Just realized something about salon lighting after a trip to the new museum in Portland

PSA: I had to choose between finishing a 24 episode series or starting a new one before a con

My friend and I were prepping for AnimeNYC and I only had time for one show, so I picked the new one to have fresh stuff to talk about. It went okay, but I missed the ending of the other series and felt a bit lost when people brought it up. Do you guys usually finish what you start or jump to the new hot thing before an event?

My brother told me to skip the first season of a show and I'm glad I did

He said 'just watch from season two, trust me' about The Office, because the first season is only six episodes and feels totally different. I started with season two and got hooked right away, then went back to season one later and saw what he meant. Has anyone else had a show where skipping ahead actually made you like it more?

Honestly, naming my fantasy city's districts took me 3 hours yesterday

I got stuck trying to make them sound distinct but not silly, and my outline just sat there blank. Anyone else ever waste a whole evening on something that seems simple?

Hot take: My friend told me to skip the first 20 episodes of One Piece

He said the Arlong Park arc was the only real starting point and everything before was filler. I tried it, and honestly, I had no idea who anyone was or why I should care when they started crying. It completely ruined the emotional payoff. Has anyone else tried starting a show in the 'wrong' place because of bad advice?

Question about those cheap code readers from the auto parts store

I've always been a 'scan tool or bust' guy, thought those $30 generic readers were just for clearing check engine lights before selling a car. Then my buddy's kid had a weird intermittent stall on his old Civic, and my good scanner showed nothing. Out of desperation, I plugged in the cheap one I keep in my glove box. It pulled a pending code for the crank sensor that my tool completely missed. Took about 3 minutes. I swapped the sensor, problem fixed. Now I keep that little thing on my cart as a first check for weird electrical gremlins. It's not a replacement for real diag, but it's another data point. Has anyone else had a basic tool surprise them like that?

My home network traffic looked like a ghost town for a month, then a wild party

About six months ago, I set up a simple network monitor on my router. For weeks, the logs showed almost nothing, just my laptop and phone. Then last Tuesday, the graph spiked with hundreds of new device connections I didn't recognize. Turns out my smart TV had a default setting turned on, making it a hotspot for the whole apartment building. I changed one setting and the traffic went back to normal. Has anyone else had a 'smart' device quietly open up their network like that?

Warning: I thought the 'ask anything' rule was just talk until a guy asked about his weird basement smell

I figured people would just ask normal stuff, but someone posted about a rotten egg smell and it turned out to be a serious gas leak. The fire department had to come out. Has anyone else had a simple question here uncover something major?