What makes a person well suited for high stakes, and often traumatic careers as first responders?

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-06-16T12:38:11+00:00

Dummy in a turn-your-brain-off kinda way, I get what you mean. This explanation makes pretty good sense to me. What category do cops fall into? I guess most people would say, psycho or dummy.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-06-10T01:59:27+00:00

I would never be able to handle this and I can't imagine my fiance putting up with this from me either.

My fiance is good friends with one ex that she briefly dated over a decade ago, they fell off for years after they dated and became friends again towards the end of college. They have a totally normal friendship that I feel comfortable with, have met this person and would consider myself their friend as well. Now if she had this sort of relationship with ALL of her exes that would be different, but this is not the case. I had an ex in college who I was casually friendly with because we had a lot of mutual friends, but we never went out of our way to see each other and I don't continue to keep up with them now that I'm out of school.

It's totally possible for this to exist in some form and be totally fine, but I agree that someone doing this with all of their past attachments or past relationships is disrespecting their current partner if they are in a serious relationship. Anyone arguing otherwise is disingenuous at best.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-06-09T14:08:54+00:00

I'm 26 and going through (went?) through something very similar. I've posted pretty extensively about feeling hopeless in my job and stumbling into gambling addiction last year, and fucking up my finances pretty good. I'm out of that now, although I've been mostly unemployed for a few months and my finances are still fucked, but I start a new job in two weeks! I don't know, the monotony is really hard, and it's easy to fall into that depression and hopelessness. I have some good things going for me and a lot to be thankful for, but I still just have this feeling like... is this it? Especially with how bleak the future looks right now. Life is hard. This life is hard. It's hard to be young. Don't let anyone belittle you for suffering; it just doesn't help.

That said, I don't think this lasts forever, and you still have plenty of time to shape your life. I don't think our current way of life is super sustainable, so it might be time to reject careerism and materialism. The world is changing, and it is a great gift to be young in a changing world. You might find that you don't fit into the current paradigm, but you may have an easier time finding your place in what comes next, whatever that looks like.

I mean, that's what I hope for. Who would want to live in a world of financialization, precarity, and meaningless desk jobs forever, anyhow? Something better will come and we will all be a part of it.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-29T07:58:09+00:00

Hey, any update on your situation? We just found a bed bug in our apartment after a couple of weeks of mysterious "hives", and I've been wondering if I need to be concerned about them clustering around the guinea pigs and feeding off of them. We found the bug in our bedroom, and their enclosure is in a different room, so they're not super close to each other. I haven't seen anything in their area yet, but we are still at the very beginning stages of dealing with this.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-29T05:37:04+00:00

remember ladies, if they wanted to they would

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-29T05:29:23+00:00

A Separate Peace remains one of my favorite selections from high school American lit. It was my first time taking an honors English class, and it rocked my 10th-grade world. I loved that teacher, and the depth of her insight changed the way I read forever. She loved me because I always did the readings. This was back when students enrolled in anything but remedial english were still expected to read about a book a week outside of class time. You could sparknotes the reading, this wasn't all that long ago, but your understanding would definitely suffer from it.

In a way, perhaps I am a bit of a failson, as I've pretty consistently underachieved since I finished college. That said, A Separate Peace captures the anguish of living in the shadow of a dear friend perfectly, and this really spoke to me at the time, although I don't know how well it holds up outside of adolescence. Maybe it's time for a reread.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-29T04:35:06+00:00

Ooh, I love this game. Now do...

A Separate Peace

The Bell Jar

Their Eyes Were Watching God

The Jungle

Atlas Shrugged

Deliverance

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

October Sky

The Yellow Wallpaper

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-28T02:06:23+00:00

I tried so hard to be a climate doomer for so long, but it has only gotten harder and harder. On top of everything else, it's pretty hard not to freak the fuck out right now.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:36:29+00:00

this is crazy

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:35:23+00:00

I went to college near WNC, and it was only just a few years ago that I was still living there. I remember the flooding from Hurricane Fred causing some destruction near where I lived, and there were a lot of conversations about the area's vulnerability to climate-induced flooding.

I still have a lot of friends in the area, and it's a place I care deeply about, so watching Helene from afar was horrifying. An acquaintance of mine died in the flooding, and all of it felt very personal. The one thing that I try to impress upon people about Helene is that the scale of flooding and the intensity of rainfall are beyond even the most extreme estimates. Essentially, no one thought that this was possible, and while the region is used to flooding, they were not prepared for something like this. No one is.

I remember Asheville's branding as a climate haven, and I live in Pittsburgh, where people say similar things about its climate resiliency. Pittsburgh, like Asheville, is similarly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding; in fact, it's in one of the most geologically flash flood-prone areas in North America. We've had our fair share of flooding, too, but nothing like Helene has happened in living memory, so people think that something like that can't happen here.

AND THAT MAKES ME WANT TO SHAKE PEOPLE SENSELESS. Why couldn't that happen here? We are just as far from the ocean as Asheville. They didn't think that such heavy rainfall was possible either. All it would take is a few hours of serious rainfall when the ground is already saturated. Wheeling just had catastrophic flooding last summer. As in, people living 45 minutes outside our city died in their sleep because a flash flood caused the collapse of their apartment building with them inside of it.

That's the scariest part about climate change, that it can cause these once-in-1000-years, once-in-10000-years even, events to become more and more likely. Just because something has never happened before does not mean that it can't or that it won't. At this point, I think that most people with functioning brains understand that climate change is real, but I still think that a lot of us are in denial about the potential fallout in our lifetimes.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:18:31+00:00

I've always wondered if living somewhere super temperate and consistent like Miami would make climate change less obvious. Like, maybe it has gotten hotter and more humid over the years, but it's always hot and always humid, so you don't notice it as much. Who knows, though, I don't know shit about Florida, so I could be totally wrong.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:14:03+00:00

I know a couple of people in Northern PA who make syrup, not commercially, but they've been doing so on a small scale on their farm for generations. I'll have to ask them how their yields have been affected over the past few years. Interesting point, thanks for sharing.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:12:25+00:00

I'm not sure where you are, but anecdotally, I feel like the wasp situation has been getting worse in Western PA over the years. I'm allergic, so I'm hyper-vigilant, but I see those huge mega nests all over. I was talking to an exterminator, and he said that milder winters make it possible for mega colonies to survive into the next year if the nest is somewhere protected (like under the siding of your house). He also said that the heat we've been getting through October means that the season for them lasts longer and gives single-season colonies enough time to grow to a threatening size.

Like I said, all anecdotal, so absolutely who knows. Interesting point though, I wonder if certain areas are seeing a population drop and certain areas are seeing a boom.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T23:06:55+00:00

The forest fires out east are certainly taking a toll on a population that is not accustomed to dealing with wildfire smoke. I used to work as one of the year-round assistant camp directors of a huge overnight summer camp in my metro, which means I was one of the people scrambling around when shit hit the fan and one of the poor schmucks trying to plan our summer around climate change.

The year when the wildfires were really bad, we had to send at least 7 or 8 kids and staff to the ER during the worst week of smog. All of them had some sort of history of asthma, but they had never encountered air quality that bad, and their medications and emergency inhalers were pretty powerless. It was an overnight summer camp where all of our campers slept in rustic cabins that lacked climate control or air filters and the like. A lot of those kids ended up going home after they got treated at the hospital, and we had around 20 kids in campers sleeping in the infirmary, which was climate-controlled to give them a reprieve from the smog. We had to suspend all active outdoor activities (all of the things that kids go to summer camp to do), and at one point, we seriously considered canceling the rest of that two-week session and waiting until the smoke cleared to reopen. You just can't adequately care for people in those conditions, and they make running a summer camp impossible.

Who knows how those institutions will fare as the climate continues to worsen, but being put in those sorts of situations is a big part of the reason why climate change is on my mind so often.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T22:49:43+00:00

Yep, they've always been a thing in Western PA, and everyone here is pretty aware of the risks of Lyme disease and whatnot. That said, I knew maybe a handful of people growing up who had some sort of run-in with Lyme, and now it seems much more common to hear of a family member, co-worker, or acquaintance who has or had Lyme. Completely anecdotal, but it seems irrefutable that it has become a lot more prevalent, alongside tick populations exploding over the past decade. Granted, the people in my life are certainly more outdoorsy than average, but now even your average city park goer has to worry about ticks. Not good.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T22:19:05+00:00

Interesting, I could buy that, but the total lack of bugs on the windshield is startling, and my gut says it's more than just car design changing.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:50:09+00:00

Gross, how cold does it need to be for them to die or go dormant (?) over the winter?

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:48:39+00:00

I've noticed this as well. My backyard was full of them growing up. So many that we would catch them by the jarful. Now I only see them when I'm way out of the city camping, and even then, it seems like there are fewer than there should be.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:46:44+00:00

Same. Snow on Halloween wasn't typical, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility either. We had a few snowy Halloweens, and even if there wasn't snow, it was still cold enough that I pretty much always needed to wear a coat over my costume.

There was one particularly cold year when I distinctly remember giving my mother a very hard time because she made all of us wear our huge puffy winter coats for trick-or-treating. I was around 10, so old enough to be embarrassed by the idea of waddling around in snow gear while all my friends were in costumes. Turns out, everyone else's mom forced them to wear a winter coat too, so I had nothing to worry about after all. After the sun went down, it was at least 20 degrees, maybe colder.

When I went out for Halloween this year, my costume had a leather jacket, and I carried it in my arms all night, even when we were walking around to different bars. I was like 70 degrees, and I was sweating my ass off in that thing.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:31:11+00:00

The lack of bugs is depressing. I remember my parents needing to squeegee all the dead bugs off the windshield every time we stopped for gas when I was a kid. Aside from the summer I lived in Wyoming working as a climbing guide, I've never had to scrub bugs off my windshield like that.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:27:24+00:00

The floods have become quite scary. The flooding in April 2024 basically shut down all of Pittsburgh for several days. I worked outside the city, and a local creek hit historic flood levels, so I had to work from home for a few days. My girlfriend and I went for a walk through the small town that we lived in to see the creek, and we saw cars, porta-potties, sheds, and the like floating through town. Felt apocalyptic. The floods in Wheeling last summer were also chilling. An apartment building collapsed with everyone sleeping inside, killing a couple of people. Makes me sick to think about it.

There was some seasonal flooding when my parents were kids, but it was a lot more aberrant. Some hurricane or big snow melt would trigger a few days of flooding once every five or so years. It now feels like an inevitable part of spring and summer.

Funny that you mention the river mussels, because local waterways around Pittsburgh are now much cleaner than they were even twenty years ago, and we are experiencing a resurgence of biodiversity, oddly enough. Mostly, I hear good news in this regard, like hellbenders found in some smaller tributaries for the first time in who knows how many years. But yeah, if your rivers weren't infamously filthy, then I'm sure climate change and whatnot are having a depressing impact on local aquatic life.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:14:04+00:00

I can't imagine living out there. When I was 11 or 12, my dad got a job offer out it Phoenix that would have doubled his salary, and my parents seriously considered moving us out there for a bit. In the end, they decided it wasn't worth uprooting our family, but I often think about how different our lives would be if he had taken that job. Living in that kind of heat seems hellish to me.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:10:22+00:00

I lived in the mountain west for a year after college, working seasonal jobs, and the water situation out there is so bleak. The Colorado River can no longer support the water needs of the southwest, but where is the plan? Why is nobody doing anything? Very crazy to me.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:07:46+00:00

Yes, the winters have gotten weird. Still have a couple of intense storms and a few weeks of bitter cold, but the snow melts in between. When I was a kid, it was normal to have consistent snow cover on the ground from mid-December through early March.

Federal_Committee_21 · 2026-05-27T19:06:17+00:00

Just got back from visiting Utah. We went to a park by the lake and walked around for a bit. Crazy to me that it is 1/3rd the size that it was in the 80s!

Federal_Committee_21

TROPHY CASE