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scarletwinterxx · 28 days

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sit down with doyoung

helllooo and we're back with another sit down scenarioooo. glad you like this format i tried out😅 hope you like this oneee🤍🤍

If you want me to make more of this with the other members just let me know😅 or you have a request or scenario you want me to do, just send me a message I'll see what I can do😊💌

For my other works you can check them out here, and for my other story series’ you can check them out here.

and if you want, u can buy me coffee(totally optional but any donation is very much appreciated!) thank you🥺💛

All works are copyrighted ©scarletwinterxx 2024 . Do not repost, re-write without the permission of author.

(gif not mine, credits to rightful owner)

The scene starts with two vacant chairs in front of the camera. Then two people walk in, sitting right next to each other.

"Okay, welcome. Can you introduce yourselves please" someone from behind the camera says

"Hello! I'm Kim Y/N, and this is my husband Kim Dongyoung" you smile at the camera, gesturing to the man sitting beside you

"Just Doyoung, Hello everyone" Doyoung bows at the camera after greeting

: How long have you been married?

"Almost two years" you answer, "It will be our second anniversary next week, actually" Doyoung adds, smiling shyly.

He hears you giggle beside him, reaching over to hold his hand in yours before continuing with the interview

: Then how long have the two of you been together as a couple?

"4 years, we married kinda fast. But I knew I wanted to marry him so I asked him. I just couldn't wait" you joked, eliciting laughter from your audience

"I asked her, she asked me jokingly like she asked me one random night. At that point we've talked about it a few times. I kept thinking she was hinting something"

"You're saying that like I made you ask me" you pout at him, making Doyoung chuckle. Giving your hip a playful pinch

"I already had a ring for you. I thought you saw it that's why you kept mentioning it"

"Could've been a promise ring for all I know" you shrug

: How did the two of you meet?"

"His brother was my senior at work, Doyoung thought we were dating then we met at dinner one time. I was so awestruck of him the first time we met I got shy and didn't get to ask for his number" you tell the camera

Meanwhile Doyoung listens to you fondly with a smile on his face. The memory still fresh in his mind like it was yesterday

"I asked my brother if she was his girlfriend, when he said no I asked for her number. When I texted her asking her if she wanted to get coffee, she didn't reply to me" Doyoung adds, piquing the interest of the crew members

"I didn't reply for 3 days cause I got nervous and didn't know what to say. Then we saw each other again at the company when he picked his brother up. He thought I was avoiding him but really I was just shy"

: Then how did the two of you talked again?

This time Doyoung answered first, "My brother called her, offering her a ride home. But it was my car, I was the one driving. He even made some excuse about having an emergency meeting so in the end it was only me and her"

He can still remember that day, you were blushing so much he thought you were having a heat stroke from how red your face was. He blasted the AC in the car for you.

"We finally got coffee together before he drove me home" you said

: How did you know they were the one for you?

You play with the wedding band on Doyoung's fingers, thinking of the exact moment you knew

"I forgot my umbrella at home one time, he usually pick me up after work but that day we decided to meet at a different location. When I got there I was drenched head to toe. He scolded me so much, like all the way home. All while he was nagging, he was also taking care of me. Gave his jacket to me, then when we got to his place he immediately got a towel and made hot tea for me" you look at your husband's eyes, smiling fondly at him

"I knew I wanted that for the rest of my life"

He smiles at you, picking up your intertwined hands to kiss the back of yours before resting it back on your lap

"You know the funny thing is she didn't forget her umbrella. She gave it to me like a few days before. I dropped her off at her office and it was raining hard. She gave me her umbrella because she knows I like to buy my lunch at the store across the street from where I work" Doyoung remarks

"She's thoughtful like that, she gave her umbrella to me even though she didn't have anything to use. I knew I was going to love her for a long time and there was no way I was letting her go but she does do that a lot, make my headache and make me nag at her" he adds with a laugh

"Well I knew you were going to pick me up so" you reasoned out

: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

"I don't really know, to be honest. I live each day as it is. I work hard everyday to be the man worthy for her. I want to be there for her, always give her the support, love and care she needs. I don't really need anything else as long as I'm with her" he says

"Me too, maybe someday we'll have kids. We've definitely talked about it. Maybe two, atleast. I love watching his relationship with his family, with his brother. I want that for our future kids too"

Doyoung watches you answer. It's like with every word you say he just falls even more inlove with you. Already it's like he's living a fairytale everyday when he's with you. Thinking about one day having kids with you, raising humans that is part you and him warms his heart even more.

: Okay, that's all. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your story with us, Mr. and Mrs. Kim. Anything else you want to say?

"When we come back for the next interview in the future, we'll bring our kids with us" you tell the camera with a big smile

"You sound so sure, honey. What if they invite us again next year?" Doyoung asks jokingly

"I mean we can make it work right?" you ask back, he knows you're messing with him. He's used to you joking with him all the time.

"We'll see you soon" he says to the camera with one final bow and you do the same

AND CUT

#tags #fic #request #nct reco #nct au #nct #nct imagine #nct fic #nct fluff #nct doyoung #doyoung fic #doyoung scenario #doyoung fluff #doyoung oneshot #nct 127

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7grandmel · 10 days

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Todays rip: 18/04/2024

Shrek Days -Onions Ver.-

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume AI

Ripped by SonicHeroesFan1

youtube

Honestly? I do still feel a little conflicted about what I wrote about All Star back in Semi-Charmed All Star. Not because I've changed my mind about that rip, far from it, it's still excellent, but because the narrative I was spinning there was about how All Star itself has become rote and boring without proper shake-ups. We can argue about the value of mashups for all of time, and it's certainly still true that All Star is one of the most overdone mashup songs of all time. But I'm not Mr Rental, I'm not going to enact Mr. Rental [B Side] ~ Out of Options on anyone: All Star mashups are fun!! They're overdone for a reason!! And, well, it would simply feel wrong to not have celebrated its twentieth anniversary during Season 4 Episode 1 of SiIvaGunner - on May 4th, 2019, we got an entire day dedicated to all things Smash Mouth, and I'd entirely forgotten just how fun it all was. Shrek Days -Onions Ver.- is only the tip of the iceberg.

To be fair, I am also sort of cheating a bit - Shrek Days -Onions Ver.- *isn't* an All Star mashup. As the penultimate rip of the event, it only makes sense to use All Star's younger relative, the second Smash Mouth song which became immortalized through appearing in the original Shrek. I'm a Believer isn't originally BY Smash Mouth, their cover was actually made specifically for Shrek's ending, but the cover has practically eclipsed the original in terms of popularity nowadays (And really, how many of you reading have ever actually HEARD the original The Monkee's version?) Smash Mouth's cover added a shot of energy and rebelliousness to the original song that made it a perfect fit for Shrek - and, indeed, the perfect song to use in paying tribute to the band's mashup popularity.

Because All Star is great, sure, but it can't do everything. The absolute sense of triumph and fun within Shrek Days -Onions Ver.- is just unmatched, and its in large part thanks to I'm a Believer - and hell, this rip even uses the original Monkee's version for a brief bit near the end! But you've seen the rip's thumbnail already, you know the other half to this bit - JOJO!!! JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!! From Crazy Noisy Beautiful Girls!! Look, yes, I still don't know much about JoJo, I'm still enjoying its music as an outsider, but DAMN is it music that I enjoy!! Great Days is an amazing song, it's absolutely no surprise to me that Great Days Fusion Collab is one of the channel's most viewed videos, and its features on SiIvaGunner are almost all fantastic, now that we're long past the ironic JoJo rips described in Hen'yoku no Piraman. Maybe its just due to a certain other Great Days rip, but its triumphant brass-driven sound and rising chorus has always made me think of the start of summer, the emergence of pure FUN ahead - something that fits Smash Mouth like an absolute glove.

I can only do so much to express how much I enjoy listening to Shrek Days -Onion Ver.- without just telling you the obvious - to go listen to it yourself! Its a mashup almost destined to make you smile, with small touches throughout - the aforementioned presence of the original The Monkee's version, yes, but also a surprise appearance of Donkey's vocals from Shrek's ending scene rounding the whole rip off for its climax! There's no better way to describe the rip, and the entire All-Star anniversary day in general, than just pure wholehearted "FUN" - a celebration of one of the grandfathers of modern mashup culture, without even a hint of irony in sight, filled to the brim with pure love for this landmark icon of the early 2000s.

#todays siivagunner #season 4 episode 1 #siivagunner #siiva #SonicHeroesFan1 #Youtube #shrek #shrek franchise #shrek 2 #all star #smash mouth #early 2000s #2000s core #jojo #jojos bizarre adventure #mashups

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year

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Where Is The Next DreamWorks Movie?

Looking at all the official American slates for Universal Pictures, it would appear that DreamWorks Animation is released only one picture this calendar year, and that would happened to be a seemingly-untitled TROLLS sequel. The third overall, of course.

What is not known is that DreamWorks actually has a picture coming out this year, before TROLLS 3 debuts in the autumn. An original picture, at that. Apparently, the plan behind closed doors is to release one original movie and one sequel every calendar year. So far, we do know that DreamWorks intends to release KUNG FU PANDA 4 in the late winter of 2024, but nothing else is on their schedule besides that film and TROLLS 3. Not even a placeholder, you know, the sort of "Untitled DreamWorks"... The other animation studio that operates under Universal, the ever reliable hit-makers Illumination Entertainment, have MIGRATION set in stone for 12/22/2023 and DESPICABLE ME 4 inked for 7/3/2024. Nothing beyond that, though they do have various pictures in development. There's also, curiously, an untitled animated feature release from Universal set for 2/8/2024... Is this a DreamWorks movie? Likely not, if KUNG FU PANDA 4 is opening in March of that year. Two that close to each other? I don't think that's happening. Illumination? Maybe. A February release would be new for them... It could also be... Since Universal now owns the rights to this particular movie franchise... The next LEGO movie... After all, THE LEGO MOVIE and THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE opened in February to much success, THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART - sadly - not so much. Maybe KUNG FU PANDA 4 takes that February slot and abandons March, with the 2nd DWA title that year opening in the fall.

Anyways, I'll get on with it... There's stuff out there that confirms this... DreamWorks' next movie is a picture about sea monsters, it's titled MEET THE GILLMANS. It's on a Universal slate from Switzerland that pegs it at 6/30/2023, it's also been mentioned in various European marketing and promo stuff. There's concept art and images floating around the webs, too. The movie exists, yet it doesn't... Now, it's one thing to start a marketing campaign a mere four to five months before release. After all, Universal/DreamWorks did just that with THE BAD GUYS this past year and that film - budgeted at roughly $80m - did rather fine for itself. *But*, we knew the film *existed* as far back as 2018, when DreamWorks optioned the book series for a feature adaptation... There has been no formal announcement whatsoever with MEET THE GILLMANS. Only through tiny out-of-the-way scoop sites that I've never heard of and the title appearing on staffers' LinkedIn profiles and resumes. One of the hosts of the podcast Fine Tooning, without naming the movie, says it's coming out prior to TROLLS 3... Which, by the way, is actually called TROLLS BAND TOGETHER. Universal has yet to disclose that to the American public. The Swiss slate seems to indicate that TROLLS BAND TOGETHER, currently scheduled to release 11/17/2023, will open in mid-October instead. Which seems smart, because the current date puts it five days before Disney Animation's celebratory centennial musical fantasy WISH, which is sure to be the inverse of STRANGE WORLD and will make a good amount of money.

Curiously, 6/30/2023 puts MEET THE GILLMANS very close to... Pixar's ELEMENTAL, Sony's ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, and Disney's live-action/VFX-heavy LITTLE MERMAID remake... Until addition to a ton of blockbuster tentpoles.

A little while back, the original plan was to have an original picture open 3/24/2023. This was back when PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH carried a 9/23/2022 release date, and THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE was set for Christmas 2022. MARIO was pushed to 4/7/2023 to coincide with the opening of Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood. So that put PUSS in the Christmastime frame, and also made MIGRATION - ahem - migrate to Christmas 2023. GILLMANS has, rather covertly, taken MIGRATION's original intended summer slot. Or so it seems...

But why not mid-March for MARIO? Or better yet, March 10th? You know, MAR10? It's not like March is really stuffed... Like, does a SHAZAM! sequel that's kinda meaningless now in the grand scheme of things and a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie pose any kind of threat to the freakin' Super Mario Bros.? I think what could've worked well was having MARIO make March its domain, while MEET THE GILLMANS could open in late April - much like how THE BAD GUYS did - and get the jump on the family competition from LITTLE MERMAID, ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, and ELEMENTAL.

I don't believe in family films and animated films "cannibalizing" each other at the box office, but options are *slim* when it comes to affordability. If the average American family hit the flicks four times a calendar year back in 2014, think of how many times they can manage now, especially in the post-outbreak times we're living in. Ya know? MEET THE GILLMANS presumably cost around the same amount of money the previous string of DWA titles did (PUSS cost $90m, BAD GUYS about $80m, BOSS BABY around $82m), so not too too much is riding on it. If anything, I'm more worried about the Pixar film making back its presumably astronomical budget than this movie, but it'd suck to see another DreamWorks movie tank. Maybe there's no need to worry and they know how they're going to ride this all out...

That being said, it would be nice to know about the movie in question since it's less than half a year away at this point.

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newstfionline · 7 days

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Sunday, April 21, 2024

The House passes billions in aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle. Next is the Senate (AP) The House swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion. With an overwhelming vote, the $61 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes. Aid to Israel and the other allies also won approval by healthy margins, as did a measure to clamp down on the popular platform TikTok, with unique coalitions forming to push the separate bills forward. The whole package will go to the Senate, which could pass it as soon as Tuesday. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

California is rolling out free preschool. That hasn’t solved challenges around child care (AP) A year before I-Ting Quinn’s son was old enough for kindergarten, she and her husband had the option to enroll him in “transitional kindergarten,” a program offered for free by California elementary schools for some 4-year-olds. Instead, they kept their son, Ethan, in a private day care center in Concord, California, at a cost of $400 a week. Transitional kindergarten’s academic emphasis was appealing, but Ethan would have been in a half-day program, and options for afterschool child care were limited. Investments that California and other states have made in public preschool have helped many parents through a child care crisis, in which quality options for early learners are often scarce and unaffordable. But many parents say the programs don’t work for their families. Even when Pre-K lasts the whole school day, working parents struggle to find child care before 9 a.m. and after 3 p.m.

Haiti’s former capital seeks to revive its heyday as gang violence consumes Port-au-Prince (AP) They call it Okap, home to Haiti’s kings, emancipated slaves and revolutionaries. Sitting on the shimmering north coast, the city of Cap-Haïtien was abandoned as a capital during the waning years of the French colonial era and again when the Kingdom of Haiti fell after its king died by suicide and his teenage son was slain. It was once known as the Paris of the Antilles, and now it is on the brink of becoming what some say is Haiti’s de facto capital as Port-au-Prince crumbles under the onslaught of powerful gangs. Business owners, anxious parents and even historic state ceremonies have been relocating here, and that began even before gangs started attacking key government infrastructure in Port-au-Prince in late February. Gunmen have burned police stations, stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons to release more than 4,000 inmates and fired on the country’s main international airport, which hasn’t reopened since closing in early March. Right now, “Cap-Haïtien is the only city that connects Haiti to the world,” its mayor said.

Ecuador president declares state of emergency over energy crisis (Reuters) Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa declared a second state of emergency on Friday over an energy crisis that has already led to rationing in the South American country. His first emergency declaration, in January, sought to tame surging crime by allowing more coordination between the military and police. In Saturday’s 60-day state of emergency, Noboa deployed the military and police to guard energy infrastructure. A drought caused in part by the climate phenomenon known as El Nino has hit levels at hydroelectric dams, which produce most of Ecuador’s power.

Argentina asks to join NATO as President Milei seeks a more prominent role for his nation (AP) Argentina formally requested on Thursday to join NATO as a global partner, a status that would clear the way for greater political and security cooperation at a time when the right-wing government of President Javier Milei aims to boost ties with Western powers and attract investment. The request came as NATO’s Deputy General Secretary Mircea Geoana held talks in Brussels on regional security challenges with visiting Argentine Defense Minister Luis Petri. Geoana said he welcomed Argentina’s bid to become an accredited partner in the alliance—a valued role short of “ally” for nations that are not in NATO’s geographical area and not required to take part in collective military actions. NATO membership is currently limited to countries of Europe, Turkey, Canada and the United States. The designation could allow Argentina access to advanced technology, security systems and training not previously available to it, the Argentine presidency said.

As Russia edges toward a possible offensive on Kharkiv, some residents flee. Others refuse to leave (AP) A 79-year-old woman makes the sign of the cross and, gripping her cane, leaves her home in a quaint village in northeast Ukraine. Torn screens, shattered glass and scorched trees litter the yard of Olha Faichuk’s apartment building in Lukiantsi, north of the city of Kharkiv. Abandoned on a nearby bench is a shrapnel-pierced cellphone that belonged to one of two people killed when a Russian bomb struck, leaving a blackened crater in its wake. “God, forgive me for leaving my home, bless me on my way,” Faichuk said, taking one last look around before slowly shuffling to an evacuation vehicle. Russia seemingly exploited air defense shortages in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, to pummel the region’s energy infrastructure and terrorize its 1.3 million residents. Nearly 200,000 city dwellers remain without power, while 50% of the region’s population still suffers from outages, officials say. Some residents, like Olha, are leaving. Others still hang on amidst the blackouts.

Turkey Earthquake Trial Opens Amid Anger and Tears (NYT) The families addressed the court one by one, sobbing as they spoke the names of relatives who had been killed when their upscale apartment complex in southern Turkey toppled over during a powerful earthquake last year. One woman, whose son had died in the collapse alongside his wife and their 3-year-old son, lashed out at the defendants—the men who had built the complex and the inspectors charged with ensuring that it was safe. “Shame on you,” said the woman, Remziye Bozdemir. “Your children are alive, mine are dead.” The hearing on Thursday was the first aimed at seeking accountability for the collapse of Renaissance Residence, one of the most catastrophic building failures during the earthquakes of Feb. 6, 2023, which damaged hundreds of thousands of structures and killed more than 53,000 people across southern Turkey. More than 300 people died inside Renaissance, and many more were wounded. An investigation and forensic analysis by The New York Times found that a tragic combination of poor design and minimal oversight had left the building vulnerable, ultimately causing its 13 stories to smash into the earth.

Fighting flares at Myanmar-Thai border as rebels target stranded junta troops (Reuters) Fighting raged at Myanmar’s eastern frontier with Thailand on Saturday, witnesses, media and Thailand’s government said, forcing about 200 civilians to flee as rebels pressed to flush out junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing. Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on April 11, dealing a big blow to a well-equipped military that is struggling to govern and is now facing a critical test of its battlefield credibility. Thai broadcaster NBT in a post on social media platform X said resistance forces used 40-milimetre machine guns and dropped 20 bombs from drones to target an estimated 200 junta soldiers who had retreated from a coordinated rebel assault on Myawaddy and army posts since April 5.

Israel’s Strike on Iran Highlights Its Ability to Evade Tehran’s Air Defenses (NYT) An Israeli airstrike on Iran on Friday damaged an air defense system, according to Western and Iranian officials, in an attack calculated to deliver a message that Israel could bypass Iran’s defensive systems undetected and paralyze them. The strike damaged a defensive battery near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear weapons program, according to two Western officials and two Iranian officials. The attack—and the revelation on Saturday of its target—was in retaliation for Iran’s strike in Israel last week after Israel bombed its embassy compound in Damascus. But it used a fraction of the firepower Tehran deployed in launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel. The Friday attack appeared calibrated to send a warning about Israel’s military capabilities—but without further raising tensions as Israel continues to fight Hamas in Gaza. The two Iranian officials who discussed the Israeli attack said that Israel had struck an S-300 antiaircraft system at a military base in the province of Isfahan. Two Western officials said that a missile was fired from a warplane far from Israeli or Iranian airspace, and that the weapon included technology that enabled it to evade Iran’s radar defenses.

How would we know if World War Three had started? (The Week) The notion of a “first” world war only came into being retrospectively, upon the outbreak of the second. For nearly 20 years, the 1914-18 conflict that claimed millions of lives was known as the “Great War”. But when war broke out again in 1939, commentators began to refer to the Great War as the First World War, to differentiate it from the next. Now, we are again moving “from a post-war to pre-war world”, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in January. In a February survey, YouGov found that more than half of Britons believed another world war was “likely” in the next five to ten years. After Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel last week, world leaders are warning that any escalation could send the Middle East spiralling into bloody conflagration—drawing in allies from around the world or sparking nuclear warfare. Combined with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, it’s clear “the potential for a spark that ignites World War Three already exists”, said Sky News’s security and defence editor Deborah Haynes. Parallels being drawn with the lead-up to the First World War are overblown, said The Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. Nevertheless, this moment “eerily evokes the dynamics of summer 1914, when a war that every power sought to avoid suddenly appeared inevitable, with consequences that no one could predict.”

U.S. agrees to withdraw American troops from Niger (Washington Post) The United States informed the government of Niger on Friday that it agreed to its request to withdraw U.S. troops from the West African country, said three U.S. officials, a move the Biden administration had resisted and one that will transform Washington’s counterterrorism posture in the region. The agreement will spell the end of a U.S. troop presence that totaled more than 1,000 and throw into question the status of a $110 million U.S. air base that is only six years old. It is the culmination of a military coup last year that ousted the country’s democratically elected government and installed a junta that declared America’s military presence there “illegal.” The United States had paused its security cooperation with Niger, limiting U.S. activities—including unarmed drone flights. But U.S. service members have remained in the country, unable to fulfill their responsibilities and feeling left in the dark by leadership at the U.S. Embassy as negotiations continued, according to a recent whistleblower complaint.

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this weekend, but it may be hard to see it (AP) The Lyrid meteor shower is underway. But with a nearly full moon in the sky during the peak, it might be tough to see clearly. The Lyrids occur every year in mid-to-late April. This year’s peak activity happens Sunday into Monday, with 10 to 20 meteors expected per hour. Viewing lasts through April 29.

#headlines #news

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littlejumpersnj · 2 months

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Backyard Party Rental Ideas In Summit, New Jersey

Are you party planning for a loved one but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, Little Jumpers is here to help! In this post, we will walk you through the steps of how to plan a wonderful birthday party quickly and easily. By following our party planning checklist, you’ll be able to throw a successful party that your friends and family will love and make memories.

1. Pick a Date & Time For The Birthday Party Event

When it comes to the overall time for the party, timing plays a crucial role. If it’s a kid’s party, then a late morning or early afternoon is a great choice. On the other hand, adults may have a birthday party in the evening hours. Setting a date and time first will be a good way to start. It will help plan all of the other parts of the party.

2. Choose a Birthday Party Theme (Mickey Mouse, Rainbow, or etc..)

Having a birthday party with decorations and specific attire creates an inviting atmosphere for guests. Having a theme at your party makes it more fun and engaging for everyone involved to participate and engage.

3. Decide on the Spending Budget

The next thing you should think about is how much money you want to spend on the party. It’s entirely up to you whether you want a big budget or a small one. This all depends on what kind of activities you want at the party and what sort of food & drink options you’re considering for your party event. To make sure you have enough money to cover all the cost. This will help you figure out how much money you need. Remember to think about all the costs, including any extra fees that might come up.

4. Create a List of Food and Drinks for the Party

When it comes to party planning especially a birthday party, you must decide whether you will handle the food and drinks yourself or hire a catering company. With all of the tasks involved in planning any event, outsourcing certain areas can bring much-needed relief and peace of mind. Renting concessions such as a cotton candy machine can be a great way to add excitement and variety to any birthday party. Not only do they provide interactive entertainment for guests, but they also free up your time in the kitchen so you can relax and enjoy the party along with everyone else. From a popcorn machine to a snow cone stand, there are so many different options out there that are sure to please every guest! Most importantly, make sure to not forget to order a birthday cake! A party without a birthday cake is not the same.

5. Choose the Right Type of Entertainment

Music

When searching for the perfect entertainment for your special occasion, it can be challenging to narrow down all of the possibilities. To make this process easier, consider entertaining options that will bring satisfaction and enjoyment to most people attending – a band or solo singer are dependable choice depending upon the size of your event. Alternatively, an acoustic duo is often a great idea! If you’re throwing a party specifically designed with kids in mind, then having access to a computer-controlled device loaded with kid-friendly music should do the trick!

Bounce Houses or Inflatables Castles

If you’re looking for the perfect birthday party entertainment, look no further than Party Bouncers‘ inflatable and bounce house rentals. You’ll have access to a vast selection of options, ranging from fun and exciting to budget-friendly – so don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Kids (and adults!) will love playing in these bouncy castles, making your celebration one that’s sure to be remembered.

Inflatable Waterslide Rentals

Backyard Party Ideas In Summit, NJ- March 2024

Planning a memorable backyard party in Summit, New Jersey? Look no further! We have the perfect suggestions to make your event a resounding success. Consider adding a touch of excitement with a bounce house rental in NJ, providing endless fun for both kids and adults alike. To beat the heat, why not include a refreshing waterslide rental in NJ, ensuring everyone stays cool and entertained throughout the day. With these exciting additions, your backyard party in Summit, NJ, will be the talk of the town. So start planning now and create lasting memories for your guests in the Summer 2024.

Games

Board games offer a range of entertaining possibilities, making them an excellent choice for people searching for something to captivate everyone. Whether you’re looking for stimulating puzzles or heated competitions, there is certainly something exciting to fit the bill. Why not give it a try and experience it yourself? You won’t regret it!

Hire Party Entertainers

When party planning, hiring a host or a party crew is a great way to ensure that your birthday celebration runs as smoothly and stress-free as possible. Having someone who knows how to plan and execute the event can make all the difference for those trying to pull off an unforgettable party. For starters, having a host or a party crew that specializes in birthday parties can help keep the event organized and running smoothly. Why Choose Little Jumpers LLC- Summit, New Jersey In conclusion, choosing Little Jumpers LLC for your bounce house rentals in Summit, NJ offers numerous benefits. Their extensive selection of high-quality bounce houses ensures a fun and safe experience for all. With their reliable and professional service, you can trust that your event will be a success. Don’t miss out on the excitement—book your bounce house rental with Little Jumpers LLC today. Follow us on social media for updates and exclusive offers!

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sciencespies · 3 years

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Lunar Exploration as a Service: From landers to spacesuits, NASA is renting rather than owning

https://sciencespies.com/space/lunar-exploration-as-a-service-from-landers-to-spacesuits-nasa-is-renting-rather-than-owning/

Lunar Exploration as a Service: From landers to spacesuits, NASA is renting rather than owning

NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program is the biggest bet the agency has made on the commercial space industry since the commercial crew program a decade ago. NASA decided to procure landing services rather than the landers themselves, awarding a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX April 16 to fund development of a lunar lander based on the company’s Starship vehicle and fly one demonstration mission with astronauts.

That approach has attracted plenty of scrutiny and criticism. The award to SpaceX is on hold as the Government Accountability Office evaluates protests filed by two losing bidders, Blue Origin and Dynetics. A bill passed by the Senate June 8 would require NASA to select a second company, although with no guarantee that the funding will be there to support both companies.

HLS may be the biggest example of NASA buying services to support the Artemis program, but it is not the only one. Even as some cornerstones of Artemis — Orion, the Space Launch System and the Gateway — move forward under conventional contracts where NASA owns and operates the hardware, it’s making greater use of service contracts to acquire the other things it needs to explore the moon, from landers and communications to even the spacesuits the astronauts will wear on their moonwalks.

CLPS AS A SERVICES PATHFINDER

HLS is not NASA’s first lunar lander services program. In 2018, NASA unveiled the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, where the agency would buy payload space on commercially developed robotic lunar landers.

The idea was to provide frequent and inexpensive access to the moon for experiments and technology demonstrations, particularly those with a higher tolerance of risk. Agency officials often talked about taking “shots on goal” with CLPS, with the expectation that not every shot would make it in.

Fourteen companies have received NASA contracts through CLPS, making them eligible to bid on task orders for delivery missions. Four companies have won the six task orders NASA has issued to date: Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines each won two, along with Firefly Aerospace and Masten Space Systems. Their missions range from transporting scientific instruments that had been sitting on the shelf waiting for a ride to VIPER, a NASA rover the size of a golf cart that will search for ice deposits at the lunar south pole.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will be one of the first missions in NASA’s CLPS program. Credit: Astrobotic

CLPS is also a pathfinder for buying services for lunar exploration. “The big thing here is that we’re starting to work more closely with the commercial community,” said Jake Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. “CLPS is our first step on that front.”

That has become a learning experience for both NASA and the companies as they get used to different ways of doing business. Some scientists who have experiments flying on CLPS missions have privately complained that NASA’s approach of buying payload space on commercial landers shifts the technical burden, and costs, onto researchers. They now have to come up with their own solutions to engineering issues like thermal control that would, in a traditional approach, be handled in a more integrated fashion.

A services approach also doesn’t prevent delays. When NASA made the first CLPS awards in May 2019, the three winners — Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond — promised to launch their missions by the middle of 2021. But Orbit Beyond, whose lander was going to be the first to launch in September 2020, returned its award two months later because of what NASA called “internal corporate challenges.”

Intuitive Machines saw its first Nova-C lander mission slip slightly from July to October 2021. However, in a Federal Communication Commission license application filed in April, the company revealed its launch had been delayed to no earlier than the first quarter of 2022. The company blamed the delay on its launch provider, SpaceX, who said that “unique mission requirements” forced the delay.

Astrobotic, which originally was going to launch its Peregrine lander in June 2021, is still hoping to launch before the end of the year. It will fly on the inaugural Vulcan Centaur rocket from United Launch Alliance, whose development has been delayed by issues with its BE-4 main engine. ULA has suggested that customer payload delays, and not Vulcan issues, would delay its first launch with the Peregrine lander into 2022.

John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said at a June 9 event that the Peregrine launch is coming “very soon” but wasn’t more specific.

LUNANET AND MOONLIGHT

There have been proposals to expand the CLPS program to include orbiters or even sample return missions. However, the next frontier for commercial services at the moon may involve infrastructure.

NASA is studying a concept it calls LunaNet: a network of satellites that would relay communications and provide navigation information for spacecraft on or around the moon. Current and proposed missions can communicate directly to Earth, but increasing lunar traffic will strain existing ground networks, and won’t work for missions on the lunar farside, where Earth is out of view.

“Our philosophy is that each mission should not have to create its own communications and navigation infrastructure. That’s not efficient,” said Andy Petro, lunar communications and navigation implementation lead at NASA Headquarters. “We see having an infrastructure to provide those services lowers the barrier to entry for new missions and capabilities.”

Exactly what LunaNet will look like is unclear, as the project is still in its earliest phases of development. “The idea of having relays this early was not anticipated,” he said at a meeting of a Space Studies Board committee in April. Interest in doing missions on the far side of the moon, as well as exploration of the polar regions where direct-to-Earth communications can be difficult, accelerated planning for a communications network.

However, it’s unlikely that LunaNet would be a conventional NASA program. “We’re looking at doing something that NASA would not necessarily build and operate, but through either commercial public private partnerships or service contract arrangements, quite possibly from multiple providers,” he said.

In a request for information (RFI) last October, NASA asked for details from potential commercial service providers for lunar communications and navigation. That included not just technical capabilities but also cost estimates and the “potential for partnerships and options for financing” the system.

Petro said at the April meeting that NASA is still working on an acquisition strategy for LunaNet. “I don’t expect it to be the traditional development and procurement that we’ve done in other cases.”

NASA is not the only agency looking at commercial approaches to lunar communications and navigation. On May 20, the European Space Agency announced it issued study contracts to two consortia, one led by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and the other by Telespazio, for an initiative called Moonlight. The two groups will spend the next 12 to 18 months studying concepts for satellite networks around the moon for communications and navigation.

“Moonlight could be a flagship European project to create the first operational comms and navigation system around the moon,” David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said at a briefing about the contracts.

The goal, he emphasized, is to create a commercial system, one developed in partnership with ESA but offering services to others. That will be part of the initial Moonlight studies: “the feasibility of the system but also the business case,” Parker said. The studies will be done in time for ESA to decide whether to seek support for the program at its next ministerial meeting in late 2022.

SSTL has a head start. It is developing a spacecraft called Lunar Pathfinder scheduled for launch in 2024 that will provide commercial communications relay services. It will operate in an elliptical orbit providing coverage over the south polar regions of the moon, using UHF and S-band links with spacecraft on the lunar surface and X-band for communications with Earth.

“We’re creating this shared communications and navigation network for the moon that we believe will undoubtedly act as a catalyst to inspire more exploration missions,” said Phil Brownett, managing director of SSTL.

ESA officials said NASA was aware of Moonlight but added that having multiple networks of communications and navigation satellites at the moon could have benefits provided there was some degree of interoperability, like that between the GPS and Galileo satellite navigation systems.

Petro said NASA also supported interoperability. “We’re promoting this idea of mutually agreed-upon standards among a set of cooperating networks,” he said, which could go beyond communications and navigation to other services, like solar storm warnings. “We think this could be introduced as part of the earliest missions.”

NASA may rent, rather than buy, its next lunar spacesuits. Credit: NASA

RENT THE (LUNAR) RUNWAY

NASA is also examining how it can use services, rather than conventional contracts, for the spacesuits it will need for future Artemis missions. NASA previously announced plans to develop a new spacesuit, called the exploration extravehicular mobility unit or xEMU, that astronauts will wear on the lunar surface.

However, in an April 14 RFI, NASA said it was considering moving to a services model for those suits. One or more companies would produce, own and maintain the suits, with NASA effectively renting them as needed for missions. The same approach could also be used for spacesuits needed for International Space Station spacewalks.

“We are always looking at ways to lower costs for the taxpayer and focus our efforts and resources on future technology and our bold missions in deep space,” said Mark Kirasich, head of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems division. “We hope to receive industry input on the feasibility of shifting our exploration spacewalk acquisition activities to a service-based model like our procurement for commercial cargo and crew services.”

NASA will continue its own design work on the xEMU suit and share that information with industry, but companies would be able to develop their own designs that meet NASA requirements.

Responses to the spacesuit RFI were due to NASA at the end of April. A draft request for proposals could be released in mid-June, according to a tentative schedule included in the RFI, with a contract award as soon as the end of the calendar year.

All these efforts by NASA and other agencies to procure services, rather than spacecraft and other hardware, are driven by the belief that doing so can save time and money for governments and give companies the flexibility to offer similar services to other customers.

In a June 9 talk in Pittsburgh, after visiting the headquarters of Astrobotic, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, explained that Artemis was pairing science and exploration with the “entrepreneurial spirit” exemplified by Astrobotic and others in the CLPS program.

“Combining those would create a lunar program that we’ve never seen before and open the path for Americans to go back to the surface of the moon later this decade,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the June 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

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