I don't bother socializing because, frankly, the crowd I’m surrounded by isn't worth my time. If I actually cared about having company, I probably would have—but I've officially given up on wasting massive amounts of gas 62 miles just to go out and find people, especially when that same group doesn't even appreciate the effort. They couldn't care less. Let them come to me instead (they won't, though—don't hold your breath, you cheapskates).
Gerald Chavez7 said:We're likely looking at a pretty nasty wave—not necessarily in scale, just because everyone tends to catch it all at once—but it should be over quick. Honestly, I still have a feeling we'll be through the worst of it by March 15th.
Dr. Coetzee argues that Omicron’s impact is significantly milder than Delta’s—essentially claiming the whole thing is just a massive case of manufactured hysteria.
I’m looking for some advice here—how can I actually enjoy watching movies while winding down for bed without absolutely wrecking my lower back or dealing with constant spinal issues?
On top of everything else I just listed, there are things I’m already doing—like being constantly stuck in my own head whenever I’m not working (and honestly, even when I am sleeping... lol). Anyway, thanks for the advice <3 regarding the acting and creative side; I actually have a few ideas brewing despite how crazy things are right now—it’s just that getting started is the hardest part. My real struggle, though, is trying to wrap my head around my current reality—I don't even know how to put it into words. I'm facing so much external pressure: obviously, I have to work—that goes without saying—but because this specific job keeps being offered to me, I find it incredibly hard to accept. I’m the only one at this company with a college degree—there are over a hundred employees here—so I am massively overqualified... and it just eats at me constantly. I can't stop thinking, "What am I even doing here?" Even my coworkers pick up on it and ask me what's going on—they try to be subtle about it, but they aren't nearly as successful as they think they are.
My family is putting the most pressure on me. Ever since I got laid off, they've been making these frequent accusations that I’m mentally unstable, simply because I keep switching jobs. If I lived in any other part of the US, this kind of career pivoting would be considered totally normal. Instead, they hit me with this constant guilt-tripping, dragging up things from four years ago like, "Oh, if you had just stayed at that old job, you'd be doing fine right now." As if it isn't enough that I'm already constantly beating myself up over the past. In times like these, I don't know how to truly become independent, but I need to feel secure in my own income—because right now, I’m only half-independent, living in a rental apartment that I don't even pay for myself...
I originally intended to stay quiet and not post anything—but honestly, I don't care anymore. I’m here to see if I can pull any actual, intelligent advice from this thread or maybe figure out what I can do to improve my situation.
Lately, there's been this persistent, low-level feeling dragging me down—I won't go so far as to give it a clinical label, but to put it bluntly: it's total emptiness. I'm stuck in a job I absolutely loathe, all my hobbies are effectively on indefinite hold... and I find myself constantly stuck in this mental loop, obsessively rewinding the tape and wallowing in nostalgia, thinking about how much better things used to be.
To give you some context: the career I actually enjoyed—working in the hospitality and tourism industry—has essentially vanished due to the pandemic. Even my hobbies have dried up; I used to play recreational basketball with a regular group, but that's gone too. My other passion was amateur acting—there are still some local community theater plans floating around for a revival, but for now, there is absolutely nothing happening.
The worst part is the delayed realization—I’m constantly looking back and seeing just how much better my previous life was, especially regarding the work I did. I feel this void opening up inside me, and I have no idea how to fill it, what to pursue, or how to rebuild myself. Being unemployed for a long stretch was mentally taxing enough, but being trapped in this current job—which doesn't suit my personality even one percent—is significantly worse. I am literally dreaming about work when I'm not working, which is exhausting, yet I have zero other options because finding decent employment in America right now feels nearly impossible.
To make matters worse, I completely miscalculated my timeline for traveling. I had this "we'll deal with it later" attitude, thinking it would be an easy step outside my comfort zone—even regarding looking for work abroad—and now I'm plagued by guilt, compounded by the sheer uncertainty of when this whole COVID mess will finally end (not that anyone actually knows).
I honestly feel like I'm the only one left stranded in this "hopelessness," because almost everyone I know seems to have their jobs, their social circles... everything is back to normal for them. I'm constantly dealing with this sense of incompleteness and those "bad butterflies" in my stomach, and I have no clue how to manage it—especially since things are incredibly awkward within my own family right now (though I won't get into that).
How do I change this narrative and actually adapt to the reality of the situation?
Look, everything is configured exactly how it should be. I actually thought about locking this thread because an IT buddy of mine has been tweaking some settings via TeamViewer, but the issue is still hanging over my head. Ever since he applied those changes, YouTube has been running significantly smoother—no complaints there—but now I’ve stumbled onto a new headache that only seems to trigger when I'm online for extended periods. Yesterday, I was watching a movie through a streaming service and the entire system just completely froze up after about an hour and a half of playback. It was such a massive freeze that I could barely even manage to restart the Dell Inspiron. If I’m watching something offline, everything works perfectly fine. I suppose I should mention that my version of Windows 10 isn't technically an official license, and I can't say for certain if that's playing a role here. All I know is that for a laptop this brand new, this kind of behavior during online tasks is absolutely unacceptable.
Alright, look—I was planning on holding off on posting anything else, but this situation is eating at me so much right from the jump that I just have to get it out there. I picked up a brand new Dell Inspiron, and the guy who sold it to me loaded Windows 10 onto it. It’s got an SSD, so it boots up lightning fast... and honestly, looking at it generally, there aren't any immediate issues with basic operation. But for me, the absolute dealbreaker is how YouTube is behaving:
-The animations are sluggish—not catastrophically slow, but the video itself keeps stuttering. -When I have an autoplay playlist running, if I try to skip to a different track after a few songs, I inevitably run into a "Not Responding" error.
I even tried switching over to Edge to see if it was a browser issue, but the results seem identical. Usually, I’m a Chrome user.
A buddy of mine who knows his way around computers actually hopped on via TeamViewer to try and hunt down some missing drivers, but it feels exactly the same as before—constant stuttering.
I am beyond frustrated that I'm dealing with these kinds of headaches when I've barely turned this laptop on twice. Does anyone have a clue what the catch is here, or should I just bite the bullet and reinstall Windows?
Top-tier band—from those early North American classics all the way through her recent holiday hits with Isabella, this vocalist is absolutely killing it...