>>2759731I'll give you my anecdote, and if i get a bunch of (You)s, then i know my experience is commonplace.
>in college, sure, pristine examples of mineral specimens are great. we're talking cross sections, polished, cut, slides, etc...>you can clearly see the characteristics of one specific mineral without being confused by a bunch of junk materialthats the foundation of my knowledge. i learned minerals n shit with pristine, museum-quality specimens in some lab in a case.
>while pristine specimens are nice, there's a certain "fakeness" to it>like really great fake boobs. you know theres something off, and they look great, but it aint real>in the wild, pristine pieces are rarely found, or at least, rarely found without any additional work required>every person who has ever picked up a rock has plenty of hand-sized rocks>i cannot count how many specimens of every local rock i have in boxes, shelves, display things, flower vases, indoor potted plants, you get the idea>i havent needed any piece of rock smaller than my head in years>BIG FUCKIN' CHUNKS are neato>we're talkin BIGgimme a boulder that weighs between twenty and eighty pounds, ill be happy struggling to move them all from my car to my front yard.
