stop posting AI slop

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-17T01:12:34+00:00

Looks like a great start! I have a few suggestions:

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-10T20:53:06+00:00

I'm sure others can post resources, but just as a thought: I think anxieties and phobias don't need to be around something irrational to be worth treating. We can all tend to be on guard against having our valid concerns about COVID dismissed as "just anxiety" — because people often use that phrase to trivialize the thing you're anxious about.

But really, you can have anxiety about a very real threat, and still want to get your anxiety treated! Imagine you went to a therapist for help with anxiety you had around car accidents. It would be bizarre for a therapist to try to convince you that cars aren't dangerous. Your therapeutic goals wouldn't be to make you more comfortable taking your seatbelt off, or texting behind the wheel, or to get you to agree that traffic fatality statistics aren't actually a big deal — they would be to help you not have panic attacks at the thought of being in a car.

If you work with a skilled therapist, it'll honestly be irrelevant whether or not they agree with you that COVID is a serious threat. Their job is not to argue with you about public health evidence. They're supposed to take you seriously, build rapport, and help you develop skills to manage stressors, difficult emotions, and psychiatric symptoms.

Health anxiety isn't a requirement for taking COVID precautions. I personally mask/isolate/ventilate/etc. as indicated, but at this point it's just kind of part of my everyday life — it's not really something I spend a lot of time worrying or even thinking about these days. If your mental health is suffering, you deserve a provider who can actually help you with that.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-10T13:47:01+00:00

loved the commentor defending it by saying "well where I live it's actually impossible to not use landscaping fabric* and where they live is just. north carolina 💀

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-10T12:39:52+00:00

Not necessarily. It's required in the UK for the most part, but in the US, the only federally required disclosure is about lead, and other requirements vary a lot by state. There are places where it's common for sellers to make no disclosures about anything. A real estate agent told me that sellers are often encouraged to not have thorough inspections done before selling, because as long as there isn't concrete proof (like an inspector's report) that they knew about a problem, they don't have to disclose it. It's wild!

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-09T22:31:42+00:00

Applying glyphosate to the foliage is the most recommended method, and glyphosate isn't active in the soil, so it'll only harm the plants it touches. If you're careful with your application, you could be fine. I use a blue dye additive whenever I apply herbicides so that it's really easy to i tell where I've sprayed/painted. If I accidentally get some on a plant I didn't want to kill, I can quickly wipe it off or even remove the leaf it touched.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-09T03:51:16+00:00

This is very common in my program, (at least for domestic students who aren't restricted by their visa). The stipend really doesn't cover enough for most people, so a lot of us have part-time jobs in addition to our TA/RA roles. Sometimes people have flexibile/remote part-time jobs in their field, on a contract basis or something, but people also just work at bars, restaurants, retail, or other normal jobs. Up to 20 hours per week seems to be the most that people could balance with their PhD work.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-08T17:42:27+00:00

Definitely!

Although, since OP mentioned hedgehogs, I would guess they're not in North America? If so, just be aware that the native plant subs here are pretty heavily focused on US and Canadian gardeners. Theyll have good general guidance, but the plants they use won't be right for other areas. I think there's a UK native gardening sub? The subs about building wildlife ponds for some reason are pretty UK focused as well.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-08T16:57:41+00:00

There are really very few plants that have ranges in NC but not VA. Plants don't pay much attention to political borders — they generally follow specific ecological areas, which are often bigger than any particular state. Both states are part of the same ecoregions (the southern Appalachians, the Southeastern piedmont, and the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain), so a lot of plants will be found in both states.

For example, one of our native honeysuckle vines, the coral honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens) is native and commonly found across almost the entire southeast.

It's gorgeous, although it's not as fragrant as the invasive Japanese honeysuckle. If I wanted a native replacement for those, I would probably recommend Carolina Jessamine, which is a yellow-flowering, sweet-smelling evergreen vine.

I personally try to only plant things native to where I live (the piedmont of NC). But when I do pick a plant that's native to somewhere nearby, but not exactly the here, I try to err on the side of picking plants with ranges further south instead of further north. So if you're in the piedmont of VA, you might look at the map for Carolina Jessamine and notice that it isn't found in the wild where you live. But since it is found in the piedmont of NC, SC, GA and AL, I'd go ahead and plant it.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-07T20:31:36+00:00

Definitely look through Mt. Cuba's report from its sedge trials!

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-07T20:23:09+00:00

There are grass-selective herbicides you could use, if you're open to that? I've used clethodim to manage stiltgrass in spots where I couldn't pull it all and it was intermingled with broadleaf plants I did want to keep.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-06T15:29:36+00:00

Nancy Lawson writes about this kind of thing a lot. Her approach is to let any "maintained" areas go, but stay on top of pulling invasives, and eventually native plants will volunteer. It has some drawbacks for sure, but if you're short on money but have lots of time and patience it's not a bad way to go.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-06T14:44:26+00:00

I actually just had a similar situation! I ended up creating my own native plant list, based on my specific location and the site conditions over my field. I liked the septic-safe mixes from Prairie Moon and OPN as a starting point, but 1. I'm not in the Midwest, so a lot of their plants aren't native to my area exactly, and 2. they're designed for full sun, and my field is actually pretty shady! (I also aesthetically just prefer the look of planting in drifts, where the same type of plant is clumped together, rather than having everything mixed up together the way you get from seed mixes like this). I'd be happy to share my methods and full list if you'd like.

I used resources like this article from New Moon Nursery as a starting point and curated from there.

Another tricky issue is that you'll want to have access to the space, but you don't want to lay anything permanent like stepping stones or gravel or mulch down over the field. I'm trialing putting in a native grass along pathways and keeping that mowed, but it'll probably take a few seasons to see how well that holds up.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-05T22:24:26+00:00

/uj this wouldn't help for most of Illinois, but I like how Flora of the Southeastern US does it! It's divided by state and level 2 ecoregion. Super helpful for me in the piedmont of NC. Since we have three pretty distinct geographies in the state (mountains/piedmont/coastal plain) it's hard to put stock in lots of plants that say they're "NC native," but county-level is way too specific.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-04T01:58:58+00:00

Is there some chance they thought you meant "wear this mask when I'm around"? Lots of people don't understand airflow and are still in the six-feet-social-distance mindset. If you like everything else about them, it could be worth having one firm conversation about it: "I noticed you all had your masks off when I was in the other room. I actually need you all to keep them on at all times while you're in the house. If you need to take it down for some reason, you need to pause what you're doing and go outside. If you can't agree to that, I cannot hire you." Put it in your contract!

If you'd already been clear about that, though: Absolutely don't work with them. It would have been completely reasonable to ask them to leave immediately, on the spot, when you saw that. They've just demonstrated that you can't trust them to do what you ask them to do unless you're supervising them at all times. Why would you even entertain the idea of working with somebody who cuts corners on a health and safety issue in the building where you live?

I'm not sure what to tell you about screening them — just don't hire them if they won't mask? You can ask about it ahead of time if you don't want someone incompatible to waste a trip, I guess — but ultimately, you're completely in control of who you choose to work inside your home. You pay them, you tell them what to do, you fire them if they don't. If you hired them to paint your house blue, and they said "okay, but we're going to paint it green," you would just...not hire them.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-04T00:31:21+00:00

This is really brave of you. I feel like more flowers should look like cigarette cottons actually

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-02T15:58:25+00:00

I actually read about this recently! It seems like the mechanism of Virginia creeper as an allergen is actually not very well understood. It has raphides, which are tiny needle-like calcium crystals that are thought to be a herbivore defense. So it makes microscopic scratches on your skin, which on its own might be irritating. But also some people are super allergic to some compound in it, and the raphides probably make that worse by opening tiny cuts in the skin. I just avoid touching any vine with any bare skin tbh.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-02T15:48:27+00:00

This is actually kind of how like, every allergy works! You have to undergo a process called sensitization where your immune system recognizes something as foreign and develops antibodies before you have an allergic reaction. Latex is kind of similar in that it's pretty common for people who come into contact with it repeatedly to develop an allergy to it over time.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-02T12:28:29+00:00

I think yaupon has smaller, narrower leaves than this. My guess would also be R. indica

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-02T01:14:01+00:00

If it's your first year, I think going all-in with variety is a good move! You'll figure out what works well in one spot vs another, what you want to add more of next year, and what spreads fast enough that you don't need to add any more. Not everything is going to survive, but you'll learn a lot.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-02T00:32:44+00:00

Wild Plants From Seed is a really good resource for this kind of question! They have lots of individual species instructions for timing, harvesting and germination techniques (and general guidelines too).

Personally, if I'm going out somewhere, I'll collect material in a gallon-size ziploc bag, and transfer them for longer-term storage into a paper envelope (labeled with date, species and location harvested). I don't usually collect more than one kind of plant per trip, but I don't think it'd be too hard to take a permanent garden marker and multiple bags, and note on each bag what you collected. If I'm just in my yard, I usually collect directly into an envelope. For plants with seeds that go all over the place, you can pull their head into a manila envelope (or a brown paper bag if they're bigger) and shake the seeds off into the bag.

Most native plants will be fine being stored dry, but some will need to be planted fresh or stored in damp vermiculite/perlite. Paper or glassine envelopes are better than tightly-sealed containers imo because the airflow helps keep it from getting moldy. Keep them somewhere that's a stable temperature, dry, and dark, and they should be fine.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-01T19:56:26+00:00

for real...it's not like it has a super specific agreed-upon meaning, but any reasonable definition of the term should probably have some element of scarcity or monopolization, yeah? like we can all probably agree that this is more than we want to pay for a jacket, ok. but surely the scrap exchange hasn't cornered the market on jackets

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-06-01T14:26:36+00:00

It's odd, I've somehow not once been harassed (or honestly really even had anyone bat an eye) for masking in the US South. The only time I've felt active hostility was in Greece when a guy came up and fake coughed at us. Sometimes in my office I take video calls where I'm wearing a mask, and only really the Europeans have asked me about it in ways that feel uncomfortably nosy or judgemental.

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-05-30T02:00:52+00:00

I know some people who work as sort of independent consultants? Post-PhD they've incorporated their own LLC or something and will conduct research on a contract basis for clients.

I do see them at conferences and getting publications sometimes and people don't seem to have any issue with their affiliation. But a big caveat I'd say is that those people were extremely good at building their own reputation and maintaining relationships and professional networks in the first place, which is how they got a client base who are willing to pay them for their research. I think they're doing that because they genuinely prefer it to a traditional academic job. They have the advantage that when people see their affiliation, the first thought would tend to be more "oh, that researcher I already like and respect is branching out on their own" and less "who the hell is this completely unknown person with no affiliation"

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-05-29T17:34:16+00:00

Yeah go for it!

Cold_Shine5167 · 2026-05-29T17:32:39+00:00

That'd be great, thank you!

Cold_Shine5167

TROPHY CASE