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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • When my wife and I bought ours it was only 1.5x a comparable (similar motor/blade spec) DeWalt/Bosch, maybe 2x a comparable Delta. The only saws available at 1/5 the price were on Craigslist.

    Yeah, it’s more, but as hobbyists we figured we were (1) more likely to make a painful (and costly) mistake than a professional who’s working with the thing day in and day out and (2) less likely to be able to restore/maintain a used saw of unknown age, provenance, condition, etc. Worth it for us, and IMO probably for most serious amateurs.



  • Having played a few of these, yeah, you hear it a little better as the player. They don’t sound that much different out front.

    If you think about it, on an acoustic guitar the top of the guitar is the “speaker”, driven by the vibration of the strings through the bridge. That thin plate drives vibration of the air it’s in contact with on both sides, front and back. The vibrations from the front are desirable, because you want the audience to hear the guitar, but the sound projecting back is only useful to the extent you can reflect and redirect it with the body cavity and sound hole(s).

    So yeah, to the extent that sound coming out of the side of the body is useful, these make a difference. It’s up to you if that’s actually important to you though. IMO these are less useful for performance situations, more for people playing for themselves (practicing, etc.)






  • Obviously it’s not for everyone, but I had this conversation with my parents after telling them I planned not to have children and it was… Fine? Kind of a bonding moment, even, we mostly just laughed about it.

    Not every parent/child relationship trends this way, but for some of us there’s a point in adulthood where you just become friends with your parents, and the parent/child roles sort of fall away. If everybody’s mature and secure enough to handle it, talk about whatever the hell you want to.


  • Well-seasoned, smooth bottomed cast iron or carbon steel can be great egg pans. There’s a learning curve but IMO the maintenance isn’t as daunting as many think.

    I’ve got a de Buyer carbon steel pan that we use for eggs most mornings; it doesn’t perform identically to a Teflon pan but it’s still very very good. Maintenance is just (1) a drop of oil before the food goes in, (2) quick wipe under the faucet with a dish brush, and (3) dry with a dish cloth before putting away. I’ve had the pan for almost 10 years now and there’s no reason it shouldn’t last the rest of my life (and then some).





  • Second this. I’ve found that a “power soak” works pretty well and makes it feel a little less arduous.

    Just bring the dried peas to a boil for a minute and then heat off and soak for an hour (instead of overnight or whatever). I time this so I can walk the dogs while they soak. Then pressure cook – I try to do this on a night when we have leftovers so I’ll just reheat those and eat while they’re cooking – and then blend everything up and I’ve got enough fresh hummus for a week.

    Takes about two hours, but fits into my nightly routine very easily at it’s really only 10-15 minutes of active time cooking.


  • scientifically proven ecological collapse

    This is a pretty specific thing, but the general “we’re all doomed” vibe is definitely not unique to today. Boomers and older had the threat of nuclear annihilation looming over them, and before that… well, disease and famine and death and destruction due to war have historically been the norm.

    Imagine how you’d feel living in the Americas in the 16th or 17th centuries and either watching the destruction wrought by European settlers firsthand or, maybe worse, watching your peers die en masse of the diseases introduced by those settlers. Imagine living in Eurasia in the 13th century and watching the Mongol army sweep through.

    None of this is to say that today’s challenges aren’t real and serious. Just that we’re not the first to face such challenges.