I use Debian btw
I did consider the risk I'd lose this crowd by oversharing, but being succint was never my strong suit lol
It's been a long time coming.
I took medication between '09 and '14. I got off of it because it was hella expensive. I adapted routines to keep me on track, and it worked for a long time.
But lately, I'm not doing well. And this community and a couple different YouTube channels helped me realize that I'm not doing well, and I need help. I'm forgetting things more than ever. I leave keys in cars. I leave doors unlocked. I forget meetings. I am several hundred emails behind at work. I am ignoring responsibilities because I'm feeling behind and overwhelmed. I go to the grocery store and come home with fifty bucks worth of junk food I never intended to buy, if I even go grocery shopping at all. Conversations feel like an out of body experience. I miss fully half of what is said to me.
It came to a head earlier this week. My wife was out of town and I took the dogs to the park myself. I left the front door open while I was gone for two hours. Fortunately, nobody came inside (checked the cameras) and the cats didn't find a way out. But it was terrifying.
I'd already had a psych eval in early September and got my report back about five weeks ago, but I procrastinated on calling my doctor to get a prescription. I did finally see him about a ten days ago, and he said he'd prescribe me some Adderall once the psychologist's office faxed him the report so I called them to have that done. By Tuesday this week, I hadn't heard back about scripts, and after that incident with the door, I needed to know something. I needed to be a squeaky wheel.
Fast forward to today, and I have my medicine in hand. I really hope to see results in the next few months once we get my dose figured out. I'm just so tired of living in a mental fog all the time.
Last time, I felt so broken because I needed a drug to function like a normal human. These days, I've shed myself of that line of thought. If I can't make my own neurotransmitters, store bought is fine.
This beautiful lady is so clingy.
Astrid has come out as a happy go lucky girl. Honestly, I'm so touched at how loving she is. Our other dog Sherlock has a strong affinity for my wife. Astrid is all about me. I should rename her Saran.
Her whole life has changed so much in the last few weeks. She is a wonderful dog. But oh, to see what those eyes have seen. I just wanna squeeze this baby tight and tell how loved she is.
Anyway, here's Sherlock being his weird self. I love this boy.
Hell, when I was a little boy in 2001, you could still accept a ride from strangers. I mean, sure, you could end up in the car with a wannabe John Wayne Gacy, but more often than not, it was a kind stranger offering a ride to a kid walking home in the 105 degree Texas heat.
Say hi to Astrid!
My wife and I just adopted her from the animal shelter yesterday. She is about 1 year old, weighs 35 pounds (though I think she may be a touch underweight), and she reeks. We can't give her a bath until the 25th because she was just spayed a few days ago and the glue can't get wet. So we've been wiping her. Hasn't helped the smell. She's also gonna be a mondo shedder.
But she's so so so sweet. She just walks up to you and plants her face in your lap and looks at you longingly. She is all about you.
When we took her out of her crate at the shelter, she was shaking scared. The shelter can be a terrifying place. It's so loud, and all the barking had her on edge. But her sweet nature came out within a few minutes. It's good knowing she will never go back to that place. I keep telling her that. Not that she understands English.
She doesn't know her name. She doesn't know any commands. She gets the idea of "come" and she seems to be housebroken. I say seems to be. We're taking her out a lot to get an idea of her schedule. We're going to put her through training as soon as it's offered for beginners again. Meanwhile, we're also going to try teaching some basic commands at home. We've been through lots of training with our two year old certified (ribbon, AKC certificate, and all) good boy Sherlock, and most of the classes are really about teaching you how to train your dog. Still, the classroom setting is really nice to have, and I love supporting local business.
Sherlock is really bored most days while we work. He needs a friend to keep him busy. So if we can do that and save a shelter dog at the same time, that just kills two birds with one stone. It really took her no time at all to warm up to him or our super social orange cat or us.
And Sherlock has the kind of star power that he really gets along with every dog. He was so shy and scared at first and everyone who knew him 10 months ago comments on how far he's come. He really did a great job of setting the tone for the meeting. I'm so proud of my boy.
She seems so happy to just have a quiet place.
I can't wait to bathe this smelly girl lol
He is always getting into trouble. He's 11 years old, and while age has slowed him down some, it's not made him less curious.
Tbf, most people pose no threat to the average cat. Like razor blades welded to a flying angle grinder that always knows which way is down.
It's not that simple when most people actively choose the cruelty.
cat@feline:~ wigglebutt
wigglebutt: Denied. Root access required for launch calibration.
cat@feline:~ sudo wigglebutt
[sudo] password for cat:
cat is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
When I did it, you could opt out electronically for 5 years, but a lifetime opt out requires you to mail a printed form. I'm guessing the lenders have something to do with that and are banking on most people not having a printer.
Edit: Or having to deal with paying for a stamp and putting something in the mail.
But yes, I love their 90s clip art.
After I graduated college and got my first place on my own, I had my desk set up in the corner of the living room with a long HDMI cable strung around along the baseboards and into the TV. It was clean. It was a Vizio 37" panel from 2011 so it had no smart features. I kept a Logitech keyboard/trackpad combo on the coffee table and that's essentially how I had a smart TV running full blown Windows 8 Pro in 2013. Tired of desk gaming? I got a DualShock 4 and a Bluetooth adapter so all I had to do was turn the controller on and walk to the couch. Sometimes, switching my sound device did mean saving and restarting my game. Some games handled the Alt + Tab to the Control Panel just fine. I put a Blu Ray drive in my computer too so with some software, I used it as a Blu Ray player.
These days, I have 10 TB on board so I keep my movies stored on my disk, and I stream them over my local network. I'd like to build a proper always on NAS one day, but for now, my gaming PC is also my network share.
If we're sharing our dogs, here's mine.
It wasn't a successful day at the park if he doesn't sprinkle 15 molecules of pee on every tree at least a few times. He also marks the benches, despite my efforts to stop him. He's very rude like that.
He just turned 2 years old a few weeks ago.
Bold thing to say when your house is flammable.
A screenshot I saw somewhere.
If you're just now learning about him, I both envy and pity you.
I hope not. We already have a serious mouse problem as it is.
Of course. He headbutts everything though so it's nothing special
I feel incredibly targeted by this.
For context, my wife is always criticizing how I don't add enough salt to the dishes I cook. I also have no tats. She does.
But at least you can always add more salt lol
I don't understand people who work in silence.
This specific video has helped me buckle down and get shit done so many times. I've even made loops of songs I have copies of on my computer for this kind of thing. The repetition OH MY GOD it tickles my brain in just the right way so as to boost productivity. It's great how that can cancel out the ADHD when I have deadlines looming.
Video game music does the same thing. Death by Glamour gets me in the ZONE.
His favorite activity is staring out windows and plotting his escape.
You have to be really careful opening doors. He's bolted a few times. He's only ever made it to the end of the patio before he stops like the grass is made of lava. It makes it pretty easy to walk to him and catch him. Still, I don't want to risk him ever getting brave enough to actually go so I always shoo him away before I open the door.
He loves to reach up at the things he wants. He realizes doors are the way outside so trims to all of our exterior doors are covered in scratch marks. This is how he learned to open the door between the kitchen and the garage. That door gets locked now. We just leave the key in the chamber on the other side.
Smart little butthead.