I'm 40. It's time to give up booze. I don't think I’m an alcoholic but I know that I drink too much when I’m stressed. I have had a drink on every night of every day for as long as I can remember. It got to the point where a bottle of wine wasn't enough in a night and to me it has become something that bothers me. So, as of Sunday 5th august (my first day back from holiday) I have quit the terrible booze. This is a blog of my experience. Booze Away!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Christmas & New Year

Made it through both without a drop. New year was harder. There wer quite a few times when i thought that a glass of wine would be really nice and started to persuade myself! I remained firm though.

My only worry is that I am becoming boring! Socially, it isn't acceptable not to drink!

Warcraft - Enjoyment and Addiction

When i first started playing Warcraft, I was amazed at the lovely graphics and playability. The sheers size of the world was unbelievable. Every animal could kill you because you are such a low level. The I started doing missions, basically avoiding everybody else and group work. What a time! Working my way through my mission list, just finishing of one more before logging off. Even though Í got killed, I got better. things always get better in Warcraft. You never lose levels: you only rise higher. At the Deadmines (a massive dungeon instance where you have to be in a group to complete it) I discovered the fun of being in a party!



Working together for the common good. Wow, what a feeling. Co-ordinating with other players for attacks was brilliant and a fantastic new addition to my love of the game.



After that, I often joined groups for the instances. This takes time to do this. You have to find a group first and that can take an hour to do, waiting for people to finish their own little quests before joining your group. You have to have from 2 to 4 hours (at my low level) to complete an instance. You can't just leave halfway through as you let all the others down. So that was a major contributing factor to staying up really late. Sometimes til 3.00 a.m. Then I had to get up at 06.00! I would stand in the shower planning what I would do that evening. Maybe get to the next level, do an instance etc.



Then I found a guild and joined that. This was my first guild experience and was lucky enough to find a fantastic group with really cool mature adults playing for fun. They were really generous and gave my character the most fantastic weapons etc. For free! I couldn't believe it. This guild became like a second family. Chatting with them when online was great. Anytime, I needed help with a quest, some of them would come over to where I was and help me out. It was a great time. Ultimately it made the game even more addictive.



My theory about Warcraft is that it is life how we would love it to be. You're career only ever rises, you're family is always there for you. You never grow old or sick. You actually get stronger the longer you live. You can be anonymous, yet a hero at the same time. You can flirt, annoy, ignore. You can dance almost naked in the town square. What more could you want? There's always a horizon offering goodies, levels and experiences just beyond your reach. I have read that Warcraft and other similar games have actually ruined peoples lives because they cannot let it go.

When I gave up booze, I gave up warcraft and this wasn't too hard but....you have to delete your character as a word to the wise. If you don't you can just resurrect it after 3 months or 6 months and start right back to where you were. To make it easier for you when you do this, Blizzard actually lets you level faster because you have rested longer. deleting my characters was a bit sad as we had been through a lot together. LOL. It felt like it!

No, I steer clear of these games. I only have 2 games on my laptop. Chess and Risk. Both short and both have a forseeable end.

The people i met on Warcraft were mostly nice people who were just in a rut in their real lives so escaped into a fantasy world. Others just couldn't see it. They played minimum 4 hours a day....every day..just like me.