Adding something in the foreground totally changes the game. I put a cool looking tree or a fence line in front of my star shots and people get it way more. It gives scale and makes the sky look huge. They stop seeing just dots and see a whole scene. A silhouette against the stars always gets a better reaction from my friends.

Honestly, that "cost me double to fix" part is so real. I tried to save money on my deck paint and it was a total mess. It started flaking off in big sheets after one winter. I had to rent a power sander and buy all new, better paint, which took a whole weekend. Tbh, the cheap stuff just ends up being way more work.

Dielectric grease, like kellyj23 said, reminds me of my old Civic's distributor cap.

Skipping filler messed me up with Naruto years ago. I followed a guide and jumped around so much I lost track of the main story's mood. It felt like reading a book but tearing out random chapters, so the emotional flow was just gone. My advice now is to just watch it all, even the slow parts, because the pacing is part of the full experience. Boring filler is better than a broken connection to the plot.

Man, that's rough. So the crack ran along the weld itself, not the base metal? Makes you wonder about the original heat treatment on that old steel. What kind of pressure were you guys working under when it let go?