That old Nokia 3310 I found in my parents' attic still holds a charge after 15 years

Honestly, I was cleaning out my mom's garage last Sunday and stumbled on my old 3310 from 2008. I plugged it in for a laugh and the battery indicator popped up after 10 minutes. I even sent a text with the old T9 predictive typing and it worked like nothing changed. Anyone else digging up old bricks that just refuse to die?

Hot take: I chose a round brush over a square one for my main soot work

After three years using square wire brushes from the hardware store, I finally swapped to a round poly brush for my regular residential jobs. The round brush gets into crooked flues way better and I cracked a tile liner trying to force a square brush through a tight spot last Tuesday. Has anyone else made this switch and found it works better for older masonry chimneys?

That time a customer's BMW caught fire in my bay and I learned to check battery terminals first

Guy rolls in last Tuesday with a 2012 328i complaining about a weird smell. I pop the hood and see corrosion caked around the positive terminal. Before I can even grab a wrench, the plastic cover starts smoking. I yanked the battery cable off with my bare hands and tossed it in the sand bucket out back. After that I check every battery connection before I do anything else. Has anyone else had a car almost torch itself over something as dumb as a loose terminal?

Found a working Palm Pilot at a garage sale for $5

I was digging through a pile of old chargers at a thrift spot in Austin last Saturday and spotted a Palm Pilot Vx buried under some phone cases. The guy running it said he'd thrown it in for free with a cable lot, but it still turned on and had a game of Solitaire from 2004 saved on it. Anyone else still keeping one of these around for the novelty, or did I just waste my $5?

Finally nailed my weekly spread after 3 messy weeks...

My stupidly small grid dots made everything look crooked until I switched to a 5mm dot grid notebook last Thursday. Finally got a clean layout for my habit tracker without it looking like a toddler drew it. Anyone else struggle with weird dot spacing in their journal?

Met a woman at a hostel in Barcelona who changed my packing list forever

I was staying at a cheap hostel in Barcelona two years ago and this older lady was traveling with just a carry-on bag. She told me she never packs more than three shirts and one pair of pants no matter how long she goes. At first I thought she was crazy but then I tried it on a 10 day trip through Spain. I saved about $60 in baggage fees and didn't even miss the extra clothes. She also said to roll everything tight and use a single packing cube. Has anyone else gotten solid travel advice from a random person on the road?

Saw an old bookbinder at the county fair fix a broken spine in 5 minutes with just wheat paste and a bone folder

That $80 mortar mixer paddle burned me twice before I returned it

Bought a cheap paddle off Amazon thinking it'd save my back on a big retaining wall job in Austin, but it warped after three mixes and threw mortar everywhere. Anyone else stick with a mortar hoe after trying the budget paddle route?

Rant: My macaron batch at the county fair turned into a sticky mess

I was showing off at the Baker County Fair last July when my macarons came out all flat and sticky. Turns out I overmixed the batter by about 20 folds and the humidity was like 80% that day. Has anyone else had a baking fail at a public event that made you want to hide your face?

Burned $300 on a VPN that logged my data anyway

I paid $300 for a two year VPN plan from a company that claimed zero logs. Found out last month they handed over my browsing history to an ISP in a copyright case. I only noticed because my friend got a warning letter the same week from the same ISP. The VPN company changed their privacy policy six months in and I missed the email. Now I'm back to using a free option I tested myself with a packet sniffer. Anyone else get burned by a VPN that promised privacy but didn't deliver?