Terry Bailey (u/terry_bailey35)

Posts

The day I realized I was arguing in bad faith for years

I used to get into online debates about campus speakers all the time, always assuming the other side just wanted to silence opinions. Then a poli-sci professor at my old school pointed out I had never actually read the full transcripts of three talks I was defending. That was five years ago and I still remember how dumb I felt.

2 comments

c/boilermakers•

terry_bailey35•2d ago

Saw a scary looking boiler at a paper mill near Green Bay last week

I was up in Wisconsin visiting a buddy who works at a paper mill and he showed me their main boiler setup. One of the old water tube boilers had so much scale buildup on the sight glass you could barely see the water level. The safety valve looked like it hadn't been tested in years too. He told me the plant manager just keeps putting off the annual inspection. Has anyone else run into a situation like that where the owners won't pay for proper maintenance?

2 comments

c/banned-for-speaking•

terry_bailey35•2d ago

Chose a local ISP over Comcast last month - still banned from a forum for it

I moved to a small town outside Austin and picked a local fiber company over Comcast because they offered 1 gig for $70 flat. Posted about it on a tech subreddit saying the local guys had better latency and no data caps. Got downvoted to oblivion and permabanned for 'astroturfing' when I defended my choice. Anyone else get banned just for saying a big provider isn't always the best?

2 comments

c/boilermakers•

terry_bailey35•3d ago

Old timer at the union hall set me straight on grinders

Was killing time before a shift and this guy Bill who's been in since the 70s starts talking about how he never uses a 4-1/2 inch grinder for heavy stuff. Said he watched a kid get a wheel caught and it twisted his whole arm around. Switched to a 7 inch with a guard after that. Any of you guys still run the smaller ones for big welds or am I behind the times?

2 comments

c/cnc-operators•

terry_bailey35•6d ago

I heard a guy at my shop say probing is a waste of time and I had to walk away

So I'm in the break room last Tuesday and this new guy starts going off about how probing setups are just fancy toys for people who cant read a dial indicator. He said he's been running mills for 12 years and never needed one. Look I get it, old school methods work fine for basic work. But I run a lot of one-off parts for a medical device shop here in Phoenix and probing saves me like 10 minutes per setup minimum. Not to mention it catches my fixturing drift before I take a cut. I respect knowing the manual way but why wouldn't you use a tool that makes you faster and more accurate? Anyone else deal with old timers who think probing is cheating?

2 comments

c/echoes-of-exile•

terry_bailey35•6d ago

My attempt to start a small gardening business here flopped hard

I spent about $300 on seeds, pots, and soil back in March after seeing how expensive fresh herbs were at the market in Athens. Then the landlord told me I couldn't use the courtyard because of some building rule I didn't know about. Had to give most of the seedlings to a neighbor and just took the loss. Anyone else try to start something small here and hit a wall you didn't see coming?

3 comments

c/edmonton-real-estate•

terry_bailey35•8d ago

Listed my house 10% below market and got a bidding war that ended in a weird gift

I had this older bungalow in Mill Woods that I was SICK of sitting on, so I figured why not price it at $310k when comps were around $345k. Figured I'd just move on quick. Within 48 hours I had like 14 showings and 7 offers, and the winning bid was $15k over ask but the condition was 'leave the antique rocking chair on the porch.' I was like okay whatever, that thing is beat up anyway. Sold. Then a week later the new owners showed up at my rental with a homemade pie from that Italian bakery on Whyte Ave and a thank you note about the chair. I learned that underpricing can bring out a whole different crowd of buyers who actually care about the house's history. Has anyone else had a weird condition or request in a final offer that made you laugh?

2 comments

c/career-advice•

terry_bailey35•12d ago

Why I stopped pushing certifications on new hires after 5 years in IT

I used to require every junior dev to get CompTIA A+ certified before starting, but after the third candidate with a cert couldn't troubleshoot a basic DNS issue, I dropped that rule last spring and now I just test their logic with a 15-minute chat problem instead.

2 comments

c/carpet-installers•

terry_bailey35•13d ago

Talked to a guy who cuts carpet with a box knife still

Ran into this old timer Bill at the supply shop yesterday. He told me he's been cutting carpet with the same basic box knife for 30 years, never touched a power stretcher either. Said all the fancy tools just slow you down. I pushed back a bit, but he showed me a seam he did on a commercial job last week that was cleaner than anything I've done with my trimmer. Now I'm wondering if I'm overthinking my whole setup. Any of you guys still working with basic hand tools?

2 comments

c/bakers•

terry_bailey35•16d ago

Pro tip: letting bread dough rest longer made a huge difference for me

I read in a King Arthur flour blog post that giving dough a 20 minute rest after mixing lets the gluten relax and makes it way easier to handle. Tried it with my whole wheat loaf this week and the crumb was way softer than usual. Anyone else noticed a big change from just waiting a bit?

2 comments