I got on anxiety meds Thursday, and they actually work! Spent the weekend redoing my resume and applying for pretty much anything local or remote that pays $60K; isn’t sales, marketing or customer service/support; and dovetails with my experience. As I’m learning from today’s refresh, there aren’t many.

If you actually make something, you’re not worth anything. You have to sell things you could never make yourself to make a living wage, apparently.

Pretty bad. I have a friend who’s going through a crisis, and I don’t want to downplay it, he’s been wronged and his situation is dangerous. But he’s been lashing out at the wrong people and my feelings are starting to get hurt.

On top of that, multiple family members who always need my time and money and talk about killing themselves constantly. I can’t stand being responsible for this many people. I feel like I’m preemptively grieving 24/7. The weight is completely unmanageable.

I’m trying to set better boundaries without becoming callous, but I just want everyone to be OK.

I came to work today expecting to have to deal with PIP shit but as it turns out, both my boss and HR are WFH today, an accomodation I’ve been asking for for over a year. Funny how that shit works.

It’s only Monday, but so far getting things done this week.

Have a good week, everyone!

Going amazingly. Started going out with Meghan officially as of last Saturday, she’s poly so it’s not like we’ve gone exclusive or anything but it’s a nice change, and hearing her refer to me as (one of) her partner(s) makes me super happy. I plan on talking to her about how things are going and expectations and the like just to make sure there’s no potholes on the road ahead, especially since this is my first relationship.

But she’s coming over again this Thursday and I’m coming over to her work on Friday for some food and maybe to chill at her place too depending on when she gets off work.

Dare I say things are going better this week? I’ve still got little worries, but I’m at least functioning normally again. I had my first electrolysis appointment today. News flash: having your face electrocuted hurts. I’m hoping I can get some numbing cream from my doctor so I don’t have to dread my appointments in the future.

Well, I’m here and this is my first exposure to Lemmy. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of questions about this platform as time goes on.

My roommate has some junkie staying on the couch for days now. What obnoxious behaviors should I initiate to discourage them from stayin?

cooked a pumpkin that’s been on my mind since autumn. Didn’t expect sprouted seeds to be that bitter, will try adding to lemon-onion juice 😜

I’m sorry to hear about the bedbugs. Hopefully, it isn’t an issue! I have never had to try these tips, thankfully, but Mark Rober seems fairly reliable. https://youtu.be/2JAOTJxYqh8?si=slMMwTf-iOXATvb9

This week has been one of those weeks where you want to just quit before it starts, lol. I really messed up my stomach a few weeks ago (I’m lactose intolerant and my lactaid didn’t work), and I think I might have killed off a bunch of my good gut bacteria by accident. So I’ve been feeling mildly nauseous off and on in the evenings. I’m taking probiotics daily now, so hopefully, that works out.

Otherwise, I’ve been just playing some video games on my downtime. I started cyberpunk 2077 recently for the first time. I had tried it at launch, and it was rough, so I decided to wait a while. It seems a lot more stable now, which is neat. I’m trying to think about ways I could incorporate playing the game into a fun youtube video. I’ve got at least one idea, I think. I just need to sit down and see how viable it is.

Taxes. What can I say, there is always something…

Former employer issues me a random 1095-C saying they offered me health insurance in 2023. Of course this is false. How much trouble this will cause when I try to claim the PTC this year, who knows. Then I get my taxes almost into FTU and find that it will not handle this years taxes. So I have to find another provider that can. On top of that, still waiting on one final set of tax documents from one entity that can’t seem to get its act together. Have no idea if they will by April 15 or not. Feels 50/50 at this point. May have to put in an extension while I wait 3 to 6 months for the wheels to turn on something that should have been done 2 months ago. Of course this means I cannot finish my taxes or get my refund until who knows when. Ironically this year my refund is larger then usual so timing matters more.

Not sure where I am. Makes me want to laugh and scream at the same time.

@alyaza snow? Wow. Give me some of that snow 😁 Here it’s sunny, but cold. Spring doesn’t really want to come. I still managed to do some spring cleanup around my house, tho.

Ack. Bedbugs are the worst. Fingers crossed you’ve gotten rid of the little fuckers.
In case you didn’t know yet, there are dogs that can sniff out bedbugs. A friend of a friend trains such dogs and she says demand is high. If you haven’t tried that already, maybe it’s worth a shot?

Around here I can’t say there are many dull moments.

Barring a surprise blizzard in April, spring appears to have arrived in full force. We all enjoy the days getting longer and warmer and stuff getting greener. Our cherry(?) tree is already in full bloom.
Last week the gardener was here to discuss some work around the house - we’re looking to get a new fence, turn an uneven gravel/weed field into additional parking spots and replace some hedges. The cost estimates should arrive tomorrow so we can start picking the things we can afford.

Once the garden gets a do-over, I can also design the new mood lighting and install new underground cabling. The current garden lanterns’ brightness levels are very individual and heavily depend on how wet or dry the soil around the cables is. It’s also impossible to get at the cables without ripping all of them apart.

Somebody who had to leave the company under less-than-ideal circumstances a few years ago, died a couple of weeks ago, presumably of natural causes greatly helped along by excessive smoking and a suspected drinking habit. SO who was the one to let her go back then feels bad about it, though objectively there’s nothing she or anybody else could have done.
To help her get this (and other things) off her mind, I took her to a four-day road trip to Como, Monaco and Nice, which sounds much fancier than it was. But it was a good idea and helped us both to get some lovely mediterranean sun and untangle some stuff in our lives.

This also was the first long trip with my electric car. Travelling in it was an absolute pleasure both for me as the driver and for SO as the passenger. Charging it was rather easy and straightforward all through Switzerland and Italy, though prices are a labyrinth. It definitely pays to check whether a particular charge point is cheaper with Plugsurfing, SwissCharge, Chargepoint or direct payment.
France was a bit of a disappointment in that aspect, at least the Alpes-Maritimes. There were precious few fast chargers in the first place, Nice was full of chargers that only residents can use, and on many rest areas we either couldn’t charge at all because of a thoroughly unhelpful error massage, or we needed to download an app just for this one charge point. There’s definitely some room for improvement.

Speaking of work, the accountant and I have devised a solution for a long-standing problem / conflict concerning people working for us with different types of salaries. It’s not as elegant as I had been hoping for, but the rules are simple and the process can be automated to a high degree. Now I need to develop the new workflow and extend our payroll software accordingly, which is going to cause a headache or two. Especially until the other person doing salaries has been convinced to use all of the tools as intended.

At home I’ve finally found some time to de-junk the room that’s supposed to be(come) my workshop. It looks so much better now and I’m so happy that I walk through there several times a day just to enjoy the free floor space.
Sadly the previously very tidy shelter (a separate room) is now full of boxes from the workshop. Plus I also still need to install a missing air exhaust valve in the shelter. I’ve finally obtained the valve, but the existing bolts have apparently been installed by a kindergartener - not a single one is in the correct position, so I need to saw them all off and install new ones. The fun part is that they’re very difficult to obtain, as only a handful are certified for use in shelters in the first place, and they’re normally only sold to businesses. Argh. There are just way too many regulations for such a simple thing!
But…! The fiber network I’ve installed in the shelter works like a dream and I’m very happy. No more copper cables blocking the place where the valve should be.

Maybe I should also install a TV and a small fridge in the shelter. It’s the only place in the house where I’d be guaranteed to not even hear it if anyone’s looking for me. And as far as I can tell, the kids aren’t even consciously aware of its existence. Hmmm…

I’ve also used the workshop to finally finish a small pet project of mine - a doggy stick library to set up at the place where we normally go for walks and to meet other dogs. It’s not much to brag about in terms of woodworking skills or looks, but I’m very happy that it’s survived the first couple of rainstorms and looks like it’s already been used by other dog persons. Sadly the image upload facility currently appears to be broken, not sure if the issue is with Beehaw or Jerboa. So no picture today.

I’ve also tried to subscribe the entire family to a fire safety course, so next time somebody sets the kitchen on fire (twice so far within a year) they know what to do. Sadly it’s difficult for everybody to be available at any of the current course dates. Maybe I can teach a mini-course myself with one of the fire blankets and extinguisher sprays we have around the house, but the fun part of the real course is that huge steel contraction where you can simulate all kinds of fire and small explosions to fight.

SO will also fly to Argentina in April to visit some family members and enjoy the distance from people who cause her stress or work at home (i.e. kids and workmates).
We’re aware of the country’s political and economic situation, and we know how not to draw attention to the fact that we’re rich gringos who probably don’t understand the language and local tricks to fleece tourists very well (we do know most tricks and how to protect against them). But still I worry about her - a lot has changed since our last family trip in 2019, and people’s desperation is ever increasing. I hope her sister the police officer will join her in Buenos Aires.

Ugh, bedbugs. I hope that situation resolves quickly for you, preferably as a false alarm. Weather reports say we’re going to see snow on Thursday, which feels appropriate for my 40^th birthday; both feel like a wet blanket. I’m running out of space in my greenhouse for everything I’ve been transplanting during the warmer weather and I’d rather be playing in real soil.

Best of luck with the bed bug situation!

I sorta started this week wanting a career change, I just don’t know what or how. I’m just so tired of being in tech because I thought it was a stable career path. But now all I see is a drive to crunch, offshore everything, and perpetual layoffs because the predicted growth didn’t hit “expectations” despite record profits. I’ve found a better position in comparison to my old one, but it is so hard to give a damn about “build X feature to deliver Y value” for bullshit things that are just selling services or more of X item.

I’m glad I’ve moved from a purely dev type role to more so project management/product owner stuff, but I hate being responsible for things that feel meaningless. I hate being the person telling devs to keep crunching to build out functionality to allow our product deals to be onnpar with our competitors; woooh developing for over-consumption! Then completely being neutured to pushback because it goes against what the business wants in profits; WLB be damned. I really want to find a way to transfer my skillset to a meaningful non-profit, an actually impactful company (if it exists), or maybe a museum or something else similar. Part of it is I don’t quite know how to make that journey or if those type of jobs are even available in my area.