Dylan Ward (u/dylan_ward)

Posts

My hammer handle snapped mid-swing last Tuesday and I learned something about grain direction

I was working on a railroad spike knife at my forge out back when my favorite cross peen let go right at the shoulder. The handle was hickory but I realized I'd cut it with the grain running across the head instead of along it like it should be. That mistake cost me a 3 hour project and a sore elbow. Has anyone else had a handle fail because of bad grain orientation?

3 comments

c/credit-advice•

dylan_ward•1d ago

Showerthought: I was paying the minimum on my credit card for 3 years thinking it helped my score

Last month my bank statement showed I'd paid over $600 in interest on a $2,000 balance, and that's when it clicked that I was basically throwing money away for no reason. Has anyone else fallen for the minimum payment trap and found a better way to chip away at debt?

3 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

dylan_ward•2d ago

Just realized that guy at the game store was right about solo board games

Has anyone else found a solo game that surprised them after writing them off?

3 comments

c/atl-local-chat•

dylan_ward•2d ago

Tried two different fertilizers for my lawn this spring

I been working on my front yard in Decatur for a while now and wanted to see if the expensive stuff was really worth it. Used a big name brand on the left side and a generic store brand on the right side back in March. By June the difference was obvious. The cheap side was patchy and full of weeds while the name brand side was thick and green. Cost me like $15 more for the bag but I saved money not having to reseed or buy weed killer after. My neighbor actually asked what I used on the good side cause his yard looked like my bad side. Anyone else tried side by side tests like this or am I just a nerd about grass?

4 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

dylan_ward•19d ago

Old timer told me to stop using impact guns on oil drain plugs back in 2018

A guy named Ray at the shop I worked at in Detroit kept saying I was gonna strip a pan if I kept zipping drain plugs on with the gun. I laughed it off because it saved me maybe 30 seconds per car. Then last month I had a 2015 F-150 come back with a slow leak. Sure enough I had cracked the aluminum pan around the threads. Had to replace the whole thing. Cost the shop $180 and I felt like a jackass. Anyone else learn a basic lesson the hard way?

3 comments

c/career-advice•

dylan_ward•20d ago

That one critique from a senior dev 5 years ago that changed how I code

I used to cram everything into one function cause I thought it was faster. Then a senior dev at my job in Austin pulled me aside after a code review and said "your code works but nobody can read it." He told me to break it into smaller pieces even if it felt wasteful. At first it made my files longer but after about 3 weeks I realized I was fixing bugs way quicker. Has anyone else had a piece of feedback that seemed annoying at first but actually helped a ton?

3 comments

c/drafters•

dylan_ward•23d ago

I spent 3 hours aligning layers in AutoCAD for a drawing that only paid $120

Rookie mistake, I hand-drew every detail instead of using the align command because I thought I was faster that way, and by the time I realized how dumb that was I had already missed dinner, so has anyone else ever gotten stuck in a workflow rut like that and how did you break out of it?

3 comments

c/fashion-design-ideas•

dylan_ward•24d ago

Spent 2 hours trying to match a shade of olive green, turned out it was just my monitor settings

I was sketching a jacket with this specific olive green I saw on some mossy rocks during a job in Oregon, and I couldn't get the color right no matter what. After mixing paint for two hours, I realized my monitor had a blue tint messing with my eyes. Has anyone else had a digital tool throw off their fabric or color choices like that?

3 comments

c/atlanta-networking•

dylan_ward•26d ago

Had to choose between a $100 booth at the local chamber mixer or a $40 coffee meetup group last spring

Picked the coffee group since it was cheaper and more low-key, ended up meeting three folks who actually referred me work within two months, has anyone else found better luck with smaller gatherings than the big events?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

dylan_ward•1mo ago

Rant: That 'stacked' Milky Way shot I posted last week? Wrong.

Had a conversation with a guy at a photo meetup in Denver who saw my image and asked why my star trails looked jagged. He pointed out I was stacking 30 second sub exposures without any dithering between frames. I had been doing it this way for 2 years and never realized the noise pattern was just piling up. Has anyone else had a basic technique like that totally missed by them for way too long?

3 comments