[xx44]

nyc,

When I got out, I felt extremely confident that I would be able to buy into a small company in an industry I was interested in, use my business expertise to grow it then be part of a successful business.I put maybe a 20% effort into it at the time, used whatever I had left for living expenses, and found pokerstars.

My gf was in philly and I had to live in ny for due to parole (lasted only a year). I decided the best move was to go through a little self-pity/entitlement. I was paying about $5k/month in living expenses,+$2k/month in poker losses, with no income coming in. I did not start to get serious about my future until after I moved in with my gf a year later.

I still was looking for businesses to put my dwindling nest egg into, and actually went ahead with 2, that did not pan out. I caught a nice run in the mkt, that enabled to make a conservative living now.

ein,

The weed comes in through the visits. I think it cost a pack of cigs or 2 for a pin-joint. It would just be smoked in the yard. They did a lot of random drug screenings, you knew who the dopers were, those who were constantly drinking water. It surprisingly worked well, as the same people always smoking, and called in for tests were not getting busted.

Tuq,

Id say 30-40% of the people smoked. You were only allowed to smoke outside during yard time or on the way to chow. If it was before lights out, a decent CO would let you go outside for a smoke if you ask. If not we just smoked in the bathrooms. Most CO's did not care, but there were some who always were checking for smokers looking to write them up. Fortunately I never got caught.Basically anyone except a chain smoker could get by.

And yes the habit for me was cultivated mostly by boredom, then by stress.