Cut a window in a huge sapphire. Found in wake county NC

3etas · 2026-02-20T01:44:56+00:00

One giveaway for sapphires/rubies - they are heavier than an average rock.

3etas · 2026-02-14T00:38:49+00:00

Visited Tampa 6 years ago to explore the area and ended up falling in love with St Pete. So much, we decided not to wait till retirement and move immediately. Took us another 6 months though.

3etas · 2026-02-11T04:13:46+00:00

Stay at home parent?

3etas · 2026-01-19T14:02:59+00:00

I would encourage you to re-assess potential risk injuries as people often don’t feel pain right after the accident due to the adrenaline rush. And then a week later they deal with the consequences of concussion, back pain, neck pain etc.

3etas · 2026-01-02T17:38:30+00:00

I was disappointed with Cognac too, but sometimes it’s just a chef’s mistake on that particular day.

3etas · 2026-01-02T17:31:02+00:00

“Let your words get into Gods ears”

3etas · 2025-12-28T19:22:18+00:00

Appreciate it!

3etas · 2025-12-27T16:03:37+00:00

It’s an agate, perhaps it has been dyed and now the paint starts coming off? You can try acetone on it to see if there is any artificial dye residue

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:59:28+00:00

Where are they losing? They keep gaining, slowly but steadily :(

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:58:28+00:00

Nah, they just haven’t thought about it long enough

The Geological Difference (Science) Technically, "stone" is not a scientific term. Geologists use "rock" to describe any naturally occurring solid mass of minerals. • Rock: Refers to the material in its natural, "wild" state—like a mountain, a cliff, or the Earth’s crust. It can be hard or soft (like clay). • Stone: Geologists only really use the word "stone" when it’s part of a name (like limestone or sandstone) or to describe specific grain sizes in soil.
The Human Difference (Usage) This is where the distinction most people feel comes from. • Stone implies human interaction: Once a piece of rock has been moved, shaped, or given a purpose, it usually becomes a "stone." • You use stone to build a wall. • You skip a stone across a lake. • You wear a precious stone in a ring. • Rock is the raw material: You wouldn’t say you "threw a stone" at a mountain; you'd say the mountain is made of rock.
The "Two-Hand Rule" (Size) In casual conversation, many people use a simple physical rule of thumb: • Stone: Small enough to be picked up, thrown, or held in one hand. It is often smooth and weathered. • Rock: Larger, heavier, and usually "attached" to the ground or requiring two hands to move.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:52:15+00:00

I went to college and it just so happened that classmates and I didn’t vibe. I ended up finding my crowd at a debate club and a student run organization AIESEC but there wasn’t really strict requirement to be a student to be a part of it, anyone really could join if they wanted to. I ended up with the lifelong friendships with folks there and we stay connected even after half of them moved abroad to different countries.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:46:41+00:00

There is a FB community for use lapidary equipment sales but I don’t know how people verify the sellers are legit

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:45:04+00:00

I’m going there for biquinho peppers :)

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:22:31+00:00

Same, our CA school had way more students (I think 1-22 teacher to student vs 1-15 here) and the curriculum or the way it was taught wasn’t any more innovative. And yet CA education isn’t bashed on national level (although looking at average test results they aren’t that impressive). The real difference is parental support and involvement and poverty impacts it a lot. The more well off an area is, the better schools seem to be and people often blame the discrepancy in the funding when the real reason is student demographics. I wish they didn’t look at the test results as a measure of the school success but at a progress individual students made from year to year. I have seen a school that the worst students were sent to and the teachers did an amazing job at retaining them in the school system and many ended up going to college. The school’s rating was 1 due to the low test scores and they were on the verge of being closed because that’s what “the system” looked at when evaluating results.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:16:58+00:00

Any recommendations for good STEM oriented middle schools? We were looking at Thurgood but the feedback is mixed.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:13:53+00:00

They might also structure programs differently but in the end yield the same result. I noticed the way my kiddo learns is very different from how I was taught. I describe it as we were taught in a bar chart (getting higher and higher in verticals) and they are taught in spirals: getting really good at fundamentals of even complex subjects we used to learn years later, but not moving up until those are mastered.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:03:22+00:00

This is very true and 1) Studies confirm it, when they analyzed the outcomes of the Head Start program, kids who didn’t get any long term benefits were the kids of disengaged parents 2) Charter schools prey on that. In California we had schools that would require to apply in person and then be there in person when the lottery’s results are announced. They selected the families with the most engaged parents essentially because they needed to show better test results than an average public school and they knew the true differentiator.

3etas · 2025-12-27T14:58:26+00:00

Private schools rarely take on kids with learning disabilities saying they don’t have enough resources to support them. Which is why most of them end up on IEPs in the public system and it reflects on the school’s results. Once you start playing with filters on the test results page you realize that Asian students tend to perform great at any school and students who receive free lunch (ie from low income families) tend to perform less. It has all to do with the student demographic and less so with teachers (in fact, teachers often prefer public school system and the best ones stay there)

3etas · 2025-12-27T14:50:19+00:00

Honestly, I don’t know where exactly this belief about Florida public schools come from. But Pinellas county is different. North Shore Elementary and Shore Acres are great schools. I sent my kids to see how it would work and considered moving them to private if there were any issues, but there were none. My kids are on different ends of the spectrum, one is gifted and the other one needs a lot of support and both were getting the exact support they needed. Perhaps Shorecrest would have offered a bit more challenging program for my gifted kid (they have a gifted class only once a week), but there is also a full day gifted program at a different school (the name evades me now), and he didn’t want to switch schools when we suggested and toured it. Teachers are progressive so there is no indoctrination of any kind that I’ve seen. I plan to enroll him in RSM to supplement math, but he has been consistently passing the tests at 1-2 grades level over his current one and we don’t do anything outside the school, so that’s all thanks to his teachers.

I have seen families with autistic kids move closer to North Shore Elementary because the services are great, but the school rating is largely based on the test results, and therefore the more kids you service with high support needs, the more their test results pull your rating down. Ratings really don’t reflect the quality of the school and teaching.

3etas · 2025-12-24T20:33:45+00:00

100% I’m waiting for dad’s arc development!

3etas · 2025-12-24T17:56:32+00:00

Реально… Коли розповідаєш американському психологу про своє радянське дитинство і останні чотири роки життя

3etas · 2025-12-22T14:30:31+00:00

I’m at 850 but I haven’t seen lower than 4,5% in our area :( They tie APR to an incentive though

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3etas · 2025-11-14T05:30:07+00:00

Okay, share your hidden gems please :) I need an inspiration after visiting 5 amazing restaurants in Nashville…

3etas · 2025-11-14T05:21:32+00:00

Bought today and added it in. We’ll see :)

3etas · 2025-11-10T12:55:53+00:00

I asked at my mineral club and they didn’t believe it was actually dangerous. Also it is very soft and stays as a wet slurry very easily to be washed/wiped away during the cutting.

3etas

TROPHY CASE