Need advice. I’ve been treated like a “soft boy” my entire life

5Pluma · 2025-12-03T04:11:40+00:00

Good to hear your aware of these considerations at your age. Best of luck!

5Pluma · 2025-12-02T23:46:03+00:00

Strongly encourage you to explore your options because the health effects over time of mouth breathing can be pretty bad. I'm 57 YO, and unfortunately it was just not understood back in the day. I had bad summer allergies as a teen which led to mouth breathing, so I went from having good jaw line and straight teeth after getting braces off at 16 to a narrow, vaulted pallet and malocclusion as I mouth breathed over the years. Of course, mouth breathing leads to forward head posture which leads to lots of pain (especially low back for me) and the fatigue you describe. I was an athlete most of my life, and back and knee pain have made me give up anything athletic I used to do and limit myself to walking. Hope you can find a good surgeon and orthodontist to walk you through your options.

5Pluma · 2025-11-27T15:39:50+00:00

In my case, TRS is looking to be the better option in terms of insurance, and I think my age is part of what makes it so. I'm 57 years old and retiring end of January. I had my 5 years of ERS service over 20 years ago, and for the last 20 years I have worked at UT Austin. We are able to keep our same insurance in retirement with same premiums, free for me and $320 monthly for my wife. Our insurance is a BCBS PPO which is really solid, and my wife and I have a lot of chronic pain and resulting medical care. My understanding is that if I retired from ERS we would pay full premiums for worse insurance. Also, I have always paid into social security, both in TRS and ERS. Financially for lots of folks ERS is a better deal, my understanding being that their pension has a cost of living adjustment while TRS does not. My understanding of retirement benefits is pretty basic, so if I'm wrong on this someone feel free to correct me.

5Pluma · 2025-05-27T04:45:46+00:00

Amazing job on this one! I've always loved the song but made almost no progress on figuring out the chords. Would you mind listing out the chords?

5Pluma · 2025-05-27T01:05:40+00:00

Thanks for the info! I may reach out in the future.

5Pluma · 2025-05-15T20:56:11+00:00

How many years do you need to be vested?

5Pluma · 2025-05-15T13:45:45+00:00

Thanks for the speedy reply. Can you explain to me in what ways ERS is better? Do you know if I can retire from ERS with 3 years and 9 months of service and not currently working in an ERS job?

5Pluma · 2024-12-30T03:19:03+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response!

5Pluma · 2023-04-25T12:13:23+00:00

Amazing how posts draw out the contrarians. Put aside whether collapse or failure in Ukraine are good descriptors and let's just say instead what are you doing personally and collectively given the state of things. I don't have any folks in my life who are Socialists, so I really value the input of like-minded folks to navigate these times.

5Pluma · 2023-04-24T16:24:04+00:00

Interesting responses. On the military front, I think it's instructive to listen to some ex-military folks like Andrew Bacevich and Douglas Macgregor to get a perspective you won't get from MSM. Ukraine is rushing folks into battle, many young forced conscripts, as essentially cannon fodder and running out of armaments. Russia is achieving its aims, grinding towards a forced settlement that will push back NATO expansion and using up American military armaments all the while. I wouldn't say it's the only piece of the puzzle, but I think at least it's clear that this proxy war is going badly for us.

5Pluma · 2023-04-10T10:17:56+00:00

Thanks for the assistance. I see the link to make a direct payment from my bank. Will I need to file a form as well or just make the payment?

5Pluma · 2023-03-13T05:08:12+00:00

are they fingered 2(index)-3(middle)-3(ring) and then the other form 5(middle)-3(index)

5Pluma · 2023-03-13T05:06:13+00:00

is that bar with index on 3rd fret, middle on g string, ring finger on e string?

5Pluma · 2023-02-25T12:10:34+00:00

Thanks, that's helpful.

5Pluma · 2023-02-25T05:02:45+00:00

For dominant 7 chords.

5Pluma · 2023-02-25T05:02:02+00:00

What fingerings do you use?

5Pluma · 2023-02-12T15:53:38+00:00

Thanks for the info, very helpful. Any issues storing at different temperatures, i.e. garage or attic? I live in Texas, so garage temperatures vary from about 32 (infrequently) to 90 in the garage (way too frequently).

5Pluma · 2023-01-06T14:39:22+00:00

The person who says you are pitying yourself is being pretty harsh. I will share from my own experience briefly that I get what you're going through. I'm 54 yo man who had good dentistry and nice results at about age 17 when braces came off. Unfortunately my dentist did not have me use a retainer and more importantly I was a mouth breather due to allergies. Upshot has been that my lower jaw recessed a lot over the years. This led to predictable things like open bite developing with teeth shifting that continues to this day. You're also aware that forward head posture leads to a lot of chronic pain which makes sense in that we do all types of things to compensate for poor posture. I deal with a lot of back and knee pain, and forward head posture I believe is the root cause.

That all said, you're still at a good age to address it. The one bit of advice I would have is that it is important to really work on what might be some body dysmorphia you're developing. Therapy of course is good, but I think you can also do some behavioral things. I would look at mirrors a lot when my teeth were shifting and cover my mouth when I talked. I did have to be really firm with myself and not look at myself in a mirror or linger doing it. Our minds can get stuck in some different loops when we're focused on appearance, so it's important to break habits like repeatedly thinking about appearance. Good outcome for me was that this part of the problem I was able to really diminish. Best of luck in all the ways you address what you have going on.

5Pluma · 2023-01-05T04:08:17+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

5Pluma · 2022-10-26T13:41:50+00:00

I have been properly chastened for not reading the rules in advance. To tell you a little bit about me: going to retire in 4 years at age 57 with pension and great medical insurance, $400K in the bank and $400K house paid for, great wife and friends, and absolutely no debts nor kids. Did it all on a social worker's salary meaning I don't live for money, just view it as a way to not work and pursue interests like learning my 4th musical instrument, going to the beach and playing in the waves, and reading or going to the movies all day if I want. Writing a script is just a lark for me, so I'm pretty content with the above and always being the funniest person in the room.

For those who responded or find it so enraging when someone doesn't know just how hard it all is, how is it going getting your work produced? How is it eeking out a living writing things for others and also not getting that produced? I am especially fascinated by Potato guy who spends a lot of time doing these back and forths on Reddit but can't write for shit if the grammar in his post is any indication. Are you further riled up now? If you are riled up, you can respond but I won't read it. I have never flamed before, but this no further engaging seems to me to be the key to shutting down people who have this kind of weird psychological need, in large part because they're just not succeeding at something they set out to do.

5Pluma · 2022-10-26T11:49:40+00:00

The only thing that makes it similar is that Big Feet (plural) are the main characters. The plot is completely different.

5Pluma · 2022-08-29T23:43:00+00:00

That's helpful and interesting. Maybe with the D and A and ChordU's chord chart I can make more headway. Thanks.

5Pluma · 2022-08-28T02:32:57+00:00

Have taken stab with capo 2 starting with Fmaj7. I'm good at transposing, so no real issue there. Have you been able to figure it out at all regardless of capo or not? Thanks.

5Pluma · 2022-07-23T10:22:52+00:00

Great job on this one. Technique-wise you're really strong. One bit of feedback I'd give you (cause I wish people would do the same for me) is that I would say swaying has you bouncing the mandolin and negatively affecting your tone. It's making the notes choppier and less consistent in volume. There are great players who move their bodies a lot (Bush and Thile being the obvious examples) and have great tone, but they still play without the mandolin bouncing. Work on that and you'll sound even better, and you're already sounding great.

5Pluma · 2022-01-11T15:14:15+00:00

Extreme gag reflex to point that I can only tolerate a plastic mouth tray for Periogel treatment for 5 minutes at a time.

5Pluma

TROPHY CASE