u/FlashFreedom

Hi all! I’ve been practicing every day for a week now, and have soreness in my fingertips on my left hand. I know this is to be expected and I will probably deal with this for a long time (or forever), I just want to know: how much is too much?

I’ve injured myself doing other things just starting out, like whenever I start weightlifting I just immediately go too hard and mess up my shoulder badly enough where I can’t lift for three months, and the cycle continues. So I know that if I push myself too much with learning guitar, I could put myself out of commission for a week and lose my momentum, which I don’t want to do.

Is there a point at which I should stop practicing for a day or two to let it heal? The soreness isn’t bad, and I only see the tiniest bit of redness. I don’t want to stop practicing daily, I’m loving it so much, which is why I definitely do not want to put myself out of commission for an extended period of time by overexerting myself.

Thanks!

I saw someone say that Snape’s bitterness and overall behavior toward others was a result of “what was done to him,” and contextually referencing the bullying by the Marauders, and probably also his unfortunate home circumstances growing up. This struck me the wrong way, and I’m just curious what everyone’s opinions are? To say that his character flaws are the result of this, essentially absolving him of any responsibility, is wrong. This makes him (and, in consequence, his actions) mere victim to the behavior of others. The bullying by the Marauders was not, on the whole, any worse than anything Draco or Harry got up to together, and both were pretty bad to each other, but that doesn’t remove any responsibility from their actions towards each other when it happened or their resulting behavior afterwards.

Snape is no different.

You can absolutely say that Snape had unfortunate circumstances growing up, but he also made the *choice* to study the dark arts, befriend other bad people like “Mulciber and Avery,” become a Death Eater, and take the actions which ultimately led to Lily and James’s death. He is not a victim in these events, he is partly responsible. He redeems himself in the aftermath of this by committing to protecting Harry and acting as a spy for Dumbledore, at the greatest possible personal risk. But, he still behaves terribly and chooses to act unfairly to other people. He may be brave, and I think he definitely deserves recognition as a heroic figure, but his actions are still entirely his own fault, and he is still possessed with childishness towards many people and that is entirely within the realm of his control. I don’t care if he was bullied growing up or had a rough home life, he is still completely in charge of his own behavior.

Snape had to face the reality of the decisions he made, much in the same way that Dumbledore did after Ariana’s death, but Dumbledore’s character seems to have changed to someone who was kind and balanced in nature, completely aware of his own faults and selfless in his actions. Snape, on the other hand, retained his bitterness to the end, and constantly treated others with contempt. Understandable and forgivable? Yes. Principally a victim of circumstance? Definitely not.

I love Snape as a character, and he was absolutely a hero, but he wasn’t a victim.

Asking everyone here because I assume most of you are actually normal college age and I want your opinion specifically. I am 28(m), so not ancient but definitely not normal college age. I am returning to finish my degree in the fall and there is a campus organization/club at the school I am attending that I think would be cool to join, and would give me access to the facilities related to that interest that I couldn’t get elsewhere, but am concerned that I would make everyone else in the group uncomfortable given that I am an older guy, and this is a hobby that appeals more to women. The last thing I would want to do is make others uncomfortable, because that wouldn’t be fun for me, so whether or not I join this group totally depends on what you guys think.

View Poll

I’m new to historical costuming, but have experience with sewing garments. I want to make an authentic mid-17th century New England upper-class Puritan costume for a man, using traditional materials. This is a pretty niche costume choice, and there are no blogs/videos I can find of anyone making such a costume.

I need patterns for the linen shirt with falling band (base layer and collar), the breeches, and the doublet. Importantly, I intend on constructing these garments in the way they would have been at the time, which involved layers of different heavy materials, so anything like stage patterns would be totally unsuitable.

If anyone has recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it. I have seen people criticize Reconstructing History patterns so I don’t know any other sources for good patterns that would be historically accurate. Thanks!

So, I’m a hobbyist and build a lot of things myself. I am having my roof replace with the plastic shingles because that’s what my insurance company is requiring now. It’s a big contract, north of $120k.

I noticed this morning that the immigrant laborers found some copper sheeting beneath the old roof. I asked to keep it, since I wanted to use it on a couple of projects. They told me it was theirs now, and they get to keep anything like that. I said that sounds unreasonable and they told me to speak to their manager. I told them I would do so, but told them to leave it on the ground until I spoke with their manager. I went back into my house and immediately saw them loading it into their truck and slamming the doors so I couldn’t get to it.

I demanded they call their manager right away, and I explained to him that I had use for the copper and as it was part of my old roof, I expected to keep it. He told me it was standard practice for them to give any scrap like that to their immigrant laborers “to pay for our lunches.” I repeated that it was my copper and I wanted to keep it. He said that unless we had agreed upon it beforehand, it was the laborers to keep. I then asked how I was supposed to know there was copper there until after they had removed the old roof, to which he responded “you should know your roof better.” I hung up on him after this and walked away infuriated.

So, is this just normal practice? I’m not allowed to make any decisions about what was my property? There was nothing in the contract about the workers being able to keep scrap, only that they would remove scrap. How mad should I be at this?

In the books, Harry is under the cloak and motionless/gagged by Dumbledore when he is killed. It takes Harry a few moments to realize he is unbound afterwards, by which point all the Death Eaters have left. It seems strange to me they would leave so quickly after such an important moment. So my question is: did Snape suspect that Harry was under the cloak on the tower, and led the Death Eaters away immediately knowing that Harry might cause an issue if they lingered? After all, I assume Snape was aware that Dumbledore was with Harry that evening.

(I don’t have the passage in front of me, so forgive me if the answer is obvious, or I’m forgetting a critical detail)

Ok, so I’m about as extremist when it comes to herbicides/pesticides as anyone else here. However… I have an infestation of English Ivy on about a half acre of land which I would like to make use of in a few years.

Basically everyone is telling me that the only way to really deal with this infestation is to do one application of glyphosate. They also claim that glyphosate becomes inert in the soil after initial application, rapidly degrades into a salt and then into carbon dioxide. From the sources I have read this seems to be generally accurate, with nearly all of the glyphosate being degraded into carbon dioxide well within two years.

What are people’s thoughts on this? I really don’t see much of alternative option to deal with the infestation, but I absolutely will NOT use this method if I can’t be certain that the land would be safe and clear in a couple of years. Does anyone here have information to the contrary of what others have been telling me?

Thank you!