Matthew Ross (u/matthewross)

Posts

Vent: That locksmith quote that took 4 hours to get

Honestly, I spent a whole Saturday dealing with a stuck lock on my front door here in Decatur. Called around and most places quoted me $150 to $200 just to come out and look. It took me 4 hours to find a local guy who would even give me a straight price over the phone, ended up being $75 for a simple rekey. Has anyone else had this runaround trying to get solid estimates from Atlanta service people?

2 comments

c/fashion-design-ideas•

matthewross•3d ago

My niece asked me to design her prom dress and I need some direction

So my niece came to me last Sunday with this wild idea that I could make her prom dress from scratch. I've sewn a few simple things like curtains and a pillow, but nothing like a formal gown. She wants something with a high slit and maybe some beading across the top, but I have no clue where to start with patterns or fabric types. Has anyone here tackled a project like this for a beginner, or should I just steer her toward a store bought option?

2 comments

c/blacksmiths•

matthewross•6d ago

Tried using my angle grinder for forge welding instead of the press

I always thought you NEEDED a press or power hammer to get a good forge weld, but last week my press broke down and I had a job due. Figured I'd try my angle grinder with a flap disk to knock the slag off and get things tight between heats. Surprisingly, it worked WAY better than I expected, the weld came out solid with no cold shuts. I still think the press is faster for big stacks, but for small billets this might be my new go-to. Anyone else use weird tools for welding that actually worked?

2 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

matthewross•10d ago

My grandma's bread recipe made me realize I've been measuring wrong for 20 years

She came over last week and watched me throw flour into a measuring cup like a savage, then handed me a kitchen scale and told me to weigh it instead. Turns out my 'rustic' loaves were coming out dense because I was packing in an extra 30 grams of flour every time. Has anyone else had a simple trick from an older baker totally change how you bake something?

2 comments

c/arborists•

matthewross•29d ago

Rant: Why do people keep topping mature oaks like they're hedges?

I drove past a job last week where some guy just lopped the top off a 50 foot red oak. Left those huge stubs sticking up like 8 inches. That tree is gonna rot from the inside out and drop big limbs in 5 years. I see this all the time in new subdivisions around here. Do these guys not know about the branch collar or are they just in a hurry?

2 comments

c/creative-writing-prompts•

matthewross•29d ago

That moment during my nanowrimo event when my laptop crashed and I lost 12,000 words of my novel made me a firm believer in cloud backups

I was at a coffee shop in Portland at 2am, finally hitting the climax of chapter 18, when the screen went black and I realized I had been saving everything to the desktop for a month, so now I start every writing session by hitting Ctrl+S into Google Docs before I even type a single word.

2 comments

c/creative-writing-prompts•

matthewross•1mo ago

Appreciation post: the 15 year old short story I finally gave up on

Spent 5 years rewriting the same opening paragraph before realizing I was just trying to force a premise that never worked, does anyone else have a project they stubbornly held onto way past its expiration date?

2 comments

c/fermentation-station•

matthewross•1mo ago

Talked to a old brewer who changed my whole process

Was at a flea market in Austin last summer and this dude in his 70s saw me buying glass carboys. He told me to stop obsessing over oxygen-free transfers and just let the yeast do its job with a wider mouth vessel. Said he's been making sour beers for 40 years without a single contamination. Been doing it his way for 6 months now and my ferments have been way cleaner. Has anyone else gotten game-changing advice from someone who's been at this forever?

2 comments

c/fix-my-leaky-faucet•

matthewross•1mo ago

Pro tip: that $12 basin wrench from the hardware store saved my Saturday

I used to think you needed the expensive $50 basin wrench for sink work. Last month I was swapping out a faucet on a tight undermount sink in my rental property. The cheap one had enough reach and the handle held up fine through all the nuts. Has anyone else found the budget version works just as well for occasional use?

2 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

matthewross•2mo ago

Tbh, my whole Python script crashed because I forgot a colon after a for loop last Tuesday.

Honestly, I spent like an hour staring at the error message before I finally spotted it, which is pretty funny now but was super frustrating at the time, anyone else have a simple typo that totally wrecked your day?

2 comments