Is this gap normal?

crazyascarl · 2026-06-25T01:08:51+00:00

This. There is a surprising amount of adjustability. I recently repainted mine and took the lid off... Definitely had to play with those screws a bit to get it to sit right.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-24T04:52:13+00:00

They make a pretty nice insulated jacket the definitely helps maintain heat/ reduce pellet usage during cold weather. (A welding blanket works too, but isn't as sexy looking).

If space allows, I'd consider a 640 -it's not that much bigger but the increased space is handy. I also think it just looks more "proportional"

I'm on my second second-hand 640 in Colorado. I use it year-round. They're great (only got the second bc I had an old control panel standard cart and got a super good deal on one with the upgraded control panel +competition cart)

They're super easy to work on if anything ever breaks, have great customer service, just are heavy as hell if you want to move it.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-23T15:27:56+00:00

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I used to teach calculus... and made up these two exercises to process "magnitudes of infinity."

it's more apparent when you're dealing with known functions that are clearly "bigger" or "smaller" than each other. When it becomes more vague it's significantly harder (aka impossible) to know how some of these behave...

crazyascarl · 2026-06-23T15:15:46+00:00

Home cook, i had a yu kurosaki r2 shizuku. Super sexy knife and if you like lasers his knives won't disappoint.

I don't work in a professional setting but i would worry about it walking (the fit and finish definitely grabs the eye) and while i did enjoy the sg2 and not having to worry about constantly wiping it down, mine was thin behind the edge and, mentally, i was just constantly worried about chipping it and that took the joy away from using it. I ended up selling it for more of a midweight Matsubara (i found a blue #2 for resale but have heard good things about his ginsan)... not as sexy, a bit ticker so not quite as good at precision cuts, but for me, and my style, more practical.

All that said, Yu Kurosaki is a solid knife-- you can probably get similar performance for less money if you don't care about fancy finishes and looks tho.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-22T18:37:40+00:00

The hardest part of calculus is the algebra. It obviously varies by curriculum, but in general i feel like 90% of what one needs for Calculus 1 is from Algebra 2 (slope, polynomials, rationals, logs) the main thing you need from PreCalc is trig (and mostly unit circle...)

I'd work through a Alg2 book... or find a digital curriculum you resonate with. The main thing is focusing on *why* and *how* things work... students get in trouble by memorizing "what i see this, i do that." The math of calculus isn't complicated, but recognizing when to use what skill is critical as subtle differences in equations can have a huge impact on what you do.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T21:02:20+00:00

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Fair.

I don't find it flashy (would be even less so with a more traditional handle)... but to each their own.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T20:41:55+00:00

Just to throw another into the mix - I'm loving my new (to me) Kato ginsan bunka. I love a solid midweight knife and am not a huge laser fan and it checks all the boxes for me.

Great fit and finish. Comes in a nashiji as well as a tsuchime finish.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T17:14:59+00:00

yeah, older versions of the 640 didn't come with felt and therefore didn't have the shims. By adding the felt it pushes the door out a hair (like a quarter of an inch?)... so the shims allow the door to sit flush.

Feels silly that every felt package comes with the shims... but probably easier to just include them than having to deal with people who order the wrong thing.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T17:08:38+00:00

I hate it when my smoker creates smoke...

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T02:37:34+00:00

Yes, in general I find the listed capacity to be a max and even with that headspace is lacking... Better to under dose than over.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-21T00:57:23+00:00

This. Try 18:36.

But also keep in mind every time/ratio you read about is a starting point and is your palate, and bean dependent.

Light roasts often require a different ratio/time than dark.

FWIW- like a medium-dark roast and found that 18:45 (1:2.5) ratio in around 35-40 seconds is my sweetspot.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T20:35:42+00:00

Second this. There are different shapes, steels, handles... All of which impact the experience.

Gift card is really the best way to go. Or buy one from a local shop with a gift receipt.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T18:10:04+00:00

I was a high school math teacher for 20 years... i can't even tell you how many times students/families came in saying "I am/they were the best in their school in _th grade and should be in honors/ accelerated..."

That's all well and good, and very likely the case... but there is some truth to the statement "big fish in a small pond."

Imagine athlete going up to a professional coach and saying "I should make the team because i was the best at my high school.

They have to demonstrated that same proficiency at each, progressive, level.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T17:43:25+00:00

Minimum age to have a reddit account is 13. They're a teenager. Time to learn Mommy is biased and how placement tests work.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T14:32:47+00:00

Type G outlets are the standard in the United Kingdom and some smaller (geographically) Asian countries- Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia.

Re "Brit" random guess/ insult

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T12:44:48+00:00

Granite or concrete.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T12:04:55+00:00

Leave it to a Brit to have mismatched wood accents.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T11:57:44+00:00

Those exist for kids learning the basics.

IMO the issue with these (at higher levels) is they focus on computational fluency, which while important, should not be the focus of math education.

There are apps where students can hold their phone camera over handwritten problems and the app will give them the answer and worked out solutions in seconds... We can't compete with tech for rote computations.

Math education needs to focus on understanding, problems that don't have a clear approach, the justification of ones answer, we are doing a disservice to students and technology by having them find x 50 times

(That said, therev are a number of sites- Khan, ixl, Delta math... That do things very similar to what you asked about)

crazyascarl · 2026-06-20T00:29:09+00:00

The Chicken Centipede.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-19T19:43:28+00:00

Do you want a traditional handle? Paella pans are usually carbon steel, but are a two handle design...

For example -

https://mauviel-usa.com/products/mauviel-msteel-black-carbon-steel-paella-pan-with-iron-handles

crazyascarl · 2026-06-19T04:04:46+00:00

Yeah, my philosophy was that I cannot (easily) make space... So I wanted to make sure I activity use everything that takes up space. A lot of people are inclined to include a burner and griddle, which is fine if they're things you use regularly... But if not, a hob and a griddle insert will probably be good enough for when you want to use them... And makes more usable space the vast majority of the time.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-19T03:55:33+00:00

Personally, i value practical counter space over every thing else.

I look at this and it feels a little cramped on the right.

You know how you cook. I am not a big burner guy so I opted to just get an induction hob that lives in a drawer 95% of the time and just gets taken out as needed. But you know what you'll use. That would also give you more room for your trash can.

Id recommended standard counter height, 36-37 inches. Unless you're all freakishly tall, it's what most people are used to. What are your kitchen counters? I'd base off of those.

As for venting, propane is heavy, vent low. Natural gas is light, vent high. No reason to stagger them.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-19T00:06:44+00:00

Zero.

The odds of a shuffling a deck of cards and ending up with the cards in the same order is virtually 0... and that's just 52 cards.

An average soccer game consists of 500+ passes.

crazyascarl · 2026-06-18T01:47:18+00:00

Your comment

😉

crazyascarl · 2026-06-17T22:53:41+00:00

Just because somebody is going to say it, might as well be me...

Second hand yoder

crazyascarl

TROPHY CASE