fartographer

"I don't need to evacuate. @youcantreadthis@quokk.au says I'm special!"

Thank God I'm not part of "mostly!" Wait...

I accredit proper medication, scaring the shit out of my friends and family who I thought would have been happy if I were gone, and LARGELY that change in mindset that you're talking about.

Thank you for sharing that story

From a school assignment asking what I would be like at 25 years old. I decided that I never wanted to be 25.

Unrelated, but it does get me a little more power behind my name

I only have limited advice, but maybe a few helpful tips.

Background: do lots of soldering, had a left radial nerve injury that left my arm frequently unusable for a couple of years.

• Get a soldering iron with some sort of base that allows you to properly insert your iron. You don't want one that you set the iron down on a stand. If you're anything like me, you'll one day have your attention yanked away from whatever you're inspecting because you smell your skin burning.
• Static-free silicone mats are your friend. They'll provide the friction for you to tilt and then grab pesky boards and shit.
• Get a very stable but easy to manipulate magnifying lamp with a large window. Numerous studies have seen almost unbelievable fine motor improvement when using a magnifying glass.
• Get various comfy tweezers/grippers. If they're comfy, you're less likely to slip. Different materials to interact with different things, so you don't accidentally scrape off contacts and shit.
• Storage and organization will be your salvation. Something that you can easily get components out from using the tweezers, and onto a silicone mat.
• I'm probably going to get some pushback on this, but get a magnetizer/demagnetizer. Magnetize all of your screwdrivers and shit by default. You can always demagnetize things later, but it's better than fighting one-handed with screws and such.
• Get a set of helping hands, but not the ones with a small area and small arms. Something like this where the arms are super-flexible but didn't require loosening and tightening, they have comically long reach, and they attach magnetically to a plate so that you can:

1. Take the arm off the plate
2. Use the clip to grab your part
3. Put the arm back on the plate
4. Position the arm
5. Clip the part with at least one more arm to secure it
6. Position your incoming component, maybe even secure it with another arm
7. Use one more arm to hold your solder

• It's not the best technique, but you gotta work with what you got: learn to solder to your iron to your part. (Rather than only heating the part and component and then applying solder) Your results won't be as pretty, but they'll be functional.
• Desoldering is going to be a pain. When I had my rough days, I'd hold a wick with another clip, get it to absorb the solder, and then VERY quickly LIFT it with either the soldering iron, or usually my pinky. They also have electric solder suckers, but I've never tried one.
• Finally, get a comfy chair that lets you move and lean without falling over.

Hopefully some of these tips are helpful! It's been about 20 years since I've had to solder one-handed. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

I'm white, my wife is Desi. When we go to Indian restaurants, we have to order each other's food. She asks for mild and gets hot, I ask for hot and get mild-medium. So, when I ask for mild for her food, she actually gets mild.

She's someone who finds pepper spicy, and I often struggle to find the spice in a habanero.

I remember my classmate telling me that they did the same to her in Louisiana public elementary school in the late '90s. The teacher even told her that it was because she was using "the devil's hand."

I'm not sure if I'd be proud or disappointed.

I don't know if I'd be excited that I found things that made life worth living, or consider myself a failure for getting it wrong when I tried. Reflecting on that age, I don't think myself an idiot or anything, I just see a kid who tried their best with what they had, and had already given up on what seemed like an inescapable situation. I feel bad for 14 year-old me, and I'm not sure I'd be able to face that kid without feeling completely destroyed.

Even if you can't afford to play vr, you could still shat yourself

The invisible hand of capitalism is really fucking loud