Never had that luck with generic flux myself, sorry you had to deal with that headache.

Your sister is totally right about pulling it early. But here's something nobody talks about: the type of bacon changes everything. Thick cut bacon needs way more time than the thin stuff, so that "burnt" habit might have been the right move for certain brands. I grew up on cheap thin sliced bacon that turned to ash in 30 seconds flat. Once I tried thick cut from a butcher, I realized I'd been fighting the wrong enemy all these years. Maybe your sister uses a specific bacon that cooks different from what you were used to. The texture and fat ratio between those slices is a whole different game.

Wiped down the inside of a Yashica with a dry microfiber cloth once and heard this little crackling sound that made my stomach drop. @robert_roberts I get why you feel sick, honestly I almost passed out when I saw what I'd done. But here's what worked for me - I grabbed a can of compressed air and just very gently blew out the loose dust first. Then I used a soft brush from an old makeup kit my sister gave me, super light pressure, to sweep away anything stuck. After that I just let the camera sit open in a dry, dark place for a few hours to make sure nothing was wet or moving around in there. I've done this on two old Minoltas now and they both still take pictures fine, no marks or damage.

That article I read about regenerative braking breaking down over time makes so much sense now. @willow_martin probably didn't realize her car was half-assing the charge recovery on every slow down. I had a buddy who swore up and down his EV felt like it had a mind of its own, jerking forward every time he tapped the pedal in traffic. Turns out his battery management system was toast and the car was basically using the friction brakes for everything, which felt super uneven. Once he got that fixed, the jerky stops went away completely.

Amen to that! I swear half the time when I see guys buttering they spend more time scraping off the cleanup than they would have just troweling it in the first place. Plus the gun always jams up on me right when I'm in a groove, so I'll stick with what works.