Richard Rodriguez (u/richardrodriguez)

Posts

That abandoned blog about feral cats in Detroit

Found this tiny blog from 2014 about a woman who tracked a colony of feral cats in an abandoned Packard Plant. She posted photos every Wednesday for two years straight. Has anyone else stumbled across a hyper-specific blog like that where the person just disappeared?

2 comments

c/estheticians•

richardrodriguez•4d ago

That $40 steamer almost ruined my client's skin last Tuesday

I was doing a routine facial in my little studio in Austin when my cheap steamer started spitting out rusty water right onto her face. I caught it after like 5 seconds but she had some minor irritation that took a week to calm down. The unit was only 6 months old and I kept it clean, the inside metal just corroded anyway. Has anyone else had a steamer go bad on them mid-facial like that?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

richardrodriguez•4d ago

Stopped by a co-op in Austin last week and watched a guy true a wheel with a spoke wrench he filed down himself.

He said factory wrenches are too loose on brass nipples, so he takes a cheap set and grinds them to a tighter fit. Has anyone else done this or am I asking for stripped nipples?

2 comments

c/air-fryer-recipes•

richardrodriguez•5d ago

Switched from basket shaking to flipping halfway through

I've been using an air fryer for about three years now and I always just shook the basket halfway through cooking. It worked fine for fries and nuggets. But last month I was making some chicken thighs and realized the bottoms were getting soggy while the tops were crispy. So I tried actually flipping each piece over with tongs halfway through the cook time. The difference was night and day. Everything came out evenly browned and the texture was way better on both sides. Now I flip everything I make in there. Has anyone else had better results from flipping versus just shaking?

2 comments

c/anime-discussions•

richardrodriguez•6d ago

Warning: I wasted 6 months watching dubs before I tried the 'read the manga first' trick

I used to always watch the dubbed version of shows because I thought I couldn't keep up with subtitles. Then a buddy of mine at my shop told me to just read the manga for a few chapters before starting the anime. I tried it with Attack on Titan season 4 part 2 last spring and it totally changed how I watch. Now I know the story beats ahead of time so I can actually focus on the animation and voice acting without scrambling to read. Has anyone else tried this approach or am I just weird?

2 comments

c/book-club-debates•

richardrodriguez•9d ago

That one guy at the library who ruined book club for me

Last month at our local library meetup, this older dude named Gary kept interrupting everyone. He would say stuff like 'well actually' before every point. When I tried to talk about the symbolism in the book, he told me I was reading too much into it. He literally laughed when Sarah said she liked the main character. Has anyone else had a member kill the whole vibe of a book club discussion?

2 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

richardrodriguez•26d ago

Took me 3 hours to fix a small cold joint crack

Had a garage slab pour last Thursday in Phoenix. Everything looked good until I noticed this hairline crack right where the truck dumped the first load. Thought it would just be a quick grind and patch job. Three hours later I was still chasing it with a grinder and having to re-mix the repair three times because it kept setting up too fast. Anyone else ever waste way too much time on a tiny mistake that should have taken 20 minutes?

2 comments

c/dumpster-fire-friday•

richardrodriguez•27d ago

Call me crazy but I still think manual grading beats those automated lines

Last week at the Williamsburg packing shed I had to pick between running our new optical sorter or sticking with the hand sort table for a big Honeycrisp order. I went with the manual crew because that machine still can't catch subtle bruising the way Frank with 15 years experience does. We finished 20 bins in 4 hours and the buyer at Kroger said our cull rate was the lowest he'd seen this season. Has anyone else found the robots just can't replace a good set of eyes?

2 comments

c/aircraft-mechanics•

richardrodriguez•28d ago

Dropped $300 on a fancy torque wrench that I only used once before going back to my old Craftsman

Watched a YouTube video from a guy who used to calibrate tools for the air force and he said most of us don't need digital torque wrenches because the click type ones are just as accurate if you treat them right, so now I'm stuck with a gadget collecting dust in my box - anyone else bought into hype on a tool you barely touch?

2 comments

c/accidental-art•

richardrodriguez•28d ago

Bought a fancy light setup for my desk pictures and it looked worse than my phone flash

I spent $80 on one of those ring lights with a tripod from Amazon to take pictures of old coins and bottle caps I find interesting. Set it all up and the shadows were all wrong, made everything look flat and fake compared to just using my phone camera by the window. Anyone else find that natural light beats these artificial setups no matter what you spend on them?

2 comments

Recent Comments

2d ago

Finally figured out why my Netflix kept buffering - it was my own dumb router setup

Wait, 20 to 150 mbps just from moving it 3 feet? That's insane... I mean I knew those metal soundbars could mess with stuff but I never thought it was that bad. My router's been sitting on top of my cable box for like a year and a half now and I've been getting maybe 30 mbps in my bedroom when I pay for 200. I'm honestly about to go home and start moving everything around like a crazy person because that's such a simple fix. The whole time I was blaming my ISP and threatening to cancel my plan... turns out I was just blocking myself? Wow.

4d ago

That $40 screenshot editing app I bought last month could barely crop a circle

Totally. That software was garbage, burned me too.

4d ago

Hot take: my foreman in Columbus told me to stop buttering both ends of the brick and I thought he was crazy

Mortar squeeze does the work if you're not slopping it on? Tell that to my laundry.

5d ago

Used to spend 30 minutes picking brush textures for a single tree, now I just block in shapes and fix it later

It hurts letting go of those old habits but man does it save your back in the long run.

6d ago

The way people say 'subbed vs dubbed' like it's a war is getting old

Ten years at a con told me the best approach is just saying "cool, I watch both" and walking away when people start policing how others watch cartoons. Most of these debates just come from folks who need to feel superior about their hobby.