Dylan Hill (u/dylanh97)

Posts

Shoutout to the guy who showed me how to break down a whole pig loin without a bandsaw

I used to struggle getting those center cut chops clean with just a boning knife, kept getting ragged edges. Last month this old timer at a shop in Omaha showed me a trick where you score the fat cap and follow the natural seam between the muscles, and it came out way cleaner. I mean, it's probably slower than a bandsaw but for a small home operation it actually works pretty well. Has anyone else found that hand cutting gives you better control for custom thicknesses?

1 comments

c/b2b-marketing-discussions•

dylanh97•2d ago

Changed my mind about cold emailing after a roofer in Ohio called me out

I used to think cold emailing was just a numbers game, spam till something sticks. But then last spring I sent a batch to small construction firms in the Midwest, and one guy actually called me back. He didn't yell at me or hang up, he said 'you clearly don't know what problems I deal with, because you're pushing a CRM and I'm trying to figure out why my guys keep quitting.' That stopped me cold. I realized I was sending the same template to everyone and hoping for the best. So I sat down and asked him what his actual day-to-day looked like, and he walked me through his scheduling mess. Now I try to tailor each email to one specific pain point I can solve, even if it takes longer. Has anyone else had a prospect basically teach them how to market better?

2 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

dylanh97•3d ago

PSA: Free city walking tours saved me $45 in Paris last month

I signed up for one of those free 'pay what you want' walking tours in Paris thinking it'd be a cheap intro, and the guide knew every shortcut to cheap bakeries and metro hacks I never would've found alone. Has anyone else had luck with these in other cities, or did I just get lucky?

2 comments

c/book-to-screen-talk•

dylanh97•4d ago

Rant: Spent 18 bucks on the Kindle version of a book that got turned into a Netflix show

The movie left out the entire middle third of the plot and now I'm the annoying friend at dinner explaining what actually happened, has anyone else had a streaming adaptation butcher a book you paid for?

2 comments

c/commercial-construction•

dylanh97•5d ago

Caught a framing mistake on a 12-story hotel in Denver last spring

I was walking the site to check shear wall layout when I noticed the steel studs were spaced at 24 inches on a 60 foot long wall. The engineer specs called for 16 inch spacing because of the wind load at that height. Nobody caught it in the shop drawings somehow. I made them redo the whole wall before we poured any concrete. Cost the steel crew like 4 extra days but saved way more in future repairs. Has anyone else had a sub try to sneak in wider spacing to save time?

2 comments

c/backpacking-routes•

dylanh97•5d ago

A guy on the Salkantay trail told me my pack was way too heavy and he was right

I was maybe 3 hours into day one near Mollepata, already feeling the altitude and my shoulders screaming. This older dude from Oregon just walks up and asks what I'm carrying. I said like 45 pounds maybe. He said no way, you're probably closer to 55. I got defensive at first but then he offered to help me sort stuff on a rock. Almost half my bag was just 'what if' clothes and a tent that weighed like 8 pounds alone. He pointed out I had three pairs of pants for a 5 day hike. Ended up leaving a bunch of stuff with a hostel in Aguas Calientes. Hiked the rest with maybe 30 pounds including water. Whole trip changed. Has anyone else had a stranger's advice completely rearrange their packing?

2 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

dylanh97•8d ago

I was dead wrong about magnetic stud finders until last weekend

Always thought they were gimmicks compared to the electronic ones. Then I tried a CH Hanson 03040 on my lath and plaster walls in this old 1920s house, and it found every nail head perfectly while my electronic one was going crazy. Has anyone else had better luck with magnetic ones on tricky walls?

2 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

dylanh97•12d ago

Saw something strange in photos from Cherry Springs over the weekend

I drove up to Cherry Springs State Park on Saturday night, which is supposed to be one of the darkest spots on the east coast. The Milky Way was incredible, no doubt about that. But I kept noticing these weird streaks in my long exposure shots, like faint orange lines going across the frame. At first I thought my lens was dirty or I had a light leak from a car passing by. Turns out there were three Starlink satellites passing through at different times, each one leaving a trail. Has anyone else had this problem at dark sky parks recently?

3 comments

c/book-club-debates•

dylanh97•14d ago

That 300 page fantasy book I skimmed for book club, then reread properly

I rushed through the first half of The Fifth Season for our deadline and hated it, but the group discussion made me realize I missed half the plot twists. Anybody else reread a book and completely change their opinion on it?

2 comments

c/best-cooking-hacks•

dylanh97•16d ago

Shoutout to the week I tried batch cooking and then the week I went back to cooking fresh

Has anyone else found that one approach works better depending on your work schedule or just your personality type?

2 comments