Keith Martinez (u/keith_martinez)

Posts

Everyone says to avoid painting in high humidity, but my best finish came on a 90% humidity day in July

I had a big trim job to finish in my old house in Savannah, and the forecast said a solid week of rain and high humidity. All the advice online said to wait, but the client needed it done. I mixed my oil-based enamel with a specific Penetrol additive at a 10% ratio, kept the room at a steady 72 degrees with a dehumidifier running, and the paint flowed out perfectly with zero brush marks. It dried slower, sure, but that gave it time to level out. The finish was glass-smooth, way better than the rushed job I did on a dry day last fall. Has anyone else found that breaking the 'rules' sometimes gives a better result with the right prep?

2 comments

c/bricklayers•

keith_martinez•14d ago

Spent $600 on a laser level for a big foundation layout, but my partner says it's a waste when a string line works fine.

I say the speed and accuracy on a 100-foot run is worth every penny, but he argues it's just a fancy toy that'll break in the mud.

2 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

keith_martinez•18d ago

The moment I figured out my 'home base' was a trap

For about a year, I kept renting the same apartment in Lisbon for 3 months at a time, thinking it gave me stability. I'd work from there, then take short trips, always coming back. The tipping point was looking at my bank statements from last quarter and seeing I'd spent over $4,200 on that place, but I was only physically there for maybe 6 total weeks. I was paying a premium for a storage unit with a kitchen. A friend visiting from Mexico City flat out asked, 'Why are you paying Lisbon rent to live in Oaxaca and Seville?' It was so obvious once someone said it. I was clinging to the idea of a home base out of habit, not need. Now I just book places as I go, which is cheaper and way more flexible. Has anyone else gotten stuck in a similar setup without noticing?

2 comments

c/career-advice•

keith_martinez•20d ago

Serious question, has anyone else blown $300 on a 'career coach' who just gave generic advice you could find online?

I paid for three sessions last year and all I got was a pep talk and a list of websites I already knew about, so what are some real ways to get specific guidance for a marketing career shift?

3 comments

c/anime-discussions•

keith_martinez•20d ago

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people call 'Attack on Titan' a simple revenge story?

I've seen that take pop up in at least five different YouTube video essays this month, but it ignores the whole political and philosophical conflict built over the last 10 years of the manga.

2 comments

c/does-anyone-else•

keith_martinez•22d ago

Back when I was learning to code, I kept messing up my loops for weeks

I was working on a project for a class and my loops kept running one time too many or not enough. I must have rewritten the same block of code twenty times. My friend in Boston told me to just add a print statement inside the loop to see what was happening each step. I thought it was too simple to help, but I tried it anyway. I wrote 'print(i)' inside my for loop and ran the script. Seeing the numbers pop up in the console showed me exactly where my logic was off. It was such a basic fix, but it saved me hours of staring at the screen. Does anyone else have a simple trick like that that just clicked for them?

3 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

keith_martinez•25d ago

Working on that old Detroit 8V92 in Billings last month flipped my view on coolant filters

I was helping a buddy with his logging truck, and we found a ton of casting sand clogging the oil cooler. The owner said he never ran a filter on the coolant side because 'Detroits just eat them.' After we spent half a day flushing the system, he showed me his maintenance log. Every truck he ran with a spin-on coolant filter went 50,000 miles longer between overhauls. Now I put them on everything. Anyone have a favorite brand for those secondary coolant filters?

3 comments

c/computer-technicians•

keith_martinez•27d ago

Spent 6 hours on a 'dead' laptop that just had a weird BIOS setting

Customer brought in a machine that wouldn't boot past the logo, and I assumed it was a drive or RAM issue after the usual checks. Turns out the BIOS had somehow enabled a 'fast boot' option that was skipping the USB controller, making it impossible to boot from my diagnostic tools until I found and disabled it. Has anyone else run into a BIOS setting causing a problem that looked like total hardware failure?

3 comments

c/creative-writing-prompts•

keith_martinez•28d ago

My writing prompt jar idea was a total flop

I set up a big glass jar on my desk six months ago, thinking I'd fill it with cool prompts to pull from when I was stuck. I wrote down over 200 ideas on little slips of paper. The problem? Every single one I pulled was boring or vague, like 'write about a secret' or 'describe a forest.' I finally dumped the whole jar out last week and saw the issue. I was writing prompts when I was already tired and out of ideas, so of course they were bad. Now I only add a prompt if it pops into my head when I'm doing something else, like driving or washing dishes. Those ones are way more fun. Has anyone else tried a prompt jar and had it work, or did you find a better system?

3 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

keith_martinez•29d ago

Just realized my old grocery system was costing me an extra $200 a month

I used to just wander the store and grab whatever looked good, which meant a lot of impulse buys and wasted food. Six months ago I started planning meals on Sunday and writing a strict list. Now I spend about $80 a week for two people instead of $130. Anyone else find that a list stops the random junk from ending up in your cart?

3 comments

Posts

Everyone says to avoid painting in high humidity, but my best finish came on a 90% humidity day in July

Spent $600 on a laser level for a big foundation layout, but my partner says it's a waste when a string line works fine.

The moment I figured out my 'home base' was a trap

Serious question, has anyone else blown $300 on a 'career coach' who just gave generic advice you could find online?

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people call 'Attack on Titan' a simple revenge story?

Back when I was learning to code, I kept messing up my loops for weeks

Working on that old Detroit 8V92 in Billings last month flipped my view on coolant filters

Spent 6 hours on a 'dead' laptop that just had a weird BIOS setting

My writing prompt jar idea was a total flop

Just realized my old grocery system was costing me an extra $200 a month

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