I was in Boston yesterday and the holy rollers told me I was living in sin and if I didn't repent I was going to burn in the eternal flames of Hell. I  said "Cool" and gave them a big grin. 

I bought a car a few days ago, on a whim. I can barely afford it, but it was $600 and it's nearly flawless. I was going to wait until selling my old race car, but this was too good to pass up.
It's a 1997 Ford Explorer with the 5.0 V8. My fourth car, and the most powerful I've had. It's going to be a fun project.

I managed to put myself right in the track of a big thunderstorm and watched it at the shore. 

Quote from: Devlyn on July 03, 2018, 10:08:44 PM
I managed to put myself right in the track of a big thunderstorm and watched it at the shore. 

Ah you're all wet LOL    That did remind me that  needed to water my houseplants though 




*Runs to Hide*

I just lit off a ton of fireworks and predictably I'm grinning like an idiot. Oh, yeah, they're also completely illegal here. So, no, I  haven't been lighting off any fireworks.

Quote from: Devlyn on July 01, 2018, 06:59:26 PM
I was in Boston yesterday and the holy rollers told me I was living in sin and if I didn't repent I was going to burn in the eternal flames of Hell. I  said "Cool" and gave them a big grin. 

Where's sin, it sounds a great place,

I finally, FINALLY, got into a fashion pageant, it's a competition, and it's going to be awesome!!

An astronomy photo of mine was selected as Photo of the Week at SkyNews, the Canadian astronomy magazine. 
https://www.skynews.ca/globular-cluster-m13-by-kathy-walker/

Very cool!  A question though, how do you account for earth movement over the 88 minute exposure?

Quote from: KathyLauren on July 20, 2018, 12:06:14 PM
An astronomy photo of mine was selected as Photo of the Week at SkyNews, the Canadian astronomy magazine. 
https://www.skynews.ca/globular-cluster-m13-by-kathy-walker/

Awesome, it is a beautiful pic. 

Quote from: JudiBlueEyes on July 20, 2018, 12:17:24 PM
Very cool!  A question though, how do you account for earth movement over the 88 minute exposure?

Thanks, Judi and VM!

It takes a bit of work.  The main axis of the mount has to be perfectly aligned with the Earth's axis, and the motor has to drive it at exactly the same rate as the Earth turns, but in the opposite direction.  To get the kind of sharpness I was going for, there is a second telescope, with a second camera that guides the mount.  A computer is monitoring the image from the guide camera and making adjustments to the mount's tracking every 2 seconds.  And, finally, it is not one single 88-minute exposure.  In fact, it was 24 2-minute exposures and 8 5-minute exposures.  So the tracking and guiding only had to be perfect for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time.

Quote from: KathyLauren on July 20, 2018, 12:06:14 PM
An astronomy photo of mine was selected as Photo of the Week at SkyNews, the Canadian astronomy magazine. 
https://www.skynews.ca/globular-cluster-m13-by-kathy-walker/

Wow, that's so cool! I have got to come visit. On posters, winning awards in magazines... I'd better get there before you hire too many guards for me to get past security!

Stephanie

I went out to look if my ride had shown, on the way back in the were a couple of cops and they stopped - One of them said "After you girl" 

Quote from: KathyLauren on July 20, 2018, 12:06:14 PM
An astronomy photo of mine was selected as Photo of the Week at SkyNews, the Canadian astronomy magazine. 
https://www.skynews.ca/globular-cluster-m13-by-kathy-walker/

My tongue almost cramped when I tried to pronounce your telescope. "Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian astrographic reflector telescope and an Atik 383L + monochromatic CCD camera shooting through Astrodon LRGB filters."

Even more wow. You had to rotate the camera to compensate for the Earth's rotation. So very technical. It sounds like you are an Astronomer. That sounds harder than C programming, which I really like.

Awesome picture. Photos like these really put our lives in perspective. I find it rather odd that we live on this 'garden or eden' planet and no others have been found yet in the observable universe.

I had a really fun time last night in Atlantic City.

Knowing I am 24 hours away from my appointment for the final diagnostic decision on if I have dysphoria. Looking forward to not having to doubt myself every five minutes

Bought a new keyboard  . I was using an IBM PS2 keyboard (the old mechanical keyboards are really nice - also needed for a project and feel in love with it) but the PS2 to USB adapter went out so I needed a new keyboard.

Well after as many gatekeeping methods thrown at me that I know of in one appointment, my sadness and dissapointment has turned into a quiet fury over the last few days. I won't be denied, and the prodding has caused things to snap into clarity for me.

I told my parents that I'd like to see a therapist and they're going to pay for me to. One of the perks of still being on their insurance, I guess. Here's to hoping we can get me on hormones quickly.

Also talked to my beautiful trans friend and found out that she never got FFS, which makes me extremely hopeful that HRT will have the same kind of results for me. You would never guess she was trans if you didn't know her before. She looks more "like a woman" than even some cis women. Not that there's a specific way for women to look... you know what I mean. Hormones just did wonders for her is all I'm saying.

Spoke to someone on the phone. I didn't say my name or anything to indicate me or who I was and they called me ma'am from the off. As my voice is what I'm most concerned about in passing that really made me smile!