c/tinfoil-hat-tuesdays

That $80 'psychic' reading app I tried felt like a scam from day one

Honestly I downloaded this app called Mystic Vibe or something after I saw an ad on Instagram. It promised a personalized 30 minute video reading for $80. The first 10 minutes were just this person telling me I have 'strong energy' which felt super generic. Then they tried to upsell me a $50 'aura cleansing' session halfway through. I asked for a refund and they told me my refund request was 'blocked by cosmic forces'. Ngl I felt dumb but now I tell everyone to just save their money. Has anyone else tried one of these app based readings and actually got something real out of it?

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the_piper•16d ago

Rant: Spent 4 hours trying to open a jar of pickles before I found the trick

I grabbed a new jar of pickles from the fridge last night, twisted that lid for a solid 4 minutes, and nothing. Ran it under hot water, tapped it on the counter, even wrapped a rubber band around it. Finally after 4 hours of coming back to it angry, I noticed a tiny dent on the rim where the lid was crimped. Popped it with a butter knife and it opened in 2 seconds flat. Has anyone else found a dumb simple fix like that after way too much effort?

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lily_torres31•16d ago

Tried concrete anchors vs. old-school molly bolts for my shelf project last week and wow

I was putting up a heavy shelf in my garage in Austin and used those cheap plastic anchors at first, total fail after 2 days. Swapped to my dad's old molly bolts and that thing hasn't budged even with my tool box sitting on it. Has anyone else found a simple fix like this that just works way better than the modern stuff?

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cooper.drew•17d ago

Switched from buying new cheap watches every year to fixing my own movements after a $5 YouTube video showed me how to clean a balance wheel

Took me three tries and a broken mainspring to get it right, but now I save about $80 a year on watches that I can keep running forever - anyone else find that the repair community is weirdly secretive about basic tricks?

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riverdavis•21d ago

Picked the 5G home internet over cable and now I'm not so sure

I went with T-Mobile's $50 plan last month instead of sticking with Comcast, and my connection drops for 5 seconds every night around 8 PM. Anyone else notice your cellular home internet gets flaky during peak hours?

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irisowens•22d ago

My retired neighbor Bob pointed out my own yard camera was aimed at the wrong tree for 2 years

Bob is 78 and has a flip phone, but last Tuesday he came over while I was fixing a loose shingle and said hey you know that camera is pointed at a branch that never moves, right? He then told me he noticed the neighborhood raccoon pattern by just sitting on his porch with coffee and a notebook for 3 mornings. It made me wonder how much tech we pile on to avoid just watching the world like a normal person. Has anyone else had an old timer school them on basic observation skills?

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davidkim•23d ago

Changed my mind about those 5G tower protesters after my router kept dropping signal

I used to think they were just paranoid, but after my neighbor showed me his EMF meter readings hitting 12 mW/cm2 near the new tower by the park, I started wondering. Has anyone else actually measured levels around those things?

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felix414•23d ago

That time my neighbor's weird cloud spreader turned out to be a real government thing

I live about 12 miles west of Dayton, Ohio, and last September I noticed a small plane spraying something in a grid pattern over the soybean fields near my house. I figured it was just some local crop duster, but then I checked the flight logs online and saw it was registered to a NOAA subcontractor, not any farm. A buddy of mine who works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hinted it might be related to atmospheric sampling for cloud seeding tests they've been running since 2019. Has anyone else spotted unmarked planes doing strange patterns over agricultural areas, or am I reading too much into this?

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annajenkins•24d ago

Broke my own rule about not buying used electronics from flea markets

Picked up a "vintage" router at the St. Louis flea market for $12 and spent 14 hours over two days trying to get it to connect to my network before realizing the firmware was from 2005 and basically bricked. Has anyone else wasted a whole weekend on a gadget that should have been thrown out immediately?

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juliarodriguez•24d ago

That one Tuesday where my phone GPS sent me to a dead end road three times in a row

I was driving to a job interview last month, and my GPS kept telling me to turn down this dirt road that just ended at a locked gate. First time I thought, okay, maybe I misread it. Second time I figured my phone needed a restart. Third time I started wondering if the satellites are actually run by the same company that owns those big data farms near my town. I saw a post online about how GPS signals can be spoofed or rerouted for testing purposes, and it got me thinking. That whole morning felt like someone was messing with my route on purpose, maybe testing traffic patterns or gathering location data. Has anyone else had their navigation just go haywire in a random spot for no clear reason?

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john_fisher•25d ago

That guy at the bus stop who swore pigeons are government drones tracking our movements

He pointed at three pigeons on a power line and said 'see how they never blink, that's because they're cameras' and then showed me a photo on his phone of a pigeon with a tiny antenna taped to its leg, which honestly made me think for a second.

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hugos46•26d ago

That time I tracked every fast food wrapper in my car for a month and found a pattern

I started noticing all these receipts and burger wrappers piling up on my passenger floorboard. So I decided to save every single one for 30 days and see where I was really eating. Out of 23 trips, 17 were to the same McDonald's on 3rd Street. It wasn't even my favorite spot, just the one I passed on my way home from work. Now I'm convinced those golden arches are literally designed to hijack your commute, like a fast food trap you don't even notice. Has anyone else mapped their own wrapper trail and seen something weird?

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sean_green44•29d ago

Spent $80 on a faraday bag for my car keys and now I sleep better

I used to think car thieves needed a tow truck or a slim jim but my buddy showed me his security footage from last winter where some guy just stood by his driveway with a radio box and popped a Lexus open in 30 seconds. Has anyone else actually tested if those relay attacks are real or just youtube hype?

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