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Aw, your mustache is smaller!

Yeah, those are all tough factors! I know I had to take more breaks just laying and reading in some shade (even missing bands) just 'cause I needed to spend more time to maintain my comfort levels. But, hey, fests aren't for everyone no matter their age, anyway!

I'm pwoink, of course.

How can you tell when it's because they haven't thought about it, or because they have thought about it and that's the conclusion they've come to?

Add me, add me! We'll compete. >:|

I was on a total boss 52-day streak of doing some every day, but I lost it recently and it's been hard to get that consistent again.

Huh, that's a big grab-bag of stuff! How do companies find you guys, or even realize they need your guys' help with something? And what in the heck kind of organizations are they that have money for stuff like this, but still do community engagement and whatnot?

Ohh, that makes sense, that when it's just you and your kiddie everything feels right, but when you are interacting socially all the societal conception of being A Parent and Parenting start wooshing around your head like specters. Maybe people are comfortable and confident in their own skin, but the discomfort happens at the juxtaposition of their skin with the rest of the world.

+ pix fest was, in fact, cool

Pixfest was hard and perhaps I am an old old man instead of a young wide eyed punk.

Yeah. :/

What do you guys mean by that?

Hello, you were there when I was asking some yellow shirts for paper to put up the ride lists/message board, OR when I was asking about if there is a cleanup plan for Monday, or maybe both!

Ohh, so that's why your member is full.

What am I, a sales associate?

I know we don't have our repertoire of obscure in-jokes yet, but maybe we can brainstorm some other mostly nonsensical monikers?

I really like how when I get something wrong and I'm all, "Bu-- but why?" and then I see that there are like 120 comments on that question, so I can feel justified.

Yeah! Let us know how it goes -- I hope the appointment itself is a positive experience for you.

Careful, Brett! With this and the introduction thread, you're fighting a war on two fronts!

Oh man, this bugs me, too! It's not like there aren't interesting craft brews that aren't IPA's; and, no, you aren't cooler for liking to have your face blasted off with hops. augh

I'm using Duolingo for French, too! If the rest of you language-learners haven't checked it out yet, it's a pretty cute app/site that makes a lil' game out of learning the language. (They have Spanish, German, and a couple others available right now, too.) My favourite part, though, is how natural the learning process feels. They teach you a few words, then throw in new things and recombine things you know in new sentences, so you learn through figuring out and getting comfortable with words, rather than memorizing.

It's also in nice bite-sized chunks, so you can work at it for a while if you want, or just do ten minutes a day. My buddy does his French lessons during his poops.

I've also started watching movies in French, which helps keep me pumped because it's so excited to know what someone is saying every once in a while! It feels like all that learning is doing something! One time a child at the subtitled showing of Ernest and Celestine said something to her parents about me in French, and I understood it! Proudest moment.

I also know Russian, but that's because it's my first language. I actually have no idea why anybody would ever learn Russian -- I can never explain the reasoning behind any of the grammar rules when I'm helping friends study, and there's all these exceptions, and it's just silly.

Uhh, sorry guys, I'm gonna want to reply to, like, everyone, and this is gonna be the longest post ever.

I am pretty passionate about fashion for fat girls, but working a corporate job is pretty annoying. I am currently "on track" to be promotable in 6 months, meaning I would be ready to take over and run my own store. The company is looking at opening at least two more locations in the portland area and I am being considered for managing one of them. I am torn about making that commitment because I'm really not interested in working for the company for more than 2 more years at most, but i would make great money and if i did it for that long, it would be much easier to save up for tattoo school, which is what I really want to do [...] my alternate dream is to open my OWN fat girl store that would sell plus size vintage alongside independent designers and after taking some classes to perfect my sewing and pattern making skills, i would launch my own fashion line.

Running a store for a couple of years actually sounds like a great experience to have before opening your own store! Corporate is annoying, but it seems like a safe way to gain experience and get the money you'll need for either one of your plans. Do they want more than a 2 year commitment for you to run the new store? I mean, who knows what'll happen to the company in 2 years, even!

I'm a behavior therapist with kids with autism and it's the one bright spot in my life right now.

How good that your job is making you happy! What's a day-in-the-life snapshot of being a behaviour therapist? What kind of credentials didja get for it?

Getting more involved in the arts community in my city. I am not artistic at all, but I enjoy helping keep things going.

I've been thinking about that; about how there's actually a lot of room in arts communities for people who aren't artists, but are patrons. I wonder sometimes about whether my self-identity as a vague creative-type is justified, but I'm coming around to the idea that identifying as someone who supports creative-types is just as important and valid. I'm much better at organizing and enabling, anyway. Helping keep things going is useful!

I'm going nowhere fast. I live in a small town where employment opportunities are nonexistent even though I'm qualified for most physical labor jobs and office jobs. If I'm gonna go anywhere in life I know I need to move away but there's terrible guilt tripping from my family about it and I don't know if I could take that.

Oh yea....how dare you rob them of watching you be unemployed and miserable, gradually inching toward crippling depression; eventually making a sculpture of Morrisey eating an egg out of earwax. How dare you.

I'm with Nate here -- your family are the ones that should be feeling guilty for keepin' you down instead of being supportive! Anyway, it's much harder to get guilt tripped when you are physically far away.

So in a week I'll be living in an awesome one-room house on the lake in my grandparents' backyard for free where I can work from home and pet my cat all day.

Your whole setup sounds uhmazing! Have you worked from home before? Do you think staying productive will be a challenge in such an idyllic environment?

I have been off the streets for a while. Im stayin at my moms house, livin in a gazebo. Its ok I get to have my dogs. I got a job workin long hours shit pay. Im really missin the streets. I see myself gettin momentum, but downhill.

What would you like to be different? It's hard once that momentum starts going, but before you can change direction you gotta figure what new direction it is that you want to head.

recently moved to toronto from the uk, settling in, working in a vegan bakery and trying to do a lot of my own craft stuff, hoping to visit a bunch of places i have never been to this side of the world. basically.

That's quite a life shakeup, Hannah! I didn't know you had moved recently. What spurred the move? Was it hard to basically shake the etch-a-sketch of your life and start a new one in a new place?

I had to leave my old job as it caused me too much anxiety. [...]
Now I'm pretty confused about what I'm doing. I have no faith in finding a job and I'm really depressed to be totally honest. I don't see myself as having any value and I just feel like a burden to those who care about me. I'm trying to write a documentary on the history of early animation that I have loads of research for, but I'm not sure how I'd make money from it.

Do you think your rubbish experience at your previous job has made you demotivated about finding another one? Sometimes when it's hard to focus and to figure out what to do next, having a job that you're expected to show up at helps at least get up each morning and have something to do. It's great that you're into working on this big creative documentary project despite your depression, though! I hope it gets into a positive reward cycle for you.

My last job, I got to do some higher ed administration stuff with teaching as a part of it, and I thought I would do that path, but I got kind of disillusioned with it.

Sad, because I really like the teaching itself...like, I would come out of class with this high feeling like it is what I'm meant to do.

But I like the consulting and think if I moved up in the company I could really like it[...]

But yeah, as cheesy as it sounds, in spite of being less sure of career stuff, I feel more "arrived" than I have before. I know some people might roll their eyes, but being a mom to my baby is exactly what I'm supposed to do. I have less imposter syndrome with it than I have ever had with anything and it makes me really happy.

What got you disillusioned with your last job? It had seemed like such a good fit based on the FB posts at the time! Also, what is consulting, anyway? I have a bunch of friends that do "consulting," and I... I just have no idea. Do people email you for advice on topics you know about and you answer? Do you go into offices and tell them to do stuff that you think would be good to do?

Man, impostor syndrome, though -- that's a pretty prevalent feeling to have. Maybe you don't have it now because it's our human evolution crying out through our subconscious against all this stuff we're doing instead of making babies, and now that you have one, it's calmed down? Though, I think I've read about parents feeling impostor syndrome, too; thinking that they're not having the right bonding feelings towards their child, or feeling like they have no idea what they're doing. I dunno, future doula, you tell me!

I'm starting to dislike running slightly less thanks to an exercise trail I go to -- it's a trail through some trees, and at various distances there are little exercises you stop and do. Depending on what your level is, it then tells you whether you should walk, run, or jog to the next stop. It makes it feel like more of a lil' adventure game, and breaking up the monotony of running turns out to have been a big help.

How did you end up finding that local clinic, Courtney? The steps you took might be helpful info for other folks in a similar predicament who read this thread later.

I know you asked Blake, not me, but based on what I've studied both counseling and meds are hit or miss -- it depends on the therapy/type of drug, the person, the person's issue, and so on -- but overall, counseling is helpful. For something like depression, for example, meds in conjunction to counseling is far preferred to just meds, and counseling alone has better long-term outcomes than meds alone. Heck, even with a disorder as medication-reliant as schizophrenia, counseling helps.

It's not about just being aware of your own behaviour -- although it's great that you are, you're already way ahead -- it's about finding new approaches to deal with it. There may even be things you coulda figured out on your own, but faster now that you have someone to think about this stuff with, or an allotted time to think about it during.

As a self-aware, critically thinking person, you can check out this rundown of a few popular therapy styles and see what, to you, sounds potentially helpful. 'Course, lotsa therapists use a mix of techniques, but it can help steer you in the right direction.

[Name:]

Name: Alex

Username Meaning: It's a fun noise. Try it! Pwoink! Pwoink, pwoink!

Location: Couple'a hours south of Atlanta, GA for the past year or so; Las Vegas, NV for the past three months; prooobably Dayton, OH within two months?

Age: Oh gosh, let me think... 25?

Gender/Pronouns: Most people use feminine ones, but whatever your first instinct is is fine. Just please don't call me "woman" or "ma'am" -- "girl" or "dude" are much preferred.

What You Do: I've been really enjoying seeing the doubletakes when I tell people I'm a housewife! My partner supports the two of us (and our two fattie ratties), while I make sure that our travel plans and house party plans run smooth. It's a lot of packing for trips, and then unpacking from them. I've got my eye on a social work degree in the next handful of years, though.

Favorite Music: A variety of things that end in -punk, though also I'm happy that electroswing has gotten so big, and I love surf rock unreasonably and unconditionally.

Likes: Going on road trips, my school bus/RV conversion Dread Naught, meeting people who are excited about things, fig season, goats.

Pet Peeves: When I'm eating with friends and I'm like, "Hey, you wanna try some of my thing?" and they're like, "No thanks," and that's the end of the conversation. I think it's a waste of an eating out experience if we're not all swapping plates and commenting on eachother's dishes!

Social Media: Er, https://www.facebook.com/pwoink and http://pwoinkster.tumblr.com/ and I guess https://twitter.com/pwoink

Photo: I'm on the left! I don't have very many recent photos of myself, it transpires. Gotta get on that!

I hope some day we will look lame enough for you to say hi to us!

I never got to meet Rory. D:

Staring is tough 'cause sometimes I just want to look at a person because they are interesting and I like looking at interesting things, but we've latched on so much societal meaning onto eye contact, and it's a drag! Even when people stare at me and I'm almost positive it's, as Brett said, "pure," I feel on edge.

Why is it okay when lil kids do it? I always get, "Look, her hair is blue," from kids, and sometimes the parents are like, "Well, you should say something to her," and that's totes okay.

Pwoink! I work in the community outreach department of and e-waste recycler/ITAD company in CA. Since most of what I do is via phone and the internet, it'll be easy to transition to working from home, which is nice! There will just be the whole time zone difference thing, but eh. I'm transitioning to derby reffing because while I was injured I starting NSOing (non skating official) and fell in love with the nerdery that following the rules closely inspires. And there's less contact with skate reffing so I'm trying to take steps to reduce my risk of re-injury while still skating/participating in derby. Whereabouts in GA are you headed back to?

That's pretty impressive that your job is okay with you not only moving out of the office, but to a different time zone entirely. I know lots of people work that way, but it seems like being able to go from one to the other without fearing change is unusually flexible for a work environment!

Yanno, I always wonder what secret math magic all those NSO people were doing. There's always so many of them, and they all seem important, and everything is very intense! Are there many people that want to do that, or want to referee derby?

My home base is in Warner Robins, GA, which is a tiny rubbish town an hour and a half south of Atlanta. We're moving in August, though! Who knows where. Maybe Dayton.

Hi pwoink! I haven't really been an active member in about a year. Trying to get back into the habit though.

So accidentprone, er, pronetoaccidents, managed to find another avatar of a young guy in his underwear holding a gun to his head. Wow, interesting.

Woah, I'm impressed that you were gone for a year and remember that his avatar was different. My mind completely didn't notice, it just went "okay, guy in underwear, gun, accidentprone, gotcha," and moved on.

Heya! Well, animationnerd, now you can be part of the large group that will in the future be intimidating to other new members! oh cruel circle of life