If I'm hired I'll be full-time sales in the Microsoft section of their hardware space.

What makes this a big deal is I haven't worked since 2016. Suffering from mental illness (anxiety and panic disorder) and taking care of an elderly family member, I've been out of the workforce for 8 years.

I'm extremely nervous. I turned 41 last year, and I don't want to be a NEET anymore. I've had nightmares about working again with all the stress and anxiety that comes with it, and now I'm thrusting myself head first into that reality.

I feel like being employed again will give me a huge boost in self confidence, but I've also never been this scared in my entire life.

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee
• !horrormovies@lemm.ee

I happened to notice today that the "Itchy and Scratch Land" episode of The Simpsons aired just over 30 years ago (on Oct. 2nd, 1994).

That means that, for a full 3 decades now, I have checked every single gift, souvenir, and tourist shop I've been in for a Bort plate. Its not obsessive and I'm not going out of my way, but if I see a rack of novelty license plates I make a point to look for Bort.

Anyone else, or am I alone in this particular pop culture predilection?

First, apologies if this isn't appropriate for a community called "casual conversation". I just don't know of another conversational community to post in. I am more than happy to delete this on request.

Does anyone out there seem to get addicted to their bad moods? Like, you've been feeling down on and off for a week. Instead of seeking out media, conversations, etc. that you know you like and makes you happy, you'd prefer to keep absorbing unhappy media and talking about unhappy things to keep you unhappy. It's almost like you begin to enjoy being unhappy and you don't want it to stop. What the fuck is even that though? Are some people just meant to be insufferable like that? I don't understand why this happens. When I'm happy, I want to continue to be happy. When I'm down, I want to continue to be down even if there is no discernible reason.

Just curious on your thoughts. Thanks for your time.

Over the years, I've run into a few things that weren't immediately-obvious to me.

One of the big ones was eating pomegranates by opening them underwater. For those not familiar, pomegranates have a lot of red seeds and white husk between them:

Cutting a pomegranate or even opening a pomegranate tends to burst at least some seeds. The seeds are sticky and stain and tend to spray juice when pierced.

However, if you just cut through the outer hull of the fruit, then open it by hand underwater in a bowl of water, any juice that would have sprayed out is just grabbed by the water. Even better, the (inedible) white husk floats, so it self-separates instead of sticking to everything.

Today, I decided to try eating a watermelon with a spoon. In the past, that's tended to also make things spray, so I tried a grapefruit spoon, one with serrations that runs down the side. And that works great -- the spoon is like a knife, can go more-cleanly through the watermelon than a regular spoon, and still lets you scoop up the watermelon.

Any other neat tips that might be unorthodox or that people might not have tried or know about?

Today I saw a totem pole made of skeletons. I tried to come up with a word for it, something like skeletotem pole and accidentally imagined a similar sounding scrotum-totem pole.

Now you are going to imagine one. Do you draw faces on them? Position them to make eyes and stretch them out?

You're welcome.

Free speech is what he said 🙄 I am still being blocked.

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee
• !horrormovies@lemm.ee

Share your best and worst productivity methods along with your personal experiences. Maybe it will help others in this community choose the right method for themselves based on our collective experiences.

I'll start by sharing the best and worst productivity methods I've tried, along with my personal thoughts:

Worst — Getting Things Done (GTD)

There's no doubt that GTD is one of the most popular productivity methods out there. Many of you might even consider it the best. However, my experience with it was far from positive. In my case, I found that this method pushed me to work non-stop, completely ignoring the importance of health and well-being. Personally, I believe it fuels a toxic productivity mindset that emphasizes doing more, without considering the quality of life. It pains me to remember how, in the past, GTD led me to experience severe mental health issues, including burnout, stress, and constant overwhelm. On top of that, I often felt like a failure whenever I couldn’t complete everything on my to-do list by the end of the day.

Best — Humane Productivity Framework

I came across this method earlier this month, but I can confidently say it’s the best one I’ve ever encountered. What sets this framework apart is its core philosophy, which focuses on managing energy and attention, rather than just time. The creator argues that while time is constant, our energy and focus fluctuate—and that’s what we should be managing. Since adopting this framework, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my productivity. More importantly, I no longer deal with the stress, burnout, or constant feelings of failure that plagued me with other methods. It’s been a game-changer for me. Also, it never pushed me beyond my limits like other methods due to its mindful and unique approach, which helped me stay focused and only do those things that are actually important.

I’m really looking forward to hearing about your best and worst productivity methods. I hope to learn something new from your personal experiences, as someone who's also on the journey of self-improvement!

EXTRA: I will add the link to the article here for easy access, just in case anyone else is interested in checking out Humane Productivity Framework.

For me it's any of these things:

People commenting on my art. I deeply cherish the fact that someone has taken time out of their day to say nice things about my work!

People calling me pretty. I get this quite a lot, but it always hits just as it does the first time! 😊

Finding a new song that I end up becoming incredibly addicted to, to the extent that I play said song on repeat throughout the course of the day and then it no longer registers as a song the next day, similar to when you say a word over and over, and it no longer feels like a word? That type of thing... 😂

What are some things that would generally be considered to be trivial/small, that when they happen, never fail to just make your day?

Games you only need your hands and other players to play.

We all know rock paper scissors, thumbwars and chopsticks but I'm looking for niche.

There's many obscure or local ones that get passed down through generations or shared around the playground and I'd love to learn something new.

It's in Swedish and I'm much too lazy to translate. But I figured the older generation might benefit from knowing these terms like shipping, AO3, slash, and whatnot.

He does not like the concept of shipping at all. But he thought it was educational and he liked the pictures I used. It was Star Trek themed since ST essentially coined the slash term, and we both watch it so I made that the main theme.

Well. That was fun. I love explaining nonsensical shit to older peeps.