Patricia Patel (u/patricia385)

Posts

PSA: Watching a machinist set up his table at a trade show in Denver fixed my tool indexing

I was at the Denver Build Expo last month and stopped to watch an old guy set up his drafting table. He marked every 3 inches with a sharpie on the edge and it saved him 10 minutes per layout. Has anyone else tried marking your rulers or tables like that?

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c/computer-technicians•

patricia385•6d ago

Had a server go down during a school board meeting last Tuesday

I work IT for a school district and we had a power flicker during a board meeting that took out a file server. I rushed to the server room and saw the UPS was beeping like crazy. Turns out the battery backup had been failing for a while but nobody put it on the replacement list. I had to reboot the server twice before it came back clean, and the board president was standing behind me asking why the projector couldn't connect. The whole thing took maybe 15 minutes but it felt like an hour. Ever since then I check every UPS in our district on a rotating schedule. Has anyone else had a simple battery backup cause a huge headache like that?

2 comments

c/container-homes-builds•

patricia385•8d ago

Wasted $1,200 on a DIY container insulation that just rotted out

I bought this spray foam insulation kit online for my 40ft container build in Houston. Thought I was saving money doing it myself, but I missed a bunch of spots and moisture got trapped behind some panels. After 8 months I pulled off a section and found black mold eating through the steel. Now I'm paying a pro $2,800 to strip it all and redo the job properly. Has anyone else had issues with DIY insulation in humid climates?

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c/archaeology-discoveries•

patricia385•24d ago

TIL that sorting pottery sherds from a single Roman site took me 8 months instead of 2

I joined a dig near Bath last spring and assumed classifying 4,000 pieces of Samian ware would be straightforward. But matching patterns to known kilns across Gaul ate up every weekend through autumn. Has anyone else had a classification project spiral way past your original estimate?

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c/backyard-studios•

patricia385•24d ago

My roof leak killed my recording setup over Memorial Day weekend

Had a small leak in my shed roof I kept ignoring. Then that big storm hit on Saturday and water poured right onto my mixer board. That old Behringer Xenyx is toast now, fried the power supply and everything. I spent Sunday pulling carpet up and drying out the place with a shop vac. No idea how much to fix it yet, probably another $200 for a used board. Anyone else deal with water damage in their studio and have a quick fix that worked?

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c/cybersecurity-tips•

patricia385•26d ago

Coworker laughed at my password manager and I'm STILL mad about it

I was setting up a new laptop at our office in Austin and my coworker Dave saw me typing in a 20-character password from my Bitwarden vault. He said 'you really trust some random app with ALL your logins?' and I tried explaining encryption but he just walked away. A week later Dave got phished on his personal email and lost access to three accounts. Has anyone else had people question your security tools and then get hacked themselves?

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c/conspiracy-debates•

patricia385•26d ago

Had to choose between tracking flight patterns or ghost hunting gear for a paranormal theory

I was debating if a weird light I saw near Bakersfield was a secret military drone or something else, so I had to pick between buying a flight radar app or a cheap EMF detector. I went with the EMF detector because it felt more hands on, but now I just have a device that beeps at my microwave. Anyone else ever pick the wrong tool for investigating a conspiracy and end up with nothing useful?

2 comments

c/design-and-print•

patricia385•28d ago

Noticed a huge difference in my poster prints after switching paper stock last month

I've been using standard 20lb bond for client proofs for years, but upgraded to a 100lb gloss cover for a museum exhibit last week and the colors popped so much more. Has anyone else seen that dramatic a shift just from changing the paper weight?

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c/comic-book-fans•

patricia385•29d ago

I used to buy single issues but now I wait for the trade paperback

I started collecting comics back around 2005 when I was in high school, and I remember saving up my allowance to hit the shop every Wednesday for new Batman issues. There was something about that fresh paper smell and the thrill of getting the next part of a story right away. But over the last few years, Ive switched almost completely to waiting for the trade paperback collections. I mean, it saves me money since a trade usually costs around $15 for a whole arc instead of $3.99 per issue for six months. Plus, I don't have to worry about bagging and boarding each one or hunting down missing numbers. The downside is I miss out on talking about new chapters with friends at the shop week to week. Has anyone else made this shift or do you still prefer grabbing singles as they drop?

2 comments

c/design-portfolio-reviews•

patricia385•1mo ago

My mentor said my portfolio was 'too safe' and I finally get why now

I showed my portfolio to a senior designer at a coffee shop in Austin last week and he said every project looked like it was designed by committee. Now I'm going back to add the weird risky concepts I scrapped first round, anyone else hold back their real ideas too much?

3 comments