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On Mothership and The Haunting of Ypsilon-14
Mothership RPG and its first two modules (Haunting of Ypsilon-14 and the mega module Dead Planet) are available on Roll20 now, so it was easy to get a game going at long last. By using Roll20 I was even able to create a mixed A team of local players and friends I gamed with across the country in my prior incarnations (or who moved elsewhere), so it was a great group!
The Haunting of Ypsilon-14 module in print is a wee cardstock trifold brochure promising an entire module. The online version through Tuesday Knight games' website conveniently includes three MP3 recordings you can play as the group finds various discarded cassettes during the module. These are professional-sounding recordings illuminating the grim last days of certain characters (one has some music), and lend to the mood quite well...plus my group is not too used to such theatrics so finding them in play is a novel reward.
I think the Haunting module is intended to be a one-shot to last an evening of play, and arguably it can probably take about 4 hours to complete by a highly organized and risk-embracing gang of players. My group took three sessions to complete the module, and I will admit I buffed it up a bit both to provide some extra challenge but also to motivate them to explore areas that my often more risk-averse players were resistant toward exploring.
Mothership is the kind of game where players work best when they approach the experience with a tiny bit of delight in the nihilistic nature of it all. If you go in to Mothership determined to make level 10 and steal boasting rights from Ellen Ripley over your alien moderation skills then you might be missing some of the point of Mothership. Can you get to level 10? Sure, absolutely. But should you do so through the safest course of action possible, without a backup character? Most decidedly not! As with Call of Cthulhu, if your character lives long enough to be committed to an insane asylum then you should consider that the best case win; CoC and Mothership both are games where if you find you truly love your character to the point that you wish them no harm, then your best course of action is to send them home, safely, to let other more daring souls with shorter lifespans handle the mysteries and many deaths lurking throughout the universe.
With all that said, my entire group did not lose a single character, though the NPC mortality rate was an astronomical 80% or more. The group, on average, took a fair amount of damage, and everyone's stress levels (Mothership's take on the sanity mechanic) are skyrocketing....therapy and recuperation alone do not readily reduce the Stress level of your PC, you have a chance to drop it a bit when leveling and maybe if the Warden (GM) is feeling especially kind and that's about it.
The Ypslon-14 module in print and with the MP3s is perfectly playable at the game table though some sort of general station map to track the action would help the warden. The Roll20 version was particularly nice, though, and the first time I ever bought and ran a preprogrammed module using Roll20. It was a nice experience, though I was hopelessly lost in figuring out how to handle map overlays and ended up defaulting to the old fashion fog of war option.
The Roll20 version includes NPC sheets and tokens, module pieces for all locations, the MP3 recordings and a nice retro SF map of the entire mining station your group will be trapped on while investigating the mystery surrounding Ypsilon-14. It's a nice package, and as I mentioned it lasted 3 nights for us, a total of about 12 hours of gameplay.
Before I go any further in talking about the module: SPOILERS! I don't want anyone to stumble into secrets and information they did not want to know. Here goes....
SPOILER WARNING
Okay, so Ypsilon-14 is a mining station on which the party, while visiting on their freighter for routine company pickups, is asked by the station superintendent Sonya to check into the disappearance of a missing crewmember. As the group further investigates they discover more crew go missing, and something which is insidious, dangerous and invisible appears to be lurking....there is a secondary related mystery involving a dangerous yellow goo, and another visiting ship, locked in its own docking bay, with a mad doctor on board. Oh, and there's Prince the cat who has now been adopted by my players for reasons.
The trifold module provides an incredibly space-efficient layout for how to run the module. Too efficient, actually, because it provides no instructions on how to absorb the content it offers, and you sort of have to stare at it a bit and read through to realize what it is doing, but once you see it it will "click" and make total sense. It works like this:
1. There's a paragraph on why the crew is here, which if read verbatim can dispense with literally dozens of minutes of conventional preamble and warmup (my game started with them being mysteriously diverted to the mining station, building a little tension as to why the company sent them there).
2. You then get a flow-chart layout of the station; a map can be nice, and is great in Roll20 to track who is where, but the trifold itself lets you see what is in each area descriptively, with arrows, connectors, lock icons and such to tell you how the place connects. It's direct, no-nonsense descriptions give the warden the outline and you can use it as directly or with as much additional riffing as you see fit.
3. You get a table of NPCs. You roll on this periodically to see which one goes missing.
4. You get a monster. Every few minutes you roll a D10 and that is the region of the ship the monster is lurking in next. It's tough, but if the group is tougher (has a marine or two) they can probably take it with some luck if you are not careful (they technically blew it to bits at the close of session 2, but more on that in a bit). The creature is meant to be a stealth striker, and does enough damage to hurt but not usually kill a PC in one round. How easily you make it for the PCs to get around on the station will impact how readily the beast is likely to corner and strike with success.
5. You get three complications: the yellow goo, which is a substance that heals the monster but turns humans into a slushy over time, Dr. Gillespie who is on the locked down ship Heracles and is slowly dissolving to the goo while studying the monster, and the three tapes, of which the first is easy to find, the second requires the PCs to climb into vents (which a risk adverse group is unlikely to do), and the third requires boarding Dr. Gillespie's ship and confronting him. In the end, to insure they got to hear the tapes I places tape #2 near the vacant space suit in the mines and tape #3 was the mysterious final broadcast from the Heracles before the group left (they never investigated the Heracles, instead using laser cutters to weld the ship's bay doors shut).
....And that is it. The module is very simple and straight-forward, and you can modify it easily to season to taste. I, for example, made the following modifications:
Mixed Tapes; changed tape locations (as the players failed to follow up on certain angles of exploration). I also described them as "recordable media in EMP-hardened cases" rather than, essentially, space versions of 8-tracks because I am just not in to the idea of fetishizing the 70's style SF as often happens in Alien-inspired media (Alien: Isolation cough); the SF of the 70's had CRT monitors and green screen computers because it was the 70's and they had budgets and limited ability to predict near future changes. I have no such limits.
The Goo Origins: elaborated on the yellow goo, which is a macguffin designed to hint that water is a weakness of the substances and maybe the creature (not really); this worked in that when they found the wellspring of yellow good they obliterated it with a high pressure water pump cobbled from their ship. I used the yellow goo in more detail, since it was unclear to me how vacc-suited miners were getting it on themselves in the first place, suggesting instead sloppiness and the creature tracking the stuff around was the source of contamination.
Exploding and De-exploding the Alien: After the group blew up* the creature in session 2 I revealed its remains had gone missing; the yellow goo, it turns out, began regenerating the creature (as intended) but could do so even if it were chunked; the creature got one final hurrah that way, before they tricked it in to docking bay 2 and welded the doors shut. That means that as of the third session when they grabbed the human survivors (Sonya, Prince the cat, and Morgan who was covered in yellow goo and stuck in cryostasis) that they left the station with Dr. Gillespie and the creature still in the Heracles....
The Goo and Water: The yellow goo causes contaminated humans to react badly to water, but the module explains nothing further. I decided it's actually chemically converting water molecules in the human body, thus causing some of the breakdown. This lead to an avenue of exploration for the scientists and androids in the party. I riffed quite a bit on what the goo was, on analysis, because I love that sort of SF stuff, but someone running the module straight up could probably work with what info is at hand easily enough.
Expanding on Mike: Mike was the first miner to disappear. I added another guy into the mix as well as a ruse: Jenkins, in case some of my players were secretly familiar with the module. I further decided that Mike didn't die; he became aware of the creature's use of its pod to heal, and then unsuited and entered the pod himself (deciding also that the properties of the yellow goo kept him alive in a vacuum). So when they investigated the pod, Mike appeared, which was a great scene as I described his yellow-goo covered body, the madness in his eyes as he lashes out, only to exploded in a cloud of vaporized goo when struck by the laser cutter, covering all of their vacc suits in yellow goo from his converted body. Good stuff!
In Space You Don't Have Gravity: the module identifies where in the mines you are in vacuum. It doesn't talk about gravity at all, so I assume when entering the mines everyone passed out of the artificial gravity well created by the station generator. How does it work? Dunno, but this led to a tense combat in the mines when everyone realized that projectiles can send you flying backward, and exploding stuff doesn't stop or slow down.
The Mysteries of the Alien: The module suggests little about the alien and the pod it comes from, other than that the yellow goo heals it and does horrible things to things alien to it like humans. I toyed with the idea of how much to riff on this, and settled for a few sequences in play that built tension and mystery: the group discovered the yellow goo on analysis was biomechanical, a nanite slush, and that when they tried to see if it could be "communicated" with it did something horrible to the computers which crashed. They later discovered the alien in their own ship, attempting to override their mainframe to take control and broadcast a message. The implication: this is an alien stranded here, its pod either exiled to the asteroid or crashed. They never established what the deal was, and the module lets me figure that out. I can sense a Part 2: Return to Ypsilon-14 module in the future....
So all in all, a fun time was had by everyone. The module really does work best with a more relaxed crowd who is in to the genre; my friend playing the marine did a fantastic job of emulating the genre elements cemented so well in panicking marines from Aliens, and my other buddy played the unnerved scientist to a tee. My rules lawyer was a bit of a rough spot as Mothership is not as worried about nitty gritty details, such as a moment when I realized that there's really not a surprise mechanic in the system (just roll speed to see who goes before or after the monster). Both of my players who played androids really played it to the hilt....apparently Ash and David are exemplary of your average androids when it comes to top of the line models!
If you run the module, I have a couple of suggestions: advise the groups they can roll all teamsters, or maybe all teamsters and one scientist or android (or both). Marines with their basic loadout do make the creature less of a threat. As with the original movie Alien, a lot of the tension was due to the crew being average space truckers with no meaningful defensive gear.
My other suggestion is: as I did, change a few things a bit. I am reasonably sure at least one of the players had snagged the module ahead of time because their gear loadout looked suspiciously prescient, with items that the module assumes they won't start with access to. Throw that player off a bit in whatever way you think works best with some surprises.
We'll be doing Dead Planet next, and I have to say I can't wait. I have all the modules I can find so far between Tuesday Knight games, Exalted Funeral and DrivethruRPG and I plan on eventually running just about all of them!
FINALLY! The irony is not lost on me that this review is probably twice as long as the actual module.
*The marine in the group threw a grenade and rolled a spectacular critical on the hit as the creature rolled a fumble on its Combat armor check. The rules in Mothership seem to not provide guidance on what a crit success does to damage, if anything, but I ruled that you get maximum damage when criting on an attack. In Mothership parlance a frag grenade rolls 1D10 for damage, and in Mothership the line under the roll means "multiply by 10," so he did 100 damage on a crit! Frag grenades are deadly in space.
Labels: haunting of ypsilon-14, Mothership rpg, tuesday knight games
Modules and Their Many Sizes
Short post today.....trying to remember to post more frequently (I got badly out of habit from the old days on 3 posts a week hell or high water). Yesterday several books arrived which I had been waiting for, and each was a lesson in varied design. In fact, it's rather insane how widely varied the approaches are in each of these books:
Aurora is the latest in a series of Mothership RPG adventures. It comes in a docket packet you must break to get in to, and the module itself is a handful of cardstock pages with the usual excellent minimalist design characteristic of Mothership adventures, in which you get a framework on which to drape your own interpretation of the horrors within.
Halls of the Blood King along with five other modules from Necrotic Gnome for Old School Essentials RPG is an example of how an economy of design (not unlike one sees with Mothership) gives you the framework of an adventure without bogging the GM down in details that are best handled by....the GM. Excellent maps, slick retro graphics that are modern but evocative of an older fantasy style without feeling pandering and a "to the point" design approach make this an incredibly approachable (and usable!) module.
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is 1 part sourcebook on the Feywild to three parts adventure series, with some updated fey for 5E that I think many will be happy to see. The book is typical of Wizard of the Coast design, a large tome which aims at readability and shows more effort at structuring the overall plot into bite-size chunks, allowing DMs to manage it without too much fuss.
This is actually two monstrous 400+ page tomes, the first one of which is split between a series of articles and interviews on the inception and impact of the oiginal module, followed by a faithful reprint of the original Village of Homlet and the 1st edition compilation of the Temple of Elemental Evil. It then dives into a massive retooling of the modules into 5th edition rules, which start in book 1 and spill in to book 2, ending with a massive bestiary and new items section. It is a gigantic tome, and lives up to this module's daunting reputation. I also think Goodman Games knows its audience leans older, as they use a big, readable font for the 5E section that is easy on older gamer eyes.
As I look at these books I realize that while I really would like to run The Temple of Elemental Evil, it's just...too much, man. It's also very traditional in design, in the sense that it communicates a lot of text-heavy exposition and depth. This is not something I'd notice or care about if not for modules like Aurora and Halls of the Blood King, which are actually more old school in design in the sense that they get to the point and leave much of the exposition to the GM. They are not genuinely old school, however, in the sense that actual old school modules were never this user friendly in design. Meanwhile, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is interesting but I can tell it's one of those modules I will read and maybe borrow a bit from before moving on. There might be some cool plots there....we'll see, I need to find time to read it.
But The OSE and Mothership modules? Yeah, those simple economies of design and brevity I can actually handle, they fit into my wheelhouse of usefulness.
Labels: aurora, halls of the blood king, Mothership, Old-School Essentials RPG, OSE RPG, temple of elemental evil, wild beyond the witchlight
More thoughts on running D&D 3.5, D&D 5th and Pathfinder 2E at the same time
So for several months now I've been running three different games: a more or less weekly Saturday Pathfinder 2E game, and a rotating weeknight session that jumps between D&D 3.5 and D&D 5E. In Pathfinder the group has hit 5th level, so still relatively low powered. D&D 3.5 deliberately started at level 1 and has crept up to level 4ish for most of the group now. D&D 5E rolled in at level 3 and is hitting level 5.
In each case I worked out a fairly detailed scenario/plotline to keep things focused. In Pathfinder the group is a gang of young acolytes in a local assassin's guild with strong political, patriotic ties to protecting the city itself. They face a crisis as the heir to the throne is killed, then resurrected under extremely suspicious circumstances, even as their senior leadership are taken out of action, leaving them alone to figure things out.
In the D&D 3.5 game I started with a level 1-3 zone in which I worked out a main dungeon of interest and several minor side quests. I then built it around leading in to a specific Necromancer Games module from the good old 3.5 days of Necromancer, which shall remain nameless in case any of my players are reading. The key conceit of this campaign is it is extremely sandboxy and open-ended; I don't care where the PCs go, as long as they do something of interest....I have most angles covered unless they suddenly decided to journey two hundred miles away in a random direction.
In the D&D 5E game I an running it in a different section of the same world the D&D 3.5 game is taking place, and it starts with a group of ragtag mostly monstrous heroes who work for a local investigator of an orc-dominated city; they are essentially given tough jobs that require protecting the interests of the city against the neighboring human kingdom which often mistrusts the orc-run area. The group is currently wrapping the latest investigation, into the attack and kidnap of a priestess who channels the will of a popular goddess, and it is exposing a deeper mystery of other groups who seem interested in sowing conflict between the orcs and humans. I started this campaign as a 3.5 venture for the first scenario, but then moved to 5E for the next storyline as I wanted to do exactly what this article is about: contrasting 3.5 D&D against its successors, 5E and PF2E.
Here's what I've learned now after several months of gaming:
Pathfinder 2E Remains Fun but it's Balance is Too Much
Pathfinder 2E's rigidly designed skill system is annoying. Seriously, I wish it was a broader set of skills, and not so tightly woven into the structured pathology of Pathfinder's overly balanced advancement, balanced to the point of eerie predictability. In fact, after running a level 1-20 and some smaller campaigns in PF2E, I have decided that, in contrast with the editions it is meant to replace or compete with, that it's highly structured style just isn't as flexible or fun as prior editions have been. PF2E, on occasion, has been compared to D&D 4E, and I can understand why: it's design was handled with too much emphasis on a specific play experience, and not enough feedback clearly entered during design and playtest to allow for Paizo's team to realize that there are other styles of play which their new game would not support so well (such as at my table, where I am sick and tired of calling on Society checks or generic crafting checks or Nature, Survival, etc. etc. for myriad other skills that the PCs should actually have as separate skills).
Do I still enjoy running it? Yes, particularly in Roll20, which makes it easy. But it is painfully clear that in contrast with 3rd edition and 5th edition D&D that Pathfinder 2E feels a bit more like a "sandbox playground where everything has been padded to prevent the players from escaping its confines." Moreover, my players describe PF2E as "A GM's game, for GMs who don't like uppity players." They like elements of it....such as how ancestries work, but they also sense that a lot of PF2E's design went in to removing the potential for players to design truly interest characters and unexpected synergies.
As a GM I have come to realize that combat encounters of even 1 CR more than the players can be a pain in the ass and risk unexpected deaths and TPK, it simply doesn't have the range that you can get out of D&D's editions for encounter design due to its hard focus on tight balance. I have ranted about this in prior blog posts, of course, but to give you an idea: I mostly design encounters around a CR 1-2 less than the PCs. Anything more than that is too trivial, and anything except a rare CR+1 will be too deadly with remarkable consistency.
D&D 3.5 Is Funner Now That It's No Longer The Only Game Around
Put simply: D&D 3.5's key flaws evaporate once people are playing it for fun and enjoyment and you no longer have a large player base and online presence talking about min/max game design and turning everything into an arms race. My group is having fun in a way that very much reminds me of the early fun days from 2001 to 2006. Sometime after that I feel the game hit a level of notoriety and the obsession with optimal builds began to infect everyone who played it. Now? It's just a fund game and I am enjoying a sandbox campaign with a group that is barely optimized for fighting paper bags, let alone serious stuff. I run it as a DM aimed at providing for a good time, and I don't worry too much about balance at all, a welcome reprieve from PF2E on the other game night.
One thing I realize with 3.5: I prefer the old skill system. It was flexible, a little unpredictable, and had more stuff in it that feels natural to call out for in the course of play. I am sure a great many people much prefer "perception" as a skill (or not at all in the OSR crowd) but I love the fact that Spot, Listen and Search are three different things and can reflect that one PC might be a keen eyed observer but have a hearing problem, while another PC might have bad eagle vision but can search methodically with great efficiency. Good stuff.
I don't anticipate running D&D 3.5 past level 12 or so, but who knows.
D&D 5E Feels Better to Run with 3.5 Fresh in Mind
D&D 5E is good, and running it back to back with 3.5 makes me appreciate it more. Most interestingly, sometimes I find myself using 5E as a reference point for adjudicating some moments in 3.5, to keep tings simple. Other times I find myself tempted to house rule in a few items from 3.5 to 5E, but I try to restrain myself as much as possible. Like with 3.5, I suspect that as D&D 5E goes on I may grow a bit tired of its core simplicity and lack of dynamic elements in stuff like saves and damage; but I did decide with this campaign to run it using gritty resting rules and that is going a surprisingly long way toward my feeling like the players are "tough guys in a tough world" rather than the standard 5E trope of fantasy superheroes. Still...they've only just hit their good levels, so we'll see how things go in the coming months.
Also, I don't hate the D&D 5E skill system, at all. In fact, while I still like 3.5's granularity on skills, will take the 5E skill system over PF2E's skill system any day.
After the group completes their current storyline, I am considering integrating a module, possibly Rise of the Drow, which I just snagged. We shall see.
Some Conclusions (so far)
So....it's fun running three iterations of basically the same game, and seeing how my expectations and experience in one lend to observations and changes in the other two. The real takeaway I have gotten from this experience so far has been one about how I structure and focus on campaigns. Specifically: I am not as interested in the "big story" campaigns as I once was, and the D&D 3.5 game where I basically made a sandbox for them to do whatever (including regions of different levels they can wander in to regardless of their own level) has actually been the most fun. But my structured investigation stories in the 5E game have also been a lot of fun because I took some time to lay out interesting paths of discovery and skill challenges related to the investigations. It's "pseudo-rails" in that the PCs could, like, stop investigating and go elsewhere, thus ending the module, but they had motivation and interest to proceed so it worked.
Meanwhile, the very structured big picture storyline which admittedly makes the PCs more integrated to the world and setting proved perhaps a bit too much in terms of scope and design. I realize now that I came up with a great idea, but then sort of left it as a "and so that happened," type event, without a lot to go after the main event. Luckily I proceeded to dive in to some of the smaller angles and pieces, fleshing out the game to feel more like a sandbox, but I concede it's hard to just do sandbox in PF2E because a good sandbox should allow for the PCs to get into more trouble than they can handle on occasion, and in PF2E that can quickly turn into a lethal TPK. So....we'll continue for a while on this one, but afterwards I need to think hard on whether I plan to continue with PF2E or not, because it almost....but not quite....manages to frame the sort of adventures I like to run, but just not as well as either D&D 5E or D&D 3.5, which both do it so much better.
Final conclusion.....turns out too much balance in design is not necessarily a good idea! Who knew?
Also, and this is extremely important to stress: the D&D 5E and 3.5 edition games both have a huge edge over Poor Pathfinder 2E, in that they are live games I am running in person. PF2E is online, and while the online tools make for an easier time of it, I know my lack of time to sink into enhancing the graphic elements of the experience factor against the game to some degree, as does the predilection for the overall experience to be a generally less satisfying experience than the sort where normal humans are able to see each other live and not share a single audio channel. So, I must concede that PF2E in a live environment might still be a better overall experience than I am giving it credit for. Poor Pathfinder though....I think I got about 10 levels in to the original campaign when it had to migrate to online due to the pandemic, and its more or less lingered there ever since. May need to change that soon.
Labels: 3.5, 5E, dungeons & dragons, pathfinder 2E
The Undead Mohrg for Old-School Essentials RPG
As some may have noticed, I love Mohrg. These fiendish undead are a sort of hyper-advanced ghoul with a long proboscis/tongue that paralyses targets and makes for a generally fine mid-tier foe. Just ask my regular players! They have many mohrg horror stories.
Anyway, here is the mohrg for OSE, my new favorite D&D variant:
Mohrg
Mohrg are terrifying undead forged from the vile souls of serial killers and murderers. They resemble skeletons with a writhing mass of organs and flesh in their body cavity and skull, from which emerges a hideous tentacle-like purple tongue covered in paralytic slime.
Mohrg are noted for their unrelenting sense of commitment to the evil ways that led them to their fate. When mohrg gather in groups this can quickly lead to a unique and terrifying epidemic of undead in the form of zombies and new mohrg.
AC 3 [16], HD 8 (36 HP), Att 2X slam (1D6+3 plus grab) and 1X tongue (1D4 plus paralysis), THACO 12 [+7], MV 120' (40'), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (8), ML 10, AL chaotic, XP 1,750, NA 1 (1D6), TT R, U
Slam if the mohrg strikes with both blows it can restrain the target with a grab long enough to gain +2 on its tongue attack.
Tongue save vs. paralysis or become paralyzed for 1D4 minutes. Target can save each turn to end the effect.
Undead does not make noise until attacking, immune to effects that target the living (such as poison), immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells.
Create Spawn creatures killed by a mohrg rise in 1D4 rounds as zombie. When this happens the burst of necrotic energy heals the mohrg for 1 hit point per hit die of the slain creature and the mohrg gains the benefit of the haste spell until the end of its next round. On occasion some mohrg generate new mohrg instead of zombies as an effect of slaying a foe. These mohrg are exceptionally dangerous. When a mohrg slays a target, there is a 10% chance that it returns as a new mohrg instead. At the GM's option any evil character slain by the mohrg has a 50% chance of returning as a new mohrg.
Labels: mohrg, Old-School Essentials RPG, OSE
Okay I can see why so many People Love Old-School Essentials
One of my friendly local game stores has taken to stocking all sorts of hard to find indie and OSR titles in recent months and this has allowed me to, among other things, get my hands on Old School Essentials RPG, specifically the Advanced Player's Guide and Advanced Referee's Guide. These have been genuinely difficult to find online, always appearing to be sold out wherever I go. Admittedly, part of me was also suspicious that should I buy OSE, I'd just be getting yet another variant on the exact same classic B/X/Advanced experience I have in countless other tomes.
Well, while it is certainly true that I have bought yet another OSR variant, I can now see (and very quickly, I might add) why Old-School Essentials RPG is no mere OSR heartbreaker, but a genuinely good game as well as a noteworthy evolution in what it means to be an OSR homage to D&D.
For starters....OSE seems focused on an economy of design, form over function, but also providing a clear and distinct vision in terms of graphics and layout. It's art is simultaneously reminiscent of old school aesthetics (particularly if you equate Erol Otus as high on that list) and still evocative in a manner which feels modernized. The look of OSE is retro-inspired but contemporary, and also it helps that there was clearly a budget for the art, so I am not seeing any old familiar packaged art so common in older OSR works (including my own).
Second, OSE seems to be about capturing the essence of B/X along with Advanced D&D in principle, but it sheds no tears over providing a modern framework to handle contemporary expectations. A few examples of what I mean:
--Optional multiclassing, but not limited to specific races, nor are humans restricted; and a GM who wants those restrictions can decide to do so on their own terms;
--Both class as race and race as its own thing (in the Advanced books, at least); handled well enough that I would readily allow players to pick their preference, and on top of that it embraces drow, svirnfeblin, duergar and gnomes who often for inexplicable reasons get short changed in other OSR products;
--Level scaling embedded in the spell mechanics....a very modern notion, one which aligns OSE much more closely to modern iterations of D&D and in fact does a really nice job of making the scaling even easier and more interesting than, say, D&D 5E.
There are a few items that feel needlessly excluded, I suppose: notably there's an absence of demons and devils in the Referee's Book, which seems anathema to an "Advanced" version of the game; I have honestly been terribly unclear on exactly why it is so hard for an OSR version of D&D to embrace fiends, something in the late eighties that was singular for many in defining a distaste for TSR's capitulation to the moral panic with AD&D 2E. There are obviously specific reasons certain authors choose not to include them, part of the "author's voice" coming through the game design, and that is another thing OSE does really well, as it has no author's voice....just a clean set of comprehensive old school themed rules. So not seeing demons or devils in the game is...weird.
Another oddity, one which doesn't bug me but nonetheless given the other modernities in OSE is surprising is the use of descending Armor Class as the rule of choice. It does provide for both options, though (I'm just blind and didn't notice it does cover this for both even after reading these books for hours, d'oh).
All that aside, if I can find a resources for demons and devils (which tend to play an important role in my own campaigns, especially my venerable Keepers of Lingusia campaign that started in 1981) then I could easily see running and enjoying OSE for a long time. It seems that some other gamers rely on Labyrinth Lord for their demons and devils, though it seems to me my current AD&D Monster Manual reprint would also work just fine.
So...OSE is really damned good. I am impressed! I should have tried harder to find this a while ago.
Labels: dungeosn & dragons, Old-School Essentials RPG
More thoughts on running D&D 3.5, D&D 5th and Path...
Okay I can see why so many People Love Old-School ...


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Dortmund - APOEL Preview: A must-win in the Champions League
No ifs, ands, or buts.
By Alex Greenberg@AGreenberg22 Oct 31, 2017, 9:13am PDT
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Photo by Milos Bicanski/Bongarts/Getty Images,
Dortmund have to win tomorrow. There really aren't two ways about it. If they want to maintain a small chance of staying in the Champions League, they need all three points.
BVB will welcome APOEL Nicosia to the Westfalenstadion, in the antepenultimate match of the Group Stage.
Peter Bosz's team had their troubles with APOEL in Cyprus, where they drew 1-1. It was a sloppy match from BVB. The home side's goal came about from an error by Roman Burki, and it was ultimately a draw that felt more like a loss. The black-and-yellows failed to capitalize on Tottenham and Real Madrid splitting the points in their encounter at the Bernabeu.
Madrid and Tottenham are set to play again tomorrow at Wembley as both teams seem to be near-certainties for the next round of the competition. They will be if Dortmund can't take care of business against APOEL at home.
Nicosia are minnows, but they're not pushovers. They have played hard in every single Champions League game to this point, and surely will again.
Dortmund are struggling everywhere at the moment. Even if it doesn't save their Champions League campaign, a big win at home could be a remedy for their negative form.
They will get a bit of a boost from some players returning from injury. Omer Toprak should be available after a thigh problem, and Raphael Guerreiro is now fully back from his foot injury. But no matter the lineup tomorrow, a win is necessary.
If Dortmund can't get a win, then they may even struggle to secure 3rd spot and a place in the Europa League.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As business practices, technologies, products and information systems evolve, network operators are left with an expensive, intricate and layered set of components that define what they can and cannot do readily. Integrated Support System from Fine Point delivers that data that different teams in the organization need to deliver effective customer care.
Integrated Support System (ISS) reduces the complexity of IT infrastructure and improves reliability, flexibility and scalability. It also extends the value of internal information systems by integrating with external systems and unifying support operations. It is a permissions-based system that organizes and displays the information needed by people in different functional areas throughout the organization.
Although the system standardizes the core information, each module of the ISS provides for access, management and manipulation of information according to the defined business practices.
Through integration with the Remote Device Administrator (RDA TR-069), Integrated Support System can implement event triggers produced by CPE notifications and execute calls and actions on other systems in the backend. ISS is technically compatible with every standardized connectivity technology, such as SOAP, XML, Telnet console, VT-100 Telnet, HTML, XML, and ODBC as well as APIs and sockets with proprietary protocols.
Knowledge Base: A custom set of troubleshooting workflows for systematized problems.
DSLAM & Router Manager: Maintains inventory of network equipment (or access an external system) and can query devices for real-time information.


If fresh allegations of a Chinese private school violating the rules that govern Ontario credit-granting institutions caught anyone at the province's education ministry by surprise, they shouldn't have. Identical allegations were lodged three years ago in a scathing Auditor General's report that found "significant concerns" at 100 Ontario-based private schools – nearly a quarter of the total Ontario-based schools authorized by the ministry to provide high school credits and diplomas.
If allegations of a Chinese private school violating the rules that govern Ontario credit-granting institutions caught anyone at the province's Education Ministry by surprise, they shouldn't have.
Similar allegations were lodged three years ago in a scathing auditor general's report that found "significant concerns" at 100 Ontario-based private schools — nearly a quarter of the total Ontario-based schools authorized by the ministry to provide high school credits and diplomas. Specific schools were not named.
The auditor general report found that Ontario had "one of the least regulated private school sectors in Canada," and found numerous violations that mirror the ones brought forward by former employees of Shanghai's Canadian International Academy — from courses running well short of the ministry-prescribed 110 hours per credit, to a shortage of certified teachers, to students paying fees to retake exams or have their grades inflated.
Many of the concerns identified by the auditor general in 2013 related to "credit integrity," meaning whether a student actually earns the credits granted toward his or her Grade 12 diploma. "Some private schools were issuing students higher grades than earned or giving credit for courses students had not attended," according to the report.
While the report is comprehensive — it covers more than 1,000 registered private schools, including 408 with the authority to grant credits toward an Ontario Secondary School Diploma, and an additional 605 institutions that operate independently in the province — it does not make a single mention of the overseas schools that are accredited to offer Ontario high school credits.
A separate research report prepared in 2011 by the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada suggests overseas schools might be worth a closer look.
As of 2011, more than three-quarters of Canada's overseas schools were found in the Asia-Pacific region. Of Ontario's 21 overseas schools that are subject to ministry inspection, nine are operating in China. Two more are found in Malaysia, an additional two in Hong Kong and one in Japan.
It can be lucrative business. Tuition is often expensive, and a former principal at Canadian International Academy told Postmedia the private school catered to Shanghai's elite. Graduates who are accepted into Canadian universities will then pay a premium on tuition as international students. The same report states that international students contributed in excess of $6.5 billion in indirect revenue to the Canadian economy in 2008 alone.
The auditor general updated the 2013 investigation with a followup report in 2015, and found two-thirds of its 22 recommendations were either fully implemented or in the process of being implemented.
"We created and implemented a new tracking system to log credit integrity complaints, and we have revised and implemented our procedures to create a list of 'priority' inspected private schools with significant issues related to credit integrity," she said, though did not specify whether Canadian International Academy was considered a priority school.
The ministry also "implemented stronger controls regarding distribution of diplomas and certificates," McInerney said.
But according to several former academy staff members who spoke to Postmedia, the school is allegedly violating other ministry regulations. Academy director of education Jim Sebastian denied a pay-for-access operation exists, and has said the teacher complaints were the result of "a down year" at the school.
In 2013, the auditor general found 117 private schools that were operating 180 additional locations in Ontario.
"The ministry had no previous knowledge of the existence of many of these locations and, therefore, had not inspected any of them," the report states.
In 2014-15, the ministry amended its policy to disallow the operation of additional locations by credit-granting schools.
But in the case of Canadian International Academy, the school operated two campuses — one at Baise and another at Wen Lai — and in early May opened a new campus in Shanghai's Pudong district.
That expansion was aided by a $25-million deal between the academy and a Chinese media conglomerate — a signing that was overseen by Premier Kathleen Wynne on her trade mission to China in November, and an apparent endorsement that features prominently in CIA's marketing materials.
Meanwhile, the academy's only Ontario-based campus, which was to educate as many as 60 Chinese high school students in Kitchener, abruptly shuttered earlier this year.
The ministry has imposed a moratorium on new overseas private schools that dates back to 2005. The Ministry has not responded to requests for information on the academy's current status as an Ontario credit-granting authority, except to confirm the school was subject to a routine inspection on April 16.
The results of that inspection have been submitted to Sandals, but have not been made public.
On Monday, NDP education critic Lisa Gretzky called on the minister to release the report.
"The minister should ensure the results of her internal investigation are made public and must immediately take steps to ensure proper oversight over all private schools in Ontario and abroad offering Ontario Secondary School Diploma credits," Gretzky wrote in a statement.


Are you taking advantage of your company's matching gift program?
Learn if your company participates in a matching gift program! Here is a list of companies that presently support the Dallas Symphony through gifts on behalf of their employees.
Select one of the gift recognition options below.


Upon launch, TMall.com struggled to manage their reputation as an authentic B2C marketplace connecting top end brands directly to Chinese consumers.
To gain the trust of the Chinese consumer, we helped TMall.com to see that in the world of digital retail, experiencing is believing. Why not bring the upscale digital shopping mall to life – merging real and virtual worlds – at a very shareable yet very exclusive event?
We invited 900 influencers to our augmented reality installation. Given iPads, guests could "try-on" items and share their looks through social media, getting a taste of the 40,000+ brands for sale on TMall.com. Bespoke interactive pods encouraged guests to view furniture, test new devices and play with gaming systems. Thousands of quality brands were brought to life. Best of all: Everything featured in our real mall could be instantly purchased via TMall.com, and guests were given credits to do just that.
The Internet lit up with positive energy for TMall. Guests posted 2600 Wei Bo posts which grew to 3,000,000 reposts and comments – serving up approximately 26,000,000 media impressions including Youku online hits.


The line between North and South Korea is one of the most nerve-wracking borders on Earth. Although the Korean War is technically over for the U.S., the North and South are still very much at war — maintaining guard towers and thousands of troops facing each other, waiting for the next invasion.
The buffer zone created by the 1953 Armistice between North and South is called the de-militarized zone (DMZ), although there's a huge military presence. The border, 250 km long, is filled with fencing, mines, and troops on both sides with itchy trigger fingers.


text:
Leaders in cancer prevention honored for COVID-19 resilience by the Prevent Cancer Foundation
Foundation celebrates Dr. Tsu-Yin Wu, Ms. Ify Anne Nwabukwu and Dr. David Ahlquist (posthumously) with 2021 Cancer Prevention Laurels Awards
Media Contact: Lisa Berry Edwards
Lisa.Edwards@preventcancer.org
Alexandria, Va. — On Wednesday, June 2, the Prevent Cancer Foundation® recognized national leaders in cancer prevention and early detection with the 2021 Cancer Prevention Laurels Awards. As a part of the annual Prevent Cancer Dialogue, the Laurels Awards, presented in partnership with the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, are given to outstanding leaders in health equity and community service and for national leadership.
Held virtually for the second year in a row, the Prevent Cancer Dialogue convenes cancer prevention and early detection stakeholders from across the U.S. and across all disciplines related to cancer screening and prevention. In place of an in-person ceremony, this year's award winners were announced in a video presentation from Andrea Roane, an Emmy Award-winning newscaster and longtime Prevent Cancer Foundation board member.
"It is always our honor to celebrate cancer prevention and early detection changemakers at the Laurels Awards, but in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, this celebration feels extraordinarily special," said Carolyn Aldigé, Founder and CEO of the Prevent Cancer Foundation. "This incredible group of honorees have dedicated decades to public health and cancer prevention, and their resilience and legacies have kept cancer prevention and early detection going during a time when preventive health care stalled in almost every area."
Here are the 2021 Cancer Prevention Laurels Awards winners:
Laurel Award for Health Equity – Dr. Tsu-Yin Wu
Tsu-Yin Wu, M.S.N., Ph.D., is the Director of the Healthy Asian Americans Project and Center for Health Disparities Innovation and Studies at Eastern Michigan University. Throughout her 20-year career, Dr. Wu has committed herself to providing evidence to support the urgent need for public health funding for underserved Asian communities. Her research, which has resulted in more than 20 publications, has revealed pervasive health disparities for Asians and Asian Americans. Globally, Dr. Wu has implemented strategies, such as training breast health ambassadors, that have resulted in thousands of women receiving breast cancer screening and follow-up diagnostics and treatment.
During the past year, Dr. Wu has pivoted her work to train bilingual navigators to bring culturally sensitive, translated early detection education materials to Asian refugee populations at COVID-19 events, including COVID testing sites, flu clinics and food distribution events.
Laurel Award for Dedication to Community Service – Ify Anne Nwabukwu
Ms. Nwabukwu is the President and Founder of African Women's Cancer Awareness Association, based in Washington, D.C. For the past 16 years, she has been dedicated to identifying and meeting community needs for cancer prevention and screening. Revered by her colleagues, Ms. Nwabukwu's public health tools have been distributed in 11 African languages to more than 40,000 African immigrants and African Americans, both nationally and internationally. Under her leadership, her team has designed and implemented more than 30 breast cancer programs on capacity building, community education, screening services and diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer among African immigrant communities.
When COVID-19 hit the Washington D.C. area, Ms. Nwabukwu re-strategized, raising community funds to provide personal protective equipment to more than 3,000 Black breast cancer survivors and their families and to connect hundreds of cancer survivors with COVID-19 testing.
Laurel Award for National Leadership – Dr. David Ahlquist (posthumous award)
David Ahlquist, M.D., was a gastroenterologist and an internationally recognized leader in early detection of colorectal cancer. He led the scientific team that created an FDA-approved, multi-target stool DNA screening test. To date, this test has been used to screen for colorectal cancer by 5 million people, preventing morbidity or mortality for many of them. Throughout his long career, Dr. Ahlquist maintained more than 25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health, was published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, was issued more than 80 patents and mentored more than 40 trainees. Dr. Ahlquist passed away on November 1, 2020, due to complications from ALS. His wife, Susan Ahlquist, and colleague, Dr. Paul Limburg, accepted the award.
While cancer screening rates dropped this past year due to COVID-19, the impact of Dr. Ahlquist's contributions to provide screening options for patients, including an at-home option for colorectal cancer screening, could be felt more than ever. At a time when preventive care stalled, his legacy allowed early detection of colorectal cancer to remain a possibility for screening-eligible people.
About the Prevent Cancer Foundation®
The Prevent Cancer Foundation® is celebrating 35 years as the only U.S. nonprofit organization focused solely on saving lives across all populations through cancer prevention and early detection. Through research, education, outreach and advocacy, we have helped countless people avoid a cancer diagnosis or detect their cancer early enough to be successfully treated.
The Foundation is rising to meet the challenge of reducing cancer deaths by 40% by 2035. To achieve this, we are committed to investing $20 million for innovative technologies to detect cancer early and advance multi-cancer screening, $10 million to expand cancer screening and vaccination access to medically underserved communities, and $10 million to educate the public about screening and vaccination options.
For more information, please visit www.preventcancer.org.


text:
<?php
namespace Kotori\Tests\Http;

use Exception;
use PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase as TestCase;

class RouteTest extends TestCase
{
    protected static $END_POINT = null;

    public static function setUpBeforeClass()
    {
        self::$END_POINT = 'http://' . getenv('WEB_SERVER_HOST') . ':' . getenv('WEB_SERVER_PORT') . '/';
    }

    public function testRoute()
    {
        $routes = [
            'get' => 'news/1',
            'get' => 'add',
            'post' => 'add',
        ];

        try {
            foreach ($routes as $method => $route) {
                call_user_func_array(['\\Kotori\\Tests\\Util', $method], [self::$END_POINT . $route]);
            }
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            $this->fail();
        }

        $this->assertTrue(true);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Let's face it, when it comes to talking about unwanted hair, legs are an area that is talked about quite freely, but sometimes it can be seen as taboo to talk about more private parts of our body, like armpits. With recent strides for gender-equality at the forefront of many fashion and social media campaigns, it's no wonder that movements such as #freethenipple and #dyedpits have been trending across the globe.
However, armpit hair is still a feature that many women would rather not embrace. Let's take a look at the science behind why armpit hair grows, some changing attitudes towards it, and some great hair removal options for those who still prefer the smoother look.
Why do we have armpit hair in the first place? If you search for that answer on the internet you may find a number of factors that have played influence over time. Amongst other theories, studies show that over time, armpit hair helped reduce the friction between our arm and body, and also helped with temperature regulation. As time went on however, and fashions developed, sporting a smooth underarm became a trend associated with femininity and athleticism.
The underarms can be a sensitive area, which is why we should take a bit more care when choosing how to remove hair from this area. Shaving is the most common form of hair removal. However, if you intend to have hair-free armpits, all day, every day, then shaving might not be the best option for you. Shaving only cuts across the hair, giving short-term results of up to two days. Unfortunately, this repeated use of a razor could cause irritation.
Another convenient solution you could consider are depilatory creams. Veet® Hair RemovalCream is suitable for sensitive skin. However, it is still advised that you do a patch test in case of sensitivity. By dissolving the protein in the hair just below the surface of the skin you are able to wash away the residue and hair easily. Although results may be short-term, they last longer than shaving.
Waxing is a form of epilation, which it removes hair from the root. Pulling out the hair entirely means that you can have smooth under arms for up to 28 days at a time. One great option for underarms is Veet® Natural Inspirations™ Hot Sugar Wax which leaves skin moisturized and feeling touchably soft. However your hair needs to be at least 1.5mm for it to be able to stick to the wax and be removed properly, which means you may have to grow it a bit first to achieve the best results.


You will be downloading a video with the best possible quality while maintaining a low file size. The codec is Photo-JPEG so if you need .mp4 we suggest you retrieve the file using a YouTube downloader.
These are all spectacular - just what I was looking for! thanks!
Your footages are simple perfect. Perfect image, photo sense and 'taste'!


In a world where we purchase all kinds of items online the least, we expect is quick and secure delivery service. Not only this, there is a need for customers to be able to know when their parcels are set to arrive so that they can make arrangements to be home or to redirect them to a convenient place.
Luckily for our customers in France, you can now make use of Chronopost services and enjoy all of the above for an excellent price as we now offer a range of their services, for an excellent low cost price.
Chronopost is an Express parcel delivery service serving customers in France who want to send parcels quickly around the country or internationally. They help both individuals and small to medium businesses with affordable shipping as well as a reliable and trusted service.
Chronopost and its workforce of over 3,500, deliver 149 million parcels per year so you can trust they have the infrastructure and experience in place to provide an expert service.
Chronopost have a wide range of services so that you can send all kinds of items with them.
At Christmas we see a large number of gifts being sent through Chronopost as they are a trusted brand and provide full tracking to delivery. You can send anything from important documents to vinyls, products you have sold on eBay to clothes you might want to send to family. Better still you can send packages that weigh up to 30kg.
There are a number of Chronopost services available to book on the Parcel Monkey shipping marketplaces.
Chronopost Classic is an affordable courier service available to book as a collected service or you can drop off at any DPD or La Poste office. The transit times around Europe using this popular service are as quick as 2-5 working days.
Chronopost Express is a slightly quicker delivery service, with European countries such as Germany, the UK, Portugal reached as quick as 1-2 days, whilst international deliveries are made in 3-7 days.
Choose Chronopost for flexible and easy to follow parcel delivery.
Chronopost, originally a B2C delivery service, now allow customers to utilise their network of 28,000 Post Office and Drop Off points across Europe. From small businesses to larger companies, their vast networks now also handle the belongings, documents and more of individuals too.
Prefer not to wait at home or work for a courier to come and pick up your package? Customers who book with Chronopost are able to drop parcels into any of their stores of Post Offices at a time convenient for them. These locations often have extended opening hours, perfect for those who need to drop off a parcel before or after work, or even over the weekend.
Drop Off services aren't for everybody. There is a lot to be said for the convenience of having your package collected from your home or work address. If having to drive to a local store and queue up in the cold isn't for you, then having a driver come to take the box from your doorstep is often the best option.
You can choose a day that suits you for a courier to come and collect and they will be sure to come and take your package before 6pm. Door to door delivery is most simple type of courier service we offer, as you don't even have to leave the house to send a parcel in France or overseas.
Chronopost services come with full tracking to delivery, essential for eCommerce retailers. From the moment your package is collected, you will be able to follow it in full until it arrives for delivery. Better still if you provide the recipient contact number, they can get text updates to inform them of the hour slot in which their parcel will be delivered.
Predict notifications are also available if you opt to book Chronopost, so your recipient can make 'in-flight' changes to their delivery options. These include being able to adjust the delivery date if they are out, delivery to a next door neighbour or to a local Pickup shop.
What happens to my parcel?
Whether you choose to Drop Off or have your parcel collected, it is important to attach the label and any relevant customs documents. This will indicate to the courier exactly where your parcel needs to be delivered to.
Once the courier has collected your parcel or you have dropped it off at the local Post Office or Pickup Shop, your package will be taken to a central sort depot and sent on to the recipient.
Parcel Monkey have developed a global shipping marketplace to make it easier for shippers around the world to find a great deal on delivery. For our customers in France, they will often be able to select Chronopost as the best priced and quickest delivery service for various destinations.
Choice. You can choose to pay a little extra to enjoy faster delivery, choose a cheaper economy option, choose a door to door collected service or to drop off your package.
Simplicity. The number of parcels being posted is constantly growing so a simple booking process, a choice of entry points into the courier network and easy to follow tracking make Chronopost the choice of many.
Coverage. As part of the La Poste group, Chronopost have both international and national coverage, paired with competitive pricing.


THE BAD NEWS is that the glory days of Chicago house are history. There's no more Shelter, no more warehouse raves, and fewer venues willing to let in under-21s, which has pretty much meant the end of club-kid culture. The good news is that none of this has stopped Chicago from growing a world-class danceclub scene. Pull out Section 3, flip to the "Dance" portion of the music listings, and you'll find DJs spinning a couple dozen different kinds of music at name-brand clubs, dive bars, and a range of spots between the two.
If your idea of what a nightclub should be is based solely on the movies—all trance music, hot chicks, and Red-Bull-vodkas—you're thinking of what's known cozily as a "megaclub." On one hand megaclubs are obnoxious, overblown, and overpriced. On the other hand, the spectacle and cheesed-out decadence are exactly what you need. The two that can usually strike a pleasing balance of quality and quantity of experience are Crobar (1543 N. Kingsbury, 312-266-1900) and Sound-Bar (226 W. Ontario, 312-787-4480). You'll find the same overly hair-gelled hordes as you would at any big club in town, but the talent these places bring in are a step above, mixing a steady stream of the kind of arena-level DJs who in Europe are worshipped as gods with the occasional surprise underground act to bring out hipsters who wouldn't be caught dead holding a Jager bomb.
When the sensory overload gets to be too much, head to the relatively austere Sonotheque (1444 W. Chicago, 312-226-7600). Its modest size, intensely good sound system, and nearly pitch-black lighting scheme can foster a mellow listening session or a small-scale dance riot depending on the DJ. They regularly host out-of-towners like Diplo and Carlos D, and their residencies—from a dancehall reggae night to the electro-gothic Dark Wave Disco—are a consistent good bet. Smart Bar (downstairs from the live-music club Metro at 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-4140) succeeds on a similar level. The sound there sticks more to variations on the four-on-the-floor beat, offering regular appearances by Chicago's better-respected house and techno DJs, and gigs with MSTRKRFT, Matthew Dear, James Murphy, and other dance tastemakers.
For the person who likes to dance but doesn't normally do dance clubs, Chicago's blowing up with your so-called "hipster DJs." Major Taylor, the duo Flosstradamus, and a gang of DJs working under the Life During Wartime moniker all pack their sets heavy on the kind of stuff—dance punk, hip-hop, Prince—that turns rock clubs like the Empty Bottle, Hideout, and Double Door into unlikely dance spots for unlikely dancers. They've all got regular residencies, but Flosstradamus's monthly Get Out of the Hood parties at the Town Hall Pub (3340 N. Halsted, 773-472-4405) most consistently take it off the rails.


text:
Pupil absence in schools in England: autumn term
Autumn Term 2020/21
Ethnicity Major groups added to the underlying data
Absence by pupil characteristics section added, plus additional datasets '06 - Absence by pupil characteristics - national' and '07 - Absence by pupil characteristics - local authority'
This release looks at pupil attendance during the Autumn 2020 term. This term coincided with the reopening of schools on 1 September 2020. Schools were expected to be open throughout the whole of the Autumn term although in some schools, where there was a case of coronavirus, pupils were sent home in bubbles to self-isolate
This is the first absence data collected via the school census covering the pandemic. School level data has been collected via the Department's education settings survey on pupil attendance throughout the pandemic, but this release is derived from pupil level data from which further analysis, such as the amount of time missed, can be derived. The categories of absence in this release match those used on school registers and differ to those used in the education settings survey.
Data is given on absence as well as where a pupil could not attend school due to COVID 19 (not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus). This includes pupils who were self-isolating, pupils who were advised to shield because they were clinically extremely vulnerable, pupils quarantining after returning from abroad and class bubbles who were sent home and advised to isolate. Schools were advised to record pupils with a confirmed case of coronavirus as absent due to illness.
Pupil absence statistics: methodology
Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
Addendum: recording attendance in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19) during the 2020 to 2021 academic year
The overall absence rate in Autumn 2020/21 was 4.7%. This was similar to last year (4.9%). This does not include sessions where pupils were not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19) for which a further 7.0% of sessions were recorded. 60% of pupils had some period where they did not attend in circumstances relating to coronavirus (COVID-19).
Despite including illness due to positive coronavirus cases, the rate of absence due to illness, 2.5%, has decreased compared to last year (2.8%). This corresponds with Public Health England data showing that cases of flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses have decreased. Other types of absence, including holiday absence and medical appointments, have also decreased as a likely result of the pandemic.
Unauthorised absence has increased in mainstream settings but decreased in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs).
In primary schools, where positive coronavirus rates were lower and unauthorised absence is historically less prevalent, these changes have resulted in an overall decrease in absence.
Not attending due to circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19)
Historically, between 4% and 5% of school is missed due to absence during the Autumn term. This year, an additional 7% of sessions were recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19). This represents an additional 33 million days, or 5 days (one week) per pupil.
This includes pupils self-isolating and shielding, including when a class or bubble has been required to stay at home. During these sessions, these children could not attend school and so they are treated separately, and not counted within the standard absence rates within this publication. Where a pupil was not attending in these circumstances, schools were expected to provide immediate access to remote education.
To derive these figures, an additional category was collected from schools as defined below:
Record sessions where a pupil does not attend because their travel to, or attendance at, school would be:
contrary to guidance relating to the incidence or transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) from Public Health England (PHE) and/or the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
prohibited by any legislation (or instruments such as statutory directions) relating to the incidence or transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19)
When a pupil has initially self-isolated pending a coronavirus test result, the school should have recorded the pupil as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus. If the pupil subsequently tested positive the school should have recorded the pupil as being absent due to illness and they would be included as an absence.
This publication looks further at absence rates in the Autumn Term. Further data was collected on attendance during the Autumn Term and is published in the 'Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak' statistics release.
Full guidance on recording attendance in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19) during the 2020 to 2021 academic year is available online at Addendum: recording attendance in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19) during the 2020 to 2021 academic year - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, published by ONS, gives information about infection rates, includes those amongst the primary and secondary school age groups.
The absence rate is the total number of sessions missed due to absence for all pupils as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions for all pupils. One session is equal to half a day.
For 2020/21, not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19) is not counted as an absence, but is included as a possible session in the calculation of absence rates. This includes pupils self-isolating and shielding, including when a class or bubble has been required to stay at home. During these sessions, pupils were expected to not attend or were prohibited from attending and so they are treated separately and not counted within the standard absence rates within this publication.
4.7 % of sessions were missed due to absence during the 2020/21 Autumn term. This represents a further 22 million days (or 3 days per pupil) on top of the 33 million days where pupils were not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19).
This was similar to last year (4.9%) and has remained stable across all school types except primary schools which saw a decrease from 4.3% to 3.7%.
This has been driven by some unique movements in the reasons for absence:
Illness absence reduced. Illness is historically the most common reason for absence, accounting for over half of absence and heavily influences overall absence rates. While this year's figure additionally includes absence due to positive coronavirus cases, Public Health England data suggests that cases of flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses have decreased and the absence data reflects this. Public Health England cite measures such as social distancing, wearing of masks and additional handwashing as contributing factors, as well as increased flu vaccinations for those shielding and for their households.
Restrictions on travel and closures across the tourism sector have driven a reduction in holiday absence.
Absence taken to attend medical appointments has also reduced, likely driven by lockdown restrictions and medical appointments being delayed unless in more urgent circumstances.
Absence taken due to "other unauthorised reasons" has been increasing steadily in recent years but this year increased at a greater rate from 0.8% to 1.1%.
Taken together, these movements has resulted in authorised absence decreasing but unauthorised absence showing a small increase.
In primary schools, where positive coronavirus rates were lower and other unauthorised reasons are historically less prevalent (this reason is linked to pupil behaviour), these changes have resulted in an overall decrease in absence.
The absence rate in pupil referral units (PRUs) is typically much higher than for other schools and was 31.0% in Autumn 2020/21. This is a reduction from 2019/20 and is seen across almost all absence reasons, including (unlike mainstream schools) unauthorised reasons. Illness, similar to other school types, is the biggest driver of absence rates in PRUs.
Amount of absence and non-attendance
A pupil enrolment is identified as a persistent absentee if they miss 10% or more of their possible sessions. Sessions where a pupil was not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19) are not counted as an absence but do count towards possible sessions as during these sessions these pupils could not attend school .
13% of pupils were persistently absent during the autumn term 2020/21.
In recent years, trends have been consistent across school types, however, this year, whilst persistent absenteeism in primary and special schools reduced, there has been an increase in secondary schools. The increase in secondary schools (which saw higher rates of coronavirus during the Autumn term) is driven by illness absence as well as the increase in "other unauthorised reasons".
Amount of time absent and not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus (COVID-19)
The chart below shows how the amount of absence per pupil differs to the amount of not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus (COVID-19), which generally involved longer periods.
40% of pupils had no sessions of not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus (COVID-19) whilst 31% had 10% or more sessions recorded this way.
Absence by pupil characteristics
For 2020/21, not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19) is not counted as an absence, but is included as a possible session in the calculation of absence rates. This includes pupils self-isolating and shielding, including when a class or bubble has been required to stay at home. During these sessions, pupils were expected to not attend or were prohibited from attending and so they are treated separately and not counted toward the overall absence rate and persistent absence rates.
Free School Meals eligibility (FSM)
Pupils eligible for FSM had 8.5% of sessions recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus, compared to 6.6% for pupils not eligible for FSM.
FSM eligible pupils had an overall absence rate of 7.8%, compared to 3.8% for non-FSM pupils. In Autumn 2019 the rates were 7.6% for FSM eligible pupils and 4.3% for pupils not eligible for FSM.
24.1% of FSM eligible pupils were persistently absent in Autumn 2020, compared to 9.6% of pupils not eligible for FSM. In Autumn 2019 the rates were 23.8% and 10.5%.
Rates were slightly lower for those who were FSM eligible at some point in the last six years.
Pupils with SEN had higher rates of absence, persistent absenteeism and not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus.
For pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, 8.6% of sessions were recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus. This compares to 7.4% for pupils with SEN support and 6.8% with no SEN.
The overall absence rate for pupils with an EHC plan was 9.4%, compared to 6.6% for pupils with SEN support and 4.1% with no SEN. These were broadly similar to Autumn 2019.
Persistent absence was also higher for pupils with SEN. For pupils with an EHC plan the persistent absentee rate was 25.6% and 19.3% for those with SEN support, compared to 11.1% with no SEN. These rates are slightly lower than Autumn 2019.
Pupils of the Gypsy/Roma and Pakistani ethnic groups had the highest rates of sessions recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus in Autumn 2020, at 10.9% and 10.8% respectively. This compares to 7.0% across all pupils. Pupils of the Chinese ethnic group had the lowest rate at 6.1%.
Traveller of Irish Heritage and Gypsy/Roma pupils had the highest rates of overall absence at 24.1% and 18.6% respectively, up from 17.0% and 13.0% in Autumn 2019. Chinese and Black African pupils had the lowest overall absence rates at 2.7% and 3.1% respectively.
56.7% of pupils from the Traveller of Irish Heritage ethnic group were persistently absent in Autumn 2020 and 52.6% of Gypsy/Roma pupils. These were the ethnic groups with the highest rates of persistent absence in Autumn 2019.
National curriculum year group
Pupils in year group 10 had the highest rate of sessions recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (apart from pupils outside the normal year group structure) at 10.0%. Year group 3 had the lowest at 5.4%.
Pupils in year group 11 had the highest overall absence rate at 6.9%. The lowest were year groups 2 and 3 at 3.5%. In Autumn 2019 the highest rates were year groups 10 and 11 at 6.5%, the lowest were year groups 3 and 4 at 4.1%.
Persistent absence rates ranged from 8.9% in year group 3 to 19.3% in year group 11.
Boys and girls had similar rates recorded as not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus, at 7.0% and 6.9% respectively. For boys and girls overall absence rates were 4.7% and 4.6% respectively, persistent absence at 13.2% and 12.8% respectively.
If you have a specific enquiry about Pupil absence in schools in England: autumn term statistics and data:
School absence and exclusions team
schools.statistics@education.gov.uk


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Mordella savioi is a species of beetle in the genus Mordella of the family Mordellidae, which is part of the superfamily Tenebrionoidea. It was discovered in 1924.

References

Beetles described in 1924
savioi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Over the weekend it was announced at DragonCon that The Jim Henson Company has optioned the rights to Susan Dennard's fantasy book series The Witchlands and they will develop it as a live-action TV series. The announcement came from Dennard and Halle Stanford, who is the President of Television for The Jim Henson Company.
The story "is set in a world where three empires rule and every member of the population is born with a magical skill set, known as a 'witchery'. Now, as the Twenty- Year Truce in a centuries-long war is about to come to an end, the balance of power will fall on the shoulders of two young women Safiya and Iseult, who must accept their fate, and themselves, to survive."
The book series is set on a distant continent, and it "follows best friends Safi (a Truthwitch) and Iseult (a Threadwitch), as well as the cunning ship captain Prince Merik (a Windwitch), and the mysterious and powerful Aeduan (a Bloodwitch) as they must navigate warring empires, political machinations, and mercenaries who seek to use their magic for selfish gain."
I haven't read this book series, but judging by the story description it sounds like it will be a great series and perfect project for The Jim Henson Company to take on! There are two books in the series, a spinoff, and there's a third book on the way called Bloodwitch that will be released next year.
Lisa Henson, CEO and President of The Jim Henson Company and Stanford will serve as executive producers for the project. Dennard will serve as co-executive producer and Jim Henson's Creature Shop will create the creature characters for the series.
"The Witchlands features a world of magic and astonishing characters that our Creature Shop can sink its teeth into and bring to life in an exciting and fresh way. These books fulfill our desire to dive deep into a high fantasy world a la Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, where the women are the heroes and the world itself is seen through a feminine lens."
"I'm so thrilled that The Witchlands is in the hands of such a dynamic and creative company as The Jim Henson Company. This is a literal dream come true, and I can't wait to see what they come up with to bring the world, characters, magic, and creatures to life!"
I also can't wait to see what they come up with! This sounds like it could end up being an epic fantasy series and the talent at the Jim Henson Company seem to have a knack for that kind of stuff!


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De Gamle Strynefjellsvegen of Fylkesvei 258 (Provinciale weg 258) is een nationale toeristenweg in het midden van Noorwegen. Vroeger was dit de enige verbinding tussen West- en Oost-Noorwegen. Het is een 27 kilometer lange smalle gravelweg, niet geschikt voor caravans. De weg is van mei tot en met september geopend voor het verkeer.

Ze loopt van Grotli in de gemeente Skjåk (Innlandet) naar Videseter, waar een waterval is, tot Stryn (Vestland). Het hoogste punt is op 1139 meter.

Langs de weg ligt de gletsjer Tystigbreen met het zomerskigebied van Stryn en het meer Langevatnet.

Geschiedenis
In 1881 begon de bouw van de weg toen men besloot om een vaste verbinding tussen de gemeenten Skjåk en Stryn te maken. In 1894, 13 jaar later, was de weg gereed. In 1978 werd de aanzet gegeven tot een nieuwe 12 kilometer lange weg met tunnels, de RV 15, die iets noordelijker ligt. Sinds 1997 is de Strynefjellsvegen een "nationale toeristische weg".

Externe links
 Gamle Strynefjellsvegen

258
Fylkesvei 258
Fylkesvei 258


Want tried and true techniques for calculating your cost-per-mile, managing carrier and broker partners, reducing the risk of fraud, and much more? Read on.
Learn how some common transportation industry scams work, how they're executed, and how you can avoid them and protect yourself.


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Hall's Pedigree Matching service Balazsi's secret weapon
A few years after he started using Norman Hall's Pedigree Matching service, Stefan Balazsi's Order By Stable is the Dan Patch Breeder of the Year thanks to producing both Atlanta and Gimpanzee.
by Melissa Keith
Sunday evening at the Dan Patch Awards, the Order By Stable will be formally recognized as 2018 Breeder of the Year. Stefan Balazsi's success with producing trotters on a boutique scale was headlined by Atlanta (3, 1:50.3s; $1,140,689 ) — the Hambletonian winner and Dan Patch Trotter of the Year and Three-year-old Trotting Filly of the year — as well as Gimpanzee (2, 1:54.3s; $591,358), who was a standout among last season's two-year-old male trotters thanks to an undefeated season that included dominating the New York Sire Stakes, Breeders Crown, and divisional end-of-year balloting.
Balazsi's rise to success on this continent has been particularly remarkable given the small number of Order By Stable-breds: They totalled just 30 all-age North American starters last year, yet 19 were winners and the group earned a collective $2.47 million in 2018. Call it a royal flush for the self-described "full-time poker player and entrepreneur," who has been breeding standardbreds since 2001.
Norman Hall believes the results are rare for a small breeder, unless that breeder taps into statistical analysis on the production of champion racehorses. The Prince Edward Island breeding expert is known for his Pedigree Matching site, where he provides a commercial service advising on yearlings, stallions, and broodmares. He attended the Dan Patch Awards banquet in Orlando, FL, to celebrate his client's outstanding year. Horse of the Year McWicked is owned by Ed James' SSG Stables, who has also worked with Hall's system.
Hall tells HRU that he first met Balazsi "about six or seven years ago" at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company's yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA. The Island horseman was selling Pedigree Matching DVDs at his usual booth, and took a break to "shoot the bull" with Frank Antonacci and friends in the cafeteria. Discussion turned to Lisa America, the Italian-bred world champion owned by the late Lou Guida. Hall remembers that Antonacci expressed interest in purchasing the top daughter of Varenne, and "Stefan sat down and sort of listened to the conversation. When the others cleared out, he said he was interested in what I was doing with Pedigree Matching."
At the time, Order By Stables owned a larger group of mares residing at New Jersey's Concord Stud Farm. Hall said he was enlisted by Balazsi to review their bloodlines. "I did my usual thing, sorting them in terms of good or bad in Pedigree Matching. Half the mares scored poorly. They were by some nice sires, but some hadn't raced for obvious reasons." Balazsi then sold several of the mares, in foal, and consulted with Hall on the remaining mares' consorts. "He would pick out some stallions he thought were suitable for a particular mare, and he would ask me what I thought," said Hall. "He ultimately made the final decision."
The Breeder of the Year also owns racehorses in Sweden, as Order by Stable AB, Borås. "Initially, he (just) wanted to sort out the mares in New Jersey," says Hall. Balazsi has most recently asked him about which mares, Swedish and/or American, would be good matches for new sire Tactical Landing.
"The consequence has been that because he's had success with racing and breeding, he's established credibility," said Hall. "He was a top consignor at Harrisburg, with several yearlings in the first session."
It marks the continuation of a turnaround from seven years ago, when Balazsi did not have any of his yearlings in the coveted opening session.
In 2015, a filly bred by Order By Stable captured significant attention at Harrisburg. Staffan Lind and Karl-Erik Bender's winning $500,000 bid on Future Secured (Cantab Hall) boosted her into the record books as the highest-priced yearling trotting filly ever sold at public auction (a title shared with Courtney Hall). It also tied the figure for the fourth-highest-priced standardbred yearling ever.
The following year, the then-unnamed Alarm Detector (Chapter Seven) brought $110,000 for Order By Stable, which consigns its yearlings through Concord Stud Farm. Atlanta was sold under original name Django Unchained in the same sale, for a modest $60,000.
In 2017, colt Kings County (Muscle Hill) was Order By's top-priced yearling, selling for $210,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale. Colt Marseille (Muscle Hill) drew $180,000, while Gimpanzee (Chapter Seven) went through the ring for $170,000 under his former name, Army of Monkeys.
Last year was the best year of all for Balazsi's breeding operation, as Sweden's SRF Stable landed Fifty Cent Piece (Muscle Hill) with a sales-topping $500,000 winning bid at Harrisburg, equalling the all-time record price for yearling fillies. Order By's Swiss House Onfire (Muscle Hill) was the highest-selling colt of the sale, going to Robert Lindstrom (agent) for $335,000, while colt Back Of The Neck (Ready Cash) brought $150,000.
Hall notes that it's still quite common to assess yearlings based upon fashionable sires and conformation, without really understanding what goes into making a solid pedigree, or a durable racehorse. "Some got lucky and got a good horse, but you have to have a process and do your homework" for "predictable outcomes," he said. "Stefan is a very successful business man in his own right… He listens and he tries to understand what's happening."
Pedigree Matching was introduced in 1988, to help flag horses with the genetic potential to excel. It has since evolved to encompass software (Pedigree Matching Globetrotter), international lectures, and "Pedigree Camps" in PEI.
Hall likes to share a sobering statistic on yearling selection: "The basic fact is, out of all the yearlings raised, less than five per cent will pay for themselves over a lifetime. But, statistically, you are entitled to one out of four (25 per cent) if you get the pedigree right. That's the difference between doing your homework and not doing your homework."
The "Pedigree Guru" describes two distinctive patterns he's noticed in the bloodlines of the best North American harness horses today. He calls them "double/doubles" (DDs) and "top and bottoms" (TBs), simple terms to express the intricate connections the professional engineer looks for across a horse's pedigree.
Dan Patch Award-winning older male pacer McWicked is a DD; so is past winner Always B Miki. Because he also works with other breeds, Hall noticed an unusual finding in two of last season's best thoroughbreds: Catholic Boy and Rushing Fall are both DDs, "bred like a good standardbred is, by a standardbred owner (John Fielding, with Fred W. Hertrich III)."
Hall said it was through close study of an exceptional trotter's pedigree that he detected the rise of the second pattern. "I always wondered why Moni Maker was so good," he said. "Then I started looking for them (TBs), and what did I find? Warrawee Ubeaut, Jimmy Freight." The TB pattern is less common at present.
He was struck that this past Breeders Crown, five of the eight divisional champions had breeding which corresponded to the DD pedigree template, while another two winners' bloodlines illustrated the newer TB pedigree template, which he's identified more commonly among thoroughbreds than standardbreds. Balazsi took heed: "So the plan for going to the sale last year was, Stefan wanted horses who were one or the other [DD or TB]. These were the only horses he looked at, with his partners."
Hall has a system in which he assigns numerical ratings to yearlings in a catalogue. He recommends that his clients inspect only the colts and fillies with approved bloodlines—"You have to have a 140 for a decent trotter and 160 for a decent pacer," he said, revealing only that he calculates the number for each yearling based on the accomplishments of the family, using a wide swath of statistics, as opposed to a narrow focus on black type in the first three generations, or worse, conformation and videos. "Pedigree comes first, because pedigree is the first decision in creating a horse," quips Hall. "It may just be 12 per cent, but it's the most important 12 per cent."
USTA records show that the Order By Stable has produced 110 North American foals since 2007. It has registered 11 foals of 2018, including a Muscle Hill half-brother to Future Secured; a full sister to Marseille; a full sister to Gimpanzee; and a Muscle Hill half-sister to Atlanta.
The Breeder of the Year was unable to attend the awards banquet due to being sick with the flu, so Julie Meirs and her father, David Meirs III, of Concord Stud Farm accepted the trophy on his behalf.
"It was a great honor for a small breeder to win the Breeder of the Year," Julie told HRU. "The small breeders don't always get recognized, because they don't have nearly as many to compete as the big breeders."
She calls Balazsi a quiet man, in "constant contact — almost daily" by phone to discuss his New Jersey-based mares and offspring.
David agreed that Balaszi's "remarkable" accomplishments as a breeder go back to the place where Pedigree Matching also starts: close study of maternal pedigrees over many generations. "He keeps to himself, but he studies the mares, respects the genetics on them, and he's had a lot of success."


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Artesia Historical Museum
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Expand All Events
New Years Holiday Closure
January 1, 2020, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
New Years Holiday Closure2020-01-01T08:00:00
The Museum will be closed on Wednesday, January 1, in observation of the City of Artesia's holiday calendar. The Museum will reopen on Thursday, January 2, at 9:00 AM.
Event LocationArtesiaNM88211
Library -- Teen Event -- NERF Wars with the Artesia Police Department
January 3, 2020, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM @ Artesia Public Library
Library -- Teen Event -- NERF Wars with the Artesia Police Department2020-01-03T18:30:00
Come play with Nerf Guns with the Artesia Police Department and have a blast! Nerf guns are provided. You will not be allowed to use your own gun. Grades 6-12
Artesia Public Library205 W. Quay Ave.ArtesiaNM88210
Library -- **CANCELLED** Magic: The Gathering - Afternoon of Cards
Library -- **CANCELLED** Magic: The Gathering - Afternoon of Cards2020-01-04T14:00:00
Magic the Gathering will not meet this month.
Library -- Children's Program -- Craft Time
January 7, 2020, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM @ Artesia Public Library
Library -- Children's Program -- Craft Time2020-01-07T10:30:00
Join us for a fun craft related to this week's story time theme. Craft time is free and open to the public. All supplies provided.
Join us for stories, dances, fingerplay, and more! Story Time is free and open to the public.
Library -- Teen Event -- Teen Coding Club
Library -- Teen Event -- Teen Coding Club2020-01-07T16:30:00
We will be using special software to learn how to make games and draw and do different coding skills. This program is free and open to the public. Ages 12+
Library -- Adult Program -- Medicare 101
Library -- Adult Program -- Medicare 1012020-01-07T17:30:00
Jeannie Muse of Medcare in Roswell will return for an encore of her Medicare 101 class. Those of you who weren't able to make the last one or need further clarification are encouraged to come. Navigating Medicare is a complicated process and this is a great way to get a leg up. Free and open to the public ages 18 +.
Library -- Children's Program -- Mother Goose on the Loose
Library -- Children's Program -- Mother Goose on the Loose2020-01-08T10:00:00
Weekly Early Literacy Program for Babies. Mother Goose on the Loose is a proven method for planning and presenting programs that focuses on the whole child and incorporates research-based theories of learning, music, puppets, picture books, nursery rhymes, art, play, and language. This program is geared towards babies from 0 to 24 months. This program is free and open to the public.
Artesia Public Library205 W. Quay Ave. ArtesiaNM88210
Library -- Yarn United
January 8, 2020, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM @ Artesia Public Library
Library -- Yarn United2020-01-08T12:00:00
Knitting and Crochet Club at the Library where you can socialize with other yarnsters. Bring your project or do one of ours. Some materials are provided. All ages are welcome.
Library -- Children's Event -- Kid's Coding Club
Library -- Children's Event -- Kid's Coding Club2020-01-08T16:30:00
Using Prenda, a software that will teach them the ins and outs of coding, children will learn how to design websites, build games, and create masterpieces. Join us for coding, friendships, and fun! Ages 8-12
Library -- Adult Event -- DIY Files
Library -- Adult Event -- DIY Files2020-01-09T16:30:00
Do-it-Yourself program that focuses on making gifts for your friends or yourself. January's project is Valentine's Wreaths. Create a wreath to celebrate the upcoming month of love. Free and open to the public. Ages 18+ Materials provided.
Artesia Public Library205 W, Quay Ave.ArtesiaNM88210
Library -- Adult Program -- What Can You Macrame @ Your Library
January 13, 2020, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM @ Artesia Public Library
Library -- Adult Program -- What Can You Macrame @ Your Library2020-01-13T10:00:00
Come learn what fantastic things you can knot your way into. Not a beginner? Not a problem. Bring your project or start one of ours and socialize with like-minded folks. This is a go-at-your-own-pace craft meeting. Ages 18+. Materials are provided but you are free to bring your own as well.
January 14, 2020, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM @ Artesia Public Library
Library -- Teen Event -- Dystopian Games
Library -- Teen Event -- Dystopian Games2020-01-14T18:00:00
Come pretend to be in a dystopian world and test your dystopia trivia knowledge and play games in the library. Grades 6-12
Library -- **CANCELLED** -- Mother Goose on the Loose
Library -- **CANCELLED** -- Mother Goose on the Loose2020-01-15T10:00:00
Library -- Nailed It! Family Competition
Library -- Nailed It! Family Competition2020-01-16T17:30:00
?It's the second annual all ages Nailed It! Competition. Bring your family and friends to compete (or just watch and vote) with other teams to make a literary-themed treat in 30 minutes. Teams are 2 to 4 people and have at least one adult. Will you be the next title winner? No cooking involved, only decorating. Materials are provided. Free and open to the public.
Family Fun Arts Fair
Ocotillo Performing Arts Center
January 18, 2020, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM @ Ocotillo Performing Arts Center
Family Fun Arts Fair2020-01-18T13:00:00
The Ocotillo Performing Arts Center in Artesia will be hosting the Family Fun Arts Fair on Saturday, January 18, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The Family Fun Arts Fair is an interactive learning event for children that focuses on dance, music, theater, writing, and arts. It is free to the public, and refreshments will be provided. The event is a partnership of the New Mexico School for the Arts, the Artesia Arts Council, the Artesia Public Library, and the Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center.
Ocotillo Performing Arts Center310 W. Main StreetArtesiaNM88211
Library -- D&D Roleplaying Game
Library -- D&D Roleplaying Game2020-01-18T14:00:00
Join us and take a break from all that real-life adulting stuff. This interactive storytelling game takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy world. Free and open to the public Ages 13+. Materials are provided but feel free to bring your own.
Library Adult -- Lunchtime Book Discussion Group
January 20, 2020, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM @ Artesia Public Library
Library Adult -- Lunchtime Book Discussion Group2020-01-20T12:00:00
Bring a sack lunch and join us for a discussion of "Hum If You Don't Know the Words" by Bianca Marais. Pick up a copy of the book at the Artesia Public Library. Life under Apartheid created a secure future for Robin, a nine-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation, but worlds apart, Beauty, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Their meeting should never have occurred...until The Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, leaving Robin's parents dead and Beauty's daughter missing. In the aftermath, Beauty is hired to care for Robin, and the two forge a bond through their deep personal losses. Robin knows that if Beauty reunites with her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating conseque
Artesia Public Library205 W. Quay St.ArtesiaNM88210
Library -- Adult Program -- What Can You Macrame @ Sr. Center
Artesia Senior Center
January 27, 2020, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM @ Artesia Senior Center
Library -- Adult Program -- What Can You Macrame @ Sr. Center2020-01-27T10:00:00
Come learn what fantastic things you can knot your way into. Not a beginner? Not a problem. Bring your project or start one of ours and socialize with like-minded folks. This is a go-at-your-own-pace craft meeting. Free and open to the public Ages 50+. Materials are provided but you are free to bring your own as well.
Artesia Senior Center202 W. ChisumArtesiaNM88210
Library -- Adult Program -- Kitch Lit Book Discussion Group
Library -- Adult Program -- Kitch Lit Book Discussion Group2020-01-30T16:30:00
Book group for those who love food. Every book has a food theme. This month we're reading "Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons" by Lorna Landvik. Books are provided by the library. Feel free to a craft to keep your hands occupied while your mouth and brain discuss the latest foodie book. For those that can't attend the physical meeting, text @kitchlit to 81010 to join the discussion that way. Free and open to the public 18+.