Booze

This

Everyday

sit at the bar pounding high lifes and do a shot of fireball with every beer.

I like my nights to clock in under an hour

Are you from blazeti.me?

everything above 21% is meme
eveything you need to mix with ultra sweet shit, is shit itself
experiment, don't consume on a regular basis, don't binge either

>don't drink when you're sad or mad

What about stress and anxiety?

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

It's ok to get drunk now and then, but make damn sure you are in a setting where it is socially acceptable, safe, and you don't become a burden to anyone. Start small, don't hit it too hard.

That being said, make sure the majority of your drinking is just for the flavor or a light buzz. Drink nicer, middle-of-the shelf shit and drink it slowly. It's easy to feel guilty for not buying the cheap shit, but you can't torture yourself.

Order shit in bars and try it. Yeah it's expensive, but it's cheaper than blindly buying full bottles of stuff. Figure out what you like, research it on the internet, and just do whatever.

Buy a nice book about cocktails and get going.
I personally like Imbibe! and American Bar from Charles Schuhmann... the former for the historical background, which makes every cocktail more interesting, and the latter for a huge number of cocktails (Though some of them are not 100% authentic...)
As for a specific drink: Depends on how you can handle the heat of booze. Old fashioned is a nice drink to start, and is just 2 oz. Bourbon (I recommend something along the line of Maker's Mark/Bulleit/Four Roses Single Barrel) + 0.5 oz. 2:1 simple syrup (2 parts sugar by weight + 1 part water by weight. Just use a kettle to heat the water, and then combine both in a bottle by shaking. Is stable for... 1-3 months in the fridge, I think), + Angostura Bitters (1-2 dashes), and a few ice cubes. Stir until everything is cooled and it has the desired heat (Water dilutes pretty well), and then, if you feel fancy, express a swath of a lemon peel over it (Though only non-treated lemons, otherwise the skin and oils are quite cancerous). From there on you can start to go further and make Manhattans, Martinis, Rob Roys, etc... or you can just use different spirits in an old fashioned (Bourbon, Rye, Cognac/Brandy, (5-12 years old) rum, tequila, etc...), different sweeteners (Agave, brown sugar, maple syrup, infused syrups...) and different peels/bitters.
If, on the other hand, you don't like spirit forward drinks, you can always make a sour out of spirits, simple syrup (2:1) and lemons/lime:
2 oz Spirit
1 oz Lemon/lime (Depends on the spirit. Best look it up online. Diffordsguide is quite nice)
3/4 oz. simple syrup
For this, you need ice and a shaker/jam glass. Then just shake and strain into an ice cold glass (From the freezer). And if you feel like this is too flat, you can always add Soda. Then, instead of a sour you got a Fizz.
Apart from that, you got Highballs (5cl Spirits + 15 cl carbonated beverage (Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer, Soda, etc...) + lime/lemon

...

>everything above 21% is meme
This is utter bullshit

>experiment, don't consume on a regular basis, don't binge either
But this is honest truth

Your question is very vague, but my recommendation is that you find somebody who is knowledgeable about beers and ask them to introduce you to the general variety that's available. Assuming you're American, it may be hard to find somebody knowledgeable about the less common brewed drinks, but if you can find somebody knowledgeable about hard ciders and root beer/ginger beers then go to town with those too.

Now do the same thing with wine, but look out for pretentious assholes, you're here as a wine tourist; you want to be shown the variety and range available. You want to try several different bottles of red, white, orange and rosé wines. You want to try maderised wines, port wines and sherries.

Buy a good quality bottle of each of the base spirits. Work from left to right along this list, the further right the generally more niche the actual appreciation of variation in the liquor is (Gin, bourbon/rye whiskey, brandy/pisco, schnapps/aquavit, whisky, vodka, rum, tequila). Hopefully you now know which of those you want to explore in more depth. You now also have supplies to begin exploring cocktails.

This is, of course, if you want to approach this like a massive nerd. If at any point you end up going 'hang on, these taste like shit', just drop it and move on to the next thing. There is no point cultivating a taste in something in hopes of enjoying it in future, when you could just find something you actually like.

For example, if you decide booze is not for you, maybe begin investigating teas or coffees as a beverage that's not just water but is less sweet than sodas.

My go to straight drink is glenfiddich dont drink really cheap shit straight.
If you are poor and dont want to drink often but a cocktail shaker and a classic cocktail book then build up a stash of favourite alcohols to mix. I have one drink a night this way.

Have a look at the pathetic freaks here and never touch a drop.

One can listen to all this endlessly, but if you don't do this, what is the point of your listening? If you actually are not aware of yourself, of your words, your gestures, your walk, the way you eat, why you drink and smoke and all the rest of the things human beings are doing - if you are not aware physically of all that, how can one be aware at depth profoundly of what's going on. If you are not aware... if one's not aware, then one becomes so shoddy, middle-class, mediocre. The word 'mediocre' means, the root meaning of that word means 'going halfway up the hill', going halfway up the mountain, never reaching the top of it. That's mediocrity. That is, never demanding of ourselves excellence, demanding of ourselves total goodness, demanding of ourselves complete freedom - not to do what you like, that is not freedom, that is triviality; but to be free from all pain of anxieties, loneliness, despair, and all the rest of it.

-J. Krishnamurti

I drink malibu to feel like a pretty princess, hope that helps.

>Now do the same thing with wine, but look out for pretentious assholes

Don't be such a pleb, the pretentious assholes are the ones you want to be listening to, not the know-nothings who get angry at anything better than Apothic Red who genuinely believe that all wine is the same.

You're not going to get any useful information out of those people as their primary interest in wine consists of digging up articles from Buzzfeed that appear to prove that wine is a scam and biologically aged sherry tastes exactly like pink moscato which tastes exactly like champagne which tastes exactly like tempranillo.

This hostility to knowledge is the thing I hate most about the "democratization" of the internet. Facts are pretentious. Feelings matter the most, especially feelings of resentment towards those who respect the facts.

>the pretentious assholes are the ones you want to be listening to
My uncle owns the seventh largest personal cellar in England, and knows more about wine that you will ever even believe exists to be known, and he dislikes wine assholes. I know comparatively little about wine, but can recognize a pretentious asshole.

>This hostility to knowledge [...] Feelings matter the most, especially feelings of resentment towards those who respect the facts.
I would agree with you, but you've made a psychotic kneejerk reaction, so you make yourself look like a hypocrite. Your point stands, but you clearly don't exemplify it, and also can't tell the difference between knowledge and pretensions of knowledge.

Nice blog, subscribed

If you're going to drink cheap Evan Williams is your friend.

Don't order expensive spirits and chug it, that's not the point of good liquor. You're supposed to sip it. Only do shots when you're self medicating or your buddies wanna take a shot with you.

If you're a few drinks in and getting into an argument with the bartender it's time to fucking leave. As a bartender who worked in Dive Bars trust me the police are fully on MY SIDE and your word means shit. Even if you were in the right you're better off just leaving.

If the bartender offers to get you a Taxi/Uber they're a good bartender who is trying to look out for you. Take their suggestion and tip them.

A bartender who has been working for a while is used to getting stiffed on tips, but we're also ready to give you shit service. I don't want to derail this thread into a Tip argument but yeah treat the person behind the bar with respect. I want a fucking buck if you make me do a complex cocktail.

I'm about to start drinking too, same situation as OP.
I live in Japan however.
What to drink and stock up on? Pretty much willing to try everything.

Be like me and get hammered on the weekends to the point where it's not Sunday if you aren't hungover from Friday and Saturday

buy several bottles of the cheapest fortified wine you can find and drink them like bottles of soda. If you aren't waking up in a ditch shaking uncontrollably in a pool of your own piss you are a lightweight

Kavalan Solist or Sherry Oak Cask.

Laphroaig, especially their unchillfiltered single-cask bottlings.

Edradour, either the Pont de Neuf or the Port Wood.

Auchentoshan Three Wood.

Balvenie Doublewood (not the carribean, which tastes like crap in comparison).

go to the import store and try meme beers from all across the globe