Sarah Jackson (u/jackson.sarah)

Posts

Took me three hours to figure out why my power stretcher kept slipping on a thin Berber carpet in Denver yesterday

Turns out the tack strip was installed almost a quarter inch too close to the wall, so none of my pins were biting into anything solid, and I had to pull the whole thing up and re-pin it - has anyone else fought with a brand new house where the prep work was done by someone who clearly hated their job?

2 comments

c/climate-action•

jackson.sarah•2d ago

Just looked at my neighborhood's tree canopy from 2015 to 2025 on Google Earth and half the big oaks are gone

Six of the twelve mature oaks on my block in Austin got cut down for new developments, but the city planted 30 skinny saplings along the sidewalk last spring that are somehow already 8 feet tall, so does replacing big trees with small ones actually help or are we just fooling ourselves about carbon capture rates?

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c/console-wars-peace-zone•

jackson.sarah•4d ago

Hot take: three hours on a track saw last month beat an entire week of hand saw cuts for crown molding

I was fighting with a miter box for days on a living room in Philly till I grabbed a buddy's cordless track saw for the longer runs, and it cut perfectly straight with zero waste has anyone else switched from manual to power for detail work and never looked back?

2 comments

c/bicycle-mechanics•

jackson.sarah•6d ago

The debate about greasing pedal threads, my bike shop buddy went off on me.

So I was in my local shop, Bikes Direct in Portland, and I'm chatting with the head mechanic Dave about installing new pedals on my commuter. He says I gotta grease the threads on the crank arm, no exceptions, or they'll seize up in six months. But then another guy, a customer waiting for a tune-up, jumps in and says grease is a bad idea because it reduces friction and the pedals can back out on their own. Dave nearly flipped his lid, saying that's only if you use too much or the wrong compound. Who's right here, has anyone else seen a pedal actually back out from a little grease?

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c/baking-fails-and-wins•

jackson.sarah•9d ago

Debate: Is the proofing drawer a must-have or just a gimmick?

I visited a friend's new kitchen last weekend and noticed she installed this fancy proofing drawer for her bread. She swears it changed her baking game because the temp stays steady at 78°F every time. But I've been using my microwave with a cup of hot water for years and my dough rises fine. Is spending $200+ on a built-in drawer really worth it, or is it just an expensive way to save 10 minutes? Has anyone else tried both methods and seen a real difference?

2 comments

c/backpacking-routes•

jackson.sarah•11d ago

My water filter failed on day 3 of a 10 day trip in the Wind Rivers

Last August I was hiking the Highline Trail loop in the Wind River Range. About three days in, I went to pump water from a creek and my Katadyn Hiker Pro just stopped building pressure. The gasket inside the pump head had split. I had no backup. Ended up boiling water for the rest of the trip, which meant carrying extra fuel and waiting forever for it to cool. Has anyone else had a filter crap out mid route? What do you carry as a backup that's still light?

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c/vintage-pc-gaming-vault•

jackson.sarah•15d ago

DOSBox on an old laptop changed how I play 90s games

I was trying to get Star Wars: Dark Forces running on my modern desktop and it kept crashing at the cutscenes. After hours of fiddling with compatibility settings I almost gave up. Then I remembered I had an old Dell Latitude from 2007 sitting in my closet. I installed DOSBox on it, copied over the game files from a CD, and it ran perfectly with zero tweaking. The key was setting the cycles to auto and using a custom config for the sound card emulation. Now I use that laptop as my dedicated retro gaming machine for anything older than 2002. Has anyone else had better luck running old games on actual period hardware instead of modern rigs?

2 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

jackson.sarah•1mo ago

Got some blunt feedback from a master tech about my fuel injector testing

At a Cummins workshop in Portland last month, an old-timer told me I was wasting time using a multimeter instead of a breakout box. I switched to a box on my next 6.7L job and found a voltage drop in 10 minutes that I'd been chasing for an hour. Any of you guys use a breakout box for injector circuits or stick with the meter?

2 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

jackson.sarah•1mo ago

Realized I was wasting $40 a week on pre-made rice packs

I used to buy those microwave rice pouches for like $3 each because I thought cooking rice from scratch was too hard... turns out I was just scared of it. Three months ago I bought a $20 rice cooker on clearance at Target and started making my own. Now I make a big batch every Sunday for about 50 cents worth of rice and it lasts me all week. The difference is wild, I'm saving around $160 a month just on that one swap. Has anyone else had a similar moment where one small change cut your grocery bill way down?

2 comments

c/digital-marketing-chat•

jackson.sarah•1mo ago

Saw a local bakery run their Facebook ads totally wrong and it made me rethink targeting

I stopped by Sweet Rise Bakery in Portland last month and asked the owner about their online orders. She said they spent $500 on Facebook ads targeting people who like "cake" and got zero sales. I mean, who just likes cake as a broad category? She should have targeted people in a 10 mile radius who follow similar bakeries or wedding planners. Made me wonder if broad targeting is ever worth it for small local shops. Has anyone here run ads for a bakery or restaurant that actually worked?

2 comments