Tag Archives: addiction

Still Flying or: The Bad Crash

22 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Life as We Know It, Podcasting

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Salutations™!!

Today was an up-and-down, topsy-turvy kind of day, Dear Reader. I was still flying high from Saturday’s Cobras game and then the relaxing, laid-back nature of the day yesterday, along with some yard-sitting. Rule1logonew

Today, I had all my podcasts, save one, cancel so, it was to be an easy day.

The podcast I did was the Rule One Podcast, and we know that while there are humorous aspects to this podcast, the subject matter is very serious. It’s about addiction and can be for several things, but mostly drugs since Kerri Sigler is the founder of Phoenix Rising and the WS Drug Court.

The subject was tough. We had a young mother, whom we call “Nicole,” talking about how she got into drugs, what she did to try to get off of them and how she’s now been stripped of her rights as a parent. It was heartbreaking listening to her story.

A lot of people ask how can your child not be enough!? How can you still do drugs when you’ll lose them!?

Those are unfair questions. Addiction doesn’t work that way. Addiction doesn’t care what the consequences are. Well, she could not take them. No, that doesn’t work either. When a 12-year old girl is introduced to drugs by an aunt, someone she should trust, and that continues on into her teens and then the parents of the boyfriend (baby daddy) introduces a late-teen already hooked on stuff to crushed-up pain pills and how to snort them, there’s nowhere for that child to go. Okay, run away! When that is your lifestyle, you don’t know to run away. Stop being an insensitive f**k!

She admitted the only person in her family that wasn’t an addict was her mother, who was partially disabled. Listening to her story and hearing the emotions was hard. I never fully recovered all day.

3B had fallen asleep at his mom’s for Easter dinner but was supposed to be with me yesterday. He doesn’t have his after-nines (driving after 9pm), yet and while he is allowed to drive after nine for work or school, this was neither. So, I didn’t get to see him yesterday and he worked today so I didn’t get to see him today. Just hearing “Nicole’s” story, I wanted to hug him, badly. But, I also know that he’s growing up and my time of seeing him is going to get shorter and shorter and he’ll be off to school (hopefully) after this and I will see him even less.

It makes me realize how my parents feel when I don’t see them as often as I could. I mean, they live right next door. But, my regular schedule (and theirs), keeps me busy and harder to get by there. Reminds me of a song…

You can hear the episode HERE.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. ‘When you coming home, son?’ ‘I don’t know when. But we’ll get together then, dad. You know we’ll have a good time then.'” – “Cats in the Cradle” (Chapin)

The Trials of Gaming Life or: Addiction is Real

02 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Life as We Know It

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Salutations™!!

I want to be clear starting this post that I am not at all equating addiction to drugs or alcohol to what I’m going to talk about. I know that those addictions are life-altering and dangerous. People are dying every day because of these things that are many times beyond their control. I’m not going to argue with people who call it a choice. We’ve all done stupid things and sometimes your body must continue what you started. If you want to argue that, let me direct you to a lawyer friend of mine who deals with addicts every day. Okay, onto my thing. 

I have always had an addictive personality. Not to substances. But, I attribute that, in part, to the reasons I “collect” be it records, DVDs, CDs, Comics, and I attribute it to my love of lists and streaks. I find something I like and I have to have it more. Yes, I drink a good bit of alcohol but mostly only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And, I’ve never done an illegal substance, not even weed. So, again, no substances.

_1bricks

©Google Play/Mobrix

I have always loved video games. I’ve started playing games on my phone. I’ve never done Candy Crush but have played several in that vein like Toon Blast, Sugar Smash, Juice Jam, Cookie Jam, Block! Hexa, Panda Pop, Two Dots and Toy Blast. I also play a game called Legendary that is a cross between Candy Crush and Final Fantasy. I’ve done Angry Birds in several of their versions, too. All of them, I’ve been known to spend hours on. I’ve also been known to spend money on them. I’m not proud of it, it just happens. But, all of those seem to be mild compared to the one I discovered from an advert in one of the other games. One I downloaded a few months back and just forgot about.

I was sitting in my Friday morning networking group and I was early. I wanted to kill some time but didn’t want to play the things I already had because I knew I’d get into it and would be rude about playing it while we were actually meeting. I found this thing on my phone and said I won’t get too into this. Pffftt! Yeah, right. It was okay at first. I figured it out and played it up until the meeting. Then I was done. I left it for a few weeks and visited it again this week.

This game is called Bricks Breaker Quest. You have to smash blocks or bricks with balls and each brick has a number attached to it. You have to keep hitting those until the number reaches zero. But, if you have a brick with a number of 65, it’s hard because you only have 50 balls to start with. So, you have to be creative and bounce them off walls and other bricks to re-hit them to get rid of them all. And after each time the balls return to the base, the whole screen drops and will continue to create bricks until that round is over. If the bricks reach the bottom then you lose. Luckily, you can keep retrying without losing lives. But, man, you have to watch an advert each time you retry and between each level.

But, I find myself telling myself, oh, just one more. Okay after this one. Okay if I can’t get this…, One more. One more. One more. 

Well, this has been crazy. I was late to work on Monday and then late getting home, late playing last night and today, I was late for an appointment that I was needing to do. In fact, I missed the appointment and have to go back tomorrow. I itch a little. I get “bothered.” It’s messing with my head. It’s messing with my time. I should uninstall it from my phone, but I can’t bring myself to do it. But, still, I should. I understand this. I may if it continues. Right now, though, I’m going to stick it out and see if I can get over it. I won’t bother you with it any, I just wanted to talk about addiction.

Addiction of any kind is rough. Again, this isn’t anywhere near substance addiction and if you need help with any of that, I have hookups that can help you. Hit me up. Try this stupid game at your own risk. I do not recommend it if you value your time. But, it’s an addictive game and if you can handle it, try it. It’s fun. That’s all I got.

Until tomorrow, just one more…
Scorp out!

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“I have a severe addiction to ‘Angry Birds.’ I always tell myself, ‘One more game…’ But then there’s always another and another and another.” – Kevin Nealon