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adancedivasmom · 1 year

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Pairing: Dave York x F!Reader (no physical description, however it is implied she hasn’t lost her baby weight)

Rating: Explicit 18+ (By proceeding to read beyond this warning, you are agreeing that you are 18 years or older)

Content: Lactation kink, smut, frottage, mention of abandonment, body insecurity, pet names and name calling (slut is used once), Dave York is his own warning

Word Count: 2K

Summary: After a hectic morning and barely making it to work on time, you realize you forgot your breast pump at home. You haven’t nursed or pumped in 16 hours and worry you won’t make it through your important afternoon meeting. Luckily for you, a certain handsome DIA agent knows just what to do and offers his assistance.

(This takes place before the events in The Equalizer 2 and Dave is divorced in my au.)

A/N: A huge thank you to @toomanystoriessolittletime for posting this idea on Discord and for not minding that I took and ran with it (this is all their fault really). Thank you to @ozarkthedog and @firstofficerwiggles for reading this over for me, offering their kind words, and telling me to go for it and post this. Also, special thanks to my fellow Dave York Nasties for their encouragement. I love you guys!

This is the first fic I've ever written, and I'm nervous. Please be kind. 💝

REBLOGS WOULD BE LOVED AND APPRECIATED

No, no, no, no, no…

This can’t be happening.

For the fifth time, you look underneath your jacket in your office.

It’s not there.

Your breast pump bag is not there.

You think back to your crazy morning. Somehow you managed to turn the volume down on your phone alarm. You never heard it and slept in.

Your son, bless his heart, had just started sleeping through the night a couple of days ago.

After throwing on your blouse and favorite flowy skirt, hastily brushing your hair and teeth, you flew to your son’s room.

He was still sleeping as you rushed into his nursery to get him dressed for the day. He greeted you with the biggest smile, kicking his legs and reaching for you.

It was times like this that made the challenge of raising him on your own worth it. His father had skipped out on you a month ago after informing you he no longer felt attracted to you.

No, none of that, you told yourself. You did not have time for self-pity right now.

Once you finished changing your little bean’s diaper and dressing him, you tried to feed him, but he fussed and refused to latch on.

Most likely, he could sense how stressed you were.

Not a problem, you told yourself. Your mom had extra bottles and an ample supply of your breast milk in her freezer. Everything would be okay.

After dropping your baby off at your mom’s house, you drove to work and made it there at 9 am.

You threw your jacket and purse on the extra chair in your office and barely had time to unlock your computer when the HR supervisor knocked on your door.

“Brian called off. I’m going to need you to give the morning and afternoon presentations,” she briskly informed you and quickly walked away.

Great, just great, you grumbled to yourself. You had one hour to prepare for the staff meeting to review the new health care benefits package the DIA was changing to at the start of the new year.

You bolted for the conference room and managed to be ready in one hour when your coworkers started filing in.

The meeting went well, and you answered everyone’s questions and addressed their concerns efficiently and cheerfully.

Which was shocking because, at this point, your breasts were hurting, really hurting. It had been almost 16 hours since you last fed your son before you put him down for the night.

Thank goodness it was your lunch hour, and you could close your office door and get some much-needed relief pumping.

This brings you to the present, frantically looking all over your office for your breast pump that’s nowhere to be found.

Maybe you left it in your car?

You grabbed your keys and took off. Not watching where you were going, you bumped right into him.

Dave York.

Of all the people to run into, it had to be him. You’ve been secretly obsessing over him since your first day of work at the DIA.

He was gorgeous. You couldn’t help but notice his large hands, the way his dress shirts seemed to strain to cover his large shoulders. Goodness, he was deliciously broad. One day in the lunchroom, Dave had his sleeves rolled up and caught you staring at the veins in his forearms. He looked at you with piercing brown eyes and knowingly smirked at you, the bastard.

You offered a hasty, “I’m sorry, Mr. York!” and sprinted for the parking lot.

Unfortunately, today was not your day. Your breast pump bag was not in your car either.

You were practically in tears by the time you made it back to your office.

You struggled for a solution to your predicament. Maybe you could soak some paper towels in warm water to ease the pain. Women hand-expressed in the past before breast pumps were invented. Surely that would work, right?

It had to. There was no way you could give the afternoon presentation in your condition. You don’t remember your breasts ever being this sore and full before. You were amazed you hadn’t started leaking through your nursing bra and blouse.

Having that happen during your next session was out of the question. You would be humiliated.

A gentle knock on your door brought you out of your thoughts.

It was Dave again.

“Are you alright?,” he asked with genuine concern.

“It’s nothing,” you replied. “I’m just having an awful day.”

Dave responded, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, not unless you have a breast pump in your office,” you answered with a little more attitude than you meant to.

“Hmmmm,” he hummed as he slowly walked towards you.

“You may be surprised to learn I know little about what you are going through right now. Your son’s about three months old now, isn’t he? He probably just started sleeping through the night. I remember when my ex-wife, Carol, was nursing. She was relieved when the girls started sleeping through the night, but not so much when her milk production didn’t slow down right away.”

Your eyes widened. “Wait, how do you know this? How do you even know how old my son is? I’ve never even talked to you except to say hello in passing.”

“I notice everything about you,” he admitted as he touched your cheek.

“Let me offer you my… assistance,” Dave said as he held your gaze.

“There was something I always wanted to do with Carol,” he continued, “but she never wanted to try.”

“I think you’re different, though. I think you know what I can do to help ease your pain,” he whispered in your ear. “And you want it, don’t you?”

Goosebumps erupted on your skin as arousal spread through your body. You clenched around nothing and fought to keep yourself from moaning.

Was this really happening?

“Shut your door and lock it,” Dave ordered darkly.

You never moved so fast in your life.

By the time you turned around, he had already moved your purse and jacket to your desk and was sitting on the extra chair in your office.

“Now be a good girl for me and let me take care of you,” Dave said as he held his hand out to you.

You walked to him and took his hand as your heart pounded in your chest.

“What do I...” you began.

“Sit on my lap,” he commanded softly.

Feeling self-conscious, you quickly argued, “But I’m too..”

“Don’t,” he interrupted. “Don’t you dare say what I think you’re going to say. You are beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Now, sit.”

You straddled him, your legs on the outside of his, facing him.

Eyes blown with lust, Dave stared at you like a man starved.

You couldn’t believe you were doing this. You worked in HR for goodness sake. It would be the end of your career if someone walked in on the two of you.

But you couldn’t bring yourself to care, not when Dave looked at you like you were the only thing that mattered. You would do anything to please him at this point.

“That’s my good girl,” he breathed. “Now unbutton your blouse.”

Powerless to resist, you undid your buttons and exposed yourself.

“Fuck,” he growled out. “I knew your tits would be spectacular.”

He slowly unclasped the right side of your nursing bra and glanced down.

You knew what he saw. Your breast was engorged and started to leak almost immediately.

Dave gently massaged you and gave your nipple an experimental lick, causing your milk to start squirting from your breast.

He quickly opened his mouth to catch the flow. You could hear your milk landing and pooling in his mouth.

Dave groaned and latched on. You could feel the familiar pull and sighed with long-awaited relief.

Dave continued to massage your breast while he gulped down your milk enthusiastically.

It took a tremendous effort to keep quiet. The reality of what was happening right now made you dizzy with desire.

Once Dave felt he had taken enough from the right side, he stopped and turned his attention back to you.

“That ex-boyfriend of yours is an idiot if you don’t mind me saying,” he told you candidly.

“You are a goddess. If you were mine, I’d make sure you were told that daily.”

Before you could think of something clever to reply, Dave had already uncovered your left breast and latched on.

At this point, you were incredibly turned on. You could feel your arousal leaking through your panties, and you desperately wanted to rub your thighs together for relief.

Sensing your struggle, Dave grabbed your hips and pushed you down until your core rubbed against the now rather large bulge in his trousers.

Mortified, you heard yourself moan out loud.

Dave put his hand over your mouth and hushed you.

"I know, I know. That feels good, doesn't it," he taunted. "But you need to keep quiet otherwise your co-workers will discover what a filthy little slut you are."

“Now take what you need, gorgeous girl,” he instructed as he returned to your breast.

With his help, you started to rub your core over his clothed erection. Need coursed through your body, and you lost yourself to your pleasure.

With every second, you become acutely aware of how much of your slick was dripping from your cunt, soaking through your panties and making a total mess of his lap.

Dave did not care in the least and only encouraged you.

“That’s my good girl. Just like that,” he moaned and quickly resumed gulping your milk like a man dying of thirst.

Faster and faster, you moved against him, whimpering while you felt your crest quickly build.

Dave released your nipple with a pop.

He held your chin and forced you to look into his eyes.

“Come for me,” he demanded, his voice dark as sin. “Be a good girl and come for me...now.”

That was all it took to push you over the edge. You came with a silent scream. Not taking any chances, Dave kissed you to make sure he would swallow any of your noises that might escape.

You could taste yourself on his tongue, and it was the most erotic thing you had ever experienced.

When you slowly came down from your high, you opened your eyes to see Dave gazing at you fondly.

“You look so beautiful right now,” Dave said reverently. “You did such a good job for me.”

You shyly replied, “Thank you, Mr. York,” and tried to look away.

Dave was having none of that.

“Don’t look away,” he said, forcing you to meet his eyes again. “We’re both consenting adults. You needed help, and I was happy to offer my assistance.”

Before you could respond, Dave reminded you of the time and your upcoming afternoon meeting.

You slowly and reluctantly removed yourself from Dave’s lap and tried to look presentable again. You smoothed out your skirt, closed up your nursing bra, and started to button up your blouse.

Anxiety crept into your mind. Did anyone hear what the both of you were doing?

Dave quickly took over buttoning your blouse.

“Don’t worry, pretty girl. No one heard a thing,” he promised sincerely.

You met his eyes and knew he would never lie to you.

“Next time, you’ll have to come to my office," he offered. "I have a couch in there. You’ll be much more comfortable sitting on my cock while I drink from your gorgeous tits.”

You must have had a shocked expression on your face because you heard Dave chuckle softly.

"Does that sound good to you?" he teased.

You shook your head yes immediately.

You didn't know what you had gotten yourself into with Dave York, but you were excited to see where this was going.

You left him in your office to sort himself out. Thinking about his promise of a "next time," you walked to the conference room smiling softly.

#i did it #my first fic #dave york #dave york smut #dave york x female reader #dave york x f!reader #dave york x you #pedro pascal character fanfic #pedro pascal character fan fiction

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ukrfeminism · 1 year

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3 minute read

Right now it feels like every public service employee is having to resort to strike action to gain acceptable standards of employment. Who’s next? If we’re talking about labour that is woefully undervalued and unsupported, it should be mums.

Statutory maternity pay, at £156.66 per week, is less than half of minimum wage (£384 for a standard 40-hour week). New mothers (and their child) have to survive on 41 per cent of the minimum we consider acceptable to live on. 30 hours per week of subsidised childcare is available for three-year-olds, but maternity pay ends at 39-weeks-old. During that two-year gap, nursery fees cost 65 per cent of the average parent’s wages, and many mothers are falling into debt, or dropping out of the workforce, as a result.

Moreover, 54,000 women lose their jobs in the UK every year because of maternity discrimination. Maternity is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, but only for the first 26 weeks. Any claim for maternity discrimination must be brought within three months – almost impossible in the midst of the physical and mental upheavals of matrescence. During which time, 31 per cent of mothers didn’t have confidence in their postnatal care. And, according to the Office of National Statistics, in heterosexual couples women still perform 77 per cent more childcare and 62 per cent of the domestic work.

Surely that’s reason to strike!

There is precedent. In Iceland in 1975, women refused to go to work, cook, clean or perform childcare, during what was termed “the long Friday”. Many schools and nurseries had to close, forcing fathers to bring their children to work. Banks, factories and shops simply couldn’t function. Even the next day’s newspapers were shorter than usual.

Ninety per cent of women in Iceland took part and the next year Iceland’s parliament passed a law guaranteeing equal rights to women and men. Five years later, Vigdis Finnbogadottir became Iceland’s president – the world’s first democratically elected female head of state. She insists this couldn’t have happened without the strike, which paralysed the country and demonstrated women’s importance to society. She served for 16 years, and, having introduced initiatives such as all-women shortlists and paid paternity leave ahead of the curve, Iceland became known as the world’s most feminist country.

Collective action amongst mothers is happening here. Women’s Strike asked women to refuse all work on International Women’s Day 2022. Then, just six weeks ago, charity Pregnant Then Screwed led 15,000 parents onto the streets across the UK in March of the Mummies. Founder Joeli Brearley told me, “There is such power in protesting. We were under no illusion that the Government would immediately fix the issues, but it is a signal that unless they act soon they will lose votes at the ballot box. Make no mistake – Westminster heard us that day.”

So, what do we want? I propose: maternity pay brought in line with minimum wage; childcare free for parents (and properly paid for by the Government) from birth until starting school; parenthood made a protected characteristic for life; and parents given 12 months to bring discrimination claims. When you consider that more mothers in work could be worth £28.2 billion to the UK economy, this is just sensible. The birth rate has now dropped below the level needed for a stable population, fuelling fears of economic decline. We need investment in motherhood.

As Iceland showed, when women stop, everything stops. In the UK, women are the vast majority of childcare workers, administrative staff, care workers, cleaners, hospitality staff, HR professionals, teachers and nurses. If they refused to work for just 24 hours, the impact for society and the economy would be crippling. Then there’s women’s domestic work, which is estimated to be worth 56 per cent of GDP. Strike once – that includes paid employment as well as cleaning, childcare, cooking, organising and so on – and it’s unlikely we would need to again.

What made Iceland’s strike so successful was so many women took part. But mobilising primary care givers is a nightmare, given the burden of domestic responsibility. We’re missing the cornerstone of effective industrial action – a union. Unions provide support, mobilise large disparate groups, and lobby for members’ rights. We need a union for parents. There are amazing campaigning charities, but unions are protected by legislation, forcing employers (or governments) to negotiate, and keeping workers’ jobs safe if they strike. Unions have teeth.

When do we want it? According to research from YouGov more than half of women say they do the majority of Christmas tasks, 51 per cent of women feel stressed at Christmas and according to Action for Children one in six parents said they would cancel the whole thing if they could. Ancient Anglo-Saxons celebrated Modranicht (“mother’s night”) on 24 December. What if mothers honoured themselves this Christmas Eve by doing absolutely nothing?

No last minute shopping. No festive food preparation. No present wrapping. No stuffing of stockings. No ringing round to coordinate family members or clarifying dietary requirements. Just putting our feet up with a mulled wine and watching It’s a Wonderful Life while someone else takes responsibility for the over-excited, sugar-hyped children. We baulk at the idea, because Christmas would fall apart. But isn’t that exactly the reason to do it? To show how much motherhood matters.

Allegra Chapman is a diversity and inclusion consultant, and co-founder of Watch This Sp_ce.

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spectrum-system · 7 months

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I got fired yesterday, so that sucks. The benefits are that i can flip off the shitty assistant manager there, Mark Meling, as well as finally be open about why i hate him to the public. This is gonna be a long one.

If any of my previous coworkers see this, please go ahead and add your own stories to this.

TW: mentions of sexual harassment, predatory behavior, transphobia, racism, ableism, alcoholism, infidelity, and generally being a smelly garbage can of a person.

I'll try to keep this in chronological order, but that will be hard to do, as after certain events that i will mention, i stopped being the one fronting at work whenever mark was there. I am working with our primary protector to piece things together so im sorry if things arent perfectly chronological. All names but mine and marks are changed. One year ago, October 13th 2022, I started working at Kohl's as a seasonal employe, and was kept on after the season was over as a part time associate, eventually becoming a cashier mainly. I was 17 when i started there (this will become important later).

The first time i met mark was my first opening shift, maybe my 3rd or 4th shift there at all. I rang the bell to get in and was greeted by mark. He was rude and asked what i was doing. I stated i was there to work, to which he asked my name. I gave him the name they have in their system, Saturn, my work name, and he asked what me real name was with such attitude. I gave him the name "S", as that is what i use outside of work, and he doesnt need to know my legal name. He turned away and said "whatever", continuing to walk in and check me in, along with the other day crew. This was the first day of hell.

Throughout my time working at Kohl's, mark was consistently rude, controlling, disrespectful to all staff that werent also managers, and just an awful human being.

I often saw him engaging in predatory behavior towards minors, especially young customers, around the age of 16 or 17. He would flirt with them, even when they were obviously uncomfortable. This continued throughout my entire year of working there.

Now, here is where it gets particularly bad. November 26th 2022, Mark touched my thigh while putting a hanger into my hanger box. This was not a normal touch, this was a caress, very close to my butt. there were 3 other open registers he could have put the hanger into. This was intentional.

After this i grew a deep fear of mark, that would only get worse as time went on. You see, i was sexually abused twice between the ages of 15 and 16. I wont go into detail, but it fucked me up pretty bad, so having this happen nearly sent me into a panic attack, the only thing holding me together was the fact that i had a line of customers. I didn't know what to do or how to report it, so it just went unsaid, unseen, unpunished, until December 14th, in which i finally reported him online, thanks to a friend who no longer works there reporting him and telling me how.

I reported him, then a few days later the head manager, Cat, and another manager, Salmon, pulled me into their office, and took my account of what happened. They said it would be reported to HR and that i would be contacted within a week. They told me to keep quiet about it.

It's been almost a year. I have heard nothing. I refuse to be quiet.

I never received an update from HR. I never received anything. As far as i'm aware, neither did mark. His habits continued, but thankfully he never touched me again, likely because i became much more abrasive against him after that. After than nothing major happened as far as i am aware for a while, though this time is blurry, but i know he was still hitting on underage girls, making the female staff uncomfortable, and overall making everyone upset by generally being disrespectful.

To show the scope of what dealing with this man day in and day out for almost a year did to me, let me tell you this. On June 24th, mark had asked me to follow him into the stockroom to grab something, but once we got there, i was so frightened to be in an area alone with him with little to no cameras, that i switched out. Our primary protector took over work for me ever since then. Being around him made us on edge at all times. I could not work while he was there with me. They recently, on October 6th, had to switch out because of how much genuine stress they were under when around him.

Many times he would make inappropriate comments about the female staffs bodies, saying they were overweight when they were very much not. Allegedly, he commented on the weight of Poodle (a woman with a mom body), Bat (a very skinny and tall woman), Reindeer (an average skinny woman), and several underage employees, all of normal weight, calling them overweight to their faces, when they were never of the sort.

Not only did he comment about the associates weight and appearance, he would often make outright rude comments about the employees, especially the new hires. Any time someone would make a small mistake and he saw, he would outright berate them, often publicly. This was especially clear in the case with my good friend, Wombat, they were brand new to the store and they have a shoulder injury that limits their motion and causes them sevre pain. They were degraded by mark while they were there for not being able to do the tasks he deemed so simple instead of helping them.

One of my previous associates who no longer works there was studying to be a nurce, and had told me along with others in a group one night, that she suspects Mark would come to work intoxicated. His slurred speech, overly red face, frequent shifts in mood, frequent inability to pronounce common names correctly, apparent inability to stick to what he said, memory issues, as well as many frequent comments about alcohol, all lead to this being the truth. I do not know for sure, but i believe this personally. As of recent he seems to have stopped coming to work intoxicated, but this does not change the fact he likely did many times in the past.

Frequently, mark would do nothing helpful, simply sitting in his office doing nothing, only coming out when a manager was called to help. The same goes for telling associates to do things he was easily capable of doing in the moment, such as telling floor associates to pick up or move things that were right in front of him, sometimes literally just standing next to it, waiting for a floor associate to do what he could have done in one second. I dont even want to know how frequently this happened, but according to my friends who work on the floor regularly, it was quite often.

Over the year i spent at kohls, mark had never once used the correct pronouns for me, despite myself and many other amazing coworkers correcting him time and time again. He would always use she/her. When i or others would correct, he would deflect, saying he knows and he "just forgot". He never once apologized. When it was myself correcting him, he would always roll his eyes. He was once talking to “me” (our protector) about his son, who is transitioning, and he would only refer to him as his daughter and with she/her pronouns.

Over the year mark would talk about his failing relationships to anyone who would listen, including underage associates, often sharing personal details you should not talk about at work, especially without permission from the person you are talking to. He has an ex-wife, and at least 8 or 9 girlfriends over the course of the year i worked there, while still flirting and making unwanted advances towards seemingly any girl in the store as long as she was 25 or younger. I had overheard him talking to another manager, Hare, about how he was talking to two girls, one he stated was his girlfriend at the time, and when they learned of each other they both dumped him. Unfortunately for Hare, she seemed uncomfortable but couldnt find a way out of the situation.

Many times mark would have people do things that were not part of their job, including having regester associates go farther than we were supposed to go away from the register, having us do large floor projects on busy days, such as making me entirely redo a wall of product and getting angry when it didn't get done because of having customers, and having one of the people at customer service, Reindeer, unload the amazon boxes when she is not supposed to, we have an entire team dedicated to doing that from what im aware of. Heck, Poodle had even made a comment about how he was not supposed to make her do that and that it is not part of her job.

One of the policies he most frequently broke was that we are not allowed to accuse a customer of shoplifting. He did this numerous times. Once he had me ring up an employees partner because he thought they were letting them take stuff, when he had no evidence and it was obviously not the case. More recently, on october 7th, we had 2 customers who were made very uncomfortable by marks hunch that they were shoplifting, which they were not, as i rang them up. They both left reviews for the store, and i think i will let them speak for themselves.

Unfortunately, this is not the only time this scenario has happened, and i doubt it will be the last.

We had 2 new managers come to work at kohls over the year i was there, one being Sphinx and the other, who has not even been there for 2 months at the time of writing, Penguin. When Sphinx joined us he was immediately put down by mark, him being outright rude to Sphinx about trivial matters. According to Sphinx, he had finished cleaning his OMNI area, only to come back to it later so find it trashed and for mark to comment he should clean his area up. Several times mark has stated he does not trust Sphinx to close the store by himself, when he has shown time and time again he is just as capable as anyone else to close the store.

This is where Penguin comes in. She has been here for less than 2 months, and she is amazing. She is kind, smart, and genuinely helpful. A lovely person to have as a manager. She has been subject to marks unwanted advances since she started. She is now leaving at the end of the month, and i can only assume it is because of this.

Numerous people have reported his poor behavior, including other managers, like Sphinx, and another one i'll call Bear. All of us are sick of his disgusting behavior. I contacted my friends about this to get any stories they may have about mark, and one, potato (yes they asked me to call them that) had this to say;

I havent even covered everything he's done yet. Heck, yesterday, October 9th, one of my previous coworkers, Rat, had told me about how mark had made racist comments towards her husband, and i cant even say i'm suprised considering he often would pick out maxican and black people to follow around and harass, including the customers who left the review abovem the man of which i beleive was mexican (i could be wrong, I dont remember exactly). The following is a statement from Rat herself about mark.

I dont know how to end this, but this is really all i have right now. I'll reblog with anything i have to add. Just know, I wont be quiet about this anymore. I'm tired of him getting away with everything he's done. Mark Meling, know you are a piece of shit. You are disgusting. You are predatory, you are perverted, and god, you do not deserve to be a fucking asistiant manager. everyone there also thinks so. I wish i could have told more people about the atrocities you have done. Sorry about any bad grammar or structure, i wrote most of this between 12am-3am last night and finished it today. If any of my coworkers see this, please add your own stories to this.

#please read #kohls #life at kohls #ross dress for less #macys #manager #asistiant manager #harassment #racisim #transphobia #homophobia #hinoko talks #work #work life #stay safe

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episodicnostalgia · 7 months

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Star Trek: The Next Generation, 112 (Jan. 16, 1988) - “Datalore”

Written by: Robert Lewin & Gene Roddenberry Directed by: Rob Bowman

Episode Breakdown

Data gets an origin story!

The episode begins with the Enterprise’s arrival at the colony where Data was discovered. We’re told that colonists all died under mysterious circumstances before Data was activated; as such he’s unable to shed any light on the matter (Presumably the ship that found Data never had time to investigate). Picard figures they might as well take a look around since they’re in the neighbourhood, because what’s the worst that could happen? While on the planet’s surface, the away team discover that Data is the creation of Noonien Soong, a brilliant scientist who disappeared after a failed-first-attempt at creating a positronic brain; since that is precisely the type of brain Data possesses, the team rightly concludes that Noonien finally succeeded in achieving his goal. The team also discover a second android that looks exactly like Data, albeit disassembled. Since Data is understandably curious, Riker agrees to take Data’s twin back to the Enterprise to rebuild him.

In a twist that may shock you, Data’s long-lost twin (named Lore) turns out to be evil; he’s also capable of greater emotional expression, including the ability to lie convincingly. It turns out Lore was Noonien’s first android who, prior to being disassembled, summoned a giant crystalline entity from space to consume the colonists. Somewhere along the way, Noonien figured out that his new creation might be a raging psychopath and took Lore apart before building Data (and also before getting eaten). Now free to roam the ship, Lore inevitably betrays and deactivates Data, with the intention of signalling his old Crystaline pal to come eat the Enterprise crew. However, since Wesley is (annoyingly) the most amazing boy in the universe, he’s able to see through Lore’s pretense. With the help of Dr. Crusher, Wesley gets Data back online just in time for the two Androids to duke it out until he can beam Lore into space, (where Picard presumably decides to leave him without any further discussion).

Thoughts

So far ‘Datalore’ has been the best episode of the season. We get some decent world building, a good intro to Data’s evil twin, and nice dose of tension and atmosphere. What’s not to love? Even the moments that feel dated (and there are many) all add to the episode’s charm. There are still a handful of times I had to roll my eyes at specific bits of dialogue, but if the ending had been a little stronger I almost would have considered giving this an extra half-star.

3.5 stars (out of 5)

Stray observations:

Picard’s (mostly) not an asshole: That traumatizing holodeck adventure from last episode must have been more relaxing than expected. For the most part he seems to be in an uncharacteristically encouraging mood towards his crew.

Except Wesley. Picard really lets the kid have it this week. He must still be mad about that time Wesley got impaled and then didn’t die a couple episodes back.

There are some rather pointed scenes where Picard and Co. go out of their way to be exceptionally reasonable and mature about a variety of potentially difficult or awkward subjects (mostly regarding the nature Data and Lore’s sentiency/creation); it would be fine except that they keep commenting on it. My guess is that it’s an example of Gene Roddenberry’s influence, who was known for wanting to avoid depictions of interpersonal conflict between the crew. But personally, I like to think this is a result of HR calling out Picard for his less-than-cordial behaviour from previous episodes, and so now the captain is on his best behaviour, and everyone is acting like it “never even bothered me that much anyway, I heard other people were complaining, but not me.”

Okay I hate to say it but… ugh, Wesley was right. After deactivating Data, Lore masquerades as his brother. The crew test Lore with questions he wouldn’t know the answer to, but they do it in the most easy-to-evade way. It’s pretty unintentionally funny, but means the adults were missing what any child should have been able to (and evidently DID) see.

HAHA! Wesley saves the ship and Picard is like “fine, you can go back to the bridge, now beat it!” Zero apologies of any kind. Excellent. It’s as if even the writers were pissed that Wesley saved the day, and honestly I get that.

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crmsnmth-journal · 26 days

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4/1/2024 10:28 PM

I'll be damned. AHS: Cult got really good in the second half. Apocalypse has been alright so far, but it feels like it's just ripping off Fallout with the Coop stuff. And really feels like odd fan service. I noticed in the opening credits there was a bunch of images from Coven, so I'm assuming they'll be a part of this at some point. Either way, it's alright.

I don't have to go in tomorrow morning. I get to wait until two, which feels almost like having an extra day off. So it feels awesome. I might actually get something done in the morning. It's highly improbable, but there's that chance.

Work was dead. Always is on Monday's. Especially since the league season is almost over. Then we'll be dead for the rest of spring and summer. Hours will get cut, and I will be hunting for a new job. I'm done with shit pay for the work I do. I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I'm good at my job. I enjoy my job for the most part. And I have a nice reputation in town. Evey restaurant knows about me bringing that kitchen back from the dead when Jen left. Jen was…destructive and very very stupid in the kitchen. She somehow talked her into that kitchen and was awful at it. She used to add white wine to alfredo sauce, and not cook it out. I had to explain to her you have to cook the alcohol off, but she swore up and down by her ways. I refused. Eventually, she ended up going into the bar management, was found to be stealing a crap ton from the place and was fired. I took kitchen over, and Mike took over the rest. On paper, it's all him, but everybody knows me there. For someone who doesn't have any stake in the place really, other than it being a part of my life since I was a little kid, I am there way too much. I get that's the life of being a kitchen manager, I get that. But most kitchen manager's aren't making a measly 12/hr. That's it. 12 dollars. My checks are not sustainable. It's going to be super difficult to survive in my own place, and I don't want that. I need to make at least $16/hr to be viable. That's surviving plus a little leg room. I've figured it all out. So once this season has reached it's end, I'm going to find a second part-time job and switch over the summer. Enough's enough.

#journal #my blog #blog #life #my journal #my stuff #my post #my writing #personal #personal blog #slice of life #writing #nonfiction #inner thoughts #personal thoughts

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oliviasturniolo21 · 3 months

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HIII ML HOW ARE YOU

thank you for accepting me as 🎀 anon you're in for a lot of drama and gossip about the people i hate (you don't even know them but eh 🤞😝)

there was this one girl in my school she was like the biggest pick me bitch istg i would physically hurt her if i could and that's a lot considering im usually a calm person 😭😭 so she turned 18 a few days ago but she was talking to this rich guy for almost two years now!!!! crazy if you have only one situationship which lasts 2+ years this guy stays in another city, a city which is like 8 hrs of train away his dad is apparently a politician and owns a club so this guy is always i mean always in the club let's call the girl vee and the guy ray so vees older sister stays in the same city as the guy and through the sister vee and ray got to know each other. ray is 27, turning 28 this year and keep in mind that vee has been talking to him since last two years HE WAS 26 AND TRYING TO GET IN A 16 YR OLDS PANTS?????? TOTALLY CRAZY IF YOU ASK ME BUT MY OPINION REALLY DOESN'T MATTER HERE 👎👎 and ray posts really uncomfortable and scandalous pictures with new girls every two days on instagram 😟😟😟 (mom i'm scared) idk how and why vee is still talking w him it's clear that he doesn't give a fuck about vee he's been seeing others but this girl omg she has made ray her entire personality i mean you're seeing the crazy photos he posts everyday he's not having those girls over to play chess yk what's happening yet she always goes around talking about how ray and her are the couple goals (gurl😹😹😹)

fun fact her parents have almost disowned her elder sister which is so not common in my culture so i lowkey wanna know what shit the elder sister pulled 😭🙏

anyways, how was your dayyyy

🎀 (so coquette omg)

I’m so sorry i took a nap and just saw this now lmao😭 BUT OMGGG, WOW. (i love the drama so y’all gotta keep updating me 🫶)

#🎀 anon!#oliviasturniolo21 #liv_writes #sturniolo #sturniolo triplets #chris sturniolo #nick sturniolo #matt sturniolo #madi filipowicz #chris girl #madison beer

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bisexualamy · 6 months

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Transition Update #65: One week post-op phallo (part 1) Cliff Notes

Hey what's up it's your recently bedicked boy. I'm sleepy but I like having these records for both myself and others so I'm gonna do some bullet points. This is gonna be very casual.

I had my first post-op yesterday but I have another one in a week so I'm gonna talk about both of them together.

As a reminder here's the phallo stage list (this ref is a lot easier than me trying to re-explain what they did, bc I am not a surgeon and idk what the official names of any of this is called). Italicized stages are completed stages.

Stage 0: hysto and partial vgectomy (done back in January) Stage 1: meta, UL creation, complete vgectomy, “tee up” stage 2 so I can spend as little time on the table as possible Stage 2: take the graft and create the phallus Stage 3: scrotoplasty, glandsplasty, finish UL Stage 4: erectile device, finish scrotoplasty and glandsplasty

I am technically 10 days post-op but eh it's basically the same. I spent three nights in the hospital before they discharged me. I've been home for almost a week now and I'm happy to be here. The nurses and hospital staff overall treated me very nicely and I had as positive an experience as I think you can have in a hospital.

I am able to stand and walk around on my own but not for very long. I get fatigued if I'm not able to rest for most of the day. Sitting is still very painful so I am usually standing (infrequently) or lying down/slouching in bed.

Overall I'm not in a lot of pain and I've been managing my pain mainly through a lot of advil and tylenol.

I have a catheter and I've had one since day 1. It's coming out next week so that'd be 16 days post op. The catheter doesn't hurt very much if I maneuver it into the correct place but I like to be able to hold the catheter bag myself and empty it myself bc I know how to do it in a way that isn't painful.

My body has not somatically caught up w the fact that I have a dick yet. It took it a few days to realize that I didn't have my other parts anymore. My pelvic floor muscles were very confused and were involuntarily contracting a lot the first 48 hrs which was unpleasant but they've since stopped. Most of the time it kinda feels like I have nothing. I'm wondering if the catheter is also party of the reason for that.

The surgical team says I'm healing super well and on the faster side, which is awesome to hear.

I got to see my dick for the first time yesterday and it was super cool! It looks like a dick!! (Like a pre-puberty dick but that's kind of what they were going for to tee up the rest of the phallo). I did not have a true metadioplasty. I had a partial meta and full vgectomy but they left a lot of the surrounding external tissue from the old parts to help with the next stage (I believe). If I had a true meta everything would be much more dick-like.

The surgical team also says my UL went super well and once they take the catheter out they said I can try peeing standing up!! Which is so cool!!!!

The gender euphoria has not set in yet bc of all the medical stuff that is sort of interfering with my ability to relearn my body. I was warned by friends this would happen so I'm trying to take it in stride.

Anyway that's all folks.

#transition stuff

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aviatrix-ash · 1 year

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I have no idea where I'm going to be this time next year. I'll be fully certified to maintain planes by the summer, and tho I will likely get my start playing with the flight school's planes sometime in the next few months when I get my Airframe license, if all works out, I may get with the local cargo planes after- but there's a high chance the airlines might snatch me up. I have little desire to go into the airlines, ngl, but I may if they bribe me enough, which will end up having to be pretty damn nice bribe cause I already known what the cargo guys have on the table. The offers I've seen from 3 of the biggest airlines so far are extremely lowballed in comparison. 😆Even then, I would still prefer to get into NOAA's Hurricane Hunter base. 😏

They say the airlines are desperate for A&Ps cause most of the people they had the last 20-40 years are retiring rn. + at the beginning of 'rona when all the airlines were grounded, they made thousands of their employees retire, 3 of my teachers in the last year were among em. It's kinda funny, one of teachers said they legit offered him 20k cash to retire on the spot early 2020, so of course he took that, I don't blame him! Tho now they're calling him up during class to come back to work. He turns it down each time cause even tho he's worked for em for 30 years, they keep offering their starting wages (16-18/hr depending on day or overnights) and he's like "I'm not squeezing into fuel tanks again for that!"

When the CEO of that one airline stopped by my class last month to whine about how he can't get any mechanics, but his wages would start at less than what I made in retail and top off at about the same as what I could make in any local warehouse. Like bruh, you want me to be held responsible for thousands and thousands of lives for that and I'd have to move to one of the most expensive cities in the US?? Nah bruh.🙃 Ngl tho, it's kinda nice getting to call some shots as the worker for once. Some of my old coworkers see it as stingy but the sheer level of liability and real consequences that can come if there'sa fuck up makes you think twice. Every older aircraft mechanic I've talked to say they keep a lawyer on speed dial, the companies and the feds will try to do everything in their power to make their job easy and fuck over the easiest person to get. And keeping good personal records of the work you did on a plane can be the only thing keeping you from being charged for murder. One of the museum guys I volunteer with said it almost happened to him because the airline had lost records of a repair someone else after him did. I've seen my Airframe instructor break down after retelling some of her legal battles. & my powerplant teacher says🔺️ deleted lots of old records back in 2011- the big airline that still flies jets that are 30+ years old. In normal US court of law you're innocent until proven guilty, with the FAA you're guilty of crashing a plane with 200 people on it until proven otherwise. Yah, not playing that game. I love aviation with all my being, but imo that type of stuff is more scary than flying any clapped out 1960s flight school shitbox plane. + yah, I highly value my free time and wellbeing, but I know exactly how dangerous this work can get and just what kind of toll it will take on me in time. My options are practically endless rn when I get that card, so I'm going to go with what's best for me. ((':

#planeposting #yah this was a derailed train #oh well

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porcupine-girl · 2 years

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Update on my covidness. Covidity?

I'm at 4 weeks since I got sick.

I count last Monday, July 25, as the first day I wasn't actually sick anymore, so I was actively sick-sick for like 17 days. But the fatigue has barely let up - I've had a couple good days but they're usually followed by really bad days. I can basically do One Thing a day, such as helping with dinner or going with my husband to the grocery store (which turned out to be a mistake and wore me WAY out, but I hadn't left the house in three weeks and was desperate).

It's especially bad in my arms - some days my legs feel like I could probably take a walk (I haven't dared yet) but doing almost anything with my arms is exhausting. After the trip to the grocery store, where my husband did most of the work, I was reduced to playing games on my iPad one-handed, switching out hands as each one wore out.

So that's where I am now. Four weeks in I'm not sick, but I'm also hardly capable of doing anything. If this happened during the semester IDK what I would do - I have video lectures from when we were remote that I can use, but I couldn't even fucking grade in the state I'm in.

The only thing I can compare it to is when I was undergoing chemo 18 years ago. It feels so much like that sometimes it's creepy. The way I would be doing okay and then suddenly go way downhill in a matter of minutes - that happened the one time I tried to eat at a restaurant. (Our anniversary was while I was still sick-sick, and the kid was at camp for a week so since I wasn't sick-sick last Friday I was like okay I can sit in a booth and eat for an hour. And I did, and was tired but hanging in there, but around the time we ordered dessert I just crashed.)

The arm tiredness is also similar to chemo. The way some days typing or holding a book is too much for my arms, and holding a video game controller in my lap is the best I can do (I have played a LOT of ACNH let me tell you).

Anyhow. In case anyone was wondering. I really hope this lets up a bit before classes start in 2.5 weeks!

A full recap of the past four weeks under the cut:

I think my husband & son picked it up at the July 4 parade, which was a Monday. They got sick Wednesday/Thursday. Thursday night I wasn't quite sick but I felt the way I always do right before I get sick so I knew it was coming.

Friday, July 8 was the first day I was definitely sick, fever and all. (I will note that although 100.4 is technically the "fever" cutoff, my baseline body temp tends to be around 97-97.5 instead of 98.6 so I consider anything above 99 as a fever, and even though my immune system is messed up and I'm sick way more than my husband or kid it's still pretty damn rare for me to get a fever even by that measure.) Saturday my temp got up to like 101.5, when I still had a fever Sunday I tested and was positive for Covid.

At that point I thought to test my sense of smell and realized it was mostly gone. My husband realized that the problems he'd been having since his brief sickness Wednesday/Thursday were all due to covid brain fog.

Monday, July 11 I went to a grocery store clinic and got a positive test there and a prescription for Paxlovid. Took Paxlovid like a good girl for five days, but by the time I was done with it I still had a fever and was still testing positive (I tested 24 hrs after my last dose, so on Saturday July 16). I'm assuming it prevented me from getting worse, at least, but I did NOT have the miraculous "I started feeling better two days into Paxlovid!" experience that I've heard from so many others.

Finally that Sunday, the 17th, my temp dropped below 99 and stayed that way. So I had a fever for about 9-10 days straight. I was still very definitely sick, though. My bones still hurt all the time, my sinuses were a mess, headaches on and off, and I had the general "sick feeling" that is often the only symptom I get. My sense of smell and taste were still off, though smell was at least returning. I finally tested negative on Saturday, July 23 but I was still sick for another day or two.

#pg irl

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luisashorizons · 1 year

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8 dicembre – Back ‘home’ in Le Marche

Well we’re back in Le Marche after visiting my family up north. It’s been a wonderful trip with quite a few adventures experienced over ten days. There is so much to describe that I’ve split this update into two posts: the first will touch on our visit to the Trentino–Alto Adige region; the second will cover our visit to Veneto.

NB: In order to protect the privacy of family members, I am not including their names or photos in my blog, other than Allan that is.

Trentino–Alto Adige

The Trentino-Alto Adige province of Italy is the northern most province of Italy – it’s the province of mountains including parts of the Dolomites and the Alps. The province is bounded by Austria and was, in fact, part of Austria prior to WWI. Something I hadn’t known before this visit was that Italian was the language most commonly spoken in the Trentino region, even when it was part of Austria. In contrast, German was the language of Alto-Adige and it remains an important language in this region.

My family here is linked to Mum’s two older sisters who had moved to Brentonico for work soon after WWII. Zia Angelina was 16 and Zia Maria must have been around 14 when they left Laghi to travel to this beautiful village high in the mountains between the Adige valley and Lago di Garda. And in all likelihood they walked over the mountains to get there.

Travelling to Brentonico was our first experience of driving on the autostrada during this trip. Allan loved it! He very quickly got the hang of travelling at 130kms/hr and zipping past trucks and slower cars. It was, however, very disconcerting to have cars whizzing past us at times, likely traveling at 150km/hr or more.

In total we spent 4 lovely days in Brentonico, visiting family and seeing some of the sites. We had a series of wonderful meals, good wine, and cheese (the gorgonzola with mascarpone cheese is ‘to die for’). The company was delightful each time; we shared many laughs together and stories together.

In the interests of keeping this blog to a manageable length, I’ll list just some of the adventures we experienced on this part of our trip.

The Mercanti di Natale

We had the chance to visit two Christmas markets during our stay, including the famous Mercatino di Natale in Trento. It was a magical experience exploring the Christmas stalls, drinking Brulé and taking in the Christmas lights.

The second Mercatino di Natale was at Bolzano – we wandered through these markets several times as we found our way around the centre of Bolzano. German is the most common language spoken in this part of Italy which led to some interesting experiences interacting with others and ordering some lunch.

A day in the snow

On Sunday we joined one of my cousins and his family on a snow sledding day. In the morning we made our way up to the top of Monte Vignola through snow that, at times, reached our knees. After a delicious picnic and hot coffee in the refreshing wind on top of the mountain, we made our way down the other side of the mountain; the three teenagers going down on their sleds while the adults walked and, at times, slid down on their backsides (I think that was just Allan and I). I did hitch two rides with one of the teens which while a bit scary was also a lot of fun. The second ride was towards the bottom of the mountain and quite steep so we went down very fast. We were almost at the bottom when we hit a section of soft snow - the sled slammed to a sudden stop and I went flying forward landing face first in the snow. Thankfully no one was around to take any photos of me sprawled, like a back-to-front snow angel! It was hilarious and it took some time for me to stop laughing (and to get my glasses cleared and the snow out of my shoes).

And to finish off the day: another delicious meal which started with canederli (bread and speck balls cooked in broth, a dish I love and will make again when we get back to Australia) and a delightful ‘concert’ put on by two of my younger cousins who are learning to play the piano accordion.

A visit to see Ötzi, the ‘Iceman’

The following day we joined another cousin on a day trip to Bolzano by train. Allan and I took the opportunity to go and see Ötzi, also known as the Iceman, at the Bolzano Museum of Archaeology. Ötzi lived sometime between 3,350 and 3,105 years ago and his mummified remains were discovered in Sept 1991 in the Ötztal Alps which are located along the border between Italy and Austria (there was some consideration about in which country he had been found, but careful border investigations proved that his remains were found 100 metres in on the Italian side of the border). The exhibition is certainly worthwhile seeing if you’re ever in Bolzano; you can see the remnants of Ötzi’s clothes, backpack, snowshoes, and weapons, along with some very useful information derived from successive analysis of the mummy over the years. This has uncovered a wealth of details about his diet and last meal, where he likely lived, previous injuries and the state of his body at death including his teeth.

We eventually also found the mummified body which can be observed through a small window. The parallel lines which had been tattooed into Ötzi’s legs were clearly visible; apparently 9 out of the 19 groups of tattoos found on the body correspond to acupunctural areas that are used today while most of the other groups are on meridians, other acupunctural areas of the body or over arthritic joints. Keep in mind that Ötzi lived abut 2,000 years before the previously known earliest use of acupuncture points in China.

Rovereto and the Campana dei Caduti

I have visited the Campana dei Caduti (the Bell of the Fallen or ‘Maria Dolens’) several times on previous visits to Rovereto but this visit touched me very deeply. It was a local priest, Don Antonio Rossaro, who shortly after the end of WWI had the idea to construct this massive bell as a way to remember all the fallen. The original bell was cast with the bronze of the cannons of the nations which had participated in the Great War and was inaugurated in Nov 1925. The bell has been recast several times since then, including in 1960 after a serious and irreparable crack appeared. The current bell was cast in 1965.The Campana dei Caduti is the largest bell in the world to sound at full peal and it rings out 100 times each day at dusk “as a testimony of world peace”; hence my sadness as humanity hasn’t yet been able to work out how to achieve and maintain world peace (or a world free from hunger).

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tashabilities · 2 years

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KJ said he could send his engineer,

But he charges $300/hr

I would only need him for an hour, so fine, what's the number?

Then, he started talking down to me about me being frustrated and I don't need help and it's simple,

So I told him get off my phone and he hung up.

Called everybody, checked all the things

Got on the phone with Apple at 2:30 and stayed on the phone testing all the things for almost an hour

And the girl said it very well could be this brand new computer I just took out the box.

And I STILL need a DAW.

After KJ pissed me off, I emailed Luther and he said $80 remote, $100 in person and I told him save ya gas and cash apped him, done.

KJ got on the phone tryna be prohibitive--I been doing this shit 16 years and have never known an engineer to charge that damn much.

I can pay it, but like I said,

I just asked the wrong nigga.

Lemme holla at my nice, agreeable li'l biracial friend! LOL

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7ringsofidgaf · 16 days

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Gonna try the OMAD “diet” and see what happens. Only eating lunch with an hour window to do so. Completed a 16 hr 44 mi fast, and broke it with a fish taco that was around 500 cals. Coffee was almost 100 so I have 400 cals remaining.

Trying to aim for 1000 cals a day just to get me back into things, but going to aim to keep it high protein so I’m fuller longer. Gonna make a smoothie towards the end of my hour window (starts at 11:40) and if I have enough room I’ll add eggs. Weight this morning was 232.0 even

My husband took the car to work since I slept in, so I’ll go for a walk when he’s back

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gotbamb00zled · 5 months

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how I got into IT with "zero" experience

Someone in one of my discords was wondering why people say things like "here's how I become a web developer with no experience." I wanted to rant about it, but Discord did not like how verbose I got. This is my story of how I was surprised to get into IT with having (almost no professional) experience. in my case, I wallowing in covid depression, but I got a CompTIA A+ cert because I wanted to get into cybersecurity. I studied for maybe 1-2 months but could have done it faster. Getting the cert was easy for me but I've been using Windows since the early 90s.

I was taking some online courses from TCM (Cyber Mentor Academy). Great resource for affordable education. Anyway, I saw listings for IT support jobs. One was a company where you give over the phone support to repairmen for those filtered water dispensers you see in offices…one was IT support for healthcare providers…

The dispenser support interview was first. I didn't perform well at the interview, but they seemed desperate to hire someone so they offered me the job despite my clear lack of enthusiasm for what they do. Then, after a phone interview with the healthcare place, I got offered that job. The water job was horrible pay and not full time. The healthcare job was I think $16/hr. Sounded stressful.

I was shocked when I got home and saw a contractor for Sandia Labs IT support wanted to Zoom call interview me. We did the interview maybe the next day. I didn't feel like I was doing that well in the interview but they seemed interested and we got along well. Toward the end, they paused for a bit and seemed to be chatting to each other via DMs. They sounded like they were gonna say "Well…we still have more people to interview" but instead they said "Well…I think you'd be a good fit."

The pay was triple what I made at my last job, plus extra for a health savings account. Had benefits, dental, vision, $300/year you could spend on any type of fitness gear or gym memberships and it would be reimbursed. Other benefits on top of that. Every supervisor there was supportive and working to get us promoted to a position working directly inside Sandia rather than being stuck as a contractor. We were all in the process of getting security clearances which opens tons of doors especially for cybersecurity.

Long story but I ended up quitting that job for various reasons. But I'm still amazed they gave me a chance…amazed that just studying for a month or so and getting one cert led to them giving me a 2nd chance after 2-3 years with no jobs on my resume.

I realize I'm a white seemingly cisgender male and because of that, I have an easier time of navigating the chaos life than most do. Sure, bipolar still throws me off quite a bit, but I was convinced they would never hire me for that Sandia job. Convinced I'd have to go work at some call center or grocery store again making $9 an hour and having constant back and shoulder pain from all the phsyical labor.

Seek out free or affordable education. Not sure if this is still true, but TechHire used to cover tuition for the Deep Dive Coding bootcamps that CNM offers. And there's Cultivate Coders still…? Not 100% sure if they're still around. But the resources are out there on YouTube or sites like gamedev.tv or GameDevHQ or Udemy.

Pursue what stimulates you intellectually. That might be music for one person and UI coding for another. Don't let your parents or your game dev idols convince you you're not going down a viable path. Do you think people thought Tim Schafer taking a risk and founding Double Fine was "viable"? Was John Carmack and George Romero quitting their lucrative day jobs to make Doom "a smart move"? No. But Carmack and Romero knew they could achieve their goals and they took that risk.

Sometimes, those risks in game dev don't pay off. Maybe funding falls through or a publisher backs out on a deal. Maybe the cost of living increase to move to another city and work at that studio makes it unrealistic. But covid changed how we think about work-life balance. My brother went from having to drive 1 hour to work and 1 hour back every day in LA before and during covid to mostly working from home.

Again, I'm not trying to sound like I'm humble bragging.

I'm 34…I live with my parents…I'm on disability…let's just say I have to pull up my bank app and double check I have enough money to cover a purchase more than I'd like.

But so what? I'm going to orientation to volunteer at a local nonrprofit helping the homeless find housing and jobs tomorrow. Sure, there will be no pay. But I'll wake up ready to help people find stability in their life and take the bus home glad I was able to help.

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