I gave a couple of physics talks where I used the "fasten seatbelt" sign on a series of slides introducing a controversial topic (weak value amplification). I told the audiences beforehand that they just needed to stay in their seats for these slides and we'd discuss once I'd laid everything out.
During my physics PhD I built my own Segway (and a second one with a power tool company who came to me after first asking tlb) and did a bunch of projects with a high-power laser cutter that I got funding for in our lab. I included these on my resume and they were much easier for interviewers to talk to me about than my PhD work. I think they also helped me stand out a bit. Receiving positive feedback about these projects gave me confidence to sell myself as someone who could build things.
I wonder if your eyes move around a lot. It's known that we can see flicker in things like LEDs on a clock when our eyes move fast enough that subsequent flashes are sufficiently separated in the field of vision, particularly in our peripheral vision, and I've also experienced this with LED headlights while driving.
I once worked on a system that ran at -40 degrees. I loved leaving off the scale when giving tours and telling about it, because someone would invariably ask if I meant Celsius or Fahrenheit and then everyone got to learn where the crossing point of the two scales is.
Have you confirmed that their charges aren't still showing up on your credit card statement? Merchants collecting recurring payments use updater services to update expiration dates automatically.
Here's the Substack announcement of their new Notes feature that's referenced in the article as being a likely cause for this (or maybe Musk is just being Musk):