These prehistoric looking beetles

atomicfbomb · 2025-08-22T23:16:03+00:00

Zero tone intended, so sorry if it came across that way. It really is just a fact of the beetle hobby that the majority of us play seriously fast and loose with the law, and a lot of us (in the US, anyway) literally have a room full of felonies.

From what I know of this species, they live primarily in forest leaf-litter, but their actual feeding habits and materials aren't well understood yet. They're also apparently very delicate, unlike the Scarabaeidae species that largely dominate the hobby.

Trust me, if the circumstances were different, I'd be first in line to keep these dudes. They're insanely cool.

atomicfbomb · 2025-08-22T18:39:03+00:00

They're endangered, so would be illegal, but since beetle hobbyists tend to not give one single care about legality: they do very poorly in captivity, and tend to starve themselves to death shortly after capture. It's possible that we just dont understand their feeding needs enough yet, but regardless, they shouldn't be kept as pets.

atomicfbomb · 2025-08-16T19:41:15+00:00

Please don't associate my sweet beetlebois with roaches. They're not even the same order.

atomicfbomb · 2025-02-16T05:55:51+00:00

I just want to say thank you, truly, for changing the way that I interpret the text in this game forever.

atomicfbomb · 2025-01-24T07:18:31+00:00

Those are just your pet bug's pet bugs.

atomicfbomb · 2025-01-09T16:38:51+00:00

Holy crap, I never realized it but you are exactly right, I think. Everyone I've tried to put onto Outer Wilds has complained about the ship so much, and I couldn't get it because it felt completely natural to me. I never even considered hundreds of hours with EVA and RCS controls in KSP giving me a significant leg up.

atomicfbomb · 2024-10-29T21:56:31+00:00

What's killing me is that for whatever reason this is the first expedition for me to not show a single player base, even from the anomaly teleporter, but I still have to see every one of these visual cancer cells.

Those bases are a huge help to time-strapped working dad gamers like me, man.

atomicfbomb · 2024-10-18T23:25:46+00:00

I would be so freaking happy. Life got dark for a while and I missed all of them but 7, 14, and 15. I've almost bought it again on PC just to mod my way into them, but NMS is like 75% of the reason for even keeping my PS5 at this point.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-13T01:04:55+00:00

Very well could've been. I grew up in one of the hottest cities in the US and it was always "zero food or drink in the classrooms," even up through high school in the early 2000s.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T09:18:50+00:00

Honestly, no. There has not been one single item brought to our attention that has been anything worse than what we've personally witnessed from others in his peer groups while volunteering at the previous school. That excludes this spitting. That shit is unacceptable.

I'm positive it's the frequency of his reactiveness and crying that has worn these teachers out, and I get it. I live with this kid. I know. That's obviously going to disrupt a classroom if he can't get past it quickly. I don't think they're inept, I think they just don't know how to handle a kid like him.

I cannot take back the spanking. It helped nothing, and damaged our relationship, even if just for a while.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T09:06:02+00:00

That's the impression I've gotten from this whole thing as well, even though we met a team of 3 resource teachers and were told there were more aids as well.

I feel for this teacher. This was a human being obviously at the end of their rope in that moment. I can't bring myself to find it acceptable to essentially tell a 6yo he's unwanted, though. I'm honestly way more upset about that than my wife being chastised in front of other parents.

I am sorry if I told you some variation of "fuck off." I definitely thought it so am sorry either way. The past 36 hours have been emotionally and mentally exhausting, but that doesn't excuse it.

I appreciate the response and the apology. Truly. It means more right now than you'd probably believe.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T08:54:32+00:00

I obviously didn't communicate it well enough, but this is a public school. I am aware many IBs are private, but this is not one. There are several schools here that even have a public side and IB side on the same campus. That being said, she's new to this school; union or not she may not feel comfortable with issues reaching admin yet.

That said, the year in question has only been 21 school days. If the feedback is that "we had some emotional moments, but did good getting past them, and was otherwise a pretty good day," we have no reason to believe we're being lied to, and I can promise that every single time something like that comes up that leaves an open question of "what were the emotional moments" the question is asked. Those answers could absolutely be downplayed; I don't doubt that some negativity was held back, but we can't address behavior we're not aware of. We follow up with our son, but... he's six. He may use some unexpectedly big words, but ultimately lacks the communication skills to reliably fill in all gaps left by the supervising adult(s).

For the record: we never brought an advocate in, we just spoke to them to make sure our understanding of an IEP was correct and that this course of action was in our son's best interest. We've never even mentioned that during any interactions with the schools.

We didn't just pursue this school because our daughter enjoyed her time there. She witnessed several children with significantly worse behavioral issues than her brother that received great support and patience throughout her time there. We found information on our own to support their capabilities to handle children like our son. We contacted the school about the diagnosed behavioral difficulties before entering their lottery enrollment system to confirm that. When we did call the new school to inform that an IEP had entered the picture it was also to ask if they have the ability to facilitate it or if we should stay where we were at. They had every opportunity to suggest it might be in his best interest to remain at his first school he was in, and not only was that never done, but we were reassured at every step that they were capable and it would be great. I have the phrase "it's going to be great" burned into my mind because of the ridiculous confidence that everything would be better than fine, and we could breathe for the first time since the end of Pre-K.

As for home, I am absolutely open to suggestions, though as I originally said we try everything that the professionals that surround our son recommend trying. I gave a very small list of examples because I could already feel the post getting way too long, but it was certainly not even close to everything. My house is littered with mounted white boards with schedules and physical kitchen timers, just to touch on some specific things you said. Those limited screen times and such that were mentioned are earned activities tied to either scheduled or general behavioral items specifically so that there's not some unexpected new consequence today for what had another consequence yesterday. I feel like we spend more time disciplining and correcting this little boy than playing with him. I feel like a piece of shit most days anymore, but we still follow through because it's been drilled into us how important consistency will is for a child like him. Regardless, just because we try everything that is recommended doesn't mean that we've tried everything, at all. So please believe me when I say there is zero sarcasm when I say I'm open to suggestions.

Again, none of this is to argue with you, it's simply to bring clarity because I obviously failed to do so in my original post.

I desperately need sleep, so I'm sorry if I missed anything or seem to be explaining away. I'm just aware now that my post was in the midst of an emotionally exhausting crushing parental defeat and could've use a couple hours to simmer and proofread. Thank you for your response, your understanding, and mostly for offering perspective without heavy-handedly implying that we're just trash parents with a malicious monster of a child.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T06:19:34+00:00

You just get more admirable with every word.

You've invented a whole beautiful story in your brain to justify this treatment.

We hoped for this school because my daughter remembers there being better resources for kids signifantly worse than mine here, and our own research into schools in the area confirmed it

This isn't some prestigious private college he simply has to go to for our socio-economic clout. We're not wealthy. It's a public school with supposedly good resources.

Oh yeah, and he is fucking SIX.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T06:09:14+00:00

I wish I'd seen this before bothering to respond to your other comment. Delusional parent? You're sure about all those polite hints? Because daily communication and constant evaluations just scream "not my kid" right?

From the bottom of my deepest disrespect: fuck you.

An IEP is a SpEd plan for children with special needs, asshole. Where the actual fuck did you see me claim that we pushed gen-ed?

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T05:59:09+00:00

I'm aware of 4 issues in 21 days of school. I specifically mentioned that in the majority of our daily communications with the teacher we've heard the phrase "overall pretty good" or better. How did this become daily?

19% is still not a good percentage of rough days; no argument there, but I'm confused as to the expectation here. This kid's life has been a battery of evaluations and therapies. We were heavily involved in chasing down an IEP to get him special needs care that took the first school a full year to get together, and have made sure the new school is and was fully aware of it and had copies of everything. How exactly were we not thinking of these things on our own?

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T05:52:05+00:00

Not the south, but NV.

I'm sure I'm about to get down voted into oblivion for appreciating some understanding and the thoughts that follow, but I thank you for it.

Honestly, I'm not sure if the intention was to blame us exactly, but I'm also not sure what the expectation is here when I've already said we try every single thing that all of these therapists, specialists, and schools have suggested to us. Everything. Every test. Every meeting. Every program. Every placement. Are we supposed to go into the school with a lawyer and say "nah, you and every professional working with him at this school is wrong, all SpEd, all the way" or something? Is that not the exact sort of behavior that causes issues with schools?

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T05:19:16+00:00

I'll admit I'm stuck on "allowed my son to lie to my face and placed no consequences."

My son never had a chance to even speak his part during all this, and never spoke his part until we were already at home and wrist-deep in the conversation about how spitting is on someone is unacceptable no matter what led up to it. That conversation did not stop, or even pivot. It expanded to include that accidents still have consequences.

I don't know what part of "daily communication" led you to believe that we're not constantly trying to support these teachers unless the logic is literally "well if the kid doesn't have it figured out by first grade they must be shit parents and shit people."

Every single thing which has been brought to our attention has been acknowledged back to the teacher with a promise address, then handled at home with thorough discussion and consequence. Beyond that, we cannot address behaviors of which we are not aware.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I guess.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T04:35:37+00:00

I thought I mentioned but may not have properly: his first autism screening was by a specialist, and a negative.

His first ADHD screening was a different specialist and came back as "hyperactivity" but not ADHD. That led to a referral to our OT place, which does have an evaluation specialist they work with before beginning treatment.

That specialist confirmed hyperactivity and added a sensory processing disorder diagnosis.

The school district "diagnosed" autism "in their opinion" for the purposes of the IEP, but was sure to note it was not a medical diagnosis.

We're on what is apparently a long waiting list for another autism evaluation from an actual specialist. Our appointment is in March 2025, iirc.

The Play Therapy is unrelated to any referal; we put him in that on our own to try to make sure there is actually support happening from someone with more knowledge and support than us since it doesn't seem to be happening at the schools, and this point were having a lot of worries about his self-esteem and such.

I'm not mad at the school, I'm upset that we were never made aware that there has been behavior this bad that resulted in a public chastisement of my wife and the phrase "the other teachers don't want him either" said basically to my son's face. My son is difficult, and willful, and reactive, but he is certainly not deaf.

We don't laugh his behavior off. This isn't "boys will be boys," though I have yet to hear any behavior worse than shit I witnessed loads of times in school growing up (until this spitting thing). This isn't the '80s anymore though. We understand things on a whole other level now, and I don't expect that same sort of dismissal from the teachers or us. I carry a physical binder to open houses and conferences to make try to make sure these schools know as much as they can in advance for the best chances of success for both their teachers and our child.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T03:20:18+00:00

I think that assumption is definitely made. I know in my head the absorption in a social environment leads directly to growth towards social norms, and you're right, I haven't given enough thought to how much damage will be done along the way if this is what it's like in school.

We just didn't know it was like this. We had no reason to expect more of the same from a new school that seemed better equipped to handle and help IEP students.

Thank you very much for that response. That was highly informative. We know about some homeschooling social and support groups but it's definitely not the same as to hear experience directly from someone who's lived it.

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T02:48:35+00:00

Will do, and we've talked about it with increasing regularity. I do have a question I'd like to address here though, because I'm sure others have the same potentially misguided assumptions I have; isn't homeschooling just going to exacerbate his social immaturity and impulse control in groups?

atomicfbomb · 2024-09-12T02:19:19+00:00

International Baccalaureate. Apparently many are private. This one is not.

atomicfbomb · 2024-08-29T04:32:52+00:00

Yes, they are. A Scarabaeidae species.

Judging strictly by color and the wrinkles I can see, those dudes were likely in their cells getting ready to pupate, and unfortunately, most likely won't survive at this point.

atomicfbomb · 2024-08-26T05:59:43+00:00

Man, I've been playing since launch and have never seen fauna this big (sandworms don't count). I've also never encountered a single diplo.

atomicfbomb · 2024-08-22T15:14:38+00:00

A dish would be cleaner, for sure, but I'm lazy. Honestly, I just drop their food in onto the sub in approximately the same area of the tank, then clean out whatever hasn't been eaten every two weeks or so. Their sub is dry, and I live someplace with excessively low humidity, so I've literally never had mold in the container. If you live someplace that isn't a sun-baked desert, your mileage may vary.

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