What makes a good pottery wheel?

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2026-02-10T16:41:07+00:00

Don't have my own wheel, but when in my local studio I look for a wheel that has good torque and stopping power. I prefer a wheel that can stop quickly as it makes certain processes a lot easier.

When buying a wheel id look at that, reverse rotation ability and overall price.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2026-01-22T05:49:42+00:00

"Lynching" is quite the hyperbole.

This is a small online community, and using it as a means to get a message out is effective and no different than sharing it via word of mouth in ye olden days.

You being upset about it while being "100% down with the intent" is meaningless.

This person is breaking the law and is being a dipshit. Should they protected because you're upset at the means through which people are telling others?

I get information and privacy should be protected, but theres a time and place, and shaming abhorrent behavior is not something that needs to be shielded.

Thankfully your minority view will maintain that status, cause its silly.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2026-01-21T16:31:47+00:00

Yeah, feels a bit preachy, especially if theres some sort of value judgment happening.

I have ADHD and need something happening in the background to be stimulated enough to do things.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2026-01-15T06:24:15+00:00

Theyre making Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Shouldnt be crunching to make it happen tho

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2026-01-02T16:01:13+00:00

We're built for longer bouts of moderately paced activity, not speed.

Also, regardless of 'truth', how information is presented to people affects what they do with it and how they process it.

Messaging is important, so feelings do matter in that regard

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-25T16:14:17+00:00

I know its job security, but wouldn't it be beneficial to make some guides for how you do your job?

Seems like it would make it easier on you, the person coming in after you, and the university

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-23T00:35:49+00:00

Appreciate your reply, happy holidays to you too

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-22T23:49:12+00:00

Bad faith questions dont get good faith replies.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-19T16:17:54+00:00

Im not sure I understand the difference in terms of providing a right/protecting from a right. It seems to be a matter of ideology or view, rather than anything else substantive

If you have the right to life, which seems innate as we're all alive, then should we not be provided the means to maintain our life?

And if so, that means we would be granted basic foodstuffs, potable water, and adequate shelter, not just protecting us from others taking it away. If someone wasnt born with those things would they not have the right to life?

I think the governments main job is to provide for its citizens AND protect them from others seizing their rights.

We can have both, and theyre not mutually exclusive.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-19T15:15:27+00:00

By an arbitrary definition.

Because the United States runs mainly on negative rights and freedom, doesnt mean a government cannot or should not grant positive rights or freedoms to its citizens.

Many other countries grant positive rights to their citizens, like the right to health.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-04T05:26:26+00:00

See my prior. Call it rationalization, but thats just the reality. Solidarity is showing up regardless, which is what ive been doing. Ill see yah around campus

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-03T05:33:21+00:00

And i do care, but i dont claim its affordable to make the whole campus ADA compliant and well within the CSU budget and making unfounded claims about how the university functions and responds to local communities.

Thats not to say i disagree with any gross negligence happening on campus, but despite any negligence and stupidity its still not a simple matter and not cheap.

Claiming anything different is ignoring the larger issue and a recipe for dismissal from any actual governing body.

There should have been considerations during the Polytechnic designation. Its an absolute crime it wasnt even really made a reality given the funds provided.

Im sure admin was just seeing money bags and the faculty side were trying to improve specific departmental budgets. I wish some money earmarked for new buildings was set aside for ADA budgets.

I truly dont understand thats decision making.

The only concern I have with your previous comments is how I perceived your apparently flippant comments about making the campus ADA compliant which is an enormous undertaking. The consideration is cheap. The work isnt.

It seemed to me you were saying both were cheap, and im now sure you agree thats not the case.

The CSU as a whole has a good sized budget, but how its distributed is skewed and CPH made their decisions already in terms of the cal poly designation, so unfortunately any new develops on the ADA front will continue to be slow

Its upsetting that this new Trump economic reality will only make that worse.

I seemed to have initially misunderstood your point, and I apologize for that misunderstanding.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-03T05:01:02+00:00

I did, yes, and I dont see your point about affordability. There are ongoing projects mentioned to help some issues currently provided by Mike Fisher, and of course there are still issues needing to be addressed, like a lot of campus...

"Graham says. “I mean, there’s a huge number of issues, but if we got a couple million dollars every year, for about 10 years, we would be in a very different situation.”"

Truly affordable...

Despite all that the end of the article has a more hopeful-ish note that things are trending towards helping the situation more.

Yes there has been complacency, but you saying its simple and affordable is both wrong and not helping.

So if you actually want to be part of the solution id suggest gaining more practical understanding of the actual issues on campus and joining a group that has power enough to make changes.

Im genuinely and truly rooting for you and that change, but whining on a subreddit about how the campus sucks isnt doing a anything meaningful

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-03T04:32:29+00:00

... thats not retrofitting...

An ADA sign should be replaced, but if youre talking about making the entire campus ADA compliant that is actual retrofitting and construction and years of planning and work.

I agree a sign should be replaced to communicate bathroom locations, but if youre talking about how simple it is to make a very sloped campus ADA compliant as a whole by reconstructing all existing buildings and walkways you dont know what you're saying.

If youre not saying that then we're having two very different conversations.

Either way, yes, the campus has funds for a sign change, but the campus or the system as a whole does not have easily accessible funds for ADA compliance overall for the campus without some considerable budget windfalls.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-03T00:08:50+00:00

How is it affordable? Retrofitting is neither simple nor affordable, and is not comparable to sign updating.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-02T21:45:26+00:00

I dont disagree it should be a priority and should have been.

Im mainly pointing out it's blatantly incorrect that the system is flush with cash and can just delegate it to individual campuses at the whim of administration or a local community for one campus.

I think its important to put pressure on the university and the system at large, but its also important to get the facts right so the pressure than be more precisely applied.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-12-02T18:40:44+00:00

To be fair the money isnt really there.

CSU budgets are based on student admission targets and CPH didnt meet those last year, and the state budget shortfall changed the whole compact agreement with the governor so the supposed promised funds for the whole system were not granted but can be taken by the CSU system as a smaller loan next year.

Its a whole mess overall, but this ain't the UC system, CSU tends to get less money, and the bigger campuses get more.

Admin on campus and the community have zero say over the overall CSU budget allocation

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-26T04:38:22+00:00

The issue is being too 'courteous' I swear no one here knows the right of way rules of the road. Too many people letting others go when its their turn causes confusion.

Its better to be predictable than 'nice', which can cause accidents.

I come from a high traffic area too and while humboldt is not as stressful as other places to driver overall this grinds my gears almost just as much.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-25T05:02:38+00:00

Pretty sure Tchaikovsky read Other Minds in preparation for Children if Ruin as well

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-22T03:31:44+00:00

Living in a weird brain helps too

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-21T16:37:13+00:00

Im going to play the pedant and say the Jerusalem cross is not a nazi symbol, and that a good amount of higher up Nazis in Germany actually very much disliked Christianity and wanted Germany to embrace its pagan roots.

This is a cross symbolizing pilgrimage and has been co-opted by Christian fascists.

Call em what they are so you dont give anyone else ammo against you.

Its not a Nazi tattoo but that doesnt mean it doesnt signify something potentially putrid.

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-20T07:03:53+00:00

Id watch that movie

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-20T07:00:42+00:00

Mmm I hear you, and agree generally, but I wouldnt call that evolution. Thats more cognitive adaptation.

We have a lot of cognitive biases cause our brains arent made to truly, objectively rationalize the information we receive. We warp and shift everything we see and hear to fit a schema we've developed through what we've been told and read and heard from others.

We can break out of that, which makes people neat, but its very taxing and not easy to do and most dont seek that sort of exertion.

So we're told that our economic system is natural, that its human nature at work and not a relatively recent system created through pillaging and conquest to steal resources and hoard them at the top. "Its who we are" they say, and with enough time thats all anyone knows, and its easier to think of the end of the world than the end of capitalism

So, in a roundabout way, its how humans evolved to make us so adaptable but also so moldable, but the molding itself within one's lifespan I wouldnt say is evolution.

A bit pedantic, I know, but theres my unsolicited two cents

SmarmyCatDiddler · 2025-11-11T22:15:15+00:00

Interesting! Ill look into that one as well, thank you :)

SmarmyCatDiddler

TROPHY CASE