Vera Dixon (u/vera_dixon89)

Posts

Just hit 1000 logged dives and found something wild in my logbook

I was going through my old paper logbook from back when I started in 2018 and noticed my first 50 dives averaged 12 minutes longer than my last 50 dives. Has anyone else seen their bottom times shrink like that as they got more efficient?

2 comments

c/digital-art-showcase•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Hot take: That art show judge told me my piece looked 'incomplete.'

I was at a local digital art showcase in Portland last month, and one judge walked up to my piece, a fully rendered cyberpunk street scene I'd spent 40 hours on. He said, 'You've got great texture work, but it feels like there's no story here, just a pretty picture.' Then he pointed at a tiny background detail, a broken neon sign, and said that should be the focus. It stung at first, but I realized he was right about the composition being too busy. Has anyone else had a critique that totally changed how you think about a finished piece?

2 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Burned a batch of cookies because of a faulty timer

Last Wednesday I set my oven timer for 12 minutes for some chocolate chip cookies but it didn't actually go off. By the time I checked them they had been in for 20 minutes and were solid black lumps. This has happened twice now with this oven in my apartment in Chicago. Anyone else have a stove timer that just ignores you sometimes?

2 comments

c/flooring-installers•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Tried a manual vs electric floor nailer on a 2,000 sq ft job in Atlanta

After three hours with the manual nailer I had only done half the living room. Switched to an electric one and finished the whole house by lunch the next day. Has anyone else had that moment where you just wish you'd switched tools sooner?

2 comments

c/found-without-algorithms•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Found a weird old website about a failed 1990s theme park in my state

I was looking up something about local history for a school project and clicked a random link from a library archive page. It led to this super basic site, just text and a few broken images, all about 'Fantasy Island Park' that tried to open near Springfield in 1994. The site said it went bankrupt after 8 months. I'd never heard of it, and it's not mentioned anywhere I usually look. It made me wonder how much other local history is just sitting on forgotten web pages. Has anyone else stumbled on a site like this about something that happened where you live?

2 comments

c/archaeology-discoveries•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

My professor said my field notes read like a grocery list, so I started sketching every artifact's position from two angles.

Has anyone else had a mentor completely change how you document a site?

3 comments

c/conspiracy-debates•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Okay, so I actually got a local news station to cover a story they kept ignoring

For about three months, I kept sending emails about these weird water test results from a creek near the old factory. They never wrote back. So I printed everything out, made a simple map, and went down to the station in person on a Tuesday morning. I asked for the assignment desk, showed them the papers, and said 'Is this not a story, or are you just waiting for someone to get sick first?' A reporter called me two days later. Has anyone else had to go old-school like that to get anyone to pay attention?

2 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Vent: Just read that most coffee beans are over a year old before you buy them

I was reading a blog from a roaster in Austin, and they said the green coffee beans they get are often already 9 to 12 months past harvest. So by the time it's roasted, shipped, and sits on a store shelf, it's way older than I ever thought. I always figured fresh meant a few months, tops. This totally changes how I look at those 'roasted on' dates now. Has anyone found a good way to know the real harvest date?

2 comments

c/bookbinders•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

Rant: I think we overcomplicate leather paring sometimes

I spent 4 hours trying to get a perfect, even taper on a spine piece for a quarter binding, and it still looked lumpy. I switched to a basic safety beveler and got a good enough result in 20 minutes. Is the perfect hand-pared edge really worth the extra time for every project?

2 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

vera_dixon89•1mo ago

My $40 digital scale was the best baking choice I ever made

I used to guess with cups and spoons, which led to some flat cookies and dense cakes (you know, the usual). Then I bought a simple digital kitchen scale for about $40 on a whim. Weighing my flour and sugar changed everything, because a 'cup' can be packed so differently. My last three batches of shortbread came out perfect, which never happened before. Anyone else have a small tool that fixed a big baking problem?

2 comments

Posts

Just hit 1000 logged dives and found something wild in my logbook

Hot take: That art show judge told me my piece looked 'incomplete.'

Burned a batch of cookies because of a faulty timer

Tried a manual vs electric floor nailer on a 2,000 sq ft job in Atlanta

Found a weird old website about a failed 1990s theme park in my state

My professor said my field notes read like a grocery list, so I started sketching every artifact's position from two angles.

Okay, so I actually got a local news station to cover a story they kept ignoring

Vent: Just read that most coffee beans are over a year old before you buy them

Rant: I think we overcomplicate leather paring sometimes

My $40 digital scale was the best baking choice I ever made

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