Go for it, you'll love it.
In my opinion, the key is to recognize the pattern you are following, to realize what "type" of addict you are. And then just quit the smoking part, keep up the other silly stuff that comes along with it. (Warning, this worked for me, doesn't necessarily have to be that way for you!)
I was the socializing/ritual type as I like to call it. I most often smoked in company, and/or had a coffee/coke/drink with my cigarette. The only thing I quit was the act of smoking, I still went outside with a coffee (and smoking friends) for the five to ten minutes, I'd go buy a coke in the afternoon and go out on the balcony with it, I'd deliberately go to a cafe, just like I did back when I was smoking. Then I realized how heavenly Espresso, wine, Port wine and almost anything else can taste without the smoke, and how much more beer you can drink
Plus there's a whole lot more money to spend. I bought a gadget every other week. A friend of mine once bought a new pair of socks every other day with the money she saved...
I gained quite some weight initially (or naturally, since everything tastes so much better), but I as my lung capacity increased my endurance increased, which had a tremendous positive effect on my mountainbiking and karate. Plus I can breathe through my nose, which was almost always at least partly obstructed before. This allows me to sleep better (and less).
The weight issue took around two months, but now I even ended up weighing less than before.
I'd say **** yeah, go for it.
I know, I myself have gone longer and have started smoking all over again.
This time I quit smoking in the most stressful and unpleasant time I've had so far, and now the stress is on again quite heavily, but as I said, I'm not looking back. It's too rewarding.
Rodeodave, you have some wise words indeed; accepted because they are words of experience and not from the pulpit.
I suppose it is being dictated to by the Government do-gooders and fear that keeps me from giving up the habit. Fear of not being able to cope, fear of missing out on something, fear of not having a packet lying around etc...
Here is a thought (which I've just pondered)..............Do you know that I have NEVER run out of cigarettes in the last 20 years! I buy by the carton to ensure I always have cigs. It has become an unconsious action to make sure I have a spare packet close by when I go out and that when I wake up I have access to at least 5 cigarettes. On self reflection I think that is truly a sad state of affairs. That FEAR should not be normal...I am governed by the substance. My oh My
If the truth be told I only enjoy around 4 of the cigarettes that I smoke. Times when I am relaxed with a cup of tea or quiet moments with my feet up. The rest of my smoking is just habit...reaching for something to stick in my mouth. [OK guys forget the innuendos].
I have every reason to give up, including my kids health and now this 'social level of acceptance'. Times are certainly changing and at my age I certainly can't say that I'm still experimenting with the smoking thing. Maybe I'm just a creature of habit?
I suppose it is being dictated to by the Government do-gooders and fear that keeps me from giving up the habit. Fear of not being able to cope, fear of missing out on something, fear of not having a packet lying around etc...
Here is a thought (which I've just pondered)..............Do you know that I have NEVER run out of cigarettes in the last 20 years! I buy by the carton to ensure I always have cigs. It has become an unconsious action to make sure I have a spare packet close by when I go out and that when I wake up I have access to at least 5 cigarettes. On self reflection I think that is truly a sad state of affairs. That FEAR should not be normal...I am governed by the substance. My oh My
If the truth be told I only enjoy around 4 of the cigarettes that I smoke. Times when I am relaxed with a cup of tea or quiet moments with my feet up. The rest of my smoking is just habit...reaching for something to stick in my mouth. [OK guys forget the innuendos
].I have every reason to give up, including my kids health and now this 'social level of acceptance'. Times are certainly changing and at my age I certainly can't say that I'm still experimenting with the smoking thing. Maybe I'm just a creature of habit?
I knew somebody would. Tech that starts as a novelty or a convenience is so deceptive. Give that new tech 5-10 years , and it will become just another ball and chain to keep us "in line" to serve our corporate masters. Cell phones , social networking , online purchases/banking/E-money. All are ways to screw us over with added fees , track our habits to "serve us better" and divert us from the real issues that are about to crash in all around us (smoky mountain ecosystems are dying FAST - we are poisoning ourselves BIGTIME).
OS
OS
You have your finger on the pulse. I recently renewed my passport and found a circuit board attached....one of these scannable jobbies. They whitewash this sh** by telling us it is innocent and "in the interests of our own security". A few years down the line there will be street lined monitors tracking our movements.
Now this shows good reason for me to move to the mountains of Barcelona and tend a garden
It is getting even more difficult to stop working for "the man" and revert to self reliance......(stress levels increasing...reaches for a cigarette......)
Computers and associated technology are a great power, vastly more so than even the "Industrial Revolution" 100 years ago.
And along with great power comes great responsibility.
Sadly, it seems that it's being used to track everyone's habits, and ultimately to exert some control on their actions.
As to smoking...
I've never smoked- seriously, at least. So although I enjoy breathing clean air, I feel it most unfair and controlling to restrict anyone's freedom. People should smoke if they want to. We all know the dangers- it should be up to us. And as a non-smoker - if I know that a nightclub will be smoky and I choose not to go as a result- and the club's profits decline- it should be up to THEM to set their own policy on their own property.
"I've figured out how to live my life, and I'm correct, in an absolute sense. Therefore I'll lobby for laws to force everyone ELSE to live exactly as I do."
It ain't the government that's doing it to us. It's us. Millions of people standing in line, DEMANDING to be subjugated. All for the "public good", of course.
If but ONE LIFE could be saved, wouldn't it be worth it?
Not in my book.
And along with great power comes great responsibility.
Sadly, it seems that it's being used to track everyone's habits, and ultimately to exert some control on their actions.
As to smoking...
I've never smoked- seriously, at least. So although I enjoy breathing clean air, I feel it most unfair and controlling to restrict anyone's freedom. People should smoke if they want to. We all know the dangers- it should be up to us. And as a non-smoker - if I know that a nightclub will be smoky and I choose not to go as a result- and the club's profits decline- it should be up to THEM to set their own policy on their own property.
"I've figured out how to live my life, and I'm correct, in an absolute sense. Therefore I'll lobby for laws to force everyone ELSE to live exactly as I do."
It ain't the government that's doing it to us. It's us. Millions of people standing in line, DEMANDING to be subjugated. All for the "public good", of course.
If but ONE LIFE could be saved, wouldn't it be worth it?
Not in my book.
...
If the truth be told I only enjoy around 4 of the cigarettes that I smoke. Times when I am relaxed with a cup of tea or quiet moments with my feet up. The rest of my smoking is just habit...reaching for something to stick in my mouth. [OK guys forget the innuendos
...
That is exactly what I mean by the "idea" of a cigarette, just the ones you enjoy, those are the ones you keep longing for.
Also a cigarette is something constant, ready-made, a thing that does not change, something you can depend on being the same.
But if you think about it a little more, a cigarette is a vastly inferior product, it probably costs less than a cheap four band carbon film resistor to make, and they sell it with insane taxes and markups. And one sucks them down by the dozen.
And now you have to ask yourself, would you put that many cheap four band carbon film resistors in your amp? Would you?
Well, I don't see how they are going to deal with the clouds of Gitane smoke coming over from France. Laws can only go so far, I guess.
As a comedian once said (about Quebeckers) "Those people smoke like it's a cure for cancer".
As for smoking, personally, while I don't mind anyone taking steps to improve their health (I no longer smoke cigarettes, but I like a cigar when I''m out fishing), when I think back about it, what I like most about cigarettes is the people who smoke, and what I like least about the laws is the people who would never take it up are driving the agenda. I suspect even if there was nothing health-wise to complain about, they'd still try.
i'm guilty of a huge stereotype here, but they tend to be less interesting. I much prefer the company of the former, even after they quit. Apologies to all the fine people who never took up the habit, but if you're on this forum you probably have more in common with the kind of person who smoked at one time anyway ... "real" non-smokers would buy their HiFi at Best Buy, and if they ever decide there's something "wrong" about DIY, they'll try to ban it. ;-)
In a sense that's actually happened with this news story ... http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/03/964781/citizen-activist-grates-on-state.html ... watch out DIY'ers in case you be accused of "practicing Engineering without a licence" because your work is fundamentally sound ... or these guys ... http://www.abc3340.com/Global/story.asp?S=13962199 ... who just have too much time on their hands, so they spend it monitoring employee Facebook pages for "negative" comments about a city.
As a comedian once said (about Quebeckers) "Those people smoke like it's a cure for cancer".
As for smoking, personally, while I don't mind anyone taking steps to improve their health (I no longer smoke cigarettes, but I like a cigar when I''m out fishing), when I think back about it, what I like most about cigarettes is the people who smoke, and what I like least about the laws is the people who would never take it up are driving the agenda. I suspect even if there was nothing health-wise to complain about, they'd still try.
i'm guilty of a huge stereotype here, but they tend to be less interesting. I much prefer the company of the former, even after they quit. Apologies to all the fine people who never took up the habit, but if you're on this forum you probably have more in common with the kind of person who smoked at one time anyway ... "real" non-smokers would buy their HiFi at Best Buy, and if they ever decide there's something "wrong" about DIY, they'll try to ban it. ;-)
In a sense that's actually happened with this news story ... http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/03/964781/citizen-activist-grates-on-state.html ... watch out DIY'ers in case you be accused of "practicing Engineering without a licence" because your work is fundamentally sound ... or these guys ... http://www.abc3340.com/Global/story.asp?S=13962199 ... who just have too much time on their hands, so they spend it monitoring employee Facebook pages for "negative" comments about a city.
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I love this
Gone from afartied to multifartism in one fell swoop!
Well done that man.
I tend to agree with your stereotyping. Many audiophiles and diyers seem to want to 'buck the system' and relish being an individual. As I try to teach my teenage children - "you can still be an individual amongst a crowd".
But I disuade them from smoking............where is my sensibility? I am beginning to think I am lost in my own quagmire of my own post
I tend to agree with your stereotyping. Many audiophiles and diyers seem to want to 'buck the system' and relish being an individual. As I try to teach my teenage children - "you can still be an individual amongst a crowd".
But I disuade them from smoking............where is my sensibility? I am beginning to think I am lost in my own quagmire of my own post
Well, I was young once, so I understand the need for young people to make their own individuality. They spend half their waking hours in an institution, after all.
I don't think modern kids see smoking in the same way we did, and it doesn't really mark the personalities of the under-35 crowd like it once did. I think you have to credit the kids themselves for that ... certainly it wouldn't matter if they didn't play along.
They have other ways and I have to give a bit of credit to our generation in that we let them find those other ways without too much grief ... my parents would have panicked more about purple hair than tobacco, and when I grew up you were legally (for good and bad) an adult at 16 (it's 18 in Canada now) so my parents just drew the line about tobacco and my choice there at that age.
Priorities, so I think you're OK and can give yourself some slack.
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Lots of countries have stiff laws against ******* or spitting in public, or leaving dog excrements on the pavement. So there already is a measure of outdoor policing.
I believe that if you agree that we should not cause undue hinder or damage to our fellows, and the average joe is not mature enough to do it all by himself, it doesn't really make a difference whether it is indoors or outdoors.
jan didden
Having walked both the streets of Rome and Kyoto in Japan last year one can observe the stark contrast between the east and west with regard to street litter. In Rome the streets are awash with cigarette buts in places and litter and chewing gum and graffiti and yet in Kyoto and Tokyo I did not see "one single" piece of litter nor one cigarette stub or piece of chewing gum on the streets. There is no graffiti either and the only time I saw someone with a dog which cocked its leg against a lampost the owner promptly whipped a bottle of water out of their coat pocket and rinsed it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are a dirty, filthy breed of human compared with the Japanese.
I salute them for it.
We are a dirty, filthy breed of human compared with the Japanese.
I salute them for it.
Reeler, you want to want to stop smoking but you don't want to stop smoking. When you want to stop you will.
They had to rebuild their country from nothing 65 years ago. It will get dirty eventually.
Ostripper I am going to take a wild guess that you believe only 3 things in life are certain.
1) Internment
2) Torture
3) Death
Am I close?
They had to rebuild their country from nothing 65 years ago. It will get dirty eventually.
Ostripper I am going to take a wild guess that you believe only 3 things in life are certain.
1) Internment
2) Torture
3) Death
Am I close?
Actually I disagree,
I think that they have an extremely considerate outlook to their enviroment. I watched people on the Bullet Train (which is an engineering marvel) eat a lunch on the fold down table on the seat in front and afterwards they neatly wrapped up all the packaging and then wiped down the surface before taking the neatly wrapped parcel to a bin in between carriages. For them it is the "right" thing to do. If you drop litter, then someone else has to pick it up which is stupid, lazy and inconsiderate.
Something else that I did not see was anyone picking up litter nor any machines vaccuuming the streets....not one.
I think that they have an extremely considerate outlook to their enviroment. I watched people on the Bullet Train (which is an engineering marvel) eat a lunch on the fold down table on the seat in front and afterwards they neatly wrapped up all the packaging and then wiped down the surface before taking the neatly wrapped parcel to a bin in between carriages. For them it is the "right" thing to do. If you drop litter, then someone else has to pick it up which is stupid, lazy and inconsiderate.
Something else that I did not see was anyone picking up litter nor any machines vaccuuming the streets....not one.
You haven't been able to smoke indoors for over a decade in cities in Canada, and by now it's province-wide everywhere. That includes all workplaces. in my Province it's also illegal to smoke on property open to the public (eg outdoor restaurant or bar patio). Most provinces make it illegal to smoke in a vehicle if anyone under 16 ... some are 18 ... is present. It's very common for people here to go outside the home to smoke, regardless of the weather, and that includes the people who live there.
When the city bylaw first came into effect in my city 25 years ago, at first you had to have a non-smoking section in a restaurant, then it changed to you had to have a closed-off (sealed) area with a separate HVAC system about 15 years ago. I had quit by that time, but the non-smoking sections were like ghettos ... nobody there, maybe one table, waitresses were grumpy because no tips, etc. The smoking room would be packed. So, I soon learned to ask for the smoking section so at least there would be other people around and most of the wait staff were working that area.
Then again, I visited California in the early 90's when it was illegal to smoke indoors there, at least in the Bay Area. At the time I was a smoker and didn't want to have a drink without one. It didn't take long to figure out that all I had to do was pop in the door, have a look to see if the bartender was smoking, and either leave and keep looking, or sit down. You had to get your own ashtray since there was a huge fine for staff if they brought one to you. Restaurants I didn't care about, it wasn't a big deal for me not to smoke with a meal.
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