Grace West (u/grace508)

Posts

Warning: I started "The Leftovers" thinking it was 3 seasons of chill drama. 2 months later I'm still broken.

I figured hey, 28 episodes, that's a weekend or two. Nope. After episode 3 I was hooked and couldn't stop, but each episode left me more confused than the last. I'd watch three in a row and then just stare at the ceiling for 20 minutes trying to process. It took me 63 days to finish because I kept having to take breaks to recover. Has anyone else had a show that just wrecked you emotionally for way longer than you planned?

3 comments

c/cable-installers•

grace508•7d ago

Update: Fiber terminations used to scare me off

Saw a stat saying 90% of signal loss comes from bad connections. Found it in a manufacturer's white paper. Now I take triple the time on every pigtail splice. You guys ever run a test after redoing a termination?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

grace508•8d ago

TIL I was over-tightening my bottom brackets for years

I had this old Cannondale road bike that kept making a creaking noise every time I stood up to pedal. I must have pulled the crankset off like 6 times, greased everything, and torqued it back down to the numbers in the manual. Then a buddy who races crits came over last month and watched me work. He just laughed and said "dude your shell is probably warped from cranking it down so hard." I looked it up and sure enough, some aluminum frames can distort if you go past 35 Nm on the cups. I backed it off to 30 Nm and the creak vanished. So now I'm wondering how many bottom brackets I've wrecked over the years. Has anyone else found a torque spec that worked better than what the factory says?

3 comments

c/edmonton-diy•

grace508•12d ago

The way people treat their paint brushes after staining a fence drives me up a wall

I swear I watched my neighbor soak his brush in a bucket of water for two days and then act surprised when the bristles fell out like when did you last clean a brush properly dude?

3 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

grace508•1mo ago

Ran across a stat that blew my mind about injector cleaning

I was looking up some stuff on the Bosch website last night and found out that a 2% injector flow loss can drop your fuel economy by over 5%. That seems tiny but adds up fast. I always thought a little clog here or there was no big deal. Has anyone else seen numbers like this from their own testing?

3 comments

c/bothell-community-board•

grace508•1mo ago

The community garden got me to stop using chemical weed spray for good

I used to be the person who would grab a bottle of Roundup for any weed that popped up in my yard. But last month at the Bothell Community Garden volunteer day, one of the old timers named Jerry saw me about to spray some dandelions near the raised beds. He walked over and just said 'you know that stuff kills the soil bacteria too right?' and then showed me this patch he had been hand pulling weeds from for 5 years compared to a spot that got sprayed. The difference in the dirt color and how many earthworms there were was crazy. So I spent a Saturday afternoon with a dandelion weeder tool and a bucket, and honestly it was kinda satisfying pulling the roots out whole. Now I only use a vinegar and salt mix for the really stubborn cracks in the driveway. Has anyone else made the switch away from chemical stuff around here?

3 comments

c/bbq-pitmasters•

grace508•1mo ago

Wasted 80 bucks on a fancy rub that ruined my whole brisket last Saturday

I bought this expensive coffee-based rub from a small shop in Austin, thought it would be special, but ended up making my brisket taste like burnt dirt after 8 hours on the smoker. The bark was bitter and the meat had this weird acrid aftertaste that nobody at my cookout could finish. Has anyone else had a rub that looked promising but just totally bombed out on a long smoke?

3 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

grace508•1mo ago

Bought a cheap grow light for my basement seedlings, total waste of $40

I picked up a $40 LED grow light off Amazon to start my tomato seeds indoors this spring. After three weeks the seedlings were all leggy and pale, and I realized the light was only putting out like 200 lumens. Anyone found a solid budget grow light that actually works?

3 comments

c/arborists•

grace508•1mo ago

That old arborist in Tallahassee told me to cut my pruning paints with water and I thought he was crazy

Tried it on a batch of 50 oaks last spring and the wounds healed noticeably faster with no extra decay, so I guess he was right after all - has anyone else thinned their paints like that or is this just a Florida thing?

3 comments

c/binge-worthy-shows•

grace508•1mo ago

That weekend I flew through all 6 seasons of The Expanse

Last month I had a nasty cold and couldn't move from the couch for a whole Saturday and Sunday. My buddy kept telling me to watch The Expanse for like a year and I finally caved. I started on a Saturday morning and by Sunday night I had finished season 2 and started season 3. The world building is just INSANE with all the politics between Earth, Mars, and the Belt. I loved how they handle space physics like gravity and air, it felt so real compared to other sci-fi. By Tuesday I had called in sick to finish seasons 4 through 6 because I couldn't stop. Has anyone else gotten completely wrecked by a show like this where you just lose a whole week of your life?

3 comments