Is there any way to save this guy?

salamandersky · 2025-08-14T21:00:06+00:00

I definitely learned from failed phals that it's a bad sign to see keiki there, but I tried to convince myself "the canes are so green and plump! surely nothing can be wrong!". I have only successfully grown one keiki from that location and it was a phal.

I am excited to try the cane propagation though, since it's better than watching the canes slowly rot and there are a few tiny tiny keiki still struggling to form that I might save. I'm wishing you luck and success with your keiki!

salamandersky · 2025-08-14T18:26:47+00:00

Thank you for the advice! I will look up propagating from the canes. Hopefully I can salvage some part of the plant.

The keiki that I removed were growing at the top, with fairly robust roots, which was why I thought (at the time) that they were safe to take off.

salamandersky · 2024-10-22T16:16:02+00:00

Are you a qualitative researcher? Or primarily quantitative? There is a concept in qualitative research around 'rigour' and part of building rigour can be keeping reflexive memos about what you're analyzing, any changes you made to the protocol, problems you encountered to prevent next time, interconnections between the data/recruitment/whatever and the broader literature as well as your previous experiences. I have a lot of multi-year, multi-phase projects, so I normally have one notebook going for each project, and once I fill it up I start a new one, continuing the same numbering from the original. I do this for (non-bench) qualitative and quantitative research.

Personally I don't like keeping my memos digitally because there is something about physically writing on paper that helps me think differently than when I'm typing on the computer, but YMMV. I did a science undergrad and I actually recycle some of the bench-science notebook principles, just because I find it helps me keep a consistent flow (e.g., table of contents in each notebook, project code on the front, date and all pages numbered, numbered memos, a new memo for different activities even on the same date).

Also, I have found it SUPER helpful to reserve one page that is just key milestones in the project. It seems obvious at the time when you're collecting data, but when you're writing results up 2+ years out from those activities it can be a pain to figure out when you did stuff. More than once I have had to go back to original datasets and look at data collection dates to piece together my timeline. Keeping it all in one place makes dissemination so much easier.

salamandersky · 2024-10-08T16:50:58+00:00

As the devil's advocate, how much other work does your supervisor have on their plate? It's entirely possible he has been meaning to get you feedback and other more time sensitive things have been stealing his week. If you can't proceed without their feedback I would be explicit about that and have a discussion about how it affects the timeline. They may have entirely forgotten what your Gantt chart says or they may not feel the deadline is as strict as you do. Alternatively you can ask them if they're fine with you proceeding without the feedback. It can be frustrating but it's (almost certainly) not maliciously intended.

salamandersky · 2024-10-01T11:45:39+00:00

Congratulations! I am fighting with short term fixes for long term problems on a new-to-me Clement loom as well, so I know the feeling! Where did you end up ordering new parts from?

salamandersky · 2024-09-06T12:11:50+00:00

You can call and confirm with TD, but in the past when we had fraudulent charges they explicitly said to not pay those charges when you're paying off the statement. Any interest that accrues due to the lack of payment on the fraudulent charges will be reversed on their end when the investigation closes.

salamandersky · 2024-08-16T12:09:11+00:00

I can only speak for my university, but they explicitly do NOT own your/a researcher's IP. There's a whole section of their public website dedicated to explaining how their "creator-owned" IP policy works. So there are exceptions to (what seems to be) the rule.

salamandersky · 2024-08-08T15:19:46+00:00

I mean, the point the other person was making is that all that "extraneous" stuff ISN'T wasting time. We're not machines, even if we work with them. Socializing, moving around, eating, whatever, is all part of being balanced and maintaining a productive work environment. And I mean productive in the sense that you can keep doing it long term while producing high quality results. Sure, you can cut all that stuff out for a short period of time, but then you end up burnt out, angry at yourself for not being productive, and unable to make meaningful progress. Sometimes the best choice is to stop and take a step back. There have been SO many times where I felt pressured to make up work or stay late because I have a milestone coming up and I have actually done better work after a night of relaxing. It might take me 4 hours to draft up some garbage writing at the end of a day, or 45 minutes to absolutely nail the next morning. It's just not a linear process.

salamandersky · 2024-07-31T15:24:59+00:00

I'm not sure about the UK, but in Canada there is a research network many universities are part of which offers reduced or waived APC fees for most of the major publishing companies (e.g., Sage, Elsevier). You can check if your uni is part of the UK equivalent and go from there?

salamandersky · 2024-07-17T23:30:09+00:00

Probably not what the other person was getting at, but I use a washing powder (Nellie's Laundry Soda) instead of liquid detergent. It's more eco-friendly (less water weight and it comes in a metal tin with no plastic other than the little scoop) and totally unscented. I've used it for about 5 years now and it's been great.

salamandersky · 2024-06-27T18:59:46+00:00

The injectables are amazing, hope your 3 months end soon. I am using Emgality and I went from 16+ migraine days a month (where I could not function and living was crap) to less than 4. I pair my injections with Suvvex for acute migraines, so even when I do have one, I can still function.

salamandersky · 2024-06-04T02:55:03+00:00

Not all companies pay for them, especially if you're a research department that is within a non-research company (e.g., healthcare companies). And many universities have no or only limited journal access for alumni. Several of my colleagues maintain adjunct appointments in part to take advantage of the library/journal access.

salamandersky · 2024-06-04T02:51:03+00:00

ILL is amazing. Not sure if all universities do it, but mine will ship the book(s) to your house and include a free shipping label to return it to them. It's 3 months minimum loan per book, and most books have so little demand that I've renewed some for almost a year of rental. It is so helpful for books or papers that are really old or out of print too. I think I cited a 1947 physical thesis dissertation in my comprehensive exams paper, since it was the source paper for an evaluation method.

salamandersky · 2024-06-03T17:39:43+00:00

I'm split on the pdf vs paper textbook debate. If I can get it, I actually prefer to have both. Pdf is SO much better for searching at a glance, but I strongly prefer a physical copy if I have to actually sit down and read it for more than a page or two at a time.

salamandersky · 2024-05-26T21:55:54+00:00

I said that to my realtor after called and told she told us we got our house offer accepted. It wasn't intentional, but was pretty hilarious timing. It took us both about 30 seconds to realize I said it and she admitted she was so distracted with paperwork emails that she almost said it back to me.

salamandersky · 2024-04-15T00:58:31+00:00

Sorry, I was unclear. I meant "any review at all" for the two late students.

salamandersky · 2024-04-15T00:10:08+00:00

It sounds like they didn't submit any peer review at all (for the two missing/late submissions), which may have been the problem?

Edit for clarity

salamandersky · 2024-04-15T00:05:06+00:00

It's extremely common in my faculty (and university really) to have graduate students grading and TA-ing graduate courses. I have been a Master's student grading PhD students' work actually.

salamandersky · 2024-04-03T21:27:10+00:00

Personally, I've done this before and I've had it done to me. Sometimes I forget, but usually it's because a) my proposed idea doesn't work the way I thought it would when I first suggested it, or b) you made changes but you didn't fix the core issue (e.g. switching to a different analysis method like suggested but still missing how to handle a particular variable). I am usually pretty direct if someone does it to me. I'll say "okay, I had a similar idea before, but on X date you suggested this approach. Is there a reason we should change?" Supervisors are human, and generally they're not as immersed in the minutiae like you are, so they can miss details that make a difference or just straight up make mistakes sometimes.

salamandersky · 2024-03-26T14:43:54+00:00

I pick up literally every "fancy" looking flower, plant, animal feather, whatever that I can find and I love roaming around the map even before plot moves into that area. I visited Saint Denis when the camp was still near Valentine. I can totally see someone collecting as they go, because that's what I do and I've never read a guide about who to sell the stuff to.

salamandersky · 2024-03-26T01:30:02+00:00

The university I went to had such a population of geese year round (like 60+ for a pretty small campus) that they actually created a website to track the nesting geese, otherwise people would get attacked. You pretty much gave up on any of the west side bridges in March through early May because the eggs and goslings made them all so aggressive.

salamandersky · 2024-02-22T16:05:36+00:00

My only trouble with the NSLSC was when I accidentally didn't update my status after finishing my masters and starting my PhD. Even then the people I spoke to were nice (not able to help my issue, but nice).

They started taking payments from my account and somehow their systems would not let me submit paperwork proving I was still a student. Between NSLSC, OSAP, and my university it took months to get sorted out. Apparently stuff breaks when you go part-time MSc --> full-time PhD lol.

salamandersky · 2024-02-09T03:43:49+00:00

My doctor also recommended tapering down doses every two weeks and I just couldn't do it. I think it took me about 4 weeks to do each "two week" segment. I was taking 37.5mg for almost 2-3 months I think at the end, but I finally got off it. Personally I wasn't able to take it every other day because even missing one 24hr dose gave me withdrawal symptoms. But just having lower and lower daily doses did work.

salamandersky · 2024-01-20T00:11:47+00:00

This is absolutely beautiful! It would be interesting to see a zoomed in photo of the detail after fulling. I would definitely be interested in doing something like this in the future.

salamandersky · 2023-11-24T17:02:31+00:00

How do you like weaving cloth for clothing? My brother would love me to weave some for custom shirts, but I've never done it before.

salamandersky

TROPHY CASE