status update: i still cant fucking solder

you could kill a man with these spikes ffs

Yes, flux is very much your friend. Also, make sure your tip is hot enough (giggity).

Ahahah, soldering is hard to do right.
I can't solder anything smaller than electric wire, but that's what friends are for :p

Hope you are using at least a good soldering iron pen instead of that chinese one use garbage soldering kits, better if you are actually using a Soldering station and like others pointed out, moar flux!

Any thoughts on the TS100 hackable soldering iron?

I suck at soldering too. But what I lack in hardware, I try to make up in code. Ask my friends to do that hardware stuff and stick to what I do better than them 😛
Still, I should learn sometime soon, considering I am an electronics student...