THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA | ITALY DAY 3

Last month, my sister went on vacation to Italy. In the third vlog of the trip, which I helped edit, she reveals what gift she brought back for me.

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Racing Game of the Week #32: “London Racer” (2000) — The Well-Red Mage

“I don’t see the point of owning a car in London” -Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead “The following is a contributor post by the Purple Prose Mage.” It is 29th September 2000. Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, opens at number one at the Northern American box office. […]

via Racing Game of the Week #32: “London Racer” (2000) — The Well-Red Mage

Blogger Blitz: Shipping Wars Round One Match Schedule — Adventure Rules

Blogger Blitz is all about its unique events – learn the full details of each one here!

via Blogger Blitz: Shipping Wars Round One Match Schedule — Adventure Rules

This is my half of Wacky Wedding, a round one match of Blogger Blitz: Shipping Wars. I’m representing Mortimer Goth and Bella Goth née Bachelor from The Sims. My opponent in this match is Pix1001 from Shoot the Rookie, who’s representing Itsuki Aoi and Yashiro Tsurugi from Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.

Event description:

You have been cordially invited to a wedding as the plus one for your Ship. It’s supposed to be a fun trip where everyone gets to see each other after a long time apart; instead, things go wild when a freak storm threatens to tear up the venue! Everyone looks to you to save the wedding – wait, why you? You don’t even know the “lucky” couple? Turns out the whole wedding party, including your Ship, is too busy getting ready to tackle the problem. Tell us how you bring the wedding back from the brink!

WACKY WEDDING
Governor’s son saves day when nuptials go wrong
By Victoria Andrews

At a wedding in Central Park last Sunday, a weather-related disaster was averted by an unlikely hero.

Elementary school student Mortimer Goth – son of regional Governor Gunther Goth and wife Cornelia (both adults of 13 Skyborough Blvd) – came to the aid of traffic cop Hank Goddard and Pauline Wan (both young adults of 1 Sun Song Ave.) when a lightning storm threatened to ruin their big day.

Mr Goddard and Ms Wan moved into Sunset Valley together during their engagement. It was during this time that Gov. Goth – then-Chief Executive Officer of Doo Peas Corporation – accepted a personal invitation from Vice President Nancy Landgraab to fill the office of regional Governor.

Mr Goth (who is also an honour roll student) came to be a guest at the wedding when invited as a plus one by his classmate, Bella Bachelor, who was attending due to her father, professional blogger Simis Bachelor (adult of 12 Sim Lane), being invited in order to cover the event.

But one thing the happy couple hadn’t counted-on was a freak storm which moved into the Valley shortly after the wedding got underway. The party didn’t suspect any danger at first as the storm was classified as distant but when it was reclassified as being nearby there wasn’t enough time to get indoors before the storm was reclassified again as local.

Eventually, the inevitable happened and a bolt of lightning struck one of the guests. Ms Bachelor’s injuries were non-fatal but her clothes were singed and her dignity was well and truly damaged.

To make matters worse, many guests had come down with nausea induced by food poisoning and were queuing up by the public toilet cubicles to vomit. Not only that, but the rain had dried the barbecue grills and rendered the food uneatable.

But more than anything, Mr Goddard and Ms Wan had not yet been declared husband and wife.

The chaos ensued and, for a moment, it seemed that the wedding was ruined – until Mr Goddard and Ms Wan looked to the young Mr Goth for help. His family’s manor, just up the hill from Pleasant Rest Graveyard, is enough to house a large party of guests without overcrowding. As far as Mr Goddard and Ms Wan were concerned, it was the perfect solution.

As the guests were returning home to dry out, Mr Goth formed a group with Mr Goddard and Ms Wan and invited them home. However, as the bride and bridegroom arrived at the Goth home, they found that its owners were absent. Unfortunately, this was the same night that Gov. Goth and Mrs Goth dined out at the Little Corsican Bistro (as our paparazzo covered in our special supplemental magazine, Oh my Goth!).

With no one to help, Mr Goth found himself in charge of the situation. Luckily, Mr Goth is quite capable and independent for his life stage and was able to coordinate an emergency second wedding plan.

After showing Mr Goddard and Ms Wan to the Goth home’s multiple bathrooms for them to get ready again, Mr Goth phoned all the guests in their book in order to inform them of the new wedding and quickly invite them around with a formal dress code and merely two hours notice. With all the guests informed and on their way, Mr Goth then served burgers and hot dogs, that Gov. and Mrs Goth had prepared earlier, from the fridge and around the downstairs living areas. For good measure, Mr Goth also ordered pizza just in case, knowing that his family’s budget could easily cover it.

Not being one to deceive his parents, Mr Goth also phoned Gov. and Mrs Goth to inform them of the new state of affairs. But there was one thing Gov. and Mrs Goth weren’t told – because it was something Mr Goth didn’t know either. During the storm, lightning had struck the Goths’ private family graveyard, prompting the ghosts that are known to haunt the property to awaken during the day and proceed to walk around the house. Mr Goth’s grandparents – Victor and Gretle Goth and Simon and Prudence Crumplebottom – and distant relative Lolita Goth, who was herself killed in a lightning strike not dissimilar from the one which almost killed Ms Bachelor, inadvertently became five extra guests for the ceremony they suddenly discovered their usual haunting ground to be now holding. Mr Goddard and Ms Wan received a great fright after first seeing them but soon calmed when the apparitions indicated their benevolence. Plus, the ghosts didn’t need to eat, which meant no more food needed to be supplied.

The guests showed up on time and Gov. and Mrs Goth also returned home to congratulate Mr and Mrs Wan on their wedding, which went ahead without a hitch – though the guests were a little bit spooked by the five ghosts present. Ms Bachelor was present also and there are rumours that she and Mr Goth confessed their love for each other. Mr and Mrs Wan are now living happily together, the ghosts of the Goth house have returned to their nocturnal routine and Mr Goth is a local hero of the town.

Official records of the wedding party can be viewed in Sunset Valley Town Hall.

Match results will be revealed this Friday, 23rd August at 14:00 BST.

“Cause and Effect Ratio: Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Silent Hill Origins (2007)” — The Well-Red Mage

“I’m a reasonable guy but I’ve just experienced some unreasonable things.” -Big Trouble in Little China

via “Cause and Effect Ratio: Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Silent Hill Origins (2007)” — The Well-Red Mage

Article I edited.

Golem Gates (2019) [Switch] — The Well-Red Mage

You are the harbinger — a powerful being able to wield the power of the Ash to conjure troops, structures, and spells. You are tasked with cleansing the post-apocalyptic Earth free of forces that have been ravaging the landscapes for millennia… or so you’re told.

via Golem Gates (2019) [Switch] — The Well-Red Mage

Article I edited.

Racing Game of the Week #31: “Golden Age of Racing” (2005) — The Well-Red Mage

“Put your hands on the wheel Let the golden age begin” -Beck Hansen, “The Golden Age” “The following is a contributor post by the Purple Prose Mage.” It is 2nd September 2005. The death of three rally fans while driving home from a meetup is determined to have been accidental. Brokeback Mountain and Bjork’s […]

via Racing Game of the Week #31: “Golden Age of Racing” (2005) — The Well-Red Mage

“Our Patreon Celebrates 2 Years – 6 Things I Learned Launching and Maintaining a Crowdfunding Campaign” — The Well-Red Mage

Good things come to those who wait — and those who pour an exorbitant amount of time and energy, blood, sweat, and tears into it, with patience.

via “Our Patreon Celebrates 2 Years – 6 Things I Learned Launching and Maintaining a Crowdfunding Campaign” — The Well-Red Mage

The Last Stitch Goes Through the Nose (2019)

The following “review” is adapted from a question I asked author Moses Norton during The Legend of the Last Stitch, an AMA:

The people of Reicbough prefer to ignore death, something which is inevitable, simply because they’d rather not think about it. I think it’s fair to say that this is the case for most people, that we prefer not to think about our own inevitable death because we don’t like the idea of living a finite existence. But death is inevitable and we must learn to accept that in order to make peace with our mortality. I also personally think that doing so can actually improve our lives because it can motivate us to do something worthwhile with the limited time we have. If we all understood this, those worthwhile actions from each person could, in the end, make us all kinder to one another. I don’t think this can happen while we continue to ignore our own mortality simply because we don’t like to think about it. Most people just don’t know that thinking about the inevitability of death could actually have the opposite effect and make things better by giving us a reason to value our life – which the people of Reicbough eventually come to realise.

But that’s only a very simple “what have we learned?” analysis. What interests me more is the way in which that denial manifests. The Scissor-man and the Bishop are the only people in Reicbough whose contributions to the community involve the acknowledgement of death, and so they themselves are unacknowledged with it. The Scissor-man in particular is the subject of a myth told to the children by their parents so they don’t have to know about death and can remain protected by the truth.

Reicbough is also protected literally, with a kept gate, and it’s implied that no one ever leaves unless they really have to because they like the comfort, familiarity and safety provided to them by their domestic surroundings. When Orasi journeys beyond that protective barrier, he encounters a harsh and challenging environment that, when endured, leads him to discovering the truth about the Scissor-man, which leads everyone else to accepting the truth about death.

This all seems to me to be an extended analogy of how people ignore other things they’d rather not think about even though they’d benefit from doing so. There’s the homelessness analogy in the epilogue – that people choose not to see, they choose to ignore it. We’ve decided that thinking about them is too difficult, so the homeless become, just like the physical dead of Reicbough, dead in our minds, too. And yet, if we go through that kept gate and journey into the surrounding wilderness, we’ll encounter the Scissor-man and learn what he really is, and that doing so will ultimately make things better.

Of course, that homelessness analogy at the end is also not the full extend of the metaphor, but reinforces how the story is about anything we wish we didn’t have to think about, and how confronting the least desirable things will yield most beneficial result.

This also lead to me think about things such as cultures of no-platforming in modern colleges and social media backlashes against anyone who expresses controversial opinions. I don’t think this was intended, but it’s something it made me think about anyway.

Reicbough is an echo chamber – not politically, but existentially – and Orasi is only able to fix things by being the one to go outside of it and be prepared to learn the truth he’s been trained to deny. Reicbough is a world where everyone else chose to do what was easy, rather than what was right.

I think this is a story about how the truth will set us free.