Laura Kampf

Fav Onefour · Mar 31, 2026

sjones said:
She was born in Munich but spent most of her life in the US. Her father was in the army and her mother was German

Home of the stein.

It's funny, most Americans associate the stein to being all of Germany. It drives my wife nuts. She lived mostly in the Rhine wine region. Wine is the common beverage. In fact on my first visit we went to a local Weinguter for a relax after traveling. I was naive and asked what kind of beer was available. I learned a lot about German culture that evening.

BTW, on the subject of Laura Kampf. I know that she has moved to L.A. but the diversity of her skill set is pretty remarkable. I'm guessing she's mainly self taught. It's not a common thing to work with so many different mediums. Over there, it's much more common to be highly skilled in a single focus.
Friend has a construction business. He has people that focus on different parts of the building process. Welders for steelwork, span flooring concrete guys, boom truck operators, brick masons, stone masons, a separate tile work team, etc. He even has a guy certified to work on stone arches. Not to mention all the mechanicals. His company isn't large, maybe fifteen people.
It is normal to have specific trades for each type of different work without overlap. Remodeling even breaks down trades. For example, the masons chisel channels in the floor for plumbing and in the walls for the electricians. Patch fill after mechanicals is done by the trades again.

bwringer · Mar 31, 2026

I first knew of Laura because she's sort of in Simone Giertz' orbit.

Their collaborations are great because of the contrasts; Simone is more emotional (especially when she's getting fed up with something; I can relate) and can be really funny and entertaining (and then something amazing pops out; she's far more skilled than she lets on), and Laura sort of calmly gets things done and figures out the engineering. Both are outstanding visionaries and talented crafters.

What's interesting is how quite a few of these YouTube "makers" (I still find the word "maker" a little cringe, but maybe that's just me) are doing things very differently than the standard "reality show" formula by highlighting collaboration and cooperation. The best of them are very clear that they don't know everything, they screw up regularly, they have to learn by doing, and that they lean on others for skills they don't have. Much of the best content online is the collaborations. (Maker Secret Santa is great as well.)

Jimmy DiResta is another I respect greatly; he is constantly learning and experimenting, and pushing his comfort zone on every project.

He actually had a short-lived reality show on Netflix called "Making Fun", where kids would suggest various weird projects and Jimmy and a small selection of quirky crafters would bring them to life. It was a great concept, but inevitably the idiots directing it focused way too much on the oddball aspects of the characters and manufactured conflict. They turned Jimmy into a growling grump instead of a calm and humble but masterful craftsman. They just had no clue that collaboration could be so much more interesting and meaningful and completely missed the point.

Ryan · Mar 31, 2026

bwringer said:
I first knew of Laura because she's sort of in Simone Giertz' orbit.

Their collaborations are great because of the contrasts; Simone is more emotional (especially when she's getting fed up with something; I can relate) and can be really funny and entertaining (and then something amazing pops out; she's far more skilled than she lets on), and Laura sort of calmly gets things done and figures out the engineering. Both are outstanding visionaries and talented crafters.

What's interesting is how quite a few of these YouTube "makers" (I still find the word "maker" a little cringe, but maybe that's just me) are doing things very differently than the standard "reality show" formula by highlighting collaboration and cooperation. The best of them are very clear that they don't know everything, they screw up regularly, they have to learn by doing, and that they lean on others for skills they don't have. Much of the best content online is the collaborations. (Maker Secret Santa is great as well.)

Jimmy DiResta is another I respect greatly; he is constantly learning and experimenting, and pushing his comfort zone on every project.

He actually had a short-lived reality show on Netflix called "Making Fun", where kids would suggest various weird projects and Jimmy and a small selection of quirky crafters would bring them to life. It was a great concept, but inevitably the idiots directing it focused way too much on the oddball aspects of the characters and manufactured conflict. They turned Jimmy into a growling grump instead of a calm and humble but masterful craftsman. They just had no clue that collaboration could be so much more interesting and meaningful and completely missed the point.

I know Jimmy a bit. Really good guy. Watching him and Laura, you start to see the same wiring, both of them operating with this wide-open skill set and zero fear. They don’t sit around waiting to be qualified. They just go.

The difference is in the arsenal. Jimmy’s shop is like a fully loaded war room. If there’s a specialized tool for a job, he’s probably got it within arm’s reach. Laura, on the other hand, works a little looser. She’s got an impressive setup, no doubt, but she leans more on adaptability than specialization. She’ll figure out a way with what she has instead of waiting for the “right” tool.

09Q · Mar 31, 2026

Ryan said:
Okay... cleaned up yet again. User banned this time. Permanently... I won't pretend it didn't feel like cracking a cold beer on a hot afternoon in Austin, because it did.

If you are a bigot, if you are the kind of small, shriveled soul who gets his kicks judging how other people choose to live their one and only life on this godforsaken spinning rock, then get out. Find yourself another watering hole. Pack your prehistoric opinions into a bag and haul them somewhere else, because this forum has no use for them and neither do I. My patience for that particular breed of stupidity ran out a long time ago... and I'm done.

To everybody else, the decent ones, the people who showed up here in good faith to actually engage with other human beings like civilized adults, I apologize for the interruption.

Genuine and sincere question; how do you definite using your words "prehistoric opinions"? Without the context of the posts I didn't see what was posted.

four.cycle · Mar 31, 2026

Thank you for your patience and tenacity, @Ryan

Ryan · Mar 31, 2026

09Q said:
Genuine and sincere question; how do you definite using your words "prehistoric opinions"? Without the context of the posts I didn't see what was posted.

The guy posting that nonsense knows exactly what I consider prehistoric… he learned that lesson before he got shown the door.

It’s really not complicated. Be decent to people and you won’t have to learn it the hard way. Being kind isn’t some rare skill, it’s the baseline.

Lassen Forge · Apr 1, 2026

Ryan said:
No cursing on the Garage Journal? If that were the case, there wouldn't be any users left... and I'd be one of the first to be banned.

Nuh huh!! Me first! (Tho I really DO try hard to be "nice" - kind of against my old nature, but, yeah, ya know!!!)

Fav Onefour said:
Drinking from a stein would be a pretty slow turn between rounds.

No way!!! I have a stein from some Wiesen (Oktoberfest) from years past, it's only a paltry 1 liter... for me it works as it slows me down!

The other issue is living here I'm not really into frigid frozen cold beer... Not British warm, but room temp. Makes it a lot more flavorful IMO.

Ryan said:
It’s really not complicated. Be decent to people and you won’t have to learn it the hard way. Being kind isn’t some rare skill, it’s the baseline.

What's happened to Humanity?? We used to be polite and cordial to each other, but the more I see on line, the more I realize we've lost *something*.... Maybe it's the lack of decorum from some i power, but I think it's more the ability to hide behind a keyboard.

Will we ever recover? I only hope so!!!

Ryan · Apr 1, 2026

Lassen Forge said:
What's happened to Humanity?? We used to be polite and cordial to each other, but the more I see on line, the more I realize we've lost *something*.... Maybe it's the lack of decorum from some i power, but I think it's more the ability to hide behind a keyboard.

Humanity didn’t lose anything. It just took the muzzle off.

Back in the day, being “polite” had less to do with virtue and more to do with proximity. You had to look a man in the eye when you said something stupid, and there was always the very real possibility he’d rearrange your teeth for it. So people learned restraint. Not kindness, restraint.

Now we’ve built this vast electronic saloon where everyone gets a microphone and nobody gets punched. No eye contact. No consequences. Just pure, unfiltered impulse blasted into the void at the speed of light. Turns out a lot of what was hiding under that old-world “civility” wasn’t grace, it was fear and social pressure doing their job.

Throw in a steady diet of outrage-as-entertainment from the people in power, and you’ve got a perfect storm. Everyone’s yelling, nobody’s listening, and the loudest lunatics get the most attention.

So no, we didn’t lose decorum. We just removed the guardrails and found out how many people were swerving the whole time.

Also, people are followers... Followers only follow.

Lassen Forge said:
Will we ever recover? I only hope so!!!

You don’t put that genie back in the bottle. The curtain’s been yanked open and everyone’s seen the wiring, the bad paint, the whole crooked set... There’s no going back to polite illusion after that. Not cleanly, anyway.

But that doesn’t mean it’s over. It just means the next version has to be built with eyes open. Fewer illusions, more accountability. People choosing restraint instead of being forced into it by proximity and the threat of getting clocked. Harder road, no doubt. Less romantic. More honest.

Will we get there? Maybe. Humanity has a strange habit of lurching forward after making an absolute mess of things. But it won’t be because we suddenly became better people. It’ll be because enough of us got tired of the noise and decided, one at a time, to stop adding to it.

In my estimation, nothing changes without a focus on education. The general public, especially those with blow horns, has proven itself to be incredibly uneducated.

Fav Onefour · Apr 1, 2026

@Ryan ,
We need a trophy on the like selection. That was eloquently written and on point.

William Payne · Apr 4, 2026

Ryan said:
Cleaned this thread up a bit… probably should have banned a user, but didn’t. Maybe I will later.

In any case, if you don’t have anything nice to say, go **** yourself.

Ryan said:
Okay... cleaned up yet again. User banned this time. Permanently... I won't pretend it didn't feel like cracking a cold beer on a hot afternoon in Austin, because it did.

If you are a bigot, if you are the kind of small, shriveled soul who gets his kicks judging how other people choose to live their one and only life on this godforsaken spinning rock, then get out. Find yourself another watering hole. Pack your prehistoric opinions into a bag and haul them somewhere else, because this forum has no use for them and neither do I. My patience for that particular breed of stupidity ran out a long time ago... and I'm done.

To everybody else, the decent ones, the people who showed up here in good faith to actually engage with other human beings like civilized adults, I apologize for the interruption.

Do I dare ask what I missed?

Yikes!

William Payne · Apr 6, 2026

Ryan said:
Humanity didn’t lose anything. It just took the muzzle off.

Back in the day, being “polite” had less to do with virtue and more to do with proximity. You had to look a man in the eye when you said something stupid, and there was always the very real possibility he’d rearrange your teeth for it. So people learned restraint. Not kindness, restraint.

Now we’ve built this vast electronic saloon where everyone gets a microphone and nobody gets punched. No eye contact. No consequences. Just pure, unfiltered impulse blasted into the void at the speed of light. Turns out a lot of what was hiding under that old-world “civility” wasn’t grace, it was fear and social pressure doing their job.

Throw in a steady diet of outrage-as-entertainment from the people in power, and you’ve got a perfect storm. Everyone’s yelling, nobody’s listening, and the loudest lunatics get the most attention.

So no, we didn’t lose decorum. We just removed the guardrails and found out how many people were swerving the whole time.

Also, people are followers... Followers only follow.

You don’t put that genie back in the bottle. The curtain’s been yanked open and everyone’s seen the wiring, the bad paint, the whole crooked set... There’s no going back to polite illusion after that. Not cleanly, anyway.

But that doesn’t mean it’s over. It just means the next version has to be built with eyes open. Fewer illusions, more accountability. People choosing restraint instead of being forced into it by proximity and the threat of getting clocked. Harder road, no doubt. Less romantic. More honest.

Will we get there? Maybe. Humanity has a strange habit of lurching forward after making an absolute mess of things. But it won’t be because we suddenly became better people. It’ll be because enough of us got tired of the noise and decided, one at a time, to stop adding to it.

In my estimation, nothing changes without a focus on education. The general public, especially those with blow horns, has proven itself to be incredibly uneducated.

I think it’s great that the filters are off. Now everyone knows exactly who they are dealing with and people have to publicly own who and what they are both the good and the bad.

Now everyone is coming to the party that I’ve been at for a long time. I learned a long time ago that if you treat people with excessive kindness and decency that you let people show their true colours and expose who they really are.

If people know you as someone who is just persistently nice and respectful, when the time comes that someone comes and tries to be a tough guy and people see it I’m never the one who looks bad.

Let people wallow in their own shame.

But it’s easy to be an *******, being nice and respectful takes effort.

I saw a guy have an angry meltdown once because he normally couldn’t say 3 words without swearing and he wasn’t allowed to and it destroyed him. He just could not get any words out and he snapped.

I thought it was funny.

logical · Apr 6, 2026

Superbowl said:
I love Wheeler Dealers but they rarely made any money on the cars they flipped...

I think the point is to produce a compelling TV show that will generate advertising revenue, not milk every last dime out of a flip. If they made too much money people would get all worked up insisting that they are screwing people.

nitroracer20 · Apr 6, 2026

Ryan said:
In my estimation, nothing changes without a focus on education. The general public, especially those with blow horns, has proven itself to be incredibly uneducated.

Yes!!!

thats all ill contribute to this.

Ryan · Apr 7, 2026

nitroracer20 said:
Yes!!!

thats all ill contribute to this.

You say that like wanting an educated public is some kind of political position. It’s not.

Education isn’t partisan. It’s foundational. It benefits everyone—economically, culturally, and practically. The only time it gets framed as political is when it’s being twisted or weaponized for someone else’s agenda.

And yeah, there are people who resent it. Sometimes that comes from bad experiences, sometimes from limited access, sometimes from being told it wasn’t for them. Sometimes by people that lack discipline to get an education. But that doesn’t make education the problem.

Don’t let politicians, or anyone else, turn something this basic into a wedge issue. An educated population helps all of us. That is not political. That is a fact proven by human history.

JustVicingIt · Apr 12, 2026

I've really been enjoying her Youtube channel. Just a great source of inspiration. I ended up grabbing one of her Tape Mates recently as it was a good way to support a great creator.

Laura Kampf

Fav Onefour

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bwringer

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Ryan

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09Q

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four.cycle

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Ryan

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Lassen Forge

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Ryan

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Fav Onefour

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William Payne

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William Payne

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logical

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nitroracer20

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Ryan

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JustVicingIt

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