smoke a pack a day, I don;t plan on smoking forever. i am awaiting responses for 07 m. arch admissions.
Do I :
1. quit before i start school and things get stressfull?
2. plan on quiting after m. arch
- am afraid that during grad schoool smoking and architecturing will become inseperably associated
- am afraid i'll go nuts especially my first year , if all i want is a fucking smoke, and i can think or design anything , and i seem stupid and get kicked out or whatever other nightmarish consequences i dream up.
just curious about other people's smoking habits - or quitting advice..?
help?
quit after you get accepted but before you go to school. That way you've got several months in there to get used to living smoke-free, but you'll have them to get you through the agonizing wait of not knowing whether you're in.
Quit now! The sooner you quit the better off you will be! If you truly set about quitting, and you are done with them by the time school starts, then you won't have a problem with wanting them, etc. when you are in school. Many former smokers that I know started to realize how vile it is and how badly it makes you smell as quickly as 1 month after they quit....
Are you in a cold place right now? It seems like it might be easier for people to quit when it is super cold out and stepping outside to smoke sucks more.
Listen, if you are thinking, "oh I should keep smoking through grad school because it's going to be too stressful", maybe you need to rethink your whole attitude about it. Smoking is probably the worst thing that human beings can do to themselves legally. Are you aware of all the statistics or shall I start posting pics of black lungs for you?
I am a big no-smoking advocate, in case you couldn't tell.
I'm an old pro at quitting - I've done it about half a dozen times....
It only gets harder the longer you wait.
I've been smoke free for about a year and a half, and the difference in how I feel is immeasurable (for the better obviously). Don't let that nasty habit bog you and your work down during school.
silverlake, or anyone else, do you have stories of success or failure in quitting? ive failed manytimes, and am tempted to use the patch, but not before i get some insight on peoples experiences with it... id like to do cold turkey and pure will power, but i have failed many times
The way I did it was to make a rule that I had to wait longer for my next cigarette than I did for the last. So If didnt smoke for 3 days last time, I have to go 4 this time. It sounds agonizing, but if you really commit yourself to not breaking the rule you'll be surprised how fast it works. So like if all of a sudden you pull off not smoking for 6 months you have to go 7 after that. Each interval is actually easier than the last. Im working on beating a year and a half.
Fuck. October. How the fuck am I gonna make it till october!?
about a year and three mounths ago i have arrived at cleveland airport, lit a camel and smoked half of it and throw the rest on the snowpile with other butts on it. i wasn't gonna smoke for the duration of my visit about two weeks. two weeks became three than six and here i am, cigarette free for a long time after smoking 2-3 packs a day. save about 3-4 hundred bucks a mounth too.
i feel much better and don't want to smoke for the rest of my life.
I tried things like that oe for years but never had the will power to pace myself in anyway.
I tried the gum and patch but the problem was I was still mentally depended on a fix. They were inferior fixes so it just didn't work.
Cold turkey was the only way for me. After chonic coughing (sometimes with blood involved), I just finally said fuck it, no matter what I'm not touching one again.
The trick for me was acquiring a healthy vice to takes it place, which has been drinking... Er, I mean jogging.
start drinking heavily...there is no social stigma against it
Feb 6, 07 12:47 pm ·
·
They sometimes say smoking gets intertwined with other habits. After living there 48 years, I moved out of my house last October and I've been smoke-free ever since. Strange, too, I now never even think about lighting-up.
I wonder what would happen if I moved to Uranus!?! A whole new meaning for Puff Puff, I suppose.
I recently quit myself, I found something important to attach it to (30th birthday). So I quit new years to give myself time to warm up to the idea by April. I've only had one really bad day and have only smoked 3 times since I started the process (yes its a process...that's the most important message).
Important things -
1. no more heavy breathing after a long walk or a jog
2. no cravings all the time
3. I can smell the difference than when I smoked
4. I save a little cash for books each month...or for my buy a holiday home fund
and last but not least
5. I can get everyone off my f*cking back about quitting
but apparently I'm not always right.... I've never smoked (unless you count the three puffs that made it clear I was allergic), so I was just trying to be logical about it. Listen to those with more experience.
summer undergrad architectural study trip to italy - started smoking.
quit several months before grad school.
(3 years smoking)
moved to LA.
the convenience store down the street from my first domicile sold cigs individually.
"shit - just one to take the edge off."
hooked again - that lasted through grad school.
finally quit about a year after i got a 'real' job.
(5 years smoking on and off)
[reference the other thread about knowing when to quit and migraines]
ended up volunteering my efforts with the smoke-free albuquerque coalition that got the first clean-air indoor anti-smoking legislation passed here.
the convenience store near me sells black-n-milds individually
i smoked for...let's see...exactly five years, which coincidentally is equal to the length of time i spent in architecture school.
i quit:
--new year's 1997 (for a day)
--summer 1997 (for like a day)
--fall 1997 (that lasted a week)
--spring 1998 (about three days)
--summer 1998 (actually quit for an entire summer except for one memorable backslide into marlboro country when i smoked three packs of cigarettes in one day)
--fall 1998 (two days)
--spring 1999...didn't even try
--summer 1999 (only on weekends, i turned 21 that summer)
--spring 2000 (three days)
--spring 2001 (for a month and a half)
--summer 2001 (the entire summer)
and finally, without any further ado, i quit for good on december 22, 2001. now when i'm around smoke i want to choke and puke at the same time. it will happen to you, just remember ... don't quit quitting unless you've already quit.
i've tried quitting several times also but failed and i still smoke (started 14 years ago)...the longest i've done without smoking a cigarette was about a year.
what made me gradually smoke regularly again was several reasons: friends who smoke also and i've gotten used to the habit of stepping outside of the bar with friends and smoking while chit-chatting; and the hour drive to work with the coffee (a combination of boredom and pleasure); those after dinner cigarettes...it truly is a bad habit.
i don't know when i'm gonna try again...but i keep thinking if architects peak at around 50-60 and i get cancer and die by the time i'm 35...then all that schooling, travelling, IDP, etc. was worthless...
i've noticed that regular exercise helps...after a nice morning run, my lungs and my whole body just feels healthy that a cigarette would just give me a awful headrush...
it felt good to not smoke for a period of time though, i was putting less tapatio on my food because i can actually taste...and the shortness of breath disappearing felt good...
my plan is to slowly eliminate it's relationship with other activities...for example, i can begin by not smoking a cigarette in the car on the way home...then if that's a success then maybe the way to work...so on and so forth
but all that talk is useless without actually doing it, of course...
i quit in my second year of school...all the architects i lived with didnt smoke ciggs...i felt like an outcast - so i quit-cold turkey
-and started smoking weed in the studio instead of taking a walk outside and lighting up a butt. - we made the smell go away w/ a simple spurt of the spray paint on our lockers.
-i chewed a hella lot of sunflower seeds - i started to swallow the empty shells cause the custodian was constantly yelling at me for spitting them on the floor - by the end of the night i chewed a whole bag and left a pile of shhells on the floor ...what mess
-teh most important thing about quitting smoking that year was that i got so much freaking work done it was unbelievable...i dont know if it was the smoking weed that enhanced my abilities or if it was not taking the 10 trips outside a night to smoke a butt.
-a year later i didnt live with the same architects and i started smokign butts again...a little less work got done but i was satisfied with what i had...5 years later still smoking i wish i stayed on the wagon but now i only smoke 3 a day and a small pipe when i get home! good luck!
Congrats and a big gold star to all of you who quit, and to those of you who are trying.....your experiences really highlight how addictive those burning death sticks are.....
"i keep thinking if architects peak at around 50-60 and i get cancer and die by the time i'm 35...then all that schooling, travelling, IDP, etc. was worthless..." That is really good anti-smoking statement
Its funny because I think if i could drive at the moment I would be lighting up. Something about the wind in your face, loooking out towards the sea i guess
i smoked my first cigarette because i was told second hand smoke was deadlier than first hand.... stupid me. stupid stupid me.
i think one of the main problems of quitting cigarettes is my attachment to the act of smoking, almost as a ritual... i love sitting outside, rolling my own tobacco in the dead of winter, and smoking.. its a simple, yet satisfying act.
nevertheless, i attempt to quit once again. thanks for the advice/experiences!
I had quit fairly recently....A long process, I should say. From smoking nearly a pack a day to 5 sticks a day to two sticks a day to few times a week...to social smoking..and now...nada.
Too bad you can't buy just a stick here. One good thing about the Philippines: You can buy just a stick or two instead of buying a whole pack or ream. I guess it's easier to quit that way.
I suggest you quit now before you find more reason NOT to quit smoking.
all ya chronic smokers ( including me ) should live in Bhutan for a while.
Apart from the spectacular scenery and climate, it would also help us in other ways , considering the fact that is the only in the world to have banned tobacco smoking and the sale of tobacco.
i actually found i started smoking less during college. i HATED the smell of smokers (still do...that stale smell...ugh) and it was distracting and gave me headaches if someone had really been puffing away and i had to sit near them in lectures. i didn't want to make other people feel that way so i started by having a cig 1st thing when i woke up b4 my shower and then would wait for my next one until my lectures and/or studio were done for the day (really, any time i had to be near someone for an extended period of time). believe it or not this dropped my smoking from my 10-12 a day to 3-5 a day. which is exactly where i've been for the last 8 years. can you believe that crap? i only smoke 3-5 a day and i STILL can't convince myself to quit.
i'm an idiot. i hike, walk everywhere, live on the 5th floor of a walkup, don't go to the gym but i'm extremely active just in my day to day life and i STILL have that morning cig before the shower, my second as i walk out the door of the office, and my last just before i go to bed.
i think more than anything, it's the fear of having to battle that craving everyday. i'm not very good at telling myself no.
so c...if you're considering quitting, just do it as soon as you can committ, college will be hard b/c it's a good excuse to walk away from your desk for a bit, but try getting addicted to coffee or tea or something, the w/drawals last a significantly shorter period of time, it's more socially acceptable, and you can get up just as many times during the day and get that "thinking" time.
and for those thinking of using the patch, i've tried that, worked okay, best part was if you left them on overnight they gave you really trippy dreams! didn't take away the "habit" though, which i think is more of what MY issue is, not really the physical addiction, more the mental.
acupuncture worked WONDERS the first time! then i broke up w/ the person who convinved me to try acupuncture and quit smoking and decided to start again to "SHOW HIM". yes, sometimes we do stupid things. i'd actually recommend this solution. maybe it's time to try it again?
Chaos I love it. I live on a silly island with loads and loads of snow birds...many of them still smokers. There was a Chinese accupuncturist that was giving people sure cures...by inserting a series of needles in the ear (cartilidge just about the lobe). Anyway it worked that if they felt for a fag they were supposed to pinch their ear.
It was hilarious seeing 10 wrinkles pinching their ear all at the same time
I found that the "stop smoking or I'll dump your ass" ultimatum my gf gave me was a pretty good motivator. I was down to 5 cigs a day, so it wasn't too rough to quit. Cutting back and finding other outlets for your fixations is a good start. My pens are all chewed to bits, but it's a better fate than lung cancer. There are these great tea-tree oil chewing sticks at Whole Foods that are a nice craving killer. I've been smoke-free for almost a year after smoking for 10+, and I honestly don't miss it.
LOL ok I know this is not the place for this..
But I posted this on archinect earlier under the titel "cough cough "
The Legend of Tobacco:
Long time ago a prince had a young son of marrying age, but to his father's dismay he had no interest in finding a wife. The problem was that no woman had the beauty and charm to win his heart. One day, however, the young man went hunting in the forest and discovered a woman wandering about in the wilderness.
She was so lovely that he fell in love with her straightaway, never thinking of how strange it was that a woman like her would be living so far out in the taiga forest. He decided that he would marry her at once and took her home to his camp.
The son never told his father of his sudden marriage to the mysterious woman. Man and wife lived happily together for a long time. Other people, however, noticed that the woman was very strange, that she seemed to have no past and that she would eat the meat of badgers she clubbed to death in the forest.
When rumors of the son and eccentric wife reached the noble father, he traveled to his son's camp to find out what had happened. He suspected that the woman was a "bong," a form of undead being that is created when a "shutger" (evil spirit) enters into the body of someone who had just died, bringing it back to life. These creatures live deep in the forest, eating small animals and avoiding the wolves that hunt them.
When he reached his son's home, he found the beautiful and mysterious woman who had become his daughter-in-law. He had her siezed and when his men pulled back her hair they found the extra eye on her scalp, a sure sign that she was a bong. The father ordered that she should be beheaded.
Before her death the wife made one last promise to her husband. "Come back to this place in one year and where my blood had been spilled on the ground you will find a beautiful plant growing. Take the leaves, dry them, and then smoke them. They will make you feel the happiness you felt with me."
The next summer the young man returned to the site of his wife's execution. There in the clearing there stood a tall, beautiful plant, like none he had seen before. He took the leaves, dried, and smoked them as he had been told. As he smoked he felt happiness and comfort from his wife's last gift.
But like the love of a beautiful woman it has its danger, for it will enslave a man with its addictive power.
----Buryat mongolian Legend.
To this day many men enjoy this woman's gift to humans...Especially true for creative men who need a constant source of surreality near them, if not a beautiful woman, then some white smoke in curves ( like the figure of their women) taking a bit of their art and breath to the heavens.
I never smoked until I went to architecure school. I smoked the entire time I went to architecture school. I quit smoking the day I graduated architecture school. I haven't smoked in the 15 years since.
plan on quitting afterward....you'll save the kicking yourself in the pants when you pick it back up again close to thesis....
i smoked a pack a day through undergrad and had planned to quit after masters....and did quit almost right after!
if you are in school you will always have an excuse...that you'll quit after school, b/c it's too stressful right then, but afterward you'll basically lose it...and have to quit....
it's a little easier to plan to quit at a point like that....not as many all nighters, helps when you sometimes literally need to run from one interview to another, sit in-front of cad for longer periods of time making your boss love the fact that you are a productive drone in the company....you know...all the things that count!
good luck on the quitting smoking thing...trust me...i know it is rough...very rough....but more than worth it.
stopped smoking for new year's resolution, 50+ days strong! I wasn't a long time smoker, so cold turkey wasn't too tough for me. I still get cravings every so often, like long periods in the car, stressful moments, or drinking.
Here's the key, don't stop right before a stressful moment, because the stress will send you right back into it at the beginning. Don't hang around smokers, especially at the bars. Ask people ahead of time not to offer you cigarettes, and ask them to smoke away from you when they do...drinking is the easiest to let your guard down.
Also change other bad habits in your life! I stopped smoking, eating fast food, and processed foods, and the last two have helped the non-smoking because I feel like I'm really making myself into healthier person, and I feel just generally better each as a result.
What is it about architects and smoking? My profs smoke at least a pack a day, and at any given moment, there's a group smoking outside the arch building. other buildings don't have nearly so many people smoking near them--what gives? Is there no correlation, or is it our absurd neuroses?
smoking.. and thinking of not smoking
smoke a pack a day, I don;t plan on smoking forever. i am awaiting responses for 07 m. arch admissions.
Do I :
1. quit before i start school and things get stressfull?
2. plan on quiting after m. arch
- am afraid that during grad schoool smoking and architecturing will become inseperably associated
- am afraid i'll go nuts especially my first year , if all i want is a fucking smoke, and i can think or design anything , and i seem stupid and get kicked out or whatever other nightmarish consequences i dream up.
just curious about other people's smoking habits - or quitting advice..?
help?
Why would you want to quit smoking?
quit after you get accepted but before you go to school. That way you've got several months in there to get used to living smoke-free, but you'll have them to get you through the agonizing wait of not knowing whether you're in.
Quit now! The sooner you quit the better off you will be! If you truly set about quitting, and you are done with them by the time school starts, then you won't have a problem with wanting them, etc. when you are in school. Many former smokers that I know started to realize how vile it is and how badly it makes you smell as quickly as 1 month after they quit....
Are you in a cold place right now? It seems like it might be easier for people to quit when it is super cold out and stepping outside to smoke sucks more.
Listen, if you are thinking, "oh I should keep smoking through grad school because it's going to be too stressful", maybe you need to rethink your whole attitude about it. Smoking is probably the worst thing that human beings can do to themselves legally. Are you aware of all the statistics or shall I start posting pics of black lungs for you?
I am a big no-smoking advocate, in case you couldn't tell.
I'm an old pro at quitting - I've done it about half a dozen times....
It only gets harder the longer you wait.
I've been smoke free for about a year and a half, and the difference in how I feel is immeasurable (for the better obviously). Don't let that nasty habit bog you and your work down during school.
Good luck!
silverlake, or anyone else, do you have stories of success or failure in quitting? ive failed manytimes, and am tempted to use the patch, but not before i get some insight on peoples experiences with it... id like to do cold turkey and pure will power, but i have failed many times
The way I did it was to make a rule that I had to wait longer for my next cigarette than I did for the last. So If didnt smoke for 3 days last time, I have to go 4 this time. It sounds agonizing, but if you really commit yourself to not breaking the rule you'll be surprised how fast it works. So like if all of a sudden you pull off not smoking for 6 months you have to go 7 after that. Each interval is actually easier than the last. Im working on beating a year and a half.
Fuck. October. How the fuck am I gonna make it till october!?
about a year and three mounths ago i have arrived at cleveland airport, lit a camel and smoked half of it and throw the rest on the snowpile with other butts on it. i wasn't gonna smoke for the duration of my visit about two weeks. two weeks became three than six and here i am, cigarette free for a long time after smoking 2-3 packs a day. save about 3-4 hundred bucks a mounth too.
i feel much better and don't want to smoke for the rest of my life.
I tried things like that oe for years but never had the will power to pace myself in anyway.
I tried the gum and patch but the problem was I was still mentally depended on a fix. They were inferior fixes so it just didn't work.
Cold turkey was the only way for me. After chonic coughing (sometimes with blood involved), I just finally said fuck it, no matter what I'm not touching one again.
The trick for me was acquiring a healthy vice to takes it place, which has been drinking... Er, I mean jogging.
*dependent
dam orhan, 2+ packs a day to 0 !
thanks all for the advice,
rationalist, you are so rational..
start drinking heavily...there is no social stigma against it
They sometimes say smoking gets intertwined with other habits. After living there 48 years, I moved out of my house last October and I've been smoke-free ever since. Strange, too, I now never even think about lighting-up.
I wonder what would happen if I moved to Uranus!?! A whole new meaning for Puff Puff, I suppose.
yeah thats why i am reluctant. i already see it as merely a replacement for the cancer sticks...
cold turkey begins... tomorrow...
I recently quit myself, I found something important to attach it to (30th birthday). So I quit new years to give myself time to warm up to the idea by April. I've only had one really bad day and have only smoked 3 times since I started the process (yes its a process...that's the most important message).
Going cold turkey isn't as delicious as it sounds.
- Homer Simpson
Important things -
1. no more heavy breathing after a long walk or a jog
2. no cravings all the time
3. I can smell the difference than when I smoked
4. I save a little cash for books each month...or for my buy a holiday home fund
and last but not least
5. I can get everyone off my f*cking back about quitting
Oh actually took up smoking during grad school
I had broken up with my fiance' took up smoking, and wanted to change grad schools after a year - had been prov acceptance to PSA.
but apparently I'm not always right.... I've never smoked (unless you count the three puffs that made it clear I was allergic), so I was just trying to be logical about it. Listen to those with more experience.
summer undergrad architectural study trip to italy - started smoking.
quit several months before grad school.
(3 years smoking)
moved to LA.
the convenience store down the street from my first domicile sold cigs individually.
"shit - just one to take the edge off."
hooked again - that lasted through grad school.
finally quit about a year after i got a 'real' job.
(5 years smoking on and off)
[reference the other thread about knowing when to quit and migraines]
ended up volunteering my efforts with the smoke-free albuquerque coalition that got the first clean-air indoor anti-smoking legislation passed here.
the convenience store near me sells black-n-milds individually
i smoked for...let's see...exactly five years, which coincidentally is equal to the length of time i spent in architecture school.
i quit:
--new year's 1997 (for a day)
--summer 1997 (for like a day)
--fall 1997 (that lasted a week)
--spring 1998 (about three days)
--summer 1998 (actually quit for an entire summer except for one memorable backslide into marlboro country when i smoked three packs of cigarettes in one day)
--fall 1998 (two days)
--spring 1999...didn't even try
--summer 1999 (only on weekends, i turned 21 that summer)
--spring 2000 (three days)
--spring 2001 (for a month and a half)
--summer 2001 (the entire summer)
and finally, without any further ado, i quit for good on december 22, 2001. now when i'm around smoke i want to choke and puke at the same time. it will happen to you, just remember ... don't quit quitting unless you've already quit.
i've tried quitting several times also but failed and i still smoke (started 14 years ago)...the longest i've done without smoking a cigarette was about a year.
what made me gradually smoke regularly again was several reasons: friends who smoke also and i've gotten used to the habit of stepping outside of the bar with friends and smoking while chit-chatting; and the hour drive to work with the coffee (a combination of boredom and pleasure); those after dinner cigarettes...it truly is a bad habit.
i don't know when i'm gonna try again...but i keep thinking if architects peak at around 50-60 and i get cancer and die by the time i'm 35...then all that schooling, travelling, IDP, etc. was worthless...
i've noticed that regular exercise helps...after a nice morning run, my lungs and my whole body just feels healthy that a cigarette would just give me a awful headrush...
it felt good to not smoke for a period of time though, i was putting less tapatio on my food because i can actually taste...and the shortness of breath disappearing felt good...
my plan is to slowly eliminate it's relationship with other activities...for example, i can begin by not smoking a cigarette in the car on the way home...then if that's a success then maybe the way to work...so on and so forth
but all that talk is useless without actually doing it, of course...
i quit in my second year of school...all the architects i lived with didnt smoke ciggs...i felt like an outcast - so i quit-cold turkey
-and started smoking weed in the studio instead of taking a walk outside and lighting up a butt. - we made the smell go away w/ a simple spurt of the spray paint on our lockers.
-i chewed a hella lot of sunflower seeds - i started to swallow the empty shells cause the custodian was constantly yelling at me for spitting them on the floor - by the end of the night i chewed a whole bag and left a pile of shhells on the floor ...what mess
-teh most important thing about quitting smoking that year was that i got so much freaking work done it was unbelievable...i dont know if it was the smoking weed that enhanced my abilities or if it was not taking the 10 trips outside a night to smoke a butt.
-a year later i didnt live with the same architects and i started smokign butts again...a little less work got done but i was satisfied with what i had...5 years later still smoking i wish i stayed on the wagon but now i only smoke 3 a day and a small pipe when i get home! good luck!
Congrats and a big gold star to all of you who quit, and to those of you who are trying.....your experiences really highlight how addictive those burning death sticks are.....
an rule of thumb I once came accross that rather appealed to me:
treat yourself at least as well as you'd treat a dog.
sadly, not the case - i smoke, eat poorly and don't sleep or exercise enough... don't have a dog , but if I did ....
"i keep thinking if architects peak at around 50-60 and i get cancer and die by the time i'm 35...then all that schooling, travelling, IDP, etc. was worthless..." That is really good anti-smoking statement
Its funny because I think if i could drive at the moment I would be lighting up. Something about the wind in your face, loooking out towards the sea i guess
old habits died hard
i smoked my first cigarette because i was told second hand smoke was deadlier than first hand.... stupid me. stupid stupid me.
i think one of the main problems of quitting cigarettes is my attachment to the act of smoking, almost as a ritual... i love sitting outside, rolling my own tobacco in the dead of winter, and smoking.. its a simple, yet satisfying act.
nevertheless, i attempt to quit once again. thanks for the advice/experiences!
spaghetti, while you're in l.a. go to the la brea tar pits...
I had quit fairly recently....A long process, I should say. From smoking nearly a pack a day to 5 sticks a day to two sticks a day to few times a week...to social smoking..and now...nada.
Too bad you can't buy just a stick here. One good thing about the Philippines: You can buy just a stick or two instead of buying a whole pack or ream. I guess it's easier to quit that way.
I suggest you quit now before you find more reason NOT to quit smoking.
only smoke when you have a drink in your hand...
that way you will smoke less, and drink more... much needed practice for when you become a moderately successful alcoholic architect.
whats with the tar pits? in my lungs?
hah hah
smoke cigars don't inhale
After MArch. Trust me.
all ya chronic smokers ( including me ) should live in Bhutan for a while.
Apart from the spectacular scenery and climate, it would also help us in other ways , considering the fact that is the only in the world to have banned tobacco smoking and the sale of tobacco.
Bhutan played Montserrat in a FIFA "finals" with a cup designed by FAT...sorry complete segway there
http://www.tobaccofreedom.org/issues/documents/cancer/cancer_images/bender.jpeg[/img]
this thread inspired me..
I'm currently in the middle of day four.....
i'm hungry all the time... gonna have to go to the gym soon I can see that already..
the cost in the UK is a big incentive.
In a pub/bar it can be £6+ for 16 sticks.
To save your US calculators thats almost $2 a stick
OK. I think my calculator needs examining - more $1.50 a stick
heh heh we pay about 6 quid for a carton (not a box, a carton)
how about 'having a fag'!
i actually found i started smoking less during college. i HATED the smell of smokers (still do...that stale smell...ugh) and it was distracting and gave me headaches if someone had really been puffing away and i had to sit near them in lectures. i didn't want to make other people feel that way so i started by having a cig 1st thing when i woke up b4 my shower and then would wait for my next one until my lectures and/or studio were done for the day (really, any time i had to be near someone for an extended period of time). believe it or not this dropped my smoking from my 10-12 a day to 3-5 a day. which is exactly where i've been for the last 8 years. can you believe that crap? i only smoke 3-5 a day and i STILL can't convince myself to quit.
i'm an idiot. i hike, walk everywhere, live on the 5th floor of a walkup, don't go to the gym but i'm extremely active just in my day to day life and i STILL have that morning cig before the shower, my second as i walk out the door of the office, and my last just before i go to bed.
i think more than anything, it's the fear of having to battle that craving everyday. i'm not very good at telling myself no.
so c...if you're considering quitting, just do it as soon as you can committ, college will be hard b/c it's a good excuse to walk away from your desk for a bit, but try getting addicted to coffee or tea or something, the w/drawals last a significantly shorter period of time, it's more socially acceptable, and you can get up just as many times during the day and get that "thinking" time.
and for those thinking of using the patch, i've tried that, worked okay, best part was if you left them on overnight they gave you really trippy dreams! didn't take away the "habit" though, which i think is more of what MY issue is, not really the physical addiction, more the mental.
acupuncture worked WONDERS the first time! then i broke up w/ the person who convinved me to try acupuncture and quit smoking and decided to start again to "SHOW HIM". yes, sometimes we do stupid things. i'd actually recommend this solution. maybe it's time to try it again?
Chaos I love it. I live on a silly island with loads and loads of snow birds...many of them still smokers. There was a Chinese accupuncturist that was giving people sure cures...by inserting a series of needles in the ear (cartilidge just about the lobe). Anyway it worked that if they felt for a fag they were supposed to pinch their ear.
It was hilarious seeing 10 wrinkles pinching their ear all at the same time
ha! he didn't tell me to pinch my ear! hot diggity achitechnophilia, i come to archinect to relieve the boredom and my life gets saved instead!
I found that the "stop smoking or I'll dump your ass" ultimatum my gf gave me was a pretty good motivator. I was down to 5 cigs a day, so it wasn't too rough to quit. Cutting back and finding other outlets for your fixations is a good start. My pens are all chewed to bits, but it's a better fate than lung cancer. There are these great tea-tree oil chewing sticks at Whole Foods that are a nice craving killer. I've been smoke-free for almost a year after smoking for 10+, and I honestly don't miss it.
LOL ok I know this is not the place for this..
But I posted this on archinect earlier under the titel "cough cough "
The Legend of Tobacco:
Long time ago a prince had a young son of marrying age, but to his father's dismay he had no interest in finding a wife. The problem was that no woman had the beauty and charm to win his heart. One day, however, the young man went hunting in the forest and discovered a woman wandering about in the wilderness.
She was so lovely that he fell in love with her straightaway, never thinking of how strange it was that a woman like her would be living so far out in the taiga forest. He decided that he would marry her at once and took her home to his camp.
The son never told his father of his sudden marriage to the mysterious woman. Man and wife lived happily together for a long time. Other people, however, noticed that the woman was very strange, that she seemed to have no past and that she would eat the meat of badgers she clubbed to death in the forest.
When rumors of the son and eccentric wife reached the noble father, he traveled to his son's camp to find out what had happened. He suspected that the woman was a "bong," a form of undead being that is created when a "shutger" (evil spirit) enters into the body of someone who had just died, bringing it back to life. These creatures live deep in the forest, eating small animals and avoiding the wolves that hunt them.
When he reached his son's home, he found the beautiful and mysterious woman who had become his daughter-in-law. He had her siezed and when his men pulled back her hair they found the extra eye on her scalp, a sure sign that she was a bong. The father ordered that she should be beheaded.
Before her death the wife made one last promise to her husband. "Come back to this place in one year and where my blood had been spilled on the ground you will find a beautiful plant growing. Take the leaves, dry them, and then smoke them. They will make you feel the happiness you felt with me."
The next summer the young man returned to the site of his wife's execution. There in the clearing there stood a tall, beautiful plant, like none he had seen before. He took the leaves, dried, and smoked them as he had been told. As he smoked he felt happiness and comfort from his wife's last gift.
But like the love of a beautiful woman it has its danger, for it will enslave a man with its addictive power.
----Buryat mongolian Legend.
To this day many men enjoy this woman's gift to humans...Especially true for creative men who need a constant source of surreality near them, if not a beautiful woman, then some white smoke in curves ( like the figure of their women) taking a bit of their art and breath to the heavens.
I never smoked until I went to architecure school. I smoked the entire time I went to architecture school. I quit smoking the day I graduated architecture school. I haven't smoked in the 15 years since.
Smoke 'em while you got 'em.
plan on quitting afterward....you'll save the kicking yourself in the pants when you pick it back up again close to thesis....
i smoked a pack a day through undergrad and had planned to quit after masters....and did quit almost right after!
if you are in school you will always have an excuse...that you'll quit after school, b/c it's too stressful right then, but afterward you'll basically lose it...and have to quit....
it's a little easier to plan to quit at a point like that....not as many all nighters, helps when you sometimes literally need to run from one interview to another, sit in-front of cad for longer periods of time making your boss love the fact that you are a productive drone in the company....you know...all the things that count!
good luck on the quitting smoking thing...trust me...i know it is rough...very rough....but more than worth it.
stopped smoking for new year's resolution, 50+ days strong! I wasn't a long time smoker, so cold turkey wasn't too tough for me. I still get cravings every so often, like long periods in the car, stressful moments, or drinking.
Here's the key, don't stop right before a stressful moment, because the stress will send you right back into it at the beginning. Don't hang around smokers, especially at the bars. Ask people ahead of time not to offer you cigarettes, and ask them to smoke away from you when they do...drinking is the easiest to let your guard down.
Also change other bad habits in your life! I stopped smoking, eating fast food, and processed foods, and the last two have helped the non-smoking because I feel like I'm really making myself into healthier person, and I feel just generally better each as a result.
And as always, just smoke other things ;-).
What is it about architects and smoking? My profs smoke at least a pack a day, and at any given moment, there's a group smoking outside the arch building. other buildings don't have nearly so many people smoking near them--what gives? Is there no correlation, or is it our absurd neuroses?
go back in time and don't start ;)
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.