So Yeah, About That Drink

by Norcross · 14 comments

There was a time in my life that I planned on driving to Tennessee and purchasing an entire barrel of Jack Daniels Whiskey. Did you know they sell them by the barrel? They do. And I almost owned one. Maybe it’s the summer heat, I don’t know. But lately I’ve seen a lot of posts regarding drinking, drug use, addiction issues, and the like. The folks at The Next Great Generation did a whole ‘drug week’ series. Jolie O’Dell recently wrote a post about her experiences with being newly sober (again). And there have been others in the past who have been pretty open about their experiences with drugs and alcohol.

I have not one of those people. Well, I guess not until now.

While I’ve made minor mentions of it here and there, and most people who know me personally know, I am not cavalier about my own personal situation. So let’s just get it out in the open. I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Have been for quite some time. In fact, I will be  celebrating 7 years sober on Sunday. (August 1st). For those scoring at home, I got sober before I turned 23. Which means my drinking and drug abuse got so bad that at the ripe old age of 22, something needed to change. And change it did.

Here is the quick synopsis:

  • Age 10: Began smoking cigarettes

  • Age 13: Began smoking week

  • Age 15: LSD, Xanax, various other pills

  • Age 16: Booze

  • Age 19: Cocaine

Those were the main ones, mind you. As far as drug use goes, there isn’t a single drug that was available at the time that I didn’t do at least twice. Yes, that includes heroin and crack. (Meth hadn’t reached Florida yet, but I’m sure I would have done it if given the opportunity).

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it. While I could put something cute in here, I don't feel I need to. So why am I writing this? Why now? Why at all? Gonna be honest here, I’m not too sure. It isn’t as though I need to ‘announce’ it at all. Nor am I trying to warn anyone. I assume all of you reading this are adults and can make decisions for yourself. And my own personal experience doesn’t really mean jack shit to your life. Maybe I just wanna give you all some background into why I am the way I am. Why am I considered ‘no bullshit’? Because I can be. How is it that nothing seems to bother me? Because I’ve already been through hell. Literally. There is a lot to this story that I have left out, because frankly its none of your fucking business.

Ehh. Here’s to 7 years.

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The Great Echo Chamber

by Norcross · 7 comments

Quick! Tell me if you’ve heard about this recently: That's pretty scary, isn't it? Although I'd probably be more concerned with the vampire being out in the daylight. That would basically make him immortal, and thus we'd all be fucked.

  • Apple put out a new version of the iPhone, and apparently people were a bit upset about a few things.
  • Today (July 5th) was the day that Doc set on the Delorean to ‘25 years in the future’ (for the record, it isn’t).
  • Steve Jobs wrote something about Flash to Adobe.
  • A goal was scored in the World Cup.
  • Someone’s giving away some shit.
  • Twilight. Enough said.
  • The guy from Zappos wrote an article about selling his company.
  • …the list goes on…

Of course, I’m talking about twitter. It seems lately whenever something hits the ol’ Twit with a modicum of interest, the RTs begin in earnest. One or two trickle in , then the wave begins. 10 at a time. Then 10 or 20 more.

So I have to ask: Has twitter become the new email forward?

I sure as shit hope not. I like twitter. It’s amusing, I’m able to have conversations with people, and I even get some work out of it (quite a bit, actually). But between the recent outages, the reply spam, and now seeing the same article / link 30 times in a day, it’s beginning to wear thin. It’s noise. You aren’t contributing. For all the talk about community and connections, it’s one step above fucking spam. Yes, I’m all for sharing information. That’s the point. But is there any benefit to perpetuating this? Am I wrong here? By all means, correct me if that’s the case.

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You Are Not Hardcore

by Norcross · 5 comments

That's a x-ray of the bullet. I have an x-ray of the metal in my hip, and it's kind of shaped like a gun. That's the closest thing I've got. Folks wear their jobs as a badge of honor. How many hours they put in. How much of their lives they set to a single goal / task and claim it loud and proud. Their start-up is their entire life, blah blah blah. Hell, I’ve even made reference to the fact that for quite a while, I got 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night. But that was more out of habit and lack of focus than anything else.

This isn’t about them, though. It’s not about me, either. This is about someone who actually has done things worth mentioning.

Ladies and gentleman, I present Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President.

  • In 1912, he was shot in the chest during a speech. So like any normal person, he proceeded to deliver the speech with the bullet still in him. He left the bullet in his body until his death seven years later. He knew that since he wasn’t coughing up blood, the bullet hadn’t penetrated his lungs. Which means, for those scoring at home, he thought about it and MADE A DECISION about a bullet in his chest.
  • As governor of New York, he boxed with sparring partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as President until one blow detached his left retina, leaving him blind in that eye (a fact not made public until many years later).
  • As police chief of New York City, he would often walk the officer’s late night beats just to see if they were indeed working
  • Created the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (basically, you can’t sell poison or spoiled meat. Yes, that used to be legal)

There are quite a few other things. He was pretty famous. People knew him. So the next time you read a self-serving blog post about someone who thinks they are hardcore, remember this: they aren’t working with a bullet in their chest.

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