It Kills
Posted on July 25th, 2007. Filed under: Daily.I’m sure there are a few of you who smoke. This is probably the first time I’m addressing it. Since this is a relatively new site, I’m sure no one beyond my knowledge of people know this blog just yet. Hopefully.
Smoking is bad (DUH), as per the education which has been given to us. Who can’t agree really? It causes lung cancer and so much more. Oprah has done that episode where a doctor shows the difference between a smoker’s lung and a none smoker’s lung. The difference? Oh big. It even caused Queen Latifah and Ellen Degeneres to quit smoking after years and years. Influential much? But what about that House (’Damned If Yo Do’) episode when Dr. House recommends cigarettes to a Santa for his inflammatory bowel. Does it work really? The point is, people still smoke. And I am one of them. Not every hour, not every day, not every moment, but I do. Period. I don’t consider myself a smoker, but I smoke when the time permits and when I feel like it. I have 4 or 5 cigarette packs in different bags which haven’t been smoked for weeks (and will probably end up in the bin). I don’t keep a pack because I don’t finish one. If I buy one I give them out to my friends. It’s as simple as that really. If you don’t want to get addicted then you don’t, it’s a matter of choice.
I don’t really want to elaborate my history with smoking because it’s something I’m not proud of. I need one when I’m in a club, partying. Because we all know that second-hand smoke or “passive” is so much worse, so why not just light a cigarette for myself? Smoking also relieves my panic attacks. I don’t know why, when I’m having an anxiety blow the first thing which comes into my head is a good hug and a puff. When in coffee shops. Now good coffee goes very well with a kretek, my cigarette of choice. Marlboro disgusts me. So if I don’t have kretek, I don’t smoke. Period. Easy as that. Ever since the holidays, my smoking rate dropped down from once every 2 weeks, once a week, or none at all. During academic days, probably every day, every class break a few number of students go to the smoking room who smoke with the professors, and I am one of them. Never on the weekends. Just when I feel like it. So how do you justify the kind of person that I am in terms of smoking? Sometimes I can’t keep my hands off it, but I can live and breathe without it. I don’t smoke with non-smoking friends or smoke in front of people who get offended. I know I’ll never be addicted because I don’t want to. I can stop for 6 months, even a year or whatever. It’s easy. I have control over it. I don’t want to be one of “those” people.
edit I guess the point I’m trying to imply is that not all smokers are necessarily addicts. When I light up a cigarette, you always can’t help some people who give you the, “Oh you smoke?!” look then go on with their smokers’ impression thoughts. I’m okay with people like that, I just don’t want to get judged because I smoke. That’s all. /edit
Post Script: I know some bloggers don’t want to read about a Harry Potter rant anymore but I just want to say that I truly enjoyed the last book and was truly satisfied with how it ended. The end has finally come, but there are still a million questions running through my head.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I’ve stopped trying to figure out why people get addicted to smoking. My dad and my older brother smoke so it’s not like I can do anything about it (and believe me, I’ve tried). I like to kid around and remind them of how much they can save in a year if they stopped smoking, though, just to see the annoyed looks on their faces.
I’ve stopped trying to figure out how good or bad it is, too. My older brother is the only one in the family who has asthma, and according to him, smoking helped him with it. Which is true, actually—he’s never had an asthma attack ever since he started.
So I really don’t know what to take from this post—I think I’m mostly just rambling. Why do you want to justify the kind of person you are in terms of smoking, though? I mean, if you yourself say you only smoke once in a while and won’t turn into one of those who are addicted, then what’s there to judge?
July 25th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Keng: I guess the point I’m trying to imply is that not all smokers are necessarily addicts. When I light up a cigarette, you always can’t help some people who give you the, “Oh you smoke?!” look then go on with their smokers’ impression thoughts. I’m okay with people like that, I just don’t want to get judged because I smoke. That’s all.
I think I’m gonna post this up there. Thanks for the comment + questions Keng =)
July 25th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
You don’t look at all like a type who would smoke but I’m not going to judge you. A lot of people around me smoke and I gave up on telling them to stop. The best I can do is tell them to smoke where I’m not around. My dad quit smoking a long time ago, my boyfriend quit smoking a while ago as well, and I’m even tempted to take a few puffs myself. I guess no one is actually safe from being “cigarette-free”. It’s everywhere.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
When I was in first year college, I always hung out at this place which was basically a smoking room. I was friends with all the guys there and I never thought any differently of them because they were chain smokers, it’s their life right? And they didn’t ask me to smoke so everything was cool, although I didn’t enjoy the second-hand smoke nor the way I smelled of cigarettes every time I left the room.
But when girls started going there to light up, I don’t know, it was different. It’s not much of a double standards thing, I know some girls who smoke because they like smoking or whatever and I don’t really care. But these girls… I always felt they smoked just to be “in” with the guys that hung out there. Image? Porma? I don’t really know.
Well, that’s just what I wanted to share if you were wondering what some people might think of smokers or female smokers. A useless comment :-P
P.S. I don’t like guys that smoke as my boyfriend though. I made out with this chain smoker once, and I got sick, LMAO!
July 25th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I swore to God that I’ll be adapting the straight-edge principle right now in college. Well, not the type that I’ll be putting X-marks on my hands. I just don’t drink alcohol and I don’t smoke cigarettes.
But if I’m going to choose between the two vices, I prefer option A. Come on, I’m already ugly. Smoking with degrade my super-awful physical appearance even more. And it certainly kills.
As for judging people who smoke… Well, I don’t mind having friends who smoke, as long as they’ll avoid inviting me to puff a stick. And I understand if they just smoke because it’s their stress reducer. I just hate people who smoke because it’s their “definition of cool”. WTF.
Thanks for dropping by my site, Juice. And the comment, too… Thank you very much.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
It’s good that you can control your intake.
I would like to try smoking but everyone’s telling me not to haha I have allergic rhinitis, so I can’t stand smoke. However, I enjoy adventure, so why not try smoking? Haha! But then, I’m an advocate of the no smoking campaign. 
I’m such a contradiction!
July 26th, 2007 at 5:30 am
I used to smoke for like a span of two months but I quit immediately when I noticed that my skin was looking somewhat unhealthy. I quit due to vanity purposes over the health reasons. In Norway or Scandinavia people mostly guys use snus instead. It is smokeless and you just place it under your upper lip.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
What a nice post for smokers like… me? No way. I smoke but never everyday. Like what they say, do it in moderation. Or just don’t do it. Okay? Hehe.
I also hate Marlboro. Sobrang.. uhh. Maraming usok. Lol.
Certainly love this post! Hehe.
And it’s good that you’re not gonna rant about Harry Potter 7 cause if you do, I’m gonna kill yeh. Lol.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
i smoke. a lot. i can finish off a pack in a matter of 30 minutes, non-stop. ahaha. okay, so i’m an addict, but not really because like you, i only smoke whenever i feel like it. i can survive for several months without the substance. but certainly i couldn’t last a day without coffee.
i smoke Marlboro. it’s not at all yucchy or smoky (kevin, grrrr.), but i’ve learned to settle with Marlboro. i started with Mild Seven, then Dunhill, Capri, YSL, then finally Marlboro na. i don’t smoke non-menthols because they make me gag.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I tried smoking once, just for the heck of it. I LIKED IT. But then later on realized that it’s not really that ADDICTIVE. I do admit though, that there are some days wherein I just want to TRY smoking again, days wherein I just feel like wasting myself and doing something unreasonable whatsoever. I’m weird. But, I have nothing against smokers, it’s their HEALTH anyway.. *evil laugh*.. I’m so selfish. 8-|
July 27th, 2007 at 12:09 am
I don’t smoke. So I can never understand what you’re trying to say, smoking-wise, that is. But I’m an addict/close-to-being-an-addict, too, in terms of other stuff, like, nah, they’re for-me-to-know-and-for-you-to-find-out kinds of things. So, um, yeah, I can totally feel all your ranticide.
KENG…
No offense but you seem a little attention whore-ish to me. Hello! Juice is explaining her side here! Being a loyal blog reader/whatever yourself, you should be helping her in easing the addictive “tendencies” (note the quote marks) she possesses, not adding shit to ‘em by acting like a goody-goody and asking holier-than-thou, innocent-bystander questions. What are you trying to prove? That you’re better than her? This too goes to the others.
And you’re being a fucking bastard for rubbing it in Juice’s face. Think before you comment, you’re beginning to sound rather immature and a little idiotic. You rambling and stuff is an understatement.
Juice, I can’t believe that you let what Keng said just, like, um, pass you by and not be offended or something.
Ok, I’m cool now.
[/longest comment EVAR]
July 27th, 2007 at 4:48 am
I don’t consider myself as a smoker, but when I work on Sundays I can’t help not to light a smoke. But still this is smoking, so yes, I’m a smoker, and I believe people shouldn’t judge you by the fact is you smoke or not.
Smoking kills, my friends doctor said if he smokes, he should smoke Marlboro, since my friends told me that, I don’t want to see anything but Marlboro, still those are smoke and smoking still kills.
Don’t know, guess those Sundays gotta go!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:24 am
@Talamasca:
None taken. I wasn’t being a “goody-goody and asking holier-than-thou, innocent-bystander questions” when I posted that comment; I really didn’t understand why she wanted to know how people would take her as a smoker if she herself knows she’s above this habit. Does it matter that much what other people think? I thought it shouldn’t (or that we shouldn’t at least encourage the thinking that it does), but hey, my mistake.
As for the rambling, it was my way of saying smokers don’t bother me because I’ve lived with them all my life. How does my comment rub whatever in her face? I didn’t even say anything remotely negative about it. Heck, I’m even [somewhat] backing up that it can help medically. How can I help her ease those addictive “tendencies”, like you say, if I haven’t even experienced the situations she has when she smokes (I don’t go to clubs/get panic attacks) and therefore can’t say anything that relates? We all cope differently, and Juice has found her way—I’m not one who’ll tell her off for that. If anything, helping her ease those “tendencies” is the same as judging her for smoking—you might as well tell her to stop altogether if you want her to smoke less than she already does or to look for other ways to deal.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Whoaw. Guys, thanks so much for the comments, highly appreciate that. I just hope nothing bad comes out of this you know? Especially blogger relationships. After all, I’m just trying to justify myself in defense to all the ones who get judged because of the cigarette they light. So to Keng and Tala, I hope this was just a one time comment heat. =)
Peace.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Justeeeeeeeeeeene!
In reference to your post, although I have smoked in the past, I don’t consider myself a smoker. I think maybe I’m an ‘emotional smoker’. I only smoke when I’m feeling down.. I started smoking I think when it was Glenn or Nelson who broke up with me! Haha! I haven’t smoked for a year though. Esmeralda came here during summer and gave me a pack of cigs and I just gave it to a friend of mine.
I’m most probably going to stay on WordPress! I didn’t stay too long on Blogger because it was too confusing! I’ve lost my touch on HTML and everything computer-related.. Xanga has lost its appeal in my opinion! Are you serious!? Hairspray has yet to come out? Maybe on pirated dvd?
July 27th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I too have friends that smoke while I watch them and absorb their 2nd hand smoke. I don’t judge smokers, whether chain-smokers or moderate users, because it’s their choice. Every smoker knows the risk of their vice. It’s up to them if they will quit it or not.
As long they know what they are doing, I won’t bother.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Woah, a bit of heat going on here over this topic huh Juice?
Well, I’m gonna say my piece:
I totally agree with you. You cannot make someone do something they don’t want to. That of course doesn’t mean they’re addicted to the act (in reference to smoking). Not all smokers are addicted to smoking. It is bad for you, and don’t you think smokers know that already? Anyway, I’m just reiterating what most are saying, but we all are free to do what we want to do so, do what you can to convince smokers not to smoke but in the end, it’s still their choice. It’s always been their choice.
July 28th, 2007 at 2:35 am
I used to be a smoker.
I used to be drink a lot of tequila and vodka.
But Ive never taken another puff or drank alcohol in the past 5 years.
Contrary to popular belief, smoking doesn’t only increase your risk for lung cancer. It also increases your risk for tongue cancer (once you get it, your tongue will be taken out en bloc), bladder cancer (you’ll love this) and at least a dozen other cancers.
Smoking is stupid. And with natural selection, those stupid enough to do it would be eventually eliminated from the gene pool.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:05 am
My roommate smokes occasionally too, and she’s polite enough to go out in the balcony to do it and not fill our room with smoke. She knows it gives me a really bad coughing fit.
Still, I can’t seen any justification for smoking. It doesn’t change my perception of the person, but I do get concerned for them.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
If there’s “occational drinking,” then there must be “occational smoker.”
Well, uh, for a self-confessed semi-heavy smoker like me, I guess it would take me a long way to go before COMPLETELY going into a smoking cessation.
I smoke when I’m with friends who smoke “way a lot more than me.” I smoke after I eat, after I cry, when it’s cold, and when I’m “sitting on the comfort room throne.”
What I could say, at least for myself, that smoking reduces over time. From almost a pack of Lights a day, I smoke at least five sticks or less in a week.
Quitting is never easy.
Wait, I’ll have to light one…
August 4th, 2007 at 1:16 am
I don’t smoke but not because I’m being a good boy and that smoking is bad. Ayoko lang talaga. I tried once, I didn’t enjoy it ( or does it really take time to appreciate the effects? I don’t know).
I don’t hate smokers either, although for those who are VERY addicted to it, I kind take it as a sign of ‘weakness’ — weak because of the lack of control or moderation. But hey, they know the consequences and yet they do it, so who am I to judge.
But what I hate though are insensitive smokers! Those who puff (sometimes intentional) in the faces of non-smokers. Hehe!
In fairness to you, you have control. It means health-wise you’re not that in danger, and yet you get to take advantage of the supposed ’sexy image’ smoking brings, haha! Joke..