When you go out, it’s easy to get caught up going to the same restaurants and spots you usually go to, but sometimes you want to switch it up and explore. Out of many hidden gems in Sussex County, one of my favorites to visit is Cafe e Dolci. It has two locations in both Franklin, NJ and Warwick, NY.
Both locations welcome customers into similar cafe atmospheres that are both warm and inviting. The Franklin location is tucked away in the same strip mall as Shoprite of Franklin. The Warwick location is on the town’s Main Street and has a more prominent exterior that definitely sees more foot traffic than Franklin’s location. At either cafe you are assured a relaxed lounge-type environment. Cafe e Dolci’s menu contains a plethora of different options, ready to cure your hunger with their huge range of food options. Whether you’re in the mood for a drink: selections range from coffees to smoothies to gelato shakes. Food option’s range from sandwiches and soups to quiches to acai and pitaya bowls. They also always have an assortment of baked goods which include slices of cake, cookies, cookie dough, brownies, danishes, croissants, and more! My personal favorite are the crepes and if you’re a crepe connoisseur get ready to be amazed. Cafe e Dolci’s menu consists of both savory and sweet crepes. Some include (but are not limited to): the PB&J, Nutella, Chocolate Strawberry, Cinnamon Roll, Pesto Prosciutto, Balsamic Chicken, and the Veggie. If any of what I listed is calling you in anyway this is a must-visit on your next outing in Sussex County.
We’ve had some good commercials and some questionable ones this year. Like the Remy Martin commercial…what does a sportsy/dynamic motivational speech from one of the best athletes in the world have to do with cognac?
Which one was the best?
Anyway, out of all of these, I’d say the PopCorners ad was the most effective in reaching their audience. What better way to promote your product than with a show that’s been adored by fans for years and has been re-emerging with popularity recently? Also, chips are one of the most popular staple snacks people eat for the big game. Some people watching at home might’ve been eating PopCorners too, so seeing the snack you’re currently eating in a clever and fun commercial will undoubtedly cause more desire for it. The commercial felt like a scene straight out of the show with how naturally the actors fell back into their characters. In addition, the way they seemingly tie in facts and information about the snack itself in such a natural and fitting way makes it iconic to watch. Since the commercial was a more innocent version of what the show actually portrays, it definitely did a good job of attracting consumers to the snack, as well as the show. It seems like a win for both of them.
https://youtu.be/TSJEKU9qKJI
If you would like to watch the commercial, watch it here!
The Westtown Fare’s intimate dining experience is perfect for a date or a night out with family and friends. Reservations are encouraged but not required. Westtown Fare is easily accessible from Orange County NY, Northwest NJ and Pike County, PA
Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut Perfect Blue is a 1997 animated psychological horror film based on Yoshikazu Takeuchi’s novel Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis. The film follows pop idol Mima Kirigoe’s retirement from her status in pursuit of acting, only to find her livelihood at increasing risk in her new career. The story discusses performance as an identity and its impact on the self and culture, with primary focus on femininity and objectification.
Mima Kirigoe and her reflection as a pop idol.
Following her withdrawal from pop idol group “CHAM!”, Mima Kirigoe finds herself unable to cope with the horror that she faces in her new acting career. Haunted by an obsessive stalker, inexplicable murders, and her former identity, Mima begins to lose her sense of self and surroundings. As chaos proceeds, the lines between performance and reality blur in Mima’s own head and on the screen, delivering a deeply surreal experience as visually pleasing as it is psychologically jarring.
Perfect Blue has garnered generally favorable reviews worldwide and is well-established in Western anime circles. It received Best Asian Film at the 1997 Fantasia Film Festival, as well as Best Animated Film at Fantasporto 1998 and the 2000 B-Movie Film Festival. Some critics praise its storytelling extremes, while others find its flourishes too evocative or abstract. Regardless of reception, Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut is a film rich with artistic and emotional challenges well-worth pondering. Chris Beveridge of the Fandom Post writes,
This is not a film one can watch often overall, nor should you, but when you settle into it you put everything else away, turn down the lights, and savor an excellent piece of filmmaking.
Beveridge, Chris (January 15, 2021). “Perfect Blue Blu-ray Anime Review”. The Fandom Post.
Genshin Impact is an action role-playing game developed and published by miHoYo. It was released in September 2020 for multiple platforms including Windows, PlayStation, iOS, and Android.
The game is set in the fantasy world of Teyvat, which is divided into seven nations, each of which is tied to one of the game’s elemental types. Players control a party of characters, each with their own unique elemental abilities, as they explore the world, battle monsters, solve puzzles, and uncover the secrets of Teyvat.
Genshin Impact features an open-world design with a wide range of environments to explore, from lush forests of Sumeru to frozen tundras of Dragonspine. The game also features a gacha system, allowing players to acquire new characters and weapons through randomized draws.
One of the unique features of Genshin Impact is its co-op multiplayer mode, which allows up to four players to team up and explore the world together, taking on challenges and defeating powerful enemies.
Genshins events and storylines primary surround the mysterious disappearance of the main character’s sibling. The main character, also known as “traveler”, has an unknown past and is searching for their sibling. As you character travels through Teyvat, you collect clues to the whereabouts of your sibling as well as make a lot of friends along the way.
Some of the people you meet are vision holders. Vision holders possess the ability to manipulate a specific element. these elements consist of:
Anemo
Geo
Electro
Dendro
Hydro
Pyro
Cryo
All elements also have Archons, or gods, which are the primary users of the elements and play a role in bestowing visions to the inhabitance of Teyvat. These Archons throughout the story befriend our character and help us understand the clues given to us, while in turn we help them.
Each Archon is one part of the seven. The seven referring to the seven elements and the seven archons, each possessing a country under their protection. Currently in the games latests big update we know have four of the seven countries available to explore, those being:
Mondstadt
Mondstadt is the city of freedom, protected by the wind. Its archon is the anemo archon also know as Barbatos, aka our favorite traveling bard Venti. Venti is the first archon you meet, and after you become aquatinted with the wind and assist in the protection of mondstadt, yiu become good friends.
Liyue
Liyue was the second country we visit in Teyvat, at the suggestion of the anemo archon. In Liyue we meet the Geo archon Rex Lapis, aka our local historian Zhongli. Our first experience in Liyue was us getting caught in the dramaticaly staged death of the Geo archons adapters form. We would be labeled a suspect for killing him, but would quickly have that resolved. Later we would also end up assisting in the protection of the country. Inazuma
Inazuma was the third, and most interesting of the countries. Instead of the archon taking the back seat in the countries issues, the archon was the issue. The Electro archon Ei, also known as the archon of eternity, protects Inazuma with an iron fist. because of her ideals our character joins the rebellion against the electro archon. During the battle were prove our strength and gain the electro archons favor. we later befriend her and gain her undying trust. Sumeru
Sumeru is the current country we are in. In this part of the story the people themselves have in a way turned against their god and are being controlled by a select few. Sumeru, home to the Dendro archon Nahida, is a huge ecosystem and i’m currently working through its story.
Overall, Genshin Impact is a great game and has a lot of content as of late. the storyline is fun and expansive. It’s great for all ages! I’ll keep you updated on what happens next!
Art is complex and beautiful form of expression that comes in many forms. Viewing and creating art is something I find very interesting, inspiring, and overall, just fun to do. Over the years of looking at the various form of art I was able to appreciate and learn more of what I would consider a possible career path in the future. Just seeing the different artists and their amazing work makes me more and more inspired to reach a certain level of skill that I could one day considered an impressive level of original artwork.
A few artists that I have found to be very talented individuals that showcased their artwork are…
Whyte Manga
Patrick O Keefe
Opal
Alecia Doyley
Kehinde Wiley
Allison Mckenzie
Plenty of artists that dedicated many years into their passion for art continues to show me the extraordinary possibilities that I can reach with my own skills in art. Art can bring a creative outlook on life, viewing different forms of art in a way that wasn’t seen or heard before. The appreciation that millions of people all around the world put towards art has allowed art in general to evolve more over many centuries. Art is a great way to express something that we ourselves cannot convey through words. Viewing various art pieces helps individuals open up their mindset and think in an alternate perspective.
Shopify is multinational e-commerce platform for online stores in which people can utilize the website to create online stores for their businesses. Anyone is able to purchase a plan of theirs to have access to the many tools that Shopify offers to create a website for their store. Within their services they have many capabilities when creating an online store because you can customize and make the website your own unique way. Shopify was originally launched in 2006 and have grown into a multibillion dollar company with millions of users around the world. Many people have used Shopify to create jobs for themselves and live off their stores from Shopify that’s just how much force Shopify has, but also why it thrives. Being able to create an online store easily and make it good looking is almost half the battle when creating a business. Especially since today more and more people are on the internet and are socially connected, this inclines people to do more online shopping. But how did Shopify grow to be one of the biggest companies to reimagine online shopping? For this we have to look at where Shopify has thrived and the unique opportunities that have landed in their laps.
Shopify’s Growth
Shopify’s revenue has grown tremendously over the last few years due to a plethora of reasons. One of the biggest causes to its growth was the pandemic because online shopping had increased substantially. Everyone couldn’t leave home and what else is there to do at home for hours on end than to go online and possibly shop. During this time period over the course of the last two years Shopify’s revenue has increased over five times the amount it was pulling in since 2018. During the pandemic “Dropshippers” flushed the market to try to get rich fast which also boosted their revenue and success tremendously. Dropshipping is when someone creates a website selling a company’s product through their website without holding inventory. Dropshippers sell an item for a price they desire which typically covers the cost of buying it from the manufacturing wholesale price and gets money in return depending on their profit margins they set. Other factors that contributed to it was their impeccable customer support and their analytics page for their users. Whenever the users had a problem they have a FAQ ready to help easy fixes and operators helping customers all times of the day with their stores. Customers also get to see analytics of their store whether it be sales, conversions, or page views so this helped business owners on Shopify learn what they did right one time or how to avoid other pitfalls.
Official release trailer from Blizzard of Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 ‘s Prequel
On May 24th in 2016, the game development team Blizzard released Overwatch to the public on PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows. With cross platform support, the game became popular almost instantly. The one big issue players had with the game was the pricing; A copy of the game was $40. Although that price is cheaper compared to most games at $60, a price on a game can prevent some people from playing the game.
Overwatch featured 6 v 6 team battles where both teams work together to capture objectives. The characters were split into three different categories: Tank, Damage, and Support. Each round, two tanks, two damage, and two support characters would be selected to use for the round. With over 30 unique characters to choose from, and frequent events and updates, the game continued to stay popular for years.
Overwatch 2′ s Initial Release
On October 4th of 2022, Blizzard released Overwatch 2 for all platforms. They released the sequel free to play, which had drawn in an outstanding number of new players. The developers continue adding new characters, cosmetics, and events into the game, engaging players further. The sequel allowed players to use their original account from the original game, letting them keep their progress, cosmetics, and rank status.
One of the major changes other than the sequel being free to play was the removal of the 6th slot on a team. Each game, there would be a total of five players per team (with ten in total)
My Experience While Playing
I only began playing Overwatch once the sequel came out, as it was free to play. I instantly fell in love with the unique characters within the game, which piqued my interest further. Although this was my first time playing a first-person shooter game, I was easily able to understand the game’s mechanics and how to play.
Overwatch 2 is an excellent game to help begin to understand modern games’ mechanics, with quality graphics, many different settings options, and the popular ‘battle pass’ used throughout many games such as Fortnite.
The new feature of the battle pass allows players to earn rewards as they unlock new tiers within the battle pass, such as in game currency, cosmetics, and emotes.
Overall, I enjoy playing this game very much, and like to play with friends to make the teamwork aspect of the game easier and more fun. I recommend this game to both newcomers of video games, and veterans looking to master first-person shooters in a new light. Down below is a link to the official Overwatch 2 Website, with details on the game and available platforms
The domestic cat or the Felius Catus is one of our most excellent companions. Unfortunately, these cats, and any of our pets, come with a price, and I’m not just talking in dollars. Almost every kind of pet is somehow invasive somewhere, and cats are everywhere.
So, why am I mentioning this? I bring this up because cats are part of a massive problem, and because of how we care for them now, that issue is only getting worse. These cats are causing massive damage to the environment by overhunting small birds, mammals, and reptiles, which throws the balance off and causes many other issues, including:
Thinning populations of small birds, reptiles, and mammals
Thinning populations of other predators who feast on the above animals
Overpopulation in cats
Imbalance in the food chain
What can we do?
The main issue with the way we take care of cats is that free-roaming has been normalized. Stray cats and free-roaming cats all still hunt, regardless of if they need to or not. So what should we do about our Free-roaming Cats?
No one ever likes it, but the truth is we have to keep our cats inside but don’t worry. I have solutions to help your cat stay happy indoors AND outdoors!
Free-Roaming Cats: Indoors
First comes first, “catifying” your home. Do you have cat trees? Do you have scratching posts? Do you have enough litter boxes? Do you have shelves for your cat to climb and access to windows? These should all be considered when you own a cat. When you get a cat, you must be willing to get the proper furniture for them to live on. Without any furniture or places to scratch and go to the bathroom, your house won’t only become a mess from your fluffy friend, but it will also stress them out. Cats need to be able to climb and survey from above- it’s in their instincts to get to high places.
Free-Roaming Cats: Outdoors
How can we get our cats outside without them impacting the environment? The solution is simple! You have two options:
Build a Catio
Leash Walking
Though, you should really do both if you want to keep your cat as healthy as possible.
A catio is like an indoor porch for your cat! They can run around and play while being “outside.”
Catio:
Catios are most likely going to be the solution for most, but what about leash walking? It is still controversial to leash-walk cats. After all, it is much harder to train them, and harnesses aren’t as readily available. I have a video that will help you understand why leash walking is important and healthy for your cats:
Now that we have gone over Free-Roaming Cats, let’s talk about strays.
Stray Cats
Anyone can help the environment when it comes to dealing with stray cats. Stray cats are wilder than the usual domestic cat that has grown up around people and are much harder to take in. The best solution for these guys is to practice TNR, (Trap, Neuter, Return). You can do this by simply laying out a humane cage trap with some food in it. Once you catch a cat, you can bring them to get neutered or spayed, and then release them back where you caught them. The reason this helps is simple: It helps keep the cat population under control without harming them.
If we can take of our cats better, we can help the environment more than ever before! I hope I’ve helped you learn something! Let’s work together to help our cats and the environment thrive!
Cat Walking Supplies are more diffuciult to come by, so here are some links to help you out!
