Elizabeth Fisher (u/elizabethf85)

Posts

TIL the hard way not to buy cheap mortar mix from the discount bin

I grabbed 10 bags of this off-brand mix at a closeout sale for $3 a bag, thought I was saving like $40. Mixed up the first batch and it was all lumpy, wouldn't hold a line, and crumbled after two days. I ended up tearing out a whole half-wall I built in my backyard in Denver, wasted about 6 hours of labor. Lesson learned, stick with the name brand stuff even if it costs more. Anyone else get burned by a bad batch of mix before?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

elizabethf85•4d ago

Warning: Cleaned a 2 year buildup of barnacles off a pier leg and forgot how heavy wet gear gets

So I was on a job down in Port Townsend last Tuesday, swapping out some old sacrificial anodes. There was this one pier leg that had probably 2 years of barnacle growth on it. I got the pressure washer out and blasted it clean. Looked great, but I was standing right under it and didn't think about how much water that crust was holding. Must have soaked up like 30 pounds of saltwater. When I stepped back, it all came down on my head. Felt like getting hit with a wet concrete bag. Has anyone else had a "looked easier in my head" moment like that?

3 comments

c/drafters•

elizabethf85•5d ago

Just found out my CAD subscription went up 40% over 3 years without me noticing

I was going through old invoices yesterday and nearly spit out my coffee. Back in 2020 I was paying $220 a month for my drafting software license and now it's over $300. That's almost $100 more every single month and I never even questioned it because they auto-renew. I work at a small firm in Austin and we've got 5 seats so that's like $500 extra per month total just disappearing. How many of you have actually checked your subscription bills lately? Are there any cheaper alternatives that work for commercial drafting work?

2 comments

c/bakers•

elizabethf85•7d ago

Just switched from instant yeast to sourdough starter last month

I used to only buy those little packets of Fleischmann's yeast for all my bread baking for like 10 years. Then last month my neighbor in Austin gave me a cup of her sourdough starter she's been keeping alive since 2019. I was scared it'd be too much work but honestly it's not that bad, I just feed it once a week now. The bread has this tangy flavor I cant get from instant yeast no matter what I try. My first loaf came out flat as a pancake but my third one finally had that oven spring I was after. Anyone else make the switch and struggle with hydration levels at first?

2 comments

c/agency-reviews•

elizabethf85•10d ago

Remember when agency reviews were just a handshake and a phone call?

I swear people these days overthink agency reviews so much. They look at all these metrics and case studies and forget the basics. Back in 2018 when I was working with a small digital shop in Austin, we landed a client because the owner just asked us honest questions about our process, not our portfolio stats. Now everyone is obsessed with checking off boxes like "did they use the right keywords" or "how many testimonials do they have." I see reviewers getting hung up on things that don't really matter, like a typo in an email or a delayed response, while totally ignoring if the agency actually understood their business goals. Last month I saw someone trash a solid agency just because their proposal template wasn't fancy enough. How do you decide what actually matters in a review without getting lost in all the noise?

2 comments

c/heavy-equipment-operators•

elizabethf85•3mo ago

Canada mining work wasn't the adventure I was promised

A lot of folks in this community talk up travel jobs like they're always worth it. I have to push back on that. Last year, I worked a mining contract in northern Canada. The isolation was intense, with weeks in a camp where the food was bad and breaks were rare. Cold weather caused daily equipment issues, adding stress and hours. I missed important family events and felt disconnected. I saw good operators quit early because they couldn't handle it. From my view, the high pay doesn't make up for the personal toll. We need to balance the hype with real talk about these situations.

3 comments

c/heavy-equipment-operators•

elizabethf85•3mo ago

Shoutout to when I used a forklift to hang Christmas lights and almost took out the gutter

I still can't believe how close I came to disaster that year.

3 comments