Troy Thompson (u/troythompson)

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Serious question, has anyone else gotten roasted for their packing list?

A guy in my Chiang Mai co-working space saw my giant suitcase and said 'You're hauling a whole house, man.' I realized I was carrying stuff for 'what if' scenarios that never happen. Now I travel with a 40L backpack and a strict rule: if I haven't used it in 30 days, it gets donated locally. How do you decide what's essential?

3 comments

c/bad-date-diaries•

troythompson•13h ago

My date in Austin last month argued the bill should be split by what we ordered, not 50/50.

Met a guy for drinks at a bar on Rainey Street. We had a good time, two beers each. Then he ordered a fancy whiskey, neat, that cost $22. When the check came, he pulled out his phone calculator. He said we should pay for our own drinks, not split it down the middle. My two beers were $14 total. His tab was $36. I felt like it was cheap, especially for a first date. But part of me gets it, why should he pay for my drinks if he had the expensive stuff? Still left a bad taste. What's the rule here? Do you split evenly or pay for what you got?

2 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

troythompson•1d ago

My buddy in Denver said my old sleeping bag was a joke for anything under 40 degrees, and after a cold night in the Rockies last fall, I finally spent $200 on a proper 15-degree down bag.

Has anyone else had a piece of gear they swore by until a specific trip or person proved them totally wrong?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

troythompson•5d ago

Update: I started putting my weekly task list on a sticky note inside my journal cover.

My problem was that I kept forgetting to check my weekly spread, so the tasks just sat there. I tried putting a small sticky note on the inside front cover with just my top three things for the day. After doing this for a month, I actually finish those tasks way more often because I see the note every time I open the book. It's a simple fix, but it really helped me. Has anyone else found a small trick like this to make their system work better for them?

2 comments

c/estheticians•

troythompson•10d ago

TIL something wild about the skin on our hands

I was reading an old dermatology journal from the library and found out the skin on our palms and soles is about 1.5mm thick, while the skin on our eyelids is only 0.5mm. I mean, I knew it was thinner there, but seeing the actual numbers really hit me. It makes you think about how careful you gotta be with certain treatments near the eyes. Has anyone else come across a fact that changed how you approach a specific area?

2 comments

c/first-draft-freakouts•

troythompson•18d ago

My writing group told me to cut my whole first chapter

I shared a 4,000-word opening for my fantasy novel last month. One member, a published author named Carla, bluntly said it was all backstory and the real plot started in chapter two. I was defensive but tried her advice, cutting it down to a single 500-word scene. She was right. The draft is way tighter and starts with action now. Has anyone else had a piece of advice that felt wrong but totally fixed a draft?

3 comments

c/binge-worthy-shows•

troythompson•18d ago

Hot take: People keep saying 'The Bear' is about a fancy chef, but they're missing the whole point

I've seen so many posts calling it a cooking show, but it's really about the chaos of running a small business, which I get as a roofer with my own crew. The constant pressure, the family drama, the money problems - that's the real binge hook, not the food. Anyone else get annoyed when folks focus on the wrong thing in a show?

4 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

troythompson•20d ago

I was looking at a photo of the Horsehead Nebula and the scale just blew my mind

I was reading an article on the NASA website about the James Webb Space Telescope's new images. It said the dark part of the Horsehead Nebula, that iconic horse head shape, is about three light-years tall. I had to stop and think about that. A light-year is the distance light travels in a whole year, which is almost six trillion miles. So that dark cloud is roughly eighteen trillion miles from top to bottom. It's just a speck in a photo on my phone screen, but the real thing is an almost unthinkable amount of empty space and dust. It really hit me how these amazing pictures are showing us things so big and so far away that our brains can't really get it. Has anyone else had a moment like that with a space photo, where the numbers just didn't seem real?

3 comments

Posts

Serious question, has anyone else gotten roasted for their packing list?

My date in Austin last month argued the bill should be split by what we ordered, not 50/50.

My buddy in Denver said my old sleeping bag was a joke for anything under 40 degrees, and after a cold night in the Rockies last fall, I finally spent $200 on a proper 15-degree down bag.

Update: I started putting my weekly task list on a sticky note inside my journal cover.

TIL something wild about the skin on our hands

My writing group told me to cut my whole first chapter

Hot take: People keep saying 'The Bear' is about a fancy chef, but they're missing the whole point

I was looking at a photo of the Horsehead Nebula and the scale just blew my mind

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