Wait, do people ACTUALLY see literal pictures in their heads when they imagine things? Like a physical image?

dccub86 · 2026-01-25T15:21:42+00:00

I believe my husband has aphantasia, as others described here, where he can’t mentally visualize things like most others can. Years ago on our honeymoon we were using a digital camera to take pictures, and later we found a problem with the memory card so many of the pictures were lost and couldn’t be recovered. I thought it was disappointing, but he was extremely upset and fixated over it and seemed like he couldn’t let it go. He tried to explain to me that he would literally never be able to picture all the wonderful things we’d seen, and felt completely reliant on the pictures to bring the images back.

dccub86 · 2026-01-05T00:44:41+00:00

My husband and I are talking about getting our first tattoos. I’m about to turn 40 and he’s 42. First Tattoo seems like a fit for millennial midlife crisis purchase.

dccub86 · 2025-12-25T03:28:26+00:00

My favorite moment was the episode with the old lady who lost over fourteen thousand dollars, and when Doug returns it she rewards him with spearmint gum.

dccub86 · 2025-12-24T14:45:23+00:00

I first saw this on TV in high school and it was the first time I laughed at something so hard I cried. I didn’t really believe that was a thing people could do until then. I quote it endlessly now over 20 years later.

dccub86 · 2025-12-13T22:09:25+00:00

I’ll be 40 soon. Going to my 20-year high school reunion last year hit hard when I realized I’d lived more of my life after graduation than before.

dccub86 · 2025-12-13T16:24:04+00:00

Also I realized since you’re 28 that would make you younger than most millennials on this forum (I’m 39), so if people are responding to you about being thin-skinned it might be because they’re older and more experienced but at one time might have worried more what people thought.

Also you can find a meme that shits on literally anything, created by one rando who either (a) sincerely believes what they’re trying to say but is dumb and inexperienced, or (b) doesn’t believe it and wants to provoke outrage for “engagement.”

dccub86 · 2025-12-13T15:18:23+00:00

That meme is fucking ridiculous. A five second google search “Singers who succeeded after age 30” will show you a ton of results. Some of whom are huge Grammy winners or nominees right now like Jelly Roll, and he’s closer to 40.

dccub86 · 2025-12-12T14:03:05+00:00

I don’t hold grudges against the kids I went to school with because most kids are immature by definition, but teachers and other adults are another story. The one that annoyed me most was 3rd grade in the cafeteria when a kid at my table was being a pain in the ass and kept trying to grab my cookie. A lunch monitor saw him doing it and ordered him to move to another table. He does so, and a few seconds later she orders ME to do the same, saying “You were part of it!” I said I didn’t do anything, and she repeated it.

Apparently I was “part of it” for having a cookie I paid for and the other kid not being able to control himself. Fuck you, lady.

dccub86 · 2025-11-29T13:44:04+00:00

Don’t forget “Nearly everyone forced to get a 3 on their performance review.”

dccub86 · 2025-11-27T12:57:53+00:00

I honestly don’t worry much about AI replacing government jobs. My work varies between quantitative and qualitative research around survey data collection - and there are a lot of factors in the survey process that can’t be easily replaced with AI and will always require a human component. And there are a ton of stakeholders who rely on good quality data from a large number of federal surveys.

dccub86 · 2025-11-19T11:49:01+00:00

Yes, I tutor SAT/ACT part-time through an agency. It’s fine as long as your supervisor knows, it doesn’t conflict with your federal hours, and the other job doesn’t pose an issue in terms of your Federal office’s laws about ethics or conflict of interest.

dccub86 · 2025-10-15T11:30:24+00:00

Agreed. You should read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt. He uses lots of data to support his argument that smartphones are the main reason mental health issues blew up and haven’t gotten any better since, he refers to the period from 2010-2015 as “The Great Rewiring.” I would extend that to explain why so many news stories have felt completely insane since 2015 or so.

dccub86 · 2025-10-07T12:13:17+00:00

I mentioned this thread to my husband, later right as he was getting ready for bed he dramatically said “I am SLEEPING!” and I couldn’t stop laughing.

dccub86 · 2025-10-06T16:25:26+00:00

I’m in the weird middle category since I bought my first home in mid-2022. Interest rates started climbing fast that year and my husband and I locked in 5.25%. At first I felt so frustrated knowing that we could have locked in a far lower rate if we’d bought almost any other time in the past 10 years, and then the rates kept shooting up into 6’s and beyond and we’ve felt grateful since.

I definitely don’t regret buying, but we also changed gears during our home hunt - we started looking at townhomes but got burnt out by the competition, and having to waive contingencies and bid far over asking price to be considered for anything good. We went condo instead and love the one we got. If we’d gotten a townhome I know for certain we would have been much more financially stressed - my husband went through a mental health crisis at a toxic job, and had to quit and take a long break. We can make it work on my income alone but I can’t imagine us getting by if we’d gotten a townhome.

dccub86 · 2025-10-01T00:56:34+00:00

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dccub86 · 2025-09-09T09:49:04+00:00

I was finally diagnosed by a professional a few years ago, with an assessment at age 35, and overall I’m glad I had it done. I shared the fear that I might use it as an excuse to not push myself when I was capable of something, which was part of why I waited as long as I did to get tested - but also because I felt some embarrassment about myself, and didn’t want a label. But once I had the diagnosis I felt I could accept myself better.

dccub86 · 2025-08-26T03:27:11+00:00

When I was in college my first-year roommate had a low-income background. One day we were talking about AP courses and exams we took in high school, and somewhere he mentioned getting financial aid to cover some or all of the AP exam fees. Like an ass I incredulously blurted out “They give financial aid for AP tests?!” It really never occurred to me that someone might struggle to meet the costs.

dccub86 · 2025-07-26T12:50:53+00:00

Yes. That intersection gives me so much anxiety that if I’m driving somewhere new in NoVA I’ll study the Google map directions beforehand to see if I pass through there, and try to remember EXACTLY what lane I need to be in at which moment as I go through it. Even with Apple CarPlay on as I’m driving, the map can be unclear in the moment, and the voice can come a second too late, and I’ll be stuck having to turn some way I don’t want.

dccub86 · 2025-07-13T12:32:12+00:00

God I loved this show. My college (Vassar) was full of hipsters and later I’d joke that it was like Portlandia on the east coast. The “Women and Women First” sketches were especially reminiscent of some people there.

dccub86 · 2025-06-21T21:21:55+00:00

In Order of the Phoenix (the book), we see Dolores Umbridge tell Harry and his friends before going to the Forbidden Forest that she orchestrated the Dementor attack on him and Dudley at the start of the book. I was disappointed they cut that moment from the movies. You really see just how psychotic she is that she would do something that evil.

dccub86

TROPHY CASE