Alcohol and Me

[FilterFreq]

If being "in recovery" (I still hate that term, because I feel great about it) has taught me anything, it's that a good chunk of people might actually benefit from drinking. Social situations get easier, people bond over silly stuff, and it kind of makes you more approachable (well, for a lot of people at least) and it can be seen as beneficial for many different reasons for someone with the right neurology for it -- especially if they genuinely enjoy it.

I think for some of us, it just drains our life force and it takes us a while to understand that we're not that type. Maybe like an allergy, but for the soul? It's weird to try to unpack it, but kind of fun, because the human experience is so different from one person to another. In either case, feeling good about things matters, no matter how you get there!

 

[Boogs]

Being in recovery, to me, is simply the fact that an overcome addiction can always rear it's ugly head again, and the moment you think it's vanquished and you can dabble, is the one of the signs it's got you again!
To imagine it can be irrevocably 'cured' is misleading imho - hence the term recovery, because it's for the rest of one's life.

But nothing surprising that a drug should also be useful even beneficial. In fact it's often our desire to extract that benefit in a more convenient of effective form, which the body is not evolved to manage well at such concentrations, which cause some people to suffer addiction from more than others. This then exacerbated by any self-medicating psychic or even physical issues that may be present.

 

[Judge]

Irish coffee - alcoholic death on (fast) wheels! You have to drink it quick or it goes cold (ugh!), the coffee keeps you up and alert, while you down drink after drink wondering why you're not comatose yet despite the floor being on the ceiling!

Not in my case. I'm mindful of my alcohol intake, but even more so when it comes to caffeine. Two cups of coffee a day is my absolute limit, with or without Jamesons. And it's rare for me to drink coffee two days in a row. Cold coffee? That just goes back into the microwave if needed.

The last time I had a really memorable Irish Coffee was in Harrison's Bar in San Francisco, on St. Patrick's Day 1986.

 

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But Frangelico is great in coffee.

I love Frangelico but not in the coffee. It's divine on shaved ice.

Have to say I'm surprised it's legal over there.

There's laws and restrictions on quantity etc, these laws vary from state to state but in general it's completely legal as long as none is sold. Here's me in 2012 with my still:

 

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View attachment 138178Anyway today is my birthday so I might just push it to 3 or 4 glasses!

Happy Birthday to you, I hope you had a great day.

 

[Judge]

Homebrew. My grandfather would not have been amused!

 

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This is the mistake many make with homemade stills, no fractionation (or 'reflux' to use the mildly incorrect or at least variable meaning). Makes it very difficult to avoid collecting methanol before the ethanol fraction starts.

That was something I took very seriously and looked in to in a depth that usually only autistics can. I double distilled all of mine. Cook it off once to get my 4 litres of ethanol, then clean out the still, tip the ethanol back in with another 16 litres of clean water and cook it off again. Industrial experience there, double distilling is far more efficient than trying to filter out oils and impurities.

 

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Homebrew. My grandfather would not have been amused!

Legal here, your grandfather would have had to just suck it up and live with it. We abolished the Temperance League back in the 60s.

 

[Judge]

Legal here, your grandfather would have had to just suck it up and live with it. We abolished the Temperance League back in the 60s.

He wasn't a teetototaler, but he was the worst nightmare of any bootlegger in the 20s and early 30s. A US Treasury Agent of the "Alcohol Tax Unit". Better known to the public as a "revenuer".

Not so amusing were the number of bootleggers selling moonshine who resisted arrest which he shot dead. Of course his job changed radically in 1933 when prohibition was repealed. -No joke.

Ironically his neighbor was making wine in their bathtub. I guess he never knew. But his son got to be cozy with their daughter and the rest is history as far as I am concerned...lol.

 

[thejuice]

Irish coffee - alcoholic death on (fast) wheels! You have to drink it quick or it goes cold (ugh!), the coffee keeps you up and alert, while you down drink after drink wondering why you're not comatose yet despite the floor being on the ceiling!

The combo of uppers and downers is probably a strain on the body too. Same with red bull and vodka/ jagger bombs. Every club reeked of red bull back in the day.

 

[Judge]

The combo of uppers and downers is probably a strain on the body too. Same with red bull and vodka/ jagger bombs. Every club reeked of red bull back in the day.

Read enough about the demise of personalities like Elvis and Hitler....enough to scare most sane folks from doing uppers and downers at the same time.

 

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The combo of uppers and downers is probably a strain on the body too. Same with red bull and vodka/ jagger bombs. Every club reeked of red bull back in the day.

I only tried Red Bull once, couldn't stand it. I tried quite a few different brands of energy drinks and they were all the same in that respect, I can't identify what the taste is but there's a chemical in all of them that my body seriously dislikes. For me it's exactly the same with all those electrolyte drinks like Power Ade too, there's something revolting and disgusting about them.

 

[thejuice]

If being "in recovery" (I still hate that term, because I feel great about it) has taught me anything, it's that a good chunk of people might actually benefit from drinking. Social situations get easier, people bond over silly stuff, and it kind of makes you more approachable (well, for a lot of people at least) and it can be seen as beneficial for many different reasons for someone with the right neurology for it -- especially if they genuinely enjoy it.

I think for some of us, it just drains our life force and it takes us a while to understand that we're not that type. Maybe like an allergy, but for the soul? It's weird to try to unpack it, but kind of fun, because the human experience is so different from one person to another. In either case, feeling good about things matters, no matter how you get there!

My thoughts is it's not good for hypersensitive nervous systems. So someone like me liked the cooling down of 'electrical impulse overload' that alcohol effected, but it quickly went the other way, where I got incredibly tired. The alcohol was too effective as a depressant. Then I'd get incredibly irritable.

 

[Judge]

I only tried Red Bull once, couldn't stand it. I tried quite a few different brands of energy drinks and they were all the same in that respect, I can't identify what the taste is but there's a chemical in all of them that my body seriously dislikes. For me it's exactly the same with all those electrolyte drinks like Power Ade too, there's something revolting and disgusting about them.

Nasty tasting stuff. Just another fad for kids to indulge in and pretend they are adults.

Such products are poison to me. I have sensitivities to much of any uppers, which is why I try to regulate whatever caffeine I ingest.

 

[thejuice]

I only tried Red Bull once, couldn't stand it. I tried quite a few different brands of energy drinks and they were all the same in that respect, I can't identify what the taste is but there's a chemical in all of them that my body seriously dislikes. For me it's exactly the same with all those electrolyte drinks like Power Ade too, there's something revolting and disgusting about them.

Wonder if it's the taurine.

 

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Nasty tasting stuff. Just another fad for kids to indulge in and pretend they are adults.
Such products are poison to me. I have sensitivities to much of any uppers, which is why I try to regulate whatever caffeine I ingest.

Caffeine in normal quantities, ie: a cup of good coffee, doesn't really have much of an effect on me and I never really noticed much of an effect from those energy drinks, I really can't stand the taste/texture though. They leave a coating on your tongue, after drinking one I need to go and wash my mouth out with water to get rid of it.

I've seen a few reaction videos recently with Americans comparing their own coke to Mexican coke and noting the difference between corn syrup and cane sugar. I have no idea what American coke tastes like, we use cane sugar here, but I wonder if that's what's in those energy drinks I can't stand.

 

[thejuice]

Caffeine in normal quantities, ie: a cup of good coffee, doesn't really have much of an effect on me and I never really noticed much of an effect from those energy drinks, I really can't stand the taste/texture though. They leave a coating on your tongue, after drinking one I need to go and wash my mouth out with water to get rid of it.

I've seen a few reaction videos recently with Americans comparing their own coke to Mexican coke and noting the difference between corn syrup and cane sugar. I have no idea what American coke tastes like, we use cane sugar here, but I wonder if that's what's in those energy drinks I can't stand.

I've heard corn syrup has a risk of giving you a non alcoholic fatty liver because the body can't process it properly. All the syrup gets stored as fat in the liver. Fatty liver = insulin insensitivity = partial explanation of America's obesity epidemic. (We have one too, although not quite as acute. We have the doughiest bodies in Europe however ) It's something that the calorie count of products with corn syrup in doesn't take into account.

 

[thejuice]

Legal here, your grandfather would have had to just suck it up and live with it. We abolished the Temperance League back in the 60s.

Thank goodness

 

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All the syrup gets stored as fat in the liver. Fatty liver = insulin insensitivity

Perhaps that's it. My body has usually been pretty good at demanding what it needs and rejecting what it doesn't want, and I've usually followed it's whims because in general I've stayed fairly healthy that way. Diabetes does run in my family so maybe my body is correctly identifying that aspect.

 

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He wasn't a teetototaler, but he was the worst nightmare of any bootlegger in the 20s and early 30s. A US Treasury Agent of the "Alcohol Tax Unit". Better known to the public as a "revenuer".

My grandfather was also a Customs officer, working at Port Adelaide inspecting ships. He told me one day that no one could ever accuse him of not having two pennies to rub together, and he pulled two pennies out of his pocket and showed them to me. They were both polished completely smooth and blank on one side. When I asked him about that he laughed and said it was from many years of rubbing them together.

Years later the penny dropped, so to speak. He was a gambler, those were his Two Up coins.