Last Thursday I was chasing a no-start on a fridge compressor and kept getting continuity when there wasn't any. Turns out my cheap multimeter's leads had a cracked insulation near the probe tips, causing intermittent shorts. I swapped in a set of leads from my backup meter and suddenly the reading made sense. Anyone else had a tool lie to them like that and waste hours?
Started keeping a list back in January. Just a note on my phone. Wanted to find the best espresso in town. Yesterday I counted and I'm at 52 different shops. That's almost 2 a week. Just regular mornings and weekend afternoons. Did not realize how many places I'd tried. Has anyone else tracked how many shops they hit in a year?
I run a small bakery in Austin and I had $2,000 to spend on growing the business. I could either get a slick website built or run targeted Facebook ads for 8 weeks. I went with the ad campaign because my Instagram was already decent. The first week brought in 12 new customers who all mentioned the ad. But by week 4, the response dropped off hard and I barely broke even. Has anyone else tried cheap local flyers instead of digital ads and seen better results?
My neighbor Mrs. Chen told me last December that canned San Marzanos beat fresh hothouse tomatoes for soup every time. I argued with her for weeks until I tried it with a batch of minestrone and felt like a fool. Do you find canned tomatoes actually hold up better than fresh in cooked dishes or am I just bad at picking produce?
Last month I pulled up a job in Austin where the GC skipped the meter test and now the planks are cupping everywhere. Who else has walked into a nightmare fix because someone thought skipping the prep was fine?
I used to use a pneumatic rivet gun for everything on the line at my shop in Phoenix, but last month I switched to a cordless Milwaukee M12 rivet gun for smaller jobs. The difference is huge for me since I don't have to drag hoses around when I'm working on tight spots inside the fuselage. Anyone else made the switch and found it worth it for just panel work?
Met this guy named Bill at a trailhead in Oregon who swore cooking gear was dead weight. He said just soak instant oats in cold water and save 2 pounds. I tried it for 3 days on a section hike and ended up eating cold mush and feeling miserable. By day 4 I was buying hot food at every stop and my stomach hurt. Was he right about the weight savings or is hot food worth the extra pack weight?
A guy I worked with in Louisiana last summer swore by his 20 year old Viking drysuit with those twist valves. He told me to stick with the old gear because new stuff is overpriced junk. I took his advice and spent a full day flooded up to my chest during a bridge inspection in Baton Rouge. Those old valves are impossible to service in the field and they freeze up in cold water. Has anyone else had a older model fail on them like this?
Was grabbing a coffee near my place in Portland and heard two artists talking at the next table. One said they'd been seeing portfolios where every single piece had that polished AI look, like zero rough sketches or unfinished work. It made me think about how maybe showing some messy process stuff actually makes your art feel more human. Has anyone else noticed portfolios looking too clean lately?
Bought a set of 5 handcrafted pens from a small shop for my monthly layout and they were completely dead by day 14. Anyone have a brand that actually lasts more than a month?