I adopted a defective lizard from a breeder for a 20$ fee. This particular defect often results in culling the animal, as it is often too expensive and time-consuming to care for. Because of this, not much is known about its care.
I now am one of the most prominent “experts” on caring for this particular subset of creature. Though no one but the most experienced keepers should own one, I am still happy to give information to folks who may have to care for one, either from rescue or purchasing one before knowing exactly what they’re getting into.
Aside from being able to give advice on keeping these creatures alive, that’s not all the value: the real value is my stupid lizard. I got him literally just a couple of weeks before the pandemic & lockdowns started. He’s an absolute angel who has brought me so much joy in my darkest times. He’s sweet, gentle, goofy, and is a wonderful companion animal. He now has complete freedom in the front of my home (when he’s not in his vivarium) with his own heatlamp, ramp, and a view of the road where he love watching all the cars go by.
I love my stupid lizard. ❤️
In what way is he defective ? because he’s yellow ? Beautiful creature regardless
They’re supposed to have scales and spikes and look like this.
My boy nekkid.
omg no he’s perfect just how he is! He’s adorable. I love him…what a wonderful story!
He’s definitely the opposite of perfect, but he’s perfect to me.
Thank you!
I love your sweet boy, what’s his name? I had a buddy with a bearded dragon named Mothra and I loved that little dude. RIP Mothra, you were taken way too soon.
Thank you! His name is Pączki. Pronounced like “Pawnch-key” or the more common American pronunciation “Poonch-key” is also cool. He doesn’t mind, either way. Americans will recognize it as “the donuts they sell before Fat Tuesday/Lent/Mardi Gras.”
I’m sorry to hear about Mothra. Loss is never easy. Bearded dragons are such wonderful creatures. Definitely not for everyone, but, personally, they’ve made my life so much more vibrant with just how sweet and goofy they are.
I used to think that people who owned reptiles were crazy (they still might be, but for different reasons lol), but when a bearded dragon was suddenly thrust upon me one day… it took a while, but I came to absolutely adore them.
I love my dumb, goofy boy.
Punch key
When I was doing research on getting a reptile pet I thought about getting a bearded dragon. But they really need a set temperature, in a big enclosure, and eat bugs. I got a ball python instead.
I’m happy to hear you did you research and got yourself something you feel you were more capable of handling!
If you ever feel like showing off your noodle-boy, definitely post them up here or in a reptile/herp community. I’d love to see them!
Did you have to figure out how to care for him on your own or did you have help? What special treatment does he require since he doesn’t have scales?
TL;DR at the bottom. But do note that you SHOULD NOT set out to own a scaleless bearded dragon!! Aside from their crazy difficult care, they are often NOT produced ethically, resulting in sick dragons that often suffer and meet an early end.
I used to foster dragons, so I already knew tons about their ideal care & conditions. However, when looking up care for this particular defect (they’re referred to as “silkbacks”), a ton of it was/is just people parroting information they’d only heard thirdhand, as there is barely anyone who actually owns one/has one that isn’t a rescue of questionable origin. Because of that, tons of myths and misinformation are online now about silkback care. I essentially had to start from scratch on care and use trial-and-error to figure out what was true or not. It’s not malicious misinformation, though! It’s just ignorance.
Let me be clear: the reason barely anyone owns one is not because they’re rare! They’re actually very easy to produce. It’s just that most ethical breeders do not sell them to the general public, for a very good reason. It’d be like someone selling one-legged puppies and advertising them as “rare.” My breeder genuinely produced Pączki by accident (genetics are crazy), and separated the pair afterwards. They only offered him up to me after I brought up my credentials/experience while attempting to purchase a different dragon from them (who was sold before I could get them, unfortunately).
Owning one of these is bearded dragon ownership cranked up to “Nightmare Mode”. The dragon can grow up fine, but it takes a ton of time, energy, money, and dedication to do so. I’m an idiot who decided that I had all of that, plus a curiosity to see the difference between the silkback vs. normal dragon care in case I decided to foster again and found myself in possession of a rescue.
Here’s an abridged list of extra care requirements: no rough surfaces or sharp edges in their habitat, no bugs that risk bites (so no crickets, which are a common staple), slightly reduced/farther placed UVB due to higher eye sensitivity since they are prone to blindness/eye issues, same heat requirements, weekly/biweekly baths IN CONJUNCTION WITH: specialized lotion, aloe, massages, shed “help”, etc.
They will injure themselves, no matter how safe you make their environment. The injury may also stem from you, as I’ve even accidentally gouged him with my fingernail before. They’re not extra-fragile or anything, but they do require careful handling. It’s basically like human skin… but much slower to heal and much more prone to infections because of that– it’s a trait of cold-blooded animals.
TL;DR: I basically had to figure out care myself, due to widespread misinformation from folks who have only heard thirdhand.
Their care requirements is a lot of buying extra things and constantly paying attention to prevent & treat any injuries that may occur because of their skin.
There’s a lot more, but those are the basics. Hopefully that helps!
Again, DON’T GO SEARCHING TO GET YOURSELF A SCALELESS BEARDED DRAGON!!! If you want a less prickly dragon, look for a “leatherback” bearded dragon! Their care is the same as a standard dragon and they still have all their scales.
That is really cool you were able to do that!!
Thanks! I’m just a sucker, tbh. He was on the cusp of being culled if he wasn’t taken by someone, and, even though he wasn’t what I was looking for, I was in the market for a dragon, so…
But I’m glad I did. He’s my best buddy, and we’ve helped to inform more people about dragons and their care. I’m happiest when I’m able to help people.
Cd bruner in the early 90s.
I paid 600$ cash for a 4 speed cd burner.
I made my money back in 6 weeks.
Everything after that was pure profit.
Haha dang dude. You were ball’n to afford a x4 CD burner back then.
I made my money back in 6 weeks.I figured you were getting paid to make mix CDs from CD albums you had. As P2P Napster didn’t come out till 1999 and Limewire, 2000.
CD burning was definitely something I wish I had done back in middle school. Ha
How was your CD burning hustle? How much did you charge for a CD? I’m interested to know more.
LOL, back before p2p there were direct download web pages in the prehistory of the web. I was pirating music in 1996 (maybe earlier?)
deeznuts had a basic search page and hyperlinks to a direct download of most popular music, and on a 56kbps modem it would only take about 45 minutes per song.
My brother had just started a computer collage course that required everyone to buy a 100$ cd.
We provided them for 20.
I burned ps1 games for 10$ a pop.
Music cd’s were 20 just for the hassle of me getting all the songs. I think I was using… Ing it’s been so long.
Text based. BBS feel. Chat rooms. Omg I’m. Embarrassed I can’t remember.
Irc! Holy shit I wonder if that’s still around?
IRC is around. Not that many users since it doesn’t handle mobile use well. Matrix (Discord, Signal etc) is even starting to replace the last user groups though.
I bought counterstrike source way back in like 2008/2009 when I got a computer fast enough to play it. Steam was pushing garrysmod as a 5 dollar bundle purchase with counterstrike, and I bought that too on a whim.
I liked garrysmod more than cs:s, and played it a bunch. Eventually I figured out how to add wiremod to the game, which also involved using svn (a source control precursor to git)
I learned basic digital circuits and boolean logic by making bases with elevators and fancy alarm systems that would shoot intruders with turrents and stuff.
Eventually wiremod added a programming language called expression2, which was a mashup of c and lua. I basically taught myself coding because of a video game.
This lead me to get into computer programming, and eventually computer security, which ended up being a lucrative career path… So thanks Garry for your mod, and thanks Gabe for pushing said mod to kids that just wanted to shoot virtual terrorists. That 5 dollar game is responsible for a good chunk of my life :)
That’s very neat. Motivation and some ability to see ways to use something make learning it much more fun.
Just as a sidenote, SVN is not really a precursor to git. More like a contemporary step in an opposite direction. There’s a video somewhere with Linus commenting on his opinions on improving CVS. :)
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I couldn’t turn my family to the bidet cause but I love mine. I usually use a bit of toilet paper to dry my ass because I haven’t made the leap to a towel, but if I run out of toilet paper I simply let my ass air dry. It’s amazing. It also feels so much more clean.
You’re still suppose to use toilet paper. Bidets only get about 90% of particles alone.
The Louisiana.
A cheap pendrive I already used to install four ISOs, two of them pirated.
Check out iodd enclosures if you have a spare 2.5" ssd!
I want to ask why I should consider that but then I realize this must be your most specific hobby and I’m afraid of the answer
No, not at all… Its an enclosure for an existing hard drive that makes it into a portable media device (like a flash drive), but because its an actual ssd you get much better sustained speeds.
There’s also some cool features like drive encryption, as well as if you put an iso file on the drive, you can navigate to it on the on the iodd device using the screen and buttons, and then select it. The enclosure will emulate a DVD reader, and you can just boot the iso without having to do any etcher / Rufus / yumi / dd stuff
How did that earn you some savings? I’m totally on with having lots of stuff on a hard thumb drive, but how did it benefit you?
I went through the ISOs myself rather than going to a technician and paying for the service + the OS
The paid version of Sync for Reddit. I paid $1 and used it for 13 years.
Ya, he’s learned his lesson. Sync for Lemmy is 🇦🇺$25.
I’ll probably still pay it, he is asking about tools for mods and that’s the killer feature I need.
Same. I’m sad I got a bit out priced on the Lemmy version but at least liftoff is great too.
Probably the SawStop cabinet saw I bought a few weeks ago. It’s way easier/less sketchy than my job site table saw when cutting large panels, and the peace of mind it gives me from a general safety perspective is priceless. I have been doing a lot of projects with full sheets of plywood since I bought it, which has been an aspect of woodworking that I dreaded before. No more crawling around with a circular saw or precariously balancing between a job site saw and an extra table
I have a sawstop PCS also, and I still can’t man handle a full sheet of 3/4 on it. I find my track saw is better at handling sheet goods. Do you have an outfeed table or something else to help?
I have the 52" extension and a roller stand that I put on the left side. Typically just yeet it off the edge tho.
To be fair, I’m typically not ripping a full sheet, usually cross cutting the 4’ side. The last few inches are a bit dicey still, but still preferable to a circular saw and messing around with clamping a straight edge. I’ll probably still get a track saw eventually
Commuting bike instead of car
So you bought a bike?
$100 (probably around $120 now) Hakko soldering iron and good solder/flux.
I had cheap irons for years and thought I sucked at soldering. The Hakko heats up in seconds and melts solder like magic.
Got it for rc hobby stuff, but I’ve also fixed countless toys, bluetooth speakers, light fixtures, etc. I’ve even done some jewelry repairs with silver solder.
Fixed my Nintendo, Sega, Sega CD, Atari, and Gameboy from when I was a kid. Still need to get around to fixing my OG XBOX.
Probably my PC
Something I wish my employer realized is how much value they would get out of providing their developers with good hardware instead of crappy laptops. When it takes 15 minutes to change a line, compile and run the software I’m working on, I’m not going to be very productive.
For context, I work on 2 separate projects that need separate development environments (because they have some conflicting dependencies). One of them has to be in a VM, which significantly affects performance. The laptop was high end 3 years ago, but now it’s beaten even by an Intel i3. It also doesn’t help that the compamy has installed 2 anti-virus software that take up like 30-40% cpu while I am running builds.
Another crappy thing they did was move the infrastructure to AWS… And it costs a ton, performance is shit, and copying files from the build servers is a nightmare… we have to remote into some “copy machine” on AWS, copy the files from the build server to the “copy machine” via samba, upload the files to some internal tool (that’s like OneDrive but worse in every way), and the tool will sync it to our machine. Oh, and the copy machine has very limited storage, it’s win10 on a 40gb drive. It’s insane.
That sounds horrible! How could a machine like that have been high-end in last 15 years? Unless it’s a chromebook. Seriously, is that a typo that it has a 40 gb drive? If not, I’m amazed it can even boot to windows.
I’m so glad my current company is not like this; Couple months ago my coworked started to have issues with running out of ram (16 gb), and noticed that there was an amazing deal on some thinkpads: P14s gen 2, 32 gb ram, 4K, Ryzen 5 pro: 970€ without vat. And now almost everyone in the company has a new laptop! Granted the company is small, 13 employees, making thanigs like this easier.
I have a 9th gen i7. It sounds pretty good, until you look at the i3-13100F which is 30% faster. CPUs have had a huge jump in performance in the last few generations. The laptop is a Dell Precision 5540 from roughly ~2019-2020. I recently received an upgrade to 64GB of ram which helps a lot, but the main bottleneck is the CPU.
For many people it might sound like a good machine. For certain developers, sure, it’s great. But when you work on a complex project written in 3-4 different languages, with a complex build system… it’s pretty bad.
The company has a 5 year machine replacement policy… I have to use this slow piece of shit another 2 years until I can get it replaced.
Yes, 40gb is right. To be fair, we only use it for copying files. Cost cutting because AWS costs money.
A car.
Freedom of mobility is huge. Not worrying about how to get groceries home. Being able to go to a doctor when necessary.
Recreational aspects, took a drive through Washington State, up the Olympic Penninsula and down through Seattle and Everett.
I’ll tag onto this- not because I think my option is better, but because it’s a complimentary thing that hits a lot of the same points in different situations.
My bike has given me joy, fitness, new activities, and new friends. When I didn’t have a car it got me to work, gatherings, shops, etc. The enjoyment of riding got me out exploring nature around where I live. I’ve done multi-night bikepacking trips. I’ve met friends on rides. I’ve made new friends at work when we discover we both ride in sometimes. I chat to people at the bakery about their bikes.
All that, with a side effect of keeping me healthy and fit.
Toothbrush
My $500 PC, i made more than 2000 ROM builds with it.
Is there some docs that can help developer learn how to make ROM? I always wanted, never tried,havent even Googled.
How do you debug a ROM?
There are guides if you have official lineageOS, i recommend to have a good computer, a good linux distribution, a github account and i also recommend to learn git.
Thank you.
