Oh man, that takes me back. A buddy of mine started with Python too and spent like six months building little scripts and automation tools, feeling pretty good about it. Then he tried to make a simple website and hit a wall because he had to learn JavaScript anyway for the front end stuff. He told me he wished he'd just started with JavaScript from day one so he could've built actual web pages right away. But here's the thing, he eventually picked up JavaScript pretty fast because Python taught him the core logic and problem solving. So I wouldn't say he regretted it exactly, just took a longer road to get where he wanted.

Oh come on, a bent pin causing reboots for THREE months? That's way more likely a bad capacitor or a PSU issue you just didn't bother checking properly. Bent pins either cause instant failure or nothing at all, not intermittent chaos like that. Sounds like you just finally got lucky swapping parts and are crediting the wrong culprit.

The blade gap changes everything once you figure out the right one for your hand speed. 0000 works fine if you take your time, but a 000 lets you move faster without leaving tracks. Bet the humidity in Austin helped too, damp hair hits different with a wider gap.

Yeah the Starrett is a solid choice, I've been using one for about two years now and it's night and day on wear patterns. What do you set your max deflection limit at before you start making adjustments?

Wait, is this really the hill you want to die on? Like, a customer has a weird opinion and you can't just smile and nod until they leave? I mean, yeah, "too moist" is silly, but arguing for 10 minutes over a cake seems like a huge waste of your time and energy. Some people just have their own strange definitions and no amount of logic is gonna change that. You already got paid, right? So maybe just let her think your cake is raw and move on with your day.