#esp for books that already have a million editions
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lucienarcheron · 1 year ago
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As happy as I am that authors get the opportunity for several special editions of their books, this special edition nonsense is getting wayyyy out of hand. At this point, it’s beyond excessive.
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cavefilllingcorporation · 6 months ago
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A General Report of the Nono people: Part 1 (Page 1), festival edition
This is a general report on the archeological discoveries made in reference to the Nono People, specifically their festivals. The purpose of this report is to one, present the information regarding the Nono People and the discoveries made about them, and two, highlight the Cave Filling Corporation’s role in its archeological pursuits.
The Nono people* were a people thought to have existed in the lands that is now the modern-day city of Mobletropolis, which occupies the world world labeled the same as the city in the Cave Filling Corporation’s database. The Nono people were an ancient people who mysteriously disappeared long ago, their civilization vanishing without a trace as to why they disappeared. Some speculate that some unnatural catastrophe moved them to the orbiting moon and transformed them into monsters, but that is extremely unlikely.
The Nono people were so mysterious that only two main things were known about them. First, they pioneered mosaic art in the region, paving the way for the modern cultural obsession with mosaics. The second thing, which is the more known one, was their obsession with canines of all breeds. These dogs were used for all sorts of recreational and utilitarian purposes. There were small dogs, the size of chihuahuas, that were a common house pet, hunting dogs, shepherding dogs, medical dogs, and even large dogs, larger than the size of an average horse, and were used as horse replacements. There was even an urban myth that the Nono people were in fact dog-human hybrids, which has been proven to be false.
The thing was, the world of Mobletropolis did not have the technology to be able to investigate these people properly, until we came into the picture. With our technology, we agreed to help them discover their heritage. Immediately, we came to several conclusions from the already existing evidence. For one, they were clearly human, indicated by the human bones. Another thing was their technology. While they were reportedly an ancient people, they were very advanced when it came to technology. Specifically, they had at the very least early medieval technology, and may have even had technology comparable to the early industrial age. Ironically, despite their technology, they still remained in tribal leadership positions, and had many rituals and behaviors reminiscent of other tribalistic nations. Finally, the Nono people traded in unique blue gems, which are not diamonds, as their currency. The gems are mostly worthless in the modern era, but they are definitive proof to allow for the digging in certain areas, as there are probably millions of these gemstones out there. The gemstones themselves are collected and are sold to help pay off the archeological equipment and such to other worlds.
We then went ahead and proceeded to prove ourselves by filling in the blanks of the six remaining late-age Nono mosaics. They had been mostly constructed before we were involved, but we were able to fill in the blanks they could not. We are also heavily involved with restoring dozens of early-age mosaics. We have reason to believe there are hundreds of these out there, and these are the most difficult to do. Special resources have to be allocated to solve these, and it is very expensive as well. This is why we mostly focus on normal archeology.
For anybody that knows actual archeology, it is not the world of entering temple, fighting bad guys, avoiding traps, and getting treasures. Archeology is slow, but it can be rewarding. Some areas lead themselves to obvious answers, such as literal books on subject matters. Others are much more difficult, requiring the use of coins to hire experts on matters for assistance. Sometimes things projected to be hard are very easy though, so we usually don’t need too much cash. We have also been offered a way partake in the creation of Nono park, but we do not feel like this is the best use of our time, especially with the financial capital that is involved...
{* A quick Google search told me that there are no real-life people who called themselves the Nono people, but if I am wrong, I am so sorry. This group is entirely meant to be entirely fictional and is not meant to be a mockery of any real culture whatsoever. Nothing here was taken from any real culture, or even fictional cultures for that matter.}
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elfwreck · 1 year ago
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There will probably eventually be 6th ed. It will have nothing to do with "when players want a new edition, especially one that adds in all the ancillary optional rules to the core ruleset."
It will happen after one or more of these:
Sales of 5e drop and they're having trouble bringing in new customers players;
A substantial number of third-party variant rule sets are available - and they're making money. This might include extra classes, worldbooks, new spell mechanics, etc. - anything that can't be done out of the box in 5e and - this is important - is selling well;
There is a major player shift to another kind of gameworld - superhero games actually take off (and by "take off," I mean, "someone is raking in money on selling a superhero system"), or the new Star Space Adventures tv series kicks off a game that rivals early M:tG in popularity (again, I mean "in sales"), or someone comes up with the Unified Theory of Isekai For Gaming and there's a four-million-dollar kickstarter for the convert-to-all-systems gamebooks;
Hasbro buys out another major rpg game system- GURPS, Hero/Champions, Fate (...not likely at all, esp since the SRDs are already public), Burning Wheel, whatever - and they really want a system that merges their two major properties;
Critical Role disbands and another watch-people-play-RPGs vidcast becomes popular, and what they're playing is not D&D.
Note that none of these things are likely to happen next year, or the year after, or really, before 2030. Getting people to buy a full set of core rulebooks is hard; Hasbro will avoid switching until they're sure that sales for a new set of core books will outnumber sales for additional supplements for the existing game.
If some supplements contradict or are incompatible with the main game rules - that absolutely does not matter to them.
Hasbro is absolutely not going to make a new edition to "fix" whatever is wrong with 5e's mechanics. As far as they're concerned, as long as the game is selling, the mechanics are fine.
when will wizards give in and release d&d 6th edition.. the children yearn for necromancy
It's not going to happen without a major change in marketing strategy on Hasbro's part. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition was created with a couple of very specific mandates from Hasbro corporate:
Create an "evergreen" version of Dungeons & Dragons which will draw in new players while also appealing equally to fans of every previous iteration of D&D.
Cultivate homogenised expectations of what playing Dungeons & Dragons entails in such a way that every group becomes a potential purchaser of every first-party sourcebook.
Anything that would create a perceived split in the game's player base is counter to both of those goals, and a new edition – or, at least, admitting that any given revision constitutes a new edition – is pretty high on that list.
(Did you ever wonder why 5E's designers talked such a big game about modularity, then proceeded to produce one of the least modular iterations of D&D ever published, why licensed material for every first-party campaign setting that isn't The Forgotten Realms has basically dropped off the face of the planet, and why topical sourcebooks are being displaced by big, messy guides-to-everything with no clear organising principle? See above!)
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youngestdaughtersyndrome · 2 years ago
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anyway. literally forcing my gf to read some of my books thag make me go 😵‍💫 rn today i gave her rebecca by daphne du maurier and lapvona by ottessa moshfegh which i finished last night it made me literallt dizzy maybe bc i accidentally bought a large print edition instead of a regular size print so the text was Huge but my gf is like legally blind so the large text is actually better for them look at me accidentally being the worlds best partner except rebecca’s text is absolutely tiny like oh my god it’s so small how did i read it esp so late at night i like to read for about an hour before i go to bed which in summer is like 11 o’clock and by that time i almost fully convince myself i need glasses bc i don’t see very well at the end of the day is you love who you love there ain’t no other way of there’s something i learned from a million mistakes you’re the one that i want at the end of the day god i love that song it’s so lesbianism i love that whole album i can’t believe it’s almost 7 years old already…….like honestly what the fuck i remember literally counting down to its release on my old Instagram with 100 followers i would post the album cover and i would caption it like ‘only 27 days to go!’ and now my babygirl is almost 7 years old what the fuckkkkk how have i been listening to one direction for over half my life now genuinely over half and i’m still blown away by their music like damn one band one dream one direction i hate them so fuckinh much they were so toxic and louis and zayn were so mistreated it’s not even funny i hate that band and everything it stands for so much i wish it had never formed and i wish louis would never acknowledge it ever again but he’s too sweetheart babygirl honeybuns he’s too nostalgic to do that it’s so 💔 but fr tho like why doesn’t he change his twitter bio that fucking band has been dead longer than it was alive does he know he can use his bio to be like mom of one (another on the way!!) wife of oli there are so many options and he’s still too sweetie nostalgic to change it from 1/4 of one direction it’s so sad to me i just like. he’s his own person and he has his own career and he’s so successful on his own why doesn’t he brag about it does he know it’s okay to brag about the things he’s done in his solo career sigh one of these days i’m going to hack into his twitter and change it for him. anyway. i love my girlfriend and i love kissing her 🤭
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imaginethathaikyuu · 4 years ago
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I wanna write real stuff. Like a book. Someday. I hope. Okay big dreams but I don't care. ANYWAY, I've been writing fanfiction for a bit. Self-inserts. But omg. Now I'm struggling to write anything outside of the 2nd person perspective. I have issues writing "I" and stories in 3rd person feel so distant given what I want to write. How do I... wtf... how does one... do this????
oof i feel this wayyy too much, i noticed the same problem when i went back to drafting original writing. it’s really difficult to just hop into a different pov esp after writing second person a lot, but it can be done!
my only advice is to just do it. i’ve noticed that its far easier to do if you’re writing something completely original, like, trying to write self insert fanfic in a different pov is (for me) nearly impossible because it just doesn’t feel right?? but when i’m writing Original Content, it’s far easier to write in either third person or first person, cuz it’s not about the reader its about the character....does that make sense??
you just....have to know that the first draft probably isn’t going to be good or easy to write. but write it anyways. because doing it will make you better at it. its all about practice - there’s a reason you’re stuck writing 2nd pov, and its because you’ve written it so much that it comes easy now. the more you practice other perspectives the easier they’ll become
if third person doesnt feel right for you, don’t write in that pov. you don’t have to, esp if first person pov feels more fitting for what you’re writing
just think up some original characters and go from there - they don’t have to be spectacularly detailed and interesting, hell they don’t even have to develop, you just need to practice. let those characters guide you through a scene - again, it doesnt have to be interesting or good, it’s practice! 
find a beta reader. let them tell you what they think is missing from the writing. take their feedback and use it to write something better. rewrite that scene, then edit it, then edit it again. practice til u cant practice anymore!
most importantly, just write what you want. if second person perspective feels like what you want to write right now, do it. if you just want to write fanfic, write fanfic. fanfiction is still real writing - you don’t need a book cover or validation from a publisher or a million copies printed in order for your writing to be real. its already real and it matters and its worth the time. and when youre ready, go for something bigger. fulfill your dreams to the point of overflow. that big dream of writing a book won’t seem so big when your words are in bookstores and libraries. be patient with yourself friend, give yourself time to sharpen your skill! 
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peonyblossom · 2 years ago
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cozy comforts tag game
thank you for tagging me @mydemonsdrivealimo
comfort food(s): bagels 🥯 esp. with butter and jelly 🧈
comfort movie(s): Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again hehe
comfort clothing: oversized clothing - sweatpants, hoodies, t-shirts, etc. i want to be swallowed by my clothing
comfort song(s): Sweeter Than Fiction by Taylor Swift, late nights by mxmtoon, and Don't Let It Break Your Heart (Piano Edit Version)
comfort book(s): the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepherd (which I haven't finished reading, but I've seen the show a million times so it's still very nostalgic) and Look Both Ways by Alison Cherry
comfort game(s): Choices, High School Story, and Hollywood U (well, not anymore 😥)
tagging anyone who hasn't done this yet lol I feel like most people have been tagged already
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hudsonespie · 5 years ago
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The Strange Saga of RCGS Resolute
In the wee hours of March 30, an armed Venezuelan Coast Guard patrol ship fired on and rammed a Portuguese-flagged, Bahamian-owned, Canadian- and German-operated polar cruise ship floating not far from the uninhabited Venezuelan island of La Tortuga. The ice-class vessel survived while the patrol ship sank. All of its crew were rescued.
While the media is covering the bizarre incident at sea as a humorous and wacky story which provides a welcome break from the coronavirus deluge, in fact, the reason why the ice-class cruise vessel was steaming towards the Caribbean involves a long trail of unpaid suppliers, creditors, vendors, and crew members. It also involves hundreds of passengers who are now out tens of thousands of dollars each for luxury polar expeditions.
In other words, the company can’t just be seen as the innocent victim of what some observers interpret as a Venezuelan mission gone wrong.
So just how did RCGS Resolute end up in a pitched battle with the Bolivarian Navy that, as I’ll show, may in fact be a proxy battle for a dispute between Venezuela and Portugal? Let’s start at the beginning.
Resolute’s long voyage to bankruptcy
In 2007, Nova Scotia native Andrew Prossin founded Canadian tour outfitter One Ocean Expeditions to offer luxury cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica. Polar expeditions took place fairly seamlessly for about a decade, and the company grew to be one of the more well-established names in the industry. By 2018, the company decided to expand its fleet from two to three ships, leasing the now-infamous RCGS Resolute. That year, however, problems were already beginning.
In August 2018, one of One Ocean Expeditions’ three leased ships, Akademik Ioffe, ran aground in the Northwest Passage not far from the Nunavut village of Kugaaruk. Nobody was injured and no fuel was spilled. Yet the incident still drew attention to the dangers associated with the rising number of cruise ships sailing through the Northwest Passage.
Then, in December 2018, one passenger aboard a cruise to Antarctica described on Tripadvisor how the ship had been bizarrely unable to refuel in Ushuaia. The snafu resulted in a series of upsetting changes to the itinerary including only 3.5 days in Antarctica instead of five.
“I’m currently on the Resolute’s 12/10-12/20 Antarctica cruise, and it has been an unmitigated disaster…
…we were informed upon our arrival in Ushuaia that the ship did not have enough fuel for our trip, and we would therefore be taking an unscheduled 1.5-day detour to the Falkland Islands to fill up…
…Many of the staff (esp. the registration desk) are unknowledgeable or give outright false information, and the general impression given is of a fly-by-night operation. This is even more galling considering that the owner of One Ocean is on our ship, together with his personal guest Stephen Harper (former PM of Canada).”  - Passenger review on Tripadvisor, December 2018
While Akademik Ioffe‘s grounding and the lack of fuel in Ushuaia may have been freak occurrences, bigger cracks in One Ocean Expeditions’ foundations soon began. In May 2019, the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow, Russia recalled the two vessels it normally leased to One Ocean Expeditions through a Cyprus-based vessel management company, Terragelida Ship Management. Since 2011, the two ice-class research vessels, Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov, had been leased on one-year renewable contracts.
Why the Russian research institute recalled the two research ships is unclear: they may have needed the ships, One Ocean Expeditions may not have been paying bills on time, or there may have been another reason altogether. While One Ocean Expeditions claims the two vessels had been leased through autumn 2019, the Nova Scotia-based Chronicle Herald claims the contracts were set to expire in summer. Therefore, they may have just not been renewed rather than broken.
Two ships down, the Canadian outfitter was unable to honor many of the expeditions passengers had already booked. This may have posed significant financial problems if, as alleged by the Chronicle Herald, One Ocean Expeditions was using payments for future cruises to cover current bills – including for things like the renovations to RCGS Resolute.
The company blamed its quandary on the Russians, attempted to restructure, and cancelled and rebooked (rather than refunded) passengers on future cruises, leaving many embittered. Meanwhile, crew members were going unpaid, as a Guardian investigation in 2019 revealed, and passengers were missing out on trips of a lifetime.
Arrested in Canada – twice
On August 9, 2019 in Iqaluit, at the end of the “South Baffin Explorer; Art, Culture & Wildlife” cruise and right before the start of the “Baffin Island and Greenland Explorer” cruise, RCGS Resolute was arrested in Iqaluit, Nunavut, over allegations of $100,000 in unpaid bills to a Nova Scotian contractor. In a scene straight out of a movie, the town’s sheriffs and officers went out on a boat into the harbor while crew members sailed up to it in a Zodiac.
The bills were likely paid, as a few hours later the ship was on its way to Ilulissat, Greenland. Following a cruise off the world’s largest island, the ship made a westbound and then return eastbound journey through the Northwest Passage. Yet RCGS Resolute’s life as a cruise ship would not last more than a few more months.
On September 20, a services provider and eight former employees had the vessel arrested again, this time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over two cases of claims of unpaid bills and wages. Four days later, the bills were paid and the ship began sailing south.
Antarctica or bust
On October 16, at the start of the Antarctic cruise season, RCGS Resolute left on its final expedition - a 19-day trip from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica that cost at least $21,195 per person. Yet supposedly due to problems with obtaining fuel in various ports in Argentina, the cruise was ultimately aborted after a few sailings around the coast.
“One couple in their 80s had saved their whole life for this journey and saved $50,000 to make this happen. And they were in tears," passenger Julie Pierce told The Guardian. 
On October 27, the cruise’s 140 guests were left stranded in Buenos Aires. Two days later, Prossin, One Ocean Expedition’s managing director, sent this explanatory letter:
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A letter sent by Andrew Prossin, managing director of One Ocean Expeditions, on October 29, 2019.
Detained in Argentina
The next month in November, the Argentinian government ordered the ship to stay in Buenos Aires over unpaid bills once again. According to Argentinian newspaper Clarín, various companies and crew were demanding millions of dollars in unpaid fuel costs from One Ocean Expeditions. 
Due to the lawsuit in Argentina, RCGS Resolute was unable to commence its planned “photography symposium” 15-day cruise on November 6 from Ushuaia to South Georgia and Antarctica, leaving would-be passengers high and dry once again. One man only found out about the cancellation once he had already boarded his flight to South America. Another individual – an attorney from California, naturally – launched a Facebook group that now has 1,000 members posting complaints and tips daily about how to seek reimbursement.
Ultimately, One Ocean Expeditions cancelled three expeditions in a row last autumn. The company has allegedly refused to refund bookings and instead has recommended that they seek compensation from their travel insurance providers.
Bankrupt in Canada
In January 2020, One Ocean announced it would begin insolvency proceedings. In early March, four months after RCGS Resolute’s Buenos Aires detention, its Bahama-registered, Portugal-flagged shipowner, Bunnys Adventure & Cruise Shipping Co., Ltd. paid $3.6 million to avoid the ship being sold at auction. According to the Chronicle Herald, “two European fuel suppliers, three South American ships agents, and 22 crew were paid as a result of the action.” And so on March 5, debts cleared, the polar vessel began sailing north from Bueno Aires. 
Exactly what happened once it reached the waters around Venezuela depends on who you ask.
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On March 29, RCGS Resolute supposedly began reporting that it was not under command while under international waters off of La Tortuga, a pristine uninhabited Venezuelan island. This status means that the ship cannot maneuver, and all other vessels should stay clear.
Sometime after midnight on March 30, the Venezuelan Coast Guard patrol ship Naiguatá spotted RCGS Resolute. While representatives of RCGS Resolute claim the ship was in international waters, Venezuela claims it was in territorial waters. Naiguatá radioed the vessel to find out what exactly a cruise ship – one that was also ice-strengthened, a fact probably not evident to the 42 members of the Bolivarian navy – was doing off the waters of La Tortuga, where yachts are more likely to be spotted than Canadian cruise vessels (and probably very few vessels at all right now given the COVID-19 pandemic).
According to a press release from Columbia Cruise Services, the ship’s Hamburg-based German technical manager, the Venezuelan vessel demanded to learn of the ship’s intentions and then ordered it to follow to Puerto Moreno on Isla de Margarita. While the ship’s master was reconfirming the request with the head office, crew members aboard the 100-m Naiguatá began firing pistol shots at the 122-m cruise ship and rammed its starboard side at an angle of 135°, trying to get her to turn toward Venezuelan territorial waters. A heavily edited clip released by the Venezuela Navy (or, more accurately, the Bolivarian Navy) captures the incident:
Video released by the Venezuelan Navy shows them shooting at the RCGS Resolute cruise ship then it shows the Resolute impacting the side of the GC-23 Naiguata and it shows severe damage to the Naiguata #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/ciI15v6SDt
— CNW (@ConflictsW) April 4, 2020
The crew of Naiguatá may not have realized that RCGS Resolute had an ice-strengthened bulbous bow. While the cruise ship withstood minimal damage from the scuffle, the Venezuelan vessel ended up sinking. All 44 of its crew were rescued, and the 32 crew aboard Resolute are fine, too. No passengers were aboard at the time.
According to Columbia Cruise Services, as the Venezuelan vessel took on water, the polar cruise ship remained in the vicinity for one hour until it was confirmed that its assistance would not be needed. At that point, RCGS Resolute sailed to Willemstad, Curaçao’s capital, where it remains docked.
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RCGS Resolute’s track towards Willemstad, Curacao the morning of April 1, 2020, the day after its encounter with a Venezuelan coast guard vessel near the island of La Tortuga. Map source: MarineTraffic.com
The Venezuelans tell a different story. The official press release from the Bolivarian Navy published on March 31 accused Resolute of “terrorism” and actions that were “cowardly and criminal, since it did not attend to the rescue of the crew, in breach of the international regulations that regulate the rescue of life at sea.” The navy claims that as the patrol ship was sinking, the cruise ship suspiciously turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) and then abandoned the site.
A retired naval officer lamented the loss of Naiguatá, explaining rather colorfully: 
“It is not a simple ship, it is a ship 100 meters long, with capacity for 60 crew on board, commissioned in 2012. A ship at sea has no ideologies, nor do they suffer from the evil of Castro-communism. It is a world of dedication, passion for the sea, professional dedication.” - Vice Adm. Jesus Enrique Briceno Garcia, former head of the Bolivarian Navy
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: I wanted to help
Even Venezuela’s president has commented on the questionable incident at sea. Maduro questioned whether it really was a “peaceful ship” and suggested, “At first I thought it was one of those tourist ships that nobody wants to receive and I gave the order that the ship be received and that they receive all the support.” There are some rumors in Venezuela that the ship may have been clandestinely transporting armed mercenaries to fight against the Bolivarian Republic.
The foreign minister of Portugal - RCGS Resolute's flag state - said the obvious: that there are “contradictory versions” of the incident, and that his country will “obviously collaborate either with Venezuela or with the Netherlands to fully clarify this incident.” 
Portugal, it should be noted, has an ongoing dispute with the Venezuelan government. In mid-February, the acting president of Venezuela who opposes Maduro, Juan Guiadó, boarded a TAP plane from Lisbon to Caracas after talks with European leaders. Maduro claims that his rival – who is recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate president by the United States and approximately fifty other countries – boarded the plane using a false identity while carrying explosives hidden in a pocket flashlight.
The Venezuelan government then prohibited TAP from flying into and out of Venezuela for ninety days, which is a big financial blow to the Portuguese national airline. Ironically, in order to negotiate with the Venezuelan government over the incident, Portugal has now had to recognize Maduro as the country’s legitimate president.
In a press conference, Maduro’s second-in-command bemoaned his country’s “stolen money” frozen in Portuguese banks and said of the country, “Perhaps they still believe we are subjects, that we are a colony and that, as an empire they can give orders.”
So clearly, there is some bad blood between Venezuela and Portugal – enough that may have led Naiguatá to try to humiliate the Portuguese-flagged ship and potentially bring it to shore to be dealt with in what would have likely been a punitive manner by Venezuelan authorities.
RCGS Resolute has ended up in the Dutch constituent country of Curacao wrapped up not only in international financial debacles, but international geopolitical disputes, too. The beleaguered ship somehow may have become a pawn in a proxy fight between Venezuela and Portugal. 
This article appears courtesy of Cryopolitics and is reproduced here in an abbreviated form. The original may be found here. 
from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/the-strange-saga-of-rcgs-resolute via http://www.rssmix.com/
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agl03 · 7 years ago
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1/3 Re: IMBD/Wiki, I feel like it might help some of the readers who get hung up on this to know that it is NOT reliable information, esp. in pre-production. I work in TV (nothing exciting) but I have to regularly update my own credits on my shows. IMDB "verifies" all cast and crew listings, but can only do that once an episode/movie has aired.
2/3 It is HIGHLY unlikely that any info that is listed for upcoming episodes has been submitted by the production. Aside from social media, productions are usually forbidden from releasing anything w/o network approval, & only a slightly better possibility that it was listed by the network - they wouldn’t want any info getting out until a press release has gone out.
3/3 What is much more likely is that an agent or publicist for an actor updated their credits b/c barring a contract saying you can’t, you just update your info once you’ve been cast or finished shooting a project. All this times a million for wiki w/r/t unreliability.
Hi Anon!
Thanks so much for the fabulous insight!   
I’ve noticed that everyone is a bit different with how they are entered into IMDB, so this totally explains a lot.  Lots of times I see an extra or more minor character show up about the time they film.  An example was Mr. Babson showed up in IMDB and then was posting from set on his Social Media accounts shortly there after.  While others, like you said don’t show up until after the episode airs.  Then we have our regulars that are already in there for the full season:  Clark, Chloe, Iain, Elizabeth, Ming, Henry, and Jeff (though I doubt he’s in the full season I’m betting he’ll be more like John or Gabe last season).
AOS is notorious for playing things close to the vest, so I totally agree that they are not the ones entering the information.  Anyone whose info is up there, they are okay with being there.  Though we had that slip last season with BJ’s double.  What is in there now is only a fraction of who will actually be in the episode.  And I”m going down with the ship they are hiding a major guest star (aside from Nick) and possibly a major comic book character.  
Even harder is we still have no context for who we see and what their role will be.  If its minor or major.  If its real time or flashback.  For theorizing purposes I do check for possible comic connections but know that AOS will usually put their own twist on those characters.
As for wiki, I don’t check that when it comes to the show unless I’m researching a character…and then its something I have to be careful with because anyone can edit it.  I know there was an issue earlier in filming because Iain hadn’t been listed in the wiki for Season 5 yet, when that absolutely wasn’t the case, he was just delayed returning from Overlord.  
This hiatus has been hard.  We have so little to go on, didn’t get the boost of SDCC, and have a later return.  So every bit of information is at least something, even if we don’t know how it fits into everything yet.
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udemytutorialfreedownload · 5 years ago
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In my course, I teach you how to take Excel by the horns and make it do whatever you want, whenever you want. It can go through loads of information and create a printable report for you. You can make custom forms so that you can access, analyze, edit, or add new information quickly to your data tables/ worksheets.
Excel programming utilizes a simple but effective tool called "VBA" - the hidden programming language that runs quietly in the background while you work. It’s very easy and straightforward to use.
I'll show you the easiest tricks to learn this basic language in a fun, progressive method. Learn at your own pace. With each of my short, info-packed lectures, you'll learn another essential skill that you can immediately use. You'll find yourself handling these Automation tools instantly and in any spreadsheet, you already use every day. If there's one thing I'm good at - and my students are good at - it's AUTOMATION.
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My motto is, "If I'm not making everybody's job easier, quicker and more enjoyable, I don't deserve to have this job" - and that's what I live by.
Take this course and access your true potential.
Oh, and I want to be the first to hear about your New Raise you to get once you're making Excel Programs and running everything on autopilot for your co-workers!
-Dan
Here's what some of the students are saying:
“I love this course. Extremely easy to follow along. If you are looking to learn more about Excel this is it!” - Jim C.
“Loving this course! The information is presented quite clear and concise, and it is a really great way of learning VB really fast, yesterday I was a total ignorant of the subject. Today I programmed my first macro and cannot wait to learn more.” - Marcela T.
“I had experimented with VBA previously, but I really feel like this course is exactly what I needed to take my Excel knowledge to the next level. In only 2 weeks I've improved my reporting exponentially and it's all thanks to this course!" - Ryan S.
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“The presenter explains in detail and demonstrates what he's covering, easy to follow along and learn!” - David B.
“Teaches you the fundamental of VBA programming without any prior experience. Shows with easy to follow Example!. thanks for the video!”  - Sean C.
"I've taken several different VBA courses here on Udemy and this one from Daniel is by far the most interesting and easy to understand. I've done exactly 107 lectures so far and already was able to automate 80% of my tasks at work that I've been doing manually for years... I'm angry with myself because of the time I wasted by not buying this course earlier. I can't even imagine what I will be able to do after finishing the entire course :)" - Robert
“Well explained, easy to understand lectures. Enjoyable and informative videos.” - Marlena
“Very clear explanations broken down in short videos. Daniel goes at a slow pace that is easy to follow and understand, even for people with no programming experience.” - Gustavo P.
“The best course on VBA ever taken. Thanks a lot!” - Nikita L.
“This is an excellent course!!!  There's a lot of good, useful "stuff" here.  The examples are practical and real-world!” - Todd W.
“Wow, I thought I knew a little bit about Excel but clearly I had only seen the tip of the iceberg. This course has opened my eyes to the true power of VBA within Excel. Great course, fantastic instructor.” - Scott K.
“By large and far, one of the best step by step guide to VBA programming I have ever seen. I have been playing around with VBA for over a year now, have watched countless videos and have read numerous articles and "How-to" guides, but I have never seen something this complete,. I am amazed at how little I actually knew about the VBA world. Thanks a million!” - Alex B.
“Everything I have been looking for, you would have to buy multiple books for this level of instruction!” - Luke S.
"Excellent VBA basic to advance tutorial." – Sandeep G.
“This course is good for beginners and for experienced programmers.  Experienced programmers may want to skip through some sections on basics, but it is good to see how the basics work in the context of an excel worksheet.  He goes over different events and triggers (like buttons) to execute code.  This is a really good course if you plan to do some pretty complex VBA code with forms and reports.”  - Christian H.
“Very helpful if you do any type of data analysis.” – Jonathan D.
“I think this is an excellent gateway to the tools we need to use going forward. I like the
hands-on nature.” – Andre C.
“Much better than other classes and seminars. Great course.” – Mark S.
“The instructor made VBA easy and straight forward to use.” – Min Z.
“Very thorough and practical.” – Juan S.
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Who this course is for:
This Excel course is for anyone who wants to learn Automation secrets in Excel VBA. It’s for complete newbies and/or students looking for a refresher or Reference tool, to pick and choose relevant lessons for their projects. No prior programming knowledge is needed.
This course is probably not for you if you’re looking to learn super advanced report authoring, which will be covered in a future course specifically on this topic. We will, however, make sure you know how to make good solid reports from your data and many tricks to make them look good.
If you're using Excel for Mac, you will find that this course won't cover all the various differences in Excel Mac, as this course was filmed using Excel for PC and Excel VBA is a bit limited for Mac users, esp on the design side. Many students end up programming in windows and just using Mac to run the Excel wb or will virtualize Windows within Mac using programs like Parallels or Bootcamp.
The Ultimate Excel Programmer Course
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Last updated 4/2019
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hudsonespie · 5 years ago
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The Strange Saga of RCGS Resolute
In the wee hours of March 30, an armed Venezuelan Coast Guard patrol ship fired on and rammed a Portuguese-flagged, Bahamian-owned, Canadian- and German-operated polar cruise ship floating not far from the uninhabited Venezuelan island of La Tortuga. The ice-class vessel survived while the patrol ship sank. All of its crew were rescued.
While the media is covering the bizarre incident at sea as a humorous and wacky story which provides a welcome break from the coronavirus deluge, in fact, the reason why the ice-class cruise vessel was steaming towards the Caribbean involves a long trail of unpaid suppliers, creditors, vendors, and crew members. It also involves hundreds of passengers who are now out tens of thousands of dollars each for luxury polar expeditions.
In other words, the company can’t just be seen as the innocent victim of what some observers interpret as a Venezuelan mission gone wrong.
So just how did RCGS Resolute end up in a pitched battle with the Bolivarian Navy that, as I’ll show, may in fact be a proxy battle for a dispute between Venezuela and Portugal? Let’s start at the beginning.
Resolute’s long voyage to bankruptcy
In 2007, Nova Scotia native Andrew Prossin founded Canadian tour outfitter One Ocean Expeditions to offer luxury cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica. Polar expeditions took place fairly seamlessly for about a decade, and the company grew to be one of the more well-established names in the industry. By 2018, the company decided to expand its fleet from two to three ships, leasing the now-infamous RCGS Resolute. That year, however, problems were already beginning.
In August 2018, one of One Ocean Expeditions’ three leased ships, Akademik Ioffe, ran aground in the Northwest Passage not far from the Nunavut village of Kugaaruk. Nobody was injured and no fuel was spilled. Yet the incident still drew attention to the dangers associated with the rising number of cruise ships sailing through the Northwest Passage.
Then, in December 2018, one passenger aboard a cruise to Antarctica described on Tripadvisor how the ship had been bizarrely unable to refuel in Ushuaia. The snafu resulted in a series of upsetting changes to the itinerary including only 3.5 days in Antarctica instead of five.
“I’m currently on the Resolute’s 12/10-12/20 Antarctica cruise, and it has been an unmitigated disaster…
…we were informed upon our arrival in Ushuaia that the ship did not have enough fuel for our trip, and we would therefore be taking an unscheduled 1.5-day detour to the Falkland Islands to fill up…
…Many of the staff (esp. the registration desk) are unknowledgeable or give outright false information, and the general impression given is of a fly-by-night operation. This is even more galling considering that the owner of One Ocean is on our ship, together with his personal guest Stephen Harper (former PM of Canada).”  - Passenger review on Tripadvisor, December 2018
While Akademik Ioffe‘s grounding and the lack of fuel in Ushuaia may have been freak occurrences, bigger cracks in One Ocean Expeditions’ foundations soon began. In May 2019, the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow, Russia recalled the two vessels it normally leased to One Ocean Expeditions through a Cyprus-based vessel management company, Terragelida Ship Management. Since 2011, the two ice-class research vessels, Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov, had been leased on one-year renewable contracts.
Why the Russian research institute recalled the two research ships is unclear: they may have needed the ships, One Ocean Expeditions may not have been paying bills on time, or there may have been another reason altogether. While One Ocean Expeditions claims the two vessels had been leased through autumn 2019, the Nova Scotia-based Chronicle Herald claims the contracts were set to expire in summer. Therefore, they may have just not been renewed rather than broken.
Two ships down, the Canadian outfitter was unable to honor many of the expeditions passengers had already booked. This may have posed significant financial problems if, as alleged by the Chronicle Herald, One Ocean Expeditions was using payments for future cruises to cover current bills – including for things like the renovations to RCGS Resolute.
The company blamed its quandary on the Russians, attempted to restructure, and cancelled and rebooked (rather than refunded) passengers on future cruises, leaving many embittered. Meanwhile, crew members were going unpaid, as a Guardian investigation in 2019 revealed, and passengers were missing out on trips of a lifetime.
Arrested in Canada – twice
On August 9, 2019 in Iqaluit, at the end of the “South Baffin Explorer; Art, Culture & Wildlife” cruise and right before the start of the “Baffin Island and Greenland Explorer” cruise, RCGS Resolute was arrested in Iqaluit, Nunavut, over allegations of $100,000 in unpaid bills to a Nova Scotian contractor. In a scene straight out of a movie, the town’s sheriffs and officers went out on a boat into the harbor while crew members sailed up to it in a Zodiac.
The bills were likely paid, as a few hours later the ship was on its way to Ilulissat, Greenland. Following a cruise off the world’s largest island, the ship made a westbound and then return eastbound journey through the Northwest Passage. Yet RCGS Resolute’s life as a cruise ship would not last more than a few more months.
On September 20, a services provider and eight former employees had the vessel arrested again, this time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over two cases of claims of unpaid bills and wages. Four days later, the bills were paid and the ship began sailing south.
Antarctica or bust
On October 16, at the start of the Antarctic cruise season, RCGS Resolute left on its final expedition - a 19-day trip from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica that cost at least $21,195 per person. Yet supposedly due to problems with obtaining fuel in various ports in Argentina, the cruise was ultimately aborted after a few sailings around the coast.
“One couple in their 80s had saved their whole life for this journey and saved $50,000 to make this happen. And they were in tears," passenger Julie Pierce told The Guardian. 
On October 27, the cruise’s 140 guests were left stranded in Buenos Aires. Two days later, Prossin, One Ocean Expedition’s managing director, sent this explanatory letter:
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A letter sent by Andrew Prossin, managing director of One Ocean Expeditions, on October 29, 2019.
Detained in Argentina
The next month in November, the Argentinian government ordered the ship to stay in Buenos Aires over unpaid bills once again. According to Argentinian newspaper Clarín, various companies and crew were demanding millions of dollars in unpaid fuel costs from One Ocean Expeditions. 
Due to the lawsuit in Argentina, RCGS Resolute was unable to commence its planned “photography symposium” 15-day cruise on November 6 from Ushuaia to South Georgia and Antarctica, leaving would-be passengers high and dry once again. One man only found out about the cancellation once he had already boarded his flight to South America. Another individual – an attorney from California, naturally – launched a Facebook group that now has 1,000 members posting complaints and tips daily about how to seek reimbursement.
Ultimately, One Ocean Expeditions cancelled three expeditions in a row last autumn. The company has allegedly refused to refund bookings and instead has recommended that they seek compensation from their travel insurance providers.
Bankrupt in Canada
In January 2020, One Ocean announced it would begin insolvency proceedings. In early March, four months after RCGS Resolute’s Buenos Aires detention, its Bahama-registered, Portugal-flagged shipowner, Bunnys Adventure & Cruise Shipping Co., Ltd. paid $3.6 million to avoid the ship being sold at auction. According to the Chronicle Herald, “two European fuel suppliers, three South American ships agents, and 22 crew were paid as a result of the action.” And so on March 5, debts cleared, the polar vessel began sailing north from Bueno Aires. 
Exactly what happened once it reached the waters around Venezuela depends on who you ask.
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On March 29, RCGS Resolute supposedly began reporting that it was not under command while under international waters off of La Tortuga, a pristine uninhabited Venezuelan island. This status means that the ship cannot maneuver, and all other vessels should stay clear.
Sometime after midnight on March 30, the Venezuelan Coast Guard patrol ship Naiguatá spotted RCGS Resolute. While representatives of RCGS Resolute claim the ship was in international waters, Venezuela claims it was in territorial waters. Naiguatá radioed the vessel to find out what exactly a cruise ship – one that was also ice-strengthened, a fact probably not evident to the 42 members of the Bolivarian navy – was doing off the waters of La Tortuga, where yachts are more likely to be spotted than Canadian cruise vessels (and probably very few vessels at all right now given the COVID-19 pandemic).
According to a press release from Columbia Cruise Services, the ship’s Hamburg-based German technical manager, the Venezuelan vessel demanded to learn of the ship’s intentions and then ordered it to follow to Puerto Moreno on Isla de Margarita. While the ship’s master was reconfirming the request with the head office, crew members aboard the 100-m Naiguatá began firing pistol shots at the 122-m cruise ship and rammed its starboard side at an angle of 135°, trying to get her to turn toward Venezuelan territorial waters. A heavily edited clip released by the Venezuela Navy (or, more accurately, the Bolivarian Navy) captures the incident:
Video released by the Venezuelan Navy shows them shooting at the RCGS Resolute cruise ship then it shows the Resolute impacting the side of the GC-23 Naiguata and it shows severe damage to the Naiguata #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/ciI15v6SDt
— CNW (@ConflictsW) April 4, 2020
The crew of Naiguatá may not have realized that RCGS Resolute had an ice-strengthened bulbous bow. While the cruise ship withstood minimal damage from the scuffle, the Venezuelan vessel ended up sinking. All 44 of its crew were rescued, and the 32 crew aboard Resolute are fine, too. No passengers were aboard at the time.
According to Columbia Cruise Services, as the Venezuelan vessel took on water, the polar cruise ship remained in the vicinity for one hour until it was confirmed that its assistance would not be needed. At that point, RCGS Resolute sailed to Willemstad, Curaçao’s capital, where it remains docked.
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RCGS Resolute’s track towards Willemstad, Curacao the morning of April 1, 2020, the day after its encounter with a Venezuelan coast guard vessel near the island of La Tortuga. Map source: MarineTraffic.com
The Venezuelans tell a different story. The official press release from the Bolivarian Navy published on March 31 accused Resolute of “terrorism” and actions that were “cowardly and criminal, since it did not attend to the rescue of the crew, in breach of the international regulations that regulate the rescue of life at sea.” The navy claims that as the patrol ship was sinking, the cruise ship suspiciously turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) and then abandoned the site.
A retired naval officer lamented the loss of Naiguatá, explaining rather colorfully: 
“It is not a simple ship, it is a ship 100 meters long, with capacity for 60 crew on board, commissioned in 2012. A ship at sea has no ideologies, nor do they suffer from the evil of Castro-communism. It is a world of dedication, passion for the sea, professional dedication.” - Vice Adm. Jesus Enrique Briceno Garcia, former head of the Bolivarian Navy
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: I wanted to help
Even Venezuela’s president has commented on the questionable incident at sea. Maduro questioned whether it really was a “peaceful ship” and suggested, “At first I thought it was one of those tourist ships that nobody wants to receive and I gave the order that the ship be received and that they receive all the support.” There are some rumors in Venezuela that the ship may have been clandestinely transporting armed mercenaries to fight against the Bolivarian Republic.
The foreign minister of Portugal - RCGS Resolute's flag state - said the obvious: that there are “contradictory versions” of the incident, and that his country will “obviously collaborate either with Venezuela or with the Netherlands to fully clarify this incident.” 
Portugal, it should be noted, has an ongoing dispute with the Venezuelan government. In mid-February, the acting president of Venezuela who opposes Maduro, Juan Guiadó, boarded a TAP plane from Lisbon to Caracas after talks with European leaders. Maduro claims that his rival – who is recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate president by the United States and approximately fifty other countries – boarded the plane using a false identity while carrying explosives hidden in a pocket flashlight.
The Venezuelan government then prohibited TAP from flying into and out of Venezuela for ninety days, which is a big financial blow to the Portuguese national airline. Ironically, in order to negotiate with the Venezuelan government over the incident, Portugal has now had to recognize Maduro as the country’s legitimate president.
In a press conference, Maduro’s second-in-command bemoaned his country’s “stolen money” frozen in Portuguese banks and said of the country, “Perhaps they still believe we are subjects, that we are a colony and that, as an empire they can give orders.”
So clearly, there is some bad blood between Venezuela and Portugal – enough that may have led Naiguatá to try to humiliate the Portuguese-flagged ship and potentially bring it to shore to be dealt with in what would have likely been a punitive manner by Venezuelan authorities.
RCGS Resolute has ended up in the Dutch constituent country of Curacao wrapped up not only in international financial debacles, but international geopolitical disputes, too. The beleaguered ship somehow may have become a pawn in a proxy fight between Venezuela and Portugal. 
This article appears courtesy of Cryopolitics and is reproduced here in an abbreviated form. The original may be found here. 
from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/the-strange-saga-of-rcgs-resolute via http://www.rssmix.com/
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