u/ElGordo1988

So I have basically the male equivalent of "resting bitch face", people often tell me I look "serious". But the flat face/permafrown is like a passive thing at this point. It's just like my "default" facial expression and I don't even realize I'm doing it since the facial muscles and muscle memory have been in the flat/frown position for 30+ years

For context I am in my late 30's

When you grow up very poor under a violent alcoholic dad there just isn't much to smile about. And you also get a good serving of learned helplessness and a mild case of PTSD from routinely overhearing domestic violence/loud arguing in the kitchen and dad having random violent fits where shit gets thrown against the wall and such. Thinking back on it I suspect my mom babytrapped my dad and he was never really interested in being a father in the first place - because he would regularly belittle me and my two brothers, undermine our self-esteem, tell us we would never amount to shit (this is so bad to tell kids), etc

Growing up poor can definitely affect your mental health and demeanor/outward appearance in subtle long-lasting ways (in my case with the permafrown anyways) as a sort of "side effect". Over the years I have noted that middle class to upper middle class classmates from my past just look different even at first glance - their facial expression is typically in the neutral-to-friendly smile range (...and of course, they typically have great teeth due to their parents being able to afford regular dentist visits growing up), they seem to have more "life" in their eyes (it's hard to describe), they carry themselves with more confidence, they have good self-esteem, they have a more positive/upbeat attitude when you talk to them, etc

Anyways, I see a lot of posts discussing the "numbers" aspect of poverty (struggling to afford bills, having to choose between groceries or rent, etc), but there are also these other "subtle" long-term effects of poverty that don't get mentioned nearly as much

So I have basically the male equivalent of "resting bitch face", people often tell me I look "serious". But the flat face/permafrown is like a passive thing at this point. It's just like my "default" facial expression and I don't even realize I'm doing it since the facial muscles and muscle memory have been in the flat/frown position for 30+ years

For context I am in my late 30's

When you grow up very poor under a violent alcoholic dad there just isn't much to smile about. And you also get a good serving of learned helplessness and a mild case of PTSD from routinely overhearing domestic violence/loud arguing in the kitchen and dad having random violent fits where shit gets thrown against the wall and such. Thinking back on it I suspect my mom babytrapped my dad and he was never really interested in being a father in the first place - because he would regularly belittle me and my two brothers, undermine our self-esteem, tell us we would never amount to shit (this is so bad to tell kids), etc

Growing up poor can definitely affect your mental health and demeanor/outward appearance in subtle long-lasting ways (in my case with the permafrown anyways) as a sort of "side effect". Over the years I have noted that middle class to upper middle class classmates from my past just look different even at first glance - their facial expression is typically in the neutral-to-friendly smile range (...and of course, they typically have great teeth due to their parents being able to afford regular dentist visits growing up), they seem to have more "life" in their eyes (it's hard to describe), they carry themselves with more confidence, they have good self-esteem, they have a more positive/upbeat attitude when you talk to them, etc

Anyways, I see a lot of posts discussing the "numbers" aspect of poverty (struggling to afford bills, having to choose between groceries or rent, etc), but there are also these other "subtle" long-term effects of poverty that don't get mentioned nearly as much

Recently was lurking on a completely unrelated conspiracy forum where sometimes off-topic stuff gets posted as well. Some guy made a post about how he started taking L-Glycine and he stopped waking up like a few hours into his sleep (an annoying problem I also had), the OP of the thread said that his own effective dosage was 3000 mg per night

I bought a bottle off Amazon and decided to try it for the hell of it and it does seem to do something. I went from 4.5-5 hours of sleep per night to about 6-6.5 hours of sleep per night creeping up on 7 hours some nights. My nightly routine now is to take x1 L-Glycine pill about 10 minutes before bed and chase it down with some water. My dosage is 1000 mg, nothing crazy

Anyways, it SEEMS to be working for me. It's nice not "randomly" waking up at 3 AM anymore, I do feel a bit more rested even if it's only like 1.5-2 more hours of sleep. A small win is a small win I guess

Out of curiosity I got a basic T panel done a few weeks back, my total T came back at 597 ng/dl (apparently low-normal from what I've studied on here) and my free T showed 12.4 ng/dl. I am in my late 30's and my BMI is currently around 24

I am not on TRT, I don't go to the gym, and I still eat fast food here and there. I take a few 40-50 minute walks in the park per week, but that's about it as far as physical exercise goes

As a casual sidelines lurker of this sub I can't help but notice there is some gymbro posts sprinkled in along the lines of "i eat clean and go to the gym 4-5x a week but my labs just came back and my T was 200", which is somewhat perplexing to me. Like, how is that possible?? 🤨 Some of the posters making said complain posts are very young, I've seen a 20M and even one or two late-teens making similar style posts on here recently

Anyways, I was wondering if any of my fellow office/nerd types also have ok-ish test levels despite not really "doing" anything like me (I don't think I've been to a gym since like 2011)

Be honest now...

Personally as an occasional/casual DIYer I would say about 70% of my HF tools mostly just collect dust on the floor in my closet 😅 I work on my own car in the parking lot doing small/DIY jobs here and there, maybe once a month - but that's about it

I would say these are the tools/items that most frequently actually see some action for me:

- 17" Pittsburgh 3/8" breaker bar

- 24" Pittsburgh 1/2" breaker bar

- Pittsburgh wobble sockets

- Pittsburgh 3/8" and 1/4" dual-head ratchet with flex (workhorse tool for me)

- 10 mm, 13 mm, 15 mm, 19 mm sockets

- "Hardy" brand disposable nitrile gloves (used regularly even when not working on my car)

- 7" Pittsburgh needle nose pliers

- 8" Pittsburgh slipjoint pliers

- Pittsburgh mini hook and pick set

- Pittsburgh slotted head screwdriver

To be honest I think I have a mild addiction to shopping at HF rather than actually having a use for most of the random tools I buy there. My most-used item from there is definitely the disposable nitrile gloves, since I also use them for household stuff like cleaning my bathroom and such

When I see some of these "sale haul" photos (...where it looks like they bought literally every single X brand tool subcategory in one visit) posted on here I can't help but wonder if there's a decent amount of full-time mechanics posting on here or something? Because I just don't see a casual/DIYer user like me ever using most of the obscure or niche tools pictured in said "haul" posts

How about you? Do you actually use your HF tools on a regular basis? Or do you just have a mild HF shopping addiction like me? Maybe we can compare notes

All my life I have been told by older/boomer types something along the lines of "you spend so much time on that computer/phone, why don't you go out more?". For context, my personality type is introvert and I've been a shy guy my entire life - that's just not changing now that I am in my 30s

For example, my idea of a fun time is putting in a couple hours on World of Warcraft while listening to one of my favorite longform podcasts/talk-shows for background noise - to me that is a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon, and I see nothing wrong with it (from my introvert perspective anyways). I'm not hurting anyone or bothering anyone with my various solo at-home timekilling activities 🤷‍♂️

It seems to me that a lot of extroverts and most of these older/boomer types just ASSUME there is this "one-size-fits-all" or "socially acceptable" way to spend your free time... and what they mean by "socially acceptable" (if you read between the lines) seems to be going out to a physical bar with friends, buying overpriced drinks/food at said bar, spending money on concerts, spending money on sportsball tickets for every sports game that comes to town, going to a face-to-face dinner at a physical restaurant to engage in petty small-talk while buying overpriced food at said physical restaurant, etc

Basically the one-size-fits-all "socially acceptable" way to spend your free time involves spending money on overpriced food/drinks and face-to-face social activities (which introverts don't perform well in). The "one-size-fits-all" ways to spend your free time also ASSUME that you have a social circle or group of friends to hang out with - which might not be the case as an introvert... or maybe your only friends are other fellow introverts who don't really go out themselves either

I haven't had a circle of guys to physically hang out with since like 2012 at the latest. There just isn't much to do or much appeal in the physical world when you don't really have friends or a "social circle" to do things with. I'm not going to go to a bar to just sit by myself off in the corner while buying overpriced drinks/food, that's dumb imo

Can anyone else relate? These occasional snide remarks from older/boomer types and non-understanding extrovert talky-talky high social skills types just get old after a while. They just don't seem to understand that introverts and extroverts are basically apples to oranges

All my life I have been told by older/boomer types something along the lines of "you spend so much time on that computer/phone, why don't you go out more?". For context, my personality type is introvert and I've been a shy guy my entire life - that's just not changing now that I am in my 30s

For example, my idea of a fun time is putting in a couple hours on World of Warcraft while listening to one of my favorite longform podcasts/talk-shows for background noise - to me that is a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon, and I see nothing wrong with it (from my introvert perspective anyways). I'm not hurting anyone or bothering anyone with my various solo at-home timekilling activities 🤷‍♂️

It seems to me that a lot of extroverts and most of these older/boomer types just ASSUME there is this "one-size-fits-all" or "socially acceptable" way to spend your free time... and what they mean by "socially acceptable" (if you read between the lines) seems to be going out to a physical bar with friends, buying overpriced drinks/food at said bar, spending money on concerts, spending money on sportsball tickets for every sports game that comes to town, going to a face-to-face dinner at a physical restaurant to engage in petty small-talk while buying overpriced food at said physical restaurant, etc

Basically the one-size-fits-all "socially acceptable" way to spend your free time involves spending money on overpriced food/drinks and face-to-face social activities (which introverts don't perform well in). The "one-size-fits-all" ways to spend your free time also ASSUME that you have a social circle or group of friends to hang out with - which might not be the case as an introvert... or maybe your only friends are other fellow introverts who don't really go out themselves either

I haven't had a circle of guys to physically hang out with since like 2012 at the latest. There just isn't much to do or much appeal in the physical world when you don't really have friends or a "social circle" to do things with. I'm not going to go to a bar to just sit by myself off in the corner while buying overpriced drinks/food, that's dumb imo

Can anyone else relate? These occasional snide remarks from older/boomer types and non-understanding extrovert talky-talky high social skills types just get old after a while. They just don't seem to understand that introverts and extroverts are basically apples to oranges

So recently I've been lurking plastic surgery/looksmaxxing-oriented subs since I've been researching options for getting rid of my dark eye circles. For context mine are pretty dark, I frequently get told I look tired

Anyways, I see a decent number of obviously attractive redditors making "am i ugly?"-style posts on these subs. Guys asking if they're ugly but then when you look at their photo they basically have 6-pack abs and look to have no more than like 15% BMI 🙄 Or female posters asking if they're ugly while basically looking like an OnlyFans model 🙄

I'm sure a few of these people are just trolls/looking for attention on said subs, but I think some of them are actually genuine. It's definitely annoying (and somewhat infuriating) reading that shit, the ones who are genuine with their dumb "am i ugly?" question are so out of touch it's hilarious