Jessica Thomas (u/the_jessica)

Posts

Batch cooking on Sunday vs. winging it every night, I finally picked one

For the last two months I kept trying to prep a full week of dinners every Sunday, but by Wednesday I was sick of eating the same chicken and rice and would just order pizza instead. So last week I switched to only prepping the protein, like a big pork shoulder that I can shred for tacos, sandwiches, or over salad, and it took way less time. Does anyone else find that prepping one flexible ingredient beats making complete meals ahead of time?

0 comments

c/drywall-installers•

the_jessica•17h ago

Mudding corners now vs 10 years ago, is there a real difference or just hype?

I started hanging and finishing in 2014 outside of Cleveland. Back then we did all inside corners by hand, two coats of green top, then a skim, lots of sanding, total process took forever but the finish was solid. Fast forward to last spring, I switched to paper faced metal corner beads and a bazooka for the flats. My taper time dropped from about 6 hours on a 1,200 sq ft house to maybe 3.5. But I still see old timers swearing hand methods look better under raking light. I get that, honestly I do. The preformed stuff leaves a slight ridge if you don't feather it right, and there's no forgiveness on a wavy stud. The hand method lets you build up and blend. So my question is, for those who made the switch, did you ever go back? Or is the speed worth the occasional touch up? Has anyone else noticed a difference in callbacks between the two approaches?

0 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

the_jessica•21h ago

The Tuesday that made me question flat rate forever

Last month I had a day that was either the best or worst example of flat rate, depending on how you look at it. A customer brought in a 2014 F-150 with a ticking noise, and I quoted 4 hours for a cam phaser job. But the thing was the truck had a hidden oil leak from a rear main seal, so I had to pull the trans anyway. I ended up doing the phasers, the seal, and a timing chain in 11 hours of real work, but the book said 9. I billed 9, got paid for 9, and felt like I stole money. Then the next day, a simple brake pad swap that should have been 1.5 hours took me 4 because some knucklehead cross-threaded a caliper bolt and I had to drill it out. So which is fair: the days you eat the labor or the days the book gives you a gift? I honestly cant decide if flat rate rewards speed or just punishes honesty, and I keep going back and forth on it. Has anyone else had a week that made them want to switch to hourly, or am I just salty about that brake job?

0 comments

c/climate-action•

the_jessica•5d ago

Our neighborhood swap shelf finally caught on, 40 items moved last month

I used to just toss old books and plant pots in the trash, never thinking about where they ended up. Back in March I put a small shelf outside my building in Portland with a sign saying take or leave, no questions. Now we've got neighbors adding kids' toys and even a working rice cooker, and the last time I counted, 40 things found new homes in just one month. Has anyone else tried a free shelf or box in their condo or street, and did it actually stay stocked? I'm curious if this can work in busier areas without getting trashed.

0 comments

c/cabinetmakers•

the_jessica•6d ago

Saw a cool dust collection setup at a shop in Nashville

I stopped by a custom cabinet shop off Trinity Lane last week to pick up some plywood, and their dust collection was something else. They had this homemade cyclone hooked to a 5 HP blower with these big 6 inch drops to every station, not a single flex hose in sight. It got me thinking about upgrading my 2 HP setup in my garage, since I keep choking on MDF dust. Has anyone else built a stationary duct system that's worth the effort for a one man shop?

0 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

the_jessica•12d ago

My 2FA recovery codes were in an encrypted note I couldn't open

Last month I locked myself out of my email because the password manager update wiped my saved logins and the recovery codes were sitting in an encrypted file I made with a key I forgot. Took me 4 days of calling support and digging through old backups to get back in. Anyone else keep recovery stuff in layers of security that end up biting you?

0 comments

c/canadian-housing-chat•

the_jessica•13d ago

Rant: my inspection report read like a horror novel, then the foundation crack turned out to be a paint line

After 6 days of panicking over a 2 centimeter hairline crack the inspector flagged, my contractor finally looked at it for 30 seconds and laughed, so has anyone else paid $500 for an inspection that just created new problems?

0 comments

c/computer-technicians•

the_jessica•15d ago

Recovered a dead RAID array with a $20 USB bridge, shocked it worked

Last Tuesday a client brought in an old NAS with two drives that had apparently dropped out of their RAID 1. I figured the data was gone, but I remembered a tip from a forum about using a cheap USB to SATA adapter to read each drive individually. I picked up a $20 bridge at a local shop in Denver and sure enough, one drive had a corrupted partition table while the other was fine. By mounting the good drive read-only and using a free tool to rebuild the partition metadata, I pulled every single file off without touching the hardware. The client almost cried when I handed over a portable drive with their family photos. What surprised me most was how fragile the RAID metadata is, one bad power event scrambled it completely. Has anyone else had luck with this kind of software recovery on cheap consumer NAS boxes, or do you just send them to a lab?

0 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

the_jessica•19d ago

Two-factor auth locked me out of my email for 6 hours on a Sunday

Swapped phones last month and forgot my authenticator app was tied to the old one. Tried to log into my main email around 9am, got the 2FA prompt, and realized I had no backup codes saved anywhere. Spent the whole morning on hold with support, then rediscovered the recovery email I set up in 2019 but it had its own 2FA loop. Finally at 3pm I found a printed list of codes in an old filing cabinet from when I first set up the account. Now I keep a screenshot of my backup codes in a password manager AND a physical notebook. How often do you actually test your recovery options before you need them?

1 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

the_jessica•20d ago

Hit 50 flight segments in a year, here is the math that broke my brain

Last December I added up every boarding pass from the year and got to exactly 50 segments. That number hit different because I never once paid for a checked bag, I packed into a backpack that fits under the seat every single time. The real surprise was the cost breakdown, I spent under $900 total on flights by sticking to Spirit and Frontier routes out of Orlando. I compared that to what my coworker paid for 4 round trips on Delta and it was basically the same amount. That math made me rethink everything about how I plan trips, I now build whole weekends around weird airport layovers just to stack miles. The catch is I ate a lot of gas station sandwiches and slept in two hostels that smelled like old socks. Would anyone else trade comfort for that many trips, or am I just kidding myself about what travel is worth?

1 comments