This is useless, because it wasn't particularly intentional, but I was an inveterate nailbiter until sometime in college (or the Peace Corps? Can't remember.) Tried very hard to stop, throughout childhood and high school, with no success.
And then I stopped somehow. No idea what changed.
Dan Savage and Adam Corolla--I've been away, someone tell me, is this a new low for the blog?
I figure something similar will kick in for blogcommenting one of these days.
2: Carolla. A Corolla is what he drives.
Okay, likely not.
Ha! You haven't been away. I was just thinking that I should do an "Ogged's been back for one year!!" post, and then I went and checked, and you've been back for a year and a half. Sorry, you're an insider again.
I can't imagine that anyone here has bad habits.
Anyway, Lovelines references are mostly a wink to gswift.
6: I also haven't ever broken myself of fishing for affirmation. (Mostly because I find it so rewarding.) Thanks!
I broke myself of the habit of tweeting at the city every time somebody was parked blocking the sidewalk at dunkin donuts. Now I just post their pictures on my tumblr, peopleparkedonthesidewalk.
This doesn't count, does it?
1. Same thing happened to me, except I know the proximate cause. Spent my whole life biting my nails, starting in childhood. As an adult, I left a hellish job for a very nice job, and never had the desire to chew my fingernails again.
I've stopped looking up every single goddamn reference I don't get when I read. I figure if I need to know who Adam Carolla is, someone will tell me.
13: I have a bad habit of confusing him with Jimmy Kimmel.
I keep thinking I should start a tumbler "textmessagesfrommykid'sprincipal" which are all those photos of his computer screen, but I'm worried that there's privacy violations on them. How easy is it to black out a name on a photo on your phone?
11: Plus, that wings place there isn't very good. (It had a cousin in Ithaca that I remember, possibly wrongly, as being decent.)
Essear, you're forgetting the first law of Ithaca restaurants, which is that you have to replace the phrase "really good" with the word "only," as in "That [really good] Thai place on Route 13."
Ive stopped trying to get my son to stop annoying habits. (He bites his lower lip and regularly bites his finger nails.)
I thought it was the really good Thai restaurant on The Commons.
If you're talking about the wings chain that names branches after localities, I think decent is a good descriptor. Nothing amazing but good enough, usually. I liked the Ithaca one and have been very happy that they opened one here a year or two ago.
17: But that one closed! Now there's just that [really good] Thai place on the Commons.
The anti-not-cigarettes-but-rather-silly-looking-nicotine-delivery-devices PSAs on public transit here are having the wrong effect on me. Coupled with the fantastic reminisce of her mother's Egyptian cigarette habit by Tess Jaray in The Blue Cupboard. There is no way I'd ever take up smoking, too bad for the skin, but damn all the over the top condemnation is irksome.
I stopped biting my nails as a kid. I hadn't been biting them that long, and my mom put that nasty-tasting nail stuff on them, and it worked for me.
I've never understood nail biting. If your nails are long enough to bite, isn't it time to cut your nails?
Ha! Could my Ithaca theory have been more decisively confirmed?
this book has all kinds of advice about habit:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/081298160X
Basically you are supposed to replace a bad habit with some other habit. Like Kojack did with the lolipops to quit smoking.
I don't know if I've EVER gotten over any bad habits. I guess I'm no longer actively addicted to chewing ice, but I'm not abstaining either.
Actually, while considering ogged's justified criticism of front-page references to Dan Savage (being a stupid prick), I got a big noseful of mildew from an object I moved up from the garage. I rushed it out of the office in a hurry, but the aversion to this post may now be permanent. So there's that, as a tactic.
I don't know if I've EVER gotten over any bad habits.
Thorn is my hero. Bad habit non-breakers unite!
blogcommenting
Hold on. I feel like we're going to need an agreed upon working definition of the phrase "bad habit" before the thread can proceed.
32: A bad habit is a compulsive behavior that is undesirable either because it is gross or unhealthy or because it prevents one from doing what one wants or needs to do.
Does that work, urple?
I am getting very good results from HabitRPG. In addition to doing the Kaiser program with all that entails, I'm keeping my apartment cleaner, changing my cat's litterbox more often, organizing social stuff, etc.
Recommended for people who have played enough computer games to be more solicitous for the well-being of their game characters than of their fleshbodies.
I don't know if I've EVER gotten over any bad habits.
Likewise, but when I snarl at someone that I'll drop him like a bad habit, I assume he doesn't know that. (I don't actually do that, but I did lose my shit with someone last week, and it felt so gross afterward that I was at least glad that that was a habit I'd never adopted.)
I've chewed my fingernails more or less continually since I stopped tobacco. And by more or less continually, I mean 95% of the time when I'm awake and not eating. I bite the nail off and then chew it. If I need to eat, I save it in my pocket.
Does snapping at my children count as a bad habit? I'm getting over it as they become less shitty to each other.
36: You don't throw them on the pile of boogers on the other side of your desk? Do I have the right thinly veiled president?
it felt so gross afterward
I felt pretty gross about the whole #blacklivesmatter evening, and how big a baby/drained/exhausted I was by the whole thing. I was forced to acknowledge the degree that I am really great at giving lip service but not actually carrying through doing things that make a difference.
37: Oh hey, that's a good one. I've finally reined that in myself.
Does snapping at my children count as a bad habit? I'm getting over it as they become less shitty to each other.
Oh god. Jammies is out of town.
My new trick for when I'm snarling at them is to make the threat so ludicrously evil that we all decide it's a joke and get a laugh out of it. I find it cathartic to scream things like, "IF YOU KIDS DON'T SHUT UP, I'LL DESTROY YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENTS AND FEED YOU SARDINES AT YOUR OWN PARTY WHILE I SIT ON YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE!" The threats usually start out actually cruel, which makes me feel better because I'm a terrible person, and then I can find the presence of mind to keep it going until it gets silly.
39: I have that a lot, but in this case it was more like shaking from adrenalin for an hour and then spending the rest of the night kicking myself for reacting to a douchebag with anger.
27: I don't chew ice anymore, just let it melt. This has had the salutary effect of preventing me from consuming all the ice in a cup during social occasions because it's generally awkward to have a mouthful of ice for long periods of time.
"IF YOU KIDS DON'T SHUT UP, I'LL DESTROY YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENTS AND FEED YOU SARDINES AT YOUR OWN PARTY WHILE I SIT ON YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE!"
I love that strategy. I've mistakenly issued unduly harsh or just unworkable punishments due to rushing to pronounce a punishment.
I'LL DESTROY YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENTS AND FEED YOU SARDINES AT YOUR OWN PARTY WHILE I SIT ON YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE
When the girls were five or so they asked me for some complicated mermaid-themed cake, and I had the idea of just putting a hagfish with a Barbie doll head on top and saying, sorry, but you know, that's what they really look like.
consuming all the ice in a cup during social occasions because it's generally awkward to have a mouthful of ice for long periods of time.
Oh god, I do this and it really is awkward, because someone unexpectedly asks you a question, and you realize a few seconds into your answer that your mouth is completely numb and you're garbling an unintelligible sentence.
I stopped commenting on this blog.
WHILE I SIT ON YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE
I misread this the first time.
You thought it said "Wirthday", didn't you.
3 and 48 raise the worrisome possibility that if anyone in the thread shares any truly effective strategies for breaking bad habits*, the blog will end.
* 34 looks intriguing.
I also was intrigued by 34, except I'm not much of a video game person. There should be one of those where you can earn points to spend at your favorite store.
Where "favorite store" means my credit card bill.
I like sardines.
Me too, now that I've adopted them as cheap environmentally-not-evil meat. That's how the kids know what they are.
I had good results with a much earlier version of HabitRPG. For a couple months.
"This is the cheap, environmentally-not-evil meat that doesn't require us to go near a dumpster."
I stopped biting my nails by making sure I had nail clippers handy at all times and doing that instead.
Now I trim my nails all the time.
I've become much more organized, out of necessity and by asking Jammies for help in figuring out how to organize something. One really big revelation was that he buys things with which to stay organized, and if something isn't working, he tries something else. So instead of hunting for a three ringed notebook and thinking "Well, I'll use this shoebox instead", I actually write "notebook" on the shopping list and then I have one. But that was more a "know better/do better" think than breaking a bad habit, exactly.
I quit smoking, almost entirely, by a routine which involved stopping first, then smoking an entire packet of unfiltered Bulgarian cigarettes in an evening while drinking black coffee and vodka. Wouldn't do it twice, though. Can't remember any other bad habits I cured myself of -- well, overeating, which is quite easy to give up if you have a heart attack
It will be noted that willpower does not feature in these stories much
All bad habits, all the time--pick nails, pick skin, procrastinate, Internet, yell at kids, lazy, etc. I've only successfully stopped saying gay (lame) and retarded. So that's good
I learned to like black coffee! That was like an honest-to-god intentional goal that I achieved. "I'll set out to do this," sez I, and I did!
I promised myself this morning that I would write down the amount of time I was on the internet procrastinating at the end of each day. On the theory of what you measure you can control.
And my skirt arrived, and it is super gorgeous with a silk lining, and the color is deep and rich, right between hunter and olive, which is my favorite green. It fits, and is only a little unflattering, and I'm resolving to wear it to work on Thursday or Friday. Feet don't fail me now.
I am still a slob but I'm not nearly as bad as I was while I lived alone, which is to say most of the last twenty years. For some reason I still can't get rid of the gargantuan pile of clothes beside my bed, but if you compared my apartment now to my apartment in NYC any time but a weekend Bave was visiting, it looks much less like a crazy person lives there. Except for Mount Clothing.
Also I finally stopped my nightly use of OTC nasal sprays which are not so good for you.
I have a dozen other bad habits I'd like to break but not much will power right now.
Maybe this is on topic. I just punched a car.
I also loaded my home computer with f.lux. That works real well to stop me from staying up late.
I can add good habits real easy somehow.
It's fine. I used the bottom of my fist.
69: That's close to what inspired my shit-losing mentioned above, except that my ex and children were in the car, and I'm sure you were in the right while this other guy was being a threatening asshole.
She drove through a crosswalk without looking up and flipped me the bird when I yelled "watch where you are going." I sort of regret not using my keys.
65: What did you do? I'm drinking black coffee regularly - I can't drink anything with nutrients - but I had been hoping I would naturally start to notice the taste more and start enjoying it, getting pickier, etc., and that hasn't happened.
74: An armed society is a polite society, or so they say.
I have a dozen other bad habits I'd like to break but not much will power right now.
I had a stretch of time where I felt like I was doing a good job of handling all of the, "why do I have to be an adult" tasks in my life, but now I'm stuck with the last two or three things that I really didn't want to deal with (and exhausted to boot) and have been procrastinating for weeks (at least).
I haven't read the whole thread, but I love this topic, because I have some inspirational stories.
I used the app Habit Streak to start flossing every day. It also got me off of 2048 very soon after I started it. I then got out of the habit of using Habit Streak, and no longer floss every day, but I just picked it up again (flossing, not Habit Streak) and am hoping to keep at it. Another thing that helped with that are the little plastic flossers. It's wasteful, but it was important to me to break all barriers to doing it.
I still lose stuff, but I no longer lose my keys. I know I've written about this here before, but this thing literally had a transformative effect on my life. I attach my keys to it, and my wallet and my keys are both large enough and colorful enough that I never lose track of where they are. That is so much stress I've spared myself.
At first I read 73 as revealing that J. McQ. had punched a car housing (or rather, hahaha, caring) his ex and children and I was like, hopy shit!
But it seems that was not the correct interpretation.
I've given up feeling bad about biting my nails.
80: No, a jerk on a motorcycle got all road ragey when she pulled out in front of him in a totally non-dangerous situation amid a low-speed clusterfuck outside their school, and I, just having unlocked my bike, yielded to primal instinct, charged into the street and blew the fuck up at him. I was already disgusted with myself when he drove away, and the only redemption was in seeing one daughter's wide-eyed expression from the back seat that said, whoa, daddy, right fucking on.
Somewhere on a motorcycle forum there's a dude complaining about how this crazy lady nearly knocked him off his bike (thinking it wasn't dangerous because everyone was going so slowly) and then some lunatic blew up at him.
I have done 41.last.
I came up with an actual bad habit, which is/was drinking way too much soda and eating too many chips. I haven't kicked either, but have reined in both to the point where it seems silly IMO to consider either a bad habit; call them indulgences.
Soda, as I think I've noted in diet discussions, was as simple as overpaying for those little 100 calorie cans and pretty strictly limiting myself to one per day. Considering that I literally drank 2 liters a day in college, and at least 32 oz. per day as recently as 10 years ago, I view this is a pretty big change.
The chips are an ebb and flow battle, but what used to be a daily habit is now somewhere between indulgence and part of this balanced lunch: that is, half the time I'm eating chips, it's because they're alongside a pretty modest sandwich. Not healthy per se, but reasonable from a caloric POV. The move here was to go cold turkey for awhile (6 months? a year? I didn't never eat chips, but I never had them at my desk, which had been the bad habit), after which it was much less compulsive.
I like my soda habit. People try to make me feel bad about it, but I don't want to give it up. People can fuck off.
80: Koyaanisqatsi is the hopy word for "life out of balance." Like when you punch cars.
Yeah, me too.
I'm trying to remember now why that unremarkable remark by Dan Savage (I generally don't have time for him) stuck in my mind. I think it was the first time I'd encountered that particular type of face-saving concession. He didn't want to give in to teh P.C. Lynchmob but also didn't want to double down on poor taste and a not-very-au-courant slur: so, presto, it could become "a bad habit." The idea of habit seemed to remove some of the sting of moral culpability. If you could aggregate all those individual utterances of the word and graft malicious intent onto them, yeah, sure, then it would be worth apologizing for. But habituation is an attenuator.
Conversely, I'm much more inclined to see myself as the aggregation of habituated bad shit. I have to believe that this makes the bad habits harder to break.
83: Sure there is, because what Internet forum is without its douchebags? But as someone who's driven a motorcycle and for decades been a bicyclist, I can assure you, having witnessed the whole thing, that the guy was never remotely in any danger—he didn't have to brake suddenly, much less swerve or some close to laying his bike down. And even if he had, you don't scream into a car with kids in it (unless they're yours, I suppose, but even then...).
I made my bed this morning, right when I got up. That doesn't usually happen, but I don't think I'm into "successfully broken habit" territory yet.
Fucking anger, how does it work? I never lost my shit at people openly (sometimes I'd scream in my car where the screamee couldn't hear me) until I lived in NYC, I don't think, and then I got better at yelling "fuck you" at strangers so it didn't sound all shrill. I was sometimes confrontational with people. Once, AIMHSHB, I smacked someone's truck for not stopping while I was crossing with the light, and he got out and screamed at me and was clearly considering hitting me. It's...better to be able not to lose your shit at people. I lost my shit at a couple of people who work behind the front desk at the jail and then realized there are only a couple of people who work behind the front desk of the jail and I'm going to have to deal with them all the time and I'll always be "the crazy little dude who gets all snappy" or something like that.
And then I screamed "YOU WORTHLESS FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT" at five dollars.
I have a soda habit. But only diet, so what's the harm? It's a caffeine delivery system that I slightly prefer to coffee or tea, although I'll do those too when they're more easily available.
91: Making beds is a bad habit. Just creates unnecessary work.
It doesn't count as having broken a bad habit, exactly, but I have somehow turned myself into someone who regularly gets up before 6 AM to go to a fitness class. Or occasionally play soccer.
Me too! to 96. By setting an alarm! to 97.
If you want to get down to a program of sport and exercise...cocaine.
I have a soda habit. But only diet, so what's the harm? It's a caffeine delivery system that I slightly prefer to coffee or tea, although I'll do those too when they're more easily available.
Although all the alarmism about aspartame never really panned out scientifically, there is some emerging research suggesting it monkeys somehow with blood sugar processes and could precipitate metabolic problems. TETT, of course, but since I now have to keep an eye on that possibility, I've cut out diet sodas just to be safe.
I'm hoping to up the tone of my anger by incorporating Nero Wolfeisms. Lackwit! Flummery!
99: it is trivial to turn the alarm off and remain in bed.
You could set the alarm across the room or on a different floor. Easier than getting cocaine for most of us.
97: To be painfully earnest, it really helps that I found a class, trainer, and other trainees I really like. It's definitely easier to do than it would be to get up to do some solitary exercise.
Making sure I always have cold-brew coffee in the house is also key.
And the sense of accomplishment doesn't hurt either. Both at having done the day's workout and at being up before most other people.
Josh's way is pretty much the only way I get into a routine for exercise. The trick for me is to get up immediately, pull on gym clothes (left in the bathroom or on the dresser), grab my keys and walk out the door. Usually by the time I'm entirely awake, I'm standing outside my building in running shoes. Might as well go for a run at that point.
I don't even own suitable clothes in which to exercise, so I guess remedying that is step one.
109: that's also part of the motivation. More workouts: more clothes I get to buy.
Fucking anger, how does it work?
INORITE. I have gotten a little up in people's faces before, but never ever like last week, which time I can only attribute to the primal response of feeling that there was a threat to my children. And it was one of those situations like a car crash in which everything went all super slo-mo and my adrenalin-jacked-up brain was acutely aware of itself. So I was listening to myself trying to explain convincingly (granted, at the top of my lungs) to this guy that he was being a monumental asshole, and thinking, uh, that's okay but you can do better, and at the same time assessing the fight response (flight not being an option) and being aware that he was in a vulnerable position, like, I could have grabbed his helmet and pulled him down. This was all in fractions of a second.
I felt disgusted and bad about it after, BUT! A mere half-hour ago, on the very same street and not two blocks away from the original incident, I was on my way to pick up one of the girls after school and got stuck in a line of cars stopped behind a woman whose car wouldn't start. The woman directly behind her got out to see if she needed help, and then I got out too and we pushed the car around the corner to a place where she could pull over. And the driver was sweet and grateful, and the other woman and I briefly clasped hands and gave little thank-you waves to all the other drivers for their patience as we ran back to our cars, and thus was balance restored to the universe.
I bought a nice jumprope recently. Sometimes I even use it.
Ugh, not only have I not lost bad habits but haven't gained any exercise-related good ones.
Buying clothing to exercise in is an anti motivator, but having worked out regularly means more enjoyable clothes shopping for all other occasions, so.
I seem to be able to break bad habits with a direct payoff related to aesthetics (eg not touching my face, sticking to a consistent skincare regimen, no snacks between meals), but any loftier aims don't seem to work. Actually perhaps the problem is a lack of non-shallow goals?
Maybe neb and I should be exercise pals.
I have stopped not drinking soft drinks every day! I have also put on 15 lbs since moving here, 10 of which since my job moved such that I generally don't walk anywhere farther than the car.
And I feel like I ought to put a caveat that of course I've stopped being anorexic, if that counts, and stopped being a prescriptivist and moral snob. I do still think a lot of people are terrible and worthless, but I think as long as I think the same about myself I can be fine with Jesus.
I intentionally gave up biting my nails when I picked up a mild cocaine addiction.
If you're going to be addicted to cocaine, you may as well go for the hot cocaine.
but I think as long as I think the same about myself I can be fine with Jesus.
Thorn, I don't know which Jesus you're thinking about, but you're tops with me.
Aww, you're better than that fake Jesus. It was just a love-your-neighbor-as-yourself joke.
||
Don't read this if you're squeamish about medical procedures
I had to get a skin biopsy yesterday that turned out to be FOUR skin biopsies, which was super gross to watch (I didn't watch the process exactly but could see stuff being deposited in test tubes afterwards and it was icky) and is WAY GROSSER today switching bandages. I have all these HOLES punched in my leg! My leg hurts in an annoying, achy way, but I mostly am surprisingly horrified at the holes. HOLES!
|>
OW FUCK. I'm sorry, E. They're basically core samples, right?
"Core samples" isn't helping my queasiness here.
I hope they heal quickly for you and they doctors learn something good or helpful.
It's to find out some details about nerve damage. And sweat glands. Or something.
"Core samples"- probably? "We're going to use a punch for this. Tell her this is called a punch" said the nurse or whoever to the interpreter, very helpfully.
Does that help, Moby? Just imagine a hole puncher being used to punch holes out of my leg.
122: Eek. I have a friend who got samples taken like that as a way to earn extra money as an undergrad. It seemed like the $100 or whatever he got was in no way adequate. Hope it heals quickly.
They definitely forgot to give me $100.
Finding $5 sounds like no consolation at all. I hope you heal quickly and aren't too grossed out in the interim!
Lovelines references are mostly a wink to gswift.
High five! These philistines don't appreciate Carolla because all they know him from is scripted stuff. He's far and away funnier riffing in real time on the radio with screwed up callers.
the other woman and I briefly clasped hands
This is weird! Speaking of which, there's a very good chance I'll be in Portland in September. Whether I'll have any time free is more dicey.
Whether I'll have any time free is more dicey.
If clasping hands is too time-consuming maybe a brief, plausibly accidental brush of hands and a pregnant glance?
So, I managed to waste time setting up HabitRPG. We'll see if it works.
E Messily, much sympathy! I once was mangled by a core sampling machine, was a horrendous experience. Can you get someone else to do the dressing changing?
More workouts: more clothes I get to buy.
Yeah, but … exercise clothes.
129: Truth. He only reveals what he wants you to see.
34, 59, 132: I'm looking at HabitRPG, and while the habit-tracking stuff makes sense, I find the actual game bit of it kind of mystifying. That is, you keep track of the habits, and earn experience points and gold that you can use to equip your character with stuff... to do what?
Fixed my anger habit of swearing at work with this:
> The underlying message of highly angry people, Dr. Deffenbacher says, is "things oughta go my way!" Angry people tend to feel that they are morally right, that any blocking or changing of their plans is an unbearable indignity and that they should NOT have to suffer this way. Maybe other people do, but not them!
> When you feel that urge, he suggests, picture yourself as a god or goddess, a supreme ruler, who owns the streets and stores and office space, striding alone and having your way in all situations while others defer to you. The more detail you can get into your imaginary scenes, the more chances you have to realize that maybe you are being unreasonable; you'll also realize how unimportant the things you're angry about really are.
Also just a little introspection about why I would be totally pleasant when certain things went wrong, no matter how awful, and get so pissed when other things went wrong... usually because they were *supposed* to be easy, so I felt like they were usurping my rightful control.
Yeah yeah, when your kid draws on the wall for the fifth time, you're still going to lose your shit.
You aren't appreciating the beauty of their drawing?
Adam Carolla has real sexism and racism problems, but he really was the best at riffs on Loveline.
I'm trying to remember if Loveline was ever actually good, or it was just that Dr. Drew's schtick hadn't been chugging along for 20+ years back in the day. Or maybe it was good and he just got so sick of hearing the same problems over and over and over again that his attitude curdled.
(It was definitely better in at least one way: The Poorman > Adam Carolla.)
137: I think there's a quest component I haven't gotten into yet. Besides just gaining or losing points (and looking forward to gaining a level because it restores your HP to max), you also occasionally get drops - eggs, potions, and food that get you pets which can be fed up into mounts.
Speaking of which, there's a very good chance I'll be in Portland in September. Whether I'll have any time free is more dicey.
If a quick makeout session at the airport is the best we can do, it's good. Got to seize every moment, man.
The underlying message of highly angry people, Dr. Deffenbacher says, is "things oughta go my way!"
Dr. Kravitz, on the other hand, problematizes this statement in a novel fashion.
142.2: Keep working at that remembering, because not no, but hell no. No other host has even come close to the kind of chemistry that was the Carolla years. Granted, I haven't tried listening to it with Catherwood. But The Poorman wasn't that great and if anything probably less funny than I remember because I literally had the humor standards of a jr high kid at the time. Rachtman and Stryker were even worse.
Push it in, pull it out, push it in, pull it out: That is sex, the rest is just commentary.
Wait, swearing at work is a bad habit? I haven't even made to the point of not swearing at coworkers. And if I think all the way back to, uh, yesterday, I might have called one a retard while I was at it. Oh well. But in my defense, this was the exchange. Several of us were talking about how we somehow have a deputy chief that got appointed despite never having been a cop what the hell shenanigans was that.
Coworker: "This is some Obama style shit."
Me: "This is worse, Obama at least meets the requirements to be the president."
Coworker: "Obama's not even a citizen."
Me: "JESUS. Are you a fucking retard?"
Coworker: "DID YOU JUST CALL ME A RETARD?"
Me: "I called you a fucking retard, yes."
Coworker: "Tell me, how do you know he's a citizen?"
Me: "Are you kidding me? God, I am not arguing this with you. If I want to waste my time talking about stupid shit I can go on fucking Facebook."
Coworker: "You're one of those Obama loving liberals!"
Me: "I'm really more of a socialist." (good insight from Teo)
I've decided that from now on, my rejoinder to all stupid conservative trolling is going to be "Yeah, well, Republicans eat Muslim babies" -- thus will I shift the Overton Window.
65: get an aeropress (AIMHSHB) and some different sorts of expensive proper coffee to make in it. That will supply a huge variety of tastes.
I am taking the liberty of executively summarizing the excellent advice in this thread.
1: LB somehow stopped biting her nails
9: LB still fishes for affirmations
11: unverified report of nonsense
12: life got better and pf stopped biting his nails
13: dubious
16: they sell wings at Dunkin Donuts
18: "Ive stopped trying to get my son to stop annoying habits."
22: "There is no way I'd ever take up smoking, too bad for the skin"
23: "I hadn't been biting them that long, and my mom put that nasty-tasting nail stuff on them"
26: *******BOOK RECOMMENDED*******
27: "I guess I'm no longer actively addicted to chewing ice, but I'm not abstaining either."
28: bad smells make lk averse, project not funded
34: *******HABIT RPG********
36: too gross to summarize
37: JRoth snaps at children less because of tapering quarrels
41: H-G issues hyperbolic threats
43: "I don't chew ice anymore"
59: "I had good results with a much earlier version of HabitRPG. For a couple months."
61: Christ, how many of you people have fingernails?
62: H-G is winning the thread!
63: NW overdoses on cigarettes. I want to know if he did this without vomiting. I have a pretty good idea of how sick it would make me; lung cancer sounds preferable.
64: a refreshingly blunt confession of failure
65: H-G STILL WINNING
66: lemmy is also winning
68: sorry singletons, you need a live-in partner for this one. Can you put a blanket beneath the spot where the clothes heap tends to grow and then fold it up into a bundle hobo-style and dump it in a hamper? Then replace the blanket again? How about putting ten layered blankets under the clothes so you don't have to think about it... come back, I'm still talking!
70: lemmy plays tricks on his computer (?)
75: coffee curiosity. Give it six months. Try different roasts.
I want some black coffee right now.
77: vague report of partial success
78: An app and an object recommended. Thanks!
84: JRoth has reduced soda and chip consumption.
85: Knecht has bad habits and good habits.
86: Spike is fine with his habits.
89: WHY WAS OGGED MEAN TO ME
91: "I made my bed this morning, right when I got up. That doesn't usually happen, but I don't think I'm into "successfully broken habit" territory yet"
96 etc.: reasonably useful discussion of early rising & exercise
114: "I seem to be able to break bad habits with a direct payoff related to aesthetics . . . perhaps the problem is a lack of non-shallow goals?" (or a lack of actually serious bad habits, surely?)
116: Thorn has broken moral bad habits and overcome illness!
138: Some useful advice on anger
So, in conclusion, props to 26, 34, 63, 78, 84, 96+, 138, heebie, lemmy, and to each and every one of you.
I like my soda habit. People try to make me feel bad about it, but I don't want to give it up.
You should feel bad about it because you're cheating yourself of the awesomeness that should come from true bad habit like alcohol. Will drinking Mt Dews with my wife make her hotter, funnier, and sluttier all at once? No it will not. Soda is a vice for 12 year olds and Mormons.
The more detail you can get into your imaginary scenes, the more chances you have to realize that maybe you are being unreasonable; you'll also realize how unimportant the things you're angry about really are.
I...
do not think this is how this would go.
All my kids bite their nails. MAE, the trick is to keep going even after they're much too short to cut - the shortest is about 3 or 4 mm.
I've got out of the habit of staying up late. It wasn't voluntary, just the consequence of getting up before 5.30 a few times a week for work. Also I don't swear at work and I make beds. I do not see these as virtues. Actually, I think I'm swearing more the rest of the time. I went out to put something in my recycling bin and someone had dropped a piece of rubbish in it, and I said "for fuck's sake" very loudly, and even I feel that swearing in the street, to yourself, is probably a bad thing.
153: Right? Dr. Deffenbacher, you're doing that imagining yourself as a supreme ruler thing all fucking wrong.
151: I got to sleep all right, so far as I can remember, but the following morning's hangover consisted of an extended (ca 3 hour) panic attack -- with palpitations, vision disturbances, knowledge of impending death alternating with rather wanting it etc -- in the grip of which I had to pack, check out of my room, meet and interact with a photographer, travel across town, and get the train to Cracow. All I can remember of that is pacing the hotel lobby in fast circles for maybe half an hour, breaking off only to go into the loo to hawk up clots of red-streak blackened phlegm. Also, looking out of the train window, wondering why I still couldn't pace around.
A couple of days later, I walked round Auschwitz/Birkenau, which in those days was completely deserted, all by myself for an hour. If I could do that without a cigarette, I later reasoned, I could do anything without nicotine.
Relevant to habit, one more detail:
I didn't smoke anything at all again for seven years, except for one odd episode: about three years later, I happened to be driving past the petrol station in Sweden where I had always bought cigarettes and fishing licenses for the lake in the woods. I was alone, in a rented car. I pulled over, walked in, and brought a packet of Look as if I had never been away. I smoked two or three while I was driving and it was as if I had never been away. Then I discarded the packet and felt no cravings at all. As soon as the very specific trigger conditions had been removed I could revert to my new habit of not smoking. I have driven past that stop maybe twenty times since then, and never felt so much as a twitch.
148.last is the best and I'm honored to have played a part in making it happen.
155: I mean, I have murderous fantasies about people who have wronged me in scarcely noticeable ways daily. It's going to be SO MUCH MORE FUN when I add in being omnipotent. I'm, like, filing through my mental list of grievances now so I can try it out! It'll be a while. The list is long.
Incidentally does anyone understand the saying "my shitlist is horizontal--once you're on it, you don't get off it?" A horizontal list seems just as easy to get off of as a vertical one.
I developed some poor habits last year to deal with long waits for substandard workplace technology to do things that shouldn't take much time. I'm slowly dialing them back now that I've gotten substantially better tech, but I never previously spent as much time reading non-work internet stuff at work.*
I also developed the habit of working longer hours than I usually would, partly out of a sense that I should offset some of my internet reading.** But I'm not actually sure I was really doing less work than I would have because of my internet reading, rather than because the equipment sucked. I did find other things to do while the long-running processes were running, but sometimes that ended up crashing the whole damn computer, setting me back hours, so sometimes reading on my phone really was the more efficient course of action. It's actually kind of depressing, now that things run much more smoothly, to think about how much time I spent debugging problems that don't really come up if you're using equipment adequate for the job.
*Unfogged only on the phone. I don't think I've ever read unfogged on workplace networks/equipment, not counting general campus networks.
**Also to avoid the worst of rush hour.
156 is the greatest aversion therapy ever: indulge to the point of illness, then go to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Just the thought of it is likely enough to suppress my occasional cigarette craving.
When my grandmother quit smoking she upped her intake of black coffee. So those of you trying to take up black coffee: try smoking for 50 years first.
I stopped smoking. Right around the time my wife first got pregnant with xelA. That seems to have stuck. I was never super-addicted -- one or two a day, plus heavier smoking when drinking or when on mainland Europe -- but I've smoked regularly since I was about 16, so I suppose that's a fairly big deal.
I'm much better at managing finances, and generally being organised and having my shit together. Could probably still be better, but way better than I was 10 or 15 years ago.
I'm also much less angry than I used to be. Hard to believe if you follow my 'moaning about public transport' twitter feed, but generally I'm a million times more mellow than I once was. I was always quite mellow, but punctuated by occasional real rage. The moments of rage are much much further apart not and less rage and more just moments of irritability. That was partly the result of conscious choices, and not just a consequence of ageing.*
On the other hand, I still should be eating a lot less,** and I find that habit almost impossible to break.
* although I did have a moment or two over Christmas and New Year, when I'd been doing basically 24 hour a day childcare for 2 weeks, while trying to do a ton of other shit, and was tired/bored/fucked-off to the point of feeling like I was going mad, when I was teetering right on the edge.
** despite, in fact, not actually being _that_ much of a greedy sod. But, half a thyroid plus sedentary job means that I should be eating tiny amounts.
I'm, like, filing through my mental list of grievances now so I can try it out! It'll be a while. The list is long.
SHIR AGAVAN WAS THE FIRST. DIRAC ANGESTUN GESEPT.
The clothes heap: I used to have a mountainous clothes heap. Now I use shelves instead of drawers - easier to see clothes without touching, less impediments to putting things away. Then for the worn-but-not-dirty clothes, I got some over-the door hooks for the outside of my closet door. Now I've got a medium-hill hanging from those hooks, and a truly small gathering on the floor, and I think Jammies is ok with this much clothes heap
165: Hooks are such a good idea for the clothes heap. Heebie does win.
151 wins the thread. But in regard to it and the subsequent 154, we all have nails, unless there's something someone isn't telling. Anyone here from Gliese 581d or environs? Do you bite your tentacles?
Okay, I'm now trying HabitRPG to see if I can get myself back to getting into work at a civilized hour. (My boss gets in incredibly late, and I have gradually drifted later and later, under the theory that five minutes before her is on time. But it's gotten ridiculous.)
I lost a bit of my enthusiasm for it once I realized that RPG was probably for "Role Playing Game". I realized the reward for developing a good habit wasn't what I had originally thought.
You thought it meant rocket-propelled grenade?
*Unfogged only on the phone. I don't think I've ever read unfogged on workplace networks/equipment, not counting general campus networks.
Whereas I literally skin of my teeth almost got fired from a job once for reading unfogged on workplace networks/equipment, which successfully made me stop doing it for, if I recall correctly, about three or four months.
159- Maybe, on a regular shitlist, people can get moved to the top or bumped off the bottom, but on a horizontal one everyone is equal and stays there?
I don't know, I've never heard of that saying before.
I don't think teeth have literal skins.
173: Maybe the expression (which I've not heard before either) is unclearly referring to the orientation of the shit and not the list. That is, vertical shit will eventually drop and horizontal shit is going to stay right where it is.
152: Isn't that like a fake bad habit? "I wish I could give up my bad habit of having mind-blowing sex with strangers, but somehow I can never find the willpower."
Soda is a real bad habit, because it's soda. Nobody reminisces about the awesome time where they drank three Fantas and went to bed at 10pm. It's just a lot of calories.
On diet soda, I'm convinced that the artificial sweetener does drive me to eat more sugar than I would if I had just had a regular soda. YMMV.
Yeah, I did wonder if I should mention in 163 that I drink a lot less than I used to. But I don't really think of drinking* as a bad habit. And I largely drink less because I'm more boring, rather than because of any desire to cut down.
* assuming you aren't a raging alcoholic, and aren't a total prick when you are drunk.
It occurs to me, as I sit on this dentist's chair, that I have broken myself of the habit of blowing off dental appointments.
I'm working on quitting smoking for the gajillionth time. I've stopped all drinking except in company at bars or restaurants (which means going from drunk every evening to mildly buzzed once a week at most). I've broken the habit of eating everything on my plate. Learning to waste food has been key to losing weight. It's unfortunate but portion sizes are simply too big in the US, so eating in moderation means guilt over starving kids in Africa.
180: I have two thoughts that get me through the "don't waste food" thing, which I totally have. The first that it's not the same food, which is obviou, but what you eat has no bearing on massive problems with food distribution and scarcity for the poor. Whether or not you eat the last 25% of your meal makes no difference. The second is that finishing the meal will keep you from "wasting" food, but instead, it's wasting your hard work and improved health. (I summarize this as "waste food or gain weight, which do I prefer?")
I just thought that was swell, is all.
151, 152, AND 153 are all the best. I cannot believe that Josh is seriously arguing that The Poorman was better than Carolla on Loveline (also was the show even syndicated back then?). As a contribution, I quit smoking, but I think that's only because (despite my generally addictive personality) I was a 2-3 cigarettes a day smoker and never really physically addicted in the first place. Quitting wasn't hard at all.
(also was the show even syndicated back then?)
No. Why do you think I said what I did?
So he left Loveline to start a blog?
Carolla's true calling was clearly (a) making fun of teenage callers, (b) making fun of Drew, and (c) telling stories about his adolescence. The rest of his career is a waste, with the exception of his movie The Hammer, which is reasonably entertaining as it takes advantage of (c).
making fun of teenage callers
This is exactly why Loveline curdled for me (and why I hated Carolla). The show became more about making fun of the callers than actually helping them.
Soda is a real bad habit, because it's soda. Nobody reminisces about the awesome time where they drank three Fantas and went to bed at 10pm. It's just a lot of calories.
No, mang, diet soda. I avoid the sugar and stick with harmless aspartame.
I've got at least somewhat better about several bad habits lately. Let's lump it together as organization and procrastination. (I finished organizing one-fifth of my comic book collection and made big progress on the rest, started changing my name, and have also done a lot of work organizing other stuff around the house. Also cut back on my drinking.)
I can't credit it to force of will or behavioral changes so much as changing circumstances (we have a small house and will need more storage space soon, so want to use what we have better, for example) so I don't have helpful advice here, but still, progress is progress.
I did a huge purge after Steady was born. I've read that "clutter is deferred decisions" and having the baby added a new decision-making criteria (is this thing more or less valuable than the baby-object that would replace it?). With the new criteria I could make a whole bunch of new decisions. But clutter isn't generally a bad habit for me anyway.
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Aaaaaaaaaaack. Jammies is out of town, and supposed to get home tonight. I dutifully planned out kid dinners and the rest of it, and was looking forward to exercising tomorrow morning, finally. The baby has been starting to fuss around 3 am each night, and I'm so exhausted that I'm having trouble teaching, but whatever, he was getting home tonight and I'd have help again.
Now they've extended his trip. I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams. It's one of those super-cruel timing things. I would have planned out an extra kid meal and, I don't know what else, but something. I don't know when he gets back yet.
I guess this means that Jammies is the wrong person for the job, if his life isn't compatible with this much travelling, but I just feel like his job is really inconsiderate about the impact such travelling might have on the rest of us. Like advance notice (we found out about this trip last week) and sticking to return dates. That seems like just respectful courtesy, but maybe I'm just mad.
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I did a huge purge after Steady was born.
It's called a placenta.
192: that is rough. I have another friend in a similar situation (except she only has 2 kids and none of them are babies anymore). She regularly posts wine-and-chocolate-for-dinner photos on Facebook, come the last few days of a trip.
Are you at least coming up on spring break or anything?
yeah, spring break is next week. Bu it coincides with the kids', while Jammies still has work. So we'll do fun stuff, but it's not quite a break per se.
Oh no, heebie, that sounds super frustrating. Is there anything we can do to help?
I've been doing the dumbest shit out of sleepiness - like I wrote "March 8th" on a bottle of milk, and the daycare lady was like "Um, is this really three days old?" and I forgot to give a student a test, and he had to track me down while I was teaching and interrupt the class, and I had to leave mid-class to go print the test out. That kind of thing.
Do you maybe have a friend with kids who could come over for dinner tomorrow? Spreading five or six kids among two parents always seems easier than 3:1, plus you have someone to talk to and one of you just picks up grocery store rotisserie chicken and the other cooks up frozen veggies or something and the kids amuse each other while you decompress a tiny bit.
Lee just sent me her proposed itinerary for a 10-day trip this summer (exactly at the time I told her it wasn't convenient for me if she traveled, but whatever) and I immediately forwarded it to a friend with five kids and asked her to come down for the weekend because splitting 8 will be so much easier than just the same 3 for ten days.
Definitely over spring break. I feel a little bad disrupting other people's work week, and it'd inevitably make the evening longer, which I don't want.
It looks like Jammies will get home late tomorrow night. So, could be worse.
Soooo much sympathy! Heartily endorse Thorn's suggestion, also more companionable to do serious damage to a bottle of very good wine with another adult.
Sympathy here too. Buck's been traveling a ridiculous amount (the entire work week, just home for weekends, three weeks straight), and while my kids can cook dinner and be ordered to clean the kitchen, it's still kind of grim being the only responsible adult in the household that long. I have no idea how I'd be managing with four little ones.
I quit drinking diet soda about 2 years ago but started again after I moved out of my apartment at the end of February. Something about being in a temporary holding pattern is bad for my self-discipline and I'm allowing myself indulgences I had long given up. Like the aforementioned diet soda, chocolate, Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream (on weekends) and - god help me - Cap'n Fucking Crunch. I've gained back the ten pounds I'd lost the previous 2-3 months.
---
One thing I'm quite proud of is no longer procrastinating really important deadline stuff. It took me well into my adult life but now I open all my mail immediately and I'm no longer late with stuff like car inspections, registrations and that sort of thing.
I'm leaving town without the family tomorrow. In my defense, only one of the reasons I'm going involves drinking.
...and now his return is pushed back until Friday. Exciting!
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Topically, I just went to a talk by the Grit lady (as in, grit predicts all success in life; her). Sorta seems like it's all a bunch of nonsense.
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That sucks, heebie. I have no useful advice, but it sounds like Jammies' employers aren't being fair or respectful, as per 192.last
206: Not the competing basement talk?
The Grit talk was in the basement. Any competing talks which may have overlapped were on the top floor and not sponsored my department, so it wouldn't have been a mild faux pas for me to skip them.
I guess this means that Jammies is the wrong person for the job, if his life isn't compatible with this much travelling, but I just feel like his job is really inconsiderate about the impact such travelling might have on the rest of us. Like advance notice (we found out about this trip last week) and sticking to return dates. That seems like just respectful courtesy, but maybe I'm just mad.
What you're describing sounds incredibly frustrating, but it's hard to say (without more info, which you may have) whether his employer is just being inconsiderate (in which case, fuck them) or whether the requirements of his job genuinely demand a lot of travel on a flexible schedule with little notice (in which case, as you note, it's inevitably going to be a difficult job to handle for anyone who has four young kids (or really any family life at all), and for that person's spouse). Does jammies have a view on whether they are being inconsiderate assholes vs. whether genuine contingencies are arising that require his attention in a way that legitimately can't help but demand flexible travel plans?
If the latter, and if it seems likely to continue, you may have to stop planning around his return dates as fixed dates and start treating them like targets. Which, with four young kids does not sound easy to do, but there you have it.
I would have thought mild faux pas were admissible to go to a talk by a friend, even an imaginary one. (I would have been tempted to go except that I'm slightly out of town today.)
Cap'n Crunch. Oh man. I loved that stuff so much.
Hey, this whole time I was thinking, my god, I've never beat a single bad habit (mine are legion) but then I remembered that I stopped drinking diet Coke entirely, and I was hopelessly addicted. Granted, I just replaced it with tea, but I think all in all it's better for me. (And I'm not getting the irritating health problem that instigated stopping.)
HG, you have all my sympathy. And I think the employers are being dicks.
213: LoveD?
I had it for the first time in college. For the better part of two years, my dinner in the dorm cafeteria was Cap'n Crunch. I don't think I've had it since, oddly enough. Guess two years' worth was my lifetime allotment.
Heebie, that really, really sucks.
re: 214
You are in the land of tea, after all. And tea isn't bad for you.
HG, that's miserable. Not sleeping away from home was a very good turn this last year.
214: I've done the same, though mine has been more of a shift from coffee to tea to lessen the caffeine intake. It does make coffee a weekly treat instead a daily expectation, which is total success.
216: It all got too much for Tony Benn.
216: Indeed. I switched before I moved, but I bet I would have relapsed if I was still in the US. Have I mentioned how much I love being offered tea all the time? It's so great.
217: I now drink coffee almost every day, too. But usually just one. And sometimes occasionally I have a full-sugar Coke, but I try to keep that to just one a week or so.
Basically, I love caffeine.
212: oh, it likely would have. To be 100% honest I actually tried to go but I got there late and the (smallish) room was quite full of unfamiliar not-my-field people and I chickened out on trying to wrangle a seat.
Middling 211: could Jammies angle with the employers that a night out of town with less than x days notice earns him, say, 2hrs vacation, or $40 for takeout and a babysitter?
215: LoveD?
Yes--I tried it again at about 26 or so and ate a whole box in like two days. The combination of torn up mouth and incredible digestive disruption cured me (at least of buying the stuff, not missing it).
My wife was away most of last month, and it was precisely as challenging to single-parent the kids as I would have guessed: not at all at first; somewhat by day three or four; very, Very, VERY by day five or six. The thought of having a trip extended without advance warning is enough to make me feel very angry on your behalf.
Also, I think Thorn is right: find someone to come over and hang out at your place for at least a few hours to pass the time. We have no friends to speak of here, or I probably would have done that a few times.
220: So your lack of grit led directly to downward mobility?
What's with all the people who seem to think you can't be considered addicted to tobacco unless you smoke a pack or more a day?
Rrg. Could that last letter be deleted? It's how I usually sign off onymous emails.
You mean that ear at the bottom of 225?
This morning, on my way out the door, I texted Jammies "I thought we paid the housekeeper $X+5, not $X?" because he'd been kind enough to get out cash and put it out for her before he left town.
He wrote back, "Oh shit. I think we've been short-changing her."
I didn't have cash and was already dropping off kids, and so I sent her a big apologetic text message saying "oh shit we just realized. We'll start paying $x+10* the next time you're here, and plus we'll obviously make up the back-pay, and I'm so sorry."
Then I got home and the house is sparkling clean, and she never texted back, which is out of character, and so I'm wracked with guilt, mostly because at this level of sleep-deprivation my emotions start swinging ridiculously.
Also I screamed at the kids and didn't use my clever trick mentioned up thread. I'm really, really tired and worried that the baby is going to have another awful night.
*because it's a multiple of $20 which will make everything easier
Too much unplanned travel is nightmarish for family life, especially if you don't get paid quite enough to afford truly full time help as a compensation. I have no idea what to do about it for you, but it sucks ass hardcore.
And not in the good sucks ass hardcore way.
The housekeeper just wrote back a really friendly text. She must have left her phone at home. Phew.
We have no friends to speak of here
Dude I *told* you you should look up my thesis advisor. She's even Jewish!
All kids quietly in bed by 7:45 like a boss. (Now to get as many chores done as possible before the baby wakes up. Let's go give the cat an IV and wash some baby bottles!)
235: holy shit, good job. I'm on eastern time and my kids are still both awake.
They go to sleep fairly easily, but they wake up around 5:30 most mornings.
Cat has swallowed his pill and gotten his IV fluids.
Dinner leftovers in fridge, dishes in dishwasher, kids gently sent back to bed without fuss, and bottles washed. I CAN HAZ ON A ROLL.
Backpacks checked! Lunch and bottles prepared! Baby still sleeping! It took me until 11 last night to get to this point. I'll stop now with the play-by-play.
All kids quietly in bed by 7:45 like a boss
The hell? Do you put Bourbon in their warm milk and blow pot smoke in their faces, or are your kids all narcoleptic? I am such a failure as a parent.
I'm in bed already! 8:45. Haven't taken a shower since Sunday but whatever.
Failure or not, at least you didn't have to share your pot.
No, the play-by-play is fascinating! I managed dinner, homework, medicines, bath for Selah, bed times for all three (Selah gets read to and rocked and them the other two got a chapter and a half and then I sat with them for 10 minutes, the whole process shorter by far than when Mara couldn't safely fall asleep alone) and now I'm going to take a bath before doing anything productive or possibly in lieu of doing anything productive. We'll see. This seems like about 1/3 of what you've managed and I don't even have four children.
I skimped everywhere possible. Dinner was Mac and cheese. They watched cartoons before dinner. Hawaii did her homework at afterschool. Ace was fairly low key during brushing teeth and storytime. It all went maximally smoothly.
Selah is having sinus stuff we don't want to turn into anything worse, so the bath was for steam. She's been up three times since I wrote that comment and I'm letting her cry now even though it will probably worsen the congestion because I'm hoping she'll calm down and sleep so I eventually can too. But if she needs to be held all night so she can breathe, that will be my job.
Aaaaand an hour after falling asleep, I'm up with the baby.
If it makes you feel better, I've been working non-stop (mostly) since dinner and am just now going to sleep. Of course, I'll sleep without interruption (unless heartburn) for 7 hours.
For the third time in four nights I'm wide awake an hour and a half after I fell asleep because my brain
And 5:30. Time to wake up. Better than last night.
If Rance is around he should chide you for using a device with a bright screen during your sleep interruptions.
Sorry, heebie. I had that kind of night too. I wanted to make Lee take the kids to school to balance it out, but she left her car elsewhere while out last night and I want to encourage that, so she's sleeping while I get the girls ready to get out the door. I did eventually make Selah just sit on my lap to sleep for a few hours so I could read while gently working tangles out of her hair, so I got some things accomplished, just none of them as good as sleep.
You should feel bad about it because you're cheating yourself of the awesomeness that should come from true bad habit like alcohol. Will drinking Mt Dews with my wife make her hotter, funnier, and sluttier all at once? No it will not. Soda is a vice for 12 year olds and Mormons.
Now you can (more easily) bring your vices along to your hobbies: palcohol.
Moby may also be interested in the weight-saving aspects. I also think Voodoo Donuts might get in on this.
I saw that earlier this morning. I'm fairly certain it will remain illegal in this state. On a possibly related note, they just sent around the annual drug and alcohol policy email. I couldn't find anything that specifically prohibited me from drinking at work.
I got a text from my father yesterday asking how palcohol worked. I hadn't heard of it until then. Glad to see he's staying on top of trends.
I sort of don't get it either. I thought alcohol was a liquid.
261: I know, right? How is this even a thing?
They linked article talks about how it is lighter for camping, which is great. But I don't see how it could be lighter than grain alcohol since that's pure alcohol and already almost completely dehydrated.
"Palcohol" is a ridiculous name, especially compared to the equally obvious but clearly superior "Alcopowder". ("Alcopow" for short.)
Tinkerers say it is just high proof alcohol + sorbent powder like maltodextrose). Likely that plus other flavorings + colorants, etc == the productized version.
If you had nearly pure grain alcohol that would win on the weight basis.
You do have nearly pure grain alcohol. It's in every city and small town in America. Plus, you can, if in dire straights, use your grain alcohol to fuel your Swedish camping stove.
I bite my finger when I get stressed. This is much worse than nail biting, because a callus has formed. I am actively working on how to stop it, because it looks gross.
9 am sharp, at work! It's only a little deflating to feel like it takes 3 1/2 hours to arrive at the beginning of your day.
Moby, I wasn't questioning the existence of grain alcohol. Rather, many folks have only the tamer spirits.
269: I think Moby's point was that anyone who wants to acquire grain alcohol can easily do so, ergo what is the point of this alternative product, the stated justification for which seems to be premised on the nonexistence of grain alcohol?
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In analyzing things from such an Olympian height, this piece has many inevitable problems, but I think it's pretty good:
http://theamericanreader.com/jenesuispasliberal-entering-the-quagmire-of-online-leftism/
"And finally, the realm of Ethical Suspicion is the Moralist Cluster, in which we find much of online leftist thought and practice today. Today's Moralist accepts a more moderate version of the Structural critiques of the Theory Cluster, acknowledging that good intentions may mask underlying prejudice at the individual and societal level. But the Moralist also reverts to a more Ethical focus, demanding of individuals that they comprehend the Structural framework, struggle against it, and finally emancipate themselves from it. At its extreme, the Moralist Cluster is embodied by the callout, the act of finding fault and inadequacy in the words or actions of another, which, even when well-intentioned, nevertheless constitute a betrayal of leftist ideals. Indeed, the good intentions are themselves problematic since they, in their seeming innocuousness, may succeed in obscuring a malevolent force of injustice. The callout demands that the target rectify this mistake (and so doing, alleviate suspicion) by staging a public or semi-public admission of fault and aggrievement, and applying for absolution from a community of his, her, or its cultural peers."
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I guess that they're going to have pouchy coctails. So the mixers are also already in the foil. Sure you have your grain alcohol, but do you also have margarita powder?
Based on the hobbyists equivalent, yes.
"Hobbyists Equivalent. For those occasions when everybody is too drunk to notice the flavors of actual Scotch anyway."
277: It doesn't sound completely implausible to me. I'm not much of a camper or sneak-drinker, but isn't a powder easier to carry than a liquid? You can put it in something flexible, and if it spills or the container rips you'll lose a fraction of it but not the whole thing, and it won't ruin what you're carrying it in.
Also, yes, it does mean you don't have to carry as much around, because most people don't drink grain alcohol. You could mix a tablespoon (or two or three or whatever) with a cup of water to have something as strong as beer, and you don't have to carry the cup of water in with you.
You still need the cup of water for the powder. And for not dying of dehydration.
I feel like people are ignoring the convenience of having disgusting flavorings already in the pouch.
Pouches of mixed drinks - suck bags, as they're known in our household - are ideal for tubing on the river. Aside from cans of beer, which are also ideal, and mini-boxed wine, which works fine too. Lots of options to avoid glass containers.
mini-boxed wine
Right. The boxes are 3 liters (Metric system is fine for not temperature). The perfect size.
The bag of wine from a box is absolutely perfect for backpacking. And it makes a great inflatable pillow when you finish it.
Does this mean we're close to having whiskey cubes like the ones in Alien: Resurrection?
a weight savings of less than 10%
Hikers would never care about shaving off eighty grams!
I suspect the real use case of palcohol involves snorting lines off a mirror. Which I can't imagine would end well.
Hikers would never care about shaving off eighty grams!
If you're just below the summit on K2, those 80 grams could make a difference. People get drunk once they reach the summit, right?
286: Just wait until it comes in suppository form.
It will revolutionize butt chugging.
If somebody does want to market an alcohol suppository, I don't think it's fair that "the Silver Bullet" is already taken.
I'll be disappointed if the marketing doesn't somehow riff off "butt plug"/"butt chug".
Kids down, 7:50 pm! Five minutes slower than last night, but no dinner clean up because we ate fast food. (Yep, Smearcase, the best fast food.)
(Yep, Smearcase, the best fast food.)
So clearly not mars baby holocaust tacos.
Delicious fast-casual Mexican food and aggressive enforcers of trademark rights. Win-win.
Wow, Taco Cabana is the only place in San Antonio allowed to have:
"a festive eating atmosphere having interior dining and patio areas decorated with artifacts, bright colors, paintings and murals. The patio includes interior and exterior areas with the interior patio capable of being sealed off from the outside patio by overhead garage doors. The stepped exterior of the building is a festive and vivid color scheme using top border paint and neon stripes. Bright awnings and umbrellas continue the theme." 932 F. 2d 1113, 1117 (CA5 1991).
They must sue a lot.
Oh, it's not quite that bad.
Obviously I'm on their delicious side.
Up in Austin, IIRC, there were two egregious 7-11 knock-offs: one was "1st evening", with the numeral 1 looking like the 7, and evening written out like eleven is. The other was 4-11, but with a touch different a sign.