Update: A judge told me my brisket was 'mush' and it made me rethink everything

I entered a local comp in Kansas City last fall, and one of the judges wrote on my score sheet, 'Texture is off, feels steamed, not smoked.' I was using a water pan in my offset, thinking it kept things moist. After that, I pulled the pan out completely and focused on managing my fire for clean, dry heat. The bark on my next brisket was night and day better. Has anyone else had a piece of advice that flipped a basic part of your process?

Update on using aluminum wire in old houses

My boss, Frank, told me to always pigtail aluminum with COPALUM connectors, not just twist on a wire nut. I thought he was being too careful until I saw a melted outlet in a 1972 split-level last month. The homeowner said they just used regular connectors. Anyone have a go-to brand for those crimp connectors besides the usual ones?

Finally got my polar alignment dialed in after 4 hours of fighting with it

I was convinced my mount was busted until I realized my leveling base was off by a few degrees on my patio. Anyone else have a simple step they always double-check now?

Honestly just hit 100 unique passwords in my manager and I feel like a crazy person

Watching a documentary on the Three Gorges Dam and the number 22.5 million cubic meters of concrete used really put its scale into perspective for me.

That's more concrete than I've poured in my entire 30-year career, and it makes you think about the sheer logistical effort behind modern Chinese infrastructure projects.

Shoutout to the Chase branch manager who fixed my wire transfer mess last Thursday

The payment got stuck for 3 days because someone entered the SWIFT code wrong. Has anyone else had a bank actually call them to sort it out?

Walked into a bank in Boise and saw something I thought was gone for good

I was in there last Tuesday to get a cashier's check. While I waited, I noticed they still had a full service coin counting machine right in the lobby. You know, the free ones for customers. I figured those were all pulled out years ago because of cost. This one was busy too. A guy in front of me dumped a huge jar of change, maybe $50 worth. The teller just helped him bag it up, no fee. It made me rethink the whole move to digital only. Banks are cutting branches, but this one kept a service that actually gets people inside. Makes the place feel more like a community spot than just an app. Do you think keeping stuff like that is worth it for them, or is it just a waste of floor space?

I used to think those cheap plastic dent pullers were a total joke

Heard a guy at a trade show in Dallas say he fixed a door ding on a new F-150 in under 20 minutes with just a hot glue gun puller kit. He showed me the before and after pics and you couldn't even tell. I always figured you needed a real stud welder for anything decent, but for small stuff on thin modern panels, it actually works fine and saves a ton of setup. Now I keep one in my cart for quick hail damage estimates. Anyone tried these on aluminum body panels yet, or does it just not stick right?

I've been cutting my own underlayment for years and just found out I was wasting a ton of material.

I was working on a big LVT job in a house in Tacoma last month, and the homeowner's son was watching me. He's a carpenter. He saw me cutting a full roll of pad to fit a room and said, 'You know, you could just run it parallel to the flooring planks and butt the seams, right?' I always cut it to the shape of the room, which uses way more pad and time. I tried his way on the next room and saved about 15% of the underlayment. I've probably thrown away hundreds of dollars worth over the last decade. Do any of you guys run your pad this way, or do you still cut it to fit?

Reading an old textbook from 2005 and the advice on sun protection was way off

It recommended SPF 15 as sufficient for daily wear, which seems wild now. Found it in a box of stuff from my first esthetics class.