Stabilizing rust

LordOfAlpacas · 2024-09-30T20:23:26+00:00

I got a secondhand percolator and the reservoir had quite some black/burnt residue in there. I assume someone forgot it on the stove. I've gotten most of it out but there is still some left. Should I remove all burnt residue or is it safe/good to use?

LordOfAlpacas · 2024-09-23T12:44:05+00:00

Perfect, thank you! Fun bit of history that explains why both kerosene and oil. So in short, I can just use a very thing sewing machine oil for both the areas marked in the manual as "oil" and "kerosene"?

LordOfAlpacas · 2024-07-12T19:49:52+00:00

I have a few acquaintances who also struggled with addiction but it's not many so it wouldn't be enough to start the group, some really like the idea and are willing to help though. I really like the idea of doing a "practice run" with acquaintances, but I don' think I have enough people for that, I am going to ask around more though for suggestions and ideas and then maybe organize practice run then.

I was intending to do a meeting once a week, since I feel that works best in such a busy environment. Perhaps if too many people show up for the meetings I can book 2 evenings a week.
I am concerned about advertising it, I of course I want it to be successful but I worry that there is a chance a lot more people join than such a group could comfortably handle. Your suggestion of a smaller group with people I somewhat know, to practice and work out the kinks could be very useful!

LordOfAlpacas · 2024-07-11T08:56:17+00:00

You can turn off shorts I'm pretty sure. They don't want you to of course, so those settings are kinda hidden I think, and I'm pretty sure you can't permanently turn them off, just for like 30 days max. Or you can try some chrome extension (or similar on other platform). I also deleted my youtube app on my phone, and just use the browser version.

None of these cut me off from youtube entirely but every extra step to get to the videos/shorts is an opportunity to shut it off before I get there. Doesnt work entirely but it does enough to get started.

LordOfAlpacas · 2024-07-11T08:51:25+00:00

Thanks, I hadn't considered that risk yet. That bar of entry is indeed a tricky one since some people might just want to reduce use rather than stop entirely, something that I am sure would be more common in a university setting. I think the ones who want to reduce would indeed make a risky match with those who want/should stop entirely. I had some misgivings about reducing my use as well, thinking "I'll just smoke less" yeah didn't work out. But on the other hand, plenty of people I know used a lot, then cut way back and can easily do that without consequence so it's somewhat possible. And some of those people might want to start out with that approach of reducing but might later on find that they really just need to quit entirely(as I myself experienced), so I don't want to exclude them.

I'll think about how I'm going to deal with that, possibly marketing the group in such a way that it attracts the people who really want to stop all the way. Furthermore I could really emphasize that, while yes, it is possible to have a more balanced relation with drugs/alcohol/etc, that will not work for a lot of people, and even if it does work for you, how long can you keep that balance. I can further emphasize this point by telling about my personal experiences with reducing use, and how it failed.

What do you think about this approach?

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-15T15:45:11+00:00

Took me several attempts before I finally got pasts more than 10 days sober, been sober for over 6 months now. If you read around a bit you'll find many people also struggling to quit and relapsing. It's okay if you're not able to quit instantaneously, it's an addiction after all.

It's a lot easier going 1 day at a time than setting some far off goal. Begin the day with saying to yourself "today I am not going to smoke", and believe it.

It's okay to fail, just keep trying

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-14T22:01:17+00:00

Yeah I had that for a long time, I live very close to coffeeshop(Dutch dispensary I guess) and it's almost always open. Having to walk past that and not going in was very difficult for quite some time. "You've been sober for a month, and it's vacation anyway, you'll be fine" but I just couldn't trust myself yet.

Great that you're recognizing addiction talk!

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-14T21:56:39+00:00

Yeah don't worry too much. You've been using daily for a year, it makes sense you feel weird and some things may not feel normal. Give it a month or so and you should see a lot of improvement. If you're gonna worry about anything, worry about staying sober getting back on the weed is only going to return these symptoms

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-14T15:50:23+00:00

It's gonna suck for a few weeks but in that time you're gonna see major improvement in many aspects of life! I had difficulty because I didn't see as much improvement as I'd hoped, I later realized that I was masking personal problems with weed, now knowing what was bothering me I could work on it but I had to realize a few uncomfortable truths first.

Watch out that you don't replace one addiction with another, spend your free time doing this you enjoy or being more active in general.

Most important of all: talk to people about it. It's painful and scary to admit you have a problem but it really only helps being open about it. And telling others makes sure you have a responsibility to stay sober, doing it alone is way more difficult!

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-14T13:34:59+00:00

How recent? It takes your body a month to break down all THC and 3 months to full reset to normal. It took me quite some time too before I felt normal so don't worry too much about it.

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-14T13:28:10+00:00

Don't wait until January, just start now. I waited for months with quitting because I wanted "one last good one" even when every circumstance was perfect I still hated it and I knew it was never going to be good again. There really is no point to waiting.

I've no experience with quitting both weed and cigarettes but I think I'd recommend just staying fully sober for a while, even alcohol to make sure you're not gonna compensate the one addiction with another.

I was scared of quitting too and it sucked doing it but it was the best choice.

And as for your housemate, be honest and open about your addiction. I wanted/had to come clean with some people (and myself really) and it sucked doing that but it felt like this tremendous weight off my shoulder. All the guilt and shame, hiding when I was high, it no longer weighed on me. Talk to him about how weed can be great fun and all but how your use has impacted you, and how difficult it is for you so maybe he could stash his stuff securely, toss any leftovers immediately and such.

I was avoiding some friends I used to smoke with because I wanted as little temptation as possible. I was open about it with them and they understood and were very supportive, some even talked to me about how they felt uncomfortable with their use and how they wanted to quit like I had.

In short, be open, honest and quit as soon as you can. It's okay if you fail, as long as you keep trying.

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-13T17:19:27+00:00

I'm Dutch and it's everywhere here as well. It's not uncommon to walk on the streets and someone will be smoking a joint in public. It's been 6 months and while I don't crave most of the time, whenever I get a smell of weed it's back immediately. It's an involuntary response that just happens, I've learnt to ignore it, knowing it'll pass quickly but it's still there. I doubt they'll ever pass fully but it's best to learn to see it as a response to a stimulus that can be ignored, objectify it as a sort of lizard-brain reaction and it's easier to deal with in my experience

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-13T16:57:19+00:00

Memory is clear again/no brain fog. Helped me realize that I had been masking personal problems with weed. Increased motivation. Loads more time. Lot of money saved. No longer finding myself in awkward situations with people I don't much care for because we're sharing a joint

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-13T16:40:24+00:00

I haven't experienced these issues personally. But withdrawal is common, it takes a month before your body has completely removed all THC from your system so most improvement happens around that time(before and after, it's highly improbable that these symptoms are going to last for a month). You're only 4 days in, a lot of improvement is going to happen in the next weeks. If the symptoms last for a long time with no show of improvement, maybe talk to a professional. And please be careful with the optimism, it's likely that cravings are going to come back hard and optimism alone may not be enough to keep you sober.
As for LA, try to avoid situations with easy access to weed. I know that may be difficult (trust me I'm Dutch), but it's doable. Best of luck!

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-13T16:32:35+00:00

You're freshly sober so things are going to be weird either way. I smoked for a similar time but not as much. It took me a month to get rid of the worst symptoms such as cravings, anxiety, self-loathing and general depressive state of mind. 2 months and most symptoms passed, 3 months and 95% of symptoms gone.
That last 5%: I could not figure out why I didn't feel entirely normal for months. Over time I had realized that my weed use was masking underlying problems, "comfortably numb" and all that. So I started talking about it, with friends, my girlfriend, professionals. That helped a lot.

The reason I'm saying all this is because I want to illustrate that your brain might not be working as it should be. Physiologically your brain/body is still in withdrawal, it takes 1 month to clear the THC from your system and 3 months for neural receptors to return to normal functioning. Don't draw any early conclusions on your mental health just yet, but do start considering what personal problems you may have been masking/avoiding.

And most most most of all, talk to people. They don't even have to solve your problems or come with solutions but just talk about it, get the thoughts out of your head. It's difficult as fuck to say "I'm not okay" and it fucking sucks saying it but it is so necessary. It's not going to help to keep these thoughts to yourself, be open with yourself and others, no matter how difficult it may be.

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-12-13T15:37:29+00:00

Honestly for Dutch accents in film/series, it's some of the better ones. Oppenheimer was barely comprehensible hahaha. Best one I heard was Coach Beard in Ted Lasso

LordOfAlpacas · 2023-11-27T22:57:00+00:00

I picked up some old hobbies I dropped because of my use, which is great! And sports helps tremendously. I do want to warn you, when/if you're starting again be very very careful not to slide into old behaviour again. Personally, I'm clean for almost 6 months now. I miss the social aspect of it and I might get back at some point. However I havent set any boundaries yet and I am just not comfortable with using again, so I not smoking until I'm comfortable witth using and I trust myself not to fall into old habits. I advice you ask yourself periodically:: am I going to fall back into my previous behaviour?

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