Honestly, "just don't breathe the fumes" had me laughing, @susan424. That's a wild warning to tack on at the end like it's no big deal. Ngl, I'm totally gonna try that trick now though, even if I have to hold my breath the whole time.

Oh ABSOLUTELY it's real. I thought I was going crazy for months with flat, dense loaves. Switched to filtered water and it was like magic. The chlorine in tap water kills off the good bacteria and yeast you're trying to cultivate. My starter went from barely bubbling to doubling in 6 hours flat. And no, I didn't change anything else - same flour, same feeding times, same room temp. It's definitely not just in your head.

That whole "it's just scissors" attitude is Actually part of a bigger thing I've noticed everywhere. People think because something LOOKS simple, it MUST be easy. Like how folks swear they can paint a room faster than a pro and end up with drips everywhere, or how they think editing a video is just "cutting out the boring parts" until they try it themselves. We've gotten so used to quick fixes and cheap shortcuts that we forget craft takes real tools and real practice. It's the same mindset that says "why pay for a mechanic when I can watch a YouTube video" right before making things way worse. Respect to you for dealing with that every week, must get exhausting explaining basic physics to people who think their kitchen drawer is a salon.

Tripods aren't exactly life-changing tech.

Hmm, I actually see overdraft protection the other way. For me, it acts like a safety net so I don't get charged a separate fee for each declined transaction, which can be worse. Maybe check if your bank offers a low-balance alert instead, because that helped me catch mine before it spiraled.