astronomy and milk tea

There are several posts and pages on how to create Tumblr themes. I figured I'd add some links and tools that I haven't really seen on this hellsite. Enjoy!

Chrome Devtools — This is an obvious one to point out to some, but I don't wanna leave it out. Right click and inspect on a website! "live edit" your CSS and HTML and watch it take action immediately. Just remember to copy the html/CSS into your theme before refreshing ;) I've used similar tools on Firefox since 2010, never looked back. devtools is powerful as fuck, but you don't need to know everything before diving into it.

Prettier.io — "An opinionated code formatter." Use the online playground to check your scripts or neatly fix and arrange your CSS. Or just HTML. It can also be installed in VS Code easily, which I highly recommend.

Coolors.co — colour patterns, gradients, create colour schemes from images, check for accessibility, and so much more.

Lucide Icons — the popular Feather icons just got an upgrade, so many Icons! Go here to see how to integrate it in your themes.

Neumorphism.io — What it says on the tin.

uiverse.io — Universe of UI elements to help you stand out. Great source of inspiration as well.

Fancy Border Radius Generator — Because why settle with squares?

Blob generator — if fancy Border radius isn't enough. Generator of much more than blobs, by the way! Check it out.

Open Props: Sub-atomic styles — Supercharged CSS variables.

Modern CSS Reset — better than Eric Meyer's.

Subtle patterns — been using this for over a decade.

CodeMyUI — repository for CSS snippets.

Codepad — a place for developers to share code snippets: PHP, Java, Bash, C, C++, Python and more.

Mesh Gradient Collection — because it's pretty.

WAVE — Check how your website/theme holds up accessibility-wise. Spoiler alert: get into aria-labels.

these are the things i found help the most:

have a dedicated place for studying. personally, i feel like i get distracted more easily when i’m just in my room, so i started going to the library more often

study in public spaces. continuing with the whole library thing, you’re much less likely to procrastinate if you know other people see you doing jack shit. similar things would be filming yourself/streaming when studying

get an accountability partner. ever since my housemate got back and we started going to the library together, we’ve really pushed each other to make the most of our day and we’ve become more productive

have a to do list. plan your tasks the day before/in the morning and focus on getting the most important task done (some people do more, but start with one if you find this particularly difficult)

1.) Intense obsessions that last maybe two weeks but consume your soul

2.) Spacing out in class but loving to learn

most of the time my maths questions are quite specific and after some googling, i’m usually able to come across pdf’s that help me with whatever i’m struggling with.

nonetheless, having resources to come back to is extremely useful, especially if you just don’t know wtf is going on in lectures. so here’s some stuff i find very helpful:

Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas — i swear the whole physics department simps over this book. it gets mentioned in literally every office hour/drop in session. we all just love Boas

Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering by Riley, Hobson and Bence — just ordered a physical copy because this is THE MATHS BOOK for physics students. it contains everything you’ll ever need and more (PhD students still use it!) and i literally use it every day. it’s less rigorous than Boas and you can definitely tell it was written by physicists, but that’s what makes it so useful for me because they knew EXACTLY what I need

Dr. Trefor Bazett on YouTube — idk why, but his explanations just. make. sense. and he’s even put full courses on his channel! what a legend

blackpenredpen on YouTube — personally, i haven’t really watched a lot of their stuff, but my housemates absolutely swear by it

·       NASA Pathways Intern Employment Program (IEP)

·       NASA Pathways Recent Graduates Program (RGP)

·       NASA Pathways Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program

The one I’m applying to is the IEP. IEP is open to any student in a qualifying four-year program. It’s a little more flexible than a “normal” NASA Internship, where you can work in sections of weeks that work for you around and/or during your college schedule. A cool part of IEP is that, once you complete it, there’s a high chance you could be converted to full-time employment (permanent or contractual)! There are two tracks for IEP, single-center and multi-center. Basically the difference is do you want to work at one center only, and have a chance to work on more focused projects? Or do you want to see what other centers do/offer?

The RGP is geared more towards career development, again with a change to be converted to a full-time employee. 

PMF is for those who’ve received a masters, doctorate, or professional degree within the past two years, again with the employment chance like those above. These opportunities are only announced once per year.

You can find more information on the Pathways Program here!

It’s also important to note that the majority of NASA centers post their Pathways Program job openings on USAJOBS.gov, and one or two centers post them within the NASA Internships application. (Search for “Student Trainee” and you’ll see all sorts of open governmental student jobs even besides NASA!)

!!!!!ALSO!!!!!

NASA DOESN’T ONLY HIRE STEM MAJORS!

Majority of Pathways opportunities are, but not all! And there’s even more opportunities with an “OSTEM” NASA Internship! I’ve seen openings for those who do communications, law, social media, graphic design, finance, accounting, business, biology, agriculture, meteorology, human resources, physical therapy, almost literally everything! Please, look into them!

“Even if you are not with me, the memories of you are with me. My heart sees you, even if you are made vanished from my vision. The eye sees who it loves but will end up losing the sight of them. But the one who sees with their heart, will never lose the sight (of the people they love).”

And solar panels can literally be built into roofs of buildings and in empty areas like deserts. The sun strikes the Earth with the same amount of energy in an hour that our civilization uses in a year.

But yeah, it would be impossible for us to ever have enough energy from clean sources.

The best place to install solar? Parking lots! Here’s the Community Mercantile in LFK:

Not only can it supply almost all the power needed for stores that build these, it also reduces ambient heating from the roasting pavement and keeps cars covered from the elements.

Everyone wins!