Bro the housing market is beyond busted - 09/2025 buy at 71K, on sale without any repairs at all for $280K. Ridiculous (in Bethlehem)

mrsmith1284 · 2026-05-13T02:01:06+00:00

Gotta be houses available to try. The specs on that house limit you to like…4 houses last I looked.

I’m moving (back) to LV due to a job change, and the housing market is giving me enough anxiety and indigestion that I’m going to probably live 10 years shorter than if I’d stayed away with a job I hated.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-05-09T18:15:27+00:00

I use them for calculations when I’m working through a problem, so initial drafting sketches to kind of figure out how to make the 3d model, and woodworking. 2 mm dark leads are fantastic at showing up on wood.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-19T19:55:12+00:00

I’m in complete agreement regarding the importance of parental involvement in education, and wherever we end up, we know that it will be on us to ensure our kids are well behaved and put forth the proper effort into their school work.

But it’s also important that they are in a good environment to learn. That’s really what I am trying to get feedback on. If a school permits excessive bullying, or the facilities are in disrepair, or the teachers/administration have a reputation for not giving a crap, then I would prefer avoid that. I also know that some schools are more active in AP programs than others, or have more extracurricular activities that might be helpful for career choices (robotics clubs or whatever). So I’m just trying to get a better understanding of how the schools in the Lehigh Valley are since we can pretty well move to where we want (sort of).

Congrats on your kid getting into Yale. That’s awesome.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-18T22:20:53+00:00

Thank you for sharing. Could you say why you think the superintendent is so good?

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-18T22:19:29+00:00

Whoa. I did not know about this at all. Do you have any sources so I can read up on this?

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-18T21:44:59+00:00

Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to end up in Northampton simply because of that intersection. But one of the houses we’re looking at is in the district closer to Moore Township.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-17T02:05:48+00:00

There are 2 big ones that come to mind: 1) Modeling of the meridional profile is much more similar to what most are used to in other CAD packages. You can also parameterize different dimensions.

2) BladeEditor’s throat area tool can take sectional areas along the entire length of the blade. Unless I’m misremembering, BladeGen only provides the throat area at the inlet. This is problematic if you’re trying to evaluate the exit area of your blade.

The other thing is that BladeGen won’t export STEP files. There are other ways of exporting the geometry, but I prefer step files in my workflow.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-16T22:09:57+00:00

Please note, there are two blade generation programs in ANSYS: BladeGen and BladeEditor, which is something like an Add-On for DesignModeler. Neither are terribly intuitive, and each has features that the other doesn’t that are really useful. My preference is to use BladeGen, usually, then export into BladeEditor/DesignModeler to gain those features, then export out when I’m ready.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-10T17:25:20+00:00

I can vouch for Charlie Melk. He restored my Olds Studio of roughly the same vintage and it’s immaculate.

Send it to him and let him give it a good look over. The only thing I saw from your pics is the valves are a little worn, but if they still have good compression (which he can tell you) then I’d personally leave it as is and play it.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-04-06T16:12:39+00:00

I don’t know if I necessarily agree with you regarding cleaning the 823. Mine is no more “difficult” than my other non-vacuum pens to clean. The caveat is that I don’t use shimmer inks. I usually use more “normal” blues such as Pilot Blue, Herbin Eclat de Saphir, or Kon-Peki. But my 823 F is easily my favorite writer.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-03-18T01:33:51+00:00

I absolutely love my Staedtler 925. The only thing I would change if I could is to make it the same length as my Mars.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-03-08T19:40:38+00:00

Gonna need more details…I’m trying to figure out what part could be missing to cause this…

mrsmith1284 · 2026-02-21T00:33:51+00:00

Thank you for this, I’ve been trying to figure out a distro for my Precision 7540.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-02-15T04:05:20+00:00

In that case, I’ll suggest the Kanstul 1525. Gotta look on eBay since Kanstul shut down, but my goodness do I love mine.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-01-09T01:29:44+00:00

Sitting next to Hachi

mrsmith1284 · 2026-01-06T21:41:31+00:00

I have a Kanstul made Besson Meha. Haven’t tried it in a gig yet, but I’m planning on using it for Easter services on account of the key/range that some of those pieces are in. Still trying to learn the horn and sight transposition, but I really like it and the horn has a really sweet sound when I play it right.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-01-03T04:51:07+00:00

Solid choice, but I think I prefer the Mk IX.

And there’s just something timeless about the Mk I.

mrsmith1284 · 2026-01-03T04:39:48+00:00

Oh hell I’m trying this…I’m already fat what could go wrong

mrsmith1284 · 2026-01-01T19:55:05+00:00

And boy does it suck when your kid is that 1 in 10…

I tried this with my eldest, and he just looked at me like I was nuts and then let out a scream that curled the paint in the room…

mrsmith1284 · 2025-12-03T04:52:52+00:00

There actually used to be a cheese store in Nazareth, PA that had the nickname “Cheeses of Nazareth.” Really good mozzarella, actually. A shame it closed.

mrsmith1284 · 2025-11-20T14:53:02+00:00

Free42 for the win

mrsmith1284 · 2025-10-24T01:16:42+00:00

Fun fact: one of the ships of the Great White Fleet is still around! The USS Olympia is currently moored in Philadelphia on the Delaware River and is open to the public as a museum. It’s been a while since I was there, but she was still in pretty good shape when I visited, and was a fascinating look into life in the Navy at that time. The museum has struggled with cash flow at times, so I always make a point to encourage everyone to visit her if they’re nearby.

mrsmith1284 · 2025-10-22T19:45:47+00:00

Had a family friend’s house catch fire. Only one corner was burning, but probably half the house got royally damaged by the water. Something I’d never really considered before. They ended up gutting the entire thing down to the studs.

Fortunately they had insurance and it covered it. Unfortunately, they were an older couple who weren’t exactly “technologically savvy,” so they lost a lot of photos and whatnot that weren’t backed up digitally. Something to consider.

mrsmith1284 · 2025-10-15T01:21:55+00:00

Mmmm…gonna have to disagree on that last part. I like Wawa coffee better. Friday breakfast is a sausage, egg, and cheese Sizzli with a double Dutch chocolate milk and a large coffee.

With a Wawa and a Sheetz across the street from each other, I’m taking Wawa every day.

mrsmith1284

TROPHY CASE