Ngl I was the same way with my starter. Bought a special crock and everything. Then I left it out on the kitchen counter for a few days with cheap bread flour because I got lazy. It doubled in size faster than it ever did in its fancy spot. Makes you wonder if we just read too much online and overthink it. My best loaves lately came from that lazy period.

Exactly, robert_ross95, that "glance down for two beats" thing is such a tell. I read this article once where a body language expert said fake criers often look down to "find" the emotion or cue the next tear. Real crying is messy, you know? Your face does what it wants. When it's that timed, it feels like a performance. It just makes the whole story harder to believe.

Ignore the gatekeeping, elliot_mason62. I just used cheap pH strips from a pharmacy to check the acidity was low enough. It gave me peace of mind without needing a lab.

Right? What even counts as simple anymore? I saw a rig last week with three separate power conditioners and a custom patch bay... calling that simple feels like a joke. My old band ran everything into a single mixer and it never let us down once. More stuff just means more things that can go wrong in the middle of a set.

Ever try using a single pen color for the whole month?