That $200 hidden camera detector I bought off TikTok was a total dud at picking up RF signals in my hotel room

I dropped $200 on one of those RF detectors from a shady TikTok ad, tried it in my Airbnb in Phoenix last week, and it only beeped at the microwave, so either my paranoid hunch was dead wrong or I just wasted cash on a glorified flashlight; has anyone actually found a bug with one of these things?

TIL the old timer was right about wetting my bricks in the middle of summer

I had a crusty old mason tell me to soak my bricks for 10 minutes before laying them back in June. I shrugged it off until I noticed 3 walls I built last August all had hairline cracks along the mortar. Anyone else learn this the hard way?

Just drove past a job site in Tampa where they had the mobile crane set up on a slope I wouldn't touch with a 50 ft pole

The operator was already lifting and I could see the outriggers weren't fully extended on the low side. Has anyone else ever called out a sketchy setup like that or am I just getting paranoid in my old age?

Old timer told me I was sanding too fast...

An old body guy watched me block sand a quarter panel and said I was running the block too quick, leaving high spots. I slowed down to half my usual pace and the primer laid down way flatter. Has anyone else gotten a simple critique that completely changed their prep work?

The night I figured out I was shuffling wrong for 10 years

I was at a friend's game night last month, and we were playing a deck builder. I did my usual overhand shuffle, and he just stopped the game and said, 'dude, you're bending the cards bad.' Turns out I was riffling from the top in a way that puts permanent creases in the sleeves. The guy showed me a mash shuffle on a sleeved deck and I felt like a complete idiot. Has anyone else had that moment where some basic skill you thought you had was actually ruining your stuff?

Glad I checked the BGG stats for my group's favorite game

I was scrolling through BoardGameGeek last night and noticed a stat that really surprised me. My group loves playing Terraforming Mars, and we've logged about 120 plays. Turns out the average game length reported on BGG is 120 minutes, but our sessions always run 3 hours because we're all overthinking every card. I didn't realize how far off from the norm we were until I saw that breakdown. Has your group ever found a stat on BGG that made you question your own habits?

Had a basement window well fill up with water after that big storm last week...

Walked down there to grab a box and stepped right into an inch of sludgy water... turned out the drain pipe was completely clogged with leaves and mud. Anyone else had to dig out their window wells after a heavy rain?

I used to just slap duct tape on anything without thinking... now I actually prep the surface first

Just spent 6 hours duct taping a garden hose leak that I could have replaced in 10 minutes

I tried patching a pinhole spray in my backyard hose with 4 layers of duct tape, but it kept blowing out every time I turned the water on, and after a full afternoon of frustration I realized I should have just bought a $8 hose repair kit from the hardware store down the street - has anyone else fallen into this trap with temporary fixes?

I finally saw the difference between hot glue and PVA on a spine

I've been repairing old library books for about 6 months now and always used hot glue because it was fast. Last week I tried PVA on a 1970s textbook with a broken hinge and the flexibility was night and day. Has anyone else noticed a big difference in how long the repair holds up with one versus the other?