Visited a old house in Portland last week and saw something weird with the flue lining

I was out on a job in the northwest part of Portland, one of those old craftsman homes from like 1910. The homeowner wanted me to check the chimney before they started using the fireplace again this fall. When I got up on the roof I noticed the flue lining was done with some kind of terra cotta tile I've never seen before. It was all cracked and heaving in spots, like someone had tried to patch it with mortar that didn't match. The whole thing felt off, like a half measure that was gonna cause problems down the road. Has anyone else run into weird old flue materials that just seem to fail in strange ways?

Ngl I got burned spending $200 on a stock picking newsletter

Overheard a guy at a coworking space in Medellin say he books flights through a specific VPN city...

I was grabbing coffee at Selina in El Poblado last Tuesday and this guy straight up said he always sets his VPN to Bogota before looking at flights, then switches to Miami to actually book them. He was claiming it saved him like $200 on a round trip to Europe. Has anyone else tested this kind of hack for cheaper tickets?

Got burned by a bad blend job in Minneapolis last week

I was working on a silver Toyota Camry at a shop in Minneapolis and thought I matched the paint perfectly. Next morning in the sun it was a full shade off and I had to redo the whole quarter panel. Cost me $250 in materials and 4 extra hours I didn't plan for. Anyone else had a paint match go wrong because of bad lighting in their booth?

Tried hornback leather on a journal. Bad move.

Picked up a scrap piece from the Tandy store downtown. Looked cool. Figured it would give the spine some texture. Sewed the sections in. Worked fine until I tried to open the thing flat. That spine just fought me the whole way. Hornback is way too stiff for a flexible binding. Stick to goatskin or calf for journals. Has anyone else had a leather choice totally mess up their project?

Password manager almost got me hacked last Tuesday

I was using a free password manager for like 3 years and thought I was being all secure. Then I noticed one day it was syncing my passwords to a public cloud server without telling me. A buddy in my IT meetup group pointed it out when he saw the traffic logs on my phone. Now I check every single app's data settings before I install it. Has anyone else caught their "secure" apps doing shady stuff in the background?

That week in Lisbon where my Airbnb had no desk and I worked from a park bench for 5 days straight

My back still hurts from hunching over a laptop on a concrete slab, but the free wifi near the Padrão dos Descobrimentos was shockingly stable and the ocean breeze kept my screen from overheating, so now I'm wondering if I should just ditch coworking spaces and work outside more often - anyone else tried the bench life and actually liked it?

I thought digital nomad insurance was a total scam until Lisbon

For my first two years on the road, I skipped travel insurance completely and saved about $800. Then in Portugal, I slipped on a wet tram track and broke my wrist. The hospital bill was over 2,000 euros, but my new SafetyWing plan covered all of it after a $250 fee. I was totally wrong to think I could just wing it. Has anyone else had a close call that made them change their mind on nomad basics?

My kraut in the basement bubbled over and I panicked

I was checking on my first big batch of sauerkraut in my basement last Tuesday, and the whole 5-gallon crock was fizzing like crazy, with brine leaking out the airlock. I thought I ruined it for sure. I just grabbed a clean bowl, scooped out a bunch of the top layer to make more headspace, and wiped everything down. Has anyone else had a ferment get that active and still turn out okay?

Talking to my neighbor Gary about his sauerkraut changed my whole plan

He said he never measures salt, just tastes the brine until it's like the sea. I've been weighing grams for two years. Tried his way on a batch of red cabbage last week and it's the best kraut I've made. Anyone else just go by taste instead of strict numbers?