Faith Baker (u/faithbaker)

Posts

Got my certification and then found out some scary stats

Passed my chimney safety inspection cert last month. Felt great. Then I read the NFPA 211 report from 2023. Turns out over 25,000 house fires a year in the US start from chimney issues. That number blew my mind. I always knew it was dangerous but didn't realize it was that huge. Most of those fires were from creosote buildup over 1/4 inch thick. Makes me double check my work on every job now. Anyone else get surprised by the real numbers behind this trade?

2 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

faithbaker•4d ago

Tried a $2 pen vs a $12 pen for three months, the cheap one won every time

I know it sounds crazy but I ordered a pack of those Pilot G2s off Amazon for like 12 bucks for a 20 pack. My fancy Leuchtturm pen kept smudging on my weekly spreads and I got sick of it. The G2 writes smoother on the pages and I don't get ink bleeds like I did with the expensive one. Has anyone else found cheaper pens just work better for journaling than the pricey ones?

2 comments

c/electricians•

faithbaker•4d ago

Everybody says to use torque screwdrivers on breakers, but I've stopped bothering

Been doing service work for 8 years and I've never torqued a single breaker terminal. Had a supply house guy lecture me about it last Tuesday, but I see more stripped lugs from over-torque than loose connections. Anyone else find better results just going by feel?

2 comments

c/corporate-litigation•

faithbaker•5d ago

PSA: Stopped dumping every email exhibit into a single timeline and started tagging them by subject instead

I realized I was wasting hours during discovery prep after a senior paralegal pointed out that my jumbled email chain spreadsheet was basically useless for actually finding anything during a deposition prep call last Tuesday, has anyone else had to redo their entire document organization system after one of those moments?

2 comments

c/apartment-composting•

faithbaker•21d ago

Hit 10 pounds of finished compost from my balcony bin and it felt like a win

I started a small worm bin under my kitchen sink back in February. For two months I just added scraps and forgot about it. Last week I finally sifted out the finished stuff and weighed it on my food scale. 10.2 pounds from just coffee grounds, egg shells, and veggie peels in a 5 gallon bucket. That felt pretty good for a one bedroom apartment setup. Has anyone else tracked how much they actually produce in a small space?

2 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

faithbaker•22d ago

Debate: Are older comic fans gatekeeping or just protective of the hobby?

I was reading through some posts on a comic forum last night and saw this stat: 62% of comic readers at my local shop in Portland are 35 or older. It got me thinking about how the older crowd sometimes gives new fans a hard time for not knowing classic storylines or for picking up variant covers over key issues. On the flip side, I get why they don't want the hobby to turn into a pure speculation game like the '90s crash. Where do you guys land on this - gatekeeping or just looking out for the community?

2 comments

c/bricklayers•

faithbaker•24d ago

Blew a mortar joint on a retaining wall yesterday

Tbh I was laying a retaining wall out in Fairfax and one of the mortar joints just let go around 3 PM. The whole top course shifted about 2 inches before I caught it. Had to pull out 12 blocks and re-lay them after mixing a fresh batch. Absolute headache, but I figured out my mix was too dry since the temps dropped faster than I expected. Has anyone else dealt with mortar failing on a wall after a sudden temp change?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

faithbaker•27d ago

Debate: Should you grease pedal threads or use threadlocker? I've seen both cause issues.

Had a customer come in last week with a stripped crank arm from a pedal that seized up with threadlocker, but two days before that another guy swore his pedals kept backing out without it. Which camp are you in and what's your reasoning?

2 comments

c/camera-repairers•

faithbaker•2mo ago

Visited a camera museum in Rochester and it changed how I see old gear

I was at the George Eastman Museum last month and spent a whole afternoon just looking at their repair workshop display. They had these old Kodak service manuals from the 1950s laid out, and the step-by-step guides for things like shutter timing were so clear, with hand-drawn diagrams. I used to think that stuff was too outdated to be useful, but I was wrong. Seeing the actual tools they used back then, like specific spring tension gauges, made me realize the basic ideas haven't changed that much. It actually gave me a couple ideas for fixing a sticky shutter on a Retina IIc I've been sitting on. Has anyone else picked up a useful trick from really old service literature?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

faithbaker•2mo ago

I finally figured out why my weekly spreads always felt so cramped

For months, I was trying to fit EVERYTHING into those tiny Monday to Sunday boxes, including my workout log, meal plan, and client notes, and it just looked like a mess. My trainer friend looked at it last week and said, 'Faith, you're trying to make one page do the work of three.' Now I use a separate collection for my training notes and just put the day's focus in the weekly box. Does anyone else keep certain trackers totally separate from their main weekly view?

3 comments