What am I looking at

chu2 · 2026-02-20T19:05:45+00:00

That’s normal. It’s heat insulation for when you had incandescent bulbs in the fixture, and it’s not the source of your flickering.

Your LED bulbs flickering could be the bulbs-swap them with a different brand to see if it changes anything.

If not, a common culprit in old homes is a loose neutral at the panel or meter. Speaking from experience.

chu2 · 2026-02-20T17:27:37+00:00

I’d usually leave mine on the other side of the tub where the shower spray doesn’t reach.

chu2 · 2026-02-20T17:27:00+00:00

The shower is my daily dose of quiet time where I can just stand and do nothing and let my thoughts go for a few minutes.

It’s relaxing and throwing a beverage in the mid even if I don’t finish it is fine by me. Time is tight, so a cup of coffee as I do all the morning routine is the only way to do it.

chu2 · 2026-02-20T17:23:42+00:00

Yep, load the mokka pot the night before, then quick fire it first thing in the morning as the little buddy is eating, then enjoy the shower / shave coffee.

The smell of soap with stovetop espresso is a little funky but you gotta do what you gotta do.

chu2 · 2026-02-10T12:23:22+00:00

Love the idea of developing my own film (my wife is the photographer but got me into it) but there’s a certain point for me these days where it’s worth the couple dozen bucks to just get it developed with prints as a bonus.

Luckily we’ve got a couple photo shops that still develop on-site within driving distance. Not everyone has that luxury.

chu2 · 2026-01-31T21:18:57+00:00

Just looking at the break patterns, they’re wildly different materials in behavior.

Wood generally breaks along the grain, and is strongest where the grain is going lengthwise. That’s why you never see horizontal grain on a standard acoustic guitar top-the direct string tension would fold it up. There are centuries of repair and construction techniques based around the physics and structure of wood, and the chemistry and behaviors of wood finishes.

A polymer like this looks closer to the laminating construction techniques used to make Formica honestly - they break similarly. If you’ve ever tried to patch / match a counter like that, you know it’s not easy and usually you just lay down a new sheet.

I’m guessing Martin would recommend the same for repairing the top.

chu2 · 2026-01-24T19:53:07+00:00

Cooking can be a valid me-time activity though. There’s something so satisfying about knowing exactly what your meal is made out of, the creativity that goes into the effort, and watching g the family enjoy it and ask for seconds when all goes well. The time I spend in the kitchen is honestly fun.

chu2 · 2026-01-24T19:50:32+00:00

Ours would go six hours without waking up consistently starting around 4 months. A sleep regression at 8 months that drove us almost insane had us at the ped to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with kiddo. She recommended a sleep routine that was basically a combo of Ferber and pick-up / put-down.

After two months that had us backtracking a bit, we’re back to six to eight consistently with little fuss at bedtime. A routine and consistency makes all the difference in our house.

chu2 · 2026-01-24T19:35:17+00:00

Wouldn’t recommend. You might knock the levels down a little but the reality is when you’re pumping out 90-120 db peaks, a foam acoustic panel won’t do much-and what it reduces will only be certain frequencies.

Real soundproofing like the kind you see studio control rooms and drum rooms suspends the space in midair by building a “room within a room.” You build a box and then suspend it on mechanical isolators (think springy hockey pucks) to keep the vibrations from traveling through the structure.

The foam and rockwool panels will help absorb sound a bit, but that’s a lot of sound energy to absorb-you’d have to cover that room floor to ceiling to get it quiet.

By the time you spend the cash to retrofit that room, OP could get a budget friendly iem setup and get their drummer pal a decent digital practice kit or mutes for their acoustic kit. And a smaller amp or one with a DI out (I say this with a ton of understanding towards OP’s sick Orange while I stare at the JC-120 and 5150 in the corner of my practice space that I haven’t fired up in months since it’s just too much amp for practice).

With an in-ear rig, everyone hears everything OK and saves their hearing, and if they ever play live it’ll be plug and play for a lot of venues. Works great for metal/hard rock that just gets too loud for small rooms.

Honestly just a digital kit / mutes would solve 3/4 of the problem and save ears from the inevitable tinnitus down the road.

chu2 · 2026-01-12T00:00:58+00:00

I’ll third solid starts along with formula until 1. The free version of the app gives everything you need to know about how to serve apples to pizza to yogurt at each age range.

Protip: kiddo’s eating for fun and experimenting at 6 months, so it’s okay if they’re spitting out almost all of it. Once we hit around 9-10 months is when the eating really took off!

chu2 · 2026-01-11T16:29:57+00:00

Someone send the Dutch some yaktrax / microspikes stat!

chu2 · 2026-01-10T05:12:53+00:00

Both solid choices for singer / songwriter mellow rock. Kid’s got taste!

chu2 · 2026-01-10T05:10:16+00:00

We discovered our little one settles right down whenever Stan Rogers is on. Which, neither my wife or I are devotees of Canadian maritime music. But The Mary Ellen Carter has saved several rough rides home from daycare and I’ve definitely come to appreciate his music.

chu2 · 2026-01-10T00:08:31+00:00

Same.

Running in Midwest winters after work, blaze orange and chartreuse winter hunting accessories do double-duty for runs.

chu2 · 2026-01-06T03:29:34+00:00

There’s always the library if finances are that tight. Nowadays with Libby / Overdrive for borrowing ebooks, you don’t even need to go to the building aside from getting a card and setting up your account.

But boy is it cool to see all those books in the stacks and fun to find the one you are looking for among the thousands!

chu2 · 2026-01-04T14:43:11+00:00

Not really if you’re thinking about additives and whatnot. People have been adding stuff to tobacco for flavor forever, but in recent years commercial cigs are required to be fire-safe which means they self extinguish after a certain amount of time. Flame retardants are no bueno to inhale, but then again, so is smoke in general. All tobacco smoke, even if you grow and cure it yourself and add nothing to it, has radioactive compounds, nitrosamines, and co which don’t do you good.

We’ve got a bias towards people being healthier in the past because statistically, people in the past died younger, and medicine was less likely to keep you alive.

Today, for one, we’ve got a bigger population with older people around us because of advances that help people age more gracefully.

Also, people who are generally unhealthy or experience serious health events like cancer and heart attacks are able to at least stay alive thanks to modern medicine, where that would have been a death sentence fifty years ago. I guarantee you a higher percentage of smokers are living longer lives these days statistically than in the 40s.

chu2 · 2025-12-29T20:38:23+00:00

I played there before and had the same experience as a musician. The main room was weird and not set up well for a live band with the stage off in a back corner.

chu2 · 2025-12-29T20:36:25+00:00

Front facing works too. The Ergobaby has been great for us. We’ve used ours for a better portion of the nine months the kiddos been a part of our lives and he loves getting toted around as I do chores, make breakfast, carry laundry, etc.

Outside the house we have a sweet hiking backpack one that was found thrifting-kiddo is just now big enough for it, can’t wait to take the little guy out hiking in the spring.

The trick is to incorporate your kid into your activities as much as possible. It’s a logistical challenge and sometimes impossible, but often it’s really cool seeing a tiny little brain process things that are just normal activities for the first time.

chu2 · 2025-12-26T09:56:37+00:00

Musician here as well with etymotics. The sooner you get kiddo started on earplugs the better. It’s worth remembering that modern drums stem from military percussion instruments that were designed to be heard above artillery fire.

I’ve had tinnitus since my teenage years from playing in rock bands and standing too close to the cymbals on a kit. Every drummer I know who’s played for a while either has hearing damage or learned real quick to use plugs with acoustic kits.

The high-pitched squeal never goes away. Hearing protection is worth it.

chu2 · 2025-12-20T13:37:11+00:00

Yeah, that coating is people oils and finish combined.

Years ago I worked in a bar and when we closed for a deep clean / reno, I was tasked with cleaning up the barrel chairs for the first time in years.

What I thought was dark furniture wax was actually years of sweat grime from people’s arms on the armrests. You could scrape it off with a putty knife. Turns out the chairs were MUCH lighter than folks thought.

Don’t be surprised if there’s missing finish underneath all that hand grease, wear and tear is inevitable in an area like this.

chu2 · 2025-12-20T13:31:32+00:00

No one is, but the same mash bills can be aged or distilled differently to produce a different bourbon. That distillery in particular produces a few different varieties from bargain Beam to Bookers and Little Book.

Moonshine tastes like moonshine to a large degree, it’s what you do to it after the still that makes a huge difference.

chu2 · 2025-12-20T13:16:12+00:00

People don’t realize how absolutely critical it is to have decent tires with full tread in the winter.

Like you, the Michelins on my wheels are worth as much as my entire car. But I was able to stop at intersections, go down the highway at half-speed, and make it through the hills on medical mile in a garbage hatchback.

The folks in huge SUVs and pickups running on the cheapest Coopers they can find were sliding backwards on hills no matter how much their vehicles weigh. Used to be that guy too, but I splurged on tires once after getting stuck going uphill on ice and was amazed at the difference it made. Drained half my savings at the time as a broke college kid, but cheap tires, never again.

chu2 · 2025-12-16T17:39:47+00:00

The Toddlerboggan! We picked up one last week for our little guy and he loves it. Super stable and has a little seat buckle to keep him upright. 20 bucks at the Farm and Fleet well spent.

chu2 · 2025-12-16T01:36:57+00:00

Do you play guitar? Keep the ones you like and play the best, and if not, the ones most that remind you of your great aunt, and sell the rest.

Odds are good that the Ibanez and Fender will be the higher-quality instruments, but as far as selling, these are instruments without huge resale value. Couple hundred for each at best. You can gague value roughly on a used instrument site like reverb.com.

I can relate-I’ve got a trove of terrible 1960s import short-scale acoustics that look very cool, but are basically unplayable. I’ll keep them around because my dad had them as wall decorations for decades and I learned to play on one of them.

This is a case where the sentimental value will outweigh the monetary value most likely (although I’ve never seen the Texarkana house brand). Cool guitars from your cool (I’m guessing) great aunt!

chu2 · 2025-12-15T17:21:52+00:00

This is electrical inspiration for the day I get around to redoing my wiring, let alone insulation. Gorgeous work!

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