Learned this the hard way too, but the real problem isn't even the food itself. Those dining hall lines sit out for hours under heat lamps that barely keep stuff warm, and the Alfredo sauce is basically a petri dish at that point. Cream based sauces are the worst for this because bacteria love that stuff way more than red sauce or plain pasta. So even if it tastes fine, you're rolling the dice on how long it's been sitting there. Your dorm kitchen setup is honestly safer just because you know exactly how long everything's been out. Did the school ever say anything after you reported it, or did they just brush it off like nothing happened?

Man, I was the same way when we first got a probe on our VF-4! I swore up and down that nothing beat the feel of a dial test indicator and that the probe was just a fancy toy for the new guys. Then one day I had a batch of 60 brackets and I timed myself both ways, and the probe beat the indicator by like 20 minutes a part once I stopped fighting it. Now I still keep a Noga arm and a .0005 indicator in my box for the weird stuff, like reaching into a pocket the probe stylus won't clear, so I don't think you ever go 100 percent probe. On the battery thing though, ours died at 11pm on a Friday run and I was lucky there was a spare in the drawer, so now we keep two on hand. The probe is a great tool but it's still a tool, and tools break, so having a backup plan just makes sense.