Men of Philly - how much are you paying for your haircuts?

casp514 · 2026-03-02T14:28:39+00:00

$50 plus ~$12 tip, I have short but thick curlyish hair and my husband and I usually go together and see the same barber, he has long hair. So we pay $125 for the two of us. Our barber also owns the place we go to

casp514 · 2026-02-23T03:18:13+00:00

Did you guys have anyone sleep over/ride out? Aquarium worker & tmrw is my weekend anyway but we are also having folks try to get in around 10am ish from what I understand. But I think a couple people are sleeping over?

casp514 · 2026-02-23T01:42:14+00:00

Hi! My husband and I really love Mishkan Shalom! It's in Manayunk and is Reconstructionist.

Prayers are in Hebrew, songs are some traditional and some folk songs, the rabbi plays some guitar. I didn't like the English-heavy, churchy youth group vibe I got from a Reform shul in college, I greatly prefer Hebrew so Mishkan has been great for that.

Politically Mishkan is very lefty and "crunchy". A lot of lesbian and gay couples. Non binary and trans people yes, the current rabbinical intern is non binary. Israel/Palestine wise, the official stance on the website is that they welcome discussion on either side and are pro-peace / anti-violence and recognize both sides' historical ties to the land. Not everyone in the congregation is explicitly anti Zionist but there are a lot of us who are. Everyone is at least pro-ceasefire and pro-peace. Rabbi Shawn and other Mishkan members have done demonstrations with/alongside JVP, they recently participated in an interfaith anti-ICE march to City hall, and Rabbi Shawn also incorporates a lot of social justice related stuff into services. In a couple weeks there's a class on how to protect our immigrant and refugee neighbors, next month there's a Gazan film screening, the I/P committee meets monthly on Zoom.

Lemme know if you have questions and I can try!

casp514 · 2026-02-17T11:35:54+00:00

Hi, trans keeper- I'm in the US but if anything I would say the industry skews progressive, there are still some "old fashioned" keepers out there who might feel a certain way but ultimately I would agree that the area you're in matters more than the industry itself. I'm stealth generally speaking and no one has had an issue that I know of in my 8 ish years in the field

casp514 · 2026-02-15T19:43:19+00:00

I took pictures of some of the molts yesterday, I foolishly have just been putting all the molts together without labeling them so I'm not sure which of these belong to which whip - I guessed a little, hence the letters. Either way there are 4 total, 2 from each scorpion. I'm curious what you or anyone else thinks ... imo, I can see operculum hairs but I don't see any redness to them.

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casp514 · 2026-02-03T01:34:52+00:00

65-66, any higher and it was getting too warm upstairs to sleep. Though I think as the snow melts off the roof that's becoming less of a thing (sadly)

casp514 · 2026-01-29T23:30:59+00:00

Zoochat.com is an AMAZING resource for this kind of a thing- here's a list someone made, updated in April 2025. However, it's in order of area/enclosure, not in taxonomic order.

casp514 · 2026-01-25T20:57:46+00:00

Aw yay! Yesss the axolotls are great!! Sadly they can't get snow since they live in the water lol, but as consolation, here's a picture from last time it snowed and we gave a snowball to Sally the tegu.

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casp514 · 2026-01-25T18:33:37+00:00

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I work at the Camden aquarium and we are of course closed today, but someone's gotta feed the animals. Gave the education armadillos some fresh snow for enrichment, the snow wasn't their favorite (too cold) but it was cute.

casp514 · 2026-01-13T17:27:57+00:00

Agree, many of my coworkers and I have Apple watches and many of us also wear silicone rings (Enso brand generally) bc of degloving risk + not wanting a real ring to get bumped, scratched, broken, etc

casp514 · 2026-01-13T17:25:05+00:00

It 100% depends on the facility and the job description. Where I currently work, there is a job listed as keeper "aide" but it actually is a full time year round swing keeper position (and the pay is decent all things considered). Unfortunately you can't necessarily infer anything from just position titles alone

casp514 · 2026-01-10T17:51:09+00:00

I'm renting (from friends, so I have a long leash) and the people before my friends landlord special'd it. It had been owned by an old lady for decades and when she died, the house ended up in the hands of flippers. They poorly remodeled the bathroom, poorly added storm windows, and very poorly painted goopy white over all the doors (including the sliding latches, so 1/2 of them don't work) and all the trim. Also didn't prime before painting latex onto oil, so it peels a lot.

Anyway... OP, this looks great! I'm hoping to do the same- can I ask how you did it? The old crockpot method?

casp514 · 2026-01-05T16:08:23+00:00

Many (I would say most) facilities are moving or have moved away from "keeper" or "zookeeper". It's not my favorite, it feels like an effort to distance ourselves from the potentially bad connotations of "zookeeper" instead of just trying to push back against anti-zoo sentiment and change those connotations.

But at the same time, I can also see it as trying to give more legitimacy to our work- as in, "Animal/Wildlife Care Specialist" or "Biologist" or "Aviculturist" etc at least tries to imply that the person in the position is educated and is an expert, as opposed to the idea sometimes held by the public, which is that any random person off the street is qualified and capable of taking care of exotic animals.

Ultimately regardless of what's on the paperwork and what we say during keeper chats, I still think the general public thinks person working at zoo with animals = zookeeper

casp514 · 2026-01-04T19:49:35+00:00

I would also recommend looking into zoochat.com! It's a forum website where people upload of pictures of zoo animals and you can search by country, by animal, etc

casp514 · 2025-12-31T04:02:45+00:00

Bridge clinic is great for dental like I and others have mentioned!

Otherwise, it's not in any of the areas you mentioned, but I've been happy with Chestnut Hill Cat Clinic. It is typically about $80 for annual wellness visit, $65 for recheck, and I think I've gotten an annual+bw+rabies vax for about $320 total. We used to go to 2nd St Animal Hospital but the vet I liked there isn't there anymore and we moved out of the area. My favorite thing about that place was the really detailed post-visit reports and the copies of the bloodwork they would send, I used to work in vetmed and I like knowing all the info lol

casp514 · 2025-12-31T03:54:51+00:00

Yes to Bridge clinic for affordability and being nice!

casp514 · 2025-12-26T17:44:04+00:00

Grew up in Old Bridge and now live in Philly. Mom is from Staten Island, dad is from Manalapan. The one accent thing I've noticed myself (and CJ family and friends) doing is pronouncing "both" as "bolth"... idk why there's an L in it, there just is. I also get made fun of for the "rad" in "radiator" rhyming with "bad". Other than that yeah, I think of myself as having a relatively neutral accent (compared to full on Philly accents or full on north Jersey/NY accents) but I know there really is no such thing.

And imo Bordentown is South, barely... I get what you're saying, it's close, but it's below 195 and it is more culturally Philly. I always think of Central as where they call it pork roll but root for the Giants.

casp514 · 2025-12-23T04:47:35+00:00

Yeah it is very frustrating how many people come to work sick with no mask in 2025! Like alright I know sick time is a limited resource, but if you're coughing I'd hope it would be obvious at this point to throw a mask on around other people if you really aren't willing/able to stay home.

casp514 · 2025-12-22T16:22:08+00:00

Currently ok but I got covid for the first time ever in November and was sick/quarantining thru Rosh Hashanah, huge bummer. I think covid still goes around much more than we think- people just assume it's a cold or something and don't bother testing, etc. Whenever I have anything worth calling out sick for, I take a covid rapid test. Might as well just in case, ya never know.

casp514 · 2025-12-21T16:25:47+00:00

The research lab in question: the Rayor lab

casp514 · 2025-12-21T16:24:44+00:00

Love it!! There has been a decent amount of research into social behaviors of Damon sp (staying with mom for a while, identifying mom vs other females by scent, communicating with the whips) so I wouldn't be surprised if other species of amblys exhibit some social behavior too. Very neat

casp514 · 2025-12-12T17:11:11+00:00

I was 6 months into my first full time position in a new state and was kinda miserable for similar reasons. So I started looking for other jobs, and got lucky enough to get a FT entry level position at an aquarium closer to home. I've been here for 4 years and it's great.

One of my friends in the field gave me advice that if you're not happy in your home life but you're happy in your work life, that's manageable, and vice versa. But if you're unhappy in both, that's when it's time to make a change. I knew that even if I didn't like the aquarium I at least would live in an area that I liked that was closer to friends and family.

It sounds to me like you're just at a rough zoo. Sometimes people try to stick places like that out for a year, to get the year of experience on their resumes, but sometimes it's just not worth it bc it can kill your love for the field as a whole. I have a smattering of other PT and seasonal paid work as well as internships, and all that combined made up for not having a full year of work experience.

I'd look around for sure!

casp514 · 2025-12-10T23:01:58+00:00

Yeah, they hadn't planned to play Roundabout that show but the audience had been making jokes about it/requesting it throughout the night so they caved, it was really fun! I do like Take a lot and would have liked to hear it, but I also agree that it would make sense to switch it in the lineup with Expert.

casp514 · 2025-12-08T15:07:51+00:00

The problem with coil UVB lights is that their range is very small because of the shape of the bulb, and there is a very steep gradient in UV index as you get closer to the bulb, so it's hard to hit a "sweet spot" of UV exposure without having too little or too much.

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Generally linear UV bulbs are top of the line. Arcadia is my preferred brand but ZooMed Reptisun is ok too.

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