One Man's Journey Through a Deadly Addiction

6 am. I've had a cold moving through me since Tuesday. Mornings and nights are the worst when it comes to sickness. This morning it's moved into my throat. I tell everyone that I'm just getting over the sickness, it's one of those verbal tricks I do to get over the stupid thing faster. Usually works pretty well too, I don't get sick very often at all these days. Of course this one comes after a period of not having as steady of an exercise and yoga practice for about a week so that could be why it's hanging on longer.

Of course, I'm concerned that conceptualizing the reason for the length increases the length of the illness. This is the sort of thought loop that I get in when I'm feverish. OK, just took a few aspirin so that should help to break the fever.

I've got a little time before I go to work so let me tell you a little story about my life:

On 3/21/06 I drank my last drink (cue numerous "What a pussy, can't take his drink" responses). Immediately after I found I had a lot of time on my hands that had previously been filled with bars and booze. The first thing I did to fill this vast empty space was to immerse myself in comicbooks. I'd read comics from childhood through my early 20's. I'd have 6 month periods of heavy interest every 3-4 years but I hadn't regularly collected these luscious four color dreams for a long time. Near the end of my time in the band Avenpitch I started reading them again but I dove deeper once I quit drinking.

Comics were a nice a quick read and they could be collected so I could focus a lot of the extra time and energy pouring over them. I'd spend a lot of time on www.newsarama.com reading reviews, articles and interviews about comics.

After a month and a half of hardcore focus, I started regular yoga classes and running, both of which mutated my life. I kept reading comics regularly but they weren't front and center. Honestly, even the best comics fall flat when they're the focus of your life and I wasn't reading the best comics. Lots of DC superhero stuff. Batman, Superman and the Green Lantern.

After about two years I quit buying any superhero stuff (if you're keeping a mental timeline, remember that I'd started buying in Avenpitch daze back in '05), though I gained an interest in Japanese comics. But that interest didn't come with any corresponding need to scour the net for manga fan communities. Most manga/anime communities are filled with teenagers and extremely dull to wade through. I obsess easily but I'm not a masochist.

However that may not be totally true because I've still been going on to www.newsarama.com and reading their interviews, reviews and previews. Worst of all I've been reading the comments about the articles which are truly painful - 7th layer of hell sort of painful. It's not like I have an over-abundance of time but it's so easy just to pop in. I'm hoping that this here blog will help to ween me off the beast.

I didn't go to the site any during the day yesterday but, God Help Me (tm), I did do a quick glance when Noel and I got back from "No Country For Old Men". Just a quick glance at the headlines, nothing that'll hurt me, right? Right?!?!

Please tune in here to find out more about one man's journey through a deadly addiction to stupid-ass comic talk.

7am - that's a wrap.

DND