irish cream, islands and cigarettes

ben & jerry's dublin mudslide - that's what i was woken up for (and the dr pepper that accompanied it). i was also informed that my sneaky plan for the continuation of our vampire the masquerade game is in the right direction :D

that was after hanging around one of the parks next to my place (turns out it's actually quite a nice one), and before deciding on a movie to watch (the number 23). instead, though, we joined the chef's apprentice at an international short film screening - i loved most of them, but bastien dubois' madagascar in particular drove me insane: i couldn't believe my eyes!

scrapper and his friend left early, and the chef's apprentice and i stopped along rothschild for coffee (and a sandwich) and lots of talking. most of the conversation revolved around the social ills that frustrate our efforts to connect with each other... that had me smiling most of the way home. when you think about it, it's silly not to smile at strangers - most of them, like yourself, are happy to be acknowledged. i even got caught up in a conversation about panic ensemble on the way - a couple i was overtaking had gone to see them and i was upset about having forgotten :P

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have i ever mentioned how i quit smoking? i mean really discussed it?

the easy way? crap. or at least, for myself and most of the people i know: crap. we don't care about the fear, and we most certainly don't care about the health issues. how do i know this? because we wouldn't have started otherwise.

here we go with the basics: nicotine increases serotonin secretion, so when you're a smoker who's not smoking, you're less happy. or not happy at all.
what tends to happen is that a smoker will witness something that he would have enjoyed otherwise, and to compensate has a cigarette.

this way, the cigarettes become event based. first cup of coffee? cigarette. finishing a great meal? cigarette. beautiful sunset? cigarette. sex? cigarette. even those events that produce serotonin without the use of nicotine are improved by it, so experiencing the same without feels less... satisfying.

additionally, we don't actually enjoy smoking. what we enjoy is the immediate rush.

to make matters worse, the more-than-casual smoker has developed something really insidious: the internal loop that counts down to the next cigarette. whatever you're doing, you're simultaneously thinking of the next smoke break. the good news is that you take breaks - something non-smokers need a better excuse to do, and that's healthy both mentally and physically. the bad news is that when you do eventually manage to stop smoking (an aggravating procedure that only takes about two weeks*) you have a loop that keeps counting down to... nothing.

you can't stop that countdown, so you've got to re-purpose it. i can't tell you how to do that: every person has his own way. sports, art, whatever - just don't turn to food as an answer. exercise will give you the buzz; i'm guessing almost anything interesting / challenging will do.

so that's all the rationale for the totalwaste method:

step 1. pay attention to how little your body appreciates each and every cigarette. no, that's not the taste of meat and potatoes. your lungs do not appreciate the intrusion.

step 2. make sure that you have a support system in place for when you actually quit. memento "i'm irritated because i'm quitting" somewhere, because you'll find yourself horrifically aware of everyone else's faults for the two weeks - and the problem is with you. go to the gym, or set up a punching bag in your living room.

step 3. take up a sport - the more extreme the better - or art, or hobby, and go for walks in pretty places. you know - live. and assign your inner loop to whatever you've chosen. hell, if you assign your loop to reading books, you'll suddenly realize that you have tons of time for the classics; the same goes for movies. i hesitate to add cooking to the list, because that's an invitation for disaster :P

if any of those steps are a problem, then just carry on smoking. there's no point in going through life miserable.

* it takes about that much time for your system to realize that there's no external stimulus coming, and that it'll have to take back control of the serotonin release functions.

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thanks, ubuntu, for moving java to the partner repository. i just wasted at least one irritated hour trying to figure out what was wrong (O_o)