Isn't it funny how everything fights back these days? That stuck cassette reminds me of my printer. It'll pretend to work for ten minutes then jam right at the worst moment. @zara_allen probably felt that same mix of rage and desperate hope we all know too well. It's like everyday objects have a secret pact to test our patience.

Ah man, I've been in that exact spot. Aluminum is fine for recreational stuff but on a 100 foot wreck with any current at all you're gonna be fighting that extra buoyancy the whole way down and especially during deco. I'd rather deal with a sore back for a few minutes than get blown off the wreck because I'm too light on the bottom. Stick with steel for deeper dives with current, your supervisor probably just didn't want to haul the heavy tanks around on the boat.

Honestly, that locked door prompt is gold because it gives you something to actually work with. I was in a workshop once where someone gave us 'write about a sunny day' and I stared at a blank page for two hours. Then another week the prompt was 'your character has to bake a cake for a funeral and the recipe is in their dead grandmother's handwriting' and I cranked out 5 pages that night. Specifics like a note taped to a door or a handwritten recipe force you to confront a real scenario instead of just floating around in vague feelings. Tbh, those weird constraints are the only way I've ever gotten past the boring stuff.