Real life happy

[Aria]

All my life, I was told my grandfather came from coal miners who were so poor that at varying points when he was small, he and his brother picked waste coal from the culm banks on the edge of their town…

And tonight I found out that all of that was true.

But what was also true was that his father served as a borough councilman for their small coal town. And that at one point as a councilman, my great-grandfather gave testimony in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins. His name is stamped in the trial records of a landmark SCOTUS case that resulted in a ruling which has been a fundamental legal principle for nearly a century.

Needless to say, it seems like my mother forgot to mention a few things.

[Pavel]

@Aria Did this revelation happen in the same way my family usually reveals big bits of our history, in that the preceeding conversation was absolutely unrelated?

[Aria]

@Pavel said:

@Aria Did this revelation happen in the same way my family usually reveals big bits of our history, in that the preceeding conversation was absolutely unrelated?

Not at all, though she’s definitely done that to me before. My favorite is when it’s about my own childhood medical history and things that would’ve been great to tell my doctor any time in the last twenty years.

“Wait, what do you mean the right side of my face could’ve been completely paralyzed during ‘those operations’? What operations?!” and then tells me some horrific thing that happened when I was two and is shocked to discover I don’t remember it. Because, y’know, I was two. Meanwhile we’re deep into the “Guess who died?!” years and it always turns out it’s, like, her neighbor’s sister’s pastor’s hamster. Of all the things rattling around in her head, clearly that’s the important information I need to know.

[Pavel]

@Aria said:

her neighbor’s sister’s pastor’s hamster

Wait, President Gerald R. Fluff died? And this is how you tell me?!

[dvoraen]

This is more of an “RL Ambivalence.”

So TL;DR - I basically quit my retail job because it was just getting to me too much, and a whole bunch of things involved I’m not going into. I basically got the high-risk part of the high-reward thing I was volunteered for as part of the remodel that’s going on. I was not slated for termination; that was my decision simply because I didn’t see how a personal LOA would solve anything (which would be LOA #3 for almost the same reasons as the first two).

So what’s the other side of this? I feel like I’ve not so much liberated myself so much as forced myself to confront some issues with respect to employment, and what I can and can’t do with the degree I got on my employer’s dime and finished last year. (Still hate job search, though.)

… I just have some serious deadlines due to the financial state, and the worst case scenario is I could ask for (very conditional) reinstatement to said retail job, but that deadline is about 7d tops from today.

But I feel like this got me to actually take myself more seriously instead of wallow in imposter syndrome. A few things that came up over the past almost 12 years at said job convinced me that I have… more of a handle on CS topics than I thought I did when comparing to others. And that’s without getting into vibe coding and other agent-based programming soapboxes.

So yeah, happy to start discovering myself more in a very ironic way, but also at the same time.

[Hobbie]

I’m resigning in three minutes.

[Solstice]

Car troubles. Was quoted no less than $2500+ for repairs in 5 different places.

Last place I called lowered his voice and mentioned I should take it to this other place he knows.

They fixed it for $518, and it works perfectly. I could kiss both the mechanic and the guy who sent me his way.

[Floof]

I’ve been on testosterone for a month and so far it’s been amazing

[L. B. Heuschkel]

My second book hits the market on November 1. It’s not wrong what they say, number two is harder than number one.

[Pavel]

@L.-B.-Heuschkel said:

number two is harder than number one.

[Cobalt]

I am not exactly excited with the new project I am on at work, but for once they aren’t violating ADAAA laws under the guise of “training is more important (than your health)”, and I’m getting a small raise next week putting me back to what I was making a couple of years ago (e.g. making up for pay cuts I got when being shuffled around).

[junipersky]

We have an adoption date!!!

[junipersky]

Ahahahhaa… my robotics team made it to the state level again. Which is amazing and I’m so proud of them!!!

And I’m totally so freaking tired x.x. I was looking forward to having my Wednesday and Friday nights back!!