Cigarettes.

[Odin's Lapdog]

Ya know, Odin, SOME fat people ain't fat 'cause they eat a lot.

and some smokers aren't killing themselves and blowing loads of money on ciggarettes that could be used for something else more useful.

what's ya point?

there have been far more crude generalisations made about smokers than overweight people and you know it's true. It's becoming more and more acceptable to stuff one's face than it is to smoke.

If stuffing one's face however could give other people a higher heart disease risk, then you'd see how quickly the world would turn on overweight people...

 

[FlameHead]

Hw much for marlboro lights?

"Brand name" smokes are over $9 at most places. Some specialty smoke shops have them for just under 9. I never buy them though.

 

[Equinox]

"Brand name" smokes are over $9 at most places. Some specialty smoke shops have them for just under 9. I never buy them though.

$9

 

[Kessel Day]

i watched my dad die gasping because of emphysema. if you smoke, do you have a secret death wish?

 

[lazur]

Smoking can be very enjoyable and very relaxing ... once your body acclimates to the taste and the effects, which actually doesn't take that long.

Cigarettes in particular can taste quite yummy after a meal, or with a cup of java.

I quit smoking quite a few years ago, but I can tell you that the one reason I smoked was because I enjoyed it. But alas, there were many more reasons to quit (not dying being chief amoung them). I figure that when I'm about 70 years old, I'll pick it back up. By then, I'll still be young enough to enjoy it, but too old for it to actually catch up to me before I take the dirt nap anyway.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

"first-time smoker" = ******

speaking from experience here.

 

[Calvin]

Calling smokers losers is as stupid as calling non-smokers losers. Everybody has their own habits and their own forms of self-destructive enjoyment.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

^^Not when it kills me for standing next to you.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I suggest that if you never smoked before to not do it. It's dumb, stinky and a waste of time... but, I love it!

That's a very common statement and I'll never understand it.

 

[Calvin]

"first-time smoker" = ******

speaking from experience here.

Depends on why you started smoking.

 

[Calvin]

^^Not when it kills me for standing next to you.

No, that just makes you a loser for standing next to me while I'm doing it if it bothers you.

 

[lazur]

Depends on why you started smoking.

Too true. Many people began smoking because their parents were smokers.

 

[Calvin]

That's a very common statement and I'll never understand it.

It's common, but for some people I do recommend trying it, others, not. It depends on the person. I wouldn't throw around recommendations just for the sake of peer pressure, but there are some people that I think would really enjoy it in the same way that I do, and would be mature enough to handle walking away if they didn't like it.

 

[Calvin]

Too true. Many people began smoking because their parents were smokers.

Well, I my parents never did, and I never got peer pressured into trying it. I was pretty well aware of what the effects were, and how easily one could get addicted, but when I was twenty I happened to be at a point in my life where I felt like trying it out. I liked the effect, both mentally and physically, so I'm sticking with it. Until I run out of money.

 

[War Lord]

A packet of cigs is almost 7 dollars in NY

I sell cigarettes for $10.50, inc taxes, and 2 packs for $20.

 

[War Lord]

"first-time smoker" = ******

speaking from experience here.

What about 2nd timers? They've learned from experience.

 

[Calvin]

Luckily I can still get a decent pack for about 3.70 after tax here in pittsburgh. There are even cheaper ones, but they smell about ten times worse than the name brands.

 

[War Lord]

i watched my dad die gasping because of emphysema. if you smoke, do you have a secret death wish?

The fact that we are inherently doomed to die, creates death wishes.

 

[Calvin]

What about 2nd timers? They've learned from experience.

Exactly, they should be lumped in with the George Bush "can't be fooled agin' " category.

 

[Calvin]

The fact that we are inherently doomed to die, creates death wishes.

Seriously, death is going to come anyway, and there are a lot worse ways to die than from smoking. And that takes a pretty long time to happen anyway. If you don't die from doing something more dangerous than smoking before that, well, then smoking isn't your biggest problem.

 

[jaguarr]

Smoking can be very enjoyable and very relaxing ... once your body acclimates to the taste and the effects, which actually doesn't take that long.

Cigarettes in particular can taste quite yummy after a meal, or with a cup of java.

I quit smoking quite a few years ago, but I can tell you that the one reason I smoked was because I enjoyed it. But alas, there were many more reasons to quit (not dying being chief amoung them). I figure that when I'm about 70 years old, I'll pick it back up. By then, I'll still be young enough to enjoy it, but too old for it to actually catch up to me before I take the dirt nap anyway.

I kind of fell into the same pitfall with smoking as you, lazur. Yeah, it can be very enjoyable and relaxing. I did it off and on for years and years with very little impact to my health. Hell, I kept on working out and being very physically active during that time. But after I got past 35, I started noticing much more impact to my health from it than I had in the past. My light bit of asthma got much worse. My breathing was more labored and I couldn't get up a flight of stairs without wheezing. I started getting sick more frequently. I was experiencing mild depression, high blood pressure and triglyceride levels that could kill a horse. And, I wasn't even a heavy smoker! I basically just got tired of all that and wanted my full health back. Imagine starting to see symptoms like that at 35 and wondernig what it would be like in ten years if it impacting me that much already at such a young age. I quit cold turkey eight months ago and haven't looked back. Within two months of quitting, all those problems disappeared for me and I'm refocused on my health more than ever. Not because I think I'll live forever, or even longer, but because I feel so much better in general and am able to enjoy life more. That trade-off alone has been better than the brief moments of pleasure that smoking can bring.

If you don't smoke or have never tried it, don't. You might get away with smoking with no negative impacts to your health when you're younger, but it WILL catch up with you. If people want to smoke, that's fine and I won't get on them for it like some ex-smokers can do (my wife still smokes, actually). But, be respectful of other people who don't want to be around it, and think real hard about where you want to be 30 years from now; hooked up to an oxygen tank 24/7 or hiking in the Sierras. Which one sounds better to you?

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

That's what I hate.
I read an interview with Christopher Walken where they asked him if he smokes and he said "I used to, but once I got past 30 it started making me feel sick so I quit."

Well, I'm past 30, it's making me feel sick, but apparently I'm not as powerful as Christopher Walken.

 

[jaguarr]

That's what I hate.
I read an interview with Christopher Walken where they asked him if he smokes and he said "I used to, but once I got past 30 it started making me feel sick so I quit."

Well, I'm past 30, it's making me feel sick, but apparently I'm not as powerful as Christopher Walken.

It takes a hell of a lot of willpower to quit, no doubt about it. I haven't had the cravings for it after quitting at the level or frequency that many people get, but there are still days where a cigarette sounds better than anything in the world. All I have to do is remember the weekend I had in Vegas just before I quit, though. I went apesh1t and smoked like a damn dragon while I was there, to the point that it made me absolutely sick as hell. I did that on purpose so that I'd have a negative, lasting memory of the last cigarette I've ever had. That strategy has worked well and is still working for me, eight months later. I also discovered in doing some reading that L-Glutamine, which I use as an immune system booster for my bodybuilding, has a residual side effect of reducing cravings from an addiction in people when they quit (be it smoking, drinking, binge eating, whatever), and that may have something to do with the minimalized cravings I've had compared to most people who quit.

But, yeah, I'm kina like Walken in that respect. I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired from the damn things. The pleasure they gave no longer outweighed the ill effects, so I quit.

jag

 

[blueyedgypsy]

What disconcerts me is when people say things like "god, I need a cigarette", and they're dead serious. They NEED a cigarette. Just to feel normal again. I like to feel normal all the time, unless something is actually wrong with me, without having to do anything.. I guess I'm strange that way.

Everyone has their bad habits, of course, but cigarette smoke is insidious, and it doesn't confine itself or its effects to people who don't mind it.

 

[Calvin]

That's what I hate.
I read an interview with Christopher Walken where they asked him if he smokes and he said "I used to, but once I got past 30 it started making me feel sick so I quit."

Well, I'm past 30, it's making me feel sick, but apparently I'm not as powerful as Christopher Walken.

Well, the best way to quit is for a girl. I've quit for girls before, even when I didn't want to quit, and as long as I was with the girl it wasn't that hard to resist. But since I still like it, as soon as the relationship was over, I started smoking again. Not so much because I was driven by the urge, but because I wanted to start up again. Though I might have been driven by the urge anyway had I not wanted to. But the point is, even though I didn't "want" to quit, I could still do it as long as it was for a chick. I'd imagine that if you were quitting for a chick, combined with wanting to quit, that you'd be able to do it. Just need to fall for a chick that hates smoking.