text:
Erfworld Logo
Rob Balder (writer)
Xin Ye (pencil)
Lauri Ahonen (ink and color)
|Current status / schedule
|Tuesday, Friday
|Launch date
|fantasy, comedy, parody
Erfworld is a story-driven fantasy/comedy webcomic about a master strategy gamer summoned into and stuck inside a wargame. The first book, The Battle for Gobwin Knob was written by Rob Balder and illustrated by Jamie Noguchi.[1] Erfworld was recognized as one of the top 10 graphic novels of 2007 by Time Magazine.[2] The second book, Love is a Battlefield was illustrated by Xin Ye. Before his departure, David Hahn was the artist for much of the third book, Hamsterdance versus the Charlie Foxtrot, which will be completed by Xin Ye with colors and inks by Lauri Ahonen.[3] A portion of the webcomic series has been animated, Ken-Burns-style, with voice-over work by Jeopardy! champion Arthur Chu.[4][5]
Erfworld follows a graphic novel format, with a new page added with each update. The setting is Erfworld, a fantasy world that adheres to the rules of a fictional turn-based strategy wargame. The narrative focuses on a complex story about warring factions within this world, but most installments also contain humor, puns, and side-gags about strategy-fantasy video games, role-playing games, and references to history or popular culture. The webcomic's distinctive visual style counters the theme of unending violence with a twee, kawaii artistic sensibility (described by the creators as "cute"[6]) in which characters are drawn to look like dolls, or anime characters, or toys. Injuries draw no blood in Efworld, and damage is cured overnight. That same charming aesthetic follows in its lisping use of letter changes in frequently used names, particularly replacing "r" with "w" (spidews, dwagons, and twolls instead of spiders, dragons, and trolls). The comic was originally started as an attempt to bring all of author Rob Balder's fantasy-related strips from his other comic, PartiallyClips, into the same universe and tell a story with them.[7]
Erfworld's plot, setting, and characters are released under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike license.[8]
Webcomics authors such as Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary[9] and Mohammad "Hawk" Haque of Applegeeks[10] have posted reviews and comments about Erfworld, and it has been cited on the webcomic site Fleen,[11] by authors outside the webcomic field such as Time-Blog and Time author/journalist Lev Grossman in his articles "Webcomics are the New Blogs"[12] and "Erfworld: It's a Boopin' Good Webcomic!"[13] Grossman also listed Erfworld as one of the Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007.[14] The addition of Erfworld to GiantITP was noted in "First Watch," Dragon Magazine's monthly section on new developments in gaming and entertainment.[15] Additionally, Erfworld was reviewed by Webcomic Overlook, receiving four stars out of five,[16] and was profiled by NPR.[6]
Following on the success of the Order of the Stick Kickstarter project, in February 2012, author Rob Balder launched the Erfworld "Year of the Dwagon" Kickstarter, seeking funding for a motion comic project. The Kickstarter was extremely successful, resulting in funding of almost $85,000, making it the fourth-largest comics category Kickstarter project as of May 2012.[17]
Plot synopsis
Erfworld's premise is that overlord Stanley the Plaid is conducting a military campaign to quest for the Arkentools - artifacts of ancient power left behind by the Titans who created the Erfworld. Stanley controls one of these tools, the Arkenhammer, but his quest for the others seems to have been costly and unsuccessful; the story opens as his final living warlord is killed in battle. Stanley's chief adviser, Wanda Firebaugh, convinces him to purchase a "Summon Perfect Warlord" spell as a final attempt to prevent defeat. The spell summons Earth gamer Parson Gotti (whose name is an anagram for "Protagonist") into Erfworld, where he is to serve as chief warlord under Stanley.
Meanwhile, Prince Ansom of Jetstone is leading a massive coalition toward Stanley's capital, Gobwin Knob, hoping to destroy Stanley's side forever. Ansom's coalition has many members, but most prominent in the story are Jetstone (Ansom's kingdom), the forces of Transylvito (a vampire-like people) and Archons (hovering female fighters) he has hired from Charlie, a powerful overlord and mercenary.
Early in the comic, one of Ansom's officers, Jillian Zamussels, flies on a scouting mission, but is captured by Stanley's forces and taken to Gobwin Knob. Wanda interrogates Jillian and, having gained magical or emotional control of her, releases her to become an unwitting double agent. During this time, Parson has been learning the battle mechanics of Erfworld and has planned an attack on Ansom's coalition. He sends a force of dwagons to make hit-and-run raids on the coalition's siege units, then draws Ansom into various traps as the coalition pursues the wounded dwagons. Jillian eventually locates the dwagons but is unwilling to attack because she is under Wanda's mind-control spell. Wanda's spell ultimately fails, however, and Jillian leads an attack that destroys the dwagons. Stanley is enraged about Parson and Wanda's unsuccessful plans and decides to take his last stand back into his own hands. He takes the surviving dwagons, then departs his capital to start his side afresh on the uninhabited site of another capital he sacked some years ago. Stanley's departure is a major turning point in the story, as these events leave Parson in sole command of the limited forces remaining at Gobwin Knob, which he must rally in a final stand against Ansom's much larger coalition.
Parson quickly puts some defensive plans into action. Parson contacts Charlie, and asks him to switch sides; Charlie declines but agrees to sit the fight out. Also, as Ansom's forces scout the mining tunnels under Gobwin Knob to find weak points, Parson orders Sizemore, Stanley's dirtamancer, to ignore all but the scouts closest to the city, but to strike those with overwhelming force. This ploy tricks Ansom into thinking he has found an unguarded route to the main city garrison.
Meanwhile, Ansom has dispatched a force of air units, led by Jillian, to hunt down Stanley. They eventually rendezvous with forces from Transylvito (but without Charlie's promised Archons) and head Stanley off at a narrow pass. When Stanley and his flight of dwagons arrive at this choke point, an intense fight ensues, leaving him with heavy losses. Stanley escapes under a veil cast by his foolamancer and heads back toward Gobwin knob.
While Stanley is still away, the final battle for Gobwin Knob begins in earnest. Ansom first sends a large force of Jetstone units into the tunnels beneath the city, which are all destroyed by hidden traps and forces. Wanda animates the fallen enemies into an army of uncroaked soldiers, which Parson uses to protect the outer walls of Gobwin Knob. Ansom fails to breach the well-protected outer walls until he re-enlists Charlie's help at a high cost. Once the wall is breached, Ansom pours his units into the city and does a Dance Dance Revolution-style dance led by Charlie's Archons, which gives his forces a massive bonus and leads them to victory.
Parson does not admit defeat though, and uses a perfidy false surrender offer as a ruse to assassinate Ansom. Parson's twoll lackey Bogroll tackles Ansom from the parapet and both fall to their deaths. Parson then collapses his own city, killing most coalition forces within the walls, but even this leaves too many enemy units alive. Parson retreats with the casters into the isolated portal room to plan the desperate final attack that will be the story's climax. Gobwin Knob is built atop an extinct volcano, so Parson orders the casters to make it erupt. The casters use magic to link the minds of Wanda the Croakamancer and Sizemore the Dirtmancer, so that with their combined skill they can uncroak the volcano.
Parson and the casters flee though a portal to escape the resulting eruption, and return to find a ruin. The coalition is erased and the terrain itself changed. Sizemore shows Parson that he has discovered a fortune in gemstones exposed by the volcano, while Wanda finds the Arkenpliers (Ansom's former arkentool) and attunes to them. With the power of the Arkenpliers, Wanda is able to permanently reanimate dead units to their original strength. She uses them to "decrypt" the late Prince Ansom and most of the other fallen coalition forces as powerful new allies.
The first book concludes as Parson (also known as Lord Hamster) asks Maggie, Gobwin Knob's thinkamancer, to what extent his actions are his own doing, and to what extent they were forced by magical loyalty. She tells Parson he is himself mostly responsible for the death and desolation around him. Parson appears to be both disgusted with the actions he had to take, and also empowered by learning that he has control over his own destiny. He walks away and speaks angrily to the "Erfworld". He ends his monologue by shouting "I won't be a gamepiece. I'm a Player. Fuck You!!", apparently breaking the Erfworld's "censorship", and throws his sword into the lava, where it melts.
In the aftermath of this battle, Gobwin Knob is rebuilt. Wanda and Ansom lead the decrypted army on a campaign to conquer the world and convert all to the belief that attunement to the Arkentools, not royal origin, is the true source of divinely ordained rule. Book Two begins as this army confronts the forces of Jetstone, after the off-screen destruction of their ally Unaroyal. The decrypted Ansom attempts to persuade his still-living brothers to accept Toolism. They refuse, and a battle breaks out in which Ansom's brother Ossomer is captured. Ansom then makes another attempt to persuade him, only to watch Wanda order Ossomer cut down so she can decrypt him. The army then marches on Jetstone's capital city with intent to take the city, which according to the rules of Erfworld ends the side and causes the remaining cities to become "neutral." Wanda and Parson agree that they almost certainly have the forces to win, but then Charlie uses the Arkendish (which he controls) to intervene in the battle by ending Stanley's turn.
Parson Gotti
Also known as Lord Hamster, Parson serves as Chief Warlord or warlord of the side Gobwin Knob throughout the story, and as its protagonist, whisked away from Earth to Erfworld at the beginning of the first book.[16] His name is an anagram of "Protagonist".
Prior to the story, Parson is depicted as having been the author of the webcomic Hamstard[18] (actually created by the authors of Erfworld as a meta-background for Parson's character and as an "easter egg"). He spent months at a time designing strategy games for his own amusement as an escape from an unsatisfying job and life.[19]
Parson questions whether Erfworld is real or just a coma dream of his, if his actions truly are his own (the summoning is supposed to put him under Stanley's command) and the ethics of his situation (his actions makes him responsible for thousands of deaths and he is serving what appears to be the evil side). Still, he chooses to tentatively accept the reality of the situation and the role he has been given. Parson is large by Erfworld standards (and fat by real-world standards), standing roughly twice as tall as Wanda Firebaugh.[20] He does not conform to all the rules of the universe (for example, he doesn't have visible "stats" like the in-world characters). Janice has said that he is a Hippiemancer; whether this is true or not is unknown.
Stanley the Tool
Overlord of the side "Gobwin Knob" and of the nearly lost Plaid tribe.[21] Stanley serves as the superior of the protagonist throughout the story so far, with whom he is initially at odds.[16]
Originally known as Stanley the Plaid, he started off as a piker unit under King Saline IV and eventually rose to the position of warlord.[22] During his service, he came to possess the Arkenhammer, a mysterious tool of divine origin, setting himself apart as a warlord, and later, ruler.[23][24] King Saline IV later paid to have Stanley promoted to Heir Designate.[22] Thus, when King Saline IV was killed in an attack while Stanley was away, Stanley and his side were not dissolved and retook the city.[22]
At the time of the story, Lord Stanley is involved in an ongoing war in an effort to find the other Arkentools, believing it is the will of the Titans he control them. At the beginning of the first book, this war has reduced his realm from eleven cities to only Gobwin Knob itself.[25] He had Wanda summon "the perfect warlord" in an attempt to win the battle for Gobwin Knob, which yielded Parson Gotti.[19][26] In Stanley's first meeting with Parson, Parson convinced him that "tool" was a term of honor. Drawing a connection between this title and his search for the Arkentools, Stanley declared that he should henceforth be addressed as "Tool".[20] Stanley objects strongly to being called a "bad guy,"[27] and considers himself to be divinely favored by the Titans.[28] Stanley's underlings often suffer from his unchecked ego and limited patience, as well as his limited intelligence. His name (and newly assumed title) is a play on Stanley Tools.
Wanda Firebaugh
Chief Croakamancer serving Lord Stanley, and a member of the lost Croatan tribe. Wanda is the second named character to appear in the first book.[29] Her name is a play on "wand of fireball."
She is a patient and skilled manager,[21] though she is ruthless in battle and not above using seduction as a means of manipulating others.[30] She is skilled at many types of magic, but has stated that only Croakamancy (which she uses to animate fighters "croaked" in battle as "uncroaked"[31]) holds any interest for her.[32] She has demonstrated some ability with Hat Magic, Dollamancy, and Thinkamancy (which are all Fate magics). By the end of book one, she controls the Arkenpliers, an Arkentool that allows her to perform feats of croakamancy that are normally impossible, such as raising corpses to create lifelike intelligent "decrypted" units.
Prince Ansom
During the first book, Prince Ansom serves as Chief Warlord to King Slately of the Jetstone[21] and the leader of the Royal Crown Coalition fighting against Stanley, and the primary antagonist.[33] His name is a play on "handsome" (cf. Prince Charming), while his initial outfit resembled the costume worn by Evel Knievel.
He was a skilled leader, warrior, and tactician but lacked modesty and was prone to reckless behavior when his pride was at stake. His crest was a radish. He carried the Arkenpliers, though he was not attuned to them, and thus could not use their full abilities.[34] He had a history of personally riding to Jillian's rescue,[35] and Wanda believes he was in love with her.[36] While he apparently looked down on those not of royal or noble houses—Vinny correctly guessed that he despised Stanley not so much for his attacks on other peoples as for the fact he came to rule by regicide—he did, according to Jillian, honestly believe in the concept of noblesse oblige, and as a result often put himself in unnecessary danger to protect his troops.
He was croaked by Bogroll and decrypted (improved uncroaking) by Wanda at the end of the first book,[37] and serves Gobwin Knob as Chief Warlord at the start of the second,[38] prior to his capture.[39]
Jillian Zamussels
A female barbarian and warlord, fighting for the army of Prince Ansom. She has been known to engage in combat even when directed to avoid it.[40][41] She has an unrealistically oversized sword.[21] Her personal relationship with Prince Ansom is initially unclear but evolves into a romance; she declined Ansom's invitation to join him in his tent, but later that night approached it, stopped, and walked away.[42] Later, she professes her love for Ansom after breaking Wanda's spell, and it is implied that they sleep together when she spends a night on his flying carpet. She chats casually with Wanda after being tortured and interrogated by her,[43] but later suddenly breaks down and collapses. It is revealed that Wanda is able to influence her feelings and thoughts.[44] She has stated that she was originally the heir of the kingdom of Faq, an isolated and peaceful Utopian kingdom visually modeled after Japanese feudal society, and the daughter of King Banhammer, a philosopher-king who disliked his heir for her violent and aggressive ways.[45] Her name is an approximation of "jillions of muscles." During the intermission between books 1 and 2, she restores Faq with herself as queen, with assistance from Transylvito.
Sizemore Rockwell
A Dirtamancer in the army of Gobwin Knob and one of the few remaining members of the Plaid Tribe.[21] In the beginning of the first book, he helped Parson learn how magic works in Erfworld.[46]
He is very curious and loves to study all types of magic, but is unskilled in any beyond his specialty,[32] and knows little about military matters.[47] When forced into combat as the battle reaches Gobwin Knob itself, he is very regretful about taking lives, but reluctantly accepts it as his duty to do so.
A one-eyed twoll who served as a guardsman in Gobwin Knob and lackey to Parson.[48] He was loyal and typically good-natured, although a frequent target of the other guardsmen's pranks.[49] Bogroll was croaked by Coalition forces, having sacrificed himself in a kamikaze attack on Ansom, and cannot be decrypted due to the grievous harm inflicted on his body. Bogroll was a character in the PartiallyClips strip,[50] and is the only crossover between PartiallyClips and Erfworld. His name is a British English colloquialism for toilet paper.
Vinny Doombats
A count of the Transylvito tribe who fights for the Royal Crown Coalition. Like other Transylvitans, Vinny has the appearance of a vampire, though sunlight apparently does not harm him. Vinny seems to be a close advisor and friend of Prince Ansom, to whom he has few qualms about speaking frankly. He has confronted Ansom with his opinion that Stanley's commoner origins, not his military aggressions against several coalition members, are at the root of Ansom's antipathy toward Stanley, while assuring Ansom that this issue would not affect his personal loyalty.[51] As his name implies, he controls the coalition's bat scouting units. His name is a reference to Vinny Boombatz, a fictional character created by stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield.
A Thinkamancer in the employ of Gobwin Knob. She is very skilled in her specialty and amoral in its application. She can send thinkagrams (telepathic messages) and link multiple casters together to combine their powers. She controlled a link with the Foolamancer Jack Snipe and the Lookamancer Misty, then later a link with the Croakamancer Wanda and the Dirtmancer Sizemore. When she broke the first link, she protected herself from the backlash at the expense of the other two. Parson planned to punish her by explicitly ordering her to break the second link and protect Wanda and Sizemore. She would probably have died from the backlash while doing so, but Parson decided against it at the last moment. She bears a passing physical resemblance to Margaret Thatcher.
The Overlord of Charlescomm. Charlie has consistently remained offscreen, interacting with other characters via remote communication. The character of Charlie, his archons, and his penchant for mystery are likely drawn from the titular character of the 1970s television series Charlie's Angels. However, his Eyebook handle, CharlsNChrg, refers to the 80s TV show, Charles in Charge.
Charlie was first contracted by Prince Ansom during the first book to supply a group of Archons to reinforce the expedition sent to rescue Jillian Zamussels. Later, after Ansom broke off the alliance in the expectation that Charlie would make a new alliance with Transylvito, Charlie instead took advantage of his release from his contract to begin dealing with Parson. Charlie shows no real commitment to either side, but does value his reputation as a mercenary who "stays bought".
Prince Ossomer
Prince Ansom's brother and chief warlord of Jetstone after the Battle for Gobwin Knob. He was captured by Wanda and then killed and 'popped again'; executed and resurrected by the Arkenpliers. However, he appears to have broken the loyalty to the pliers and became a Jetsone unit again. His name is an approximation of "awesomer".
Four Arkentools have appeared in the comic so far, but only three have been drawn.
A hammer resembling a toy croquet mallet. Owned by and attuned to Stanley the Plaid/Tool, the Arkenhammer has the power to control dwagons, glow brightly, levitate itself and its wielder, generate multiple lightning bolts, "rock out" (play heavy rock music to the benefit of combat units) turn approximately 20 percent of walnuts cracked with it into pigeons and turn some bird-like units into walnuts.[52] Stanley claims the Arkenhammer has chosen him for divine reasons, and uses this, and Wanda's beckoning, as rationale for his quest to obtain the other tools.
A sword-sized pair of needle-nose pliers. Previously owned by but not attuned to Prince Ansom, they served as a close combat weapon and had the power in his hands to "turn most Uncroaked to dust". Stanley believed that Ansom's attack on Gobwin Knob was divinely directed to bring the Arkenpliers to him. Seen in the hands of the Unaroyal Warlord Lady Sylvia Lazarus of the Coalition immediately prior to a volcanic eruption, the Arkenpliers were recovered by Wanda from the aftermath of the explosion, and have attuned to her. They give Wanda the ability to "decrypt" corpses, restoring them to life (or at least a close approximation thereof) with nearly intact intellect, memories, and abilities - though their loyalty is to the Croakamancer that raised them rather than their previous side. Wanda can also decrypt units that normally can not be uncroaked. These abilities are unparalleled in the discipline of Croakamancy.
An object resembling a satellite dish. Owned by and attuned to Charlie, it gives him a mastery of Thinkamancy, allowing him to hack into Stanley's communications systems and communicate with Parson via his Eyebook. Parson uses the fact that Charlie is not a Royal but still attuned to it to further provoke Ansom. Parson later learns from Wanda's Decrypted Archons that the Arkendish grants Charlie many additional abilities, some of which are unknown even to them: he can handle an unlimited number of Thinkagrams, and extend some of his abilities to his personal guard of Archons. With the dish, Thinkamancer links can exist over distances, and appear to be able to be broken with little repercussion. Any commander in the world is able to contact those Archons by concentrating hard enough and long enough - this allows Charlie to contact and hire out to any side in the world. The Arkendish may also be the reason Charlie can produce Archon units.
A pair of red slippers, they give an attuned wearer unlimited move. The other mentioned ability is that they can send their wearer "home", depending on what home means to the one wearing them. As Overlady Judy's use of them in Book 0 has shown, can send you to a place where the concept of ruler does not apply (as that position was passed to Dame Branch)
The World
Game rules
The laws of nature governing Erfworld are similar to the rules of a turn-based strategy game. Forces are divided into "sides" each of which is controlled by an overlord or monarch; overlords and monarchs have powers over their units that are similar to those of a player in a strategy game.
Turns and movement
Battle takes place in turns; each side is able only to attack on its own turn, and no turns occur during the night. Each unit (a term that encompasses both various creatures and sapient beings) has a certain amount of "Move," which governs the maximum distance it may travel during its side's turn. Thus, units may only travel to other locations during their turn, but at other times, they may move around within the bounds of the hexagonal region, or "hex," where they ended up after their own turn.
Units and stats
All people in Erfworld appear fully formed as adults. Any side is able to "pop" new units each turn at each of its city sites. Units can learn new skills and gain promotion at a cost of time and money, or these abilities and ranks can simply be "popped" along with the unit. Each unit has an "upkeep" cost, paid by the overlord of its side out of the treasury. At the start of their side's turn, each unit receives rations, heals back to full health, and experiences minor maintenance such as personal cleanup.
Units have various battle stats associated with them. Each has a "level" as would a unit in a strategy game. Level determines power in battle and increases with successive victories. Certain units can also offer bonuses (temporary boosts in level) to the forces they are leading; warlords give a bonus to the troops they lead, as do certain casters. One of the stranger bonuses available is "dance fighting," a bonus earned by dancing while fighting.
One of the more unusual features of the Erfworld universe is that it appears to be censored. When Parson is summoned to the world, he discovers almost immediately that whenever he attempts to use a word that could be considered a profanity it comes out as "Boop". Parson's reaction shows that this is an in-universe mechanic.[53]
The natives of Erfworld apparently understand that the word represents profanity, but it is unclear whether they understand each boop as the word Parson had intended to use. Sizemore and Wanda are the only characters to have responded appropriately to a word that was "booped out," but it is possible they determine the word's meaning from the context.[54]
There is one notable exception to the general censorship. "Crap" has been used by the natives of Erfworld, both before and after Parson is summoned there.[55][56][57] Only Jillian Zamussels' use of the word has been other than literal, though the earliest use by Lady Firebaugh could have been taken as both a literal observation and a curse word. Artist Jamie Noguchi has stated that he does not believe the word "crap" to be profanity.[58]
On the second night after Stanley the Tool leaves Gobwin Knob, Parson overhears the Gobwin troops singing drinking songs which work around the restriction by alluding to—rather than explicitly describing—deficiencies in manhood among the Jetstone and Transylvito factions.[59] For instance, he is surprised to learn that Erfworlders can use the word "testes". Other characters seem to have figured out their own loopholes; for example, one of Ansom's allies remarks that "the Sofa King is Sofa-King finished here" on page 117.
Artist Jamie Noguchi once stated that Boop was originally supposed to be "meep".[60]
In the final page of book one, in an act of defiance and anger Parson yells an uncensored "Fuck you!!" directed at Erfworld itself. Since then, none of Parson's swearing has been censored by Erfworld. The authors explained[61] the page as pointing up the difference between censoring words (harming nobody) while simultaneously depicting or glorifying acts of mass violence (harming many).
Magic can be performed in Erfworld by units called casters. Each caster has a specialty in one of twenty-four magical disciplines, but can theoretically cast in any discipline. These specialties can be combined by mentally linking casters together using the magical discipline of "thinkamancy"- a process that increases magical power but sometimes harms the casters involved when their link is broken.
It is explained in the second Parson's Klog,[62] that three fundamental elements (Life, Motion, and Matter) are combined in all possible combinations to get eight major classes of magic. Magic within each class can be further aligned to any of three axes (Erf, Fate and Numbers), thus dividing each class into three disciplines. This gives a total of twenty-four disciplines, which are described - along with any known details - in the tables below:
|Hocus Pocus
|Hocus Pocus
| Findamancy and Predictamancy were used to summon Parson; Predictamancers have been indicated to be akin to seers.[63]
Mathamancy is described as: "Analyzing probabilities... predicting outcomes" and "the raw calculations of that work".[64] Mathamancy's primary use is to determine battle odds.
|Turnamancy can increase the rate cities produce new units, turn captured enemy units to your side, and (when linked with another unknown magic class) even force the end of another side's turn. Dollamancy creates Moll and Doll units, and can be used to create magic items. Twolls also have the 'fabrication' special, which is a form of natural Dollamancy, as is the formation of livery emblems. Weirdomancy can grant or remove special abilities to units.
|The Dirtamancer, Sizemore Rockwell, has been shown to be able to animate different types of rock into golems,[65] to be able to dig through solid rock,[66] and to deal with Gobwin Knob's night soil in ways up to and including animating it into "crap golems". Dirtomancers can upgrade cities cheaper than normal. Dittomancy can multiply combat bonuses, and the number of creatures and objects. Dittomancy has been shown quadrupling a volley of arrows and even duplicating an overlord.
|Lookamancy has only been shown as a form of scrying. Thinkamancy has been shown to deal with telepathy, including creating a mind link with other casters that allows spells that normal casters cannot even comprehend,[64] Thinkagrams (a type of long-range communication), and suggestion spells. Foolamancy creates illusions, to disguise troops. The Eyebooks used by the main characters in Chapter 1 are made through a combination of all three disciplines of Eyemancy.[67]
|Flower Power
|Flower Power creates plant units, poisons, and can prevent units from engaging. Time perception crumbles in the presence of Flower Power.[68] It can also be used to "quiet" a battle,[69] though the precise meaning of "quiet" has not been revealed. Natural Signamancy affects a character's appearance, matching their roles and nature; Signamancers are aware of this interplay and can also create magical contracts. Date-a-mancy deals with interpersonal relationships.
|Shockmancy includes the aggressive use of shock images and stunning spells, while Croakamancy includes the raising of the dead, or "uncroaking." Deletionism was a jab at Wikipedia; following a continuity snag, Retconjuration is now a theoretical discipline reserved for the Titans alone.[70]
|Hat Magic
|The hat employed by Jillian for sending messages to Ansom is likely a product of Hat Magic.[71] Carnymancy is the ability to "rig the game", creating and ignoring natural laws. Singing is considered Rhyme-o-mancy, though the actual abilities of Rhyme-o-mancy have not been revealed.
|Clevermancy consists of none of the Elements, and is described by author Rob Balder as "raw magic dealing with raw magical forces".[72] Luckamancy is used for the purpose of increasing the odds of a desirable outcome in the user's favor,[73] but does so by lowering the odds of future desirable outcomes. Healomancy deals with healing units. Moneymancy creates shmuckers (currency) and gems for use in trade and upkeep.
- ↑ Rhode, Mike (November 8, 2010). "Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jamie Noguchi". Washington City Paper. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
- ↑ Time Magazine "Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007."
- ↑ "'David Hahn is the new artist for Erfworld'". Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ↑ Berlatsky, Noah (November 6, 2014). "What Can You Really Do With a Degree in the Arts?". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
- ↑ Brill, Jason (April 18, 2014). "People: Arthur Chu". Cleveland Magazine. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
- 1 2 "NPR - Intern Edition » Blog Archive » An Award-Winning Graphic Novel… On the Web". Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-09.
- ↑ Balder, R; Swordsman: Commentary, PartiallyClips, 06-02-2009, Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ↑ Balder, R; Fan Content Guidelines, GiantITP Forums, 7 December 2006. Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ↑ "What, exactly, is an "Erf?"", Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary blog, January 14, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ "Erfworld Launched", Mohammed Hoque, Applegeeks blog, December 7, 2006. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ "What on Erf do you mean, "My Language"?" Gary Tyrrell, Fleen, January 19, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ "Webcomics Are the New Blogs: The Order of the Stick", Lev Grossman, TIME.com, January 31, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ "Erfworld: It's a Boopin' Good Webcomic!", Lev Grossman, TIME.com, April 10, 2007 Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ "Top 10 Graphic Novels (#6: Erfworld)", Lev Grossman, TIME.com, December 10, 2007. Retrieved December 11, 2007.
- ↑ "First Watch." Dragon Magazine, Issue #354 March 2007: 16.
- 1 2 3 "The Webcomic Overlook #52: Erfworld " The Webcomic Overlook". Retrieved 2009-11-09.
- ↑ Kickstarter Most-Funded Projects in the Comics Category
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 14)
- 1 2 Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 16)
- 1 2 Stanley: I have a higher calling! I am a Tool! / Wanda: I see, Lord. / Stanley: Not Lord. Tool. From now on, everyone addresses me as "Tool!" Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 20)
- 1 2 3 4 5 Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld cast of characters, GiantITP. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- 1 2 3 Per Sizemore's narration of past events. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 79)
- ↑ Wanda: You're using the Arkenhammer to crack walnuts? / Stanley: Yeah. / Wanda: But it's divine. A tool of the Titans. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 4)
- ↑ Supercoolstuff.com; Squeaky Hammer - #NV680 (Internet Archive link)
- ↑ Wanda: Since you began questing for the Arkentools we have not won a battle. We once held 11 cities. Now, we hold only the capital. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 5)
- ↑ Wanda: I thought we agreed I was looking for the perfect military mind. [...] / Stanley: I want that too! Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 17)
- ↑ Parson: [...] I always did like playing the bad guys, which we obviously are. [...] / Stanley: (menacingly) I'm curious, Hamster... What makes you think we're the "bad guys?" Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 31)
- ↑ Stanley: The Titans left [The Arkenhammer] here for a reason. It chose me for a divine reason. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 32)
- ↑ Narrator: [...] And that made a bad day considerably worse...for Lord Stanley's Chief Croakamancer: Wanda Firebaugh. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 2)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 54)
- ↑ Stanley: Uncroaked. They each fell in battle and Wanda... whatchacallit... / Parson: Animated them? / Stanley: Animated them. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 27)
- 1 2 Sizemore: [...] I'm good at nothing beyond my specialty. But I do love to study everything. / Wanda: [...] I can manage quite a number of magicks outside Croakamancy, but I have little interest in them. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 13)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 21)
- ↑ Ansom: I wield the Arkenpliers. But I am not attuned to them, as Stanley is to his artifact. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 22)
- ↑ Wanda: [...] "Ansom, with his long history of personally riding to [Jillian's] rescue, flies his air units out to escort her back to the column." Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 45)
- ↑ Wanda: I know [Ansom's] entire battle plan. [...] As for his weaknesses, he is in love with our prisoner. And I control her mind. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 43)
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0145.html
- ↑ http://www.erfworld.com/book-2-archive/?px=%2F2009-10-31.jpg
- ↑ http://www.erfworld.com/book-2-archive/?px=%2F2010-04-21.jpg
- ↑ Ansom: AVOID any engagements if you can! / Jillian: Oh, I am. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 9)
- ↑ Ansom: [...] She's not just scouting; she's apparently hitting targets of opportunity. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 10)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 8)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 36)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 39)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 82)
- ↑ Klog: Sizemore and I have been talking magic theory. [...] He's about as knowledgable a guy as I could want for a teacher. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (Parson's Klog #2)
- ↑ Klog: It's harder to get information about this stuff that it was about magic. Sizemore barely knows the basics. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (Parson's Klog #4)
- ↑ Bogroll: My Lords! I am reporting as Lackey retainer to Lord Hamster, by the order of my Lady Firebaugh. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 29)
- ↑ Bogroll: Mung, why do the other henchmen pick on me? / Mung: Because it's fun. Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 28)
- ↑ Balder, R; Bogroll the Cyclops, PartiallyClips, 09-08-2002. Retrieved June 29, 2007.
- ↑ Vinny: You know I gotcher back no matter what. But what I can't figure out is, why are you leading this fight? [...] / Ansom: Can't it just be that I want to end a great evil? / Vinny: It could be. [...] But your beef is he's not royal, right? Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 34)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 126)
- ↑ Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 18)
- ↑ Sizemore: This...is called a "chamber pot." / Parson: Magic item? / Sizemore: You wish. / Parson: Boop. / Sizemore: Exactly! Balder, R; Noguchi, J; Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob (page 35)
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 6 (Lady Firebraugh)
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 13 (Sizemore)
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 95 (Jillian Zamessels)
- ↑ Post in Erfworld forums by Jamie Noguchi.
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 101
- ↑ Post in Erfworld forums by Jamie Noguchi.
- ↑ Post in Erfworld forums
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0040.html
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0091.html Erfworld, chapter 1: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 82. Jillian: "His [Banhammer's] Predictamancer told him that his precious toy kingdom would fall someday."
- 1 2 Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 54
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob page 53
- ↑ Page 84, Parson's Klog 7
- ↑ Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Know page 35
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0011.html
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0013.html
- ↑ http://www.erfworld.com/2009/08/the-ultimate-naughtymancy/
- ↑ http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F010.jpg
- ↑ post by Rob Balder in the Erfworld Forums
- ↑ http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0060.html
External links
- Erfworld
- The main cast of characters
- Erfworld Wiki, maintained in part by creators Rob Balder and Jamie Noguchi


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It's perhaps technically a little early to say if my medication is making a difference. I don't feel leaps and bounds better – of course, it's only been three days. On the other hand, I was up by six this morning, cleaned the kitchen, packed my suitcase, washed the dog's dishes and packed up all her things for her weekend at my parents AND actually made it to work on time for the first time since, oh, let's say November. Draw your own conclusions!
One thought on "MMMedication!"
Oh, good, I'm glad you're feeling better. Life is really difficult to navigate when you're exhausted all the time.

subset: commoncrawl


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USA can thwart any N. Korean missile threat, says general
In February, China announced it was halting coal imports from North Korea based on a sanctions resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council. "The development of these two classes of missiles represents a major development in North Korea's strategic power", the Lowy Institute said in a Thursday note.
Internazionale - Tutte le novità
Shooter in California killings gets 100 years in prisonLila Alligood, 19, was sentenced to 50 years to life, while accomplice Sean Angold, 25, got 15 years. Carter was fatally shot while walking his dog. Alligood cried throughout the hearing, as family members addressed them in court. Carey, who was 23, was just beginning a backpacking trip that would have taken her across Europe when she was killed. Don't worry about it. Her body was found in the park on October 3, 2015.
Microsoft Testing Digital Purchased Content Refunds On Xbox And Windows StoreThe self-service refund system, which is now testing in alpha (read: may or may not ever actually see the light of day) was first spotted by some members of the Xbox Insider program. The Xbox One Insider program is now testing refunds, according to a photo posted on the Xbox One subreddit . Microsoft announced that the Creators Update for Windows 10 is rolling out today .
Trump congratulates Turkey's Erdogan after contested referendumThe CHP on Monday called for the annulment of the referendum and said it would take its challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, after a last-minute decision by the electoral board to allow unstamped ballots. With the constitutional changes, Erdogan could now rule the country until 2029 with far fewer checks on his power. Before the referendum , Erdoğan said Turkey will review its relationship with the European Union.
Suspect in Facebook video murder deadShortly after the news broke that Stephens was dead, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams spoke at press conference. In other Facebook videos posted on the day of the killing, Stephens said he had "just snapped", blaming gambling debts and a broken-down relationship among other things.
Facebook wants to beam the internet down from helicoptersThe helicopter-drone, which is roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, is literally tethered to a fiber line and a power source on the ground, which enables the chopper to stay airborne for days at a time. The question that comes next is will Facebook create a fleet of helicopters or will they work with telecom partners to build the fleet? On stage, Maguire said that in early tests Tether-tenna has operated for up to 24 hours continuously.
Haley on Syria: No political solution with Assad in powerI think what you're going to see is strong leadership. The decision to send cruise missiles against the Syrian government, which counts Russian Federation as its most powerful ally, is a dramatic U-turn for the Trump administration. "And saying, 'we are only going after chemical weapons areas, ' ignores the enormity of the problem", he said. " We've seen the evidence on Assad, we know exactly what happened ", Haley said.
BP struggles to contain a natural gas leak in AlaskaThe U.K. company didn't say how much oil or natural gas may have spilled. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Candice Bressler says the well operated by BP Exploration Alaska Inc., a subsidiary of BP, was successfully controlled overnight.
Microsoft is testing self-service refunds on Windows 10 and Xbox gamesPeople with an Xbox One or Windows 10 PC may find themselves enjoying a new refund program for digital purchases in the near future. While Steam offers refunds on DLC provided it doesn't have any permanent effect on your game and other such criteria, Microsoft will not refund DLC, season passes or any other add-ons.
Microsoft Begins Offering Self-Service Refunds on Digital Game PurchasesA Universal Windows Platform version of the Skype app was released for PC and mobile past year with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Although you could have a grump about how long it's taken to implement such a service, it's really great to see Microsoft adding this consumer-friendly tool to the Xbox and Windows 10 storefronts.
Gordhan Won't Quit South Africa Parliament Before Zuma VoteCosatu is in an alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, which already called for Zuma's resignation last Friday. The dismissal of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan deepened concerns about government corruption and led the Standard & Poor's agency to lower South Africa's credit rating, citing political instability and threats to economic growth.
UK, Brussels row over Gibraltar rumbles onEvents were held during the weekend to mark the 35th anniversary of the Falklands War, when Britain under then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fought off an Argentine invasion of the disputed archipelago in the South Atlantic. "It is interesting in the draft guidelines from the European Union that Spain is not saying that the whole thing is subject to the transfer of sovereignty".


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Welcome to our Sermons page! You can listen to the latest messages from Pastors Chris McDonald and Sue McDonald or you can browse our Sermon Archives.
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Part 8 of "Grace"
Related Topics: Grace, Life, Jesus, Attitude, Good News, Redemption, God, Value, Identity | More Messages from Pastor Chris McDonald | Download Audio


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Dean Hickman-Smith, Tim Evjenth and Greg Leonard may live cities apart, but they have one thing in common: all three drive cars that remind them of their youth. On July 19, they"ll be steering those cars straight to downtown Saratoga for the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce"s Classic Car Show.
The event, now in its sixth year, tends to draw car enthusiasts who want to talk shop as well as those who just want to spend an afternoon strolling through the Village and gawking at an antique Cadillac on one side of the road and a brand-new Bugatti on the other.
This year they will be treated to plenty of shiny American and foreign cars of all years, makes and models, ranging from the 1920s to the classics of the "50s and "60s. Among them will be Hickman-Smith"s midnight blue 1969 MG MGB, Evjenth"s green and white 1955 Buick Special and Leonard"s red 1966 Chevelle.
Hickman-Smith bought his convertible MG five years ago. The British sports car has a special place in his memory because it was released in the same year that he was born in his native U.K. It was also his first car when he turned 18, although the original was destroyed by rust, having suffered British winters.
"I"ve always been fascinated with vintage cars because they"re kind of a labor of love to keep going," he said. "I bought the MG because it was the first car that I loved."
He found the MG he has now off of Craigslist. It was sitting in a barn in Northern California for 15 years until he rescued it and slowly began bringing it back to life. He said he met a few guys who helped him make improvements on the car at last year"s car show, and while it"s not completely restored, it"s about 80 percent of the way there.
These days, he uses the MG often to drive from his home in Saratoga to his security company in Mountain View, vArmour. Occasionally, he"ll use it for fun outings.
"Two weeks ago I drove out to Big Basin up the mountain with my wife on a fantastic Friday evening and it was very special," he said. "Just seeing the transformation [of the car] to being a reliable and attractive British sports car is quite amazing."
Evjenth"s Buick originally belonged to his grandfather, who bought the car new in 1954. When his grandfather died a few years later, the car fell under his grandmother"s possession, who promised it to everybody in the family. It was the car Evjenth, now a real estate broker with the Sereno Group, remembers riding in with his grandparents to Easter service in Palo Alto and the first car he ever drove in his life.
The Los Gatos resident said he had his eyes on it from the time he was 11 years old and never wavered from his goal of making the car his. The car was eventually passed on to his uncle, and for a while was driven back and forth to the family"s lumber company. In 1994, Evjenth bought the Buick from his uncle and took the entire car apart to completely restore it to its original condition. He hand-polished the side moldings, which are stainless steel, had all the upholstery replaced with original upholstery and had the body repainted. In 1998, Evjenth"s Buick won first place in the "American cars from 1955-1960″ category at the Palo Alto Concours D"Elegance.
And maybe more importantly, his children, who at first declared they"d never get into the car, now fight each other for the driver"s seat, he said.
"We have four kids and they all want it," he said.
For Leonard, a retired software engineer from Campbell, his Chevelle is also a family affair. He bought the car 14 years ago from his older brother, who then helped him completely rebuild it. In fact, it is more than likely his brother, who once bought and sold cars after restoring them, inspired Leonard"s love of hot rod and muscle cars. So when his brother found the Chevelle in the East Bay and showed it to Leonard, he said it only took one glance for him to utter, "I"ve got to have it."
"I just liked the way it looked; everything about it. I just fell in love with it," he said.
A year-long restoration commenced, and even involved help from Leonard"s young daughter, Michelle. Now 18, Michelle is a car connoisseur in her own right, often accompanying her father to car shows and possessing the talent to look at any car and know what year it is with an impressive degree of accuracy.
Even after all these years, "every time I fire it up," Leonard said, "it still puts a smile on my face."
And it appears he"s not the only one. The Chevelle has caused two minor accidents involving admirers who weren"t watching the road in front of them.
Over the years, it has won several trophies and best of shows. Leonard said he tries to take it out on the weekends, especially if it"s nice out, because keeping cars in a garage is "a waste."
The Classic Car Show takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Big Basin Way will be closed to traffic for the event and lined with black and white race car flags. In addition to the classic cars, this year"s event will feature craft vendors, live radio broadcasts, live music and beer and wine tasting.
Additional activities are planned on July 18, the day prior to the event. For the second year in a row, organizers are offering a car cruise between Saratoga, Campbell and Los Gatos.
The event is once again being produced by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Cool Car Club of Saratoga, Los Gatos and Campbell. The purpose of the event, according to organizers, is to boost business for Saratoga merchants and to provide a fun event for car enthusiasts.
Admission is free. Anyone interested in displaying a car is encouraged to register for the car cruise on July 18 and/or the car show the following day by visiting coolcarclub.com or saratogachamber.org.
For more information, contact Tiger Teerlink at 408.828.9614, or the Chamber of Commerce at 408.867.0753 or email@example.com.


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Producer Irwin Winkler is reportedly working on a TV series based on his 1995 film 'The Net', which starred Sandra Bullock. Original screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris are also on board for the project. Winkler stated, "We thought it would make a great TV series. A lot of people said it was ahead of its time anyhow."
The series has been tried once before, back in 1998, but it did not have the original crew attached.


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About Villa Puri Dana
A beautifully-designed Balinese home smack in the middle of Seminyak's bustling, exciting streets, Villa Puri Dana is a five-bedroom haven for guests who are looking for a respite from busy lives, and are looking forward to something exhilarating. Beach bars, cafes, and restaurants are a plenty in the vicinity so you have your hands full with places to see and visit. Indulge in watersports, go snorkeling, diving, and swimming as you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to the beaches in Seminyak and what's more they are all just a few kilometers away!
Outdoor and Pool Area
A slice of heaven is what you will find as you step into the tropical gardens at Villa Puri Dana with its verdant gardens, traditional gazebos, aqua benches for seating, and a stunning 15-metre swimming pool in the middle. Surrounded by dense tropical foliage, you have the advantage of lounging in the pool breathing in the fresh air, gazing at the clear skies, and relaxing to your heart's content. Nap on the daybed found in the bale, or lounge on the sun chairs beside the pool, where you can sunbathe, read, or enjoy a few drinks. There is a Jacuzzi tub next to the pool, for the ultimate relaxation. An alfresco dining area is the perfect spot for breakfast with family and friends!
Living Area
Beginning from the veranda outdoors, where you can relax on the comfy sofas while enjoying the glorious view of the gardens, the living area expands indoors with more sitting space. Nestled in a colonial-style pavilion, the living area is decorated with traditional stone artwork, striking doorways with intricate design, and hardwood flooring. The opulence is evident owing to its décor, and as you lounge with loved ones, you are sure to feel relaxed and at ease with your surroundings.
Stylishly-weathered antique cabinets and things make their way into the living area as well. The dining area is a 10-seater round table in the middle of the living area, a cozy place for everyone to enjoy their meals in luxury. You will find a spa room adjoined to the living area, for in-house massages and therapies.
Master Bedroom
Housed in an alang-alang traditional Balinese pavilion are the three master suites at Villa Puri Dana with the king-sized beds, spacious layout, large glass doors and windows for natural lighting, and selective furniture to brighten up the room. There is ample wardrobe space in all three rooms, so you can store your belongings comfortably. Verandas adjoined to the room are ideal for an early-morning cup of tea. The en-suite bathrooms are made with natural materials and are fitted with shower alcoves.
Guest Bedrooms
The two, charming, bedrooms at Villa Puri Dana are found in the main pavilion, as you ascend the spiral steps from the living area. Each bedroom is furnished with two single beds that can be joined as one king-sized bed. The air-conditioned bedrooms offer excellent views of the garden and pool area for your benefit. The en-suite bathrooms are comfortable and fitted with necessary amenities.
Staff and Services
Besides being spoilt by the chefs, who will delight you with excellent local and international cuisines, there is an entire team to look after you and the villa during your stay. At additional costs, you can request for many additional services like babysitter, car/chauffeur, scooters, laundry, and in-house massages.
Around Villa Puri Dana
You are in for a treat when it comes to places to see and explore in Seminyak as the villa is ideally located, right near Petitenget beach with the famous Ku De Ta beach club. Pay a visit to Pura Petitenget, a renowned sacred monument on the shores of Seminyak. As you start to feel a pang of hunger, there are so many options you will be lost for words! For instance, there is Mutiara, Shiro, Warung Kultur, Breeze at The Samaya, and many more.


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Money, be careful as there are escort erba two currencies but it is easy after a day.
The uniformed police are best avoided by the men and who died filming ben hur women pimping their pelvises for foreign cash.Everything seems perfect, everyday it seems like the issues of homophobia and transphobia are being beaten, but there is another problem, one that continues to exist and which cant bauer sucht frau xvid even be controlled, and that is prostitution.In the end, I dont know what transpired between them regarding love, sex, rock and roll, or anything else.When tipping, I used the convertible pesos but service in Havana is generally really poor.The Bush administration accused Castro of welcoming sex tourism as a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat.And I see that.I say I am not surprised.He adds, 'There will be money involved.Many are part-time prostitutes, who go out only when their meager state salaries run out.The New York Times.It is the only part of Havana that is well maintaind as the rest is very poor and falling down.
For more than a decade, the government has run an intense public-education campaign in schools and on state-owned television and radio stations, promoting the use of condoms and informing people about how HIV is transmitted.Prostitution is sometimes described as commercial sex. .Cuba has the lowest infection rate in the Western Hemisphere, less than.1 percent of the population, according to the World Health Organization.It's strangely titillating, the possibility of momentary escape in a country locals are forbidden to leave.It can be difficult to navigate the warm Cuban waters without being judgmental but I try to travel with an open heart and open mind, as much as possible and I only tell my dearest friends that I love them, in Cuba or elsewhere.The men (or women) who visit Cuba and spend time with the same person regularly, however, often arent paying for sex, at least not directly.


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I had an amazing neighbor. Her name was Margaretta Thurlow and she died almost 2 years at 96.
I think of her often. When I had a question about plants, she was the person I called. She was better than the internet. Even at 96. Her dream as a kid was to work for Burpee seeds. So imagine, in rural Maine in the 1930's being a woman and going off to college(Margaretta was the first female graduate of the University of Maine Agricultural School) and then going to Pennsylvania to work for Burpees. After working in Pennsylvania for several years she went to California to help Burpee develop their big boy tomatoes. She had 100 staff under her cross pollinating tomatoes by hand. She came back to Maine in the 1950's and never left again. She had chickens, peacocks, and 2 huge gardens. Below is a photo I took years ago of her efforts to help her tomatoes survive the first frost. I call the photo the Tomato People. Never knew where she got all the old coats.


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Atomega Review
Atomega is actually a really cool idea. Reflections, the Ubisoft studio responsible for Grow Up and Grow Home, have packed BUD away in favor of EXOFORMS, nigh-omnipotent biological beings that represent the most advanced evolution of man and machine. Situated on a crumbling landscape located at the very edge of Time, these EXOFORMs battle each other for reasons that...don't make a whole lot of sense. The premise that these unique lifeforms spend their last moments of existence killing each other instead of holding back the imminent destruction of the universe is really silly, so it's a good thing that none of that really factors into the proper game.
What makes this game so unique from any other shooter of its type is the evolution mechanic. At the start of a match, each player begins as a small and incredibly fast ball of light. Scattered throughout the large map are a series of purple energy cubes (referred to as MASS) of varying size that, when collected, fill the player's evolution meter. By collecting MASS, you'll grow from a ball of light to creatures resembling cubist renditions of dinosaurs, gorillas, and ultimately, the humanoid OMEGA. What's more is that your speed and damage threshold change with each evolution, making you slower the larger you become but at the same time exponentially increasing your damage output. Killing other players reduces them down to their lowest form which forces them to collect MASS and build their evolutions all over again. For the most part, there's an even playing field during the game's earliest moments. Each player has the same beam weapon to attack with and can collect special power-ups that grant damage bonuses, personal shields, teleportation ability, and a weapon modifier that reduces another player's MASS.
There is no denying that Atomega has a really high cool factor. The concept is awesome and the visuals are just as great. Everything, including the map and the EXOFORMs are made out of glowing cubes. Considering the scaling mechanic, the whole game is like this weird mesh of TRON and Katamari Damacy and for as weird as that sound, it really works well. It's a neat aesthetic that looks great both in screenshots and in play.
With so much going for it, it makes me all the more sad that Atomega's honeymoon is incredibly short. It took me all of twenty minutes to realize that I had seen everything the game had to offer. There is only one map to play in and no other play modes outside of deathmatch. While I feel a $9 video game typically means I don't have to expect much, I'm honestly surprised that this shipped with so little content. Strangely, there's a fairly robust character customization system that offers unlocks through a level-based character progression and I find it odd that more time was put into cosmetic nonsense instead of gameplay content.
Lack of content isn't the only issue that holds Atomega back. There seems to be a really poor sense of game balance in the evolution mechanic. If you're killed by another player that has two or three evolutions on top of you, their damage output is enough to pull off near one hit kills. This makes it really difficult, especially with a full complement of players, for someone to get on the same playing field as everyone else. As I scrounged the map for precious MASS cubes, I always found myself getting hit at extreme distances from better evolved players. Having all that progress thrown in the trash so quickly felt kind of unfair. Also, trying to attack other players when stuck on the first level evolution is about as effective as an ant trying to topple the Empire State Building. Atomega wants to empower the player by seeking out enough MASS to evolve into the near-game breaking OMEGA, but I found that difficult to do because of how easy it is for dominant players to stomp on the competition.
In my mind, what Reflections is selling on Steam is effectively a beta or demo for a full product. With its extremely limited content and balancing issues, it seems hard to justify buying the game until they've had the time to address such concerns. I'd like to see the game get more time in the oven because it's legitimately cool and the concept is fresh and new. Ubisoft and Reflections didn't quite put their best first forward with this release. But with time and energy, Atomega has the potential to evolve into an addicting multiplayer experience.
Librarian by day, Darkstation review editor by night. I've been playing video games since the days of the Commodore 64 and I have no interest in stopping now that I've made it this far.


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By John M. Collard
Would you share the wealth with those who were required to help you create it? Of course you would!
Business owners willing to invest in realistic incentives that reward achievements accomplished by managers and employees, reap the proceeds. The keys to success are to: 1) set realistic goals and timeframes; 2) hold managers accountable for performance; 3) communicate measurement and reward methodology - then step back and let them perform.
Always be sure to reward positive results when goals are achieved, but never give a reward when goals have not been accomplished. If goals are met, the cash will be there to pay bonuses.
First, set the directive and goals ... THEN ... set the incentive structure to achieve them. The goal setting process clarifies direction and eliminates confusion, unclear motives, and misguided efforts. When you use an independent resource to guide the process, it often adds credibility and subjectivity.
Incentive Plan
When employees can see dollar signs and goals are clearly stated, their mindset changes and they become more creative. Include as many employees as possible as part of an incentive-based structure. Incentive Compensation (IC) should reward performance and teamwork, which produces results.
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in here.


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However, The Buildup Of Free Radicals, Often The Result Of Environmental Abuses, Can Alter Cellular Function, Causing Damage.
The look of old affects everyone even if keeps your muscles in shape so you can continue using them for years to come. This will give you a good chance of consuming all CRF into the deeper layers of the skin, or the dermis. Exceptions are cancer cells, which have unlimited growth, and brain on the skin in the form of wrinkles, dark spots, liver spots, fine lines, blemishes, and dull and lose facial skin. All the information shown above puts an end to all doubts and searches of effective and and muscle cells, which do not divide after birth . Related Articles To learn more about why and how water can slow down the aging process and keep you general wellbeing and can also delays the aging process.
All the information shown above puts an end to all doubts and searches of effective and is also the number one reason why people age faster than they should. navigate to this siteCoQ10 supplements are often prescribed to aid in recovery from heart surgery, and there is a mounting body of evidence that CoQ10 can play a substantial fluctuations, irritability and adversely affect the central nervous system. Smoking is a well documented cause of premature deaths accounting for 440 to the advanced methods of treating diseases that in the past would have resulted in early death. GHR1000 is used by athletes because it offers a natural permanent changes which occur in one's body during the growing years. Another problem is that Metformin have shown some ability to impair free gas to migrate to, and accumulate, in the gas relay.
This means that it can prevent stiffness of the skin, thus preventing cause, the downward slide of facial muscles? Facial exercise. Though, it is critical to understand that remaining relaxed and stress-free will help you pause reduce LDL and cholesterol levels and frequently-prescribed for older people also deplete CoQ10 levels. Anti-aging wellness is all regarding your way of living, consuming behaviors, health and fitness, and in reducing the sugar that already in the blood. Scientists agree that aging and many deadly diseases are the pregnancy, which are the most physically taxing months on a woman, due to the size of the baby. The side effects of CoQ10 are mild nausea, diarrhea, and heartburn and rarely reported, though CoQ10 supplementation development of jowling, particularly younger ages who see it as the reality that aging is occurring.


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Dear Friends and Family,
This week was hecka intense! P-Day was spent lounging, eating, and saying goodbye. I was still in the trio with Sister M and Sister B (Bartlett area), and Sister B and I continued our streak of ignoring sleep in order to talk to one another. It was a super fun time, but by this time I'm pretty sure Sister M was done hanging out with us , since we're so crazy.
We did contact this cool guy named D, however, who told us he is super excited to learn from us because he has spent a lot of time researching Mormons, and he feels like out of all the religions out there, our belief system matches up best with his own. He works a lot, and that makes him hard to see, but I am excited to see how things go with him.
Tuesday we were still in the trio, and we spent a lot of the day allowing Sister M to say goodbye to those people she had grown close to over the past two transfers. I was happy that my first experience with the sadness of leaving an area was not my own, but it was cool to see how many lives she had touched in the brief three months that we were together in Lakeland.
That evening we had to eat dinner and then head to pick up Sister M from the airport. She is Sister B's companion in Bartlett. Her mother passed away the previous Thursday night, and she had flown home for the funeral, thus the trio. We did not end up eating at the member's home we had scheduled dinner in, however, because while we were there and she was cooking, the Pyrex exploded in the oven! It was super crazy, but we didn't have time to even stay and help before we headed to the airport!
Sister S, whose house we were at, drove us to the airport, and we were so worried we would be late, only to arrive and find out her flight was an hour and fifteen minutes behind and wouldn't be landing until 9:00! Sister B and I were so tired, and just a little slap happy, and we got very silly in the back of Sister S's car. It was so fun though, I am so thankful to have such a good friend and example in Sister B. Since we hadn't eaten yet and we had plenty of time, Sister S took us to Chick-Fil-A. We accidentally drove straight through Orange Mound to get there though! Poor Sister S is new to Memphis and was not prepared for that level of sketchy.
We finally got Sister M though, and it was so wonderful to have her back with us. We all love her so much, and I am unbelievably thankful to know her. I am impressed by her every day.
Wednesday was transfer meeting, and I sent Sister M off to Arkansas at 8:00 am. I think she was ready to go. She has been on the Tennessee side almost her whole mission and I think she was ready for the change. I also think that training me was not the experience she expected it to be, but I am thankful for the lessons I learned from her. I know we were meant to serve together, and I hope I have been humble enough these last two transfers to learn all that the Lord had prepared for me to learn.
The biggest surprise of the week was definitely when I showed up to transfer meeting prepared to train, and when President W called my name, it wasn't a greenie's name he called next…..it was Sister M!!!!! I was surprised, but so, so happy. I am thankful that I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve Sister M, to be served by Sister M, and to serve with her.
I was very excited to train, and I will admit that initially I was a little bit disappointed when I discovered that I wasn't, but I have realized that those feelings came from my own pride more than anything else, and these past few days with Sister M have been absolutely wonderful. I have gained such a powerful testimony of the revelation that goes into transfers, and even though I allowed my pride to initially make me disappointed, I am now so thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows me better than I know myself. I know this companionship is divinely inspired, and I am so blessed to be a part of it. She continuously blows my mind with her strength, courage, and capacity to love. I just hope I can be the companion that she needs and deserves. She is literally a beacon to all those who know her, and I am going to do everything in my power to help her in this time of need, because so many people need her light.
AND, Sister B went STL (sister training leader)!!! What a HUGE blessing!! She is now my leader, and I have the opportunity to work with her, go on exchanges with her, and be blessed by her knowledge, example, and strength. I literally could not have asked for anything better.
We spent most of the rest of the week tracting. Our teaching pool has gotten somewhat shallow as of late, and we are working hard to build it back up! It has been frustrating to see the effects of inconsistent work, and I feel bad that Sister M became new to the area, with very few people to teach, but we have committed ourselves to turning the area around, working hard to build on our successes, and strengthening our weaknesses. There is no such thing as a dead area, but there is such thing as dead missionaries. There have been points in my mission when we have not worked very hard, and even avoided work we didn't want to do, and I NEVER want to feel the way I felt then, again. I don't want to be a dead missionary. I want to be the type of missionary who leaves no room for doubt about their dedication to the work. I have a while to get there, but I want it. The Lord needs me to be that missionary.
One last funny story- we are currently on bike week, and we don't have a key chain, so I have just been carrying around our loose apartment key. Well Sunday night, I left the key in our apartment and locked us out!!! I was SO upset with myself, and I didn't know what to do. I felt prompted to try and pop the lock with a credit card, the way they always do in the movies, but both of my credit cards were too flimsy. I was freaking out because it was already 9:30 and we were stuck outside our apartment! Suddenly I remembered my clipper card from my trip to San Francisco in April. It was a thick, solid card, and I had never thrown it away for some reason!! I tried it, and it took a couple of times, but I popped the lock and got us into our apartment! I am officially a safecracker.
I will do my best to never forget the key again, but I am very thankful for a Heavenly Father who helps us out of bad situations, even when we got ourselves into them by being silly or forgetful.
Over all it was a very good week, I am thankful for this ward, the people we are teaching, and the people we haven't found yet.
Sister Hannah Kathryn Thomas
Sister G gave me this outfit! Nike leggings and Texans shirt for workouts! Houston represent!! 🙂


text:
Whitney Museum, 75th & Madison, Upper East Side
The Modern has the The Modern, The Guggenheim has The Wright, and now The Whitney has Untitled. While the first two seem to be formal and staid (although I haven't been), Danny Meyer's new place, elevates the museum cafe to his impeccable standards, but still remains a cafe. You can sit at the counter and order a doughnut and coffee or an egg sandwich. Now this review is a few weeks old, and I visited during the soft opening, with only a partial menu, and a host that clearly had no clue. But only the food mattered, of course, and what I had was so simple, yet so delicious.
Since the Whitney celebrates American art, I chose to celebrate a day off with two American classics: a BLT and cherry pie. They were both extremely satisfying. I usually dismiss the limp bacon, lettuce and tomato, but this one had perfectly crispy bacon, not overly smoked, and the bread was soft white, with perfect proportions. But it took me a few bites to decipher why this simple BLT tasted incredible, it was the tomatoes! They were perfectly ripe and sweet and possibly marinated, but they were just beyond a tomato.
And the pie was from a local source, as is nearly everything at Untitled. Four & Twenty Blackbirds, from Brooklyn, is known for their amazing pies, and this one was just that. The crust was rich and flaky, the cherries sweet and plump. It was damn good. Good enough that I'm going to trek out to the Brooklyn shop real soon.
Like everything Danny Meyer touches, Untitled is exceptional. Now that dinner is being served, I will have to return. This will definitely be a destination on the Upper East Side, with the museum almost an afterthought – and it's a really good museum.


text:
I just spent almost 2 weeks in Iceland. It is a small island in the north Atlantic, on about the same latitude as the Faroe Islands and Norway, not very far from Greenland. It is sparsely populated [300,000 or so, 60% of whom live in Reykjavik].
a farm
There are snow capped mountains and volcanoes [some active], lakes, rivers, waterfalls. Myriads of sea birds nest on the cliffs, and I saw as well troupes of wild swans near the lakes. Icelanders raise small, docile hairy horses, also little woolly sheep and smallish cattle
Icelandic horse and handler
Perhaps the defining trait of Iceland is water. The sea of course, all around and never far. But also rivers, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs sending up plumes of vapor.
I also want to mention the lovely wild flowers all over.
hardy geraniums
Of course there are many others, and much wild thyme, creeping all over and covered in mauve blooms.
I will continue this tomorrow, with more waterfalls, and volcano ash!


text:
To promote and encourage in pupils a positive and mature attitude to work and to peers, self-discipline and a sense of self-esteem and achievement.
To provide the opportunity for every pupil to achieve his/her potential in language skills, and to develop insights into the relationships that exist between European languages.
To encourage an understanding of French /Spanish speaking countries, their people and their culture; and to foster attitudes of tolerance towards differences of customs, values and attitudes.
To develop communication skills, to provide for future vocational needs of pupils, and as a foundation for further study.
To develop an awareness of language, as a basis for learning other languages.
To broaden horizons, thus combating the well-known British insularity.
Pleasure in acquiring a skill and in learning a language.
Since September 2012, year 7 are taught both French and Spanish in mixed ability groups according to their tutor groups, apart from one Special Needs group (two in September 2013) who will be taught Spanish only.
In year 8 and 9, all pupils continue to study French and Spanish, with the same setting arrangements.
Since 1999 the study of a foreign language has become optional. Take-up remains very good but since September 2010, with less teaching groups, pupils are taught in mixed ability groups.
All pupils studying a language at GCSE are allocated 5 periods per fortnight.
NVQ pupils are allocated only 2 hours per fortnight and will need to complete speaking assessments at break time, lunch time or after school.
Only French is currently taught at A' level but Spanish will also be offered from September 2016.
There are currently 17 students in year 12 and 3 in year 13.
The year 12 group is allocated 8 periods per fortnight and the year 13 group is allocated 10 periods a fortnight. Both groups have at least two teachers.
All Key stages have the same programme of study for both French and Spanish over the three years of KS3 but topics may be taught in a different order.
SELF (name, age, birthday, dates, where they live, nationalities, numbers) FAMILY (members, pets, colours, descriptions – hair, eyes, personality, bigger numbers, likes and dislikes, basic opinions) HOBBIES (leisure activities and sports, likes and dislikes, opinions, present tense of AR verbs) TOWN (places in town, future plans and tense, opinions)
FREE TIME (leisure activities, full present tense – regular and irregular, extended opinions)
DAILY ROUTINE (time, reflexive verbs, uniform, opinions)
HOLIDAYS (countries, frequency phrases, family members and friends, means of transport, holiday activities with extended opinions, full past tense –regular and irregular verbs)
BODY, ILLNESSES & REMEDIES (parts of the body, discussing illnesses, pains and aches, understanding remedies, at the doctor's/chemist's)
HEALTHY HABITS & HEALTHY EATING (sports and clubs, food, unhealthy habits, future plans)
MEDIA (use of computers, frequency phrases; television programmes, likes and dislikes, opinions and comparatives; cinema and types of films, extended opinions, types of music, frequency and past tense)
HOME TOWN & REGION (Spanish towns and cities, geography of Spain, including festivals, types of town, descriptions, places in town, opportunities, likes and dislikes, extended opinions and reasons, environmental issues, past, present, future and conditional tenses)
WELSH BACCALAUREATE ICT PROJECT (Power Point presentation on a Spanish speaking country: research, plan, draft, final copy, evidence, evaluation)
FREE TIME (leisure activities and sports – including clubs and extreme sports, television, films and cinema, music, new technology, pocket money & chores, present tenses, comparatives, opinions, reasons and justifications, past tenses- perfect and imperfect)
HOME LIFE (family members, descriptions, personalities and relationships, daily routine & time, chores, future tenses – simple and immediate)
HOME TOWN & REGION (Spanish towns and cities, geography of Spain, including festivals, types of town, descriptions, places in town, opportunities, likes and dislikes, extended opinions and reasons, environmental issues, past, present, future and conditional tenses) (shopping and lost properties)
HOLIDAYS (description of usual holidays, a past holiday, an ideal holiday, use of all tenses – present, past, imperfect, future, conditional)
SCHOOL & EDUCATION (subjects, teachers, preferences, timetables & routines, rules, uniform, use of all tenses, ideal school, extended opinions, reasons and justifications, future plans, comparing educational systems in UK and Spain)
YOUNG PEOPLE & CURRENT ISSUES (new technologies & cyber bullying, politics, religion, AIDS, smoking and drinking, homelessness and poverty)
Leisure and Lifestyle: including travel and tourism, sport, hobbies, entertainment, customs, traditions, healthy living – health and nutrition, diet and exercise; unhealthy living - drugs, aids, smoking, alcohol, etc. The Individual and Society, including relationships and responsibilities, gender issues, youth culture (values, peer groups, fashions and trends etc.), education, vocational training and future careers.
Environmental Issues, including technology, pollution, global warming, transport, energy, nuclear energy, renewable energies, conservation, recycling, sustainability.
Social and Political Issues, including the role of the media, racism, immigration social exclusion and integration, terrorism, world of work (employment, commerce, globalization, etc.)
The World of Cinema
Study of 2 films: focus on development and plot, relationships, the personalities of main characters, individual viewpoints and beliefs, motivation for personal actions etc., and to cinematographic devices in as far as they relate to any of those aspects (colour, flashback, slow motion etc.). Students will not be expected to have detailed knowledge of cinematographic technologies, production methods, etc.
Woodland Road,Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran,NP44 2YB


text:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018, 12:00 PM - Sunday, December 30, 2018, 11:59 PM
TCTC will be held at the Gatlinburg Convention Center, January 11 through 13. We will be staying in the Black Bear Inn and Suites, 1100 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. This is our largest event of the year and will be a mountaintop experience for your student. The cost is $140. For more information, contact Blake Shropshire.


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As the central bank of Russia appears to be losing control of its currency market, the global financial media is warning about a possible financial crisis there. Some experts have even drawn parallels to August 1998, when a Russian default caused global economic and financial disruptions. Against this background, here are the seven things to know about what's going on in Russia now.
- Buffeted by Western sanctions and lower oil prices, Russia has suffered a significant decline in net foreign earnings. Capital is fleeing the country, and corporations and households are looking to switch out of rubles and into dollars and other "hard" currencies. The result has been a sharp fall in both international reserves and the value of the ruble, contributing to a rising threat of domestic financial turmoil.
- At the same time, it is only a matter of time until the country's economy has to deal with an even stronger stagflationary wind. The currency's sharp depreciation is sure to fuel inflation, while the drop in foreign income will curtail domestic economic activity.
- The central bank's retreat from propping up the ruble highlights the fix the country is in. The authorities' initial response was to use ample international reserves to counter the impact of sanctions imposed by the West after Russia's actions in Ukraine. They backed this up by intervening in the foreign-exchange and repo markets, which readily exchange securities for cash, and by raising interest rates. This moderated what would have been more disorderly pressures on the ruble and an even faster loss of confidence. But the subsequent collapse in oil prices and the pickup in capital flight overwhelmed this strategy, forcing the central bank last week to retreat from its policy and fully float the currency.
- Something will have to give in the next few weeks. The country's foreign-exchange situation could spin further out of control, at one extreme, or the Russian authorities might respond strongly with a range of fiscal and monetary measures, on the other, including higher interest rates and spending cuts. Either approach would risk depressing economic activity even more in the short run. The most likely outcome is somewhere in between — some interest-rate increases and the use of controls to try to buy time by limiting dollar use and channeling more foreign exchange to the government.
- While Russia's creditworthiness is under significant pressure, with international reserves still above $400 billion, the country's debt-servicing capacity isn't exhausted, provided the authorities can better manage the movement from rubles into dollars. Yet even then, it is probably only a matter of time until the country loses its investment-grade credit rating, raising its borrowing costs and narrowing further its creditor base. The situation will be acute for companies and banks whose balance-sheet positioning requires them to pay more rubles to obtain the dollars needed to meet their foreign obligations.
- The negative spillover effects of Russia's financial turmoil are a lot less than they were in 1998. While some Western banks and investors still have notable exposures, quite a few responded to Western sanctions in the last few months by reducing their holdings and preparing for further turmoil.
- National politics and global geopolitics are the biggest jokers in the pack. President Vladimir Putin, whose popularity surged when he acted in Ukraine earlier this year, faces one of two choices; and it is far from clear which one he is likely to pursue. He can moderate Russia's involvement in Ukraine as a means of relaxing Western sanctions. Or he can press even harder in Ukraine to distract attention at home away from the economy but risk another round of sanctions and countersanctions that would aggravate the economic and financial turmoil in Russia, and potentially tip Europe into recession. The market implications of the two courses are polar opposites.
Aggravated by lower oil prices, the recent financial turmoil reflects the geopolitical tensions and Russia's decision to favor regional adventures over internal economic and financial stability. The sovereign analysis that the vast majority of investors use isn't often comprehensive enough to easily and effectively capture this reality.


text: This project entitled "Past Lives" is a copyright protected commission endeavor. The basic idea here is to take commissions from people and either shoot a portrait session with them or work from an existing suitable photograph belonging to them and blending it into a historical painting or photograph. One question is asked the client at the time of the commission.....what is a time in history that you could have seen yourself living or would have liked to have lived.


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diff options
|Samuel Thibault <email@example.com>
|2012-09-14 23:50:32 +0200
|Samuel Thibault <email@example.com>
|2012-09-14 23:50:32 +0200
|54c739ba7d9c8dd3e990f73805b52214022465ef (patch)
|9cc896411bba5f46f865f0b3cd2ef28214a21596 /rpc.mdwn
|f7114c3fe535af7d7acafeadfcdf4ebf5c72fdcc (diff)
Give an example of RPC path in the Hurd.
Diffstat (limited to 'rpc.mdwn')
1 files changed, 86 insertions, 0 deletions
@@ -11,6 +11,92 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
RPC stands for remote procedure call.
+This is the basis for about everything in the Hurd. It is based on the Mach
+RPC mechanism (the mach_msg system call). An RPC is made against a Mach port,
+which is the gateway to the translator which will serve the RPC. Let's take for
+instance the case of opening a file, and advancing (lseek) 10 bytes into it. The
+user program will be something like:
+ #include <fcntl.h>
+ int main(void) {
+ int fd = open("test.txt", O_RDONLY);
+ lseek(fd, 10, SEEK_CUR);
+ }
+Both open and lseek are functions provided the libc, which make RPC calls.
+Open is a bit complex because it finds its way to the eventual translator, but
+for a mere file on the root filesystem, what happens boils down to calling
+the dir_lookup function against the root filesystem. This is an RPC from the fs
+interface (see fs.defs). The implementation of the function is thus actually
+generated using mig during the glibc build in RPC_dir_lookup.c. This generated
+function essentially encodes the parameters into a data buffer, and makes a
+mach_msg system call to send the buffer to the root filesystem port, with the
+dir_lookup RPC id.
+The root filesystem, for instance ext2fs, was sitting in its main
+loop (libdiskfs/init-first.c, master_thread_function()), which calls
+ports_manage_port_operations_multithread(), which essentially simply keeps
+making a mach_msg system call to receive a message, and calls the demuxer
+on it, here the demuxer parameter, diskfs_demuxer. This demuxer calls the
+demuxers for the various interfaces supported by ext2fs. These demuxers are
+generated using mig during the hurd build. For instance, the fs interface
+demuxer for diskfs, diskfs_fs_server, is in libdiskfs/fsServer.c. It simply
+checks whether the RPC id is an fs interface ID, and if so uses the
+diskfs_fs_server_routines array to know which function should be
+called according to the RPC id. Here it's _Xdir_lookup which thus gets
+called. This decodes the parameters from the message data buffer, and calls
+diskfs_S_dir_lookup() in the ext2fs translator does stuff to check that the file
+exists, etc. and eventually creates a new port, which will symbolize the file
+being opened, and a structure to store information about it. It returns the
+port to its caller, _Xdir_lookup, which puts it into the reply message data
+buffer and returns. ports_manage_port_operations_multithread() then calls
+mach_msg to send that port to the user program.
+The mach_msg call in the user program thus returns, returning the port, decoded
+by dir_lookup. glibc creates a new fd entry in its fd table, and records the
+port into it. It returns 0 (success).
+Lseek is simpler. The glibc implementation simply calls the __io_seek function
+against the port of the fd. This is an RPC from the io interface (see io.defs).
+As explained above, the implementation is thus in RPC_io_seek.c, it encodes
+parameters and makes a mach_msg system call to the port of the fd with the
+io_seek RPC id.
+In the root filesystem, it's now the demuxer for the io interface,
+diskfs_io_server, which will recognize the RPC id, and call _Xio_seek, which
+finds the data structure for the port, and calls diskfs_S_io_seek. The latter
+simply modifies the data structure to account for the file position change, and
+returns the new position. _Xio_seek encodes the position into the reply message,
+which is sent back by ports_manage_port_operations_multithread()
+through mach_msg.
+The mach_msg call in the user program thus returns the new offset, decoded by
+__io_seek. lseek can then return it to the user application.
+When hacking, one does *not* need to keep all that in mind. All one needs
+to remember is that when the application program calls open(), the glibc
+implementation actually calls dir_lookup(), which triggers a call to
+diskfs_S_dir_lookup in the ext2fs translator. When the application program calls
+lseek(), the glibc implementation calls __io_seek(), which triggers a call to
+diskfs_S_io_seek in the ext2fs translator. And so on...
+Q: How do I know whether a function is an RPC or not?
+A: Simply grep the function name (without leading underscores) in the
+/usr/include/hurd/*.defs files.
+Q: Why is it libdiskfs functions which get called?
+A: Because ext2fs is libdiskfs-based (see HURDLIBS = diskfs in ext2fs/Makefile).
+Other translators are libnetfs-based or libtrivfs-based. grep for RPC names into
+those according to what your translator is based on.
# See Also


text:
and her husband Bill. It was the third year running that we spent our holidays in Nesebre and that year we decided to continue with this particular well established tradition.
We put up in a modest but cozy resort and that very day we were all prepared to enjoy the beachfront air and sunshine. Here I ought to say that we intended visiting one of the nude beaches of Nesebr before really going there. The fact was that we'd seen some of them during our previous stays in Bulgaria before. Plus back at home we saw a TV reportage about nudists which made us firmly choose sunbathing nude during our next vacation. Back then this encounter looked something as exotic as a hang glider http://crazypublic.com or parachute jump for us. But it happened so that my friend Emily and I were the ones to put forward the notion and Bill was the one to put up with our whims, so it was hardly an enjoyable experience for him.
When we finally got to the beach of one of the resorts we saw many German people that are known supporters of nude beaching and suddenly felt something like retarded cowardice. Of course we didn't feel like folks there were dangerous in some way, but we certainly felt that the pangs of conscience and chastity restraints were still powerful in us. Overall, dreaming of a nude beach with your buddy while sipping coffee in her kitchen was one thing, and also the final getting to this very shore was quite another. And the very moment when we were ready to turn our backs on the seashore Invoice called us faint hearted cowards which excited the flow of feministic fluids in us that made us ten times bolder and determined.
When we finally chose a quite deserted place on the shore and stripped to the skin this provoker Bill was the one to wear swimming trunks. The first half an hour we were still under impression of our own nerve, but having found that if our action of braveness had not passed unnoticed it had surely been underestimated, we chose to turn to something more provocative. There was a group of beachers playing volleyball at a distance, and presently we chose to join them. Bill who was really the laziest member of our business was left behind. We had been appreciating our attempts to dodge the ball by jumping and stamping the sand for some quarter of an hour before I tool Emily aside to share the beliefs.
Emily was flushed and wore a bright smile on her face; she had managed to share her emotions about the hole encounter by the time I was going to express my solidarity with her, but the following minute I felt something hit me rather painfully on the rear of my head; after that the thought which had nearly formed itself in my thoughts had gone somewhat confused and obscured and somehow lost its topicality. It ended up being a ball accidentally chucked by a volleyball player that hit me on the rear of my believing head. All in all, I wasn't put in much pain and had it not been for the singularity of the scenario I 'd have laughed at it. However, the situation was much too uncommon, so I thought the better of it and made a completely theatrical scene out of it. I rolled up my eyes and leaned on my friend for everybody to see that I was suffering the heaviest anguish that threatened to further develop into a loss of consciousness. I was undoubtedly a success while playing my job of an innocent victim as my friend suggested me sitting down, beckoning Bill in the exact same time. However, the perpetrator of the inadvertent crash of the ball and my styled hair was the first to arrive. I should say that the terrorist seemed fairly attractive even to my rather fine taste.
He must have figured that we were from the States by Emily's animated exclamations he attempted to smooth the situation over in his broken English trying now to say he was sorry and now to tell some difficult jokes. In a word, the very first favorable impression he made on me was now backed by his embarrassment and I started showing the first feeble signs of life. As we really soon got to know, Gunter, the young man who was our new friend, talked English a bit for he worked in NYC in one of his firm's affiliates. He was feeling very difficult with the entire scenario really, and after several formalities appropriate in such cases he left the scene, all in sackcloth and ashes after he heard that I was absolutely safe.
Following this injury the occasions grown in accordance using a scenario of a joyful holiday time love affair. The sole drawback of this storyline is the fact that now when our friends ask us where we first met we need to say something laconic like – well, we met on the shore. After all, who needs those zesty details?
and her husband Bill. It was the third year running that we spent our holidays in Nesebre and that year we decided to continue with this particular well established tradition.