Mia Rodriguez (u/rodriguez.mia)

Posts

That weird debate about Jane Eyre and Bertha at our last meetup really threw me

I stopped by the Midtown Library book club last Thursday and someone argued that Bertha Mason was just a plot device and not a real character with agency. It got me thinking, is she really just there to advance Jane's story or is there more to her role in the novel? Has anyone else run into this kind of split opinion in your group about classic characters?

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c/coffee-enthusiasts•

rodriguez.mia•3d ago

My neighbor the barista told me my grinder was ruining my coffee for 2 years

I was over at his place last week and he made me a cup from my own beans. Tasted completely different. He said my blade grinder was burning the grounds before they even hit the water. Felt kind of dumb but he showed me his burr grinder and the difference was night and day. Anyone else have someone point out an obvious gear problem you been ignoring?

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c/book-club-debates•

rodriguez.mia•5d ago

My book club imploded over a $35 copy of The Goldfinch

Our group in Austin got into a massive fight last week because someone brought a signed first edition to discuss and claimed it was the 'only valid reading experience.' I told them the paperback from the library worked just fine and they blew up at me. Now half the members are threatening to quit. Has anyone else had a debate get this personal over something as dumb as an edition?

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c/barbers•

rodriguez.mia•5d ago

Can we talk about that $60 clipper oil I bought at the beauty supply

I snagged a bottle of some fancy clipper oil from a shop in Austin for 60 bucks thinking it would make my blades glide like butter. Turns out it was just rebranded mineral oil that cost maybe 2 dollars to make. Has anyone else fallen for a overpriced oil that did nothing special?

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c/b2b-services•

rodriguez.mia•5d ago

TIL onboarding a new client took 6 weeks longer than I planned

I picked up a mid size manufacturing client in February and thought I'd have their CRM set up in 2 weeks. It ended up taking 8 weeks because their old data was all over spreadsheets and sticky notes. Every department had a different way of tracking leads and I had to sit down with 4 managers to figure out what was real. I finally built a simple pipeline in HubSpot with just 5 stages and it actually works now. Has anyone else had a client promise clean data and then hand you a mess of random files?

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c/ai-innovations•

rodriguez.mia•6d ago

Showerthought: AI voice cloning made me stop trusting phone calls from my own brother

Honestly, my brother called me last Thursday crying about an emergency, said he wrecked his truck and needed $2k for a tow. Sounded exactly like him, same pauses and everything. I almost sent the money until I called his wife and he was sitting right there watching TV. Now I have a family code word we use on any important call. Has anyone else dealt with that creepy moment where you couldn't tell real from fake?

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c/digital-art-showcase•

rodriguez.mia•9d ago

Why does nobody talk about those drawing tablet screen protectors that ruin your pen nibs

I dropped $35 on a matte screen protector for my Huion tablet 3 months ago and now I am on my third set of pen nibs. The texture felt great for the first week but it chews through the plastic nibs like crazy. I saw a bunch of people online raving about them for that paper feel but nobody mentions how often you have to replace nibs. I already spent an extra $18 on nib replacements and that is more than the screen protector itself. Has anyone else had better luck with a different brand that does not destroy your nibs so fast?

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c/deep-dive-requests•

rodriguez.mia•11d ago

Spent 90 minutes on hold with the county permitting office only to find out I needed a different form entirely

I was trying to pull a simple permit for a retaining wall repair in my backyard in Portland and it took talking to three different people across two phone calls to learn that the form I needed was buried on a page I never would have thought to check, so has anyone else dealt with a local permitting office that makes you dig through a maze just to get started?

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c/clickbait-court•

rodriguez.mia•11d ago

Just realized that thumbnail with the 'giant snake' was actually a garden hose

I was scrolling through YouTube last night and saw this thumb of a massive snake wrapped around a car. The title said 'Giant Anaconda Found in Florida Parking Lot!' and I almost clicked. Then I zoomed in and noticed the texture was all wrong. It had those ribbed plastic lines you see on a cheap garden hose. I spent 10 minutes going through the comments and someone finally pointed out it was a hose from a Lowes display. The video had like 2 million views. Makes me wonder how many other thumbnails I've fallen for that were just clever angles and props. Has anyone else caught a clear fake just by staring at the details too long?

3 comments

c/book-club-debates•

rodriguez.mia•11d ago

Pro tip: skip the first 20 minutes of book club debates if you want to get anything done

Had a book club meeting last Tuesday that was supposed to be a debate about 'Project Hail Mary.' Everyone showed up late, spent the first 20 minutes talking about their kids and jobs, then we only had 30 minutes left for the actual discussion. I started timing it and realized we waste a good 15-20 mins on small talk every single time. Now I tell people to aim for a 7:15 start if we say 7, or I just bring a timer and set it for 20 mins of chit-chat. Has anyone else tried setting a hard cutoff for the social time in your group?

3 comments