Ah yes, the classic two year grease marathon where you're basically building a dust museum inside your stabs. Been there, except my version was drowning the wire ends in dielectric grease like I was buttering toast, then wondering why my spacebar felt like it was chewing on sand. The fix was so simple it almost hurt my feelings, just a thin wipe on the wire where it rides in the stem and done. Turns out half this hobby is unlearning stuff you taught yourself wrong in the first place. My condolences to your old housings though, those things probably have enough gunk in them to lube a whole other board.

40 pages on breakfast is wild. I once quit a book 500 pages in because I realized I had been hate reading it for a month and only kept going so I wouldn't feel dumb. My rule now is if I'm not hooked by page 100 it goes back to the library, life's too short for 900 pages of toast. Some of those doorstops do pay off eventually but man, they should come with a warning label.