SilverJackal on 2/11/2020 at 17:50
Now normally making a post like this doesn't really cross my mind.
Yet with the virus I can't help to think of others and their mental health.
Are you guys doing okay?
I can't really say so for myself because I got tangled up into some strange bedfellows.
So far I lost several loved ones. One including someone who I've known for 20 years.
Yet here I am helping an... interesting figure by the name of the infamous Chris Hansen.
I can't help to wonder if everyone here is okay. On my end work is work and I do all I can
to assure that my recent... client? Is doing well.
I know everyone has had a rough 2020. Have you been okay? I've been all over the place
emotions wise. Not just because of all those we lost, but with keeping myself together.
It makes me feel better if I check in with others. I hope everyone's metal health is well.
Please don't feel discouraged to interact with others here. We're all in this together.
Do you have a story? Are you doing well? What about those around you? How about...
How about in general? Are you feeling a little more than isolated? Feel free to talk.
I'll be here as often as I can.
~SJ
june gloom on 3/11/2020 at 07:20
2020 is just the cherry on top of the worst decade of my life.
SubJeff on 3/11/2020 at 08:45
Honestly, for me it's been fine. Annoying, but fine. In fact it's worked out well in some areas as I've been working from home from March and will be until next year so I've ditched the commuting and had more time with family. The social isolation has sucked, but we've coped.
PigLick on 3/11/2020 at 14:43
a roaring space phoenix two steps back from the precipice of insanity taking a big fat dump on the niceties of polite society
Briareos H on 3/11/2020 at 15:02
Not too great, existentially. Things are objectively fine in my heavily privileged life but it's difficult to look at the world without seeing regression everywhere in the physical space. It's very subjective but I hardly see any society driven by progress and vision on the topics I care about and it's bringing me down. It might be a side effect of age, but with manipulation, lies and hate being so ubiquitous I find it hard to feel intellectually safe.
Even nice and exciting stuff in the virtual world (e.g. activism, crypto art, games) don't manage to detract from the feeling that we are going nowhere.
Thirith on 3/11/2020 at 15:14
Right now, not great. It's a combination of different things: while it's not as bad as it was years ago, I still tend to have a depressive slump pretty regularly every three months. The usual 2020 grind definitely adds to it, added to which we're on a semi-lockdown, which means that the things that got me out of the house are not available at the moment. Finally, being stuck at home most of the day makes me keenly more aware that it's completely dark outside until after 7am and by 5:15 it's dark yet again - which never got to me as much when I had things to do in the evening, but now it does.
At the same time, I'm healthy, so is my wife, and so are our surviving parents. We're both working and have the necessary infrastructure to do so without any hassle. We enjoy each other's company. There are tons of small restaurants and foody places in walking distance that need to be supported and we can afford supporting them. We're lucky, even if right now it doesn't much feel like it.
Tocky on 3/11/2020 at 15:36
Quote Posted by Briareos H
but with manipulation, lies and hate being so ubiquitous I find it hard to feel intellectually safe.
Even nice and exciting stuff in the virtual world (e.g. activism, crypto art, games) don't manage to detract from the feeling that we are going nowhere.
This. I once thought we were too intelligent in this age to fall for the sort of lies and division foisted on us by the rich to keep us down but since Trump I know we are not. If he wins again I know we are doomed. Religious zealotry, hatred, and ignorance will prevail and our race is destined for it rather than some transcendent shining future where intelligence reigns supreme. Also knowing that the internet, once thought to be a tool to take us from the dark ages into new enlightenment, is instead just another tool for misdirecting humanity while the wealthy line their pockets is depressing.
Gryzemuis on 3/11/2020 at 15:45
It's a little comforting to hear others are having a tough time too.
I'm single. Living in a house by myself, outside a small village. I'm really good at social distancing. :) Lots of experience too. I never had any problems being on my own. I prefer that. But it's getting a bit too much now. If I can go out once a week, meet friends, have dinner in a restaurant, sit on a terrace, look at people, see people around me, that has always been enough. These days I hardly see anyone. Because of coincidence, I didn't meet with people in January and February. And in March I got careful because of covid. So if life goes back to normal in April 2021, I will have had 15 months of being on my own. I'm not looking forward to the next 5 months.
I quit my job a while ago. I had enough of it. My plan was to go look for a job again in the summer of 2020. Well, that's almost impossible now. Because of what I do (very specialized), my best option is to be a full-time telecommuter and work for a foreign company. I've done that in the past. I applied for a job in June. I was basically hired. Just details to be sorted out. In September it turned out that the job wasn't happening because of travel-restrictions and mandatory 20-day quarantine in the country where most of my future colleagues are.
Luckily a week later I spoke with an old colleague, who is one of the founders in his own company. They might have a project coming up soon, for which I'd be the perfect candidate. If that happens, I'll have a job. Still full-time telecommuting, so still little social interaction. But it'll be something. And I'll have income again (which is also nice).
Most depressing thing is that there is a plan to put a field of solar-panels next to my house. 10 Hectare, 2,7 meters high, 300x350 meters, 5 meters from my fence, 20 meters from my living room. Totally cancelling the view (which is now miles and miles in three directions). Ruining the location of my house. This keeps me awake at night since April. The good thing is, since about 2 weeks it seems the plan will be cancelled. I just need to be patient (and in the meantime, keep talking to local politicians).
Fuck 2020.
SubJeff on 3/11/2020 at 16:22
Pictures don't show, on either link.
Harvester on 3/11/2020 at 16:24
Yeah, that would suck indeed Gryzemuis, those solar fields right next to your house. Not what one has in mind when they decide to live in the countryside. Also lowers the value of your property I might guess.
For me personally, let's see. Professionally, I'm doing fine. My job can easily be done from home. I find that video meetings take a bit more of my energy than real-life meetings with my team or the whole company, and that consulting with co-workers via voice chat (we use Discord) is less than ideal, I preferred just walking over to their desks if I have a question or want to show something to someone. But other than that, I have my work laptop here, two extra screens hooked up, an ergonomic chair and keyboard, and fast internet. I have everything I need to do my job and no one bothers me during my workday. So all in all I can't complain.
On a personal level, I can be alone very well and I'm not easily bored. I like watching movies and shows, get some gaming time in and relax with the newspaper and a book. But I do get a bit lonely nowadays, a similar feeling to what Gryz described. I miss hanging out and visiting a terrace or restaurant, going to the movies together, and I miss socializing and drinking a couple of beers with my co-workers after work is done on Fridays. I still meet with my best friend for movie night once every two weeks, and I've met with some other friends and had a weekend with my parents recently. But it's all less frequent than before.
And I get a little moody lately, a nagging undercurrent of dread about the state of the world. About my country, the state of things in the USA and the world in general. Sometimes I worry the world is going to hell in a handbasket really. Conspiracy theories and paranoia run amok, militias take to the street, corona is an economic disaster, not for rich shareholders particularly but for the common person struggling to get by, people are dying while some people deny there's even a problem, we've had some horrible incidents of islamic terrorism here in Western Europe, and fellow Christians see no problem with supporting Trump and all that he stands for. It all worries me and affects my mood. Not to the point of depression but I'm definitely not my usual self. :(
But I still enjoy meeting people (although as I said that happens less often than before), I enjoy my job and am financially stable and I still enjoy my leisure time. And I'm healthy and so are my loved ones. So all in all, could be worse. 'Not great, not terrible' as the meme from Chernobyl goes.