Neat game, really an abstract card game with the chrome of designing apps. I can imagine it working very well. The special cards might need handling carefully as they might be too powerful! Play testing is the best way to spot those problems.

Find a career that has immediate feedback and rewards. For example teaching, customer service or acting.

Take baby steps to change behaviour. Don't believe in "will power".

http://www.slideshare.net/captology/stanford-6401325

In reading about these child abuse cases I was struck by how familiar they sound to the Witch Trials of the 17th Century.

We have prosecutors convinced they have discovered a hidden evil and that it is more widespread than people like to think. They sometimes have children as witnesses. They have false confessions from the accused. And we have bodily investigations of "secrete places" either to confirm that sexual abuse has taken place or the devil "knew" was familiar with the accused. And we have bizarre stories of strange practices, which are credulously believed.

It is like there is some universal process going on here. Communities require these expressions of hidden evils. And if you doubt the veracity of these claims then you are suspect too.

I don't think this paranoia is a new phenomenon to human society. What changes is the topic, but not the underlying need we have in human society for these expressions.

Examples of Witch Trials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hopkins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

Sounds to me like you are strongly affected by coffee. It can't be good to be so dependent on anything.

Maybe you should try giving it up more slowly in the future. Reduce in-take gradually.

But please avoid strong tea. It still has a lot of caffeine in it and tea can also hinder the absorption of iron and other long-term effects.

http://www.stashtea.com/caffeine+and+tea.aspx

Tea has approximately half the caffeine that coffee has.

Stash is making strong generalizations, try this: http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and...

Ahh the sugar high!

I think this is a bit of a myth. See this:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2747/does-giving-sw...

Seems like one early study made the link but the following studies cannot make the link.

you are right. I was referring to the lows and I should have stated that the "problems" are probably caused by the carbs and the blood-glucose fluctuations, not the sugar itself.

Hypoglucemia (or not being used to it) is what makes you "crash" and get hungry again after a big blood-glucose and insulin spike. In his case the improvements have probably more to do with removing the sugars than the caffeine.

Try something like meditation, exercising, taking 30 minute holidays... other non-addictive and well tested methods.

I do work out fairly regularly and try to take mental breaks(sometimes too many, haha). I just wasn't sure if there was something unique about the benefits that one gets from coffee.

I wonder if there is a simple medical test that could identify the caffeine intolerant?

There should be a universal law that makes people who blog about a talisman of productivity revisit their post and comment on it, say 3 months later, then 6 months later etc.

Now is there a service that does that? - enables me to setup reminders (like Outlook calendar) but send them to my long-term (not work) email with a link to a website to be commented on and for that matter any other long term reminders.