Things I've learned over the last couple of weeks:
Cleaning wood and metal (hand planes):
-mineral spirits and fine steel wool is a good way to get rid of paint splatters
-mineral spirits and fine steel wool does so-so with light rust, wd-40 does better
-wire wheels must be used with caution, even fine ones
-a dry scotchbrite pad will eventually clean off anything; for deep rust, allocate a couple of months
-mineral spirits and fine steel wool does so-so with light rust, wd-40 does better
-a citric acid solution does wonders on deep rust. two nights of soaking will also eat cast iron (laminated iron seems to hold up well, though). try spot applications for a couple of hours at a time instead of soaking.
-breathing in wd-40 or odorless (not really) mineral spirits for a while really will make you light headed. open the door and turn on a fan.
Food:
-when you've got a couple of dots of flour on your shirt, resist the urge to dust them off. you'll end up with a big stripe of flour on your shirt in their place. your hands are floury.
-pizza's not so hard. success here will make you want to try your hand at bread.
-render your bacon completely or the fat will soak through your crust and make it soggy instead of crispy.
-get or make a peel. handling a 500 degree pizza stone is no fun even with welding gloves on. or my welding gloves aren't very good.
MovableType:
-using unordered lists causes an internal server error and will drive you batty for a day