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[Jackrabbit]

I don't mind smokers, I mind those who don't keep it to themselves and don't seem to care about the effects it has on others.

[dragnar]

I don't particularly mind them, but I can't understand why anyone would engage in such a self-destructive activity. Sure in the past smoking was thought to be medicinal, and the addiction is hard to break, but that doesn't explain why younger people smoke as well.(Note that I'm not trying to be condescending to smokers or anything, I'm simply curious as to what would make a person do such a thing.)

[ToonyMan]

It's one of those things you pick up young and don't stop for some reason.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

Clash of the Titans was decent mindless action. The friend I was with friday just saw Kickass and said that while good, it was shit compared to the comic. Still doesn't make me any less full of righteous fury about being slighted, though. >:O

Spoiler: "Differences I've heard about; spoilered for obvious reasons" (click to show/hide)

*Big Daddy's bullshit story about being a cop whose wife was killed was true in the movie (in the comic it comes out he was a batshit insane nerd who kidnapped his daughter and raised her to be a killing machine for shits and giggles).
*apparently the title character pilots a jetpack in the movie.
*in the end, the girl accepts that he was lying to her the whole time and they hook up instead of having her boyfriend beat him to a bloody pulp.

I'll never be able to understand the prohibitionist sentiment and the strength the anti-smoking movement has built up. :/

Of course, until I smoked I could never understand why anyone would, so I suppose it just boils down to a "Thems is marginally different from me!?!?!?!? FUCK THEM! >:O " kind of thing...

No, it's because secondhand smoke causes cancer. That's it. There is no prejudice, smoking damages both your health and the health of the people around you. And as many people aren't considerate enough to put it out when even children are nearby, of course they banned it in public places.

Even smoking every few days instead of every day leaves you with a near-negligible increase in risk over not smoking. At the point when it's been exhaled (from an extreme concentration in the lungs) and diluted in the air around you (by virtue of being a very small volume that quickly disperses) it's less harmful than a passing car. Now, inside, you might have a case, because with enough people that's essentially hotboxing, but outside? No worse than walking by a barbecue, and less than standing and cooking something on one.

Oh, and it's not banned on the street here, and there's enough opposition that such batfuckingshit insane measures are unlikely to pass, although there's a unilateral ban on everything inside (in public places, that is) but hookah/cigar bars, which are shut down for any conceivable excuse...

I don't particularly mind them, but I can't understand why anyone would engage in such a self-destructive activity. Sure in the past smoking was thought to be medicinal, and the addiction is hard to break, but that doesn't explain why younger people smoke as well.(Note that I'm not trying to be condescending to smokers or anything, I'm simply curious as to what would make a person do such a thing.)

Because nicotine is a psychoactive chemical. Simply put, it makes your brain feel good, and it slightly increases your recall for a time (which also contributes to the psychological addiction: you remember what you were doing and how you felt when you were smoking more strongly). Just what it feels like one doesn't understand until one's experienced it, but the decision to keep on after that isn't because it's instantly addictive, despite some of the propaganda that gets spewed (I should note that of the people I have seen try smoking for the first time, not one has smoked again as of this point).

Now, of course it's harmful to the smoker, I do think about that frequently, but it's a conscious decision and one people should be allowed to make. I also smoke a pipe instead of cigarettes, which is drastically less harmful than cigarettes (both for my health and my wallet), if still worse than nothing, so... yeah.

[ToonyMan]

Damn movie adaptions are always worse than the original material!  ALWAYS.

Curse you Peter Jackson!  Curse you!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This whole post is not very serious at all.

[Vester]

I don't particularly mind them, but I can't understand why anyone would engage in such a self-destructive activity. Sure in the past smoking was thought to be medicinal, and the addiction is hard to break, but that doesn't explain why younger people smoke as well.(Note that I'm not trying to be condescending to smokers or anything, I'm simply curious as to what would make a person do such a thing.)

They got doctors to spread that bit explicitly. I'm unsure as to why anyone ever thought it was medicinal.

...

I smoke because it's an addictive drug and I'm addicted.

[Jack_Bread]

In a search for split-screen co-op games for the Xbox 360, my friend and I played Perfect Dark Zero, Gears of War, and Army of Two. All of them sucked and his good co-op games are all borrowed off. :\

[smigenboger]

I've never smoked a cigarette, but I would assume for those who ask why they do it, try putting down your Pepsi and stay off the internet for a few days.

That's why.


(God I miss soda...)

[dragnar]

and stay off the internet for a few days.

Never! You cannot take it! It's mine. My precious...

Yeah, (almost)all gamers are addicted to that at the very least. Without the internet I would probably just sit around reading all day.

[Vector]

Fuck you, Rosewood.  Now I don't have any friends--and it's not because I'm sensitive and have no sense of humor.  I don't care how many times the asshole wants to say that I'm just rejecting his friendship, and I don't care how much I continue to have a misguided affection for him.

He left me sobbing on the side of the road because it was getting a bit dark.  You can run to his house in seven minutes.  It's more important to spend some time with his 60-year-old parents and his computer games than it is to stick it out for a heartbroken friend, I guess.  Got to be pragmatic.  Those emotion things don't really matter.  He didn't want to deal with me.  He thought he'd pass me off to his mom.  Women are so problematic, aren't they...

After all, he'd just be a bit frustrated in this situation, and mostly contemplative.  He wouldn't really be hurt, and that's the normal reaction (of course).

Love is not a logical system where, when the person you love walks away from you, you can easily just say "I don't care, and I'll go hunt down the next one."  If you really loved someone, shouldn't you be attached to them?  Shouldn't you be heartbroken when they leave you?  He acts as though I'm unreasonable.  He acts as though I shouldn't feel this way.

He cried when his grandfather died, and I cried too--because it hurt to see him hurt.  He goes through the motions of caring for people outside his family, but it seems that he doesn't really feel much.  It's too easy for him to just walk away.


What a bastard.  What a goddamned bastard.

[Acanthus117]

D:

[Footkerchief]

I hope you're making a clean break of it this time.  Every time you come back is only going to encourage the behavior that drove you away.

[smigenboger]

Time for new social networks?

[cganya]

while not a smoker myself, I find the anti-smoking laws and attitude to be over the top. smokers are second class citizens, treated worse than hopeless alcoholics. smoking is proven to cause harm over both a short term and a long term period, sure ok. so does alcohol, various common over the counter medicines, tv screens, sunlight, common foods and breathing fresh air (oxygen is a carcinogenic, didn't you know?).

If kept in moderation, smoking is as stated above, about as dangerous to non-smokers as any other common source of fumes. To the smoker, tobacco is moderately harmful to the respiratory system (not much more than an athlete causes harm to their joints or a laborer causes to their back). It's because of people's general weakness to their vice's that tobacco has such bad statistics. What the average obesity rate of people who eat fast food every day? How early, on average, do lifetime athletes and laborers die?

The human body is a mind-bogglingly amazing thing. Some people believe the body holds the mind back but the mind holds back the body just as much. Our body can take whatever we do to it short of injury and recover from it perfectly. Its when we subject our bodies to routine that they begin to develop long term injuries that make us brittle and weak.

I believe moderation is the key to everything. I urged my wife to quit smoking a while back and even helped her do it. She did very well but continued to crave smokes. I told her that it was ok to have an occasional cigarette. I told her she could have one a week. for the most part she stuck to that or less. Her health, energy and mood has improved and she hasn't smoked once in 4 weeks, not because she went cold turkey but because she just hasn't wanted to light up. she beat addiction, not because she fought it. but because she learned to view it as a treat rather than a vice.

will her life be shorter because she smoked? probably. is it a huge deal? I don't think so.

now to stop rambling.

I like rosewood, as a material. When you work that wood it gives off such a nice warm, pleasant smell.

and something that made me sad? not enough hours in the day.

disclaimer - the above is my opinion, I did not cite sources or do any math. what I say may or may not be accurate. statistics don't show the whole picture.

also, my modem/isp is being a piece of crap, second time tonight they decided to fail.

edit - I wrote this post before vector's last post. no, i'm not trying to make light of her situation. I have been thinking of her situation these past couple weeks and been hopeing things turn around for her.

[Duke 2.0]

 A virus from a school computer wiped out my USB drive, along with my report due on Monday. It's four pages analyzing A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. It's go time.