u/nlightningm

I'm doing an instrument neck, and I'm intending on getting an ultra high gloss finish (mostly for the experience of doing it, as I've tried it a couple times and never really managed, though I've come close).

I'm using Minwax rattle cans as I've had great luck with them, and I also have a can of Minwax brushing lacquer that'll probably also use where I can. I suppose I could use lacquer and just sand it back after every coat until I have the pores filled? I feel like that would take quite a while though.

Is there anything that's powdered and mixes into water (or something low VOC?) I was hoping to only spend $15-20, But it seems like most products are $25-40 at least.

I have a piece of pork cut from a pork shoulder currently frozen. It's pretty thin, has some meat on it but is mostly skin (probably about 8" x 8" and up to 1" thick).

Looking for some ideas to use it up... Maybe some taco recipes? I have a pressure cooker, sous vide circulator, air fryer, and the standard things as well.

Edit: I should mention this is absolutely not to cast judgment on people who choose not to learn the accent. Just want to open a discussion about it because I think people think about language learning in different ways and it's interesting to me :)

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I don't get this. How can it be that a person can *hear* the way a native speaker is pronouncing a word, and still not work to pronounce the word the way they hear it (or in other words, they just say it in their own accent)?

I get that you might not have grown up with your mouth never making the sounds that they make, and I get that you may not exactly be listening to the way you sound when you pronounce it.

But to me it's so odd to hear somebody and learning a new language, and making what appears to be absolutely no effort to pronounce the words in a way that sounds like they're working on their accent.

I'm an American who speaks Norwegian, and I strive to sound as Norwegian as possible, but I heard a guy that is pretty new to learning the language, and it was absolutely shocking to hear what seemed like absolutely no effort to not sound American.

It's just so odd to me. You're learning the language, so you're presumably hearing natives or people with a good accent speaking the words.

Edit 2: I should mention I'm also a practiced jazz musician, so for me it's important to be able to mimic things precisely to the way I hear them. That's definitely a major factor

My close friend always gets me cool mugs for Christmas/birthdays. He himself is a coffee drinker, and is very vocal about hating Vegemite, so for humor, I want to make him a mug that looks like a Vegemite jar.

I'm planning to use one of those clear or dark glass Mason jar mugs with a handle, but I'm trying to figure out what kind of label I could get printed, maybe something I can heat-treat, that would be extremely wear resistant and could withstand being put in the dishwasher.

I read somewhere that there could be a water slide decal I could make, but I want to make sure there aren't other better options before I go for that.

Anyone with some experience that could point me in the right direction?

I'm sure this has been talked about many times before.

Oftentimes, when it kind of "occurs to me" that my second language is hitting my ear with equal understanding and nuance as my native language, I just have to be amazed that it's even possible.

But then other times, I run into conversations, speeches, accents/dialects, topics, certain words etc. that are way outside of anything I have been able to study, and I immediately go back to being an A1.

It's just so funny to me how big the contrast can be within a single language between sometimes comprehending/processing something maybe even on a *deeper* level than a native (because of having studied in-depth beyond how a native would have learned something naturally/by intuition), straight to knowing NOTHING at all.

Alright, back to the books

Are directional instruments doomed?

I play in a small combo a couple times a year (in a different country with friends) and I find every time that I get feedback that I couldn't be heard as loud as other instruments.

Got out of a great jam today but I was absolutely blowing my chops out to get enough volume, pushing almost against double buzzing and an overly brash sound... And even then I heard that I wasn't as loud.

Saxes have the advantage of an instrument where the sound comes from the whole instrument. All the instruments are the same (piano/drums) or better yet, have amps (bass/guitar). We're also a bit disadvantaged in the mechanics of articulation and endurance especially when playing high pitches at high volumes for a long time.

I use a Stork T2 which is a relatively shallow and conical mouthpiece that's on the brighter side, faster and sharper attack.

Short of getting a microphone and speaker (since the setup doesn't make it very easy).….. what do I need to do to get my volume to match? Is it just a matter of practicing playing loud a lot? Do I need to try to use a horn with a larger bell?

The quality of my improvisation and sound suffers because of having to blast. And then the people my bell isn't facing don't even hear me.

Just thought it might be interesting to have a little open convo about this... At a certain level in language, you become so comfortable with listening to the language that your brain fills in gaps and hops over stuff that you maybe have heard many times before.

Occasionally, if you're not actively seeking out things that you don't feel certain of, your brain will contextually fill in for something that "makes sense" - but later on you might learn that it translates to something completely different than what you thought. I know for me, sometimes it gets to the point where I assume I know the word, I never even look into it, and then later I just stumble across the actual meeting.

Curious if anyone has any interesting or funny stories about this type of experience, as well as any tips on how to eliminate these blind spots. Do you listen actively at every opportunity and just keep a notebook with you? Are your assumptions usually right?

One thing that people warn heavily against is using single types of input sources from your TL, like ONLY using the news, or ONLY using antiquated texts, for the obvious reason that you pick up words and phrases from your input.

Does anyone have any funny or interesting stories about themselves or anyone around them having picked up odd ways of speaking because of limiting their input sources?

I've been stacking my list of words and phrases, and my words are divided into catergories (first, part of speech - noun, verb, adjective, phrases, etc.) and then my nouns are broken down a little further (objects, concepts, actions/occurences, etc.....)

I know Anki has a vast number of ways one can create their decks etc... Do you make multiple decks, or do you lump everything into one deck?

I'm at the level where I think maybe I'll get the most out of just throwing everything directly into one deck, but I don't want to screw myself over later if the deck gets too big.

I've had my Nulea for just under a year (got it July 2025) and sadly the scroll wheel is slipping very regularly. I saw a guy take the whole mouse apart, but are there any simpler alternatives?

I'd be willing to take it apart and replace the scroll wheel with a different one with a better-attached wheel.ifnanyome has recommendations.

The mouse otherwise is great, but a slipping scroll wheel is CRAZY irritating for me who uses DAWs and CAD a lot and needs to scroll around very often in all directions.

I'm working on a channel mostly focused on music experiments (I think) - kind of instrument-centric, trombone/trumpet, but where I 3d print accessories and run experiments with them. At least a couple videos will be like that.

I'm inspired especially by Pask Makes' method of just showing the process and narrating with occasional 'talking to the camera' portions.

On my first edit attempt, what I'm find is that I want to have a full script written out that basically guides the editing... BUT!

This doesn't seem the most efficient for showing the actual process (because forcing the video to fit an exiting script means sometimes cutting stuff out), and sometimes I need other B-roll than what I've already recorded etc... Among other problems with just being new to this type of video.

I've been editing for probably 17+ years in different software, but I've never done long process videos like this. Seems like I can't really just slap all the clips in a timeline, I think at a minimum need to use an individual timeline/sub-edit for each portion of the video. But it's hard to know exactly what to show when without the guidance of existing narration/a script.

Anyone that can point me to some tutorials or just some general recommendations on how to go about it? Another sub recommended I go through a full edit without narration (but that also can be a bit challenging itself).

So I'm getting back into YouTube after a long time away. I've spent the last few years thinking of how I can get back into producing content. I do woodworking, but it's very hard to get enough time and complete projects at a fast enough Pace to actually produce enough videos to grow.

I'm still doing that as a channel for larger projects, but I decided I would focus my efforts on 3D printing, since it's a lot cheaper, faster, and easier to record because it can be done inside the house.

Currently working on my first project video - For my first draft, I just recorded my script straight down, and then I edited my video to go along with it. But I found that sometimes I either don't have enough clips to fill the time that I spend talking, OR I have a lot of clips that I would like to show where I don't have anything scripted or any good audio to go over them.

Just wondering how you guys do it. Originally I thought, maybe I should just edit the full video while working on the script, and then write a script around that? But having the script first makes it easy to cut out stuff that makes it slow or boring to watch.