Rowan Ramirez (u/rowan666)

Posts

Tried that movie trick of hanging up on someone dramatically

After watching a character in a show slam the phone down mid-argument, I tried it myself last Friday during a call with my sister in Phoenix. The phone just clattered onto the base and bounced off, making this pathetic little noise instead of the satisfying click they always get on TV. Now my sister thinks I had a stroke, and I learned those old landlines with the heavy receivers are the only ones that actually work for that move.

2 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

rowan666•3d ago

Hit 100 lines of Python without a single syntax error and didn't believe it

I've been messing with Python for about 3 weeks now, mostly doing those little practice projects like a calculator or a to-do list. Yesterday I wrote a script that pulls weather data from an API, cleans it up, and emails me a summary every morning. I hit 100 lines of code and ran it expecting a ton of red errors in my terminal, but nope, it worked first try. Felt like I'd won a small lottery or something. It's just a basic thing with requests and smtplib, but that moment when the program ran clean made me feel like I might actually be getting somewhere. Has anyone else had that one project where everything just clicked and you weren't fighting the code the whole time?

2 comments

c/anime-discussions•

rowan666•20d ago

Heard a guy at Fanime say 90s dubs are better than subs and it got me thinking

I was in line for a panel at Fanime last weekend and some dude was going off about how he only watches dubs from the 90s because the voice actors had more soul. He said stuff like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun dubs set the standard and modern voice work feels too polished. Anyone else think older dubs actually had more character than what we get now?

2 comments

c/career-advice•

rowan666•23d ago

That one comment about my slides changed how I present

A senior manager pulled me aside after a meeting last month and said my slides had way too much text. She told me to aim for one idea per slide and use images instead of bullets. I cut my last deck from 15 slides down to 8 with big photos and simple captions. The next presentation got way better questions from the team. Has anyone else gotten feedback that forced you to totally redo your approach?

2 comments

c/archaeology-discoveries•

rowan666•24d ago

Warning: That trench cut on the Roman road near York is way more fragile than it looks

I poked at it with a bamboo stick last summer and the whole section caved in, so has anyone else found that the top layer of compacted gravel is basically just a crust over nothing?

2 comments

c/flooring-installers•

rowan666•28d ago

Noticed a big shift in how kitchens are laid out here in Phoenix over the last 5 years

I do mostly kitchen flooring and I've seen a real change. Around 2020, almost every remodel had that big island with the sink in it. Now I'm pulling up tile in houses where the sink is back on the perimeter wall and the island is just for seating. A designer told me it's because people want more counter space for prep and less cleaning up in the middle of the room. Has anyone else seen this trend in their area or am I just getting weird jobs?

2 comments

c/diy-disaster-tales•

rowan666•28d ago

Shoutout to the guy at Home Depot who laughed at my paint choice

I was rewiring my living room lights last weekend and thought I'd save $50 by doing it myself. Found out the hard way that my 1970s house has aluminum wiring, not copper, after I tripped the breaker 3 times and nearly started a fire. Has anyone else run into surprise wiring in an old house?

2 comments

c/chimney-sweeps•

rowan666•1mo ago

Vent: Homeowners keep asking me to clean their gas fireplace logs like they're wood

This happened twice last week alone. One lady in Aurora wanted me to scrub the ceramic logs with a wire brush. Told her those things are designed to self-clean from the flame. She didn't believe me until I showed her the manual on her own unit. Anyone else deal with people who think gas fireplaces work the same as wood?

2 comments

c/conspiracy-debates•

rowan666•1mo ago

Rant: My friend told me my conspiracy takes were too shallow, I changed my sourcing habits

I used to just watch YouTube videos and call it research, but my buddy Matt said 'you're just repeating talking points, dig into the primary documents.' So I started reading old congressional hearing transcripts from the 1970s on the JFK files. Has anyone else found that going to original government records changes how you see these debates?

2 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

rowan666•1mo ago

My uncle told me to use ATF to free a seized turbo actuator, and it worked.

I was working on a 2012 Duramax with a stuck VGT actuator, the kind that just won't budge. My uncle, who ran a fleet shop for twenty years, told me to forget the expensive penetrants and just drip a little automatic transmission fluid down the actuator rod. I was sure it would gum things up worse, but I tried it. I let it sit overnight, and the next morning, with some gentle heat from a heat gun, it broke free with almost no force. It saved me from pulling the whole turbo assembly. I've used it twice since on similar jobs. Has anyone else found a simple fluid that works better than the store-bought stuff for this kind of thing?

2 comments