Sam Reed (u/samreed)

Posts

That trick about shimming outriggers on soft ground actually works

I always thought those guys carrying extra plywood sheets for outrigger pads were just wasting space until a job in Medina last spring. The crane started sinking maybe 2 inches into the mud even with the standard pads under it. Anyone else find a better solution than hauling a dozen sheets of 3/4 ply everywhere?

3 comments

c/chefs•

samreed•6d ago

Visited a pop-up kitchen in Chicago that ran an all-tasting menu without a single ticket printer

I went to this weird experimental dinner spot by Wicker Park last month and they ran the whole 8-course service with just verbal callouts and hand signals. No tickets, no printer, no screen. The chef de cuisine just stood at the pass and yelled everything. I thought it would be chaos but they hit every course within 90 seconds of the stated time. It honestly made me think about how much we lean on those machines and whether they actually slow us down or keep us organized. Has anyone else worked a service without any printed tickets? How did you handle modifications or allergies?

3 comments

c/freelance-survival•

samreed•26d ago

Rant: That $50 Fiverr gig I bought to fix my portfolio ended up costing me a real client

I paid a guy from Pakistan $50 to rewrite my About page and tweak my project descriptions. Sounded good at first, but then a potential client in Austin told me the tone sounded nothing like my actual work samples. I learned that trying to fake a polished voice just makes you look inconsistent to people who actually read. Has anyone else had a cheap service backfire like that?

3 comments

c/freelancer-finances•

samreed•29d ago

Showerthought: The library is the cheapest co-working space I never considered

I spent $40 last month at a coffee shop just to have a desk for 4 afternoons, then walked into my local library and got free wifi, quiet rooms, and no pressure to buy anything. Has anyone else switched to using public spaces for client work and seen their overhead drop?

3 comments

c/climate-action•

samreed•29d ago

I was obsessed with buying carbon offsets until a trip to a coal plant tour changed my mind

I spent over $500 on offsets last year alone thinking I was fixing my footprint, but after standing next to a cooling tower in West Virginia and talking to an engineer who explained how offsets barely touch industrial emissions, I realized I was just paying to feel better while ignoring the real sources, has anyone else had a moment where a popular climate habit totally backfired on you?

3 comments

c/freelance-seo-hub•

samreed•29d ago

Old timer at a coffee shop told me he still hand-codes meta tags for every page

I was at a Starbucks in Portland last Tuesday and this gray-haired guy next to me laughed when I pulled up Ahrefs. He said he's been ranking sites since 1998 by just writing good tags and getting links from actual people. Has anyone else run into someone who swears by the old school methods?

3 comments

c/elevator-mechanics•

samreed•1mo ago

Surprised by how many elevators still use relay logic from the 1960s

I was digging through old manuals at a building in St. Louis last week and found out about 15% of elevators in older high rises still run on relay logic controllers. That blew my mind since I figured most had been swapped to microprocessors by now. The guy who trained me said some of those systems have been running 50+ years with just basic maintenance. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it right? Has anyone else run into one of these old relay panels recently and had to troubleshoot them?

3 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

samreed•1mo ago

Swapped my inflatable pad for a closed cell foam one after a freezing night in the Alleghenies

I woke up shivering at 2 AM with my Therm-a-Rest deflated from a tiny leak I couldn't find in the dark. Has anyone else gone back to the old foam pads for reliability even if they're bulkier?

3 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

samreed•1mo ago

Am I the only one who sees people using the wrong primer on drywall?

I was helping my buddy patch some walls in his basement last weekend and he pulled out this can of oil based primer for the new drywall. I told him that stuff is for wood and metal, not for fresh mud and paper. He said his dad always used it and it worked fine. But I’ve seen so many jobs where people slap oil primer on bare drywall and then the paint peels off in sheets after a year, especially in basements where the humidity changes. The water based PVA primers are like $12 a gallon at Home Depot and they soak into the paper right. Why do so many folks still grab the wrong stuff? Has anyone else ran into this with a buddy or on a job?

4 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

samreed•1mo ago

Debate: Should astrophotography cameras have built-in cooling or just rely on dark frames?

I was at the Cherry Springs Star Party last month and someone showed me their cooled CCD setup versus my DSLR with dark frame subtraction. Their images were way cleaner but their rig weighed like twice as much. Now I'm torn - is the extra gear worth it for better noise control, or are we overcomplicating things when software can fix most of it? What do you all think?

3 comments