I ran a phishing test on my team using a free template versus a custom one I wrote. The custom one caught 80% more people.

Serious question, I grew tomatoes from seed versus buying starts from the garden center

The seed packet cost $3 and the starts were $5 each, but after three months the seed plants are twice as big and have more fruit. I think the store plants were stressed from being in small pots too long. What's your take on starting your own plants versus buying them ready to go?

I just switched from using regular floral foam to Oasis Bio Foam for my sympathy arrangements.

I made the change after a funeral home director in Charlotte quietly mentioned last month that the old foam was leaving a slight chemical smell in their viewing rooms, and now I won't go back because the new stuff is just as sturdy but feels better to work with, has anyone else tried a specific eco-friendlier foam lately?

Had to pick between a plastic shed kit and building my own from scratch

My old metal shed in the backyard collapsed after a heavy snow in January. I looked at a 7x7 foot plastic kit for about $400, but worried it would blow away. I decided to build a small wood shed myself using leftover fence boards and some new plywood. It took two weekends and cost me maybe $150 total, but now I'm worried about rot setting in because I didn't treat the wood well enough. Has anyone else built their own and had issues with weatherproofing?

Pro tip: I dropped $400 on a 'client finder' course that was total garbage

It promised a system to get high-paying clients in 30 days, but the advice was just to spam LinkedIn with generic messages. I wasted that money and two weeks of my time following their useless steps. What's a real way to find good clients that doesn't involve buying some guru's overpriced PDF?

I was at a family dinner in Omaha and my cousin brought up the moon landing being fake. It got weird fast.

DAE miss the smell of a shop before all the new emissions stuff?

Last week, a new apprentice in our Denver shop asked what that 'weird sweet smell' was, and I realized he's never known the raw diesel and oil stink of a 7.3 Powerstroke bay from 3 years ago, before all the DEF and DPFs really took over.

Heard a foreman say 'drones are just for pretty pictures' on a site in Phoenix

He was talking about a big grading job and said the drone data was just fluff for the client. But I saw the same crew use that same data to spot a drainage issue before they poured a slab, saving a full day of rework. It made me think we still treat a lot of tech like a toy instead of a real tool. Has anyone else had to prove the practical use of something like drones or scanners to an old school boss?

Shoutout to the guy who taught me to always check the coolant line before a long run

Honestly, I was setting up a job on our old Haas last week, a 6 hour run for 50 aluminum parts. I did the usual checks but missed the coolant line to the spindle. Halfway through, the pump started making this awful grinding noise and my boss walked over and just said 'you're spraying the floor, not the tool'. Turns out the line had popped off its fitting. Has anyone else had a coolant line just decide to take a vacation mid-cycle?

Pro tip: that cheap knee kicker from the online auction site is a false economy.

I spent about $80 on one to save cash, and the head snapped clean off on the second job, a tight hallway in a 1950s bungalow. Has anyone found a decent mid-range brand that actually holds up?