My art teacher told me to stop using filters and it stung hard

I was showing my digital portraits to my old teacher from community college, and he said my work looked like someone else's because I leaned too hard on texture filters. He pointed out that the filters were doing all the work and my actual brushwork was getting buried. How do you guys balance using tools like filtering versus developing your own style?

Can we talk about how most chefs act like high heat is always the answer?

I read in Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking that searing doesn't actually lock in moisture, it just browns the outside for flavor, so I've been cooking steaks on medium-low heat for a month now and they come out way more tender every time, anyone else try backing off the burner?

Overheard a journeyman say he never uses soap on his tools and it changed my mind about cleaning them

I always scrubbed my wrenches and cutters with soap and water after every job, but this old-timer at the union hall said soap strips the natural oils and makes tools rust faster in our humid boiler rooms. He just wipes his down with a rag and a little WD-40 after each shift, and his stuff from 20 years ago still looks new. Has anyone else gone the no-soap route or am I just being lazy now?

Swapped out my swamp cooler for a mini-split last summer and folks thought I was nuts

Everyone in ABQ swears by evaporative cooling for the dry heat, but I got tired of the humidity and maintenance every spring. Two summers in now, my electric bill actually dropped $35 a month and the house stays cooler without that damp smell - anyone else ditch their swamp cooler for something different?

Last week my greenhouse hit 115 degrees and I lost 30 seedlings in one afternoon

I left the vent cracked but a gust of wind slammed it shut while I was at work. Those pepper starts never stood a chance. Has anyone else had a freak weather event ruin a whole batch like that?

That time my buttercream curdled and I almost cried

Last weekend I was making a three layer chocolate cake for my niece's birthday and everything was going perfect until I added the butter to my frosting. I had this fancy European butter I'd been saving and I figured room temp was fine but it was still a little too cold. The whole thing turned into this grainy oily mess and I spent like 45 minutes trying to fix it with a hot water bath and a spatula. My kitchen looked like a crime scene with butter smears everywhere. Turns out if you just nuke a little bit of the frosting and whip it back in slowly it comes together again. Has anyone else dealt with a curdled buttercream and found a trick that actually works?

The barista at a shop in Austin told me I was ruining my pour over by grinding too fine

She said I was making mud not coffee but going coarser felt wrong after years of thinking fine was better. Which side are you on - fine grind for max extraction or coarse for cleaner cups?

Used to obsess over brush packs, now I just use one brush for everything

For about 3 years I collected like 200 custom Procreate brushes. Thought I needed a different texture for every piece. Then around last spring I did a commission for a client in Austin and for some reason my iPad glitched and I could only use the basic round brush for 2 days. That piece ended up being the best thing I made all year. Now I pretty much only use a modified version of that one brush with some opacity tweaks. Makes my workflow faster and my art looks more consistent. Anyone else go through a brush hoarding phase and come out the other side?

Can we talk about how DBZ Kai actually holds up better than the original?

I always said the original Dragon Ball Z with the filler and Bruce Faulconer score was the only way to watch it. Then I visited my buddy's place last month and he had Kai playing on his TV. I sat through the whole Frieza arc in like 12 episodes instead of 40. The pacing is just way tighter. No staring contests or driving around Namek for 3 episodes straight. I still miss the old music but the voice acting fixes and cutting out the padding actually made me enjoy the story more. Has anyone else gone back and changed their mind on which version is better?

TIL that blasting "Free Bird" at 7am in a quiet neighborhood gets mixed results