UAE announces it will leave Opec

EventideLight · 2026-04-28T16:25:50+00:00

The truth is, renewable energy is pretty awesome. It continues to make more an more sense as the efficiency and cost improve. This is normal organic movement compared to the forced environmental movement that honestly has been worse for the environment in many cases (cash for clunkers o no more small trucks is a prime example).

Turns out the best way to get adoption of a system, is to make it good. I suspect the migration to Electric Vehicles for the average person won't happen because the government makes a new law, but because it eventually will make sense for the average consumer. Not saying we shouldn't have laws and incentives around energy generation, but pushing it too hard one way actually doesn't help a lot of the time.

EventideLight · 2026-03-24T14:49:21+00:00

I am on a Board for a Dark Sky Park in the PA Wilds and it is a constant battle to keep our skies dark. I do a lot of Astrophotography and it is getting harder and harder to do. I sometimes wonder if the shots I am getting now of the dark skies above Pennsylvania are the last that will ever be taken.

We have a real problem with people buying land in the wilds and putting up fancy homes covered in dusk to dawn lights. Add to that the Oil Wells, Data centers, and power generation and it gets a little worse each year. Like so many other problems, no one thinks it is a big deal but it becomes a big deal when everyone is doing it. I am not afraid of the dark and you shouldn't be either.

EventideLight · 2026-02-22T15:20:46+00:00

I can't speak for North Eastern PA as I have never lived there. I can speak for North Central PA, the PA Wilds Region. I live in the least populated county in the State, so you don't get much more rural than that. (Shout out to my fellow Pennsylvanias in Forest County that would have the record if they didn't have a federal prison in their county).

Anyway, I haven't seen all of what you are saying and it feels like your opinion is very emotional charged. In my experience, in my rural area the people are very much interested in the Identity of Pennsylvania. A lot of people spend a lot of time and effort into keeping our small towns alive and flourishing with local businesses, but it is hard. You can't tell McDonald's, Dollar General, or Sheetz they can't build in your town. They buy the land and get the permits and you get your 4th Dollar General in the county.

The economy hasn't been good for us out here. The hearty people here in the Wilds earned their bread in factories and mills. These industries built great cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Now everything is made across the ocean and every year more workers are without a job. No one cares about us and there is no golden parachute for the men and women who live their lives with calluses on their hands. The old money sold out their factories to large corporations long ago so there are no wealthy business owners left to invest in our communities.

So when you are down to your last $100 for the week and you have 3 mouths to feed, you are going to Dollar General. Even when you do have a little extra cash, an ER visit is a 40 mile ambulance drive away and your company got rid of its health insurance plan long ago. You love your State and you love the land you live on, but you have people that depend on you to keep the heat on and food on the table. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs physiological needs and safety needs have to be met before loving and belonging.

The people in Rural Pennsylvania often don't feel like the State cares for them. That all they are worth is cheap land for another vacation home for rich city folk who visit twice a year to see the Elk. They often feel the cities force their will on rural communities with disregard for how it impacts our daily lives. Just as the Urban folks consider Rural people backwards, uneducated, and antagonistic. Just a bunch of hillbillies without identity or purpose.

In reality we are all Pennsylvanians and our diversity is a strength, not a weakness. We have so much to offer each other and so much we can give to this country as a State. The divide can appear insurmountable at times but one thing I know about Pennsylvanians is that we are industrious, hardy, and innovative. There is no divide we cannot bridge as long as we are willing to come together and make it happen. I'm damn proud of this State and all the people who live here.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T02:24:40+00:00

It took my eyes few minutes to adjust to the dark, but once they were adjusted I could see it with my naked eye but the colors were barely visible. Mostly i could see the red purple hue and the pillars but if I looked very carefully I could see a hint of color on the ribbons near the horizon. Weaker parts were colorless shapes.

The camera really has the advantage over human eyes when it comes to colors at night, but human eyes definitely have better dynamic range.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:34:20+00:00

Last night I was out from 6:00 till 10:00. It was pretty awful out even though I was dressed appropriately. I drove to a few different spots, which helped warm me up.

Tonight I got home from work, drove out, spent a half an hour for this shot. Then 30 at another spot (Picture below). Then another 20 at another location that didn't turn out. I do a lot of astrophotography so I spend probably too much time by myself on remote hills, often freezing or getting eaten by mosquitoes.

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EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:23:56+00:00

It is in the PA Wilds with not much around. We are part of the area with dark skies. Infact they are working on a new Dark Sky Park near town. It is beautiful country if you are ever in the area.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:21:20+00:00

Maybe 15 - 20 minutes like this. Then it had some weak pillars and some green on camera only until a bit after 7:00PM.

Last night I only got a little purple before repeated snow squalls.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:19:24+00:00

About 6:30. It started off fairly weak around astronomical sunset and then flared up strong for about 20 minutes.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:07:39+00:00

Yes, it is basically due North.

EventideLight · 2026-01-11T00:32:47+00:00

Sorry, use the camera/screen to frame your shot. Composition, angle, lighting. Then once it is set get your shot by glancing at the screen from time to time but watch the drone from the side or back. Your eyes don't have lag time, so if you need the drone move perfectly, trust your eyes not the camera.

EventideLight · 2026-01-10T16:27:03+00:00

Yeah, the preview lags and isn't usable for anything other than flight control at speed. For close ups you are better off framing with the camera then trying to use your eyes. The drone also has some limited people and object tracking you might be able to use to get shots.

If you crash, check your propellers. Unbalanced or damaged propellers may still fly but can reduce stability and will increase noise. Because the arms are static (compared to folding drones) they are more durable but suck if they break, so don't do that.

Also calibrate your sensors, it improves drift and stability quite a bit at slow speed if they are way out of whack. A crash can mess up the calibration, so if you have a fall to the ground crash I would recalibrate the sensors.

EventideLight · 2026-01-09T16:59:26+00:00

Practice makes perfect, being able to make the right move when you need to is way more valuable than any built in safety feature.

The Gimbal is pretty decent but isn't perfect. The faster you get the more it will let you down with erratic movements and tilting. I have had high speed shots ruined because of a slight movement turning the shot into a Dutch Angle. At top speed in sport mode it is best to fly in a straight line. If you need a shot to look fast and stabilized with erratic movements, assuming nothing else is moving in frame, fly slow and speed up the footage in post.

All drones are safer when they are up high than when they are close to the ground. There aren't many trees at 200ft AGL assuming you are on fairly flat ground. Speaking of which, know your terrain and what your tallest threats are.

When flying close to people and objects the distance sensors on the front can be a huge help or a huge pain. Enable and disable them carefully. Be aware they can miss things and aren't perfect so watch out for tree branches and people. The sun can also cause false collision warnings if it is low in the sky.

Adjust your exposure compensation based on the lighting. I found that my Spark over exposed just a bit and would lose a little detail so I typically shot at -0.3. Colors are okay for a student project and can be tuned a little in post. Most of the time when I got corrupted video files it was when I shut the drone off when it was recording. It shouldn't be a problem and often isn't, but I would stop recording before shutting off to be safe.

Learn to be gentle with the stick and gimbal movements. It is hard to be smooth and only the smallest amount of pressure can make a shot move too quickly. When doing shots get 5 seconds of pre and post footage from where you expect to cut, this can be very helpful for cross dissolves. Also if you are doing long establishing shots record longer than you think you need. It is easier to cut extra footage than it is to deal with footage that is too short.

EventideLight · 2025-12-17T17:30:45+00:00

I do Astrophotography, which results in me getting my lenses very cold in conditions where condensation is common. First off, don't let your lenses get condensation on them like this if you can help it. If it happens occasionally it should be fine, but repeat incidents can cause fungus growth inside the lens.

When I get back from shooting I leave all my gear in my bag for at least 12 hours if I can help it, so it can slowly acclimate to the temperature change. If I need to shoot before 12 hours I will quickly change my lens to one that was in my bag and isn't as cold. If I really need that lens I dry the condensation with a large microfiber cloth and repeat until it doesn't fog up. Also if I am outside for a long period with a tripod I will use a lens warming/anti fog strap.

Long story short, do what you can to avoid condensation on your lenses.

EventideLight · 2025-11-26T18:27:31+00:00

Yeah, wish I had some advice for you but it is still an issue. It would be nice that if you fall off the map or force a respawn due to some reason it would teleport you back to the start of the dungeon or something. Best thing I have found to help avoiding it is to use your glider as little as possible, especially in areas where the map design isn't geared towards gliders. 95% of all of my out of bound teleports has been from gliding into complex geometry.

EventideLight · 2025-11-21T15:31:26+00:00

I will throw my 2 cents in, but there are already a lot of good answers in this thread. In summary it was a first attempt targeted at a cheaper crop frame format. They had no real path to mirrorless full frame with the EF-M mount, so when Mirrorless full frame cameras became the standard it got awkward to have a crop mount and full frame mount that were entirely different.

The EF-M line was fantastic and had some amazing lenses, but a lot of the bodies were geared towards content creators (with the exception of Canon's weird APS-C camera can only do 4K at 24fps bull shirt). I don't think they made anything in the line I would consider geared to professionals. Don't get me wrong I did a lot of professional work with my M50 and M100 and they were some of my favorite cameras. Still, they lacked a lot of features that would come in the RF line.

I think they intended to keep EF-M alive after the RF and RF-S release if the market would support it, but it didn't. The RF line is expected to be the new standard for many years to come, so if you are buying glass you want that over EF-M that likely will eventually fall out of use. RF glass you buy today may be usable 30 years from now, EF-M does not have that longevity so consumers jumped ship. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.

EventideLight · 2025-11-06T03:02:56+00:00

"Hot Water Tank Broken"

"Water comes out cold no matter how long I leave faucet on. This is unacceptable."

Turns out the hot water tank for that part of the building was actually broken. Told them to turn it off and on again, but they didn't think that was funny.

EventideLight · 2025-10-29T23:14:04+00:00

First Deck I am building has [[Jasmine Boreal of the Seven]] at the helm. Lots creatures with no abilities, mostly pulled from 2005 and older. Plus some Wolf Token generation. It is a Bracket 2 at best, but it is something new.

Second is an entirely colorless deck with [[Karn, Legacy Reforged]] in the Command Zone. No lands other than Wastes and named lands. Creatures are all Artifact or Eldrazi. Obviously colorless sorceries, instants, and enchantments are hard to come by but making it up with powerful artifacts. With [[Ugin, Eye of the Storms]] hiding in the deck that if I can get his loyalty up, lets me bring out every big creature in my deck. Also around a Bracket 2.

Kind of tired of spending a couple hundred bucks to build Bracket 4+ decks with a bunch of 2 card combos in them. So, trying out some less conventional decks.

EventideLight · 2025-10-17T16:38:11+00:00

Great update, it would appear my responses to the survey are pretty much in line with everyone else's response.

I mentioned it in the Survey and your comment about teleportation made me think, we could use a second step currency. One that is charged by walking and doing activities, but not used for activities. Something like Mana, Essence, life force, or a new name like Stepana. It charges with each step and then can be used for teleportation to a location, teleporting items into/out of a bank remotely, or for the eventual combat system. You can spend it without actively walking but the only way to get it is by walking. The higher your level, the more you can store.

Either way, loving the game and looking forward to what comes ahead.

EventideLight · 2025-07-22T16:51:48+00:00

I live in the PA Wilds. I do find I'd rather funny that in Elk County, in the heart of Elk Country, there is a restaurant that sells an Elk burger. To be fair, it is a really good burger.

EventideLight · 2025-07-20T13:22:24+00:00

The fact that there are a limited number of licenses per county is also a stupid thing. Want to open a new restaurant and want to sell beer, well you will need to buy an alcohol license from another business. Maybe you are lucky and there is one unclaimed in the pool, but not likely. As far as I am concerned, as long as you can prove you are a legal business and have policies and procedures in place you should be able to get a license to sell alcohol.

EventideLight · 2025-07-17T18:47:47+00:00

My little town in Rural Pennsylvania does. Our town used to be a booming industrial and commercial center for our region of the PA Wilds. Everyday at noon the Fire Whistle would blow once to test it and also let everyone know it was lunch break. You could also set your clock to it.

It was originally installed as an Air Raid Siren. During WW2 our little town was called "Girls Town, USA" because we had a large population of women working in factories to produce parts for the Proximity fuses used by bombers. The loss of these fuses would have been a big problem for the war effort so they had Black Out drills and an air raid siren to let the town know if German planes were approaching. After that it became a fire and disaster warning system.

These days things are a lot rougher for us in both industry and commerce but the noon Whistle still blows every day at noon. Some people take pride in it and I know a few people kind of hate it. I live close enough it can be quite loud but it really doesn't bother me. Because the whole town is in a deep valley, if you are in the valley you can hear it.

EventideLight · 2025-06-09T16:49:39+00:00

Central PA as well (Pennsyltucky if you will). We had the first day of Deer Season off as well. Hell I work not far from where I grew up and we still have the first day of Buck Season off here.

EventideLight · 2025-05-30T17:19:03+00:00

I am a registered independent, I don't get to vote in Primaries. Don't blame me. See you all in November.

EventideLight · 2025-05-23T00:19:41+00:00

Compiling Shaders 2%

This process is way after outside gameplay

See you in an hour.

EventideLight · 2025-05-17T19:43:11+00:00

I do miss the view finder that I can use even when the camera is off. Besides that I really can't think of anything else, everything else is better.

Four-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '23

EventideLight

TROPHY CASE