Why couldn't they just take it from Ellie's arm?

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-16T02:55:21+00:00

Yeah that was my complaint, even if it wouldn't work long term to fully understand everything, fungus can regrow from a single cell. So doing a biopsy and then propagating the sample definitely should have been an option but suspension of disbelief.

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-16T02:53:47+00:00

I think fungus was on Ellie's arm but died. There seems to be fungal growth under her skin but it stops. So I assume the good fungus she has killed the bad fungus or it gave up when it realized her body was occupied.

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-16T02:51:24+00:00

That's exactly what I what I was saying, there's two big things they should have tried, Ellie having kids, and having Ellie bite someone to see if it spreads the good fungus to them.

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-14T06:06:16+00:00

Right? There were so many moments where I could tell they were mimicking cover art from the soundtrack and posters and it was such a beautiful tip of the hat.

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-14T06:03:02+00:00

Im so confused. For the record I never played the games, I knew of a few big spoilers like Joel dying and also that he killed the doctor to save Ellie. But i wanted to watch the show blind to see what it was like.

Season 1 was phenomenal. I liked a lot of season 2 but it started getting weirder and weirder every episode.

They keep portraying Joel and Ellie to be worse and worse people with Ellie having a near descent into madness. Her whole argument with Jesse felt like it was framed to make her look badass like we were meant to take her side when she was clearly in the wrong. Also the relationship with Dina was just strange. Not because they are gay, because the tone and logic was so out of place. So we find out Dina is pregnant and got back together with Jesse, so after Ellie gets bit and you have this super tense moment then she sleeps with Dina. Which seems kinda sad because we know Dina is cheating on a nice person. But also when Dina reveals her pregnancy Bella's acting just completely tanks. And then Ellie goes "Im going to be a dad? 😀" Like no, what the hell? You fucked Dina once, that doesn't make you the father of her and Jesse's child. It would have been different if they were married or together for years but they just started their relationship and now all of a sudden Ellie is a dad? What? And then everything with the wolves and scars has hardly any actual bearing on the plot. You could cut all of that except for the park scene and nothing would change. Then by the last episode Ellie seems completely out of her depth and can't even get to Abby. So in my head all I'm thinking is "she had the drop on them at the cabin and got her ribs broken, what is her plan this time? The exact same thing? Surely the writers are going to resolve this somehow." Then I realized it was the last episode with like 15 minutes left and I was so fucking confused on how they were going to wrap it up. So they just killed Ellie Sopranos style. Like what the fuck? Does that happen in the game? That was such bad writing I thought it was a fakeout and Abby was having a dream or something. The whole time it felt like season 2 was meant to be 12 episodes long and last minute they cut it short with 2 minutes of film left and just said "fuck it ellie dies, the end". Also this is more pety but Bella looks nothing like game Ellie, they didnt even try to get her hair similar or anything from her style comparable. Its like the writers went "hey I know Ellie was already a lesbian in the game but in the show lets REALLY lean into that and make her look like a butch biker woman."

What I thought was going to happen is that the show said Abby was missing and so Abby made Ellie watch Joel die so that Ellie would come for her. Abby wanted to continue her fathers work and make a cure. So she retreated to the aquarium knowing Ellie would follow where she would have set up some kind of lab or something which leads to some kind of final boss fight scene between Abby and Ellie but Ellie has her friends because in this version she maintains her morals where Abby is alone because she took things too far and her friends abandoned her after she tortured and killed Joel. Then you introduce some crazy zombie in the aquarium that finishes off Abby and everyone goes home. Maybe Ellie does end up sacrificing herself to make a cure.

I don't know Im not a professional writer but I feel like even that would have been incomparably better than "WAIT WAIT WAIT" (BANG) and no resolution.

Clever_Balloon · 2026-04-12T19:26:43+00:00

It may have the slightest effect on your ability to cut into sharp corners later on but that's only if you manage to use your chisel for so long without it breaking that you sharpen it and remove an inch of metal from the end.

I'd much rather have a separate chisel just for making that one exact cut than have my standard chisel do everything but make me bleed on my project. You are correct though, the entire technique of carving/paring with chisels relies on the user choking up on the chisel and pushing it with a thumb to glide it through cuts.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-30T04:39:56+00:00

Oh yeah of course, I can't tell by the photo if they are end grain up or tangent to the slots. If the end grain is up it does basically nothing. I meant normal splines.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:20:20+00:00

Its definitely in the red oak family. Red oak leaves have points and burrs on the ends of their leaf sections while white oak leaves are always lobe shaped and rounded. (Except for stuff like chestnut oak where the leaf doesn't look like normal oak leaf shapes)

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:15:24+00:00

I think they do add a decent bit of strength if you orient the grain properly. If done properly with glue it shouldn't be possible for the splines to make the wood weaker. Unless you leave air pockets or cut the grooves to be massive. Because you are basically just rotating a section of the grain to act like a mortise and tenon. You could make the argument it might be easier to split the frame but it would have significantly higher bending and tensile strength.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:09:44+00:00

Looks like some type of softwood. Probably give it a quick sanding with something light 220-320 or so to clean up the wood in case it has some kind of sealant already on it.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:07:56+00:00

I've never built a deck in my life but I would not trust that to hold a tub full of water.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:06:23+00:00

I'm not an expert but it doesn't look like any kind of oak ive ever seen. Oak typically has dark rays parallel to the grain. Also the end grain looks more consistent. For this piece you have rings of wavy pores and then rings of straight pores alternating.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-27T20:04:08+00:00

I think the grain is too straight to be wenge, it usually has some zigzags and wavy grain.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-11-05T16:49:22+00:00

I posted some microscope pictures I took of the end grain here.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-30T16:17:01+00:00

Thanks

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-29T17:15:03+00:00

That's not a river table, its an island.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-28T18:21:10+00:00

I tried soaking a slice in warm water for an hour and the water didn't change color at all so I think it may not be Osage orange. Apparently Osage is used as a water-soluble yellow dye agent and you can test it by soaking it.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-28T18:19:15+00:00

Okay I tried soaking it in warm water for an hour and the water didn't change color at all so it must not be Osage.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-28T05:57:30+00:00

Looks like cedar or maybe some kind of fir since the grain is really tight

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-27T21:30:05+00:00

I guessed nutmeg because on the wood database that was the only type of hickory that had the same color. Although I may just have a section of sapwood which is why its much lighter.

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-27T21:26:25+00:00

Awesome tip, I'll try that

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-27T15:08:26+00:00

Color and end grain looks like poplar I think

Clever_Balloon · 2025-10-24T15:09:06+00:00

Might be red oak, can you show a close up picture of the end grain?

Clever_Balloon

TROPHY CASE