u/_betterthangreat_

Got super loud tinnitus from shooting guns and not protecting my hearing as a young adult. My current job is LOUD. Lots of machine work. Because of this, I’m pretty OCD about protecting my hearing.

I like to use the rubber/silicone ear plugs that are more stiff because they can be quickly reinserted into my ear in case they fall out or just move over the course of the day.

I read online that the typical foam ear plugs protect you from more noise than the silicone ear plugs. I tried a pair of 33nrr foam ear plugs today, and I FUCKING HATE THEM.

No matter what I do they barely stay inserted. I know, I know, squish them, insert in ear, then let expand. The issue is, it rarely feels like it expands into my ear canal and more like when it does expand it just pushes itself outward, creating a lousy seal. No matter what I do the foam ones just don’t feel like they fit well and really don’t protect you from much. And in a loud work setting, if they do move or fall out, which is inevitable, they take too long to squish, reinsert, sit, wait, have them not even really work again. I genuinely don’t understand why foam ear plugs are so mass produced nonetheless used effectively.

I just wanted to rant because I’ve found that every time I try to use the foam ones, they’re so laughably dysfunctional. Anyone else relate?

From my early childhood and into my early twenties, I was always trying to be kind and nice to everyone. I wasn’t a saint, if I got mad I could be an asshole here and there, but in general I always felt uncomfortable making other people upset or also uncomfortable.

I would always ask people about themselves, put effort into talking to others, and do my best to reasonably accommodate others while in whatever situation we’d be in. I always felt like shit being even slightly rude to anyone. It was obvious to others I feared confrontation.

The result of this? I got walked on. People used me, forgot about me, didn’t invite me, and just flat out would slowly lose respect for me. It happened with almost everyone in my life at the time. Especially at work. Wherever I went l’d become like the company’s work bitch and they’d throw all the hard shit at me. This slowly made me hella bitter. I started to get mad that I’d have to be this type of person who wasn’t nice and had to be all serious.

Well anyways, it happened kinda organically. I’m not super bitter anymore, but I see the world differently. Most people are going to try and test you in every little way they can, to see how much juice they can squeeze from you. It’s up to you to not let this happen. And I’m convinced that the upper hand is in not being nice.

I’m not saying run around and be a complete ass hole. I still hold doors open for people sometimes and cover my cough. But since I’ve lost the smile, stopped profusely apologizing, saying thanks when I did someone a favor, and literally not asking anyone about themselves ever, I swear my life has done a 180. I’ve stopped shying away from any potential tension or confrontation.

People at work always now ask if I’m okay to do some extra work. A coworker who was constantly getting an attitude with me suddenly lost it. People are filling any silence I bring with asking me about MY day. And honestly, I feel like I’ve distanced myself from a few friends and now they all want to hang out and know what’s up with me.

Anyone else experience this? It makes me sad because I really do believe now that people who act serious and have stern boundaries and aren’t your conventional “nice and wholesome” get pushed around waaaay less in life.

I mean just look at a lot of super successful business owners. Not all, but SO many of them are these super serious and stern people who don’t take shit.

It isn’t like I feel this way JUST about myself either, some of the nicest and best people I’ve ever met just get absolutely shitted on by everyone else in every way. I absolutely hate to see it.

I’ve seen a lot of comments during this whole canvas outage catastrophe that people wish they would’ve downloaded everything from Canvas in the beginning.

How does one do that?

I would like to do this at the beginning of every semester from here on out.

I live in the MidWest United States. For like ever, I drove around a little Pontiac sedan that had great pick up and drove smooth. Never had any issues, usually just other people going kinda slow but I stayed patient. Well, I just got a hand me down truck from my grandfather who sadly passed away. I love the thing. It’s old but it works well, just drives over potholes kinda rough and has a wider turn. Anyways, my local town is FULL of pot holes and railroad crossings. It’s generally 30 everywhere across town but people fly here on the streets, like FLY. Sometimes almost doing 50.

Well now that I’m in this bigger older truck, I do the limit. I may go 5 over here and there, but I’m certainly not racing around. If I take the railroad crossing around here going the speed limit, it sounds rough as fuck on my truck and I’m worried doing that daily will cause a lot of problems or shock issues. So I take it slow over the tracks everytime I come up on them. The truck doesn’t have the best pick up like a smaller car either.

The issue? Literally everywhere I go now, someone is up my ass. I can’t speed around like I did in my sedan, so like I said, I usually cruise at the speed limit or around 5 over. This makes people RAGE, like BAD. Someone is up my ass, everyday, raging that I’m not racing. It’s starting to stress me out and make me angry everywhere I go. Some guy was behind me honking throwing up his hands because I slowed down for the railroad tracks today. It’s getting hard to let it go and I’ve gotten in a few road rage incidents because of it these past few months. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to drive literally anywhere anymore because it might turn into a potential fight. But I also don’t want to go 40 around the neighborhood and over these rough roads in my old truck. Any advice?