Burned $120 on cheap coal from a hardware store chain

I grabbed a bag of coal from a big box hardware place because it was cheap and close to my shop. Figured coal is coal, right? Wrong. That stuff was half rocks and dust, barely got hot enough to work a 1 inch round bar. I spent 3 hours fighting with the forge, adding more and more coal just to keep a glow. By the end I had a pile of clinker the size of my fist and zero usable steel. The whole bag was maybe good for 45 minutes of actual work. Next time I'm driving the extra 30 miles to the proper supplier. Has anyone else had luck with those charcoal briquette blends or is that a waste too?

Overheard a professor say dendrochronology is just counting tree rings. Took that personally.

I was at a coffee shop near the university last week and this archaeology lecturer was complaining to his student about how people dumb down his field. He said something like 'dendrochronology is just counting tree rings' and laughed. But honestly that stuck with me because it's actually a really cool method. I looked it up after and found out they match ring patterns from old wood to a master timeline going back thousands of years. Like in the Southwest US they dated Puebloan structures using beams from the 1200s with exact year accuracy. That's way more than just counting. Has anyone here actually worked with tree ring dating on a dig or seen it done in person?

Can we talk about how long it takes to build a proper digital art portfolio?

I started putting together an online showcase back in January, and it's been three months of tweaking and redoing stuff. Last week I finally got my Behance page to look decent, but now I'm second-guessing if I should include older pieces or just my recent work from this year. I have about 15 pieces I'm proud of, but some of them are from 2021 and feel outdated in style. Does anyone else struggle with knowing when a piece is good enough to put in your public gallery? What's your cutoff for stuff you made years ago?

Found out my habit tracker was too complicated after 3 months

I had this huge habit tracker with 12 different categories and color codes. After 3 months I realized I was spending more time updating the tracker than actually doing the habits. Switched to just tracking 3 things - water, steps, and reading - in a simple vertical list. Way easier to keep up with and I actually stick to it now. Anyone else overload their first bujo with too many trackers?

Hot take: Nobody warns you about door jamb trimming until you've already scarred up a customer's doorway

I was doing a bedroom in Broomfield last Thursday, had my power stretcher all set up, and went to tuck the edge under the jamb. Forgot to check if the door would still close after the new pad and carpet went in. Ended up having to pull back half the room and shave down the bottom of the jamb with a oscillating tool while the homeowner watched from the hallway. Has anyone else had to do a full jamb trim on the fly or am I just unlucky?

Warning: Check your brake shoe adjustment rings on Gen2 machines

Pulled a 4 year old MRL in a Denver office tower last month and found both shoe rings backed off almost a full turn from spec, real common oversight when guys rush through PMs. Anyone else seeing this on newer installs or just my area?

Lost a $200 batch of stock overnight because of a faulty timer

I set up a veal stock on Tuesday night before heading home. Put it on at 10 pm with the timer set to cut the flame at 6 am. Came in Wednesday morning and the gas had been off since about 2 am. The timer is one of those cheap dial models that you plug into the wall. Turns out the internal spring gave out. The stock barely hit 140 degrees before it started cooling down. By the time I got there it was sitting at 80 degrees and smelled off. Had to dump the whole thing down the drain. The veal bones alone cost me about 80 bucks from a local butcher in Portland. Has anyone else had bad luck with those plug-in timers? What do you use for overnight cooking?

Can we talk about those free online coding bootcamps?

Signed up for one last month. Thought it would be a solid way to learn Python on the cheap. Total mess. The videos were from 2019 and half the links were dead. No instructor. Just a forum with 2 people answering questions. I spent more time fixing broken code examples than actually learning. Gave up after 3 sessions. Switched to a $15 Udemy course and got further in one weekend. Anyone else get burned by these 'free' resources that just waste your time?

A lady in Phoenix asked me if the cable box could also water her plants

My entire greenhouse collection got root rot in the wet spring of 2019, and I had to start over from cuttings.