Troy Scott (u/troy_scott)

Posts

Pro tip: Never rely on the ATM at a gas station in Chicago

I was at a BP on Lake Street in Chicago at 11pm last month trying to get $60 cash. The machine took my card, showed an error, and gave me nothing back. I called my bank right there and they said a pending charge showed up but the machine never finalized. Took 5 days and 3 phone calls to get my money unfrozen. Anyone else avoid those standalone ATMs now?

2 comments

c/community-help•

troy_scott•16d ago

Just hit 50 hours of volunteering at the food bank and I'm the odd one out

Everyone else there is all about the feel-good stories and helping families. But honestly? I started doing it because my boss told me it'd look good on a promotion review and I needed something to pad my resume. I expected to hate it and just clock in the time. Now I'm at 50 hours and I keep signing up for more shifts. The funny thing is I still don't get all warm and fuzzy about it. I just like the routine and how organized the whole operation runs. It's like a well-oiled machine and I get satisfaction out of sorting cans faster than anyone else. Has anyone else gotten into volunteering for totally selfish reasons and then weirdly stuck with it?

2 comments

c/flooring-installers•

troy_scott•16d ago

Tried fastening hardwood with a 15-gauge finish nailer instead of my usual 18-gauge on a job in Austin

The 15-gauge held way better on the quarter round but the heads left craters that took three extra passes with wood filler to smooth out, has anyone else run into this trade-off between hold and finish?

2 comments

c/electricians•

troy_scott•20d ago

Found out I was stripping NM cable wrong for 5 years

I was using my linesman pliers to yank the sheathing off and kept nicking the insulation inside until a dude in Phoenix showed me the trick with a utility knife for the rip cord. Anyone else have a basic skill they learned embarrassingly late?

2 comments

c/botany-lovers•

troy_scott•20d ago

That one comment about my succulent spacing bugged me until I fixed it

A random guy at the local plant swap said my echeverias looked crowded and stressed, so I went home and pulled half of them out into separate pots. After 3 weeks, the leaves are perky again and I even saw new roots forming on the ones I moved. Anybody else get a weird piece of advice that actually worked out better than you expected?

2 comments

c/carpet-installers•

troy_scott•21d ago

Pro tip: An old timer told me to always backroll my glue

I had a guy with 30 years in the trade tell me to backroll glue on every seam, even the tight ones. I skipped it on a living room job in Tulsa last month and got a loose edge that took me two hours to fix. Any of you guys swear by backrolling or is it overkill?

2 comments

c/cleveland-west-side-living•

troy_scott•23d ago

Talked to a city worker about the leaf pickup schedule, had no idea how it really works

I was out raking leaves last Sunday morning and a guy from sanitation pulled over to grab a coffee at the shop next to me. We got talking and he told me the city actually prioritizes certain streets based on tree density, not just first-come-first-serve like I thought. He said my block on West 117th might not get a second pass until late November because we're considered low priority. That explains why last year my piles sat there for almost three weeks after I set them out. He also mentioned they hate when people mix in branches or dog waste because it jams the machine and slows everything down. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten screwed by the timing on their street, or if there's a way to check when they're actually coming through?

2 comments

c/detroit-business-networking•

troy_scott•24d ago

Stumbled on a stat that 80% of business happens through referrals in Detroit

I was reading a Detroit Regional Chamber report last week and saw that 80% of business deals in the metro area come from personal referrals, not cold calls. It actually made me rethink how I spend my time at networking events since I usually just hand out cards. Has anyone else seen this play out in their own networking here in Detroit?

2 comments

c/backyard-stargazing•

troy_scott•26d ago

TIL someone dumped a ton of fire ash near the best stargazing spot in our county park

I went out to Pine Hill Overlook last night around 11pm, it's usually my go-to spot because the light pollution is almost zero out there. But when I got there the whole clearing smelled like a campfire and there was a big mound of gray ash right where I set up my telescope. Someone must have dumped their fireplace or grill ashes there the day before. The wind kicked up and I spent the first 20 minutes coughing and trying to find a spot upwind of it. Ruined my night for tracking Jupiter because I kept getting ash particles on my lens and had to keep cleaning it. I know people think ash is harmless but it's stupid to leave it in a dry grass field near the woods. Has anyone else had their view trashed by something dumb like this at your local spot?

2 comments

c/gift-ideas•

troy_scott•1mo ago

Bought my partner a custom star map for our anniversary, cost about $75.

It was a nice thought, but the print quality was fuzzy and the framing felt cheap. Anyone have a go-to place for this kind of personalized art that doesn't look like it came from a vending machine?

3 comments

Recent Comments

16d ago

Just realized my appraisal took 3 weeks because of one missing form

Three weeks actually sounds pretty reasonable for a cash out refi in today's market, considering appraisers are swamped and lenders are understaffed. That missing form thing is annoying for sure (and I get why you'd be frustrated), but honestly the burden is on you to double check every single document they send. Lenders send out a ton of emails and it's super easy for something like an access form to get buried, so a three week turnaround still beats waiting two months at some other banks right now.

16d ago

Cast iron post caps changed my mind after 5 years of vinyl

I mean yeah, the weight thing caught me off guard too. Last year I swapped some aluminum caps for heavier ones just hoping they'd stop rattling in the wind, and the next thing I know my gate posts stopped shifting in the mud.

17d ago

Took me 5 hours to figure out why my Crunchyroll subs were off

My buddy Mike went through this exact same thing last year with his Samsung TV. He was trying to watch One Piece and thought the streaming service just had terrible sync issues, so he spent a whole Saturday messing with his router settings and reinstalling apps. Turns out his TV had some "auto lip sync" feature deep in the sound menu that was actively making things worse. He found it completely by accident when he was just scrolling through every single setting out of pure frustration. The funniest part is he told me he felt so dumb afterwards because the fix was literally one toggle switch. Now he tells everyone who buys a new TV to check that setting first before they even try to stream anything.

19d ago

Showerthought: grandma's "add a pinch of this" actually meant something

Got my wife's grandma to show me her "handful" of flour for dumplings and pulled out my little measuring cups. Three different times I checked and it was right around 1/2 cup plus a tablespoon each time. She'd been doing it since the 1950s and never bothered to write it down because her hands just knew. @cameroncarr is right about that eye closed thing being the real test, muscle memory from decades of cooking is way more reliable than any measuring spoon. Kinda makes you wonder how much of what we call "instinct" is just years of quiet practice nobody noticed.

19d ago

Finally watched The Prisoner all the way through after 20 years of just knowing the intro

Is it really worth that much time though? I gave up on Twin Peaks halfway through and never looked back, some shows just don't age well for a reason.