Went to a craft fair last weekend and saw way too many people selling 'bullet journals' that were just pre-printed planners

Used to just call my dad for any adult problem, now I Google everything and call him as a last resort.

Somewhere around age 30 I stopped dialing first and started searching first, and I still get that sinking feeling when I finally do call him about something like how to fix a leaky toilet flange in my rental in Austin.

Hot take: someone told me my code was "too clever" and it stung but they were right

I was using list comprehensions inside lambda functions for a beginner project and a guy in my study group said I was making it harder to debug. After the 3rd time I couldn't figure out my own code from last week, I rewrote it as simple for loops and it actually works now. Has anyone else had to dumb down their code to make it better?

Pasted 300 book cloth spines this month without a single bubble

Switched from water-based PVA to a heat-activated glue sheet and my offset errors dropped to zero - anyone else found a tool that just works for one specific step?

Three years ago I saw a guy get hacked and now the whole system feels different

Ngl I was just scrolling random forums back in 2021 and watched a live stream where someone's bank account got drained in real time. They clicked one fake link from a 'FedEx' text and within 4 minutes their checking account went from $2,400 to zero. At the time I thought it was some rare thing that only happens to careless people. But fast forward to last month when my buddy who works IT at a local hospital in Toledo told me their whole patient data got locked up by ransomware. They paid $50,000 in Bitcoin to get it back and the FBI still couldn't trace where it went. Now I see those same phishing texts coming to my crew's phones every other week. Makes me wonder if the whole internet is just one big trap we're all walking into. Anyone else notice how these scams got way more specific and harder to spot compared to 5 years ago?

Why does nobody talk about how Target tricked me into spending more

I went to Target in Columbus, Ohio last Tuesday just for dish soap. Walked out $47 lighter because they moved all the cheap stuff to the back corner. Had to pass through the snack aisle and the clearance section and some new home decor display. Has anyone else noticed they hide the budget stuff on purpose or am I just easy to distract?

Had my best week yet with our community garden project

We finally got the rain collection system hooked up at the lot on 5th Street. It was just me and two neighbors, took about 4 hours on Saturday. I was worried the city would give us trouble about the permits, but the zoning office actually helped us out. Has anyone else dealt with city bureaucracies that ended up being more helpful than you thought?

My bone folder snapped mid fold on a leather spine

I was working on a leather bound journal last Tuesday night and my cheapo bone folder just cracked in half during a tight spine crease. The piece flew off and hit my cat, who then knocked over a jar of PVA glue all over my cutting mat. I had to stop and clean everything up with a damp rag before the glue dried on my tools. Took me like 20 minutes to get back to it, and the fold ended up lopsided because the leather cooled off. Anyone got a recommendation for a bone folder that won't break after a few months?

Vent: Caught my landlord going through my apartment while I was at work

Installed a cheap camera in my bedroom last month. Just a $25 Wyze cam. Came home and saw my landlord on the footage. He opened my dresser drawers. Looked through my bathroom cabinet. I was shocked. Never had this happen before. What do you do when your rental agreement gave them 24 hour notice but they didn't actually follow it?

PSA: That old timer who told me to run my cutterhead slower saved me a repair bill

Ran into a guy named Pete at the fuel dock in Morgan City two months ago. He saw me firing up my 20-inch and said, "Son, you're chewing through that sand like it's mud, you're gonna snap a tooth." I brushed him off because I thought speed was the way to go. Well last week I pulled up a tooth that had a hairline crack starting right where he said it would. Now I run at 1800 RPM instead of 2200 and the material comes up cleaner anyway. Anyone else had an old hand give you advice that felt wrong but saved your gear?