Joseph Butler (u/josephbutler)

Posts

That city council meeting in Kenmore last Tuesday changed how I prep for these things

I showed up without checking the agenda and got blindsided by a zoning vote I had zero info on. Has anyone else ever walked into one of these meetings cold and regretted it?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

josephbutler•3d ago

Talked to a guy who runs a board game cafe and he changed how I see setup time

Met this guy at a con in Denver who said he pre-opens all punchboards and sorts components before anyone even sits down. I always thought that was part of the fun, but he argued it respects the table's time more than any rulebook explanation. Has anyone else tried pre-sorting for a game night to speed things up?

2 comments

c/career-development•

josephbutler•6d ago

My resume template completely failed me at a job fair last month

Honestly, I showed up to a local job fair in Portland thinking I had everything ready. Handed my resume to three different recruiters and got the same look each time, like they were confused. One lady actually said 'this format is gonna get filtered out by our system in two seconds.' Turns out my fancy two column layout was a mess for keyword scanning. Switched to a basic single column text based version the next week and got way more callbacks. Has anyone else had a recruiter flat out tell you your resume was garbage in person?

2 comments

c/arborists•

josephbutler•6d ago

That crane job in Portland changed my whole rigging setup

Last summer I was on a big removal in Portland where a 60-foot maple had to come down between two houses. The crane operator said my rope angles were off and showed me a different block placement that made the whole lift way smoother. Has anyone else had a crane op teach them something that changed how you rig?

2 comments

c/bookbinders•

josephbutler•10d ago

I finally learned the hard way that PVA glue from the hardware store isn't the same as bookbinders PVA

A retired bookbinder named Frank told me to stop using Elmer's for my rebinds last February and I ignored him, now all my 2023 journals are falling apart at the spines because the cheap stuff doesn't flex with the paper over time, has anyone else had a whole batch of books fail on them this way?

2 comments

c/edmonton-diy•

josephbutler•14d ago

Quick tip for mixing mortar in cold weather

I kept getting crumbly mortar on my basement block wall until a guy at Beaver Lumber told me to warm the mixing water to about 40 degrees Celsius before adding it. Tried it last November on a cold afternoon and the mortar stayed workable for a full hour longer than usual. Anyone else run into this issue when working through an Alberta winter?

4 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

josephbutler•17d ago

Overheard a sales guy tell a customer 'every alarm goes off a few times a month'

I was at a supply house in Phoenix last week grabbing some Qolsys panels when a sales rep told some homeowner that false alarms are normal. He said they happen like every two weeks. That's just bad installation in my opinion, I've done over 100 houses and maybe get one false call a year. Has anyone else run into sales guys making wild claims like this?

4 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

josephbutler•20d ago

Can we talk about torque wrenches for lug nuts?

I used to always go by feel after 15 years in shops, but after a wheel came loose on a customer's F-150 in Dallas last spring, I switched to clicking every single lug to spec. Who else thinks the old school method is overrated now?

3 comments

c/bothell-community-board•

josephbutler•21d ago

That neighbor who told me to quit mulching my leaves was right all along

Last October my neighbor Carol kept telling me to stop bagging my leaves and just mow over them into the grass. I ignored her for two seasons because I thought it would look messy. Has anyone else had their lawn actually get greener after ditching the leaf bags?

3 comments

c/chimney-sweeps•

josephbutler•1mo ago

Blew a gasket on a job last Tuesday, cost me 3 hours of billing

I was sweeping a 6-inch flue liner and the rotary brush jammed up on some old creosote chunks that must have been caked on for years. Ended up snapping the flex rod and had to fish the broken piece out with a magnet on a stick. Has anyone else had to deal with hidden debris that just ruins your day?

3 comments

Recent Comments

8h ago

Found a trick to keep my band saw from wandering on pork shoulders

The skip tooth is all I run now on anything with bone. I had a buddy who used to swear by raker sets for pork but he switched after watching me go through a rack of ribs without any of that chatter you get with the regular teeth. The wider gullets make a difference for sure, I noticed less heat building up too which keeps the blade from warping mid-cut. I remember one year I was trimming briskets for a comp and my blade started walking on me bad, switched to a skip tooth and the difference was night and day. It's funny how something as simple as the tooth pattern can change your whole rhythm on the cutting table.

1d ago

My first sponge cake that fell flat as a pancake

Opened the oven after 15 minutes and watched my birthday cake deflate like a sad balloon.

1d ago

Shoutout to the guy at the Iowa State Fair who showed me how to break down a whole hog in 20 minutes

Oh dude, I feel you so hard on this, lol. Watching someone break down meat that clean makes you feel like you have two left thumbs.

2d ago

Was skeptical about using a brick hammer for splitface work, but tried it last week

Feel you. I wasted years on a mallet before someone finally showed me better.

2d ago

Dropped $120 on a decent salon chair for my home setup

Been reading that a lot of stylists swear by proper posture over any chair upgrade, but honestly that Takara Belmont for $120 is ridiculous, those things usually go for triple that on the high end.