#I think that’s good… Lemme measure with my phone real quick. Okay

[sploon-fic-fan]

can we make jack to the future a copypasta

Hey guys! Very excited about today’s video. A huge thanks to Lenovo for giving me their amazing brand-new phone, the Phab 2 Pro: The world’s first phone with Tango*. Which kinda feels like a piece from the future just dropped right here in the present. And that’s exactly why I decided to make a very special time-travel episode of jackask.

Question 1: “Do you believe in the possibility of time-travel?” I literally just said that this is the time-travel episode of jackask. Please try to keep up. punches ground beef

Question 2: “If you could go back in time, what’s one thing you’d change about your childhood?” Well, I would probably confront my middle school bully and tell him I grew up to be a big YouTube star. Of course, then he’d be all like, “what’s a YouTube?” You know what, that question sucks, next question.

Question 3: “Would you travel to the past of the future?” Listen up, HoOLiGanLLaMA, I’m about to blow your mind. takes bite of burger Mm, that’s good meat. So I’m taking my Phab 2 Pro with me to travel through space and time in my own personalized, home-built time machine. Purple, red… Oh yeah, green one, that’s good, I think that’s good… Lemme measure with my phone real quick. Okay, measuring the dimensions with Tango’s AR measurement tools to make sure everything lines up. Looks good. OPEN! throws chair against tree Let’s go! Just so you know, time travel is not instant. So while we’re waiting, how about I just answer some of your questions?

“How do I tell my parents that I’m goth?” What you can do is travel to the future where, uh, you outgrow your goth phase. Boom, problem solved.

“How many stars are in our galaxy?” Good question. To find out, we’re gonna go all the way back to 1590 to ask the man himself, Galileo. screams Galileo: If only we could see the heavens instead of relying on our mind’s eye. Jack: Whoa, shut up for a sec. I think I can help you guys out. Galileo’s Associate: ¡El diablo! J: No, it’s actually called ‘augmented reality,’ it lets me see a fully scaled model of the solar system. The sun, the Big Dipper, the Little Skipper, the Unicorn, the Unicran, some other ones… Oh, really quick, do you guys know how many stars are in our galaxy? You know what, I’ll just look it up. Thanks anyway, bye! G: He was a bit of a jerk, wasn’t he?

“What is your favorite video game?” Not really a fan of the new ones, I don’t really have the fingers for ‘em, so let’s go all the way back to 1972 to play the first video game.

J: Hey guys! What are we working on?

Guy with Glasses and Mustache: Well, I don’t mean to brag, but we’ve created something revolutionary. You see, this rectangular paddle hits this round circular ball, and then that ball travels across this empty black space where it meets up with… another paddle! Haha!

J: That’s really tight, guys, and you’ll be happy to hear that you helped pave the way for AR games. Check this out

Woman with Glasses: What is it?

J: It’s the future. So, you’re trying to hit this target.

WG: Where are the cords?

J: No cords. Here, look.

WG: Honey, we should get one of these!

“What do you think it will be like in the year 2150?” Ugh, finally! A good question! Let’s go to the future where people can finally wrap their minds around this crazy technology! It’s time to go Jack to the future! record scratch Get it? Uh, Jack to the future, it’s-it’s a pun on a famous movie, uh, where Simba loses his dad, um, wait… yeah, that’s right, yeah.

J: Oh my gosh, you must be my great great grandson!

Jacksfilms Look-Alike with White Hair: Get out of my home.

J: Let’s grab a picture of the handsome boy, huh?

JLAWH:

No. J: Just gotta add a dragon, and boom! It’s pretty cool, right, little dragon popping up and everything. You body language says ‘yes’.

JLAWH: No.

J: Not a little?

JLAWH: Nuh-uh.

J: Not even a little?

JLAWH: …No.

J: Yeah, no, I-I’m busy too, I gotta get back to my time machine. It was really cool catching up, hehe! Call me! Or, you kn- aw, it doesn’t work like that. Uh, call me anyway, man.

All in all, that was a pretty good trip. Oh, and Lenovo, thanks for the free phone, not giving it back, hehe. runs into lighting equipment Not paying for that! Not paying for that! Not my problem!

#Hey guys! Very excited about today’s video. A huge thanks to Lenovo for giving me their amazing brand-new phone #the Phab 2 Pro: The world’s first phone with Tango*. Which kinda feels like a piece from the future just dropped right here in the present. #what’s one thing you’d change about your childhood?” Well #I would probably confront my middle school bully and tell him I grew up to be a big YouTube star. Of course #then he’d be all like #“what’s a YouTube?” You know what #that question sucks #next question. Question 3: “Would you travel to the past of the future?” Listen up #HoOLiGanLLaMA #I’m about to blow your mind. takes bite of burger Mm #that’s good meat. So I’m taking my Phab 2 Pro with me to travel through space and time in my own personalized #home-built time machine. Purple #red… Oh yeah #green one #that’s good #I think that’s good… Lemme measure with my phone real quick. Okay #measuring the dimensions with Tango’s AR measurement tools to make sure everything lines up. Looks good. OPEN! throws chair against tree Le #time travel is not instant. So while we’re waiting #how about I just answer some of your questions? “How do I tell my parents that I’m goth?” What you can do is travel to the future where #uh #you outgrow your goth phase. Boom #problem solved. “How many stars are in our galaxy?” Good question. To find out #we’re gonna go all the way back to 1590 to ask the man himself #Galileo. screams Galileo: If only we could see the heavens instead of relying on our mind’s eye. Jack: Whoa #shut up for a sec. I think I can help you guys out. Galileo’s Associate: ¡El diablo! J: No #it’s actually called ‘augmented reality #’ it lets me see a fully scaled model of the solar system. The sun #the Big Dipper #the Little Skipper #the Unicorn

[petitloup]

need a loving hand (to help you fall asleep tonight)

July 20th, day 5 nurseydex week prompt: hurt/comfort

[SORRY THIS IS SO LATE GUYS it was a long day]

 “I’ll be back later,” Dex tells him, slinging his bag over his shoulder. No practice today, but Dex has an early class. Normally he doesn’t mind morning classes – years of working and living in Maine enforced an early to bed/early to rise mentality so fierce he can’t knock it even on off-season. Not even for Christmas. But he’s making a bit of an exception today and allowing himself to want to stay at the Haus, in bed with his boyfriend. Because it’s Nursey. And for Nursey, he’ll always make an exception.

And right now, for Nursey’s sake, there’s a niggling worry. By the time Dex had gotten out of the shower, Nurse was sitting at their shared desk, already staring into his computer screen, bedhead in full force, with one hand buried in his enormous copy of the Norton Anthology. Nurse is functional in the mornings, he’s responsible, but he doesn’t like mornings and more often than not if he has a day to sleep in, he’ll take it. Dex loves that because it means he can slip out early, pick up coffee from Annie’s and maybe a bagel too. He’s still not sure what Nursey’s deep love for them is, but it makes him light up, and as far as Dex is concerned if a bread product is what will make Nursey smile in the mornings, he’ll pick them up as often as he can.

Today is not one of those days, and while Dex throws his books in is bag and laces up his shoes, he realizes Nursey is unusually quiet.

“You all right?” he asks, letting one hand come down on Nursey’s shoulder and his thumb stroke gently over his pulse point.

“Yeah, chill,” Nursey says, sounding a little absentminded but otherwise okay. “Just got a lot to do today.”

“Your paper is due Friday, right?”

“Mm, yeah.” Nursey leans into his touch briefly, and continues scanning his screen – for what, Dex isn’t sure.

“Okay, well, I’m out. I’ll be back at 6.” He drops a quick kiss on Nursey’s temple.

“See you,” he mutters, and Dex leaves the door just slightly cracked open so that if Chowder’s around he knows at least one of them is there.

The day is long, and Dex does so much coding his eyes are going blurry – his program keeps stalling and he isn’t sure where in the code he went wrong, so he’s been reading line after line trying to figure out where his mistake is. It’s frustrating as hell, and after several hours at Founders he decides to call it quits. Going back to the Haus for dinner, relaxing for an hour and then getting in a little more work before bed sounds like the best course of action here. Maybe he’ll find the bug with a fresh pair of eyes.

He shoots Nursey a text to let him know, and starts to wind up what he’s doing – and he’s just saving his program when the little niggling worry comes back, because Nursey had no classes today, was just planning on spending time working on his paper, and he actually hasn’t responded to any of Dex’s texts today.

So he does the next best thing: he texts Chowder.

> Yo, C, have you seen Nursey today?

< Once! I poked my head in around noon and he was working on a paper.

> Is the door still open?

< Yeah, I think so. lemme check

< It’s open! He’s still sitting at your desk. I don’t think he’s left all day?

> Thanks, C.  

Dex changes course immediately.

If there’s anything Nursey will eat when he’s in a pit of studying hell, its vegetarian stir fry. Nursey says when he gets too stressed all he wants are small, bland things that are easy to eat, and stir fry is a little more exciting than that, but it’s also his favorite. So he places an order and picks it up first before heading home.

Dex takes the steps two at a time and waves to Bitty as he gets in. “Hey,” he says, grabbing a couple of 2-litre water bottles from the cupboard and filling them. “Nurse is in study mode, so we probably won’t be down for dinner.”

“That’s all right,” Bitty says, “I got so carried away earlier I hadn’t even thought of real food yet!”

“Midterms are the worst,” Dex agrees, hooking the bag of takeout around his wrist and heading up the stairs.

True to Chowder’s word, the door to their room is still cracked open the way he left it. He knocks on C’s door, hands off the stir fry he’d offered to pick him up, stuffs the ten in his back pocket and quietly opens the door to his own room.

“Derek?” He says, pitching his voice a little quieter than normal. Nursey doesn’t even look up, but Dex can see the frisson of tension in his shoulders, “Baby, hi,” he tries again, soft, and kneels next to Nursey’s chair. He catches his attention with a hand on his arm, and one of Nursey’s earbuds falls out when his head jerks around.

He looks awful.

That’s not true, Dex’s brain backtracks. Nursey never looks awful. He always looks good in a way Dex can’t fully describe, it’s usually warm and effortlessly handsome and he loves him for it, but he loves him like this too – with dark circles under his eyes, lips looking painfully bitten, tension all over and an expression so strung out Dex is automatically afraid.

“Hey, woah, what’s going on?” Dex always struggles to keep his voice soft in situations like this, defaults to angry-concerned more often than not. But he knows Nursey won’t respond to it well right now, he needs gentle, so he tries harder. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Dex, I can’t, this paper – it’s killing me, I don’t know what to do, and it’s too late to change poems, but I don’t know what to do.” Nurse’s voice is hoarse from disuse, and it comes out choked in a way Dex knows comes before panic. So he leans forward and pulls Nursey into his arms and lets him bury his face in his neck.

“It’s okay, Derek, it’s okay, it’s gonna be okay,”

“It’s not,” Nursey gasps, “it’s due on Friday and I don’t even have a thesis—”

“Shh, stop, just stop for a second, baby, okay? Just count with me first and then we can talk about it, all right?”

Nursey nods against his chest, and they go through the breathing exercises Dex knows Nursey likes using best when he’s early into a panic attack.

After his breathing evens out a little, Dex shifts. “Come on, let’s take this to the bed okay? Just for now.”

Dex lets Nursey curl up first and then crawls in next to him, puts his arms around him, holds him close.

They’re quiet for a few minutes, breathing slow and measured, until Nursey presses a tiny kiss to Dex’s bicep.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” Dex asks, and he can feel Nursey nod.

“I’ve been working on this paper all day, I haven’t stopped once, and I’m not getting what I need to out of it. It’s not that it doesn’t fit with the theme, but Spenser just isn’t my thing. And I could work around that normally, but for some reason I just can’t right now and I don’t know why.”

Dex rubs a calming hand up and down his back, trying to soothe him. “Have you eaten anything today?” he says, and frowns when Nursey makes a negative sound. “Water?”

“I had a couple of 5-hour energy shots.”

Dex sighs.

“Here’s the plan,” he says, “I brought veggie stir fry. We’re going to eat, and we’re going to drain those water bottles, and we’re going to watch Brooklyn 99 or something, and then we’re going to go to bed.”

“Will, I can’t, I have to work on this–”

“I know, baby, I know you do. And you will. Tomorrow. I’ve seen you write A-worthy essays at 3am on the bus with no wifi. You still have a couple days. Just leave it for tomorrow. You won’t be able to think if you keep hammering away at it right now, and if we go to bed early we can get a good night’s sleep. We both need it.”

Nursey is quiet for a moment, and then tilts his head to look up at him, touches one hand to his face. His expression is exhausted but tender. “Did you finish your coding?”

“Nah,” Dex says, shaking his head, “can’t find a bug. It was driving me crazy all afternoon.”

“You’ll work on it tomorrow, too?”

“Yeah. But no more tonight.”

Nursey looks at him for a long moment, and then nods. Dex smiles at him and leans up for a kiss, then rolls off Nursey’s bed and fetches the food. It’s a little cold, but after a few slow bites Nursey seems to realize he’s starving, and he finishes well before Dex does.

Then, true to word, they curl up together and put on Netflix, and Dex pulls Nursey between his legs, leaning back against his chest so that he can rub some of the tension out of his shoulders. Little by little, Nursey unwinds, until he’s boneless and soft and his eyes are dipping closed.

After the episode ends, Dex tips the laptop closed and nudges Nursey, pushing him so he’s curled up on his side. Dex gets up to remove his jeans, hits the light and climbs back into bed to where Nursey is reaching for him, sleepy and warm. “I’m turning both our alarms off,” Dex says, dropping his phone off the side of the bed, too lazy to reach for his charger.

“You got class,” Nurse mumbles, a weak protest. “I’m skipping it,” he says, pressing a soft kiss to Nurse’s forehead.

“You never skip class.”

“I’m going to pick up coffee and bagels and we’re going to have a relaxing morning, and then we’re going to go to Founders and build ourselves an academic hovel out of library books and we’ll spend the day there. Sound okay?”

“But you never skip class. ‘s against the rules.”

Dex nuzzles closer, and he feels Nursey’s contented huff across his neck, their feet tangled together.

“You’re always the exception to my rules,” he murmurs, “and I love you for it.”

#nurseydex #nurseydex week #day 5: hurt/comfort #plum writes #woops this is late #shoutout to all those stressed-out english majors out there #just because it ain't compsci or engsci doesn't mean it ain't hard damn work #ya'll are doing great #also shoutout to all you college kids who definitely aren't substituting meals with energy drinks #that's a lie we've all done it #I'm not ashamed to admit it #just make sure to drink water and take care of yourselves #can you guys tell how much I love sleep #and bedsharing

[ashxpad]

How to Plan Out Milky Way Photos

Plan your work and work your plan. That’s what… someone important once told me? Anyhow, in my opinion, planning out your Milky Way shots is absolutely one of the best ways to increase the likelihood you will be shooting bangers.

Aloha! My name is Daniel Stein, and I’m a nightscape photographer based in New Jersey.

In this article, I will be talking about how to read the weather, Moon phases, light pollution maps, and of course—the timing of the Milky Way core. While I touched upon these items in my Milky Way photography 101 tutorial, I will be going further in-depth in this article so you can really nail it down. Fear not though young citizen, everything here is super easy to follow along with.

What Do You Need to Make the Wow?

Want to hear something cool? Pretty much every tool I am about to describe is free, with a few exceptions depending on your use cases. Let’s run down one by one what I use to plan and what each tool is used for.

National Weather Service. This free website is by the most accurate way to determine if the weather is going to be good at your location of interest.

Astrospheric. This handy free web and phone app is super helpful to determine how “clear” the sky will actually be. More on that later.

Gaia GPS. This free source is great for hikers and backpackers alike. Optional if you are not into hiking, but if you are chances are you already have this. Note: to use offline features you will need a paid subscription.

The Light Pollution Map. As you probably are already aware, this free website is the ultimate way to figure out where dark skies are near you.

Planit Pro and PhotoPills. These paid tools are essential. I don’t like telling people to spend their moolah, but as you will see $10 goes a long way. Each tool has its pros and cons, and this tutorial is cross-compatible with both. Either one works, determining which one is for you will ultimately be up to what interface you think you will enjoy!

Google Maps. Last but certainly not least, this is mega helpful in determining where you want to go. Street & 360’s views are key, that way you can determine your landscape before even getting there. This is critical for planning.

Note: I am by no means affiliated nor sponsored by any of the above mentioned websites and tools.

Double note: For international folks reading this, chances are your country has a similar service to the NWS. This is most likely going to be your best bet for weather as well.

What I Do With These Things? This Is Already a Lot?

Don’t worry, we will break these down one by one. I have a very linear thought pattern so we will go through them in the order I use them.

First Things First, Determine the Darknessness

The first thing I like to do when it comes to planning my shot is determine IF it will be dark enough. I mean, come on, makes sense right? Why waste the time figuring out all of the other nonsense if the sky is going to be way too light polluted?

So, simply fire up the light pollution map. Now, if you are not already familiar with the color-coding this map uses, lemme explain real quick…

This map uses something called the Bortle Scale. Essentially, the brighter, warmer colors depict MORE light pollution with white being the brightest, while the cooler and darker colors depict less light pollution. Here is a graphic I made that correlates to this scale:

In order to photograph our galaxy, you will want to shoot for a Bortle Zone 4 or better. The darker the skies, the more potent the Milky Way will be. This is a great starting point for determining a location where you want to shoot.

Here is something you need to consider: not only does the Light Pollution in the spot where you are shooting from matter, but so does the direction you are looking towards. If you are looking towards a Core rising in the heart of a massive city, you will capture lots of light pollution on the horizon in that direction.

When to See the Core

The visibility of the Milky Way core is not consistent from one night to the next. Rather, it is determined by these factors:

Time of year

Latitude

Moon phase

The direction you are facing (which kind of goes into time of year — more on that below)

I will break these down below.

Time of Year and Direction

As briefly discussed in my Milky Way basics article, the core rises and sets at different times and directions throughout the year. Here are examples:

During “early core season” such as March, the core will rise in the very early morning such as about 03:00 due Southeast.

Early core season

During “mid peak season” such as July, the core can be seen rising once dark night has begun due at about 23:00 due South.

Mid peak season

During “late season” such as September, the core can be seen setting due Southwest just after sunset at about 21:00.

Late season

Note that these times and directions will vary slightly based on your latitude.

Oh Look, Latitude

What in tarnation is latitude? Sounds complicated. The latitude is the measurement of your location in relation to the Earth’s poles. Since, believe it or not, the Earth is indeed a sphere, think about a circle. Halfway around a circle is 180º of rotation. Latitude starts at -90º and spans to 90º. So there you go, 180º of rotation.

If you are standing at -90º, you would be on the South pole. If you are standing at 0º, you would be dead-center at the equator. Likewise at 90º, you would be directly under the North Pole with that dude who is always wearing fluffy red jackets.

We can apply this to finding the Milky Way by understanding that the latitude you plan to shoot at will affect how much dark night you actually have to work with. Think about how there is a summer and winter solstice and how they affect daylight hours. During the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, the days are long but the nights are short. This will ultimately limit the window of time you can shoot, as will our rock buddy, the moon!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dan Stein (@danieljstein)

This is a biggy and it is easy to understand why! The Moon acts as one big ol’ bucket of light in the sky that will wash out the sky during a Full Moon, but completely reveal even the faintest detail of nebula during a New Moon.

What is New Moon exactly then? Well no, the Moon is not literally new, but rather its phase is. The New Moon phase is when the location of the Moon is between the Earth and Sun. Therefore, the bright side of the Moon is facing away from us essentially makes the Moon invisible to us. Full Moon is, of course, the opposite.

The Moon transitions from New Moon to Full Moon over the course of 14 days. This is called waxing. As it transitions from Full Moon back to New Moon, it is then waning. The Moon rises in the East and Sets in the West every night, just like the Sun. Once we understand these Moon Phases, we can then apply it to our Core timing we learned above and thus realize that it does not always need to be New Moon to shoot the Milky Way Core!

In this shot for example, I captured a Waxing Crescent Moon setting on the horizon:

This means that despite the Moon Phase not being New, it was still going to set in time for me to shoot the Milky Way Core shortly afterward.

Using the Apps

At this point, you can use the above information directly in an app like PhotoPills or Planit. This will allow you to make a specific plan for a specific shot, down to the act time and focal length. That way, you can visualize your shot before you get there, thus reducing the possibility of perhaps looking in the wrong direction, or being there when the moon is too bright. This is why planning is critical. Why get to a location only to find the shot is a no-go. Plan, plan, and plan some more.

Putting All the Wow Together

So now you know how to time the Milky Way Core, let’s apply this to how I would use these tools to plan a shot.

1. Check the Light pollution Map to find your spot.

You can actually do this right in Planit or Astrospheric which is super handy!

2. Zoom out on the map to determine your surroundings. How much light pollution is going to be on the horizon? In my example, there will certainly be some.

3. Use Google Maps to figure out what your shot looks like.

If you are lucky, maybe you can drop that little dude to determine there is a street or 360º view someone took of your location, therefore figuring out what your landscape looks like. Do this side by side with Photopills or Planit to figure out the different features and what your shot may look like. Plug in your focal length and figure out if you want to shoot wide or telephoto.

4. These apps have the NPF calculator built-in, so if you are not shooting with a tracker, you can figure out your shutter speed based on your camera and focal length easy peasy!

5. Determine when you want to shoot your shot. What time of year are you going? And as a result, what direction will the Core be rising and setting to and from?

How is the light pollution on the horizon affected by this?

6. Look at the Moon phase! What time is it rising and setting?

Will the Core be visible before or after the Moon rises or sets? In my example, it looks like the Moon sets at 00:09, while the Core will already have risen. This means I would have the rest of the night to shoot! Weeeee.

7. Okay, so now we know the timing works out, but what about how to get there? Back to Google Maps for a second here. If your shot is car accessible, legally, no problem. But if you will be hiking, this is where an app like Gaia GPS will be critical for planning.

I will not get too deep into hiking basics and etiquette here as that is an entire post on its own, but regardless of where you choose to go, please leave no trace!

8. We are so close! Now it is up to Mama Nature to determine if our plan can come to life. So, let’s check the weather.

Note that this really does not become accurate until perhaps a few days out, maybe even the day of. Type in your location into the NWS site. See what the clouds are doing, and do not forget to check the wind speeds! If it is too windy, it may be too difficult to set up a tripod and get good exposures.

9. Use the forecast as an opportunity to be prepared. What clothing do you need to bring? How many layers, etc…

10. One last often overlooked step is to determine how clear the sky will actually be beyond just cloud cover. Astrospheric shines at this. You can use the map layers to determine sky transparency, as well as if there is any smoke or haze in your area.

The clearer the skies, the juicier the shot.

11. It is time. Let’s go. You worked hard for this shot. Make it happen.

So, what shots are you going to plan this year?

About the author: Daniel J. Stein is a passionate nightscape photographer working full-time in New Jersey in his family’s commercial plumbing contracting business. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Stein’s work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.

from PetaPixel https://ift.tt/3waCq7s