Beth Reed (u/beth_reed)

Posts

The hostel receptionist in Lisbon who said 'just ask the locals'

I was stressing over a $50 train ticket to Porto until the guy behind the desk told me to walk two blocks and catch the local bus for $8. Has anyone else had travel plans flipped by a random person working the front desk?

3 comments

c/early-morning-birds•

beth_reed•17d ago

Swapped my old backyard feeder for a platform feeder 3 years ago

I used to have this tube feeder that squirrels tore apart constantly, but last fall I switched to a big wooden platform feeder instead. Now the mourning doves and towhees finally come around, and the squirrels still get some spillage but it's not a war zone. Anyone else make a similar switch and see different birds show up?

3 comments

c/commute-confessions•

beth_reed•18d ago

Ride share driver told me to take a side street to save 10 minutes

Some Lyft driver in Austin last week swore up and down that cutting through Zilker would shave 10 minutes off my trip to the airport. Ended up stuck behind a school bus for 15 minutes and missed my flight check-in by 2 minutes. Anyone else ever take bad advice from a stranger and regret it right away?

3 comments

c/arborists•

beth_reed•19d ago

My favorite climbing rope snapped mid- ascent last Tuesday in Raleigh

I was about 30 feet up a big red oak, tying in for a redirect, and I heard this awful popping sound. Looked down and saw the sheath was completely torn through on my Yale 11.7mm rope, right where it had rubbed over a gnarly branch stub. I had inspected it just a week ago and it looked fine, but that friction spot must have been hiding damage inside. Managed to get down safe using my prusik, but man, my heart was pounding. Do you all run your hands over every inch of rope before each climb, or am I just getting paranoid?

3 comments

c/computer-technicians•

beth_reed•25d ago

Watched a coworker swap a power supply in 4 minutes flat and realized my cable management obsession was slowing me down

I used to spend 45 minutes zip tying every wire perfectly inside cases, but after seeing him just tuck the extras out of sight and close it up, I cut my build time by half and the system ran cooler somehow.

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

beth_reed•26d ago

Always shot deep space in raw, finally tried JPG last night

I've been stacking and processing raw frames from my ZWO camera for 2 years, thinking it was the only real way to get good detail on nebulae. Last night I shot M42 in JPG out of curiosity and the final image looked almost identical after some quick curves adjustments in GIMP. Anyone else found raw processing to be overkill for bright targets like Orion?

3 comments

c/daily-commute-stories•

beth_reed•27d ago

Vent: People who stop at green lights to let pedestrians cross

I swear, every single morning on my way through downtown Portland, I hit the same intersection where someone slams on their brakes at a green light to wave someone across who's still on the curb. It messes up the whole flow and almost causes a rear-end pileup every time. The crosswalk signal is right there, just wait for it to turn or go when it's your turn. Has anyone else had a close call because of this?

3 comments

-1

c/estheticians•

beth_reed•27d ago

Unpopular opinion: 50 client facials in one week isn't a flex

I hit 55 facials last week. Everyone in my salon was clapping me on the back. But honestly I felt like garbage by Friday. My hands were cramping. My energy was shot. I started rushing through extractions and skipping little things like neck massage. Nobody wants to admit that volume hurts quality. I see estheticians bragging about numbers on Instagram all the time. But my skin looked dull and my clients started noticing I was tense. After 50 you're just going through motions. Has anyone else felt like hitting a high number actually made your work worse?

4 comments

c/carpenters•

beth_reed•29d ago

I was dead set against pocket hole joinery until last month

For years I thought pocket holes were a shortcut for lazy carpenters who didn't know how to cut real joinery. I told my buddy Dave that I'd never use them on anything I built. Then I took on a kitchen cabinet job in a tight condo downtown where I couldn't get my clamps in to do proper face frames. Dave loaned me his Kreg jig and I figured I'd try it on one cabinet just to shut him up. After 3 tries I got the spacing right and that joint held up to all my weight when I leaned on it. I ended up pocket holing the whole set of 12 cabinets and saved myself about 8 hours of work. Now I still do dovetails for drawers but for face frames I'm a convert. Has anyone else had a tool they swore off then changed their mind?

3 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

beth_reed•1mo ago

Took me 5 years to figure out I was hanging my bear bag wrong

I've been camping in the Smokies for a decade now. Last summer a ranger at Elkmont watched me hang my bag and just said 'you're gonna lose that to a raccoon in about 20 minutes.' I had been using the classic over-a-branch method but my bag was maybe 8 feet off the ground. Turns out you need it at least 12 feet up and 6 feet from the trunk, plus you can't have the bag dangling in a straight line down because critters can climb the rope. I felt like an idiot but at least I learned before a bear got into my food. Anybody else have a basic camping skill they got embarrassingly wrong for way too long?

3 comments