Month: March 2024

ANYCUBIC and other 3D printers
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ANYCUBIC and other 3D printers

As an author, I must keep my mind busy when not engrossed in an alternate world. This often means diving into research or brainstorming new plot twists.

People frequently accuse me of having an excessive amount of hobbies.

In my free time, I immerse myself in a multitude of hobbies.

Writing, reading, painting, hiking, golfing, traveling, fishing, and even howling at the moon. Ok, not howling exactly, but the night sky calls to me, and through astronomy, I unravel the mysteries of the universe, awestruck by its vastness. In addition to that list, I would include computers, as I delight in exploring and experimenting with various operating systems and applications.

One might wonder how I have time for this list of activities.

I don’t watch television. With all the garbage and propaganda that comes with that contagion, I just assume not to have one. I attempt to spend very little time on social media as it is a contagion that fills society with false flags, indoctrinating our young and old with non-sequitur ideas. Some of the filth that makes its way through those mediums is downright evil. I don’t waste any time playing video games as that is a total waste of energy. Instead of playing by their rules, I live in my world.

3D printing has become a fun activity. As an engineer, thinking about some ‘thing,’ designing said thing, and, much like a Star Trek replicator, creating it with our technology is fun.

3D printing challenges one to think; we have too little thinking in this world today, so I applaud it.

I started with the legacy Ender product. If you can print with that printer, you are qualified to use other, more advanced printers.

In this article, I want to talk about ANYCUBIC.

I purchased an Anycubic Mega Pro. That printer was an upgrade from the ender product with a built-in auto bed leveling routine.

I will get straight to the cons. Every cooling fan on that thing is absolute junk. Why in the devil would they skimp on cheap fans with zero bearings? That is beyond me.

If you allow it to ‘warm up,’ the noise eventually abates, but that is a black eye for the brand.

While looking at upgrades, I purchased another ANYCUBIC product, the Viper.

Quieter product, a little faster, and the auto bed level works well.

I have had it for less than a year. I print something occasionally, definitely not every day or week. During my last print, I noticed a loud clicking noise. Upon thorough examination, we discovered that the Y-axis tensioner had a defective bearing.

More on this in a moment.

Lastly, I had a Kobra Plus that made strange noises and blew up the hot end.

That is a defective hot-end cable.

Like many companies, they prefer to be contacted through a web portal, which often results in delayed responses that can take days, if not weeks. There also seems to be a translation issue, which can get annoying when they don’t understand English.

Parts, which are the bugaboo, are unavailable. Someone in Germany has constructed a cable to replace their defective cable for $50 us dollars. Refurbished Kobra Plus can be found for a little over $129.

I can go to Amazon and find parts for Ender products, but there are very few for ANYCUBIC.

While more companies are jumping on the 3D bandwagon, I am curious about what printers you use and which ones last more than a few months

I am interested in your experiences with 3d Printers. Feel free to leave comments.

-Scott

If you want to support my work as an author, please visit my author page.

Driving Public Opinion

The media are so corrupt it makes me sick. Today, there is a story about a man ‘who owns a Chick-fil-A’ who drove hundreds of miles to meet some underage girl he met online.

Think about this. We hear it all the time, a white police officer shoots a black guy.

This is NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming, using emotional triggers for either clicks or something more nefarious, like driving public opinion.

In the first story, the author has a bone to pick with Christians, so he mentions the guy owns a Chick-fil-A, which has nothing to do with the fact that he drove hundreds of miles to hook up with an underage person he met online. What he owns has nothing to do with the story other than to create an emotional trigger and to associate terrible behavior with Christians. That, by the way, is evil at work. Why is this reporter attempting to dehumanize Christians?

In the second example, the cop shot a guy who was shooting at him. Do we read that in the story? Maybe several paragraphs down buried several pages in the newspaper where they hide the rest of the story. At first, it’s about creating a false flag that all white cops hunt down black people and shoot them. The purpose is to stir up racial tension, so when you go to the polls and whatever politician the media is flaking for says the number one problem in this country is white supremacy. You remember this story, and you pull the trigger for the guy lying to you.

If someone tweaks your emotions, they are manipulating you. Any time you are pissed at some story, dig a little deeper. Investigate the source, including the reporter. More often than not, it is a ‘journalist’ who has a bone to pick.

Words are powerful, and this person is not a journalist, as journalists are objective…period.

-Best

While there is a fire raging in the kitchen, our attention seems inexplicably fixated on the lint scattered across the living room floor.
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While there is a fire raging in the kitchen, our attention seems inexplicably fixated on the lint scattered across the living room floor.

On average, synthetic opioids known as fentanyl claim the lives of 150 people in the US each day.

Why?

Among the myriad of possibilities, this one stands out.

Dentists evoke conflicting emotions within me – love and hate. With a strong British heritage, it’s no surprise that dental problems run in my family.

COVID or the medications I took seemed to have exacerbated my dental condition to its breaking point. Friends, I am fully committed to getting dental implants as I am exhausted from dealing with root canals and similar procedures.

I firmly believe that COVID or the vaccine had an effect on my dental health, as this mess started with the first jab.

Now, there are a few things you don’t want to hear while sitting/laying in the dental chair, like the high-pitched whirring of the drill. One of those things is ‘oops,’ and the other, ‘trust me on this’ “get me the dental mallet.”

That statement hit like a punch to the gut. No amount of numbing shit or gas could ease the pain.

The realization hit me that I was not Superman, as the chair remained intact despite my attempt to test my strength with the jarring pounding of the chisel against my jawbone.

The experience during this part of the process was like a never-ending nightmare, with everything going wrong. I won’t mince words. A chisel and mallet relentlessly pounding on your jawbone is overwhelming.

But that is not the focus of our conversation today. Despite the direct connection between dental care and overall health, it is often overlooked. Regarding dental care, most insurance falls short of providing sufficient coverage.

I suspect that insurance companies use financial incentives to sway lawmakers into excluding dental care from insurance regulations. The procedure cost can be pretty high, and some may see it as an opportunity to indulge in the peculiar pleasure of having needles pricked in their mouths and relishing the sound of the dreaded drill. Pffft.

Silly me, after the procedure, I was expecting a written prescription for pain meds. When a chisel is used on your jawbone, you can anticipate excruciating pain once the numbing wears off.

Clearly and definitively, she rejected my proposal for pain meds. Wrong again. The nurse looked at me and said, “I assure you; you won’t need pain medicine.”

“Excuse me?” I say as bloody spit drools from my chin.

“Yeah, you just take a Tylenol, and then a few hours later, the throbbing in your head subsides as you swallow an Advil.” Maybe for a filling, but…give me a break.

I couldn’t believe it, but I purchased a property in Yuma that overlooks the ocean.

Without a doubt, I can confidently declare that it is pure nonsense!

My inner devil with a foul tongue emerges when specific triggers come into play.

The check is definitely not in the mail, and the alternating over-the-counter method might be effective for some things. However, when it comes to using the dental hammer and chisel, it’s just not practical.

With only three hours of sleep in the past four days, my patience has worn thin, and I’m not a delight to be around.

Unable to sleep or eat, I’ve had ample time to reflect on things. Among the things that stand out is the alarming number of overdose victims.

Now, I know this is a long shot, but could it be that due to restrictive laws on prescribing pain medications, doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals are inadvertently driving patients to seek relief through illicit means? Could it be that we are pushing ordinary everyday folks into the arms of the cartels?

It may sound crazy, but I must confess that pain can push someone to do unimaginable things. Pain will drive you to seek a remedy, whether it be a doctor, dentist, the ER, or even some guy on the street.

Pain is a unique experience that varies from person to person. If that guy brings out a dental hammer and chisel, you’ll need more than just over-the-counter remedies. I’m just putting it out there.

Some positive outcomes have emerged from this situation.

Lost a few pounds

Reflecting on the situation, I couldn’t shake off from realizing how foolish our lawmakers genuinely are.

I had plenty of time to count my pulse as the throbbing sensation was intense and persistent.

It dawned on me that cable news is far from delivering actual news; it’s all just a bunch of rubbish controlled by those who purchase air time, such as big pharma. What would the world look like if Walter Cronkite was still giving us the news as it was and not as our dictators want us to believe? Do you think  Walter would have said, ‘Take the vaccine?’

The content on TV is so absurd, and the definition of entertainment is mind-boggling.

I would use the downtime to let my creativity flow through writing. Still, it becomes challenging when every other thought is tainted with explicit language.

Soon enough, the throbbing will fade away, freeing my characters from their hiding places and allowing me to embrace my usual kinder self again.

If I were you and were shopping for teeth in a day or something extreme, I would make damned sure that real pain meds came with the procedure. Don’t assume like I did. That was a fucking mistake!

-Best