Oh my gosh, I had 2 kids, went back to college, rocketed my fledgling IT career forward and gained a mortgage during the pandemic. Granted I probably would’ve done all those things without the pandemic, but many of the pandemic era policies helped make each of those steps much easier than they normally would have been
I realized im Trans :3
I started transitioning 2 years before the pandemic, but it was still nice to be at home and not having to deal with people in person. Lots of people were and still are not very accepting of my transition.
<3
The full remote time during the pandemic allowed me to slowly update my profile pic for work until people started asking me what my pronouns were.
A shutdown very well spent!
After years of being told teleworking was an impossbility, I was sent home to work and didn’t even miss an hour on my timesheet.
I always struggle with the “shutdown” timeframe. Partly because I have a shit sense of time, but mostly because nothing really changed for me.
Only thing that changed for me was the workload got higher due to coworkers getting sick and a nice reminder of my own catching the virus with what seems like chronic asthma
I am also still in a “shutdown”.
I grew bitter and resentful towards people who complained about how hard it was to work from home and all the downtime they had while I had to trudge into “critical” work everyday for low pay.
That does suck, I also grew bitter and resentful to all the people with families being like “oh I got fit and healthy and spent time with my loved ones” while I went over 3 months without a single face to face conversation with anyone…
My cousin’s wife divorced him after 6 months to move to her home country. Her stated reason was that during lockdown, she was isolated from her friends and family, and she couldn’t handle being alone again.
It was hard on all of us but…uh…what does she think the rest of us single people did?
Nothing changed for me except the prevalence of masks. Everyone I worked with got stuffed into an off-site office instead of working from home, and I’m still bitter about it. Nothing we did required anything other than a computer and maybe a phone. Fully remote helpdesk.
Where’s the “I started half a dozen hobbies and projects and didnt really stick to any of them” character?
Probably at !adhd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 🤷
Though tbf, we also tend to do that when there’s no shutdown 😁
hm. i should book that appointment some time eh
Can you book one for me, too? I’ve been telling myself to do that for over a year now.
i uh. yeah. a year. a year or two ago i went to an initial eval to get a recommendation for therapy. Doc told me it makes sense to find a spot since i have so much trouble getting tasks started that it impacts my day to day function.
Guess what I didn’t do with that recommendation?
It really sucks that ADHD treatment is NOT ADHD friendly. The usually very cheerful How To ADHD even made a very frustrated video about it
Benn Jordan did a deep dive into the shortage of ADHD drugs in the US. It stinks of bribery and corruption
I remember this, it’s rough. These sort of situations are just something nobody teaches us it seems. Eventually you’re an adult and supposed to have it all figured out until you run into a wall like that
Aww shucks. But I believe in you <3
Likewise bud
I work in retail so the only thing that changed for me during the pandemic was my level of anxiety.
I worked in retail too! In March of 2020, I got laid off, took a couple weeks to have my first vacation in years, then after some introspection about how id been working for a decade and was still making minimum wage I realized ten years had been worthless. It was rough but I went back to college and now have a cushy cybersecurity job in government.
I don’t miss retail one bit. Hope you’re doing better and building an exit plan
As someone in classes now ( at 44, hope it isnt a mistake after so many years of customer service) hoping for a cushy cybersecurity job in the future… can you give some advice on other key terms that might be used on the job searches, or closely related fields? I’m still pretty early on in my learning but trying to look around at what my best niche may be in the future.
It’s not. Simple reality is your going to end up in help desk (you might end up in a SNOC or related but ultimately I’d advise help desk just so you learn some real world ops). Security, like it’s engineering counterparts is not something you can do with zero experience in the industry. The two hardest job interviews you will ever have in the general it industry are getting into help desk, and getting out of help desk.
It’s never too late! I started at 24, I’m 28 now. Your not much older than one of my peer-turned-dear-friends. Truth is that as long as you nail the learning the rest will just be a matter of time. It took me almost a year of job hunting to get this gig, but it’s municipal government work in a union in Canada.
I’ll warn you however that cybersecurity isn’t entry level stuff. I’d been working as a whatever-they-want-me-to-do solo IT guy for two years for a college before I made the transition. For what it’s worth I was also customer service and you can definitely leverage that when looking at the (very crowded) entry level IT market of helpdesk roles. Helpdesk sucks, but unlike retail the suck doesn’t last forever. Do a year, study certs while you do, then get out. Never. Stop. Applying.
I recommend looking into the compTIA certifications like A+, Networking+, and naturally Security+. Those are good fundamentals to have down, and combined with classes you shouldn’t have too hard a time.
Hope this helps a bit.
(Genuine question) Why recommend A+? I’ve heard its more or less “i can identify physical ports, put together a computer, and install an OS”; useful if you’ve never done anything with computers, but otherwise redundant and unimpressive in the IT field (Edit: and exam vouchers ain’t cheap if you’re just getting into IT!)
I jumped straight into Sec+ myself, and I really ought to do Net+ just for core knowledge.
Yes! Thank you for all that advice! Where I am at now shows internal jobs available, maybe I should look more at the help desk listings when they come up to start sidleing over. At least then it will be colleague c.s. instead of cold customers.
Special thank you for certs info! Don’t think my classes would be getting to that kind of info for quite a while yet (just coming out of all the 101 classes).
Much appreciated!!
I got drunk a lot and called it “getting into making cocktails”
I started making Sous Vide infused syrups for my cocktails. Which led to a lot more cocktails & an esoteric obstinance when it comes drinking well drinks out on the town… poor bartenders.
And now people say I have a problem. I don’t have a problem. You have a problem.
Furry guy needs more confidence.
@unexposedhazard
Agreed, he definitely needs more confidence.
Can someone ELI5 me the whole furry thing? Is this a community, is this a sexual thing? Is it an American thing?
One possible reason from many is that it’s fun to not be human because humans aren’t so great to each other. Look into the link between autism and identifying as non-human (there are multiple ways of doing so).
Signed, an autistic being who does not feel emotionally attached to being a human, but is not a furry.
ofc. Furries are crestive people who enjoy art/litterature/etc. about anthromorphic animals(like werewolves!). A lot of us have our own characters/personas that we create as a avatar of ourselves or to express our creativity and aspects of our identity on a character. This is called a fursona. Now since the only criteria is to enjoy anthromorphic animals(aka furries) there is a lot of range. A lot of us enjoy dressing up as our characters on furcons like people who dress up as their favorite character at comicon. And this interest in furries/anthromorphic amimals/werewolfesque characters can be sexual too for a lot of people. (of course this doesn’t have to be) It is just a very big welcoming community of creatives and fans of anthromorphic characters. Hope this helps
ELI5
Furries are people who enjoy dressing up as or creating characters based on anthropomorphic animals, which are animals that have human-like traits such as walking on two legs, talking, or wearing clothes. These characters might be foxes, wolves, cats, or any other animal but with a personality or appearance that feels human-like.
Some furries create artwork, write stories, or role-play as these characters online, while others might dress up in costumes called “fursuits” to bring their characters to life in the real world. It’s a hobby and a community that’s mostly about creativity, imagination, and expressing yourself through these animal characters.
Is this a community, is this a sexual thing?
It can be either or both. I think for the most part it is community though. For some it starts as one and then expands into the other. For me it really is a lot about self discovery & self expression, SFW & NSFW, and makes me feel more connected to the world.
Or to put it in mature comic form: https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/furry/
Is it an American thing?
No, European here with quite some insight. I think the map in the other post is slightly misleading, as bigger countries like the US have more conventions than smaller countries is kind of obvious.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask 😊 I will do my best to offer my perspective on this.
re “is it an american thing,” someone else will have to field the rest of your question
counterpoint, America is big, has atrocious public transport, and though furries that can afford suits can probably also afford flights, there’s plenty who cannot afford either, or just pick one
It’s for the safety of IT departments everywhere that furries’ need for travel is limited
Compare with a GDP per capita map. I’m not an economist, but it appears furries are wealth 📈
We need some data on the poor furries who can’t afford cons. Back in high school it was just a matter of sticking a fluffy tail to the back of your pants
from the stories I hear about commissions for art and suits, I’d agree. but then again, it’s probably also like mountaineering, either you live like a bum out of your van, or you organize expesive ass trips to far away mountains
Am not a furry, and would also love an explanation. I mean, I ain’t knocking whatever it is that gets someone through this world. It can be a very hard, very cruel place, and it dressing up as a electric blue armadillo makes someone happy, and allows them to find people they vibe with, I’m super happy for them. But dagnabbit, I’d really love to understand it. Haha
Also, I know 2 Australian furries and 1 swiss furry, so I’m guessing not an American thing.
There are explanations now btw
Thank you!
💜 np
Is this a community
Yes. Though you can do it yourself, a lot of furries go to conventions, frequent social media forums and bulletin boards. Just like you would with any other hobby or lifestyle.
is this a sexual thing
Sometimes but not always. The sexual part is a subculture that is part of the larger furry culture.
I don’t know if there’s any statistics on how large that subculture is either in raw numbers or percentage of all furries, but as an outsider who’s picked up info here and there, my guesstimate would be that it’s probably a small minority 🤷
Is it an American thing?
Already answered by someone else, but may as well include it here: nope. It’s a worldwide thing.
Being openly a furry is probably much more prevalent in culturally liberal (in the original sense of the word rather than the political one) countries than ones that strictly enforce specific cultural norms. And Japan, probably 🤷
I joined the furry fandom quite a bit after the pandemic lockdown was lifted.
