms, monsters, and supernatural horrors from beyond the Rifts.
- Rifts® core titles we would suggest: Rifts® Ultimate Edition, Rifts® Game Master Guide, Rifts® Book of Magic, Rifts® Adventure Guide, D-Bees of North America™, Rifts® World Book 11: Coalition War Campaign and Rifts® Sourcebook One. Note: The Rifts® RPG, 1st Edition and Rifts® Ultimate, 2nd Edition are both available.
- 80+ Rifts® supplements, most of them available as PDFs with more coming. Where to start? Wherever sounds fun.
- Rifts® Dimension Books™: Travel to alien worlds and dimensions via the Rifts for off-world adventure and intrigue.
- Rifts® Chaos Earth® RPG and sourcebook series (all). Live through the Great Cataclysm and the Coming of the Rifts. Rifts® Chaos Earth® RPG, Creatures of Chaos™, Rise of Magic™, and Chaos Earth® Resurrection™ are all available.
- FREE Sneak Previews for Nightbane® Dark Designs™, Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans™, Rifts® CS Heroes of Humanity, and many other previews as well as free and low cost items that we make available. All of it adds to the growing list of Rifts and other Palladium RPG game titles available as PDF books, cards and support. A new title should be added every week or two, so keep watching for them.
- The Rifter® #1-77. Each issue is a wealth of source material and ideas for several game lines, but most material can be easily adapted to ANY Palladium game world. Each issue a gem.
- Splicers® RPG is like Iron Man meets Game of Thrones with elements of Terminator – except this army of Iron Men are clad in living body armor and wield living, organic weapons and devices. Created in 2004 by writer and game designer Carmen Bellaire, Splicers® was nominated for an Inquest Gamer Magazine Fan Awards Game of the Year, and has since developed a rabid fan base. Science fiction and horror where humans are forced to use genetically engineered, living weapons and organic war machines to battle an insane Artificial Intelligence and her robot legions. Unlike anything you have ever played before!
- Splicers®: I Am Legion™ Adventure Sourcebook: 6 new Great Houses, 4 new Host Armors, 6 new War Mounts, 19 new Bio-Weapons, 15 new killer machines, new Bio-Enhancements, Amalgam creation tables, Legion and a series of adventures that build into a small campaign, and more.
- Palladium Fantasy RPG®, 1st Edition Rules and sourcebooks. A unique world of magic, monsters and heroes. Dozens of nonhuman player characters including Wolfen, Bearmen, Ogres, Orcs and more. 100,000 years of history.
- Palladium Fantasy RPG®, 2nd Edition Rules and many sourcebooks. The expanded world of high fantasy, magic, mystery and heroes of every variety. Includes the Mind Mage and psychic abilities, mages and spells, magic circles and symbols, men-at-arms, scoundrels and a wide range of inhuman player characters including Wolfen, Bearmen, Ogres, Orcs and many more. 100,000 years of history.
- Heroes Unlimited™ RPG first edition rule book and sourcebooks.
- Heroes Unlimited™ RPG Second Edition rule book and sourcebooks. Create any type of superhuman you can desire and bring comic book adventures to life.
- Dead Reign® RPG (Zombie Apocalypse). The dead have risen. It is the battle for survival in the zombie apocalypse, but this setting is much more than your typical zombie game. Play ordinary people or special characters better equipped to survive and hunt zombies. Many unusual types of zombies.
- Dead Reign® Sourcebooks: 6 sourcebooks from Civilization Gone™ to Hell Followed™ (the latter features stats for 23 disasters, masked lunatics, 11 new zombies, 7 apocalyptic character classes, and more) are available.
- Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG, 1st Edition Rules. Supernatural horror in the modern world. Play ordinary people, psychics, paranormal investigators or for something different: Victim Characters!
- Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG, 2nd Edition: The complete, revised core game, 14 character classes and 42 occupations for "ordinary people," 100+ psychic abilities, 16 monsters, the Lazlo Agency, world setting and rules.
- Nightbane® RPG and sourcebooks. An RPG setting we call superhero horror. Dark conspiracy, a secret, demon invasion starting with world leaders and law enforcement, and it is spreading. The player characters are the Nightbane®, reluctant superhumans who must turn into monsters themselves to unleash their powers and battle the evil that is clear only to them. A dark, sinister and challenging world of horror.
- After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks. Planet of the Apes meets the X-Men! Animal creations, powers and more. Create any type of intelligent mutant animal you can imagine as friend or foe.
- Ninjas & Superspies™ RPG and the Mystic China™ sourcebook. James Bond meets Enter the Dragon. 41 types of martial arts, ninjas, and super-spies with gadgets, gizmos and advanced weapons.
- The Mechanoid Invasion® Trilogy RPG is a long time, cult favorite with a fatalistic world-view of humans vs aliens with superior technology.
- The Palladium Weapon Series of real world weapons, armor and castles throughout history. Designed for use with ANY game system.
- 200+ Palladium titles in all, plus G.M. kits, paper miniatures and more.
- Heroes Unlimited™ Paper Miniatures – Two sets are now available!
- Palladium Fantasy RPG® Paper Miniatures – Volumes #1-6 are available now. More are coming in the weeks ahead.
- Rifts® Paper Miniatures: Men at Arms – $2.99
- Rifts® Paper Miniatures: Coalition Dead Boys – $2.99
- Rifts® Paper Miniatures: Adventurers – $2.99
- Rifts® Paper Miniatures: Practitioners of Magic (new) – $2.99
- Rifts® Paper Miniatures: Extras (new) – $2.99
- And more to come in the weeks ahead.
Charles Walton II Artwork, Toys and Collectibles "on sale" now in Kevin's Online Toy & Collectibles eBay Store along with other good things
For the first time ever, Charles "Chuck" Walton has decided to offer a dozen or two dozen pieces of original artwork via my online store. All money goes to the artist. Includes original art from Rifts® Sovietski, Secrets of the Atlanteans, Rifts® Chaos Earth® Resurrection and others. This is a fun and unique opportunity to get some of Chuck's art other than having to attend one of the few conventions where Chuck is a guest. He sold a good number at Gen Con and was wondering how he might make his art more available to people. I suggested trying my online store. Most prices range from $50-150, with a few more expensive pieces. Artwork make a great gift for the hard to surprise gamer. Enjoy. Chuck says thanks.
Other one-of-a-kind original artwork available by me (Kevin Siembieda), Kevin Long, Mark Evans (money goes to the artist), as well as prints, limited edition hardcovers, proofreader copies, out of print items, Star Wars toys, Marvel toys and many other toys and collectibles from my personal collection. Alex and I will keep adding items as our busy schedules allow, but we have a lot of fun collectibles available now and coming soon. Hundreds of items. Take a look every weekend for new additions.
Available now: One-of-a-kind book negatives. Negatives were very popular items at the Palladium Open House and people went crazy over them at Gen Con – including actor Joe Manganiello who scooped up a pile of TMNT negatives, while Palladium's own Mark Oberle, Carmen Bellaire, Brandon Aten and a whole lot of Palladium gamers went for negatives from Rifts® New West, Lone Star and Free Quebec. Fun.
Negatives are unique and attractive, one-of-a-kind (on rare occasions two-of-a-kind if a page was replaced or a second edition was made) works of art that resemble woodcut art and are very dynamic conversation pieces. Before digital printing, pages of a book were laid out by hand on a board, and each page was photographed. The plastic film negatives were then "ganged" on a massive sheet of Mylar 16 pages per big sheet, and the printing plates were made from the negatives – everything white, printing black.
When our printer, McNaughton and Gunn, went completely digital, they asked if Palladium Books wanted the negs, otherwise they would be destroyed. Regrettably, I let a few dozen be destroyed, but the negatives of many books were sent to Palladium. They have sat in our warehouse for years until I started to offer them for sale. I have also started signing the negatives in silver and each comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Each negative comes on a white board inside a plastic magazine bag and looks fabulous framed! Fits in an 8x10 inch matt opening in a frame (each neg is roughly 8½ x 11 inches).
Happy Thanksgiving
The holidays are upon us and I'm feeling cheerful and positive. We all are. The Rifts® Bestiary Volume One is one thing I'm thankful and excited about. It is just so good. I think you are going to go wild over it. Not just monsters to fight and cool critters for pets and riding animals, but all kinds of ideas and fodder for adventures. Adventures in cities as well as the wilderness. There's the Ghost Allosaurus, Canadian Duckbill, Burrower Bruin, Cerebro-Scrambler, Deathspringer, Dragon Wasp, Frost Spider, Impact Beetle, Riding Lizard, and so many others, new and old. All updated. I can't wait until we can announce it is at the printer. Soon, darn it, soon. I know, it's taking too long, but we really want these Bestiaries to be special. You can see a few of the "beasts" appearing in the Rifts® Bestiary Volume One in the FREE Sneak Preview of The Rifter® #82 (at the printer). The preview is available on DriveThruRPG.com right now. Btw, The Rifter® #82 is a great issue and should be coming back from the printer soon. I know you are disappointed that the two Bestiary titles are not done yet; us too, especially me, but you'll love 'em.
I'm also thankful and delighted to see the rampant excitement over the re-release of three, fan-fave books that have been out of print for a decade or two, the Systems Failure™ RPG (alien invasion), Boxed Nightmares™ (for BTS 1st Edition rules, six scary adventures easily adapted to BTS, 2nd Ed.), and the Nightbane® Shadows of Light™ sourcebook, all available now, but only for the holidays. Folks have been scooping them up like crazy. Awesome. I think we have at least two other fun surprises coming before Christmas.
For us in the United States of America, this Thursday, November 22, is our Thanksgiving Day. A day of reflection, getting together with loved ones, and giving thanks. I, for one, have much to be thankful for, starting with a wonderful life and a wealth of friends that makes me blush when I think about it. Sure there have been hard times, losses and challenges over the years, with more to come. Life is a journey. There are good times and bad, but it is always made easier when you have loving people at your side to help you on that journey. I love you all.
For a variety of reasons, I never really knew most of my blood relatives, so I built my own family out of the friends and astonishing array of wonderful people I have met over the decades, and continue to meet. As you should know by now, that includes you. I consider our fans to be much more than mere customers. You are part of my extended family. The Palladium Family. The Christmas Surprise Package offer and putting our hearts and souls into every game product we do are just two ways we try to show you our love and appreciation. Thank you for your support and please enjoy a Thanksgiving Day feast with loved ones and a joyous holiday season.
Oh, and don't forget about Palladium's Black Friday sales, starting now! Snag yourself a Christmas Surprise Package (I make 'em pretty awesome), miniatures, Rifts® books, PDFs, negatives and other goodies, and keep those imaginations burning bright. With thanks and appreciation,
– Kevin Siembieda, Game Designer, Writer, & Surrogate Santa
Surprise Package comments from fans like you
Every year there is a section where the customer can offer comments and suggestions with his or her Surprise Package order. Every year, in acknowledgment of our fans, and because they are fun to read, we offer a sampling in the Weekly Updates. Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have stuck with Palladium through thick and thin. Keep those imaginations burning bright, have a joyous holiday season, and game on.
You have no idea how much your comments and support mean to all of us. Everyone at Palladium enjoys reading your brief comments. They always brighten our day. Thank you. I have tried to write a short response [in brackets] to each.
C.A. in Applegate, California, writes: My favorite time of the year is filling out one of these Surprise Package orders. I love it every Christmas.
[Awesome, C.A., I think you'll love this one just as much. Game on and Merry Christmas. – KS]
E.W. in Belmont, New Hampshire, writes: Thank you for making great games. I have been playing Rifts® since 1990 and Palladium Fantasy® shortly after. I have never been disappointed.
[Thrilled to hear that, E.W., and appreciate the high praise. We love what we do and work hard to fill every book with fun and Wow Factor. Game on and happy holidays! – KS]
J.C. in Lebanon, Indiana, writes, in part: "... Archie needs more love. He is a great villain. I would love to see more stuff with him and Titan Robotics.
[Agreed, J.C., A.R.C.H.I.E. Three is a great villain and you WILL be seeing more about him and Titan Robotics. And soon. You don't have our office bugged by any chance, because how could you ... oh, yeah ... Archie is watching! – KS]
D.B. in Waterford, Michigan, writes: Thank you for always making the world in my head grow, bigger, bolder and better with your books.
[Thanks for the kind words, D.B., they mean a lot, because that's exactly what we want to do. Wait till you see what we have coming down the pipe ... oh, boy, are we going to blow some minds. – KS]
D.J. in Honolulu, Hawaii, writes, in part: Thanks for doing this for another year. I purchased a few Surprise Packages some years ago and they were very successful. It was great receiving the surprise not quite knowing what would be inside... I have been happy to see more Palladium pdfs available on DriveThruRPG.com ...
[Hi, D.J., delighted you enjoy the Surprise Packages so much. Yep, we have more than 250 PDF products available on DriveThruRPG. Watch for holiday sales (Cyber-Monday) coming your way from both DriveThru and Palladium's online store. – KS]
J.C. in Sarasota, Florida, writes: The Palladium Fantasy RPG® and Beyond the Supernatural™ have always been my top two favorites, with Rifts® and Heroes Unlimited™ a close second.
[Hi J.C., happy Thanksgiving! I love all the games we do, but those four are also at the top of my list. You'll be seeing more for them all in 2019. – KS]
R.K. in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, writes: Thank you for the great selection in my first Christmas Grab Bag.
[My pleasure, R.K. I think you'll like this second one just as much. – KS]
J.P. in Dayton, Ohio, writes, in part: A big "Thank You" to Kevin and the entire crew at Palladium. Your commitment to the fans is unmatched in the industry! Keep up the good work. P.S.: If I can put in a good word for Heroes Unlimited ... and it would be great to see more Beyond the Supernatural ...
[Thank you for the kind words, J.P. I think you will be thrilled with what we have planned for Heroes Unlimited and Beyond the Supernatural. Don't want to reveal anything yet, but boy oh boy, great stuff. – KS]
A.L. in Glenburn, Maine, writes: Thanks for doing this.
[Our pleasure, A.L. Please spread the word so Palladium fans everywhere can enjoy these Christmas Surprise Packages. – KS]
B.W. in Farmington, Missouri, writes: This will be the 2nd X-Mas Surprise Package I'm getting from you all. I loved the first one and am looking forward to seeing what's in the second. A great way to help rebuild my collection.
[Welcome back for more, B.W., please feel free to keep on coming back. Thank you for letting me know how much you enjoyed that first Surprise Package. It's good to know we are succeeding in putting smiles on the faces of gamers around the world. Happy Holidays. – KS]
B.B. in Fargo, North Dakota, writes, in part: ... Question: If I pre-order a book, is it charged right away or when it goes to print? I would like to start pre-ordering so I don't miss out on releases, but don't want to get charged until the item is ready to go. Keep those great books coming and looking forward to the Rifts® Bestiary books.
[A great question, B.B., thank you for asking it. No, you do NOT get charged for pre-orders until AFTER the book goes to the printer. When you pre-order, we make a special file with your pre-order request. Then a few weeks before the book is to arrive from the printer, we email you and everyone in the file to let you know that the book will soon be available, AND that you need to resubmit your order and credit card info for it. We do NOT keep credit card data on file for security reasons. However, you will pay for shipping for each item as it comes out. Sorry. Media Mail is the least expensive way to ship.
So if you placed pre-orders for titles like Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume Two, Garden of the Gods™, The Disavowed™, etc., that are NOT at the printer and which may be coming out weeks or months after a book is announced, they go into that file and you will be notified when each becomes available to ship.
There is one exception, we charge for pre-orders when the item is at the printer and we know the book is coming out within 2-4 weeks of when the pre-order is placed. For example, we have been charging for Systems Failure™ RPG, Boxed Nightmares® and Nightbane® Shadows of Light™ because they were all at the printer and we knew they would ship within 2 weeks of our making them available in the online store.
Btw, you are going to love the Rifts® Bestiary books. I have to admit, I am a little surprised at the level of excitement for them. I think they are something Rifts® gamers really want. In fact, I recently had a fan lament that he wished we had a book that collected all the monsters like we did for the D-Bees of North America™. I laughed and said, you're in luck because I'm finishing up two such books right now. He was very pleased. Happy holidays. – KS]
The Rifter® #82 – Ships November 26 (maybe sooner)
The Rifter® #82 is all about discovery and unleashing the power inside of you. That's true whether you are playing a Chaos Earth® Pyromancer™ learning to survive and save lives after the Great Cataclysm; or a newly awakened Nightbane® seeking his or her purpose in a dark world of conspiracy and demons; or a Heroes Unlimited™ vigilante trained to the height of physical perfection in a war against evil; or an RPG gamer like you and me, unleashing our imaginations to create wonderful new characters and epic adventures. This issue of The Rifter® also lovingly celebrates a master of unleashed imagination and big thinking, Erick Wujcik, ten years after his untimely passing. Bits of Palladium history and heartfelt sentiments revealed along the way. Enjoy.
Rifter® #82 Highlights:
- Rifts® Chaos Earth® – Pyromancy, Nebraska Part Three – by Daniel Frederick, Matthew Clements & Kevin Siembieda. 50+ Pyromancy spells, the Pyromancer O.C.C., Zone Twisters, notable characters, and more. "Official" source material.
- Rifts® Bestiary Sneak Preview – by Kevin Siembieda and Charles Walton II. A few choice new monsters to whet your appetite for the Rifts® Bestiary, Volumes One and Two, and the books to follow. "Official" source material.
- Heroes Unlimited – by Matt Reed. An expanded look at the unique heroes who do not possess super abilities, but rather turn their bodies into fighting machines via physical training and dedicated force of will.
- Nightbane® – Age Modifiers and Education Rules – by Mark Oberle. Tables and stats for determining an occupation and skills based on the age of the character. Plus more insight to being a Nightbane and a few new skills. "Official" source material.
- Gaming Advice from Erick Wujcik – Thinking Big and The Name Giver, sage advice reprinted from The Rifter® #1 & #2.
- Erick Wujcik Remembered – Erick touched countless lives with his big personality, inspiring mind, and body of work. Ten years after his death, Erick continues to inspire everyone who met him. Friends and fans remember this unique individual and his work. Insight to the man and Palladium Books, the company he loved. Written by Kevin Siembieda and many, many others. A celebration of life.
- News, coming attractions, product descriptions and more.
- 112 pages – $14.99 retail – Cat. No. 182. Ships November 26, maybe sooner.
Systems Failure™ RPG
– Back in Stock – just for the Holidays
When the cities fell, and the world went "off-line," all seemed lost. Anarchy reigned.
On an alternate Earth, all that is left are the Survivalists, Nature-Lovers, Farmers, Gun Bunnies, Eggheads and backwoods wackos living on the fringe. Either people found in remote regions or those who were prepared for the Y2K Bug and the collapse of civilization.
Oh, and there are "bugs" alright. Alien, bug-like things that feed on energy and turn humans into zombie-like slaves. Things are worse than anyone could have imagined, even for those who were prepared. But these survivors are not ready to give up. America (and then the world) will be free! And they mean business. Play the unlikely heroes fighting to save the world in a post-holocaust environment.
This is an action-packed, post-holocaust role-playing game that can be played straight and serious, or with a touch of satire and humor. Back in 1999, this RPG was inspired by fears of the Y2K Bug and possible end of the world as we knew it. So THIS game is an alternate Earth where Y2K was a real event and worse than anyone could imagine. Enjoy the wild characters and setting, and destroy some Bugs!
- A complete, stand-alone role-playing game.
- S.D.C. setting and all the info you need to play.
- The Villains: Monstrous invaders from another dimension drawn to all things electronic. Deadly and weird.
- The Unlikely Heroes: Society's castaways, nutcases, and survivalists.
- 11 O.C.C.s including the Exterminator, Freebooter, NORAD Psychic and more.
- Reclaim the world for god-fearing humans!
- Plenty of world information and adventure ideas.
- Written by Bill Coffin based on concepts by Kevin Siembieda.
- Includes Conversion Notes for use with Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited™ 2nd Edition, Ninjas & Superspies™, Palladium Fantasy RPG®, and other Palladium game settings. Loads of fun!
- 144 pages – $22.99 – Cat. No. 650 – Back in print just for the holidays. Available now!
Boxed Nightmares™ – Adventure Sourcebook for Beyond the Supernatural™
– Back in Stock – just for the Holidays
Boxed Nightmares™ is exactly what the title suggests, ordinary people coming face to face with supernatural nightmares. The adventures are designed to give players and Game Masters a better idea of the variety and scope of adventures one can explore in the world of modern horror. Some adventures are short, others long. Some are monster stomping action, while others require investigation, cunning, and the uncovering of clues.
The newspaper portion is in the back of the book. It is one of those sensational, check-out counter tabloids that boasts headlines like Woman marries Big Foot, or Elvis's clone living in Tampa. However, this tabloid is tied to the adventure portion of the sourcebook in several different ways. First, it contains clues and information for the actual adventures inside the sourcebook. Second, the publishers of the paper often hire psychics and parapsychologists to investigate strange phenomena, so your characters could be working for the tabloid company. And third, it may give you ideas for additional adventures.
- Rules and tips for creating secret organizations.
- Adventures in the USA, South America and Australia.
- Crazed Arcanists, Gremlins, Tasmanian Devils, a Possessing Entity that has absorbed the memories of a serial killer, and more.
- The After Midnight tabloid, filled with clues and adventure ideas, reproduced in the back of the book.
- Cover by Denis Beauvais. Interior art by Kevin Long. Written by Kevin Siembieda.
- 112 pages – $17.99 retail – Cat. No. 701. Back in print just for the holidays. Available now!
Shadows of Light™ – A Nightbane® Sourcebook
– Back in Stock – just for the Holidays
The forces of Light and Darkness clash as never before in the modern setting of the Nightbane® RPG.
- More info on the Lightbringers, Nocturnes, and other factions.
- Fallen Guardians and the mystery of the Reapers.
- Psychic Agents and new psionic powers.
- Introducing the angel-like Athanatos.
- The vampire conspiracy and an outline for adventure.
- 11 (optional) O.C.C.s, many are part of Project Pandora.
- Astral Realm of Tophet and city of Pittsburgh, NPCs and more.
- 160 pages – $22.99 retail – Cat. No. 734. Back in print just for the holidays. Available now!
New! Rifts® Bestiary™: North America, Vol. One
A series of books that collects all the notable monsters, dinosaurs and creepy crawlers and creatures of Rifts® North America (US, Canada and Mexico) into two juicy volumes with a number of new creatures. Each volume includes maps and new creatures, large and small, to help or plague player characters. Between them, these two volumes compile all the beasts of Rifts North America (unintelligent monsters, predators, notable animals and intelligent beings that are monstrous or animal-like in appearance or behavior) from all current World Books and Sourcebooks. In addition, Kevin Siembieda, Chuck Walton and Greg Diaczyk are adding some new monsters to make life in the wilderness interesting. Presented in alphabetical order, with maps showing their range and location, in two big books.
Winter releases, both volumes are being worked on simultaneously, right now, so that Volume Two will quickly follow Volume One within 4-6 weeks. Other volumes, like a Bestiary of Spirits and the Supernatural, are likely to follow.
Future volumes will include spirits, ghosts and entities, another on dragons, other volumes on creatures in other parts of Rifts Earth, and so on.
- Monsters and animals of Rifts North America organized in two big, easy to use sourcebooks. Predators, exotic riding animals, beasts of burden, alien horrors, giant insects and more.
- Some new creatures, but most are existing creatures.
- Updated information where applicable.
- Updated and uniform stat blocks.
- A map for every creature showing where it is found.
- Fully illustrated.
- Art by Chuck Walton, Siembieda and many others.
- 192-224 pages – $26.99 retail – Cat. No. 896. In production.
NEW! Rifts® Bestiary Volume Two – ships December
More of notorious Rifts® monsters and animals, old and new, everything updated and expanded.
- Monsters and animals of Rifts North America organized in two big, easy to use sourcebooks.
- Updated descriptions and information for existing monsters.
- Updated and uniform stat blocks.
- New predators, exotic riding animals, beasts of burden, alien horrors, giant insects and more.
- A map for every creature showing where it is found.
- Fully illustrated, much of the art by Charles Walton II, along with Siembieda and many others.
- 192-224 pages each volume – $26.99 retail – Cat. No. 897 (Volume Two). In production. End of December.
COMING: In the Face of Death™ – A Dead Reign® Sourcebook
"People will tell you no one can survive in the big cities. They are wrong." – Brad Ashley, Leader of the Road Reapers in the Zombie Apocalypse.
This sourcebook is all about inner city survival. Survivor colonies finding a way to live and prosper in the big city. The conventional wisdom is that living in the big population centers is impossible. These survivors prove otherwise.
- Inner city survival.
- Living on the rooftops.
- Surviving in big cities crawling with zombies.
- Death Cults, a different type of danger.
- Gangs, street runners, the new underground, and more.
- Heroic Masked Lunatics as player characters.
- Take your zombie campaign to new heights!
- Cover by E.M. Gist. Interior art by Nick Bradshaw.
- Written by Kevin Siembieda. Adaptable to other settings.
- 96-128 pages – $17.99 retail – Cat. No. 237. Winter release.
UPDATE: Garden of the Gods™ – A Palladium Fantasy® Sourcebook
Matthew Clements is still adding to his considerable contributions to Garden of the Gods before turning it in to Palladium. Matthew has started work on another Fantasy sourcebook and other projects.
The Garden of the Gods is said to be a holy place watched over and even frequented by the avatars of the gods. According to legend, the god may visit heroes and followers in dreams or in person by an avatar of the god, to be given guidance, inspiration, heroic quests, and gifts of knowledge and magic. More details about this title will follow.
- The Garden of the Gods described in detail.
- Godly insight and visitations.
- Gifts of magic and knowledge.
- Sanctuary and more.
- The Black Pit, a place of evil and dark secrets. Is it a counterbalance to the good of the Garden or a trick of the Old Ones?
- Written by Kevin Siembieda.
- Final page count and price yet to be determined, but probably 96 pages – $17.99 retail – Cat. No. 475. Winter release.
Back in Stock – Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG – available now
Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG is supernatural horror in the modern world. A plausible modern horror setting that makes sense and will have you wondering if this stuff could be for real. Play ordinary people, psychics or paranormal investigators.
- 14 Psychic Character Classes.
- 42 occupations for "ordinary" people.
- 100+ psychic abilities, including Fire Walker abilities.
- Creatures of darkness, the Lazlo Agency, and more.
- Three new sourcebooks planned for 2019.
- 256 pages – $26.99 – Cat. No. 700 – available now.
Back in Stock – Rifts® World Book 18: Mystic Russia™ – available now
Rifts® Mystic Russia™ – setting information, key people and places, demons, monsters, gypsies and magic galore.
- 18 Archaic Russian Demons and 10 monsters.
- Russian magic including Fire and Bone Magic & magic weapons maker.
- Magic O.C.C.s including Night Witch, Hidden Witch, Mystic Kuznya, Fire Sorcerer, Old Believer and Necromancer.
- 9 Gypsy O.C.C.s, vehicles and more.
- 176 pages – $22.99 – Cat. No. 833 – Available now.
Back in Stock – Rifts® Game Master Guide™ – Available now
The Rifts® Game Master Guide™ is a massive 352 page reference book with short stats and description on every Rifts® robot, power armor, body armor, vehicle, weapon, gadget, skill, experience table, and map that appears in Rifts® World Books 1-23 and Sourcebooks 1-4, plus a bionics index, an O.C.C.s and R.C.C. index, rules clarifications, combat examples, advice on how to run a game and more.
- 500+ weapons.
- 300+ skills.
- 290 pieces of equipment.
- 180+ vehicles.
- 100+ suits of body armor.
- 80+ suits of power armor.
- 352 pages – $28.99 retail – Cat. No. 845 – Available now.
Other core Rifts® titles to remember:
- Rifts® Rifts® Ultimate Edition RPG, Hardcover – core rules, epic setting of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in a future Earth post-apocalyptic setting. 30+ player characters – play a Dragon Hatchling, Cyborg, Juicer, Crazy, Cyber-Knight, Power Armor Pilot, Psi-Stalker, Dog Boy and others! Magic, psionics, weapons, bionics, and more. If you can imagine it, it can happen in Rifts®. 376 page hardcover – $41.99 retail – Cat. No. 800HC – available now.
- Rifts® Book of Magic™ – 900+ magic spells, plus Techno-Wizard devices, Magic Tattoos, Nazca Lines, Whale Songs, Herbs, Symbiotes, Bio-Wizard Weapons, Rune Weapons, magic items and more! 352 pages – still $26.95 retail – Cat. No. 848 – available now.
- Rifts® Adventure Guide™ – 150+ adventure ideas, Random Rifts, making towns, cities, merc companies, and traveling shows, gaming tips and much more. 192 pages – $24.95 retail – Cat. No. 849 – available now.
- Rifts Conversion Books 1, 2 & 3.
- Rifts® Bionics Sourcebook.
Fun and Notable Podcasts and Sites that feature Palladium Books
- Questwise and the Rifts® Explorer's Guide – See product reviews and videos about Rifts® and other Palladium Books games as well as fun contests and gaming insight. New videos post regularly. Check it out for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_3MGRJW9QooUXF29F5tF-A
The Questwise Rifts® Explorer's Guide series travels the Megaverse® to reveal information about notable locations in Rifts®. The video about Northern Gun and Michigan's Upper Peninsula can be found it here: https://youtu.be/0lU9byK5G4g
- The Guides to the Megaverse® podcast consists of a Palladium group with a collective total of over 100 years of gaming! The crew's Actual Play format consists of long term campaigns in Heroes Unlimited™, Robotech®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Beyond the Supernatural™, with occasional games in other settings. There are more than 90 episodes available for download. Check them out here: https://guidesmegaverse.podbean.com/
- Through Gamer Goggles – Matt Lemke's podcasts and YouTube videos cover the gaming industry. In fact if you haven't seen them yet, check out his many Gen Con interviews: http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/category/conventions/gen-con-2018/
- HippoTV on Twitch.tv. The good folks at HippoTV (https://www.twitch.tv/HippoTV/) host a wide variety of games most days of the week. For fans of Palladium Books® they feature a Heroes Unlimited™ and an After the Bomb® space game. The gamers playing these games come from all over the world, are very enthusiastic, and represent a wide variety of experience with Palladium's games.
If you are doing a Palladium fan-based website, podcasts, YouTube programming, etc., please let us know so we can take a look at what you are doing and so we can give you a shout out. We do not have the staff and resources to do everything we want to do, so we appreciate the fan sites that feature Palladium Books' games and settings and promote the RPG hobby. Awesome. We are happy to support you when we can.
What's Coming (in production or development):
- The Rifter® #82 – November release – special Erick Wujcik tribute + source material for Rifts® Chaos Earth® (Pyromancer and more), Nightbane®, Rifts® and more.
- Rifts® Bestiary™, Volume One – December release.
- Rifts® Bestiary™, Volume Two – End of December release.
- In the Face of Death™, Dead Reign® Sourcebook – First Quarter release.
- The Rifter® #83 – First Quarter release.
- Rifts® Chaos Earth®: Psychic Scream – First Quarter release.
- Rifts® Antarctica – First Quarter release.
- Garden of the Gods™, (Fantasy) – First Quarter release.
- The Rifter® #84 – First Quarter release.
- Rifts® The Disavowed™
- Rifts® Chaos Earth®: First Responders
- Rifts® CS Arsenal™
- And much more in development for Rifts®, Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Heroes Unlimited™, Dead Reign®, Beyond the Supernatural™, Splicers® and more!
Copyright 2018 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Powers Unlimited®, Palladium Books®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Nightbane®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars®, Chaos Earth®, Dead Reign®, and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc.; Beyond the Supernatural, Coalition States, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Minion War, Mysteries of Magic, SAMAS, Thundercloud Galaxy, Three Galaxies, Vampire Kingdoms, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.
This press release may be reprinted, reposted, linked and shared for the sole purpose of advertising, promotion and sales solicitation.


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Seoul – capital of Korea
Seoul is a city with 600 years of history. He is not only a centre of culture and education of Korea, but also a political and economic center of the country. Feature of Seoul is the harmonious combination of modern high-rise buildings with old buildings, such as the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Seoul with its many entertainment and shopping, such as Myeong-Dong or Apgujeong, can be called a world-class city.
Despite the similar architecture, the palaces of Seoul, each has its own character, its own special style. Gyeongbokgung, which is located in the heart of the capital – the largest of all the palaces. If You have very little time, we can restrict our visits to the Restaurants, but we must remember that there are always many tourists. A completely different atmosphere reigns in the Palace Hankenson, which is located at some distance from the city centre. Visitors there a lot less, and can safely wander through the alleys, look at the pavilions and for a moment feel like a Korean nobleman of the XVI century. If You have the time, it is best to visit one of these two palaces, and also go to the Park Pivon – former private Park of the Korean bishops. This Park is a quiet and poetic – in recent years, open only for organized visitors (several times a day guided tours in English), and so that is where the greatest extent survived to our days the beauty of Korean antiquity.
With the exception of Palace and Park complexes in Seoul are few museums in our sense of the word. Those who are interested in military history and military equipment, and a lot to lose if you do not visit at Seoul Military history Museum. This magnificent Museum, which opened a few years ago, is among the largest military-historical museums in the world, and gives very good insight not only about the Korean war of 1950-1953, which he mostly devoted to, but also about the military history of Korea at all. Interesting very large area of military equipment, where there are even B-52 (who knows – will appreciate). The Museum, like all museums of Korea, paid but inexpensive.
On the southern outskirts of Seoul and is a large entertainment complex "Seoulland", which the Russians often called "Korean Disneyland". There really is something like a local version of Disneyland (quite interesting place), all relying attractions and entertainment. In addition, next door is the Museum of modern art and the Seoul zoo, where you can see such animals, which in Russia is not present anywhere. Particularly interesting are the huge pools in which live seals, fur seals, sea lions and other pinnipeds handsome.
If You have more time, you should definitely go to the Museum of traditional life. This Museum is located near Suwon, a satellite city of capital Seoul. This Museum is a sort of Museum of traditional Korean architecture and way of life. Go to Korea brought preserved ancient buildings, from peasant huts to country estates and Governor's residences. However, this Museum is alive, there are regularly held performances of folk collectives and colorful performances of traditional ceremonies. You can see there's a wedding and a funeral, and the village festival, and much more, look at engaged in his business of blacksmiths, potters, wallets that show how he worked in the old days. There are also restaurants where you can try vintage Korean dishes, as well as souvenir shops. This Museum is located on the shore of a small lake, in a dense forest. The trip there will likely take almost the whole day, but it's worth it.
If You only have two or three days, then spend two days in the centre of the city, visit the palaces and possibly in the Military-historical Museum, and dedicate one day trip to "Sealand" or the Museum of traditional life. If You have more time, it makes sense to visit outside of Seoul.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sean's Tech and Writing Blog
Is it worth entering writing competitions?
29 March 2012
Last year, I heard about a competition organised by an independent theatre group that was looking for new writers. The prize was to work with a director on refining the script and then to have your play staged. A representative from the theatre company spoke to a group of writers, including me, and told us there were no preconceived ideas about what kind of play they were looking for. We should let our imaginations run free.
Recently, I saw the two winning plays and they were brilliantly staged. But they were also something of a let-down: they covered religious conflict, teen pregnancy, and knife crime. They're difficult issues, but they're very easy from the point of view of commissioning theatre. Nobody is going to complain if someone invests money in those kind of productions because it's just what theatre groups are expected to do. It would have been truly daring to commission a farce, a sci-fi play, or anything else that felt a bit fresher. That would have really helped to discover new voices.
I hadn't submitted anything for this particular competition (I didn't have a strong enough idea, and I was working on promoting Web Design in Easy Steps, and writing iPad for the Older and Wiser at the time). Watching this play made me realise that I'm highly unlikely to ever write the kind of play that could win, though. I ended up quite pleased that I hadn't found the time to submit an entry because I'm just not the kind of writer they're looking for.
I've entered a few writing competitions over the last couple of years when publishers have been looking for someone to write stories for their characters or plot outlines. I was a close runner-up twice in competitions organised by one publisher, which is a frustrating place to be, although it's possible I might be lucky third time around if I give it another go.
Seeing this theatre production and thinking about my recent competition entries made me question whether it's worth entering writing competitions. The upside is that the prizes can be hugely beneficial: they can raise your profile and give you new creative opportunities to find an audience and tell it a story. If a competition prize helps you to create a new work, you'll learn a lot along the way, usually from people with much more experience than you. Competitions are often the most approachable way to break into a new style of writing too, because they welcome all-comers.
But the downside is that you're writing to somebody else's agenda, and sometimes you don't even know what that agenda is. There will nearly always be safer options for the judges to choose than your work. There might be entrants with a stronger track record, or stories that tick more boxes.
You're also going where the competition is fiercest. There might be hundreds or thousands of writers who are writing something to the same brief as you are. When the judges are choosing from similar submissions, how can you make your work stand out? Minor differences between the submissions become hugely important, in a way that they wouldn't in most other contexts.
Whenever you write, you're in competition, of course. You're vying with other writers to win an agent's representation, a publisher's budget, and a reader's attention. But when you come up with your own projects, you can use your ideas and style to differentiate yourself and stand out. You might be the only person who's writing fiction about how technology is affecting the music industry, or at least you'll be within a select niche. When you enter formal writing competitions, you have to run with the herd.
Not all competitions are the same. Some give you a lot of freedom to shape the story to your own vision, and to take the characters in new directions. Some give you detailed feedback, which might be valuable, depending on who's giving it. And some have prizes that, even with the odds stacked against you, are well worth the gamble. Many will push you outside your comfort zone, and teach you something about writing, purely through the experience of creating your submission. You only become a better writer by practising, and I don't regret spending time on anything I've written.
Writers should remember, though, that their time is precious and they can only write one thing in any given moment. It's easy to get seduced into entering competitions, instead of cracking chapter one of your new novel, which perhaps begins a more difficult journey.What do you think? Are writing competitions worth the time?
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Small tattoos are the gateway drug to the world of tattoo artistry. Whether it's your first piece of ink or a baby step to a full sleeve, a small tattoo can be a killer way to commit to ink. Small tattoos carry an infinite amount of meaning, especially for a first tat. Getting inked up in words is obviously a popular thing to do. But what exactly is the best way to tattoo those little letters? There are a million and one types of fonts you could go with — and with the sensory overload hurricane that is Pinterest, it's daunting to narrow it down.
I chatted with some tattoo artists who offered me up their expertise. The consensus? Well, your typical "font" might not be the best go-to afterall. Here's why.
"Many people use script or classic tattoo fonts," says Lalo Yunda, of Lalo Tattoos in New York. "But the computer ones are boring. They have no character." So, yeah, they work, but they aren't super original. Instead of your typical font, Yunda recommends getting words in something a little more personalized.
"The best font ever is the person's handwriting — the client's handwriting," he said. "If you just want a little personal statement, your own handwriting is good."
It's the ultimate mark of originality: No two handwritings look alike. Does it get more personalized than that?
Julie Bolene, a tattoo artist at American Electric in Los Angeles, also recommends the handwritten route.
"Handwritten and cursive are what I always try to encourage people toward," she said. "Standard fonts just don't provide tasteful tattoos — especially because those computer-created fonts are hard to replicate precisely by a human."
"The eye immediately goes to the flaw," she said. "Anything with even lettering starts to look strange once your skin ages or sags."
When the tattoo is healing , the ink bleeds outside of the lines. So if the font lines are too close together, they might wear into each other and […]
Continue to full original article at: The Best Fonts For Small Tattoos Isn't Something You'll Find Online


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Belhaven House Hotel
For Sale (2018) £575,000 ono
29 Hamilton Terrace,
Milford Haven,
West Wales, UK,
About Pembrokeshire and the Hotel
Belhaven is at the centre of Milford Haven (town) which itself lies on the north shore of the Milford Haven Waterway.
This deep river estuary was the means of access for the Dublin Vikings who annexed all the valuable land, easily reached from river and coast, and drove the Welsh ( north european term for foreigners) into the hill country.
The Vikings may have been enticed by reports of deposits of gold, silver, lead, copper,iron and coal in the County and a history of metal smelting. Bronze was produced at Walesland (East Hook ) Rath near Haverfordwest 2000 years earlier.
After the American War of Independence, half of the Nantucket,Mass. whaling fleet settled in Calais, to supply Paris with their finest of white candles.
Lord Hamilton, who had obtained a charter to build a town on the north bank of the Waterway here, induced the second half of the fleet to come here with their schooners and he would build the town specifically for them. The cousins from Calais then came with their whaling ships to join them.This became Milford Haven, a major whaling station and ensured a supply of the ultra white candles for London. This period is considered the first oil age.
Early in the 1800s Lord Nelson came, on request, to MIlford with Lord & Lady
Hamilton (Emma Hart) and made a promotional speech, at the Lord Nelson Hotel,
just down the street. He was so impressed with the Waterway that he stationed the Fleet here, for ease of access to the Western Approaches. Later the Royal Dockyard was moved up-river to Pembroke Dock, where 5 Royal Yachts were built and 263 other Royal Navy vessels.
The second oil age was when four refineries were built here in the 1950s & '60s for shipments of crude oil incoming by ship from the Middle East, South America and later the North Sea. By the Millenium, two of these refineries had ceased operations.
But, 2002 saw the start of the gas age. And now in 2010 we have the first two LNG re-gasification terminals on stream, and feeding through the new 4 foot diameter stainless steel pipeline, into the main gas network near Gloucester, in England 200 miles away. The contract is for 9.4 Million tons/year of liquid gas from Qatar, for 25 years for South Hook LNG.
Dragon LNG is supplied from Malaysia.
Work has started on the 2,000 megawatt (LNG) gas-fired power-station, which will stand on the land, formerly occupied by an oil-fired power-station, just upstream from the Chevron Refinery. It will take a few years to complete such a large project.
It is possible that this will be followed by the Atlantic Array Wind Farm project in the Bristol Channel just south -east of here. The envisaged output of this could be 1.5 giga-watts and provide jobs on both the Welsh and Devon coasts for years to come.
When we arrived here in '77, al;most no Welsh was spoken south of the Vikings county (Landsker) line, but Welsh ( the language of the Britons) was still first language north of that line, which is demarcated by Norman French castles.
This was much the case in the last 30 years of the 20th. century but is much diluted in recent years by the influx of people from England, in search of the better life-style, that is enjoyed in Pembrokeshire. But Pembrokeshire has its own, strong identity, their own flag and are very proud to be from Pembrokeshire
Visitors, coming by road from the M4, must take care to turn left ( westward)
at the new Carmarthen Tesco Extra store, on the junction of the A48 and A40. It is only sign-posted for St. Clears, the little town which marks the end of the dual carriageway. At St.Clears the road divides, and one can take the A40 which runs north of the river Cleddau( pronounced Cle thy) to Haverfordwest, and then down on the A4076 to Milford.
Or one can take the A477, which runs south of the river to Pembroke Dock and then over the Cleddau tollbridge to join the A4076 on the outskirts of Milford at the Horse & Jockey pub, right by the Steynton Church and the National Express coach stop
From there it is only a couple of miles into Milford or Aberdaucleddau in Welsh and that is ABER( the mouth of) DAU (two) CLEDDAU(sword) -The Mouth of the two Swords. And if you look ,on the map, upstream the river divides at Picton Castle. So we have the Eastern Cleddau which goes under the A40 at Canaston Bridge (near Blackpool Mill Tea-rooms, Oakwood Theme park and Blue Lagoon Water park ) and the Western Cleddau which is navigable for small craft right up to Haverfordwest,the County Town, also on the A40.
Hamilton Terrace is that part of the A4076, that runs along the north river-bank, and overlooks the Milford 2000 Marina and the Waterway. In the overgrown foreshore in front of Belhaven up to the British Legion Club house can be seen badgers, rabbits, foxes and grey squirrels. Twice we have seen a collar-ed dove fall prey to a peregrine falcon in our own carpark.
Visitors from London area should allow 5 to 6 hours for a comfortable journey. We are 265 miles from the Barbican Centre,London.
Milford Haven is THE touring centre for the whole of Pembrokeshire. Any venue can be reached by car or motorbike within 35 minutes.
There are Puffin and Shuttle buses for those who do not have or do not wish to use their own transport. And Pembrokeshire, like the rest of South Wales is well served with cycle paths.
Milford is also an excellent base from which Walkers tackle the 180 miles of the famous Coastal Path, within the National park, which boasts breath-taking scenery, and many of Nature's wonders to observe: big furry caterpillars, birds both native and migrant, butterflies, bats, dragonflies, wild flowers every month of the year, seal pups, dolphins, porpoise, turtles, orcas, minke & sei whales & sunfish.
For the more energetic, many beaches are accessible for scuba diving, wind-surfing and some of the best surf in the UK.
For Yachtsmen this Waterway is ideal, in fair weather , one heads downstream, in blue water towards the harbour mouth 9 miles away, and the offshore islands of Skomer, Skokholm & Grassholm.
In foul weather, there are still 15 miles upstream, with broad reaches right into the old Cambrian forest and numerous riverside pubs.
See " Cumberlidge on Cruising" Motor Boat & Yachting. July 1998.
"We were anchored over a dozen miles from the sea, in the far south west of Wales, enjoying the peaceful upper reaches of Milford Haven. This grand expanse of water somehow manages to remain one of the best kept boating secrets around our coast.
Those who don't know Milford Haven, sometimes have a slightly industrial picture in their minds, perhaps from association with the oil business. But although you pass long jetties and complex refineries in the middle reaches, the overall atmosphere in the Haven is one of unspoilt country and clean sheltered water. The Haven, afterall, lies within Pembrokeshire National Park, one of the most protected areas in Britain.
If you've never pottered about here before, it's well worth calling for a few days. Neither the Haven nor the spectacular Pembrokeshire coast will disappoint.You can find secluded anchorages, room to breath and a warm Celtic welcome."
Golfers have a good 28 hole course, which is rated by many enthiusiasts for excellent greens and stunning views of the estuary.
For the children, there is a variety of theme parks, Oakwood for thrills, Folly Farm for animals, Heatherton for fun, Manor Park for wildlife, Tenby for dinosaurs, not forgetting the Chocolate Farm (Pemberton's) at Llanboidy, and the Bluestone
Waterpark is open to non-residents.
Horse-riding is popular on beaches and bridle paths, and there are even Golden Palominos at the Western riding school, Llawhaden.
There are guided walks on the northern hills viz. The Pembrokeshire Wizard.
Cliff-climbing is done on the south coast near St. Govan's Head, and many major mountain ascents begin with prepatory practice on this 10 mile section.
St. David's peninsular is the centre for Coasteering - as seen on Blue Peter.
Pembrokeshire is also King Arthur country, for nearby Grassholm Island has been identified as "The Enchanted Isle" and the burial site of Gawain, the Green Knight is only three miles away ( called Walwyn's Castle).
The whole County is enchanting.
Belhaven House Hotel
The hotel was built in 1797, as the home of the surgeon to the Whaling fleet.
As a family run hotel of 9 bedrooms, since 1978, we have a very considerable base of repeat business, mainly commercial, but quite a few leisure, and even some of the commercial clients return during their holidays with wife and family to show them this pretty place, they have only heard about, where the breakfasts are so scrumptious.
The theme of the bar/restaurant is nautical and all but one of the pictures or prints have been provided by the guests. Likewise the vast range of music, from all around the world, has been supplied by the guests, and they know a change of music often denotes a new arrival.
The front of this terraced building is white, picked out in red, and weather permitting we usually have a Pembrokeshire flag flying. Swedish people have asked us why we have one of their flags with a Tudor rose in the centre.
Formerly we had a red canopy over our two front doors, both as shelter and as a marker in this long street of mainly flat-fronted buildings. But in these days of SATNAVs and postcodes, they suffice.
Bar/dining room is on the ground floor, with a good view of the
passing ships and yachts. There are also three groundfloor bedrooms( Nos.1,7 & 8), handy for those who have difficulty with the stairs.
At the rear of the building, off the west side street of Fulke Street( SA73 2HH)
is a carpark for eight vehicles. There is rear access to the hotel, but on arrival, it is best to offload heavy/bulky luggage at the front door first and collect your key which will operate your bedroom, front and back doors and the car park gates.
All the rooms are ensuite with TV, tea/coffee etc.
On the first floor is one rear family suite (Room 10)which comprises a bathroom leading to a double bedded room, leading to a single bedded room.
There is one front double room (No.9) and the Residents Lounge which both overlook the Waterway and Marina, useful vantage points for night photography of the kaleidescope of multi-coloured lights reflected in the often mirror flat estuary.
That lounge on the first floor has widescreen TV & DVD. There is a small range of DVDs and stacks of books, chess, draughts, dominoes, Dungeons & Dragons, cards, Monoploy and a couple of binoculars for viewing the yachts,ferries,and swans & wild ducks.
On the second floor is one single ensuite(No.12), two double ensuites( Nos.5 & 11), both with river views and one twin( No.6) to the rear (very quiet).
Come and see us and have fun at the "unique" BELHAVEN.
The hotel is monitored by a 32 detector L2 fire alarm system, so even though this is a non-smoking hotel, any smoke or fume should be picked before any real danger could occur and the area of the outbreak indicated for speedy attention.
It will be noticed that each section of stairs and landings is fitted with carpets of different texture and pattern. This is to draw the attention of visually impaired folks to changes of level or direction, so that they are fore-warned.
We were granted a GOLD standard Welsh Food Hygiene Award in 2009,
indicating our attitude to safety in the purchase, preparation, handling and storage of food for our customers and ourselves.


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Date: 22 Dec 2014 17:37:27 -0000
From: nadir olivet <wooracer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Strom congratulations! Keep changing the world. Commandant's Zero On Dec 22, 2014 10:52 AM, Kristine <kristine.janzen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: xxoo Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 20, 2014, at 4:14 PM, messville@xxxxxxxxx wrote: > > > > The International Federation of Bike Messenger Associations(IFBMA) is pleased to announce that Basel bike messenger Jérôme "Strom" Thiriet has been awarded the 2014 "Markus Cook Memorial Award" (MCA) for Services to the International Messenger Community. The IFBMA has awarded the Markus Cook Award (MCA) since 1998 to the person who has inspired and empowered the wider messenger community, and who puts all messengers before themselves. > > Strom is a veteran Swiss messenger who is respected for his community building efforts, his event organization and his support and encouragement to messengers throughout the world. > > He is one of the founding members of the Basel based MEO (Messenger Event Organization) which promotes and builds the Basel messenger community through alleycats, championships and bike polo events. Strom and MEO also work to improve the industry for Basel messengers by providing experience, guidance and encouragement to those who seek to move it forward. > > > > Strom has been nominated many times by messengers from all over the worlds. He is the second Swiss messenger to receive the Markus Cook Award as Zurich's Luke Keller is the 2009 recipient of the award. > > MEO Basel - http://www.meobasel.ch > > > _______________________________________________ > Messengers mailing list > Messengers@xxxxxxxxx > http://ifbma.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/messengers _______________________________________________ Messengers mailing list Messengers@xxxxxxxxx http://ifbma.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/messengers


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Dividing America along racial, economic and educational lines continues the mentality of distrust that is revealed liberalism in general. Liberalism is an abusive belief system. Abused people support their abuser and defends them against their rescuers. Until they get enough! We have had enough.
Most African Americans support:
• School Vouchers • Social Security Reform • Elimination of Death Taxes • Elimination of Marriage Tax Penalty • Lower Taxes Overall • Fair & Equal Competition, not preferential quotas • Less Government regulation and control • Conservative family values • Marriage between men and women only • Pro-Life BUT THE PROBLEM IS:
Most of black America is trapped in a mindset of slavery on a plantation of government dependency and lies. Mason Weaver has demonstrated that the UR2BFREE can deliver an effective message.
Without the Republican Party being in direct support of UR2BFREE, support for the NEW UNDERGROUND RAILROAD can be established by the groups and individuals that believe in the same ideas and goals. An underground system of sending UR2BFREE speakers across the country to speak to groups on university and college campuses, inner city areas, churches, civic groups and business organizations can help establish a grassroots movement through which information can readily flow.The UR2BFREE website (www.UR2BFREE.com) will feature continuing information updates available to members of UR2BFREE's "SafeHouse Network."
The American Culture was founded out of despair, hopelessness and abuse.
WE AT THE UR2BFREE Organization HAVE HAD ENOUGH.
Indian rights were far from reality, women rights to vote were not even a thought and the plight of black people was in the hands of the abuser. Politically everyone was looking for the best "compromise" to avoid making decisions. No one wanted to confront the strong political forces on both sides of the issues. The American public were being told what to think and feel based upon location, race and faith. No one was standing up for principals or righteousness. It was a battle of spirits then and it is the same battle and same spirit now. It took a restraining force to combat it and we need the same restraining force to come to our aid again.
The restraining force against the spirit of slavery and discrimination, hatred and misery must stand up against the spirit of defeat and despair, dependency and depression.
The forces of oppression have always been met by a restraining force. It stood up in History at the right time for the right cause. In response not to the needs of certain people or groups, but the requirements of society and sanity. It stood in the pathway to destruction, slavery and death. A restraining force for good and righteousness. We are not ashamed of that restraining force. It came to free my ancestors; it came to free others from oppression in Europe. The restraining forced caused our founders to cross the ocean to escape. That restraining force continued to guide America to a place of perfection it will never obtain. Being human beings, we can only guide ourselves closer to the light. The restraining force has, more than once, forced America to her knees when she drifted off her course. The restraining force, more than once, tore this nation apart to guide her back on the path.
We have been facing the steady onslaught of the forces of oppression and dependency. It is time for the restraining force. It is a spirit we are facing. The same spirit that consumed the hearts of men who were establishing slavery as a way of life. The same spirit that beat in the hearts of the conquers of Europe in WWI and WWII. It was the spirit the old Roman Empire called "Divided and Conquer," the old segregationist called it "Separate but equal" and today they call it "Multicultural". It is a spirit of division while speaking of unity, hatred speaking of love and dependency yet speaking of independence.
However the restraining force which stirred in the hearts of that first meeting of the Abolitionist still beats in our hearts today. We are pedigreed, lovers of liberty, freedom, family and honor. When the worlds needed us, we showed up. We always win when we show up. The fear of the oppressor is that one day again, we will show up. It is time that we show up.
The oppressed are afraid to face the forces of oppression. The oppressed do not think they can win against such a force. What they are looking for is a force capable of standing with them and for them. They need: THE RESTRAINING FORCE!
Just stand up! Stand up against over taxing, over regulation and over bearing government. Stand up against the management of every aspect of your life. Who will stand? Who will stand for dignity, honor and hope? Who will stand for passion, love and family? Who will stand for those too weak and frighten to stand for themselves?
The restraining force will stand. The restraining force will again come to the gap and push back. The restraining force will give America the same old choice. The choice of freedom for all or slavery for all. America knows that no one is free until all are free. The restraining force needs to stand tall. The restraining force needs to be clear. The restraining force will win because freedom is natural.
When they hear the rumbling of the nation, let them know. It is the restraining force and we want our nation back.
We have over came…this day. We have served notice on every force seeking to divide us up. We are awake and united. We recognize no separate issues, all issues affect all Americans and every issue will be under the pressure of the Restraining force. America will welcome us joining them in the fight for freedom. The love of liberty is the restraining force. America needs you, the world needs you.
The mystery of misery, do we support the abuser instead of the abused? Do we want comfort in slavery or the abolishment of slavery? Not Common ground but the solid ground.
WE AT THE UR2BFREE Organization HAVE HAD ENOUGH. We have had enough! Enough of child abuse called public schools. Enough taxing us too death and taxing us after death. Enough of surrendering our National Sovereignty. Enough of fighting a war to break even. Enough guilt! Enough foreign oil! Enough of punishing achievement. Enough pretending we do not know what "Illegal" means. Enough of being told we have to "pay" for a tax cut. We have had enough!
Everyone who has had enough should join us. Everyone who is tired of being afraid of their government should join us. We are tired and we have had enough. ENOUGH!


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Startup.Miami recently highlighted the need for more "exits" — deals where a company takes over a majority stake of another company.
That happened just a couple of weeks ago, when SpeedETab, a Fort Lauderdale-based company that has only been around since 2015, had its majority stake purchased by Paymentez a Miami-based payments platform for goods and services that operates in Latin America.
We talked to cofounder Adam Garfield about what the company plans to do with its new cash (the exact amount is undisclosed), and how it plans to take over the takeout industry.
What is it?
SpeedETab was born from the most primal of South Florida needs: cutting in line. The idea was to allow hungry and thirsty customers to be able to download an app to order ahead so that their food and drinks would be ready as soon as they got to the restaurant or cafe.
"Delivery is great, but not everyone wants delivery," Garfield told Startup.Miami. "They don't want to have to pay the fees, have strangers handling the food, the food can take a long time to get there. Our focus is on the in-store experience, and making it frictionless, from when you open the door to when you leave."
In just two years, they've expanded to approximately 200 locations of restaurants and food trucks across the country, from New York to Texas — though you won't always realizing you're using them, since they've now expanded to "white label" ordering services, meaning they power a company's takeout platform, but you won't see the SpeedETab label on it.
Here's a list of confirmed Miami locations that use SpeedETab:
- All Day
- Arsht Center
- Bianchini Mercato
- Box of Chacos
- Coyo Taco (all locations)
- CPR Kitchen
- Della Test Kitchen
- Dr. Smood (all locations)
- Elia Gourmet
- Japanito
- Loba
- Miam Cafe
- Miami Flea
- Mister Block Cafe
- Panther Coffee (all locations)
- Pura Vida
You can find other locations, including ones in Fort Lauderdale, here.
What does the Paymenetez investment mean?
Besides a tidy windfall for SpeedETab founders Garfield and Ed Gilmore, the investment will allow them to continue to expand throughout the country. And they're hiring!
Garfield also points out that his company shows that "scale-ups" don't need to involve hiring lots and lots of employees, something the Kauffman Foundation's measurement of growth companies required.
"One of the beautiful things about software is the ability to grow and scale exponentially without necessarily adding a ton of overhead or resources. That's the basis of software," Garfield said. "For us, we're able to go from 15 clients to 150 clients relatively easily, without necessarily adding tons and tons of new employees."
Why South Florida?
Garfield grew up in Miami and attended the University of Florida. Gilmore moved to Fort Lauderdale a few years ago to oversee Motorola's apps and user interface team, and decided to stay and be a part of the growing ecosystem here.
"We liked the idea of being one of the first real success stories to come out of South Florida, to be a big fish in a small pond," Garfield said. "It's a community — everyone knows each other, supports each other more than I think you would find in Silicon Valley, Boston, or New York City, where there's just a lot of saturation."
What's next?
You can catch SpeedETab at eMerge Americas. Actually, you won't really have a choice if you're hungry – if you want to order from any of the food trucks there, you have to do it through SpeedETab, as part of a sponsorship with Visa.


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**Mini Rant Alert**
Things I want to do but cannot do for various reasons relating to stupid M.E. despite them being semi-plausible…
Want to (in no particular order):
Have a bath, be clean & dressed everyday, eat whatever I fancy, exercise, sleep sleep sleep, go out somewhere for fun, get a haircut, earn some money, make some art, take my Holga out, meditate, have a chat, do a little housework, have sex, finish putting the front room curtains up, prune shrubs in the garden, lose weight, swallow my pride, diversify my work, do nothing whatsoever.
Not to mention the biggies that are less plausible right now…
Biggies (in no particular order either):
Care for myself, start driving again, be able to go out independently, get a job, buy a house, have a family, get fit. Be well.
There's nothing like having a flare/crash/relapse (whatever this is) to get you thinking about all the things you can't do.
It's not proving very useful to plan what I could do if I felt better when I'm not feeling better. But I can't seem to switch those kind of thoughts off. I've still not learnt now to deal with dips well it seems. In fact it seems I've still not accepted I am even in a dip.


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40-foot dragon skull that 'washed ashore' on Charmouth Beach in Dorset, England. The epic skull was created to promote the third season of Game of Thrones.
"The 40-foot skull is (obviously) a man-made sculpture designed by a team of three, taking over two months to construct. It was created by movies and TV streaming service Blinkbox, to celebrate the arrival of HBO's third season of Game of Thrones on its service on July 15th.(Via)


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Most rapid download speed and moview quality. Needs no additional software
Download movies and watch them on tablet
Watch movies instantly on Home Theater Entertainment System
|Release Date:
Comedy /
Drama /
Romance /
|Morgan Freeman ( Him ), Paz Vega ( Scarlet ), Jonah Hill ( Packy ), Anne Dudek ( Lorraine ), Francisca Hernandez ( Market Wife / Market Gossip #1 ), Nacho Pina ( Market Husband ), Hector Running-Hawk ( Squeezing Customer ), Alexis Hernandez ( Cowed Customer ), Silvia Curiel ( Shocked Customer ), Shawn Calizo ( Scared Customer ), Kumar Pallana ( Lee ), Rosa Diaz ( Market Gossip #2 ), Hector Atreyu Ruiz ( Low-riding Gang Banger ), Bobby Cannavale ( Bobby ), Leonardo Nam ( Kid at Target ), Hector Atreyu Ruiz ( Gang Banger in Lowrider ),
A well-known actor, who hasn't accepted a role in four years, is considering a project. The cousin of the director drives him to Archie's Ranch Market, in Carson, and drops him off to do a little research. He's fascinated by one of the checkers, Scarlet, a young woman from Spain with a preternatural ability to ring up items at the cash register. She hates her job, stuck at the 10 items or less lane. The actor chats her up, and when her shift ends, he asks for a ride. In the course of the afternoon, he helps her prepare for a job interview. She needs to have confidence, he needs to commit. Human contact, however brief, can change people.


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There is a long-running debate in private-equity investing.
Do the funds, which have won the moniker "Barbarians at the Gate," create value by financial chicanery or by actually improving the businesses they've bought?
There has long been skepticism about the latter, as the $3.5 trillion industry's often aggressive approach is sometimes portrayed in a bad light.
Private-equity companies that swept into the ambulance business due to its "tremendous growth potential," for example, reportedly instilled aggressive billing practices and pushed some operators to bankruptcy.
However, researchers have found hard evidence that these funds can actually drive returns through improving the business.
Fintech firm CEPRES analyzed thousands of private-equity-backed companies and found that there has been a steady and huge jump in their average compound-annual-earnings-growth rate (measured by EBITDA) since the financial crisis.
Here is CEPRES:
"Further, CEPRES found that increase in valuation of companies post GFC is driven more by EBITDA Growth than prior years. This evidence supports the view that Activist PE Fund Managers are effective and able to deliver on the promise of delivering returns through Value Creation. CEPRES also found that valuations are currently being driven by increased market pricing - commonly called Multiple Expansion."
Separately, recent research by the London Business School has a similar finding.
Private-equity-owned portfolio companies significantly outperform similar non-private-equity owned companies in terms of EBITDA, sales, and assets post-buyout, according to that report.
"Our research shows that private equity-owned companies achieve significantly better operating profitability, assets and sales over the first three years of private equity ownership compared with matched companies that are similar but not owned by private equity funds," said Florin Vasvari, professor of accounting at London Business School.
"The results show that while GPs focus on growth they also generate significant operational improvements that likely contribute to that outperformance."


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If you're not familiar with the concept of crowdsourcing, you'd be very well advised to get familiar with it. It might just be the key to how you can best execute your next IT project.
The term crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe, a contributing writer at Wired magazine who wrote a book on the subject. In his blog, Howe offers two definitions of crowdsourcing:
The White Paper Version: Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. The Soundbyte Version: The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.
All of that is top-of-mind at the moment because this is coming to you from the 2010 Gateway to Innovation symposium in St. Louis, where Lloyd Taylor, former VP of technical operations at LinkedIn and a consultant on scaling IT systems, gave an intriguing presentation on crowdsourcing. Taylor cited what is probably the best-known example of a successful crowdsourcing endeavor: Facebook's 2008 project to translate its site into dozens of foreign languages.
Taylor noted that 64 languages have already been released by the worldwide crowdsourcing community that Facebook tapped, including several right-to-left languages. The cost to Facebook: Zero.
But what really seemed to catch the attention of the crowd at the Gateway to Innovation event was the crowdsourcing work being accomplished by Samasource, a non-profit organization that taps the Internet to provide income-generating opportunities for people in need, including the victims of natural disasters and other refugees.
Taylor, who is a member of Samasource's board of directors, noted that the organization is currently focusing its attention on Haiti, where, among other initiatives, it's enabling refugees who speak both English and Creole to earn an income. These individuals are translating emergency SMS messages written in Creole so that English-speaking relief workers can get aid to where it's needed. As Taylor noted, there are a lot of educated people in refugee camps, and for them, $10 a day is a fortune. The notion of tapping such a resource for IT-related work at the very least warrants discussion.
Taylor also made the point that we're still years away from the Web 3.0 vision of an algorithmic Semantic Web. He noted that humans are still uniquely adept at extracting meaning from information, and crowdsourcing is ideal for leveraging that capability. His advice to IT organizations is to start piloting crowdsourcing tasks as soon as possible.
That's advice well worth considering. If we had begun piloting Web 2.0 applications at a correspondingly early stage, IT would have a much better handle today on how to leverage social media to improve business processes.
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Crowdsourcing in a way is becoming popular in every type of small or medium sized businesses. Masses are now beginning to understand the value.Reply
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ISLAMABAD, May 12 (APP):The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Thursday handed over 200 tons of dates to the government of Pakistan.
Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Al Zahrani on behalf of his government handed over the dates to Additional Secretary of Cabinet Secretariat Amir Tariq Zaman here in a simple ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, the envoy said "This is the gift from the government of Saudi Arabia for the Pakistani brethren."


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"Fit-2-Stitch Fitting Trifecta Tour"- #3
We are thrilled to announce our Fit-2-Stitch Fitting Trifecta Tour #3. We will travel to San Jose, CA; Phoenix, AZ; and Denver, CO. At each of those places, will conduct our Hands-on fitting workshops. In these workshops, Everyone's A Winner!!! Once you attend a Hands-On fitting class, you will "get it" and you will be so motivated to sew, sew, and sew!!
Here's how it will work. There will be 2 workshops in each of these 3 cities... San Jose, Phoenix and Denver.
Each workshop is limited in attendance. Each workshop will be conducted by Peggy Sagers and each individual will be fitted by Peggy Sagers. There is such value in a group fitting as we see many different issues besides our own. Much is gained by looking outside our own fitting.
With each registration, our Book on dressing rules, "Dressed to Kill Gently", is included in the workshop and will be mailed upon Registration. (Limit one book per registrant).
Prior to the workshop, you will make a knit muslin of the #195 Sweater set, or the #3400 yoga pant and bring that muslin to class with plenty of pins, scissors, the tissue pattern and a french curve. We will drape that muslin in class and have a really fun time learning to drape. Peggy will pair you up and teach you how to drape one another, then Peggy will make sure each drape is accurate. We will learn how to also transfer those changes to the tissue or use the muslin as your new pattern. Directions to make the muslin top or pant are here, in the left hand column of this page: http://www.silhouettepatterns.com/html/instruction.htm.


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my foxy friend
1 week ago
I'm loving it too! This is my link http://pinterest.com/bobandmabel/
I'm off to check out yours.
Such lovely pics!
I just discovered Pinterest today actually! But I can´t create an account without an invitation. I am sorry if I´m too bold now, but I am wondering if you can give me an invitation?
camilla jin
I definitely have to check out pinterest - it looks fabulous! So lovely to have made my way to your blog. Have a fab weekend! Leah
Thank you sooo much for inviting me! I am so greatful! :)
camilla jin
Such a wonderful!


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(TN Govt Aided)
Applications are invited for Primary Teacher Post (PRT) in K P Periyakaruppa Nadar Primary School Virudhunagar (Govt Aided)
Advertisement No.RC/4165/A3/2016
Advertisement date 22.12.2016
Last date 04.01.2017
Post :
- Primary Teacher (PRT) - 2 Posts (1 SC ; 1 MBC / DNC) - Basic Pay 5200 Grade Pay 2800 in Pay Band I category -
- (i) 12th Std Pass
- (ii) Diploma in Elementary Education / Diploma in Teacher Education / D.T.Ed.
- (iii) Teacher's Eligibility Test (TET) Certification
General Instructions :
Help Line Telephone Number 04562 - 243060
Help Line email id email@example.com
Help Line email id firstname.lastname@example.com
All above posts is permanent category.
Roster systems and age relaxations are applicable as per Government of Tamil Nadu norms.
The above school is aided by Government of Tamil Nadu.
Interested eligible candidates may forward their application form along-with all necessary documents to the following address on or before the last date i.e. 4th January, 2017.
The Secretary,
K.P. Periakaruppa Nadar Primary School,
70, Pound Street, Muthuramanpatty,
Virudhunagar 626 001


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