{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-31T22:32:00-08:00",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/2022/12/31/55813305/",
"category": [
"indieweb",
"photo",
"social-stream",
"happynewwwyear"
],
"content": {
"text": "Happy Newww Year",
"html": "<span> </span> <span class=\"p-name\">Happy Newww Year</span>\n<img class=\"u-photo\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/boffosocko.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Happy-Newww-Year-indieweb.jpg?resize=660%2C516&ssl=1\" alt=\"A young boy in silhouette launching a paper lantern with a flame lit inside it into a darkening sky with birds in the distance. Overlain on the image is the message: Happy Newww Year! What will you launch on your own website this year?\" width=\"660\" height=\"516\" /><img class=\"u-photo\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/boffosocko.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Happy-Newww-Year-indieweb.jpg?resize=660%2C516&ssl=1\" alt=\"A young boy in silhouette launching a paper lantern with a flame lit inside it into a darkening sky with birds in the distance. Overlain on the image is the message: Happy Newww Year! What will you launch on your own website this year?\" width=\"660\" height=\"516\" />"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Chris Aldrich",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/author/chrisaldrich/",
"photo": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5fb4e498fe609cc29b04e5b7ad688c4?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34103059",
"_source": "2785"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-31T13:57:14-0500",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2022/12/31/135714/",
"syndication": [
"https://fed.brid.gy/"
],
"content": {
"text": "Now is a great time to reflect on all the IndieWeb gifts shared in 2022! It\u2019s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!\nThis Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for December 24th - 30th, 2022.\nhttps://martymcgui.re/2022/12/31/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--december-24th---30th-2022/",
"html": "<p>Now is a great time to reflect on all the IndieWeb gifts shared in 2022! It\u2019s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!</p>\n<p>This Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for December 24th - 30th, 2022.\n<a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2022/12/31/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--december-24th---30th-2022/\">https://martymcgui.re/2022/12/31/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--december-24th---30th-2022/</a></p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34095724",
"_source": "175"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-31T13:51:18-0500",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2022/12/31/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--december-24th---30th-2022/",
"category": [
"podcast",
"IndieWeb",
"this-week-indieweb-podcast"
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"audio": [
"https://media.martymcgui.re/95/55/a4/02/cb3fa7daa69b99c92a27e935679057e4fc954341e8363d55b1ebc1eb.mp3"
],
"name": "This Week in the IndieWeb Audio Edition \u2022 December 24th - 30th, 2022",
"content": {
"text": "Show/Hide Transcript\n \n Now is a great time to reflect on all the IndieWeb gifts shared in 2022! It\u2019s the audio edition for This Week in the IndieWeb for December 24th - 30th, 2022.\nYou can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/.\nMusic from Aaron Parecki\u2019s 100DaysOfMusic project: Day 85 - Suit, Day 48 - Glitch, Day 49 - Floating, Day 9, and Day 11\nThanks to everyone in the IndieWeb chat for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!",
"html": "Show/Hide Transcript\n \n <p>Now is a great time to reflect on all the IndieWeb gifts shared in 2022! It\u2019s the audio edition for <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/this-week/2022-12-30.html\">This Week in the IndieWeb for December 24th - 30th, 2022</a>.</p>\n<p>You can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/\">martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/</a>.</p>\n<p>Music from <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/\">Aaron Parecki</a>\u2019s <a href=\"https://100.aaronparecki.com/\">100DaysOfMusic project</a>: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/03/15/14/day85\">Day 85 - Suit</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/06/7/day48\">Day 48 - Glitch</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/07/4/day49\">Day 49 - Floating</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/29/21/day-9\">Day 9</a>, and <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/31/15/\">Day 11</a></p>\n<p>Thanks to everyone in the <a href=\"https://chat.indieweb.org/\">IndieWeb chat</a> for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "audio",
"_id": "34095725",
"_source": "175"
}
Can someone explain why the 14-day supply of my generic medication* had a $38 copay, but the 90-day supply had a $30 copay?
*btw insurance required me to get a 14 day supply
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-31T00:05:54+00:00",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily/status/1608977712458399745",
"content": {
"text": "Can someone explain why the 14-day supply of my generic medication* had a $38 copay, but the 90-day supply had a $30 copay? \n\n*btw insurance required me to get a 14 day supply"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Lillian Karabaic",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily",
"photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1455236306162761732/jPv9ROKG.jpg"
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"_id": "34078826",
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{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Jared White",
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-non-scifi-films-of-2022",
"published": "2022-12-30T10:16:27-08:00",
"content": {
"html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/awesome_movie_nokl5q.jpg\" /><h2>Once again, it's never been a better time to be a geek and a film buff. But I'm ready for a change. So here are my end-of-year top picks outside of Sci-Fi\u2026and the results may surprise you!</h2>\n\n<p>In 2016 I wrote up a list of <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2016\">my favorite Sci-Fi films of 2016</a>. And then <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2021\">again in 2021</a>. But this year, I thought I\u2019d mix things up a bit. After a string of disappointments earlier in the year as a Sci-Fi & Comic Book movie fan, I was feeling rather burnt out. And I\u2019d soured on Disney+ shows as well and didn\u2019t even bother with <em>Star Wars: Andor</em> when it first came out. (Thankfully that proved to be a <strong>major turnaround</strong> and breath of fresh air for the franchise!)</p>\n\n<p>While I\u2019m glad things did seem to pick up later in the year (and I plan to record a podcast soon with some of my top picks in genre film and television)\u2014for now and with no further ado, let\u2019s roll with my five favorite <em>non</em>-Sci-Fi films of 2022!</p>\n\n<h3>5: Where the Crawdads Sing</h3>\n\n<p>I wanted to see this movie the moment I first heard of it as I\u2019m a massive fan of Daisy Edgar-Jones. Her role in Hulu\u2019s <em>Normal People</em> was electrifying. However, this movie proved oddly controversial upon its release, and thus due to some of the negative buzz I didn\u2019t bother seeing it at the time.</p>\n\n<p>I regret listening to the naysayers! I love this film. (<a href=\"https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_crawdads_sing\">And so do the audiences apparently</a>, critics be damned.) Once again her performance is stellar as the \u201cmarsh girl\u201d recluse Kya, but she\u2019s joined by an equally compelling younger counterpart in the form of past Kya, played by Jojo Regina. I\u2019ve become a huge fan of \u201cenvironmental\u201d movies (aka movies where the outdoor environment is as key to the storytelling as the human characters themselves), and <em>Where the Crawdads Sing</em> really delivers on this front. It\u2019s a part of the world I don\u2019t normally have much interest in personally\u2014but after watching this film, I too want to live in a cabin in the depths of the marsh!</p>\n\n<p>This is a sad story in many ways, yet even with some of the sordid twists and turns it takes, I overall found it to be deeply hopeful and thought-provoking. It meant a lot to me well after I\u2019d seen it, which is why it enters my list at number 5.</p>\n\n<h3>4: She Said</h3>\n\n<p>I\u2019m a sucker for a good story about the journalistic takedown of the corrupt powers that be. <strong>Inject this directly into my veins!</strong> Movies like <em>Spotlight</em> and <em>Bombshell</em>, <em>The Big Short</em>, and others all about the efforts of insiders to expose the rot at the top\u2026I\u2019m here for all of it.</p>\n\n<p><em>She Said</em> is an excellent newcomer to the genre, all about the explosive New York Times reporting on chronic sexual harassment and subsequent coverups at the hands of notorious Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. I honestly don\u2019t get why this film didn\u2019t receive a lot more buzz than it did, because these events played a major role in the #MeToo movement and proved a moment of reckoning for Hollywood\u2019s good-ol-boys club.</p>\n\n<p>Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor were fantastic in their roles, and it was a real delight to see Samantha Morton appear as one of the principal whistleblowers in the story. I thought the directing and editing was very well done (and I genuinely disagree with comments that the movie was slow or bland or not \u201cexciting\u201d enough), and the score by Nicholas Britell was frankly <strong>too</strong> good. (He\u2019s also the mastermind behind the equally outstanding music of <em>Star Wars: Andor</em>.) For fans of social justice in all its myriad forms, this is a movie not to be missed!</p>\n\n<h3>3: Elvis</h3>\n\n<p>Much like what I said about the landscapes in <em>Where the Crawdads Sing</em>, I know a movie is really something when it makes me <strong>care</strong> about subject matter which heretofore I wouldn\u2019t have given the time of day.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I don\u2019t like Elvis\u2019 music, he\u2019s not my King, and honestly nothing about \u201cElvis!\u201d fandom appeals to me in the slightest.</p>\n\n<p>But by the end of <em>Elvis</em>, not only did I want to learn more about the life of Elvis Presley and listen to more of his music, I wanted to travel to Las Vegas and see a really good Elvis impersonator perform and imagine he was indeed the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll in 1970.</p>\n\n<p>Austin Butler is <strong>insane</strong> as Elvis Presley in this movie. He might even be a better Elvis than Elvis. This is Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison territory, and perhaps tops even Rami Malek\u2019s quite excellent stint as Freddie Mercury. I love every minute of this frenetic and action-packed movie, and even the weird role screen icon Tom Hanks plays in the film grew on me considerably by the end. <em>Elvis</em> comes in at a solid #3 on this list, highly recommend.</p>\n\n<h3>2: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery</h3>\n\n<p>I freaking <strong>love</strong> <em>Knives Out</em>. It\u2019s one of my favorite murder mystery movies of all time. Rian Johnson hit it out of the park, and solidified himself as a consummate writer/director at a time when his \u201cstreet cred\u201d wasn\u2019t all that high after the contentious events of <em>Star Wars: The Last Jedi</em>.</p>\n\n<p>When I first heard that Netflix had backed a truck up to Rian\u2019s door and unloaded a nosebleed amount of money to get him to build them a \u201cKnives Out franchise\u201d, I was hesitant. <em>Knives Out</em> was simply great, all on its own. Why sully its top-drawer reputation with a questionable string of made-for-streaming sequels?</p>\n\n<p>I couldn\u2019t be more wrong. <em>Glass Onion</em> is a revelation. I had attempted to see it in the theater during the short release window Netflix provided, but it didn\u2019t work out. I wish it had, because I am over the moon with how good this movie is. Every frame, every comical drawl by Benoit Blanc, every reveal, every exchange between the memorable characters in this perfect ensemble cast, every sweeping drone shot of the Grecian islands\u2026Chef\u2019s. Kiss.</p>\n\n<p>But even more incredibly, how could Rian Johnson have known back in 2020 when he wrote the script to <em>Glass Onion</em> that <strong>the top story in bussiness & tech in 2022</strong> would literally be the absurd antics of an insanely rich tech mogul whom everyone used to think was a stable genius but now in fact turns out to be just another fucking right-wing idiot?</p>\n\n<p>The perfect movie at the present moment. <em>Glass Onion</em>. Go see it on Netflix.</p>\n\n<h3>1: The Banshees of Inisherin</h3>\n\n<p>I\u2019m so glad I got to see this movie in a movie theater. It wasn\u2019t a large audience, but the people who were there were <em>vocal</em>. We laughed\u2026a lot. We cried. We gasped. It was a <strong>ride</strong>, one I remember vividly. I even remember the nighttime walk back from the theater to my home, thinking intensely about the movie I\u2019d just seen.</p>\n\n<p><em>The Banshees of Inisherin</em>. Is it a metaphor for the horrors of civil war and how it drives men apart and pits neighbor against neighbor? Is it a metaphor for old age and the desire for your life to have \u201cmeant\u201d something through the longevity of recorded creative expression? Is it a metaphor for the growing banalities at the heart of traditional island life when the modern world beckons just over the water? Is it simply a bonkers tall tale about some colorful characters on a remote island off the coast of Ireland a century ago which takes all of the tropes of stories about \u201cIrish country folk\u201d (getting drunk at the pub, dangling legs over dramatic seaside cliffs, milking the goats, the long-suffering colleen who rejects all the village lads to their utter chagrin, the violent cop, the trad music jam band, witty philosophical banter about the most trivial of pursuits, comical side-characters not quite right in the head, breathtaking vistas of the moody landscapes of the Irish west, mystical old hags with creepy laughs) and turns them on their ear?</p>\n\n<p><strong>Yes.</strong></p>\n\n<p>This smart, subversive, freakishly-well-acted film elevates the genre, and I\u2019m still not even quite sure what genre it\u2019s in. In that sense, it\u2019s thoroughly modern. It winks at the audience constantly, because it knows we know the story is absurd, and we know that it knows that we know it\u2019s absurd, and it knows that we know that it knows that\u2026well, you get the picture.</p>\n\n<p>And if you haven\u2019t yet gotten the picture, go watch <em>The Banshees of Inisherin</em>\u2014in theaters if you can, or streaming on HBO Max.</p>\n\n<h3>Honorable Mentions</h3>\n\n<p>There were a few films I initially hoped would make the cut, but ultimately didn\u2019t. Nevertheless they\u2019re excellent movies to watch.</p>\n\n<p><em>Enola Holmes 2</em> was a big hit during family night and my kids\u2019 top pick for 2022. I think I liked it even better than the first one.</p>\n\n<p><em>Causeway</em> on Apple TV+ was very well done, and a welcome comeback for Jennifer Lawrence. I hope in this new era of her career she stays away from the glitzy or shock-and-awe roles she became known for and plays some \u201csmaller\u201d roles like this one. It suits her (and I mean that in the most positive way possible).</p>\n\n<p><em>The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent</em>\u2026I had <strong>such high hopes</strong> going into this movie. While I\u2019m not per se a massive fan of Cage or his \u201cnouveau shamanism,\u201d I nevertheless thought this movie would be a trip. And it was? Kinda? Sorta? Maybe? I don\u2019t know. Not all of the jokes landed, the direction was a bit too pedestrian, and the plot was just a tad <strong>too</strong> convenient. But the onscreen bromance between \u201cNick Cage\u201d and Javi (played by Pedro Pascal) was real. And I loved that. So I\u2019m definitely glad I saw the film, but a bit saddened it didn\u2019t make it\u2019s way to my top 5.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there you have it folks: <strong>My Top 5 Non-Sci-Fi Films of 2022</strong>. What are yours? <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/@jaredwhite\">Let me know on Mastodon what you thought!</a></p>\n\n<p>P. S. What was my favorite movie of the year overall in any genre, you may ask? <strong>Stay tuned!</strong> \ud83d\ude0e</p>\n\n\n\n <br /><p>\n \n <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/movies\">#movies</a>\n \n </p>",
"text": "Once again, it's never been a better time to be a geek and a film buff. But I'm ready for a change. So here are my end-of-year top picks outside of Sci-Fi\u2026and the results may surprise you!\n\nIn 2016 I wrote up a list of my favorite Sci-Fi films of 2016. And then again in 2021. But this year, I thought I\u2019d mix things up a bit. After a string of disappointments earlier in the year as a Sci-Fi & Comic Book movie fan, I was feeling rather burnt out. And I\u2019d soured on Disney+ shows as well and didn\u2019t even bother with Star Wars: Andor when it first came out. (Thankfully that proved to be a major turnaround and breath of fresh air for the franchise!)\n\nWhile I\u2019m glad things did seem to pick up later in the year (and I plan to record a podcast soon with some of my top picks in genre film and television)\u2014for now and with no further ado, let\u2019s roll with my five favorite non-Sci-Fi films of 2022!\n\n5: Where the Crawdads Sing\n\nI wanted to see this movie the moment I first heard of it as I\u2019m a massive fan of Daisy Edgar-Jones. Her role in Hulu\u2019s Normal People was electrifying. However, this movie proved oddly controversial upon its release, and thus due to some of the negative buzz I didn\u2019t bother seeing it at the time.\n\nI regret listening to the naysayers! I love this film. (And so do the audiences apparently, critics be damned.) Once again her performance is stellar as the \u201cmarsh girl\u201d recluse Kya, but she\u2019s joined by an equally compelling younger counterpart in the form of past Kya, played by Jojo Regina. I\u2019ve become a huge fan of \u201cenvironmental\u201d movies (aka movies where the outdoor environment is as key to the storytelling as the human characters themselves), and Where the Crawdads Sing really delivers on this front. It\u2019s a part of the world I don\u2019t normally have much interest in personally\u2014but after watching this film, I too want to live in a cabin in the depths of the marsh!\n\nThis is a sad story in many ways, yet even with some of the sordid twists and turns it takes, I overall found it to be deeply hopeful and thought-provoking. It meant a lot to me well after I\u2019d seen it, which is why it enters my list at number 5.\n\n4: She Said\n\nI\u2019m a sucker for a good story about the journalistic takedown of the corrupt powers that be. Inject this directly into my veins! Movies like Spotlight and Bombshell, The Big Short, and others all about the efforts of insiders to expose the rot at the top\u2026I\u2019m here for all of it.\n\nShe Said is an excellent newcomer to the genre, all about the explosive New York Times reporting on chronic sexual harassment and subsequent coverups at the hands of notorious Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. I honestly don\u2019t get why this film didn\u2019t receive a lot more buzz than it did, because these events played a major role in the #MeToo movement and proved a moment of reckoning for Hollywood\u2019s good-ol-boys club.\n\nCarey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor were fantastic in their roles, and it was a real delight to see Samantha Morton appear as one of the principal whistleblowers in the story. I thought the directing and editing was very well done (and I genuinely disagree with comments that the movie was slow or bland or not \u201cexciting\u201d enough), and the score by Nicholas Britell was frankly too good. (He\u2019s also the mastermind behind the equally outstanding music of Star Wars: Andor.) For fans of social justice in all its myriad forms, this is a movie not to be missed!\n\n3: Elvis\n\nMuch like what I said about the landscapes in Where the Crawdads Sing, I know a movie is really something when it makes me care about subject matter which heretofore I wouldn\u2019t have given the time of day.\n\nDisclaimer: I don\u2019t like Elvis\u2019 music, he\u2019s not my King, and honestly nothing about \u201cElvis!\u201d fandom appeals to me in the slightest.\n\nBut by the end of Elvis, not only did I want to learn more about the life of Elvis Presley and listen to more of his music, I wanted to travel to Las Vegas and see a really good Elvis impersonator perform and imagine he was indeed the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll in 1970.\n\nAustin Butler is insane as Elvis Presley in this movie. He might even be a better Elvis than Elvis. This is Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison territory, and perhaps tops even Rami Malek\u2019s quite excellent stint as Freddie Mercury. I love every minute of this frenetic and action-packed movie, and even the weird role screen icon Tom Hanks plays in the film grew on me considerably by the end. Elvis comes in at a solid #3 on this list, highly recommend.\n\n2: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery\n\nI freaking love Knives Out. It\u2019s one of my favorite murder mystery movies of all time. Rian Johnson hit it out of the park, and solidified himself as a consummate writer/director at a time when his \u201cstreet cred\u201d wasn\u2019t all that high after the contentious events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.\n\nWhen I first heard that Netflix had backed a truck up to Rian\u2019s door and unloaded a nosebleed amount of money to get him to build them a \u201cKnives Out franchise\u201d, I was hesitant. Knives Out was simply great, all on its own. Why sully its top-drawer reputation with a questionable string of made-for-streaming sequels?\n\nI couldn\u2019t be more wrong. Glass Onion is a revelation. I had attempted to see it in the theater during the short release window Netflix provided, but it didn\u2019t work out. I wish it had, because I am over the moon with how good this movie is. Every frame, every comical drawl by Benoit Blanc, every reveal, every exchange between the memorable characters in this perfect ensemble cast, every sweeping drone shot of the Grecian islands\u2026Chef\u2019s. Kiss.\n\nBut even more incredibly, how could Rian Johnson have known back in 2020 when he wrote the script to Glass Onion that the top story in bussiness & tech in 2022 would literally be the absurd antics of an insanely rich tech mogul whom everyone used to think was a stable genius but now in fact turns out to be just another fucking right-wing idiot?\n\nThe perfect movie at the present moment. Glass Onion. Go see it on Netflix.\n\n1: The Banshees of Inisherin\n\nI\u2019m so glad I got to see this movie in a movie theater. It wasn\u2019t a large audience, but the people who were there were vocal. We laughed\u2026a lot. We cried. We gasped. It was a ride, one I remember vividly. I even remember the nighttime walk back from the theater to my home, thinking intensely about the movie I\u2019d just seen.\n\nThe Banshees of Inisherin. Is it a metaphor for the horrors of civil war and how it drives men apart and pits neighbor against neighbor? Is it a metaphor for old age and the desire for your life to have \u201cmeant\u201d something through the longevity of recorded creative expression? Is it a metaphor for the growing banalities at the heart of traditional island life when the modern world beckons just over the water? Is it simply a bonkers tall tale about some colorful characters on a remote island off the coast of Ireland a century ago which takes all of the tropes of stories about \u201cIrish country folk\u201d (getting drunk at the pub, dangling legs over dramatic seaside cliffs, milking the goats, the long-suffering colleen who rejects all the village lads to their utter chagrin, the violent cop, the trad music jam band, witty philosophical banter about the most trivial of pursuits, comical side-characters not quite right in the head, breathtaking vistas of the moody landscapes of the Irish west, mystical old hags with creepy laughs) and turns them on their ear?\n\nYes.\n\nThis smart, subversive, freakishly-well-acted film elevates the genre, and I\u2019m still not even quite sure what genre it\u2019s in. In that sense, it\u2019s thoroughly modern. It winks at the audience constantly, because it knows we know the story is absurd, and we know that it knows that we know it\u2019s absurd, and it knows that we know that it knows that\u2026well, you get the picture.\n\nAnd if you haven\u2019t yet gotten the picture, go watch The Banshees of Inisherin\u2014in theaters if you can, or streaming on HBO Max.\n\nHonorable Mentions\n\nThere were a few films I initially hoped would make the cut, but ultimately didn\u2019t. Nevertheless they\u2019re excellent movies to watch.\n\nEnola Holmes 2 was a big hit during family night and my kids\u2019 top pick for 2022. I think I liked it even better than the first one.\n\nCauseway on Apple TV+ was very well done, and a welcome comeback for Jennifer Lawrence. I hope in this new era of her career she stays away from the glitzy or shock-and-awe roles she became known for and plays some \u201csmaller\u201d roles like this one. It suits her (and I mean that in the most positive way possible).\n\nThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent\u2026I had such high hopes going into this movie. While I\u2019m not per se a massive fan of Cage or his \u201cnouveau shamanism,\u201d I nevertheless thought this movie would be a trip. And it was? Kinda? Sorta? Maybe? I don\u2019t know. Not all of the jokes landed, the direction was a bit too pedestrian, and the plot was just a tad too convenient. But the onscreen bromance between \u201cNick Cage\u201d and Javi (played by Pedro Pascal) was real. And I loved that. So I\u2019m definitely glad I saw the film, but a bit saddened it didn\u2019t make it\u2019s way to my top 5.\n\n\n\nSo there you have it folks: My Top 5 Non-Sci-Fi Films of 2022. What are yours? Let me know on Mastodon what you thought!\n\nP. S. What was my favorite movie of the year overall in any genre, you may ask? Stay tuned! \ud83d\ude0e\n\n\n\n \n\n \n #movies"
},
"name": "My Top 5 Non-Sci-Fi Films of 2022",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34072760",
"_source": "2783"
}
On #FeedReaderFriday I’m adding some of my favorite Mastodon accounts to my microsub account on Aperture so I can easily read and follow them in the social readers I use like Monocle. To me this is the purest form of social media interaction. #IndieWeb
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-29T18:28:15-08:00",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/2022/12/29/55813228/",
"category": [
"feedreaderfriday",
"indieweb",
"social-stream"
],
"content": {
"text": "On #FeedReaderFriday I\u2019m adding some of my favorite Mastodon accounts to my microsub account on Aperture so I can easily read and follow them in the social readers I use like Monocle. To me this is the purest form of social media interaction. #IndieWeb",
"html": "On <a class=\"u-tag u-category\" href=\"https://boffosocko.com/tag/feedreaderfriday/\">#FeedReaderFriday</a> I\u2019m adding some of my favorite Mastodon accounts to my <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Microsub\">microsub</a> account on <a href=\"https://aperture.p3k.io/\">Aperture</a> so I can easily read and follow them in the <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/social_reader\">social readers</a> I use like <a href=\"https://monocle.p3k.io\">Monocle</a>. To me this is the purest form of social media interaction. <a class=\"u-tag u-category\" href=\"https://boffosocko.com/tag/indieweb/\">#IndieWeb</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Chris Aldrich",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/author/chrisaldrich/",
"photo": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5fb4e498fe609cc29b04e5b7ad688c4?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34059605",
"_source": "2785"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-29T18:12:08-08:00",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/2022/12/29/55813226/",
"category": [
"feedreaderfriday",
"indieweb",
"social-stream",
"happynewwwyear",
"social-media"
],
"content": {
"text": "This #FeedReaderFriday, I\u2019m scrolling through entries on https://bringback.blog/ to find new bloggers to follow in 2023. Want to join in with your own blog? Ben has some good material here: https://getblogging.org/\n#HappyNewwwYear #IndieWeb",
"html": "This <a class=\"u-tag u-category\" href=\"https://boffosocko.com/tag/feedreaderfriday/\">#FeedReaderFriday</a>, I\u2019m scrolling through entries on <a href=\"https://bringback.blog/\">https://bringback.blog/</a> to find new bloggers to follow in 2023. Want to join in with your own blog? <a href=\"https://werd.io/\">Ben</a> has some good material here: <a href=\"https://getblogging.org/\">https://getblogging.org/</a>\n<p>#HappyNewwwYear <a class=\"u-tag u-category\" href=\"https://boffosocko.com/tag/indieweb/\">#IndieWeb</a></p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Chris Aldrich",
"url": "https://boffosocko.com/author/chrisaldrich/",
"photo": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5fb4e498fe609cc29b04e5b7ad688c4?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34059606",
"_source": "2785"
}
Over the years, I’ve settled on Bear as my note-taking Mac/iOS app of choice for most “brain dumps” / “draft posts” / “future content ideas” purposes due to its understated minimalist design, excellent Markdown support, easy tagging, and rock-solid sync between all my Apple devices. (I also use Craft, but that’s reserved more for “knowledge base” information like technical solutions, saved bookmarks, and other resources.) Most of the recent content on this blog, my newsletter, and my podcast all start life as #writing in Bear.
But don’t I feel like a dummy today! I only just learned that Bear features easy wiki-style links to other notes. Discovering this gave me a brilliant idea: I should create a Bear Home Page for housing an up-to-date presentation of my most relevant notes in a freeform setting. (To be clear on terminology, I don’t mean a “homepage on the web”…I’m talking about a special note in Bear that’s pinned to the top for easy access.)
So that’s exactly what I’m working on today. By defining headings and sections, adding lists, linking to specific notes I want to focus on in the near-term, adding additional context, etc., I can create a living document which is easy to navigate and review.
I realize that for the note-taking/wiki-obsessed people out there, this may seem like a well, d’oh! moment, but I’ve never been terribly successful at managing my notes. Good at taking them, not so good at reviewing them. I’m hopeful this new “home page” will really help me stay focused in the new year. What do you think?
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Jared White",
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/20221229/bear-home-page",
"published": "2022-12-29T13:14:13-08:00",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Over the years, I\u2019ve settled on <a href=\"https://bear.app/\">Bear</a> as my note-taking Mac/iOS app of choice for most \u201cbrain dumps\u201d / \u201cdraft posts\u201d / \u201cfuture content ideas\u201d purposes due to its understated minimalist design, excellent Markdown support, easy tagging, and rock-solid sync between all my Apple devices. (I also use Craft, but that\u2019s reserved more for \u201cknowledge base\u201d information like technical solutions, saved bookmarks, and other resources.) Most of the recent content on this blog, my newsletter, and my podcast all start life as <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/writing\">#writing</a> in Bear.</p>\n\n<p>But don\u2019t I feel like a dummy today! I only just learned that Bear features easy wiki-style links to other notes. Discovering this gave me a brilliant idea: <strong>I should create a Bear Home Page</strong> for housing an up-to-date presentation of <em>my most relevant notes</em> in a freeform setting. (To be clear on terminology, I don\u2019t mean a \u201chomepage on the web\u201d\u2026I\u2019m talking about a special note in Bear that\u2019s pinned to the top for easy access.)</p>\n\n<p>So that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m working on today. By defining headings and sections, adding lists, linking to specific notes I want to focus on in the near-term, adding additional context, etc., I can create a <strong>living document</strong> which is easy to navigate and review.</p>\n\n<p>I realize that for the note-taking/wiki-obsessed people out there, this may seem like a <em>well, d\u2019oh!</em> moment, but I\u2019ve never been terribly successful at managing my notes. Good at taking them, not so good at reviewing them. I\u2019m hopeful this new \u201chome page\u201d will really help me stay focused in the new year. What do you think?</p>",
"text": "Over the years, I\u2019ve settled on Bear as my note-taking Mac/iOS app of choice for most \u201cbrain dumps\u201d / \u201cdraft posts\u201d / \u201cfuture content ideas\u201d purposes due to its understated minimalist design, excellent Markdown support, easy tagging, and rock-solid sync between all my Apple devices. (I also use Craft, but that\u2019s reserved more for \u201cknowledge base\u201d information like technical solutions, saved bookmarks, and other resources.) Most of the recent content on this blog, my newsletter, and my podcast all start life as #writing in Bear.\n\nBut don\u2019t I feel like a dummy today! I only just learned that Bear features easy wiki-style links to other notes. Discovering this gave me a brilliant idea: I should create a Bear Home Page for housing an up-to-date presentation of my most relevant notes in a freeform setting. (To be clear on terminology, I don\u2019t mean a \u201chomepage on the web\u201d\u2026I\u2019m talking about a special note in Bear that\u2019s pinned to the top for easy access.)\n\nSo that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m working on today. By defining headings and sections, adding lists, linking to specific notes I want to focus on in the near-term, adding additional context, etc., I can create a living document which is easy to navigate and review.\n\nI realize that for the note-taking/wiki-obsessed people out there, this may seem like a well, d\u2019oh! moment, but I\u2019ve never been terribly successful at managing my notes. Good at taking them, not so good at reviewing them. I\u2019m hopeful this new \u201chome page\u201d will really help me stay focused in the new year. What do you think?"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34056526",
"_source": "2783"
}
Twitter is closing its Seattle office and asking employees to work from home, per an email to staff. Looking more like the company is going to just have offices in SF and NY.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-29T23:25:49+00:00",
"url": "https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/1608605237115510787",
"content": {
"text": "Twitter is closing its Seattle office and asking employees to work from home, per an email to staff. Looking more like the company is going to just have offices in SF and NY."
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Zo\u00eb Schiffer",
"url": "https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer",
"photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1564799885794086914/ZU6qMT_n.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34054883",
"_source": "2773"
}
It's here! My new video course "Advanced OAuth Security" is now available on Udemy!
In this course we break down the jargon in the high-security OAuth specs like PAR, JAR, JARM, DPoP, Mutual TLS, HTTP Signatures and more!
oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-29T19:29:03+00:00",
"url": "https://twitter.com/aaronpk/status/1608545651008364544",
"photo": [
"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlKzvqmaYAYPun7.jpg"
],
"content": {
"text": "It's here! My new video course \"Advanced OAuth Security\" is now available on Udemy!\n\nIn this course we break down the jargon in the high-security OAuth specs like PAR, JAR, JARM, DPoP, Mutual TLS, HTTP Signatures and more!\n\noauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth",
"html": "It's here! My new video course \"Advanced OAuth Security\" is now available on Udemy!\n\nIn this course we break down the jargon in the high-security OAuth specs like PAR, JAR, JARM, DPoP, Mutual TLS, HTTP Signatures and more!\n\n<a href=\"https://oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth\">oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://twitter.com/aaronpk",
"photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1477113672803622912/ljLUwFLP.jpg"
},
"post-type": "photo",
"_id": "34050979",
"_source": "2773"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-29T11:28:59-08:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2022/12/29/7/advanced-oauth-security",
"category": [
"oauth"
],
"photo": [
"https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/c97beb6e80ee0913be742fb84fb2df0f14ca402aabee38389ec333b5f1dd2e02.png"
],
"syndication": [
"https://twitter.com/aaronpk/status/1608545651008364544"
],
"content": {
"text": "It's here! My new video course \"Advanced OAuth Security\" is now available on Udemy! \n\nIn this course we break down the jargon in the high-security OAuth specs like PAR, JAR, JARM, DPoP, Mutual TLS, HTTP Signatures and more! \n\nhttps://oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth",
"html": "It's here! My new video course \"Advanced OAuth Security\" is now available on Udemy! <br /><br />In this course we break down the jargon in the high-security OAuth specs like PAR, JAR, JARM, DPoP, Mutual TLS, HTTP Signatures and more! <br /><br /><a href=\"https://oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth\"><span>https://</span>oauth2simplified.com/advanced-oauth</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
},
"post-type": "photo",
"_id": "34050358",
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Tonight I learned that my mom has, on at least a few occasions, suggested a single woman check out my website and contact me if interested. I found it quite funny (and sweet, of course) as a modern twist on “you should meet my son.” I think it caught me off guard too because she does not often bring up my dating life when we talk.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2022-12-28 22:04-0800",
"url": "https://gregorlove.com/2022/12/tonight-i-learned/",
"content": {
"text": "Tonight I learned that my mom has, on at least a few occasions, suggested a single woman check out my website and contact me if interested. I found it quite funny (and sweet, of course) as a modern twist on \u201cyou should meet my son.\u201d I think it caught me off guard too because she does not often bring up my dating life when we talk.",
"html": "<p>Tonight I learned that my mom has, on at least a few occasions, suggested a single woman check out my website and contact me if interested. I found it quite funny (and sweet, of course) as a modern twist on \u201cyou should meet my son.\u201d I think it caught me off guard too because she does not often bring up my dating life when we talk.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "gRegor Morrill",
"url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
"photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/3473/profile-2016-med.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "34040960",
"_source": "95"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Cathie",
"url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/2022/12/28/making-an-astrophotograph/",
"published": "2022-12-28T19:22:09-05:00",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Making an astrophotograph starts with equipment. For this image, I used a stock Canon 6D that I have had for years and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that I bought for $100. I put the camera on a sturdy tripod that I have also had for years. One piece of equipment that I bought specifically for astrophotography that I had no need for in daylight photography is an intervalometer which is a tool that allows you to take many photos remotely without have to press the shutter release for each photo. Whatever camera is used, it needs to have the ability to shoot images in a format that doesn\u2019t throw away data for the sake of compression. Formats such as jpg make files smaller by throwing away data it has deemed unimportant. Typically, this means that pixels with light levels above or below a certain value are thrown away. This is called clipping. Obviously, in low light photography, data at the low end of the light level range is important and we don\u2019t want to throw it away. So I shoot my images in raw format which means the files are very large with no data thrown away.</p>\n<p>The first step in taking a photo is focusing. Focus in astrophotography is surprisingly challenging at first. To get sharp focus, I set the ISO of the camera to as high as it will go. I find a bright star and put it in the center of the viewfinder. I switch the camera to live view and zoom in on the star as far as the camera will allow in live view. For my camera that is a 10x zoom. I focus by making the star as small as possible in live view. Once focused, I exit live view and try to remember to change the ISO to the value that I\u2019ll use for the photos. I wasted a half hour of my time last night because I forgot to change the ISO back. I would say that this is a lesson I won\u2019t forget but I almost did it a second time last night when I changed to a different subject and refocused. (I\u2019ll chalk it up to being sick\u2013and me being outside taking photos last night for over an hour and a half speaks to how obsessed I am with this hobby.) I should also say that all automatic things on the camera have to be turned off or there is a risk of messing up the focus. For my very first set of exposures back in August, I left the image stabilization on thinking I would want as much help as possible with holding the camera still. But my stars were out of focus. I think it\u2019s because image stabilization is designed to work in daylight photography.</p>\n<p>Setting the exposure triangle correctly is the next challenging task. The camera has to be in manual mode so that you can correctly expose for the night sky. As a reminder, the exposure triangle is aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I have <a href=\"http://dslr-astrophotography.com/iso-values-canon-cameras/\">researched my camera</a> and found that the ideal ISO for astrophotography is either 1600 or 3200. This value gives the best dynamic range (range of colors that can be rendered in a single image without losing details) and signal to noise ratio in low light for my camera. I set the ISO to 1600. The widest aperture on my lens is f1.8 so I stop down a bit so that I have less vignetting in the corners of the image. I was also worried a bit about the light pollution where I was taking the pictures from. At home I would set the aperture to f2.4. Instead, I set it to f8. In astrophotography, the focal length of the lens determines the slowest shutter speed allowed before star trails start to form. I use the 500 rule to roughly determine the slowest shutter speed\u2013500 divided by the lens focal length. For my 50mm lens, this rule tells me that the slowest I can go is 10 seconds but I know from experience that this will result in star trails. So I set the shutter speed to 8 seconds. Because I wanted to take 120 images, I used my intervalometer to automatically expose a number of images in a row without my intervention. I set the exposure time to 8 seconds, the interval to 10 seconds (which would leave 2 seconds between exposures), and the number of exposures to 30. Because the earth is rotating, the night sky moves which means my subject will move in the frame with each successive exposure. So I need to reframe the subject every so often. I have decided to do that every 30 exposures which means I will need to reframe 3 times in capturing my 120 frames.</p>\n<p>Once the camera is focused and my exposure settings are set correctly, I point the camera at the subject. This can be challenging if the subject is not obvious in the night sky. I was shooting Pleiades and the California nebula last night so framing my subject was not hard. I chose to put Mars directly in the middle of the very bottom of the frame, a certain distance from the bottom. This put Pleiades on the right side of the frame and the California Nebula, I hoped, on the left side of the frame. I say \u201cI hoped\u201d because the California Nebula can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye, even through a camera lens or telescope. But putting Mars in the center of the bottom of the frame also put Menkib, a bright star, in the center of the frame so I knew the California Nebula would be to the left of that.</p>\n<p>Finally, I was ready to shoot. I started the intervalometer and it exposed 30 frames. I reframed the scene, trying to make sure Mars appeared in the same spot as when I first set the camera up. And I repeated this until I captured 120 frames. Because of what we have to do to get as strong a signal from our subject as possible, any noise in our exposures can cause significant problems. Noise comes from things like a dead pixel in the sensor, dust on the sensor, read out errors from the pixels, and so on. To minimize this noise, we take a series of calibration frames, each type of which deals with a different kind of noise. I won\u2019t go into detail about what each kind of calibration frame does but after I captured my 120 images, I captured 25 dark frames. I should have captured 25 flat frames but I haven\u2019t had a lot of success with taking them so I decided to skip them for the night. I have a library of bias frames which don\u2019t need to be taken freshly every session.</p>\n<p>I love being outside at night taking these images. But I think I love the next step, post-processing, even more. I\u2019ll outline just the basic steps of what I have figured out works best for me at this point but I\u2019m constantly learning about new techniques and software to use so this part of what I do is quite dynamic (which is what I love about it\u2013always something new to try).</p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what a single exposure from last night looks like. Notice Mars in lower center of the image.</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i0.wp.com/cathieleblanc.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_4354.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1\" alt=\"Single exposure of Pleiades and Mars\" /></p>\n<p>Not much to look at. If we brighten this image, we will make the subjects visible. But we will also brighten all that noise I talked about to the same level and the result will be quite horrible to look at. So we stack a set of images on top of each other to try to amplify the signal while minimizing the noise. That is, the goal of stacking is to maximize the signal to noise ratio. To stack, I used a free program called <a href=\"https://siril.org/\">SiriL</a>. I imported the raw image files from my camera into SiriL. I converted them to the .fits format, making sure to debayer the files in the conversion process. Debayering is the method by which the computer knows which pixels should be interpreted as red, which as green, and which as blue. I then apply my calibration frames to each of the 120 image files. (I skipped a step where I stacked each type of calibration frame to get a single stacked dark frame, a single stacked bias frame, and, if I had made them, a single stacked flat frame.) Once I had 120 calibrated frames, I registered them. Registering is a process in which the stars in each frame are aligned with each other (because remember the earth rotates so the stars appear to move with each exposure). Once all 120 frames were aligned with each other, I stacked them to create a single stacked image. SiriL saves this as a .fits file but GIMP, the software I use for my next step, sees .fits files as monochrome rather than color. So I also saved this single stacked image as a .tiff file which GIMP will see as a color image. Here\u2019s what the .tiff file looks like (remember this is 120 images stacked on top of each other):</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i0.wp.com/cathieleblanc.com/wp-content/uploads/r_pp_pl_stacked.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\" alt=\"black stacked image\" /></p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t look much different than the single original image above. But now when I try to pull out the details of the subject, there will be far less noise. I next opened the .tiff file in <a href=\"https://www.gimp.org/\">GIMP</a>, another free piece of software that is very similar to Photoshop. The first step in post-processing is to stretch the image. A non-technical definition of stretching an image is brightening the image so that the details of the image are visible. Here\u2019s a first stretch of my image:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i0.wp.com/cathieleblanc.com/wp-content/uploads/r_pp_pl_stackedStep-1-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\" alt=\"brighter image of Pleiades and Mars\" /></p>\n<p>Notice the dark areas around the edges. Those are from the stacking process. Aligning the stars means that some areas around the edges won\u2019t match and those register as these dark areas. So I cropped those parts from the final image. Notice also that the image is very green at the top and moves to a kind of greenish pink color as you scan down the frame. This is called a gradient and it made me wish I had done a background extraction in SiriL to try to remove the gradient. So I went back and did the background extraction on the registered images in SiriL and then restacked the images with background removed. After an initial stretch, the resulting image looked like this:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i0.wp.com/cathieleblanc.com/wp-content/uploads/bkg_r_pp_pl_stackedStep1.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\" alt=\"brighter image of Pleiades and Mars without gradient\" /></p>\n<p>The gradient is gone which will make the rest of my post-processing easier. I won\u2019t go into all the details of my post-processing in GIMP here. But I used levels, curves, and various filters to try to bring out the blue nebulosity between the stars in Pleiades and the red nebulosity of the California Nebula. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I was unable to get the red from California. I think I just need more integration time. Integration time is the total amount of exposure time in the stacked image. For this session, I had 120 images of 8 seconds each which is 16 minutes. Probably not enough to bring out the colors of the nebula. I probably need at least an hour or two. I did get some of the blue nebulosity although I\u2019d like to get more. Because I didn\u2019t get the California Nebula, I decided to crop the image to reframe the objects of interest. Here\u2019s the final image:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i0.wp.com/cathieleblanc.com/wp-content/uploads/r_pp_pl_stackedE2.png?resize=1024%2C764&ssl=1\" alt=\"final image of Pleiades and Mars\" /></p>\n<p>An interesting thing to notice about this final image is the spikes around Mars at the bottom of the image. These spikes are cause the diaphragm in the lens that control the opening and closing of the aperture. I think if I had used a wider aperture, these spikes would not be as prominent.</p>\n<p>This is not a spectacular image in terms of photography but I\u2019m proud of it because it demonstrates a huge amount of progress on my part. I still have a ton to learn about every single step in this process. I look forward to it!</p>\n<p>The featured image shows my camera with a 14mm wide angle lens attached, taken at sunrise at my home.</p>",
"text": "Making an astrophotograph starts with equipment. For this image, I used a stock Canon 6D that I have had for years and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that I bought for $100. I put the camera on a sturdy tripod that I have also had for years. One piece of equipment that I bought specifically for astrophotography that I had no need for in daylight photography is an intervalometer which is a tool that allows you to take many photos remotely without have to press the shutter release for each photo. Whatever camera is used, it needs to have the ability to shoot images in a format that doesn\u2019t throw away data for the sake of compression. Formats such as jpg make files smaller by throwing away data it has deemed unimportant. Typically, this means that pixels with light levels above or below a certain value are thrown away. This is called clipping. Obviously, in low light photography, data at the low end of the light level range is important and we don\u2019t want to throw it away. So I shoot my images in raw format which means the files are very large with no data thrown away.\nThe first step in taking a photo is focusing. Focus in astrophotography is surprisingly challenging at first. To get sharp focus, I set the ISO of the camera to as high as it will go. I find a bright star and put it in the center of the viewfinder. I switch the camera to live view and zoom in on the star as far as the camera will allow in live view. For my camera that is a 10x zoom. I focus by making the star as small as possible in live view. Once focused, I exit live view and try to remember to change the ISO to the value that I\u2019ll use for the photos. I wasted a half hour of my time last night because I forgot to change the ISO back. I would say that this is a lesson I won\u2019t forget but I almost did it a second time last night when I changed to a different subject and refocused. (I\u2019ll chalk it up to being sick\u2013and me being outside taking photos last night for over an hour and a half speaks to how obsessed I am with this hobby.) I should also say that all automatic things on the camera have to be turned off or there is a risk of messing up the focus. For my very first set of exposures back in August, I left the image stabilization on thinking I would want as much help as possible with holding the camera still. But my stars were out of focus. I think it\u2019s because image stabilization is designed to work in daylight photography.\nSetting the exposure triangle correctly is the next challenging task. The camera has to be in manual mode so that you can correctly expose for the night sky. As a reminder, the exposure triangle is aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I have researched my camera and found that the ideal ISO for astrophotography is either 1600 or 3200. This value gives the best dynamic range (range of colors that can be rendered in a single image without losing details) and signal to noise ratio in low light for my camera. I set the ISO to 1600. The widest aperture on my lens is f1.8 so I stop down a bit so that I have less vignetting in the corners of the image. I was also worried a bit about the light pollution where I was taking the pictures from. At home I would set the aperture to f2.4. Instead, I set it to f8. In astrophotography, the focal length of the lens determines the slowest shutter speed allowed before star trails start to form. I use the 500 rule to roughly determine the slowest shutter speed\u2013500 divided by the lens focal length. For my 50mm lens, this rule tells me that the slowest I can go is 10 seconds but I know from experience that this will result in star trails. So I set the shutter speed to 8 seconds. Because I wanted to take 120 images, I used my intervalometer to automatically expose a number of images in a row without my intervention. I set the exposure time to 8 seconds, the interval to 10 seconds (which would leave 2 seconds between exposures), and the number of exposures to 30. Because the earth is rotating, the night sky moves which means my subject will move in the frame with each successive exposure. So I need to reframe the subject every so often. I have decided to do that every 30 exposures which means I will need to reframe 3 times in capturing my 120 frames.\nOnce the camera is focused and my exposure settings are set correctly, I point the camera at the subject. This can be challenging if the subject is not obvious in the night sky. I was shooting Pleiades and the California nebula last night so framing my subject was not hard. I chose to put Mars directly in the middle of the very bottom of the frame, a certain distance from the bottom. This put Pleiades on the right side of the frame and the California Nebula, I hoped, on the left side of the frame. I say \u201cI hoped\u201d because the California Nebula can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye, even through a camera lens or telescope. But putting Mars in the center of the bottom of the frame also put Menkib, a bright star, in the center of the frame so I knew the California Nebula would be to the left of that.\nFinally, I was ready to shoot. I started the intervalometer and it exposed 30 frames. I reframed the scene, trying to make sure Mars appeared in the same spot as when I first set the camera up. And I repeated this until I captured 120 frames. Because of what we have to do to get as strong a signal from our subject as possible, any noise in our exposures can cause significant problems. Noise comes from things like a dead pixel in the sensor, dust on the sensor, read out errors from the pixels, and so on. To minimize this noise, we take a series of calibration frames, each type of which deals with a different kind of noise. I won\u2019t go into detail about what each kind of calibration frame does but after I captured my 120 images, I captured 25 dark frames. I should have captured 25 flat frames but I haven\u2019t had a lot of success with taking them so I decided to skip them for the night. I have a library of bias frames which don\u2019t need to be taken freshly every session.\nI love being outside at night taking these images. But I think I love the next step, post-processing, even more. I\u2019ll outline just the basic steps of what I have figured out works best for me at this point but I\u2019m constantly learning about new techniques and software to use so this part of what I do is quite dynamic (which is what I love about it\u2013always something new to try).\nHere\u2019s what a single exposure from last night looks like. Notice Mars in lower center of the image.\n\nNot much to look at. If we brighten this image, we will make the subjects visible. But we will also brighten all that noise I talked about to the same level and the result will be quite horrible to look at. So we stack a set of images on top of each other to try to amplify the signal while minimizing the noise. That is, the goal of stacking is to maximize the signal to noise ratio. To stack, I used a free program called SiriL. I imported the raw image files from my camera into SiriL. I converted them to the .fits format, making sure to debayer the files in the conversion process. Debayering is the method by which the computer knows which pixels should be interpreted as red, which as green, and which as blue. I then apply my calibration frames to each of the 120 image files. (I skipped a step where I stacked each type of calibration frame to get a single stacked dark frame, a single stacked bias frame, and, if I had made them, a single stacked flat frame.) Once I had 120 calibrated frames, I registered them. Registering is a process in which the stars in each frame are aligned with each other (because remember the earth rotates so the stars appear to move with each exposure). Once all 120 frames were aligned with each other, I stacked them to create a single stacked image. SiriL saves this as a .fits file but GIMP, the software I use for my next step, sees .fits files as monochrome rather than color. So I also saved this single stacked image as a .tiff file which GIMP will see as a color image. Here\u2019s what the .tiff file looks like (remember this is 120 images stacked on top of each other):\n\nIt doesn\u2019t look much different than the single original image above. But now when I try to pull out the details of the subject, there will be far less noise. I next opened the .tiff file in GIMP, another free piece of software that is very similar to Photoshop. The first step in post-processing is to stretch the image. A non-technical definition of stretching an image is brightening the image so that the details of the image are visible. Here\u2019s a first stretch of my image:\n\nNotice the dark areas around the edges. Those are from the stacking process. Aligning the stars means that some areas around the edges won\u2019t match and those register as these dark areas. So I cropped those parts from the final image. Notice also that the image is very green at the top and moves to a kind of greenish pink color as you scan down the frame. This is called a gradient and it made me wish I had done a background extraction in SiriL to try to remove the gradient. So I went back and did the background extraction on the registered images in SiriL and then restacked the images with background removed. After an initial stretch, the resulting image looked like this:\n\nThe gradient is gone which will make the rest of my post-processing easier. I won\u2019t go into all the details of my post-processing in GIMP here. But I used levels, curves, and various filters to try to bring out the blue nebulosity between the stars in Pleiades and the red nebulosity of the California Nebula. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I was unable to get the red from California. I think I just need more integration time. Integration time is the total amount of exposure time in the stacked image. For this session, I had 120 images of 8 seconds each which is 16 minutes. Probably not enough to bring out the colors of the nebula. I probably need at least an hour or two. I did get some of the blue nebulosity although I\u2019d like to get more. Because I didn\u2019t get the California Nebula, I decided to crop the image to reframe the objects of interest. Here\u2019s the final image:\n\nAn interesting thing to notice about this final image is the spikes around Mars at the bottom of the image. These spikes are cause the diaphragm in the lens that control the opening and closing of the aperture. I think if I had used a wider aperture, these spikes would not be as prominent.\nThis is not a spectacular image in terms of photography but I\u2019m proud of it because it demonstrates a huge amount of progress on my part. I still have a ton to learn about every single step in this process. I look forward to it!\nThe featured image shows my camera with a 14mm wide angle lens attached, taken at sunrise at my home."
},
"name": "Making an Astrophotograph",
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "34036887",
"_source": "2782"
}
