Time to say good bye.

[Broken Crow]

Your post caught me by surprise... I always wondered if your avatar was from one of those French comics...as this may be my last chance to ask; where is it from?
I've both enjoyed and learned quite a bit from you over the years..I actually spent some time this past week looking at your posting history to try and find the point in which I first recognized your name well before I signed up on here myself but it could be one of many useful, educational, entertaining or just plain social posts. For me, this site is the whole of my participation in social-media anymore and I hope you might at least continue to visit us socially. I support your choices and wish you the best.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Hope I am not too late to say Cheers, and thank you for your contributions! I admire your commitment for self improvement, best of luck to you in all that you do!

 

[hungupdown]

Sad, but good luck.
Reminds me of the song by roy harper "when an old cricketer leaves the crease".

 

[DuncB]

Your post caught me by surprise... I always wondered if your avatar was from one of those French comics...as this may be my last chance to ask; where is it from?
I've both enjoyed and learned quite a bit from you over the years..I actually spent some time this past week looking at your posting history to try and find the point in which I first recognized your name well before I signed up on here myself but it could be one of many useful, educational, entertaining or just plain social posts. For me, this site is the whole of my participation in social-media anymore and I hope you might at least continue to visit us socially. I support your choices and wish you the best.

View attachment 884539

The avatar is from this comic book series, much translated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_the_Gaul

Getafix​

Asterix and Getafix
Getafix is the village druid. In appearance, he is tall with a long white beard, hooked nose, white robe, red cloak. He is usually seen in possession of a small golden sickle. While his age is never stated, in the story of Asterix's birth (in which all but the oldest villagers are seen as small children), he appears unchanged. In Asterix and the Big Fight, the druid Psychoanalytix (who appears quite old) refers to him as his elder and teacher. In Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book, as a gag, Getafix at 50 years older appears to be frail and old, while in the other books, he appeared healthy.

Although known for his strength-enhancing magic potion, he has many other magical and medicinal potions at his disposal, including a potion to make hair grow quickly, a potion to counteract poison, one that neutralizes a drug that would kill in a matter of days, and a potion that restores a person to full health after injury (although this potion also causes the person who takes it to lose their recent memories while also interacting badly with the magic potion). Aside from making the potion, he also acts as the village doctor and occasional teacher. Asterix (and most other villagers) will consult him whenever anything strange occurs. He rarely engage himself in combat, one notable exception being The Great Divide where he is seen distributing slaps during a fight with the Romans, with obvious enjoyment.

As the only individual able to produce the "magic potion" upon which the villagers rely for their strength, he is the focus of many stories, ranging from the Romans attempting to put him out of commission in some manner to requesting that Asterix and Obelix help him find some missing ingredient, and the conscience of the village. On a few occasions, he has refused to make the potion when the villagers become too selfish, including in Asterix and Caesar's Gift, where he refused to provide the potion for anyone while the village was divided by an upcoming vote for a new chief, only to provide them with it once again when Vitalstatistix asked Getafix to provide the potion for Orthopedix, the man he had been running against for chief. He has also occasionally been taken prisoner by hostile forces to get access to the potion, only to be freed again thanks to Asterix and Obelix. The full recipe of the magic potion itself has never been revealed, but known ingredients are mistletoe (which must be cut with a golden sickle [Asterix and the Golden Sickle]), a whole lobster (an optional ingredient that improves the flavour), fresh fish, salt, and petroleum (called rock oil in the book), which is later replaced by beetroot juice. Replenishing the stores of ingredients for the magic potion has led to some adventures for Asterix and Obelix, including Asterix and the Great Crossing and Asterix and the Black Gold.

Getafix is very similar to many wise old men who act as mentors and father-figures to the heroes, such as Merlin or Gandalf. In the earlier books however, Getafix came across more as just a friend of the protagonists rather than a wise old counselor. He was also, from the very beginning, shown as a figure of fun as well as demonstrating a sense of humor.

 

[An Ankoù]

It took me ages to figure out who Miraculix was; I've always known the druid as Panoramix.

 

[mashdar]

It took me ages to figure out who Miraculix was; I've always known the druid as Panoramix.

I had to look it up. The original French was Panoramix, the most common English version is Getafix. The German is Miraculix. It keeps going from there!
https://asterixthegaul.com/2025/02/the-many-names-of-asterix/

 

[madscientist451]

I’ve been thinking about quitting drinking for a while now, then on Friday I go camping by the river, have 3+ beers after work and feel pretty good, have some high ABV homebrew aged on barrel chips soaked in bourbon and realize I like a few brews now and then. Best wishes to you!

 

[An Ankoù]

I have made a thorough investigation and I could not find a single situation in my life in which alcohol vs. non-alcohol would play out in a way that logically supports drinking.

For example, a beer in the evening is nice and relaxing and tastes good. I enjoy it.

The downside, sleep quality suffers and in addition I go to bed later than usual and I waste my time with non-productive acitivity (whatching stupid stuff on netflix or scrolling through the net) instead of getting propper sleep. The net amount of feel good vibes in a short amount of time I get from the beer in the evening gets eaten up by the next days tiredness and maybe grumpyness. Net: big minus.

Next example, I enjoy a beer or two in social context because it is more fun that way. In reality, the buzz is fun, the social context is not more fun. It is either fun or not, I either enjoy the people or not. If I can only have fun with these guys when we drink, I am actually enjoying the buzz, not the company. Better spend my time with people I really care for instead of wasting it with hunting the buzz and trying to justify it through "social" drinking.

List goes on and on.... I really tried but I could not find a single example where the net + outweighs the net - from consuming alcohol.

I am not a heavy drinker, I usually do not drink during the week and have 1-4 beers at a weekend's evening, if at all. And even under these circumstances, I could not find a single situation where I could honestly say "yep that is worth it".

So I Try to be as grown up as I can and draw the line here. I have expectations from myself and what I want to do with this life and alcohol simply does not support any of my real goals in a positive way so I stop drinking, and of course brewing.

I will have more time on hand for the stuff that really matters to me, which is great.

Do not get me wrong, I am not trying to talk anybody into or out of anything here, we are (hopefully ) all grown ups here and we all have to make our own decisions. I just felt the urge to explain my decision here a little bit before I disappear, because I am kind of a regular here and people might start wondering what have happened to me.

Thank you all very much for the great time here. It was a pleassure and sorry for any harsh confrontation I hope nothing was taken personally, I certainly did not.

So have a great time guys and girls,

See you next time under different circumstances.

Cheers!

M

I think you should reconsider. Just having a bad day. It happens.
I do see where you're coming from, sometimes I think that drinking is the downside of brewing. It's the brewing I love. I think I'd brew even if I couldn't drink any more.
Don't get me wrong. I love a pint as much as the next man and more than most. Often, I prefer cider to beer (not sure if you have cider in Germany) but you can't "brew" cider. It's a different set of skills.
Regardless. You don't have to say goodbye- just stay for the banter and to give advice from your long experience.

 

[marc1]

Good luck to you! I've always enjoyed your posts.
I appreciate you saying goodbye so that we don't wonder/worry that something untoward happened to you.
You should stick around to occasionally banter on non-brewing threads.

 

[AzOr]

I’ve always thought your posts were very helpful.
These days I find myself cruising the non brewing threads, usually related to food. There’s a lot of great info on those as well.

Good luck on your next chapter.

 

[ehall]

I have made a thorough investigation and I could not find a single situation in my life in which alcohol vs. non-alcohol would play out in a way that logically supports drinking.

For example, a beer in the evening is nice and relaxing and tastes good. I enjoy it.

The downside, sleep quality suffers and in addition I go to bed later than usual and I waste my time with non-productive acitivity (whatching stupid stuff on netflix or scrolling through the net) instead of getting propper sleep. The net amount of feel good vibes in a short amount of time I get from the beer in the evening gets eaten up by the next days tiredness and maybe grumpyness. Net: big minus.

Next example, I enjoy a beer or two in social context because it is more fun that way. In reality, the buzz is fun, the social context is not more fun. It is either fun or not, I either enjoy the people or not. If I can only have fun with these guys when we drink, I am actually enjoying the buzz, not the company. Better spend my time with people I really care for instead of wasting it with hunting the buzz and trying to justify it through "social" drinking.

List goes on and on.... I really tried but I could not find a single example where the net + outweighs the net - from consuming alcohol.

I am not a heavy drinker, I usually do not drink during the week and have 1-4 beers at a weekend's evening, if at all. And even under these circumstances, I could not find a single situation where I could honestly say "yep that is worth it".

So I Try to be as grown up as I can and draw the line here. I have expectations from myself and what I want to do with this life and alcohol simply does not support any of my real goals in a positive way so I stop drinking, and of course brewing.

I will have more time on hand for the stuff that really matters to me, which is great.

Do not get me wrong, I am not trying to talk anybody into or out of anything here, we are (hopefully ) all grown ups here and we all have to make our own decisions. I just felt the urge to explain my decision here a little bit before I disappear, because I am kind of a regular here and people might start wondering what have happened to me.

Thank you all very much for the great time here. It was a pleassure and sorry for any harsh confrontation I hope nothing was taken personally, I certainly did not.

So have a great time guys and girls,

See you next time under different circumstances.

Cheers!

M

This hit home for me. I've been having the same thoughts/issues. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do. I enjoy brewing and beers too much even though I've backed way off on how much I drink. Good luck! You can't grow without changes and sacrifices.