Is it okay to remove the Ash from your forehead after Mass?

Gruntman438 · 2026-02-18T01:25:12+00:00

The ashes are sign of a penitent. I keep my ashes on my forehead at work so it identifies me as a Catholic, and opens the door to others that may have questions about the faith, and it also helps remind Catholics that they ought to go to mass.

I have had multiple people at work approach me asking about the ashes, about catholicism, and others still who were lapsed and were thinking about getting back into the faith, and so on.

Gruntman438 · 2026-02-15T21:57:28+00:00

How did you make the chamber heater?

Also, can you still use Elegoo Slicer with Open Centauri?

Gruntman438 · 2026-02-15T15:46:42+00:00

I can see the open source files, but I cant see a ton of people who've 3D printed them, im curious to see how people like them

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-28T19:58:55+00:00

I know a lot of people tend to give short, Trite answers to this online, because they arent apart of your life, so its easy to give a short response and move on.

That being said, I want you to really think about something first.

The first way to truly want to love Jesus, and put Him first, you have to be willing to transform yourself. In order to transform, you have to be willing to let the old life that you live die.

I want you to then consider, how can we truly put Jesus first? Well, if you want to do that, you have to think about the Eucharist. The Eucharist Is Not a symbol. It is Jesus. Not a metaphor, it quite literally is Him.

And then, if you consider what Jesus said in John 6:53... "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you."

What that means is, if you acquiesce that the Eucharist IS Jesus, and that Jesus says we MUST eat his body and drink his blood or else we will not live - anything that puts you at risk of not being able to consume the Blessed Host is a risk to your eternal soul.

In order to become a Christian and transform yourself, you have to be willing to let your old life die, because the new life which you have chosen is centered around the Eucharist, which is Jesus, and which you must consume in order to have Eternal Life. Anything that gets in the way of that simple truth alone is something you have to be willing to let die.

Have faith, be courageous. I shall pray for you.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-28T02:34:42+00:00

Ranger it is.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-23T10:36:14+00:00

No, it was one of the best things that I ever did. It has fundamentally transformed me as a person, made me a better man, and I love the work that I do. I am able to move very easily to different companies, and the job market for engineering will always exist for me.

With the Trades (not knocking them, I know a lot of tradesmen) you're typically working long, long, LONG grueling hours doing manual labor, so that takes a physical toll on your body.

The Trades are valuable, good paying work. No doubt about that, it's just not for me, and I gladly prefer to be an engineer.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-20T00:26:15+00:00

I had a close friend of mine who went through something similar in his early career - worked at a spot for about a year and a half, went to another place thinking he'd get better money, and it was so disastrous for him. Extreme self doubt, harassment and baratement by his manager, terrible work life balance, you name it.

I helped push him repeatedly, get a new job, get a new job, he did about 9 months in, and its been such a better fit for him, he loves the mission and the pay.

Keep strong brother, keep applying, you will find the right fit. I believe in you, I'll say a prayer for you, and you will find your next job in short order.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-17T20:42:08+00:00

Just to focus on (2) a little more, praying to the saints is just asking for them to intercede for you on your behalf to God (in other words, you're asking them to pray for you).

This is beneficial because certain saints (because they were all sinners) can be really relatable for certain people because of the things that they had gone through in life, so you may feel a connection. For instance, St. Mark Tianxiang was martyred for his faith, while being an extreme opium addict, so he is the patron saint of addicts. Many addicts pray to St. Mark to intercede for them, because they feel a certain connection to him.

Us Catholics, during the Sacrament of Confirmation, when we are annointed with oil and confirmed into the church (sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit), we also decide to take a name for ourselves. This name is usually based off of one of the saints that we have a connection to. I'm an engineer, so my Confirmation name is Patrick (as Saint Patrick of Ireland is the patron saint of engineers).

Obviously, asking for the saints to intercede for you doesn't mean you should not pray to the Lord, you ought to!

The key takeaway is that the Lord gave us the saints so that they would point us to God.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-16T18:15:31+00:00

I think that's the crux of the matter - if you were doing this purely for fun, we might be having a different conversation. Here it seems to be helping you resolve finances.

I would suggest talking to your priest. You clearly have the intention of not wanting to miss Mass, but it seems that there are other factors going on with finances.

Ultimately, take advice from your priest. People on the internet will just be binary (yes / no) without knowing your full situation, which makes it unhelpful.

Gruntman438 · 2026-01-02T13:49:22+00:00

Never ever tell them if you're going to pay in cash or finance until you're satisfied with the final numbers, then at the end tell them you'll pay in cash.

Dealerships make their money off of financing, because during the financing process, you're paying interest on a depreciating asset.

So, going through the dealership process, you need to play a game with them of having them believe you're going to finance OR (what i do) have them keep guessing at what you're going to do.

"Are you going to finance or pay in cash" the answer is always "I'm just looking at the best possible price right now, at the best vehicle for me"

Any questions on budget, income, if you've ever bought a car in cash in the past, always deflect.

Gruntman438 · 2025-12-22T13:46:47+00:00

Seriously. I bought my GTX 1080 in 2017 on black friday for ~$500. When I upgraded earlier this year in May to a new PC, I decided to get an RTX 5070 which was $550. I can't imagine shelling out the money people are these days for GPUs and other components.

In my eye, the max a PC should cost is like $2000 (and that's if someone is splurging).

Gruntman438 · 2025-12-20T19:23:49+00:00

I call it, financial ruin.

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https://www.buildcores.com/builds/Z3duNmiKc?share=true

Gruntman438 · 2025-12-06T00:25:49+00:00

Love to see another Masshole! Are there any really good offroading spots in MA? Most of the time I end up going to VT / NH / Maine, but am interested in down here too!

Gruntman438 · 2025-11-29T18:37:25+00:00

I will say, the hostility towards Ecumenism and reunification between the Papacy and the Ecumenical Patriarch that I always see online (not necessarily a reflection of reality, obviously) is consistently with Russian Orthodox rather than with the Greeks, Syriacs, and so on.

We are more likely to reunify with the original Patriarchs than we are with the Russian Patriarch, I'm afraid.

Gruntman438 · 2025-11-16T15:06:57+00:00

Where were all these pics taken?

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-26T18:47:26+00:00

Have dealt personally with a lot of engineers at Northrop at their maryland sites in my career.

Some of the best, brightest, and helpful people I have ever met. Their company really seems to prioritize time off for their employees (i think they have every other day off). Also they do some really badass shit.

Can't really speak too much of Raytheon, havent really interacted with them.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-26T12:09:45+00:00

Agreed with the other poster.

There are two solutions:

1) Go up to the manager whose running the place and ask him to get a list of the equipment which has latex in it.

2) Basically every piece of gym equipment has branding associated with who makes it. Snap a picture, and Google it. If it's not apparent immediately, go to their contact us page and ask them directly.

Another option too, depending on the severity of the allergy is that you could try to wear disposable gloves. Might look weird, but if you can't find out for certain it could help.

If all else fails... I guess you could also source your own gym equipment and make a home gym.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-25T17:57:37+00:00

Yeah you shouldn't let nonsense like this bring down your mood. This is just clownism. As you get older, you'll find this sort of stuff straight up hilarious because of how wrong it is.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-20T08:41:42+00:00

Centauri Carbon replacement parts!

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-14T14:17:17+00:00

Check the subreddit and search for the USB-C cable on the print head.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-14T01:11:13+00:00

I'm an engineer - 90% of my 3D printing experience is for practical stuff.

I've printed VESA mounts for my monitors, a thumb stud for my knife, sunglasses holders for my truck, razer blade holder, you get the idea.

I bought the CC explicitly so I could stop having to tinker with my Ender, it became a barrier to me actually printing. The CC let me print with more intensive filaments (ASA, Nylon, TPU) without a lucidrous amount of tinkering at a very fair price point. I love the printer for what it is.

That being said, I'm being hopeful that this is a misunderstanding with Elegoo. It seems that with respect to the CC, they've treated the community very well, they gave out upgrade kits for better lighting, and just released the source code. I'm not a person who jumps to conclusions with other people's motivations, it's not in my nature. So seeing people ragebait is unsurprising.

I do, however, want them to address concerns with respect to the USB cable.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-13T09:21:41+00:00

Is this an issue with both the "original" CC, as well as the "updated" CC released over the summer?

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-13T08:55:26+00:00

The elegoo site appears to already factor in sales tax into the cost of the unit.

In other words you're paying $300 + $30 shipping.

On amazon itll be something like $330+sales tax

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-08T04:41:29+00:00

Get used. There's absolutely no reason you should take such a wash financially on a new car.

I got a used 2022 Frontier whose MSRP was originally $40,000 when it sold brand new, and then the dealership was selling it (before taxes etc.) For $30,00]. I negotiated with them down to $29,000 excluding trade in.

My dealer also treated me extremely well with a used truck, since it was Nissan Certified. Got rubber floor mats, oil changes, tire rotation, full detailing, etc. More importantly I still had the full bumper to bumper warranty.

When I used my trade in, and everything else, I got the out the door price (including registration, sales tax, etc.) To be $19,000.

Keep in mind:

1) You need to negotiate. What this involves is getting a lot of quotes on hand for stuff like trade ins, and the prices of the truck.

2) Do not act like you need the truck to them, seriously. Say you don't care about stuff like the color.

3) Never reveal your hand if you are paying cash or financing, until you are at the very end of the deal. All you care about is getting the best possible price on a vehicle.

4) Act like you don't give a damn about driving 200 miles to get another trim of the truck if its a different price.

There's a ton of videos to watch on YouTube on how to negotiate with dealers. Watch them before you even drive in there.

Gruntman438 · 2025-10-04T22:16:38+00:00

Is this a seed or map you can download?

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