This Is My Life

It's been 9 days since I've had any drink other than water. In an effort to cut caffeine completely out of my life again I've decided that for at least the month of December water is my drink of choice. No other beverage will pass my lips.

The first five days were hell. I was sick to my stomach, had horrible migraines, and every joint in my body was agony when I tried to sleep. Maria tried to help by offering me coffee, knowing that I was going through caffeine withdrawal, but I knew that the end results would be worth it; no more unnatural energy highs/lows, no more caffeine headaches when I haven't had my morning coffee, no more jitters or mood swings.

If I can remember those horrible five days for the rest of my life, I can assure you that I'll never have more caffeine than you can find in a bar of chocolate, or a small cup of green tea. I'm off the stuff for good. It's just not worth it. I'm sleeping better, I have good energy through the entire day, and my mood is leveling off; no more depression.

I just need to remember. I really hope I do, because I don't want to go through that ever again.

Going to class soon, spent the morning slowly sipping some coffee.

Realized as my body began to hum from its vibrations that I may have overdone it again.

Comic later?

Does anyone out there know of a good tutorial to help me learn how to draw?

Like so many people these days, I have what I think could be an awesome idea for a webcomic or similar, and just don't think my stick-figure drawings will cut it. They could, as my stick-figure style is similar to Order of the Stick and a few other popular poorly-drawn strips, but for the seriousish tone that I want the strip to have, it just doesn't work well.

So, do you know of anywhere I could look to get a good idea of how to draw a human head/face? How about bodies? Backgrounds? All done, of course, in a comic-like style. What that means, I have no idea.

Also? I've had caffeine this morning because today's going to be very busy learning about how to help stay "Green" and save the Earth. If I use up the extra energy from the caffeine, I'll be fine. If I don't, I'll get cranky. If I forget why I'm cranky, and post something to that effect, someone please remind me that I'm being dumb.

Thanks.

Good morning folks!

I had some caffeine this morning because I'd heard that caffeine helps the brain function slightly more productively, and I had a test, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Of course, I also tried that "studying" thing I've heard so much about, so I can't say which one did the trick, but something helped me breeze through the 60 question quiz in 20 minutes, with a very confident feeling that I only missed 5 questions, at most. Less than a 90% on this quiz would come as quite a shock for me.

So, right before the exam, I literally felt the caffeine rush through my system. Remember, I've been off caffeine for quite a while, (except for very few times like this, when I feel I'll really need the extra energy/brain boost) so a large coffee-like drink is bound to have some pretty profound affects on me.

I'm not looking forward to the crash, but I forgot how fun the up is. I'm soaring at a million miles an hour, ready to take on anything. Sure, it's a false feeling, and actually trying to run that marathon, or do 1,000 jumping jacks would end in abysmal failure, but this is how it feels.

God, I'm glad I never got into drugs. I have enough trouble not justifying adding caffeine back into my diet (especially when I learned that not only does it help a little with brain functions, it also speeds up your metabolism), I can't imagine if I was on some actual illegal substance.

I mean, the problem with drugs is that they usually make you feel good. I can't imagine people would continue with them if they made you feel horrible while you were high; that just wouldn't make sense. They do what they're supposed to do, with very little effort on the part of the druggie. The fact that they're illegal barely matters to people who have nothing good in their lives, nowhere to turn except their next score.

I had an experience with being slipped LSD once, at Woodstock '99 in Rome, NY. Most of my friends know about it, because it makes for hilarious stories afterwards. I mean, imagine me standing in place for hours, literally hours, holding up the sky because it's made of stained glass, and all these people jumping up and down are going to break it if they're not careful.

Just imagine walking by me, my arms up-stretched towards the sky, not moving, staring up, not moving a step, no shirt on, glazed eyes, and then an hour later walking by, seeing me doing the same thing. From what I'm told/remembering, I was there for at least 3 hours, possibly longer, until the sun went down.

It's funny, and thinking about it I remember that I didn't feel bad, just worried. Bad came when I tried to sleep and it felt like all the insects within a 20-mile radius were trying to crawl into my sleeping bag. That wasn't fun, but I knew by then that something was wrong, and was able to convince myself that it was my mind playing tricks on me.

But seriously, good funny stories, not horrible feelings for most of a day, and a lot of weird things happening that I'd never see without acid (like a flying whale); these things aren't bad, and I can see why people get into it.

That's not to say they should.

There's so many other things in life that can be awesome, fun, and a little weird, but you have to expend more energy and will to get them to be fulfilling. And, they're real. You can lock yourself in a room with a few people and have whatever designer drugs are out there now, have a good time, and then come down from it, feeling like you've just been digested and excreted by some giant flying whale, or you can go put a little effort into having fun, and keep feeling good.

I'd rather keep feeling good, personally.

Oh, and pot? Pot should be legal. I still wouldn't smoke it, but that's not the point.