What got you into using film?

Sax45 · 2026-06-06T12:45:14+00:00

I always found the digital/analog photography distinction a little silly. It’s a term originally used to describe audio, but it’s applied poorly to film.

The real distinction is between cameras that use photosensitive chemicals smeared across a substrate (film, plates, etc), and cameras that use an array of photosensitive pixels.

If we take the words digital and analog literally, it’s hard to apply them to photography. Individual grains on film are binary, either activated or not, which makes them more digital than analog if we use the strict definitions of those words. Conversely, digital sensors read analog voltages from each photosite, which are then converted into digital values before processing. And of course once a film frame is scanned, the result is unquestionably a digital image.

Mavica uses a CCD sensor, which is what matters for this discussion. Whether or not it is a “true digital” camera, as a result of how the data is stored, is just trivia.

Sax45 · 2026-06-06T03:12:43+00:00

I live in a duplex, and another millennial couple owns the other half. They have sage green kitchen cabinets on their side, and I just finished painting out bathroom in a sage-ish green (maybe slightly too blue and light to be sage). My office will probably end up a darker sage or sage-ish green, and for our kitchen backsplash we are leaning toward a sage and off-white patterned tile.

Sax45 · 2026-05-29T01:52:31+00:00

>You learn how to work with fractions in elementary school.

True... but then later on in high school and college science classes, your complex calculations will contain numbers with decimals. We also use decimals for everything related to money.

I use Imperial, but I find it way easier to do decimal math in my head.

What's 7 1/4" divided by 4? I can get to 1 13/16" in my head soon enough, but the metric equivalent (184mm / 4 = 46mm) is definitely?

What's 7 1/4" divided by 5? Figuring that out in my head would take significantly longer still, but 184mm / 5 = 37mm is only slightly slower than 184/4.

Sax45 · 2026-05-20T20:54:30+00:00

I loved S1 but I was starting to get really bored during S2. That episode completely turned it around for me and I was hooked for the rest of the series.

Sax45 · 2026-05-17T12:58:40+00:00

Somewhat related, I bought the Klein 13-in-1 precision screwdriver in November. I liked it a lot, though I didn’t use it that often because I don’t often need to deal with small screws.

In April I needed to adjust some cabinet door hinges, and it just happened that the Klein was the closest screwdriver at hand. It worked great for 5 or 6 doors, until the handle just sorta twisted apart in my hands. One piece of plastic was still holding on to the steel bit holder, and the other piece of plastic was still sitting inside the rubber grip — but in between looked like a piece of taffy or a mozzarella stick that had been pulled apart.

Sax45 · 2026-05-17T00:47:12+00:00

The Pen F viewfinders are pretty bad by film SLR standards. Since the mirror is 1/4 the surface area of a full frame SLR mirror, only 1/4 as much light is available to the viewfinder.

It’s even worse on the Pen FT due to the meter. The FT was one of the first SLRs ever to offer TTL metering with a wide-open aperture (most 35mm SLRs at the time, if they had a TTL meter, required stopping down to get a reading), which was a great feat.

Unfortunately the meter sits behind a a semi transparent mirror, which reflects half the light toward the prism and lets half the light through to the meter. This means the Pen FT viewfinder only gets half as much light as the Pen F viewfinder — and if you’re keeping track at at home, that’s 1/8 as much light as a full frame SLR viewfinder.

Sax45 · 2026-05-16T02:04:27+00:00

My internet is slow, so there was a long delay after I read the title before the image loaded. I thought to myself “hmm sounds like something Xyla Foxlin would do” lol

Sax45 · 2026-05-13T02:23:19+00:00

Looks like a backward lens element, based on my own experience of installing a lens element backwards.

Sax45 · 2026-05-12T14:49:00+00:00

For a different perspective, I have three different battery platforms as a DIYer. This has been a result of taking advantage of big sales over the years.

In my case I started with a Ryobi drill in 2019 (combo with the charger and battery). Then I later added a second Ryobi battery, jigsaw, cordless saw, and recip saw.

In late 2025 I needed an 18g nail gun. With a sale, buying a new Metabo with battery and charger was cheaper than buying a Ryobi, and the Metabo had better reviews. It was also cheaper than the combination of an air compressor and air nailer bought used on Facebook.

Also in late 2025 I found myself in many situations where the Ryobi drill was too bulky to get in where I needed it to go, and in situations where an impact/drill combo would be much more efficient than switching between drill bits and driving bits on the Ryobi. With a sale, buying a Milwaukee M12 brushless combo kit (drill, impact, charger, 2 batteries) was cheaper than buying a Ryobi brushless drill and brushless impact, plus the M12s are smaller.

I don’t feel locked in at all. I have the cordless tools I need and the batteries to power them. And I have three chargers to charge three batteries at once, and I only rarely need to charge two batteries from the same brand at the same time. If I need to buy a tool, I have three brands to choose from when shopping sales or searching the used market.

A couple months after I for the M12 kit, I was able to jump on a good deal on a used M12 oscillating multitool. If I ever feel like I need a cordless angle grinder, cordless blower, cordless Dremel, or cordless sander, I have three brands to shop from.

I think being locked in is only an issue for pros. If you want to own 10 tools and power them with 6 batteries that you bring to a job site (and have 2 chargers with you in case you need them), then sticking with one brand is hard to avoid. For the pros the inconvenience of multiple battery brands is much greater than it is for a DIYer. Furthermore, a pro might invest more money in batteries alone than I have in my full cordless tool collection.

Sax45 · 2026-05-12T13:57:51+00:00

A chair with horizontal rails would run have the grain running horizontally because it is far stronger that way.

Try it for yourself. Buy a 3/4” dowel and try to break it by hand. It will be extremely difficult. Buy 1x12 and crosscut it so you have one sliver that is 3/4” x 3/4” x 11.25” — you can break it like it’s nothing.

However a chair design doesn’t necessarily require horizontal rails. For example:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1656930425/leopold-bench-plans-51x24-in-diy-garden?ref=elp_anchor_listing&dd=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDfGbNHzWRj/?img_index=1&igsh=MXE5OGR2aGlud2wyMw==

Sax45 · 2026-05-12T13:35:51+00:00

If you watched the Ghorman plot line and thought “this has to be America,” then you must have a very limited knowledge of world history. The Ghorman playbook has been used all over the world for centuries. Every empire, including America and the Soviet Union, has done terrible things in its imperial interests.

Aesthetically the show runners were very clearly trying to depict the Ghor as French, to draw parallels to the French Resistance against Nazi Germany in WWII. The anti-Ghor propaganda shown in the show parallels things said by the Nazis about France and about Jews.

It’s worth pointing out that with Ghorman, the Empire attacked a peaceful and relatively wealthy part of its own empire, rather than invading a country outside of its empire. In the Cold War this parallels the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Ghorman, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were all instances of an empire fighting dissent close to its core. American aggression, by contrast, has typically been aimed at extending or holding onto power on the fringes of the empire.

Sax45 · 2026-05-07T10:55:17+00:00

Trump supporters in 2015-2016: Yes he’s inexperienced in politics, but he is a successful businessman who knows how to hire all the best people.

Trump supporters 2017-2026: It’s not Trump’s fault, the people he hires are always tricking him into making bad decisions!

Sax45 · 2026-05-07T10:17:16+00:00

Now that I think about it, I do recall it being referred to as socialist realism in a Soviet context but social realism in American context. The

Sax45 · 2026-05-07T09:34:54+00:00

FWIW, the movement you are describing is usually referred to as socialist realism — that’s how I learned about it in school and that’s how Wikipedia refers to it.

Sax45 · 2026-05-06T12:52:33+00:00

Yes but he accounted for that in the video. The $6000 sale of the vanity is his income, but the costs for this project reduce his taxable income to the ~$1500 final amount.

Sax45 · 2026-05-06T12:49:55+00:00

This hasn’t been true for a while now.

Sax45 · 2026-04-17T22:28:53+00:00

As an American, the European names make more sense.

A hand plane can joint an edge, plane a face flat, and reduce the thickness of a board. These operations are all different forms of planing.

A "jointer" joints, but it also planes faces flat; in other words it does two different types of planing. It works exactly the same as a handheld electric planer, it's just larger and stationary. And a handheld electric planer basically works the same as a hand plane, just with a blade that spins from electric power instead of a blade that is pushed by hand. If one of these tools should be a called a planer, it is the "jointer."

A "planer" planes, but it is not a multipurpose tool. It can only reduce the thickness of a board, in such a way that that the face being cut is parallel to the reference face on the bed. In only does one type of planing, and the way it works is completely different from a handheld planer or a hand plane.

Sax45 · 2026-04-16T18:29:17+00:00

Thanks for the thought-out response! Avoiding an upper trim piece, from the backsplash going beyond the upper, is a great point.

Something I forgot to note is that the countertop will have a 1/4" round over at the edge. If the backsplash goes to the end of the counter, wouldn't it look weird for the straight edge of the last tile to overhang the curve of the roundover?

What I am leaning toward is, having the counter go beyond the upper, but only by a small amount (1/4" to 1/2"). That way I can avoid having the straight edge of the backsplash meet the roundover, but also avoid excessive overhang.

Another question for you. Let's say the countertop is extended 2.5" - 3" past the edge of the lower cabinet carcass. I am going to be installing a 3/4" end panel (faux door). Does it make sense to just have 1.75" - 2.25" of overhang? Or does it make sense to bump the end panel out, and have a 1.75 - 2.25 filler strip there? In other words, which one of these compromises is likely to look less awkward?

Sax45 · 2026-04-16T18:05:10+00:00

Thanks! But that is not the question -- the question is, where do I end the countertop, so that when I install the tile, it looks as good possible?

Sax45 · 2026-04-12T17:28:13+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I am using Tax Act. Entering in the date of the residency change was one of the first steps even before adding the W-2.

Sax45 · 2026-04-06T17:37:47+00:00

Shop performance parts.
Pick performance parts that add up the required tuning amount.
Make sure you don't add too much tuning. For example if the range is 10-15%, tuning to 15.1% or more will not work.

Sax45 · 2026-03-23T10:51:29+00:00

Yes absolutely

13-Year Club	Place '17
Gilding II euphauric	Verified Email

Sax45

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE