#Points of Interest

[the-gone-ton]

The Suwannee Belle is a riverboat constructed in 1985 in Wisconsin by the Lacrosse Riverboat Company. It operated in New York, Alabama, and finally Florida where it offered dinner cruises. It ran aground in 1988 and was officially decommissioned in 1991. It sat in dry storage in New Jersey until being purchased by an investor for $1 in 2003. The boat was moved to Pennsylvania with the intention of dressing it up in a rainforest theme and operating as a restaurant called the Towne Crier Cafe in a small artificial pool. But the scheme went bankrupt before taking off, leaving the Suwannee Belle simply abandoned sitting in a small ditch. It was sold at auction in 2005, and it's current ownership is unknown. In 2006, Connie & Charles Gallagher bought a bar next to the Suwannee Belle and named it the Riverboat Saloon in honor of the boat that had already been left next door. The saloon's website went offline in 2015. A Yelp review from 2018 claimed the saloon was closed, with new ownership planning to reopen later that year. Today, the saloon has an active Facebook page and does seem to be open, though you might think otherwise based upon the state of the signs advertising it and the general appearance of the building. The boat itself has deteriorated seriously in the past few years. The image attributed to Tatyana Jula is from 2010 and shows how much better the boat looked at the time.

Also. All bubble blowin' babies will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar.

[mapsontheweb]

World Capitals Ranked by Land Considered "Points of Interest".

by u/CharcoalCharts

The data is from Google Maps API.  That is also the tool used.  All images are the same zoom level.

% = (colored area)/(total area - black area)

[jonathantaylor]

So...

[miximagic256]

Points of Interest 4

Hi friends! This POI has been overdue for months I'm so sorry! One thing you may have noticed is there's a number attached to the title now. This titling scheme will follow for every POI post from here on out because it's honestly way more convenient especially with how some months there's little I want to type about while other months have lots I want to type about (although if you're really curious what's below occurred from January - February, I wasn't kidding when I said this was well overdue!)

But enough of the foreword, let's get into it!

Portal 2

So interesting thing, I got Portal 2 around 2013 when I first got my PS3, I never played the first Portal game as I didn’t have Steam and I never played The Orange Box which is where Portal debuted in 2007. Portal 2 was a game I played because I remember at the time hearing about how good the game was and while I did play it I never actually finished it.

Late last year I remembered I never finished the game so I started again from the beginning and finally beat it in January, and I can safely say that over a decade after the game’s release that Portal 2 is a fantastic experience from beginning to end and deserves all the praise people give it.

There is so much I could gush about with the characters, worldbuilding, storytelling, etc. But as a first for this series of mine I won’t go into detail because Portal 2 is one of those games that’s best to be played with as little knowledge as possible (in my case there were some things I knew about prior unfortunately, but luckily a lot of what I experienced was new to me).

One thing I will do though is share a link to this playlist of Portal 2 animations by Harry101UK which look, sound and feel so close to the game that you'd be amazed Valve had nothing to do with them! In particular I absolutely love his remake of his first ever Portal animation based on the song This Is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas, you have no idea how many times I've listened to it! (Don't worry there's no spoilers for the game so if you've not played it you can still watch his videos without worry of that)

If you’re like me and have never played Portal 2 after all this time I highly recommend you do so if you get the chance (in fact you can even skip the first Portal game since outside of some backstory it doesn’t affect the sequel much), you won’t regret it!

The Repair That Never Was

I realise that with all the talk I’ve done about appliances and fixing things that it may give the impression that this is something I normally do, but in reality this is very rare and it’s a big coincidence that two appliance fiascos happened close together (although pre-teen me would have been ecstatic at the knowledge they’d eventually get to do something they always wanted - fixing a broken appliance).

So context, back in 2016 we brought a second-hand tumble dryer, it worked fine but some years ago I started to suspect that something was off because there would be rumbling noises every so often (bear in mind the type of noise a dryer can make can point to different types of faults like bad roller bearings, bad rear bearings, etc.) So after trying to figure out what type of noise it was I thought it was a result of a bad dryer fan (which is what takes the air from the drum through the vent and out the back) As sometimes they can “warp” due to the heat and not spin evenly causing it to be noisy when in use.

I was so confident that this was the issue I brought the part for it in advance for the time where there would be a good opportunity to open the machine up (although buying the part online was tricky as the dryer was made in the late 90s and sometimes machines that old can be hard to find parts for). Cut to January where one day it’s drying as normal only for me to notice that at some point the machine was running but the drum wasn’t turning, which suggested one thing, the belt had snapped (what sits around the motor that causes the drum to turn).

Now that the dryer was broken I took the opportunity I had been waiting for and opened it up, but I discovered that the rumbling noise wasn’t actually caused by a warped dryer fan at all but rather a loose jockey wheel (the part that’s on the end of the motor which the belt fits on) what a plot twist! Honestly considering it was loose for goodness knows how long it’s no wonder that eventually caused the belt to snap, not only that but I have an unopened dryer fan part on my desk I can't do anything with so it makes some pretty unconventional decoration hehe.

Because of this and the fact it was deemed easier to just get a new dryer, the old one was sent to its final resting place in the scrapyard (which considering it was at least 25 years old, I’d say it did its job well). But it doesn’t end there. I felt the best thing to do was to buy a washer dryer (because it would be more convenient for my small kitchen) which meant it would also replace our washing machine at the same time which I wrote about replacing the door seal a year ago, so despite me doing that repair it ended up being too little too late ironically.

One final thing to note: The washer dryer bought was the same manufacture as the one before our machine which I repaired, of which the former machine lasted 13-14 years. No Pressure!

Video Game Museum Trip Feat. @Klonoamiyumi

Video game museums are somewhat uncommon throughout the world but in recent times more and more have been opening up, and a year or two ago I discovered one myself but it was a far away from where I’m located so I never visited it. As my birthday was approaching and there was a holiday I was going to go on soon I decided just before that would happen that I would finally visit the museum alongside two IRL friends (including @klonoamiyumi!).

Due to the distance I decided for us to get there by train which was honestly nerve wracking as I normally don’t take the train (not only that but add on to the fact I was taking the train while organising the trip in the first place), but outside of one slip up (which I’ll get into later) we all got our tickets and away we went!

On the train itself we sat together and talked about our video game history along with some general topics as well, bear in mind the three of us up to this point hadn’t met up much together so it was an interesting experience being able to talk among ourselves. After around an hour on the train we arrived at our destination and stepped out, I had researched directions on where to go to the museum beforehand however actually exploring around the city was tricky because I had never been to that location before, luckily I was able to rely on Google Maps to figure out where to go and after accidentally going in a circle (oops!) We did eventually find the building we were looking for: The National Video Game Museum!

For most of the year this specific museum is only open Thursday – Sunday except for the UK summer holidays where it’s open everyday, there were a wide array of both arcade machines and video game consoles to play on, anecdotes from past and present video game developers (including a small tribute to the late Masayuki Uemura who supported the museum), signs describing various bits of history along with glass cases including important related material, etc. Despite not being the largest of museums for what’s there it should satisfy the curiosity of any video game fan of any era not only because of what’s on display but also because there’s so many things to interact with and discover that there's bound to be something you didn't know of beforehand, plus because it's not that large of a museum there's no worry of getting lost or overwhelmed but it doesn't feel underwhelming either. The place is ideal for a day out even if it was just yourself going there.

There was another thing that happened as well while we were there, by complete chance an online friend of both @klonoamiyumi and I (who has her own Tumblr blog @janeypoodle) was at the event, not only was this meetup not planned at all but they were planning to go to the museum the day before but couldn’t as the train got cancelled. What a plot twist! Janey is someone me and Klonoamiyumi have known about for a long time and while a potential visit did sometimes cross our minds for one reason or another it never took off. So to actually meet them in an unexpected place was such a wonderful surprise and a bonus to add to our day out, we all talked for a while and then we took a photo of us three to remember :>

Throughout the museum for the most part we all split up when going around what video games were available, but just before the museum closed Klonoamiyumi wanted me and our other IRL friend to play a game with him called Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party as it served a particular importance, he recalls this game was one of the only video games he played with family and not just by himself (which I can relate because I myself had Buzz! Junior: Rino Rumble which plays identically to Jungle Party, and that was a game I played with my family as well).

After that session together we quickly looked at the shop section and then left the museum, we decided to have food since it was late in the afternoon by that point (we went to McDonald’s specifically) and then we went back to the train station, however… Remember when I said there was one slip up that happened? Well while we managed to get back to train station, we narrowly missed our train (it was late in the evening as well), so I had to think quick and look up another train to the same destination on my phone and after some wondering around and last minute changes (because the train we needed to take ended up being on a different platform then announced). We got on and despite it being late in the evening we all got home safe and sound!

This trip was notable not just because of where we went but also because I've never organised anything like this before, but now that I have I can arrange a meetup of any kind again because starting something is always the hardest part, after that you start to get the hang of what you're doing and you get better every time! I think I speak for all of us when we all had a great experience!

Topic End: Epilogue

Again I'm really sorry for how overdue this is, I think you can tell the most significant thing included in this post hehe. I will say though this might be the last Points of Interest post for a while due to things that aren't really appropriate for this series, such as:

Events that are too negative to include (I intend this series to be positive and I don't want to bring myself or other people down reading the post)

Events that are positive but are too personal to include, this one is important to mention because truth be told I didn't really want to include topics relating to IRL events with family (like the cruise ship holiday) because while this series is a semi-dairy of sorts at the same time I only want to talk about things I'm comfortable being public online.

With that said, I hope you all enjoyed this POI and I'll see you next time!

[windingwayfarer]

One of my favorite watercolors from about a year ago. New England autumn pagan theme accidently channeled a RDR2 feel!

[townofcadence]

Bedside Manor

While the owner hasn't been seen in many years, their loyal assistant, Bastion, runs things well enough for few to notice: the inn resides in the oldest part of town, with just enough land for the smallest of courtyards to serve as an entrance. The area is lined with trellises of vibrant roses, and a path of smooth, flattened stones lead you through the grass and by a small fountain with the lip raised enough to server as a bench, towards the white painted door of the Inn.

Inside is a steady temperature-- it always feels cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter. There is a fireplace that always burns but seems to cast no heat or smoke, and a collection of large, plush chairs to wait in. The front desk is manned by Bastion, the mousy man who serves as interim owner while the original is absent. He doesn't speak, only signs with his hands, but he is affable, with a warm smile, and often seems to know what you need before you do.

The rooms you can rent are comfortable, strangely large for what felt like such a compact house, but it is still cozy, filled with old knickknacks that seem to originate from a dozen lifetimes. They adorn the walls, the mohagany dresser, and several shelves of the bookcase in each room. Each one seems well made, despite the age, and many still function if toyed with. The furniture is sturdy antiques, ones that protest their age when moved too much, but sturdy and strong. Carpets keep the floorboards warm and soft at night, decorated with splashes of intense color in wonderfully intricate patterns. The air smells floral, but not overwhelmingly so. It is sparse, like standing on a balcony at night and catching the faintest hints of jasmine and honeysuckle from a garden below. You can almost hear the running water outdoors, but none of the sounds from the street seem to reach the inn, even with the windows open.

When your stay is done, Bastion will happily check you at the door. It is a fast process, and as soon as you are ready, you can leave. You might be tempted to pilfer a memento of the inn with you: after all, there are a seemingly endless collection of such things. However, nothing from inside the place ever seems to part from it's doors, even the most carefully stashed trinket. Even the stay begins to feel fuzzy, once you've cleared the courtyard and return to the streets of Cadence. No money or coinage seems to have left your person either.

And once you have left, and have no more need for Bedside Manor, the strangest thing is that it seems next to impossible to locate the street it was on. Just as quickly as it appears when you are in need, it fades when you are without.

But still, should that ever change, there's always space for you at Bedside Manor.

[thebongomediaempire]

Remember where you parked your fully fueled plane and lock the doors.

[vbartilucci]

“Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it.” --Wonder Woman

[unsung-idiot]

don't show him modern technology; it won't end well

bonus under the cut:

[rivalkieran]

HEARTBREAKING: character actually mildly interesting to think about but I Dont like their fans

[platoapproved]

What was that you said about memory? "A monster," was it?

[detroitography]

Detroit By The Numbers: January 2024 Data Roundup

542 “Detroit” places in Detroit, next most is 23 in Southfield (Model D Media) 39% Homeless families report domestic violence (City of Detroit) $16.5 million Awarded to the City government for service line replacement in two areas: Midtown (Cultural Center, Medical Center, Midtown) and Barton-McFarland [McFarlane?] (EGLE) 1 million Qline riders in 2023, a 50% increase from 2022 (QLINE)

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

not "i ship these characters" or "i want them to bond platonically" but a secret 3rd thing (I want them to be forced to interact by the Narrative bc they would HATE that)

[miximagic256]

Points of Interest (January - February 2023)

So here's something I may or may not do continually, Points of Interest is where I talk about anything I've been doing lately whether it's a project I'm working on or something I find interesting to talk about that is relevant.

The things I'm going to talk about date back to early January and a lot has happened during that time, so without further ado...

Short classes I've done

Back in January I joined two free short courses, one being art and illustration, and the other being about sewing, with the former lasting just 3 days (which honestly is way too short for a course) and the latter lasting 5 weeks. I realised this year that I love being creative and as such I should try and tap into various creative mediums to see how much I enjoy them.

With the Art & Illustration course it was a matter of looking at illustrations the tutor had picked out and trying to copy them while also trying different drawing techniques (such as drawing without the reference of what you're copying), despite this course only lasting 3 days it was very enjoyable and I got introduced to some really interesting illustrators. To be honest I don't think people give illustration enough credit, not only is it everywhere you go but there's an incredible amount of variants and styles from just the last 100 years alone and anyone that has any related interest in art should definitely look into illustration and illustrators.

The sewing course lasted 5 weeks (one day for each week) it was a beginner course so we were taught how to use a sewing machine and various stitching techniques, by the end of the course we had a choice of making a bag or a pincushion (I choose the latter), Despite having a sewing machine I haven't used it much but I hope I can find time to do an intermediate class at some point since I want to keep this momentum going and not lose what I have learnt. The last time I did sewing was in high school so the course was a refresher on a lot of things and the reason I wanted to take a sewing course was because I want to try and make my own clothes for cosplaying reasons, if you know me than you'd know that I have a huge list of favourite characters that I love to pieces and seeing some of the incredible cosplays people online make made me realise just how close you can get to looking like a certain character! Now granted it would probably take me a long time to reach a level like that but in the meantime I want to try and take it slow while having fun in the process!

Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy

My Crash Bandicoot history is a little weird, growing up I had Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and then later I got Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, but despite being a big fan of the series and having fond memories of Crash 2 I haven't actually played many of the games. Nevertheless the announcement of N. Sane Trilogy made me and many others excited as this would be Crash's return after years of being dormant, however only recently have I been actually playing the remake and it's been a really interesting experience especially considering I haven't actually played the original Crash 1 and 3, I have to admit I wonder how I will feel about playing the Crash 2 segment of the game since that's the one I'm most familiar with.

On the subject of Crash 2, I have to say that the original game has aged incredibly well:

For one the game has a save feature in a time a lot of games were still using passwords, sure games having save features predate the PlayStation but those were often expensive and not common so as a result games would resort to using passwords instead, I imagine that in 1997 most people managed to get a memory card so there wasn't a need to try and beat the game in one sitting which also got rid the need of writing down whatever password you were given to continue from where you last left off.

Second, Crash 2 had fluid and expressive character animations for Crash and especially Dr. Neo Cortex which was way ahead of many other games at the time considering that PS1 games were infamous for having stiff character animations, Dr. Cortex in this game is pretty interesting compared to how he is later on the franchise because unlike future Crash games which toned down how threatening he was in Crash 2 he's not only the main villain but he has complete control of the situation, he forced Crash to a warp room and gave him vague instructions which Crash follows because despite having a previous negative encounter Cortex knows that Crash has no other choice but to follow his instructions, and this is expressed even further in the game over screen where if you press "Yes" he says "play again Crash" while if you press "No" he says "I guess you didn't have what it takes Crash".

Notice anything? In both choices Dr. Cortex isn't sad or angry and that's because if you think about it he wins in either outcome, if you continue the fact that you are Dr. Cortex's biggest threat doesn't matter because you're collecting the crystals for him, if you don't continue Dr. Cortex may not get the crystals anymore but his biggest threat to stop his plan is now out of the way which again shows just how much control he has over the situation, this isn't even mentioning his incredible performance by well known voice actor Clancy Brown who absolutely kills it as Dr. Cortex (ironically he only voiced Dr. Cortex three times, with Lex Lang voicing the character in most of the series' duration, however Lex Lang does a good performance as Dr. Cortex as well I want to make that clear!)

Oh and remember the game over screen I mentioned earlier? They actually re lip synced Dr. Cortex's lines where he was speaking in different languages which means Dr. Cortex has different lip syncing to match the new dialogue which is incredible for 1997 and even by today's standards!

On top of all of this? Crash 2 was made just 11 months after Crash 1, yet there are so many improvements, minor and major, that it's hard to list them all and I don't know how Naughty Dog put so much effort in so little time. However they managed that, it shows!

Social media

Yeah, I'm going to talk about social media in this section, because as of this post Elon Musk has some(?) control of Twitter, now I haven't been using Twitter regularly for nearly a year (I do plan on coming back fully though) but from what I've heard a lot has happened in the time since he stepped in. Now the reason I'm bringing this is up is because some people have said that the issues brought to Twitter recently makes them think the website might be shut down or abandoned, something a lot of people see as something to celebrate but let me tell you why Twitter shutting down is a bad thing:

A lot of websites have come and gone on the internet (chances are 10 years from now the internet will look different yet again) however historically whenever a website shut down all it resulted was the users of that website moving to another more popular website. Remember when Vine shut down and all the Vine users moved to YouTube? Or when a lot of Tumblr users moved to Twitter nearly 5 years ago? When both of those migrations happened a lot of the issues the original website suffered from got carried over, that's because when a website disappears it doesn't mean the people who use it disappear as well since the only way to fix a website's userbase is for the users themselves to sort themselves out.

(If you think I'm being broad keep in mind I'm only talking about social media websites, of course a lot of websites have gone over the years but my point is if a website is large enough to gain a large userbase then they will remain online regardless if that website stays or not, also I have to say people from Twitter coming to Tumblr is honestly a full circle moment that's incredibly ironic).

A website's userbase is often formed from two things: the people themselves that use it, and the way the website is structured. How a person uses said website is up to them and this can range from person to person, however my point is while websites can be riddled with issues the fix is far more complicated than to just delete the website itself, a website redeeming itself can only be done through its management (if it's structured in a way that has them at least) or for a site like Twitter it's for the userbase to try and be smart with how they use it (sending tweets, dealing with accounts they don't like, etc.) I know this is easier said than done and chances are this won't happen on a large scale, but even being aware of the algorithm and how you add to it can help by a long run even if it's just you advising your friends on how to make their social media experience better for them and everyone else that follows them.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

I originally wasn't going to include this as I only planned talking about the things above, but as me and two other friends saw this movie on February 25th and considering that I don't plan to make a full post about this film, I've decided to include a segment dedicated to this as well:

WOW what an incredible film! Dreamworks is a studio with a weird track record (after all what do you do when you've achieved revenge - the very reason your studio was made in the first place?) But sometimes when they have the right direction they make something fantastic. There's so much I could say about this movie but to keep it short – what I love about Puss in Boots: The Last Wish so much is its execution.

A lot of the themes the movie tackles (vulnerability, accepting your morality, living to the best you can) are themes a lot of films (and especially children's media in general) have tackled with, but unfortunately sometimes when they are used they are either hamfisted or they aren't properly delved into making the impact far smaller than it has the potential to reach. But this film not only tackles those themes I mentioned above but it tackles them full-on, including the darker parts of those themes to such an extent that the film overall feels very mature since it knows what tone to have at that given moment.

The main plot about following a magic map so you can make a wish shows the desires of every character who wants to use it, for our three main characters Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws and Perrito, they all showcase themes the film is trying to show. Puss' wish is to gain back his missing eight lives because he always tries to aim himself towards this legendary status of himself that he can defeat anything and now that he's down to his last life feels that he can't live up to that. Kitty's wish its wanting to trust someone but feeling like she can't because of a history of being backstabbed, since being able to trust someone requires you to be vulnerable which results in making her closed-off. Perrito unlike Puss and Kitty doesn't have a wish to make because he's already happy with both himself and his life, which while it's clear a lot of that is a result of ignorance of how dark people can act he ends up helping our main protagonists because they realise it's possible to find people that don't want to use you and legitimately want to befriend you (Kitty) and to realise that even with one life that you can live and be happy with just one (Puss).

The film also stands out because of what it does differently, I've mentioned the themes above that it executes but it also has a traditional villain in a period where Disney hasn't done one in ages, not to mention there's a lot of fairytale characters that haven't really been seen on the big screen before which thanks to this being Dreamworks allows them to be utilised in interesting ways, since Dreamworks doesn't try to have a "clean" image of themselves unlike Disney.

There's so much more I can say about this film but I'm afraid that if I do I'll spoiler it (plus this post is quite long as it is!) If you haven't seen this movie yet then please find an opportunity to do so! You will not regret it.

Topic End: Epilogue

Well that's everything I wanted to cover from January - February, I hope you've enjoyed reading and I'll see you next time!

[violinfantasy]

when the academic article is so good it has you giggling and kicking your feet

[ruporas]

realizing it’s mutual (ID in alt)