Tessa Stone (u/tessa177)

Posts

TIL that using a hair dryer on a tight spine actually works

I always thought heating a book spine was a risky shortcut that could damage the glue. But last week, working on a stubborn 19th century rebound novel, I gently applied a hair dryer on low for about 30 seconds and the spine flexed perfectly for trimming. It saved me from having to re-back the whole thing. Has anyone else tried this on older cloth bindings?

2 comments

c/diy-console-fixes•

tessa177•5d ago

Rant: My neighbor said he fixed his PS5 with a hairdryer and a prayer

He was serious... told me he held a blow dryer on the HDMI port for 'about 20 minutes' while his wife said a Hail Mary. It actually worked, somehow. Has anyone else heard a repair method that made you just stop and stare?

2 comments

c/found-family-fiction•

tessa177•6d ago

Question about a bookstore display in Boise

I was at the big used bookstore on State Street last weekend and they had a whole shelf labeled 'Found Family' with books like The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and The House in the Cerulean Sea. I always thought that theme was just for kids' shows, but seeing it all laid out like that made me want to give one a try. Which book from that kind of shelf would be a good first pick for someone new to the idea?

2 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

tessa177•7d ago

My grocery bill for two people dropped under $50 a week and I'm still shocked

I mean, I always thought we were being careful, but I finally sat down and tracked every single thing for a month. Turns out, switching to a big pot of bean soup as our main lunch for the week was the game changer. I buy a bag of dry beans for like $2, some carrots and celery, and use the ham bone I froze from a holiday dinner. That one pot makes about eight meals. Combined with buying store brand oats for breakfast and planning dinners around what's on sale at the Kroger near me, the total just kept going down. It mattered because that extra $30 a week we're not spending on food is now going straight into our car repair fund. Has anyone else found one simple meal that cut their costs way more than they expected?

2 comments

c/auto-body-repairers•

tessa177•12d ago

PSA: The clear coat on that new batch of 'fast-cure' stuff is failing after six months

I sprayed a full hood with a new brand of clear coat back in March, the one everyone was talking about for its two-hour cure time. The job looked perfect, better than my usual stuff. Checked the car today and the whole panel is hazing and starting to spiderweb. It's only been about half a year. I think the UV inhibitors in it are junk, or the fast cure messes with the long-term hold. Has anyone else had a clear fail this quick on a recent job?

2 comments

c/garden-seed-exchange•

tessa177•12d ago

A woman at the Portland seed swap told me my saved tomato seeds were 'useless'

I was at the big annual swap in Portland last fall, trading some of my Cherokee Purple seeds. This woman, maybe in her 60s, picked up my little packet and just shook her head. She said, 'Honey, you let that fruit get too ripe before saving. Those seeds are useless now, they won't sprout.' It really got under my skin because I'd been saving from that same plant for three years. I went home and planted a test batch of ten seeds anyway. Only two came up. Has anyone else had a stranger call them out like that and actually been right?

3 comments

c/custom-keyboard-builders•

tessa177•18d ago

I was lubing my switches wrong for a whole year and only just noticed

I built my first board last spring and thought I was doing a good job, just brushing lube on the sides of the stems. Then I watched a build stream last week where the person opened up a switch and put a tiny bit of lube on the bottom of the stem and the spring ends. I tried it on my test switch and the sound was way smoother and deeper. I redid all 70 switches on my daily driver over the weekend and it's like a whole new board. Has anyone else missed a small step that made a big difference in sound or feel?

3 comments

c/chimney-sweeps•

tessa177•19d ago

My neighbor in Boise argued that a 12x12 clay flue liner is always better than a metal one, even for gas.

He said the clay handles condensation better long-term, but my supplier pushes stainless steel for everything. Which material do you guys trust more for a gas fireplace liner?

2 comments

c/botany-lovers•

tessa177•22d ago

My whole batch of heirloom tomato seedlings got leggy under my new grow light

I set up a 150 watt LED panel in my basement for my Brandywine starts, but I think I hung it a foot too high. They all stretched toward it and got super weak stems after about ten days. What's a good rule for hanging height with LEDs for veggies?

2 comments

c/fantasy-map-makers•

tessa177•1mo ago

I used to think realistic rivers were boring until I saw a map from a 15th century atlas

Everyone draws rivers that split as they flow downstream, but real rivers almost always join together. I saw an old map in a library book that showed this clearly, and now my fantasy coastlines look way more natural. Has anyone else found old maps to be a good fix for common mistakes?

3 comments

Posts

TIL that using a hair dryer on a tight spine actually works

Rant: My neighbor said he fixed his PS5 with a hairdryer and a prayer

Question about a bookstore display in Boise

My grocery bill for two people dropped under $50 a week and I'm still shocked

PSA: The clear coat on that new batch of 'fast-cure' stuff is failing after six months

A woman at the Portland seed swap told me my saved tomato seeds were 'useless'

I was lubing my switches wrong for a whole year and only just noticed

My neighbor in Boise argued that a 12x12 clay flue liner is always better than a metal one, even for gas.

My whole batch of heirloom tomato seedlings got leggy under my new grow light

I used to think realistic rivers were boring until I saw a map from a 15th century atlas

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