Spent $60 on a soil moisture meter that turned my plant care around

My fiddle leaf fig was dropping leaves for months, and I was overwatering it by guessing. The meter showed the soil was actually wet way down deep when the top felt dry. Anyone have a favorite tool that changed how you care for a specific plant?

Rant: The digital art at the new library in Springfield was a real letdown

I went to the grand opening of the new public library in Springfield yesterday, and they had a whole section for a digital art display. The screens were huge, but every single piece was just a basic, slow-moving gradient or a simple geometric shape. It felt like they just bought a cheap stock video pack. I talked to one of the staff, and she said the city only budgeted $500 for the whole digital art project. Has anyone else seen public digital art that actually tried to do something interesting?

Serious question, I just read that Chicago landlords can charge up to $500 for a pet deposit

I was looking at a lease for a place in Logan Square and saw that line, so I checked the city's rental rules online. It turns out there's no legal limit on pet fees in Illinois, but Chicago has its own rule capping it at that amount. Has anyone here had a landlord try to charge more than that?

Pro tip: I used to think scraping art for AI training was just smart data use until I saw my own work in a model.

I was testing a new image generator last week and typed in a very specific prompt about a red fox in a raincoat, which was the exact subject of a digital painting I posted online two years ago. The output was a clear, mangled copy of my composition and style, and it hit me that my unpaid work was now a direct competitor to my own commissions. How do you even begin to argue for fair use when the system is built on taking from everyone?

I hit 1000 followers on my 'quiet quitting' advice account and it feels wrong

Everyone says it's a big trend, but I think it's just a fad. I got there by posting about setting clear work limits, but now I see it's just a new name for an old idea. Has anyone else watched a trend blow up and then just fade away?

Serious question, has anyone else had trouble with that new 'quick quench' oil?

I bought a five gallon pail of the stuff last month after seeing ads online. Used it on a batch of twelve leaf spring knives and every single one came out with micro cracks in the spine. That's about $200 in steel and a full day's work gone. I went back to my old Parks 50 and the next batch was perfect. What quenching oil are you all using for tool steel now?

My whole night of shooting the Perseids got wrecked by a bad power bank

Last Friday night I was all set up in my backyard in Boise to capture the meteor shower. I had my camera on a tripod with an intervalometer set for 300 shots. About an hour in, my brand new power bank just died, cutting power to the camera. It was supposed to last 10 hours but it only gave me 90 minutes. I had to scramble and plug into an extension cord from my garage, but I missed a bunch of good meteors during the switch. Has anyone found a power bank that actually holds up for a full night of long exposures?

Changed how I check for a bad door switch on front load washers

I used to just jump the terminals with a wire to test them, but after a call back for a washer that wouldn't start, I realized that doesn't always catch a failing switch that works when cold. Now I use my meter to check for continuity while I push the door latch in and out a bunch of times. Found one last week that only failed on the 5th press. Anyone else run into these intermittent ones?

I thought the rumors about that actor's secret marriage were total nonsense until I saw the property records from last month.

Appreciation post: A volunteer at the local dig site mentioned a pottery shard was 'just a piece of someone's Tuesday'

It made me realize we're often looking for big events, but most finds are from ordinary life. Has anyone else had a small artifact shift how you view daily history?