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Sport and Health Sciences
- 12th in the world for Sports-related subjects
- 1st for Sports Science in The Complete University Guide 2020
- 2nd for Sports Science in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020
- 88% of our Sport and Health Sciences students go into graduate employment or further study within six months of graduating
- 3rd in the Russell Group in the National Student Survey 2019
- 3rd in the UK for research
- Research-inspired teaching with academic collaborations with industry and professional athletes
- Dedicated laboratories for sport and exercise physiology, sports biomechanics and health and performance psychology
- Generous sports scholarship scheme
Sport and Health Sciences ranks as one of the top departments to study sport and exercise sciences in the UK, with an excellent reputation for both teaching and research. Our programmes provide the depth and breadth of knowledge to understanding both elite sport performance and the importance of exercise for health. If you want an innovative and holistic scientific approach to the understanding of sporting performance, exercise and health, combined with an excellent general education that can lead to a wide range of employment opportunities, then our undergraduate degrees are for you.
You will study at the historic St Luke's Campus, which provides a friendly and supportive environment. Our extensive teaching and research facilities include designated purpose-built laboratories for sport and exercise physiology, sports biomechanics, health and performance psychology research.
Many of our students represent the University in their chosen sport and a number have achieved regional, national and international sporting success. We have an excellent Sports Scholarship Scheme and sports scholars succeed academically whilst also pursuing their sporting careers.
You will benefit from our highly supportive teaching and learning environment that complements the applied and conceptual nature of the programmes. Our innovative degrees are research and enquiry driven. All our teaching staff are research active and their work informs the development of new products, the practice of professional organisations and public policy on exercise and health. Our academics provide scientific support and consultancy services to national and international athletes and teams, including the Rugby Football Union, UK Athletics, England and Wales Cricket Board and the Football Association. Our educational activities incorporate the latest research findings and methodologies, which ensures that our teaching places you at the cutting-edge of the field.
We help you to develop your personal and key skills, such as communication, IT, critical appraisal and self-management. Team-building days and careers workshops help you to develop vocational skills. You will also be encouraged to attend and present at student conferences, such as the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Student Conference and to be involved in initiatives including the student ambassadors scheme and workplace internships.
What our students say
Georgia, BSc Exercise and Sport Sciences
"I found the different modules available very interesting, I liked how the first year was full of variety so I was able to find out what my interests were. Personally, I loved biomechanics and it was something I hadn't really done before at school, so having the opportunity to do it this year was really exciting."
Emily, BSc Exercise and Sport Sciences
"The exercise and sport sciences programme at Exeter really stood out for me as the course is 'hands-on' from day one. Every lecture is supported by a laboratory practical or workshop which really helps cement understanding. My experience of studying in this department has been excellent from the start."
Ben, BSc Exercise and Sport Sciences
"I selected Exeter as my top choice after attending an Offer-Holder Visit Day. It's hard to articulate why, but I just remember walking around St Luke's and just knowing it was the place I wanted to study, even in the awful February cold and rain! I just got this feeling. Maybe some of you reading this will know what I mean!"
Degrees in Exeter
360 tour of Sports and Health Sciences
Explore our new sports and health facilities in 360 degrees, including our visuomotor, surgical training and nutritional physiology laboratories. View full size.
What is Sport Health and Exercise Sciences?
Staff and students talk about their experiences of studying and teaching in Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter.
View full size.
Undergraduate Sport and Health Sciences
Find out why studying undergraduate Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter is a fantastic choice. View full size.


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Lalyca intended to create produced on gemstones and targeted worldwide brand awareness through exclusive jewelry product to customers.
- Stage Concept Only
- Industry Other
- Location Trump Towers, Istanbul, Turkey
- Currency USD
- Founded February 2012
- Employees 2
Company Summary
Lalyca is a Turkish and Azerbaijan jewel maker from semi-precious gemstones company established in Istanbul. Company produces handmade high quality gemstone jewels from gold or silver covered metal materials for medium budget affordability demands.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pavel Panchekha
I am Pavel Panchekha (CV). I automate tasks from web design to numerical analysis using programming language techniques at the University of Utah.
Cassius: Verifying Web Page Layout Github
- Modular Verification of Web Page Layout
OOPSLA 2019: P. Panchekha, M.D. Ernst, Z. Tatlock, S. Kamil
- Verifying that Web Pages have Accessible Layout
PLDI 2018: P. Panchekha, A.T. Geller, M.D. Ernst, Z. Tatlock, S. Kamil
- Generating Interactive Web Pages from Storyboards
FSE 2016 Doctoral Symposium: P. Panchekha
- Automated Reasoning for Web Page Layout
OOPSLA 2016: P. Panchekha, E. Torlak
Herbie: Improving Numerical Accuracy Github
- Functional Programming for Compiling and Decompiling Computer-Aided Design
ICFP 2018: C. Nandi, J.R. Wilcox, P. Panchekha, T. Blau, D.J. Grossman, Z. Tatlock.
- Combining Tools for Optimization and Analysis of Floating-Point Computations
FM 2018 short: H. Becker, P. Panchekha, E. Darulova, Z. Tatlock
- Finding Root Causes of Floating Point Error
PLDI 2018: A. Sanchez-Stern, P. Panchekha, S. Lerner, Z. Tatlock
- Toward a Standard Benchmark Format and Suite for Floating-Point Analysis
NSV 2016: N. Damouche, M. Martel, P. Panchekha, C. Qiu, A. Sanchez-Stern, Z. Tatlock
- Automatically Improving Accuracy for Floating Point Expressions
PLDI 2015 Distinguished Paper: P. Panchekha, A. Sanchez-Stern, J.R. Wilcox, Z. Tatlock
Other Papers
- Verdi: A Framework for Implementing and Formally Verifying Distributed System
PLDI 2015: J.R. Wilcox, D. Woos, P. Panchekha, Z. Tatlock, X. Wang, M.D. Ernst, T. Anderson
- Expressing and Verifying Probabilistic Assertions
PLDI 2014: A. Sampson, P. Panchekha, T. Mytkowicz, K.S. McKinley, D.J. Grossman, L. Ceze
- Blame Trees
WADS 2013: E.D. Demaine, P. Panchekha, D.A. Wilson, and E.Z. Yang
Side Projects
- Armstrong: a fast bit-rate adaptation
A better algorithm for bit-rate adaptation in Wi-Fi.
- TimeTracker: record time use
Records how I spend my time and visualizes the results.
- Complex Plotter: draw complex functions
Plots functions of a complex variable in high resolution.
- Browser: How Browsers Keep Data Private prog
- Browser: How Browsers Save Partial Layouts prog
- Browser: How Browsers Run Interactive Scripts prog
- Browser: How Browsers Send Information to Servers prog
- Browser: How Browsers Handle Buttons and Links prog
- Browser: How Browsers Apply User Styles prog
- Browser: How Browsers Structure Web Pages prog
- Browser: How Browsers Construct Document Trees prog
- A Survey of PL Blogging (Part 2) research
- My job market materials research
- Intrinsic and Extrinsic Data prog pl
- Architecture Patterns prog pl
- Long-term Goals for Herbie research
- Sub-specifications research pl
- Was Lower Case Designed for Reading Speed misc
- Browser: How Browsers Lay Out Text into Paragraphs prog
- Browser: How Browsers Draw Text on the Screen prog
- Browser: How Browsers Download Web Pages prog
- Learning Shame math
- Browser: Let's Build a Web Browser prog
- Designing Libraries like Languages pl
- What's Wrong with CSS? prog
- Categories for Function Reactive Programming pl
- Crosswords: Selective Crossword Submissions misc
- Crosswords: Dedicated Crossword Practice misc
- Crosswords: You Start Off Bad at Crosswords misc
- Crosswords: Crossword Science with Stan misc
- How I Track Todos misc
- Remembering the Herbie Visualizer pl
- Social Processes in Package Managers prog
- Programs as Patchwork pl
- First Impressions with Typed Racket prog
- Solving Resistance prog misc
- Not Quite Pushouts math
- Programming with Pushouts math
- Cryptic Mastermind with Z3 prog
- A Survey of PL Blogging (Part 1) research
- A Game Theory of Primaries math
- WIP: Programming by Voice prog
- Assigning Meaning to Open Terms pl
- Floating Point Error in Polynomials fp
- Floating Point Error in the Small fp
- Functions and Relations in First-order Logic pl
- How Cassius Works css
- Variary Functions in Coq pl
- Blame Analysis and Local Error fp
- Modularity for Verdi research
- Exact Geometric Operations fp
- Unpublished blog posts in Magit misc
- Why Equality? pl
- Paper Statistics with TimeTracker research
- Shadow Icons with CSS css
- How CSS Floats Work css
- Multi-command-line in Racket prog
- A Fine Language pl
- Grammars in Racket prog
- How Herbie Happened research
- Bimodal Logic math misc
- Rational Rationality math misc
- Moral Prisoners math
- Models of Modal Logic math
- What is Modal Logic? math
- Solving the Prisoners' Dilemma math
- First-order Logic is a Modal Logic pl
- Designing the PLSE Logo prog
- Quadrature in Bash prog
- Equal Functions in ITT pl
- Well-Suited (a story) misc
- WIP: Refinement in Mathematics math
- Zippers: Multi-Zippers (Part 4 of 4) algs
- Models from Models math
- Game-theoretic Protesters math
- Pedestrian Statistics math
- Logarithms of Taylor Expansions math prog
- Hyperbolic sines in math.js fp
- Taylor Expansions of Taylor Expansions math
- Arbitrary Precision, not Arbitrary Accuracy fp
- Complex Square Roots in math.js fp
- The Eigenvalue Game math
- Paper Statistics with Git research
- Models: Defining a Logic (Part 2 of 6) math
- Models: What is a model? (Part 1 of 6) math
- Floating Point Guarantees fp
- Major Key (a puzzle) misc
- Age-aware: Tree Lookup (Part 2 of 4) algs
- Age-aware: Age-aware Array Search (Part 1 of 4) algs
- Fixed points: Stability (Part 4 of 4) pl
- Stream Fuse Carefully pl
- Plotting Functions in D3 prog
- Pairs in Hindley-Milner Languages pl
- Fixed points: Attraction and Orders (Part 3 of 4) pl
- Fixed points: Fixed behaviors (Part 2 of 4) pl
- Fixed points: What is a fixed point? (Part 1 of 4) pl
- The Gaussian and the Sine math
- Tea physics misc
- Xifed points pl
- (call/cc call/cc) and friends pl
- Engineering Taste prog
- Organizing Objects misc
- A Critique of ADT.scm prog
- Uniqode (a puzzle) misc
- Typing Analytics in Emacs misc
- Forward with Federated prog
- Package Management for the 21.1st Century misc
- The Law of Demeter, and a question of design pl
- The Levels of Concurrency pl
- Time, Clocks, and an Implementation in Erlang algs
- Zippers: Kiselyov Zippers (Part 3 of 4) algs
- Zippers: Zippers as Derivatives (Part 2 of 4) algs
- Zippers: Huet Zippers (Part 1 of 4) algs
- Injection is a Display-level Problem prog
- Programming With Types pl
- MIT Zephyr from Arch Linux misc
- Using Org-mode to Publish a Website misc
- Treaps: The Magical Awesome BBT algs
- Installing Ubuntu on LVM misc
- Sequences, Series, and Recursion math
- How to Draw a Heart in Polar Coordinates math
- 7919, 7853, and Li(x) math


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Ryan THomas
Composer for Film, TV, and Video Games
Composer for Film, TV, and Video Games
Ryan Thomas is a full time composer and audio engineer, formally trained in both classical and modern music styles. He currently writes under multiple Hong Kong Film Award winner Raymond (Ying-Wah) Wong, who composed the soundtracks to internationally acclaimed hits Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.
Ryan's works have been featured in several record-breaking films, including The Mermaid (2016), which has become the highest grossing Chinese film of all time and has been nominated for several awards both in China and in the US. Most recently, he completed portions of the soundtrack to Chinese mega-blockbuster Journey to the West 2: Demon Chapter, which broke weekend box office records in China.
Ryan's work has been featured in many full length feature films, including:
-Journey to the West 2: the Demons Strike Back (2017)
-Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015)
-Imprisoned: Survival Guide for the Rich and Prodigal (2015)
In addition, Ryan has written for a number of nationally aired, top-rated Chinese and American television programs, as well as many American short films and documentaries including:
-The Wonder List with Bill Weir (CNN)
Ryan Currently offers services in soundtrack design, producing, mixing, and mastering. Rates vary based on the project.
Ryan can be reached using the contact form below, or feel free to phone him at 757.647.1246.


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Deere & Co. plans to increase the number of combine harvesting systems it builds at the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, IL, to meet worldwide demand.
Deere & Co. will invest approximately $35 million to increase the site's manufacturing capacity by 30 percent. "This initiative will help John Deere meet the growing demand worldwide for large combines," says Markwart Von Pentz, president, Agricultural Division, Europe, Africa, South America and Global Harvesting Equipment Sourcing. "The global acceptance of the innovative STS combine is a key driver in our decision to increase the manufacturing capacity of John Deere Harvester Works."
The investment will include machine tooling and fixtures, improved work processes, and improvements to the existing paint system. The project is expected to be completed in early 2009.
Earlier this year, Deere said it also was investing in the Waterloo, IA facilities to expand manufacturing capacity for large, high horsepower tractors as worldwide demand for agricultural equipment continues to be strong.


text:
Are your favourite shoes broken? Hurry Up Shoe Repairs can help. Let Hurry Up turn the 'unrepairable' into near new condition. We are the experts in shoe repairs.
Can't let go of your favorite shoes? Hurry Up Shoe Repair can repair and restore your beloved shoes to their original condition. Get a repair estimate now!
Whether you want your favorite bag fixed, enhanced or polished, Hurry up got you covered! We guarantee top quality service. Get a repair estimate today!
We have a wide range of shoe care products to look after your favourite pair of shoes. Hurry Up are Wellingtons shoe repair and care experts. Contact our shoe repair experts now.
Do you have a loved pair of specialised shoes that have seen better days? Hurry Up Shoe Repairs can fix your specialized shoes such as golf shoes or cricket shoes.
Hurry Up Shoe Repairs has over 80 years history repairing shoes and bags in Wellington. Hurry Up Shoe has repaired Wellington's community since the 1930s. Contact one of our shoe repair experts now!


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CTG Education provides a global platform for the provision
of progressive, cutting-edge, and credible nutrition education for health practitioners.
CTG Education instructors have come together to teach these online courses, they are constantly being asked to share their knowledge around the world through webinars, conferences, workshops, master classes and university programs. Below are the details of some of these additional educational opportunities.
Translational Nutrigenomics™ Conference
13th February › Johannesburg, South Africa
Mapping Cutting-Edge Biochemistry to the Nutrigenomics Playing Field.
Prescription Decision-Making for the Nutrigenomics Clinician.
The MasterClass series
17th March › Melbourne, Australia
31st March › Perth, Australia
14th April › Brisbane, Australia
Exploring Solutions to Chronic Disease – the patient in the spoptlight
BioBalance "Mastering Brain Chemistry" conference
21st – 28th March › Surfers Paradise, Australia
Targeting 'upstream' solutions in Autistic Spectrum Disorder
American Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine (A4M)
6th – 9th May › Hollywood FL, USA (TBC)
METABOLIC SYNDROME, is it the canary in the chronic disease coal mine?
MINDD International Forum
15th – 17th May › Sydney, Australia
A Clinically-trialled Nutrigenomic Strategy for addressing Autistic Spectrum Disorder (CLINICIAN TOPIC)
How a broccoli-derived bioactive compound can enhance neurological function in Autistic Spectrum Disorder (CONSUMER TOPIC)
The 9th Congress of the International Society of Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics
May 17 – 19 › Chapel Hill NC, USA
The 2015 ISNN Congress will focus on translational nutrigenomic research and reports of use in clinical practice.
Integrative Medicine Clinicians Dinner Meeting
27th May › Perth, Australia
Clinical Gems, and other fascinating lessons from Nutrigenomics
IFM Annual International Conference. The "Omics' Revolution: Nature and Nurture
May 28 – 31 › Austin Texas , USA
Translational Nutrigenomics
The field of Nutrigenomics represents the cutting edge of nutritional science, and the future of Food as Medicine. Absent from the current conversation however, is the critical translation piece between deeply customized nutrition advice and how we express that to the patient. In essence, without culinary translation, we are merely providing more nutrition advice. In this session, we'll examine the Nutrigenomics conversation with the client, and provide practice-ready tools and educational techniques that translate this critical conversation to the plate.
Nutrition in Medicine Conference
2nd – 4th May › Surfers Paradise, Australia
Managing oxidative stress-induced cellular disruption in cancer; a clinical perspective
IFM Annual Conference 2014
May 28 -31 › San Francisco CA , USA
Functional Perspectives on Food and Nutrition
WorldLink Medical
4th June
Nutrigenomics and the Age Management Practice
UQ Dept Agriculture – 3rd year Science Guest Lecture
22nd September
'SUPERFOODS' – A critical look at The superfood phenomenon Nutrigenomics and the Age Management Practice: how to personalize treatment plans for hormone imbalances, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more.
AMMG – Age Management Medicine Group
6th – 9th November › Las Vegas NV, USA
Afer Estrogen Metabolism – Looking Through New Eyes
The Devil's in the Dose
American Anti-ageing conference
November 14-16 › Dubai , UAE
Personalizing Nutrition with Nutrigenomics in Clinical Practice
Foundations in Nutrigenomics Course
Evidence-Based Clinical Practice
We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.


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- WiFi
- Car park
- Rural
- Accessible
Choose your room
Located in the quaint medieval town of Much Wenlock, this former 17th Century coaching inn offers Free Wi-Fi, Free Parking and a locally renowned restaurant. Family owned and managed, the Gaskell Arms boasts charming original features combined with a wealth of character that is befitting for a building of its age - and it is this nod to the Gaskell Arms' historic past which, when blended with its range of modern conveniences, makes a stay here so inviting. With understated but elegant design, guest bedrooms offer a range of modern facilities to enjoy, including flat screen TV and free Wi-Fi access. Comfortable beds and soft chairs ensure a relaxing space in which to unwind after a long day exploring the local area. Offering a range of traditional British and European favourites for your delectation, the restaurant serves meals all week in relaxed and informal surroundings. Whether opting for seafood, steak or salad, menus are carefully selected to provide a pleasing choice for all palates. A selection of "home cooked" style meals are available to enjoy in the bar - ideal for a quick bite with friends and family alike. The bar is open for drinks all day and offers a complete range of beers, wines, spirits & soft drinks to suit all tastes. With comfortable furnishings to complement the attractive surroundings, guests can enjoy good company and a refreshing drink in pleasant and light surroundings. The beautiful "Black & White" town of Much Wenlock is located in the heart of Shropshire and is an ideal base to tour both the historic town and the surrounding countryside. Much Wenlock is steeped in history with many buildings dating back to the 1500's, whilst the dramatic 12th Century ruins of Wenlock Priory lie within easy walking distance from the Gaskell Arms. The town was the home of Dr William Penny Brookes, one of the most influential pioneers of the modern day Olympic Games and in fact the oak beamed restaurant in the Gaskell is the place where Dr Brookes held many of his meetings. The hotel is within easy reach of a huge selection of Visitor Attractions, including the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Centre with its numerous museums.
Useful information:Other names for The Gaskell Arms Hotel:
Gaskell Arms Hotel & Restaurant


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Latest Weather Blog
White residents sue City of St. Gabriel over voting rights
Related Story
ST. GABRIEL - Two white residents in the City of St. Gabriel are suing the city claiming their voting rights have been violated by the structure of the city council.
The residents want the city to take on a redistricting plan that would divide the city into sections. Currently council members are elected at-large, which means those with the highest number of votes win no matter where they live in the city.
All five council member positions are currently being held by African Americans, a pattern attorney Dannie Garrett said is well-established.
"There's only been one white person ever elected to any municipal office in the history of St. Gabriel," Garrett told News 2.
The racial makeup of St. Gabriel is currently 65 percent African American and 35 percent white.
"Normally the racial balance is just the opposite," Garrett said. "But everyone acknowledges voting rights apply to everyone."
Around St. Gabriel, opinions were mixed as to what should happen. Some believe changes need to be made, while others think it should stay the way it is.
"You've got five blacks in there right now," African-American resident Larry Baker said. "It's not equal anywhere. It should be changed. It should be changed."
"If a person goes in there and does their job they are elected to do it, I don't have a problem," said resident Todd Arceneaux, who is white.
The attorney representing the white residents in St. Gabriel told WBRZ he couldn't give any examples where the black city council didn't work for the white residents. However, he did say diversity and having the population represented is important.
Phil Canova, the attorney representing St. Gabriel, declined to do an interview on-camera but said whites can't prove there has been any discrimination of their voting rights.
As this battle continues to play out in federal court, the plaintiff's attorney contends if nothing is done, you'll never see diversity in town's politics.
"The majority race candidate or candidate of the majority race of voters is always going to win," Garrett said.
All sides were supposed to appear in court Wednesday but the hearing was cancelled because the judge was sick. The hearing has not been rescheduled yet.
Desktop NewsClick to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
News Video
Ascension residents voice concerns over sewer deal in marathon meeting
Local law enforcement says state background checks down amid ransomware attack fallout
Known blues man to revive father's iconic juke joint
Office of Motor Vehicles closed until Monday as state recovers from cyberattack
Office of Motor Vehicles still closed as state recovers from cyberattack


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- From Yosemite to the San Diego Coast
So this is what happened… ever since Emy and Joe got married, we talked about going on a trip together! Well, it's been over two years and we still hadn't done it! (shame on us!) So we planned a cruise with them for this August! We all LOVE cruises and how EASY and affordable they are. Well, fast forward to March and we find find out that Emy is pregnant!
Then fast forward to June and we find out that I'M PREGNANT!! My doctor is really strict about Zika (as she should be) because there really isn't a cure and it's silly to put a pregnant woman at risk if she doesn't HAVE to be. So, we had to cancel our cruise. It was a sad day. We had been looking forward to this for months and months. Now we had to find a new ZIKA-FREE vacation plan that wouldn't cost more than the cruise! We decided to head to CA!!!
We flew to CA and our journey getting there was interesting. Michael and I got delayed and lost a bag. Emily and Joe were delayed and then put on a weird plane without air conditioning controls! Not good for a pregnant lady! 😃 We finally made it to LA and then we went to get our rental car and found a dirty diaper under the seat and promptly switched to another car! We ended up getting settled in a car that wasn't usable and then we moved to ANOTHER CAR…. and it was a MINI-VAN!!!! Cheers for a MINI-VAN! Us pregnant ladies had so much LEG ROOM and we had constant access to our snack bag and our own AC controls! What a dream! (Ps. I NEVER thought I would say that about a mini-van… ever!)
We drove north for several hours (SEVERAL) and made it to BASS LAKE for the night! We stayed in a little cabin and rented a little pontoon boat for a morning cruise before heading to YOSEMITE! Michael and I had been to Yosemite but we went in March when "Glacier Point" wasn't open! So we got to see a new view and it was UNBELIEVABLE! Just wait until you see the pictures!! Then we found out that the giant Sequoias that were most visited in Yosemite were closed for restoration! What?! NOOOOoooooo!! So we heard about a more hidden location off the beaten path and we decided the mini-van could handle it!! We were all covered in DUST by the time we made this journey to the trees but it was worth it!!!
Then we drove to the coast and stayed at a cute little beach-front hotel, Avila Lighthouse Suites, where one of Joe's high school friend's is a sales manager! We spent the next morning sitting by the pool and dipping in the hot tub for like 3 minutes because…. pregnancy problems. Then we had an awesome lunch (our favorite of the trip) on a pier overlooking a little harbor! And then it was time to get back on the road again! You're probably thinking "wasn't that a lot of road time?" Yes. It was a crazy fast-paced trip. Our NEXT trip will definitely be on a cruise ship without hours of mini-van time!
After we left lunch we hit the road for San Diego to visit some dear friends of our! We have been wanting to get down to San Diego for the longest time to visit them and we finally had a chance to make it happen!! This was probably our favorite part of the trip. Yosemite is breathtaking but hanging by your friend's pool and just relaxing after a crazy few days is just what we needed! Cole and Nicole were the most amazing hosts in their new home. They made all FOUR of us feel like we were at home from the moment we walked in the door! They dropped everything just to hangout with us and spend some quality time together! From pool time to fireside chats, Mexican food, a beach day and finding an amazing ice cream shop… it's easy to see why we loved these two days!! We're so thankful for not only their willingness to have us visit but also for their sweet friendship!
They were so excited about this drink…. and then it was pretty much just straight sugar! ha!
Cute! All THREE of them! :)
Our beloved mini-van!
Bahaha! Way to go Joe!
This view tho….
Ice cream for the win!
LOOK at the SIZE of that TREE!!!!
Eww… They were bringing in a shipload of EEL! GROSS!!!
Then we headed down to meet up with Cole and Nicole!!!
And Michael got TAR stuck on his foot!
Look at their POOL! Amazing!
Sweet Chloe! She made us miss Bokeh Boy!
What a fun vacation! Yosemite is so beautiful and friends are the best.
That pool – whaaa!!! I'm so glad you had an incredible time – always love seeing how you capture trips like these.
Come on back ANYTIME :) Next time….stay a bit longer ;) Although we DID fit in a lot of fun in a short amount of time!
SO glad you guys enjoyed Bass Lake! We have a family cabin and go a couple of times a year….and always try to get in a trip to Glacier Point for the views and an ice cream!
Omg Glacier Point is SO beautiful!!! I always LOVE your personal posts, they're so fun and you're so good at documenting family vacations!! So glad you guys got the chance to travel together before the little ones arrive!!
Ah Katelyn I loved looking through the photos to relive our fun time together. Michael's tar foot is a classic! Cole, Chloe and I were so grateful you all decided to spend part of your vacation with us and can't wait for your return! Longer this time! Xo
I've been waiting for this post! Yosemite is AMAZING!!! I loved it there when I went last September and I want to go back! Your photos are so cute!
Wow, that IS an amazing pool! And I love the pelican picture (not to mention all the gorgeous Yosemite shots of course). Idk how you're traveling so much while pregnant, especially in that first trimester when nausea & fatigue can be so debilitating. I thought working as a night shift nurse while pregnant was hard but all that traveling sounds even rougher to me.
This looks like so much fun! Your double bumps are adorable :)
Love the photos! Thank you for sharing!


text:
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Rabbi Aaron Broude
אהרן ב״ר מאירRav, Chevra Adas Jacob Anshe Slabodke
Date of Death: Mon. August 19, 1929 -
Av 13 5689
Anyone with biographical information is asked to please send it in.
See CONTACT page for details. Thank you.
Directions to Kever: Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens maintains computerized records and will provide a detailed location map upon request. Location: Section: Chevra Adas Jacob Anshe Slabodke, Path: Y
Biographical Notes:


text:
Crunchyroll and Funimation Team up to Bring Anime to Everyone
Crunchyroll and Funimation Team up to Bring Anime to Everyone
Anime fans rejoice, the two biggest English-translated anime providers are teaming up to your benefit.
If you're an anime fan, you've no doubt heard of Crunchyroll - the biggest independent anime streaming service, and Funimation - the largest North American licencor and distributor of anime. Well today I've got some really good news: the two companies are teaming up to bring as much anime to as many people as possible!
What does this mean? Well, Starting on Thursday, Crunchyroll viewers can watch subtitled versions of Funimation's summer simulcast titles, including: D.Gray-man Hallow, First Love Monster, and Puzzle & Dragons X. Additionally, some absolute anime classics that Funimation has in its catalog, like Cowboy Bebop and Psycho-Pass are available right now on Crunchyroll.
On the other end, FunimationNow viewers will be able to watch Broadcast Dubs of some of Crunchyroll's summer simulcast titles like 91 Days, Mob Psycho 100, and Orange. Gen Fukunaga, CEO and president of Funimation, told Anime News Network that the decision about which of Crunchyroll's titles will get an English dub is "primarily being driven by Funimation," but that the two companies meet every week to talk about titles.
Lastly, Funimation will be handling the distribution for Crunchyroll's burgeoning home video release titles and EST (electronic sell-through) releases.
"The problem is, the market was fragmenting up a bit - you had other players coming in, [like] Amazon [and] Hulu ... The issue with some of those big players is that they're maybe not as concerned with the fan experience as Crunchyroll and Funimation," Fukunaga explained. "working together ... [Funimation and Crunchyroll] can provide a better experience ... that really works for the fans."
It's a good day to be an anime fan!
Source: Anime News Network
That is very hypocritical coming from the CEO of Funimation to be honest. For years now they've had an absolutely "wonderful" habit of buying up the rights to the English-language version streams of various anime series. ALL the rights to English-language version streaming, for every English language territory.
What's the problem with that? Well...until this year Funimation only served North America. That is to say it was not possible to sign up for their service outside of North America. Therefore if you want English-language anime in...say...the UK then you've had to hope that Crunchyroll or Netflix or someone else would get the rights to it. Otherwise you'd simply not be able to stream it since Funimation would actively lock it away from you.
I find it a bit rich for the CEO of Funimation to be going on about being "concerned with the fan experience" and the "market...fragmenting up a bit" when his company has been quite literally denying people access to series for so long BY fragmenting the market and then geolocking those series that they managed to get.
Still, this is good news if we can finally get our hands on some of the stuff that they've been keeping from us. And Crunchyroll is a wonderful company.
Know what's really shitty?
None of it fucking comes to Europe.
None of it comes the to the fuckign UK and Ireland.
And I would pay for Crunchyroll, if I could get funimation content outside of year-late DVD releases!
And yet they still wont beat the service offered by the bootleg streaming sites.
Crunchyroll and Funimation Team up to Bring Anime to Everyone [who pays for the service].
Just adding that for the sake of clarity. Its fine I suppose. If I had the money for it, Id probably pay for the service, but its still something that should not be overlooked.
will it be coming down here to NZ ? probably not which means i will have to either grab those DVD,s and Blurays that manage to not be region locked or resort to less ethical means and i bet those less ethical means will still be better quality than the official distributors
From what I've read it seem Funimation is using this as a jumping off point for streaming across the English speaking world (it's definitely coming to the UK), and it even seems they're leaving the door open for non-English dubs in the future.
Sheer speculation here on my part: I wonder if Funimation's attempt to break into the UK market earlier this year has been a colossal failure. That definitely isn't outside the realms of possibility given that they've snubbed the UK for years. They have zero market penetration here prior to that attempt given their locking their content to North America and the act of doing so may well have had the effect of winding up a lot of people to the point of flat out not using their service. I know I personally very deliberately haven't signed up to their thing because honestly I get plenty of anime on Crunchyroll and Funimation made it VERY clear for many years they didn't want me as a customer, so they're not getting me so easily now they've decided they do want my money after all; frankly I'm annoyed. In comparison I've had an active Crunchyroll subscription for at least two years straight now.
Outside of that I'm sure that a fair number of people have been driven to bootleg sites. As far as funimation streaming content goes...its not available here. At all. Full stop. Its not exactly a big step from there for people to rationalise that if Funimation is actively stopping you from paying for their service despite holding the rights to a series you like hostage then its not unreasonable to find other ways to access it. Logic along the lines of "if I COULD pay for it I WOULD, but they're stopping me". Personally I just go buy the discs if there's something I want to watch that I can't access on Crunchyroll, but my financial situation is better than most and DVD and Blu-Ray anime series can be expensive (I recently bought World Conquest:Zvezda Plot and it set me back ?27, hardly pocket change). Many people can't afford to do that and streaming services are crucial for their entertainment needs.
As a result their only possible chance of making any kind of inroads into UK streaming is to team up with probably the biggest UK player that is generally reasonably well-viewed and appreciated (even if they've had some pretty big hiccups themselves): Crunchyroll. It makes a lot of sense from the point of view of a failed attempt to get into the UK market.
Does this mean we can finally get a decent blu-ray release of End of Eva and the Satoshi Kon filmography? No? Oh...
I was giddy when i saw the news from Crunchyroll in my inbox this morning. But i already knew it deep down what i will see, when i'll search for Cowboy Bebop on the site:
Sorry, due to licensing limitations, videos are unavailable in your region.
Thanks for nothing, once again. I really want to pay for my animus but the industry makes it really hard for me. It seems i've to finish watching the few animes i can actually watch from europe and then start pirating the rest again, because there's just no way to get animes otherwise in europe.
They're not taking it off of Hulu are they? Cause I have Hulu and I need my Jojo fix.
'Anime for everyone!' Unless you're outside the USA, in which case gtfo and buy our overpriced dvds.
I always wonder how much of the region locking has to do with Crunchyroll/Funimation and how much has to do with what the Japanese studio's say when they agree to license out the shows. If the Japanese companies say that they can only stream X series in X countries, then that is what Crunchyroll/Funimation are going to do.
Not exactly true. If you re-read the OP, you will see that it states CR + FUNi are allowing anyone (regardless of subscription, you just need a free account) to watch said shows in English Subtitles, but if you want to spring for the sub, then you can get an English Dubbed version of the shows to watch.
Glad to see 91 Days is getting a dub so soon. It's been really great so far, and considering it takes place in the US I hope they get some authentic accents for the dub. IIRC it mostly takes place in Illinois.
Er...that's exactly what licensing is for. Licensing is sometimes done by language, sometimes done by region; but in general is an agreement that "you can stream this in X countries in X language".
The problem is Funimation's tendency to buy up the English-language streaming rights for EVERYWHERE, but only serving North America. Japanese companies have no control over whether the one who is licensing it actually streams somewhere and assuming the license is for a fixed amount and not a % cut then they won't care either.
Other companies are taking money away from us and we don't like having competition.
I wanted to watch One Piece and / or DBZ but...
'This video is not available in your region'
Co-incidentally I can pay ?100's to buy physical DvD sets, and companies wonder why piracy is so rife.
I remember when getting anime was only possible via fan subs, someone in Japan would copy TV programs and send digitised video to the groups who would try subbing the program and then distributing it, often via IRC bots.
I dont mind giving CR a few pennies but why cant we at least have equal value in the UK subscription to the US subscriptions.
Yeah I know, business and licensing, just not that long ago the suits didn't care about some idiot westerners going gaga over Japanese cartoons.
Im not seeing where it says anything about free.
Except you are wrong, if you have a Crunchyroll subscription some of it will be available in European countries.
OT: I'm fine with this, three new series for Norwegian viewers. Sure, I've seen it before, but if this means more anime in Europe I'm happy.
It's free in the sense that you get shit quality, ads and later than premium users. At least on CR, no idea when it comes to Funi.
Its been known that you have to pay to get actual use out of Crunchyroll for a while now. I've seen a few people online react like this to this news and it has me pondering.
In the age of Netflix people still expect big companies to just put out free content?
Because "Everyone". Everyone means free, cause not everyone has money. My issue is just that the title says "everyone". I know its not free, and I dont begrudge them for it really, atleast not them specifically. (Though I tire of everything expecting I have a paid subscription)
I didnt know there was a free version. I dont mind ads or anything, cause I dont watch much anime anyways cause I dont lke those free stream sites (cause viruses)...I might start using Cruchyroll again. (I used to use it when it -was- free...it went paid right before I finished Azumanga Daioh...
Well the two are certainly having their fun with all this.
This was just some of the stuff Crunchyroll posted on their facebook page.
In any event, the more I think about it the better this seems in the long run. It seems both are going for global distribution outside of Japan now, so everyone complaining outside of North America (hey us Canuks still have plenty to complain about, like everything from Viz Media not being legal to watch here despite them buying the North American rights to their stuff), but they've made it clear things aren't happening over night but instead in phases. For the stuff Funimation has the global English language distribution rights for I think the question of them being available in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other isn't if but of when.
Keep in mind that when it comes to simulcast series you usually have to wait up to a week before you can watch it free.
Again, Im not on the pulse of anime like I am gaming, so having to wait for anime I dont even know of isnt really an issue.
What if I want to download videos for a sane price to put them on my phone so I can watch them without all that streaming nonsense attached because having to rely on a constant, stable internet connection is miserable?
I'm wrong except for the glut of series I want to watch that are not available for streaming outside the US due to licencing.
That has always made me wonder, how com a site where you pay has worse service then a free site.
Except they dont tell you wich has dub or sub, they basic just goes, pay us and see if you are luck that the show you wanted to be dub actual is it.
It mostly has to do with exclusivity between the services. For example you wanted to watch the Monogatari series and you didnt have a Crunchyroll subscription, then you have the choice of either buying a sub to Cruchyroll or going bootleg.
Its not especially hard to find a bootleg site either. Even if Google is screwing with the search results you could just go to /a/ and theyll hook you up.
That is the OP, not crunchyroll who posted that though. Crunchyroll says tells you about premium and the prices on the front page (or they used to at least, I just use my app for it now, so I'm not sure). Not to mention it is pretty easy to see that they are talking about two different types of accounts with different levels of access in the OP.


text:
Love is a funny thing. We say things, like he's my better-half, not really knowing what that means. To love half of a person is great undertaking. Most of us learn to love half people because it takes a lot to be whole. You're saying that you'll be the other half that their missing. Honestly, that doesn't sound like a bad thing. But to love a whole person, is so much greater.
I loved you whole again. I saw something in you that I was missing. I'd lived my life overwhelmed and anxious. When you have the potential to be something great, and it's bottled inside of daily routine and monotony, you tend to feel lonely. You tend to miss out on the joy of being whole. It's almost as though you're too full. But then I met you. You seemed to be missing everything of which I had too much. So I poured it into you. I gave you all that was too much for me to handle. All of the love that I didn't know what to do with, I gave it to you. And in turn, you showed me who I really was. The parts of me that I hated, you loved, which in turn made me love them too. I loved them because they were enough for you. The whole me, was enough for you.
We try to find parts of ourselves in other people. We try to shape them into the beings that we wish we were. In turn, we make them feel as though they aren't enough. When they don't give us what we need, we search for it in things. We surround our lives with clutter. We make ourselves busy. We pretend to be happy, when we're just going through the motions trying to make the world think that we're perfect. Some of us even search for it in other people. But we find other people who are also missing things and end up being co-dependent. We love them because we need them instead of needing them because we love them.
I loved you before I knew you. Something about you drew me to you. You felt like home. Lingering hugs and fleeting conversations about nothing. But all of it made me feel closer to you. Closer to the person I didn't really know. Closer to the person, just like me. My twin soul, my soul mate, my better whole, if you will. Out of all the men I've loved, you make sense. You remind me why it never worked with anyone else. It wasn't supposed to. I'm actually glad it didn't.
We search for the perfection that we lack in other people. They let us down every time. Until we're able to truly love ourselves, we'll never truly know what love is. We'll never understand what it means to have someone especially for us. We'll look for our soul mates in soulless people. We'll end up hurt every time. We'll hurt other people. But when we become whole, finding the one for us will be easy. We'll spot them from a mile away. We'll no longer have to figure out if it will work, because it just will.
Everything you thought you were missing, will be clear as day. You'll see them and all of a sudden, your world makes sense. Love makes sense because you're no longer looking for your better-half, because sometimes half just won't do.


text:
This event is a hands-on session to help you learn more about Tableau Server and build out a live showcase environment to showcase the collaboration and governance capabilities that Tableau can bring to your Desktop deployment.
The premise is simple - you bring your colleagues and your laptop. We'll bring a consultant, our software, our expertise, and even tea break! At the end of this session, you will have a better understanding on the key reasons why your organization should use Tableau Server.
Who should attend:
This session is aimed at existing Tableau Desktop Business & IT users, who are looking to share their workbooks and dashboards with colleagues or who need to share data and collaborate with other Tableau authors. Priority will be given to end-users.
13:30 - 14:00 Registration
- Installation and Setup
14:00 - 14:30 Overview & Tableau Desktop Refresher
14:30 - 14:45 Tableau Server Introduction
- Understanding the differences between Desktop & Server
14:45 - 15:15 Hands-On Session
- Ad-hoc Analytics
- Mobility
- Sharing, Security & Authentication
- Automation: Live data updates
15:15 - 15:40 Afternoon Tea
15:40 - 16:30 Continuation with Hands-On Session
16:30 - 17:00 Summary & Closing
Please note the operating system requirements for Tableau Desktop during installation:
- Microsoft Windows 7 or newer (64-bit)
- Microsoft Server 2008 R2 or newer
- 2 GB memory
- 1.5 GB minimum free disk space
- iMac/MacBook computers 2009 or newer
- OSX 10.11 or newer
- 1.5 GB minimum free disk space
- Priority are given to end-users.
- Please bring your business name card for registration during the event.
- Tableau reserves the rights to reject registrations from participants who are not end-users.


text:
Sometimes in Gaming, we use flag for mod attention to communicate among mods (about something specific to a question or answer).
It'd be nice if this was explicitly supported by the ability to annotate posts; I know we have chat but this would be more asynchronous, and it could also be used to leave notes/reminders for your future self.
I don't know where in the UI I'd put it, but functionally it'd be like comments only visible to mods.


text:
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Reading Deleuze At Airports
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Tuesday, January 7th, 2014
7:54 pm
WyrdCon 2013 Companion Book.
The WyrdCon 2013 book is finally out, published just in time to still be a 2013 volume. Lots of diverse content there, but pleasingly no really weak points whatsoever. A couple of the journalistic section parts (edited by Aaron Vanek) slip into being more commercial (read: advertisement) than analytic, and a couple of the academic, peer-reviewed contributions (edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman) do well with either framing or analysis, but fail to provide the other half.
The good sides, however, make all of these small problems disappear amost completely. The book is loaded with solid contributions in both parts, and even the articles of which I remain critical provide good tools people can build upon later. Because I watched several of the works develop from early versions to their full bloom, and because the book contains an article of my own, on larp management systems and structures, I feel not at all able to write an objective review of the contribution.
So I will simply say that give it a try - I enjoyed reading it a lot. The editors have gathered up some very, very useful essays. It provides something rather rare even within the Nordic tradition - academic texts that have direct, practical applications and journalistic articles that are also obvious academic contributions. So even if one half of the book looks not like your cup of tea, it may well be, if you give it a chance.
You can download the book for free
(or buy a hard copy version via Lulu soon).
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
6:47 pm
Research developments.
In the time I have been neglecting this blog, several interesting pieces of academic role-playing research with which I am connected have turned up.
First of all, the fourth issue of the International Journal of Role-Playing has been published. It contains five articles selected from the Role-Playing in Games seminar at the University of Tampere, Finland, April 10-11, 2012. You can find it online for free
Also, my own doctoral dissertation has now been made available
, freely, in full. And in case you have not noticed the fact yet, Markus Montola's
was selected last year's best at our university - a very big, impressive honor.
My wife and I have a chapter on larps in high schools, in Moseley and Whitton's excellent book
"New Traditional Games for Learning"
Soon arriving will be more news, as certain journal issues, books and other things with which I have been involved start appearing.
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Friday, May 17th, 2013
7:44 pm
Book review: The four Knutepunkt 2013 books.
Things escalate and shrink at the same time - this year saw Knutepunkt publish no less than four volumes, one with just photographs and the others with a light, journalistic style. The reasoning behind the style is obvious, and something mentioned already by last year's editor, Juhana Pettersson: with enough academic channels already available, KP editors both can and want to concentrate on what's (to them anyway) important. For me, that feels like a cop-out, but it seems to suit a big part of the audience.
While several of the essay subjects would in my opinion deserve a much wider and more reference-grounded presentation (esp. Heath's nice and accurate but anecdotal-seeming edu-larp piece and Ström's nifty text on milsims), all in all, the editors have succeeded in making something that was easy to contribute to, without sacrificing too much content or quality. I know from experience that several of the more academic authors could have been much more thorough, but their appetite-whetters here do serve a purpose too. And I do love the increasingly international angle in all of it.
High points for me were too numerous to mention, once I got past my innate "He should have referenced X here, instead of just writing conjecture", but if I had to pick one, it would be Andresen & Nielsen's "The Mixing Desk of Larp". So light, so easy, so clever. Even more impressively, this is the first year, among both KP books and all their siblings, that I did not find a low point, an essay that would have annoyed me with some grandiose claims based on nothing but not knowing what's been done before. Well done, editors. Well done, indeed.
Karete Jacobsen Meland & Katrine Øverlie Svela (eds.) (2013):
Crossing Habitual Borders
Crossing Physical Borders
Crossing Theoretical Borders
Exploring Borders
Online versions of all but the photobook can be found here:
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Monday, February 18th, 2013
5:01 pm
Book Review: WyrdCon Companion 2012
WyrdCon's 2012 Companion came out some time ago already, but it's taken me a surprisingly long time to read it. Its expanded version 2 can be freely downloaded
. The book consists of two parts. The first one is journalistic, edited by Aaron Vanek, and the second an academic (non-referee) section edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman. The book also makes very efficient use of hyperlinking, making it a rare larp volume that has gained significant advantages (beside the obvious open access) from not being printed as a hardcopy.
Most of the journalistic contents are new, and what has been chosen for reprinting deserved that reprint. The historical documents focusing on Intercon and Ford Ivey's work are very nice, as are some of the other contributions, particularly the hands-on design guidance of Jason Morningstar and Lizzie Stark's piece on using Nordic techniques in North American larps. Likewise, John Kim's update on the history and influence of the Threefold Model is very welcome, even if it remains quite thin, as the model has over the years been used and discussed by numerous practitioners and scholars of larp. For me, however, the true highlight of the first part was Gord Sellar's wonderful account on using larps for language teaching in Korea, a mixture of culture commentary and methodological analysis. The sole problem point of the section is Maria Alexander's shallow and misinterpretative essay on religious behavior, narratives and fan participation. While her idea is clever and well worth exploring, the execution remains ignorant of basic theories of acting-as-if, social pressure, the impact of a faith component on religious activities and so forth, with the result that the author confuses correlation with causality.
The academic section, after its introduction, starts with the weakest piece: Strix Beltrán provides an eclectic mixture of depth psychology, archetypes, bleed and various other subjects, but whenever she steps outside of her own primary area of expertise, the result reads like an undergraduate summary rather than a research piece, and it, frankly, provides no new results - at least for someone versed in numerous key works Beltran does not quote. In contrast, Rafael Bienia builds on exiting research, providing field data on larper motivations, all the while recognizing and admitting the limits of his claims. Especially nice is that even though the material is German, the project is based on American ideas presented in an earlier WyrdCon book, making the work part of a longer continuity.
I'd already seen an earlier version of Nathan Hook's chapter, and liked the way it had evolved. Discussing immersion, Hook well shows through interviews that certain attitudes and ideologies regarding it exist, even if the comments remain individual opinions the prevalence of which cannot be currently assessed. Yaraslau I. Kot, in turn, presents a fresh look at edu-larp, from perspectives not yet common in the constantly growing corpus of literature on educational larp. In addition, the chapter is important in that it provides fellow scholars with English-language remote access to key work done on that subject in Russian, masses of which appear to exist.
The book wraps up with a very nice report from Neal McDonald and Alan Kreizenbeck, who ran an university course on larp in 2012. Explaining their goals, successes and failures, they present a very intriguing look at larp in an artistic context, its reception by non-larpers, and so on, with moments where intriguing cultural differences show through, and with solid data behind their claims. There's a funny mishap included, however: the authors occasionally use "player" to denote in-character behavior, leading to statements like "Players shot and stabbed each other, wrestled for the gun, defiled the shrine, mourned their children, and died meaningless, pitiful deaths."
The WyrdCon 2012 Companion is impressive, intriguing, and even at points where I felt certain essays would have required serious re-writing, inspiring and innovative, at least on which ideas were discussed. The book is strongly in dialogue with earlier larp literature, and for the most part its authors seem aware of relevant works in the field. It is definitely worth a read, not just skimming, and I believe several parts of it will see very active citation from academics as well, in the coming years.
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Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
6:51 am
Book Review: Larp - Nur ein Spiel?
Along with the MittelPunkt 2013 conference was published the fifth book of their series, this time called "Larp: Nur ein Spiel?", edited by Rafael Bienia and Karsten Dombrowski. (It's available for example from the publisher,
A hundred pages long, the volume contains six essays and some reading tips. The language is German, and the book is obviously directed towards a German audience, not really abroad. Following the tradition of many Knutepunkt volumes, and earlier MP books, the tone is mostly semi-academic, with the occasional opinion piece in the mix.
Several of the earlier MittelPunkt books contained some original research alongside more generic presentations and clever game reports. This one mostly does not, but that's not really the point here. Larp: Nur ein Spiel? is obviously written and edited more as an introductory piece to several key subjects of larp theory, not as an academic volume. And in what seeks to do, it succeeds extremely well.
Starting on its least academic part, the volume opens with an essay by Dr. Heinrich Dickerhoff. In it, the author ponders larp's relationship to adult education, fun, his own religious views and so forth. What connections are presented to wider themes are anecdotal, not referenced, so it's all an opinion piece - but a nice, personal one at that.
Daniel Steinbach, one of Germany's leading experts on edu-larp (and a contributor to all but one of the earlier MP books), provides an excellent short description of two larps that set out to teach the effect of Germany divided by the Berlin Wall. He skillfully presents enough details to give a reader a clear picture of the concepts, yet stays away from excessive minutiae, keeping the text interesting at all times. It's something many a larp educator shoud read, despite the potential language barrier.
Gerke Schlickmann presents a gender analysis, one that's solidly anchored to existing, earlier research and shows that the author has done homework. The text remains on quite a basic level, probably due to it being a re-worked part of a thesis, but it functions very well as an introductory piece to a complex subject, and the data gathered from 50 larpers is good, especially as it's contextualized by other researchers' works.
Likewise, Dennis Wienert-Risse too provides a good, easy introduction to a popular subject: frame analysis of larps. He too has done his homework well, shows that he knows the key references, and explains the key concepts in a relatively light, yet sufficiently complex manner, and when necessary, dips into issues of immersion and metainformation as well. Again, the purpose of offering something useful instead of heavy precision shows through, in a very good way.
Carl-David Habbe adds one new step on the discussion on the theatricality and performativity of larps, while showing that he knows what's already been said. At the same time as the work contains some novel points, it also functions as a good introductory reading list for people interested in the subject - a subject that keeps popping up.
The first place it pops up is the following essay, in which Bodo Jentzsch tackles with the same issues, but without the necessary references. (Dates in footnotes hint at the text being an older work, which excuses some omissions, but not all, as the author would have had access to a good reading list in another article of a book he quotes...) This lack of anchoring makes the book wrap up with anecdotality once more, but to Jentzsch's credit, his interview data is good and he uses it well.
As a whole, Larp: Nur ein Spiel? is the most solid, most professional MittelPunkt book so far. It is for the most part in exemplary dialogue with earlier research, easy to approach yet offers some new research as well. It's semi-academic, layman-friendly larp writing at its best. For a larp studies professional there isn't much that is really new, but still some, and it is obviously targeted to a wider audience, so that's no fault. The only thing I had a problem with were the different referencing styles and the occasional mis-written author names, but that's a small detail.
All I can say in judgment is that I hope this good book gets the readership that it deserves, in both Germany and abroad.
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Monday, December 3rd, 2012
8:07 pm
Games, Social Media and Information.
Today, after a month's wait, I received my own author copy of the Emerald book
Social Information Research
, edited by Åbo Akademi luminaries Gunilla Widén and Kim Holmberg and published by Emerald. It's a peer reviewed publication about various facets of social media research (from a LIS perspective), with the author list including several brilliant people whom I really admire, from professors to fellow post-grad students.
My own contribution to it came as a part of "Information Phenomena in Game-Related Social Media", which I co-authored with two friends who share my interest in using LIS to understand games (and vice versa), Richard D. Gough and Olle Sköld. It continues to surprise me how little the connection of games, social media and information has so far been explored, so getting a book chapter out about that feels almost like trailblazing.
The book is very expensive, but also very important reading for researchers of social media from various fields and perspectives, not just LIS. (I especially liked Olsson's analysis of SoMe in the context of drama, something many a larp scholar should read, and Heck's chapter about SoMe in academic networking). So I wish what copies of it end up in university libraries will see heavy use, and that the occasional pre-publication draft will make its way into the right hands.
Damn proud to be included in such fine company, with such fine co-authors.
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Monday, November 12th, 2012
8:25 pm
Polish Edu-Larp Book.
Normally, I'd write a review when I come across a new book on role-playing studies. This time, however, I can't understand what I have (just like I can't read the Russian or Czech larp works on my shelves...). In any case,
LARP. Myśli i szkice
, published by Gdanski Klub Fantastyki, looks very intriguing. Low on references, high on content - both essays as scenarios that have commentaries alongside them. It includes my own 2009 article, "Notes on Designing Repeatable Larps" as a translation, and also a Polish version of Morgan Jarl's "Creating a Character" from the same KP 2009 book. The local contributions appear intriguing to even a foreign eye, making me want to understand them.
The first print is apparently dealt out (as it wasn't sold, but rather just given to interested people), but there is hope for a second, expanded edition, I hear.
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Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
6:47 pm
Dr. Harviainen.
I defended my
doctoral dissertation
successfully last Thursday against the brilliant Dr. Whitton. Today, I was formally granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the School of Information Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland. I am very happy, also with what I heard of the appraisal, even though formally our School only recognizes two grades of "accepted". I placed on the high end of the lower degree. And that's awesome, because:
Markus Montola, who defended
a few weeks before me, got his degree in the same board meeting, rightfully earning the absolutely deserved "with distinction", which SIS gives just one per year, if at all. So it's been an extremely good day for academic role-playing scholarship.
On a related note, I've finally created a formal web page of my
, so as to make the promotion of relevant role-playing scholarship and teaching easier.
Also, a new peer-reviewed article by me, Richard D. Gough and Olle Sköld was apparently published today. More on that later, however, once I get the book.
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Saturday, October 6th, 2012
12:43 pm
Book Review: Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy (2012).
(This is a copy of the review I posted on
, partially in reaction to an extremely biased one that was already there. While I too remain critical, the book certainly did not deserve all the prejudiced crap the first reviewer had uttered.)
Jon Cogburn & Marc Silcox (Eds.): Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2012)
Shallow, at times clever, consistently entertaining (three stars)
This isn't a deep book about the philosophy of games. Nor is it one that's in proper discourse with preceding books on the philosophy of games (role-playing or other). What it does do, however, is entertain its reader with philosophy-connected examples from Dungeons & Dragons and certain cultural phenomena connected to it, and now and then raise questions deeper than where it manages to go on its own. Unlike several other books on role-playing, this one is obvious about why it has chosen a certain style of approach and excluded some pathways, language tone included. I also enjoyed that it at times presented points where the authors critiqued one another.
It is unclear, however, whether the authors (excluding two) were aware of existing research on what they talk about, and this (apparent or factual) ignorance at times causes significant problems. They make claims that should be presented in discourse with established works on the same subjects (the most obvious omissions being Suits and Tavinor, but the list is quite long), not as personal statements. The only one of the authors who says something really novel is Chris Bateman, in certain parts of his second essay. The biggest problem part in the book is Olson's gender essay, which falls into the same fallacy as did Nephew (2003, 2006) and confuses the games' supposed inherent attitudes with those of their subject group, American males, blaming the games for what appears to rather be an issue of local male culture. Likewise, several authors seem to be fixated on the old ludology/narrative split in game studies, which is for the most parts considered rather obsolete (or irrelevant) by the majority of game studies scholars these days.
Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy is light reading and an easy introduction, but it would frankly function a lot better if the authors would have cared to include some more of the philosophy of games already in existence, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel once again.
(LJ addendum: the list of ignored but very relevant earlier works at the very least includes Arjoranta, Bergström, Crookall, Oxford & Saunders, Lappi, Montola and Nephew.)
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Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
5:04 pm
Book Review - Peterson: Playing at the World (2012).
Here's a copy of my Amazon review of Jon Peterson's
Playing at the World. A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role-playing Games
(San Diego: Unreason Press).
Wonderful in some areas, worthless in others. (three stars)
Jon Peterson has written a huge, very ambitious tome. As far as historical data goes, the work is incredibly devoted, including almost-unnecessary minutiae, but there is good reason to include it all, in order to give credit where due and to debunk myths in other places. The author has done a massive amount of work to provide as much information as possible.
However, the minute Peterson starts speaking of the influence of rules on play, narrative, and especially immersion, the fact that he is almost totally ignorant of existing research shows through. I therefore found the book very valuable (5 stars) on some parts, harmfully oblivious on others (barely even one star).
For anything beyond exacting details of the early years, Michael J. Tresca's "The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games" is the weapon of choice. For the precise history of how and why it all began (and that alone), Peterson's absolutely great.
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Thursday, September 6th, 2012
7:53 pm
My Dissertation Now Online (Plus some Thoughts on Polishing)
My doctoral dissertation,
Systemic Perspectives on Information in Physically Performed Role-play
was published
today, without two of the articles. Those are still copyrighted by Sage, and will be added to the pdf next August, when the embargo period ends. The defence is at the University of Tampere, Finland, at noon, on October 18th.
Looking back at the dissertation, and my other recent works, I have come to understand that I suck at final wrap-ups of my texts. When I think something is finished, I can't bear to look at it with any thoroughness any longer. That's a very bad thing, when combined with how a lot of publishers do sloppy work and leave it for the author to correct their errors. I don't furthemore like reference-checking software, as it doesn't fit my writing style, and my experiences with proofreaders over the years have left me distrustful of them (too many try changing content along with language corrections, doing more harm than good). So I do things by myself, leading inevitably to some typos getting past me. So too here. As soon as things come out from the press, I start seeing all the errors I missed, once more, with annoying clarity.
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2012
11:11 pm
Montola's Diss, Now Online.
Markus Montola's doctoral dissertation,
On the Edge of the Magic Cirle: Understanding Role-playing and Pervasive Games
, which I reviewed some time ago
is now online. Here's the
to that completely free piece of essential role-playing research. Go read.
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Monday, September 3rd, 2012
6:25 pm
Book Review: Immersive Gameplay (2012).
After a long wait,
Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing
, edited by Evan Torner and William J. White, is finally in my hands. I co-authored one chapter in it, due to which I won't be posting a review on Amazon, just here. McFarland, as a publisher, isn't always exactly as academic as it claims to be, but in the case of this book the authors have done a very good job at balancing layman-friendly with a suitably academic approach.
The key concept is immersion, one of the most debated things in game studies, making the volume a very important contribution. Examination takes place from many perspectives and on many subjects, ranging from psychology experiments to extreme role-playing and reality television - the last of which has, surprisingly, been tied really well with the game studies content, through analyzing its visible game-components. A big plus goes to the editors for that, and for the fact that Torner himself has in his own article (which I thought the best of the book) built an exemplary bridge between the two subjects, one I hope gets both cited and emulated in the future.
The essays present various important points, with varying thoroughness. Some might just as well have come out in academic journals, others are more like openings than thorough research, but they too have their function in the mix. Even the ones I had problems with, due to lack of in my opinion mandatory references (Writing on Nazi representation in games without citing Frasca, 2000? Or on casual games without Juul, 2010?), I will probably cite a lot. I also hope that the authors will produce more - I can for example see a lot of potential in Fuist's work on self-improvement through tabletop combining with that of, say, Meriläinen. (I personally lament the fact that I did not have access to Newsom's data before I submitted my dissertation the most.) And the fact is that while I may think articles with just 10 references may be somewhat shallow on one side, the findings themselves can nevertheless be very impressive. In addition, the shared bibliography at the end is quite remarkable, and is something especially inexperienced role-playing scholars should pay a lot of attention to, when they think about making off-handed remarks about immersion, bleed, game presence, or so forth.
All in all, a solid book, an approachable book, and a good academic contribution to the study of immersion. Were I an outsider reviewing it, I'd probably give it four stars out of five, with some harsh words on the references of a couple of authors and a lot of praise for the clever audacity of certain others. As one of the authors themselves, however, I settle for saying "I like this, and I'm proud to be included in such fine company".
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Monday, August 13th, 2012
10:22 pm
Theses, Three.
Three new master's theses (or the equivalent) on the market, all freely available through the right channels (and it's possible to buy Hook's
in print
, too).
1) Nathan Hook:
Identities at Play
. Available
Nathan presents some really nice points on in-play identities, in a rather abrupt manner. Some typos disrupt the flow, but all in all, good work. (Nathan has severely misunderstood my ilinx idea, but I see now that it's my own wording's fault). Nathan is in strong contact with other researchers, so no surprise that he's well informed. Clever ideas.
2) Kivinen, Sari:
Spin-Fold-Spill : a textual investigation about role-play, narrative, and fictitious truths
. Available
Coming from a theatre studies angle, Kivinen presents a game/artpiece design, and its theoretical framing. Some ideas I liked a lot, as I did her permutations on what the medium allows, but the fact remains some very relevant key works (at least one of Harviainen, 2008, or 2010, or Lampo, 2011, or Stenros, 2010, should have been there...) were not at all mentioned. So: nice, but lots of unused potential because of a limited frame of reference. If you're into the larp-theatre angle at all, however, do check it out. Valuable.
3) Mosley, Ian:
Beyond the 4th Wall: Exploring Identity in Live Action Role Players
. For this one, you need to contact Ian personally.
Mosley looks at larps from a sociological viewpoint, especially with serious leisure as a concept in mind. Sadly, his reference base is strangely limited (rumor has it, at least partially due to supervisor bias), and key works like Brenne, Balzer and Stenros aren't used - nor is the absolutely seminal Fine. Some important others are there, however, as are some surprising texts, and the arguments are mostly well presented, so I get a very mixed reaction from it all. In any case, the author shows obvious talent that in my opinion just needs a bit of more reading to get into full bloom. Larp sociologists, do ask him for a copy.
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Friday, August 10th, 2012
9:36 am
Bizarre Philosophy Triangle.
Some months ago, I spotted the CFP for a Blackwell book, "Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy, to be edited by Christopher Robichaud. I, like a dozen colleagues, sent in an article proposal. Then, nothing happened. Not even a confirmation of proposal reception. Through indirect means, I eventually found out that the editor had apparently decided to put it on indefinite hiatus, without informing any of us. He then stopped answering messages about it.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an ad for "Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy", edited by Jon Cogburn and Mark Silcox, scheduled to appear from Open Court Books. Asking around I found out that yes, it'd formerly been a Blackwell concept. So I fumed for a while, and then decided to send a message to one of the editors, to find out what the hell had happened.
Turns out, it's a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOOK - compiled some months before Robichaud's, without any open CFP, and first offered to the same publisher. Therefore all search engine uses led to the impression that it's the same volume, and that some authors had been very rudely dropped. Not true. Just synchronicity and some bad manners from one person.
You can find out more about the real book
. I know some really good authors are included, so my hopes for it are very high. I have already pre-ordered myself a copy.
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Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
11:55 am
Thesis on Religion in D:tF.
Through a hint, I came across a recent Canadian master's thesis on religion in Demon: the Fallen. Given my history and own research, it naturally interested me. You can find it
. Trenton Streck-Havill bases a lot of his ideas on Cover's book on tabletop rpg (which as you may know I don't think of as a very high-quality piece of research), and he uses the classical paradigm of study of religion, without addressing the cognitive angles at all, so the work itself had little initial attraction for me despite the topic.
I don't criticize master's theses much these days, but honestly, when someone writes
"I do not deny that Huizinga, Caillois, and many other scholars of both religion and game theory, are right in their assessment of the gaming ritual as religious. Instead it is my opinion that these scholars have not yet studied the full breadth of religious expression provided by gaming."
while himself completely ignoring cognitive study of religion, I do get somewhat irked.
"An emphasis on narrative has likewise sparked the first vestiges of interest in the internal reality of the game setting. This is what I focus on in this discussion, and for the most part it is an entirely unexplored part of game studies. Jennifer Cover is perhaps the only scholar to give any theoretical thought to the notion of game reality, and even then it remains a survey of methodology and theory meant to assist others in tackling the subject."
makes me wonder through what use of search engines he came to that conclusion of an unexplored territory.
Nevertheless, the author had some very insightful points about game rules relating to religion, and on game-internal logic. Demon is a very good choice of rpg for that. I've for fun analyzed it
many years ago. So while I dislike certain parts of the work that seem to me both arrogant and ignorant, I can easily forgive those as common masters-thesis symptoms, and concentrate on the solid parts. I really liked several ideas on Setting, in Chapter Two, and it makes me in a way sad to know just how well those could have been presented with a wider set of references at the author's disposal. So I sincerely hope he continues his line of research.
(A note to scholars of role-playing rules: Even if you're not interested in the religion angle, give the thesis a look. It's got stuff on game mechanics creating game-internal reality that you may want to cite some day.)
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Tuesday, July 31st, 2012
8:53 pm
Fat Man, Down.
By request, I ran Frederik Berg Østergaard's jeepform "Fat Man Down" to quite a mixed group. For those who don't know it, it's about people being mean to an overweight man - a social commentary on how people treat others, in the form of a freeform game. One of the harshest games on the market (actually, it's downloadable for free,
. Being mean to someone is actually very taxing for a mostly sane person - as is finding out just how easily the slurs do surface.
We had some problems due to a language barrier, and the safe word use could definitely have benefitted from a clearer explication at the start. And the GM has actually very little control on the pacing or the tone, once the game starts. Therefore, I concentrated on running scenes for escalation, a trick I've tried to hone when organizing Nathan Hook's excellent "Black Dog" several times before.
While I don't consider the run a complete success, we had some great moments (feel free to steal, should you run it somewhere). Mikko Pervilä did a great job increasing his level of sloughing, as the Fat Man, creating a palpable atmosphere of tragedy. Peter Adkison came up with a really powerful scene where the Fat Man passes his favorite restaurant after two successful days of dieting. A phone call between a skinny brother and the Fat Man who had just been rejected from a flight (as too big for a seat) to their father's funeral was really distressing, as was a job interview where he was promised a job - if he'd ever drop under 85kg. FMD is one of the games that makes you feel really bad about laughing, even as you can't avoid doing so.
More experiments with it are definitely needed. Even at moments when it did not really work, I could feel the inherent potential in the script.
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6:24 pm
Book Review: States of Play.
Last on my list of delayed reviews comes the Solmukohta 2012 book (with varying covers),
States of Play
edited by Juhana Pettersson. After the Danes presented three books last year, a change of style was needed, and Juhana provided just that. The book reads like a cross-over between game documentation and game journalism, in a good sense. The key idea guiding it is the spread of Nordic larp concepts around the world, and the resulting interaction with other larp cultures, which in turn may have a lot to offer of their own. Spanning a hefty 35 essays, it documents old and new Nordic games, grants a look at songs in Russian larps, and on introducing larp to Palestine, and so forth.
Most of the texts are very short, and remain on the level of descriptive anecdotes. They are nevertheless surprisingly good. Those that are not descriptive tend to be opinion pieces. As I am a theorist and a designer, for me the highlight of it all was Michal Mochocki's theory-framed description of Polish historical larps. And on a totally subjective note, I am very happy about having finally written about our intriguing success of a failure, "Valokaari". Most of all, however, I liked the way some games were presented through multiple viewpoints, bringing them a lot more to life than a single essay would have.
All in all, however, the book reads to me more as an advertisement of ideas and larps past rather than a serious new contribution. It manages to create loads of interest in what's in there, and inspires more questions, but does not answer them by itself. I would prefer the texts to be at least double-length each. The upside of this all is of course that it's an easy book to pick up, skim, read here and there, appreciate, and be intrigued by. It may no be as deep as the ones that came before it over the last few years, but as promotion it is excellent. After so many increasingly heavy volumes, perhaps that's exactly what we needed?
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Sunday, July 29th, 2012
6:38 pm
Book Review: The Book of Kapo (2012)
The documentation tradition amongst Nordic larpers has reached the point where people are starting to demand a focus on design rather than just documenting others' works (see
Talk Larp...
), I know. Some documentary works, however, nevertheless not only merit their existence but also justify loads of promotion.
The Book of Kapo
, edited by Claus Raasted, is definitely one of those. In its 200 picture-loaded pages, it documents the design and play of
, a brutal prison camp larp run in Denmark in 2011.
It was not a fun game, but rather something played for the harsh experience itself, and the book very much reflects that. A very big part of it consists of personal reports - to the point of frankly becoming somewhat repetitive. That's a small issue, however, as the book in general is a very impressive piece of documentation, easily able to open the concept - including its essential motives - to also people who did not attend, and even to interested non-larpers. I highly applaud its existence. It does have one big problem, though - it's clearly been designed for aesthetics rather than readability. The changing fonts are often small and messy, making it a slower read than it should content-wise be.
Harsh, visual, effective, this is a game-documentation book that should be found right next to Nordic Larp on the bookshelves of all afficionados of serious larping. It sets a new standard for how extensive larp documentation can - and in the case of certain games should - be.
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Thursday, July 26th, 2012
8:53 am
Book Review: Playing the Learning Game.
The short book,
Playing the learning game: A practical introduction to educational roleplaying
, edited by Martin E. Andresen, is a layman-friendly guide to the basics of edu-larping, in a very hands-on manner. Born out of the Larpwriter Challenge project, it gives example scenarios, a few experience reports and some practical ideas for people interested in either using such games or just reading about them. What it does not provide, however, is any sort of an educational science framework on game-based learning, and in many ways seems to represent black-box thinking on that part.
Nevertheless, the fact that it's based on actual experiences and well-tested games means that it can be trusted as a guidebook for actually functioning ideas. The editor's excellent introduction outlines that point well. Of the short essays, of particular interest to me was the one by Malik Hyltoft, which while quite blatantly advertising role-playing pedagogy also remained wisely critical of it. In turn, Aarebrot and Nielsen, presenting the intriguing edu-larp "Prisoner for a Day" provide an excellent example of the necessity of proper post-game anchoring in order to avoid harmfully situated learning. Some more language correction would have done each of the pieces good, however, as small but frequent linguistic errors may make the book seem amateurish to some readers, and it most certainly is not. While it may be down-to-earth in style, the authors are notable experts in what they write about.
Included are also three mini-larps and one jeepform game. Two of them are inspirational, two directly educational, yet the inspirational ones can be used for education, too, and the edu-games played without educational goals. In the first category goes the brilliant "Family Andersson" by Nolemo & Röklander, a game about dividing an inheritance that uses shared character ownership. The other one is more an outline than a complete game: "Hostage" by jeepers Fritzon and Wrigstad functions as a system of scenes, which can be played in multiple ways. It's very powerful, but left me wondering if it's really as beginner-friendly as all the rest of the material in the book. Then there's my own "The Tribunal", which has now been run more times than I can count, in a dozen countries, with a wonderful new illustration next to it. The fourth is the winner of the Belarusian Larpwriter Challenge, Sergey Loparev's amazing "1942: The Police". Sharp historical drama and commentary, packed inside a smartly streamlined, stylish and brutal mini-larp.
Rounding up the package is a set of tools, with discussion on debriefing, workshops and warm-up. Quite elementary, but all the more suitable for use by beginners as well as reminders for experienced organizers. All in all, while not very complex (excluding the game designs), Playing the learning game is practical, useful and oftentimes also impressive. It's the kind of user-oriented larp theory that critical voices from outside ivory towers have been clamoring for, so I seriously hope it finds the right audiences - the people who will put it to good use.
The book can be purchased
from Lulu
. It's a bit pricey compared to its size, but I nevertheless recommend it for any serious enthusiast of edu-larping.
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In my early twenties I found life as a struggling, near-bankrupt musician to be exhausting. I started looking for ways to help my mind and my body let go of the ridiculous amounts of tension I was holding, which were preventing me from sleeping and were starting to make me ill. I came across a relaxation technique known as Autogenic Training. I found that in a 15-minute session, by using a set of simple visualizations, I could completely switch off my mind and body and enter a meditative state. These visualizations were learnt by listening to recordings of the AT practitioner repeating simple phrases, which would travel very slowly from the left speaker to the right and back again, in a loop, getting quieter and quieter. I found my consciousness could latch onto this audio, and follow it as it moved and descended through the stereo field, and that focusing on this movement would stop all other thoughts from intruding. And once other thoughts had stopped, this "fourth state" could be achieved.
I have always incorporated things that affect me deeply in my life into my music—sometimes consciously, but often unconsciously. At the time of writing my third album Insides, I first noticed elements of these hypnotic techniques appearing in my music. Specifically on the track "Light Through The Veins," which loops one simple, slow nine-note figure for nine minutes, whilst other elements gradually evolve from it, and form a structure in which it can exist. I found when listening back to the finished track that it could transport me, stop my thoughts, and send me to a state of near-euphoria. I was discovering that what music could do to my consciousness was similar to the self-hypnosis techniques I had learnt, but much deeper and more beautiful. It seemed logical therefore, when writing Immunity, to try and push this element further, even to make it the theme of the record. Each track therefore is a further exploration into hypnotic techniques and how they can be brought into musical structures. The title Immunity refers to the feeling music can give you, when you allow it to truly transport you, and when you allow yourself to float free of all other thoughts.


text:
Beamish Museum Wedding Photography
Its not often you get the chance to photograph a wedding at an open air Museum, so when Caroline from The Twins wedding photography asked me to second shoot for them at Beamish Museum I jumped at the chance.
Fiona and Ryan got married in St Marys Church in Whickham then it was a London bus ride up to Beamish Museum. The rain started lashing down just as the ceremony started and was just stopping as we got to Beamish Museum.
Our first stop was the Pockerley Old Hall, set in beautiful gardens with some stunning views. We then headed to the Edwardian Pit Village for some tasty Fish and Chips from Davy's Fried Fish and Chip Shop. Then we jumped on the bus again and our next destination was The Town. Really stepping back in time the Town is a fantastic setting for a wedding and the Masonic hall makes for a great place to party!
It really was something special being part of Fiona and Ryan's day and a great location to have a wedding. I hope you enjoy the wedding photography from Beamish Museum and please do get in touch with any wedding photography enquiries.
email email@example.com
Wedding photography by Duncan McCall Photography ©Duncan McCall 2014