I have a dvd/vcr combo plugged in using RCA cables. It shows a display on the television when not playing. When I hit play you can see the play icon briefly. Tape plays with sound and no picture. Same when DVD is played. Anybody else encounter this?

I know there is a whole sub dedicated to the topic of how to get on disability (SSDI) or SSI, in reality, it’s terribly soul destroying to sit around on a fixed income with no job or meaningful work to fill your time. SSDI is a trap - yes, you might be able to pay your bills with it now, but you will watch your peers continue on upward trajectories in their careers and go on vacations, buy cars and houses, while your pay stays stagnant for nearly ever.
I miss working and regret “giving in to my illness.” People are designed to have purpose and like it or not, most find purpose through their careers. Even if you do have a true disability, it is hard to not feel like a productive member of society and sit around waiting for your check to come. I’ve done it for over 10 years and I dread the next 25 doing the same. I contacted my state’s Voc Rehab office for some retraining because disabled or not, I want to get back into the paid workforce before I lose what’s left of my mind.

I recently spoke to two hiring managers for the same company. The company met with me in my city (city 1) at a fair. I went only to apply but they only listed city 2. Sent an email to both of them explaining the listings did not show city 1. Was scheduled for city 2 and city 1 Hiring manager just wished best of luck.
Interview sent plenty of alarms because they interviewed terribly. The manager was actually not even in my department interested and could not speak on relevant topics. So I let a week go by and did not respond to the second interview request to go forward.
City 1 manager emailed asking if I was interested in interning with their office and I said I’d like to speak more about the offer… do I bring up city 2 interview concerns? Suggestion open.

I've been working with a local non-profit for several years now, it's a membership group with substantial monthly dues (+$60/month), we've got about a hundred members, after expenses we're financially stable but not flush with cash.
I've been on the board for about three years, recently took over the office of vice-president. We're incorporated as 501(c)3 with bylaws specifying non-voting membership (board elects the board).
Recently a small number of very vocal local activists have joined (making up less than 10% of the membership, but they keep bringing in their friends...) and has been pushing the board to add them and "their community" to the board for sake of "representation", to rewrite our mission statement and bylaws to support their cause, and to literally fly their flag. They've also been insistently questioning the mission statement and questioning the bylaws, asking how to remove and replace board members and making accusations against fellow members (bias and harassment for not respecting their cause).
The board has been at a bit of a loss as to how to respond -- if we just ignore this noisy group, they have enough of a voice in the local "community" to make us out to be the bad guys, and if we acquiesce and grant them actual power (a seat on the board) there's little hope they will stop there, and the organization as it stands will cease to exist.
So far nothing they've said has violated the code-of-conduct, risen to the level of a "true threat" or otherwise given us cause to revoke memberships, most of the board is reluctant to do so even with cause, either because they are sympathetic or fear that would trigger the same or more backlash as ignoring them.
Mostly just wondering if anybody has had a similar challenge and come out of it with an intact non-profit?

My main twitter account was hacked a few days ago, and it seems there's no way to get it back. The person changed my profile picture and handle, but my username remains the same. I tried to reach out to Twitter a few times, with not even a proper response. Is there anyone who knows if I can do something about it?

First major culture shock of living in Ireland today. Was having lunch with some colleagues and was talking about Irish accents, wondering if one of my colleagues was from Dublin as she sounded like an Irish friend of mine. She said she wasn't, and I said "I guess you Irish people all sound the same to me 😆".
I then get CALLED INTO A PRIVATE OFFICE WITH MY MANAGER AND TOLD TO READ OUR COMPANY'S EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY. Apparently my words were inappropriate and culturally insensitive. These people would not last one day in England I'm STUNNED.
I am fucking gasping. Lesson learned, do not talk to these weirdos about anything other than work. God, I miss Newcastle.

Background
Me: 34F
Jobs: Consultant
Location: East Coast
Goal: Finding the balance between paying off my six-figure student debt while still enjoying life post failed fertility treatments.
Current Debt and Assets
DEBT
Credit card debt: $2,200 approximately. I usually never go more than 2 months without paying it off completely to keep me honest.
Personal loans: $0
Medical debt: $0
Student loan debt: $125,303.17 with 3.301% interest. I had a scholarship to undergrad. For my graduate degree, I took out 150k of loans. In the 4 years after graduate school where I was paying the minimum payment, the loan amount grew to $171,000. I paid off approximately 57k in the past 18 months (although because interest is so high, only 46k of that went to principal.)
Auto loans: $0 – My husband and I have had a ton of bad luck the past few years but one thing we were fortunate about is buying two used cars around 22k each right before the new and used car market went crazy. We paid them both off within 3-4 months of purchasing them. I used to think I would just lease a car because I had this idea that all used cars break down constantly but I’m glad my husband disabused me of notion because with some TLC, my car should last me a long time and with all the spending on gas and tolls, I am so thankful to not have a car payment.
Savings balance: $1,000. My husband and I used to have a very large savings/rainy day fund (30k-ish) but we’ve spent the past 3 years going through fertility treatments that have really eaten away at our savings. This amount of savings is pretty antithetical to how judicious we both are about money but we both have good job security and could cash out our investment accounts with penalty if we really needed it so we haven’t prioritizied replenishing it. That, and we are very emotionally spent after the past few years.
Checking account balance: $460.55
Crypto portfolio: $0. I don’t have the risk tolerance for this.
House: Bought for $580,000, now worth ~$700,000. Still owe around 545k.
Assets:
401K: ~$140,000. I max out my contribution to my 401k. I did not start contributing to this until I was 27 but all my past employers have had generous matches which has helped.
ROTH IRA: ~$11,000. My husband and I have a joint ROTH IRA that we’ve maxed out every year for past 4-5 years. All our accounts have taken a beating this year, not unlike everyone else, so these numbers used to be much higher. Keep reminding myself to play the long game!
Brokerage Account $6,000. I’d like to be more aggressive with this but we’re doing our best at the moment.
Income
I am currently working full-time as a tech consultant. I’ve only been here a year, but I love the work and the benefits are generous. The job is very stressful and a bit hectic sometimes but it’s hard to imagine I’ll get everything I have at this job elsewhere, so I plan to stay awhile a while.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~$4,825 2x/month
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $0. I joked with my husband I should start bartending to keep up with my student loan payments and IVF costs, but he wouldn’t stand for it.
Other Income: I sometimes do other work with modest honorariums that probably only bring in around $2k a year. This year is an outlier thought and I will get almost $9k.
Total Income: ~$4,825. I don’t account for other income into my budget and whatever I get just gets chucked towards student loans.
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $1550 (Half of my mortgage. My husband has VA Loan so we didn’t need a down payment for the house, just closing costs, which is why our mortgage may seem a little high. We also live in a HCOL area so this probably seems high but this is not far off from what we paid for rent living in the city, so this wasn’t a hard jump for us financially.
Debt payments: Anywhere from $1700 (the minimum) to $4000, depending on the month.
Utility Bills: ~$200 (I pay)
Cellphone + Internet: $150 (Husband pays)
Subscriptions: $150 (Husband pays)
Car Insurance: $100 (Covers both of us, husband pays)
Dining Out: $150-250. We very rarely go out to eat especially in the past few years because of pandemic and IVF but we’re trying to get in the habit of doing so once a month to enjoy ourselves. We're more likely to order in with UberEats or something. My husband usually pays even though it goes on our joint CC, he usually pays it off.
Shopping: Wildly fluctuates but anywhere from 500 to nothing. The older I’ve gotten the easier it is for me to avoid impulse buys.
Groceries: $1200-1500 – I pay for all groceries and house toiletries like soap, toothpaste, medicine, etc. One of the things we splurge on is high quality meats, organic fruits and vegetables, blah blah blah etc. This lifestyle change hasn’t made any difference in our IVF success unfortunately but we both couldn’t deny how great we felt eating that way, so we continue to do so despite me sometimes wincing at the cumulative cost. I make almost double what my husband does, so I take over a slightly higher percentage of our monthly bills but not by much because we both agreed I should prioritize paying down my student loans. He also covers dog food, treats, and medicine for both our dogs which really adds up and those more random, quarterly house expenses like Home Depot visits, pest control, buying a new mower, lawn care, and other things that come up more than you think (Home owners know the struggle). Once my debt is paid down, we will probably revisit the split of monthly expenses to see what makes sense.
Cleaning: $165/month (I pay) Having a house cleaner is one of those luxuries I would never give up. I’d rather cut back on dining out, shopping, etc if someone could come once a month to clean. We also have two big dogs, so it feels less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
Pet Insurance $80/month, covers both dogs (I pay)
Gas: $300 (I have a long commute and I go into the office almost every day)
Tolls: $225
Parking: $0 Work covers this, thank goodness!
Health Insurance: $0. My work covers health insurance for me and my husband. Huge bonus I don’t take for granted.
Total Expenses: I’ve estimated it is roughly around $6,500 a month at least for my portion of bills, assuming I’ve only paid the minimum of my student loans.
Debt Diary
2006 – Started college at a public university where I got free tuition from a combination of my mom’s job and my good grades. We still owed room and board which my parents covered for the most part and then took out loans to cover the rest when they divorced. My stepdad paid off the remaining balance of around 8k for me in my mid-twenties.
2010 – Graduated and moved to abroad for four years. Got great experience but pay was very low so no savings and no financial planning at all.
2014: Started my graduate degree back in the U.S.. Took out *all* the loans for this to include living expenses (150k). During this time I wanted to be a public servant so I felt confident my loans would be paid off after 10 years through Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. That’s not exactly how it worked out.
2016: Graduated and started my first “big girl” job at 27 making around $75,000 . This is the first time I started contributing to a 401k. I was working for a 401c3 so I qualified to start paying into the PSLF program. My loan payments, based on my income at the time was around $350-400 monthly. I got modest raises over the next few years that brought me to 85k before I switched jobs. During these four years, my student loans ballooned to 170k because I was only paying the minimum.
2020: My husband and I cancel our wedding and honeymoon (covid) but still get married. Got a new job that finally got me a low six figure salary (120k) but was in the private sector so still paying minimum on student loans but no longer was making qualified payments for student loan forgiveness. Thought I might still go back into government/nonprofit world.
2021: Changed jobs – same ish salary @ 125k, still in the private sector. Start what will be many rounds of unsuccessful rounds of IVF. I think the total cost has been somewhere around 80k. My husband’s grandmother has helped us a lot which I quite literally don’t know what we would do without, but it’s still been very financially, emotionally, and mentally taxing. Wasted a lot of money on supplements and acupuncture that didn’t help.
2022: Started at the job I have now. Base started at 175,000 plus 25% bonus. In the first year I got a promotion and a 20% raise, so I now make 210,000. This is when I realize that this is the career I enjoy and will likely not go back government service in the future or at least not long enough to participate in student loan forgiveness program. I also do the math and realize if I continue to pay the minimum of income-based repayment (based on my now much higher pay) I will end up paying 3-4x the loan amount over the course of my life. I decide to privatize my loans and choose a 10 year pay off plan because I want to be somewhat aggressive about it, hence the relatively high minimum payment of $1700. Despite the good interest rate (3% ish) the principal is so high that $400 of that goes to interest. It’s why I’d like to aggressive pay it down now, if for no other reason than to get the interest payments down.
2023: I’m told after many failed rounds of IVF, I’m unable to have genetic children. We start figuring out how we will afford other ways to build our family, all of which cost in the tens of thousands. Fortunately, (?) I’ve gotten my student loans down to 125k.
Now: Between canceling our wedding, our honeymoon, living through a pandemic and years of fertility struggles and awful treatments, I am now re-thinking how aggressively I’ve been paying down debt this past year. Approaching getting pregnant and debt payment both as a sprint and not a marathon has done me no favors. I also just want my husband and I to enjoy life a little bit given all our struggles. We both work so hard, and I want to make sure we’re making time (and money) on the things that make us happy. I also realize we need to figure out how we’ll pay to expand our family which overwhelms me but I’m trying to treat this just as a second marathon, not a sprint.
Reflection
Do I regret my student loans?
Despite my six figure loans living rent free in my mind constantly, it’s hard to regret taking them because I can’t imagine how else I would have built the career I have now, which I love and am very grateful for. My career is everything I always hoped for and more although sometimes I lose sight of that in the daily grind. Grad school was so time consuming it’s also hard to imagine how I would have worked at the same time and made enough money to make a meaningful difference in my bills. And I focused a lot of time on substantive internships that would help demonstrate my ability to shifting gears into a different career which I do think paid off in more ways than one. This new career path that I’m on also opens a lot of doors for me to continue to be a higher earner so in the long run, this amount of debt, while daunting and a bit menacing, is somewhat of a first world problem. It will get paid off. My only concern is if something catastrophic happened, since my loans are private, I would still have a very high mandatory minimum payment. Again, both my husband and I have a lot of job security and could always cash out our investment accounts, heaven forbid something awful happened. I think because the past few years have been so mentally taxing, I have very little bandwidth for regret.
Impact of Infertility
It is probably also worth noting that dealing with years of infertility and infertility treatments only to be told ultimately that I’m unable to have [genetic] children has changed who I am as a person and how I see life. We spent 3 years of our life in a pandemic lockdown and then in back-to-back all-consuming aggressive fertility treatments. I feel like we lost so much time and had very little levity during those times. I still plan on being diligent about paying off my debt and investing, but I want to cut myself some slack and allow my husband and myself to live a little, travel and just spend time enjoying our lives instead of just focusing on destinations (of having children and debt pay off).
Generational Wealth
The city I live in is filled with lots of wealthy people and many a times I’ve been in conversations where people ask where you sailed in the summer and skied in the winter, like it’s a given that everyone does this (lol). Most of the people I went to grad school with had their school paid off from family (plus help with a down payment for a house and wedding costs), and it occurs to me over and over how critical a role generational wealth can play in setting someone up for an incredibly easier life. My husband and I grew up middle class (which still conferred a lot of privilege that is never lost on us) but would like to make sure we have saved money for our [eventual] kids college so they’re not saddled with debt – and thinking about other investment accounts we could open for them to start generational wealth. Without my student loan debt, I could have an additional 200k to invest which would have meaningful impact on my kid’s and kid’s kid’s life when invested correctly. I don’t dwell too much on this though, at least anymore, but rather something I consider when planning for the future. Both my husband and I are still grateful for the advantages and privilege we still did and continue to have. Oddly, getting more interested in personal finance has made me feel more neutral about money which I appreciate.
Husband’s Influence
I also have to credit a lot of good money habits to my husband who was a really great influence on me on the importance of making consciousness steps to get a better credit score, invest aggressively, etc. I was definitely living for a good time not a long time up until I met him lol. We still prioritize spending money on fun without guilt but now I enjoy the process about making sure we’re set up well for the future.
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Thank you for reading. I'm feeling a bit vulnerable talking about this stuff so please be gentle with me :').

I was looking at compact cameras to use for travelling purposes that’d be great for taking pictures while on holiday like landscapes and street photography that kinda stuff. Just a great compact camera that’s suited for capturing pictures of all different things, day or night. I’ve seen that the Panasonic TZ200/ZS200 is an excellent travel camera but also saw the same for the TZ100/ZS100! Looking at the pricing here in the UK. The TZ200 ranges from £700 to £720 from looking at Amazon and third party sellers. The TZ100 however is priced at a solid £399 from what I’ve seen. Is it worth the extra £300 for the TZ200? From what I’ve seen the zoom range and improved viewfinder is the differences between the two.
If anyone has suggestions for other cameras that’d be great for travelling purposesthen please let me know!

Time to try this again! I personally enjoy posts that have lots of info in them, so hopefully this has everything you’d want to know and more.
I’m looking for someone who is easygoing. I’ve never really been in drama in my life and i’m not really looking to start. I’m not religious whatsoever, so I’d hope the same for you. I’m very 420 friendly and I hope you are too. Honesty, communication, and a sense of humor are really important to me. I’ve gotten really good at communicating my feeling as well!
I’d prefer you to be near my age (20-25 is probably my range, but message anyway) and in okay shape. I’m not an adonis by any means, but i’ve gotten really good at working on myself and if you aren’t in a spot where you’re comfortable with yourself then I want to help you get there.
I’m not good at talking about myself, but i’ll give it a go. I graduated college last December with a degree in IT. I’m a gigantic music guy, but I tend to hover around rap/R&B. That’s what I grew up with, but now I can get out of that bubble.
I’m 5’10”, black, and I currently work for my county government. I find my work to be fulfilling. Personally, it feels good to know I’m doing an “essential service,” and I love helping people with their problems and I get to do that every day! I like to be a bright spot in people’s day, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes. When people tell me they appreciate my help or laugh while i’m doing my job, I get the biggest hit of satisfying and pride.
I’ve recently had my own little quarter life awakening. I’d been various levels of depressed for the past 5 years, and after talking yo my therapist for the past year, i’ve started taking antidepressants. It’s been like a cloud moving to reveal the sun. I feel happy, healthy, and motivated for the first time in my adult life
Even thought i’m not as much as I used to be, i’m still into games. I play a TON of Overwatch 2, so if you’re down to play or watch then I’m happy to hop into a Discord call. Unfortunately, I have been playing OW since 2016, so i’m committed at this point. I also enjoy listening to true crime, (The Casual Criminalist is probably my favorite) and I love watching sports, mainly football and basketball, but I’ll watch any sport. Bonus if you love listening to long form video essays.
I’d like to think I’m fun to have a conversation with and that I message back pretty quickly. I’m open to exchanging pictures and all of that. I’ve got a lot of free time as I work in an office, so I’m free to talk for most of the day. I’m low maintenance and I enjoy life and being happy. If you’ve read this far then send me a message and tell me what kind of music/games you’re into.

This is the first time this has happened to me. I sold a Pokémon card and put it in a plastic toploader, wrapped in bubble wrap and mailed it in a bubble mailer. the buyer claims the item I sent was damaged. Mercari says it was damaged in transit (obviously). The card had a few faults but the pictures the buyer showed looked way worse than what I sent him. The bubble mailer literally looked as if it was ran over by a truck. There was a tear along the side of the bubble mailer which idk how that can happen unless it was tampered with.They approved his request and say they can’t reimburse me due to insufficient packaging? So now (if I even get the same card back in the same condition) I’m stuck with a card that now I can’t sell for what is worth and I’m afraid if I’m even going to receive the same card back or if it’ll be even more damaged. Is there anything I can do ? Or am I out of luck. I’ve been selling for two or more years now and have nothing but 5 star ratings and mercari sided with a buyer who had a blank account and is only a year old.

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.
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me

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.
​
me

"Fuuga Kaito is a twenty-nine year old loser XX year old freelance vocalist. A Super Sentai fanatic Living out delusions of grandeur in his mind constantly performing alongside his friends, he spends his days crushing horribly on the female protagonist of a children's anime protecting the peace through the power of music.
One day, however, he and two others - drunkard cafe owner Miss Meiko and Cosplay Otaku Girl average highschooler Hatsune Miku - are suddenly scouted to become the "Hikyo Sentai Urotander"! The great Ikebukuro is threatened by the fierce Crypton Future Media "Openly Insidious Darkompany", who wish for KAITO to get back to work to destroy all freedom in music production, and only they have the actual desire wits and ability to stop them!
Armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Super Sentai tropes and a willingness to exploit every single one of them, the fight to become officially recognized as still working for tax purposes true heroes has begun! Even if being victorious requires any means necessary!
Stand up, Urotander - our warriors!"
What a bold show right from the start! Not only do we have one of the earliest sentai teams to be dominated by girls, they have such a great dynamic between them. Sure, Hikyo green may have been playing to that bland stereotypical idol shtick at first, but its great to watch her develop alongside the others as the season goes on, getting more and more underhanded each time. It's just a shame Hikyo Yellow and Orange don't get as much development because of their late entry.
The antagonists though? Jesus, their personality is through the roof! Led by the incredible Mysterious Female Officer, she plays off the heroes fantastically, oozing appeal from the very beginning and going through a surprising level of development herself.
It's frankly amazing how well they managed to balance the comedy with the emotional plot. That episode 39 had me nearly keeling over and crying at the same time is proof of the writing team's talent. To the very end, the writing remains powerfully funny and straight up powerful, even if it does end up on a cliffhanger to prepare for season 2.
A show that keeps surprising you to the end, Hikyo Sentai Urotander is a celebration unlike any-
"KAITO, are you trying to get that stupid show of yours greenlit again?"
Oi, don't use my real name! A-anyway, it's a great show, so make sure to check it out!
Hikyo Blue, signing out!

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.
​
me

I just bought a new F30 2016 328i xdrive. It’s mineral grey and I was planning to do some visual mods(spoiler, lip, etc) but I can’t find any pictures online of the same colour. If you have any pictures please post or send here.

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.
​
me

Hey everyone, I work at an up and coming software company in Atlanta as a network support/Helpdesk engineer / sysadmin for my company, and I think I’m getting underpaid. Currently making 70K and I’ve been in the IT field for 9 years now, and at this current job for almost 3 years. My pay is consistent within my small departments, but that doesn’t say much as I think the whole department is underpaid. For reference, I know that our entry level software engineers/late stage interns make 100K+ on the low end. Same goes for our project managers and customer success mangers. I appreciate some feedback from you all on what my worth is, as I’m still young and figuring things out.
The description of what I do at work is ever growing and I’ll probably forget some things, but this is at least most of what I do on a weekly basis.
My job mainly focuses on implementing and onboarding our clients on the technical side, as well as dealing with the highest level support/helpdesk tickets that come into our queue. I work with IT counterparts (DBAs, CIOs, CTOs, and various other stake holders on the project) on the customer end to integrate their various IT systems into our platform, whether that be databases, firewalls, and other client devices on the network. I’m also a SME when it comes to our own technology and how it works to integrate with various counterpart softwares. I work with our own project management team to set client expectations and come up with solutions for integrating, as each client’s implementation is unique.
I also work with our sales and training team to support them with higher leave technical questions from customers and prospective customers.
I also manage the networks at our offices, and am sort of a catch-all for anything regarding technical problems that happen under our roofs. I’m on an on-call rotation for escalations from our support desk that is 1 week on 1 week off, but when shit hits the fan, regardless if I’m on call or not, I get the calls from our C-suite to help resolve the issues.
The job also involves some travel to higher profile clients during times of emergency. It isn’t all that often, but when something comes up that needs immediate on site support for something high-level and important, its me getting on a plane to go fix the problem.
I’ve got experience in and am considered one of the experts at my place of work in the following: Windows Mac OS Debian based OSs Routing/switching Firewalls Databases IP Video
I also have experience, but not what I would call an expert in project management (Google PM courses), Python (self taught), and the AWS Cloud (Cloud practitioner level, working on architect.)
Hours are typically 8-6, but as things go in the support department, there’s always more work to be done. Often having to work late and some weekends to even attempt to keep up with the workload.
Again, I’m probably leaving some stuff out, I’ll add anything else I can think of in the comments, but please feel free to ask more detail if needed. Any feedback from the group on what this job should be worth would be much appreciated.
Thanks,