Vent: My $40 worm bin purchase was either a total win or a huge waste

I bought a small worm bin for my studio apartment, thinking it would solve my food scrap problem. After two months, it's either a clean, odorless system or a fruit fly farm depending on how careful I am with the greens. Anyone else find the learning curve way steeper than they expected?

Warning: My old sleeping bag almost got me in trouble on a trip to the Olympic Peninsula last week.

I packed my 3 year old bag for a quick overnight, thinking it was still good. The temperature dropped to about 40 degrees and I woke up shivering around 2 AM. The fill had clearly lost its loft and wasn't trapping heat like it used to. I ended up having to layer all my clothes on top just to get back to sleep. Has anyone else had a bag fail on them faster than they expected?

I was sure coding bootcamps were a scam, but my cousin's experience changed my mind

He joined a 14-week program in Denver last year and was really struggling at first. They made him build a simple weather app using Python in the first month, which seemed impossible to him. By the end, he landed a junior developer job making $65k. What finally convinced you that a learning path was legit or not? Looking at online courses now.

Serious question, my basement drain backed up during a storm in Cincinnati

I was down there moving some boxes last week when I saw water starting to pool around the floor drain, and it smelled awful. I grabbed my 25 foot drain snake from the workbench and managed to pull out a huge clump of roots that had worked through the old clay pipe. What's the best way to check for more root damage without digging up the whole yard?

Pro tip: I thought dry aging at home was a total waste of time until I tried it on a strip loin

For years I heard guys at the shop talk about their home dry aging setups and I figured it was just for show. Then my buddy in Chicago gave me a piece of his 45 day aged ribeye and the flavor was unreal, nothing like the wet aged stuff we get. I tried it myself with a single 10 pound strip loin in a mini fridge with a small fan, just to see. After 30 days the trim loss was about 15 percent, but the meat was so much more tender and had that nutty taste everyone talks about. I'm still not doing it for the whole case, but for a special cut it's worth the space. Has anyone else started small like this and had it work out?

I think the advice to always shoot expired film is wrong

I was at a camera swap meet in Portland last weekend and saw a lot of people selling old film. They kept saying it's fine to use and gives cool colors. I bought a roll of Kodak Gold from 2005 to test it. After I got my photos back, half of them were flat and grainy, and two shots were just blank. I wasted about $15 on developing for pictures I can't use. I know some people like the look, but telling new folks it's always okay feels like bad advice. Have you had a roll that just didn't work at all?

Shoutout to the museum of science in Boston for their old washing machine display

I was there with my family last weekend and they have this whole section on how home tech changed. They had a 1950s wringer washer you could actually see the inside of, with the motor and gears all laid out. What got me was the guide showing how the agitator design changed over the years, from those old corkscrew ones to the modern low water ones. He said they used to have a belt that would last about two years with normal use before you had to replace it. It made me think about how we hardly ever see those simple belt drives anymore, it's all direct drive motors now. Has anyone else run into one of those old belt machines recently, and what part do you find fails first on them?

Tried using a $15 hot air station from the flea market on a PS4 HDMI port. The board lifted clean off.

Need a mortgage broker who responds on weekends

Does anyone know a mortgage broker who actually works weekends? We keep finding houses on Saturday and our current guy doesn't reply until Monday, by which time the house is gone.

Can we talk about glaziers getting their families involved in small jobs?

I've seen more people bringing their kids or cousins along for basic glass measurements lately. My brother started helping me with window quotes, and it changed how we talk about work at home. It feels good to share the trade, but we need to keep safety first with new helpers. Has anyone else found ways to include family without risking cuts or breaks?