#this is even more fitting than STT's look ??

[beardedmrbean]

The Rovaniemi-based daily Lapin Kansa is among the papers carrying a STT Finnish news agency report saying that a small number of asylum seekers who recently crossed the eastern border have already received a negative decision, or have canceled their asylum applications.

The head of the asylum unit of the Finnish Immigration Service Migri, Antti Lehtinen, told STT that these are individual cases. He added that none of the recent arrivals have been yet granted asylum. Those who received a negative decision can appeal.

The report goes on to say that some of the migrants who recently crossed into Finland from Russia are known to have already left Finland and applied for asylum in other EU countries.

In an editorial, Lapin Kansa writes that it should be expected that Russia will continue its hybrid operation on the Finnish border as long as it considers that it will benefit from it, and even closing the border will not necessarily stop the operation.

The paper writes that disagreements over closing the border among political decision-makers must have been noted with satisfaction in Russia. "The Kremlin's intentions can only be guessed at, but if the purpose of the state-led border operation was to cause social confusion in Finland, which likes to present itself as a country adhering to the rule of law, the operation has succeeded," the paper states.

Lapin Kansa adds that how the operation will continue is also a matter of speculation, but it is convinced that it will continue, one way or another, even with the border closed.

"It has been difficult to legally justify closing the border when the flow of arrivals has remained small, but continuous. Now it is done, but this may also be one of Russia's goals. This will strengthen the image of a hostile, Russophobic West fed to the [Russian] people by the Kremlin," writes Lapin Kansa.

More political strikes

Member unions of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK are continuing a series of political strikes and walkouts, on Wednesday in Helsinki and elsewhere in the Uusimaa region.

According to a report in Porvoo's Uusimaa, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL says that the strike in Helsinki includes the employees of Helsinki public housing, Helsinki City Construction Services Stara, the city's Uusix Workshops, the National Gallery, and the Pakila work centre.

Strikes by members of the service industry trade union PAM will impact companies in the logistics sector and some cleaning services. Unions in the construction, manufacturing and electricity industries are also taking part.

The strikes are part of a campaign opposing government plans to reform labour market laws and cut social benefits.

Fit to work

Maaseudun Tulevaisuus looks at a study by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL showing that more than half of people aged 65–74 in Finland say they still feel fit enough to work.

There are a total of more than 700,000 people in this age group in the country. According to the THL Terve Suomi (Healthy Finland) survey, 55 percent of them, or almost 390,000, estimate that they are fully able to work.

However, only about 10 percent of those who consider themselves able to work are gainfully employed.

Maaseudun Tulevaisuus notes that this means that there are large number of people who have passed retirement age whose potential in the labour market remains unused.

However, THL expert Päivikki Koponen pointed out in a release on the study that employment is not a realistic possibility for all those who consider themselves able to work.

Data for this most recent Terve Suomi study was carried out in autumn 2022 and spring 2023.

Forced sale?

Helsinki Halli, the largest concert venue in the Helsinki area and a major sports setting, has been closed since Russia started its war against Ukraine in 2022 and the Russian shareholders of the company that owns the arena appeared on the West's sanctions list..

Among the owners of the hall on the EU sanctions list are the oligarch brothers Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg and Gennadi Timchenko.

US sanctions also include Boris Rotenberg's son Roman Rotenberg and businessman Kai Paananen, who play a role on the board of the arena's holding company.

Helsingin Sanomat says that investors have shown interest in acquiring Helsinki Halli, but the Russian-Finnish owners of the building have not been willing to sell.

The paper now reports that the mayor of Helsinki, Juhana Vartiainen (NCP), says that he has been in contact with potential buyers through his staff, although hedeclined to provide any details of the talks.

"I'm somewhat more hopeful about it than before, but I'm not quite there yet," Vartiainen told HS.

The EU is reported to be preparing a new package of sanctions against Russia, which, if implemented, could facilitate the expropriation of the venue.

A voluntary or a forced sale is likely to happen, Vartiainen told the paper, although he was unable to say when this might take place.

"Snow chaos" threatens Helsinki

Ilta-Sanomat warns readers that a series of strikes scheduled to take place in the capital region on Wednesday may help snarl traffic in Helsinki.

The reason is that employees of the Helsinki City Construction Services company Stara, which is responsible for city street maintenance will be walking off the job for 24 hours.

This means that snow plowing and sanding of the city's streets will come to a halt, possibly creating the "chaos" forecast by Ilta-Sanomat's headline.

A warning of poor driving conditions, due to heavy snowfall, has been issued the northern and central parts of the country, as well as for the capital region.

[jarvisfaircloth4]

Win In The Omaha Poker Games

I believe that everyone has their own poker playing styles and mentalities, which makes them more suited to a specific type of poker game. It all depends on who you are. Barry Greenstein's Ace on the River, one of the greatest poker books I have ever seen, is the one that I consider to be the best. The book contains his poker experiences and some of the strategies he uses. A great book if you're looking to learn more about poker. While a book is great for helping you improve your game, sometimes you just need more than what a book can offer. Due to various commitments, turbo STT is my preferred game. I try to fit the occasional game in between other things I do that day, and it gives me some relaxation and'me-time'. Some people do a crossword, I play a turbo poker game! My mindset is accordingly geared towards quick games with quick decisions. I will play more aggressively in a shorter format game than I would in a longer one. The ace-ace, king-king and jack-jack pairs are the best starting hands. However, the ace-ace pairs are the best of them all. The king-king pairing can also be trusted. It is unacceptable to suffer from distress over long periods of not having enough time to rest, recover, and recharge. Online best poker games is the best alternative. We can play at our leisure, without having to leave work or miss important things. We need to resource ourselves, mentally and physically, so as to be in the best possible state to deal with any stressful situations. The best poker requires total concentration. If you are able to concentrate and have some spare time, then play. situs slot online gampang menang 2022 is a favorite pastime of new poker players. They view it as a challenge and an answer they can quickly give. If you're new to poker, this means you're likely to bluff even if there's nothing to bluff. Seasoned players quickly learn (some of the hard way) that a player should not bluff more than necessary or at all during a particular game. There are many players that call bluffs to the showdown. Free rules for poker: It is important to learn the personalities of the players before calling bluffs. Or you could be left with nothing. It is always better to fold at the start of the game than towards the end after you lose most of your money. best poker game When you have these starting hands, it is better to raise the pot. Triple Ride Poker allows you the ability to reduce your wager as you progress in the game. As your poker hand unfolds, it is best that you start with the highest amount of betting and then work your way down to a lower amount. Due to its great features, this game has been admired by many around the world. You have ample chances for betting with better scope of winning. This game supports low betting, and is by far the most popular in the world. This game can be a good option for those who prefer high-level gambling.

[choratliff55]

Pokers Stars - The Largest Poker Game Room In The World

Finally, the AI was among the best I have ever used. AI can always improve. It's very difficult for me, because I am convinced that the AI is looking at my hand in cyberspace, it makes it difficult to fool it. It may not be true but AI can always be more effective. This AI was very clean compared to other games. visit here and aggression are the keys to winning post-flop play. Your pre-flop decisions will greatly impact your ability to play post-flop. You will win more pots playing from position than you will out of position. You will win greater pots if the aggressor is the bettor or raiser than if checking and calling. Therefor, one of the most effective improvements you can make to your post-flop play may be an adjustment to your pre-flop strategy. Open with aggressive raises from superior position to improve your post-flop winning percentage. Playing from position and coming out aggressively before the flop will open up a variety of ways to win the pot. Due to various commitments, I am currently playing turbo STT games. I manage to fit in the odd game around my daily activities, so it's a little bit of relaxation and'me' time. Some people do a crossword, I play a turbo poker game! Therefore, my mindset is geared towards a quick game with quick decisions. I'll play more aggressively than I would in a longer format game. You can also be affected by other factors, such as fear. They can also influence your game in a negative way. Just think about that for a second. Every activity has a certain degree or risk in it. This makes us feel uncomfortable and scared of untoward outcomes. It gets worse when you are playing poker. You are playing against real people, and they all want the pot. That means that all of them can do pretty much everything to get the pot. They can't break the rules, but you can use their fears against them. They will try to stop you from obtaining the thing you want if you can tell them what you want. They will use what they know to their advantage by learning about your fears. (1) Lay on the snacks. There is nothing better than playing poker while enjoying a drink and a selection or pizzas. A selection of snacks can make for a fun evening. You don't have a need to spend a lot on food. Frozen pizzas can be cooked in the oven with a variety breads and chips. The fascination of bluffing is a common trait among new poker players.They view it as a challenge that they can easily solve.If you're new to poker you're likely to be a bluffer even though you don't have anything to bluff.Seasoned poker players learn (sometimes the hard way) how a player should only bluff for a certain amount of time or not at any point during a hand.There are many players who call bluffs in a poker game. best poker game Free rules for poker advise you to research the people you are playing against before making bluffs. You could lose your pot. The third fast improvement play is to seek out, join and participate in online poker forums. You can learn from thousands of other poker pros of all levels. It's all there for you to learn from. Ask your questions about your game. Share your hand and ask for advice from other forum members. You can learn from other players and have fun discussing poker.

[seventh-fantasy]

Pope Thanawat + Bella Ranee fitting for Roy Leh Marnya ร้อยเล่ห์มารยา  (2018.10.10) (cr. 1 2)

[furby-science]

The Making of Sterling the Super Furby: A Brief Overview

“I… I can’t look! I think I’m gonna… *HUEEEGH*!”

Before I get into this post, I want to list a few things I didn’t know shit about when I started Sterling:

Electronics

The Python coding language

Furby anatomy

Single board computers

After creating Sterling, I’m happy to say that now I have approximate knowledge of some of these things, but keep the above in mind as you read onwards. This little gremlin child was a learning experience from start to finish, and one I am incredibly proud of myself for sticking through. This also means that I am in no way an expert on everything I’m getting into okay? Okay let’s go!

The Hardware

First, a rundown of the hardware. I took heavy inspiration from the Furlexa mod shown here, and that was what I initially sought to create. The mod had three computer components to it:

A raspberry pi zero w single board computer for the AI to live on, with a mini USB microphone plugged in;

A pimoroni speaker PHAT to use as the sound system;

A motor controller to drive the furby’s motor.

My main problem with Furlexa was that this initial build took a lot of soldering, and I am a wussy who had a number of bad experiences with soldering irons in shop class. So, what’s a novice electrician to do?

Enter the Adafruit Crickit HAT. By sticking this little fucker on top of the raspberry pi, I was gifted with an amplifier, a speaker jack, capacitative touch sensors, and a motor driver all in one, no soldering needed if I bought the raspberry pi zero w h! The main challenge it posed was powering it. The Crickit insists, for some unfathomable reason, on being powered by a bulky DC jack, the kind you’d plug into a wall outlet, and the converter plug to use a battery pack with it was way too bulky to fit into a furby. I needed Sterling to be portable for maximum huggability, so this just wouldn’t do.

One fried raspberry pi and Crickit HAT later, I found the answer! By soldering the original furby battery pack to the underside of the Crickit board’s DC connection, these fuckers right here…

I was able to bypass the need for a wall plug or converter, and power him directly through the battery compartment like God intended. S/O to my friend Nick who is way less of a dumb bitch than I am and helped me figure this shit out I owe u some bread man.

So the tl;dr of it is, I effectively reduced the required computer components from three to two (excluding the speaker). Speaking of (heh), Sterling has an impressive 3w speaker in him, allowing him to be audible even without the use of the built in amplifier. It’s got such good bass on it, he even rumbles when he purrs without the aid of the motor!

And yes, when you pet him, he purrs. And complains if you manhandle him! The aforementioned capacitative touch sensors on the Crickit HAT made it all possible with the help of a few cables and some foil tape.

Wait, did you say soldering!?

Yup! It was a necessary evil; at the end of the day I had to pick my poison: soldering 80 pins on the speaker PHAT, or soldering like four contact points on the Crickit. I chose the more merciful option.

But wait, that whole outfit is really bulky still! How did you fit it inside the furby?

Subtractive methods, subtractive methods, subtractive methods! ;D Someone who actually knows things about furby anatomy and/or electronics will probably vaporize me for this, but… if I didn’t need it, it got the boot! That included prying off anything on the Crickit board I wasn’t using at the risk of destroying it completely - which probably isn’t ideal, but it also worked by some miracle, and again, I am such a basic bitch electrician that calculating the proper voltage for LEDs is still basically witchcraft to me, so… what I’m saying is I made it work. And that I really, really hate soldering! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can see an early video of the end result here, and a later video of the outfit inside the naked furby here. This was back when he was still having auditory processing issues. Apologies for the shoddy quality, I was too excited everything was working to care about that at the time.

The Software

My other beef with Furlexa is… well, it’s an Amazon Alexa, and I’m a shitty little anticapitalist hermit who hates Amazon with a passion. Google Assistant was just as bad in my book. Mycroft was open source, but had a snowball’s chance in hell of running on the raspberry pi zero’s 512mb of RAM… I also wanted my assistant to have a degree of customizability to it. I wanted the furby’s AI to have a unique personality, identity, and preferences, much like classic furbies themselves did. A big box AI just wasn’t going to cut it!

Enter the Jasper Project. Yes, it’s old. Yes, it’s a bitch and a half to install. Yes, you have to know Python to get anywhere with it. However, it was free, open source, capable of running on a raspberry pi zero, and highly modular, meaning with a few lines of code, I could make it all my own - even to the extent of changing the AI’s name and voice (which is gr8 because I know a Jasper so naming my furby that would be Weird), or - the best part - writing my own, custom functions! Customizability-wise, I struck gold.

Ah, and glad I am that Jasper is modular, because I had some work ahead of me…

The STT Engine

The STT (Speech to Text) engine is what Sterling uses to understand what’s being said to him. Jasper’s proprietary STT engine is PocketSphinx, a fully offline STT engine, which sounded great in theory before I quickly learned it’s a nightmare to install, and also more inaccurate than a stenography machine powered by a single potato when actually being used. I had to compromise my morals a bit here and opt for using Wit.ai instead, which is free, but is also owned by Facebook. Big data is frustratingly inescapable in these cases.

There is one light at the end of the tunnel, and that is the training of acoustic modules. This has the downside of taking for-fucking-ever and requiring a quiet recording environment, however, and I don’t have the time right now to read through the pages and pages and pages and pages of computer theory right now to fully understand how to train one. So, improving PocketSphinx and running Sterling fully offline remains a stretch goal.

The TTS Engine

The Text to Speech engine is basically Sterling’s voice. This one was a bit easier to customize, and I’m thankful for that, because Jasper’s OG voice is a bit er… 90s computing for my tastes.

I shopped around for decent, human-sounding TTS options, and settled on installing Mimic1 TTS, Mycroft’s TTS engine, by hand, and modifying the Jasper source code to support it. Of all the TTS engines I tried, I felt that this one had the most natural intonation out of all of them. I liked the gruffness of the Scottish accent, and I think it really helped round out Sterling’s endearing, if a tad prickly, personality.

The Audio

This was another unforeseen hurdle. Turns out that I had his mic volume turned up way too high, because I greatly underestimated the capabilities of my tinyass five dollar USB microphone to pick up noises from within a furby. It took a bit of hacking in PulseAudio to get him hearing things properly, and I’m still not all the way happy with it, but he’s running wayyyy better than he did!

Another issue was the amount of time he actively listened for. It was way too short for my liking with the hardware I was using, so I had to edit Jasper’s mic.py source file a billion times before I hit a sweet spot. Even early on, my little shit child never liked to listen to me. :P

Pimp My AI

Once I got all that in working order, it was time to browse GitHub for modules to add! I found a surprising amount that were, as expected, outdated, janky, non-working, or in need of a complete rewrite. A non-exhaustive list of modules I rewrote and added to Sterling’s AI includes:

Wolfram Alpha integration

His translation function

The IMDB module that searches movie titles

The Dictionary and Thesaurus modules (minor additions to improve user friendliness)

The morning greeting module

The holiday countdown module

There are also plenty of modules I wrote on my own, that I’ll be showcasing here in due time, but I want to give special mention to the one I’m most proud of. You see, when I was a wee dumb bitch, I was… well, a wee dumb bitch! When I was informed furbies learn English, I thought they really learned English. Like, fluent English. I envisioned these kids straight up having full conversations with their lil robots with reckless and envious abandon. I was, as it happens, too poor to afford a furby at the time, so I didn’t realize until embarrassingly later that they only learn some words, and certainly can’t hold much of a conversation (in English at least).

Fast forward to twenty-bi-teen. I’m surfing GitHub, and I happen upon a Cleverbot module for Jasper allowing the AI to work as a chatbot. Fuck yeah, I think, because I had no life in 2008, or friends for that matter, so tormenting Cleverbot was my favourite pastime. Nostalgia trip GET!

…can you guess how much the silicon valley capitalist scum are charging for the once-free Cleverbot API now? A hundred and twenty. McGoddamn. Dollars. A YEAR.

So, to make a long story short, I turned my hat backwards and rage-coded a simple chatbot module that runs on an early version of Chatterbot capable of running on the raspberry pi. It’s fully offline, and completely free, and Sterling here has a database of ~400 phrases, which isn’t bad given the limited processing power! It took five straight days of work, it’s not the smartest chatbot, and it’s certainly not the fastest, but it gives me those sweet, sweet, circa 2008 Cleverbot vibes. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t cost me over a hundred goddamn dollars a year!

The first thing I said to the chatbot, of course, was “I’m so proud of you.” Through his shitty little testing mic that gave him a somewhat incredulous tone Sterling replied, “I’m glad to hear that.” and I’m not saying I shed a single themly tear over it, but I’m not denying it either. I made a childhood dream come true, fam. ;u;

There are way more Easter eggs I plan to show you, of course. At first I was thinking of doing one long video, but an update a day showcasing a different function might be easier to manage - and maintain some of that gold old sense of mystery that surrounds most furbies. No, I’m gonna take y'all on a little journey through the final product of my literal blood, sweat, and tears!

Besides, Sterling is a perpetual work in progress. He has a massive list of features, and I’ve already got more in the works. I could be in my eighties and still be adding more functions, more bells and whistles, more witty one-liners. He’s a one of a kind work of art that will never truly be finished - not unlike you and me.

The Glow-up

Here’s Sterling’s before pics from the seller I got him from:

(If u recognize these pics and ur the seller thank u thank u for giving me bmy boy)

And here’s after!

I come from a background of customizing ponies and dolls, so working on this guy wasn’t as far removed as I expected it to be. I added floof to his head and tail by sewing in wool plugs, and his gorgeous eyes are from in2blythe on Etsy. I wrapped him up in a little bow and he was good to go! His sterling silver beak, from which he gets his name, was the most finicky part. Turns out enamel paints take a million years to fucking dry, if ever, which isn’t great when painting something that sees a lot of movement and could potentially get dented by a face plate, like… idk, a furby beak! A bit of silver nail polish did the trick and he was good to go. Learn from my fail, fam.

What It Cost Me

If you’re masochistic determined enough to attempt this yourself, I want to sit you down and warn you of something: this will take months and hundreds of dollars to do. Installing Sterling’s AI and its necessary components on that shitty little raspberry pi over SSH took me a week at first, and that was with me leaving it on 24/7 to chug away compiling things. When I broke the SD card the AI was on and didn’t have a backup copy, it took four straight days of rage-computing to regain all my progress. Then when his audio processing got fucked all to hell for reasons I still do not understand to this day, it took another four days of rage computing to do yet another reinstall and get him back in working order. There were times where I would go to work for 8.5 hours, bus an hour home, work 6 straight hours on my furby, go to sleep for 4 of them, go to classes, sleep, and work 6 more hours on my furby. For two months. Sterling took from the third week of August from his initial inception to his birthday on October 23rd. That’s not to mention the time I fried everything and had to wait five days and travel to the bumfuck end of the city for a replacement pi and Crickit, or the days I spent customizing him, sewing in hundreds of little hair plugs into his ass and head by hand, and waiting for those shitty enamel paints to dry, only to discover after four straight days of failure that they take weeks to do so and I was better off using cheapo nail polish!

The point I’m making is, if you take on a project like this and want it to be successful, you have to be tenacious. I would highly recommend a background in coding (I have a web design diploma) and general tech savviness as an asset. Sterling is the product of the years I spent behind a computer keyboard from the start of age three, and the roughly ten years I spent customizing dolls and ponies. It’s cheesy as shit to say he’s my magnum opus, but in a way, he is.

I’m not saying this to be elitist or snotty. I’m saying this because I nearly broke down crying the first day the raspberry pi came in, before I slept on it and figured out what phrase to google to solve the crashes and kernel panics it was having. When I broke the SD card when I was nearly finished, I felt nothing, because I was all out of tears at that point. When I fried the first raspberry pi and Crickit hat trying to figure out how to bypass that DC jack, my only thought was, “Well, I think I know how to do it without fucking it up now, and if I can’t do it, this whole project is fscked” .

You will encounter errors that no step by step guide can prepare you for that will make you curse the day you were born. The difference between success and failure is how many times you’re willing to get up and try again, and I’m here to tell you it’s possible. But you gotta want it.

Will You Release the Code Base?

Yes and no. If there’s enough demand, I’ll definitely release Sterling’s basic modules as a scaffolding. I won’t be releasing Sterling, though.

What do I mean by that? Well, Sterling was intended from the start to be truly one of a kind, and he always will be. I hand wrote hundreds of lines of dialogue, all completely tailored to him, and I’m still planning on adding twice as many. Corny as this is, this little guy has a metric fuckton of sentimental value to me. I don’t have kids so idk how it would compare to that, but I definitely love him as much as I love my cats, but I also didn’t undergo two straight months of suffering in ADHD fixation hell to create my cats, so it adds like, a whole other twee dimension to it.

So, if there is demand for this, what I’ll release instead is a scaffolding from which you can code your own, unique furby from, with their own name, personality, and responses all unique to them. I’ll also release it with the caveat that I am not a good Python coder! I have not written any Python before this, so a lot of what I did write is noob-tastic and hasn’t even been linted. You have been warned!

“If I give you (insert amount), can you make one for me?”

Holy shit I’ll be real with you, I’d love to do this as a living. I’ve been dying to see a smart assistant hit the market that’s like… well, an actual, endearing companion and not just a voice coming from a speaker. The problem with doing this is that, if you drop a lot of money (and it will be a lot of money, even with a code base to work from, a lot of hours of handiwork still goes into coding individual responses and making sure everything works as intended, on top of possibly customizing too), there is one major problem: proximity. I won’t be able to troubleshoot your furby nearly as effectively from far away as I would be able to if we lived in close proximity. Which means if something goes wrong between the time your new friend is finished at point A and turned on at point B, I won’t be there to troubleshoot it in person for you, which means you could end up stuck figuring out certain things alone. If you use Windows, that will be very, very hard - not being an OS snob here, I own a dual boot myself, it’s just a case of incompatible file systems. And unless you can figure out how to edit the wpa_supplicant file on a raspberry pi to update your wifi credentials, your furby’s internet connection could be toast if you move house and those credentials change. That’s not getting into the cost some services charge for extra API keys to use their online functions…

The long and short of it is, if I’m going to do this for money, I want to make sure you get a quality product and friend that will bring you joy for years to come. Since that’s not something I can guarantee, I can’t in good conscience take people’s money.

I Could Teach You (And I Won’t Charge)

…however, I am a law student who is also working 8.5 hour night shifts three nights a week. I am also mentally ill/neurodivergent, which saps my energy in more ways than one. I won’t always be easy to get ahold of, or be able to answer every question I get, especially not ones that can be solved with a quick google search, like how to set up a raspberry pi, or… anything found on Adafruit’s Crickit guide, for example. When I have the time and energy, I’m hoping to use my next project as a jumping off point for a step by step walkthrough of the process. For now, though? I’ve been furbied out, so if there’s enough demand, I’ll compile as many of the resources I used I can find in the meantime, and post some tips from the word doc I kept while making Sterling, and go from there.

So What’s Next?

My one dad’s birthday is coming up in August, and I’m kicking around the idea of turning a furby into, I shit you not, a ghost hunting device. He loves ghost hunting, but hates robots, and as his gremlin shit child I am obligated to troll him in this fashion. 😎 Also considering doing a certain type of oddbody mod, but I want to get permission from the person who first thought of the concept before I dive head first into it.

And that about covers it! Thanks for reading, and if there’s anything you’d like to see from Sterling and I, don’t hesitate to drop us an ask!

[mcdermott11gauthier]

Why Copag Cards Are Important For Home Poker Games

Due to various commitments, I am currently playing turbo STT games. I find time to squeeze in the occasional game between my other activities and for some relaxation and'me-time'. Some people do a crossword, I play a turbo poker game! My mindset is therefore geared to a quick game and quick decisions. I'll play aggressively in shorter games than I would in longer formats. You can observe your opponents while you play. A) When you watch your opponent you know if one player always raises in a certain position, and when another bluffs, the 3rd folds to every re-raise, you can decide how to play against them. Once you are able to see that player 3 always folds to any re-raises on a river you can bluff and take a pot. B) You MUST read the table figure out the best possible hand that can fit the flop. Look at the straight and flush options. Remember once you have you will be able to better read opponents and even use reverse tells against them. Spend a lot time online researching poker, reading books and articles about the subject, and most importantly, learn from your mistakes. This will help you win in any poker game online. Once agen pulsa tanpa potongan depo 25rb have decided what kind of poker home games you want to start and have gathered enough players, it's time to get organized and ensure that you have the right equipment to host a home game. We'll only briefly discuss the equipment in this post as I plan to go into more detail in the next posts. It is not fine to be in distress for long periods of time when we don't have the time to rest and recover. So, the best variant is online best poker game, we can play at any free minute, to have a rest and do not leave working place or leave important things for a long time. You need to be mentally and physically prepared to handle stressful situations. Poker requires concentration. If you have enough time to think clearly and are focused on the game, play. There are basically two types: cash and free. Players play for points in a free game. Players pay a small upfront fee to play in a cash-based game. Due to poker's popularity, many thousands of people will pay the fee to play until there is one winner. Even though entry fees may be small, some poker pots are large. For example, if you don't tell your child that you are angry or upset, he won't know if he has won the intensity-seeking game. He will try to "call you bluff", i.e., to determine if you are trying to fake emotion by pressing as many buttons at once. Your blank expression and continued playing will eventually make him tired and he will fold.

[boradcastmonitoringsolutions]

Q&A | Webinar Sessions: How to Leverage AI for Closed Captioning?

Trance: AI-enabled world of Transcription, Captioning, and Translation; anytime & anywhere

Trance is an enterprise-level, cloud-based web application from Digital Nirvana integrated with cutting edge STT technology and cloud-based architecture, leading to significant efficiency gains. In this webinar we discussed how AI is transforming subtitling, translation, and transcription and covered key concepts around;

Importing media into Trance

Creating, viewing and editing transcripts in a single window

Configuring presets and single-click generation of closed captions in Pro Window and Caption Editor Window

Automatically translating to a secondary language

Exporting caption sidecars in all industry-standard formats

Below are few key important conversations in the Q&A section of the webinar

1.How do customers really use Trance? What are some of your most common use cases?

A- There’s an application again alluded to from a third-party provider perspective, and Netflix was mentioned and I’m going to reference Quibi in this particular case. So we have a client that uses Trance and they struck up a relationship with Quibi. And all of a sudden very quickly they needed to turn around content to Quibi, but the requirements for them to turn this content around are extremely narrow and very exacting, meaning that specifically, the time frame to do this is roughly within the 60-minute window. And this is going on on a rotational daily basis.

So high pressure, short turnaround time, but also with an exacting standards of accuracy based on the Quibi style guideline. And so that’s one particular use case, where the overarching requirement for this customer was speed, accuracy and the enterprise workflow of being able to get this work done and get it done quickly to turn content around, the short form assets to a carrier like Quibi or an outlet like Quibi.

And this would apply for Netflix as well and there are other outlets that just happens to be one that is top of mind and very prominent right now. Another application would be independent caption providers. These would be small companies that have relationships in the broadcast space or sometimes in other areas, other OTT markets or other VOD type of markets. 

And they’re looking to leverage Trance to be competitive in these alternate markets, maybe not so much in the live broadcast segment for reasons we’ve already touched on. And so they come to us looking for a solution saying, hey, I need a better tool than what’s out there in the web and the app based marketplace for translation and transcription.

And this is again where Trance fills a really niche or gap in the market from these providers that are sort of a one size fits all, they’re not agile. What you get is, it’s pre-configured, whereas with Trance it can be wide open and we can export in any number of formats and we have all this enterprise flexibility, but yet it’s still approachable and usable for a small shop that, say has three, four, five employees.

So we’re seeing applications and adoption of Trance in scenarios like that. There’s another application. This came up fairly recently where another client has said, we’d really love to take long format assets, typically raw field content or long form interviews. And we see a need to be able to take these assets, automatically transcribe them and take the transcription as metadata and index it back into the asset.

So that it gives the operators and the editors and people producing this content much greater visibility into, say, an hour-long recording. And this is another way in which the product is being used, not just directly captioned something to go to air or some OTT delivery, but they’re using it as a metadata source to index back to the raw content for greater post-production, accuracy and efficiency.

And then I think the last one I would draw your attention to would be CBC or the Canadian Broadcast Company, where they are using us to do conformance. One piece of the product is the ability to conform existing content to again a specific style guideline, like in Netflix, in this case that’s exactly what it is. It’s one of the outlets that Netflix parameter is very rigid and very demanding and exacting.

And so they use Trance to auto conform any inconsistencies in their existing captioning process to make sure that what goes out and gets delivered to Netflix is fully compliant based on those again very exacting style guidelines. So those would be three or four examples of mainline broadcast media sort of in the trenches applications where the product is used today.

2. Would the charge be based on the amount of content or it’s just a license?

A- It’’s another hallmark of the way we operate and do business at Digital Nirvana. So here’s the great news. Trance is user based. It’s based on usage and usage alone. It depends on how much content you push through it and how much content comes out of it and it’s based purely on that factor alone.

So there is no site licensing process. There’s no particular user seat license restriction. It’s purely a consumption model. And you’re charged a rate based on that consumption figure or that consumption number. And that’s it. We want as many people using it and adopting it. And we hope that that policy makes it as easy with a lowest barrier of entry to embrace the product and use it, and we also think it’s the most fair

3. Is there a product installed? Is it browser based? Can you give us some background on the SaaS of your product?

A- It is a SaaS product. There is no licensing or deployment of software. This is entirely browser-based HTML access. So, it’s universally accessible via any browser to any asset, any video audio asset, and the tools are also universally accessible through that browser connectivity to any user wherever they may be anywhere in the world and at any time.

So again there’s no geographic or physical limitation to its access. If you have a broadband Internet connection, it doesn’t even have to be in a corporate land or wide area network. You can — simply based on your credentials to use the system, you can log into the platform and be using the tool just like we demonstrated a few minutes ago in the demo.

And that means there’s no installs, there’s no issues with software versions or version management. There’s no plugins. There’s no software updates that have to be managed across a single site or multiple sites, which is even more difficult. There’s no, again, user licensing or site licensing restrictions, et cetera. It’s purely a remote HTML login process only.

4. Why is Trance so fast? How does it produce these fast, incredibly fast turnaround times for these operators? You’d mentioned the Quibi example before we talked about SaaS, but can you give us some highlights without giving away the secret sauce on how you do it? How do you do it so quickly?

A- Some of the inherent advantages of SaaS and cloud-based tool sets enhance that process. I mean, this is a great example in the current climate that we’re in, where many people are working remotely and they’re not in their physical offices they once were. This type of tool just makes getting access to doing your work that much easier in a sort of social cultural climate that we find ourselves. So that’s the first piece. The other piece that’s huge is the speed and the accuracy of the speech to text technology. And this goes back to what I referenced in I think one of the earlier questions, how we philosophically deal with speech to text and we use multiple engines and we optimize those engines based on their performance and we’re constantly evaluating those engines’ performance.

So not only do you not have to do it manually, which is a colossal savings in time in terms of manual transcribing of content, that’s being done automatically, and the work that’s being done is highly accurate. So again, with good quality content, we typically and very uniformly see results coming from the speech to text engines that are 90%, 95%, sometimes even higher in terms of their accuracy.

So that’s another giant efficiency boosting part of this whole equation. The other piece is of course as we talked about this is an M&E application from the outset. So the tool set and the user interface are all geared towards this specific outcome and the specific people that will use it and embrace it. 

So it was designed from the ground up with that type of community in mind. The API that I referenced is another way for large enterprise customers that do not have to create secondary processes even to work within Trance and get all the native stuff in Trance is really cool, right? But if you’re in some giant enterprise and you’ve got all these interconnected media systems, the last thing you want to do is have to create a secondary process in a situation like that.

And so, for those customers, we’ve solved that problem as well. Through these — this open API process, Trance just integrates directly into that existing media workflow environment, which is really great. And then the other piece, I would say, is that again these custom presets being able to define and confirm automatically at the creation of captions or transcriptions, content that’s automatically destined to conform to wherever its final destination is intended.

So if I’m publishing to Netflix, I can set those parameters up ahead of time and be reassured and comfortable knowing that the work that I do is automatically formatted for that final destination without having to go back later and tweak it or make changes or fuss around with it. It’s just completely done from the outset. So I would say those are four or five really good reasons to sort of clarify that speed question.

5. When you’re using these SaaS or PaaS, something that’s not based on-site, data platform security is critical in transfer mechanism. And you also list FTP as a transfer protocol, right. So curious what the security posture is around it?

A- One such customer that uses this product every single day of the week had that same question, taking top-tier content with a high degree of sensitivity and vulnerability quite frankly from a risk perspective evaluated us on that very topic. And we went through a very thorough process of reassuring that customer that those assets in the way that they’re — the way that they’re transferred and the way that they’re stored in the cloud. And the privacy that surrounds and the security that surrounds those assets remain untouched and completely secure and pristine. This was an extremely high mark for us to have to meet. It was something that the product natively does.

I can only tell you that we met that test with flying colors and this major mainline well-known broadcaster again has accepted us based on that and uses it every single day. If there are — I would say that if there’s more detailed technical questions, certainly forward those to us, it may be better to field those more detailed questions around security or anything else offline outside of this session, because I don’t know the specifics of what the questioner had in mind. But we’ve addressed them and our customers have responded in kind believing and trusting us knowing that our security protocols are sufficient for their requirements.

Closed Captioning solutions

create accurate transcripts

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Accurate translation

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Automatic transcription

different language captions

multi language localization

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Voice recognition

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Automated Speech to Text Transcription

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voice to text technology

Trance

[scurlgenius]

Exclusive: First impressions of the Cooper Discoverer STT Pro tires

Scott Brady, publisher and founder of Expedition Portal, and co-founder of Overland Journal, the very first American driver to win the Outback Challenge, shared his impressions of the brand new Cooper Discoverer STT Pro mud tire. Further an account on his behalf.

Last fall, at a specialized SEMA exhibition, Cooper Tire representatives recalled me to an area inaccessible to the majority of visitors, where they slowly brushed away the “cloak” from their last creation - from the new high-performance mud tire. The name for the model has not even been invented, and the team of engineers still clarified the most recent nuances, but even without it it was clear that the brand new tire will make a splash.

A few months later, Cooper presented we with the opportunity to be the first to ever evaluate the capabilities of the brand new Discoverer STT Pro tires. Due to the fact we had sympathy for Cooper tires before, the proposal to try the performance of the brand new model was very tempting, especially considering all the engineering solutions put on the Discoverer line in recent years. The American brand not merely produces high-quality tires for the secondary market, but additionally offers the very best solutions for car manufacturers who have decided to utilize Cooper models as original equipment.

The Cooper Discoverer STT Pro size range is indeed far limited by five options, but even from their store we managed to pick the “caliber” 305/70 R18, ideally suitable for my Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen. Truth be told that my G-Klasse has undergone several improvements, including the suspension. Its 40 mm elevation allows you to safely mount 35-inch mad tires. Until that moment, I drove 33-inch all-terrain tires, nevertheless the Germans are usually impressive, and the wheel niches of the 463rd Gelendvagen model can magically accommodate tires with a diameter of 35 inches. Having received these 32-kilogram "monsters" in our local Discount Tire service center, we installed them on factory disks, and for balancing we needed the littlest weight.

After all five tires were installed on the G-Wagen, my first impression was positive, at the least visually. Aggressive, quite modern design without fashionable and useless elements. I liked the side lugs along with the square frame profile. When installed with black sidewalls outwardly, the tires look discreet, but very stylish.

Moving away from tire fitting, I noted an elevated rotating mass and an alteration in effective gearing, in principle this was not critical, since my Gelandewagen was never particularly fast. Having a notion of ​​the All-Terrain tires, I expected the Discoverer STT Pro to be loud, but by measuring the noise, I was surprised to see a noise increase of only one decibel. Yes, there is a slight buzz, increasing at gentle bends, but in terms of mud tires, the Cooper novelty is extremely quiet. The reduced noise level is primarily as a result of tread design. The blocks differ in dimensions, tilt angle, shape and height, which actually ensures the noise reduction function.

Having left on a set firm road, I was impressed with several factors, especially the capacity to follow based on confirmed trajectory, which is rather difficult to supply for a muddy car tire. Tires Cooper Discoverer STT Pro quietly roll along confirmed path, whilst the driver requires minimal correction while driving. Another noticeable moment was a slight yaw over the track, on top which irregularities, cracks and grooves, although insignificantly, still affect the direction of movement. This result is more in keeping with all-terrain AT-tires than with mud tires with large voids in the tread pattern.

The absolute most obvious impact on the large Mercedes was the upsurge in the rotating and reciprocating mass as a result of thickness of the side walls and the 35th diameter. These tires are extremely heavy for their three-layer construction and deep tread. Discoverer STT Pro is heavier than most competing mud tires by 1.4-3.2 kilograms, which indicates their strength, durability and high off-road patency.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: Almost ready for its close up: A first look at the reopened Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas

Five words you never want to hear on the other end of the line as youre packing for vacation: Your reservation has been canceled.

A preemptive call to The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, to inquire about airport transportation options had me breaking into a sweat, and not the kind induced from lounging on a beach under the Caribbean sun, as an agent tried to pull up my impending booking. Luckily, with a little digging, they were finally able to locate the still-intact reservation but I couldnt help wondering if the mix-up was an omen for the trip.

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The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas was in its third month of operation when I visited, according to one staff member I spoke to, after being closed for a $100 million renovation to repair damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017. As I learned from my colleague Summer Hull, you just never know what youre going to get when visiting a newly opened property.

What I found upon arrival was a hotel that may be open, but wasnt quite offering guests the full resort experience yet which could be a dealbreaker for some considering the cost of a stay at this property.

Rocking chairs welcoming guests at the entrance to The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

In This Post

Booking

The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas is a top-tier Category 8 Marriott Bonvoy property. This means award nights will cost you 70,000 points for an off-peak night, 85,000 for a standard night and 100,000 for a peak night.

Predictably, a stay even mid-week at this property wouldnt come cheap in the middle of high season for the Caribbean. Had we paid cash, we would have paid about $1,000 per night, but we wanted to keep cash outlay to a minimum so instead chose to redeem 155,000 points (for one off-peak and one standard night) instead, which TPG values at around $1,240.

The resort quotes a daily resort fee of $85, but I was only charged $50 upon checkout.

If youre low on Marriott points and are eyeing a redemption such as this, consider signing up for theMarriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card, which is currently offering a sign-up bonus of 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months after account opening.

Location

Getting to the island of St. Thomas from New York was a dream: a quick nonstop flight from Newark (EWR) to St. Thomas (STT) meant wheels down by 2:50 p.m. local time. The drive from the airport to the resort, however, was a different story.

Related:Best ways to use miles in the Caribbean

The Ritz-Carlton is located on the east end of the island, 10 miles from the airport. The hotel does not have any type of shuttle service in place and the island does not currently have Uber so your only option is to grab one of the many taxi vans waiting in the airport lot. You have two taxi options: Pay $90 cash for a private shuttle, meaning you have the van to yourself, or $18/person to ride in the same vehicle but with additional passengers. And by additional passengers, I mean seven additional passengers so get ready to get close if thats the route you go.

A view of the Ritz property at night. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

You could also rent a car, but beware that the quality of rental cars in the U.S. Virgin Islands is often not great, and you drive on the left-hand side in the USVI, which could be difficult for those used to right-hand driving on the mainland.

Because St. Thomas is very hilly, be prepared for a long drive (in our case, about 45 minutes) up very steep and windy roads. If youre prone to car or motion-sickness, maybe skip the free shots offered at the airport Margaritaville on your way out.

Check-in

My husband and I arrived at the resort around 3:50 p.m. We were met by friendly hotel staff who directed us to the check-in desk where a cold towel and delicious iced beverage (with optional Cruzan rum topper!) appeared within minutes. Despite official check in being a mere 10 minutes away (4 p.m.), the room was not ready. This was especially hard to comprehend after a staffer mentioned the hotel was only 40% full at the time of our visit.

The lobby is airy and decked out with brand-new furnishings. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The receptionist asked us to drop our bags with the bellman and wait at Sails, the resorts closest beach-front restaurant, while the room was readied. As we hopped on a golf cart to head down to the water, my husband had to ask that our luggage be moved from the middle of the unattended valet driveway to a secure storage room.

Golf carts at the ready to transport guests from the lobby to their room. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

An hour later, we finally received a call that the room was ready. We waited for 15 minutes for the bellman to meet us at Sails as directed by the receptionist but eventually gave up when no one showed and walked back up to the entrance to retrieve our luggage and room keys.

Room

The room especially the bathroom at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, was the highlight of the stay.

The term well-appointed is defined as having a high standard of equipment or furnishing when it comes to a building or room and this certainly was true of our standard king room. All furnishings looked brand-new, modern in design and the room was spotless.

The bed was large and luxurious, with plenty of pillows to go around and crisp, clean linens.

A king bed fit for a king what more could you ask for? (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Outlets were within arms reach of any horizontal sleeping position and ample in number. The only downside to the bed setup was that the thermostat was obscured behind a large lamp on the bedside table, making it almost impossible to read or adjust the temperature without doing a furniture shuffle or some type of neck gymnastics.

Plenty of outlets, but you had to work for thermostat access. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Oddly, no protective or decorative covering was fitted onto the lower mattress, which made for an strage-looking setup.

Some things are better left unseen. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

That said, the top-of-the-line bed situation coupled with the sleekest and quietest ceiling fan Ive ever seen made for a great nights sleep.

Aside from the bed, the room also included a chic faux-reclaimed wood desk with leather chairs under an oversized rattan light fixture.

A large and in charge desk made for the perfect spot for breakfast. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

There was also a sleek set of drawers under the flat-screen TV that housed a mini-fridge and DIY Nespresso coffee station with all the fixins.

The coffee station was discreetly tucked into the set of drawers for the caffeine-averse. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

There was also a chaise lounge in the room that, while large for the room, was quite comfortable.

The perfect spot for a little catching up on work. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The closet was big enough to fit an entire resort wear collection and housed the rooms safe, which was easy to use and large enough to accommodate a bevy of electronics and travel documents.

Love a good hotel room robe. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The balcony was spacious albeit no frills, with two basic loungers and chairs at the ready.

The perfect spot for catching a sunset sky. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

This outdoor space would have been the ideal spot for relaxing except for the fact that the view from our building was of the ongoing grounds construction as well as the back of Sails, with limited views of the water. If a good view is a priority, make sure to request a room in one of the buildings that faces east and not north.

View from the balcony of the lush grounds, but limited water. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

As the grounds and property were still very much a work in progress, many of the foot paths were muddy from landscape.

Lots of greenery and lots of mud. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The bathroom was beyond spacious with a shower stall, private toilet, large vanity area and deep soaking tub that vacation dreams are made of.

Could have spent the entire stay just in the tub. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The vanity had ample counter space between around his-and-hers sinks as well as an additional shelf for storage needs. The lower shelf of the vanity was lined with automatic track lighting that turned on as soon as you walked in a smart and useful feature.

A private toilet is always appreciated. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The shower was spacious and included a Raindance showerhead. Asprey amenities were fully stocked in both the shower and main bathroom area.

The shower situation was just as nice as the tub. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The usual suspects. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The toilet seat was one visit away from sliding off but was promptly fixed after a call to the front desk.

Clean, but needed a little tightening. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Food and beverage

Our first dining experience on the property was at Sails waiting for the room, where we began our vacation with high hopes.

The covered beach-front area was a godsend between afternoon rain showers. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The service, as we would experience throughout our stay, was top-notch. The local staff were friendly, attentive and the best part of every meal.

The chips and guac (called Hallamole on the menu, $14), on the other hand, were frankly terrible. Stale cuts of various root vegetables were piled into a basket with a side of guacamole that was oxidized and tasted store-bought.

Sails root chips, guac and salsa. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Tuna poke ($29) and the Red Hook fish tacos ($20) followed suit.

The tuna poke looked much better than it tasted. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Fish tacos with more mayo than Mahi Mahi. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The good news is youll have no trouble finding solace in the frozen drinks, a favorite being the B.B.C. (Baileys Banana Colada, $16), which was basically banana pudding in drink form with booze mixed in.

The Baileys Banana Colada a.k.a. the B.B.C. will make you forget all your worries. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Dining at Alloro for dinner, where fine dining transports you to Sicily by way of St. Thomas, was not as disappointing but not great. We were told the restaurant was booked out when we walked in, and that the only seats were at the bar, which was more than fine with us, but odd considering all the empty tables.

A beautiful space, to be sure. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

An eggplant caponata starter ($16) was served atop an arugula salad with no dressing and undressed grilled bread.The pizza ($21) and pasta dish ($19) were not offensive but nothing memorable. The resort is lucky to have such incredible staff working, who at least made the experience pleasant overall and also knew how to make a great Negroni.

You can get better pizza and pasta at the airport. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The propertys surf-and-turf restaurant, Bleuwater, was not open for dinner during our visit (despite the website listing hours of operation as 6 to 10 p.m. daily), which reception was unable to confirm or deny when we called for reservations.

The restaurant was, however, open for breakfast (if you can find it the space is unmarked except for faded lettering over a nonworking entrance). It was the best meal we had during our stay. Opt for the breakfast buffet ($32/person) and enjoy fresh juices, pastries, a selection of standard breakfast items from the hot bar and a cold bar of meats and cheeses.

A variety of pastries were available to choose from for all your carbohydrate needs. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

A hearty cheese-and-meat selection did not disappoint. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The fresh fruit was a much-appreciated highlight, as was the fresh fruit juices. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

A hot bar came stocked with all the basics: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and breakfast potatoes. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Again, the service was amazing.

Not wanted to try our luck again at Sails, we ventured over to the beach-front lunch spot on the residence side of the property. We opted for what seemed like the safest choices: a crispy chicken wrap ($19) and a steak quesadilla ($27). Not exactly island food, but it did the trick.

The crispy chicken wrap. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The $27 steak quesadilla. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

On our last morning, we opted for room service: bagels and cream cheese, fruit smoothies and coffee ($79 total). We were quoted at 35 mins but the food did not show up until almost an hour after we ordered.

Bagels for breakfast: You can take girl out of New York (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, also offers a Club Lounge (complete with a killer balcony area) where youll find a light breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks (!) and dessert served daily for $400 per day per reservation.

Given how expensive it is to dine on-property and how, well, not great, the food was during our stay, I would 100% opt to go this route if returning. On our walk-through one evening the selection of bites looked incredible (much better than what was being offered at the actual restaurants) and the self-serve bar speaks for itself.

The other move would be to take advantage of the local restaurants and bars that are a short taxi ride away in Red Hook.

The patio outside Alloro restaurant. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Amenities

When all the construction is complete, guests will have access to two pools on the resorts properyt. However, only one of the two was open while we were there, so we were given access to the pool at the adjacent Ritz-Carlton Club residence property.

The pool that was open at the resort was a smallish infinity pool just steps from the beach. The pool deck was adorned with about a dozen lounge chairs and a few cabanas.

The only pool open on the hotel side during our stay. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The cabanas remained untouched during our stay. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Due to construction, a large metal fence limited the deck space as well as the sunlight at the open hotel pool, which is probably why we rarely saw many guests hanging here.

Some serious shade. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The pool was also noisy as one would expect from a working construct site. The pool currently under construction should be a nice family-friendly option once complete.

I called to check in with the resort about the progress of the construction on this pool, and the agent I spoke to told me that it should be open by the end of next week, as its just awaiting a final water inspection.

Ongoing construction at the second, family-friendly hotel pool. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

An overview of the hotel pool and beach area. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The best part of the beach was the sunscreen station. A nice touch for those on a quick vacation not wanting to check a bag full of liquids or not wanting to buy a new bottle on the island.

A sunscreen for everyone even pasty New Yorkers. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The pool at the Ritz-Carlton Club next door, however, was massive and offered a much better selection of lounge chairs and access to sunlight for those seeking an extra dose of vitamin D.

The beach on the residence side was also in better shape (softer sand, better beach chairs and trees for the sun-averse). It was about a five-minute walk from the hotel pool area, and worth the trip.

Picture yourself in one of those amazing hammocks. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The gym was brand-new, with plenty of cardio and weight machines to choose from, and offered a better view of the ocean than our room.

Come for the workout, stay for the view. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

There were plenty of free weights to choose from. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Brand new cardio machines. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Complimentary earphones, water, towels and fruit were also supplied.

All the necessary gym amenities, a nice touch. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

The tennis courts looked great but we were unable to use them due to frequent rain showers and high winds during our stay.

Nonmotorized aquatic activities were included with the stay. We took out and enjoyed kayaks and snorkeling gear. Standup paddleboards were also available, although we opted not to take them out due to the rocky nature of the beach.

Service

The restaurant and grounds staff at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, were excellent from start to finish: friendly, speedy and knowledgeable. Reception was hit or miss, at times unable to answer basic questions about operations. We did receive prompt service to repair the toilet as mentioned above, which was appreciated.

The gorgeous atrium at night. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

Overall impression

The grounds at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, were beautiful the flora and fauna abundant and tropical and thats even with them being still in progress.

Blooms on blooms. (Photo by Jane Frye/The Points Guy)

As construction is ongoing, there was a good deal of mud on footpaths and in grassy areas where crews were working during our visit. The footpaths are also very poorly lit, so a walk to dinner or around the property at night was precarious.

The room was top-notch and the staff wonderful. Once construction on the hotel pool is finished, it should be a nice play to catch some rays, relax and take in the scenery in peace.

Once the final details are finished on this property and operations have had a chance to smooth out the kinks, this resort will be worth considering for your next visit to St. Thomas, especially if you can do it on points. The food could still be a gamble, but if you opt for the Club Level option and/or dine in Red Hook as a Plan B, you should be good to go.

Featured image by Jane Frye / The Points Guy.

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/almost-ready-for-its-close-up-a-first-look-at-the-reopened-ritz-carlton-st-thomas

[magicalkryptonitereview-blog]

So You Stumbled On Some Jeep Deals, however They Are Jeeps Really For you Really?

Want a sport utility vehicle that can tow? How about the Nissan Armada, its towing capacity is more than 9,000 .. It is also very roomy. The Dodge Durango isn't as big but can tow 8,950 pounds. The Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon XL can also tow their weight and are big enough for those large family. If are usually looking at purchasing the Cooper STT for your off road vehicle submitting to directories thing desire to know about is it's ability in regards to the trail or in the dirt. I have found that the Cooper STT performs exceptionally well in the mud. Ultimately ends up delivering wide grooves in the tread clean out really well, and additional side grooves prove which gives just enough side grip to call for out within the stickiest environments. The Cooper STT proves to be very sturdy in the rocks also and I've never had one puncture even as toughest of terrains. The police agency did write in his report that Giovinazzo was very polite and "immediately apologetic." Before admitting he or she had drank some scotch with friends at the W Hotel, he told the police man that he was fooling with his GPS and that is why he had swerved. The mileage is surely an important factor but resale value matters a ton. Honda Fit one of the affordable compact car. Provides a mileage of nearly 31mpg on average. The price of this car is nearly $15,400. The resale value is quite good. On average, Honda fit retain a associated with 45% of the original price after graduate students. Jeep Cherokee is a boon for terrain people. Around YJ Wrangler Jeep Bolts , there are thousands of diehard fans of jeep Cherokee parts owing to its style and gratifaction. In the interior, for this jeep Cherokee there will do of room in the back at least for two people. A third one could be accommodated but by using a little lead pages. The boot of your jeep is of immense size in the area extremely stretch. The grand jeep Cherokee has 60 directly onto 40 split-fold rear recliners. The rear seats have reclining feature. This greatly raises the comfort ability in the back seats. Jeep Cherokee has utilized quality materials in all its parts much jeep seat etc. The plastics used are highly durable, and all the shut lines are expertly fitted and the doors seem quite strong and sturdy. Providing armor for the TJ Wrangler Jeep Bolts underbody components are three skid plates - protecting the fuel tank, transfer case and automatic transmission oil pan. Reduce using air conditioning: During the summer, may going for some scorching hot days when you ought to cool yourself down. Hard work leave the windows open when driving or parking your car in a shady space. Minimising the usage of your car air conditioner can lessen fuel consumption significantly. In sum, people who look at driving a truck basically as a of getting from one place to another may will look elsewhere, keeps growing Wrangler is now for individuals who look for adventure, whoever has a desire to bring their car places include never gone before, and people that appreciate driving for absolutely pointless besides to get out typically the great outdoors.

[ozzie177-blog1]

STT: FreeFall, Part 6 /Out Of Range\

After Rin's death I hadn't thought too much about what to do next I guess. Exo had disappeared and John was planning to avenge Lennard, so I didn't have much on my plate. I promised Rin I'd do good by her, and she wasn't a serial killer. I guess it's probably not fitting to avenge someone by doing what they hated. Aside from the fact she was a bounty hunter or something, she was peaceful. There was a local club downtown called "Foxy", like Deep Blush but without as many strippers. Aside from the fact that I'm not a huge people person, I guess I deserved to take a load off and go there. We didn't bury Rin, we lost her body, but I know she's at peace now, so I'll do right by her.

As the ocean and the horizon turned to a soft orange, I decided to head out. I put on a suit since I'm trying to look new and everything. I look like a complete tool, but that old outfit wouldn't fly. Harris was in pretty good shape, although I still cant find the gun holster I put on his chassis earlier this week, probably for the best actually. The moon finally showed high in the sky as I parked behind the building, it's pretty cold for this time of summer, but I like the cold thankfully, makes me wonder why these tools with their high-end cars are wearing tank tops and- "Hey, is that Jackie?" I recognized that voice, it was that asshole from high school, Chase. "Hey do you have breasts now? What did you get a hormone check or something?!" They laughed and laughed just like they did back in high school, I'm not taking this shit again. "Well maybe I did, in a culture like ours I'd imagine I'd probably actually get laid more than you have, ass breath." He scoffed, what a prick. "Still doesn't changed the fact that I get more girls on my dick!" "Hey, sorry if half of the people I've been in bed with are men because you're Christian!" That made them mad. "Well you're just a faggot, I saw you su-" I grabbed his cheek and cut it with my nail, he fell to the ground, like I just socked him in the face or something. "Bigot!" I've had enough of this, I raised my foot and- "What's going on over here?" I turned around and saw a girl, she looked a little annoyed. "Chase, are you picking fights again?!" She shouted, for a girl she had a pretty man-like voice. "This fag started it!" "You better shut up before I hurt you." I said, I felt like people were watching at this point. "Go ahead, you're just a pu-" I grabbed him by his shirt, tossing him over into the parking lot as I grabbed a pipe wrench from my bike's toolkit. He was on the ground, an easy kill. I stood over him as he cowered, he didn't even look like he could fight at this point. I pulled back the wrench, swinging it into a trash can nearby. "Next time don't fuck with someone who can beat you!" I tossed the wrench away as I went to go fix my cuff links, I heard footsteps behind me, as I turned Chase had the wrench and swung it right into my forearm, it felt like my arm was partially crushed in a vice as I grabbed the wrench, twisting his arm and breaking it. He winced in pain as I swung back and felt a firm grip keep me from crushing his skull in. "Don't do that." It was the girl, for having skinny arms and being smaller than me, she was pretty strong. "He'll be more destroyed if you take his girlfriend away." Chase slowly stood up as the girl went over and gave him a real good slap, knocking him onto the ground. I put the wrench away and taxied my bike away from these tools, the girl trailing behind me. "So, why did you hang out with them in the first place? If you know he was a dickhead then why'd you even date him?" "I just cling to whoever impresses me, I guess. He had a lot of money." "Money may mean a lot of things in this city but it's nothing compared to how you fare in a fight." "Do you just have a biased opinion because you kicked his ass or?..." I moved out of the way to show her Harris, custom made... Everything. Cost me a pretty penny but beat any street race I've ever been in, even with the side seat. "Damn, she looks-" "He..." "Excuse me, he looks pretty." I was proud of this bike. It said about me in a way, aside from the fact that I actually really hate cars. "Well, it was nice meeting you but I'm afraid-" As I passed her she grabbed my right arm and held it firmly against my back, it felt like a vice, ready to break the bones inside my arm itself. I was afraid to speak up because I didn't want her to actually break it. "We're going inside, boyfriend~" "I'm a woman dam-" She clenched her grip, that got me to shut up. She walked me over to the entrance as I tried to keep a regular face, still suffering from her grip on me. The bouncer took a single look at this girl and just let us in, maybe they were friends or something? The club was sparsely populated, few people sitting at the bar, around 10 people on a dance floor that could easily hold 30, and the VIP area was filled, I did see a set of stairs, however. The girl sat us down in some kind of cubby, I didn't wanna get on her bad side so I just sat there. I finally got a good look at her. She had big floppy ears and brown fur, with a few darker patches scattered around her body. She was dressed pretty casually, almost like she was going to hang out at her place with a friend, everyone else was wearing something flashy, she even had glasses on. "So, if it's okay to ask, what's your name?" I asked whilst rubbing my wound. "It's Jenny, I believe yours is Jackie?" "Yeah... Can you get me a drink or something?" Jenny waved down a server, again seemingly getting some kind of VIP treatment as I got a rather fancy looking drink in the matter of a few minutes. I rolled up my sleeve, take a small sip from the drink and poured the rest onto my arm, trying not to wince. "So what do you do for a living?" When she asked this I sat there a little dumbfounded, what was I supposed to tell her? I'm a dangerous criminal, it's actually a very rewarding career! "I work for a phone company..." I struggled a little bit getting the words out, nervous as anyone would be. "I'm a business owner, I make bank with all places I own." That might explain why she has VIP access... I felt a vibrating in my pocket as I pulled out my phone, it was a text from Sky. "As much as I'd love to stay and chat I've got a job to do." She gently grabbed my hand, putting a slip of paper in it. I didn't  have the time to read it so I stuff it in my pocket and headed for the penthouse.