How are you REALLY doing?

[frank]

So as I posted a while back, we packed up, sold our house, and everything else we could sell and moved to Florida. Very stressful for the wife and I as I left a 10 year job/ career where I was ranked #2-3 in revenue earners out of 50+ US employees making awesome money and only working about 20 hrs a week, my wife left her work from home position from a major hospital in the Chicago land area, for us to move here with no jobs lined up or even looked while we in lombard.

it was stressful for sure and a lot has happened to us family wise as I lost my dad 2 years ago at the age of 67, watched him pass away in less then 90 days was a hard thing for me to be around as I never lost anyone close to me before. Then eariler this year my wife lost her father at 67 also which was kinda chilling thinking about it. at that moment we said fuck it and let get moving as life is short and I dont want to wait till i retire etc.

So the last 2 months has been good for us so far, stressed some but nothing major at the moment and can still go several months with out working which has been a plus knowing we are all good their.

with not working we have been pretty Stress free, feels good as I have been non stop working since I was 15 and have only gone 24-48hrs with out a job Before starting my next one.

hard at times as I know work is in the near future here for both of us, kids starting Remote learning on Monday is stressful enough as I need to brush up on my 4th grade math lol.

I learned over the last few years for at least me, is live now and don’t worry all that much about the future, enjoy what you can with who you can as you never know what Tommorow will bring. I don’t want to live the life of “ I should have “ I want to live “ I did that”

as for this group this is my only Outlet for social media one would say, I don’t Facebook ( wife does and since moving to Florida she has started a you tube channel and blog of all we have done lol ) I dont Instagram Or Snapchat. This group overall is a great group of people I feel, the topics are awesome, the responses are great, and the comical value keeps me laughing which laughter helps everyone. Glad to be here!

tv wise I only get in about 2 hours a day or so. A few minutes in the am mostly local news, evenings some more local news, maybe catch up on some shows on motor trend tv etc. seems like since we moved here we have been a lot more active as in being outside. Wife and I have been trying to bike10-15 miles daily, we are at the beach walking several days a week, just today we put in 8k in steps at the beach walking it. I know once jobs start back up we won’t have all the Freetime like now but we have set up some rules of what we need to do as a family daily weekly monthly and the same goes for my wife and I as couple and doing things with out the kids and enjoying our time.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

Idk what whose is lol. My TV watching is pretty much Deadliest Catch, Life Below Zero, a couple of YouTube channels and Heartland on Netflix lol.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an improve show that is really funny. Here's one of the bit, unfortunately the video sucks... It's like at 10-15fps. I think the episodes are available to stream for free.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

Idk what whose is lol. My TV watching is pretty much Deadliest Catch, Life Below Zero, a couple of YouTube channels and Heartland on Netflix lol.

Get Hulu and watch Letterkenny... Here's the cold open from season 1.

 

[frank]

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an improve show that is really funny. Here's one of the bit, unfortunately the video sucks... It's like at 10-15fps. I think the episodes are available to stream for free.

This show was funny years ago and still is funny today. More PC now then in the past but still a good laugh .

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

This show was funny years ago and still is funny today. More PC now then in the past but still a good laugh .

Yeah, all the newer episodes are pretty good. The main crew (Wayne, Colin, Ryan) have been doing it for so long and know where the limits are for TV they kind of stopping giving a shit. They'll do some fairly risque stuff and get away with it.

In that clip it's so funny when Hardwick tosses the football cake and it hits squarely on the mic and you hear the, "THUMP". That one produced a snot bubble from me.

Or the ones where Colin will just pour alcohol into Ryan's mouth, make him eat sushi that's been out for six hours under hot lights, etc. They work so well together.

 

[VenomousDSG]

Current credit limit is $35k on my one card, but if I combine all 7 of mine it's $83k..

I'm almost there my man...

And I'm ded

 

[Dave M]

I'm doing OK now, but March through June was a blur and I wasn't in a good place mentally. I was Covid stressing hard about my wife and I losing our jobs, I got furloughed for two weeks and she took a $20k/yr pay cut (her full pay is just now reinstated), so it was a little dicey for a minute there. I was eating like shit, gaining weight, and drinking waaaaay too much which led to the wakeup call I got last month when I realized my type 2 diabetes was out of control and my blood sugar was almost at 500, A1C went up to 10.8 and I was in the early stages of Diabetic Ketoacidosis which will kill the fuck out of you if left alone. At that point I turned shit around, lost 20lbs and started exercising almost daily, so that part is better at least.

I was also getting way to wrapped up in social media and politics to the point that my wife didn't want to be around me, and my 16 year old step son would get triggered on the daily. I dumped facebook, and decided not to put so much time and effort into things I have no control over, but it's a work in progress.

The TCG track day coming up reignited my love of cars that was starting to simmer down, and since I nearly killed myself last month I figured it was time to spend some of the money I've been hoarding in case one of us lost our jobs on my tired ride, and get back in the garage for some "therapy", and then I remembered how often things don't go smooth when modding and how much I hate troubleshooting things in my old age

I'm looking forward to fall, drag racing, meeting some of you cool cats and kittens at the track, and the return of football, so positive thoughts here on out.

 

[Shawn1112]

Little bit of what I typed earlier and erased.
I dont understand how people let little things in life bother them and stress them the fuck out. My motto in life, keep it moving and stay in your lane. Keep you nose out of places it doesnt belong. If everyone did that, this world would be a much better place, I promise you that. People spazz out about money and even worse people will kill themselves over that shit. Its only fucking money man, there will be more. You lost your job that paid you $250k a year. Big fucking deal, go cry me a river. I grew up on powdered milk and government cheese. I could lose my house, business, cars and pets. As long as my Wife and 2 kids are still here with me then I'm happy. I could lose all that shit and talk to you and you would never no, because I wouldnt let it bother me. Its all material shit than can be replaced. Ive said it before, if I were to lose my business, we would be fucked. I'm the sole bread winner in my house. I'd probably go back to driving a truck for like $20hr and back to renting an apartment.........big fucking deal.

Some of you take this politics shit way to far to the point where it effects your fucking life on a daily basis and makes you miserable. If Trump loses in November, Flyn might off himself lol. If you honestly think any politician un-related to you gives a fuck about what you think or your views. Then let me sell you an island where its 85 and sunny every day with a 100 virgins on the island in the North Pole. Yeah I chime in to some of those threads, but mostly as a troll as I could give 2 fucks about that bullshit. Yes I hate Lightfoot, but if she is elected again who cares. She aint gonna stop me from doing me. She is just going to fuck the city up that I love.

The only time I ever get stressed is when we go thru 4-6 week slow periods at work. Only because 9 other men are relying on me so they can feed their families. That happens I get it what I call gangster mode, I'll undercut every MFer out there to make a buck and keep my employees happy. Call it what you want, scumbag, dirtbag shit, low life shit. Life is cut throat, and I'm in a cut throat business you just need to adapt to it.
Besides that, I literally live life worry and stress free because I stay in my lane and keep it moving

Last but not least. Social Media creates a lot of butt hurt MFers, stay off that shit

 

[Blood on Blood]

I work approx 70 hrs a week, help the kids with virtual school, exercise, family time and talk with / see friends when I can squeeze in moments here and there.

How am I doing? No clue, don’t have time to think about it.

 

[Shawn1112]

I work approx 70 hrs a week, help the kids with virtual school, exercise, family time and talk with / see friends when I can squeeze in moments here and there.

How am I doing? No clue, don’t have time to think about it.

As long as your happy bro, then continue doing so. If your not (I wouldnt be lol) then you need to step back and re-evaluate your life and make changes.

 

[Blood on Blood]

As long as your happy bro, then continue doing so. If your not (I wouldnt be lol) then you need to step back and re-evaluate your life and make changes.

Not enough time in the current employer to jump ship + solid resume builder experience.

Hanging tight til next year.

 

[Shawn1112]

Not enough time in the current employer to jump ship + solid resume builder experience.

Hanging tight til next year.

Well you have a plan it sounds like, better than most

 

[DEEZUZ]

Little bit of what I typed earlier and erased.
I dont understand how people let little things in life bother them and stress them the fuck out. My motto in life, keep it moving and stay in your lane. Keep you nose out of places it doesnt belong. If everyone did that, this world would be a much better place, I promise you that. People spazz out about money and even worse people will kill themselves over that shit. Its only fucking money man, there will be more. You lost your job that paid you $250k a year. Big fucking deal, go cry me a river. I grew up on powdered milk and government cheese. I could lose my house, business, cars and pets. As long as my Wife and 2 kids are still here with me then I'm happy. I could lose all that shit and talk to you and you would never no, because I wouldnt let it bother me. Its all material shit than can be replaced. Ive said it before, if I were to lose my business, we would be fucked. I'm the sole bread winner in my house. I'd probably go back to driving a truck for like $20hr and back to renting an apartment.........big fucking deal.

Some of you take this politics shit way to far to the point where it effects your fucking life on a daily basis and makes you miserable. If Trump loses in November, Flyn might off himself lol. If you honestly think any politician un-related to you gives a fuck about what you think or your views. Then let me sell you an island where its 85 and sunny every day with a 100 virgins on the island in the North Pole. Yeah I chime in to some of those threads, but mostly as a troll as I could give 2 fucks about that bullshit. Yes I hate Lightfoot, but if she is elected again who cares. She aint gonna stop me from doing me. She is just going to fuck the city up that I love.

The only time I ever get stressed is when we go thru 4-6 week slow periods at work. Only because 9 other men are relying on me so they can feed their families. That happens I get it what I call gangster mode, I'll undercut every MFer out there to make a buck and keep my employees happy. Call it what you want, scumbag, dirtbag shit, low life shit. Life is cut throat, and I'm in a cut throat business you just need to adapt to it.
Besides that, I literally live life worry and stress free because I stay in my lane and keep it moving

Last but not least. Social Media creates a lot of butt hurt MFers, stay off that shit

100.

Juat looked it up in dictionary and there's a picture of this mfer

 

[DanJ]

I quit Facebook and my life is much better because of it. I was letting a lot of people’s bullshit posts bother me way too much, snoozing people from my feed etc. this BLM shit popping off really pushed me over the edge. guys i knew back in the day who would step on coke with old refrigerator baking soda and gangbang hammered drunk chicks virtue signaling over current woke beliefs was it for me .

 

[Bru]

I haven't really stopped to think about how I'm doing, which isn't very healthy. It's been go-go-go. Make sure kiddo is in good shape, make sure wifey is in good shape, adapting to new work challenges being remote. It's been a summer non-stop with home repairs, contractors, quotes, problems and one thing after another. Job uncertainty, pay cuts, colleagues and direct reports laid off. Combined, of course, with fear and uncertainty about going into the world and doing stuff that would typically be enough to blow off that steam and pent-up emotions. At-risk parents making poor decisions combined with not being able to have the same relationships with family. Vacation isn't even a consideration. So, really, just a little on edge. And that's a big little.

 

[Blood on Blood]

Well you have a plan it sounds like, better than most

I have a large organization of staff, partners, technologies and services that I’m responsible for.

Bottom line, have to pay the cost to be the Boss

 

[Fish]

Mental wellness is a huge issue nowadays and will be forever.

It is. It really is. You have to be happy with yourself and your life before you can really be happy with anything else. Thats why I took that huge break a few years ago and the mini one recently was a mix of both and just work/life kicking me in the ass.

This whole COVID thing and being essential was another kick in the ass. I usually am a little paranoid in general cause I hate even getting a head cold. LOL. I usually get knocked on my ass for a few days and slowly recover. If I ever got this (if I didnt already back in December/early January when I was on my ass for a week+) and gave it to my kids or anyone else, Id be devastated, which is why for the longest time I was the only one going out. I had a cleaning system in the back of my car basically. Sprays, wipes, sanatizer. Everything got wiped down and I showered every time I came home from going out. Ive loosened up a bit, but still shower after work right away cause Im surrounded by a bunch of people on the daily. Plus we have new leadership in our department and they dont seem to keen on old timers that have been here so we are basically waiting to be told to take a hike while being worked to the bone. I told my manager I couldnt do 11+ hour days anymore and that the other manager on my team and I will both do 8s and one opens and the other closes. No reason for both of us to kill ourselves for no reason. Higher ups didnt care at first, but it finally hit me one day. If I get let go, then so be it. I can find another job, and if I am let go after essentially my entire adult life working here, then someone either has no idea whats going on or they are cool with paying 6+ months of a severance along with insurance.

My wife got furlowed while still on maternity leave (Not sure on the legality of that actually, but not sure if there is anything to do about it anymore), and then laid off 3 days after maternity ended. Still havent found a job and this was the year we wanted to get a house since the condo we were living in was just too small. Well fast forward and we dont have to live there anymore. Cause the owner needs to sell and we had to leave. So my wife did a few things and then went to my brother and sister in laws to live there. I was in charge of everything else essentially. On top of moving and dealing with my paranoia of people around breathing all over my crap. 3 weeks of absolute hell for me. Even seeing my kids didnt make me happy really. Through all of it, I know it will be better so I soldier on.

I still talk to someone every other week, and that for sure helps. Try to do little for myself also helps a little bit. I think just the move, the work issue, and then flipping on YT and seeing cool house projects and Firebird/Firehawk videos really makes me think that I never did get my dream car and it looks like I never will. I know Fbodies are a dime a dozen and arent impressive anymore. For a guy who grew up on Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Rider, I ALWAYS wanted a Firebird. My only other concern is that I know lately I get into hobbies and hop right back out of them. HAHA. Id say cars were probably my longest interest though. I also think if I werent reliant on a project car to also get me to work Id be more serious.

So you know, Im fine. Everything is fine.

 

[Outlaw]

Get Hulu and watch Letterkenny... Here's the cold open from season 1.

I’ve watched most of it, it’s damn good. Lead Pipe and I found the shorts on YouTube before the show was even produced and still quote it like morons to this day.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

I’ve watched most of it, it’s damn good. Lead Pipe and I found the shorts on YouTube before the show was even produced and still quote it like morons to this day.

My neighbor turned me on to it. She played that opener and I was like “what the fuck did I just watch?”

Start it over please, I gotta see that again.

 

[greasy]

I am all good. I always find a way to keep myself busy with work, the family, working out, hockey, cars, And now welding.

In my opinion the reason mental health is such an epidemic is because of social media. Get off of that shit, it is NOT HEALTHY. Facebook, Instagram, yada yada yada.....it’s all bullshit. Myself when I had FB I would look at all of the posts and process/compare myself to them in aggregate. I would end up feeling I unaccomplished. It wasn’t healthy or reasonable for me to compare myself to what everyone was doing.

In my opinion, watch out I am going to channel my inner Joe Rogan, get up and get active. Work out, hike, get out in nature. It is a good soup for the brain.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

This is some real shit. bless you all. I'd like to start out with work. My fucking god, where to begin. About 8 weeks ago my boss left and a week before that his boss left. They went to the same company where the old CIO who left several months back went. The guy who ran DBA went as well as the CISO. That's not a big deal in my mind, except the two peers I have came into this company with my old boss and I wonder at which point they will leave too if at all. I have no worries about getting asked, my boss and I never got along so it's been a real blessing that he's left truthfully.

Now then, this is where things get fucked up. The skeletons started coming out of the closet the minute he left.

I am working on a data center add and there were supposed to be racks, PDUs, even the cage space and power outlets ordered. None of that was the case, he told me it was handed over and that it was in progress. It wasn't. To go into those racks was about $3M of hardware. almost 75+ high end servers, 100TB of storage, basically enough gear to build out 4-5 full server racks. There's no documentation of which business unit paid for or was receiving what. None.

Besides this we also discovered that a shitton of equipment is out of support contract. Thankfully most of our vendors have been really cool about this. My primary storage arrays have been out of support for 6 months. I've been reaching out to vendors (I never touched any of that side before) and determining where we stand on renewals and trying to get POs through. Thankfully my new boss is getting us squared away in the documentation department on this.

Next, I am refreshing an Exadata system or two. (These are high end database appliances, we're probably in $2M+ on the refresh cycle.) My old boss told me power for these was squared away, we had no PO or even a quote for getting these done. Worked through that, got the stuff moved and installed. They wanted health checks on the machine. Not under contract and they would have been up the week my boss left e.g. he should have been working on it 2-3 months before. What a shit show that was. Had to fight the business to get them to decom a server I told them about in March and have been reminding them of ever since.

Besides this I've worked Fridays 2 of the last 4 weeks and I'm going to get a week or two off here but think I'll be working 2 if not 3 of 4 weekends coming up too at least one day. I'm commuting a fuck ton more to the data center right now as we have a bunch of very tight schedules to keep. I've got 4 racks of gear I'm going to be trying to build out in a weekish and more likely a half week by the time shit shows up. Shit that should have been ordered by my old boss once again.

Lastly, I need to go to Atlanta. I'm fucking afraid of that trip because I suspect I'll be quarntining when I get home for 2 weeks. That puts a lot of shit on my wife. My son's back in school now and I'm not sure how it would go over. That's its own stress because it time boxes me heavily at this point. We thankfully haven't started homework but he's a fucking pain in the ass when it comes to homework. He'll fight for hours. It also means I've shaved away probably 5 hours sleep in my day, not that I'm sleeping well anyways.

Work wise what I'm still trying to figure out is what the fuck the deal was with my boss. He always presented himself as this really hyper organized person. It blows my mind that it was a fucking lie, even a con job. I am still trying to process why. I'm still trying to process how it compromised my values, my ideals and what I was trying to get done. I have conversations with my current boss and it's like "This is what I was told, I hate to say this but I don't even know if it's true."

I'm going to be busy as fuck there for the next few months but at the same time it gives me hope that I'll actually get to refactor the environment in the next 1-2 years. I'm betting more will get done in the next year than has been done in the previous 4 I have been here. It has been in bad need of reform and my old boss was regressive as fuck. In hindsight there was a lot of leakage but it's always easier to see that in retrospect.

Also, there's been some incidents at work. I caused one and there's been a few others that have not been my fault but fall under my resposnibility at some level. Our outsourced guys in India have been stepping up to the plate more but really need to up their game more as well. I just can't do everything I used to any more.

Politically, I have a serious level of anxiety. There's a lot of conspiracy theories around shit and finger pointing. With as much political power as has been ceded to government in the last few months I am concerned about communism and other forms of totalitarianism or anarchism in the form of cities burning. When Mook added the opt in to politics I left it off. I was avoiding the doom scroll and got back into the news cycle. I think it was a fall back to what's familiar because I'm stressing at work. That was a huge fucking mistake. I even started getting on Twitter again. What a fucking shit hole that is. At this point I'm pretty well convinced it's an addictive product and psyop of some kind. Above all no matter which person wins I hope it's a fair, honest and conclusive election; I really have my doubts though.

Enough of that though. Something that keeps me grounded are the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. If you've never read about him he had illness for his life, he spent a decade at war and he even had to sell the crown jewels because Rome was broke. Although he was emperor it was far far from an easy life. He is credited for pulling the Roman Empire from the brink for a period of time. At the same time he is greatful for so much that he does have and he discusses the flaws of man it is still relevant nearly two millennia later.

http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.mb.txt

I may get some shit for this but the bible is the same way. The supernatural aspects aside (whether or not you believe) the human condition described has not really changed all that much. We have window dressing on it but the flaws of man have long remained a constant.

I also forgot the part where that fucking storm took power out for 4-5 days a few weeks back. That was awesome too. Ended up buying a generator and keeping it fueled up during it. Comcast didn't work until the power came up then instantly it was back on line. It would have been okay if I had the Internet to work from home with.

 

[Fish]

I want to bring this to the top. I am begging all of you, please talk to someone if you are not mentally feeling well. I just lost a friend and colleague last week and I am bouncing around about how to feel and take this. He was one of the last people I would think to do what he did. Even if it is no one here, or your family, talk to someone if you feel you cant escape whats going on in your life.

 

[blakbearddelite]

It's so sad when people think that's the only option. I'm sure it's really going to get difficult for certain people over the winter.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Doing good, but worried about the micro nova.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Doing good, but worried about the micro nova.