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the-zebra-dragon · 2 years

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Last week we went to the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) as part of our summer vacation. Technically we were in St. Louis for a wedding, but my sister had free tickets to the garden through her work, so we decided to take a few days and do all the fun St. Louis things.

Now, MOBOT has been under construction for a while for a new visitor’s center. As luck would have it, the day we were there, the Garden Members were having an exclusive preview of said new visitor’s center. My family (+sister’s roommate that tagged along) are not members, so we figured we’d see it some other time.

MOBOT is famous specifically for it’s massive tropical greenhouse, the Climatron. It looks a little bit like THIS:

And is home to over 400 varieties of plant life, according to Wikipedia. It’s fantastic and a fun place to walk through (and air-conditioned!) and I highly recommend it. This is also where we met Diane.

Diane, if I remember correctly, has volunteered at the Botanical Garden for 15 years. She was walking through the Climatron and stopped to chat with us near the end, when my sister and her roommate were throwing water bottles at us and telling us to hydrate. Diane asked if we’d enjoyed our visit thus far (Yes) have we been here before (Yes) and most importantly, did we see the pitcher plants in the middle of the Climatron? (Absolutely)

At this point, I’m vibrating in hyperfixation. I FUCKING love pitcher plants, dudes. Yes! I saw them! I know so much about them! They are my beloveds! Diane asks me if there are pitcher plants that are bigger than the Climatron’s. I practically vibrate out of my skin with a “Yes! Some can even catch small mammals and reptiles!” I didn’t even get to mention the Bats! Diane is thoroughly impressed with me regardless! She would hire me on the spot if she had that authority, and tells me as much. She continues asking questions about pitcher plants. I continue answering them. Diane continually says she wants me to work at MOBOT. I think it would be a dream, personally.

We eventually part ways with Diane, and head out to the Home Gardening Center. In retrospect I maybe should have asked about keeping my pumpkins safe from pests (squash bugs FUCK OFF challenge). We wander the demonstration gardens for a bit before realizing among their veggies that we’re all starving. You cannot eat the veggies out of the MOBOT veggie garden, because if everyone with vaguely sticky fingers did there would be no vegetables to display, and that defeats the purpose.

Luckily, MOBOT has a tram system, and there’s a stop right outside our current location. Since they do have to pay their workers, however, the tram is five bucks per person if you’re not a member. It is what it is. We’re resigned to shell out thirty bucks (hopefully to replace the dead cobra lily in one of the nearby flower beds, may it rest in pepperonis) when someone hollers at us from the tram. It’s Diane! She remembers us!

Diane, in addition to being a volunteer, is a member. And members, she points out to the tram driver, can bring five non-members onto the tram free of charge. Our group is six. The tram driver, feeling the spirit of giving, lets our sixth person on under her own membership. Diane asks where we’re heading as the tram starts moving. We explain that we’re looking to get food, and also could we leave the garden and come back? Is that allowed? Diane confirms that’s allowed, BUT she has a better idea.

The tram takes us around the long way, past the Japanese Garden, Henry Shaw’s house, and one of the botanical museums. Somewhere in there I tell the story of Persephone, as her statue resides along this route, and I have a cat named after her. We make it back as close to the front as is possible by tram, and Diane marches us to the old visitor’s center. It is connected to the new one by a single door, guarded by a nice young woman. Diane tells her that we’re with her, and we’re all going into the new visitor’s center. The young woman is fairly certain this is breaking some rules. Diane tells her it’s fine.

The new visitor’s center is gorgeous, y’all. We all follow Diane down to the snack bar for sandwiches (we were planning to eat a big dinner, so we didn’t need a whole lot). She makes sure we don’t need a membership to actually buy the food. Once that’s all settled, she tells me she’ll see me soon (presumably as a staff member) and promptly vanishes into the garden, never to be seen again by us.

There’s good in this world, guys. There always has been. And sometimes it’s in the botanical garden, and it’s curious about pitcher plants.

#mobot if you see this no you didn’t #but also love what you’ve done with the place 🥺👉👈#Diane is a fake name just so we’re clear #i would love to work at the botanical garden but my degree is in graphic design so you can see where I might have a problem with qualifying #here. pitcher plant facts: the two major kinds are tropical Nepenthes and North American Sarracenias (+cobra lilies on the west coast)#they’re bog plants!! reach into your local bog and find a friend and boy!#some get big enough to trap small mammals and reptiles! tasty #there’s a kind of Nepenthes that has a relationship with local bats! they sleep in the pitchers. cozy!

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hauntedhikingsociety · 3 years

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I can’t believe I made a tumblr specifically to talk about this game but I have so many thoughts.

I am thinking about JULIA among the stars and all the interesting philosophical questions it asks like I think everyone I’ve seen talk about it gets very much bogged down in the science being wrong and the puzzles being confusing, like okay sure but the moral questions, man.

When the alien on Hermes reveals that they sent away the race that destroyed Xenophon and poisoned Ambrosia, you think “yeah as they should.” Because that race is violent and using their technological superiority to kill the Ambrosians, yeah? They deserved it for trying to commit alien genocide, yeah?

But when Julia kills the crew you’re upset! Because we know the crew from reading their logs and we know they were all trying to make their way in a solar system that felt hostile to them except the fucking Lark guy fuck him

Julia killing the crew is not some plot twist that she’s evil, nor is it a betrayal or a reversal of how her character behaves. The reveal is not that she was evil, it’s that she didn’t place humans at the centre of the universe. She doesn’t consider them more important than the Ambrosians so she kills them to prevent a genocide.

And that’s an interesting moral conundrum! Sure, murder is wrong, but if you killed a few people to stop them killing a whole planet of people, is that justified? Does it make a difference that the Ambrosians aren’t human? Is Julia more or less qualified to make that judgement than a human?

Also extremely confused by people saying that the characters were boring or didn’t have a personality. The dynamic they had was great and yeah, Rachel may not be the most peppy or funny main character but her reactions are understandable given her situation and it’s interesting to see Julia call her out on her own self-absorption sometimes. Her characterisation is so strong that when it came to the end choice, both I and the person I was playing with agreed that it would be incredibly out of character for Rachel to choose to return to Earth. It would make absolutely no sense and I think the fact that the return to Earth ending was so short means the game agrees.

Anyway I thought this game was very cool. Mobot best character, I love that funky little robot man.

#JULIA among the stars

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ifbrd · 6 years

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Another detail in the Wordgirl Timeline

I’m so glad to see the Wordgirl timeline is becoming a more popular topic! This is something I’ve always wondered and I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking about it!

Anyway, recently I discovered a new detail that could narrow down the timeline. I’ve been watching episodes on Amazon video (so sadly I cannot take any screenshots for you guys) and I noticed in at least two episodes (Mobot Knows Best and the episode where Mr. Botsford is Becky’s teacher) in the background hanging on the wall of Ms. Davis’s classroom, you can see what I think is the food pyramid. After doing some research on the food pyramid, I discovered that the United States didn’t release their food pyramid until 1992 (according to Wikipedia, Sweden had a food pyramid released in 1974, but I doubt it’s the Swedish version).

#wordgirl #wordgirl timeline #becky botsford #mobot knows best #and with this information #i would say that the show takes place after 1992 #i don't think it would take place in 1992 because i doubt that the nutritional chart released that year would already be in classrooms #also I say the series but of course i mean part of the series #as the the entire series we know takes place over the course of about two years #since becky has two birthdays and theres a new years episode

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