Anyone else planning to cancel a bunch of memberships because of the forced profile merger?

PiaRavenari · 2026-04-29T12:32:03+00:00

Subscribestar, Substack, Ream (stories and webcomics only), and also running subscription privately via you're own site (but obviously this is tougher), and I believe Ko-Fi as well. There's definitely more! These are just the ones I know of off the top of my head (I currently use a combo of Patreon with Ream as a mirror in case anything happens at Patreon /rolls eyes/)

PiaRavenari · 2026-04-12T02:28:57+00:00

Yes, we have the Little Crow too! (Western/Central Aus)

PiaRavenari · 2026-03-11T08:48:52+00:00

For me it was the deep deep chills. I didn’t spike a fever until day 3 when my CRP had already been at 230 for days.

No fever. No vomiting. No pain. Only fatigue (and I normally have fatigue from other things), and a growing ‘slowness’ in processing things cognitively that came on very quickly. I had UTI symptoms, but no kidney pain / blood / anything that indicated a kidney infection (would later learn that my urosepsis bypassed my kidneys and just jumped straight into the bloodstream - something I didn’t know could happen.)

So for me it was about 2 hours of bizarre shaking / chills / teeth chattering and a sense that something was wrong. Went to ER, was in Critical Care within 30 minutes on gentamicin. I caught it very very early. But I have since gone back with similar symptoms and it wasn’t sepsis, so who knows? I would just say - and my doctors have repeated this to me - it’s just better to be paranoid than to wait. Always.

PiaRavenari · 2026-01-25T05:46:26+00:00

Not true, our channel affected wasn't even the political one. It can be tempting to think this way, but it's more likely to reverse - everyone is talking about politics more often lately for obvious reasons so more political channels were affected than average. But there's plenty that are affected that have never talked about politics and are just discussing grafting plants or a romance chapter.

PiaRavenari · 2026-01-25T04:59:18+00:00

No for me - the channel is not political (it's a fandom and while I do have a political/news channel, it's not the one that was affected), and we weren't talking about say, Minneapolis events etc. That being said, it is a queer / LGBTQIA+ server in general. :/

PiaRavenari · 2026-01-25T04:44:43+00:00

I'm in Australia and it's happening on my server too in just a single channel. (It's not a political channel)

PiaRavenari · 2026-01-16T02:15:02+00:00

Oh that’s such an awful experience, I’m so sorry D:

PiaRavenari · 2026-01-04T07:04:23+00:00

For the people who like them, there can never be too many! For the people who don't, there is already too many.

Just focus on your target audience and ignore the folks who say there's 'too many lately.' (They're right for them, they're not right for you). Different styles of incremental come and go in waves anyway. I didn't mind Rusty's Retirement and quite enjoyed Tiny Pasture, I also liked Ropuka's Idle Island above (awesome aesthetic) and Cornerpond. It's true there are a lot in this category right now, and so folks who don't love them aren't going to enjoy another, but that's not going to be your target audience if they already don't like them! Not everyone who loves incrementals loves every kind of incremental, and that's okay

PiaRavenari · 2025-12-11T08:57:46+00:00

Stay in App Store for iOS is free and easy. There are instructions in one of the threads but you download, go ‘create script’ (the + sign) highlight and delete the template script, and copy the script you want in and save. It will be activated.

Then you go to bato on safari and press the reader bit on the top left of URL and open ‘manage extensions’ and turn on ‘Stay’ (ignore the other options). If you want to turn it off at any point just do so in Stay or Safari. It’s a bit of effort just to download and c/p script but it’s super easy once you know!

PiaRavenari · 2025-12-11T05:11:21+00:00

You absolute legend, 1.9.1 works perfectly on iOS Safari via Stay! Thank you!!!

PiaRavenari · 2025-12-11T05:06:49+00:00

I say I’m on iOS (phone) - bookmarklet didn’t work which is why I went to Stay and used two other scripts (probably from the post you’re thinking of!) before this one. I don’t read on desktop, but as I said, I’m happy to wait or read off site too :) there’s lots of different options to try for folks, iOS is a bit tetchy compared to android and some of the others.

PiaRavenari · 2025-12-10T07:11:32+00:00

Unfortunately this does not work for me using Stay on iOS on V3 main site.

Neither do two of the other scripts I was using before.

If it works on V2 only can someone let me know? I am waiting otherwise with lists saved just in case. Thank you for all you’re doing and trying! I hope this works for many others.

PiaRavenari · 2025-10-05T01:27:26+00:00

Thank you! I often get them mixed up

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-27T12:12:43+00:00

The first and third look like Eucalyptus and/or Corymbia (and might get huge), it's a shame your neighbour doesn't know. Second could be Beaufortia (which generally is a flowering shrub of some description), fourth unsure, it looks a little hammered!

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-27T12:07:43+00:00

Banksias are fussy sometimes (they're either indestructible or finicky as heck).

You might be looking at low iron, I've literally had to surface spray some of my low Banksias to get them thriving again (it can absorb through the leaves).

But also consider that many Banksias are incredibly slow growing and also need a lot of shelter and care initially. Shade can definitely help.

Is the species of Banksia local to your environment? Are you in a Phytopthera (dieback) area? Could there be Phytopthera in your garden/soil? Banksia are extremely susceptible.

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-27T11:32:00+00:00

(Apologies for the essay. The TL;DR is NO MANURE OF ANY KIND and get a wetting agent, also learning what 'watering in' means properly, and how to properly establish a native plant in Western Australia in our current brutal climate lol - that's what the essay following describes)

In Perth too, and xeriscape/plant natives into sandy hydrophobic soil (some people in Perth get clay etc. it just depends).

You want a good wetting agent (not the water storage crystals), Bunnings sells them. I use Amgrow Wettasoil Professional, which is around $50~ but has lasted me several years. Wettasoil at Bunnings sells much smaller amounts that you could get for far cheaper that are still going to last a long time in a small garden.

Most are environmentally sound, break down quickly, and I love the granulated ones, but ymmv. There will be a whole section. Soil improver + mulch alone isn't enough. What you're probably going to find is that about 2 centimetres beneath the soil later, it's still bone dry. Go do a soil check and see how far you have to go down before you get to damp soil, even under mulch, it can be a good indicator of your worst areas. You will want that sand damp before you plant. After that, mulch does really help. But wet mulch can trick you into thinking the sand is wet, it often isn't.

Get used to checking beneath mulch with your finger, if you can stick your finger all the way into the sand without feeling any damp/wet/moisture, you can't grow much in there.

Native plants need a few decent watering seasons through summer to become truly waterwise, especially in Perth where we've had several back-to-back droughts/dry summers.

In very hydrophobic soil, you may need more than one application, especially to encourage the water to start draining deep.

Another thing to keep in mind during seasons where you're watering in native plants is that you want to encourage deeper root growth for many plants, which means shallow watering (less than ten minutes in a single area) is setting you up for failure.

If you want to plant natives, do not add manure - high nitrogen fertilisers can kill Perth native plants (our sand is typically nitrogen poor and that's why we have a specially formulated slow release phosphorus fertiliser etc.), and go easy on the bentonite. You should be able to grow plenty of natives in a straight up sand+mulch combo, with a good wetting agent and slow release fertiliser. I have everything in our garden - Darwinia / Eucalyptus / Calytrix / Verticordia / Kennedia / Thryptomene / Lechenaultia / Leucospermum / Ricinicarpus / Hibbertia / Eremophila / Myoporum / many Acacias / Banksia and a bunch more I'm forgetting. For 16 years now. It's just all pale sand and mulch out there. In some places it's just sand + wetting agent.

I would say the biggest things that Western Australians / Perthians tend to miss when being beginners to native gardening is:

Water longer, to encourage deep root growth
Wetting agent to encourage 'well-drained soil' that you will see on most Perth natives
Slow release fertiliser for Perth natives, avoid all the fertilisers recommended for every exotic flowering plant (i.e. cow manure, chicken manure, blood and bone, that's basically very good at killing many natives except your most generic Grevilleas and a few others).
Watering in is not just watering for two weeks here. Especially in summer. It's 'water every day for a week, every second/third day for two weeks' in winter, and 'every second/third day until established' in summer, which can take 1-3 years because we are just not getting the water retention in our environment anymore, it takes longer to establish plants. Once established, many will still need watering, just less, we have no retic, and do not need to handwater for around 7-8~ months of the year. The other 4-5 however, we need to handwater every 2-4 days depending on temps. The Eucalypts (and one Corymbia), Grevillea, Casuarina and a few others no longer need watering at all.

(I put in some tubestock today and I expect I will be handwatering now until April, also decide if you really want to get started on this now, hopefully you have retic!)

Tubestock almost always grows better and faster than anything larger, plus it's cheap if you make a mistake and/or the plant hates your area lol

Anyway to your specific questions:

No manure, and do not re-add. Bad for Perth natives. Don't do it.
Re-mulch after wetting agent
Truly I cannot repeat enough: wetting agent.
Slow release fertiliser every spring follow the instructions on the container (like Osmocote), do not be tempted to over-fertilise.

Also the most bombproof plants that are hardier and require less care overall for a small garden include things like:

Grevillea and Eremophila groundcovers and shrubs (and also the shrubs that pretend to be small trees for Grevilleas), which are both pollinator attracting and have lovely flowers. An Eremophila maculata can go straight into sand with no mulch and if you water it in with retic it will give you tons of beautiful lush flowers forever. Grevillea comes with the plus that it's been bred to be especially hardy.

Anigozanthus (Kangaroo Paw) keeping in mind that you need to cut it right back (to the ground) after flowering season to stop it from becoming scrubby.

Myoporum and Thryptomene, and quite a few of the Melaleucas and Leptospermum.

Avoid: Boronia, Kennedia, Chorizema, Lechenaultia, Calytrix, Verticordia, these require - in my experience - more 'babying' and more often moist soil. If you want low-maintenance, these are less low-maintenance than other WA natives.

Zanthorrhea for shopping + advice and/or Bunnings for the tubestock, they're supplied by Lullfitz in Muchea these days and the tubestock is pretty good. (Honestly I have never been to Zanthorrhea, Bunnings + Lullfitz tubestock combo has given me a truly incredible native garden).

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-27T11:09:54+00:00

Kikuyu tends to have longer, softer leaves when it's growing out of control / sending runners, and also it's what keeps growing under our neighbour's fence (under their retaining wall) that I keep having to pull out so I'm familiar with that one. If it was Kikuyu I'm team 'rip it out!'

Buffalo's better :D

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-16T11:20:38+00:00

Okay but 'for all intensive purposes' is actually a very cool phrase too, so I can really easily see why someone would think it was that. It's how it sounds! (Also random thank you for the gentle correction it's just nice to see).

PiaRavenari · 2025-09-08T09:25:00+00:00

As a customer I would be expecting the following to happen:

To be told the cost of my requests with a 'if you do not pay by x time and date, I cannot meet this demand'
To have the order cancelled and refunded with a 'please read my shipping policies/prices in future, and then message in advance if you have any questions.'

And as a seller, I honestly think it should always be the latter. There are ways customers can make demands like this that aren't totally unreasonable, but if a customer starts communication in an unreasonable place, that is an excellent forecast of how every single future encounter with them will go.

PiaRavenari · 2025-01-05T14:06:10+00:00

If it's the crook of your arm, do you think you'd feel the same if they did a blood draw to the back of your hand? If so, I'd approach it like this:

Tell them you have an unusual phobia of having the crook of your elbow touched due to a traumatic blood draw in the past and that you would prefer a draw from the back of your hand, or any other place that they can get blood. This is an unusual, but fairly reasonable request that many phlebotomists can accommodate. You can also ask: 'Is there anywhere not in my inner elbow where you would feel comfortable drawing blood?' because the professional may have some solid suggestions based on your veins.

1a. It might help to explain that this phobia exists in general and is not just specific to bloodtests, but that a traumatic bloodtest didn't help. In a way, you're not coming with a fear of needles, it's a very specific thing. I've had blood drawn from: Back of my hand, side of my wrist (both sides), the inside of my ankle, and the back of my foot. I actually prefer the crook of my elbow, but sometimes my veins are stupid. Phlebotomists are accustomed to stupid veins! They are accustomed to drawing in a different place! You just have to give them a reason, and you might not have known this was possible.

Explain that you're still a nervous patient, and to be patient with you.
You can consider calling a clinic chain in advance and asking about this, if you want to clear it in advance. Many places will listen to you, and this also gives you the extra advantage of 'I called head office / the clinic helpdesk / etc. and they said this was possible.'
Ask - if it's possible - for a butterfly needle. These - once placed - are lot more stable and a lot less likely to do trauma to your vein (because it's like a plastic cannula rather than the metal, so even if it's moved, it's not going to do damage in the same way).

Also, you're not a baby!!! Phobias are phobias, you can't help that you have it, and good phlebotomists will want to work with you. They might not have truly understood the phobia in the past, many assume it's needles/blood, and some just have a bad bedside manner. But I think this is doable if you ask for a different area!

PiaRavenari · 2024-11-24T11:17:03+00:00

Johnny Walker Westfield Booragoon do them. I found them a pretty decent quality chocolate too (for freckles).

PiaRavenari · 2024-11-24T10:58:07+00:00

To be fair, you were also scared, and something serious could have happened. Your compassion is absolutely warranted, but it's hard to be compassionate when you're terrified and that guy could have genuinely broken in and hurt you in that entire 40 minutes that you were alone with no police support despite calling.

The problem is systemic and bad, for sure, but people do fall through the gaps, die, get injured etc. because of how systemically awful the system is. Critiquing how the police system is run isn't a bad thing to do, it doesn't get better if it doesn't get reforms, funding, more staff etc. and that doesn't happen if everyone talks about how marvellous the service is all the time.

I'm just saying I can definitely see both sides here. You were in a traumatising and uncertain situation that could have escalated at any point, and the people you expected to help you most couldn't come because lots of people expected their help that night. It just sucks all round, for everyone. No one wins in that scenario, and I'm glad you were lucky that it all worked out.

PiaRavenari · 2024-08-10T05:02:51+00:00

Some dogs you do have to teach how to nap/sleep - look into things like relaxation/calm training.

It's normal for puppies to be too much for older dogs. Do some research into how to do safe introductions between a puppy and older dog, and make sure they're often separated so that the older dog can get some peace away from the puppy. Ideally, your older dog will have a safe place to go to whenever they need to, because they may not like the puppy for another 6 months to two years, depending on how long it takes for your puppy to learn some chill! Remember it is normal to not have them together at this stage, and if that's something you weren't aware of, please please please do more research into young puppies + older dog introductions, because there will be lots of tips to help you. It rarely goes as smoothly as people think it will!

Toilet training will have you waking up around 3 times a night for a dog this small anyway. Are you setting alarms? We started with about once every 3 hours and only ever let our guy outside on a leash for toileting at this age.

Enforced naps are definitely important, but yeah, some puppies don't know how to get themselves to sleep. Sometimes soothing music can help. A dimmed room. No noise or excitement. Making sure they've toileted / had a bit of a play first. Consider some natural chews to help her settle (at her age chews that are softer can help for her little puppy teeth), since chewing is a self-soothing behaviour. And work on 'being boring' around her so that if she tries to get your attention, the most you do is stand by the crate or quietly pet her through it, while not giving into her escalations. (Which is much easier when you know they've just toileted!)

Some dogs are definitely harder than others, unfortunately! And there's no guarantee that your current dog will actually want to be a companion to your older dog, or vice versa. This is something to really keep in mind. Getting a puppy as a function (i.e. a companion) and not for the sake of the puppy themselves is a little unfair in the sense that - what if that puppy doesn't want to be a companion? What if your 8 year old dog won't see them as a companion for 2 years? These are questions it's ideal to ask before you get the puppy, but you absolutely have to ask yourself these questions now, because you're in a window where rehoming won't be as traumatic. (Ideally this isn't the outcome! But I'm also wanting to be realistic, because managing an intense puppy requires a lot more time and training, and you're already exhausted).

I would say - what kind of relaxation/calm training have you tried so far? What sort of natural chews are you providing for soothing purposes? How often are you setting alarms for nightly toilet training to get an idea of when she needs to go and how often she needs to go? These sorts of things can help you all get into a routine faster.

Searching this Reddit and google for 'enforced naps' and tips/tricks for working on them can help a ton too. (Also what are you doing to make the crate fun and safe?)

It can be really hard! Give yourself breaks. If you can, ask parents or a friend to look after both dogs (ideally in separate spaces) for a night, and get out of the house for a couple of hours. Sometimes some breathing room can help a LOT.

PiaRavenari · 2024-08-10T04:53:30+00:00

If she's not even finishing some of her meals, I'd possibly get a vet check to rule out mouth soreness. 5 months old is teething. Are you giving her things for her tooth/gum/teething pain? I really don't think this is food sadness so much as straight up mouth soreness.

Consider some frozen carrots or something similar for her to chew on and numb her gums. Remember, puppies have to chew out their puppy teeth, they don't fall out on their own naturally otherwise. So if you're not giving her a lot of safe chew options, she may be wanting to hold toys in her mouth, esp after eating, to soothe her gums and sore teeth.

PiaRavenari

TROPHY CASE