I found out my tent fabric is way thinner than I thought

I was reading the specs on my 3-year-old tent last night, just killing time, and saw the denier rating on the fly is only 20D. That surprised me because I always figured it was thicker, maybe 40D or something. I looked it up on a gear review site, and apparently 20D is pretty common for ultralight stuff, but I use this tent for car camping mostly. Has anyone else checked their gear specs years later and felt like they totally misjudged what they bought?

Just found out how much silver is actually in a roll of Tri-X

I was reading this old photo magazine from 1985, and it said a single 36-exposure roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 has about 0.4 grams of silver in the emulsion. That's a tiny amount, but it made me think about all the rolls I've shot and developed. It's wild that something so small is what makes the image appear in the developer. Makes me wonder if anyone here has ever tried to recover silver from their used fixer, or if it's even worth the hassle.

My weekly spread looked like a mess, so I tried a single pen for everything.

I grabbed a black 0.5mm Micron and used it for my headers, tasks, and even my little doodles. I thought it would look boring, but after three days, my page felt way cleaner and I got more done. It made me focus on the words instead of which color to pick next. Has anyone else tried sticking to just one pen and had it work out?

Bought a $40 coolant filter for my Tormach and it's been a mixed bag

I got tired of the chips clogging up the pump, so I picked up a basic magnetic paper filter unit. It does catch a lot of the fines, which is nice, but the paper cartridges clog way faster than I thought. I'm going through one every two or three jobs, which adds up. Anyone have a better setup they like for a small mill, or should I just stick with the settling tank and skim it more often?

My slow cooker's heating element gave out during a big family dinner

It happened about three weeks ago, right when I was trying to make a big batch of pulled pork for my cousin's birthday. I'd had this Crock-Pot for almost a decade, a real workhorse. I prepped everything the night before, dumped it all in that morning on low, and went about my day. Came back eight hours later to a stone-cold pot and raw meat. The little 'on' light was lit, but no heat at all. I had to scramble and order a ton of pizzas, which blew my budget by about $80. It's funny how you just expect these things to keep going forever. I ended up buying a new one with a digital timer, but I miss the simple dial on the old one. Has anyone else had a slow cooker just stop heating, and is it even worth trying to fix?

I visited the old hardware store downtown and saw they still sell real linseed oil in metal cans

PSA: Watch out for old mortar in those 1920s houses in the historic district

Last month I was cleaning a flue in a 1920s bungalow downtown and the mortar between the bricks was basically dust. My brush knocked a bunch loose and I had a small pile of debris fall into the firebox. The homeowner said, 'Well, it's original,' like that was a good thing. Had to stop and recommend a full repoint before any more sweeping. Anyone else run into this a lot with the really old places?

Looking back at that $500 'AI art' NFT I bought in 2022 feels like a bad dream now.

The hype was so loud I ignored the obvious fact the generator was public and anyone could make a near-identical image for free, so has anyone else got a story about an AI investment that just evaporated?

Figured out a way to avoid ear squeezes on deep dives.

Taking more time to equalize helped, but I'm open to other tips.