How did Chinese Checkers online start ? Full story - Part 1 Recently, one old friend asked me about the story behind Chinese Checkers Online, and I thought it would also be interesting to share this story with you. An idea In June 2019, I visited a friend in St Petersburg, and we played halma one day in a youth hostel. It was pouring rain outside, and we played again and again. I was terrible at it, but it was fun. Back in London, I did not especially think about the game and continue working on one project called Bifup (a Fitbit application to count repetitions based on the acceleration sensor). In December 2019, I suddenly remembered about this game and looked online to buy one. In February-March 2020, I played a lot with a friend from Brasil. (That's why you can see the Brasilian flag on the landing page). The lockdown arrived, and it was more complicated to play together in person. At this time, we decided to play Chess online. And one idea popped up "I am missing playing with my friend at Chinese Checkers. Could we play Chinese Checkers online?". I looked for a platform online, but nothing was there. "Well, I can just create it."

Hello Everyone, I am looking for a frequency dictionary in Spanish where words are sorted by usage. The most used ones at the beginning to the less used ones. Do you know any good ones? If not how did you manage to get this word list? Thanks Alexandre

Visit of Stonehenge, a place of mystery and serenity -- Find the bus -- Woken up at 6am on Saturday was a challenge. I left home at 7am to catch the coach. A paper map in hands, this how I started my adventure. Arrived in the area, a woman was guided by her phone GPS ( probably there for the same reasons than me ). She was French. Finally, we found the coach together. After the attendees count and a 2 hour trip, we arrived at Stonehenge. -- Stonehenge -- From the coach station, a shuttle drove us to this mythical site. Armed with my audio guide, mysteries and questions about this place fell little by little. Before stones erecting, this place was a cemetery where lots of holes had been dug. Archeologists found human bones of men, women, and children ( probably some important people ). But some questions remained unanswered. How did these huge stones moved? An alien presence on earth? Hundreds of people were needed to move stones, bring foods and materials Why did they choose specifically this place? This place is aligned with the sun all year during winter/summer solstices. Stonehenge is in a middle of nowhere. Nowadays, this place of workship inspires calm and serrenity to its visitors. Decades after decades, the site was restored and fallen stones were raised again. A few years ago, Tourists were able to walk inside the stone circle. Due to high tourists traffic ( 1 million vistors a year ), the access is now forbidden. On site, ravens got used of tourists. Reach out your arm with some breadcrumbs, they will come to eat in your hands. In order to find answers to our other questions, we visited “Stonehenge Center”. At this time, object sharing was a custom. This fact proves a connection between people living on the English isle and European continent. -- Old Sarum ( Salisbury ) -- Before going to Salisbury, we passed through the ancient city. In the middle age, thos fortified city was very coveted. It was told unreachable. Romans and Normands moved in there for a while. -- Salisbury -- Mainly, we visited the cathedral which shelters a very important document "The Magna Carta". Moreover, this cathedral shelters the world oldest mechanical clock. It was started for the first time before 1386 and it is still working now. The Magna Carta is one of the first created document about equal human rights. It was written on parchment made of sheep skin. The parchment maintains a good conservation state since its writing. All good things must come to an end. We finished the trip in a pub playing shuffleboard.

Biography for Language Exchange France During my studies, I enjoyed meeting students from other countries. Meeting after meeting, the international experience called me more and more. At this time, my english level were at the lowest but this motivation still there. In 2016, I tried my first expatriation. I left my job in Nantes to go to Dublin in Ireland. I had english courses and attended a language exchange that I enjoyed every week. A few months later, I still did not have a job. I decided to come back to France, to prepare myself and go back later to an english country with more skills. Back to Nantes, Language Exchange meetups didn't exist yet. I decided to create one. During the first events, we were between 1 and 3 ( by counting myself ). New people were joining the meetup every week step by step. At this time, to come back home after the meetup, I needed one hour by train. I stopped the meetup for a while. 2 months later, with 120 members, I gave a new try to create an event. At this event, 20 people attended the meetup! Meetups after meetups, the word by mouth has been heard. Salomé and Gautier joined me in this incredible adventure. Now, we are 2000 members. After 2 years in Nantes, I decided to try again my expatriation to an english country. After a few months of job seeking, I finally got an offer to go to London in a software company. My personal example of : what you want, you can.

Biography for my new role - Part 2 I talked with my boss about my international project. He understood me. Before leaving, I created the base project of the new frontend version with Angular 4. During this unemployment period, I learnt about « oneself-believeness, persistance and stoicism. A few months ago, I met Lee who introduced me to Context. I appreciated all recruiting steps which conducted to a job offer.

Biography for my new role - Part 1 I have always wanted to be a developer. At 10, I enjoyed my dad’s computer running on Windows 95. I used to play Pacman and Space Invaders with floppy disks. At 13 years old, I did an internship in a computer repairing shop. I built up a computer from zero to hero and really liked it. For 3 years, I learnt electronics. At boarding school, I learnt about time management, discipline and friendship. The last year, a classmate and me created an electronic system to trigger a parachute and helped a rocket to land softly. We went to a military base to launch the rocket and test the system. It worked ! After getting the A Level, I went to a new school and learnt about Computing development, Systems and Networks. I remember about SQL queries and algorithmic exercises on papers, a lot of fun. During my studies, I did a placement in a company called ASPerience. I corrected some PHP and bugs on an application called Egroupware. At the end of the placement, my boss offered me a position in the company. For 2 years, I was half-time at work, half-time at school. At work, I learnt about Python and . At school, I learnt about team spririt, project management and Java. I got my diploma and worked a year in this company. Interested in an international experience, I took English courses on my free time. My boss and me found an agreement. I left the company a few month later. I went to Dublin for learning English for four months and met very interesting people there. I also learnt about myself. I came back in France to get more work experience and took online courses about Django, Flask and AngularJS. A few months later, I joined a nice company called Atreal-Ouest. The product was based on Python and AngularJS. The team was great ! During my Dublin experience, I had discovered a meetup called « Language Exchange Ireland ». At this time, nothing like this existing in Nantes, I created it. At the beginning, I was alone at the pub waiting for people. Week after week more people came. Now, we count more than 1800 members in the group, between 20 and 30 attendees every Wednesday. 2 organizers joined me in this adventure. To prepare my international experience, I learnt more about Django, Angular and created an English environment to develop my skill. On my spare-time, I took an acting course and become comfortable in front of an audience. At the end, we performed our own show, one of my best memories.

Email of best wishes for our meetup members Hi everybody, First of all, Happy new year and Best wishes for 2018, Lastly, we topped 1000 members for Language Exchange Nantes, thank you so much everyone, We are very proud of this evolution, We are taking advantage of this new year to set new ideas up for improving your meetup experience and good times. Below, Changes and improvements planned for 2018 -> One a month, an extra event will be organized during the weekend. In January, we’ll go bowling, Attendances are limited so rsvp quicky. -> From March, once a month, you’ll receive by email a calendar of fun events coming up in Nantes -> Meetup pictures and links to our events will be available directly from the Facebook page, To get the latest information, subscribe now -> Shortly, you will receive a poll about a new meetup idea «one on one », it take less than 1 minute but it is benefical. -> A hat will available during the event for helping us to buy the gong’s sister -> We used to announce changes langage/partners with a gong, This custom is very appreciated by members and this can continue, Free participation, -> Small point, less pleasing but important, the number of attendance is limited for meetups, We noticed that sometimes subscribers do not come and take seats of waiting members. Please take time to update your rsvp status to release a seat. Now, if you rsvped but not came three times, you will be banned of the group Thank you, thanks to all of you that the meetup is now what it is. Salomé and Alexandre

9 Days in California - Day 3 - 2 The Inspiration Point : This place was overhung by trees. Once arrived, I told myself “What a beautiful place ! So natural and energizing”. Far away, in the landscape, Alcatraz, gently, was appearing through the fog. While we were contemplating the landscape, the guide explained us that all of these trees had been planted by men. At the beginning, the bay was just a sand hill. Trees became natural shields against sand and wind. The Golden Gate Bridge : We stopped a moment to enjoy the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Instantly, my memories of seeing the bridge on pictures switched to reality. I felt the frozen air and listenend the sing of the wind and seagulls. This place which had seemed me unreachable before, will stay in my mind forever from now. Happy Meal Time : We passed by a restaurant near the beach to lunch. For my first time, I have eaten a burger with French fries inside. It was good. I still think that french fries should stay out of burgers to fully enjoy the taste. Hippy Hill : After lunch, we went through a park which looked like any other else until we heard about its history. In 70's, hippies used to come at this hill. Usually, people shared their ideas and talked about how to create a better world. Almost hippies came from wealthy family and were educated. One day, the drug appeared. More and more citizens complained about hippies and harmful effect of drugs. Local police sent them back home and dissolve the movement in SF. Otherwise, a few of them liked the city and decided to stay. They found places to live in districts like Ashbury or the Castro District. The Mission : Going through Ashbury and the Castro district, we arrived at the Mission district in front of a giant fresco in honour of women. Inside the charity helps women to become independent and fight for women rights. Coming back the bike shop, we thanked the guide for this enriching day and decided to have a beer later together. I decided to take a nap at the hostel. Finally, I woke up the day after.

9 Days in California - Day 3 - 1 DAY 3: Visit in San Francisco By 7 am, the town had already woken up, I got up at time to eat a continental breakfast composed of fruits, muesli, cottage cheese and orange juice. I sat at a table and talked with a man from London who was visiting the city. We spoked about why we were there in San Francisco. He used to work as Web Developer. Instantly knew why he had wanted to discover the city and the area ( The Silicon Valley ). Find Still waters and snacks for the day was a priority. So, I walked for 30 minutes to find a supermarket. Taking a bus would have been faster but I wanted to discover the city, see by myself why Americans prefers to have a car instead of walking or biking. I had to go straight on a main street, which was long, very long. At the supermarket, I visited aisles. I saw real products that I had already seen in TV Shows or movies like « Froot loops » or « Cheetos crunchy». When I went through the checkout, I got surprised because the cashier asked to me “Hi, What's going on ?”. She was friendly and took care of the content of my shopping basket. My daily goal was to attend an excursion to visit San Francisco. After I found the bike shop, I got used to the electric bike to be ready for the tour. That day, people came from several countries. Sergio came from Costa Rica and was studying in SF to open a coffee shop in his native town. Brian was from Vancouver and came to visit the bay with his wife. Tyler and Alicia, from Washington DC and Carla, from Chile were as well there to visit the area. We started our tour, stopping by the conservatory of flowers. A gold rose sculpture was standing at the center of the garden in front of the entrance. It symbolized the change in San Francisco. Before, whorehouses and gambling were reasons why tourists came. By the way, one day, the mayor decided to change the reputation of the city with flowers. Then, we stopped by a well-known place of the city called “The Painting Ladies”. 10 minutes later, we arrived at the Panhandle. There locals had tried to grow tree species from different countries to develop the vegetation in SF. Spectacular trees were still standing there.