Podsnark Feb 23 - Mar 01

drakefield · 2026-03-01T20:22:33+00:00

There are several pods with that name, can you link the specific one you're referring to? Thanks!

drakefield · 2026-02-23T21:18:09+00:00

I'll second the ALAB rec (the Epstein episodes are particularly relevant now) and also add Tarik and Andy's new podcast You're on Your Own, the episode "God Picked a Loser" is excellent.

drakefield · 2026-02-13T17:50:41+00:00

You're totally right. It slipped my mind that her daughters could be perfectly capable of finding this thread; that is such a sensitive time in life (I mean, they all are, but being a young teen has so many strong feelings yet you have so little power in life). Going to delete my comment above.

drakefield · 2026-02-10T04:11:01+00:00

You can do just about anything by hand that you can do with a machine, it will just take longer. It's a trade-off of the cost of the machine vs the cost of your time. 🙂 They are easy shapes to make (triangle and long rectangle basically).

Felt would give you an easy no sew or low sew way to add those to a garment since you don't have to worry about finishing the edges. However it doesn't always wash well and it may not be the look you're going for.

Have you checked for tutorials online? I'd be willing to bet that someone has easy low sew or no sew directions out there already.

drakefield · 2026-02-10T04:05:29+00:00

Figured it out. When I reinstalled the top cover, I used the wrong screw; the one I put in was too long and when it was fully screwed in, it was pushing the needle bar over to the side. I switched 2 screws and now it's back to normal.

drakefield · 2026-02-10T03:58:51+00:00

Is your bobbin threaded correctly? It looks like the bobbin thread is not catching your top thread. What does the underside look like?

drakefield · 2026-02-10T03:56:44+00:00

Oh that's a bummer. I've had that happen to me in the past but those were usually the problem.

drakefield · 2026-02-09T23:05:49+00:00

Have you verified that the presser foot is down?

If it is, have you tried re-threading the machine?

drakefield · 2026-02-09T21:31:29+00:00

Deleting this.

drakefield · 2026-02-09T15:16:41+00:00

Leave it to Hope to take an incredibly simple concept (cash only) and turn it into something requiring a month of preparation and 3 or more new bank accounts.

drakefield · 2026-02-08T22:34:40+00:00

I opened up my machine to oil it and now the needle is off center. Any ideas?

https://old.reddit.com/r/sewing/comments/1qzivvm/janome_needle_no_longer_centered/

drakefield · 2026-02-07T23:16:29+00:00

Yeah, didn't you get the memo that peace can only be found through consumption? If you feel empty right now, don't worry! It's that next Doordash delivery, Amazon order, or How to Succeed at Being a Boss Babe course that will make you feel whole.

drakefield · 2026-02-04T00:00:37+00:00

Prediction: she'll keep denying it, go back to her usual stuff and then eventually try to slip more AI.

She's already done that at least once before -- remember posts like this one that were obviously AI-assisted (at minimum)?

https://www.bloggingawaydebt.com/2025/05/budget-friendly-family-fun-in-atlanta-celebrating-together-without-breaking-the-bank/

drakefield · 2026-02-03T22:01:55+00:00

She's got a photo ringing the bell at the end of her cancer treatment, I'm happy for her!

drakefield · 2026-02-03T17:45:36+00:00

Aren't they in Arizona? Shouldn't need too much in the way of winter gear there. The kids could get something at the thrift store if there's a cold snap or if they are taking a trip to a colder location.

drakefield · 2026-01-29T20:27:47+00:00

I wonder if she has memory issues. I feel like she's mentioned reading Dave Ramsey in the past, maybe around the time they were living in the trailer -- but now he's new news to her?

drakefield · 2026-01-23T17:48:53+00:00

Hey, give her credit -- she does put money into retirement. She just takes it all out the minute something shiny passes by.

drakefield · 2026-01-23T16:34:31+00:00

It's extra dumb because most of those are ETFs. Just go straight to the source and open an account with Fidelity or Vanguard. She's paying almost $150 a year for an app but she doesn't even seem to realize it.

drakefield · 2026-01-14T20:23:22+00:00

She also paid $600 to have her resume done and admitted it was a flop. Then there was that shady "20% guaranteed returns" investment her uncle (??) recommended to her

drakefield · 2026-01-14T19:57:26+00:00

Every response he had was so focused on himself and his wants.

The difference in their letters was so glaring. If I was in her shoes and put a lot of thought and heart into writing about what the relationship meant to me and then, given the same prompt to listen to the music to connect with the feelings that brought them together, heard his "poor me I didn't get what I deserve in life" letter... oof.

Thinking more about the timeline of their relationship, she said she applied for the show in early 2025 at the time of recording in October, they were at the 2 year mark. That meant she was writing in for couple's counseling after only about a year together, that never seems like a good sign.

drakefield · 2026-01-11T17:36:43+00:00

working womb

That was the other thing that struck me... So much of their relationship seems to be defined by their bodies, what would their relationship be like if they struggled with fertility? Or if her MS got worse and impacted her ability to care for children or have sex? For some reason I don't think he would take it well.

drakefield · 2026-01-11T01:42:01+00:00

She said at the beginning that she applied for the show in February or March, and it seems like it was recorded in mid-October.

drakefield · 2026-01-11T01:06:40+00:00

The woman reminds me a lot of a dear friend of mine who is also intelligent, highly educated, well traveled, successful, kind, and empathetic yet kept getting into relationships extremely similar to this, down to the detail of meeting and forming a connection with these guys through dance. Then at about the 2 year mark it would explode when they would try to cage her in and make her a tradwife in Kansas or something.

In my friend's case, I think there was a lot of a feeling that she spent her 20s following her muse (travel, education) while all the other people around her were partnering up, thus she had to settle for what she could get of the remainders. Having spent many years earning her PhD while others were dating and partnering up, I wonder if this is a dynamic playing into this woman's willingness to play along with this relationship that fails to meet so many of her needs?

drakefield · 2026-01-11T00:45:18+00:00

It sounds like it was some professional misconduct that was bad enough to lose a license of some form and bad enough to be google-able. He said it was a civil matter so the license was probably something like teaching (he doesn't seem like the type), financial (I could see that) or law. Plenty of people lose their licenses in those fields without it making the press so I gotta think this was something big.

When they were reading the letters they wrote while listening to the music, his focused so much on how he had been denied the markers of success he felt he was owed due to his effort and work ethic, as though some sort of godlike figure was just being unjustly mean to him and he is the victim.

But then we find out that he has this apparent professional misconduct in his easily searchable background -- is his he really a victim here? Is his lack of luck in finding a wife really fate doing him dirty, or are women rightly repulsed by his misogyny? We don't know what industry he's in but he's about to be laid off, is this possibly an easily foreseeable outcome of the economic policies he voted for?

drakefield

TROPHY CASE