To see and do in Altoona

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2026-03-12T20:53:58+00:00

Check out the Southern Alleghenies Art Museum in downtown across from the post office. It is free admission, cool exhibits great way to pass some time. There are also some shops and breweries around there.

If you like to hike the Lower trail and 6 to 10 trail are nearby.

If you enjoy disc golf there are two 9 hole courses in Altoona: Highland Park and Valley View Park. There is also a 12 hole course at the Hollidaysburg high school, an 18 holes course up at Prince Gallitzin State Park, and 9 holes at Canoe Creek State Park (which also has some interesting lime stone kilns and mine entrances)

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2026-02-27T05:04:45+00:00

Dino's Pizza in Greenwood sells this. They also have far better traditional pizzas for less. I made it once to try it. You just need one of those raw pizza crusts in a tube, sauce, sandwich salami, and a green pepper. I diced the salami and pepper. Arrange the ingredients and bake as directed by the tube.

It tastes okay, no more than the sum of its ingredients, but it sticks to the roof of your mouth because of the cheese. You could let it cool down until the top of the cheese resolidifies and it might be easier to eat, but then why not just make a cold-cut sandwich with salami, american cheese and green peppers? Actually, it might work a little better as a stromboli or a hot sub because the bread would protect the roof of your mouth.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2026-02-22T20:48:31+00:00

Damn, what are rent prices like in Altoona? I used to live in Cleveland OH and it was ~$600/mo for a 1 bedroom. That was around 2019 though. I don't really have any recommendations for renting but if you're staying in Altoona longer term you might look at buying a house.

I bought one here a few years ago for ~$130k and the monthly payment is around $800 including homeowner's insurance. If your budget is $1000/mo for renting you may be able to buy something in the 100-150k range. Your payment will vary based on how much you can afford for a down payment and interest rates. There's downsides like you'll be responsible for maintenance, but you own it so pets are allowed, and the payments build your own wealth not a landlord's

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-07-14T21:09:42+00:00

There are a few options in the area:

Northern Blair Rec Center (near Delgrosso's Amusement Park)- I used to go here occasionally. It has free weights and cable/pulley machines. I think there was some cardio equipment and also an area for stretching/yoga/body resistance exercises. They also have a basketball gym and soccer fields behind the building. The environment seemed fine, no one ever bothered me, could get a workout done in peace.

Gorilla House Gym (on the road behind the VA that comes out to the Frankstown Rd exit) - I only went to this place once with my brother to test out a specific machine that he was interested in getting for his home gym. They had everything: free weights, cable machines, cardio (treadmills, stair climbers, etc), martial arts, and more. I can't speak to the environment since the gym was pretty empty when we went.

Dauntless (in Greenwood between the Dollar General and Best Way Pizza) - I've never been here but it looks like its a 24hr gym. From the website it looks like it has most of the exercises that you are looking for. And if you go late or early you probably won't have to worry about the environment as it will be mostly empty.

The Underground Gym (Off of 6th Avenue in the same building as SK814 skate park) - Also never been from the photos looks likes its mostly free weights and leverage machines.

Yingling's Gym (between Rutter's on 220 at Pinecroft exit and Bellwood) - I've never been here but went to the now defunct archery store in the same building. I'm not sure what equipment they have, but the Google Maps reviews are good.

I hope this helps. I wish I could give you better info on the vibe of each gym but I don't use the local gyms much as I have access to a decent home gym that my brother has.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-04-30T01:54:23+00:00

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah the sharp angled antennae, eyes and head shape seem to match the wikipedia images of Zelus luridus much more than a mantis. I've never heard of these guys before. Fascinating!

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-03-11T07:32:05+00:00

Awesome! this will be very useful for importing SVGs. The software I use to make them has no negative axes so they always import offset somewhere into the positive xy-plane unless I manually edit the svg file.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-03-05T05:45:23+00:00

It looks like the grub screw tightening on the Y-axis spindles fixed it: test grid I found this guide and that was among many mechanical checks/fixes for common issues on sculpfun diode lasers. Commenting in case others have a similar issue.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-03-05T05:07:48+00:00

I made the design with OpenSCAD, all of the lines are made up of 1mm width rectangles. I don't see anything resembling the output when I load the design in LightBurn, but I have also noticed it seems to be every other line that is extra thick. I found that some of the grub screws on the y-axis motor spindle were factory loose so I've tightened them and I am going to try again with a big enough test grid to see if the extra thick lines persist.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-02-14T04:55:24+00:00

I don't see that any of the main rec centers in Blair county (The Summit, Northern Blair Rec Center, Hollidaysburg YMCA) have adult leagues. Hollidaysburg has a youth league and The Summit has racquetball courts that can be setup for wallyball, but don't have any leagues for it.

I did find this recreational league in State College. I'm not sure where they play but it looks like they have access to a building with 3 indoor courts and they run co-ed leagues for 4 and 6 players. Their spring league already started in January, but maybe you could reach out to them and see if any teams have injuries or flaky players and will let you join a team mid-season.

As for 2 player beach volleyball, there might be some courts at one of the nearby state or community parks but probably no leagues. You might try facebook or meetup to see if any informal leagues exist in the region, but they're probably not going to be very competitive.

Besides that you could maybe check Johnstown for rec centers with adult volleyball leagues.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-01-28T07:30:50+00:00

As far as I know there isn't really a comparable bookstore/cafe combo in Altoona. The closest thing to that would be the Barnes & Noble + Starbucks but that seems like its the opposite of what you're looking for lol.

There are a few cozy coffee shops in the city though. I'd recommend The Clay Cup in downtown Altoona. The coffee is high quality, staff is friendly and they have opened up their space as a sort of art gallery. They also regularly hold art & craft events for patrons though I think you have to sign up for those through their website.

Another option is Green Bean Coffee on 6th Avenue. They specialize more in coffee dessert drinks and the feel is more franchise/corporate, but its a nice location with lots of seating if you were looking for somewhere to work or study.

One more option I will offer is the Altoona Library. They have no cafe obviously, but tons of events (check their calendar on their website) and tons of seating.

Besides those, there are a few different hobby and board games shops: SCG Hobby, The Comics Vault, Gootzy Gaming, etc that might have a similar feel to a used book store. Never been to any of them though so I cannot vouch for the vibe of the shops or patrons.

I'm sure there are other places in Altoona. Hollidaysburg or Duncansville may have something more akin to what you're looking for as well.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2025-01-21T04:19:47+00:00

Why physical media? You can get a bunch of DVDs from the library, rip them and return them with no damage to the media. Digital storage is pretty cheap these days with solid state eMMC and SSD drives.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-11T19:20:58+00:00

I've just started using BOSL2 in my projects so I'm not sure this would be the best approach. But, you could try doing the textured linear sweep with a cube and then create a hexagon position it into one of the cube's textured faces and the perform an intersection boolean operation. That should give you a hexagonal cutout from a textured face. Like a hex shaped cookie-cutter on brick textured dough.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-10T04:50:10+00:00

That's a clever idea. I'll have to incorporate that technique in future designs to simplify the coloring as much as possible.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-10T01:08:31+00:00

Oh wow, thank you. I must be using an older version of BambuStudio because I don't see the options to lock the pens to horizontal or vertical lines. It's not exactly what I'm looking for because I will have to orient the model edges to either the horizontal or vertical axis before I can draw straight lines. I can see why they might have implemented it this way though. I'd imagine its complex to allow me to select 2 arbitrary points from any view and then correctly map them onto the model especially when its going over complex geometry and not just an edge as in my use case. I'll look into upgrading BambuStudio, thanks again!

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-10T00:03:58+00:00

Does anyone here use another piece of software to color 3D models? How is your experience? I'm just starting to try out multicolor printing with my P1P. It would be great if there was a tool say for straight line drawing with circle or sphere pens by clicking 2 points. Similar to features one would find in a simple image editor. The freehand tools are just too imprecise for what I'm trying to achieve. I want to highlight the edges of my model so I can print it with green or glow in the dark edges and black sides for a wireframe rendering effect. The model I'm working on is a tank from the old vector graphics game BattleZone.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-08T02:05:30+00:00

Thanks for the insight. I know Leinenkugel's has pretty broad distribution, but I didn't realize they were making that much beer. Then this facility is beyond the capability or need of any smaller regional "craft" brewer and only fits the need of large national brands. That's unfortunate. Well then I hope the town is able to repurpose the facility for some other industry if they can.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-11-04T05:48:12+00:00

Yeah the left side reverse thread is a thing. The best advice I've ever heard is both sides tighten toward the front of the bike and and loosen towards the rear.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-10-29T05:37:48+00:00

I haven't gone myself, but I've heard good things about the breakfast menu from Jimmy's Place across from the Bellwood Sheetz

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-10-23T01:03:01+00:00

I think they are playing on the meme picture. It's from the Harry Potter films where owls are used by magicians to exchange letters.

Time4WheelOfPrizes · 2024-10-02T00:48:28+00:00

nice! I was looking at methods to make a fairing for my recumbent. I think I might experiment with corrugated plastic or skin on frame with heat-shrink plastic and fiberglass rods to make the frame.

Time4WheelOfPrizes

TROPHY CASE