Not sure if it’s helpful, but pivotal steps in my career path involved unintentional networking.

Started working at a call center reading scripts and calling it “tech support” from that job I made friends with a coworker with a similar interest in computers. A few years later he was working in-house IT for a major company and referred me.

A few years in that field and I made friends with another coworker who got me interested in scripting / coding. A few years later after meeting that friend, he was working as a software developer and referred me to my first coding job.

Once my foot was in the door I would learn and grow in each position until I felt like I stopped growing my skillset and I would find a new job where I could build new skills.

It helps that I have a genuine interest and enjoyment in learning and improving my skills. Computers and technology just happened to be the skillet that people started to pay me for. I could have just as easily ended up a machinist, contractor, chef or any other profession sparked by a personal interest of mine.

To keep with the analogy: the goal is to step on the brake … aka apply the checks and balances supposedly built into the system and stop letting Trump just do whatever he wants without consequences.

It happens, and they aren’t as impactful as they are represented in movies, TV, and comics.

I first learned about this phenomenon when Phoenix Jones was arrested for using pepper spray to break up a street fight. That’s when I learned that there are a handful of people all over the world that don a mask to confront crime. There’s a list on Wikipedia.

Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed in a duel for insulting Vice President at the time, Aaron Burr.

I think it might be a Gopher Snake based off of the coloring and the pattern of the spots along its body.

I think it was the Old Man’s War series that had a really creative form of FTL travel that played off of the infinite multiverse theory.

Instead of traveling through space, they would jump into a parallel universe were everything was the exact same, except that their desired destination was closer to them and the same group of travelers were also jumping to a different verse at the same time.

Not defunct and was only my favorite for a very short period of time, but it left an impression and I still find myself referencing it from time to time. Serving the same great content for 25 years!

https://zombo.com/

Don’t go into coding if you don’t have a passion for it and are just looking for a lucrative career path. With the exception of some niche specialties, that field is over saturated.

Disclaimer: The following suggestions are uninformed guesses and should be treated as such.

If you want to go through school, maybe psychiatry? Lots of interesting insight into people that can help inform your stories. Plus, the mix of growing normalization of mental health and current trends, I see this as a growing industry.

If you want to skip university, look at trades like electrician, plumber, nurse, etc. Good money and, at least for now, there is a lot of focus on careers that require (or at least favor) 4 year degrees, some competition for work is significantly less.

Not directly, and sometimes not in the direction the responder probably intended.

Comments have introduced me to new ways of viewing topics, exposed blindspots in my way of thinking, bolstered my existing opinions, and otherwise motivated me to question and / or do more independent research.

If I remember correctly, Trump’s last term made cash payouts to farmers because … wait for it … China wasn’t buying crops from the US (particularly soybeans) in response to the tariffs imposed by Trump’s first administration.

So I guess they weren’t entirely wrong with that “he’ll do it again” mentality.

Just remember

This. I was going to throw out some advice in support of investing, but this is better than my plan of sharing anecdotes of my investing adventures.

Find a fiduciary, explore your options and do what makes the most sense and feels comfortable to you.

And in other news Scientists create ‘world’s smallest violin’

No Twitter / X or Truth Social? Is this actually a “why aren’t you doing more to radicalize your online forum users towards our ideology” ?

Whoops, my mistake. I did not check where this was posted. Sorry about that.

I’ve not used it, but your question got me wondering so I searched and found the following site which tries to navigate various redirect methods to find the final destination. I’d be curious to know how well it works.

https://www.redirect-checker.org/

From the bill:

“Pornographic material” includes any content, digital, streamed, or otherwise distributed on the internet, the primary purpose of which is to sexually arouse or gratify, including videos, erotica, magazines, stories, manga, material generated by artificial intelligence, live feeds, or sound clips.

Soooo they want stronger plot lines in their porn? Is that what I’m hearing? Something that they can sit down and watch with the family?

Maybe add ICE cease hiding their own faces.