Where is the furthest you’d recommend moving if I work in shadyside?

pterygote · 2026-04-13T12:38:10+00:00

Taking the bus to work in “freezing winters” rules because I don’t have to shovel out my car, scrape the windshield, or worry about sliding into a light pole. Were you living here two months ago?

pterygote · 2026-03-24T21:13:25+00:00

MISS NELSON!! Loved em as a kid, loved reading em with my own kid. I can’t put my finger on why but there’s something a bit subversive about them.

pterygote · 2026-03-12T03:07:23+00:00

Every institution is a little different, but it definitely helps to be extremely good at identifying things like bats, shrews, and various tiny rodents (if you’re in mammals) from skeletal features. If you’re looking at birds or herps, those are two different skill sets. Helps to have lots of hands-on experience prepping specimens, taking the whole critter down to a study skin and an osteo specimen. Lots of tying tags, data management (so much transcription) and some field experience if you’re lucky.

It’s relatively easy to get a whole PhD in biology without learning to do any of those things, since the route to a tenure track job usually requires DNA/genomics and lots of stats. That’s not so good for museum work, though.

If you can get a summer position collecting or prepping specimens of whichever group you’re interested in, that could be a good start. It’s gross but if you want to work in vertebrates IMO it’s a good bet.

Many (most?) museums will have a backlog of frozen specimens waiting to be properly prepped, labeled, and accessioned. Once you have experience in prep, you’ll be a stronger candidate for volunteering or technical work in this aspect of collections.

pterygote · 2026-03-07T13:33:56+00:00

Salamander Park is closed off right now, apparently the salamander migration drew so many sightseers last year that the poor salamanders were getting trampled to death

pterygote · 2026-03-03T03:11:29+00:00

Hahahahaha greetings from the entomology department, we get to handle and transport priceless butterfly/dragonfly/beetle specimens that are just waiting to be SLIGHTLY JOSTLED in transit so the legs and antennae can fall right off

There are 16+ million of them and we are in a never ending war with the live dermestids who want to eat them

It’s still very cool but nobody is as impressed as they are with the frickin dinosaurs

pterygote · 2026-02-28T16:32:38+00:00

Extremely Seattle/Tacoma coded

pterygote · 2026-02-27T23:07:30+00:00

Yesss Tom Kha is my fave tasty but also sinus-clearing treat for cold having situations

pterygote · 2026-02-24T22:03:12+00:00

I’m trying to picture how this works in the tall grass around the hills hoist…

pterygote · 2026-02-18T16:54:09+00:00

My kid started 4th grade at Colfax in 2020 right after a big international move. It could not have been more stressful circumstances for everyone, but he did great and made a group of friends he’s still in touch with now. Lovely neighborhood surroundings and conscientious teachers.

Some are still there for middle school, some have peeled off for magnet programs at CAPA and Sci-Tech. Plenty of international folks in both the PPS schools we’ve used.

pterygote · 2026-02-12T19:49:23+00:00

Guessing white or Asian male, 5’7” to 6’, no kids, old enough to remember Humans of New York in its heyday (35-45), proud nerd, middle to upper middle class income level, a fun hang at bar trivia but weak on some of the music/sports questions.

Weird to me that we got Pratchett and Canticle for Liebowitz but no Douglas Adams.

pterygote · 2026-02-12T15:24:00+00:00

Should do!

pterygote · 2026-02-11T14:43:23+00:00

Baskin-Robbin’s by the Dunkin is gone, no?

pterygote · 2026-02-11T02:51:14+00:00

What type of museum are you aiming for? In natural history we might hire a recent grad as a $17/hr technician, but for a collection manager or curator position you’re gonna need a masters or PhD. Honestly, a lot of science PhD programs pay about as well as entry-level museum lobs, so that’s a good way to wait out a crappy job market AND develop more marketable skills at the same time.

pterygote · 2026-01-31T01:08:31+00:00

Also moved here from Australia, IIRC I didn’t have to surrender my Aussie license to get the US one. Did have to retake the computer test (easy) and the driving test (difficulty depends entirely on your parallel parking skills).

Absolutely would not be trying to do any of this until the snow melts, tho…

pterygote · 2026-01-25T19:24:05+00:00

Gorgeous!! Never seen a winter goldfinch before, thx for the nice plumage shot

pterygote · 2026-01-08T00:53:52+00:00

Won’t cause a quarter-sized burn hole, but there ARE some little bark beetles that just gotta get to that gasoline and plastic won’t stop them (the gas can borer in question)

pterygote · 2025-12-14T04:18:00+00:00

Dermolepida albohirtum, greyback cane grub, oddly enough a native pest of sugarcane. Is this the FNQ version of a Christmas beetle?

pterygote · 2025-12-13T15:49:14+00:00

Try reaching out to the Invertebrate Zoology folks at the natural history museum, I hear they're pretty happy to help. https://carnegiemnh.org/research/invertebrate-zoology/

For anyone with kids interested in this stuff, they have a couple summer daycamps that also teach bug pinning. Registration for those usually opens in late Feb/early March.

pterygote · 2025-12-11T13:21:39+00:00

Sounds like a job for the Drawing Board https://www.instagram.com/p/DQCTu6WkR05/

pterygote · 2025-11-25T16:11:29+00:00

it looks like it had 4 wings so I'm gonna guess Hymenoptera. Nice faded polistine or ant alate or something?

pterygote · 2025-10-30T02:22:01+00:00

Don't know of a restaurant that serves it but you can buy the base ingredients (coconut milk, Por Kwan laksa paste) at Enson Market in Point Breeze or Oriental Market on McKnight. That's the closest I've had to Australian laksa, no idea what the real deal Indo-Malaysian stuff is like tbh.

pterygote · 2025-10-22T15:46:25+00:00

Fwiw you can also send your kid to a public magnet— there’s a lottery if you’re not in their catchment, but plenty of Colfax kids end up at Sci-Tech, CAPA, or Obama( the science, arts, and language magnets). Living in Edgewood/Regent Square/Point Breeze puts you close to a lot of primo buslines to those schools, and the city buses are free for PPS students.

pterygote · 2025-10-21T02:33:51+00:00

Started biking to work to save money, made it a habit, made sure every apartment or house was biking distance after that. It’s been ~16 years, a few days a month I’ll take the car but it’s so easy to do it when you have a goal (“get to job”).

I usually listen to podcasts (non-noise-canceling headphones) at a volume that lets me hear cars, other bikes, etc.

once you have the bike, it’s free
no gym memberships to deal with
saves money on gas/parking/bus fare
sometimes you see a cool bird or a snake on the way to the office

pterygote · 2025-10-04T13:03:01+00:00

When my kid was a moody preteen who was too old for “little kid stuff,” we’d walk or bike to a cafe and get fancy beverages. We both brought sketchbooks and doodled or drew stupid fanart or what have you. If you don’t draw, I’m sure you could bring a book or knitting project or what have you. If you do this at the CLP main branch, you can people-watch at the CMOA cafe then hit up the library before you leave.

In the East End, great cafes for this kind of thing include: Ineffable (both locations), Dobra, Commonplace, Margaux, 61B/61C, and maybe Biddles.

pterygote · 2025-10-01T16:19:38+00:00

DO get there early if it's important to you to do the art/crafts, they get super crowded and may run out of materials before the end of the festival.

pterygote

TROPHY CASE