2026 02 03, 1932h

So, as I think I started to say in my last babble, I got kind of allergic to writing on computers, recently. I made a joke to a friend that it's just another way I get things backward: very active and crafty during winter, while during the year, I did lots of reading and writing.

But, with Eugene, the 3D printer, out-of-commission until I get a replacement fan, it seemed like a good time to try and log a bit about what I'm up to. After all, I do have some online audience, and they (y'all) seem fairly interested in whatever I get around to writing out.

So, first, I guess, let me introduce Eugene. It's a Centauri Carbon, a relatively recent but entry-level 3D printer. I've been interested in 3D printing since before it was really a thing, and always said, when they got to the point of plug-and-play appliance, I'd look into getting one. And, well, they have, so I did!

And then, in a situation far too complex to get into here, I suddenly found myself with an opportunity to focus on printing a lot of emergency whistles, which I've been gifting into the community and to local mutual aid groups. (Though, at this point, most of them are finding their needs met by more institutional groups.)

This basically meant I went from "brand new to 3D printing" to "trying to produce as many of the best of a thing as cheaply and quicly as possible," which really speedran me through getting to know some parts of 3D printing - while leaving me completely ignorant of lots of others!

Oh - Eugene, by the way, is out-of-commission because I accidentally broke a fan blade, and while I suspect I could print a temporary replacement, I don't know how to design one, or change the design I found that works for 40mm fans.

Anyway, it turns out, a lot of my personality and skills overlap well with 3D printing, so with the support of others, I was able to buy a second printer, last week.

That one, we named Emrys, and it's a Creality K2 Plus. It's giant, compared to Eugene, but also, quieter; it definitely has a much more "prosumer" attitude than the Elegoo. In fact, the loudest part of the system is the CFS - I don't actually know what that stands for, but it's the, filament-swapping system that feeds into the printer.

...After writing that, I got tired and went to bed, so it's acutally now the 4th, the next morning, and I'm here to report that once again, I encountered an issue with my printers, and once again, it was from the exact same user error: dropping a spool of filament with a loose end, such that the filament becomes tangled. I'm going to print some clips to help prevent that issue going foward, since it just seems unlikely, given I have spasms, that I'm not going to drop stuff, pretty frequently.

...and it's now the 5th, demonstrating just how allergic to computers, or at least writing with them, I've become, as it's actually now the 6th, by the time I've finished that sentence!

So, what's important to babble about as I sit at the computer at this moment?

Well, I've got some kin coming to visit in 10 days! It was supposed to be today, but weather and my own forgetfulness led to it being rescheduled. That gives me 10 days to consider how to best turn my house into a physical model for reproducing a good way of living, which is... easier said than done. I feel like in lots of real ways, that are tough to explain, the household and the folk in it have gotten a lot better at that stuff in recent days, weeks, and months, that have slowly led to a shift in just what sort of things can get done in the house, which is I suppose part of why I haven't been writing as much.