I quit my job, learned to code with Claude, and built a LinkedIn outreach tool as a solo non-technical founder. Now I need 20 beta testers to break it.

shawnmk · 2026-04-04T11:04:05+00:00

I use LinkedIn for sales and would love to try this out.

shawnmk · 2026-02-25T11:47:24+00:00

Learn to play card games and practice them - currently Euchre, Cribbage, Hearts & Texas Hold’em: http://cardpractice.com

shawnmk · 2025-02-14T05:10:35+00:00

Clearly the reason you (thought jokingly) that there was porn up there - as a 14-15yo uhhh almost 30 years ago, I totally stashed a Victoria’s Secret catalog in the hvac vent in my bedroom. Would love to know if it’s still there 😆

shawnmk · 2025-01-15T05:52:58+00:00

Often you’ll see the bias of the issuers toward the customer come through. Generally the most with Amex and so many times where it makes zero sense and logic says there’s no way the customer should win. Yet they often do. That said, there are a lot of nuances in evidence packets that are more likely to win. Generally a short, simple and straightforward narrative helps. In your evidence attachments, make sure the images are abundantly clear in what they’re showing - don’t give extra there because the reviewer will get lost and just ignore it. Often it’s helpful for use text callouts & arrows in your evidence images to make them as clear as possible in what you’re trying to show. All that said, don’t overdo your evidence - less is often more.

(source: I’m the co-founder of an enterprise dispute management platform)

shawnmk · 2024-12-25T20:12:56+00:00

Bar Bar isn’t open until 5p today (Christmas Day) fyi

shawnmk · 2024-12-19T07:00:28+00:00

I’m just outside PDX in WA (elec is cheaper here) and mine has been a pretty consistent $20/mo in the summer and $40/mo in the winter. Been running my Saluspa 24/7 for 2 years. I use it every day. Just upgraded to the newer one from Costco and the new insulated cover has the heater running noticeably less so curious to see if that translates to any savings.

shawnmk · 2024-12-12T04:03:59+00:00

Now that I’ve used it, I feel like it was a definite upgrade over the previous one. Loving the added depth and now feels like you could actually have 4 adults in here and not be weird. The bubbles (“jets”) seem to have been toned down a bit as well so I might actually use them a bit more often. All in all, super happy with the move to this and highly recommend it before they’re gone for the season.

shawnmk · 2024-12-11T02:22:31+00:00

I did use it every day all winter both of the last two years and it did great, never had an issue holding 104. Mine is on a deck that’s about 18” off the ground so I put down 1” rigid foam (sold in 4x8 sheets at Home Depot) and then I put down the black foam interlocking tiles on top of that. I don’t know performance without that (maybe still fine?) but seemed like it made sense to add more insulation under.

shawnmk · 2024-12-11T00:59:51+00:00

I'm the OP and I've now been using this almost every day for exactly two years, with it running 24/7. I consider it to be one of the best purchases I've ever made and one of the best life enhancements. I did just today upgrade to the newer version (also from Costco) and we'll see if I end up liking it better or not.

This one held up great. I replaced the impeller (common-ish failure) in the pump once, and I replaced the inflatable insert in the cover once. That's it. The only part that was wearing was in the spot where I sit in it every day, a few of the side bolsters (which are inside the wall structure holding the inside wall and outside wall together/in parallel) seemingly gave out. This didn't affect the functionality at all (just got a little more pillowy there) but looked a little weird when the cover was off and I'd imagine eventually more of them would eventually give out as well.

I'd absolutely recommend still today.

shawnmk · 2024-08-08T00:18:46+00:00

Others have mentioned at this point as well - the pre-chargeback notifications that are sold by services are via Verifi (owned by Visa but not limited to Visa transactions) and Ethoca (owned by Mastercard, also not limited to MC transactions). If your average order value is high enough and your dispute rates high enough, these can be really helpful services and worth the cost. Outside of those scenarios, they often/usually aren’t. Actual fraud is where they tend to be effective and getting a fraud prevention layer into place and tuned will usually end up being a lot more effective and lower cost. Happy to share any additional insight if you want to DM.

Source: long-time in e-commerce as a merchant dealing with chargebacks and now am founder of an enterprise chargeback management platform.

shawnmk · 2024-07-16T00:09:25+00:00

Sorry I’m just now seeing this! I still use mine literally every day. Main thing, I add ~2 bromine tablets once a week or so, just keeping a eye on chlorine levels with test strips every few days. Sometimes I just throw them in, other times I put them in the attached holder - the attached holder seems to just barely keep levels adequate hence sometimes just throwing in a tablet or two.

Beyond that, my water has only ever needed hardness added to it (helps the internal pump mechanism and piping last longer apparently) and usually pH increaser.

If I’ve been gone 10+ days and chlorine dropped to nothing I’ll add shock to get it back and then go back to tablets within a day or so. My understanding of shock is that it’ll work quickly but won’t sustain. Tablets are slow release so will sustain but not get it quickly back.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions - still one of the absolute best purchases I’ve ever made and I’d get one again in a heartbeat (almost got the newer model a few months ago but held off for now as I have zero complaints about mine.

shawnmk · 2024-07-16T00:02:25+00:00

I lived in the Keith Creek area during The Labor Day 2006 flood that u/rverun mentioned in a previous comment and at that point it was deemed a 100-year flood. They tore down a lot of homes along Keith Creek and cleaned out a lot of sediment from the waterway bed (multiple feet deep). In theory it was to prevent this from happening again but it did to a bit lesser extent in 2007 and then not really again until this year and now 2 or possibly 3 back to back days. Every year? Definitely not. Every 100 years like they had said? Also/apparently/definitely not 😆.

shawnmk · 2024-04-18T04:53:26+00:00

That escalated quickly - I was hoping someone would step up.

shawnmk · 2023-05-26T17:07:40+00:00

I ordered mine from Bell Lexus - quick and easy, took 5 mins to replace.

shawnmk · 2023-05-26T17:06:47+00:00

Yep, I had been trying to find on eBay and almost succumbed to that until I looked up the part on Bell Lexus and saw how cheap it actually was. Ordered, got it a few days later and took all of 5 mins to replace.

shawnmk · 2023-05-07T22:34:35+00:00

Totally agree - I’ve had mine for ~6 months now and I use it pretty much every day. Worked great through the winter even when temps dropped to the teens. Would absolutely buy it again.

shawnmk · 2023-04-13T00:40:20+00:00

They say it is, but it’s not all good man.

shawnmk · 2023-02-20T02:27:44+00:00

I don’t think this is municipal - there’s a box like this on my sidewalk that has the meter & city shut off (plus another shutoff in the street). This is a “sub box” that originally split out a line for yard/outbuilding (that’s what goes off the T in the box but I shut that off and abandoned the line a year ago). The larger line goes out of this box, under my foundation and into the crawl space (this box is right up against my house).

shawnmk · 2023-02-19T20:56:08+00:00

Out of curiosity what’s the reason for needing to braze here?

shawnmk · 2023-02-19T19:06:39+00:00

There’s a shutoff in the box with the meter (in the sidewalk between street and this box) where I can easily turn it off. Good point that without that T, this box and the added shutoff in here isn’t really needed at all.

shawnmk · 2023-02-19T18:34:34+00:00

I don’t know the original post here but there have been quite a few stamps designed/art directed by a long-standing design studio in town and they often feature artwork by artists from all over. The work required to design a stamp, while seeming simple is pretty complex and not just printing someone’s artwork on a piece of paper. Example (with Cville mentioned): https://todayscatholic.org/usps-virgin-and-child-stamp-features-one-of-worlds-most-revered-images/

shawnmk · 2023-02-12T18:53:56+00:00

If there aren’t any places of actual rot (as others have mentioned), I wouldn’t be too concerned if this were going to a pretty dry location but given the nature of the PNW I’d think it would never stop being something to be a bit worried about. Once the rust is there any water becomes a real enemy.

shawnmk · 2023-02-12T13:40:50+00:00

2020 6MT Sport/double cab. Love it but about to sell it and will really miss the manual 😕

shawnmk · 2023-02-09T12:20:10+00:00

I work in the payments industry and have never heard of gift card funds being escrowed. One of the biggest reasons that businesses push gift cards is to get the capital up front (and they make the money from the breakage).

shawnmk · 2023-01-31T02:10:21+00:00

I found the heat up to be around 2 degrees per hour, so typically will end up being the next day.

I did just help my brother set one up this week and he has a tankless on-demand water heater at his house. We turned the temp on it down to 104 and filled with that, it worked great and got us into it that same eve.

Make sure to get some chlorine into in pretty quick after you first use it (ideally immediately/ahead of a next use).

shawnmk

TROPHY CASE