Sorry to hear about the bad shave, Aaron, recover quickly. Thanks for sharing real life experiences, we all have a bad run now and then.
Professor Flanders's Journal of Nerdy Observations and silly camaraderie
- Thread starter Flanders
- Start date
Jay21
Collecting wife bonus parts
I'm the king of mangling my face with a razor and I know what it's like. Heal up quickly.
- Thread starter
- #1,123
Thanks everybody. I am off to see what I can manage right now!
Sorry about the rough shave. However, this description has me thinking about the Blackbird again. As much as I like the more engaged feel of the Fatip comb I think my technique (probably informed by using straights for so long) is more dialed into a bar with less engagement. I used my SC again today and actually had that thought as I was shaving. Ironically, every one of handful of DEs in my den is an OC and I'm a daily shaver...so...not sure what that says.
I am loath to spend a lot of money on a razor that I'll only use for a partial pass, but the Blackbird and Athena have had my attention for a while.
I don’t like feeling the comb or safety bar these days. It’s gap is there so accidents limit the thickness of my self-made deli slices.
Excellent job with the sea lions, don't worry those sunny beaches are waterproof. Haha.
I like you have taken a step back this week, seeing blood more often than I care to. Mine is user error, sometimes we need a wake-up call.
and some recovery shaves
- Thread starter
- #1,128
I really had a wonderful shave this morning, everything just worked! I used the Glyce and as expected, it tightened my skin as it dried and provided some protection. The SV was perfect as usual along with my TSN limited edition Badger brush. Then came the Tatara Nodamune with GSB and it went exactly as planned. In fact, I didn't really take it as easy as planned and let's just say that some of those affected areas were a little bit thin. No discomfort or new injuries incurred and I wrapped it all up within 20 minutes. If I am being critical, the shave wasn't as even as I am used to, but the shave is lasting nicely! Three more shaves on this combo and I might just load another blade instead of switch razors. I am thinking about the Blackbird Lite plate again... hmm.
Been away for a couple of days. Hope you are healing up.
I think I need to try Baume.be. A good many positive reviews for it.
- Thread starter
- #1,131
Surprisingly, everything seems to be back to normal... as long as I stick to milder razors and blades. Thanks for asking.
(I am very likely to run out of patience and do something stupid while my face is healing, but I am enjoying my Tatara shaves enough that I might not)
In backcountry skiing (which I've done little of recently due to a balky knee), the primary goal is to come back home safely. Don't let powder fever steer you into dangerous terrain. Fun is a big part of it, but it comes second to safety.
There must be a parallel here in this blood sport we call shaving
... Thom
- Thread starter
- #1,133
Stepping back
I had a nice post started in my head comparing two very different neutral exposure razor, The General and the Tatara Nodamune, but recent happenings have gotten in the way and I have lost interest. I will say that there really is a difference between a neutral exposure AC razor and a DE in the efficiency, but not in the comfort.
As is probably obvious, I have been absent the last couple weeks and I almost didn’t come back to type up this post. I have a lot going on personally and there is only one person on here that knows the whole story. I am not going to be checking in here regularly for the foreseeable future and I want to talk about why. Then, I am going finally talk about what I am doing and why I didn’t want to share this publicly. I want to mention right now, before this gets wordy, that I always answer and look forward to PMs.
I guess I need start to by thanking everybody that I have regularly interacted with over the years and more recently; you are the only reason I have stuck around and I am going to miss our regular interactions. I was quite busy last summer and I started visiting here less and less until I dropped off finally later in the year. When I did return more regularly, I was exclusively interacting with this website through the journals and diaries forum so I could at least see how everybody is doing and what is new in their shave den. I will forever be grateful that I was back on here in time to have a couple more interactions with Doug before his passing and I followed along with his treatment until the end.
Now we have to get to the negativity, briefly. I have come to the conclusion that this website is not good for my mental health and browsing it regularly is making me unhappy and I am not joking. The easiest way that I can explain it is that I can’t participate in the ways that I did in the past and seeing other people being able to makes me feel left out. This is nobody else’s fault than my own, but it doesn’t change the situation. Frankly, I can’t spend the money to buy the things I want to try and seeing the rate of accumulation that others are enjoying makes me unhappy. Not because I am jealous, but because I am trying to be responsible and having to see what I am missing is worse for me than the positive benefits I get from being here. I wish that last part wasn’t true, but I am finally being honest with myself. I haven’t bought anything this year other than one soap and aftershave set and it’s been more than a year since I have bought any razors. I certainly had plans to acquire at least one in that time period and one more this summer, but that didn’t and ain‘t happening. All I really wanted to do was keep buying one moderately high end razor per year so I have something new to have experiences with, not even several per year. I am plenty happy with what I have and am grateful that they will continue to provide enjoyment for many years, but I need new things occasionally to keep me interested.
So who am I exactly? I haven’t hidden the fact that I am a guy in his forties and many know where I am from, but what I have been hiding is what I do and the reason is out of some embarrassment and generally the constant uncertainty of my situation. I am going to have to try to dance around some of the specifics of my whole situation, but I am right now a full time student pilot. I have an enormous student loan and I am about to take on a smaller personal loan just to get through this. I had some savings and some assistance when I signed the student loan and I just recently had that yanked out from underneath me and I am just going to have to keep burying myself in debt until I finish the program or the whole thing blows up in my face. After running every possible scenario, this is the only viable option otherwise I have to offload all of my obligations and take on a menial full time job. I will not be able to continue school in that scenario and I will still be stuck with my student loan payments for eternity. This whole thing is the culmination of at least six years of diligent work and planning before I even started the school and I am not about pack it up without a fight. This is what I want to do with what time I have left, I should be able to get a 20 year career out of this before mandatory retirement age. If it all blows up before I can finish then I have no real future at my age; I recently lost access to where I was living, have no rental history and have been turned down due to this. The place where I lived and the location of my current residence are what could be described as traps, places where there is no hope for a meaningful life and no easy way out. The jobs are insultingly low paying and a person would be lucky to pay their bills, forget about saving to move out! I am currently getting away without having to pay housing expenses, but my student loan payment is literally as much as a studio apartment and I couldn’t pay both with a low wage job so I would probably be living out of my car again. It was fun in my early twenties, but the difficulties of being on the margins of society are very different now. I can’t say that I remain hopeful, all I can do is keep pushing harder to keep the above thoughts quieted. A lot of this is going to come down to luck and I need that to start tilting in my favor soon.
I guess I will wrap this up where I started and thank everybody that reads this;I hope I have been of some help or use over the years and I hope you know how much I value the friendship that I have found here. I hope this isn’t my obituary, but I wouldn’t rule that out honestly. I hope to talk to you all again in the future when I am in a better place mentally and financially. Knowing myself, I will be back to buying razors again once I am working whether I can afford it or not!
I had a nice post started in my head comparing two very different neutral exposure razor, The General and the Tatara Nodamune, but recent happenings have gotten in the way and I have lost interest. I will say that there really is a difference between a neutral exposure AC razor and a DE in the efficiency, but not in the comfort.
As is probably obvious, I have been absent the last couple weeks and I almost didn’t come back to type up this post. I have a lot going on personally and there is only one person on here that knows the whole story. I am not going to be checking in here regularly for the foreseeable future and I want to talk about why. Then, I am going finally talk about what I am doing and why I didn’t want to share this publicly. I want to mention right now, before this gets wordy, that I always answer and look forward to PMs.
I guess I need start to by thanking everybody that I have regularly interacted with over the years and more recently; you are the only reason I have stuck around and I am going to miss our regular interactions. I was quite busy last summer and I started visiting here less and less until I dropped off finally later in the year. When I did return more regularly, I was exclusively interacting with this website through the journals and diaries forum so I could at least see how everybody is doing and what is new in their shave den. I will forever be grateful that I was back on here in time to have a couple more interactions with Doug before his passing and I followed along with his treatment until the end.
Now we have to get to the negativity, briefly. I have come to the conclusion that this website is not good for my mental health and browsing it regularly is making me unhappy and I am not joking. The easiest way that I can explain it is that I can’t participate in the ways that I did in the past and seeing other people being able to makes me feel left out. This is nobody else’s fault than my own, but it doesn’t change the situation. Frankly, I can’t spend the money to buy the things I want to try and seeing the rate of accumulation that others are enjoying makes me unhappy. Not because I am jealous, but because I am trying to be responsible and having to see what I am missing is worse for me than the positive benefits I get from being here. I wish that last part wasn’t true, but I am finally being honest with myself. I haven’t bought anything this year other than one soap and aftershave set and it’s been more than a year since I have bought any razors. I certainly had plans to acquire at least one in that time period and one more this summer, but that didn’t and ain‘t happening. All I really wanted to do was keep buying one moderately high end razor per year so I have something new to have experiences with, not even several per year. I am plenty happy with what I have and am grateful that they will continue to provide enjoyment for many years, but I need new things occasionally to keep me interested.
So who am I exactly? I haven’t hidden the fact that I am a guy in his forties and many know where I am from, but what I have been hiding is what I do and the reason is out of some embarrassment and generally the constant uncertainty of my situation. I am going to have to try to dance around some of the specifics of my whole situation, but I am right now a full time student pilot. I have an enormous student loan and I am about to take on a smaller personal loan just to get through this. I had some savings and some assistance when I signed the student loan and I just recently had that yanked out from underneath me and I am just going to have to keep burying myself in debt until I finish the program or the whole thing blows up in my face. After running every possible scenario, this is the only viable option otherwise I have to offload all of my obligations and take on a menial full time job. I will not be able to continue school in that scenario and I will still be stuck with my student loan payments for eternity. This whole thing is the culmination of at least six years of diligent work and planning before I even started the school and I am not about pack it up without a fight. This is what I want to do with what time I have left, I should be able to get a 20 year career out of this before mandatory retirement age. If it all blows up before I can finish then I have no real future at my age; I recently lost access to where I was living, have no rental history and have been turned down due to this. The place where I lived and the location of my current residence are what could be described as traps, places where there is no hope for a meaningful life and no easy way out. The jobs are insultingly low paying and a person would be lucky to pay their bills, forget about saving to move out! I am currently getting away without having to pay housing expenses, but my student loan payment is literally as much as a studio apartment and I couldn’t pay both with a low wage job so I would probably be living out of my car again. It was fun in my early twenties, but the difficulties of being on the margins of society are very different now. I can’t say that I remain hopeful, all I can do is keep pushing harder to keep the above thoughts quieted. A lot of this is going to come down to luck and I need that to start tilting in my favor soon.
I guess I will wrap this up where I started and thank everybody that reads this;I hope I have been of some help or use over the years and I hope you know how much I value the friendship that I have found here. I hope this isn’t my obituary, but I wouldn’t rule that out honestly. I hope to talk to you all again in the future when I am in a better place mentally and financially. Knowing myself, I will be back to buying razors again once I am working whether I can afford it or not!
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I hope you can get to where you want, Aaron. You'll be missed around here and we'll keep the light on for you.
- Thread starter
- #1,135
Thank you Matt, that means a lot to me.
Aaron, you will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Keep at it Aaron, you'll get there! The road isn't as long as you might think. When I started flying, it was really tough but I've never seen it as good as it is right now!
Remember right now: "Shortage!"
And it ain't changing anytime soon. Like you said, by the time you're ready, you can give them around 20 years
and you'll be making good money right from the start.
And about the "happiness from getting a new razor thing", you get to fly my friend!!
Most people don't and only dream of it. It's a blessing!
Remember right now: "Shortage!"
And it ain't changing anytime soon. Like you said, by the time you're ready, you can give them around 20 years
and you'll be making good money right from the start.
And about the "happiness from getting a new razor thing", you get to fly my friend!!
Most people don't and only dream of it. It's a blessing!
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lasta
Blade Biter
Stay strong Aaron!
At least you have your target set clearly, more pain, more gain!
If it helps you feel any better, my own brother got through his medical studies by chewing on plant roots. Now he enjoys the good life and only work every other day. Meanwhile, I went on a booze trip through Europe and even now throwing darts on a map to decide where to go next!
Things will get better.
I do hope you'll occasionally pop back here. B&B is not just about shaving... it's also about fulfilling your obligations to your cult brothers!
At least you have your target set clearly, more pain, more gain!
If it helps you feel any better, my own brother got through his medical studies by chewing on plant roots. Now he enjoys the good life and only work every other day. Meanwhile, I went on a booze trip through Europe and even now throwing darts on a map to decide where to go next!
Things will get better.
I do hope you'll occasionally pop back here. B&B is not just about shaving... it's also about fulfilling your obligations to your cult brothers!
You’re persistent, resourceful, and intelligent, Aaron. You’ve got this. You’ll be making money that makes an Atelier Durdan La Faulx look like a bargain-priced miracle instead of an appropriately priced miracle.
Aaron, you already know all that you’ve added to my personal wet shaving journey. You and @Tomo were the first two men who befriended me and made me feel welcome.
I was saddened to read about your current situation, but I’m confident you’ll reach your goal and be flying in what seems like no time….. after this season of difficulty…. as you look back on it. Times of travail are never pleasant as we walk through them. I wish I had a way to shorten the time for you, but alas, that is beyond my ability.
You’ll be missed by so many of us, me included, but I look forward to your return.
I was saddened to read about your current situation, but I’m confident you’ll reach your goal and be flying in what seems like no time….. after this season of difficulty…. as you look back on it. Times of travail are never pleasant as we walk through them. I wish I had a way to shorten the time for you, but alas, that is beyond my ability.
You’ll be missed by so many of us, me included, but I look forward to your return.
