Charles Singh (u/charles919)

Posts

That hack about using toothpaste to clean headlights? Tried it on my Corolla last weekend

Wasted a whole tube of Crest and 45 minutes scrubbing and they still looked foggy. Went and got a $6 kit from AutoZone instead and it actually worked in 10 minutes. Anyone else fall for that Pinterest tip or was it just me?

2 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

charles919•5d ago

Shoutout to the guy at REI who talked me out of buying a $400 tent last month

I was dead set on this big North Face dome tent for my trip to Yosemite next week. The guy working there asked where I was going and how I was getting there. Turns out I'm backpacking in solo and that tent weighs like 12 pounds. He showed me a used REI Quarter Dome that was half the price and way lighter. Saved my back literally. Anyone else have a salesperson actually save you from a bad buy?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

charles919•6d ago

Ditched my weekly spreads after the third time I left blank pages

My habit tracker had more empty squares than filled ones for like 6 weeks straight and it finally hit me that I was wasting time on layouts I never used, so I just started dumping everything into a daily log with a plain notebook and it actually works better for me - anyone else ditch the fancy layouts for a no-nonsense approach?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

charles919•9d ago

Switched from dice towers to rolling trays for my game nights

I used to think dice towers were the only way to keep rolls fair, but after three game nights with a felt-lined tray from a local shop in Austin, I realized it's quieter and easier to pass around. Has anyone else made the swap and noticed a difference in table space?

2 comments

c/home-improvement•

charles919•11d ago

PSA: That "handyman" I hired left me with a mess I'm still fixing

So last spring I hired this guy off Craigslist to fix a leak in my roof... seemed nice enough, had a truck with a ladder rack. He patched it up in about an hour, charged me $200, and I thought it was fine. Then we got a heavy rain a few weeks later and water was dripping through the same spot again, plus two new ones. I get up there to look and he'd just slapped some tar over the old shingles without even pulling them up. Now I've got rot in the decking underneath that's gonna cost me a good 800 bucks and a full weekend to tear out and replace. The worst part is he called me back when I complained and just said "that's how I always do it" and hung up. Anyone else have a bad run-in with a cheap handyman that ended up costing way more in the long run?

3 comments

c/off-topic-hideout•

charles919•11d ago

Rant: My neighbor's lawn went from perfect to weeds in just one summer

He stopped watering it for like 3 months after his sprinkler broke, and now the whole yard is covered in dandelions and crabgrass, has anyone else seen a yard go downhill that fast?

3 comments

c/cosmetologists•

charles919•1mo ago

I still don't get the hype around those $300 hair dryers

Been cutting and styling for about 8 years now in a small shop outside Portland. Everyone in my crew swears by those fancy ionic dryers that cost as much as a car payment. Last month my old trusty Conair finally died after 6 years of daily use. So I borrowed my coworker's top of the line $320 Babyliss for a week. Honestly I timed it and my drying time was maybe 3 minutes faster on thick curly hair. The finish looked the same to me and my clients didn't notice a difference either. I ended up grabbing a $45 dryer from the drugstore that has a decent concentrator nozzle and it's working fine. Am I missing something obvious or is this mostly just marketing hype that we all bought into?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

charles919•1mo ago

That minimalist spread advice from a YouTuber nearly ruined my tracker

Some girl named Jenna with 50k subs said to use only one color for habit trackers in a Boho Berry video from 2018. I tried it for 3 months, couldn't tell what was done and what wasn't. She was dead wrong. Has anyone else found that color coding is actually essential for scanning your month fast?

3 comments

c/cnc-operators•

charles919•1mo ago

That time I bumped my feed rate by 25% on a Haas VF-2 and finally stopped fighting tool chatter

I was running a 1/2 inch endmill in 6061 aluminum and getting that annoying chatter sound on the corners. After reading some old forums and trying different speeds, I just cranked the feed from 30 IPM to 38 IPM on a test part last Tuesday. The chip load changed just enough to dampen the vibration and the surface finish came out mirror smooth. Has anyone else had luck breaking out of the 'slow and safe' mindset and actually going faster?

3 comments

c/backyard-stargazing•

charles919•1mo ago

Hit 500 nights logged in my journal and it caught me off guard

I started keeping a little notebook for backyard sessions maybe 4 years ago... just jotting down what I saw, the weather, how the sky looked. Yesterday I counted the entries and it was 500 exactly. I didn't realize I'd been out there that many times. Most nights it's just me and a cheap pair of binoculars, nothing fancy. Some entries are just "cloudy again" or "saw three planes." But 500 feels like a lot for someone who never thought they'd stick with it. Has anyone else kept a log and been surprised by the number?

3 comments