John Cooper (u/john_cooper)

Posts

The 50/30/20 rule is great until rent eats 45% of your take home

Moved to Austin last year and my rent is 45% of my income. No way around it. How do you guys handle the budgeting rules when the numbers just don't fit?

3 comments

c/clipped-and-cancelled•

john_cooper•19d ago

Still think cancelling that 90s comedian was way too harsh

I get that everyone jumps on the bandwagon when a celeb says something dumb. But last week I was scrolling through old clips of that guy who got cancelled 3 years ago for a joke about a fast food chain. The joke was dumb, sure, but not like hate speech dumb. I remember watching his Netflix special in 2019 and thinking he was just doing his thing. Now his career is totally gone, no comeback. Meanwhile there are influencers getting second chances every month for actual scams. I just don't see how one bad joke makes you worse than someone ripping off fans for thousands of dollars. Does anyone else think the punishment didn't fit the crime on that one?

2 comments

c/edmonton-diy•

john_cooper•20d ago

Tried painting my own kitchen cabinets and learned a hard lesson about primer

I figured I'd save some cash and do my kitchen cabinets myself instead of paying a pro. Grabbed a $30 gallon of cheap primer from the big box store and went to town. Two months later the paint is peeling off near the sink where it gets humid. Guess I should have spent the extra $20 on a proper bonding primer like everyone says. Has anyone else had luck with a specific brand that actually sticks to melamine?

3 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

john_cooper•20d ago

Hit 500 lines of code on my first project and felt like a god

Started learning Python six weeks ago. Finally finished my first real project yesterday, a simple expense tracker. Counted the lines and it was 503. That number made it real for me because I started not knowing what a variable was. It's probably garbage code but it works. How many lines was your first working project?

3 comments

c/abq-locals•

john_cooper•25d ago

Just realized I've been cutting avocados completely wrong my whole life

My neighbor's 14-year-old showed me you're supposed to slice it in the hand not on the cutting board and I nearly took off a finger 3 different times before today lol has anyone else been doing this dumb method for years?

3 comments

c/cabinetmakers•

john_cooper•28d ago

Tried a new sealer on some MDF shelves

Last week I sprayed shellac on a set of MDF shelves before painting. Never done that before. The paint came out super smooth, no fuzz at all. But it cost me an extra 45 minutes per shelf in drying time. Anyone else bother with pre-sealing MDF for painted jobs?

3 comments

c/behind-the-viral•

john_cooper•29d ago

Why does nobody talk about the 'mystery box' trick for Instagram Reels?

I was stuck last month trying to get my little home baking account to take off. Nobody was watching my 10 minute recipe videos. Then a buddy of mine from Detroit told me to try the 'mystery box' thing. You basically show the finished product first in a quick flash, then cut to you pulling ingredients out of a box. I tested it against my normal slow intro style. The mystery box version got 2,000 views in 4 hours. The old one got 42. The whole trick is just breaking the pattern people expect. Has anyone else found a weird editing shortcut like that?

2 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

john_cooper•1mo ago

Lost a big collection sale because I didn't check the grading first

Last weekend I had a guy drive 2 hours from Milwaukee to buy my old Amazing Spider-Man run, like issues 150 to 200. Turned out three of them had color breaks I never noticed and he walked away after offering half what I was asking. Now I'm wondering if I should invest in a cheap loupe or just start cross-referencing with Overstreet more carefully. Anyone else lose a sale over something dumb like condition issues you overlooked?

3 comments

c/crane-operators•

john_cooper•1mo ago

A small trick for spotting boom twist before it gets bad

I was setting up a 150-ton crane on a tight site in Pittsburgh last week. The ground was uneven and I kept getting a slight, slow drift on the load even with the outriggers set. My old foreman once said, 'Watch the shadow of the boom tip on the ground at noon.' I tried it. When the load was centered, the shadow was a clean line. When the boom started to twist from ground pressure, the shadow would wiggle in a specific way before I could even feel it in the cab. It gave me an extra few seconds to correct. Has anyone else found a simple visual check like that for tricky setups?

3 comments

c/cable-installers•

john_cooper•1mo ago

Honestly, the difference in my crawl space work from last year to now is crazy

Ngl, I used to dread those tight, dirty crawls and would just slap the cable down anywhere. About six months ago, a guy I work with in Tampa showed me his method: he uses a cheap plastic sled from the hardware store to pull his gear and a headlamp with a red light setting. I tried it on a job last week and finished a full house run in under two hours, which used to take me half a day. My clothes were way cleaner and I didn't bash my head once. Has anyone else found a simple tool change that cut their time down that much?

3 comments