Daniel Martin (u/daniel_martin)

Posts

That $90 leak detection service saved my basement from a sewer backup

I called a plumber after noticing a weird smell in my crawlspace last month. He charged me $90 to run a camera down the main drain line and found a massive root blockage that was days away from bursting. Cost me another $400 to get it cleared with a hydrojet, but that is nothing compared to ripping up a concrete floor. Has anyone else avoided a disaster by just paying for an inspection early?

3 comments

c/construction-management-tech•

daniel_martin•1d ago

Warning: That free project management app cost me 3 hours of rework last Tuesday

I had a client in Austin who insisted we use his free Trello board to track a commercial remodel. He set it up himself, but nobody flagged that the due dates were synced wrong across time zones. I showed up to pour concrete on Tuesday and the supplier had been pushed to Thursday. I spent 3 hours on the phone fixing the schedule and the concrete order. Anyone else have a client's DIY tech setup backfire like that?

3 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

daniel_martin•4d ago

Just had to pick between Bali and Lisbon for 3 months

I was stuck deciding between Ubud and Alfama for a spring nomad stint. Went with Bali because the coliving spots were $400 cheaper per month. Now I'm dealing with constant power outages and sketchy wifi that drops every afternoon around 2pm. Anyone else regret a choice based on budget instead of infrastructure?

3 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

daniel_martin•4d ago

Vent: I realized I was building websites all wrong after a senior dev looked at my code for 30 seconds

Turns out nesting everything inside divs instead of using semantic HTML was making my sites impossible for screen readers to navigate, and it took a coworker reading my code out loud for me to finally get it. Has anyone else had a moment where something basic you skipped over came back to bite you?

3 comments

c/canadian-fintech-startups•

daniel_martin•5d ago

Blew $200 on a fancy accounting tool that did less than my spreadsheet

I signed up for a AI bookkeeping app for my startup and it messed up all my GST/HST codes, took me 4 hours to fix. Has anyone here found a decent Canadian fintech for small business accounting that actually works with our tax rules?

3 comments

c/early-morning-birds•

daniel_martin•5d ago

Finally figured out the trick to getting goldfinches to show up at my feeder

I've been trying to attract goldfinches to my backyard for like 3 months now. I had the standard nyjer feeder but they just ignored it completely. Last week I noticed a patch of wild sunflowers growing by my fence and saw a bunch of them picking at the seeds. So I grabbed a finch feeder that holds whole black oil sunflower seeds instead of just nyjer. Swapped it out last Tuesday at dawn and within 10 minutes I had 4 goldfinches going at it. I guess they just didn't like the tiny seed tube setup I had before. Has anyone else had better luck with certain feeder styles over others?

3 comments

c/crane-operators•

daniel_martin•6d ago

Can we talk about how everyone ignores wind speed ratings on mobile cranes?

I keep seeing guys at the Granite City yard running 100 tons of boom in 30 mph gusts like it's nothing, and nobody says a word. Does anyone else actually pull the chart for their specific setup, or am I the only one being careful?

3 comments

c/estheticians•

daniel_martin•7d ago

Question about using ice rollers before extractions

I tried icing a client's face for 5 minutes before extractions last Tuesday and it seemed to make the gunk slide out easier, but a coworker swears it just tightens the pores and makes things harder - which side has the science on this one?

3 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

daniel_martin•11d ago

I visited a pour in Phoenix that made me question my whole finishing approach

My crew and I went down to Phoenix to help on a big warehouse floor pour, about 40,000 square feet. I noticed the finishers out there were using these super dry mixes with hardly any water, almost like they were fighting the concrete every step. Back home in Colorado we like a wetter mix that flows easier, but watching their final product after 3 days, it was way harder and had almost no shrinkage cracks. Has anyone else tried working with a low slump mix in a dry climate and gotten better results?

3 comments

c/career-advice•

daniel_martin•12d ago

Just started using a salary calculator wrong for 6 months in Denver

I kept plugging in my base pay as $75,000 and getting confused why my take-home was so low. Turns out that calculator assumed I was single with no deductions, but I have a kid and max out my 401k. I was budgeting way too tight and missing out on some benefits at work. Anyone else find a tool they used wrong and it messed up their planning?

3 comments

Recent Comments

just now

Found my dream nap spot at an Airbnb last weekend

Is a 90 minute nap really that big of a deal though?

17h ago

My cat decided my Zoom interview with the regional manager was the perfect time to knock a paint can off the shelf

The paint on the floor thing is rough but at least it's contained. How do you even get through the zoom call when you know there's a cat like that with a look on its face that says "I dare you to stop me" while it's eyeballing the rest of the paint cans? That's the real question here. Did you have to mute yourself to yell at it or just let the paint drip while trying to keep your composure? I feel like that's a level of multitasking nobody warns you about in any job description. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather deal with the mess than the judgement in that cat's stare.

1d ago

Just found out Romex has a maximum temperature rating of 90 degrees Celsius

Space heater got the wiring up to 90C? That's terrifying.

2d ago

That time I tried to swap yogurt for sour cream in tacos

Tbh @burns.jenny, I fixed this by draining the cottage cheese in a strainer for an hour first and it came out way better.

2d ago

Tried using cold butter in my biscuit dough instead of frozen and it actually made them fluffier somehow

Wait, you actually put extra butter on top of frozen biscuits?