IMALlama

Late to the party, but to add on:

• the glamor shots of finished prints that you'll see in photos and videos are super misleading. Shine a harsh light at most prints at a steep angle and you'll see a fairly rough exterior finish in the z-axis
• Ellis's tuning guide is a good thing to run through. It's pretty straightforward and will give you a feel for what to tweak and when to tweak it
• I've been printing for something like 8-10 years and have never bothered with a filament dryer. I tend to buy 3 kg spools and some of them sit open for quite some time as I work through them. They live in my basement, which does have a dehumidifier in it but is usually around 55% humidity
• keep in mind that FDM printers are basically a CNC hot glue gun and keep your expectations in line
• 45° print orientation can be a cheat code if you have crazy overhangs
• watch the first layer. If you get a good first layer odds are your print will be fine
• different filaments have different physical properties and will print differently. This is true across polymers (ie PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, TPU, etc), but can also be true across brands, colors, and blends (PLA vs PLA+, etc)
• don't get hung up on things like acceleration or velocity. Speed is all about flow and the best way to bump that up is bigger nozzles, thicker layers, and wider extrusions

For real advice: get a pair of calipers and print some radius gauges. Then jump into CAD, even if it means learning it. The real magic of 3D printing is in making custom designs. I'm personally a huge fan of functional prints. Once you start seeing opportunities to print replacement parts, make jigs and fixtures, and make your own designs for things you'll find tons of opportunities.

You're right that's exactly what it means. However, there's a ton of spin going on with BS like the lost cause that try to spin the founding of the Confederacy as something morally just and even heroic. They focus on things like states rights, chivalry, rebellion (the rebel flag), etc. Of course those obviously come at the expense of truly local rights and the rights of women. If you read any of the speeches of the time or the actual articles of succession it will become very obvious that it was about slavery.

It doesn't help that pop culture leaned into presenting Confederate symbolism as "they're trying to morally rebel against the corrupt government" for a bit. That's a big reason why the Dukes of Hazard car, the General Lee, had a Confederate flag on the roof.

You could totally wire two sets of speakers in parallel. Your receiver is rated for it and the speakers won't care. The load might be a bit more reactive than ideal, but it won't be the end of the world. The only downside is that both sets will always be active.

In my experience, sage will flower year 2+ if it survives that long.

Sage in the ground is a perennial around us, but it only lives 3 or so years. It usually flowers in year two. If I had to guess why it's not more common as an ornamental plant it's because of its lifespan and no flowers the first year. People gravitate toward annuals and perennials, not biannuals.

I'm also in the Great lakes region and have never seen a spider like that before. Any tips for searching?

The level of precision that goes into every day items is truly amazing.

I'm sorry to hear that friend! I'm happy that you're still finding outlets to engage with.

Macro photography might be worth a quick glance at depending how mobile you are. Life in miniature can look otherworldly.

Odds are very strong that you have a phone in your pocket with a camera in it. The best camera in the world is the one you have with you, so you're off to a good start.

What you're describing is another good application for stacking/compositing. You can totally take multiple photos, put them into layers, and selectively remove content from each photo. There might even be automated tools that can do this vs doing it by hand. The more steady you can keep the thing taking the pictures the better off you'll be.

The only real hurdle would be things like parked cars, or very high traffic areas where you never get a clear shot of a specific portion of the frame, but if you choose the right spot this could lead to some very surreal looking photos.

Completely agree. A decent amount of the clutter is aspirational. The kids will totally want to play my old consoles and not spend all their time on our PS5! That hasn't really panned out and I'm coming to terms with reality.

On the good news side, we're going to have to get everything out of our basement to replace the floor. We're going to be very choosey regarding what goes back down.

We're just barely over 40 and are taking stock over the massive quantity of things we've built up. We have a ton of stuff from previous times in our lives that still work, but we haven't used in 5, or even 10, years. Some examples are easier, like college text books. Others are a bit more fraught like my original PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Xbox that all still work, but just aren't getting used.

This is an actual thing. It even has a fancy name. Geophagia is nearly universal around the world in tribal and traditional rural societies.