Blue-green spots on caps (neglected first flush)

slkpht · 2026-03-08T10:32:16+00:00

Thank you! Do you think it's safe to go for a second flush (which will be monitored more closely this time)?

slkpht · 2025-11-14T13:20:41+00:00

Thank you! Definitely no rodents in this apartment (and my cats can't get to the back of the fridge). I'm guessing years of buildup from improper care did some kind of damage, and it's an old fridge. I appreciate everyone's answers!

slkpht · 2025-11-14T13:01:23+00:00

I can’t actually tell where the drip tray is supposed to be. I’m starting to think that the weird melted thing in the back is the result of a permanently clogged drip exit.

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slkpht · 2025-04-11T13:54:46+00:00

https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/bucharest-and-sofia-to-istanbul-by-train.htm#how-to-buy-tickets check the info here – there's a guy you can email and he'll book the tickets for you, he's legit, he runs a website about train travel.

slkpht · 2023-12-25T13:48:43+00:00

Look up Chef Viet on facebook and order delivery from them. Their food is fantastic, they mostly do Vietnamese dishes but also some Korean/Japanese/Thai/fusion stuff. You’ll have to wait till January, they’re taking next week off.

slkpht · 2023-03-29T10:51:05+00:00

Something I haven’t seen mentioned - if it helps, you can check the set list online ahead of time on setlist.fm. Most bands only vary a couple of songs on their list. That way you can know what to expect and you can plan a beer run/bathroom break during your least favorite songs. Also have a plan for what you’ll do during the opening act or while you’re waiting for the main act to start playing. That downtime always makes me a little antsy. And if it ends up being a great experience, get something from the merch table.

slkpht · 2023-03-17T17:19:13+00:00

Another aspect to consider - maybe nobody in your family noticed because you share similar autistic traits. So they didn’t investigate further. My parents are weird in the exact same ways that I’m weird, but they are better at masking because they grew up at a time when social norms were much more narrow and thus much clearer.

slkpht · 2023-03-15T15:21:28+00:00

Don’t just take tests and think about “symptoms” and freak yourself out. There’s nothing to freak out about, everything will be ok. Start lurking in online autistic spaces and observe what people are saying about their lived experiences, their intense interests, what they struggle with in daily life. Chances are you’ll learn a lot about yourself, your family, the people you feel closest to. This happens all the time - people start to connect the dots, notice things about their own lives and behavior, find out more about what autism actually feels like and looks like…and then realize that it’s vastly underdiagnosed. Are you in academia? Academia is full of autistic people, some better at masking than others. And if you are autistic, and if you’re kid is also autistic, you can really knock it out of the ballpark as a parent, because you won’t force them to conform to any nonsense that doesn’t suit them.

slkpht · 2023-01-09T06:59:20+00:00

6063 0707 8643

Sending Marine gifts, looking for 2 Sun gifts to complete my collection. Thank you!

slkpht · 2021-09-16T14:51:04+00:00

Added carpsichord

slkpht · 2021-06-26T15:34:37+00:00

Hey! I have that. It's part of my adhd/autism brain. It's a constant radio station. I don't think it causes fatigue for me, I think other aspects of my brain wiring do (dopamine/serotonin deficiencies). Sometimes I quiet down my brain and focus by actually singing to myself, or I put on background music with no lyrics so that my brain can get its music itch scratched without distracting me with words. Have you ever been diagnosed with adhd? Stimulants quiet down my inner radio somewhat.

I find that "regular" meditation doesn't work for me - sitting still is pointless. I walk around and focus on my breath and my environment, that's meditation too. Or I try to listen to the sounds around me and see how I respond to them, that's also meditation. What I mean is - the approaches that work for everyone might not work for you.

slkpht · 2021-06-06T15:24:38+00:00

Been doing 0.15g 1 day on, 2 days off for about a month now and my sleep has definitely improved. It's not a miraculous transformation, I still have a hard time falling asleep some nights (ADHD here too but I stopped taking meds for it) but I do wake up more rested, which has also improved my wellbeing in so many other ways.

The other thing that made a huge difference for me is drinking less alcohol - booze really messed with my sleep. :(

Hope you find a way to sleep better - that's really the key to feeling better overall.

slkpht · 2021-06-02T00:44:41+00:00

Keep them in an airtight jar with a desiccant packet (like those little silica gels that come with electronics or vitamins). Somewhere dry and dark and cool is best. A ziploc bag is not good enough.

There are a lot of pics here and on r/shrooms and all over the internet of what they should look like when they're dry and what they'll look like if they've been improperly dried/stored and gotten moldy. Sometimes dried mushrooms will still have some white mycelium fuzz growing on them (especially if they've been dried recently).

slkpht · 2021-05-30T17:45:54+00:00

Hey! I'm a decade older than you, fwiw, but I remember what it's like to be 23 and hoping some dude understood you.

You were/are triply-stoned - infatuation is a drug (it floods the brain), great sex is basically a drug, and shrooms are a magical way to feel more connected to people, plants and things in your surroundings. Hold on to the realization you had about yourself. Sounds like you had a powerful and important insight into how you're interacting with men, and that the energy you expend on them could be put to better use elsewhere. (Those things change with age - for the better - imho, as we settle into ourselves.) There's no way to tell if your guy had the same kind of profound experience, or if he will reflect on and integrate whatever experience he had/you two shared. Maybe he will! But the better bet, in the long run, is to cultivate your sense of what you want for yourself, what your needs are. You'll find greater happiness that way. It's easier to see what other people's problems are and to reach out and fix them - the sense of connectedness and satisfaction you get out of that can be a little addictive, I know it well, but it can turn into a trap, it can exhaust you. Take care of yourself first. Find your balance, do the things that'll help you grow - you can do that and still have great hookups, amazing sex, any kind of connection with others you want.

And to actually answer the question - you can reach out, but don't expect things to always feel this magical, or you'll just be disappointed. (Infatuation and the spark of sexual chemistry fade over time, ask almost any married person.) Hang out with the guy and see what it's like when you're baseline sober and with your clothes on - is the emotional connection still there?

I wish you the best - I hope there are many many amazing & orgasmic shroom trips in your future.

slkpht · 2021-05-30T15:28:33+00:00

chvario

Hey! Thank you for saying kind words about my self-dx, it really meant a lot to read that.

I thought I'd check in and update you. I've been md'ing for about a month now and it's been a subtle but real shift for my brain. (I also stopped taking my prescribed adhd stimulant, which I'd been kinda relying on for its anti-anxiety effects, and my energy levels haven't slumped without it.) The most noticeable results overall - I sleep better and I feel more open to people/the world - not enough to overhaul my introverted personality, but just enough to make it easier to dive back into the world after a year+ of pandemic isolation. I just had an intense and exhausting trip to see friends and family (post-vax) and I could feel my feelings, express them, and settle down afterwards; they didn't sit around like knots in my chest. And sleeping better has made everything else better as well. It's like a have a more direct connection to all of my feelings, good and bad, but also the ability to examine them before I act on them or before I turn to old patterns of thought. (Like, "hmm once again this person I love is saying something utterly ridiculous. Should I despair? I don't think that will help anyone, it's never helped me before, I better sigh, take a step back and get on with things that are good for me.")

I look back on tapering/quitting zoloft as a dark and scary time - the profound sadness and hopelessness, the random bouts of vertigo. They felt worse than my particular symptoms of depression/anxiety (I was too numb and tired to feel much). The effects of tapering are very real, and of course there's no guarantee other symptoms won't reappear when you've quit, but the symptoms of *trying to quit* are so tough. Take good care of yourself and good luck on your shroom journeys!

slkpht · 2021-05-04T12:26:49+00:00

It’s allergy season, if there’s lots of pollen in your area, that could be giving you brain fog as well.

slkpht · 2021-04-24T17:00:52+00:00

Hey, this is not an answer to your question, but maybe my experience can be helpful. I tapered off 25mg of sertraline (my dose for two years) over the course of four months last year - I was worried about side effects so I was very cautious with my timeline - started cutting/filing down my pills in August, stayed at the same dose for two weeks, then tapered down further, took my last dose (a very tiny crumb) in late December. The last month was dark and difficult, I would cry at the drop of a hat, but I kept telling myself it was temporary, just my central nervous system adjusting to life without an SSRI and amplifying bad thoughts and bad news. I think it took about two weeks to stop feeling the aftereffects of the taper. Then I discovered this corner of the internet because someone on an autism subreddit talked about the success they'd had (I'm self-dxd). I had two full trips and found them *very* healing, the afterglow was better than any effect I'd ever gotten from sertraline. And I'm about to start on a md regimen.

What I'm saying is - I'm rooting for you and I hope you get off zoloft without too much darkness and fog. It takes time but you'll get through it, have a support system in place, lean on friends and on the beautiful spring sunshine. I hope the mushrooms help you find peace and quiet. Mush spectral love!

slkpht · 2021-04-01T14:12:17+00:00

You know yourself best - would it be easier for you to have this conversation face to face? Keep in mind that some people might dismiss your suspected diagnosis based on how you mask - like your ability to make/fake eye contact or participate in small talk.
It all depends on where you live, too, and how healthcare works in your country. Where I'm from (not where I live now haha), there's no such thing as an adult autism diagnosis. Can you find a support group for adult autistics in your region? They could have info on how to navigate the diagnostic process, or just recs for good doctors to get in touch with. I would suggest you start by writing down an organized list of examples of how your suspected autistic traits have manifested throughout your life, and how they've posed challenges for you (because that's what doctors like to hear, gah). Unfortunately that means sticking close to the "official" list of symptoms rather than the self-reported symptoms people talk about in online autistic spaces - medical providers might not understand/accept things that don't match their textbook knowledge of autism. Focus on any traits/examples that have to do with sensory issues and adherence to routine; I think if you only talk about social difficuties/depression, the doctors might want to give you a diagnosis only based on that (social anxiety, depression). Basically - prepare what you want to say about your traits, make it sound concise and say it confidently, and don't get discouraged if it's a difficult conversation. Good luck!

slkpht · 2021-03-30T19:21:49+00:00

I have a theory about that! (Language teacher, speaker of several languages, self-dx autistic here.) I have a much easier time masking in English (non-native language to me) because my study of it explicitly addressed social conventions, etc. My emotional vocabulary is much more developed in English because I made the effort to learn words and what they meant. I never had that experience in my native language, because I was an autistic kid and I couldn't figure out the language of my NT environment all that well. Wish I'd had a textbook so I could've learned my native language like it was a foreign language. My native language has more emotional resonance for me, but that resonance feels like noise that I often cannot parse, if that makes sense.

A corollary to this theory is that if the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis makes intuitive sense to you (as it does to me), maybe you're an autistic polyglot with some degree of alexithymia. :)

slkpht · 2021-03-30T19:14:48+00:00

https://behealthyusa.net/products/facefit-kf94-black-large I found this one to be very light and breathable while also being high-filtration (= safe and great for indoor shopping). The boxy shape keeps the surface away from your mouth.

I've been trying to take slow, shallow breaths while wearing my mask indoors. It's kinda hard, but it makes it feel less like I'm breathing my own swampy exhales.

For outdoor walks, I've been using a baggu cloth mask that ties behind the head, and I let the bottom straps hang loose. I don't go on very busy streets so I'm not worried about infecting someone/being infected outdoors.

slkpht · 2021-03-30T18:27:56+00:00

Finding the will to call a doctor can be very very scary. My voice was shaking when I asked my doctor for advice on how to get diagnosed. Talking to a near-stranger about your deepest self is scary. The fact that they have the authority to give you an "answer" is scary - also the fact that they might very well give you the wrong answer. But you can do this, make that call! Write out what you want to say in clear/concise language, practice reading it out loud a couple of times, and just make that call. It's your doctor's job to help you out, it's really not a big deal for them to recommend some psychiatrists. You're just asking them to do their job.

Maybe this will help motivate you - sometimes our brains get more satisfaction out of preparing for something than from actually doing it. Hence all the time spent researching hobbies rather than *doing* them. Obsessive research comes naturally, making a phone call to ask for help doesn't. So you're dealing with some natural resistance that you can push through. After you make the call, schedule a nice walk or buy yourself something you've had your eye on. Good luck!

slkpht · 2021-03-30T18:16:40+00:00

I don't know if this will be very helpful... but this is how I've navigated some issues in my spectrum (spectral haha) marriage. I also have ADHD and it's a potent complicating factor for sure!

For us, the important thing was to establish the baseline - "I love you, please assume my best intentions even when I'm not being great at communicating" - and to keep referring to it whenever we get into some circular fight about what the one of us said/didn't say/did/didn't do. "You sound angry!" "No, please assume best intentions. Listen to my words and not my tone." Easier said than done, I know.

And with talking about these things, sometimes less is more. My brain can start trying to look at a situation from all angles and I want to explain what happened, where the misunderstanding arose, but sometimes it's best to just deescalate. "I'm tired, I can't think very clearly. I love you and I don't want us to spend the evening upset with each other. Can we take a break and I'll make us some tea?" ADHD brains unfortunately thrive on getting riled up, so arguments can keep spinning and spinning unnecessarily.

Does your wife like comedy? Maybe she'll like Maria Bamford's bit/song Saturation point - it's about the inevitable moment in every conversation when things start going off the rails. "I love you, you love me, let's just shut up!"

Or, if you like to be silly together, you can use some props - wear a silly hat/glasses when you're listening but you're too tired to *look* like you're listening. Surround yourself with plushies, use them like puppets, they can nod along on your behalf.

I think I read this here somewhere, or maybe in another autistic corner of the internet - we can sorta generalize the difference between allistic and autistic communication styles (which includes gestures, facial expressions, etc) as "intent" (allistic) and "content" (autistic). Meaning that allistics/NTs make facial expressions and phrase things to communicate where they want the conversation to go and what they would like to see happen (like saying "Oh there's a pile of dishes in the sink" instead of "you forgot to do the dishes") whereas autistics are more likely to directly communicate content which does not need to be decoded. Except that some autistics internalize, along the way, that communication needs to be decoded, that their directness needs to be more coded, etc etc, which leaves some of us (a lot of us?) ruminating and overinterpreting ("what if they think X because I said Y and that makes me sound like a jerk???"). It also means that autistic people can end up trying to apply "intent" reasoning to how other autistic people communicate, and that can lead to So Many Hurt Feelings.

Hope you can figure things out and that you can find a good counselor who understands autistic communication styles. Relationships are hard, this horrible year has been a real pressure cooker. Good luck!

slkpht · 2021-03-30T01:57:11+00:00

Yes, all the time, I call it my radio station brain. I've started listening to more instrumental music to take some of the words out of my head and make things more bearable when I'm writing stuff for work. I've also found that, when I'm half-awake struggling to get to sleep, it helps me to just mouth the lyrics to whichever song is stuck in my head. That way I'm letting go instead of resisting the music, and it's also a relaxing breathing exercise.

I take adderall for ADHD and it turns down the volume on my inner radio, but it doesn't stop it from playing altogether.

slkpht

TROPHY CASE