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seaglass<

The thoughts of having another hangover have always put me in the attitude of gratitude. The desire to drink again goes away while thinking of a hangover. I just don't think this old bod could stand another one; it would mean my death, I believe.

I would say I spent 23 years of precious life nursing hangovers. No more,
please

today's Gift from Hazelden - 1/16/03
Today's thought is:
Draw from others the lesson that may profit yourself
-Teremce

Our Twelve Step program offers us the best education in the world, free of charge. Everybody in recover has something to teach us, if we'll listen. Each of us has a unique set of experiences and background, problems and solutions to share. From each other we can learn about recovery, and about the world too. We can hear what it's like to live on the streets, even if we didn't lose everything to addiction. We can learn how others got their families envolved in a Twelve Step program of their own. We can learn about the problems we may encounter at work, how to avoid them, and how to solve thkem. We can hear from someone who has been there, rather than through relapse, howit feels to be addicted to another substance.

The experience of others gives us a rare chance to broaden our horizons. We can learn how it feels to be a member of a minority, how to love ourselves enough to cobat hatred, how to triumph from adversity. Most important, by listening to other with respect and love, we can learn to truly value other people, even those who are different from us.

Today help me appreciate the teachings of my Twelve Step program. Help me continue to learn.

Please excuse typos, still don't gots the hang of spellcheck.

sg

Cut and paste seaglass!

Thanks for the tought, and so true. This is why fellowship is so high in my program. Before, in the end, I had no fellowship. I couldn't relate, there was just me and the bottle!

And, in a somewhat lighter vein, here's a story that was forwarded to me via e-mail by a former drinking companion.


:TOKYO (AP) The recent craze for hydrogen beer is at the heart of a three way lawsuit between unemployed stockbroker Toshira Otoma, the Tike-Take karaoke bar and the Asaka Beer Corporation. Mr. Otoma is suing the bar and the brewery for selling toxic substances and is
claiming damages for grievous bodily harm leading to the loss of his job. The bar is counter suing for defamation and loss of customers.

The Asaka Beer corporation brews "Suiso" brand beer, where the carbon dioxide normally used to add fizz has been replaced by the more environmentally friendly hydrogen gas. A side effect of this has made the beer extremely popular at karaoke sing-along bars and discotheques.
Hydrogen, like helium, is a gas lighter than air. Because hydrogen molecules are lighter than air, sound waves are transmitted more rapidly; individuals whose lungs are filled with the nontoxic gas can speak with an uncharacteristically high voice. Exploiting this quirk of physics,
chic urbanites can now sing soprano parts on karaoke sing-along machines after consuming a big gulp of Suiso beer.

The flammable nature of hydrogen has also become another selling point, even though Asaka has not acknowledged that this was a deliberate marketing ploy. It has inspired a new fashion of blowing flames from one's mouth using a cigarette as an ignition source. Many new karaoke
videos feature singers shooting blue flames in slow motion, while flame contests take place in pubs everywhere. "Mr. Otoma has no one to blame but himself. If he had not become drunk and disorderly, none of this would have happened. Our security guards undergo the most careful
screening and training before they are allowed to deal with customers," said Mr. Takashi Nomura, manager of the Tike-Take bar.

"Mr. Otoma drank fifteen bottles of hydrogen beer in order to maximize the size of the flames he could belch during the contest. He catapulted balls of fire across the room that Gojira would be proud of, but this was not enough to win him first prize since the judgement is made on the
quality of the flames and that of the singing, and after fifteen bottles of lager he was badly out of tune."

"He took exception to the result and hurled blue fireballs at the judge, singeing the front of Mrs. Mifune's hair, entirely removing her eyebrows and lashes, and ruining the clothes of two nearby customers. None of these people have returned to my bar. When our security staff approached
he turned his attentions to them, making it almost impossible to approach him. Our head bouncer had no choice but to hurl himself at Mr. Otoma's knees, knocking his legs from under him."

"The laws of physics are not to be disobeyed, and the force that propelled Mr. Otoma's legs backwards also pivoted around his center of gravity and moved his upper body forward with equal velocity. It was his own fault he had his mouth open for the next belch, his own fault he held a lighted cigarette in front of it and it is own fault he swallowed that cigarette.

"The Tike-Take bar takes no responsibility for the subsequent internal combustion, rupture of his stomach lining, nor the third degree burns to his esophagus, larynx and sinuses as the exploding gases forced their way out of his body. His consequential muteness and loss of employment are
his own fault."

Mr. Otoma was unavailable for comment.




Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Great balls of fire!" doesn't it?

FOBW
Yes 5 years on 01-22-03. A life second to none and I have found serenity is everything it is cracked up to be....

I have a 21 year old nephew that has discovered the grape and he has been over-doing it! Sad but I remember my trek I hope he is with us sooner than I was, but it is the journey...He is my God-son but I know not to jump on him, his grandmother is doing that already so I will just smile and pray and I know there is a reason for everything!

She has been staying home close to me on my days off I think she is trying to check up on me, strangely still I find this reassuring, I have nothing to hide so I welcome whatever it takes to put her at ease.

My work shift has changed so I am in the middle of finding new meetings and it is nice to see some of the new/old faces that I had started with those few years ago, the first question is 'did you go out again' and I get butterflies when I get to say no way I just keep coming whenever I change the times, I just keep coming. Thank you all for being here I will see you soon.

Welcome, ZedSquared, to A2K (and here, of course)!

Quote from Charlie Hurley, cancer patient and 35 years sober in the fellowship.


THE MONKEY MAY BE OFF MY BACK, BUT THE CIRCUS IS

STILL IN TOWN

Welcome Zedsquared and welcome to a2k Friends of BillW and happy birthday come 1/22/03. Five years, wow!!!!!!

Golly everyone is having all these gatherings - maybe we should an a2k Bill Wilson gathering at some point in future.

Amazing story MerryAndrew,.. It just got wilder, and wilder.

They started a user group but no more people can join sign is up. That is strange but the main reason I never go to closed meetings it goes against everything I love about AA and it is not keeping with the credo 'the only thing needed to attend is the will to quit drinking'. hear! hear!

I agree ZED we exist for and because of each other and the experiences we share. The only thing missing online is the laughter - I was shocked at my first AA meeting at how much I laughed and giggled.

Joann and the THINGS we laugh at, from bed-wetting to snowbanks from divorce to marriage. I think we are just so damn happy to have the love , hugs and people that are just like us...Thank God.

I went to my birth meeting last week and it is a tenth of what it used to be because the courts are not referring to AA anymore becasue we refer to the power greater than ourselves, the higher power... I am lucky I guess I went there out of a real desire to quit drinking before the law was involved, I was so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I went alone so my mouth already had the cotton from my ears in it and I really got a jump that way, people held me up, I got a sponsor the second meeting, the next night and been doing 90-90 since. I missed one night in five years because of a snowstorm and bad planning. A small group of us , mostly homeless, even meet on the holidays that the regular groups take off! truely a life second to none, as John Lennon said "It's like starting over".

Regarding the Japanese beer story I posted, I received this via e-mail from a source I didn't recognize. However, I have no reason to doubt its authenticity. Read on.

I was so embarrassed recently by a casual unchecked forward [ though this one certainly is funny !] I did check it out.
It does remind me of the really gross and infamous story about the gay guys in SF with a ferret !

do you remember ??

From the wonderful and detailed SNOPES.COM site !


Claim: A few sips of hydrogen beer enables Japanese karaoke nuts to sing soprano parts and shoot blue flames out of their mouths at dramatic moments.
Status: False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1994]


January 1, 1994
TOKYO (AP) -- [etc.]


Origins: Initially making the rounds in 1994, this bit of fiction is still in circulation on the Internet and continues to pop up in the media. Additional spurious details about an injured participant engaging in a lawsuit against the brew's manufacturer and a karaoke bar were added to the story in late 1998.

Folks will believe most anything, provided someone sticks "AP" at the front of it. Though it was decked out to look like it, the above wasn't a real wire service story. (Even so, this tale has suckered a fine selection of highly-respected newspapers, including The New York Times in March 1996, the Boston Globe in November 1997, and The Washington Post in September 1999. It has also appeared in a widely-used introductory-level college chemistry textbook.

There is no Asaka Beer Corporation. Due to tight government regulations, there are only five beer companies in Japan: Kirin (40.6% market share), Asahi (37.6%), Sapporo (15.8%), Suntory (5%) and Orion (1%). Nor is there a Suiso beer. Both these names are made up, nothing more than wonderful bits of embroidery employed to give a fanciful tale an aura of believability.

Proving yet again that no story is too good not to be improved upon, the following version appeared in inboxes everywhere in late 1998:


TOKYO (AP) The recent craze for hydrogen beer is at the heart of a three way lawsuit .........[cut] .........Mr Otoma was unavailable for comment.



As well he might be, since he doesn't exist. There's still no Suiso beer, no Asaka Beer Corporation, and certainly no such lawsuit. The names used in the piece give a further clue to it being a leg-pull -- Takashi Nomura and Toshiro Mifune are both actors in classic Japanese film, and Otoma comes from Katsuhiro Otomo, a modern director.

This newest version makes more of a story out of the tale, turning what purported to be a staid news article about a karaoke innovation into a bemusing report about yet another silly lawsuit. Merely the mental picture of a drunken Japanese hurling blue fireballs at the judges who'd passed him over is enough to keep one entertained for hours.

Karaoke is weird enough without anyone having to blow blue flames as part of it.

Barbara "Molson Dry wit" Mikkelson

Last updated: 23 September 2002

Sorry for leading anyone astray. As someone or other once said, never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.

I'd like to ask Ms. Mikkelson, why a drunken "Japanese" would be especially funny.

Zed<

Welcome to A2k!

Your post should remind us all that alcoholism is a family illness and is often hereditary.

I agree that the "joy is in the journey." All any of us can do is "carry the message."

willianhenry


The illness is not hereditary, but it's in the gene's - some can handle it, we couldn't.

"Herditary" is for many a weak excuse, why they can't do anything against it , must go on drinking, couldn't stop earlier.

There are tea-sippers and alcoholics on both sides of my family. I have people that show all the 'isms' and haven't touched a drop. I have drinkers that I never knew drank because they can control it.

It is all in the individual to be aware of the history in the family and take their own path.

I needed to ask God for help. I always asked my Lord for help, to get to the pot dealer before he left and get me home before the car ran out of gas. I never asked him to help me get my life straight. When I did He said 'you know what to do', so I went to my parents and told them what I was doing, they took my paychecks while I started out patient treatment at Adcare Hospital and went to AA. I went to my primary care physician and fessed up to her and she gave a drug I could use if I got the urge to drink. (I never needed any, thank God).

I could probably could try to do without some of the components but I will not take the chance it simply isn't worth failing again.

Besides I wouldn't be here if I hadn't done what I have so far.

Peace

OK OK OK ALREADY! I am back, and EVERY one of
you daarling people is IN THE USER GROUP!! OK!
And as I could get no one to give me a clue about what
would be either a good or bad time to have our first
"AA chat" online here at A2K I have just arbitrarily set
a time and date. Beginning with this coming Saturday at
7PM EST - then we will take it from there. Please do
come and join us if you are able.
**How to get to the chatroom - select CONTROL PANEL,
& when there, look down on your left hand side, where
you will see #1 MENU, #2 WELCOME and #3 is CHAT.
Now, I have HEARD that AOL users may not be able to
use this chatroom, but I'm not sure of this. It says that
the chatroom requires Flash 4 - whatever that is, I can't
tell - but I CAN say that I was easily able to enter into
the chatroom and I chatted awhile with Dys, Osso,
Mapleleaf - and it worked like a charm for me. So let us
hope that we can ALL get in there and yak away.
Well, except for Walter who, being in Germany - is not
interested due to time frame and something about he
doesn't care a whit for anonymity. It is not as if we are
going to be able to count on privacy at all. This will be
visible, and possibly enter able, by others - although I
do think that there must be some way of letting all
chatters know that a pre-selected time slot was chosen
for a certain chat topic only - but I leave that to our
moderators and the folks who run the show to figure out.

I was always under the impression that you inherited your genes.
Could be wrong about that tho.