this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I spent a lot of time with my now wife and met my best friends

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

I got diagnosed with ADHD, BPD, and autism. Then promptly lost my health insurance so I can't actually, you know, do anything about the above.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I worked a ton of overtime and bought two luxury watches.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 days ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I got bottom surgery about a year into the pandemic, that was, well a really brutal time because I also had bedbugs, moved, and returned to work in the same 6 week timeframe

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

I started transitioning 2 years before the pandemic, but it was still nice to be at home and not having to deal with people in person. Lots of people were and still are not very accepting of my transition.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago

A shutdown very well spent!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The full remote time during the pandemic allowed me to slowly update my profile pic for work until people started asking me what my pronouns were.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago

I was getting ready to come out to my sister in like late 2021, she had a really bad motorcycle accident and we were catching up and it seemed like the right time to tell her.

then she started talking about how a near death experience made her start re-evaluating some things, and then she came out to me and it was the fucking spiderman pointing meme. Both of us moved to WFH after covid hit so the timing makes sense, but it was such a wonderful coincidence.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I grew bitter and resentful towards people who complained about how hard it was to work from home and all the downtime they had while I had to trudge into “critical” work everyday for low pay.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That does suck, I also grew bitter and resentful to all the people with families being like “oh I got fit and healthy and spent time with my loved ones” while I went over 3 months without a single face to face conversation with anyone…

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

My cousin's wife divorced him after 6 months to move to her home country. Her stated reason was that during lockdown, she was isolated from her friends and family, and she couldn't handle being alone again.

It was hard on all of us but...uh...what does she think the rest of us single people did?

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Where's the "I started half a dozen hobbies and projects and didnt really stick to any of them" character?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Probably at [email protected] 🤷

Though tbf, we also tend to do that when there's no shutdown 😁

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

hm. i should book that appointment some time eh

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Can you book one for me, too? I've been telling myself to do that for over a year now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (5 children)

i uh. yeah. a year. a year or two ago i went to an initial eval to get a recommendation for therapy. Doc told me it makes sense to find a spot since i have so much trouble getting tasks started that it impacts my day to day function.

Guess what I didn't do with that recommendation?

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[–] ruckblack 62 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I got drunk a lot and called it "getting into making cocktails"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

And now people say I have a problem. I don’t have a problem. You have a problem.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I always struggle with the "shutdown" timeframe. Partly because I have a shit sense of time, but mostly because nothing really changed for me.

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[–] ZombiFrancis 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

After years of being told teleworking was an impossbility, I was sent home to work and didn't even miss an hour on my timesheet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

My whole office went to WFH as soon as the pandemic started, the plan was to move back to the physical office as soon as possible, but there was so much resistance in the company that eventually the owners sold off the building and we never went back.

As for productivity, I was in charge of transitioning my team and ensuring they weren't slacking. I had the exact opposite problem with 9/10 out of them, mostly everyone was working too late and putting in time off the clock just because they were bored. We ran out of work to do every week and started taking on new tasks for other teams.

Except Terry, he got a second job and tried to work both at the same time. He never appeared on camera in our meetings because he was at his other employer. It took me a bit to figure out something was off, when I confronted him he abruptly quit. He was a sour and deeply repressed dude and after he left everyone celebrated.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Furry guy needs more confidence.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

Oh my gosh, I had 2 kids, went back to college, rocketed my fledgling IT career forward and gained a mortgage during the pandemic. Granted I probably would've done all those things without the pandemic, but many of the pandemic era policies helped make each of those steps much easier than they normally would have been

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 days ago (9 children)

I work in retail so the only thing that changed for me during the pandemic was my level of anxiety.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Can someone ELI5 me the whole furry thing? Is this a community, is this a sexual thing? Is it an American thing?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

ELI5

Furries are people who enjoy dressing up as or creating characters based on anthropomorphic animals, which are animals that have human-like traits such as walking on two legs, talking, or wearing clothes. These characters might be foxes, wolves, cats, or any other animal but with a personality or appearance that feels human-like.

Some furries create artwork, write stories, or role-play as these characters online, while others might dress up in costumes called "fursuits" to bring their characters to life in the real world. It’s a hobby and a community that’s mostly about creativity, imagination, and expressing yourself through these animal characters.

Is this a community, is this a sexual thing?

It can be either or both. I think for the most part it is community though. For some it starts as one and then expands into the other. For me it really is a lot about self discovery & self expression, SFW & NSFW, and makes me feel more connected to the world.

Or to put it in mature comic form: https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/furry/

Is it an American thing?

No, European here with quite some insight. I think the map in the other post is slightly misleading, as bigger countries like the US have more conventions than smaller countries is kind of obvious.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask 😊 I will do my best to offer my perspective on this.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

ofc. Furries are crestive people who enjoy art/litterature/etc. about anthromorphic animals(like werewolves!). A lot of us have our own characters/personas that we create as a avatar of ourselves or to express our creativity and aspects of our identity on a character. This is called a fursona. Now since the only criteria is to enjoy anthromorphic animals(aka furries) there is a lot of range. A lot of us enjoy dressing up as our characters on furcons like people who dress up as their favorite character at comicon. And this interest in furries/anthromorphic amimals/werewolfesque characters can be sexual too for a lot of people. (of course this doesn't have to be) It is just a very big welcoming community of creatives and fans of anthromorphic characters. Hope this helps

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

One possible reason from many is that it's fun to not be human because humans aren't so great to each other. Look into the link between autism and identifying as non-human (there are multiple ways of doing so).

Signed, an autistic being who does not feel emotionally attached to being a human, but is not a furry.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

re “is it an american thing,” someone else will have to field the rest of your question

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

counterpoint, America is big, has atrocious public transport, and though furries that can afford suits can probably also afford flights, there's plenty who cannot afford either, or just pick one

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's for the safety of IT departments everywhere that furries' need for travel is limited

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There could also maybe be $50,000 worth of fursuits there too

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

🤘 Lol, double or triple it. 😅

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Compare with a GDP per capita map. I'm not an economist, but it appears furries are wealth 📈

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Am not a furry, and would also love an explanation. I mean, I ain't knocking whatever it is that gets someone through this world. It can be a very hard, very cruel place, and it dressing up as a electric blue armadillo makes someone happy, and allows them to find people they vibe with, I'm super happy for them. But dagnabbit, I'd really love to understand it. Haha

Also, I know 2 Australian furries and 1 swiss furry, so I'm guessing not an American thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I approve of an electric blue armadillo fursona. Would probably look pretty cool actually

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That was my thought process. "what's the coolest animal/color combo?" Obviously electric blue armadillo. It's like a little knight in armor, but electric blue, and looks deceptively cuddly

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Believe it or not this is exactly how most furries make their fursona

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also, I've just realized, armadillos aren't furry. Can a non furry animal be someone's fursona? (That's the term, right?) Or is there another term? A... Skinny? Shelly?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, definitely. Furry encompasses basically anything that's a non-human anthropomorphic creature. I've seen fursonas based on birds, sharks, dolphins, turtles, rhinos, dinos, frogs, hippos, orcas, dragons, reptiles, plant creatures... hell, there are alien species like sergals and avalis, anthro/machine hybrids like protogens, and even entirely robotic characters.

It's just called furry because furred species are the most common, and the original community that splintered off from sci-fi conventions in the 70s and 80s and grew through fanzines pre-Internet largely used furred species for their characters. ("Fun" fact, the early community had a lot of skunk characters, which is why one of the first derogatory terms for furries was "skunkfucker.")

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That's interesting! That's for the info!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, shit, am I having a literal "this better not awaken anything in me" moment? Lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Honestly, don't stress yourself out over it, and keep an open mind. It might not be your cup of tea, and that's perfectly fine--there undoubtedly is a large sexual aspect to furry, and lots of folks (especially folks who are cisgender, heterosexual, have a less relaxed view about sexuality, etc.--not to say that you can't be a straight male furry, but there are a LOT of gay/bi furries) may find it to be a dealbreaker. Ultimately, furry has its roots in the nerd and geek communities, back when being nerdy or geeky was something to be bullied over, and it still shows it today.

Furry is a community that has a disproportionate number of LGBT+ folks, neurodivergent folks (especially people on the ADHD/autism spectrum), and other marginalized groups. Among many things, this means it revels in being proudly and unabashedly weird, both as a celebration of itself and as a defense mechanism against becoming overwhelmed by the kinds of business interests that would love nothing more than to push out all the sexuality and weirdness to provide a safe space for advertisers to shovel their slop down our throats.

If that sounds like something you'd enjoy being a part of, then I'd suggest checking out some places like the furry_irl subreddit, looking up streamers under the furry tag on Twitch (Skaifox, WhiskeyDing0, etc.), maybe make an account on FurAffinity, and look up furmeets or conventions in your area you can attend. You might not like it, or you might find yourself joining the best community I've ever been part of.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was more joking than anything. I'm probably not going to get deep into it, if for no other reason that I am deeply uncomfortable with being... Like... Visible, or seen, or existing when people know I'm existing, and I don't want to have to explain a large purchase for an Armadillo head to my mom. Lol

But also, I am very much so not straight, and only nominally cisgendered most of the time. Lol. And my shrink thinks I'm probably somewhere on the spectrum, so there's that, too. Lol. I'm not opposed to kink or sexual aspects of a group. I've been known to be a bit freaky when I manage to crawl out of my Hermitage for the day. Lol. But conventions and groups and, like, people just aren't my thing most of the time, y'know?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I mean, you don't have to go full-blown fursuit and conventions if you don't want to. Most furries never actually bother with fursuiting--speaking from personal experience, it's hot as shit (especially outdoors or in summer), you can barely see or hear anything, and if you wear glasses they're prone to getting knocked off your nose or fogging up so badly that you can't see anything. Many fursonas exist exclusively in artwork or stories--either commissioned or self-drawn--and even that's optional.

You don't even have to actively participate in the community if you don't want to. Many furries are passive members who just follow artists, lurk in streams or group chats, occasionally leave a comment on a submission, and generally exist in furry spaces. Literally the only requirement to be a furry is to say you're a furry!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Some people started businesses. Some people turned their entire house into a Lego garden.

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