Hello. How's Everyone Doing?
 

Hi! I haven't posted on the forum as prolifically as I used to in a long time. How's everyone still on here doing?

I'm doing godlike.

dude! i was thinking about your photos just this morning, i swear, the way they catch people

im alright. you?

Hey! Thank you for thinking about my photos. I'm constantly working hard at improving as a photographer. I'm good, always quite busy. These days I work in two marinas as watercrew and I'm very much enjoying it. How are you?.

surviving for now, just drove Jenn out to get a kicky new do for the xmas festivities

Many difficulties and many rewards in the last few years. But even with all of the stress, I am at the very least employed in a way I genuinely love and living in my favorite place to date. I’ve had a few years put on me, but my current lifestyle is actually pretty decent if I look at it from the outside.

Doing pretty well, thanks. How are YOU doing?

I also almost never come here anymore.

That is criminal and should be prosecuted.

yeah, and the quality shows. thanks for posting fresh ones. i always look, even if i might post nothing. love the new ones

marina! do you ever go sailing? and (because im curious about the lifestyle) are there any liveaboards? would you do it?

im okay, busy all day and with a good daily routine, but i always get the nomadic urge....

St Katharine Marina by any chance?

Not St Katharine Docks.

Thank you, much appreciated. I don't think I ever put as much effort into learning something as I do with photography. You do really invest a lot of time, energy, physical, mental and technical, but still never quite manage the results you expect. And you shouldn't, or you will get into the sort of mindset that a nicely exposed photo and expensive gear is all you need. Not in my case, anyway. We do 'sailings' occasionally, but it's mainly because of operating work boats to re-shuffle boat locations in the marinas. Assisting with pump outs, ang welcoming new mooring customers etc. Occasionally you do that with just using ropes, depending on the size of the boat and where the berth is. It's a very niche job which involves physical work, administration, event organising, health and safety, customer care and spotting stuff not working the way it should in the facilities provided. And sweeping bird shit off the pontoons too. There are also some things you do I don't always find pleasant. For instance, walking around the area and checking you don't spot dead bodies in the water. Long story. The world of boating is so different from renting/owning a conventional home.

Btw, glad everyone is doing well. I forgot on forums you can't just get away with dishing out emoticons to tell someone you approve of their well being. Sonic Youth, please sort this out.

yes! im super intrigued by it

Doing ambivalent as of late. Lots of anxieties compounding, battling depressive states and the super-judgemental, hyper-corporate makeup of a lot of societal structures are becoming unbearably evident and omnipresent.


On the flipside, I have pretty awesome friends and I may just be starting to open up to a romantic thread that's been brewing in the background somewhere. Don't know where this is going (or if it is going anywhere) quite yet, but for now, there is a mutual spark that fills me with quite some joy. I recently came out as a grey ace to quite a few people I know and they were very accepting and accomodating. Turns out, there are more of us out there as well. And there is also more of a platform for this nowadays. I appreciate that a lot.


Band project finally seems to be progressing after a grueling, touch-and-go five years of trying to find people me and my bass-player friend are able to work with (finding a drummer was especially tough). We are six people now, which is absolutely bonkers, but also quite exhllarating.


This thread is legit wholesome.

Doesn't Joe Manchin live on a boat?

no idea... oh yes in sw dc? i think? i've heard? i mean, out of town people need apartments. why does the apartment need to be stuck in one place forever? seriously. a boat sure seems to beat a fucking winnebago or those things you need to park out of town by a gas station. no contest

I pictured you down there on the water washing the American billionaire yachts. Was going to ask, is it your job requirement to scrub the undercarriage of wealthy American bankers...

is it just me or does your comment read full of ill will for no reason? maybe i missed something... just wondering if i'm spoiling the party with this, or if you did that already (ha ha)

i'm often quick to engage in a brawl, i admit, guilty as charged. but... do you have it coming in this case? signs point to yes, but my social compass is a little broken, lol. maybe i misunderstood something... help...?

(aita/yta question i guess)

Twas but a joke ye auld scrubber

I know it was a joke. I'm gentle, now, and more creative.

where?! i never saw one xD

but wouldn't a joke need to be funny to be identified as such, though? :o

--

anyway, the boat thing looks demanding and interesting (even with the natalie woods... spooky, no need to go into details publicly)

sssso, what's next?

I can't with this guy

Can confirm hippies' love of water, as evidenced by the numerous dope-boats along regents canal by cafe oto... and bong water, obviously.

You’d be surprised by how dealing with boats makes people way more cynical than in any job that I have been in before. I don’t have to deal with, mostly, day-to-day chores about them, but they are really hard work in terms of maintenance. Things can go wrong all the time, particularly if you are not moored and protected by some security enclave and a certified marina. A lot of people choose to live on one because they think they are getting a cheaper rent option, in London at least, but the council has now decided to make them pay tax because they won’t move their berths for at least three times a year. Canal boats do, but marina boats don’t, really. Plus, you are not protected by government laws if you decide to rent your boat out. Most people who buy boats love the romance of it, but in reality it’s hard work unless you have the money and the right boat. Narrow ones are really only good for couples without children. Widebeams or Dutch Barges are much better for families. But if you buy them without the boat having had a proper survey (not just on water, useless), you may end up with a pile of floating shit.

fucking council! hahahahahaaaaa... yes it's becoming a global fad now with rising real estate prices really, and higher interest rates. not a new thing, to live in a boat, but i believe it's experiencing a recent spike right along homelessness and "van dwelling" (you should look at some van living youtubes, it's mostly white homeless people pretending to be cool. well it's a bit tragic, i'm not making fun of the situation, only of the pretense and promotion of the "lifestyle", which gets annoying because come on, nobody should be encouraging this, except to provide tips for an emergency situation. it's not sustainable and they all end up "quitting")

im familiar with your british canal narrowboats btw, but for me i'd like something i could cruise in, for the greta thunberg travel aspect of it. why get on a flying petri dish and pollute when you can sail peacefully with nicer germs and take your time? nothing to do with romance, honest, i know what seagulls can do... for me it's more about the proper gtfo package in case of disaster. i wish i were joking, but i try to look far at possibilities which may never happen (will likely not happen) but could anyway. so i'm more about finding something with a solid keel, because some day maybe i might need it...

i already have a house in the middle of nowhere that requires... a big measure of self-sufficiency, so i'm not unaccustomed to that aspect of things... when you're out in the sticks you really appreciate the ease of city living and not having to chop wood for heat

got attacked by pitbull while walking two dogs on Nov 13. On Nov 15 I got fired after 5 years by a vindictive asshole who himself was leaving the college two weeks later.

other than that all is swell

goddammit man...

here's wishing you a prompt return to good things

hey Rob!


I hope the new year will bring you better fortune.

And I wish the same for all others too :)


As for me, if all goes well, I will be changing jobs very soon. And I'll need to move as well, because the new job is far away from where I live now.
Relatively far away, 120km. But too far for a daily commute

Lots of things need to be done this year, it's gonna be an intense ride and it's causing me a good bit of anguish.


But on the flipside, I was finally able to open myself to love and affection coming my way. New Year's Eve left me with a major decision - either revert to my cocoon - the same comfort but also unwavering sameness I'm used to, or open myself to someone I know cares a whole deal about me and whom I care a whole deal about too. Being openly vulnerable and letting someone else in has been a fear of mine for a long time. Experiences in the past have made me overly careful and self-reflective. But in the end, I decided now was just about the right time to go for it. I'll see the adventure through, wherever it may take me and however long it may abide.

Wow Rob, I hope you're ok.

What does grey ace stand for? Sorry for lack of knowledge.

Hey Gabe, nice to see you around! I just logged in today after a long time, but I'm glad this place still shows some signs of life.


I've been good. Kids are growing and they bring immense joy to my life. We've been thinking of relocating to Switzerland permanently as the situation in my home country is slowly turning to big shit. But it's a hard decision and I'm a bit afraid to do such a big move with kids and all that.



I've starting working on music again and honing my Ableton skills. It's nice to see that I'm capable of doing much more and control the sound way better than I used to.

Grey asexual. Meaning, only marginally/rarely interested in sexual relationships. In my case, I'm romantically inclined.


Hey, only two years ago I had no idea what that meant either. It's only entering the public conscious on baby steps. It's been a long journey of self-discovery and for a long time I didn't realize asexuality is a spectrum. So I wouldn't have identified as one. But through more exposure to the topic and learning more and more about the different types, I realized: Hey, a lot of that checks out with how I feel about things. And I also realized: Hey, there are more of us out there. I'm currently romantically involved/in a relationship with a woman who identifies as demisexual, which is also on the ace spectrum.




It all came together after last year's Vienna Pride Parade, I guess. I saw quite a few ace flags flying and during the event where the starting numbers were assigned (picked from a hat as to make the results randomized), I realized there was an entire group representing aces there that year. The year before, I had already thought about openining up about that, but I was uncertain and didn't want to misrepresent anything. But last year I found the courage and realized that definitions can be fuzzy sometimes, because each person is an individual and relates to things in a very distinct way. And for the most part, descriptors are merely guidelines that help you understand yourself better. That realization made me accept what I've known intuitively for a long time.



And while there are a lot of things in this world that are still baffling to me, I at least know a bit more about myself now. And that feels genuinely good.

Good to see some fellow acers. I'm part of the community as well, specifically the ace in the hole clique. Ace-hole for short.

Our dear sovereign leader:

^

Have you left London?

In short:

Still living in East London, my son is now 6, we tried to have more children but it didn't happen. I'm training to be an electrician, which i like, but I'm not crazy about working on building sites. Once I'm qualified I'm going to try and get into some kind of sustainability related line of work.

Hello, fellow ace-hole! How's the weather down there? stormy, like a storm in a teabeer cup?

nice!!!, I wonder if electrician is a potential grow industry with the rise of EVs as it feels like the demand for home charging and DC Fast charging keeps increasing