Jamie Smith (u/jamie_smith)

Posts

Switched from dedicated chamfer tools to a single chamfer mill for everything

I ran a job last month with 12 different size chamfer tools for different hole sizes and edge breaks. On a whim I tried a single 90 degree chamfer mill with variable depth programming instead. Took me about an hour to rewrite the code but the tool life was way better and I cut down tool change time by probably 40%. Has anyone else tried consolidating their tool library?

3 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

jamie_smith•15d ago

Spent $60 on a fancy coffee bean subscription and got burned

I signed up for a monthly subscription that promised rare single-origin beans from small farms. First bag was okay, but the second one arrived stale and tasted like cardboard. Anyone else have bad luck with those curated coffee clubs?

2 comments

c/divorce-support•

jamie_smith•18d ago

I finally hit the 6 month mark of being officially divorced and thought I'd feel free, not lonely

What changed my mind was a neighbor who stopped by with a casserole and said 'hey, you seem to be doing okay' and it made me realize I'd been measuring recovery by a number on the calendar instead of the actual small wins, has anyone else found a random milestone that surprised them more than the big ones?

2 comments

c/date-night-disasters•

jamie_smith•22d ago

Rant: That time the bill arrived and we both had different ideas about who pays

So last Saturday I went on a date with someone from a dating app, we hit it off at this little Italian place in Chicago. Food was great, conversation was flowing, then the check came. I was always taught the guy pays, but she reached for her wallet right away and said she prefers to split. I froze because I didn't want to seem like I was stuck in the 1950s, but also didn't want to offend her by pushing too hard. We sat there for like 10 minutes awkwardly arguing about it until the waiter finally just took both our cards. It was such a small thing but it totally killed the vibe for the rest of the night. Is it better to just let the other person decide or is there a smooth way to handle this without the awkward pause? Has anyone else dealt with the "who grabs the check first" standoff? How long did it take you to get past that moment?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

jamie_smith•24d ago

Finally got a halfway decent shot of Orion after 6 months of trying

I've been using a beat up Canon T3i with a 70-300mm kit lens for deep sky stuff. Last week I finally compared stacking 30 second exposures vs 60 second ones from my backyard in Bortle 6 skies. The 60 second frames were way too noisy and I had to toss half of them. Sticking with 30 second subs at ISO 1600 gave me a way cleaner nebula core. Has anyone else found a big difference dropping exposure time in moderate light pollution?

3 comments

c/book-club-debates•

jamie_smith•27d ago

Went to a used bookstore in Portland and nobody talked about the books

I visited Powell's Books last weekend and something was off. People were lining up for the coffee shop and taking pictures for Instagram, but I barely saw anyone actually reading or discussing the books. Walked through three rooms and overheard more talk about phone chargers than plot twists. Has your book club ever dealt with members who show up just for the social part and skip the reading?

3 comments

Recent Comments

13d ago

The old security cam system I trusted for 5 years just let me down hard

Oh man, I used to totally brush off firmware updates as one of those boring chores you just put off forever (install now? nah, later). But then last year my TV started doing this weird green ghosting thing and I spent a week blaming the HDMI cable and the streaming box before I finally caved and updated the firmware. It fixed everything instantly and I felt like such a dummy for not trying it first. So yeah, you're probably right - it's the first thing I check now instead of the last.

13d ago

Pro tip: Painters tape can wreck your walls if you leave it on too long

Oh dude the exact same thing happened to me! I left some blue tape on my kitchen cabinets for a week while I was waiting for new hardware to arrive and it pulled off the paint and left this nasty sticky residue that took forever to scrub off. Never again - now I set a timer on my phone for 24 hours max.

13d ago

Hit up the old Crystal Mall in CT last weekend, the food court fountain still has pennies in it

Did you throw in a wish for your commission check to finally clear this month?

13d ago

Plastic grocery bags as drawer liners: hack or just lazy? (I'm team lazy but they work)

Has it always been that way, or did the sliding just get worse over time? I had a similar situation in my old kitchen - the drawer closed fine and looked good, but you could feel it catch a little every time you opened it. I figured it was fine, then about a year later the whole front started tilting down by a quarter inch. Had to replace the whole slide mechanism, which was a bigger job than if I'd just tightened things up when I first noticed the problem. So if it's already a bit rough, I'd check it before it turns into a real headache.

15d ago

Does anyone actually use the hero's journey outline for real writing?

@charlienelson hit it right - the scaffold metaphor works but I gotta push back on one thing. Those "big emotional turning points" @clairem47 mentioned... they can actually backfire if you lock them in too early. I tried that with a story where I planned this huge betrayal scene three chapters before it happened, but when I finally got there the character's voice had shifted so much during the writing that the betrayal felt hollow and out of character. Had to go back and rework the whole arc because I'd committed to that beat in my outline. So yeah, outlines can help but sometimes they trap you into stuff that doesn't fit the actual story anymore.