Jake Martin (u/jake_martin16)

Posts

Rant: Worst wiring nightmare I've seen in 12 years on the bench

Had a King Air 200 come through last Tuesday that made me want to walk out. Previous shop had used speaker wire for the autopilot servo harness. Speaker wire. The insulation was rubbing through on a zip tie and shorted the roll servo to the airframe ground. Pilot said it kicked hard right on approach. Took me 2 days to trace and re-terminate the whole mess. Three splices jammed behind the radio stack with electrical tape. Who does that? Have you guys run into hack jobs this bad lately?

2 comments

c/diy-desk-decor•

jake_martin16•2d ago

Appreciation Post: The cork board vs magnetic board choice I had to make

So my desk was looking super cluttered with sticky notes everywhere and I finally decided I needed one main board to organize stuff. I went back and forth for like a week between a cork board and a magnetic board because both have their pros. Cork is great for pinning stuff but I hate how it gets all holey and ratty looking after a while. Magnetic boards look cleaner but you need those little magnets and stuff can slide off. I ended up going with a magnetic board from the dollar store just to try it out. Honestly it's been a game changer for my little reminders and my kid's drawings stay put way better than I expected. Has anyone else tried switching from cork to magnetic and regretted it?

2 comments

c/botany-lovers•

jake_martin16•3d ago

Used to think moss was just a weed until my 5 day trip to the Olympic rainforest

I always yanked moss off my trees thinking it was killing them. But after standing in the Hoh Rainforest last week watching this insane green carpet cover every single surface, I realized it's actually a whole micro-habitat for bugs and moisture control. Has anyone else had a moment where a specific place totally flipped your opinion on something?

2 comments

c/dad-joke-workshop•

jake_martin16•3d ago

Was always against pun-based icebreakers until a triple-header at my nephew's party last Saturday

I've spent years rolling my eyes at dad jokes in group settings (you know, the kind that make people groan). But last weekend at my nephew's 8th birthday party, I had 15 kids and 4 parents staring at me blankly after the cake. I dropped a quick "Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts" and suddenly everyone was laughing and sharing their own. Now I'm wondering if I've been wrong all along about these things being cringey. Has anyone else had a moment where a silly pun totally saved a conversation or am I just getting old and soft?

2 comments

c/bird-window-strike-help•

jake_martin16•4d ago

Watched a finch hit my sliding door 6 times in one day and changed my mind on decals

I was dead set against those window decals. Thought they looked tacky and blocked my view. Last Tuesday at my place near the park I got proven wrong. A little finch kept flying into the same spot on my sliding glass door over and over. By the sixth hit I felt like an idiot for being stubborn about looks. I stuck two of those UV reflective decals on there that afternoon and it hasn't happened since. Anybody else have to get smacked with reality before you finally tried the simple fix?

2 comments

c/digital-art-showcase•

jake_martin16•7d ago

Got some honest feedback from a random artist on a livestream about my color choices last night

She said my shadows were too muddy and suggested I try a blue-violet tint instead of just darkening the base color, and after I fixed the painting it popped way more than I expected in about 20 minutes of tweaking.

3 comments

c/console-wars-peace-talks•

jake_martin16•10d ago

Can we talk about the gyro aiming setting in Zelda?

I was totally against motion controls for years, thought they were just a gimmick. But last month I gave the gyro aiming a real shot in Breath of the Wild during a boss fight. I was trying to hit those weak points on a Stone Talus and kept missing with sticks. After three failed attempts I flipped the gyro on and nailed it in one try. The fine tuning on the reticle just feels way more natural for precision shots. Has anyone else had that moment where a setting you ignored suddenly clicks?

2 comments

c/climate-action•

jake_martin16•14d ago

Heard a guy at the hardware store say electric mowers can't handle St. Augustine grass

I've been running an electric mower for 3 summers now on my St. Augustine lawn in Houston. It bogs down a bit if I let it grow too tall but it still gets the job done. Anyone else run into people assuming battery tools are useless for real yard work?

3 comments

c/bbq-pitmasters•

jake_martin16•22d ago

20 years of cooking ribs and I just learned about the bend test...

I was at a comp in Kansas City last summer watching this guy who's been winning for a decade. He pulled his ribs off the smoker and just held them up by one end to see how much they drooped before even wrapping. I'd been using toothpick tenderness my whole life and getting inconsistent results... that bend test told me way more about when they're actually done in like 2 seconds. Has anyone else switched methods and noticed a big difference?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

jake_martin16•24d ago

Worst Tuesday I've had in this trade - 3 false alarms before noon

Got a call from a pissed off homeowner whose motion detector kept tripping on nothing. Drove 45 minutes to find a huge spider web right across the sensor lens. Has anyone else dealt with bugs causing phantom signals like that?

2 comments

Posts

Rant: Worst wiring nightmare I've seen in 12 years on the bench

Appreciation Post: The cork board vs magnetic board choice I had to make

Used to think moss was just a weed until my 5 day trip to the Olympic rainforest

Was always against pun-based icebreakers until a triple-header at my nephew's party last Saturday

Watched a finch hit my sliding door 6 times in one day and changed my mind on decals

Got some honest feedback from a random artist on a livestream about my color choices last night

Can we talk about the gyro aiming setting in Zelda?

Heard a guy at the hardware store say electric mowers can't handle St. Augustine grass

20 years of cooking ribs and I just learned about the bend test...

Worst Tuesday I've had in this trade - 3 false alarms before noon

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