No, but I donate time and sometimes items. I’ve seen how wasteful so many “charities” are. When less than half of what is donated actually goes to the end user that’s a problem. So I donate things that have to go to the end user, or at the very least in support of the end user.

You can also get all in one’s that both wash and dry in a single unit if space is a concern. They tend to be a bit pricier because it’s literally two functions in one item but not terrible.

I work AV and have worked many of these events on both sides of the aisle. Presidents, VP’s, presidential hopefuls, the whole gamut. The democrats tend to be less organized but way more friendly and accommodating, the republicans are very their way or the highway, but tend to have all their ducks in a row. As far as attending you hear someone parrot ideas that you’ve already heard before, and either already agree with or don’t. They won’t take any hard stances and are unlikely to answer any questions, if they do they will answer the softball questions and sidestep the hard questions. All in all, largely a waste of time and resources.

The only two that I’ve worked that didn’t fall into that category was beto o’rourke and chris christy. Both of them were very engaging with the audience, were willing to answer hard questions, they actually seemed like they cared, and were doing this for country, not career.

Merica

Acoustic propagation. I design large format PA systems and as a result need to know both how to make sound and stop sound at a large scale. It is entirely possible and actually relatively easy to be super precise with where sound goes or doesn’t go. The problem is cost.

Old country music has been replaced by the genre folk, with a lot of crossover with modern day blues and americana.

That’s the advantage of taking your car to the dealership, the dealership in my area gives you one of their brand new cars from the lot to drive around while you wait for your car to be fixed. It’s a sly trick that eventually works and gets you into a new car.

Definitely, it is extremely rare though, and usually has a good reason for it. Had one guy I worked with who used to be Rihanna’s sound engineer, I asked him why he stopped doing that and started working for a local corporate AV company. His simple response was that it wasn’t worth the stress, and he got to stay home and see his kids.

Dude was easily one of the best sound engineers I’ve ever heard, he could make anything sound way better than it had any right to be, and yet he was the local guy pushing cases, running cable, and basically playing second chair to all the corporate AV guys thinking they were sound engineers, including myself for a while. All because it meant he could see his kids and not be stressed about it.

I ended up making him my go to audio guy anytime I needed someone, and stepped back so I could learn.

Pumped up kicks. For some reason people don’t process the line “better run, better run, faster than my bullet.” It’s about columbine the bassist had a cousin had a cousin who went to columbine when the shooting happened.

P.O.D. I legitimately did not know they released other albums because Satellite was that good. I listened to them. I shouldn’t have.

Good point on the BBQ. The differences between regions is substantial, and although you may not like one region’s BBQ, you may very well love another region’s. I for one am not a fan of the vinegar based BBQ, but a good dry rub, or mustard base, I am all there.

Avatar: The last airbender

Because it’s good.

Honestly, I’d chuckle to myself and then let them know that doesn’t absolve them of the decades of hell they put hundreds of kids through by being very vocal against it in community leadership. They have some cleanup to do. I’ll help with the cleanup, but you got some cleanup to do.

Having the time to waste on forums.

My entire career path.

I knew I liked concerts, and knew that people had to run that equipment, so I decided to get a job in an event company warehouse to learn what was happening. About 2 months in a sales guy apparently oversold a job and came running downstairs asking if anyone knew how to do video. No one did. So I said “have you got the manuals? I’ll learn.” He said, “Great! You’re going out on a North American arena tour in 6 weeks, good luck.”

Talk about getting thrown into it. I was the projector tech for a show that was running 10 screens and I had never touched a projector before then. I thankfully had a director who realized the crap I was in and helped me out.

That was almost 15 years ago now, I’m no longer on the road, but I’m still in it. Every show is different and every show is a learning experience.

I fuck up.

Same but on the live side. Interestingly Sony has it down pat for their live cameras. The global standard for camera control is a Sony controller almost everyone supports them. Grass valley on the other hand hot garbage software, really good hardware.

Needles. I got allergy tested when I was little and they pricked my arms hundreds of times to see what I was allergic to. I was also super young do naturally I wanted to itch it, and they wouldn’t let me. It got to the point where they strapped my arms to the table and all I wanted to do was scratch the areas that they had poked me…

Maybe don’t do that to a five year old.

Yea I don’t like needles

Factorio.

My current record for game completion with no belts, was just over 36 hours.

Live entertainment production. Currently eastern United States, but I have used this method almost everywhere in the US. I am a production manager, so I let all the companies in town know I’m there, and freelance gigs just happen. Sometimes I’ve liked working with a company so much, I’ll accept their job offer, but usually I get more money working freelance.