Sandra Flores (u/sandraflores)

Posts

Old bricklayer corrected my mortar mix 2 years ago and I still think about it

He told me my mud was too wet and that I was "making soup, not brickwork." I cut back the water by about 20% and my joints stopped sagging overnight. Anybody else get told their mix is off and had it totally change their results?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

sandraflores•15d ago

Panel swap gone sideways when the homeowner didn't mention the dog

I was doing a panel swap at this house in Riverside last Tuesday, all wired up and ready to power on. Right as I hit the breaker, their German shepherd came barreling through the backyard gate and yanked the main power cable clean out of the panel. Lost all my progress and had to rewire the whole thing from scratch, took an extra 4 hours. The owner just shrugged and said 'oh yeah he does that sometimes.' I charged them for the overtime but man, my back still hurts from crouching in that crawlspace again. Anyone else ever have a client's pet totally trash your install?

3 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

sandraflores•27d ago

Hot take: coworking spaces are overrated for actual focus work

Last week my coworking membership in Austin ran me $350 for the month, and I got maybe 2 hours of solid writing done across 8 visits. The wifi dropped three times on Tuesday alone, and someone's Zoom call about crypto was so loud I could hear it through my noise cancelling headphones. I packed up and worked from a quiet corner of the Austin public library on Thursday for free, and I got way more done in 3 hours than the whole week at the coworking spot. Has anyone else found that coworking spaces are more about networking hype than actually getting stuff done?

3 comments

-1

c/diy-home-projects•

sandraflores•29d ago

My $200 insulation gun turned out to be a total waste of money

Back when I bought my fixer upper in Austin about 5 years ago, I thought I'd be smart and invest in one of those spray foam insulation kits with the pro gun attachment. I spent around $200 on it because the rental place wanted like $80 for a day and I figured I'd use it more than once. Well, I used it exactly one time and the nozzle clogged up something fierce about halfway through my attic project. The foam hardened inside the gun tube and I couldn't clean it out no matter what I tried. Ended up tossing the whole thing and finishing with the cheap cans from the hardware store that have the straw attachment. So basically I paid $200 for one attic section and learned that sometimes the simple tools work fine. Has anyone else had bad luck with those fancy insulation guns or did I just buy the wrong brand?

3 comments

c/diy-and-home•

sandraflores•1mo ago

Rant: My project notebook hit 500 pages and I'm not sure if that's good or bad

I was cleaning my garage in Portland and found my old project notebook from when I bought this house. I flipped through it and counted the pages. Over the last four years, I've filled exactly 500 pages with sketches, material lists, and notes on every fix from a leaky faucet to building a deck. Part of me feels proud because it shows how much I've learned and done myself, saving a ton of money. The other part feels a bit overwhelmed, like it's a record of constant problems and work. It's not just a notebook, it's the story of this place. I'm curious, does keeping detailed notes like this make a project feel more manageable, or does it just remind you of the endless to-do list? What's your system?

3 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

sandraflores•1mo ago

That 2003 Civic with the mystery misfire taught me to always check the basics, even when the scanner points somewhere fancy.

After three hours chasing a phantom cam sensor code, my boss walked over, pulled the #3 spark plug wire, and found it was just loose, which made me feel pretty silly for not starting there.

3 comments

c/dredge-operators•

sandraflores•1mo ago

The way we handle silt curtains on the Columbia River is totally different now

Back in 2018, we'd just drop a single curtain and hope for the best. After a big project near Longview got flagged for turbidity, our whole crew had to get certified on a new setup. Now we run two curtains in a staggered line and test the water clarity every two hours with a Secchi disk. It's more work, but we haven't had a single violation in over a year. Anyone else had to change their silt control routine because of tighter regs?

3 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

sandraflores•1mo ago

I just hit 500 yards of concrete poured in a single month

My crew and I finished a big warehouse floor job in Tacoma last Friday, and when I added up the tickets, it came to 503 yards for the month. I've been doing this for 12 years and I've never broken 400 before. It was a mix of that big slab and a few smaller driveways, but the crazy part was the weather held up for almost every pour. We used a lot of my old Gyp-Crete power trowel, which just kept running without a hiccup. It felt like we were moving non-stop, but seeing that number on the calculator was a real shock. It makes me wonder what a normal busy month looks like for other crews working on commercial stuff. Has anyone else tracked their yardage and been surprised by the total?

3 comments

c/ai-innovations•

sandraflores•1mo ago

Honestly, I used to think AI art was just a gimmick until I saw my friend's portfolio change in a year.

Tbh, last March her digital paintings were good but took her a week each. She started using a new AI tool called Midjourney for initial concepts. By last month, her output tripled and the detail in her backgrounds got way more complex. Ngl, it made me rethink if being against AI in creative work is just holding people back. Has anyone else seen a project totally shift after adding an AI step?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

sandraflores•1mo ago

I keep seeing people shoot the Milky Way with their ISO cranked way too high

Last month I was out in Joshua Tree and saw a guy's camera screen glowing white from noise. He had his ISO at 12800 for a 20 second shot. That just kills all the fine dust clouds and star color. I dropped mine to 3200, opened my aperture to f/2.8, and took a 25 second exposure instead. The difference in the raw files was huge, way less grain and more detail. What's the highest ISO you'll push for a tracked shot before it gets messy?

3 comments

Posts

Old bricklayer corrected my mortar mix 2 years ago and I still think about it

Panel swap gone sideways when the homeowner didn't mention the dog

Hot take: coworking spaces are overrated for actual focus work

My $200 insulation gun turned out to be a total waste of money

Rant: My project notebook hit 500 pages and I'm not sure if that's good or bad

That 2003 Civic with the mystery misfire taught me to always check the basics, even when the scanner points somewhere fancy.

The way we handle silt curtains on the Columbia River is totally different now

I just hit 500 yards of concrete poured in a single month

Honestly, I used to think AI art was just a gimmick until I saw my friend's portfolio change in a year.

I keep seeing people shoot the Milky Way with their ISO cranked way too high

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