southsamurai

You know, if I had to point to the single most underappreciated recorded musician ever, I'm pretty damn sure it would be her.

I'm not saying she exceeds the influence and talent of other pioneers in music, but I can't think of a single one that is less well known for their talent and contribution to music development in the last century

I mean, if you can't have the vent go outside, it's better than nothing, but it won't pull a majority out of the vented air without passing over the ice pack multiple times.

Only people I've ever known to try them thought they weren't worth a dime

Dammit! Another surveillance pic of me just chilling!

You know, over the years, that list has gotten tiny.

The only thing I really struggle with now, as in if I don't pay attention and have a whole package next to me I'll end up eating it all, is stuff like Ghirardelli squares or lindt truffles.

I'm a chocolate fiend. But, normally, I know how much I plan to have at a given point in time and stop when I'm at that point.

But there's something about those bags of products that defeats me if I don't pay close attention. I'll have my two, maybe three truffles (as an example), enjoy them thoroughly and move on.

But then my brain says "did you have two, or three?" a few hours later. And then it says "or was only two, you can have the other now". So I have the other. This then repeats a few hours later, and my brain keeps lying to me until half the damn bag is gone.

It's mostly limited to bags because I can't easily tell how much I've had until the bag is low. A box, it's not going to sneak by me. Bars are never a problem. But bags? Damn. My subconscious knows I'll enjoy it, and refuses to keep track on my behalf, I have to do it consciously. Bad subconscious! Bad!

I mean, I'm a grown ass man, and if I want the whole damn bag as a conscious decision, that's what I'll do. No apologies, no regrets, and fuck anyone that doesn't like it. But I consciously know that I won't enjoy large amounts at once because only the really cheap chocolate doesn't lose its impact after a couple of bites. Hershey's is the same from the first bite until the tenth, if you don't mind that regurge thingy it does (and I do, so I rarely have more than a single piece even when I'm in the mood for cheap chocolate). But the mid tier mass produced stuff, you lose the nuances it does have after two to three bites and it's just not as potent an experience, so I prefer to space it out more.

The really good stuff you could keep eating without losing the magic, but it's so intense you don't want/need to. It satisfies in a different way.

So, I choose to just be careful with the bags when I have them and store them away from wherever I am. But damn, if I forget? Gone in a day or two instead of the week+ it should be

Problem is that I prefer having some things external. Self hosting means maintaining all the hardware, and that can be an issue when shit goes major wrong. So some vital stuff like a password database, it's just not something I'm going to dick around with the usual sync back and forth on my own stuff.

And bitwarden fills that need best so far. I haven't found anything else anyway

Really? I have heard some really stupid shit in all the anti trans rhetoric, but that's gotta be the turd that floats highest.

Overall, bg3. Looking back all the way to pong, I haven't had as much fun for as long as with bg3.

Not that I want to play it every single time I put in game time. I do like variety too. But in terms of sheer joy of play, bg3 just hits the right points.

I can maybe see a future game topping it, though I suspect that would be a rarity what with the things in games that really hit for me being hard to find in one game. Even bg3 doesn't hit every single thing that I love in games, it just hits the most important ones. It's not perfect, but I've never required that in a game.

Oh yah, shove your gay cookie down my throat!

Alas, the wait moist for the steam controller hasn't reached me yet. By the time it does, watch me be broke lol

It's total ass

Stillsuit ftw?

That's a lot of questions lol.

So, the current model of addiction leans towards neurotransmitters being the triggering factor.

That means that whatever a given addiction is to sets off an interaction with one of the chemicals that make the brain go "WOW!". Exactly which one varies by drug and activity.

As an example, cocaine works with dopamine as the primary neurotransmitter. It causes a lot of it to release at once, and you get high.

All of the addictive drugs do something similar, it's all about which ones set off which NT/s.

The big ones that get that job done are dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, oxytocin, and the endorphins (there's multiple types). There's other factors in getting high, but the shit that will dig into your brain and take hold in addiction tend to either trigger those to release (singly or multiply) or bind to receptors for them.

However, that's not the only thing that causes addiction. Addiction is a more complicated disease than can explained away as only chemicals. The person's psychological history, social factors, genetics, and state of mind during use contribute strongly to the process.

There's other chemicals we get from external sources that do the same things, but they tend to have a much lower risk of triggering an addiction by themselves. Weed is an example of that. The addiction threshold is much higher than most recreational drugs, and that's in part because the receptors they bind to don't have as strong an effect.

But! The there's that connects all addiction is that at some point, neurotransmitters are involved. That's why you can get addicted to things other than drugs. Sex sets off a release of all of those aforementioned big NTs. Thrill seekers tend to get hooked on the norepinephrine. Gambling hits dopamine the hardest.

The key factor is that if something makes you feel good, our brains are hardwired to seek that feeling. The more intense the good feeling, the higher the chance of addiction being formed.

And, yes, the reason different drugs give different highs is that the exact chemicals involved vary, and the proportion of them varies as well. Something that's more dopamine focused is going to be a more energetic experience, whereas endorphins tend to come with a more relaxed and euphoric vibe.

I gotta give my usual disclaimer though. Other than a quick search to make sure of spellings , I'm pulling all this out of memory. And I'm fucking old, so I never trust my memory 100%. I'm also not willing to write a book here, so I'm leaving out a shit ton of detail in favor of hitting the questions you asked in total. Plus, addiction isn't high (hah) on my list of continuing education as a hobby, so my shit is likely out of date. That may or may not mean it's wrong, just that it isn't cutting edge info. So, grains of salt needed (though hopefully not "bath salts").

Fwiw, I will add that there's a misconception about addiction, that there's a difference between "physical" and "psychological" addiction. There isn't really. It's all tied together, it's just that some chemicals do have an extra oomph because they give a much bigger boost to the NTs involved. There's also a misconception about specific drugs not being addictive just because they aren't as fast to trigger it, and the factors like one's mental state and history have a bigger influence. But they're still addictive, just lower risk