Smoking Rant

[blas87]

I look absolutely horrid in my natural, nearly flourescent/translucent skin tone as well. I am not against being pale or porcelain, but yegads I can give Edward competition if I don't do anything.

I only tan once every other weekend, and it's just enough color so that I can wear the lightest shade of makeup.

During the summer, I will lay out and get quite a decent amount of color for as white of a person as I naturally am.

[Giggle Goose]

I get the same crap for tanning, which is quickly becoming the new smoking. I don't tan at a Jersey shore level or anything like that, but I am not one of those people that looks good pale. And tanning from a bottle is expensive, time-consuming, and looks fake unless you go to a professional for $50 a pop or something insane like that.

So since I engage in a cancer-causing activity myself, I feel like I don't have any right to bash smokers.

[blas87]

If I wasn't able to get in my car on my lunch break and go out and smoke, especially in the past couple weeks at work, I would have been walked out the door by HR. I'm not even kidding.

[Greenday]

Besides, not ALL driving is practical and useful.

Just most of it.

[DrFaroohk]

Driving is useful and practical.

So is smoking! Do you know how many broken noses a cigarette has prevented?

Besides, not ALL driving is practical and useful.

[crashhelmet]

Smokers are like Christians.

I'll say it again.

Smokers are like Christians.

Many punished and persecuted for the actions of a few.

Smokers have lost the privilege to smoke outside of our building here at work. They have lost their designated smoking section. Why? Because a handful of inconsiderate smokers don't know how to use the provided fracking ash tray and throw their butts on the ground. Handful of smokers + at least 4 smokes a day each = a shitload of cigarette butts on the ground EVERY DAY. Instead of policing their own, they lost their privilege. Now, the smokers have to either smoke in their car and leave their butts in their ashtrays or leave the property to smoke.

I don't smoke anymore. I gave it up years ago. When my coworkers whine and complain about losing their "right" I remind them that they should've appreciated what they had more.

[telecom_goddess]

ahh another topic on smoking. Yes I smoke. I quit for a bit and went on electronic cigarettes, and I plan to do that again at some point soon. But for now I smoke. I used to smoke inside my house, I haven't done that for several years now after I saw the staining it did on the walls. I smoke outside and in the areas forced on me by work and other places. I leave people alone and don't do anything to deliberately annoy them. Luckily I don't run into too many people who do the fake cough/cover their face bit.

I have a sort of girlfriend who doesn't want me to smoke so I'm trying to get back on the bandwagon soon. But as it is I don't smoke around her or for a while before I see her.

As long as people don't bitch at me there is no problem

[Greenday]

Ya know, I keep hearing that argument about "but we care about you and don't want to see you kill yourself"......and really, that doesn't justify the constant nagging. Nagging is annoying. Do you people not realize that? Do you think smokers can just pop a switch, aww gee, Greenday doesn't want me to die, ok, last cigg forever now! Yah, I don't think so. I know it's bad for me, do you think that makes me stop? Of course not.

You want me to quit? You gonna pay for a custom diet for me so I don't eat everything in sight? Are you going to be my therapist or get me anxiety medication when I can't smoke when I get upset? You still gonna love me when of course that's a silly thing to ask, so I not only go nuts but gain 20 or more lbs?

It's an addiction, I understand that you can't just flip a switch and be done with it. I can be your therapist if you want. I already play therapist to most of my friends and I don't even charge them. And seeing how I do care about what happens to you despite never having seen you, do you think if you gained 20 lbs that would somehow change that?

I'm not saying constantly nagging is a good idea or that people should do it. I'm just saying that sometimes we nag every now and then because we do care.

I could say the same about people who drive. I can't drive, and don't even ride a motorbike any more since I moved into town. The news doesn't go by without a report on a car accident, or a pedestrian being hit by a car. Perhaps I should start nagging people to quit driving and get rid of their car, it being so potentially dangerous and all. Plus, if they stopped driving and instead walked everywhere, they'd be so much healthier!

Except that's an apples to orange comparison. Driving is useful and practical. In bad weather, it's healthier than walking.

[guywithashovel]

I have relatives who've died from illnesses that were caused by smoking.

In fact, I can show you three death certificates that probably wouldn't be there if the people could have just thrown down the cigarettes.

Still, I don't pester people about smoking. As others have pointed out, nagging rarely does any good. If adults want to do something, they're going to do it.

I'm sure some people are concerned about others' health, but I really think that most of the naggers aren't. Take my former coworker for example. She prides herself on being bossy and overbearing, and nagging people about their food choices is something that allows her to exercise those traits. Also, since she has quite a few skeletons in her closet (e.g. the poor driving record), she really doesn't have much business getting on others' cases.

However, I do want to roll my eyes when a smoker claims to have gone to the doctor and the doctor said that he or she "has the lungs of a twenty year-old nonsmoker," especially if that person has smoked for many years. Seriously, there is no way that can be true. Anyone with the foggiest understanding of science knows it, so stop saying it.

[DrFaroohk]

The thing with nagging is it's pointless. There is no good reason to ever nag someone.

Why?

Because they heard you the first time! They heard you, they processed the information and acknowledged you. Now it's time to move along. Every time you nag, you increase their resentment towards you by +1 and use any influence you have with them by -1. You're just ASKING to be ignored by nagging.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ya know, I keep hearing that argument about "but we care about you and don't want to see you kill yourself"

I could say the same about people who drive. I can't drive, and don't even ride a motorbike any more since I moved into town. The news doesn't go by without a report on a car accident, or a pedestrian being hit by a car. Perhaps I should start nagging people to quit driving and get rid of their car, it being so potentially dangerous and all. Plus, if they stopped driving and instead walked everywhere, they'd be so much healthier!

But no, I won't do that. Cuz I'm not a bitch. I choose to smoke cuz it relaxes me and I don't smoke all the time. A few a day is enough for me, and I'm considerate and don't smoke around kids or nonsmokers.

[blas87]

Ya know, I keep hearing that argument about "but we care about you and don't want to see you kill yourself"......and really, that doesn't justify the constant nagging. Nagging is annoying. Do you people not realize that? Do you think smokers can just pop a switch, aww gee, Greenday doesn't want me to die, ok, last cigg forever now! Yah, I don't think so. I know it's bad for me, do you think that makes me stop? Of course not.

You want me to quit? You gonna pay for a custom diet for me so I don't eat everything in sight? Are you going to be my therapist or get me anxiety medication when I can't smoke when I get upset? You still gonna love me when of course that's a silly thing to ask, so I not only go nuts but gain 20 or more lbs?

I treat people nagging me the way my mom sighs and huffs when my dad goes into the fridge for a beer, the way a family member might make a rude remark about their overweight friend not watching their diet.

Though, it works extremely well, whenever people like my bf want to harp, say I'm walking to my locker to get my purse with my smokes in it for lunch, he'll make a rude comment like "Get those ciggs to eat now, hurry!" and all I do is go "Uh huh" or "Yup" or "Yum". Those people are almost always expecting some defensive lashback, and I'm not giving anyone like that that kind of privilege.

Anyone who makes comments about "Oh, she ate, she HAS to go smoke now!" looking at me, anticipating some hateful response, usually gets only a "Yep, be right back!" answer from me.

[Andara Bledin]

In this day and age, most people probably know someone who died as a result of smoking. And for those of us who've watched people literally suffer as a result, we don't want to see our close friends and family go through that.

My old boss was one of those. He's the one that died of cancer. Even he admitted to the irony of that.

^-.-^

[bex1218]

I wish i could get more people who feel more concern, than the naggers who just like to nag. Some people know, but just don't care and are selfish, like me. I will downright admit I am being selfish about it. I can quit anytime, I just don't chose to.

[Greenday]

the lecturing and nagging about diet, smoking, etc. is usually their way of compensating for their other faults.

I find that it's usually due to actual concern for the other person's health. For instance, by the time I was born, one of my grandfathers was already dead thanks to smoking (lung cancer). Never had a chance to meet him. My other grandfather smoked for 50 years. Quit, still got emphysema from it, and for years suffered, barely able to breathe or do anything without an oxygen tank. Constant trips to the hospital. After everything he'd been through (two wars, plane crash, hit by cars, severe burning from fire, in a car in a lake, etc. etc.), it was something so stupid as letting his addiction to smoking getting the better of him that did him in.

In this day and age, most people probably know someone who died as a result of smoking. And for those of us who've watched people literally suffer as a result, we don't want to see our close friends and family go through that. There are people on this board that I feel close to that I've never met but would be destroyed to hear that they are going through this later on in their lives. So maybe we do say something about their smoking every now and then. Maybe the message will finally sink in because even if you claim you know, if you keep doing it, the message obviously hasn't been delivered.