u/trepasito16

we moved to frisco in 2022 from out of state and i swear finding good contractors here has been such a struggle

we needed our ac looked at last summer and i called like 5 different companies. half of them didnt even call back. the one that did show up was late and then tried to sell me a whole new system when all we needed was a filter and some freon. felt like they were just trying to take advantage because we're not from here

same thing with our fence. hired a guy who said he'd be done in a week. took him a month. kept making excuses. and the work wasn't even that good

my neighbor who's lived here forever told me it used to be easier. he said all the good local guys got bought up by big companies and now it's hard to tell who's legit.

i just miss having a guy you know someone you can call and trust. feels like everything is so corporate now and nobody cares about doing a good job

anyone else have this problem or am i just unlucky

so i've been working on this space for like 4 months now and i thought id be done by now but nope. still tweaking stuff.

the couch is a dark green velvet thing and i actually love it. its comfortable and the color was a risk but it worked out. got a vintage coffee table from a flea market that i sanded and refinished myself. pretty proud of that.

the problem is the walls. theyre this light cream color that looked good in the store but now it just feels blah. i wanted something warmer maybe a terracotta or a muted olive. but im scared of committing to a dark color cause the room doesnt get much natural light. also the layout feels weird. the couch is against one wall and the tv is opposite but theres this awkward corner by the window i dont know what to do with. maybe a plant. idk plants die on me tho.

any thoughts on wall color. also what do people do with empty corners.

I swear the people running our hospital operations live in a completely different reality.

They just dropped the annual compliance modules and sent this super passive aggressive email to the charge nurses about getting it all done by friday. My unit is currently running a 1:6 ratio on a good day. There is literally ONE working desktop at the main nursing station, and it takes ten minutes just to load the heavy legacy HR portal. When exactly are my nurses supposed to sit down and do this?

We at least fought to get itacit implemented recently so the techs and CNAs can just knock out their basic safety checklists and daily updates on their phones in the breakroom, which definitely helps. But upper management still refuses to give the RNs actual protected time off the floor for the heavy certification stuff

They just expect you to magically find 3 hours during a shift where you're putting out literal fires. then they wonder why unit turnover is at 40%. just exhausting tbh.

Considering upgrading for an upcoming show I'm excited about, but the price jump is pretty steep and I can't tell if it's genuinely a better experience or just a markup for bragging rights.

Curious what people who've actually done one thought, was it worth it or did it feel like a money grab once you were there?

hi everyone, i am currently putting together a custom ring concept and i am completely set on using a white opal right in the middle.

i have been browsing quite a few white opal auctions lately trying to score a decent stone, but honestly, it is turning into quite a headache. between overly bright studio setups and heavily saturated pictures, it is so hard to tell if a piece actually flashes vibrant colors or if it just looks dull in natural light.

if you spend time tracking down gemstones on the web, what methods do you rely on to judge their true quality? do you look at specific background angles or video clips to steer clear of disappointing purchases?

our lab manager just quit and i got handed the responsibility of document control on top of my normal r&d work. i have no idea what im doing.

we've been surviving on shared drives and a complicated system of "final_v2_final_actualfinal.docx" for years. training records? we have a binder somewhere. maybe two binders. nobody knows. capas? we talk about them in meetings and then nothing happens.

started looking into proper systems because i genuinely cannot keep doing this.

i dont want to be the person who spends all day on paperwork but i also dont want to fail an audit because someone used the wrong version of an sop. feels like theres no middle ground.

any small team survival tips? cause right now im just overwhelmed and honestly considering a career change over this nonsense

Been reading a lot about business and craft lately, and there's this idea that keeps coming up about compounding improvement, where each iteration builds meaningfully on the last rather than just being more of the same. Got me thinking about directors who actually demonstrate that across their filmography in a way you can feel when you watch it.

Villeneuve is the obvious name right now given how much attention Dune got, and rewatching Prisoners, then Arrival, then Blade Runner 2049 in order does feel like watching someone sharpen a skill set in real time. The control over pacing and how he handles silence gets more deliberate with each one.

But I'm more curious about less talked about cases. Someone who maybe had a rough or average first couple films and then something clearly clicked. Not just getting bigger budgets, actually getting better at the core craft of putting a story together on screen.

This conversation tends to default to the same five auteurs, so hoping people can go a bit deeper. Also genuinely curious whether people think this kind of visible growth is more common in certain genres, because action directors seem to plateau faster than drama directors in my experience watching this stuff.

Alt titles: Which director shows the clearest improvement across their whole filmography? | Who do you think is the most improved director comparing their early and recent work? | Which filmmaker's growth from first film to latest is the most obvious when you rewatch them in order?

My dad has been a professional builder his whole life and we have this older rental unit over off collins. He used to literally drive down with a truck full of tools just to do the turnover work himself because he refuses to pay south beach contractor rates

He called me yesterday complaining about his back spasming while trying to replace an ac handler in a 95 degree unit and I honestly just lost it. the guy is getting way too old to be playing handyman in this brutal humidity. we finally just forced him to pass the keys to a property management place so I don't have to constantly stress about him passing out from heat exhaustion on a step ladder

plus the condo board at his building is already toxic enough without him constantly fighting the front desk guys over where he can park his work truck

how do you guys convince stubborn older relatives to just sit on the beach and actually enjoy the city instead of constantly working? I swear the man literally doesn't know how to relax.

i have been working on creating more short form content for social media and some product style posts. turning photos into short moving clips has been one of the biggest time savers for me recently. i wanted something that could add movement and a bit of personality without having to film or edit everything from scratch.

i tried the image to video feature on a few of my product photos and lifestyle images. i uploaded the pictures, chose avatars and voices, and let it generate short clips. the quality was surprisingly good, the avatars looked natural, the lip sync worked well enough and the movement felt smooth for social media use. it saved me a lot of time compared to traditional editing.

i have been using it mainly for quick promotional clips and some simple storytelling videos. the results are not perfect cinema quality but they work really well for platforms like instagram and tiktok where fast and engaging content matters more.

has anyone else been experimenting with turning images into videos? what kind of projects have you found it works best for and do you have any tips for getting better results with prompts? i am still figuring out the best way to use it.

i have been creating short form videos and posts for a while now and i am always looking for ways to test new formats without spending hours on every single piece. recently i started experimenting with different tools to speed things up and came across the idea of using virtual creators.

i decided to try building a simple ai influencer for one of my side projects to see how it performs compared to my normal content. so far it has been interesting to see how consistent the posting and style can be once you set it up. has anyone here experimented with ai generated creators or virtual personas? what worked well for you and what should i watch out for when starting out?

I got a notification today about an account application that definitely wasn't mine.

At first I thought it was spam, but after making a few calls it looks like someone may have actually tried using my information.

Honestly, I'm not even sure where to start...

I've seen advice ranging from "don't worry about it" to "lock everything immediately." For people who've gone through this, what was the first thing you did? I started reading about credit monitoring and services like ID Protection, but I'd rather learn from someone who's already dealt with this mess. Thank you in advance!

i just moved into a house with a big backyard and side access that feels exposed at night. i want to cover the main entry points and the yard without spending a fortune or dealing with constant false alerts. i have been researching systems and one local option that stood out is cctv installation brisbane for professional setup.

how important is night vision quality when choosing cameras for a backyard? what storage options work best if i want to keep footage for a few weeks? is it worth going for a system with phone alerts or should i keep it simple with local recording only? any advice on avoiding overkill for a normal house?

This keeps nagging at me. The whole pipeline for building skilled workers depends on people spending years doing the lowerlevel work first. You learn by doing the grunt stuff. Analysts become strategists because they spent two years buried in spreadsheets. Junior engineers become senior engineers because they debugged thousands of tedious problems that nobody else wanted to touch.

Now a significant chunk of CEOs are saying they plan to cut those junior roles in the next couple years and just hire experienced people instead. That sounds reasonable on a spreadsheet, but it creates a weird paradox. The experienced midlevel workers they want to hire today only developed that experience because those entrylevel positions existed for them ten years ago.

At some point the pipeline runs dry. There is no farm system anymore.

The optimistic take is that new kinds of entrylevel work emerge around AI tools and the cycle continues differently. Maybe. But the transition period could be genuinely brutal for people entering the workforce right now, and nobody seems to have a clear answer for what replaces the apprenticeship model that most industries quietly relied on for decades.

Is this a temporary disruption or does it permanently restructure how expertise gets built across entire fields?

making friendship bracelets for years mostly for my best friend. every year on his birthday i make him a new one with different colors and patterns. but we're in our 30s now he still wears them which is cool but i can tell they don't last. they stretch out, get dirty, eventually break.

been looking at metal options. like engraved bracelets or dog tags something that won't fall apart after a few months.

i know this sub is about thread bracelets and i love them. but has anyone here switched to something more durable for a long-time friend? feels weird to stop making them but also feels like we're getting too old for colorful thread

Started ADF about 6 weeks ago after months of trying other approaches that just didn't stick. The first two weeks were rough with hunger, but after that my body seemed to adjust. Down 11 pounds so far and my energy on fast days is way more stable than I expected.

Around week 3 I added oztrim after reading about it. It's not a supplement as such, it works more on appetite signaling and natural hormone function. Honestly wasn't sure it would do anything, but I noticed I wasn't fighting hunger as hard on fast days. Mental clarity has been better too, which I didn't expect at all. Overall just feel more in control.

Keeping meals simple on eating days, nothing fancy. Mostly whole foods and reasonable portions.

Has anyone else paired ADF with something to help regulate appetite? And did your hunger cravings actually get easier after the first few weeks?

A few months ago, I bought a portable basketball shooting machine for my 14-year-old son

Like a lot of parents these days, I was looking for anything that might compete with the endless gravitational pull of YouTube, TikTok, gaming, and whatever else teenagers spend six hours a day staring at

He'd been getting into basketball, so I figured it was worth trying. At worst, I assumed it would become another one of those "great ideas" that gets used twice before collecting dust in the garage

To be fair, he actually does use it quite a bit

What I didn't expect was that I'd become the one who couldn't stay away from it

At first I'd just go outside with him for a few minutes after work. Maybe rebound a few shots, pass him the ball, give some completely unqualified coaching advice that he definitely didn't ask for

Normal dad stuff

Then one evening he went inside for dinner, and I stayed out there

Just for a few more shots

Then a few more

Then somehow it was almost dark and my wife was standing at the back door asking if I planned on eating that night

Since then, it has sort of become a routine

I come home from work, tell myself that I am just going to be out for ten minutes, and suddenly it is already ten o’clock at night and I am in my driveway shooting basketballs under a porch light

The funniest part is that I haven't played basketball consistently in years

Back in high school and college, I played all the time

Pickup games at the park

Church leagues

Random runs at the local gym

If somebody texted and said they needed one more player, I was usually there

And then life just happened…

Work became more hectic

Weekend schedules became jam-packed

Home maintenance was required

The children grew up

With each passing year, I found myself spending less time on my hobbies and more time attending to things that had to be done

I don't think there was one specific moment when I stopped playing basketball

It just slowly disappeared from my routine

One year became three

Three became five

Eventually I got to the point where I'd see a basketball sitting in the garage and think I should get back into that someday

That’s how the story goes

And someday never comes around

What shocked me wasn’t the fact that I missed basketball

But rather how fast all those emotions came flooding back

The routine of shooting a ball

The sound of it hitting the concrete

Trying to make five shots in a row and then refusing to quit until you do

There's something oddly relaxing about it

No emails

No meetings

No notifications

Just focusing on one thing for a little while

But I guess that isn’t entirely wasted, since my purchase is far from being totally misguided. However, to be fair, I must admit that I seem to have purchased a new pastime

My neighbors could certainly see that. I am sure they witnessed a middle-aged man standing in his driveway late at night, wearing his dirty work clothes, and telling himself “just one more time” twenty times in a row

There could be a lot worse midlife crises

People get sports cars

It seems mine revolves around dribbling basketballs under a driveway lamp as though I had the knees of a teenager

planning a nice dinner for our anniversary. we usually go to places like cafe boulud or the breakers. solid every time. but this year i thought maybe we should do something different.

my wife has been hinting she wants to try a michelin spot. obviously theres none here so that means driving to miami or maybe broward if anything exists there.

but then i start thinking - is it really worth the drive back late at night. traffic. parking. all that. part of me just wants to stay local and avoid the headache.

anyone done the drive for a special occasion. how bad is it really.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and wanted to get some perspectives from people who know this stuff better than I do.

We talk about supernovae and stellar death all the time in terms of data, light curves, and distances in light years. But I rarely see anyone break down the humanscale experience of what it would look like and feel like if you were on a planet orbiting a star in the final stages of its life.

For a red giant phase, would the sky just slowly get brighter and more orange over thousands of years, so gradual that no single generation would notice? Or are there stages where the change becomes dramatic within a human lifetime?

For a more violent end like a core collapse supernova, at what distance would you actually see the companion star explode before the shockwave or radiation reached you? Would there be a delay where you could watch it brighten for hours or days knowing what was coming?

I know we have no direct observation of this from a planetary surface, so a lot of this is modeled and theoretical. But grounding these events in human sensory terms helps people actually connect with how violent and strange the universe really is.

What does the science actually tell us about any of this?

it started a few months ago with this strange tenderness and swelling in my chest that i could not explain. i kept telling myself it was nothing but it got worse and i could not stop thinking about it. i finally went to the doctor and they said my estrogen levels were off. not cancer but the words still hit me hard and i felt scared and embarrassed at the same time.

i started reading everything i could find and came across dim supplements. i ordered the one from berkeley formula and have been taking it for about six weeks now. the tenderness has gone down quite a bit and i feel a little more like myself again. it is not perfect yet but it is the first time something actually helped.

i still wake up some nights worried but i am trying to stay positive and focus on what i can control. has anyone else gone through something similar with hormones and breast tissue? how long did it take before you felt real changes? i just want to know i am not alone in this.