And the troubles begin...again.

Tuesday - I spent the day back at SWC. Teachers wouldn't let me into their classes though, except for Mr. Birnie, who was helping his art class set up for the art show, so he had me help out a bit with putting up posters.

The Antonuk has added a new weapon to the arsenal of keys around her neck: a USB flash drive key.

Mr. Baldwin, the singing assistant principal, was more than eager to hear about my engineering/drinking woes. At the mention of Engg Week, he groaned. He knew what it was all about, and he knew that no matter how much the activities have been toned down on the out-/official side, the rest of the traditions still remain - the 'excess of testosterone' part. The system can change quickly to accomodate gender-equality...but the culture takes far longer.

Bought for Monika what will probably be the last bottle of vodka coming from me - she's underage but I'm too nice to people like her, don't know why, she's so different from me. They've installed security cameras at school, but I'm not that worried about them finding out what I'm doing - I'm not that sloppy :P

Today - Got back up to Ed' at noon, had lunch with dad. Strange how, the moment my dad drives away I'm suddenly all depressed again. It's the thought of being alone again, I guess.

Was stupid and put a $20 bill in the change machine; got 80 quarters. Does anyone need any change?

Enjoyed some crispy fish and chips at PP; the Chardonnay was slightly sweet, just the way I like it. I did need to remind myself why I like white wine. Paid with a neatly geometric stack of a $5 bill, 1 toonie, and 27 quarters.

Visited Chinese Dave after. He offered to give me wake up calls at 6am every morning if I switched back into the 8am chem class, so I did. I'm sure he can do it, and so can I, since I know he'll remember to call me.

Points.

First off: This post, reposted here for your reading convenience:

Just getting a few things straight:

1. On another board I wrote:

I'm not trying to preach my anti-drunkeness act, I'm only stating what rampant talking about the "funs" of boozing makes me feel - angry and homicidal. And I know what's caused my anger - it's the holiday season, when lots of people do it.

That is, if I sound angry to you, it's because I am.

2. I don't have anything against *drinking* *as an activity*, I'm against *drunkenness* and drinking *as the most common aid to socializing between groups of friends,* as well as against drinking as *the thing to do at a party.* As several other people have noted, some of the best parties are dry parties.

3. There are definitely negative things about excessive use of alcohol. Whether you use or abuse it longterm or not, my speculation is that more brain cells get killed when your brain cells are already weak from being attacked by alcohol than are killed if you take the same number of drinks over many days.

4. I lost a relative to alcohol abuse and he was someone I really wanted to meet, but never got a chance to (he passed away years before I was born).

5. I'm a little unclear on the argument that 'alcohol is good for you [physically],' all I've heard was the one about red wine being good for you, but that's because of the anti-oxidants in the fermented grape juice and not the alcohol. Please enlighten me on this.

6. I used to have RL friends who were open to my ideas. When I parted from them to go away for uni, they became party maniacs, drinking a lot themselves and also pressuring their friends to get drunk, and suddenly closing their minds to my ideas. Because of this I have lost my trust in them, since they regularly impair their judgement and are thus not worthy of my company. (This is because I value self-control and responsibility for one's own actions very highly.)

7. I suppose the first exposure I ever had to what a party with drinking involved was quite an extreme one (again, this link ), and thus my first impression was very negative. (Actually I had encountered predrinking before this, and I felt negatively towards it as well, but it was on a smaller scale and it didn't impress upon my mind so greatly.) Now we all know, first impressions are (often) everything. Although...I'm sure that even if something so extreme *wasn't* my first impression, my views wouldn't have been much different.

8. Many people have told me that there are indeed people out there in the world who do agree with some of my beliefs, I just have to find them. I haven't found them in the people around me in real life, and I chose to extend the boundaries of my search and reach out to people farther away that I might never meet in person. But for that to happen, I have to explain my beliefs and ideas. This is what I'm doing. I'm not preaching it (as I would normally do ;)), I'm stating how I really do feel about the issue. If it makes me angry, I'll say I'm angry. If I'm happy about someone's choice, I'll say that too.

I'd like to add:

9. My stance is often misunderstood. We prefer to see things as either black or white, right or wrong, for or against. I am not a non-drinker or against drinking. My topic of argument is "what is an acceptable amount to drink on any given occasion," and my position is "no more than three drinks," because three drinks is the personal limit that I stick to, and I haven't actually hit that limit ever since I determined what that limit was. That's a good thing. However, the reason I request this limit on people is reasoned upon the following points:

10. I have stated before in this journal, if people want me to go drinking with them, or wish to drink in my presence, they can only drink as much as I do, each by each. This is because my definition of fun is intelligent, comprehensible conversation with my peers. And if my peers choose to pursue their definition of fun (normally it be get giggly and drunk), then they effectively alienate me and rationalizations such as "well this is how we have fun, and we respect your way of having fun but we want to do it our way and you can do it your way and we'll leave you alone" is in itself disrespectful because it does not address my conception of "fun."

11. Thus, since my personal limit is three drinks, then it is implicitly imposed on the people I am drinking with the same limit, regardless of their body type or tolerance level.

12. I typically do not drink in social settings, that is, I do not prefer to drink with a group. It is something that I do alone (for example, right now I'm enjoying some beer in my engineering beer mug while I type this), not because I'm anti-social or because I'm asking to become an alcoholic, but because I don't drink to facilitate socializing. For me alcoholic beverages are luxury beverages. I can barely afford them and when I do drink, most of the time I only take one drink. It's like eating potato chips. It's not exactly a healthy snack but I'm willing to indulge once in a while - indulge meaning to have one bag of chips, not five.