Taylor Carr (u/taylorcarr)

Posts

Home dev vs lab dev, which is actually worth it after 3 years?

Last week I pulled out my old Paterson tank and started developing again after a 3 year break. Three years ago I switched fully to a local lab in Austin because my kitchen kept getting too hot in summer, but now I'm remembering why I liked doing it myself. The lab charges $14 a roll plus tax, and my own chemicals cost about $3 a roll but only if I batch 10 rolls at once. I also feel like the lab's developer keeps shifting between batches, while my own D-76 was always consistent. So who here has actually stuck with home developing for years, and do you think the hassle is really worth the control, or am I just nostalgic about a messy kitchen?

1 comments

c/1950s-time-capsule•

taylorcarr•2d ago

That faded Kodachrome slide of a parade float still haunts me

I was sorting my uncle's 1957 Kansas City Christmas slides last month, and one frame showed a parade float with a banner that read 'Welcome Home.' The face of the soldier on the float was completely blurred, like a smudge of paint. I asked my aunt about it, and she clammed up, saying the roll was from a reunion picnic, not a parade. I scanned it at 3200 dpi anyway, and the detail got worse, not better. Has anyone else tried to recover a damaged slide and ended up just making themselves more curious about the backstory?

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c/denver-local•

taylorcarr•5d ago

Cherry Creek trail got weird at 6am last Tuesday

I ride the Cherry Creek path a few times a week and last Tuesday around 6am there was a guy standing in the middle near the Speer bridge just yelling at geese like they owed him money. Ngl, it was kind of hilarious until he started walking toward me with a shovel. I turned around and took the street back home, which added 15 minutes to my ride. Has anyone else had a sketchy early morning encounter on that stretch lately, or was this just my lucky day?

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c/console-wars-peace-zone•

taylorcarr•11d ago

Vent: My co-op buddy keeps calling every Switch game a 'port' and it bugs me more than it should

We played through 6 hours of a brand new IP last Friday and he still insisted it was a port because he saw a tiny PlayStation logo on the box, so am I the only one who thinks 'port' should mean it actually ran on something else first, or is he just trolling me?

1 comments

c/auto-body-repairers•

taylorcarr•12d ago

Spent 9 hours chasing a paint blend issue that turned out to be my gun

Last Tuesday I had a silver metallic fender that just would not blend no matter how many coats I laid down, kept getting a tiger stripe effect. After checking my pressure, distance, and even the paint mix twice, I finally swapped out my spray gun needle and it was perfect on the next pass. Has anyone else had a tool failure that ate a whole shift before you caught it?

1 comments

c/carpenters•

taylorcarr•15d ago

Hand nailing trim vs. pin nailer, switched after a botched baseboard job

Used to hand nail every piece of casing for years, figured it was the only way to get tight joints. Last spring in a remodel near Asheville, I split a piece of poplar and had to re-cut the whole run, so I bought a 23 gauge pin nailer and never looked back. Anyone else make the swap and deal with the tiny holes differently, or do you just fill them on the final pass?

0 comments

c/beat-the-algorithm•

taylorcarr•17d ago

Why did my reach tank after I swapped my posting time?

I used to post at 6pm EST for a month straight and got steady views on my art account. Last week I moved to 7am to test the early crowd and my numbers fell off a cliff. I'm in Portland and my audience seems asleep in the morning. Has anyone else seen a big drop after changing their schedule, or is my content just not hitting right now?

1 comments

c/botany-lovers•

taylorcarr•23d ago

My favorite monstera snapped in half during a random storm Tuesday

The wind in Portland hit 40 mph out of nowhere and took down my 6 foot monstera that I'd grown for 3 years. It cracked clean at the main stem, so I chopped the broken part into 3 cuttings with rooting hormone and stuck them in water. The stump is already pushing out a new leaf, but the cuttings are being stubborn. Has anyone else had luck rehabbing a big split like this, or should I just start over?

1 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

taylorcarr•23d ago

TIL the expensive camp stove fuel canister was a scam

My buddy kept telling me to skip the cheap propane canisters and grab the fancy brand, said they burn cleaner and last longer. Took his word for it, spent $28 on one at a shop near Estes Park. It ran out in about the same time as the $9 one I normally buy, and honestly I couldn't tell any difference in flame quality. Has anyone else had a similar "upgrade" that just didn't hold up on the trail?

1 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

taylorcarr•24d ago

My sister's minimalist spread advice drove me crazy until it made sense

My sister kept pushing a 3 line daily log for 8 months, no collections, no trackers. I thought she was just lazy and my elaborate monthly spreads with color coding felt superior. Then I spent 3 weeks moving houses with my job and had zero time to maintain anything. My fancy system fell apart completely while her bare bones approach would've survived the chaos. I finally tried her method this month and honestly it's cutting my planning time from 40 minutes to 10. Has anyone else had a simpler system sneak up on them after resisting it for so long?

1 comments