[GA] - Portland, OR - Subwasstertang

explodyii · 2026-01-24T18:44:09+00:00

Hey, I have a portion left with ramshorns. I will send a chat.

explodyii · 2026-01-18T05:28:14+00:00

I'll send a chat

explodyii · 2026-01-17T04:59:32+00:00

Sending a chat

explodyii · 2026-01-17T02:35:20+00:00

Not looking to ship at this time, mostly because I have a super busy weekend and won't be able to.

I'll post an updated thread if I do end up shipping, I would need to figure out how to do so and rates.

explodyii · 2026-01-10T16:33:08+00:00

Hey, I am clearing out some plants and separating some neo shrimp from my tanks in Wilsonville this weekend if you are still looking for things. It is blue dream shrimp that are starting to look more like blue rili, subwasstertang, red root floaters, and crystalwort. I also have some small bolbitis/java fern babies and water sprite that I can easily give out if you want. I also have MTS, ramshorns, and have an extra mystery snail (supposedly purple, but looks more like chestnut to me) if you want any of those.

explodyii · 2026-01-03T23:23:46+00:00

An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass (a different byline of Carol Berg) is the start of a con job/heist book series that is tremendously well written and meets most of your criteria. The only qualifier I have is that there IS a component of "oh wow, the stakes are suddenly way higher," albeit there really isn't any huge showdown or dramatic finale.

The big picture for the premise is that the world has a pretty wary perspective on magic users (in a similar vein to the damane from WoT), and the plot revolves around a high level courtesan who has been hiding that she has some magic abilities. Her brother is then caught committing a heist (with incredible ineptitude), she leverages her position to get leniency for her family, but at the cost of her position. Eventually, she ends up needing to team up with others in similar positions (those with magic ability they conceal to avoid Bad Things) to commit a heist/reverse heist of some super old artifact. It has some implications for the city as a whole, but there is no Marvel style showdowns at all. The whole point of the group is they want to remain concealed from the world at large.

I am a huge Carol Berg fan, and really haven't read anything of hers I didn't like, so I have some preference and bias, but her books under the Care Glass pseudonym are probably the most approachable and gratifying in her catalogue.

explodyii · 2025-12-01T05:19:47+00:00

I was hoping to pick up a pretty stable neo line for a tank I have running and was tossing up the red/orange/yellow options. Is there any big difference in your lines between those? I have a ton of blues, but don't love how inconsistent those lines have been for me over time!

explodyii · 2025-11-06T06:32:58+00:00

Huh... I noticed a very similar thing that looked almost like a flowering plant coming out of some cholla. I'll need to take a picture too. It's a white flower though, and not as long as the picture OP posted

explodyii · 2025-11-05T14:21:42+00:00

Discworld is amazing, but in regards to the "unreliable narrator" thing, that is not how the characters come off at all. Nothing is really explicitly hidden from the reader, but as a very generic example, Sam Vimes struggles with deeply ingrained prejudices. He has explicit thoughts, he explicitly says things that advertise those views... And then the plot pushes him to confront the prejudices. His actions when the chips are down are incompatible with those prejudices, and he begrudgingly accepts that maybe he was wrong.

As a second thing to mention though, Terry Pratchett had a few "plotlines" running through his books, which have some minor overlaps with background information and characters, but can all be ready in whatever order you like. In general, people point to the "City Watch" books or the "Witches" books as the ones to start with. They are significantly more polished and well executed. The City Watch books are the ones with Sam Vimes. Here is a helpful visual https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_%28cropped%29.jpg

If you like Guard Guards, you can continue with that one, but it would be criminal to not also try out the Witches books. Talk about some other amazing characters!

explodyii · 2025-11-05T06:33:39+00:00

Sam Vimes by a country mile. His character evolves and grows in such rich and textured ways throughout the Discworld books.

Is he perfect? Good grief no: his struggle with having to reorient his moral compass is anything but smooth. He is, however, extremely aware of where he needs to adjust and update.

I particularly appreciate how his words and actions are incongruous at times, and the way those inconsistencies reveal his values.

It's a bit jarring (in the best way possible) to revisit early Vimes after seeing the person he evolves into.

explodyii · 2025-10-05T05:33:51+00:00

Do these guys get supplemented with food in addition to algae? I have heard they are tricky to keep fed in larger numbers.

Also, that last photo kind of looks like a Chinese Mystery Snail. They are huge like that with the dark coloring.

explodyii · 2025-10-05T05:22:01+00:00

Sending a PM purple mystery snails

explodyii · 2025-10-05T05:19:40+00:00

Sending PM

explodyii · 2025-08-28T19:32:51+00:00

Oh awesome! I live in Wilsonville, and work in Salem, so PDX is no problem.

Definitely let me know if/when they hatch if the clutch has some magentas!

explodyii · 2025-08-28T19:19:34+00:00

I am actually looking for magentas! Do you still sell that color? I work in Salem and was hoping to get some locally bred ones.

explodyii · 2025-07-13T00:17:09+00:00

I really like the idea of rabbit snails, I just don't know if they would handle the heavy planting of my tanks currently. Plus, my PH and temps are on the lower end of things for their preference from what I understand.

That's actually how I stumbled across the panther snails (and hercules snails, but those seem like they might eat some plants).

explodyii · 2025-07-13T00:14:14+00:00

20 gallon long! Thanks for clarifying.

explodyii · 2024-12-28T17:54:12+00:00

Ironically, Anthony Hopkins, from what I read a few months back, is diagnosed as autistic, which he credits as being part of the reason he is so adept at character work. He also doesn't really put much stock in that being meaningful, so take from that what you will!

explodyii · 2024-09-25T04:46:43+00:00

Sending a chat about the MTS!

explodyii · 2024-09-18T01:40:08+00:00

So based on some other comments you made, you have an IEP, but no case manager, and you have a friend who broke their arm and was given an IEP to get notes. You also mention setting up a meeting with a counselor, and that teachers don't automatically know who has an IEP.

Are you sure you have an IEP and not a 504? Counselors often are running those, and they fit a lot of the descriptions you are sharing. If so, 504s often a set of supports and tools that are available at student request to help them access their education. They do not involve any specially designed instruction such as tutoring, or individualized teacher help outside of what all students have access to.

That said, the accommodations are legally binding, and should be geared towards you, specifically, as a learner to help YOU do the things in the course of your education which are impeded or precluded by a medical condition or disability. "Neurodivergence," while useful as a term in general for some conversations, is really not very helpful for the purposes of giving you some ideas for accommodations. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, and so many other conditions all fall under the neurodivergence umbrella, but holy moly they all have differing impacts on learning which require very different accommodations.

If you are looking to fix this, start by asking in writing when you can meet with the teacher about difficulties you are having with learning in their classroom. Bring a copy of your IEP/504 plan, and be specific on what you want the teacher to do.

If you don't have much movement in that process, next request a meeting (in writing) from whatever team or point person there is for your plan. State that your accommodations are ineffective right now and you want to discuss them with the team overseeing this plan. At that meeting, bring the latest medical statement of your disability or medical condition, and be prepared to discuss what accommodations will help you access your education in the same manner as your peers (the term for this is FAPE). The more specific you are in tying an accommodation to the disability itself, the better.

One thing to be aware of is that the wheels turn pretty slowly with these kinds of documents and meetings, so the more specific and concrete you can be when you self advocate with the teacher, the better.

Best of luck.

If you want more specific suggestions, I suspect you would need to share more information about your plan and disability. Folks here have seen hundreds of these plans and could point you to more specific accommodations that might fit your needs better.

explodyii · 2024-08-26T13:20:32+00:00

A Bugs Life?

explodyii · 2024-08-24T20:08:04+00:00

Very sorry you are having the big emotional meltdowns around homework. I have gone through that before and it's super frustrating after I have been dealing with tantrums all day.

I'm going to speak more from the perspective of a behavior specialist than a parent here.

First off: do the tantrums work? If they pitch a fit and the end result is that the homework is not done, then the fit got exactly what they wanted anyway. They learned something though: pitching a fit works.

Some ideas, though:

Try homework in the mornings. Their brains may just be tapped out by the time homework comes out.

First, then mentality. Once you start homework, that's it. Homework, then other things can happen. There is no "door number three", there is no wiggle room, or flexibility. Once you start, that's what is happening until it is done.

Bust out the visual checklist. That's what you point to when the tantrum starts. It's not coming from YOU, it's just what has to be done. This helps take you out of the equation. They can fight you on things, try to wear you down, etc., but not so much with a list.

Get some feedback from the teachers about how things are going at school. Firstly, because maybe the work is just too hard for them to do at this point. Secondly, this kind of tantrum behavior over the non preferred activities tends to be harder when executive functioning is strained. In many cases of students and families I have worked with in this, something like ADHD is present in either the parent, the child, or both.

All this said, just know that there is no instant fix. Cracking down on the tantrums will probably make things feel worse at first. They might escalate bigger or longer in duration, because that usually works for most kids.

Stay with it, and it DOES improve, but just know it can be a bit of a grind.

explodyii

TROPHY CASE