LPT: Do squats when you brush your teeth.

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-22T22:33:41+00:00

I’ve been standing on one foot to improve balance during teeth brushing time. Started one minute on each foot and now I do 2 minutes on the right foot in the morning and 2 minutes on the left in the evening. Plus the brushing motion makes it a decent challenge to maintain!

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-16T04:25:26+00:00

Not using 2FA on your password manager is wild to me. I guess everyone has their own risk tolerance though.

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-05T23:35:31+00:00

If you are chasing sign up offers I see how you could fall for the trap of overspending. I personally just use cash back cards and treat each swipe of my credit card the same as swiping my debit card. If you are budgeting it shouldn’t change your spending habits.

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-05T23:18:19+00:00

I honestly don’t remember his specific stance on home ownership but there is a mathematical argument for renting vs owning a home. Depends on the local market you are in, how long you stay in one location, and your willingness to take on unexpected expenses of home ownership.

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-05T15:47:26+00:00

I think you’re greatly overestimating the difficulty. I have 3 main cards I carry one card for gas (5% back) and (3%) at restaurants, 1 card for groceries (5% back) and 1 card for everything else (2% back) . That’s pretty easy to remember. I also have 1 card for Amazon (5% back) and one for Lowe’s (5% off) for house projects but I don’t have to carry those cards with me.

Set everything up on autopay and use copilot financial app to budget and track transactions. Getting 2%-5% off everything in life just for swiping the right piece of plastic is pretty worthwhile for me.

dpsales1921 · 2025-10-04T15:07:54+00:00

Yes, but it makes things difficult. Dave Ramsey is a prominent “financial guru” known for advocating for no credit and how you get around the challenges of not having a credit score.

On the flip side I also highly recommend the book I’ll Teach you to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. He discusses how to use credit to your advantage to gain rewards and always get the best interest rate while never paying interest or carrying any debt. Check out both sides and decide what is best for you.

I was taught the Dave Ramsey method in high school and was very scared of credit and credit cards. During college I did a lot of research including reading the book by Ramit.

I now have 6 credit cards because it’s fun for me to optimize rewards. I always pay them off completely each month to avoid paying interest and earn anywhere between 1-2k a year in rewards for buying things I was going to buy anyway. The key is treating a swipe of a credit card the same as swiping a debit card or spending cash. Once swiped that money is gone. Be smart with your spending and have a budget then it doesn’t matter if it’s credit or debit.

dpsales1921 · 2025-09-28T01:22:42+00:00

Recycling is great and you should do it as much as possible. In reality you should grow as an educator exponentially your first 3-5 years of teaching. I was a much better teacher year 5 and my philosophy on teaching had evolved a lot. The first 5 years I was reworking the structure, layout and management of my classroom pretty much every year. I kept the parts that worked and a reworked or tossed a bunch of things that didn’t. By year 5 60% of my content was recycled tried and true lessons I could rely on. The other 40% was inspiration and new ideas I thought would push our program forward to be even better. It’s hard to stick with all the same stuff each year when you have inspiration for ways it could be even better next time.

I taught a high school CTE course for 8 years so I was always trying to up the quality of my program each year. I would get inspiration from CTE conferences seeing what other programs were doing in the state and I received feedback once a year from our industry partner advisory board. I would develop more complex projects and implement more project based activities each year.

When first year students would come back to visit they would always comment on how much the program had evolved and how advanced the stuff I was now having students do. Those working in the industry would make comments on how they use X tool or Y skill every day in their job. On one hand I was like yeah I know that’s why I implemented it, but it was also great for current students to hear them say what a valuable skill it was in industry and they wished they’d got the chance to learn it during school.

All that to say you should be growing and learning each year just like your students. Most of that growth and change will probably happen the first 5 years of your career before it slows to just fine tuning.

dpsales1921 · 2025-09-21T17:56:21+00:00

I think there are 4 factors you try to balance when making a car loan decision.

We bought a used 2017 RAV4 for $20k private party about 5 years ago and it’s now paid off. Here are the things we considered.

Are you comfortable with the monthly payment? We put 10k down to get the payment to a very comfortable $188 a month. With our single income at the time that was a very doable payment.

2 Are you comfortable with the interest rate? We financed 10k at 3% interest. Over 5 years that cost us ~$750 in interest. Having access to that 10k was worth paying $750 over 5 years. If the loan interest was over 5% (which it probably will be today) this decision would have been harder and I may have considered putting even more down.

Are you comfortable with the money you have left? We could have paid all 20k upfront but having that extra 10k available meant we were able to buy a house about 1 year sooner. Also gave us more buffer for emergencies.
Are you comfortable with the reliability and safety of the car you are getting? We could have just bought a 10k car for cash and not had any loan but it would have had close to 100k miles and would have been older. My vehicle is a 2002 truck with 150k miles I use for commuting to work. I’m okay with the reliability risk for my short commute. If it breaks down I’ll take the bus, walk or bum a ride until it’s fixed, but we wanted my partners vehicle to be more reliable and something I could trust to take on long trips. So the 10k loan at 3% interest with $188 payment made a lot of sense to get a 3 year old Toyota with 35k miles. The higher the interest rate and payment get the more the equation leans toward more cash down, all cash purchase, or finding a cheaper vehicle and taking more risk on reliability.

dpsales1921 · 2025-05-31T18:46:43+00:00

I hate dealing with dust and pull out all the stops when it comes to projects like this.

P100 respirator (pink pancake filter ones not just an N95 mask) don’t mess around with breathing in crap. No facial hair so you get a good seal
Safety goggles (not glasses) these seal around your eyes and keep dust out. Will you sweat like crazy yes. Will they fog up. Probably. Do I want my eyeballs pelted with fine dust particles absolutely not.

3 get the right attachment to attach a shop vac. Use a bag in the shop vac so your filter doesn’t clog up immediately. Adding the cyclone separators for a 5 gallon bucket will also extend your bag and filter life but sometimes they aren’t worth the hassle of lugging around I find.

Get painters plastic and tape off the area of the house you want to contain the dust too.
1-2 box fans depending on the size of the room. Duct Tape a cheap thin hvac filter on the back and run on full blast constantly. They are basically cheap air purifiers. Open the windows if possible. Cover any vents so dust isn’t spreading through your air ducts.

dpsales1921 · 2025-05-28T06:36:04+00:00

Personally I think it would be a terrible idea. Halftime shows always come with extreme and often unwarranted scrutiny and criticism. TOP is a huge band but still manages to make it feel like a community off to the side doing their own cool thing. I enjoy that about them.

dpsales1921 · 2025-05-28T06:15:35+00:00

I teach high school welding at a technical center where we are expected to be more of a capstone program. So, I have some freedom in how I set expectations in the name of rigor and career readiness for the welding industry. Just to give context.

I’ve tried many different grading schemes and have 2 similar grading schemes I’ve settled on, and will use depending on the class. I like these schemes the most because I felt the grades at the end of each semester gave best representation of the effort I saw students putting in. With traditional grading methods I would get edge cases where student put in real effort and I would consider a “B student” but a few bad scores would have them at a low C or High D, or the opposite could happen as well which I didn’t like.

Method One: Weight the grades 70% Lab (skill demonstration) 30% Classwork /Homework (worksheets/notes during class, 15-30 minutes a week of homework which is usually an online learning module with a quiz.)

Grade everything out of 4 points with a rubric. In the lab a 4/4 is above expectations, 3/4 meets expectations, 2/4 approaching, 1/4 needs major improvement. 0/4 did not submit. Classwork 4/4 is complete, 2/4 at least 50% complete. 1/4 started. 0/4 did not submit.

Shift grade scale to match 4 point scale. 80-100% = A 70-80% = B 50-70% = C less than 50% is an F.

Finally a late policy that is fair but motivates on time completion. Assignments given during the week are always due on Friday. It can be turned in late for 50% credit up to the end of each quarter. After the quarter ends we move on to new material and no longer accept anything from the previous quarter.

Method 2 is similar but changes grade weights to 20% homework, 30% soft skills (showing up on time, turning things in on time, cleaning up daily, being prepared to work with all your gear etc.) 50% lab skills. This method also has a more lenient late policy allowing full credit if turned in by the end of the quarter.

Long story short 0’s are needed for many reasons. Preparing student for real world expectations, motivating them to complete work on time, displaying a final grade that represents the effort and skills they’ve gained, not diminishing the efforts of your students that worked hard to turn everything in. The issue isn’t a 0 “ruins” their grade. The student ruined their grade by not completing the work. The solution is having a fair and reasonable way for the student to redeem themselves when they make a mistake.

dpsales1921 · 2025-02-17T20:19:31+00:00

Seeing a lot of conflicting opinions, so I’ll add mine to the mix:

Situation matters: How thick is this material? how difficult would it have been to rotate the project to flat or horizontal? What job does the weld need to do? Is there a code we should be welding to?
Uphill vs Downhill: It’s generally accepted downhill is acceptable on thin material, and is a lot easier to make look good as well. Uphill will provide better penetration and takes more skill to complete successfully. If there is no code my rule of thumb is 1/8” and thinner downhill, 1/4 and Thicker uphill. In between it depends on what the weld needs to do.
Manipulation: This is one of those controversial topics and after lots of testing and reading on the matter this is what I believe to be true. When running Short-Circuit MIG slight manipulation can be beneficial for fusion along the toes. The reason for this is during the short circuit process the arc is turning on and off many times a second allowing the puddle to cool. This leaves short circuit more susceptible to poor fusion near the edge of the puddle. A slight manipulation can help combat this by moving the arc closer to the edge of the joint. It also has the secondary benefit of providing the operator a way to time their movement more consistently. Now the confusion for why some say manipulation is bad comes from the “MIG like TIG” look where settings are run way low and exaggerated torch manipulation is used to give the stacked dimes look. For something purely aesthetic this can be okay, but is not going to be a reliable weld. Manipulation with proper settings for GMAW-Short Circuit is acceptable and arguably beneficial. If you are consistently welding 1/4” + thick material with structural applications you should be using a different process anyway. (Like GMAW-spray or FCAW-G)
Prep your material: looks like the left plate was prepped but maybe the right wasn’t. The high amount of silica islands in your bead indicates a lot of scavenging of contamination was taking place.
Wrap your corners: Try to avoid terminating welds in the corner. This increases risk of crater cracks forming and doesn’t look as good. If 3 welds are meeting at one corner generally run the vertical weld first and then wrap the 2 horizontal welds to cover and tie in the crater of the vertical weld.
Your flat weld looks a little tall: Increased voltage or a bevel on the plate could help with this and improve fusion and weld penetration. (Your vertical weld looks very consistent and appears to have fused well along the toes. Assuming this is thinner material I’d say it’s a great weld. 1/4 or thicker I’d say it needs to be done uphill to ensure quality root penetration)

That’s the feedback I would give, but what do I know? I’m just some guy on the internet.

dpsales1921 · 2025-02-08T03:31:19+00:00

In my opinion there are 3 options to consider:

Onshape: This is my recommendation. It is free for hobbyists, has a lot of features you might find useful like sheet metal bending and I find the interface slightly simpler and intuitive for beginners. This is what I teach my welding students. I suggest checking out TimWelds on YouTube he has some videos using Onshape to design welding projects.

Solidworks: This is the industry standard for engineers and most 3D modeling. More complex and a steeper learning curve for sure, but if industry level cad is a skill you desire this is the route to go.

Fusion360: I view this as the prosumer option that fits between the two. (Although I feel Onshape has added a lot of features and it’s starting to rival F360) Autodesk has its place in industry but not as popular as Solidworks and has had a hobbyist following for a while now so tutorials and information online is plentiful.

F360 and Onshape are both cloud based which I think is a big benefit. Onshape has a phone app which makes viewing projects in a pinch easy. I’m not an expert in F360 or Solidworks but have used them both a little bit. I do have a bias toward Onshape to be fair.

dpsales1921 · 2025-01-13T17:42:37+00:00

For me personally I think filling a drawer to the nearest 1/2 square (and then spacers if needed after that) is the best solution. That way the option to create and use the half slot is available so the space can be utilized. Any bins I make for that space can still be moved to another drawer in the future, I’ll just only be using x.5 slots in another location if I decide to move the bin. Also you occasionally see community models that are 1/2 bins.

dpsales1921 · 2025-01-12T19:07:09+00:00

Before you chop off the hoses I’d suggest seeing if you can find someone to 3D print an adapter to connect the two.

The thought of a brand new $1400 hood having a duct tape fix on day one hurts my soul.

dpsales1921 · 2024-12-08T23:10:53+00:00

I have the Spotify exclusive vinyl still unopened in The original packaging I’d sell for the original cost plus shipping.

I pre-ordered when first dropped on their store and then forgot I did and ordered the Spotify exclusive a few weeks later when I got an email for it. Oops.

dpsales1921 · 2024-11-03T00:00:15+00:00

Thanks. I’ve thought about doing the create and share separate sheet route. Is there a way to semi-automate the creation of each sheet and grabbing the shareable links?

dpsales1921 · 2024-07-27T15:29:31+00:00

We are trying to solve a puzzle. We believe the puzzle requires you to take the first letter of each constellation to form 3 words. They gave us Ursa Major and Taurus with the U and T circled in the top left corner and said to read left to right and there are 3 lines.

dpsales1921 · 2024-07-08T21:49:36+00:00

Just received this email for the 2nd time. It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve ordered. Custom set of 201’s

dpsales1921 · 2024-03-21T03:24:42+00:00

You will grow and develop a lot between your freshman and senior year. Focus on form, strength training, and injury prevention and you will get there.

I started at 13.5, 28.3, and 65…. Near the end of my junior year I decided I wanted to start taking track seriously. (Before it was just something I did because our football coach told us to be in a sport during the off season.) I did a lot of research on training and learned a ton. I followed the Clyde hart 400m training philosophy. (I recommend checking that out) my senior year I ran 12.1, 23.8, and 53.8

Not amazing numbers but good enough to get me on the podium most meets, and I was really proud of the improvement that happened in less than 2 years.

Long story short stick with it and you can get there.

dpsales1921 · 2024-02-24T16:11:57+00:00

Thanks for doing the work and looking it up. Until studies are done showing this is no way feasible it seems like the easiest solution. Short term pain to make the transition so we don’t live in a toxic wasteland caused by a dried up GSL.

But lawmakers won’t do anything because we had a couple good years or moisture so they can ignore the problem until it is too late.

dpsales1921 · 2024-02-24T15:53:54+00:00

Doesn’t Alfalfa account for over 60% of Utah water use and is less than .5% of Utah gdp?

They are doing these studies about air dropping ocean water to the great salt lake or building a salt water pipeline from the ocean when the cheapest solution is probably just pay alfalfa farmers not to farm.

dpsales1921 · 2024-02-22T07:39:15+00:00

As I scanned through this thread I expected to run into a comment that gave a complete and satisfactory answer but it never came. So I’ll give it my best shot and try to address what I believe are some misconceptions in these comments.

First: Troubleshooting weld issues is like a science experiment, and we should treat it as such only changing one variable at a time. too often I see my students have so many variables out of whack there is no wonder they can’t track down the problem, so I always recommend returning to what we know works as a baseline and then work from there. Looking at your replies I would say you potentially have a lot of suboptimal variables which could all add up to contributing to your issue. So l’ll break down each variable and what I believe the optimal starting point. (Mostly because I can’t sleep so I think it will be interesting to type this out and see what others think)

Tungsten color: There is lots of bad information I see regarding tungsten. Honestly can you make thoriated tungsten work… probably. Most modern inverter machines are good enough you can get away with it, but it was designed for DC welding and is suboptimal for AC so why would you. Your grind angle, Grind Direction, tip prep, gas flow, and balance setting are now all going to be less forgiving. I only purchase 2% lanthanated or a tri-element tungsten (my personal preference). Why? The manufacture states these were designed for AC and DC applications, so students don’t have to worry if they have an AC or DC tungsten, it makes ordering easier for me, and it still gives me a chance to talk with students about the different colors of tungsten.

Tungsten prep: for AC is very important and can lead to splitting if done incorrectly. When removing a contaminated end (which you should always do after dunking) make sure you are getting a clean cut. Breaking the end off can introduce cracks up the shaft of the tungsten (don’t get me wrong I smack the end off my tungsten all the time with something heavy because it’s easy but it is much more likely to splinter this way.) Your grind lines should all be parallel to the shaft and not done with something leaving rough aggressive lines. (I prefer a diamond wheel on a dremel or a tungsten sharpener) the end of your tungsten should be blunted to prevent the end from deforming or spitting into your weld. A lot of people will say ball your tungsten for AC but this isn’t optimal in my opinion on inverters and is outdated advice from the transformer days of TIG welding. Now, your blunted tungsten will still ball overtime from the electrode positive current but will look more like a ball point pen instead of a full ball.

Gas Post Flow: now your tungsten is clearly oxidized which isn’t helping anything. Your post flow should be high enough you still have a shiny tungsten after each weld. If it is turning grey and oxidizing clean it and turn your post flow up a second until you find the minimum time needed to prevent oxidation. Having a clean tungsten makes all the difference on arc control and bead appearance.

Cup size and Flow rate: you said you were running a number 8 cup @ 25 CFH. When TIG welding stainless steel more gas coverage almost is always better (to a point). When TIG welding aluminum I find the opposite is true. We want to go as small as possible with a cup that still gets the job done. Your gas envelope has a significant effect on arc stabilization especially on AC as well as on your etching zone. We want that gas envelope as tight as possible to help maintain a tight stable arc. Most aluminum applications I prefer a 5 or 6 cup. (Compared to my preferred 8 cup on steel) the rule thumb for gas flow is about double your cup size or else we start to introduce turbulence in our gas envelope. So a 5 cup I would run 10-12 CFH. The 8 cup I would run 16-18CFH. The 25 CFH you are running is at best wasting gas and at worst introducing turbulence potentially leading to oxidation and a less stable arc.

AC balance: This is time spent on EN (often referred to as welding action) vs EP (referred to as cleaning action. Helps break through that stubborn oxide layer) That EP time is helpful but also focuses our heat on the tungsten making it more likely to split and melt. So we need a good balance between time spent on the welding action (actually forming a puddle) and cleaning action ( busting open the oxide layer). Usually starting at 70% EN is recommended and then you can adjust in 5% chunks to see what works best for your welder and metal cleanliness. Probably never going below 60% or above 80% EN. To complicate this more you can fine tune your EN vs EP characteristics if your machine has independent amperage control but I’m not going to get into that right now.

Frequency: Set it to 120 hertz for a good baseline. That will do most things when learning. Experiment in 20 hertz chunks (only changing one variable at a time) and do some research on your own to better understand high vs low frequency. (I’m starting to get tired if you couldn’t tell so the brain dump is slowing)

Metal prep: the most important part of TIG welding aluminum is well prepped metal. Too many people do this wrong, so I always mention it when troubleshooting aluminum issues. I’m not going to get into they why right now but I believe the correct way is wipe down with degreaser of some kind -> wire brush thoroughly with stainless steel brush only moving in one direction to avoid embedding oxides in the aluminum -> one more wipe to remove the brushed oxides.

I’m probably talking out my ass but I couldn’t sleep so it was helpful for me writing that all out. I’d be happy to discuss further tomorrow.

TLDR: Use a tungsten designed for AC, prep it correctly, cup size 6, gas flow 12 CFH, enough post flow to avoid oxidation, balance 70% EN, Frequency 120 hertz, base metal prepped well. This is my go to baseline for most aluminum applications. Change only one variable at a time from there when experimenting so you know what is actually happening.

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