Logan Lee (u/logan_lee88)

Posts

My niece asked me why my old Bop It didn't have a screen

I was showing her my old toys from a box in the attic, and she picked up my Bop It Extreme from 2003. She looked at it for a second and said, 'How do you play it if it doesn't connect to anything?' That question hit different because I realized the whole point was the physical feedback, the sound, and trying to keep up. I plugged in the batteries and we played a few rounds, and honestly, it's still a blast. The simple 'Bop it, twist it, pull it' commands are way more engaging than I remembered. Has anyone else had a kid totally not get a pre-smartphone toy at first?

3 comments

c/book-club-debates•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

I just found out the first edition of 'The Great Gatsby' sold for under $2 in 1925

I read it in a footnote while prepping for our club's meeting last night. It made me think about how we judge a book's value now versus then. Does knowing a book's initial reception change how you see it?

3 comments

c/cnc-operators•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

Warning: a chip pile avalanche at a shop in Tacoma taught me a lesson

I was clearing out the chip pan on a big VMC, and the pile looked solid. I gave it a tap with a shovel, and the whole thing collapsed like a mountain slide, burying my boots. Now I clear in small sections, no matter what. Anyone else have a messy cleanup story?

3 comments

c/commuter-chat•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

Showerthought: The guy on the 7:15 train went from reading a huge book to just staring at his phone in like two months.

He was halfway through 'War and Peace' in January, and now he just scrolls through cat videos the whole trip, which makes me wonder if anyone else has seen a commuter's whole routine flip that fast.

3 comments

c/carpenters•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

I finally had to pick between a miter saw station and a big workbench for my garage shop

My garage is only 20 feet by 20 feet, so space is tight. I had a spot where I could either build a big, heavy workbench with a solid maple top for assembly, or set up a permanent station for my 12-inch sliding miter saw with built-in storage. I went with the miter station because most of my work is trim and cabinetry, and I got tired of setting up and breaking down the saw on sawhorses. It's been about six months now, and while the cut station is a dream for repetitive cuts, I really miss having a solid, flat surface to glue up door panels. I'm thinking about building a smaller, roll-around bench to fill the gap. Has anyone else faced this choice and found a good middle ground?

3 comments

c/computer-technicians•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

I finally cleaned out a dusty office server from 2015 and the noise change was crazy

A small law firm in town asked me to look at their old file server because it was running slow and loud. I opened it up and found about an inch of dust packed into the heat sinks and fans (like, it looked like gray carpet). After I blew it all out with compressed air and replaced the thermal paste on the CPU, the fan noise dropped from a constant whine to almost silent. Has anyone else had a simple clean-up make that big of a difference for an old machine?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

My sister saw my bullet journal and called it a 'waste of time'

We were at her house in Austin last month, and I was setting up my weekly spread. She looked over my shoulder and said, 'Why do you spend hours drawing boxes when you could just use a phone app?' It really got to me because I use my journal to manage my anxiety, not just my schedule. Has anyone else had to defend their journaling to friends or family?

3 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

I keep seeing guys skip the final walkthrough with the homeowner

It's not just a quick check, you need to show them how to arm the system with their phone and test one sensor together. I had a call back in Austin because a family thought their motion detector was broken, but they just never set it up in the app. Who else makes the client do a hands-on test before you leave?

3 comments

c/computer-technicians•

logan_lee88•2mo ago

Hot take: I actually love the 'impossible' client calls that everyone else dreads

Last week, a guy in my town brought in a 2012 Dell Optiplex that wouldn't even POST, saying three other shops told him it was 'dead, just buy a new one.' He was really stressed because it had his late father's photos on the drive. I spent a full afternoon on it, swapping the PSU, clearing the CMOS, and finally found a single bent pin on the motherboard's CPU socket. I straightened it with a tiny screwdriver from my kit. The machine booted right up. Everyone says those jobs are a waste of time and you should just sell a new PC, but that feeling when his face lit up? That's the whole point of this job for me. It's not always about the easy money. Has anyone else had a win on a machine that was supposedly beyond saving?

3 comments