Serious question, is it ever okay to tell your boss their new policy is stupid?

Just had to pick between a $1200 power trowel rental or buying a used one for $2800 cash.

I went with the rental for a big garage pour in Boise last week, and honestly, the machine ran rough and cost me an extra half day of finishing time (which, you know, is a big deal when the concrete's setting).

PSA: My plan to photograph the supermoon from the Santa Monica Pier was a total bust because of one thing I didn't check.

Drove out there last night with my camera and tripod, ready to get that perfect shot over the water. The plan was solid, the gear was ready. What I didn't plan for? The marine layer. The whole sky was just a flat, gray wall. Couldn't even tell where the moon was supposed to be. I stood there for an hour hoping it would clear. It didn't. Learned the hard way that checking the basic weather forecast isn't enough for coastal spots. You need to look at the specific marine forecast for fog. Who else has had a photo plan completely wrecked by something simple they overlooked?

TIL using a bone folder instead of my old plastic one changed the game for my endpapers

The extra weight and smooth edge gave me way cleaner creases on a batch of 50 notebooks, and I'm never going back. Anyone have a favorite brand for heavy-duty scoring tools?

Rant: I was putting up drywall wrong for 15 years until a guy in Phoenix showed me the right way to hold the drill.

Rant: my old boss told me to never ask for a raise in my first year, so I waited and lost out

He said it would make me look greedy and to just keep my head down. I followed his advice at my last job, working for $45k while taking on way more tasks. After 14 months, I finally asked and they gave me a tiny bump to $47k. Found out later a new hire with less experience started at $50k that same month. I should have pushed back at the 6 month mark when my role clearly changed. Has anyone else been given bad advice on timing for salary talks?

PSA: I stopped chasing a degree and started chasing a skill instead

I was two years into a business admin program in Chicago, feeling lost, until I spent $300 on an online course for Google Analytics and got certified in three weeks. That single piece of paper landed me a junior marketing role faster than my degree ever would have. Anyone else find a specific certification that actually opened doors for them?

I was at the bank in Denver to get a car loan and the loan officer said something that really surprised me

I went in thinking my score was solid, around 720, and I'd get a good rate. The loan officer pulled my report and pointed out something I never noticed. He said I had a credit card from a store I opened back in college, with a $300 limit, that I hadn't used in over five years. He told me the bank that issued it closed the account last month because it was inactive. He said that dropping an old account like that, even with a small limit, can hurt your average account age and knock points off your score. I had no idea that could happen. I was so focused on paying my main cards on time that I forgot about that old card. Has anyone else had a score drop from an old, unused account being closed by the lender?

Shoutout to my old Coleman stove that saved a rainy weekend in the Smokies

Got stuck in a downpour for two days straight last fall near Gatlinburg, and my newer camp stove just gave up in the wet. Pulled out my dad's old Coleman 425 from the car, and it fired right up on the first match, boiling water for coffee and soup when we really needed it. That thing is maybe 30 years old and still runs perfect. What's your most reliable piece of gear that just won't quit?

Found a weird billing system bug that took three months to actually fix

It was a tiny thing where the software would double-charge a client if they paid on the 31st of certain months. Has anyone else had a simple error that just refused to go away?