Asklemmy

Don't use Sharpies on cheap acrylic paints. They will dry out immediately and be ruined.

When you start crochet, nobody tells where every loop ends up in: Every loop basically counts as a single line segment, and you just draw a grid out of them. The thing about grids is there is the 'fencepost error'.

What people should know from the start is that if you make a 10x10 grid, you generally start going from bottom left to right, pulling 10 loops horizontally, then 1 up, then 1 back to the left. People just say "chain 12" though, which is confusing to noobs. From there on out you stop doing chains, and do crochets, which means inserting the hook wherever you want to draw lines from and alternating between adding horizontal and vertical line segments. When you stretch a crocheted fabric, each crochet can move yarn from the horizontal loop to the vertical one or back, to stretch one way and shrink the other. But the foundation chain was made with subsequent horizontal bits and will not stretch! (and chainless foundation rows exist but are not even mentioned to noobs)

So beginners will be confused by the fencepost error which requires mixing in the occasional 'chain' at the end of rows of 'crochets'. Since you pull new loops out of identical looking crochets 90% of the time, but then have to deal with different looking ones on the edge its easy to mistake a vertical bit for horizontal or vice versa and accidentally increase or decrease unintentionally.

So many ruined projects and people giving up on the hobby just cause everybody is making tutorials and nobody is explaining the logic.

Don't split the party

Stopping down doesn't always give you sharper images. You may run into diffraction softening.

Focusing and then stopping down may shift your focal plane. Try to focus at your chosen aperture.

Try to use the electronic shutter function for astro photography. Even the shutter moving across the sensor can cause vibrations.

The 500 rule is useful for astro, but with modern higher resolution sensors, the NPF rule is better suited.

Not getting amazing astro shots? You may need to modify or buy a camera that is sensitive to Hα (Hydrogen-alpha) removing the infrared/IR filter off your camera will allow you to shoot full spectrum. Although you will need something to only allow 450 to 520nm and from 640 to 690nm into your sensor.

Sensors will always have dead or stuck pixels. You can take 10-20 black frames to try to help your image processor find and erase them.

Optical vignetting is common when you shoot wide open. Stop down 2-3 stops from your max aperture to try and remove the effect.

Shooting expired film is fine, just make sure you over expose 1 stop per decade it's expired. So a 20 year old film, shoot 2 stops over exposed.

When doing snot techniques, 2 studs = 5 plates.

A stronger spring isnt always the answer for your foam blasters to hit harder. Sometimes you can get away with adding a spacer or, depending on the blaster, increasing the length of your barrel. If you go the spacer route, don't leave it in permanently or you could warp your spring.

I've found this to hold true in almost every hobby I have but particularly in technology, engineering and music playing/making: avoid hitching your wagon to one approach. It's easy to get trapped under a pile of 'musts' when trying to do anything that you are skilled in, but that's also the worst environment for innovation; and almost every innovation in your hobby of choice was borne from people pushing boundaries, not forcing themselves to fit within them.

You know when you're walking around town at night and see those neon shop signs saying they're open? Well *warm smiles*, that's me.

If I see a shop without a neon sign, I happily walk in and offer to sell them one for a £1000. If they refuse, I threaten to smash in their windows and burn down the shop with them in it. I then leave with a happy customer and add a little more neon magic into the world.

You're welcome, world.

Edit: For Context

I got seriously into speed cubing about a year ago. I don't even know where to begin giving tips. There's so much to learn. 🙈

At least I've reached my goal for 2025 and am now averaging around 30-35 seconds. I was at about 3 minutes when I was using the beginner's method. Now using CFOP.

Need to learn more OLL algorithms though.

People are surprisingly easy to manipulate.