Hello, Reddit, this is u/spez, your usually confident CEO. But today, I'm here in a different capacity, as a fellow Redditor who's made a big oopsie. So here it goes... TIFU by deciding to eliminate third-party apps, and as a result, unintentionally creating a crisis for our beloved platform.

Like most TIFUs, it started with good intentions. I wanted to centralize user experience, enhance quality control, and create uniformity. I thought having everyone on the official app would simplify things and foster a better, more unified Reddit experience.

But oh, how I was wrong.

First, the backlash was instant and palpable. Users and moderators alike expressed concerns about the utility and convenience that these third-party apps offered. I heard stories of how some apps like RiF had become an integral part of their Reddit journey, especially for moderators who managed communities big and small.

Then came the real shocker. In protest, moderators began to set their subreddits to private. Some of the largest, most active corners of Reddit suddenly went dark. The impact was more significant than I'd ever anticipated.

Frustration mounted, and so did regret. This wasn't what I wanted. I never intended to disrupt the community spirit that defines Reddit or make the jobs of our volunteer moderators harder.

Yet, here we are.

I've made a monumental miscalculation in assessing how much these third-party apps meant to our community. I didn't realize the extent to which they were woven into the fabric of our daily Reddit operations, particularly for our moderators.

In short, I messed up. I didn't fully understand the consequences of my decision, and now Reddit and its communities are bearing the brunt of it.

So, here's my TIFU, Reddit. It's a big one, and I'm still grappling with the fallout. But if there's one thing I know about this platform, it's that we're a community. We're in this together, and we'll figure it out together.

I'm listening. Let's talk.

TL;DR - Tried to unify Reddit under the official app, phased out third-party apps, caused chaos, possibly destabilized the platform, and learned a lesson about the value of diverse user experiences.

Edit: a word

Note: this is a parody

So I was on one of my cleaning binges and while in the bathroom I decided to clean the sink. Sink clean, but water not draining properly from the sink.

It's been a while since the trap was cleaned, so I opened the cupboard under the sink and carefully unscrewed the U bend pipe, being careful not to drip any of the absolutely vile liquid onto anything in the cupboard.

I removed the pipe, dripping only a little bit, so now the sink just has a pipe that ends directly above all the things in the cupboard; shaving cream, soap, spare TP, medications, etc.

Yeah, this was well overdue, there was so much crap in there and it smelled really bad. I needed to dump this crap somewhere so I could clean up the little puddle in the cupboard.

Oh hey, here's a handy sink to tip this into!

TL;DR I removed the U bend pipe from the sink and proceeded to tip the disgusting contents into the sink, straight into the cupboard below.

Just for Context, Im 17m and living with my mom (my parents are divorced) in a 5-room appartment. I also have an annoying brother (12) who visits us every weekend, well today was a special weekend, because my mom said that she would work a long shift tonight with my brother being supposed to go back to my day sooner today, so when i came from school i would be home alone. I ofcourse used that situation to invite my Girlfriend (16) over.

When i then came home at about 5pm i thought i was home alone, but i still made sure to call first my moms and them my brothers name loud, no answer. Well this is were i fucked up. I have a small room with a big closet right next to my bed. So my GF and I start doing you know what and are at it for about 20mins already, when i stop for a second because i thought i heard something. There was a small whimmern coming from my closet. I decsided to find out more about it, so i put my head against my closet door, and there i heard it, crying, my brother crying. My heard stopped, i instantly out on my pants, my GF looking confused, when i went over and opend the door. There was my brother siting in the corner crying his heart out, probaly being traumatised for life.

It turns out that, my dad got a pretty bad cold and couldnt take my brother back to him, and instead of my brother telling that to me he decided to hide in my closet and scare me when I came home. And because me and my gf were allready naked when we walked in my room he didnt even had a chance to correct himself and get out before it was to late. I am fricking embaressed, siting in my room almost crying rn. My Girlfriend decided to go buy some ice for him to cool him down. While hes sitting in the dining room still crying. Please give me some good advice fast, bevore i fricking strangel this boy to death.

TL;DR: I tought i was home alone and now my brother is fricking traumatised.

I'm honestly quite shocked that it happened, but also not at the same time.

Before I begin, I'm a 20-year old college student with Asian roots. This is important to the story.

So there's a high school I have to walk past to get to my bus stop and an orientation for new exchange students was going on out front outside. (I already knew this was happening since the sign outside displayed it for about a week). I casually walk by as per usual, but I hear a voice yelling "Hey you! Where do you think you're going?!" I paused for a split second and continued along thinking it was about someone else. Then again, "HEY! You have to listen to your teachers!! Get back here!!"

I now turn around to look and the lady leading the orientation was furiously waving at me to go over there and then yelled again, "C'MON!! You're holding up the group!!" - I then responded with "I don't go to this school!" and proceeded to head to the bus stop. As I see my bus approaching from a distance, I try to sprint for it, but then I feel her grab my arm from behind (she was FAST) and then began to berate me that I don't get to just ditch school here. I guess she didn't hear me the first time, so I grabbed my student ID to show her and told her again that I'm not a student there. As that happened, the bus just passed by us since no one was at the stop. She made me miss by damn bus.

She kinda just chuckled a bit and half-heartedly apologize before turning back to rejoin her group. At that point, I had to pay $30 an Uber to get me to school (this bus comes once an hour >.>)

TL;DR: A high school was having student exchange orientation, had to walk past said high school to get to bus stop, got mistaken as a runaway exchange student, which led to me missing my bus and Ubering instead.

EDIT: Wow I didn’t expect this to blow up so fast! I really appreciate the support from everyone and thank you to you all!! And also a thanks to whoever gave me the award!

I’ve also come with an update: so word of the incident has now apparently gone around that I learned this evening the school is looking for me to make things right. I suppose it’d be rude to turn them down, so I shall call them first thing Monday :)

I know, how can I be so stupid. I was a horny mf and got catfished on this app. I showed my face, my dick, and he managed to get my insta outta me (s(he) claimed his laptop was abt to die, so s(he) asked for my insta so we could call). He threatened to send the pics to all my followers. He asked for $400, I gave it to him out of desperation. He asked to get on call to watch me delete it, I did, he requested 500 more. I said fuck it, even if he has my insta, my face, my dick, I wasn't gonna send this mf 500 more. I told him i reported him to the police, he lives in the Philippines, which is where I sent the money (he had his real name on paypal, i found his facebook). He kept lowering the price, which makes me think he's not gonna do shit. I also told him i'm underaged, lmao, i'm not. Anyways, now i'm in the works with paypal on trying to get my money back, even though it probably won't work out.

Id also like to mention at the end of our convo when i said i reported him, dude was saying "it's ok it's fair to you, I'll delete the photos, just deactivate your instagram account for your safety". I told him no, he told me to kms and continued to threaten with the pictures. I fully blocked him after that. Does anyone know why this is? What good does that serve him?

TL;DR - Blackmailer got my dick pick and face, I gave him money, he wanted more, I said fuck it and blocked him on everything.

This happened yesterday. My family, my grandparents and my cousin with her family are on a big vacation. We went out to dinner last night since it was our last night here. My cousin(Female abt 25) has two kids(F2 & M8months), has this thing where when she’s around other people and her kids are doing things that are annoying or irritable(I.e. screaming and being inconsolable) she will try to console and talk to them but as she’s speaking she’ll look around to see if someone’s watching. I hate when she does this, it makes her seem fake. So while we were eating our dinner, her son was crying because he wants to feed himself but is still too young. She was borderline force feeding him and trying to hush him, while doing her look around. I use my notes app on my phone to communicate with certain people when I don’t want to say things out loud, it’s a good privacy thing in public. I used this to talk to my dad about it, because to me this gave me the vibe she might be harsher behind closed doors. At the time my sisters were peeking in on the conversation and I assumed they were going to keep it a secret, our unspoken rule when venting. I cut off the conversation with my dad because our food came, but the short of it is she’s a new mom and she’s learning. I understand that, I love my cousin, I just don’t agree with her methods.

After dinner my cousin took her kids with my sisters outside and they told her. My mom found out and she explained I was hangry and overstimulated, but it still hurt her feelings. I feel bad because I didn’t want her to know about it, because I was talking out of my ass with my feelings. Today she was forcefully feeding her daughter and it was making her upset, when I mentioned something about it she snapped at me and ignored me for the rest of the morning.

TL;DR: I talked shit about my cousin and she founds out, now things are awkward.

Not so much today as a week ago. I'm in AZ for a team building work thing and decide to go on the kayaking adventure. I've never kayaked before, but this was billed as a calm "Level 1" river. Cool. We get kitted up and the "instructors" give us a brief run down on how to paddle, basically put the shit in the water and pull. Oh, I thought I just waved it around in the air. Sweet, I got this. Did I mention they told us to leave our phones? Yeah, but I'm too smart to listen. My shorts have zippers. My phone will be nice and secure and I can take pictures while kayaking. Big brain.

Okay, two people per kayak. Immediately as we start out I realize that coordinating paddling in a kayak is a lot more difficult than one would think, as is keeping a kayak going straight. At the start we are already spinning around and having to right ourselves. And then we hit the bank with tree roots sticking out, nearly capsizing us. It's all good, we're champs and right ourselves again. A few more spins, light bumps into other inexperience colleagues in other kayaks, and everything is fine and dandy.

Break time. Alright, perfect spot to whip out the personal phone and take a picture of everyone. But revanchisto, in your supreme idiocy you decided to bring both your work phone and personal phone with you, since you're already that stupid why not do the smart thing and take the picture with your work phone. Well, this is r/TIFU. Naturally, I use my personal phone to snap a few pictures and put it back in my pocket. What? You thought I dropped it then, no. I'm not that dumb. But, this is like fuck up number 3 at this point.

You see, my left pocket has been having trouble zipping up as of late with ease. Even when calm and sitting down at the gym, I often have to struggle to zip back up that pocket. Of course, that is the pocket I place my personal phone. Genius. We continue our trek down the river, I snap some more pics, and start trying to zip back up my phone. Yet, the pocket remains as stubborn as ever and I also need to balance paddling while zipping. Suddenly, the current picks up pretty quick and oh look, another kayak duo got stuck on an tree branch sticking out of the middle of the damn water!

Okay, decision time. We can keep trying to zip up the phone in our pocket, or paddle as hard as we can to avoid crashing into these people. Fuck it, I want to live. We paddle. We crash anyway. So much for valuing my life over a phone. But guess what, we're still fine. We haven't capsized. Oh wait, what's this? Another boat coming in to smash into all of us creating a kayak sandwich? Yes, yes it is. BAM. We capsize and go over. Thank you life vests. Bye, bye paddle.

Guess what? Miraculously my phone is hanging on for dear life in my pocket, we can still salvage this situation. One hand holding my phone in my pocket, one hand on our kayak as we float down the river. Finally, the guide crew come around to help us back into our kayaks. Final fuck up time, do I do the smart thing and say, "hey man, hold my phone first before pulling me up?" No, I'm a dumbass, remember? So, I reach out for that hand to pull myself out of this goddamn river and whoosh, bye phone...forever. Didn't even feel the thing leave my pocket. Whoosh.

TL;DR I sit here, without my personal phone, because I didn't leave it behind before going on a kayaking adventure, because I put it in my faulty zipper pocket, because I couldn't paddle correctly to avoid the damn crash, and because I couldn't even think to just hand the damn phone to the crew before having them pull me back up into the kayak.

So, if anyone comes across a Samsung S22+ that has washed up on the shores of a AZ river bank, shoot me a DM. Otherwise, that is my fuck up.

I've been on reddit for 5 years and have used the official reddit app all this time. I didn't really see the need to try anything else, even though I knew of the existence of alternatives. I was content with the official app. Sure there were things I disliked and was annoyed by, but overall it was an OK experience.

In light of recent news I was curious and decided to try out Relay to see what all this uproar was about. And oh boy, has it changed my reddit experience. Everything loads way quicker, no overly annoying ads that disguise themselves as reddit posts, EVERYTHING is just better.

And now I'm sitting here, sad to see something disappear that I've come to love over the last few days.

A big Thank You to 3rd party app devs. You are very appreciated for what you've done for the reddit community.

TLDR; After using the official reddit app for 5 years I only now decided to try a 3rd party alternative and it changed everything.

I go to a really nice fitness club. It's worth it because they have a huge indoor playground and daycare is included. Lately my 2 year-old has been dealing with some major separation anxiety so every dropoff has been a bit of a nightmare as I tear myself away.

Today was a typical day like this. I finally got away and headed to the men's locker room to put my gym clothes on. After changing I stopped for a minute to linger at the tiny window at the back of the play area to see how little man was holding up. He had calmed down so I was happy.

I turned around to go work out and there's this guy staring at my with the most disgusted look. I can only imagine he thought I was a creep who enjoys looking at kids or women who sometimes breastfeed. I tried to babble something out about my son but he was already walking away shaking his head.

TLDR; guy at gym thought I was a peeping tom as I was trying to see if my son was OK in daycare.

TIFU by offering to give someone that my daughter went to school with 4 years ago, money. This girl has an amazing overseas trip coming up. It’s a once in a lifetime chance. The mum shared it on social media and mentioned needing to pay off the rest of the trip and save for spending money. The family aren’t well off and neither am I. My daughter has struggled making friends and this girl was always so kind to my daughter. I wanted to help so I messaged the mum and asked if it would be ok if I gave her a little spending money. Talking $50 but I still thought that might help. I’m not close with the family but have known them for years. The mum has seen my message but has left me on read. My daughter and this girl caught up recently and I know my daughter was hoping to catch up with her again. I think I might have offended them and am now worried if my daughter wants to catch up with this girl again, she will say no. I haven’t told any of my family what I’ve done, I’m really regretting offering the money.

TL;DR- offered to give one of my daughters only friends $50 spending money for a once in a lifetime trip. The mother has left me on read and I think I may have ruined one of my daughters only friendships.

I (m27) was at a rodeo in weatherford Texas. There was a very cute bar tender, with a rose tattoo, and I think she was flirting with me... I complimented her tatoo, to which she extactily said thank you and complimented mine. I think I caught her staring when she was helping another customer. And the kicker, I overheard her talking to a coworker about "my guy," and when she saw me I think she looked shocked for a second, and was all smiles and helpful after. But as a typical man, I ignored the signs because I didn't want to impose and was nervous. I even told myself right before getting another beer that I would ask if she was taken, but alas I did not. I should have at least asked for her number.

TLDR: I saw a cute girl, bartender, that might have been flirting with me. I ignored the signs, and got nervous so I didn't ask for her number.

This actually happened May 24. For the first time in my adult life I booked a plane leaving out of Denver International Airport. For the first time in about 14 years I was going to see my sister and spend sometime with her before meeting up with another family member to drive home with them.

Not knowing what all to expect going through security I didn’t wear my belt and kept most of my stuff in my carry on so I had less to empty and take off at security. Once I got through security I stopped for a moment sent a text to my dad letting him know that I made it and was heading to my gate. At that point I stopped in the bathroom and while in there I got my belt out and put it on. I decided to walk around the terminal a bit before heading to my gate since I had a lot of time to kill. The whole trip that day was pretty uneventful and even getting picked after I arrived went smooth.

When I got to my sisters house I noticed my fuck up, I thought I zipped up my suitcase but didn’t and the small case with all my DS/3DS and Switch games had fallen out somewhere along the way. I have made reports with every one I can but if it hasn’t shown up by know I’m sure it won’t. So now I sit here hating myself for my own stupidity.

TLDR; I didn’t zip up my suitcase after getting something from inside it and lost all my handheld games

My oldest brother, "Jonah" (25M), recently came home, so my parents decided to take us all out for dinner. The family is finally reunited, and since my other brother, "Ryan" (20M), and I (19F) have recently started college, we might not get this chance again. I suggested the restaurant, as there was a familiar face working as a waitress there. I thought it would brighten everyone's day, and that familiar face was Ryan's ex-girlfriend, "Chrissy" (20F).

Ryan and Chrissy dated in seventh grade and broke up in ninth grade because Ryan wanted to be single in high school. He wanted to date other girls. Recently, Ryan and his girlfriend of nearly three years broke up. So, I thought maybe seeing someone he was friendly with after their breakup might help him. At first, things seemed fine. Chrissy was our waitress, and I knew which section she served. She's a very friendly young woman with natural beauty, hardly wearing any makeup. She and Ryan talked quite a bit.

However, Jonah pointed to the ring on Chrissy's finger and asked about it. It turns out she's engaged and getting married in just over a month. Ryan was shocked and frozen, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped.

On the car ride back home, he wouldn't talk to me. Later, Jonah explained to me what was wrong. Since they broke up, Chrissy has become very successful. She has won gold medals in figure skating competitions, received awards for her community service, and even won a beauty pageant. Ryan didn't know she was getting married, and he's mad at me for bringing him to see her. He believes that if I hadn't, he would have never found out.

TL;DR: I brought my brother to see his ex-girlfriend to cheer him up after a breakup, and now he feels worse.

Today, as a dedicated gym-goer, I was excited for my workout session. I had been consistently hitting the gym to build strength and improve my fitness. Little did I know that my enthusiasm would lead to an embarrassing incident during my hip thrust exercise.

I had seen other gym enthusiasts perform hip thrusts with ease, so I decided to give it a try. I set up my weights and positioned myself on the bench, ready to engage my glutes and strengthen my lower body. I took a deep breath, focused on my form, and began the movement.

However, I underestimated the weight I had loaded on the barbell. As I thrust my hips upward, I felt an immediate strain on my lower back. Panicked, I tried to control the weight, but it was too late. The barbell slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor with a loud, attention-grabbing noise.

The entire gym seemed to stop and turn their heads towards me. I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment as I quickly assessed the situation. Not only had I dropped the weights, but the sudden movement had caused me to lose my balance and fall backward off the bench. It was a complete disaster.

Trying to regain my composure, I apologized profusely to those around me and quickly picked up the scattered weights. Fortunately, the gym staff rushed to assist me, ensuring I was okay and helping me reset my workout area. Despite their kindness, I couldn't shake off the embarrassment and the lingering stares from my fellow gym-goers.

To make matters worse, my lower back was throbbing with pain, a clear indication of my improper technique and the excessive weight I had attempted. I learned a valuable lesson that day - it's crucial to start with lighter weights and focus on proper form before gradually increasing the load.

As I reflect on that incident, I realize the importance of humility and patience in the gym. It's okay to make mistakes and have setbacks, as long as we learn from them and prioritize safety over ego. I now approach my workouts with a renewed sense of caution and a commitment to perfecting my technique before challenging myself with heavier weights.

While the hip thrust mishap was undoubtedly embarrassing, it served as a humbling reminder that fitness journeys are filled with ups and downs. We all have our moments of vulnerability and clumsiness, but what truly matters is how we bounce back and grow from those experiences. And hey, at least it made for an unforgettable gym story that I can now laugh about with my fellow gym buddies.

TL;DR: As a regular gym-goer, I had a TIFU moment during a hip thrust exercise. Underestimating the weight, I strained my lower back, causing the barbell to slip from my hands and crash to the floor. The incident attracted attention, and I felt embarrassed as I quickly apologized and picked up the weights. I learned the importance of starting with lighter weights and focusing on proper form. This humbling experience taught me to prioritize safety and approach workouts with patience and humility. Despite the embarrassment, it became a memorable story that I can now laugh about with others at the gym.

I just spent 1 1/2 months in Thailand and it was time to come home, so I booked a flight with Japan Airlines to JFK in New York with 2 stops - one in Osaka and one in Tokyo. Since all flights were operated by JAL, I assumed when booking that my bags would be checked all the way through. At Bangkok Airport, I was told that I needed to get my bags in Osaka and re-check them - no problem. On the way to Osaka, my flight attendant hands me 2 cards to fill out. One of them asking if I had any criminal convictions. I was arrested 3 years ago for a small amount of weed and paid a fine and I did not want to lie to them, so I checked yes.

Here is where the shit storm begins - I get to immigration so I can go get my bags, and she double checks with me to ensure that I meant to check yes on the box asking about criminal conviction. She asks me about the conviction and I tell her it is for marijuana. She starts laughing and speaking with the guy next to her, fills out a form, and puts my passport in a folder with the form. A man comes over and escorts me to a room to ask me questions with a translator on speaker. He explained to me that it is impossible to let me in the country. I told him I don’t really need to enter and it is fine if an employee can get my bag checked for me and I will stay in transfers. He then explains that he cannot allow me to fly to Tokyo. He says that since they cannot verify what I claim, they must confirm with the American embassy which can take a long time. They then make me sign a form basically withdrawing my landing so I have to go back to Bangkok.

So here I am, 6 hours later after landing, waiting for another flight back to Bangkok so I can book another flight to go home. -$700 👍🏻 Glad I learned I am not welcome this way instead of booking a vacation here in the future. That’s what I get for being honest.

TLDR: Booked a flight home with connections in Japan and needed to re-check my bags. Was asked about my criminal history for immigration and answered honestly about my one marijuana charge. Unbeknownst to me, Japan does not allow you to enter the country no matter what type or how long ago the drug charge was. Am currently stuck in immigration while I wait for a 9pm flight back to Bangkok, am out $700, and waiting 13 hours.

I am being treated for poison ivy. My dermatologist prescribed hydroxyzine (antihistamine)1 tab 4x daily and Prednisone (steroid) to be tapered across 15 days I have taken both before. I've learned from experience to only take 1 hydroxyzine at bedtime because it knocks me on my butt as far as sleepiness. So this morning I went to dutifully take my day 2, 8 Prednisone dose then came back a bit later for my other meds. Upon taking my other meds I realized I had taken 8 hydroxyzine (2 days worth) instead of 8 Prednisone! I decided to call out for work, rather than show up and have the extra hydroxyzine kick in and need a ride home. I embarrassingly explained the error to my boss and she was understanding. I went to sleep for a few hours, missed a text and email about a meeting that thankfully had been cancelled. I just had a 2nd cup of coffee, hoping I can caffeinate my way through the afternoon, as I have a child who will be coming home from school and thankfully a husband who will be home to help out, but ffs, I'm still in disbelief that I did this to myself. Always read the labels folks! TL,DR; I mixed up my poison ivy meds and took 2 days worth of antihistamines.

( IDK how to reddit good, lots of good comments on my first post in /HomeImprovement this is really a safety psa Post link https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/145k3b7/how_we_almost_died_and_or_lost_our_house_aka_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button )

Hi all, just a quick preface, I'm only posting this incase someone else tries to search for this because I was at it for hours and it might save someone's life. I'm so glad we were home and it didn't happen in the middle of the night. I feel like writing it like a story so I'm gonna. Tldr at bottom.

This morning I was up early as I've been for the last few days, my cat just got spayed so I've been sleeping in little spurts with her as much as possible.

It was around 8am or so at this point after sitting with her in the living room just zoning out on my phone killing time with my cat and wife napping beside me when out of nowhere I get hit with a smell, hard.

Kinda hammy. Kinda like a ham that's just about to go bad or just turned bad. It filled the entire house. It was serious. Filled the house in a matter of minutes. I jokingly said to my cat "Are you smelly? Do your farts smell like old ham or something?" She replied "meow" as she usually does as she's quite vocal. This discussion woke my wife who I asked, "Do you smell some old ham or something?"

Before she can even open her eyes the smell intensifies. It's now so strong it's making me feel a bit nauseous."Yeah what is that" she says popping up pretty quickly looking puzzled or disgusted. "It literally just came out of nowhere and it's getting waaay worse by, like, the minute." I responded.

So we open the door and screen door window quickly, place a fan in front of it. By this point it's making me feel worse, my mouths watering a slight amount like I'm going to vomit if it gets much worse.

We are both running around the house trying to figure out where the hell this smell is coming from. She mentions it has a slight paint thinner-esque smell to it but I didn't really smell anything but overwhelming old ham.

We had our HVAC system checked out a few weeks ago and found out it was leaking coolant and after googling weird smells in the house with no results about ham she found the coolant can smell like paint thinner among other things however ham was not on the list so I call the guy who did the HVAC work anyway just to see what he thought.

He basically said it should be odorless and would stop by anyway Monday as he was visiting family and took the day and weekend to do so. So we start googling like crazy. Not finding anything but click bait articles about the usual bad house smells, you know dead animals in the vents, gas leaks, sewage fumes, fishy-smelling electrical fires and the usual stuff. I tried every key word I could think of to get different results.

Dead animals don't bother me, my stomachs pretty strong when it comes to that, didn't smell fishy, if it was sewage I figured I'd be blowing chunks as I'm pretty sensitive to the smell because of something gross that happened to me when I was young and it just didn't smell like sewage. We don't have gas so it wasn't that.

At this point I have no idea and I feel pretty awful so I decide to step out back and me and the wife basically both had the same idea at the same time to call the non-emergency fire department to as she's feeling weird too. They come out and have a gas and co2 meter thing that I'm sure checks for other stuff too with nothing showing up. They smell it too and I ask since they just got here if they smell it from the vent when I turn the AC on. Figured maybe a fresh nose in the place would be able to point it out if it did.

Nope the place smells less hammy to me almost as soon as the vents start to push air. They look around a bit more and have no idea what it could be or where it's coming from. At this point I'm stumped, they leave and it's back to Google. Finding almost nothing even close to what I have going on I decide to go underneath the house ( it's a trailer or mobile home ) and make sure nothing died under there or if I can even smell anything under there at all.

There was a couple cat poops from before we sealed up the side right I assume but no smell, nothing. At this point I'm clueless and not sure what to do or who to call but the smell is coming and going in waves now. Super strong to almost gone every 20 minutes or so except for one little spot in the kitchen it seemed to persist a bit. I'm checking everything I can at this point and it's just about 4pm.

I call the sewage company, maintenence comes to check the line and whatever. He comes in to see if he smells it and thinks it's sewage and after a bit he's not too sure. He recommends getting someone to check my air vents for something dead or left behind like a rodent or his meal and also to pour some water down the drains we haven't been using to make sure the traps are full and keeping sewage smell and fumes out just to be safe. I gladly take any advice I hear and have read so far and he leaves.

I start calling HVAC companies who are telling me they don't do dead animal removal in vents, and to call a pest removal company. What? Okay. So I call a pest company who tells me to call an HVAC company... who tells me to call pest control... who tells me to call animal control.. who tells me to call an HVAC company. I am still not sure who to call if you can't get into the vents easily and need them checked but it seems to be a different branch or kind of animal control but they're not answering.

I basically rip apart the kitchen, moving furniture, checking all the cupboards, the fridge, the dry food and anything I see. What about the water i left in the instant pot? No. Nothing. Anywhere. Just hammyness. The vents? Sure smells like fresh air.

I'm getting no where. It's almost 5:30 at this point, everything is closing or closed besides 24 hour places who are going to charge me an arm or two tonight and I have no clue about the weekend. I sadly sit down on the couch after I mess with the thermostat just trying to see if I can make it any better.

My wife steps outside because this wave is smacking her hard. At this point I had smelled a slightly chemical smell mixed in with the harsh hammyness a couple times but I don't recognize it at all. I'm thinking of dropping out the air duct myself, moving the fridge to check behind it. Everything. I get up to join her outside and that's when it happens.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZzzZZZAP POP. It comes from the kitchen and instantly I know what it is. I look at my wife and say "of course, ham!" She's confused and asks "Ham? What was that noise" as I'm running toward the kitchen.

It was the vent light on the oven hood. You know the thing with a vent that probably has bacon grease and other food oils up in there. There's smoke and it smells HAMMY. I run to the breaker box and kill the power and we grab fire extinguishers. Luckily no fire. But we almost left the house to go to my mom's or a hotel until we could get it looked at several times but something kept telling me not to leave. And I'm really glad we didn't.

TL;DR house started to smell like almost bad ham and paint thinner or some kind of chemicals possibly sewage in a matter of minutes, turns out range hood was trying to start an electrical fire.

Moral of the story is if you smell slightly bad food and chemicals, flip the breaker and see if it goes away. Might just be about to have a serious problem.

So I run a book club, every month I have to organise a list of books for the members to vote on and then the most votes gets picked as the book of the month. We use an app that makes this easy by saving the books everyone wants to read and then adding them into the poll automatically. But I still do research and add different titles to make each month’s poll different and fun.

Anyway, I was finishing the poll and thinking about a book I had heard about but hadn’t read. And thought it would be a good pick for the poll. I proceed to research the book by the plot and setting I remember. Spend hours looking for it. Initially it was just an interesting thing to add but then it become an annoying obsession cause I really needed to know what it was.

After hours I gave up and decide to give a final look at the poll to see if everything is fine before publishing it to the members. I look at the first book in the list and I go “mmmm this looks a bit like what I was thinking about” I Google it, and it was the goddamn book.

I spent hours looking for this f*cking book! Hours! And it was the first one in the list all along.

TL;DR: TIFU by spending hours and hours looking for a book - asking Reddit and Goodreads - for my book club when it was already on top of the list the entire time.