Let’s see when I was twelve it was candy dipsticks - you remember the pouches with flavored sugar and you lick a candy stick and dip it into the sugar - voilà! Yes it’s very chimpanzee like but I loved it.
When I was 15 it was anything dare-devil-ish - I had a dirtbike and had to be the one jumping the highest.
When I was 18 I discovered a certain pipe-weed that tickled my fancy -> that basically continued through college.
When I was 25 it was Gin and Tonic.
When I was 30 it was Captain Morgan and Coke.
Now I am 33 and need a healthier vice that suits my needs. I’m not an alcoholic but I like a good beer from time to time. I’d like it to switch to something a little healthier and slighty more intellectually stimulating. I don’t smoke. Any Ideas?
10 years old: preserved prunes
15 years old: trashy romance novels
17 years old: Margaret Atwood novels
18 years old: beautiful clothes
19 years old: Louis Vuitton and DVDs
None of these vices have ever truly gone away - I’ve simply added to my list over the (admittedly few) years. They’re expensive vices but I console myself with the thought that they are healthy at least (prunes are healthy, right?).
Seeing as how you enjoy a good beer from time to time may I suggest homebrewing as a possible vice? I’ve been doing for about a year and half now and still have a wonderful time with it.
The startup costs can run you anywhere from about $150 for a basic setup to around $350 if you want to setup a proper draught system (kegs). After the initial outlay of capital though it becomes a pretty cheap vice/hobby. A five gallon (that’s 40 pints) batch of beer you’ll spend about $30 on ingredients and about 6 hours of your time from start to finish and have a months supply of beer for your troubles.
After you start making beer you really do gain a whole new apprecation for what it your tasting whenever you have a cold one. Your pallet becomes more refined and you’re able to pick out the different flavors in beer and know what causes them. I’ve found that brewing has enhanced my appreciation of the micro-brews I still drink even more, because I know what I’m tasting and what an art it is to get just the right flavor.
At first you’ll probably stick to other peoples recipes until you have a good feel for what different yeasts, malts and hops add to the beer but it won’t be long before you’re creating your own styles based around a favorite malt or hop. You also get to play around with specialty ales that aren’t easy to find. I make an excellent coffee stout (yes I really use coffee) from time to time and have made some really good spiced ales (and a stinker of a cherry ale but hey, you can’t win 'em all) too.
Of all the fermentable beverages you can make at home (beer/wine/mead) beer making requires the most equipment (but is the most forgiving of mistakes and the quickest) so you’ll also be setup for making wine and the nearly lost pleasure of mead. Mead is a sublimely delicious beverage made from honey and can be flavored in near infinite variety, but is hard to find commercially. It’s very hard to find in stores, and what is available isn’t anywhere near as good as what you can make at home. Once you’ve got a few good batches of beer under your belt I suggest trying out a batch of mead, it’s worth the effort.
For more information about this most wonderful of vices I suggest picking up a copy of the “New Complete Joy of Homebrewing” for equipment, supplies and more good beer info http://www.northernbrewer.com/ is a great resource, their forums are awesome. They are also a good place to order gear from if you can’t find a homebrew supply store locally, but I’d try to find a local supplier first.
CalMeacham -> Well Cal, I must admit I am a Craftsman man myself. And I love doing things with my hands, thus the longbow building thread in GQ. Quite possibly I could use what you said and what TheFunkySpaceCowboy said and break out some more tools and start brewing some beer.
I am half French Canadian and my favorite beer is Unibroue La Fin Du Monde. So brewing my own beer may be a viable new vice.
well my healthy addiction is working out…
I can’t stop… It makes me feel much better (health and self esteem)
and I have been going to my gym for 2 year straight 4-5 days a week…
I had to stop going a few months ago because I was sick… so I had to miss it for a good month and a half… it sucked… now I have been back… and I feel great… I can’t stop… nor do I want to… ever… I suppose having children one day will be the end of the gym… but then I will get a home gym… and probably watch it collect dust…
“Chimpanzee like”? Bwha, my first laugh of the day.
How about wine? I was following your list point by point saying “check, check…” but never got to the part about the wonderful merits of good wine.
It doesn’t have to be expensive, is widely available, can help lower cholestorol levels and it’s finer points can be intellectually stimulating. Not to mention the travel factor… Napa! France! Germany! Australia!
Coffee. In lean times I have favoured it over food. (And by “it”, I mean nice oily, fairly-traded whole-bean bags-- not a can of Maxwell House- how do people drink that crap?)
I like the pipe-weed, but if it’s not in the budget, it’s not on the menu.
They’re an Asian snack that look like little wrinkly rocks. Apparently they’re quite good for constipation or travel sickness, and the best are incredibly sour - even smelling them will make your mouth water. Every time my mum went to Chinatown she’d pick some up for me until the Asian grocery stopped selling the brand I liked.
Porn. I frickin’ love it. I have videos, DVDs, magazines, and tons of video files on my computer. I have stuff showing gangbangs, and amateurs, lesbians, you name it.
Needless to say, I’ve been single for a while now.
