Some years ago, I lost a drawing notebook full of sketches I’d done over a few years. Dunno if that counts as ‘valuables’?

I’m 99% sure it’s somewhere at home, but either way I’d really like that back.

I did not know that is where it came from, but that’s neat (if a touch depressing). Thank you for that info. Fascinating how languages shift.

Part of it is that the question is phrased to make you react that way. By using “pundits” as opposed to “commentators” or “analysts”, it primes you to think about someone at Fox (or, these days, Youtube) pounding on a table while screaming about immigrants, as opposed to a respected individual evenhandedly explaining the complexities of a nuanced issue.

Agree with the others - in a world where every person can freely share their direct opinion, it is more critical than ever to have individuals whose role it is to research, contextualize, and present the issue in a constructive and clear fashion.

The problem of media capture by various groups is an issue, certainly, but that means it’s something we have to be wary of and build boundaries against - because the key role they serve is still in place. Throwing out the entire system because of that issue is like deciding that we no longer need doctors because the for-profit medical system is broken.

I remember plenty of pre-Reddit forums also being exactly the same way.

If anything, the big difference was that whoever was in charge tended to end up just banning whoever disagreed with them. So most people either learned not to contradict “what was known”, or got kicked out. (In fairness, Reddit also had that problem, but subjectively not as often.)

I hear you on that. On the reverse, trying to make “smoothly flowing” curved shapes in Solidworks is a headache (similarly, I’ve suffered trying). They do offer a slicing tool so you can import your monkey head from Blender and convert it into parametric object(s).

Playing Eve Online as I post this.

If I’m a baseline human, I am screwed. If I am a capsuleer - well, I’m actually going to have to learn how to fly a spaceship “for real”, but hey, at least I’m immortal.

Easily fixable. What you do is go to the Titans of CNC Academy and sign up. Congratulations; you are now technically a student! When purchasing the Student Edition from Dassault, you’ll be asked what your educational institution is; “Titans of CNC Academy” is an accepted answer.

Then you can head over to Titans’ sales page and pick up an annual student license. (Make sure you’re getting the Student version and not the cruddy “3DExperience for Makers”. That’s Solidworks’ cloud-based software, and is a hot mess.)

The major downside to this is that files created in the student edition are watermarked as such, and will open with a warning if you try on a professional-licensed version of SW. You should be able to still 3D print for personal hobby purposes, but it is against the license to make money off of it.

Man, I tried to get into this. Spent months running through the tutorials. I just couldn’t grasp how they design flow of creating a complex shape from scratch. It just didn’t “make sense”.

I’ve found parametric modeling programs like Solidworks far, far more intuitive to use - it’s easier for me to grasp “okay, this thing is a combination of added shapes, extrusions, negative spaces, revolved outlines, etc” than what Blender wants you to do. Unfortunately, most parametric programs really don’t offer good skinning/texturing and only mediocre rendering options.

Not sure exactly what you consider ‘expensive’, but there are ways to get a student edition Solidworks account for $100/year. I consider that a pretty reasonable price.

Personally, I find it infinitely more usable than Blender, but that may just be my personal biases in play. Your mileage may vary.

Objectively the best answer. Plus, as long as you hide your phylactery well, there’s not much the necromancer can do to keep you in line.

My wishlist is basically:

• Tackle corporate overreach and monopolization both via urging strong legislation in Congress and utilizing existing Federal agencies regulatory power. Break monopolies, ensure fair practices, place regulations on data harvesting/usage, and protect consumers wherever possible.

• Support labor groups and rights. Crack down on union busting, non-competitive contracts, and companies dodging treating employees as actual employees.

• Continue developing a strong infrastructural base. Expand development of developing fields such as dynamic power grids, support growth of more efficient transportation mechanisms such as railroads, and push states to catch up on or begin much needed infrastructural overhauls.

• Reinforce US support for overseas allies against the major threats they are facing, including both military and economic collaboration. Support strong region collaborative alliances. The US should be a leader in protecting the free and democratic nations against the very real threats they now face.

Sorry if that’s a little too vague. Or too specific. It could probably be rendered down to something like “tackle corporate power, support labor, build infrastructure, support allies”.

Similar here. It wouldn’t open right in the opposite direction.

(Engineer, for reference.)

Loved legos as a kid. I guess that kind of showed where I was going, huh? Also got lucky that my high school still had design and tech-related electives, so I got a leg up on that before I even hit college.

Worked in a tool & die shop for a small company while I was in college. It was a rough job - small business operating on the razor’s edge - but it was a good introduction to real-world manufacturing processes and environments. Having to actually machine and assemble stuff by hand taught me more about designing for manufacturability than any course ever could, and I think every engineer should spend some time making things before they try and design them. Definitely wouldn’t call that particular business enjoyable, though.

Got my first real engineering position at a power generating company. Interesting place. Burned literal turns of garbage to generate power and recycle almost anything they could. Very safety-focused. Honestly, if the commute hadn’t been absolutely awful, I might have stuck it out with them longer, but “spend two hours of your day driving” was just terrible.

Then found my current position, which is as an engineer at a smaller high-tech company in aerospace. Hours are great, co-workers are fantastic, the job is interesting, I like my boss, pay and benefits are absolute dogshit.

The engineering field is definitely one of those where you’re “encouraged” to shop around and switch jobs every few years. I don’t know why. It’s terrible. Terrible for employees and terrible for businesses, who are perpetually losing institutional knowledge. I don’t know why they don’t fix this. I’m coming up on the point where I’m going to have to choose between “a comfortable job” and “a well-paying job”, and I don’t know what I’ll do.

These are all really good reasons to purchase digital media, but the comment above still has a great point that this is super subjective and we can’t answer for you. In the end, I echo their sentiment that “if you think the song is worth the price then go for it”.

“…can I join too?”

Another revanced lover here. You’re not alone. It takes away nothing and adds so much.

Absolutely!

Sometimes it feels like there’s Linus and politics.

Guy sets a bluetooth speaker down on a seat, and then proceeds to do a full gymnastic dance routine right there in the subway car. Plenty of “regular” dancing, but also handstands, hanging from the rails, spinning on the floor, walking on the walls, the works. All well-timed to the music.

Didn’t ask for money. Just got off at the next station. Dude just wanted to dance, I guess.

All the awful behavior in this thread, and then here’s you and your buddies just genuinely being good people for this woman. I love it.