u/throwaway10015982

Considering doing it next year. I'm kinda broke and probably will be forever and can't afford a lot of other long ultras with the cost of travel and lodging, but it is a bucket list item for me to run 100 miles since I kinda feel like I have nothing else going on.

I'm doing my first 50k in December most likely before I turn 31 (30 for 30 I guess) so I think this might be too much for me even with it being next June (I feel like I should run a few 50 milers before even attempting a 100 with nearly 20,000 feet of elevation gain).

Just wondering what the course is like. I am familiar with the sort of terrain that might be on it since I have run a handful of trail races around the Bay Area since I have lived here my entire life, but I've never run some of those areas. Some sections seem pretty remote.

IDK not a lot of info on this race since it is new

kinda looking into becoming a stationary engineer but I am a soft spoken dweeb with glasses, never had a girlfriend

I run marathons and stuff like that and used to deadlift over 400lbs but generally have been described as "kind of an effeminate dude"

problem is I like to work with my hands and my college degree didn't really work out for me (I feel like having a degree already means I'm not a good fit) but like in general it kinda seems like the type of dudes that work in the trades are the types that got into fist fights in highschool and do wheelies on their sport bike on the Bay Bridge whereas I basically just run up mountain and listen to shoegaze

this is not a troll post I am 100% serious I'm genuinely worried about how well I would fit into the culture of the trades, the way people talk here it kinda seems like you have to be an ultra masculine tough guy and if you are not that then it seems like even if you do like fixing stuff or whatever then it is absolutely not for you

I really can't fucking stand working retail any longer. I graduated with a computer science degree in 2025 (honestly should have switched majors/dropped out well before that, but I just wanted a degree in...something) but that entire career field is dead for everyone who isn't in the top 1% of intellect and talent.

I'm thirty years old and don't really have any prospects in life and am pretty much on the path to eventual homelessness or extreme poverty due to a lack of familial/relational supports but damnit, I actually do want to work in the trades. I am a fairly mechanically inclined person, if you can call doing a timing belt on an interference engine car and then driving it 100~ miles to Modesto a few days afterwards with zero issues mechanically inclined. And yeah I majored in computer science and have soft hands and etc. but like damn what else am I supposed to do

Can you go down to the hall and sign up to be a material handler just to try to get some exposure to the trade? How does that work? I already know from prior research that getting in without prior experience is nearly impossible (it seems that even if you test well, you aren't likely to make it past the interview) so I have to try to figure out something. I don't want to work non union unless I have to.

I don't know I'm grasping for anything at this point it kinda doesn't seem like wanting better for yourself actually counts for anything because pretty much all opportunities in life are closed off in this current fucked up ass economy/country

I've been doomscrolling LinkedIn and Indeed for the last 15 minutes and I wonder if part of the reason a lot of us are underemployed is because there appears to be no entry level work anywhere in any domain a computer science degree would be useful in. I live in the Bay Area too so you would think that there would be a glut of jobs that you could realistically apply to but even here where it should be less of a shitty market the only jobs that seem to be available are all either highly specialized, mid career or senior roles.

Like I would love to have a shitty help desk job just to get me out of retail and have a set 9-5 schedule but even that doesn't really seem attainable anymore. I just don't really get what the people who were not elite students are supposed to do. My education feels like it was a waste but at the same time everytime I clock into my retail job I get irritated because I feel like I could be doing more, but the minimum barrier to entry into the field (and largely any white collar job) seems to be so ridiculously high that being a tad bit smarter than the average bear no longer seems to be enough and to have any chance at employment beyond the Burger Mines is to basically be exceptionally smart and hard working.

I'm sort of just venting but I am having a hard time grasping what the market for new grads is actually like outside of internet doomerism and what little I can see on job boards. To me it seems like a lot of people are just fucked permanently.

I applied to the Stationary Engineers union and honestly I was somewhat right in the sense that getting a trade job is almost as hard as getting a FAANG job lol. The amount of work you would have to do to get into any unionized trade makes it to the point where if you're a new grad it honestly seems to make more sense to try to thug it out and apply to every single open job in the country and hope for the best rather than spend another 4-5-6-7-8 years before you get to make any real money OR you finally land an SWE role and make $100k+ right out of the gate

like it doesn't really make sense and getting the experience of trying to test into a skilled labor union made me have a somewhat more positive outlook on this field. It is literally less work to just run through the Odin Project and vibecode some slop projects and spam apply until you get lucky

and to be honest I took four semesters of calculus and have coke bottle glasses and have never had a girlfriend my ass is 100% getting kicked out a job site first day

Kind of a dumb post, but I'm 30 and basically going nowhere in life, and for reasons I won't go into online (not because I just read online "oh be an electrician!1!!1! it's easy" I just see some EMT conduit bends at the BART station and something comes outta me) I want to get into the trades, particularly electrical but,

is the best option for getting into the Bay Area locals like 332, is it just starting from the absolute bottom as a non union sparky and then trying to get in? I know a guy who only got in after several years of working non union and from what he told me that seems like the only way as the apprenticeship is absurdly selective.

I kinda just don't know what to do. I'm thinking about going to trade school for...something as my degree field is a complete dead end employment wise (I also hate it) but the whole path to becoming an electrician seems really unclear, especially when you're getting old. Everyone I know IRL who has gotten into the trade did an ROP program out of highschool or has family in it whereas I'm just like ???

I've made two posts in this subreddit before and gotten a lot of replies but I always wind up being overwhelmed by the response and end up not replying to anyone, but I want to ask something more general:

Can you make even a half way decent living doing this if you aren't that smart? I made a lot of shitty life decisions and wound up graduating with a Computer Science degree at the ripe old age of 29 in 2025 and I had horrible grades, sub 3.0 GPA, shitty state school, no internships, no real interest in it honestly. I've been stuck in shitty retail/food service jobs my entire adult life and don't really know what to do anymore. People always make fun of me when they find out what my degree is in but it's like well I can't really do much with it, at least on my own personal level.

From my previous posts on this subreddit people have been urging me to go into help desk so I can get out of retail but the truth is I don't really even feel qualified for help desk. I don't know anything about anything and I don't know how well turning in a resume that only has my degree on it and a bunch of McJobs on it is going to go over.

I honestly don't know what to do and only have been looking into going into IT because there seems to be a more clearly defined and accessible entry point than SWE (not so much that it is less competitive) but I'm also sort of dumb. This is the only other field my degree is applicable to and it feels like trying to make this work is the most efficient path especially since I live in poverty and can't afford any other degrees or extensive job training. I'm also 30 and can't really rely on my parents much longer at all.

I don't know sorry my situation seems pretty hopeless I'm just grasping for anything by asking internet strangers cuz I have no one in real life to ask

I'm going nowhere in life and really just want to get out of retail into something even slightly higher paying, don't really care if it's physically demanding or whatever, I just want to make enough to have some degree of real independence.

I applied for a union stationary engineer's apprenticeship but it's so over the top competitive I doubt I'll get in.

Other than that I sort of don't know what's really out there beyond carpentry/electrician/plumbers. Plumbing doesn't sound appealing to me, electricians unions in the Bay Area are extremely saturated and almost impossible to get into. I really like working on cars and learning about them and machinery in general but it doesn't really seem like there are any apprenticeships for that available? I think about trying to go become a dealership technician or something since they pay you, but everyone says do not under any circumstances become an automotive mechanic unless you literally have NO other options in life because it is terrible but I mean it doesn't sound that bad?

I'm kinda stupid so I don't really know what I could be good at. I just know that I don't like sitting down all day (one of the few things I love about retail is getting 10k+ steps in every day) and that I more or less enjoy working with my hands and taking things apart.

Please help me.

I feel like I've been getting dumber or something but it frequently occurs to me that I have NO idea how to look for or even apply to jobs. I only have my current full time retail job of 4 years because they didn't interview me and I pretty much just clicked apply and they needed bodies and somehow it has worked out.

But I have a Bachelors in Computer Science and when people find out they make fun of me for working retail still and it's like, okay dude I don't even know how to even FIND a better job. All the software roles list an absurd amount of qualifications and experience that I don't know how to get and even trying to go the IT route and get a help desk job is a total crapshoot.

I don't have a resume other than a rinky dink one that I've used for my service industry jobs (I'm thirty so I have been doing that for like eleven years now) and I don't really know how to make one for professional jobs.

Like I will probably get downvoted and made fun of because people will read this and be like, "there is no way someone can be this dumb, this man deserves his fate" but like I am genuinely overwhelmed by everything and have no idea what to do, and there basically doesn't seem to be anyone I can consult in real life to help me who isn't a scammer. The government in the USA doesn't really care if you're underemployed, my university basically says too bad so sad you already graduated, and you will find zero help from the private sector for obvious reasons.

I mean like, I have no idea what to do. I can't find or think of a single way to get me out of retail or make more than like $24 an hour, pretty much all avenues seem closed off to me at this point in life and I don't even know what I could realistically go back to school for that wouldn't land me in the same position I am in now.

How are you all finding decent paying jobs!!? HOW

just wondering what people's take on this here is..or if it is even possible to be a good person in the kind of world we live in or if that's even something that can actually exist or exists in actuality

Night 2 of Slide Away at the Hollywood Palladium was the most fun I've had in a LONG time, probably ever. My life is fucking terrible in general, I don't really have any friends and am isolated and make like no money so that's probably why the whole facade came crashing down but it keeps hitting me that probably nothing Dom is going to do in the future will top having 1000+ people singing along to a bunch of uncs coming out of retirement for a few special gigs word for word. Like this shit is never ever gonna happen again.

Yeah they'll do something 2027 but they'd have to get My Bloody Valentine to headline or something, lol.

back in the Bay Area I guess but all the stress has come flooding back instantly,

and, and

like does anyone else here who is part of the Short, Po', Brown and Ugly just want to go like full sicko mode on people who treat you poorly

like IDK I can't really describe what I mean without getting in trouble but sometimes it all gets to me and I just start wishing I was white or something lol. And then on top of probably having the 'tism and feeling lonely and alienated all the time because of that all the time and then knowing you can't really fit in anywhere no matter how hard you try it really starts to eat at you

sometimes I encounter these black people in the Bay Area who are extremely grouchy and ready to snap at the slightest provocation and like, sometimes I realize I'm also becoming the same way, unless someone gives me reason to not think they are a racist piece of shit I am way on guard and basically ready to fucking lose it lol

like I remember when I volunteered for a race a little while ago we had to set up this aid station in this cutty area and somehow despite one of the volunteers being local they didn't know how to get there, and I was like, "I know how to get there..." and the aid station captain (who was white, as was every other volunteer) snapped at me in this really passive aggressive tone and was like "oh maybe you should drive us there then!?"

I don't even know anymore. I had to get this shit off my chest real quick. I had another incident at this place in Hollywood where I went into this place called ROCK TOWN. I love rock music, so I went into peruse their wares and the white goth chick behind the counter straight up just followed me extremely closely the whole time and kept passively aggressively asking me if I needed anything, asking me if I was gonna buy anything. I saw a bootleg Dystopia hoodie and decided these were posers, real Bay Area heads who are raw crust know you can just fucking message Dino on eBay and he'll screenprint you a fresh hoodie with designs he made himself and send it to you from Oakland. I just fucking walked out. They actually had some pretty cool metal boots but it wasn't worth the racism.

IDK I'm sorry I smell really bad and look like the Tapatio man

Shouts out to all the warriors in the pit, it was kinda scary in there but holy shit what a fun show. There was a moment right at the end where there was just non stop crowd surfing overhead and it literally got dark underneath because it was just a canopy of people.

One for the ages. I wish I had taken some videos of night 2 (Cloud City 👀) but it was so crazy up in there the whole time Hum was playing.

Hope everyone is okay. I did see a few medical emergiencies while Chapterhouse was playing so I hope everyone otherwise enjoyed themselves and that it was nothing serious, I got kicked in the face multiple times and have a few sore spots from where I got hit pretty hard while moshing, but it seems like vibes were really good but I did see some people who were a bit put off by how rowdy it got

This is probably the only shows I've ever been to where I was so like geeked on what transpired that I couldn't fall asleep.

Sorry for the lame post, but is there anything kind of interesting/off kilter to do for someone who is sort of socially anxious/doesn't like crowds near the Hollywood Palladium? I will be staying nearby and I don't want to just be lame and sit around because I have only ever left the Bay Area twice in my life.

Obviously over the moon that I'm going to see Hum® both nights and become a The Scientists of 90's alternative rock but man just going there to get in and out seems a little lame. I booked accommodations until Monday morning but I don't have much money and getting around LA seems like a massive headache without a car. I don't know.

Sorry. If nothing else I'll just spend my Afternoon With The Axolotls, because man I Am Tired Of Tomorrow