I quit smoking today. For realsies. I also found a nifty little gadget that helps me appreciate the progress I'm making and the money I'm saving.

Wish me luck, although I honestly don't think I'll need it. I read Alan Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and it really did help change my mindset about quitting. Of course, I did have to read the book about 4 times for it to really sink in, but it was totally worth it.

With cigarettes in Massachusetts going from 5 to almost 8 dollars a pack over the last 2 years, I really had no choice. But also, I kind of don't want to die. I did some basic math last night before bed, and calculated that at the very LEAST, I have smoked about NINETY-FIVE THOUSAND cigarettes in the 13 years since I've started. That scared the living shit out of me, especially knowing what a cigarette filter looks like after you smoke ONE.

My girlfriend Andy and I made a deal last night, since we're both pretty much dead broke at the moment. "I'll quit if you will." The thought of us quitting together is a helpful one, but I mostly have Alan Carr to thank for my attitude this time around. Last time I tried to go cold turkey was New Year's Day, 2007. Total disaster. I was feverish, shaky, sweaty, and irritable all day long, and I caved. This time, none of that. It really does make me believe in mind over matter more than I ever have before.

So like I was saying, this little meter thing (below) is actually kind of helpful. It will be super-awesome when I can forget about it for a couple of weeks or months, and go back and look at it and realize the money I have NOT spent on cigarettes is in the hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a "live" version of it, so you have to refresh (F5) the page to keep updating the meter if you so desire.

Oh, and one other thing: I actually quit at 12:30 last night, but I figured it would be kind of cheating to count the 8 hours that I was asleep. I set the meter to start this morning when I woke up, just to be extra fair.

Adios for now.

Labels: fear, smoking, stupidity

Posted by Shag at 12:16 PM

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I'll warn you right off the bat--there's really no point to this post. I have just been thinking about bacon a lot lately, due to some pretty hilarious bacon-oriented events and discoveries in the last few months.

Anyone who knows me as more than a casual acquaintance knows that one of my primary functions as a living being is to CONSUME BACON, and I'm really good at it. Yes, I realize it's probably not the best habit in the world. Add cigarettes and coffee to the equation, subtract exercise, and I'm basically enjoying the ride on the high-speed train to Death City. However, unlike smoking, I have successfully (and sadly) curbed my bacon consumption to a mere shadow of what it once was.

During my last two years of college, it was well known to roommates and close friends that I would spend the majority of every Saturday and Sunday morning frying me up anywhere from a half-pound to a pound of delicious bacon and a big pot of coffee, and spend two or three hours eating bacon, watching cartoons on TV, drinking coffee, and smoking cigarettes. Man... what a way to enjoy a day off. It was the perfect combination of childhood and adulthood: Complete disregard for my adult-ish responsibilities, my health, and any motivation to be productive, coupled with the adults-only pleasantries of coffee, smokes, and the ability to cook something hot and greasy without ending up in a Shriner's Hospital packed in ice.

Later, as my employment with University Food Services progressed from a simple lunchlady position up the dining-hall food chain to Student Supervisor, I realized that although I rarely used the employment benefit of free dining hall meals, it was an ideal way to score tons of free bacon. I stopped buying it at the grocery store, and made the mile-or-so walk from Euclid Avenue to Sadler Dining Center on the weekends, and took full advantage of the facility's all-you-can-eat policy, walking to the cafeteria table with a nice big plate piled high with greasy, delicious bacon. Mmmm....

Nowadays, bacon does not take quite as high of a priority for me, although I still love it as much as ever. I find that the stomach cramps I get from eating a pound of bacon in one sitting tend to outweigh the sensory pleasures of bacon's oily, crunchy deliciousness.

Imagine that you had a magic carpet. There's no denying that however often you use it, it's pretty damn awesome. But let's say riding on the magic carpet gives you motion sickness. Would you stop using it forever? No way dude, because it's a fucking magic carpet. So, in keeping with that analogy, however lame, I will sadly report that my bacon-eating has been reduced to an occasional luxury rather than a dietary staple.

When I saw an ingenious skit about bacon on my once-favorite show, The State, I felt like I may have been the only person on this Earth to completely relate to the feelings of a man (Ben Garant, probably better known for his role on "Reno 911!", and as director of the new flick "Balls of Fury") who adores bacon enough to make a dress out of it and tell it (bacon) his troubles when he feels mopey. I was also insanely jealous for not having been the first one to write a song singing the praises of bacon.

Take a look, and tell me this isn't some hardcore bacon-love:

In other bacon-related news:

Bacon-themed gifts from friends and family have become something of a tradition in my life. My good friends Lura and Dan bought me some Gummi Bacon for Christmas last year. I kind of doubt I'll ever eat it, it just seems a little too weird. But it is proudly displayed on my kitchen wall as a sort of trophy attesting to my love of fried strips of pig fat. My sister and her boyfriend have followed suit, giving me the magical gift of a Bacon Wallet for my birthday last month. I carry it proudly, and although it is a mere vinyl synthesis of what an actual bacon-crafted wallet would look like, it somehow manages to coat my credit cards and money with some sort of sticky film, almost as if it were emulating the effects of the real thing. I even received Christmas gifts thoughtfully wrapped with presumably expensive and hard-to-find bacon wrapping paper last year. You'd be surprised how many bacon-themed gifts, gags, and novelties there are out there. I, on the other hand, would not. I know I'm not the only baconophile out there.

As for the real catalyst which prompted me to blog an utterly insane tribute to my favorite foodstuff-- it all happened during a drive up to New Hampshire for a cigarette run two nights ago. After attempting a shortcut back to Massachusetts and getting lost, I eventually found my way back to Route 101 in Bedford. By this time, my bladder was screaming in agony due to the 2 huge cups of coffee that had accompanied me on my travels. I pulled into a gas station and asked if I could use their restroom.

While washing my hands and then cursing God after finding only a hot-air dryer to dry them with, I noticed what may well be the funniest thing I have ever seen. It looked something like this:

Sigh... if only there was a way to make this a reality instead of a cruel joke. While bacon may be less than useful when drying one's hands, the benefits of some sort of bacon-dispensing machine in every public restroom would transform America into my own personal paradise.

In any case, a quick Google search the next day revealed that this was hardly an isolated incident. In fact, the whole "Push Button -- Receive Bacon" gag had, unbeknownst to me, become something of an internet and pop culture meme, as evidenced by my search results.

Once again, I was kicking myself for not being the person who thought of this. So whoever you are out there, you have won my admiration and respect for being a comic genius on the topic of the most delicious of fried pork products. Thank you from the bottom of my cholesterol-polluted heart.

Labels: blogging, food, smoking

Posted by Shag at 11:47 AM

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So it goes.

There's nothing I can say that can accurately convey the sense of loss I feel over one of the 20th Century's most important authors, except that his writing had an amazing way of putting everything -- our actions, our mere existence, the universe itself -- into perspective. Vonnegut was a man who broke down the hugeness of our planet, and the monstrousness of our species, into childlike concepts. I will never forget seeing him on a tv interview, advocating a new and much-needed Cabinet position: "Secretary of the Future".

Here's a pretty comprehensive summing-up of his life.

(Although they left out the part where he wonders aloud how long he was going to have to wait before the damn cigarettes finally did their job and killed him already.)

One more thing: Kurt Vonnegut, a cynical, curmudgeony genius, would no doubt appreciate the minimal media coverage (or lack thereof) concerning his death, and what it ultimately says about our culture and its fascination with "celebrities" vs. "actual important topics 1 through infinity". After browsing through several other blogs and message boards, it was difficult to keep from crying when I read the messages of grief and loss from his readers. Unfortunately, we have no problem focusing our attention on (for example) Anna-Nicole Smith and her death, her fortune, the lineage of her child -- for WEEKS on end. But the passing of a brilliant mind like Vonnegut's will surely receive only the most cursory mentions on tonight's news broadcasts. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

Note: I just checked Google News. Anna Nicole Smith is at the top of the quick-links list for today's news, with over 2,100 related articles. Kurt Vonnegut's death is listed about 3/4 of the way down the page, with about 800.

Labels: books, heroes, humor, smoking

Posted by Shag at 9:57 AM

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So... for the second year in a row, I made a New Year's Resolution to quit smoking for real. So far, I have not succeeded, but I've made some serious progress. According to my calculations, my daily cigarette consumption is down by about 80%, and on top of that I've switched to Ultra Lights.

I've just learned a really unsettling fact, by the way. Light and Ultra Light cigarettes are meaningless. They're just regular filtered cigarettes with tiny holes poked in the filter, so when you take a drag you're getting a little extra air mixed into the smoke. They "test" the levels of tar and nicotine using a machine that "inhales" the smoke from the end of the filter. What they don't tell you is that most humans who smoke cigarettes typically hold them using their fingers, which effectively cover most of these tiny holes, rendering them pretty much useless.

Ultra Light cigarettes taste basically like just sitting in a really smoky room and breathing the smoke-filled air. Unsatisfying and gross, and it still makes you smell horrible.

Anyway, wish me luck everyone. I can't afford to smoke anymore since moving to Massachusetts, and once I sat down and realized that I've been a smoker for over 10 years, I decided that it's kind of important to not die. My parents are offering to split the cost of laser acupuncture treatment with me, but even divided in half, it's still too expensive for me to afford at the moment.

I also just read this article and got extremely pissed off. Not that the cigarette industry was really doing anything that great for me before I found out, but seeing the article just made them seem so much more evil. I guess even if they send me free flashlights and travel dominoes sets and mix CDs, in the end they're still basing their business on profiting from my self-destruction.

More on this as I progress (or don't)...

Labels: smoking

Posted by Shag at 11:40 PM

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