Hot take: skipping the GPU backplate made my thermals drop 5 degrees

Everyone told me I was crazy for leaving the backplate off my RTX 3070 when I rebuilt last month. But after testing with my infrared thermometer, the bare PCB was running 5 degrees cooler under load. The trick was adding a slim 80mm fan on the back of the card zip tied to the bracket. Has anyone else tried ditching parts that are supposed to be 'necessary'?

Chat with a kitchen designer made me rethink my drawer slides

I was swapping out a set of old drawers for a lady in Phoenix last Tuesday, and her designer showed up to check progress. He saw me installing soft close undermounts and said 'you know, ball bearing slides last twice as long in dry climates.' I never really thought about humidity affecting the grease in undermount slides before. He pointed out his crew uses Accuride 3832s on everything now because they have less plastic parts. Has anybody else switched based on your local weather conditions?

Had an old oak split right down the middle during a storm last June and a local guy showed me how to cable it properly

Rant: Stop putting intake fans behind solid glass panels

I keep seeing builds on here where people mount 3 intake fans behind a solid piece of tempered glass. There's no mesh or gap for air to get through. It's just for the RGB glow. I tore down a buddy's build last week and his CPU was hitting 85 degrees under load. The fans were spinning, sure, but they were just recycling hot air inside the case. Has anyone else had to talk someone out of this setup?

Watched a guy at a job site in Austin show me a trick with a baking soda paste on a rusted dishwasher rail

I was swapping out a drain pump on a Whirlpool last Tuesday at a condo complex off Lamar, and this older tech just walked over and started scrubbing the rusted wheel tracks with baking soda and a little water. He said it keeps the slides from sticking without using WD-40 which can gum up over time. I tried it on a few more jobs since then and it actually works better than anything I've used... anyone else have a weird non-spray fix they swear by?

My professor's comment on my essay structure completely flipped my writing process

I had this English 102 prof, Dr. Chen at City College, who told me my arguments were 'like a pinball machine' instead of a clear path. She said I was bouncing all over instead of leading the reader step by step. So I started writing my thesis statement first and then building each paragraph around one single point from it. Now my papers actually make sense to me too, you know? Has anyone else had a teacher say something that totally changed how you study?

Spent $150 on a camera I found in an abandoned factory and it was a waste of time

Last spring I found an old film camera in a dusty corner of a closed textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. It looked cool, like something from the 1950s, so I brought it home and spent $150 at a repair shop to get it working. After three weeks, the guy said the shutter was junk and parts didn't exist anymore. I realized I could have just taken a photo of the abandoned place instead of trying to save some broken relic. Now I just take pictures of the places themselves, not the junk inside them. Has anyone else spent cash on something they found in an abandoned spot and regretted it?

My buddy said my desk looked like a spider web of cables and I took it personally

After he pointed that out I went and bought a pack of those adhesive cable clips for $8 at Home Depot and routed everything under the desk in a straight line, has anyone else had a friend call out their setup like that?

Spent 45 minutes chasing a bull float that kept sticking this morning in Phoenix

Turned out the humidity had already gone up by 8am and my release agent wasn't cut right for the mix, has anyone else had this issue with hot weather pours?

Paid $200 to explore an old school and got locked in

Found a listing for an abandoned elementary school tour outside Detroit for $200 per person. Supposed to be a guided walkthrough with safety gear included. The guide left us alone for 20 minutes and the door swung shut behind us. Took an hour to find a busted window to climb out. Has anyone else paid for a curated abandon tour and gotten more than they bargained for?