Not necessarily plot-driven thrillers — more anything so immersive you lost track of where you were. Open to any genre, just want something that grabs hard from the first chapter and doesn't let go.
Recently loved a slow-burn literary mystery and a hard sci-fi novel back to back, so my taste is pretty broad right now. What's the book that did this to you?
so I've been putting this off for way too long but I can't ignore this tooth anymore. it's been hurting for like a month and I keep telling myself it'll go away but it's definitely not lol
I'm on odsp and trying to find a dentist in guelph who actually takes it has been a nightmare. I've called like 6 offices and they either don't take it or have a waitlist that's like 6 months long. I don't have that kind of time I'm pretty sure it's a cavity or something and it's getting worse
I found one place on woolwich street that's near where I work and they said they can see me soon which is honestly the best news I've had all week. I just need to know if anyone here has been there before and if they actually treat you like a human and not like a number. I've had some pretty bad experiences with dentists who clearly don't want to deal with odsp patients and it's so demoralizing
I'm already stressed about money and health stuff and honestly this whole process is just exhausting. like why does it have to be this hard to get basic dental care
anyone in guelph have experience with them? or know somewhere else that's actually decent? I can't keep waiting
swear I can't tell the difference anymore. like I called three local plumbing companies last week and all of them routed to some call center in who knows where. the guy who actually showed up was wearing a uniform from a company that operates in like 12 states
what happened to actual local businesses man
my neighbor has been running a landscaping thing here for like 20 years and he was telling me hes struggling to compete with these big companies that just undercut everyone on price. and yeah I get it, I want a good deal too but like, there's a reason we support local. these franchises don't know the area, they don't care about reputation the same way
talking about this and she found some article about how local service businesses can compete if they have good online presence. which I guess makes sense because when I search for stuff I just pick whatever shows up first on google
not gonna lie I didnt think about it that way. like a plumber who knows what they're doing but also shows up on the map pack? that's the dream lol. there's apparently companies that help with that kind of stuff.
want to support the little guy but it's getting harder to even find them. is this just how it is now or am I missing something
curious what other people think
bought a house 4 months ago. clean inspection report. noticed the bathroom floor felt a bit spongy near the toilet. got a plumber out who pulled up the toilet and found the subfloor is completely rotted. said its been leaking for years and any decent inspector would have noticed the soft spots or the water stains. he quoted me 4k to replace the subfloor and fix the plumbing. said its a common issue that inspectors miss because they dont actually check properly.
i went back to the report - no signs of water damage. but theres a water stain in the ceiling below the bathroom that the inspector wrote off as old. plumber said its clearly from the toilet leak.
i called the inspector and he said we only do visual inspections. but the soft floor and water stains were visible.
any plumbers seen this before. how common is it for inspectors to miss this stuff
So I was helping my sister pick new curtains this weekend and the salesperson casually said “polyester is actually more eco friendly than cotton,” which kinda broke my brain and sent me on a late-night google spiral.
I’ve been trying to switch my place over to “better” fabrics - sheets, throws, upholstery, all that - and I always assumed natural = good, synthetic = bad. But then I’m reading about water use for cotton vs microplastics from poly, then bamboo that might be processed like rayon, then hemp, Lyocell, etc. I even ended up on a piece like annieselke which just made me realize how many variables there are, especially with washing and lifespan. Maybe I’m overthinking this.
For home textiles specifically (so not clothing), what do you all actually choose if your main concern is environmental impact? Are there fibers or blends you think hit the best balance? And do you care more about certifications like OEKO-TEX / GOTS or the fiber type itself?
Went into the garage just to replace a single leaky brake line on the old 80 series build. Somehow, three hours later, the entire front axle is completely disassembled on the floor in pieces
I swear this hobby is just an actual financial illness. The rust on these old rigs is relentless. currently sitting on a milk crate in the cold scrolling road runner offroad trying to figure out how much this accidental complete front end rebuild is gonna cost me
wife thinks the truck will be back on the road by tomorrow lmao, please send thoughts, prayers, and lots of penetrant spray.
Need a palate cleanser. I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Piranesi, but the last three books I picked up were total DNFs.
Into literary fiction, magical realism, or anything with a strong voice and weird structure. Not looking for straight thrillers or high fantasy right now.
What's something you read recently that actually stuck with you?
So I’m a pretty new CS2 player, been grinding a lot recently after a friend flexed his knife on Discord and I realized my inventory is straight poverty grey. I don’t want anything crazy expensive, just a couple of nicer finishes so I don’t feel like a complete bot in warmup.
I’ve always used the Steam Market, but prices there feel kinda rough. I started googling around last night, found a bunch of sites with cheap cs2 skins and instant delivery and all that, but I’ve also heard horror stories about trade-locks, scams, chargebacks, accounts getting flagged, etc. Now I’m a bit spooked.
For people who actually buy from these sites: how do you tell what’s legit vs sketchy? Are there red flags you always check for before logging in or sending a trade? Is using a secondary account for trades worth the hassle, or overkill?
Also, if you’ve been doing this for a while, has Valve ever given you issues, or is it basically fine as long as you don’t do chargeback type stuff?
Just had this realization. I write in my journal most mornings, I know exactly what my issues are, I could explain my problems really well at this point. But my actual life looks basically the same as it did 2 years ago. Same job complaints, same relationship stuff, same avoidant thing I do that I've written about like 50 times.
I think I got really good at writing about the problem and just never got around to fixing it. Kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time.
Anyone else fall into this? Like journaling became the whole thing instead of actually doing something different.
I run a 6-person web dev shop and we’ve been stuck around the same MRR for like a year. Yesterday a client casually told me, “You guys build great sites but your own SEO is kinda invisible,” which hurt because... yeah, fair.
Right now I’m doing SEO/ads/social myself at night using YouTube and random blogs. Results are super inconsistent. Some months leads are great, then it’s crickets. I’m starting to feel like I’m paying Google tuition instead of ad spend.
I started looking at agencies and platforms, read through a bunch of case studies, even saw names like Netpeak Agency US pop up while I was googling around, but I have no clue how to tell if any of these outfits are actually good or just good at writing landing pages. Maybe I’m overthinking this.
For those of you who’ve scaled from like low 5 figures to 6 or 7: did you hire an external marketing agency, build an in-house person/team, or just keep grinding and learning it yourself? What made you decide, and how did you vet who to trust with your budget?
So I’m mainly wholesaling in Northern VA / MD, but I’ve been looking at who I’d use to actually list flips or who to refer retail sellers to. This came up after talking to a seller yesterday who asked if I could just list her place “cheap” instead of doing a wholesale deal.
Started googling discount/low-fee brokers in my area and saw stuff like Glass House Real Estate that claim full service but lower commissions and fast DOM, high list-to-sale ratios, etc. On paper that sounds perfect for dispo on wholetails or retail flips, but part of me wonders if I’m thinking about this the wrong way and should stick to agents who are more investor-focused, even if they charge more.
Anyone here in NOVA/DC/MD actually use these lower-commission outfits to dispo deals or list flips? Did it help your net or did you feel buyers’ agents avoided the listings? Also curious if you’d ever pitch that type of option to a seller instead of a wholesale offer without shooting yourself in the foot on future deals.
it is actually wild how out of touch hq is with the actual floor
They just rolled out a new SOP for receiving dock protocols and the supply chain director deadass asked me why the read receipts on his mass email were so low
like my guy, our guys are driving reach trucks for 10 hours a day in a 90 degree warehouse. They do not have companycom email addresses. they do not sit at a desk
Im literally the one who ends up running around scanning barcodes and trying to get verbal confirmations. We finally got budget to use itacit just to push compliance docs and checklists straight to their phones via an app so I don't have to carry a literal binder around the staging area anymore
but hq still prints out 40-page pdfs and tapes them to the breakroom fridge expecting that to somehow fix our inventory shrinkage. how do yall bridge the gap when upper management has literally never stepped foot on the loading dock?
i swear somewhere along the way my idea of a good saturday changed from “we should go somewhere” to honestly give me something to do at the kitchen table and leave me alone for 3 hours . a friend gave me a paint by numbers kit recently and i thought it was going to feel childish. nope. i completely disappeared into it. phone on the other side of the room, coffee got cold, husband asked me something twice and apparently i just ignored him. now i’m looking at the custom ones where you can turn an actual family/pet photo into a painting and i’m dangerously close to becoming the person with a whole cabinet of unfinished projects. anyone around Joliet into this kind of thing? painting, pottery, knitting, whatever. especially curious if there are good adult craft groups/classes around here that aren’t aimed at kids. apparently this is who i am now and i’m not even mad about it
I’m currently exploring job opportunities in Australia that can lead to employer sponsorship. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and over 6 years of experience as a Software Developer, mainly working with .NET, SQL Server, and cloud technologies. I’ve already completed my skills assessment through ACS and scored 8.0 overall in IELTS.
My goal is to secure a role on a Subclass 482 visa that can later transition into permanent residency through the 186 visa. I’m open to mid-level developer positions in Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane, preferably in companies that have sponsored overseas workers before. I’m also happy to consider roles slightly outside my exact experience if the company is willing to support the visa process.
I’ve been preparing all the required documents, including my employment references, payslips, and tax returns from the past few years. I understand that employers need to go through Labour Market Testing and meet the salary threshold, so I’m mainly targeting companies that already have experience with skilled migration.
I’m currently working with Ten Heads Immigration to handle the visa side of things once I secure a job offer. They’ve been guiding me on what employers typically look for and how to present my profile properly.
If anyone here has gone through the employer-sponsored visa route recently, I’d really appreciate any tips on how to approach companies or what to expect during the process. Also, if you know of any companies actively hiring and open to sponsoring overseas talent in IT, that would be very helpful.
so my partner and i are working on our first itinerary for the Ireland's west coast, and they really want to spend a couple of nights in an old historic manor or castle property around county galway or kildare. i started looking up standalone consumer rates for those heritage estate hotels on the usual booking sites, and the night rates during shoulder season are still pretty high.
spent some time last night looking for a direct discount code to bring those rates down to earth. while reading travel forums for alternative booking options, i saw some independent indus travel itineraries like their manor house self drive trips that bundle estate stays, breakfast, and rental cars under a single contract rate. looking at the numbers, the total package cost wasnt much higher than what standard booking engines was asking for just the room nights alone.
does anyone know if these travel platforms hold bulk contract blocks for those historic places, or is there a local irish booking website we should use to find wholesale rates directly? If it's not working we will abandon this idea but if there is a chance for it we want to make sure we try
Running my shop for the past few years has made me pay way closer attention to what people are reading on screen. Community is one of those shows that actually cares about this stuff. Abed mentioning Heart of Darkness in the Dungeons and Dragons episode is obvious, but there are smaller moments too. Jeff reading The Celestine Prophecy in that one episode says a lot about who he was trying to be at the time. The Dean holding what looks like a leadership manual during one of his many scheming phases. These details stick with me because the props team clearly put thought into them rather than grabbing random books off a shelf. I have a little display near my register now with titles from the show. Surprisingly often someone notices and we end up talking about Community for ten minutes instead of the book they came in for. It happened twice last week alone. Wondering if anyone else has caught specific titles or reading moments that felt intentional. There has to be more than I've spotted on my rewatches. The kind of thing where you think about it later and realize it actually fit that character perfectly.
You know the kind — you finish it, sit there for a minute, and then every other book you pick up for the next month feels a little flat by comparison.
Doesn't matter the genre, just want something that hit that hard. What's yours, and what made it stick?
Honestly so tired of hitting checkout for a local show and seeing $12 tacked onto a $15 ticket for "processing". like... processing what exactly? a 200kb PDF?
Someone mentioned Star Tickets the other day for dodging those massive markup fees but I’ve never used them tbh. Not sure if smaller secondary setups like that actually cut down on the extras or if it's just the exact same charges under a different name.
Honestly might just drive over to the venue box office on Friday. Unless venues stopped selling paper tickets at the door altogether?
Wiring is the absolute devil. im two years deep into this e30 build and staring at the completely butchered harness from the previous owner this weekend genuinely made me want to list the whole shell on marketplace for dirt cheap. trying to decipher 30 year old forum diagrams that look like ancient hieroglyphics is literally draining my soul
Had to step away before I actually took a sledgehammer to the fender. ended up just finding a running, clean 5-speed e30 on turo for sunday just to remember what it actually feels like to sit in one that moves
honestly guys... it worked. Just ripping around backroads for a few hours without smelling raw gasoline or hearing a relay click infinitely completely reset my brain. it reminded me why I even started this stupid money pit in the first place
anyway, back to the garage with my multimeter tonight. pray for my sanity
I’m about half a year into dropping alcohol completely. Best decision I’ve made in a while - never too late to fix your habits, honestly. Energy is way cleaner, sleep is actually restoration now instead of just passing out, and overall I just feel sharper. But one thing that keeps bugging me and I can’t quite figure it out.
I have a few mates in their mid-thirties who still drink casually - like a couple of beers or a few glasses of wine every single weekend. And yet, people routinely guess their age as 35 or 37 max. Zero puffiness, skin looks good, good stamina. Meanwhile, I spent years watching my own face get dull every time I touched a glass.
It makes me wonder what’s actually driving that difference. Is it pure genetic lottery? The specific quality of alcohol they’re buying? Or is low-frequency drinking just not as destructive on collagen and hydration for certain body types?
For those of you who went 100% sober for a while: did you notice a massive, night-and-day physical change in your face and skin after quitting? And for the people who still look way younger than their age while drinking - what's the secret here, just good luck in the DNA pool?
Would love to hear some real-world experiences on this.