Younger Members -- 18 - 54

[ChaosTheory]

Speaking of the universe, I think I solved the Fermi Dilemma... Somewhere in the multiverse there is a cluster of planets and galaxies that exist where there is a plethora of life. There's planets where there's always a party, beer, love, but nothing like you'd see here on Earth. There's planets that are quiet and serene, relaxation and tranquility. there's even interstellar teleportation that allows quick mobility between neighboring planets depending on what your mood is. Feel like partying for a week straight? This is the planet to go to, for example. The kind of distrust and trespass and violence that you see on earth is rare, disputes are resolved easily.

So where does earth fit in?

When Enrico Fermi asked, "If there is such a high probability of life to exist in the universe.. Where is it all?"... He was on to something.. but nobody knew for sure how to solve the equation.

The reason we cannot see any other civilizations in the universe is because we were intentionally marooned in this part of the universe. Earth is essentially a prison colony.. exiled for our turbulence and lack of functionality within the rest of the interstellar community.

it just sucks for those of us who were born here that didn't deserve to be exiled.

 

[Del Boy]

I'm not young but hey i fit within the defined age group so here it is:

When i was early teens i didn't think i was cool at all. To me everyone else was cool. I would seem to pick out all the best bits of someone and label them as cool right through. I would even see their worse side as justified enough to not make them uncool.
However, i thought everything about myself was totally uncool. I didn't have a mum from when i was two so thinking about it i probably missed out on being/feeling special right through my formative years. My Dad did a real good job considering he was the angriest man on the planet.
Anyways i thought what would at least go part of the way to getting some cool about me would be to start smoking. Just like all the other cool people/kids.
My Dad, for some reason, had decided that swimming was great. And that he was gonna give me the chance to be a great swimmer. I remember he used to watch all the swimming whenever there was an olympics being televised. I remember him shouting encouragement at our old black and white tv, that used to blink every 5 seconds, whenever a British swimmer was in with a chance of winning.
From age 9 years old i began swimming for a swimming club in my home City (London). I got good quickly and was soon swimming in local championship galas. Without realising at all i was the kid that always had something to do. I was swimming 4 nights a week and 2 mornings a week before my school day began.
The cool kids were hanging around the streets doing nothing at all. Maybe kicking a football around. Smoking. Causing little bits of bother and getting in silly trouble. I can't believe when i look back that i felt i was missing out.
At 15 when i stopped with the swimming, up and down up and down, i was as fit as anybody. I'm sure it set me up for life as even when smoking i seemed to be able to 'out stamina' everyone.
Yeah i took up smoking and wearing the uniforms that my age group were wearing and spoke how they spoke. It was never fully real. But hey. I at least seemed to be cool now. Coughing/wheezing/smelling just like my peers.
Unfortunately my quest to 'fit' didn't end there and without realising it i had embarked on a 'follow the crowd' route through my late teens and early 20's. I took an awful lot of substances. I had a lot of fights at football matches. I got in a lot of trouble with the police. I had sex with an awful lot of girls that i didn't treat well at all. But hey.....i was cool...........NOT.

Here i am now at the upper edge of this age grouped thread. I'm not smoking (7 weeks this time) I'm happily married (27 years) to a wife that has started to adore me (bizzarely). I'm swimming again twice a week (yeah i've still got it..lol). I wear whatever i want to (always tidy). Haven't been in trouble for 28 years. I try my best to be there for my two sons (25 and 26) and i know they love me.
I still get things wrong....sure. But i am a good man. My wife tells me that often. That makes me feel way..... way...... way .....way better than being told i was cool ever made me feel.

 

[Plumes.91]

Loved that Del Boy, it sounds like you've had a great life and you have loved ones that love you. I envy you in some ways and I sympathize with you in some as well. I was always looking to be "cool" but I also maintained certain beliefs that seemed very odd to my peers. I dressed oddly. I wore clothes from goodwill and t-shirts with political slogans. I let my shoes get holes in them before I changed them and I let my hair grow past my eyebrows at times. I took a ton of substances, but where I differed from my peers is that I also sought out substances foreign to most. (street drugs from Indonesia for example, and chemicals made in labs that no one else had ever heard of) I always tried to better myself mentally, but I never learned how to be happy with who and what I was. (Still, to this day. To this very day I feel awkward in my own body. I feel trapped at times) But I think what I took most from your story is that all of this chatter about knowledge gathering and research and all of that, its important in its own way, but your story touches on a human life that has managed to hold LOVE, and relationships with family and loved ones in the highest regard. This is what life is all about. I envy you in that way. Your life is interesting to me, and beautiful. Congrats on quitting those horrible cancerous "cool" sticks.

 

[Plumes.91]

 

[Cadaoryn]

Awesome post del boy! Most of us here fell victim to smoking for the image and the social aspect. Because what reason do you have to start smoking when you don't have an addiction yet? The truth is there is no valid reason to ever start smoking, and none of us have a good excuse here so you're definitely not alone. I did notice similar things with my girlfriend though. I think intimacy and sex drive increase when you aren't putting thousands of bad chemicals into your lungs..not to mention i think people will enjoy my presence more when i dont reek of an ash tray.

 

[Jammin]

Awesome post del boy! Most of us here fell victim to smoking for the image and the social aspect. Because what reason do you have to start smoking when you don't have an addiction yet? The truth is there is no valid reason to ever start smoking, and none of us have a good excuse here so you're definitely not alone. I did notice similar things with my girlfriend though. I think intimacy and sex drive increase when you aren't putting thousands of bad chemicals into your lungs..not to mention i think people will enjoy my presence more when i dont reek of an ash tray.

Not counting all the ill health effects, which is a gimmie, I think it was the smell of analogs that I hated the most. UGH they made you reek. When I smell smokers now, it is so strong, and I just think about how I am glad that isn't me anymore.

 

[Cadaoryn]

I know right! when you are a PAD smoker you stop smelling analogs on yourself as much. now with my senses heightened i can smell analogs on people and it makes me embarrassed that i used to smell like that.

and plumes you sound like a retired hipster XD

 

[Del Boy]

Thanks. I didn't really intend to go in as deep as i did. It all just came out so i went with it...ha.

Something that doesn't get mentioned very often, as a by product of quitting analogs, is how your character changes.

Now maybe it's just me. But i definitely become ...more. ie; more determined....more energetic....more motivated....more argumentative (maybe not such a good one but it's true).....more involved.....more staying power (hey hey...wink).

You've already mentioned some less's. ie; less smelly....less wheezing....less mess in the car (around the ashtray and gear shifter).

You could go on and on. Thing is if you were to do a pros and cons list, regarding the benefits of smoking, there would not be one single thing on the pros side of the list.

 

[Cadaoryn]

after seeing how difficult it is to quit and how beneficial quitting is..i dont see why cigarettes are legal with regulation and other less harmful more beneficial herbs arent.

 

[Del Boy]

Great point Cadaoryn.

So do govt.s, by virtue of the fact that they 'allow' cigarettes to be sold, actually condone the use of all the added chemicals that are added to tobacco ? If they do then how come ?

 

[Plumes.91]

The many chemical additives approved by the FDA for integration into destined cigarette tobacco are justified in the fact that each chemical that has been approved is "relatively" "safe" if not "abused." The many chemicals found in cigarettes each have a proper purpose and the cigarette companies (which are extremely powerful) have lobbied to allow their integration into the tobacco. Uses for each chemical include: Anti-moisture agents, moisture collecting agents, moisture controlling agents, paper burn rate control, speeding up of paper burn rate, slowing down of paper burn rate, smoke production, maximum nicotine delivery agents, decreasing of nicotine delivery agents, taste/flavor augmentation, tobacco preservatives, tobacco coloring agents, and the list goes on from here. Not each and every cigarette producer uses the " 500+ " chemicals available to cigarette manufacturers. American Spirit tobacco prides themselves in adding nothing to their organic tobacco products. Many of these 500+ chemicals are actually naturally produced chemicals, also known as alkaloids, within the tobacco leaves themselves. I'm sure each cigarette company must first register each foreign additive with the FDA. Cigarettes are legal because they are woven into our culture, and our world, similar to alcohol. They are also legal because the tobacco companies own our world. The tobacco companies give millions to presidential, senatorial, and congressional candidates and representatives. A list of each senate and congressional member actively being paid off by Phillip Morris and the other tobacco companies can easily be found online.

 

[Cadaoryn]

well at least were happy being solvent, formaldehyde, ammonia, acetone, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and cyanide free!

 

[Del Boy]

Great post 'Plumes'. Very informative and well put...thanks.

 

[ChaosTheory]

Good post, Del Boy

 

[ChaosTheory]

youngings let the thread die =(

 

[Huuwap]

I just ate a maple bavarian cream filled doughnut.

 

[tinajfreeman]

Hi guys, I am 45 years old, smoked for 25 years. I took up vaping 2 years ago and was totally analog free for over 7 months...went back to analogs in a stressful time and then did 9 months smoke-free...last fall I hit a wall and started smoking analogs AGAIN...ARGHH! A month or so ago I started noticing a little wheezing sound coming from my lungs when I tried to go to sleep...a pitiful, high pitched little cry from my lungs.

That little cry upset me...what was I doing to myself! I KNOW vaping works, so WHY was I back on analogs?

I have 4 kids, 3, 6, 15 and 20. Did I really want to attend my youngest daughter's graduation wearing an oxygen tank? If I even lived that long? I KNEW the smoking was absolute insanity.

So I got my ego's back out...ordered some fresh supplies and started vaping all day...anything to stave off the urge for an analog. When I absolutely felt I would break down every couple days, I bummed one from a friend who smokes a different brand and non-menthol (I hate them, I was a menthol smoker)....and smoked it with a glass of wine and realized how stupid and nasty they were. Then went right back to my vape.

I didn't start smoking because I thought it was cool, or because I was ignorant. I was an extremely smart and driven type-A personality and found the cigs calmed my nerves...every day knowing full well how stupid it was. Every time someone reminded me how dangerous they were I would think, "Well, DUH! I'm not a ......." But I did feel in my mind that smoking was completely ......ed...the need to "self medicate" kept me smoking. Nothing calmed my nerves like a couple glasses of wine while chain smoking menthol Virginia Slims. The realization of how ridiculous and stupid it was kept me quitting. I used to say, "quitting is really easy...it is "not starting again" that's a problem". It was pathetic.

I know after quitting smoking hundreds of times in 25 years, only to start back, sometimes after months (like after staying clean for a pregnancy...sometimes within a DAY....after trying EVERY "stop smoking" method on the planet....the ONLY thing that has EVER worked for me is vaping. It meets my "need" very well...without all the things that want to kill me.

The little wheeze is gone. My breathing is free now. This time, I need to stay with it. Going back to analogs in a time of trauma never, ever solves my problems. They just create new ones.

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories. It helps me stick it out.

 

[kidbeaster]

I just ate a maple bavarian cream filled doughnut.

How long did you let it steep?

 

[Huuwap]

Well I purchased it yesterday with 11 other assorted flavors, pretty sure they all had about 32 hours of steeping time before purchase...I'd put it at 55 hours of steeping time.

 

[Baldr]

after seeing how difficult it is to quit and how beneficial quitting is..i dont see why cigarettes are legal with regulation and other less harmful more beneficial herbs arent.

Do you have any other questions I can help with?