Question about a weird creosote deposit I found in a flue in Portland last Thursday

It was this hard, glassy black layer about a quarter inch thick that my standard brush just skated over, and I had to go back with a carbide scraper, so what's the best way you've found to deal with that specific kind of buildup?

My neighbor swore by safflower seed for keeping squirrels away

I thought it was just another old wives' tale, but after a month of them cleaning out my black oil sunflower, I tried it. The squirrels left the safflower feeder alone completely after two days. Has anyone else had luck with a specific seed that actually works?

Heard a guy at the coffee shop say he never trusts reviews with less than 3 pictures

He said if someone doesn't show the product from a few angles, they're probably hiding a flaw. Do you have a personal rule like that for spotting fake reviews?

My agency had to pick between a $5k monthly retainer or a per-project fee for a new client

The client wanted ongoing social media help but had a tight budget, so we went with the per-project setup for their first three campaigns. It worked out okay, but now they keep asking for small extra tasks that weren't in the original deal. How do you handle scope creep when you're not on a retainer?

Chatted with a fire inspector in Phoenix about glass break sensors

He told me he sees a lot of false alarms from the old audio-only models. He said they can get set off by a loud truck or a dog bark. He told me to look into the newer dual-tech ones that also feel for vibration. I've been installing the audio kind for years without a second thought. It made me go check my last three jobs and sure enough, one was right by a busy street. Has anyone made the switch? Is the extra cost worth it for the customer?

Had a talk with my kid's teacher at the school open house last week. She said 'You fix things people think are broken forever.' Made me look at the pile of 'junk' boards in my shop differently.

An old timer told me my broom finish was too wet and I was just pushing paste around.

He said to wait until the bleed water was gone and the sheen was off, which on that 75-degree day in Boise meant waiting a full 45 minutes after the float, and now my texture actually holds up.

Just read that a single 747 has over 6 million parts and my mind is blown

I was looking up some old tech manuals for a job on a 747-400 last week and ended up down a rabbit hole. I found this fact sheet from Boeing that said a 747 has about 6 MILLION parts. Six million! I knew it was a lot, but that number just hit me. I've been turning wrenches on these birds for a while now, mostly on the landing gear and hydraulics, and you think about your little corner of the plane. But when you see that total, it really makes you think about the scale of what we're keeping in the air. Every single one of those parts, from the biggest spar to the tiniest fastener, has to be accounted for and in good shape. It's a huge team effort every single day. Has anyone else come across a stat about their airframe that just stopped them in their tracks?

The shop I work at went from 5 callbacks a week to maybe 1 after we started doing this one thing

About 4 months ago, the owner got us all to start using a simple checklist (like a physical paper one) for every single repair ticket, even the 'just needs a new drive' jobs. It felt like a pain at first, you know? But the before-and-after is crazy. We used to miss stuff like loose cables or forgetting to set the boot order, stuff that would have people bringing their machines right back. Now we catch it before they leave. Has anyone else's shop had a big drop in callbacks from something simple like that?

My whole chat history vanished when I tried to switch between my phone and laptop last Tuesday.

I was in the middle of planning a surprise party for my husband on my phone, then opened the app on my laptop to print the guest list, and the entire conversation thread with all the details was just gone, so has anyone else had their chats disappear when switching devices and know how to get them back?