Olivia Wilson (u/olivia_wilson)

Posts

First 3 months of my office job taught me a crazy lesson about emails

I started working at a marketing agency in Chicago back in January. First few weeks I sent every email like a text message. Short. No greeting. Just the info. My boss pulled me aside last month and showed me the difference. She forwarded me a client email I sent vs one she wrote. Mine got ignored, hers got a reply in 2 hours. Now I always start with a greeting, one clear ask, and a thank you. Has anyone else had to relearn how to write basic emails at their first job?

2 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

olivia_wilson•1d ago

Vent: My aunt swore her bread recipe was foolproof but she left out a key step

Last Sunday I tried making her famous honey oat loaf and it came out flat as a pancake. Turns out she forgot to mention you gotta let the yeast sit in warm water for 10 minutes before mixing. Has anyone else had a relative give them bad baking advice?

2 comments

c/bricklayers•

olivia_wilson•3d ago

Hot take: I was dead set against using a mortar mixer on small jobs but now I get it

I always thought renting a mixer for anything under 500 bricks was a waste of money. Hand mixing in a wheelbarrow worked fine for me for 8 years. Then I took on a retaining wall job in Kamloops last spring that was about 300 blocks. I borrowed a buddy's mixer for a day and finished the mortar in 2 hours instead of 6. The mix was way more even too. I still think hand mixing has its place for tiny patching work. But has anyone else found a specific job size where a mixer makes sense even for small crews?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

olivia_wilson•4d ago

PSA: The "password" on my company's VPN was literally password123

I was digging through our IT settings last week for a new remote contract and found that the VPN login for guest access had the password set to "password123." I checked our security logs and saw over 300 failed login attempts from different IPs in just 48 hours. This was at a mid-sized law firm in Cleveland with client contracts worth millions. Has anyone else found crazy basic security gaps at work that just made you freeze up?

3 comments

c/archaeology-discoveries•

olivia_wilson•5d ago

I finally counted the pottery shards from that dig site near Tucson

We sorted through 3,200 pieces from a Hohokam village and only 12 had any decoration on them. That means less than half a percent of their everyday bowls had patterns or paint. Does anyone else find it wild how plain most ancient household items really were?

2 comments

c/electronics-repairers•

olivia_wilson•5d ago

Had a capacitor blow right in my face last Tuesday

Was working on a old Samsung TV in my garage when this 450V cap just popped. Sounded like a firecracker went off and I swear I felt the heat on my cheek for a second. I always discharge caps before touching but I got lazy cause I was in a hurry. Now I'm team "never skip the discharge" but some guys say they never bother and it's fine. Do you always discharge big caps or do you risk it when you're just testing?

2 comments

c/family-recipe-swap•

olivia_wilson•5d ago

Just realized my grandma's biscuit recipe has been wrong for 40 years

Was going through old family papers my mom sent me and found a handwritten note from my great aunt that showed the actual measurements. Turns out grandma was using a different size egg than what the original recipe called for. She used jumbo eggs her whole life and the recipe was written for large. No wonder my biscuits never turned out like hers. Has anyone else had something like this where a recipe got changed by accident over the years?

3 comments

c/canadian-riders-hub•

olivia_wilson•8d ago

That guy at the Moto Canada meetup was right about heated grips

Back in October some dude at the Tim Hortons meetup in Mississauga told me to spend the extra $50 on the Oxford heated grips instead of the cheap Amazon ones. I ignored him and now my left grip stopped working after 3 rides. Has anyone else had the cheap ones die on them mid-winter?

2 comments

c/easy-weeknight-dinners•

olivia_wilson•8d ago

Sheet pan salmon vs stovetop skillet - the winner surprised me

I spent last month trying to figure out the fastest way to cook salmon on busy nights. Stovetop in a skillet usually took me about 15 minutes with flipping and watching it constantly. Then I tried throwing it on a sheet pan at 400 degrees for 12 minutes with some broccoli and baby potatoes on the same pan. The difference was huge - the cleanup took half the time and I could walk away while it cooked. My only regret is not doing this sooner for those Wednesday nights when I'm exhausted. Has anyone else found a trick that makes sheet pan dinners work even better?

2 comments

-1

c/cabinetmakers•

olivia_wilson•1mo ago

I finally figured out why my drawer slides kept failing

Been building kitchen cabinets for about 5 years now, and I kept having issues with soft-close drawer slides binding up after a few months. Turns out I was drilling my pilot holes too deep, like 3/16 of an inch past the material. Shaved that down and used a depth stop on my drill, and the last 12 drawers I did for a client in Denver slid smooth as butter. Anyone else run into this or am I just slow to learn?

2 comments