rockstarmode

As a person who works in tech, I have a nice photo printer. It's only printed photos, nothing else.

You should be able to find real American BBQ. Note that this doesn't mean meat cooked over fire.

It means meat slow cooked over indirect heat, typically involving smoke.

Usually the best way to find these places is to ask around, then go in the morning before they open to see if there's a bunch of huge smokers running out back and maybe even a line.

Order pork ribs, pulled pork, and brisket. Maybe throw some sausage on there. I don't order beef ribs outside of Texas.

You don't need the most famous or popular place. Just somewhere that values quality meat, doesn't rush it, and doesn't soak it in sauce. Look for St. Louis style BBQ in the Chicago area.

This kind of food and exists nowhere else in the world, I've done a decent job of looking.

I think the spelling in this reply actually tells the story

I'm pretty sure flashbangs are less about the flash, and more about the bang.

This pronunciation is very Texas, and hilarious 😂

In no particular order:

• being fit
• physically tired
• no booze or cannabis on nights I actually have to sleep well
• a completely dark room, no little lights on electronic devices, blackout curtains, etc..
• a bed (I won't mention the brand unless asked) that adjusts to my sleep patterns. It measures my breath rate, heart rate, how often I move, if I'm snoring (rare), etc.. It then knows how well I'm sleeping and can soften or firm up, and tilt my upper body up or down. Depending on how my vitals change it learns how best to accommodate my sleep.

If I have trouble due to stress or the neighbors are making noise I'll throw on an eye mask and ear plugs.

I'm basically comatose 15 minutes after hitting the pillow and wake up before my alarm.

A falling ~~knife~~ machete has no handle.

It's a game changer.

Honestly I only used regular bags once in a sous vide before I gave up and ordered a cheap vacuum sealer.

I also do all of my own club building, and I'd say shafts can improve your game, but the effect falls into two broad categories based on your skill level.

TL;DR If you don't actually know how to interpret the changes your equipment may have on your ball flight, or cannot generate a repeatable swing, then you'll just be shooting in the dark. A fun hobby for sure, but it won't help your game.

Most players at all skill levels will benefit from being fitted with clubs that suit their swings. Having a shaft too heavy or too stiff doesn't help slower swingers, etc..

That said, I believe that once a player is in the ballpark for having a mostly correct shaft for their swing, they won't get any real improvements from further tuning this piece of equipment until they develop a repeatable swing.

If your clubs are the right length and in the right neighborhood for stiffness and weight, but your index is higher than ~8 you'd be better served by spending your money on lessons or playing more golf.

In my experience I started noticing the small things in my clubs at around a 5 index. Swing weights, lies, shaft weights, flex points, grip size, shaft weights, tipping/flighting, etc.. IMO here are some the changes I've made in descending order of how much effect they've had on my game as a single digit:

1. Driver. My on course swing speed averages ~117mph, but just having a stiff shaft wasn't optimal. I ended up going with a very light 60g shaft, but in tour extra stiff. Cut to full length, tipped, 4g added to the face of the club.

2. Grips, I went to midsize grips +2 wraps around a 16 index. I'm now using the medium JumboMax ultralights on all of my clubs except putter. This helped me tame my occasional hook a bit, and my hands aren't sore the next day. My swing speeds also went up a bit, I think due to a lighter grip pressure.

3. Swing weighting every club in the bag, but with a particular focus on the irons. My irons were ordered directly from the factory and I played them for years before developing golfer's elbow that just wouldn't go away, even with weeks of rest. Once I got around to measuring the swing weights I noticed that they were inconsistent, and some were too light by as much as 4 weights. It turns out I was holding off releasing because the club heads were too light, and the ligaments used of hold the club head off are the ones that were inflamed. Fixing the swing weights cleared up my injury within a few weeks.

4. All the other stuff, notably tipping my irons to promote lower ball flight.

Also, I do not recommend making any of these changes without either discussing with your coach, or learning about ball flight and buying a high quality launch monitor that records spin numbers along with all of the other impact conditions (including face angle, attack, spin loft, swing direction, etc..)

I hear you, it's definitely a zen state.

I live walking distance from the ocean, so it's nice to set a pellet up and monitor it from the beach. Run back when it's time to wrap/spray/etc, and then hang on the sand until the internal temps remind me it's time to head home and rest everything in a cooler.

All of my sausage, fish, and jerky goes in the vertical smoker. I have to manually tend the fire on that, but the temp swings and fuel consumption are much more stable, so it's generally quite a bit easier than minding my normal offset.

Chilling in the yard to tend fire and empty a 30 rack with the neighbor is fun for sure, and my stick burner develops better bark than the pellet, even if I use wood in it. So when I want to go all in on a competition, or I'm doing like 8 briskets at a time for a huge event I'll run the stick burner. Otherwise it's something in the pellet smoker.

I generally agree with this order, but my journey took me in a different order. After having propane forever I moved to a Weber and the snake method, but then I went with an offset with a real fire box.

After getting really good results but not always having enough time to stoke the fire for 12+ hours I bought a very high end pellet smoker that I converted to also use charcoal and wood.

My stick burner gets used maybe once a year now. I'll go pellet at least once a week, and charcoal or wood in the converted pellet at least once a month. I also can build a makeshift konro inside my pellet smoker, and I use that all the time.

Oh right, I also have an offset vertical smoker, and hunt a lot of my own protein, so yeah, it's a deep hole I've dug into.

In most areas of the US that take BBQ seriously, grilling != BBQ.

Grilling means direct heat, BBQ in those areas refers to indirect heat, usually with some smoke component.