Mentioned by others, but that mottled stain will be difficult to overcome. Have you considered paint rather than stain? If wood grain is very important, you could try to tint a poly finish - that would prob give the appearance you want - basically painting though.

Recently encountered this issue. Solution was many, many coats of stain and prestain, over about 4 days, light scraping with a sharp card scraper to level the surface each time.

After that ordeal, I have now learned that the pro move is a light base coat of Shellac, then on to the stain. I guess that helps to close pores more uniformly. Haven't tried this way yet myself. Good luck!

Talked to a guy who was as a combat veteran in Afghanistan. The chud speak on tour was "two in the heart, one in the mind"

Ugly stuff

Sled dog? Nice shot

Yep! Just adding anecdotally to your tests some thoughts that could help someone:

1. Some cabinets are artificially mass loaded. Excess glue, scrap metal glued to the bottom, other scumbag stuff. There are badly made, nice sounding speakers; not many, and they don't hold up well over time.

2. The woofer should make a very faint "woof", as it is pushing some air around. Be gentle with this test. Any rubbing, catching, or scratching - any material-on-material sounds - mean repair is needed. Repair can be pretty easy, and it's good to practice on beaters before you work on something you care about.

3. Tweeters and dustcaps that have been punched in can be gently vacuumed back sometimes with a sock over the hoover wand and a careful approach. Doesn't always pan out.

4. I got a power unit with dead cockroaches inside. It was destined for the landfill, so - ya know cleaned up garbage. Works fine now...

5. Found pleasant sounding towers that rattled really badly, and had kid scribbles in black sharpie. I don't care about the marking, and the rattle ended up being a bunch of kids toys that were dropped in the port by a little scamp. Still in use with the toys removed, just had to reach in there and pull out the junk. Smell.... Just depends on your willingness to clean them up. Like the amplifier that had cat piss in it. It's garbage!

6. Sometimes these won't turn on with a blown fuse. Usually easy to check them. If it's blown, a new fuse could fix it, but more likely indicative of a deeper electrical issue.

Good hunting!

It is a sleeve expansion bolt, sleeve is designed to blow out effectively into the material as the bolt tightens, so I think in general these are somewhat destructive, permanent fixtures. II think most of the time to fully remove requires a re-drill with a larger bit, so you could re-drill and then patch/fill. They can withstand crazy loads/force. Overkill for a bike, but would def work as a permanent solution - not what I would go for.

Sure you want to keep hat nice floating effect, minimal aesthetic. Those plastic insert sleeves should be fine if the hole is drilled precisely. You should blow out the bore hole to remove debris. You could glue the insert into the masonry, let that fully cure, and then drive the screws to get better expansion. Screws would be removable, but the plastic sleeve wouldn't be. Good luck.

Fucking hilarious. twanx

It's like saying "if artistic work/expression changes you, you're a rube." What changes you, if not expressive works? Who cares if games mostly describe tropes and isms. I'd argue almost the opposite of what you wrote, but this is the internet, and it's a boring discussion. Bless up your house. Your experience of reality is constantly being shaped by the by your participation in sensation and your faculties of knowing.

A massage can change you, just as much as a really good meal, or a particular smell, or an advertisement. What is wrong (for lack of a better word) with being changed by an immersive experience in a video game? I guess my questions are: what allows us to validate certain types of experiences that others have, and invalidate others? It's the prerogative of other minds, no? Do you or I dictate what is of vivifying value? Maybe not. My knowing of words, pictures, sounds, so on, is not yours. Dumb things exist that shape people's personhood, from time to time. Peace out - I'm compelled to respond by my rejection of this kind of anti-experiential nihilism. I just drank like four beers. They are changing me, as a person.

This is also why time apparently moves faster when you are older. Your brain has fewer novel experiences, and because a deep part of your consciousness yearns for familiarity and regularity, you gravitate towards rote memorization of more and more of your living experience and move forward on autopilot. Time dilation is very real, and especially noticable if you spend a few decades in repetitive cycles.

Honestly it's why marriages/partnerships fall apart, why people experience midlife crises, and why (traditional) conservativism is so easily fostered in older people. New is scary and dangerous. Same is safe and navigable. It sneaks up on you, too.

Bit of a community question on the OP theme:

I see a lot of yard-sticking with Reddit, and frequent comparisons are 1) more of Reddit should migrate here and 2) not enough content is generated in Lemmy. These are both confusing to me. Anyone else?

1. Reddit is a cesspool. Its users are often toxic. Administration and moderation is burdensome. With self-hosted and decentral-hosted Lemmy instances, why would we want more of Reddit to come here? Other than the philosopher king meme, I don't feel the urge to bring R. communities and users to L. Separation is good, no?

2. Content follows users. Users follow content. Lemmy has less content. Fewer social games and participants who are seeking a dopamine relationship with the internet. If you come to Lemmy seeking dopamine fandom, you will be disappointed (narwhal bacon and my axe this amirite lol). That shite is generally absent, and users aren't constantly jerking themselves off to get a spicy comment in for votes. This is good, no?

I guess I don't understand the attraction to Reddit, or the urge to think of Lemmy as a replacement. It is similar, but shouldn't it be different? If it isn't different, defederated or no, won't it eventually slide into toxicity? I understand why people like things about Reddit, but... There's Reddit for that. This doesn't have to be that.

Thinking of two groceries: one is a little odd spot that is run by an eclectic family, has some stuff you want, some odd German snacks you don't understand. It's cool, but it doesn't have everything.

The other is a giant stucco nightmare warehouse that mostly sells deep fried heroin and also ten extremely useful things. It's run by absolute creeps, and the customers are standing uncomfortably close, and being uncomfortably irritating. Maybe one of them is waiting to follow you home because they didn't like what you bought.

Does the community want to put a sign out front to woo those people over? Does Lemmy perish without them? I'm relatively new here, but my own answer to both is no. IMO, Lemmy does not need to be an engagement addiction machine, and the people who want that might just really be wanting Reddit deep down.

Sorry for the diatribe! I tend to like that it's kinda sleepy here and often more authentic. I like seeing what Germany is doing on a memie wemie from time to time. I've got other shit to do beyond my phone, and don't want to have a pack of digital ultra nicotine with me at all times. Peace, homies.