New Blog!: Nick on Smoking

Cigarettes are bad for you...

I'm not saying anything that every living (and some dead) man, woman, and child already know thanks to all the "Truth" ads that can be found on television, in magazines, and even as an ad on a DVD that plays before the movie starts if there's smoking in a non-negative light shown in the film. Plus, most of the time you can't even skip passed this ad on the fucking DVD! That's another story for another post however, so let's get back on subject here...

Anyway, cigarettes kill, but it isn't just the "Truth" ads that we have to thank for knowing so, it's also thanks to the fact that we have SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNINGS on the side of every pack of cigarettes. Be glad we don't live in Canada where pictures of tar-encrusted lungs decorate the cellophane packaging that can occasionally be a bitch to remove from the pack. With that in mind, anyone with even a small amount of education or common sense knows that smoking cigarettes is bad for you, so do we really need all the advertisements and shit telling us what we already fucking know?

I'll be the first to admit that smoking is a nasty habit to have. I started as a teenager in high school because I honest to God thought that it was the cool thing to do. I know, what a fucking moron right? Regardless of my immaturity or lack of proper thought processes, I didn't really become a regular smoker until shortly after graduating high school when the stresses of everyday reality began to hit me full-force. Because if it's one thing that I've learned, smoking a cigarette is a great stress reliever. Anyone who smokes or has had the balls and willpower to manage to quit smoking will tell you the same thing: after a long, shitty day, there just isn't anything better than sitting your ass down, kicking back, and lighting up a cigarette.

Stress reliever indeed, but anyone who smokes or has smoked regularly in the past will also tell you that smoking and drinking go hand in hand. I know first hand that anytime I'm having a beer with my buddies or in the comfort of my own home, you just can't help but want to have a cigarette. It's like they're fucking related for Christ's sake, and in the words of Denis Leary, "sometimes they're cousin coffee comes over too". Which brings me to another topic here, why the hell can't you smoke in a fucking bar? I've been living in Philadelphia since shortly after turning 21 in 2005. A little more than a year after I moved here, it was made a mandate that smoking in bars would be no more, much like New York had done some time prior. How the fuck can I not smoke in a fucking bar?!?!?!?!?!? I have to go outside to smoke, and then I can't even take my fucking drink with me?!?!?!?!?!?!? Fucking bullshit!!!

Jesus...sorry about all that, I tend to get off topic quite a bit whenever I talk about anything that just plain pisses me off. Anyway, yes, smoking is bad for you. So why haven't I quit? Well, it isn't easy. I had quit once before, and managed to stay smoke-free for almost a year. Why did I start doing it again? Because I'm an asshole. Well no, not really (leave that to yourself to decide), but that old saying about "no one ever really quits" rings truer than anyone is ever willing to admit to.

The question many always wondered is "if it's so bad for you, then how is it legal?" usually pops up. I stopped asking myself that when I took a look around at our society at large and realized some things. People get shit-faced drunk every night and figure that they are okay enough to drive. Others decide that they can eat whatever shit they can get at McDonalds but having that Diet Coke on top of it will somehow balance it all out in their favor. While others drink Red Bull and Five Hour Energy shots to make it through their day on top of however many cups of coffee it takes to get them going from the time they roll out of bed.

There are so many different ways to slowly kill yourself out there, and they all cost varying degrees of money on top of it, yet we consistently do it over and over again, ad nauseum. I'm not looking to get preachy or anything here, and I'm the last person on the planet to tell someone they shouldn't do something because it isn't healthy, but maybe the person who is chugging down mocha lattes by day and slamming Red Bull & vodkas at night should take a look in the mirror before chastising someone for smoking a cigarette or doing that annoying little *fake cough* when they walk by someone smoking on the street.

In closing this blog post, the question abounds to will I ever really quit? I want to, I really do, and I am going to make a true, solid attempt to do so. The fact that the price of a pack of cigarettes is steadily rising every couple months is only adding to the desire to do so, and as of right now, permenantly putting out that last ever cigarette is seeming like more and more of a incoming reality.

Cheers.