Mark Hernandez (u/markh85)

Posts

PSA: That whole "dry age it yourself" thing is a gamble I lost on 40 pounds of ribeye

I read this post online from some guy claiming he dry aged a prime rib at home in his spare fridge with just a fan and a salt block. He made it sound so easy I figured I'd try it myself. Bought 40 pounds of ribeye from a local supplier in Austin for about $320. Set up my old mini fridge with a USB fan and a tray underneath. Followed his steps to the letter for 30 days. When I opened that fridge the smell hit me like a brick wall. The meat was covered in this weird greenish-black mold that wasn't the good kind you want. Lost the whole batch. My wife still gives me crap about the smell lingering for another two weeks. Has anyone actually pulled off home dry aging without a dedicated setup or is this just a fantasy?

3 comments

c/cognitive-dissonance-diaries•

markh85•1d ago

Took me 6 months to admit my meal prep system was failing

I kept insisting my Sunday meal prep routine saved time and money, but I was spending 4 hours every week cooking food I didn't even want to eat by Wednesday. Finally tracked it and realized I was throwing away about $30 worth of leftovers each week. Why do we cling to systems that clearly aren't working for us? Has anyone else stuck with a habit way longer than it made sense just because you told yourself it was 'efficient'?

3 comments

c/appliance-repairers•

markh85•2d ago

Rant: That one Tuesday in July where every ice maker I touched fought back

I had three calls in a row near Austin where the ice makers were jammed with mold and broken augers, and by the third one the homeowner just handed me a beer and said 'you look like you need this more than me' - has anyone else had a day where a specific appliance type just decided to ruin you?

3 comments

c/conspiracy-debates•

markh85•3d ago

That time I hit exactly 33,333 miles on my odometer and pulled over for a photo

I was driving back from Reno last Tuesday and glanced down at my dash and saw 33,333 miles on my 2012 Corolla. I legit pulled over at a gas station in Fernley just to snap a picture because it felt like some kind of cosmic joke. Then I started wondering if there's some secret meaning to repeating numbers or if it's just my brain looking for patterns in random data. Pretty sure it was just coincidence but I still sent the photo to my buddy who swears 11:11 means something. Has anyone else gotten weirdly excited about a specific number on their car or am I just bored?

3 comments

c/dredge-operators•

markh85•3d ago

TIL shutting down the cutterhead too fast can snap a hydraulic line

Overheard a guy at the supply shop in Galveston say he blew a $1,200 line by killing the cutterhead while it was still under load. I always just yanked the lever without thinking twice. Anybody else ever cooked a line that way or am I the only one?

3 comments

c/apology-letters-unsent•

markh85•5d ago

A whole week where nothing went wrong and it felt weird

Last spring I had this one week where absolutely everything just worked. My 9 year old Ford Focus started on the first crank every morning (which never happens in damp weather), I found $12 in an old jacket pocket on Tuesday, and even the traffic lights on Main Street seemed to time perfectly for me. By Friday I was honestly kind of suspicious, like waiting for the other shoe to drop or something crazy. Has anyone else ever had a stretch of good luck that felt more unsettling than bad days?

3 comments

c/digital-art-showcase•

markh85•6d ago

My render crashed 9 hours into a 12 hour batch last night

I was working on this 4K animation loop for a client in Chicago. Saved over my last good version by accident around hour 8. When the software crashed at hour 9, I lost everything past that save point. Had to restart from scratch and work through the night to hit the morning deadline. The timeline was so tight I skipped sleep entirely. Has anyone else had a late stage render fail like that and had to recover fast?

3 comments

c/ethics-in-the-wild•

markh85•22d ago

Dog park drama over a $5 bag of treats last Tuesday

I was at the dog park in Portland and this lady went off on me for giving her dog a treat without asking. I get the allergy thing but she acted like I poisoned him with a premium salmon jerky I bought at the pet store. Has anyone else run into owners who treat treat-giving like a crime scene?

3 comments

c/book-club-debates•

markh85•25d ago

That guy who argued about page 47 for 45 minutes

My book club read a thriller last month and one dude would not let go of page 47. He kept saying the author hid a secret code in the paragraph about the lamp. Like the lamp description was some big clue. He had a whole theory about it involving the neighbor and a dog. We were all just trying to talk about the actual plot twist. Another member finally asked him straight up if he was joking. He got quiet for the rest of the meeting. Has anyone else had someone go off on a weird detail that nobody else could see?

3 comments

c/credit-advice•

markh85•28d ago

Finally gave in and tried the 30% utilization trick after months of doubt

I used to think all that stuff about keeping credit utilization under 30% was just people being paranoid. My score was stuck around 690 for like 8 months and I couldn't figure out why. I paid off my cards in full every month but I was letting one card hit like $1500 out of my $2000 limit before paying it. A guy on a personal finance board told me to pay my balance down to under $600 before the statement closes instead of waiting for the due date. I tried it last month and my score jumped 32 points after the next update. I honestly didn't believe it would make that big of a difference but now I'm a believer. Has anyone else seen a big jump from just timing your payments better?

3 comments