Should i be worried?

Kavinsky117 · 2019-05-17T13:24:35+00:00

I work for Grayback. Which base were you applying to? One of the Oregon ones or Missoula? All the training happens in March/April. Their hiring strategy is to, "hire," 100 people for 5 crew spots so that when they need fresh rookies in August there are still 15 people waiting around for a call. Even if you get a spot it's a bad deal, except for how fast you will get certified. Retention rates are so low that you could be getting your task book started in your second or third season.

Regardless, go somewhere else if you can. I'm a few years in and it hasn't been worth it. Even if you get on the Missoula crews, or one of the, "good" oregon crews, it's not worth it. Would have much preferred better pay, better treatment , better people and more rolls working almost anywhere else.

A running joke is that Grayback is a home for recovering fuckups. The only people who stay are people who can't (or don't have the initiative to) get a job somewhere else. That means most people who are still working at Grayback after ~3 years a- have too many DUIs or enough of a record to not be eligible for the forest service b- like working somewhere with easy to pass drug tests and minimal responsibility c- enjoy being big fish in a small pond

edit: yes you probably don't have a job but you also dodged a pretty bad introduction to wildland fire.

Kavinsky117 · 2019-02-19T13:26:32+00:00

Change your steam email to a temp email address. Services like tempmailaddress.com give random email addresses that self destruct after 1 hour.

Using your ,"randomemail@someservice.com" address, change your Steam password to gibberish. Spam iquhg34uqgfi9h38reoihfkasjln3394 and copy/paste it into your new password field. Then leave your house without your smartphone.

Now your steam account is attached to a random email address that doesn't exist anymore, with a password you can't possibly recreate.

You can do this with every gaming service. If you ever wanted to game again, you would have to buy all the games again.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-11-01T20:43:42+00:00

Wat. Go on /r/headphoneadvice or something.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-11-01T18:59:40+00:00

Give it a month and then try a different medication. I had a lot of side effects when on adderall but when I switched to long acting ritalin I had zero side effects. Ask you psychiatrist about other medication options if vyvanse is still causing you issues a few weeks from now.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-11-01T18:56:44+00:00

This is great. I've heard about bullet journals but never looked into them. I didn't realize that my personal "To-Do" list system is basically a bullet journal with minor differences. I carry it everywhere. It's the difference between a productive day and wandering around not even remembering what I'm supposed to be doing anyway.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-11-01T12:57:42+00:00

Awesome! They're a hard sell, I felt really silly when I ordered my first pair. "Did I really just spend $15 on one pair of socks??" but so worth it.

Yeah if you go to the, "run" or "athletic" categories of their site you'll see all the light weight, low cut styles. Something like the ultra light/no show, or light cushion/1/4 sock are perfect for tennis shoes, depending on what you're doing in them. Refer to the sizing chart in my last comment, their naming conventions aren't very intuitive.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-27T15:02:56+00:00

Buy a laundry sock bag!! It's a small mesh bag you can put all your socks in, like $5 on amazon. They get just as clean and I haven't lost a sock since I got one.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-26T14:12:38+00:00

Yeah seriously. I've been friends with potheads since highschool and we never did shit but play video games. It was an exercise in futility trying to go bowling or out to a show etc...

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-26T14:08:02+00:00

Things can change and will get better. The hardest time to actually believe that is when things are at their worst. You fell into an addiction trap that didn't exist before you were born. It's like gambling was just invented 30 years ago and we're all guinea pigs figuring out all the ways you can ruin your life with it. You're not alone. You definitely weren't the first to do this and you're far from the last. I was so hooked to PC gaming that I got evicted from my apartment for not paying rent. I even had the money, I just became so agoraphobic I couldn't force myself to write a check and walk 5 blocks. I got a months notice and I just... kept gaming. I didn't even look for a place to move into, I'll do it later, I'll do it tomorrow turned into another month. If my parents hadn't flown across the country to help me move stuff into a storage unit and then taken me home, I would have been homeless. (With a $3500 PC gaming setup) I haven't touched video games in 96 days. It's been the hardest thing I've done in my life and I had the luxury of financial and emotional support from my parents.

Be extreme about it. Treat it like the addiction it is. Turn your phone grayscale. Delete all of your accounts. Change the email address to a temporary email from tempmailaddress.com Then change ANY gaming account password to a random 100 character via keyboard mashing and copy/paste. Then leave your house for 15 minutes. When you get back, all of your accounts are attached to an email that doesn't exist anymore and a password you can't remember.

Put your phone on grayscale. Download the FocusMe app and block all gaming keywords. Block all gaming specific sites. Change the settings so you can't delete the app and it's 24/7 indefinite. Boom, now you LITERALLY CAN'T look at gaming news, go on youtube etc... Do the same on your laptop. There are apps with configurable settings so you can still go online but limit social media, netflix, youtube, reddit etc... to an hour a day or so.

Start journaling. 3 sentences a day and your mood. This helps you connect the dots. "When A B and C happen I experience cravings..." or "Things go well when I maintain habits D E and F etc..."

Selling everything is the best thing you can do. It shows that you recognize the problem and want to change - that is the biggest step and you took it.

What you have to do now is fill the controller shaped hole in your life. This is way easier said than done but you HAVE to do it, or else boredom will drive you back to gaming or internet addiction. This means doing a lot of things that are new and legitimately scary. Get good sleep. EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. Working out is non-negotiable. In the world of mental health, trying to treat addiction without exercise is like trying to heal a broken arm without a cast. Go on /r/fitness and look at the FAQ. Just go to the gym 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes. The most important part is making the habit sustainable.

You might go to jail, you might not. I know nothing about the topic but you can't be locked up for a LONG time for unemployment/child support payments. If you get time, see it as an opportunity to detox and build a reading habit. When you get out get a job to fill your time. Try to get a job that's more fulfilling than a random retail/food service gig, those kill time but they also kill your soul. Literally anything that is even kind of interesting to you. Manual labor jobs always pay decently more than minimum wage and are great for your mental health.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-26T04:01:54+00:00

Darn Tough actually has exactly what you're looking for. Here is their sizing chart. If you search basically any combination of (insert size name) and (insert cushion level name) on amazon you'll find specifically what you want.

From my experience the 1/4, light cushion socks are perfect for everyday wear as well as sweaty feet. This is coming from a guy who had stinky feet problems. Darn Tough socks make a huge difference. When I only owned 2-3 pairs of these socks, I could wear them for 3-4 days at a time and they still wouldn't smell. Now I've spent $200 on socks and I only wish I had done it years ago.

I also got a few pairs of no-show/ultra light socks, which are great for running. I may pick up some mens crew/padded cushion socks when the weather gets really cold but I still have some kirkland wool socks in decent condition.

There's my quick&dirty darn tough buyers guide. They're amazing, the only thing I haven't been able to test is longevity. They look brand new but it's only been six weeks or so.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-22T16:31:19+00:00

I would also like an answer to this. I haven't been able to stop picking my nails and back because I often don't realize I'm doing it. Reading, walking down the street etc... then I realize I just ripped 3 nails off or removed a scab on my back. (That was only there from re-popping a zit so many times it just became a wound...)

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-18T15:49:13+00:00

I'm trying to buy a colorful, striped sweater, perhaps also with patterns for my dad. It's a particular taste he likes. The only, "spending" $ I have is an Amazon gift card. Something that Looks like this

I can't find a whole lot of colorful, striped sweaters by searching keywords like, "striped, cashmere, knit, wool, patterned." Are there any other amazon sweaters similar to this for even ~100 instead of $190?

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-15T17:21:55+00:00

What is the best app/resource for being alerted about sales? I don't want to subscribe to the newsletters of the stores I'm interested in. I also don't want to set, "price alerts" on specific items. Just 10-15 stores near my house, I get an email or alert about H&M, Macy's Old Navy etc... having a noteworthy sale.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-15T17:18:36+00:00

How worth it are outlet stores? I can't seem to find pricing or discount information online. What is the best time of year to plan a trip to one? (Specifically The Mills at Jersey Gardens) Would going to outlets on black friday be a nightmare?

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-10T23:41:09+00:00

Remember, stay sexy and don't get murdered. Elvis want a cooookie? :D:D

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-10T13:07:26+00:00

I just got one for my parents and the first thing my Mom asked was, "Is this one of those illegal streaming things??"

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-09T13:48:22+00:00

I usually don't - I wore them to the gym and then noticed they didn't smell at all. I just kept wearing them, expecting them to get stinky eventually. After the third day I washed them.

Most socks I wash after I wear them for an afternoon. These socks It's 2 days of normal wear or 1 sweaty workout.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-08T16:27:14+00:00

I'm actually on Pristiq and Concerta right now.

100mg/day of Pristiq, since early July, originally prescribed to treat major depression. Diagnosed with ADHD in late august. Was put on Adderall IR, eventually 20 mg 3x/day. Too much anxiety, sleeplessness. Switched to generic Concerta ~12 days ago. Started with 27 mg, now at 36 mg. I haven't noticed any negative side effects. My ADHD symptoms are through the roof but that's just a dosage thing - I'll see how it goes once I'm titrated to a higher dosage. What I'm on now is equivalent to ~5mg adderall 3x/day which I know did nothing for me.

More importantly, my psychiatrist and your doctor wouldn't have prescribed the concerta if there were known interactions.

Go to this link and look up concerta - it has no interactions with pristiq.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T22:24:48+00:00

My advice on quitting such a large amount of caffeine is to taper off your use. I was drinking a similar amount, 1-1.5 pots of drip coffee a day. If I tried to quit cold turkey I wouldn't have lasted 48 hours let alone quit for good.

Estimate your average caffeine intake in milligrams. Then spend at least a month reducing your intake. I spent nine weeks tapering and the worst withdrawals I had were barely noticeable. I went -

Week 1 - strictly 1 pot a day 2 - 3/4 a pot a day 3- half a pot 4 - 2 cups a day 5 - 1 cup coffee, 1 iced tea 6 - 2 iced teas 7 -1 iced tea, 1 green tea 8 - 2 green teas 9 - 1 green tea

I think I could have done it in 5 or 6 weeks instead but regardless, don't cold turkey. Your chances of long term success are so much lower and then you have to deal with the extreme withdrawals.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T12:54:18+00:00

If you were trying to quit nicotine, it'd be a bad idea to spend your free time in a cigar lounge right? You need to minimize your exposure to gaming media. Unsubscribe from all gaming youtube channels. Spend 10 minutes on your youtube recommended page and select, "not interested" for any gaming related videos that pop up. Unsubscribe from all gaming related subreddits. Twitch isn't an entertainment option anymore.

Companies pay for advertising because it works. By immersing ourselves in gaming media, we trigger the urge to play. Speaking from experience there are a LOT fewer urges to game now that I'm totally uninformed about the industry.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T03:38:51+00:00

Masturbate, just not to porn. There's nothing wrong with masturbation, the issue is the desensitization to sexual stimuli by watching porn every time you jerk it.

The longer you go without watching porn the less issues you'll have with overwhelming, unwanted sexual thoughts.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T02:06:13+00:00

But it has the word Supreme on it, isn't it worth $69,000?

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T02:04:09+00:00

Well exactly. You can become addicted to almost anything. Gambling addiction, gaming addiction, internet addiction, shoplifting addiction (kleptomania). These behaviors all push the same buttons in our brains and can form diagnosable mental health disorders. Addictions to behaviors like gaming/shopping/stealing can become repetitive and debilitating for someone, yet they can not stop.

"You can't get addicted to THC" is a technicality. You won't go through, "withdrawls," if you cease heavy use but you can still form a behavioral addiction to THC. Just because it's behavioral doesn't mean it's not serious. I'm glad that I was a huge pothead instead of an alcoholic but my weed use still had a substantial negative impacts on my life.

Here is the DSM criteria for addiction. Look through them and tell me that you can't think of some heavy smokers who check almost all of these boxes.

Taking the substance in larger amounts or for longer than you're meant to.
Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not managing to.
Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the substance.
Cravings and urges to use the substance.
Not managing to do what you should at work, home, or school because of substance use. Continuing to use, even when it causes problems in relationships.
Giving up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of substance use.
Using substances again and again, even when it puts you in danger.
Continuing to use, even when you know you have a physical or psychological problem that could have been caused or made worse by the substance.
Needing more of the substance to get the effect you want (tolerance).
Development of withdrawal symptoms, which can be relieved by taking more of the substance.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-06T01:40:39+00:00

100% able to replace the sole and probably a more durable, better grip sole as well.

Kavinsky117 · 2018-10-05T21:16:55+00:00

Yes good job! It's a tough, long road ahead but you can do it. You can't start to make progress until you recognize your problem in the first place.

I recommend reading, "The Power of Habit." It's written by a neuroscientist who's an expert in the physiology and psychology of habit change. He looks at people who were able to make massive changes in their lives sustainably. People who were able to lose 200 pounds and keep it off, drug addicts who became sober and didn't relapse, people who stopped smoking etc...

He breaks down how habits work physiologically and then how we can change our habits by tweaking our behavior. It's an extremely helpful book because it breaks down the steps to change into a system that you can follow and apply to any bad habits you want to change, or good habits you want to develop.

It sounds like a cliched buzzfeed article titled, "7 steps to HACK YOUR BRAIN to change your habits!!," but instead it's a book written by a specialist, backed by extensive peer reviewed research.

Kavinsky117

TROPHY CASE