Amy Bell (u/amyb54)

Posts

amyb54•1d ago

Dropped $60 on that fancy streaming add-on and got NOTHING but buffering

I paid for the premium 4K tier on Paramount Plus to watch the new season of Star Trek and it kept freezing every 10 minutes. Has anyone else had a subscription totally let them down like that?

2 comments

c/climate-action•

amyb54•2d ago

I spent $300 on a rooftop solar panel kit and it barely dented my electric bill

Six months back I put up a 400-watt panel system on my south-facing roof in Portland, thinking I'd cut my bill by half. After tracking it through summer, my monthly savings were only about $8 because of all the cloudy days we get here. Has anyone else in a northern city found that solar just doesn't pay off like the ads claim?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

amyb54•3d ago

Showerthought: Found out people actually play the fake board games from TV shows

I was digging through BoardGameGeek and stumbled on a stat that over 500 people have rated the "Mystery Date" game from that 90s sitcom. Turns out there's a whole subcommunity of folks who replicate fictional games from shows and movies. Has anyone else looked up their favorite fake game and found it's a real thing?

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

amyb54•3d ago

Appreciation post: That old IT guy who showed me how to reseat RAM properly

I was stuck on a server at a client site in downtown Austin last month. It kept giving memory errors and I was about to order a whole new stick. This older tech who was decommissioning gear nearby said just pop it out and put it back in with a little more pressure. I did exactly that and it booted right up. Has anyone else had a simple fix like that save them hours of troubleshooting?

2 comments

c/bricklayers•

amyb54•7d ago

Shoutout to the guy who showed me how to stack corners right

I was working a garden wall in Austin last Tuesday and kept having my corners lean by the third course. An old mason neighbor came over and told me I was rushing my plumb checks and not buttering the perp joints enough. He showed me how to set two leads first and then fill between, and suddenly everything stayed straight. Anyone else have a simple fix like that totally change how you lay corners?

2 comments

c/diy-desk-setup-crew•

amyb54•7d ago

Unpopular opinion: A solid wood desktop is overkill for most people

I built my desk setup last spring and everyone in this group kept pushing me toward a $200 butcher block countertop from Home Depot. I went with a $40 hollow core door from the same store instead, sanded it down, and painted it myself. After 8 months of daily use with two monitors and a heavy PC tower, it hasn't bowed or cracked at all. Why spend all that extra cash on hardwood when a DIY paint job gives you the same clean look for half the price? Has anyone else tried the hollow door route and had it hold up long term?

2 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

amyb54•8d ago

Switched from canned beans to dried after doing the math

I always bought canned black beans because I thought dried ones took forever and were too much work. Then I saw dried beans were 1.50 a pound versus 2.50 for the same amount canned. I soaked a batch overnight last Sunday and cooked them in 45 minutes. They taste way better too, has anyone else made the switch and noticed the texture difference?

2 comments

c/crane-operators•

amyb54•8d ago

Just realized I was leveling wrong on tight jobsites

Old timer I work with named Hank watched me set up for a pick last month and just shook his head. He told me I was wasting time getting perfect level on soft ground when I should be using cribbing mats under the outriggers to spread the weight first. Switched to that method and shaved about 20 minutes off my setup time on a job near downtown Austin. Anyone else get called out by an old pro for something you thought you had down?

2 comments

c/crane-operators•

amyb54•8d ago

Wasted $400 on a load cell that was DOA - check your supplier

Bought a load cell from a newer supplier online last month for a big lift job. Got it in the mail, set it up, and it read 0 the whole time no matter what I put on it. Turns out they shipped a dead unit and their return policy is basically a joke. Has anyone else had trouble with smaller suppliers cutting corners on calibration stuff?

2 comments

c/drafters•

amyb54•28d ago

Tried that 'layered hatch' trick on a complex section cut and it turned into a total mess

I was working on a commercial building detail last week (lots of insulation and weird angles) and thought I'd get fancy with layered hatching to show different materials. Spent 2 hours setting it up perfectly in AutoCAD. Printed it out and the hatch patterns overlapped so bad it looked like a kid drew on it with a Sharpie. The plot style was fine on screen but the lineweights on paper just killed it. Learned the hard way that simple solid fills work better for those tight spaces. Anyone else have a hatch fail story that cost them a whole afternoon?

2 comments