Warning: My laptop almost died in a Chiang Mai cafe during a power cut

I was working from this little spot near the old city when the whole block lost electricity for over an hour. My battery was at 12% and I had a client call in 20 minutes. A local guy at the next table saw me panic and lent me his big power bank, no questions asked. Now I always carry two fully charged banks and check cafe reviews for backup generators. What's your go-to move for avoiding dead battery disasters in new places?

PSA: Stop calling every weird light in the sky a 'drone' right away

Last Tuesday around 11 PM in Tucson, I watched a silent, triangular cluster of three red lights move across the sky, stop dead, and then shoot straight up and vanish. My neighbor instantly said 'just a drone,' but I've flown drones for my design work and nothing I've seen moves like that without a sound. Why are we so quick to dismiss things we can't explain with the first easy answer that comes to mind?

Vent: Getting my bank to unfreeze a crypto transfer took 22 days

They flagged it as suspicious just because I sent it to a wallet linked to a site they didn't like, citing 'policy'. Has anyone else had a financial institution block a transaction over the recipient's speech, not actual fraud?

My old boss in Austin told me to never take a counteroffer, and man, was he right about that.

Appreciation post: A simple magnet trick for finding dropped tools

Lost a wrench in the muck on a job near Jacksonville last year. Tied a strong neodymium magnet to a rope and dragged it along the dredge path, found it in about 20 minutes. Anyone have other good recovery methods for when stuff goes overboard?