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Articles Tagged with: Games
WWW FEATURE: Tessa Abraham
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Tessa Abraham, Junior Producer at KING Art. Read more about Tessa in this interview:
Hi Tessa! You are a Junior Producer at KING Art, and you are also finishing your bachelor degree in Media Informatics and Interactive Entertainment at the Hochschule Mittweida. As this is your first job in the games industry, what did you do in order to prepare yourself for the first steps of your career?
While I was studying I had doubts whether I would be able to get a job in the industry. I had only been involved in a few projects and had no connections. In 2017, devcom happened, where I jumped in for a friend in volunteering, and suddenly I was connected with many different developers from all over Germany, but also worldwide.
In the next year, I "professionalized" my visit to conferences – I had created an online portfolio and matching business cards. I got into conversation with even more developers and was able to keep in touch with most of them afterwards. Thanks to this I actually found an internship in events. About a year ago, after the end of my internship, I decided to speculatively apply for a job as a producer at KING Art Games and luckily I was able to impress them with my application and my interview – and additionally some people from the studio already knew me from volunteering.
In the past, you've been volunteering at game development conferences and gained working experiences in areas such as event management and marketing. In the end, what was it that made you decide to pursue a career as a producer?
Actually, at the beginning of my studies, I didn't even know what I wanted to do full-time, so I tried out many different options:
I had often worked as a game designer in university projects, then also gained a lot of experience in the area of events and marketing and in general I was always the person who made sure that everyone in the team completed their tasks. And I also enjoyed project plans and time management. Especially the latter has always been a great passion for me, which is why I applied for the job as a producer almost a year ago without much professional experience. I simply enjoy how a project comes together one by one. For me, there is nothing more fulfilling than working with colleagues who have as much passion for their work as I do.
After more than one year of experience, what are some key things you have learned and can maybe pass on to other people who are about to start their first job in the industry?
Most importantly: be brave enough to talk to other developers – no matter if they are students or if they have 20 years of experience! There is nothing worse than a missed opportunity and you never know who can help you on your path.
Visit conferences as often as you can but be prepared (business cards and some kind of portfolio). Volunteering is a great opportunity for that, even on a small budget.
Find your niche and show how you can be an important part of the team – if the team can benefit from your skills, you will quickly become irreplaceable.
Thank you for your time, Tessa!
Tessa's Links: Twitter | Twitch | Website | King Art Games Website
WWW FEATURE: Laure De Mey
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Laure De Mey, Programmer at ustwo games. Read more about Laure in this interview:
WWW FEATURE: Ewa Kurek
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Ewa Kurek, Quality Assurance Lead at Wargaming. Read more about Ewa in this interview:
Hi Ewa! You are the Quality Assurance Lead at Wargaming. How does a typical workday at the studio look like for you?
How a typical day at wargaming looks like really depends on the stage of development we are currently at. In the early stages, I take part in planning, design sessions, tech estimations and any other meetings, where issues or risk areas can be identified early. In the later stages, just before a milestone ends, QA tends to go into full battle mode 😉 it's all about verifying a feature's functionality and giving fast feedback, as well as making sure that everything works as intended.
You have been working in the area of QA for almost seven years now. What is it that inspired you to work in QA in the first place?
I grew up with video games and I always loved trying to find a way to cheat the system or pushing the game rules with unexpected actions. I was very curious if there was a way to break the game, so looking for holes in systems was always like a personal challenge to me. I know that sounds awful, however, it is fun at the same time – it is like solving a puzzle in my mind.
What would you say are some helpful skills a person should have when they want to start a career in QA themselves?
Patience: Your patience will be tested thoroughly. Let's say that you don't have any debug tools and you have to check if a bug got fixed – in the final boss fight, insane mode, spending a decent amount of time on it – just to learn that actually, the responsible programmer forgot to push the fix to the correct development branch… Oops, I guess you have to try again. 😉
Empathy: Finding issues in somebody's else's work plus delivering the news that a task needs to be revisited can be slightly disturbing to your colleagues. Doing it in a positive manner and with the main intention to help make the product better, should be your main motivation.
Assertiveness: There is always some kind of time pressure, hence what tends to be postponed and cropped is the polishing/bug fixing phase. Quite often, development overflows the sacred feature freeze phase, and you might not have enough time to ensure that the quality of the game is good enough. QA should have enough confidence to say no to such situations and ensure we have enough time to test and get all the outstanding issues to be fixed.
Thank you for your time Ewa!
Ewa's Links:
Ewa's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewa-kurek-3a2830134/
Wargaming's Website: https://eu.wargaming.net/en
WWW FEATURE: Alice Rendell
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Alice Rendell, Senior Narrative Designer at Massive Entertainment. Read more about Alice in this interview:
Hi Alice! You are a Senior Narrative Designer at Massive Entertainment. Having worked both as a Narrative Designer as well as a Game Designer in the past, what is it that drives your passion for storytelling in video games?
I really believe that games are able to tell unique stories because we can use gameplay and systems to elevate the narrative experience, which is something that just isn't possible in more traditional storytelling forms like film and TV. I personally love exploring how gameplay can evoke emotions, the way a character moves through the world can be loaded with just as much narrative as a cutscene (sometimes more so). The different ways we can use gameplay to tell stories is something that truly excites me. I don't believe games have reached their full potential yet on how to do this, and that is something I definitely want to be a part of.
For a blogpost on Massive's website you have talked about your experience working on indie as well as AAA productions, going into some of the "AAA myths" some people might have. Could you share the most common statements and your personal experience with them?
The main comment I hear when talking about AAA games is the idea that as a developer, you have to compromise your creativity, either due to large team sizes or because of a more corporate structure. My experience has been the opposite. For the indie games I worked on, we very often didn't have time, tools or resources to create what we wanted to, and compromises on design and narrative were constantly being made. That of course still happens with AAA games, but as there are far more resources available I find that I am able to push the vision of what we can do because we have the team and the tools to support it. I personally find this allows me to be more creative, as I really get to do a deep-dive into the best way to tell stories in the game as opposed to spending the majority of my energy thinking of workarounds.
You are also vocal about mental health issues such as burnout, something you have dealt with in the past as well. Speaking from your own experience, what has helped you recover and how could other members of the industry lower the risk of experiencing a burnout themselves?
The problem with burnout is that the stress levels in your system are so high that you end up running on adrenaline for months at a time, which actually makes you feel like you are on top of everything. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I started getting chest pains, and at that point it was too late and I was already burnt-out. There is a burnout evaluation test online which is good to take every couple of months, regardless of how stressed you think you are, because sometimes burnout can creep up on you with realizing it.
The biggest help for me coming back to work after burnout was being able to set strict boundaries for myself. My perfectionist nature mixed with my passion means I have a tendency to take on too much, and say yes to everything regardless of how busy I am. It was important for my recovery that I listened to my gut and say no when I felt like something would overload me. Also reminding myself that my work doesn't need to be perfect 100% of the time; pretty damn good is also entirely acceptable!
Thank you for your time Alice!
Alice's Links:
Alice's Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicemrendell
Alice's Website: https://www.alicerendell.com/
Massive's Website: https://www.massive.se/
WWW FEATURE: Enya Tack
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Enya Tack, Project Manager at Wargaming. Read more about Enya in this interview:
Hi Enya! You are the Project Manager at Wargaming's Berlin office. What is it that inspired you to take your first step into the games industry?
Being an avid gamer, I did not have to think twice when I got the chance to work in the games industry. I was in college when the community team of a game I played a lot at the time reached out to me and asked if I was willing to work for them and move to Berlin. I followed my gut feeling and accepted pretty much right away.
I want to give players the best possible gaming experience, which is exactly what I expect when I play games myself. The thought that people will play the game I work on and get enjoyment out of it is very fulfilling for me.
Last year you gave a talk during the Quo Vadis conference, where you spoke about the process of managing a game project spread across two separate Wargaming offices – one in Berlin and the other in Shanghai. As a Project Manager, how do you approach such a challenging task?
I am very grateful to have gotten the opportunity to talk at Quo Vadis. I appreciated sharing my experience and learnings, and hope other teams can learn from it!
It may sound cheesy, but communication really is key. Being so far away from each other can make it hard to be on the same page and share the same vision, so you need to make sure to keep yourself up-to-date on everything.
The challenge is to find the right channels to communicate and to make sure communication is efficient and balanced. You don't want to spend all day writing emails or in skype calls, because then you will get no work done. But the teams should also not be afraid to reach out and ask questions, or to have a quick call when something is unclear. We use mails for heavier topics, group chat channels for quick questions, and also have regular play sessions to get a clear view of features that are being worked on.
I also think it's very important that as a Project Manager, you avoid creating unnecessary bottlenecks by taking on all the communication. Show your team how to properly reach out to the other studio and give them the resources to do so, making them more independent and empowered in their work. We make sure the relevant team members are always added to CC and to use group chat channels as much as possible, so everyone can follow along and does not need to rely on me to get all information.
In the end it's all about keeping the conversation open and creating an environment of trust.
In the past you've also appeared on the official World of Warships Blitz Youtube Channel, where you have held livestreams and announced new ingame content. Generally speaking, how important is it as a Project Manager to have a good amount of self esteem, any tips on becoming more confident in yourself?
As a Project Manager you need to put yourself in the middle all the time, question everything and take the lead when necessary (and let go when necessary). This does require a good bit of self esteem, but also a great deal of empathy and self awareness. You will get to work with a diverse group of people and not all personalities will match yours or the rest of your team, so you will often need to get over your own ego. In my opinion that is only possible if you are comfortable and confident with yourself and your skills.
That isn't to say you should not question yourself! It is healthy to think critically about your own actions. Is the process you put in place 6 months ago still up to date? Do you have your priorities straight, or do you need to re-adjust? Are there new bottlenecks created that need fixing? Don't be afraid to ask yourself and your team questions to keep on evaluating yourself and your work.
There are a few things that helped me improve my self esteem:
Know yourself, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses and make the best out of them. I know exactly what I am good at and know how to use my strengths, which in return makes me feel more confident at what I do.
Get to know your team and the people you work with, for example by going to lunch together or playing games as a team. Talking to someone, giving feedback or asking questions, is just so much easier when you know the person and will make you feel more comfortable as a whole.
Set clear values and realistic goals: what do you want to achieve? Splitting up your bigger goals into smaller steps is a great way to get started. Being able to move a task to the "done"-pile is so very satisfying!
Own up to your mistakes, fix them and learn from them. It is never fun to make mistakes but acknowledging them and coming up with a solution is a good learning experience and will only help you grow.
Help others! Nothing will boost your confidence more than knowing your work and your actions helped someone else.
Get yourself a mentor, if possible. Someone who you can sit down with on a regular basis to go over your performance, possible issues and doubts, someone who can give you unbiased advice and feedback, but can also point out the things you are doing well so you can build on that.
Thank you for your time Enya!
Enya's Links:
Enya's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enyatack/
WWW FEATURE: Jess Hider
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Jess Hider, Technical Designer at Rare. Read more about Jess in this interview:
Hi Jess! You are a Technical Designer at Rare, where you currently work on Everwild. Can you tell us a bit about your role in the team, what is it that a Technical Designer does?
As a technical designer, I come up with features and mechanics that support the vision for our game, but instead of exploring them purely on paper, I'm happy to jump into the game engine myself and start prototyping them out.
For me, this is an incredibly powerful tool to have as a designer. The sooner you can get the concepts out of your head and into someone else's hands, the better. You learn so much more when you are playing what you are thinking. It also means you can show others what you are thinking, getting them to experience for themselves where your head's at, which can make it far easier to explain new concepts. You avoid the whole, 'It's kind of like this and this, but without that bit and with this extra-ish bit on top' and can simply be, 'This is what I mean'.
Your resume shows you've already been involved in very different areas of the games industry such as art, animation and community management. What is it that led you to become a Technical Designer at Rare?
Ah yes, my journey definitely jumps about a bit! But now looking back on it, I'd say it was all of my experiences leading me towards Technical Design – I just didn't know what Technical Design was.
I've always been interested in telling stories. I think at the age of twelve, after a stop-motion animation project at high school, I decided I wanted to be an 2D animator for Disney. Fast forward a few years and I'm at Abertay University studying hand-drawn animation amongst other things, and it's all going well until Disney announced they were closing down their hand-drawn department, and a couple of years later, Studio Ghibli did the same. By that time though, I was being pulled into the world of games rather than films, because it had an intriguing challenge to me – how do you tell stories when a player could go anywhere and do anything?
And that's something I'm still exploring. One of our core pillars at Rare is 'Players Telling Stories Together'. How do we enable players to tell their own stories? How do we build spaces where players can be true to themselves and play the way they want to? Finding ways to answer these questions has me skipping into work each day. (Sometimes literally, there are witnesses!)
As I transitioned more into games at uni, I started diving into all sorts of areas – art, animation, vfx, scripting – so by the end of my degree I could build out my own little games in Unreal, taking something from concept through to playing it on my phone. Kudos to Abertay for making the course flexible enough to support this scope of learning, and then to 4J Studios for giving me a taste of how it all applies in a studio environment, because having that broad knowledge of the games pipeline is so useful in my work today.
Being able to work with other disciplines is crucial as a designer. You may have a vision of where you want to go, but if you can't bring others with you on that journey towards it, then the vision is basically useless. A good start for being able to work with others effectively is understanding their position and their needs, so if you're able to literally put yourselves in their shoes and try your hand at their processes and pipelines, you start understanding where their requests or frustrations are coming from.
Another part in being able to successfully share your vision is good communication skills. You need to be able to put your ideas across in a way that's digestible to others, and as I've learnt, that often means changing up your communication style to suit your audience – everyone is unique and prefers information in a different format.
For that, I'm grateful for the time I spent as a Community Manager at Epic. I was working with such an array of people (colleagues, devs, corporations, media) and in so many formats (presentations, social, conferences, emails, blogs) I had to step up how I communicated with others. I'm very grateful to Dayna Cowley and Mike Gamble for being wonderful mentors and pushing me forward in this area, because I use these soft skills every single day as a designer.
Without these communication and networking skills, I wouldn't have ended up at Rare. My Rare journey actually began five or so years ago, when I met the illustrious Louise O'Connor at a Ukie Student Event at EGX. She was sharing her journey of being an animator in the industry and, being a nervous student, I finally worked up the courage to go and talk to her. Over the next few years we reconnected at many different industry events and ultimately it was these encounters, plus some prodding from other Rarians, that led to me joining her team.
Even though my career looks a bit all over the place, everything I've done has helped me get to where I am, and the skills I've learnt along the way are all things I use in my role now. If you're reading this, and aren't quite where you want to be or aren't even sure where that is, I want to say; whatever you are doing now, don't discount it. Everything you are doing will help you get to where you want to be – but the path may only be clear when you look back on it.
What would you recommend as a starting point for artists who want to dive deeper into the more technical areas of art, but are afraid to do so?
I'd recommend taking a look at shaders or materials – they're a very visual representation of maths as art. I enjoyed maths at school, but when it came to things like vectors, I could calculate them but I never truly understood them. But what I loved about materials (especially in Unreal) was I had a way to visualise vectors, and other types of maths, and suddenly things started to make a lot more sense.
There's loads of great tutorials online to get you started; if you're using Unreal you have their Introduction to Materials Playlist, I find Klemen Lozar's twitter particularly inspirational, and I also have a tutorial website with some simple tutorials to get you started.
Thank you for your time Jess!
Jess's Links:
Jess's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessHider
Jess's Website: https://jesshiderportfolio.wordpress.com/
Jess's UE4 Tutorials: https://jesshiderue4.wordpress.com/
WWW FEATURE: Erin Yvette
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Erin Yvette, Voice and MoCap Actor. Read more about Erin in this interview:
Hi Erin! You are a voice actress as well as a mocap actress for games and commercials and can be heard in games like The Wolf Among Us, Oxenfree and Firewatch. First off, what is it that inspired you to become a voice and mocap actress?
I started performing on stage as a young kid to burn energy, but I ultimately caught the actor bug. I struggled in college to figure out how best to pursue a career as an actor, bouncing from NYU for musical theater to UC Berkeley for theater — it wasn't until I had the opportunity to do my first VO role (Molly in Telltale's The Walking Dead) that I considered voice-over as a possible career path. It's one of those hidden careers where you stay mostly anonymous and unrecognized, for better or worse. When you hear radio or see TV commercials, you don't think about the voice actor in a recording booth reading a tagline twenty times, right? Animation loves to amplify celebrity names in castlists, but rarely does so for the working VO actor. Games are actually pretty good at recognizing the contribution of their voice and capture artists, but it's certainly not a road to "fame."
Voice acting was my "Goldilocks" acting path: it was just right for me. It's not glamorous or dependent on my appearance like on-screen acting, nor is it as underpaid or location-dependent as on-stage acting. Also, I play & love games! Voice acting, especially in games, is an incredibly fun and versatile form of expression and I've been fortunate enough to make a career out of it. Performance capture is also my happy place when I'm lucky enough to do it, as it lends itself well to my theater training — I'm on my feet, interacting with the space around me and with other actors.
How does a usual recording session when working on a game look like for you, and how do you prepare yourself in advance?
VO sessions for games typically don't allow for prep beforehand. In fact, I often don't even know the name of the game before I step in the booth (I'll only know it by a temp working title like "Bacon" or "Squirrel Nutz 2.") If I do know the game's real title, I'll research everything I can that's been released about it or any titles previously released by the studio. The less they have to explain to me in the booth, the faster we can work and the deeper I can dive into the character. If it's p-cap, I'll have the scripts in advance to memorize and I'll begin to develop where the character lives vocally and physically, and may even get to rehearse with the director and other actors before we shoot. Regardless of how much I know going in, I always show up with my voice & body warmed up and ready to play.
Game sessions move quickly and are an absolute blast because the worlds are so varied, the narrative may be branching, there may be multiple characters you're voicing that all need distinct voices, etc. But they can also be quite vocally stressful. If you've ever played a game with characters shouting "MORE AMMO" or "HEADS UP," remember that the actor likely recorded that line, and every other projected line you hear, at least three times in the booth. It adds up. So sometimes we leave the booth sore, sweating, and in need of some vocal rest.
What would you say are the first important steps someone should take when striving to become a voice actor themselves?
Like any acting medium, the most important skill is "acting." There's a misconception that having a "good voice" is all it takes, but even those who made a career off their "good voice" (ie: H Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Patrick Warburton, etc.) are fantastic actors and improvisers. VO-specific classes are a great way to learn because they'll get you in the booth & in front of the mic so you can get that experience in a safe environment. But other ways to study the craft are singing lessons for breath support and vocal endurance, improv classes and/or stand-up to further refine your acting chops, scene-study to help with quick character development and cold-reading skills, and dance to help with broadening your physical range. But the easiest way to learn, in my opinion, is critically consuming the media you want to be involved in and seeing where you could fit in it. If you want to be in games, you should be playing games and noting the performances and what you most connect with in them. Also, don't skip the cutscenes!
Thank you for your time Erin!
Erin's Links:
Erin's Website: www.erinyvette.com
Erin's Twitter: twitter.com/erin_yvette
Erin's Instagram: www.instagram.com/erin_yvette
WWW FEATURE: Eva Widermann
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Eva Widermann, freelance concept artist and illustrator. Read more about Eva in this interview:
Hi Eva! You are a Freelance Concept Artist and Illustrator and previously worked on productions such as Hearthstone. Not only do you work on games, but also on comics and book illustrations. How much differs your workflow as an artist depending on the industry?
It depends on the project. Sometimes I get a briefing for a Cover or a comic and I get to read the manuscript in advance to get a feeling for the story. Often the main characters already exist and the world is visually developed and I have to match a certain look. My work on the Star Wars Rebels Comics for example was filled to the brim with references of space shuttles, costumes and uniforms, weapons… there is a huge fan base reading the comics and every little mistake I make (and my AD or Director doesn't notice) will be out there and discussed. So, gathering a ton of reference material is usually the first thing I do when I work on a comic. Drawing comics is intense work and a lot of art has to be produced, so you kinda have to be fast enough to make it pay off later. It needs to look good, but you don't have the time to be perfect. It's similar with Concept Art, you spend more time exploring and sketching and researching than refining the art to a high level. Book or game illustration, however, is different: Initial sketches and layouts don't need a lot of attention and just have to deliver the look and message of the art. But the focus and effort goes into refining the illustration until you and your client is happy.
Before working as a concept artist and illustrator you've worked in the field of graphic design. What made you decide to switch professions?
I had a great time working in the advertising industry, however, I just missed drawing. I always loved video games and roleplaying games and every time I looked through the core books and saw those fantastic artworks I thought: "Someone out there did those illustrations here and it's probably just a human being like me, so it must be possible!" I learned a lot as a graphic designer which did benefit me for my entire career as a freelance illustrator, so I will be forever grateful for the experience, but I would never want to go back to the advertising industry. It was just not my world and I am glad I followed my heart.
Going freelance can be quite scary if not planned out correctly. How can artists who want to become self-employed prepare in order to avoid some of the risks?
As I mentioned already, starting out as a graphic designer did help me a lot with my illustration career. For the first few years I worked part time as a graphic designer and spent the rest of my day building up my illustration career to a degree where it started to be profitable for me and I was able to go freelance full time. It's so important to learn how to deal with being creative under a lot of pressure – and the advertising industry was a great teacher for me there! Also, being an illustrator is – in my eyes – not being an artist. I am a service provider, a medium, someone who takes the vision of another person and puts it on paper or screen. I rarely get the chance to create anything for myself these days but that's okay. Freelancing was actually never on my list but it just came with the job I dreamed of and I learned to manage myself better. I would absolutely recommend getting help from a tax consultant if this is not your cup of tea. I never have time to do my tax, so I am happy someone else does it for me. Self-Promotion is important, but you have to explore different ways because Social Media is being flooded with people showcasing their art, it is a jungle of pictures and it's not easy to get noticed. Your art has to be marketable and appeal to the mass but you don't want to be easily replaced either. Some months you earn a lot and some months you barely make money, so you have to make sure you always have some savings. Looking back at almost 18 years of freelancing I have to say that one of the most important advice I can give is watching your physical and mental health. All too easily you get drawn into a spiral of self-doubt and burnout and you become obsessed with your work and you forget to go out for fresh air, to meet friends and have adventures, which you NEED in order to be a creative person!
Thank you for your time Eva!
Eva's Links:
Eva's Twitter: https://twitter.com/evawidermann
Eva's Website: https://evawidermann.artstation.com/
Eva's Artstation Site: https://www.artstation.com/evawidermann
WWW FEATURE: Gwen Frey
Womenize! Wednesday Weekly is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Gwen Frey, Founder and Primary Developer at Chump Squad. Read more about Gwen in this interview:
Hi Gwen! You are the Founder and Primary Developer at Chump Squad. Before creating your own studio, you've already worked on games like Bioshock Infinite and The Flame in the Flood. What made you decide to start developing games on your own?
My very first job was working at a startup in San Francisco. From the moment I took that job I knew I wanted to run a company. Some of this was hubris, but I looked around at all of the tech companies in Silicon Valley and starting a company just seemed so easy and fun! I was watching venture capitalists give millions to either highly disorganized "idea" people or to men in suits from Harvard, and neither one of those was working out for these investors. The startup I worked at shut down 6 months after I took the job, and I spent the next 6 years working in online games, and then in AAA, but I never forgot about my time in San Francisco. I always knew I'd start my own company one day.
My first opportunity came after Irrational Games closed. I was suddenly jobless again, but this time I had experience making successful games. I also had a large number of talented developers that had lost their jobs at the same time. I banded together with 5 other people and co-founded The Molasses Flood. In under 3 years we founded the studio, lined up some funding, and shipped The Flame in The Flood. This was not easy and there were a lot of ups and down, but I am insanely proud that we pulled this off. The Flame in The Flood is on every console and has been played by millions of people around the world. I love The Molasses Flood and honestly had no intention of ever leaving… but then I did.
After The Flame in The Flood launched I had started a game at home in my free time, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Unfortunately, the game I was making was a narrative puzzle game. I adore single player games, puzzle games, and rpgs, but what I was making was is in a genre that tends to lose money. Financially successful indie games are usually highly-systemic, roguelikes, or multiplayer games. Publishers and business people generally aren't interested in puzzle games, and even now I have difficulty getting certain deals because of the genre. "Is the game replayable" is the first thing someone asks when I email them about the game. Back when I had started development on this game we were looking to grow The Molasses Flood, and we could not take the risk of investing in a puzzle game. It was especially risky because the person that wanted to design the game was me, and I've never been involved in game design before. I was always focused on the art, or on the business of game development. There was just no way to make this game at the company I co-founded.
But I strongly felt that I needed to make this game, so slowly over the course of a year I wound down my role at The Molasses Flood and I formed my own studio, Chump Squad. This way I could take on the risk, and have fun making exactly what I wanted to make. It was difficult to do this, but I'm extremely happy that I decided to go it alone. I'm proud to say that I completed and launched that narrative puzzle game, Kine, in October last year. You can play it on the Epic Game Store, any console, and on Google Stadia. Please check it out!
You began your games career as a technical artist and technical animator. Where are the differences compared to "usual" artists and animators, and why did you specify in these areas?
Everyone in my family is a programmer. I wanted to be an animator, but I never thought I would pull it off. I actually went to the school of Film and Animation at RIT (a programming school.) I always assumed that I would give up on art, switch my major to programming, and then go get a real job. Halfway through college I met a group of aspiring game developers and we made games together in our free time. I loved doing this. In fact I spent so much time making games at college I couldn't keep up with my animation classes. In order to make my workload more manageable I convinced my professors to let me focus on character rigging. I would rig characters for other students so that they could focus on animation and I could focus on just rigging. I really enjoyed setting up characters, and knew I could do this significantly faster than the other students because I had written a bunch of tools in Python to automate the process. This worked out extremely well, and led to my first job being a "tech art" job rigging characters in video games. As soon as I got that job I spent a lot of time writing tools to automate the art processes at that studio… and this pattern just sort of continued throughout my career. I tend to get to a place, find there is something that no one is doing that should really get done, and then I do that thing. Sometimes it is a system that people know they need (someone has to figure out how real time cloth works in UE3) sometimes it is a tool that people don't realize they badly need, and sometimes I just make art. I love having a very undefined job, it gives me a lot of freedom.
Chump Squad's first title, Kine, was released last year. What is some useful advice you would like to share with people who are also interested in developing games on their own?
This is a very difficult question. Different people need completely different advice, and giving the wrong advice is often dangerous. For example, if someone says they can't seem to focus on their work then that could mean they haven't formed solid work habits and they need to set a time to start and stop working each day. On the other hand it could also mean that this person is burned out and they need to step away from work for a while. If you don't know that person you could give them the wrong advice, and the wrong advice could hurt them. This effect is amplified because as humans we often seek out the wrong advice! We look for advice that confirms what we want to believe rather than what we need to hear.
Going further, business advice is often regional (going to GDC is easy if you are American, and harder/pointless if you are South African), and design advice is only useful if it plays into your specific advantages and disadvantages as a designer. I'm not kidding when I say this: There is no universally "useful" advice. I wish there was, it would make questions like this easier 🙂
Thank you for your time Gwen!
Gwen's Links:
Gwen's Twitter: https://twitter.com/direGoldfish
Kine's Website: https://www.kinegame.com/
The Dialog Box's Twitter: https://twitter.com/dialogBoxCast
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The Imperative to Write: Destitutions of the Sublime in Kafka, Blanchot, and Beckett
by Jeff Fort
Is writing haunted by a categorical imperative? Does the Kantian sublime continue to shape the writer's vocation, even for twentieth-century authors? What precise shape, form, or figure does this residue of sublimity take in the fictions that follow from it—and that leave it in ruins? This book exp... More
The Banality of Heidegger
by Jeff Fort • Jean-Luc Nancy
Heidegger and Nazism: Ever since the philosopher's public involvement in state politics in 1933, his name has necessarily been a part of this unsavory couple. After the publication in 2014 of the private Black Notebooks, it is now unambiguously part of another: Heidegger and anti-Semitism. What do ... More
The Ground of the Image (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
If anything marks the image, it is a deep ambivalence. Denounced as superficial, illusory, and groundless, images are at the same time attributed with exorbitant power and assigned a privileged relation to truth. Mistrusted by philosophy, forbidden and embraced by religions, manipulated as "spectacl... More
Discovering Dynamical Systems Through Experiment and Inquiry (Textbooks in Mathematics)
by Jeff Ford • Thomas LoFaro
Discovering Dynamical Systems Through Experiment and Inquiry differs from most texts on dynamical systems by blending the use of computer simulations with inquiry-based learning (IBL). IBL is an excellent tool to move students from merely remembering the material to deeper understanding and analysis... More
The Lone Wolverine: Tracking Michigan's Most Elusive Animal
by Elizabeth Philips Shaw • Jeff Ford
It began in late winter of 2004. Almost 100 years had passed since the last spotting of a wild wolverine in Michigan when coyote hunters caught a glimpse of one of the animals in a frozen farm field in the northern thumb region. For the next six years, Jeff Ford, a local science teacher and amat... More
Mourning Philology: Art and Religion at the Margins of the Ottoman Empire
by Jeff Fort • Marc Nichanian • G. M. Goshgarian
"Pagan life seduces me a little more with each passing day. If it were possible today, I would change my religion and would joyfully embrace poetic paganism," wrote the Armenian poet Daniel Varuzhan in 1908. During the seven years that remained in his life, he wrote largely in this "pagan" vein. If ... More
Copy, Archive, Signature: A Conversation on Photography
by Jacques Derrida • Jeff Fort • Gerhard Richter
This book makes available for the first time in English-and for the first time in its entirety in any language-an important yet little-known interview on the topic of photography that Jacques Derrida granted in 1992 to the German theorist of photography Hubertus von Amelunxen and the German literary... More
This book is based on the interview on the topic of photography that Jacques Derrida granted in 1992 to the German theorist of photography Hubertus von Amelunxen and the German literary and media theorist Michael Wetzel. ... More
Heidegger, Philosophy, and Politics: The Heidelberg Conference
by Jacques Derrida • Jeff Fort • Jean-Luc Nancy • Hans-Georg Gadamer • Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe • Mireille Calle-Gruber
In February 1988, philosophers Jacques Derrida, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe came together in Heidelberg before a large audience to discuss the philosophical and political implications of Martin Heidegger's thought. This event took place in the very amphitheater in which, more th... More
The Cosmology of the Wider World
by Jeffrey Ford • Jeff Vandermeer
A modern fable based on the labyrinths created by us all Belius has led a peaceful if not uneventful existence until now, as far as minotaurs' lives go. He mostly keeps to his house, avoiding anyone outside of his family. Despite his human parents' efforts to shield him from the potential hysteria o... More
Maidens, Monsters and Heroes: The Fantasy Illustrations of H. J. Ford (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
by H. J. Ford • Jeff A. Menges
Henry Justice Ford is best known for his collaboration with Andrew Lang on a popular series of twelve "Color" fairy tale books published at the turn of the twentieth century. The artist and the folklorist also worked together on books with settings ranging from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth... More
Masters Of Midnight: Erotic Tales Of The Vampire
by William J. Mann • Michael Thomas Ford • Sean Wolfe • Jeff Mann
They are the ultimate forbidden pleasure--ruthless in their eroticism, tender in their devotions, and utterly irresistible in their dangerous temptations. Spend the night with four mysterious men whose kiss is more than deadly, it's forever. . . Masters Of Midnight His Hunger, by William J. Mann It'... More
Trends and Issues in Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science: Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science (ICIBSoS 2016), 5-6 November 2016, Jogjakarta, Indonesia
by Fonny Hutagalung • A. R. Rushdan • Ford Gaol • Chew Peng • Zulkifli Isa
Trends and Issues in Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science contains papers presented at the 5th International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science 2016 (ICIBSoS 2016), held 5-6 November 2016 in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. The 24 papers cover every discipline in all fields of ... More
Introduction to the Common Core State Standards
by National Governors Association Center for Best Practices • Council of Chief State School Officers
Building on the excellent foundation of standards states have laid, the Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing our young people with a high-quality education. It should be clear to every student, parent, and teacher what the standards of success are in every school. Teachers... More
Triumph Learning Common Core Coach, English Language Arts: Grade 3
by Council of Chief State School Officers • The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
This Triumph Learning Common Core Coach, English Language Arts, First Edition, Grade 3 helps students learn English Language Arts with plenty of exercises using fables and other stories.... More
Walking Cities: London
by Jean-Luc Nancy • Esther Leslie • Douglas Murphy • Phil Smith • Steve Pile • Ahuvia Kahane • David Dernie • Richard Wentworth • Rosana Antoli • Sean Ashton • Rut Blees Luxemburg • Amy Blier-Carruthers • Duncan Jeffs • Jaspar Joseph-Lester • Adam Kaasa • Nayan Kulkarni • Sharon Kivland • Laura Oldfield Ford • Peter Sheppard Skærved • Tom Spooner • Peter St. John • Jo Stockham
Walking Cities: London (second edition) brings together a new interdisciplinary field of artists, writers, architects, musicians, human geographers and philosophers to consider how a city walk informs and triggers new processes of making, thinking, researching and communicating. In particular, the b... More

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


BBC 100 Women event went live on BBC World News TV & BBC World Service Radio in English and all their different languages. Fereshteh has been touring the UK in an Arts Council supported tour of Baluji Shrivastav and the Inner Vision Orchestra. Her parents have threatened to burn Fereshteh if she sings in public.


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Gloucestershire House Histories
Home House History Research Talks and Walks Publications Other Research About Rose
Rose gives illustrated talks throughout Gloucestershire on a variety of subjects including:
House History – tips on how to trace the history of your house
1607: The great Severn estuary flood – a look at the likely causes and the effects of the most devastating flood ever recorded on the Severn estuary. Could it happen again?
Village life in mid-Victorian times – a fascinating insight into the structure of a typical village during the 1860s
Gouts, itches and pillheads: Records of the Gloucestershire Court of Sewers, 1583-1642 – the world of sea defences and land drainage is a wonderful resource for family and local historians, full of personal names, unusual terminology, topographical detail and local government 'red tape'
James Clifford: Entrepreneur – how the foresight of an Elizabethan entrepreneur born in Gloucestershire underpinned the Industrial Revolution in the Ironbridge Gorge
'Old' Frampton Court: A Commonwealth house – built in 1651, the history of this interesting house is traced through accounts, inventories and family papers
Living on the edge: Communities along the upper Severn estuary – farming and fishing along the upper Severn estuary from Roman times to the present-day
A village through time – tracing the chronological development of a village from Jurassic fossils to the 21st century
1914-18: Village life during the Great War – a focus on the changes that the First World War brought to those living at home
William Sheppard: Cromwell's law reformer – as one of the most prolific legal writers of the 17th century, Sheppard's suggested reforms (which included land registration) led this Gloucestershire lawyer to become Oliver Cromwell's personal adviser for three years
The Glamorgan Heritage Coast – a glimpse at one of the most stunning coastlines in the British Isles and its communities
How to get the best out of village records – a guide to the numerous sources available to those wishing to understand more about where they live
….. and a Village Walk around Frampton on Severn.
All talks are given using PowerPoint. Rose's fee is £60 (to include reasonable travel expenses). She is available during the day and evenings, and often at short notice.
Home | House History Research | Talks and Walks | Publications | Other Research | About Rose |
Rose Hewlett, 9 Vicarage Lane, Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire, GL2 7EE
Tel: 01452 740894 or 07710 182678 | email: gloucestershirehousehistories@gmail.com


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'Dark Lies the Island' by Kevin Barry
By Laura Collins-Hughes Globe Correspondent,November 14, 2013, 6:00 p.m.
Kevin Barry's book of stories follows his 2012 first novel, "City of Bohane." (OLIVIA SMITH)
They wait in ambush, these few simple words, tossed off casually and with just enough ambiguity that we think we understand: "Castles were good."
We are day-tripping, along for a ride through Ireland's County Sligo with Ernestine and Kit, a pair of 60-something women enjoying the summer weather. Naturally castles would be good.
But Kevin Barry, who rendered a pointillistic gangland last year in his first novel, "City of Bohane," does love a sinister tale. In his stealthy and shimmering new story collection, "Dark Lies the Island," a couple of tut-tutting women, clad in the harmless camouflage of maiden aunts, are as well versed in malevolence as any warring Bohane thug. Castles are good, it turns out, because their twisty corridors make it easy for small children to get lost, and for Ernestine and Kit to snatch them.
Darkness abounds in these 13 stories, though it takes its different forms: vileness, foreboding, ignorance, isolation, self-delusion, despair. Precisely one piece has what could be called an upbeat ending, and that only after a night of ungodly destruction. Like "City of Bohane," some of the stories will send American readers scrambling for definitions of Irish terms, particularly the slang. Also like the novel, "Dark Lies the Island" is often playful, comic, even gently so.
"This is the story of a happy marriage but before you throw up and turn the page let me say that it will end with my face pressed hard into the cold metal of the Volvo's bonnet, my hands cuffed behind my back, and my rights droned into my ear," a Dubliner named Jonathan begins, in "Wifey Redux." Creepy and increasingly manic, the story skewers gorgeously the culture of privilege that evolved during the Celtic Tiger years. It also gives us, in Jonathan, the first of several weepy men in the collection. Do not, of course, believe the bit about the happy marriage.
In "The Mainland Campaign," a Tipperary teenager is new to London in what seems to be the 1980s: "All summer long he had been in rut heat and lonesome. He was in love with the girl in the Italian chipper. He was in love with Polly the restaurant manager. He was in love with the middle-aged lady who pulled pints at Presley's and called him 'Ducky.' " It is an amusing detail, sympathetic and human. And by some alchemy, it makes the boy's business in the city — he is plotting, with the IRA, to bomb a tube station — even more soul chilling.
Carl O'Connor, the title character of "Doctor Sot," is lonely, too, a pariah in his town. "Only the old and fatalistic still patronised the O'Connor practice," and no wonder, what with the whiskey on his breath, the hallucinations that frighten him of mirrors, the humiliating "seepage" that stains his tweeds. At home waits his wife, "well used to his capers and disappearances. Often, Doctor Sot was gone for days at a time. Many was the ditch of the northwest he had woken up in."
The title story, about a young woman alone in autumn at her family's vacation home, where she is tempted to cut herself, is one of two in the collection — the other is about a callow writer trying to find himself in Berlin — that feel like padding. The last stories in the book, they aren't of the same caliber as the rest of the work here.
Better to have finished with the pair of lowlife-criminal tales that come before them. Broke ex-con Patrick Mullaney, in "White Hitachi," frets about his ability to make a life for himself and his much younger brother, Tee-J, who's fresh out of juvenile detention. Patrick has a larger worry, too, and the way Barry lets us in on this — casually, calling no attention to it — takes the breath away: "An unspoken fear he had was that Tee-J would at some point kill."
And it could be that Doctor Sot isn't the only one who can't bear to look in the mirror. In "The Girls and the Dogs," a man with a restraining order against him is holed up in a trailer in the country, missing his daughter. He's fled Cork because of some trouble with the brown crack he introduced to the city.
"I love May-Anne — my dotey pet, I always call her — but it makes me frightened just to think of her walking around in the world with the people that are out there," he says. "You'd want a daughter breathing the same air as those animals?"
Laura Collins-Hughes can be reached at laura.collinshughes@gmail.com.


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CFFS 2023 – [In-Person] Cameraless Film Workshop: Digging Up Surprises
Sunday, Feb. 5 from 10am–12pm PT
with public screening of results at 12:30pm
NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. We are not currently checking vaccination cards. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.
Instructor: Devon Damonte & Avida Jackson
Festival - Children's Film Festival Seattle 2023: Workshops
Cameraless Film Workshop: Digging Up Surprises with Devon Damonte and Avida Jackson
Note: There is an ONLINE and IN-PERSON version of this workshop. This is the page for the IN-PERSON workshop. Link to virtual workshop.
PROGRAM PARTNERS: Henry Art Gallery and Interbay Cinema Society
ACCESS: This event is public. Online participation is limited to residents of Washington and Oregon.
ADMISSION: FREE!
What surprises happen when you scratch and draw on 16mm film then project it? What treasures do you uncover when you dig in the ground? How can you show your digging discoveries in the film you make?
This ArtVenture from Henry Art Gallery, in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum's Children's Film Festival and in partnership with Interbay Cinema Society, welcomes experimental filmmakers Devon Damonte and Avida Jackson in a fun, hands-on filmmaking experience with options to participate online or in person. With the theme of "digging up surprises," participants will combine Japanese washi tape, Sharpie marker drawings on clear film, and scratching on black 16mm film leader (adult collaboration recommended) to create experimental animation movies. Washi tape is a richly patterned adhesive tape made from rice paper. It is also a handy material for creating abstract, cameraless animated movies on 16mm film leader, which interacts with the tape's patterns and textures in magical ways when the film is projected. All materials will be provided; online participants will be mailed a kit (one per household), which will include two prepaid mailers to return the completed strips for processing. Online participants will test and experiment the first session, then send those in to see the results at the second session, refine techniques and make final footage to send. All film from the workshop participants, both in-person and online, will be spliced into a collaborative group film to be professionally transferred to digital format. The finished group film will then be available for download, and an online world premiere.
Workshop is open to all ages, and cross-generational participation is encouraged. Any workshop participants younger than 15 should be accompanied by an adult co-animator. All in-person participants will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building.
Funding for this ArtVentures workshop is provided by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission (now also known as "ArtsWA") and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Both in-person and remote participants (the latter mailed ahead) will be provided a toolkit with: clear 16mm film leader, MT washi tape, a few Sharpie markers, and a small magical stainless steel combination multi-scratching and serrated edge washi tearing tool. Participants may also try additional art supplies of your own; we'll give some guidelines about what works best in an email the week before the event.
COVID-19 VACCINATION POLICY
NWFF is adapting to evolving recommendations to protect the public from COVID-19. Read more about their COVID policies here.
If you have questions about the workshop, you can email River Naylor at river@nwfilmforum.org.
Devon Damonte
Devon Damonte is an artist based in Olympia, WA. He prefers handcrafted stuff, like cameraless 16mm & 35mm film animation, rubbings, printmaking, handmade papermaking, and book arts. Damonte is adjunct faculty at The Evergreen State College teaching a summer intensive experimental motion graphics adventure called "Visual Music". His work has shown at NY Film Festival Views From the Avant Garde, REDCAT at Disney Hall in LA, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Engauge Experimental Film Festival Seattle, and McMurdo Station Antarctica. Damonte currently sells his own line of handcrafted washi tape, and he believes we all currently live smack dab in the golden age of adhesive tape.
Avida Jackson
Avida Jackson is a Black multimedia artist and filmmaker currently living in Portland, OR. She enjoys working with analog and digital techniques and has worked on music videos for Grammy-nominated musicians. She is currently working in Photo and Video production at Nike.
Festival Directory
Presented by Seattle's Northwest Film Forum, Children's Film Festival Seattle is the largest film fest on the West Coast dedicated to children and families.
Each year, CFFS provides a joyous and dynamic environment that inspires young people to participate as agents of change in their local and global communities. While staying committed to racial and gender equity, inclusivity, social justice and global awareness, the festival showcases the best age-appropriate visual storytelling for young people.
Through films, workshops, field trips, and filmmaker discussions, CFFS shows young audiences the world, and the power of imagination!
WORKSHOPS & PANELS
Sun Feb 12
CFFS 2023 – [Virtual] Cameraless Film Workshop: Digging Up Surprises
Sat Feb 11
1.00pm , 3.00pm
CFFS 2023 – Exploring Shadow Puppetry [In Person]
CFFS 2023 – Cakecraft with Cris [In-Person Only]
CFFS 2023 – Kids Quest with Majestic Adventures: Fantasy Camp Showcase (All Ages) [In-Person Only]


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My Neighbor Totoro and failures in Christian imagination
There's a new dub available for this classic by Hayao Miyazaki that Disney just released this month. I haven't seen it yet but am familiar with the old Fox dub, which is also, alas, panned and scanned. There really shouldn't be a pan-and-scan version of any Miyazaki film. His flair for unusual images and gestures deserves a fuller presentation.
To go by the variety of on-line reactions some people are REALLY not digging the new dub with Dakota and Ellie Fanning. I have heard bits of it here and there and it doesn't doesn't seem that bad. They actually sound like children, which is a good thing. What little I've heard so far suggests that Tim Daly, the voice of Superman on the FOX series Superman: the animated series, has done a good job.
This movie is one of those super-cute films. It is possibly the single least violent film made for children anyone has made. If it weren't coming from such a plainly pantheistic perspective it's th ekind of film a Christian media watchdog organization "might" like. A very big if, of course.
Speaking as a Christian I nevertheless find all kinds of things about Miyazaki's work to be admirable. Despite his VERY dim view of humanity and the prospects of the human race in the future he is, nevertheless, able to find a lot of beautiful and noble qualities in his characters and, to put in blatantly Christian theological terms, is able to find ways to show how the created world, no matter how marred by evil and imbalance, still bears the stamp of the divine.
And when the alternative "Christian" entertainment includes stuff like Bible-Man or the like I think I'd prefer Miyazaki's work. Children getting Christian educations in the past century have learned classical Western works that had no Christian underpinning and turned out fine. By the same measure, I think children can grow up watching Miyazaki's films and still understand what is and is not congruent with Christianity in those films.
On the other hand, I have a friend who is a pastor and when he was a child the stuff that captured his imagination wasn't Christian stuff. You can't really completely control what a child will or won't think but it seems that sometimes parents, without intending to, introduce their kids to things the kids like more than biblical stories. So in a way it's hard to tell anyone that they should get their kid excited about Jesus and the Bible before getting them excited about anything else.
Culture war tropes and Christian reactions have, I think, muddled together in a way that Christian imagination has been deliberately or unwittingly stifled. If the question was asked decades ago "Why does the devil have all the good music?" an unfair reponse after all this time might well be, "Why is that still true?"
I don't happen to think it's as simple as that. I have music by Penderecki and Mahalia Jackson and the Fairfield Four. Perhaps a more pointed question might be, "Why does white American Christian music suck so bad?" I think South Park's Eric Cartman pretty much nailed it but for now I explain that only with the cryptic quote, "Let the reader understand".
MIchael Nicollela
Herein I plug for a Seattle guitarist and composer whose most recent CD I picked up last year. He's a musician who shifts back and forth between classical and jazz idioms and his CD from last year, Shard, has a nice variety of music to it. If you already know about this CD my plug comes a whole year too late!
But I will plug anyway. His CD includes a v ery nice rendition of Steve Reich's guitar/minimalist masterpiece Electric Counterpoint (it's Acoustic Counterpoint depending on who records it so keep that in mind if you are hunting for other recordings of this work). The title track, a piece written by Elliot Carter, really doesn't do anything for me but it's short and nicely played for the style. I'm more fond of Nicolella's original works, TOccata & Fugue and Surfacing Through th eMire. If you're in the Seattle area you can pick up these scores at Rosewood Guitar. I eventually hope to pick up at least one of the two pieces to study.
I'll try to write more about Nicollela after I've heard him play at Benaroya Hall this weekend.
My Neighbor Totoro and failures in Christian imagi...


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NOWCAST WPBF 25 News at 8 a.m. Sunday
Cyclist fatally struck by driver under the influence in Jupiter
The driver, 32-year-old Janelle E. Nutting was arrested and charged with DUI Manslaughter.
Updated: 4:37 PM EDT Aug 9, 2020
Kaitlyn Burman
Video above is News to Go - a look at today's forecast, top headlinesA Riviera Beach woman is in custody after fatally striking a man riding his bike in Jupiter Saturday night.At approximately 11 p.m., officers from the Jupiter Police Department responded to reports of a cyclist hit by a driver on the 600 block of S. U.S. Highway 1.The man was pronounced dead on the scene.According to a police report, both the cyclist and the car were traveling southbound at the time of the incident.The driver, 32-year-old Janelle E. Nutting was arrested and charged with DUI Manslaughter.
Video above is News to Go - a look at today's forecast, top headlines
A Riviera Beach woman is in custody after fatally striking a man riding his bike in Jupiter Saturday night.
At approximately 11 p.m., officers from the Jupiter Police Department responded to reports of a cyclist hit by a driver on the 600 block of S. U.S. Highway 1.
The man was pronounced dead on the scene.
According to a police report, both the cyclist and the car were traveling southbound at the time of the incident.


Per 5th of March 2018, Insero Software adapts its name and become Insero Air Traffic Solutions A/S. The adaptation of our name happens as a part of an intensified strategic business strategy which focuses on creating a clear profile for the company – especially towards international customers and business partners.
For more than 30 years, Insero Air Traffic Solutions has been successful in developing software for the airport industry. With the new name, the company increases its operations towards international markets and customers, thus expecting a boost in the overall growth of the company.
Management and ownership of Insero Air Traffic Solutions remains the same.


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text:
Шабанка — река в Малмыжском районе Кировской области, левый приток Вятки (бассейн Волги).

Устье реки находится в 2,9 км по левому берегу старицы Староречье Агельдино. Длина реки составляет 46 км. Площадь водосборного бассейна — 400 км². В 11 км от устья по левому берегу принимает реку Малая Шабанка.

Исток реки в лесу в 10 км к востоку от села Константиновка. В верховьях называется также Большая Шабанка. Река течёт на юго-запад, затем на юг. Верхнее течение проходит по ненаселённому лесу, в нижнем течении на реке стоят деревни Пижинерь, Малый Сатнур и Большой Сатнур. В низовьях выходит на низменную заболоченную пойму Вятки, течёт параллельно вятской старице Староречье Агельдино, в которую и впадает тремя километрами выше слияния старицы с основным руслом Вятки.

Притоки — Малая Шабанка (левый), Кугенер (правый).

Данные водного реестра
По данным государственного водного реестра России относится к Камскому бассейновому округу, водохозяйственный участок реки — Вятка от водомерного поста посёлка городского типа Аркуль до города Вятские Поляны, речной подбассейн реки — Вятка. Речной бассейн реки — Кама.

Код объекта в государственном водном реестре — 10010300512111100040234.

Примечания

Литература

Реки Малмыжского района
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SUGAR RAY'S STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH (ALLEGED) FIGHT FIXER CREATES WEB OF SCAN
"SRL Boxing is dedicated to the integrity of the sport as strongly as it is to the business of the sport"
— excerpt from business plan, Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing LLC
This past Friday, Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing produced one of its many ESPN2 fight cards in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The show was put together on relatively short notice, only because SRL had originally scheduled the show to be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans in that city went awry, partially due to the Leonard organization's involvement with an alleged fight fixer.
According to a pair of stories that were published last week in the
Myrtle Beach Sun News
, Leonard's company, which has a contract to promote shows on ESPN2 for the next three years, was recruited to provide fight production for a June 7 show by Bobby Mitchell, a South Carolina promoter/matchmaker who is currently under indictment for federal sports bribery (i.e., fight-fixing) and is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in Nevada.
The story says that Mitchell had become involved with the Myrtle Beach Area Sports Council, an organization formed to promote sports and tourism in the resort community, in an effort to raise funds for the event. The Sports Council turned around and raised $50,000 in fees from both the Myrtle Beach City Council and Horry County, within which Myrtle Beach sits.
With an additional $25,000 that was raised in sponsorships, the Sports Council had $125,000 in its coffers, and hired Mitchell to run the event, giving him $75,000 in the way of guarantee money. Mitchell then turned around and gave the money to SRL Boxing.
The event was canceled just a few weeks ago, creating a lot of pissed-off people. Horry County had a clause in its agreement with the Sports Council that entitled it to a refund should a boxing event not take place on June 7, but Myrtle Beach curiously had no such protection, nor did it have a written contract.
Mitchell reportedly tried to get the $75,000 advance payment refunded to him by SRL Boxing, but was rebuffed. There are also the sponsors, already having put money forward on the strength of Leonard's name and Mitchell's word, who are trying to chase their investment down.
As a result, Mitchell and SRL Boxing have hung some people out to dry.
Now there are lawsuits in the works – one being filed by Mitchell against SRL Boxing – for reneging on the agreement to bring the June 7 fight to the city, and possibly another by the Myrtle Beach Area Sports Council against Mitchell. It was not clear as to whether SRL Boxing would be included as a co-defendant in any lawsuits brought by the city of Myrtle Beach. According to John Reyelt, chairman of the Sports Council, his organization is not anxious to do business with Mitchell again.
"We want to either arrange a new fight or get the city's money back," Reyelt said.
As for Mitchell, he told the Sun News that he is still holding out for hope that another fight can be made. "I just hope this didn't leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth," he said.
No – certainly nothing worse than halitosis.
Mitchell would have to get the money back from Leonard in the event another promoter were to become involved. As of now, SRL has shown no inclination to part with the funds, which do not rightfully belong to them. Also, by the time any alternative arrangements can be made, Mitchell may very well have been convicted of the fight fixing charge, which would leave him in a situation where his involvement in a fight card, anywhere in the country, would be in serious jeopardy.
So why won't SRL Boxing refund the $75,000 deposit it was paid? Well, officials from the company were not reached by the
, but TOTAL ACTION has been made aware of potentially serious cash-flow problems in the fledgling company. After SRL's April 5 show in Buffalo, it paid matchmaker/agent Rick Glaser the sum of $200 for arranging for the services of two undercard fighters, but the check was returned due to insufficient funds. And a second check, which indeed cleared, was sent only after a considerable delay.
While the
story was not specific as to the reason for the June 7 fight card's cancellation, we have learned that SRL Boxing, which had no reason not to be aware of Mitchell nefarious history and of the well-documented fix charges, had endeavored to conceal Mitchell's involvement in the promotion to outside parties, and when it appeared that wasn't going to be possible, decided the best course of action would be to pull out of the event.
Sources have also told us that fighters slated to appear on the June 7 card promptly disavowed any association with the show when it was uncovered that Leonard's group was indeed in business with someone who could very well be facing jail time for fixing fights.
It is suspected that one of those fighters was Paul Williams, a middleweight from Aiken, S.C., who has won all 16 of his pro fights, 13 of them by knockout.
Not only is Williams currently under promotional contract to SRL Boxing, but he is also managed by George Peterson, who is the central figure behind the charges that currently have Mitchell facing his Federal trial.
It was Peterson, as the estranged manager of heavyweight Thomas Williams (no relation to Paul) who taped a face-to-face conversation with Williams in which the fighter acquiesced to an upcoming "dive" he was about to take against New York heavyweight Richie Melito, which was to take place on the undercard of the first Holyfield-Ruiz undercard in August of 2000. Williams eventually got knocked out by Melito in the first round. As
TOTAL ACTION reported exclusively almost immediately after that bout
, Peterson, a former law enforcement officer, turned the tape of his conversation with Williams over to the FBI, touching off the investigation.
In August of 2001, Mitchell and Thomas Williams
were both indicted on two counts of federal sports bribery and conspiracy to commit federal sports bribery
. And Peterson obviously is going to be a key government witness against them.
So what's the lesson to be learned here? Well, there are certain jurisdictions in this country where promoters are bonded, or made to put up a letter of credit. The issue is also addressed in Section 109 in the newly proposed United States Boxing Amendments Act of 2002. But the authority is narrow in scope – it customarily covers the promoter's obligations as far as fighters' purses is concerned, but it doesn't cover sponsors and other "investors" who might be duped by a boxing promoter.
Why doesn't it? In this particular case a promoter, or tandem of promoters (Leonard's group and Mitchell) have teamed up to bilk government-related agencies of at least $50,000, and as much as $100,000, with sponsors in the hole for another $25,000. They have done so AS PROMOTERS and in the name of putting together a boxing event, presumably one which would be sanctioned and approved by another government agency (the South Carolina Boxing Commission), but which DID NOT take place.
Any thoughtful legislation aimed at boxing should have foreseen that instances like this have happened before and will happen in the future, and would have given the local governing body (or a national commission, as it were) some authority in regulating the matter, by either taking subsequent action to punish those who have violated the rules, or recommending that specific action be taken on the part of the attorney general pursuant to a non-boxing statute.
The bottom line is, you have a promoter here who is holding money based on a service it did not perform. You couldn't possibly create a scenario where it would be entitled to the cash.
In this particular case, the licensee (which would be SRL Boxing) would be made to sit down and explain its actions, and to hand the money back to the source from which it originated, rather than continue to be allowed to hold the $75,000 for ransom. Then perhaps they should be suspended from doing business – across the board.
Because you have to teach some people what "integrity" really means.
fightpage@totalaction.com
Copyright 2002 Total Action Inc.
A GREAT BUSINESS CONCEPT –
Manuel Ramos – Mexican Heavyweight
$*%@#!
Rick Folstad
Walk the dog, stroll through the park, have a picnic at the lake.
There are safer things for IBF cruiserweight champ Vassily Jirov to do this month than defend his title against James "Lights Out" Toney.
Barbecue, play softball, fish, visit the zoo. Thank his lucky stars.
Jirov, who lives in California, won't be fighting Toney on HBO on Jan. 25.
Something to do with his insides.
Ask Toney why Jirov pulled out of their fight and he'll tell you it was Jirov's heart that let him down, his backbone that went soft, not his banged-up ribs. Ask Toney and he'll tell you about heartbreak and lies and revenge and fighting anybody in the universe if it means another title. Jirov claims he suffered the damage while sparring. Maybe. But it's the fourth time Jirov has found a reason not to fight Toney. How many times you got to be told to go home before you realize the guy doesn't want to come outside and play? How many times you got to be bit by the same dog before you realize it wants to be left alone? Jirov has more excuses than a politician caught with a hooker on his lap.
In his own eloquent way, Toney recently described how disappointed he was in the cancellation of their title fight on the undercard of the Vernon Forrest – Ricardo Mayorga welterweight title fight.
"The @#%$%*&#@,'' Toney said after learning of the postponement on Christmas Eve. "Jirov can @&%$#% and then he can @%$#@#$. He's nothing but a #$%#@#.'' That said, it doesn't brighten up the New Year in the Toney household.
"I'm done with it,'' said Toney, sounding like a guy who finally gets tried of being stood up by the same girl.
As of Dec. 30, there was still no word of an opponent for Toney, though he's still making regular trips to the gym.
Merry Christmas, James. Have a Happy New Year.
"Bah, humbug,'' said Toney's promoter Dan Goossen. "We didn't have much of a Christmas. I got the news on Christmas Eve. But you just have to bounce back.'' Funny thing about fighters. Some make excuses, some fight through them. You get the feeling Toney could have cracked five ribs and his right tibia and still climbed into the ring against Jirov.
It raises a lot of questions. What's Jirov got against fighting? After a busy 2001, he hasn't fought since last February. How do you hold a title after you've gone into retirement? Just who is this guy and why does he like to hide? Is there really a Vassily Jirov out there, or is he a creation of the IBF, a shadowy figure who won the title and decided it was too big a risk to keep defending it? The bottom line is, Toney may be left with a lot of unexpected free time on his hands if they don't find him another fight, though he knew better than to mark the date on his calendar in ink. There are no promises in boxing. When dealing with a guy like Jirov, all bets are off. But Toney can still hope. The name O'Neil Bell – the WBC's No. 1 challenger – has been knocked around, and Toney said he doesn't care what contender or champion he knocks out on Jan. 25. "#@#$%$#,'' Toney said.
You can say that again.
A new year is upon us, which means it's time for new years resolutions. Yeah, never mind that most resolutions are broken, oh, around the third week of January; everybody still makes them.
Here are my resolutions that I'd make for some of the luminaries in the sport of boxing.
* Floyd Mayweather: No more excuses. Anyone else sick of listening to 'the Pretty Boy' whine about what ailments he came into the fight with? Whether it's his fragile hands, a bum shoulder or his squabbles with his promoter Bob Arum, he always has an alibi. Hey Floyd, nobody cares, you get paid plenty to perform and those that buy tickets don't care that you might have a hangnail; they want nothing but the best effort out of you.
Mayweather reminds me of former Los Angeles Dodger slugger Mike Marshall, who's second home seemed to be the disabled list. The bottom line is this guy is lucky to be a boxer where he only has to perform once every 6 months- he simply couldn't handle the rigors of an NBA, NFL or baseball season. Ask any athlete if they are ever 100-percent healthy after the first day of training camp or spring training and they'll laugh at you.
Injuries and ailments are a part of the job, overcoming them is what makes a true professional. Mayweather still hasn't grasped that concept.
* Jim Gray: Respect. I guess this little weasel is whom Aretha Franklin was talking about in her song. Think about it, have you ever seen a guy be so disrespectful to fighters in post-fight interviews like this guy. Don't even mention HBO's Larry Merchant- he isn't afraid to ask the tough questions like a true journalist and he's consistent. Gray looks at boxing as a secondary gig and looks down on boxers in general.
Don't believe me? Just compare and contrast his softball interviews that he does for NBC and the hatchet jobs he does on Showtime.
* Max Kellerman: No more over-hyping New York boxers. Look, I get along and respect Max, but when you look up the term 'East Coast Bias' in Webster's, his picture may be used as the definition of it. From Zab Judah to James Butler and to Tokumbo Olajide, he'll have you enshrined in Canastota if you come out of the Big Apple.
What's worse are the excuses he'll come up with for his New Yorkers when they fall on their faces. Max is great for boxing but he's gotta realize New York hasn't been a player on the boxing scene for at least 20 years.
* Crocodile: A new catchphrase. You know Crocodile, right? He was Mike Tyson's hype-man for all these years…the guy with the menacing shades and the army fatigues who used to scream, "GUERILLA WARFARE" at the top of his lungs over and over again.
I've heard that enough and it's about as played out as 'Whoop, there it is' and it's time he came up with a new one. All the great ones can add to their repertoire.
* HBO: Admit they acknowledge the titles. Stop being the Hypocritical Boxing Organization and just stop saying that you don't recognize these organizations. The latest example of their double-talk? Well, for years they dogged John Ruiz and his WBA title, suddenly Roy Jones challenges Ruiz and HBO is hyping this up as some sort of historic challenge of a light heavyweight trying to capture a heavyweight title.
Yeah, the same title they had basically trashed for years.
* Joe Cortez: No more over-officiating. His line is that,' He's firm but he's fair'. I'd argue about that the last couple of years but my biggest gripe with him is that he seems to make himself waaaaay too visible during fights and gets too involved. Nobody is there to watch him and he should just let the fighters fight.
Too often I see these fights with Cortez lose their flow as Cortez continually interrupts the action with his admonishments and warnings. Joe, take a step back and let us watch what we came to see.
* Don Turner: Stop living off of Holyfield-Tyson I- If you ever talk to this guy, he'll talk as though he invented boxing. And his big coup was co-training Evander Holyfield against Mike Tyson. 'The Real Deal' upset Tyson and suddenly Turner was being hailed as the new Chappie Blackburn and he became a media darling.
My question is this, did he suddenly teach Holyfield how to fight 35 fights into his career? Also, I contend that my mother and I could work Holyfield's corner and he would whip Tyson everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. And ask yourself this, when was the last time he was in the winning corner for a big fight?
* Newspaper writers: Start crediting the Internet. Ok, this is a sore subject with me, but too many times I've seen stories from the major newspaper scribes who amazingly have stories that are eerily similar to stories that I've read on the internet (or that I've written myself) and use quotes that I got in one-on-one interviews and they don't attribute their sources- the internet.
When I take quotes or info from a story I make a point to give credit where it's due. Now, I just wish these guys would do the same.
* Roy Jones: no more hip-hop entrances. Roy, you're a magnificently gifted prizefighter, you can also play just a bit of hoops, but your rhyming skills are that of Shaquille O'Neal. In other words, you're doing street nursery rhymes not Nas.
Please, oh please, stop embarrassing yourself and the sport with your cheesy as nacho's attempt to become a hip-hop performer. His last entrance/performance reminded me of one of those really bad Sir-Mix-Alot videos of the early 90's.
* Panama Lewis: an exit out of the game. You remember Lewis right, the guy who gave Aaron Pryor the mysterious white bottle before the 14th round of his bout against Alexis Arguello, which seemed to give 'the Hawk' a sudden burst of energy that enabled Pryor to brutally KO Arguello. Afterwards, Pryor would skip out on his post-fight drug test.
Then there was the fight with Luis Resto, where he would tamper with his gloves between rounds, and bearing the brunt of this tomfoolery was Billy Collins who's faced was turned into a bloody mess. Collins, in the aftermath of this brutality committed suicide. For this, Lewis was banned permanently from working a corner. But that doesn't mean that he can't go into the gym and train fighters and even attend fights.
The bottom line is simple, this man has no place in the game of boxing and boxing shouldn't tolerate him in any way.
* Cedric Kushner: no more gimmicks. This guy has tried everything from the disastrous 'ThunderBox' to one-day $100,000 heavyweight tournaments- and all have failed miserably.
He can put on a boxing version of 'Survivor' or 'Real World' if he wants but the reality is, boxing fans want good fights and interesting fighters, nothing more, nothing less.
Stop with the shenanigans and stop with the junk.
Dream Fights of 2003
Hey, we can all dream, right? Isn't it our God-given right as boxing fans to think about fights that should happen – but often times don't?
And not just fights that have the highest profile or the biggest names – because sometimes those fights, like Lewis vs. Tyson – are nothing more than high-profile mismatches. I'm talking about fights that are evenly matched between the game's best and are the most intriguing inside the ring.
Here are some fights I'd pay to see in the upcoming year; full well knowing that most of these fights are pipe dreams as the business end of the sport would bog these fights down quickly. But hey, we can dream right?
* Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera: Name me another fighter that has never won a world title belt that is better than Marquez? You can't and this guys been ducked and dodged long enough. On February 1st he takes on Manuel Medina for the vacant IBF featherweight title and it says here that he should face one of the game's best known 126-pounders, either Morales or Barrera. Marquez is a master boxer with great counter-punching skills and his hand-speed would give either one of his Mexican compatriots fits. There are some in the industry who have been saying for a while that Marquez is already the game's premiere featherweight; I'm not inclined to disagree that strongly.
CHANCES OF HAPPENING?: With Barrera, not good, as Ricardo Maldonado sees no real upside in this match-up and would most likely take an easier fight on HBO for about the same amount of money he could make facing Marquez.
With Morales, the logistics are much less complicated. Both of them are promoted by Bob Arum and there is some talk that they could face each other in May if a Morales-Barrera III isn't made.
* Bernard Hopkins vs. Roy Jones: Not only because it's a match-up of two of the very premiere fighters in the world, but Hopkins needs to resume his career with some meaningful fights and Jones should be fighting guys like 'the Executioner' instead of participating in novelty acts like his proposed bout with John Ruiz.
And don't think for one minute that this would be a blowout. Jones couldn't blowout a green Hopkins in 1993 and won't be able to do it now. Hopkins, unlike most of Jones' opponents, isn't in total awe of Pensacola's finest.
CHANCES OF HAPPENING?: Not good, Sharon and Arafat will find a common ground regarding the Middle East before these two proud and stubborn men find one in contract negotiations.
* Oscar De La Hoya vs. Vernon Forrest: For fans of pure boxing and strategy this is a fight that can't be missed. Both men have strong jabs and match-up well physically. 'The Golden Boy' has the better left hook and 'The Viper' has a more effective right hand. Between these two well-schooled boxers you can expect a tense and tight boxing match with subtle momentum swings round by round.
CHANCES OF HAPPENING?: For 2003, not very good because it looks like Oscar will be fighting once in the upcoming year – a September rematch against Shane Mosley – and Bob Arum has stated that Forrest simply brings nothing to the table promotionally. This can be interpreted as another way of saying that he's not Latin, too dangerous or just another black fighter who can't sell a ticket. The bottom line seems to be that unless Forrest raises his profile in the upcoming years, De La Hoya will be facing guys that make economic sense.
* Floyd Mayweather vs. Kostya Tszyu: This would be a face off of the sport's premier lightweight against the game's best jr. welterweight. 'The Pretty Boy' would bring speed, quickness and boxing ability to the dance. While Tszyu would bring a decided edge in strength, size and punching power. They say styles make fights and you have two contrasting ones here.
CHANCES OF HAPPENING?: Not likely. This is for a couple of reasons. First, Vlad Wharton who promotes Tszyu, is seemingly deathly afraid to take any risks with Tszyu, who's basically his cash cow. Secondly, Mayweather got a reality check from his two bouts with Jose Luis Castillo, who at 135 pounds was able to muscle him throughout their 24 rounds they fought in 2002. And Tszyu is faster, sharper and just as strong as Castillo. I'm not sure Mayweather is in any rush to make the move up to 140-pounds.
* Lennox Lewis vs. Wladimir Klitschko: The industry is always better off when there is action in the heavyweight division. So why even mess around by having Lewis take on 'the other' Klitschko or knock out Tyson again; getting right in there with the man most pundits are claiming is the heir to his throne in Wlad Klitschko?
The time is now, Lewis is getting up there in age and really doesn't have that much left in his gas tank anyway and it would be prudent for him to face Klitschko now before he gets any better. Remember, that's the tact they took in facing Michael Grant when they did – but it has to be noted that Klitschko is much better than Grant.
Lewis would have the advantages in experience and savvy, but for one of the few times in his career he would be facing a disadvantage in size and perhaps power. The two best big men on the planet squaring off, what else could you ask for?
CHANCES OF HAPPENING: Actually pretty good, since Lewis himself has stated his plans to take on both Klitschkos in between his rematch with Tyson. But with Don King now making a full court press to garner the services of Lewis, who knows what direction he goes to now.


text:
Off-Campus News
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Soccer-Women | Sports
Sara Olivarez: Glorifying God Through Injury
By Tim Smith
On September 4, the Cedarville women's soccer team took the field against West Virginia Wesleyan for the second game of the season. Sophomore Sara Olivarez started the match in the midfield for Cedarville, and she was ready to play her best. But late in the second half, Olivarez went down.
The problem was not evident right away, but something was wrong with her right leg. The expectations were optimistic that she would probably miss only two or three weeks of action. But when the results came back Olivarez found out that she had torn the ACL in her knee.
Olivarez was surprised, but she's familiar with this type of injury. She went through the same injury last year in her left knee. Soccer has taken its toll on Olivarez throughout her life, but the story starts much earlier than soccer at Cedarville University.
Living the Soccer Life
"I started playing soccer at a very young age," Olivarez said. "It was something that I enjoyed and could do with my friends."
But as Olivarez grew up, soccer became less of an enjoyable pastime and more of a necessary chore.
"My last three years of high school, my view shifted," she said. "I didn't really enjoy soccer. I felt like it was something that I had to do in order to go to college."
At the end of her high school career, Olivarez tore her ACL on the soccer pitch. So going into her freshman year at college, she knew that it would consist of lots of rehab and watching the team from the sidelines. Looking back on her freshman year, and knowing that she would experience a similar situation this year, Olivarez recognized the lessons she learned and the trials she conquered that will set up her focus for the present.
"Soccer has often felt like what my life needed to be, in order to go to college and be successful," she said. "But I have truly learned that soccer is more than just a game."
Being sidelined for an entire year, Olivarez had to learn how she could still interact with the sport that she couldn't physically play. One of those ways was using her time on the team as a way to witness to others.
"At the college level, you are put on a bigger platform," she said. "After each of our games, we give notes to girls on the other team and just talk to them and witness to their lives. It was such an eye-opening experience, seeing that soccer can be a way to witness to others even when I'm not playing it."
Support Through Christ, Community
As she came to this realization, it impacted not only how she interacted with others but also her own relationship with God.
"It was a big realization through this whole process that I just have to give it to God," she said. "I have to trust Him above all things."
As she focused on this, she relied on scripture to remind herself of this truth. For Olivarez, Psalm 13 stood out among the rest.
"Psalm 13 has been a big help for me through all of this," she said. "I have to remember that I have to trust God in this life, but that the Lord also has something greater than I can ever imagine waiting for me in the next one. I need to depend on Him for strength. There is no way I can get there on my own. And that's a lesson that has to carry over to when I'm healthy, just depending on him every day."
Along with finding comfort in the scriptures, Olivarez has found overwhelming support in the community of Cedarville University and the soccer team.
"Thankfully, I had a lot of people there to support me," she said. "Actually, our team manager from last year went through a very similar situation, and she was super supportive and helpful."
Despite not being able to perform on the pitch, Olivarez said she still created lasting and meaningful relationships with her teammates.
"The community and the team have been huge support systems for me," she said. "Obviously it's not the ideal situation that I'm in, but the girls have been awesome through it all. I'm so thankful just for the love that they have shown me and the help that they have been through this trial."
Making an Impact Where She Is
If you asked Olivarez in high school what her first two years of collegiate soccer would look like, she would not have dreamed that it entailed persevering through two ACL tears. But she still desires to make an impact in the role she has.
"For one, I need to be an encouragement on the team," she said. "I know how hard it is to be on the sidelines when you want to be out there on the field, but I have to encourage my teammates where I am at and help them in that way."
Along with being an encouragement to the team, Olivarez recognizes that, though she is not playing at the moment, she is still a team leader.
"I want to work hard and show others that, though I'm not on the field, I am working hard to get back," she said. "I hope that they can see that and it will inspire them to work hard with the abilities they have to play right now and use their opportunities now."
Ultimately, Olivarez wants to give all the glory to God. She wants to focus on spreading His name and truth through her present trials.
"I want to focus more on witnessing after the game when we talk to the other team," she said. "I want to try and be more intentional and actually share the Gospel with them. I want to keep the right mindset through this trial and use it to point others towards Christ. When they look at me and think I'm strong and doing well, I can point them to Christ to show them that He is the reason why. I can be a door that people look through and see Jesus."
These are her main goals for the season, but she does have one other wish for this year.
"A quick and speedy recovery," she said with a smile.
Tim Smith is a sophomore biblical studies major and staff writer for Cedars. He loves football, 3 Musketeers candy and primarily speaking in movie quotes.
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