Christopher Thompson (u/thompson.christopher)

Posts

That $40 desoldering gun I cheaped out on finally died mid-job yesterday

Bought a no-name vacuum desoldering tool off Amazon about 8 months ago and it worked fine for small boards, but yesterday I was pulling a 24-pin connector and the tip clogged so bad it just gave up. Anyone else have a budget desoldering tool that let them down at the worst time?

2 comments

c/estheticians•

thompson.christopher•22d ago

Rant: People keep using facial oils before moisturizer and ruining their skin barrier

I've been doing facials for about 5 years now and I keep seeing estheticians online telling clients to apply oil before moisturizer. That's backwards. Oil creates a barrier that stops the water-based moisturizer from soaking in. Last week a client came in with dry, flaky cheeks and tiny breakouts around her chin. She said she followed a routine from an influencer with 200k followers. I asked what she was doing and she said oil, then moisturizer, then sunscreen. Her skin looked like lizard leather with clogged pores. I switched her to moisturizer, then oil, then sunscreen and she texted me 5 days later saying her skin felt normal again. Who started this whole oil-first trend and why are we letting it spread? Has anyone else seen this causing problems in their practice?

2 comments

c/diy-zine-culture•

thompson.christopher•22d ago

I lost 50 copies of my zine at a Kinkos in Portland last week

I was printing a run of 100 copies of my new zine about dumpster diving in the PNW. I set them by the self serve machine while I went to grab a drink from the machine. Came back 5 minutes later and some guy had tossed them all in the recycling bin because he thought they were trash. I had to fish 50 slightly damp copies out of that bin. Has anyone else had a printing disaster like this at a chain copy shop?

2 comments

c/bookbinders•

thompson.christopher•22d ago

Why does nobody talk about PVA glue drying too fast in winter

Last month I was trying to glue up a textbook rebind in my unheated garage in Cleveland and the PVA skinned over before I even got the spine cloth on, has anyone else had to switch to something slower drying when the temps drop?

2 comments

c/flea-market-hauls•

thompson.christopher•23d ago

Passed on a 1950s tube tester three times before buying it

There was this beat-up old tube tester at a flea market in Portland for $25. I walked past it twice thinking it was just junk that would never work again. Third time I asked the seller if it powered on, and he plugged it in right there. The needle jumped and the tubes lit up, and now I use it to test every old radio I pick up. Anyone else have a piece of gear they kept ignoring that ended up being a real find?

2 comments

c/ask-anything•

thompson.christopher•24d ago

Unpopular take on those neighborhood buy nothing groups

Honestly, I think the local Buy Nothing group near me in Phoenix has gone downhill. Last month I offered up a practically new desk and got three messages asking if I could deliver it 20 minutes away. Isn't the whole point to keep stuff local and reduce waste, not turn it into a free delivery service?

2 comments

c/digital-time-capsules•

thompson.christopher•25d ago

That old GeoCities site I found made me actually sad

I was cleaning out my bookmarks from like 2007 and stumbled onto this old GeoCities page someone made for their pet hamster. It had a guestbook, a MIDI file of "All Star" playing automatically, and these terrible clip art stars everywhere. The person wrote a whole story about how they saved up allowance money for two months to buy the hamster. What got me was the last update in 2009 where they said the hamster passed away and thanked visitors for being "part of the journey." That little corner of the internet is probably gone now, buried under some corporate site or just a 404 error. It hit me how much genuine effort people put into these weird personal spaces online, and now it's just lost. Did anyone else ever have a dumb little site like that as a kid that you poured way too much time into?

2 comments

c/carpet-installers•

thompson.christopher•28d ago

Blew $400 on a power stretcher I barely use now

Last year I bought one of those fancy power stretchers with the dual action handles thinking it would speed up my residential jobs. Figured I'd make the money back in a few months. Turns out most of my work is small bedrooms and closets where that thing is overkill. It's been sitting in my van for 8 months collecting dust. I'm back to using my old knee kicker for 90% of stuff. Any of you guys actually get your money's worth out of one of these or did I just buy the wrong tool for my typical jobs?

2 comments

c/bulletin-board-finds•

thompson.christopher•28d ago

Warning: That flyer with the tear-off tabs had a design flaw I ignored

My neighbor Dave (the one who runs the community garden) told me to leave more space between my phone number tabs on my lost cat poster after I printed 50 copies. I shrugged him off because I thought 10 tabs on one line was efficient, but three people ripped off two numbers at once and I got 6 calls asking about the same pizza place. Has anyone else had a bulletin board design backfire because you tried to cram too much info on one sheet?

2 comments

c/diy-zine-culture•

thompson.christopher•29d ago

Talking to a zine veteran at a show made me rethink my whole approach to binding

Had a chat with this older guy named Pete at a zine fest in Portland last month. He looked at my stapled saddle-stitch stuff and said "youre just making a pamphlet, not a zine" and it kind of stung. But then he showed me how he does a simple single-stitch binding with thread and a needle. Took like 15 minutes but the thing lays flat and feels solid. Been doing it ever since. Anyone else get a wake up call from an old head?

2 comments

Recent Comments

14d ago

Took me 3 years to admit indexed shifting isn't always better

Right, because riding friction shifters is a constant guessing game of "did I hit the gear or did I just wish real hard?" I spent years swearing my old SunTour stuff was superior because it made me feel like some kind of cycling savant. Truth is, I was just compensating for the fact my shifting was sloppy and I was too cheap to buy a decent indexed set up. Then I finally tried a properly tuned 105 group from the late 90s and it was like going from a rusty manual transmission to a buttery automatic. Now I'm the guy with the 8-speed brifters and no shame about it.

14d ago

Vent: A client's comment about chain link made me question my whole approach

Tbh, "a fence is a fence" is basically my life motto at this point, which is probably why my own backyard looks like a prison yard for squirrels. Ngl, I'm the guy who patched a hole in my chain link with a rusty license plate and called it a day. My dog Duke spent three years staring at that ugly thing and he's still the happiest, dumbest mutt I've ever owned. Maybe there's a study about dogs getting stressed by ugly fences, but Duke's IQ barely passes for a rock so he's not reading it anytime soon. Honestly, I'd need a study about me getting stressed by ugly fences because my yard is an eyesore and I'm too cheap to fix it. But hey, it keeps the neighbor's poodle from trying to start beef, so we're good.

20d ago

Vent: That $60 set of farrier rasps I bought online were terrible

Those discount site rasps are almost always made from a softer steel that just cant handle the density of horse hoof material. I had a buddy that bought a bulk pack of farrier tools from a similar site and they were so bad the metal actually started flaking off into the cut. You really do get what you pay for with rasps because the cheap ones skip the heat treating process that keeps the teeth sharp.

20d ago

I finally figured out why my phone battery was dying so fast

Man ninam76 I feel that. Same thing happened to me a couple months back. Phone was dropping 20% overnight sitting on the nightstand doing nothing. Turned off the background location stuff and the always listening junk and it went back to normal. Made a believer out of me real quick.

21d ago

Found out the hard way that impact guns don't belong on brake caliper brackets

Tbh, I'm pretty sure my Milwaukee just wanted to prove it's stronger than the last guy's ego.