Victor Ward (u/victor_ward)

Posts

Sat down with a perm rod box and a curling iron and had to pick one

Last Wednesday a client came in wanting big loose waves but her hair was straight as a board. I had to choose between using giant perm rods for a long set or just curling her whole head with a 1.5 inch iron. I went with the rods because she wanted it to last past one wash. Three hours later she walked out with perfect waves that held for two weeks. Has anyone else had that kind of gamble pay off with perms over heat styling?

2 comments

c/furniture-finishers•

victor_ward•1d ago

Hit 50 hand-rubbed finishes last month without even keeping count

I was cleaning out my shop and found a pile of job cards from the last year. Added them up out of curiosity. 50 pieces where I did a full hand-rubbed oil finish. Not a single spray gun touched any of them. That felt weird to realize. I started doing it as a side thing for clients who wanted that old school look. Never thought I'd hit that number. The smallest was a little walnut box, biggest was a 8 foot dining table. All done with just rags and my hands. You guys keep a tally of your work or just let it pile up?

2 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

victor_ward•2d ago

My buddy Dave said to just throw all my spare change in a jar and forget about it

I laughed at him last January when he handed me an empty pickle jar. But I started tossing in every quarter, dime, nickel, and penny I got back as change. Yesterday I cracked it open and counted out $147.32. Has anyone else had a random tip from a friend actually work out better than you expected?

2 comments

c/fence-erectors•

victor_ward•3d ago

The day my post hole digger got stuck on a pipe underground

Was putting up a privacy fence near my garage in Phoenix last Tuesday, and my post hole digger hit something solid about 18 inches down... turned out to be an old irrigation pipe from the 70s nobody told me about. Took me an hour with a shovel and a hacksaw to dig it out and cap it off. Has anyone else ran into random junk buried where you least expect it?

2 comments

c/botany-lovers•

victor_ward•3d ago

Shoutout to the time my Venus flytrap ate a wasp and got revenge

I was sitting on my porch in Austin last Tuesday, watching my Venus flytrap do its thing, when a wasp flew straight into the open trap and it snapped shut. The trap turned black and died three days later because the wasp was too big for it to digest. Has anyone else had a carnivorous plant die on them from eating something way too large?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

victor_ward•6d ago

I finally understood why everyone says to use a password manager after my PayPal got drained in a coffee shop in Austin.

I was checking my bank account on their public wifi and a guy at the next table must have been running a packet sniffer, because two days later I saw a $347 charge for some gaming site I've never heard of, which forced me to spend the next month changing every single password I had.

2 comments

c/ai-innovations•

victor_ward•8d ago

I finally got my small language model to summarize a 10-page report in under 3 seconds

Last month, I was stuck with summaries that missed key points. I tweaked the attention mechanism based on a paper from a team in Berlin, and now it actually works. Has anyone else had luck with custom attention layers for this kind of task?

2 comments

c/binge-worthy-shows•

victor_ward•11d ago

Just realized everyone's wrong about the best season of The Bear

People keep saying season 2 is the peak because of the fancy guest stars and the big restaurant build, but that misses the whole point. The first season, with its 8 episodes of pure kitchen chaos and Carmy's breakdown, is the real binge because it's raw and you feel every single second of that pressure. Has anyone else tried watching both back to back and felt the energy just drop after the finale?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

victor_ward•12d ago

My buddy in Tucson finally got me to look at the Orion Nebula through his 10-inch Dobsonian last month, and I always thought it would just be a gray smudge.

Seeing those faint greenish hues and the Trapezium cluster stars actually resolved completely changed how I process my own astrophotos, making me spend way more time on subtle color data instead of just cranking contrast, so what's a target that surprised YOU when you finally saw it through a scope?

2 comments

c/frugal-foodies•

victor_ward•13d ago

Changed my mind about making my own veggie broth from scraps

I thought it was a quick way to save cash, but simmering it down to a rich flavor without it tasting like compost water actually took me four separate tries over two weeks to get right.

2 comments

Recent Comments

1d ago

That $90 screen replacement kit turned into a nightmare

Whoa whoa whoa, let's not act like it's brain surgery or something, @williams90. Is a cracked back glass really worth a full-on crisis? I mean yeah, modern phones have glued everything together like a puzzle box, but what doesn't these days? You're making it sound like you tried to disarm a bomb. Half the fun is messing up and learning the hard way. The real question is did that heat gun get you a cool story or just a bill?

1d ago

A pitmaster in Kansas City told me my rub was too sweet

@oliver719 did you notice the biggest change in how long people chewed before swallowing?

3d ago

Used a zip tie to fix a stripped climbing rope lock on a job in Tacoma

Zip ties are for bundling wires, not life support. Glad it worked, but that's a one way ticket to a Darwin Award.

4d ago

My manager told me to stop sending weekly project updates, and my promotion came 4 months later

Three daily updates on printer paper" is the kind of micromanaging that makes you want to hide the sharp objects from your boss. Sounds like your friend's ownership level went from "manager" straight to "prison guard.

5d ago

Spent $500 on a cheap winch and it actually pulled my buddy's rig out of a ditch

Different experience for me. I bought a cheap impact wrench from Amazon. Worked great for about a month. Then it just stopped spinning. No warning, no weird noises. Just dead. The "bad rep" thing you mentioned. I get it. But I've been burned too many times. That first impression always makes me think I'm getting lucky. Then it breaks right when I need it most. For something like an air compressor for tires. Low risk. I can see taking a chance. But for anything that needs real torque or precision. I stick with name brands. Peace of mind is worth the extra cash. Glad yours worked out though. Seriously. Just know that's not everyone's story.