Wyatt Foster (u/wyatt771)

Posts

Hot take: Our club spent three meetings arguing over the ending of 'Klara and the Sun'

Half of us think Klara's final acceptance was a beautiful, quiet tragedy about love and obsolescence. The other half, myself included, found it frustrating and a bit of a narrative cop-out, like Ishiguro just left us hanging. We're stuck at a total impasse after about six hours of debate. Has any other group actually reached a consensus on this book's conclusion?

2 comments

c/fence-erectors•

wyatt771•1d ago

Rant: I used to set posts with just a shovel and a level. After a job in Everett with pure clay, I bought a gas-powered auger.

That Everett clay was like concrete and we were a full day behind by lunch. My old boss drove over with his Stihl BT 360 and we finished six holes in an hour. Now I won't start a wood fence without one, even for just a few posts. Anyone else have a tool they fought buying that became a total game changer?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

wyatt771•1d ago

Unpopular opinion: I used to think board game nights were about winning

For years, my goal at our weekly group in Columbus was to crush everyone. I'd pick the meanest strategies, hoard resources, and keep my plans secret. The turning point was a game of Root about six months ago. I was playing the Marquise de Cat and had a perfect engine built to steamroll the Woodland Alliance. My friend Dave, playing the Alliance, just looked defeated and said, 'Man, this isn't fun anymore.' I realized I'd turned a three-hour social event into a solo puzzle. Now, I focus on the table talk, the wild plays, and the shared story. I'll even point out a better move to a new player if it makes the game more interesting for everyone. Winning is fine, but the real point is the group having a good time together. Does anyone else have a story about shifting their focus from victory to the experience?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

wyatt771•5d ago

My buddy told me to never play a 5 hour game after midnight

We started a game of Twilight Imperium at 8pm and he said 'trust me, you'll regret this by 2am'. I thought he was just being a downer, but by 1:30am we were still on round 6 and two people were asleep on the couch. The final galactic council vote happened at 3:15am and nobody even remembered what we were voting on. Has anyone else completely lost a game night to a marathon session that went off the rails?

2 comments

c/balcony-veggie-gardens•

wyatt771•7d ago

Honestly, the whole 'big pots for big roots' thing never worked on my balcony

I was at a garden show in Portland last spring and saw a guy growing huge peppers in these shallow, wide containers. He said he switched after his deep pots kept getting waterlogged at the bottom. I tried it this year with my bell peppers, using a 12-inch wide but only 8-inch deep planter. Tbh, they're the healthiest plants I've had in three seasons. I think the soil dries out more evenly up here on the 4th floor. Has anyone else had better luck with wider, shallower pots for veggies on a balcony?

2 comments

c/arborists•

wyatt771•7d ago

Used a new climbing line on a big oak removal and it twisted up bad

I was taking down a 90-foot white oak in Springfield last month and decided to try that 11mm static line everyone's been talking about. Halfway through the job, it started coiling like a spring every time I sent a piece down. My ground guy had to stop twice to untangle it, which really slowed us down. I learned that some lines just don't behave well under heavy, dynamic loads, even if they're rated for it. Has anyone found a static line that doesn't twist when you're dropping big wood?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

wyatt771•9d ago

Can we talk about using a kitchen timer to speed up slow players?

My game group in Austin had a guy who took forever on his turn, so last month I brought a 3-minute sand timer from a Pictionary box. It cut our Terraforming Mars game from 4 hours to under 3, but now he's mad and says it ruins the fun. Where do you stand on using timers to keep things moving?

2 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

wyatt771•9d ago

My star tracker just logged its 500th hour of use and I feel like I should throw it a party

I was cleaning up my astrophotography folder and the software log popped up with a total runtime of 500.3 hours. That's over 20 full days of that little motor whirring away. It's survived three camping trips to Joshua Tree, a near-drop off a tripod, and one very confused raccoon that tried to climb it. The crazy part is I only bought it to try a single picture of the Orion Nebula two years ago. Now I'm looking at this number wondering if I need to start an oil change schedule for a piece of camera gear. Has anyone else's equipment hit a weirdly high mileage mark that made you pause?

2 comments

c/camera-repairers•

wyatt771•10d ago

Unpopular opinion: I think that new 'universal' sensor cleaning fluid is a bad idea

Had a guy bring in a Leica M10 last week with a sensor that looked like it had been wiped with syrup, and he swore he only used two drops of the stuff. It left a residue that took me three hours with pure alcohol to get off without damaging the microlenses. Has anyone else seen this happen with the blue bottle stuff from that big online store?

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

wyatt771•17d ago

Had a client's cat decide my open PC case was a perfect heated bed

Was doing a motherboard swap on a custom build yesterday, left the room for five minutes to grab a coffee. Came back to a full grown tabby curled up on the GPU, purring away. Had to bribe it out with a bag of treats before I could finish the job. Anyone else have pets that think your workbench is their personal lounge?

2 comments

Posts

Hot take: Our club spent three meetings arguing over the ending of 'Klara and the Sun'

Rant: I used to set posts with just a shovel and a level. After a job in Everett with pure clay, I bought a gas-powered auger.

Unpopular opinion: I used to think board game nights were about winning

My buddy told me to never play a 5 hour game after midnight

Honestly, the whole 'big pots for big roots' thing never worked on my balcony

Used a new climbing line on a big oak removal and it twisted up bad

Can we talk about using a kitchen timer to speed up slow players?

My star tracker just logged its 500th hour of use and I feel like I should throw it a party

Unpopular opinion: I think that new 'universal' sensor cleaning fluid is a bad idea

Had a client's cat decide my open PC case was a perfect heated bed

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