How It Works

Well it happened again today. I stopped by to visit and guess what I discovered? It must have started yesterday. Apparently, it was once again triggered by "breathing problems" (read as Anxiety Attack) and self-medication ensued. This will not end well I fear. I've been going through this full-on for just over three years now and much longer than that peripherally and unaware. I am haunted by the words from Alcoholics Anonymous' Big Book which are read before every meeting. That the Big Book of A.A. was heavily influenced by the Bible (A.A.'s founders were Christians) can be seen throughout this breathtakingly beautiful and profound excerpt. I am haunted by multiple parts of this which God has been bringing to mind a lot the past several months not unlike how He brings to mind passages of Scripture. It is noteworthy that one can replace the word "alcohol" with the word "sin" and it all works just as well. Each can be seen as a metaphor of the other.


"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. Thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power that One is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.  Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.  Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.  Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection." 

~ Chapter 5: How It Works

Picture of the Day - Muh Limoncello

A week ago, with the major assistance of a dear friend of mine who is a master of making a great many different sorts of things, most importantly, limoncello, I produced a large batch of final stage limoncello which I brought out into the light of day earlier this evening for your perusal. Now begins the wait for this to mature. I plan to roll out each bottle over different intervals of time and see which is best or at what point a desirable flavor threshold baseline is achieved that applies to multiple bottles. For my previous post about this project go HERE. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - My 1st Limoncello Batch II

After completing Round One of my limoncello project last night, it seemed to me I had too many Meyer lemon slices per volume of Everclear. Therefore, today on the way home from school I dropped by BevMo and picked up a medium bottle of the product. I just now added it to the mix and thus am fully entered into the first stage of this project. I also took a better photograph of it this time. For my previous post about this project go HERE. For my next such posting go HERE. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - My 1st Limoncello Batch

As a result of my being enamored with limoncello and having friends who make their own, I have been inspired to make my own batch. Tonight while waiting for edTPA recordings to reformat for editing and turning in on April 10th, I pealed some 60 or so Meyer lemons and dumped them into a one-gallon pickle jar with a liter of Everclear. It appears I need another smaller bottle of it to top this batch off and thus complete the start of the first stage of this project. Perhaps I'll get around to doing this tomorrow. I will keep you all posted on the progress of my experiment. For my next post on this project go HERE. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - A.A. No-No

Up the alley across the street to the north of St. James Episcopal Church which graciously hosts many Alcoholic's Anonymous and other twelve-step program meetings exists this open display of contempt for sobriety resting on a wall. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Category Five Hurricane

While in a local gas station paying for my gas earlier this evening, I spotted this bottle and could not resist getting it given my obsession with disasters and the eclectic.

Sharknado Drinking Game

Tonight I watched pretty much the entirety of Syfy Channel's latest monster abomination posing as a movie entitled Sharknado, a film (and I use that word loosely) which has become a social media sensation quite literally overnight. While watching it with my buddy Mark a little while ago he suggested it would make a great drinking game and for the remainder of the movie we came up with guidelines for such a game. Below are some of the highlights (lowlights?) of our brainstorming session.

Note: any alcoholic beverage stronger than beer will induce death by alcohol poisoning given the frequency of shots of beer this game will require!

Each player must drink one shot: 

• Each instance of over-acting (okay, nevermind; that's too dangerous).
• Each instance an element from another science fiction movie is immitated. 
• Each instance a small hand-held tank the size of a fire extinguisher explodes destroying a huge tornado.
• Each instance April (Tara Reid) and Nova (Cassie Scerbo) exchange catty glances.
• Each instance Nova cocks a shotgun vertically and one-handed like she was Ellen Ripley.
• Each instance the weather dramatically changes from one camera angle to the next.
• Each instance the water level dramatically changes from one camera angle to the next.
• Each instance a shark flying through the air hits the pavement without splattering.
• Each instance the dialogue becomes disjointed and incongruous causing one to need to rewind to re-listen.
• Each instance something nonsensically explodes (automobiles, etc.).
• Each instance a shark emerges out of a storm drain or manhole.