Update: My $3 bag of dried chickpeas just saved my whole food budget

I was so sick of spending $2.50 on a single can of beans every time I wanted to make something. Last Tuesday, I finally bought a 2-pound bag of dried chickpeas for $3. I soaked them overnight and cooked a huge batch in my slow cooker. It made the same amount as like 8 cans, for a quarter of the price. I froze half in old yogurt containers and now I have beans ready for weeks. Has anyone else tried this with other dried beans? I'm thinking about lentils next.

I spent two years learning to code for a job that a bot now does for free

Hot take: I thought I knew how to make a good pizza crust until I went to Naples

I was in Naples last month and ate at a tiny place called Pizzeria da Michele. Their crust was so light and airy, not like the dense stuff I've been making for years. The key was they used a specific type of flour, Caputo '00', and let the dough cold ferment for over 48 hours. I always thought a longer rise at room temp was fine, but the flavor from that slow cold ferment is totally different. I tried it at home with the same flour and timing, and the difference is huge. Has anyone else switched to a long cold ferment and noticed a big change in their dough?

Hot take: my entire video essay on the Hong Kong protests got pulled from YouTube last Tuesday

I was in my apartment in Chicago editing the final cut when I got the strike notice citing 'harmful content'. The 47 minute piece used only news footage and academic sources, but the automated system flagged it immediately. Has anyone successfully appealed a takedown for political analysis content, or is it just a lost cause now?

Was reading an old beauty school textbook from the 80s and found out a perm solution back then had a pH of 9.8. That's basically drain cleaner strength.

Choosing between a full rebuild or a used long block for a 6.7 Powerstroke

The customer's budget was tight, so I went with a low-mileage used block from a salvage yard in Memphis. It's been running solid for 8 months now, but I still wonder if the rebuild would have lasted longer.

A customer's comment last week made me think about online pile-ons...

I was delivering a package to a house in Tacoma and the guy saw my old band t-shirt. He said, 'I used to love them, but the singer got canceled for some dumb tweet from 2012... seems harsh.' We talked for maybe three minutes on his porch. He wasn't defending anything bad, just saying the punishment felt bigger than the crime. It stuck with me because it was a normal chat, not a screaming match online. Has a small, real-life moment ever changed how you see one of these big internet dramas?

Honestly, after 6 months of no replies I put 'must be willing to debate the best flavor of Pop-Tart' in my bio. Got 3 dates last week.

I finally cleaned out my old repair shop's storage unit from before 2020.

Back then, I had maybe two bins of random, mostly repairable boards from TVs and monitors. Now, after four years of people just replacing stuff, it's like eight bins full of identical, newer boards that are just dead. The shift from 'this capacitor blew' to 'the whole BGA package is cooked' is insane. Has anyone else's scrap pile just completely changed character?

My comic book storage journey from cardboard boxes to a real system

Back in high school, I kept my collection in old shoeboxes and grocery store boxes. They were free, but they fell apart fast and my books got bent corners. I remember a specific Amazing Spider-Man #300 that got a nasty crease because the box bottom gave out. About three years ago, after moving to a new apartment, I decided to get serious. I saved up and bought a bunch of BCW plastic short boxes and some proper backing boards. It cost me around $200 total, but now everything is safe, organized, and I can actually find a specific issue in under a minute. What's your system for keeping a collection in good shape?