Same here, my basil gets so dramatic about it I swear it's giving me the silent treatment by mid October. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather fight with a grow light than admit I can't grow anything in the winter.

That "chewed through old deck screws like butter" line made me laugh because my last drill was so weak it would just sit there and whine at me like a dog begging for a treat. I swear, I had to pre-drill every single hole or the thing would just quit on me mid-screw. Picked up a new brushless this weekend and suddenly I feel like I actually know what I'm doing, even though I've probably got five more projects lined up that I'll botch anyway. Good tools really do cover up a lot of incompetence.

hmm I actually see it kinda differently though. like yeah knowing why a character does things can be interesting but sometimes it feels like writers use backstory as a crutch to explain away lazy writing. you know those shows where a character does something stupid and then later you find out it's because their dad left when they were 10? and suddenly that somehow makes it okay? I dunno, to me that can feel cheap. like with Breaking Bad, Walt's motivation is clear from the start but it's his actual choices in the moment that make it compelling, not just "oh he had cancer so he's justified." sometimes over-explaining motivation takes away the mystery and makes characters feel less real honestly.

Wait, wait - parboiling frozen broccoli for only 2 minutes before air frying? That actually works? I've been tossing frozen florets straight in the oil and they always come out either charred on the edges or still soggy in the middle. I gotta try this because I've wasted so much money on bags of broccoli that just ended up in the trash. The crispy outside without dry spots sounds like magic honestly.

Oh wow, yeah the gauge is a game changer. I was just like you, eyeballing it for years and hoping for the best. First time I used one I realized how much water I was overcompensating with. Waste went down by maybe a third right off the bat.