I worked a ton of overtime and bought two luxury watches.
I got diagnosed with ADHD, BPD, and autism. Then promptly lost my health insurance so I can’t actually, you know, do anything about the above.
Some people started businesses. Some people turned their entire house into a Lego garden.
I realized im Trans :3
Samesies, fren!
Fren :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.
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.
I was getting ready to come out to my sister in like late 2021, she had a really bad motorcycle accident and we were catching up and it seemed like the right time to tell her.
then she started talking about how a near death experience made her start re-evaluating some things, and then she came out to me and it was the fucking spiderman pointing meme. Both of us moved to WFH after covid hit so the timing makes sense, but it was such a wonderful coincidence.
I knew someone at university with a twin sibling. One was afab and the other was amab. Both came out as trans. We used to joke that instead of getting top / bottom surgery, they should just get head transplants :-)
A shutdown very well spent!
<3
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.
These comics always confuse me because I forget anyone other than children had to stay home (and even that didn’t last too long)
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?
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
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.
My whole office went to WFH as soon as the pandemic started, the plan was to move back to the physical office as soon as possible, but there was so much resistance in the company that eventually the owners sold off the building and we never went back.
As for productivity, I was in charge of transitioning my team and ensuring they weren’t slacking. I had the exact opposite problem with 9/10 out of them, mostly everyone was working too late and putting in time off the clock just because they were bored. We ran out of work to do every week and started taking on new tasks for other teams.
Except Terry, he got a second job and tried to work both at the same time. He never appeared on camera in our meetings because he was at his other employer. It took me a bit to figure out something was off, when I confronted him he abruptly quit. He was a sour and deeply repressed dude and after he left everyone celebrated.
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”.
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 got drunk a lot and called it “getting into making cocktails”
And now people say I have a problem. I don’t have a problem. You have a problem.
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.
Furry guy needs more confidence.
@unexposedhazard
Agreed, he definitely needs more confidence.
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
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.
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.
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
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
There could also maybe be $50,000 worth of fursuits there too
🤘 Lol, double or triple it. 😅
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.
I approve of an electric blue armadillo fursona. Would probably look pretty cool actually
That was my thought process. “what’s the coolest animal/color combo?” Obviously electric blue armadillo. It’s like a little knight in armor, but electric blue, and looks deceptively cuddly
Believe it or not this is exactly how most furries make their fursona
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 🤷
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.
I joined the furry fandom quite a bit after the pandemic lockdown was lifted.
