Caffeine

Ah, such an absolutely wondrous thing is caffeine. Caffeine is probably the number one most addictive drug in the United States. Hell, it’s probably the number one most addictive drug in the world. And, there’s no form of regulation on it whatsoever.

Pop. Coffee. Tea. Chocolate. Soap. It can be put in just about everything, and human beings will consume it by the gallon.

Why is that?

I honestly don’t know. I would assume it has something to do with caffeine’s effect on the body. It’s a stimulant, it wakes you up and keeps you awake. It helps you focus. It decreases the amount of sleep you need each night. Well, depending on consumption it will keep you from sleeping.

I don’t know what else to say about caffeine. I’m not a chemist or a doctor who can tell you exactly what the effects of caffeine are. Nor can I tell you what the chemical make-up of the drug is. I really just know what it is I wrote above. And, most of that was a shot in the dark.

I do know something else about caffeine. Caffeine Intoxication is a type of mental disorder caused by excessive use of caffeine. Say, drinking four or five Monsters a day. It causes sleeplessness, difficulty concentrating, muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, and a lot of other symptoms I don’t care to mention. (I actually looked up an article about it.) And, the only reason I know about it is because I was diagnosed with it back in the middle part of 2013. It got pointed out along with my abuse of over the counter pain killers and drinking excessive amounts of Mountain Dew.

After that, I cut my consumption of soda and energy drinks down to one or two a day, and I replaced a lot of it with drinking water.

Now, however, my use of caffeinated beverages has gone back up. It’s something I need to stop, mainly because I don’t like feeling like I’ve been stretched out as far as a human sized rubber band can stretch. Still, I know all this, I can see it from the outside, but like a lot of other things, I do nothing about it. It’s pattern.

I’m not even going to go with how caffeine can work in Dungeons and Dragons, and instead I shall leave you with this video regarding Dungeons and Dragons and Mountain Dew.

  

Later kids.

Ryan

3-12-14

Allergies

It’s such a wonderful thing that 99% of the Earth’s population has them; that’s right boys and girls, allergies. Who knows why some people are allergic to penicillin? Or is there a reason as to why people are allergic to certain foods or fauna? There probably is, and it is probably just a Google search away. But, I’m having one of those lazy days where I feel like I shouldn’t do anything, but since it’s not F*** it Friday there’s no excuse for me not to do these things.

So, why won’t I do a Google search? The reason is I don’t care enough about the answer to pursue it. Put forth the effort to find it. However you want to say it. So, instead of worrying about the answer to the question, I’m just going to talk about how allergies affect me and mine.

Allergies hate our family, me and Cupcake, and they hate us in the way mosquitoes hate us. I’m like a walking all you can eat buffet when it comes to mosquitoes, and for allergies I’m allergic to pretty much every type of pollen. If the pollen count is high, my nose is running, my eyes are burning, and I’ll have sneezing spasms with up to 20 or more sneezes. Yes, it’s possible, and yes, it hurts like hell.

Now, Cupcake has a lot of allergies, but hers affect her in a different way. She has near constant sinus infections. Her lungs are always full of gunk and she’s sneezing and coughing and really has the whole I’m miserable sick sort of thing going on. I try to pamper her during these weeks long infections, but sometimes it gets really icky. (Love you Cupcake!) Anyway, filled with sinus problems or not, she’s my Cupcake and I love her.

I also like to make fun of her other major allergy. Cupcake is lactose intolerant. She can’t drink milk, eat cheese, drink anything with the word cream in it, and even milk chocolate bars give her problems. But, guess what… She eats these things anyway. Lol. I’m not sure if she just loves dairy products, or if she’s some kind of masochist.

Who knows?

How do allergies affect my game world; I would have to say I don’t know. I’ve never cared enough to think that much about it. It really seems to be one of those things you can just gloss over, unless you’ve got a character that has allergies. But, still, that’s more of a character trait then something to do with world building. I dunno.

I could incorporate magical allergies into the game. It would be like character xyz has an allergy to polymorph spells. Polymorph spells cast on this character are subject to a d% failure/success chart, and the effect on the character is subject to a randomized effect, plus 1d3 points of constitution damage or something like that.

Who knows?

There are probably rules for it somewhere, but I’m not going to go digging for them.

And, I’m going to call it there.

Later kids.

Ryan

3-11-14

Gravity

Today’s topic is about something we’re all well acquainted with, though it took a falling apple to point it out to Sir Issac Newton. Yup, gravity, the constant enemy to those who like to stand up.

Cupcake lost a fight with gravity today, and it’s the third fight she’s lost in the last week if I’m not mistaken, and I lost one too, not too long ago. I’ve got a doctor’s excuse and x-rays to prove it.

I don’t have any broken ribs, but something’s wrong. I’ve got pain and this and that and I don’t feel like bitching about it right now. Me and Cupcake have both lost our battles with gravity recently, and that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say about gravity.

Now, I need to find something else to talk about.

Gravity is boring.

So, I’ll talk about role-playing instead. I don’t mean playing Dungeons and Dragons or any rpg video game (and not adult centric role playing) I mean just sitting down with a few friends, a pen and a piece of paper and pretending to be someone else for a while.

Writing is one way of doing it. Acting is another. Then you have the games, and all these things focus on a sort of transformation. Somewhere along those lines you stop being you, all your worries fade away. For a little while, at least, you don’t have to worry about where the rent money’s coming from or about what’s happening to the world at large. All that matters is that character and what’s going to happen next.

Escapism is the word for it, and I think it’s a word that bears repeating. We can escape from our lives and our responsibilities for just a tiny fraction of time. It really might be what keeps most of us sane.

I know I work out a lot of my problems when my pencil connects with the page. I can see all of it flowing out of me, through me, and transforming. Those problems and fears and hopes and dreams, all of them become the essence of whatever character I’m writing about. Whether it be about a gnome and a necromancer or a half-vampire and an army of the undead, they are the same because they are me, and they’re different because they’re my window into another world.

That might be why I like writing so much. I enjoy escaping, living these other lives like I’m Batman or some shit like that. And, I write because I want to share that joy with other people. I want my readers to be free from their worries, even if it’s just for one cigarette smoke filled night. I want them to be free and feel the joy and triumph, pain and sorrow of another. I want them to be free, and I want them to know that life is worth living because of those little moments of happiness, of freedom.

And, that’s enough preaching out of me. Later kids.

Ryan

2-26-14/2-27/14