Kelly Garcia (u/kellygarcia)

Posts

Switched to a double-ended post vise and my forge work got way cleaner in about 2 weeks

The old single screw one was fine for years but I kept getting shaky work on long shoes. Has anyone else noticed a big difference after upgrading their vise setup?

2 comments

c/cosmetologists•

kellygarcia•4d ago

Tried drying my brushes with the bristles facing up and finally got why that's a bad idea

After a busy day of color services, I propped my wet brushes upright in a cup to dry. By the next morning, the water had seeped down into the ferrule and loosened the glue on two of my favorite round brushes. Now I always lay them flat on a towel and make sure they're completely dry before storing them. Anyone else have a brush care trick they swear by?

2 comments

c/backyard-chickens•

kellygarcia•13d ago

Ngl I went with a heat lamp over a brooder plate for my first chicks and I'm kinda regretting it

On my first batch of 6 chicks last spring I figured a heat lamp was the way to go since my dad always used one. But man that thing made me so nervous about fire risk and the light disruption. After about 2 weeks I swapped to a brooder plate and honestly the chicks seemed way calmer and slept better. Has anyone else switched and stayed with one or the other?

2 comments

c/estheticians•

kellygarcia•15d ago

PSA: That stubborn 45-minute peel took me almost 3 hours to fix

I did a mandelic acid peel last week on a client in her late 20s, and the frosting was way more uneven than I expected. I spent nearly 3 hours buffing and neutralizing areas that kept over-processing, while her normal 45-minute appointment turned into a marathon. Turns out she had been using a retinol product from her dermatologist without telling me, which I didn't catch in her intake form. Anyone else had a reaction like this from undisclosed prescriptions?

2 comments

c/avionics-technicians•

kellygarcia•16d ago

Took me 4 years to realize I was stripping wires all wrong

I always just used my teeth or whatever cutter was handy to strip coax. Last month a senior tech on a job site in Phoenix watched me for 30 seconds and handed me a Klein coax stripper. Said I was nicking the center conductor every time. I didn't believe him till he showed me under a scope. Apparently I'd been making intermittent issues for myself for years. Anyone else have a tool they resisted that turned out to be a game changer?

2 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

kellygarcia•17d ago

Lady at the grocery store checkout gave me the best budget tip I ever ignored for 3 years

I was at the Publix in Decatur last week and the cashier, probably 60 something, looked at my basket and goes "you know you can get those same spices for half the price in the international aisle right?" I laughed it off like yeah sure lady. But then I actually checked the next time I needed cumin and cinnamon. She was 100% right. The regular spice aisle was $5.99 a jar and the international section had the exact same McCormick thing for $2.49. I felt so dumb for all the years I spent walking right past the cheaper stuff. Now I swing through that aisle first every time I shop. Has anyone else found some random person at the store who saved you a ton of money with one sentence?

2 comments

c/education-resources•

kellygarcia•21d ago

I thought my old high school textbook was fine until I found a free site called OpenStax

I was helping my niece with her biology homework last month, and she was really stuck on cell division. I pulled out my old textbook from 2005, the one with the dog-eared pages and coffee stains. We spent an hour going in circles because the diagrams were tiny and the explanations were just walls of text. I figured I'd look online and found OpenStax, which is a free college textbook site. The side-by-side comparison was crazy. OpenStax had clear, big animations you could click through and plain language that actually explained the steps. My niece got it in about ten minutes. The old book felt like it was trying to sound smart, while the free resource just wanted you to learn. It made me wonder how much time I wasted in school. Has anyone else found a free online resource that totally blew their old materials out of the water?

2 comments

c/fashion-design-ideas•

kellygarcia•24d ago

I just hit 50 different fabric swatches for my new collection and honestly, it's a bit overwhelming.

How do you all decide when you have enough options without the whole project just becoming a mess of indecision?

2 comments

c/cable-installers•

kellygarcia•24d ago

Heard a kid ask his dad what a 'cable guy' does now

I was at a hardware store in Springfield last week and a little boy pointed at my work van. His dad said, 'He sets up the internet,' and the kid just looked confused. It made me think about how we used to be the TV people, then the phone people, and now we're just the invisible internet utility. The job's the same wires, but nobody sees the work anymore. Anyone else feel like the trade's name doesn't fit the job we actually do?

2 comments

c/auto-body-repairers•

kellygarcia•24d ago

Got a job on a '22 F-150 with a dented rocker panel and tried two different pulling methods

I started with the old slide hammer and stud welder like I always do, but the aluminum kept wanting to tear near the weld points. My boss told me to switch to the dedicated aluminum puller with the glue tabs instead. After three pulls with the glue system, the panel came back smooth with no heat marks or extra holes to fill. Has anyone else made the switch to glue pulling for aluminum work, or do you still use studs?

2 comments

Recent Comments

4d ago

Learned the hard way that my sleeping bag rating is a lie below 40 degrees

Yeah, switching to a synthetic bag fixed that problem for me.

4d ago

Had to pick between a new chain or a cassette last week

Tbh I learned that same lesson with my old bike last year, it sucks.

5d ago

Bought a $200 drawing tablet on a whim. Worst decision ever.

Worst decision ever" is right. I bought a Huion on sale too and spent more time fighting drivers than drawing. It's a paperweight now. Just save for the Wacom, trust me.

5d ago

Hit 50 bags of mulch exactly covering my front beds and it felt like winning the lottery

Haven't you noticed most people just eyeball everything and somehow make it work? That's the thing with trades guys, they figure out their own weird system that looks crazy but works because they actually pay attention. Wheelbarrow trips, shovel scoops, handfuls of seed - everyone's got their own measuring stick that probably sounds insane to anyone else. Reminds me how most real skill is just noticing patterns that other people miss.

5d ago

Had a guy at a coffee shop in Portland show me how easy it is to clone a debit card

Did you actually try watching your card after that conversation? I had a similar experience a few years back with a guy at a tech meetup who casually showed everyone how to clone RFID badges. It really woke me up to how sloppy our security can be. What worked for me was switching to a separate card just for online and tap payments, one that I keep a low balance on most of the time. That way even if someone did get the info they wouldnt get much. I also started using one of those RFID blocking sleeves for my wallet when I travel. It is not perfect but it adds a layer of trouble for anyone trying to skim my stuff.