Vent: That cheap fitness tracker from the online ad was a total waste of $40

I saw a video ad for a 'smart band' that tracked sleep, steps, and heart rate. It arrived last Tuesday and looked okay at first. The step count was way off, adding over 2,000 steps while I was just driving. The heart rate monitor gave random numbers, and the app stopped connecting after two days. Has anyone found a decent budget tracker that actually works?

TIL I was wrong about the Pima Air & Space Museum being just a tourist spot, the access panels on their B-52 were left open and the detail was incredible.

Just realized my whole way of picking new shows to watch is totally different now

Back in high school, I'd just watch whatever was on Toonami or whatever my one friend told me to watch. About two years ago, I got into this big online forum and started reading episode threads as the show aired. Now I won't start a series unless I've read at least three different discussion threads to see what people are actually talking about. It's way more fun to watch when you know what details to look for. Does anyone else do this, or do you still go in totally blind?

My boss and I got into it over breaking down a whole hog last week

Last Thursday at the shop, we got a 280 pound Berkshire in. My boss, Frank, wanted me to break it down the old school way, keeping the shoulder and belly as one big piece for a special order. I argued we should split them right away to speed up the case set up. He said the old way shows respect for the animal and makes better use of the fat cap. I think it just makes more work for us later and the case looks empty until we do the second break. We butted heads for a good twenty minutes. He's been doing this for 40 years, but I've seen other shops in Seattle do the split-first method and move product faster. What's the better call here, tradition or turning the case over quick?

My friend said to ignore the online fuss about a cartoon dog's name change

Back in 2021, there was a huge uproar online because some people said a cartoon dog's name was being changed for political reasons. My buddy Mark, who works in animation, told me it was all fake drama and the name was never officially changed. He was right, the whole thing was just a rumor that blew up on social media for a week and then vanished. It taught me to wait a few days before believing any 'outrage' story. Has anyone else seen a news story recently that fell apart after a closer look?

PSA: I built two identical drawer boxes, one with butt joints and one with lock rabbets.

The first one I put together with glue and nails, the second with glue and a lock rabbet bit on my router table. After a year in my kid's bathroom, the butt joint box is wobbly and the lock rabbet one is still solid as a rock. The mechanical hold from the rabbet makes all the difference with wood movement. Has anyone else had a similar experience with drawer joinery holding up over time?

I finally looked up the actual name of that blue haired guy from the big three

For months I kept seeing posts calling him 'Kurosaki' from Bleach. He's not. That's Ichigo. The blue haired guy is from a different show. I checked the official wiki last week. It matters because we look silly arguing about a character we can't even name right. Anyone else mix up character names between the big shonen series?

Rant: I finally saw what a difference cleaning the EGR cooler can make on a 6.7 Powerstroke

Had this 2015 F-250 in the shop for a week with a rough idle and low power. The owner said it had been getting worse for about six months. We pulled the EGR cooler and it was just caked solid with soot, maybe a quarter inch thick. After a full clean and a new valve, it ran like a new truck. Anyone else find that's the first place to look on these when they start acting up?

Covering the local election in my town taught me to always check the candidate's actual voting record...

I was writing a piece for our small paper about a mayoral race last fall, and the headline everyone ran with was about a candidate's 'bold new housing plan.' I spent a whole afternoon digging through old city council meeting minutes online... turns out he'd voted against three different affordable housing projects over the past two years. The 'plan' was just a press release. Now I never trust a campaign promise without looking at the archived votes first. Has anyone else found a huge gap between the headline and the actual history on a story like this?

Rant: My kitchen floor tile job went sideways at the big box store

I was at the home center in Springfield last Tuesday, picking out tile for a small kitchen redo. The guy in the flooring section swore up and down I only needed two boxes of the stuff I liked. Got it home, laid it out, and came up short by about 30 square feet. Had to drive all the way back, and of course, they were out of that lot number. Now I've got a weird patch of slightly different colored tile in the corner. Why don't they just tell you to buy an extra box for cuts and mistakes?