Tried calibrating an altimeter with a known bad test set just to see what would happen

Pulled the ancient Barfield DPS-100 off the shelf last Tuesday knowing it was out of tolerance and ran a 737 pitot-static check anyway. The altimeter read 120 feet low at sea level, which taught me to never skip the calibration sticker even if you're in a hurry. Anyone else ever get bit by a test set that drifted without you noticing?

Saw a CEO spend 20 minutes on a slide deck font size during a board prep meeting

I was in a strategy session last Thursday and the CEO kept stopping the discussion to zoom in on font sizes. We had 11 slides to review and 45 minutes. Two slides got actual content feedback. The rest was about margins. I get wanting things to look good but we missed talking about a 3 million dollar revenue risk because everyone was afraid to interrupt. Has anyone else dealt with a leader who just cannot let go of the small stuff?

That $50 sleeping pad liner was a total scam for me

I bought a Therm-a-Rest liner last spring thinking it would add warmth on cold nights, but after 4 trips in the Sierras it barely made a difference and actually made me sweat. The thing cost me $50 and now it just sits in my closet collecting dust. Has anyone actually gotten real use out of these things or did I just buy the wrong kind?

That weld on the Kansas City bridge job made me rethink my rod storage

I was up on a bridge repair job outside Kansas City last month and my 7018 rods kept picking up moisture even though I thought they were dry. The inspector flagged a few of my welds for porosity and I had to grind out three passes right there on the catwalk. Now I keep my rods in a heated quiver on my belt instead of just in the box. Anyone else had humidity mess with their welds on outdoor structural jobs?

Lost 3 rolls of film from a family wedding because I didn't check the seal on my camera

Last month I shot my cousin's wedding in Austin with my old Pentax K1000. I was so careful about the shots, got the couple kissing, the cake cutting, all that. Dropped the rolls off at the lab and waited a week. When I picked them up the guy said all three rolls were completely blank. Turns out the light seal foam on my camera back had rotted away. So the whole time I was shooting, light was just pouring in. I felt like an idiot. Now I check that foam on every camera I buy, even if it looks fine. Has anyone else had a camera fail on them at a big event like that?

My score jumped 47 points after I asked the credit card company to lower my limit

I figured maxing out a $500 card was killing my utilization, so I called Capital One and begged them to drop it to $200, and suddenly my score went from 612 to 659 in one billing cycle - has anyone else tried this reverse psychology thing?

Rant: The hardware store on 5th Street had the worst shelf labels I've ever seen

Avocado oil fixed my sticky seasoning problem

I spent like 3 months fighting with my 12 inch Lodge pan. Every time I cooked eggs they'd glue themselves to the surface no matter how much butter I used. Finally tried seasoning with avocado oil at 475°F for an hour and did 3 rounds of it. Now eggs slide around like they're on glass lol has anyone else had better luck with certain oils over others?

Rusty surprise at a family reunion ruined my skillet day

I brought my 12-inch Lodge to a cookout at my sister's place in Ohio last weekend and someone accidentally left it soaking in the sink with soapy water for 20 minutes. By the time I found it, there was a nasty orange rust patch right in the center that took me an hour with steel wool to scrub off. Has anyone else had to deal with a relative messing up their cast iron like that, and how do you get them to just not touch it?

Mountains or forests - which do you put down first on a map and why?

I went to a fantasy map workshop at a local con last summer and the guy leading it said he always puts forests down first because rivers and mountains follow from where the trees are. But I've always done mountains first since they shape the whole land. Which way do you do it and did you ever change after seeing someone else's method?