Unforseen advantages; also, the environmental sustainability of drug users

An Alderman in Chicago is trying to convince the city council to ban tiny plastic bags used for selling drugs. The Health Committee chairman adds, ""We need to use every measure that we possibly can to stop [drug addiction] because it is destroying our kids." I admire the "thinking outside the box" that clearly went on here, but there remains one fundamental problem:

1. This will not, in any way, prevent drug dealers from selling drugs.

HOWEVER, this could still be an advantage as it might encourage drug dealers to use more environmentally friendly means to distribute their products. After all, plastic never disintegrates, and I bet the majority of crack cocaine addicts aren't recycling theirs (and indeed, may not even know what day to put out their recycling for curbside pick-up). This could be an opportunity for some creative re-use, or at least use of more sustainable materials! Possible alternatives to tiny plastic bags: packets made of aluminum foil or paper; the little plastic cases that those tiny memory chips for digital cameras come in; small Tupperware containers (these could be re-used as they are dishwasher-safe); tiny sachets made from salvaged industrial fabric (once emptied of heroin, these could be filled with potpourri and used as drawer/closet fresheners!); film cannisters.

Think about it.
I am filing this one under: "Great ideas."

Update on my morale.

In addition to giving updates about my morale (which is fairly good today in spite of suddenly very cold weather), I also enjoy using the phrase "a moderate amount" as an answer to questions. This phrase comes from Veronica Mars. Yesterday someone about to delegate work to me asked, "How busy are you right now?" and I answered, "Umm, a moderate amount?" and this brought me some satisfaction. I am a moderate amount of busy, I have a moderately high morale level, I have accomplished a moderate amount of work today.

The coffee I am drinking is more than moderately good, though. It's very good.

Here is a silly conversation James and I had today during our delicious lunch at Zuppa's:

Jocelyn: ...So I think I'm developing a caffeine dependency again. But it's not like I drink that much coffee. I only have one coffee a day.
James: I think one a day is good for you. One a day of anything is good for you.
Jocelyn: One a day of everything? What about heroin?
James: One a day of heroin is good for you.
Jocelyn: What's a unit of heroin? Like, things in needles are measured in CCs, right? 10 CCs of heroin. Wait, does CC stand for cubic centimetre? 10 cubic centimetres is a lot of heroin. Maybe 1 CC.

Please note: James is not a scientist, and his assertion that one a day of heroin is good for you has not been proven. Please use drugs responsibly.

This morning I didn't get much work done, but I DID learn quite a bit about hunter pets in World of Warcraft. My hunter character, Aeda, has a pet: a giant, flesh-eating carrion bird named Curtis. I LOVE Curtis. Some of my most fulfilling IRL daydreams concern how awesome it would be to have a giant, stinky bird with a six-foot wingspan who followed you around, attacking your enemies. I also find Curtis's name (which I gave him) highly amusing. The number of people in Warcraft whose pets are named things like Kitty or Bear is really pathetic. (This type of generic name is only funny if it is applied to the wrong species. For example, a cat named Kitty is stupid, and people who name their cats that--and there are hundreds--deserve to lose their MMO privileges. On the other hand, a cat named Fish or Giraffe is, if not awesome, then at least a bit more original.) But Curtis--well, that's a magnificent name for a bird.

Curtis is good for my morale.

Anyway, I spent a bunch of time on warcraft websites learning more about pets, and it turns out that through a complicated series of steps I can teach Curtis some new skillz. So I spent a considerable part of my morning making my Making Curtis an Uber-Fleshripper (MCUF) plan, printing it out, and then colour-coding it. (Colour-coding is also good for my morale.) The resulting document looks almost like something I could have legitimately produced for work, except when you look closely at it and realize that step 2 takes place somewhere called "Duskwood," and involves finding and taming "black ravager mastiffs."

I have to go to a dumb meeting in another building now, and it's going to be frakkin' freezing. This is yet another occasion when it would be handy to have a giant carrion bird following you around, breathing on you with his hot stinky raw-meat breath.