logan705 that line about "actual metal gears instead of plastic that melts" really hits home. I grabbed a beat up old stand mixer at a yard sale for like $12 a few years back and that thing has been through hell. Made bread dough so thick the motor would actually slow down but it just kept going. Meanwhile my buddy's high end kitchenaid with all the fancy attachments stopped working after a year because a plastic gear stripped out inside. The whole situation got me wondering if we're just paying for status and pretty colors instead of stuff that works. Sometimes simple is better and those old machines prove it.

I mean I used to think datum stuff was super overblown but honestly this totally changed how I see it.

Why would anyone think buying offsets actually works? The whole system is a joke. A flight from New York to London produces about 2 tons of CO2. If I pay $20 to some company promising to plant trees, how do I know those trees survive or even get planted? Half those offsets are probably scams or projects that would have happened anyway. You're basically paying someone to maybe do something vague while you keep flying guilt-free. Show me a single verifiable ton of CO2 that was actually removed because of a consumer offset purchase.

Ngl though @david_rivera4, shade sets slower if you mix it a bit wetter in the first place. I've done patches under a tree in July and it gave me plenty of time to work if I kept the batch small and the water ratio spot on. Just saying, the technique can make the difference more than the sun or shade thing.

Hold on @piper_reed, I think you meant 40k words, not 30k, right?