When I got home today, I went to get my mail and there was a blank circuit board in there from General Guitar Gadgets! (I built a looping pedal way back when, and decided to do the point-to-point soldering myself. Then the project didn’t work. So I ordered a printed board for it.)
Soldering can have quite a calming effect–watching as a board gets populated with components and forcing yourself to be patient. It was a nice surprise–I forgot that I ordered it!
I never want to build circuits on perfboard again! Of course for one-offs its practical, but it was so easy rebuilding the looper on the PCB. The solder just glides effortlessly onto the copper, and it didn’t fall apart every time I heated up a lead. I shouldn’t talk because I haven’t tested it yet…