JulianRota
14d ago
I tend to think that it ties in with the Socialization point. Drinking at home alone is generally pretty bad for your mental state in my opinion, and ditto any other drugs. I would even agree with pouring out any alcohol you have at home. Drinking with a bunch of friends or at a bar is mostly pretty good, presuming you are capable of not overdoing it. Even going to a decent bar by yourself, where you are getting out of the house, and maybe have the opportunity to chat a little bit with a bartender or some other customers, or maybe possibly even make a friend or two, overrides the negative effect of the drinks and even of some not super great food.
I'm not sure where it belongs on an ordered list, but I think there should also be a point for taking care of yourself and your spaces. I mean like, take a shower every day, shave, trim nails, get regular haircuts, any other standard grooming tasks that apply, put on fresh clean clothes every day, that are in good condition, no holes or stains or whatever. Do it every day, no matter what, whether or not you're feeling great or planning on going anywhere. If you don't have any decent clothes, go buy some. Do laundry and wash the dishes regularly too. Whatever space you live in, vacuum, mop, dust, scrub, and otherwise tidy up regularly. Not necessarily every day or perfectly, but don't let anything get too dirty. Make your bed every day, put away dirty laundry, clean up half-finished projects, etc. Fix any broken stuff around the house too. Generally take care of everything along those lines. This creates a reasonably nice and clean space you can take a little pride in all the time. It helps you see and feel that you're not completely falling apart. It's nice, positive work to do that keeps your mind off of all of the negative influences listed above. And if you get a unexpected urge or invitation to go out and do something, or have friends or family over, you don't have the automatic excuse of looking like a slob or your place being a disaster area, you can just do it.
JulianRota
29d ago
Yes. I'm in my mid-40s now. I suppose I'd be called a social binge drinker, and I do have a fairly high tolerance, but I have cut down on how drunk I am willing to get in the last couple of years due to hangovers getting worse.
I basically never drink at home. If I'm staying home on a given night, I won't drink at all. I try not to drink more than 3 nights a week or so on average, with some variation depending on what events are going on. Usually I go out with friends or to some sort of event, and I may drink like 4 to 8 drinks, depending on how big and strong they are. That's mostly mid-strength beers, since I like the taste and find it easier to regulate myself with beer. I may drink wine, mixed drinks, or shots occasionally, depending on the type of place and who I'm with, but I try to limit that to 1, maybe 2 a night, since they go down too easy and tend to lead to getting excessively drunk. Most of my friends drink around the same amount most of the time.
One weird quirk that seems to have started hitting me more in the last few years is that I don't like to drink too little, because I find that drinking only 1 or 2 drinks tends to disrupt my sleep patterns, making me wake up too early and have trouble getting back to sleep. Drinking a moderate amount, per above, usually results in a pretty good night's sleep and minimal hangover effect the next day. If I drink too much, then I still sleep decently well, but get a much worse hangover that might take the better part of the next day to get over.
Another quirk - I started making this electrolyte drink in a big pitcher at home, and I'll try to drink a glass full anytime I get home after a session of drinking. I think it helps cut down on the hangovers, which I have come to think electrolyte deficiency probably plays a big part in. Notably, if this is true, it also means that the common advice of drinking lots of water when drinking alcohol may work against you, since it only contributes more to draining your electrolytes. It's the same mechanism by which you can die from drinking too much water.
JulianRota
29d ago
Whether it's "easy" depends on your point of view, but you can request a set of API keys from the Apps page on your setting panel, and then it's pretty straightforward to make API requests to retrieve all of your posts - I already did that for mine. You might have to ping Zorba on the Discord to get him to approve the request, but he probably will as long as you aren't trying to do anything crazy or dumb.
For cash, usually zero to a thousand or so. I don't pay particularly close attention to keeping it up. It's more for if I'm about to go somewhere but find I don't have that much cash in my wallet, it's slightly easier to grab some than to stop at an ATM, though that's not at all hard either. I don't take it too seriously as emergency prep, mostly since living in a big city, any massive crisis that results in me not being able to get more cash from ATMs easily or buy things with cards will also cause much bigger, more widespread, and difficult to predict chaos that a little cash is not likely to save me from.
What I do consider as more useful emergency prep to keep safely stored at home is a valid working credit card and ATM card, working spare phone with no service, and expired spare ID. I can lose pretty much everything I typically carry on me and not experience significant hassle.
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