Bought myself a level for that exact job and realized my house is just built on a permanent lean so I stopped pretending pipes are level around here.

Read something similar in a psych article once, @jordan_anderson90.

Wet it down and hope for the best? Yeah, I learned that one on a hot July job. Came back the next morning and the whole drum was one solid chunk. Had to chip it out with a demolition hammer and it wrecked the mixer blades. Now I just wash the mixer out completely at the end of the day. Takes five minutes and saves you a whole morning of frustration. Dump the leftover mortar in a wheelbarrow, let it harden, and toss it in the dumpster.

I was just reading about something called the "sequential parking illusion" or whatever it is, where your brain tricks you into thinking you have way less space than you actually do. It's the same reason people freeze up in parking lots, numbers just amplify the panic.

What kind of tripod setup are you running now?