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Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?


DAL59

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9 hours ago, razark said:

I just want to complain that y'all are making me feel guilty for not quitting yet...

10 hours ago, LordFerret said:

I smoked for over 45 years.  I quit cold-turkey in 2012.  There's a lot I could say, but I'll not, I'll just say this... If you smoke, quit... If you don't smoke, don't start.  Same for vaping.

I know people who quit cold-turkey, after a lifetime of smoking... My old boss from the motor manufacturing job (the first one I worked for) used to chain smoke while working, back when it was just him and the one other employee. One day, he just decided... "I'm done", and that was it. The man had a will of iron though, so it doesn't surprise me he succeeded.

I also know for a fact that vaping can be the magic key to quitting, at least for those with little to no willpower. I've witnessed it with my very eyes...
It genuinely troubles me that there are people who can not differentiate NON-NARCOTIC nicotine free vaping from vaping with nicotine juice.

I know people make fun of it, rip on it, look down on it... But for real... My best friend quit 8 years ago. I never in all my life EVER believed he would quit. A little back ground here... He started smoking in high school. I remember when he was saving up for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. He'd put a $20 in his tackle box to "save" it... Nope. Cigarettes. He'd lock his tackle box... Nope... Cigarettes. He'd hand me the key. NOPE... Pried the corner open to buy cigs... He had to literally hand me money in order to save it. It was so bad, that over the course of months, he wasn't able to save the $120 necessary ($70 for the game, $40 for the memory expansion pack the N64 needed, and about $10 in sales taxes). He only managed the $70, thanks to finally realizing he had ABSOLUTELY NO POWER over his own free will to control his spending on cigarettes (Thanks a lot, all the garbage enablers that would take his money, pocket some of it, and hand him a pack... That right there is despicable... Not only unlawful).

Me and another friend each pitched in $20 to buy the memory pack behind his back and secretly install it into the N64. We tried to cheer him up by trying to "convince" him that maybe he could play part of the game before it ran out of memory... Even though he'd not saved up enough for the Memory Pack. It was a fun, wholesome, and generous prank, all done to bring up the spirits of a self defeated dude... Self defeated by his addiction to cancer sticks.

This is the guy I'm talking about... a person that, when still in high school, had already fallen that deep into the vicious cycle of addiction and dependency, and lack of willpower to even attempt to quit. He tried patches, gum, prescriptions, you name it... And ALWAYS FAILED...

What SAVED him from cigarettes was vaping. He started with a heavy nicotine fluid and did a mix of vaping and regular cigarettes. Once he had himself "reprogrammed" to associate the nicotine fix with the vaping, he was able to genuinely stop regularly smoking cigs. The act of holding the vaporizer, the act of bringing it to his mouth to take a draw... All of it tied into that mechanical muscle memory tied to his habit. It satisfied the addiction. He vaped for a long time, but every couple months, he'd get juice with a little less nicotine. He tried all sorts of flavors, and made the vaping into some kind of reward in that sense. Basically, he gave himself a different "fix" to look forward too. The nicotine was still there, but slowly, slowly weened down, until one day, he realized he'd been spending money on flavored e-juice for a few months that was nicotine free. He decided that vaping juice was boring, inconvenient, and too much trouble for a "taste", and just quit.

Just like that, he was done. Vaping saved his lungs. Vaping saved his sense of taste and smell. Vaping made him more tolerable to be around. I'm also certain that his multiple packs per day would have killed him, so I'd say vaping saved his life.

This is why it INFURIATES ME to no end when people attack vaping in general cause "kids are vaping, it's such an awful thing"... You know what... Kids were SMOKING TOO, and that was an awful thing, but it was illegal, and harmful to start with! Instead of enacting COMMON SENSE legislation to set an age limit on selling e-fluid containing nicotine to minors, some people seem intent on trying to ban and vilify it everywhere by treating it as the same as a cigarette. This is problematic...

In the primary concern case of minors... Yes, it's not good that minors are experimenting with it, but I'd RATHER them experiment with NICOTINE FREE juice in their youth, than find themselves falling into cigarettes like my and prior generations did. If they DO get their hands on nicotine laden juice, I'd RATHER they have weaning options rather than force them into that same circle of enablers, buying them nicotine e-juice for them, like my friend dealt with with his early days of cigs. Yes... I'd rather have a minor experiment with nicotine free vaping than to force them to rely on enablers that are MORE likely to share nicotine containing juice with them, creating a REAL addiction, as opposed to mere experimentation.

Second, the problem of blanket vaping bans HARMS recovering cigarette smokers who are trying to ween themselves off cigs. By making vaping more convenient, it becomes a more favorable means to wean oneself away. Blanket bans for them are tantamount to if a place banned you from using your nicotine gum, or patches, or prescriptions... Different people respond differently to different treatments, and vaping was the solution for my friend... The guy got so desperate once, he even tried one of those hypnotists (nuffin'). I'm not convinced my buddy would have succeeded in today's vaping UNfriendly environment. Back then, the convenience of being able to vape in a restaurant, when cigs would have sent him outside, was an absolute blessing. It MADE the complexity of maintaining his vaporizer WORTH doing. Had he been forced to go outside to vape, I don't think he would have stuck to the extra effort to maintain the maintenance and cleaning and charging of the device. I could genuinely sit across the table from him, and not be bothered by his vaping. At ALL! This coming from someone who gets headache developing within 10-30 seconds of smelling regular cigarette smoke.

I see vaping, as well as vape shaming or vape banning for what it is...
With Nicotine, it is a FAR SUPERIOR alternative to smoking, with the REALISTIC CAPACITY to be used as a tool to ween a person off nicotine completely.
Without Nicotine, vaping is a far superior medium for experimentation, and is WORLDS easier to drop than ANYTHING containing nicotine, cig or vape.
Blanket banning or vilifying all vaping, including nicotine free, is harmful, as it can direct those intent on experimenting to seek enablers, who may share nicotine juice.

I hate with a passion, the push to treat vaping the same as cigarettes, and blanket ban it in the same way. People do not understand the good that can come from it, and they do not understand that for some people, that ban might as well be as sinister as banning them from taking a prescription. That might be the only option for quitting cigarettes that is, or will ever work for them. I'm sorry if it bothers you that an angsty teen is experimenting with nicotine free vaping, or that some hipster wants to vape in a coffee shop. Belive it or not... Those things DO NOT BOTHER ME! Teens do stupid stuff sometimes... Their brains are still developing, and it's just NATURAL for them to want to experiment with things to see what works. I can not stress enough, that I'd rather see some teen experiment with nicotine free vaping for a few years, rather than get addicted to actual cigs, or even nicotine e-juice, because some "ban" forced them to seek out illicit sources. I am a firm applauder to to the bans on smoking in public buildings and businesses, cause second hand smoke REALLY, GENUINELY causes me discomfort, and it IS unhealthy... But vaping, even at my own table, NEVER bothered me...

I'm stopping here, or I'll ramble on forever, and keep repeating myself.
TL;DR, I've never smoked or vaped in my life. I'd rather people choose the option that is less of a health hazard, that might actually save their lives from the other option even, and I hate when people try to compare the two as if they were the same, cause THEY ARE NOT!

8 hours ago, razark said:
8 hours ago, kBob said:

Finally found that turning on the air-conditioning

It's April.  Isn't the AC running full-time yet?

Here in MN, we had a massive snowstorm, followed by a perfect week, followed by a cold and chilly rainy week, followed by a day that reached "I can't sleep cause it's too hot", to I gotta close this window, I'm starting to shiver, and the rain is getting in... Weather here is absurd.

 

Edited by richfiles
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The problem with vaping:  If you're using one with nicotine added, there's a good chance you're likely getting more of a dose of nicotine than expected.  Even if you're not using any nicotine, the chemicals used to create the vapor have not to date been studied long term.  The potential for harm is great.  This is what current research says, as per Johns Hopkins.  So why gamble it?

I had a friend who used to say "Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it several times."  He died last year, cancer.

I'll suppose iron will has something to do with quitting cold turkey, maybe, maybe not.  I just happen to be the kind of guy who, once my mind is made up, that's it - no matter what it is.

For those without the willpower, I'll suggest a diversion; vegetables.  A big problem with quitting smoking is weight gain, also, dropping the learned behavior of having that cigarette in your hand and putting something to the lips.  You can eat all the vegetables you want, and you don't have to worry about gaining weight.  Uncooked carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, stringbeans, radishes and such, as long as it's not high in starch you'll not gain weight.  Go easy on fruits though, because of the sugars.

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3 hours ago, LordFerret said:

the chemicals used to create the vapor have not to date been studied long term.

Though they've been used as food additives for nearly half a century... True, there's not a lot of long term study on their effect when inhaled after high temp vaporization, but those chemicals are non addictive, unlike nicotine. Nothing wrong with studies, but comparatively... I know cigarettes are demonstrably worse. My buddy did indeed have an instance of getting way too much nicotine once when he was weening himself off it... It looked to be an absolutely miserable experience for him. He made sure not to make that mistake again. I do like your advice on vegetables, but different people will find differing levels of success in quitting. For him, a decade and a half of "quitting" was solved in a period of several months, thanks to him using that vaporizer as a weening crutch. Will power indeed does vary wildly from one person to another, as does any personality trait. I just wanna see people have the best chance of quitting smoking, and for there to be less risk of starting. I actually would like to imagine that we might finally be seeing a younger generation that actually knows better, for a change. I'm crossing my fingers!

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Pssssst.... If we want to continue the discussion about quitting smoking, we could start a new thread....   I'd have done that already for you guys, but you all insisted on mixing in discussion about woodpeckers and blizzards, so a new thread would have looked really weird if I had done it.   I'd encourage anybody who made long or heartfelt posts to copy/paste them to the new thread... :D

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6 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Pssssst.... If we want to continue the discussion about quitting smoking, we could start a new thread....   I'd have done that already for you guys, but you all insisted on mixing in discussion about woodpeckers and blizzards, so a new thread would have looked really weird if I had done it.   I'd encourage anybody who made long or heartfelt posts to copy/paste them to the new thread... :D

Just for you... https://youtu.be/A_IDGrKZ0Rs

 

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I started smoking 7 years ago, back when I thought physical addiction was a silly concept. I don't think it's silly any more.

On another note, I'm burnt out on the forums. At least half of that is the insistence on applying rules without considering context. (The other half is the influx of stupid, rude children) So, I'm leaving. I'll log in to finish out a project I'm working on for somebody, but I don't feel the joy of participation any more.

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13 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

On another note, I'm burnt out on the forums.

Take whatever time you need... Sometimes you just gotta step away from things. You'll always be welcome back here if you get the itch to post again.

As for me...
I am facing the crushing realization that my coding skills have not made one iota of progression since I got those LED displays for my KSP instrument panel first lit, WAY back in 2016... It's been three years, and I haven't even touched code. My keyboard is still unprogrammed... Coding is proving to be an anchor for me. I so loath the very idea of being forced to face the inevitable wall, that I honestly think it's impacting my drive to move forward even with he parts I do enjoy, such as hardware design and construction. For me, Coding is the "homework" of tinkering, and with all my big projects, when all the fun hardware stuff gets done... I'll be faced with a  wall of code I need to learn and create, and I fear I won't find any enjoyment there... And that is very demotivating... :/

Edited by richfiles
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The OpenAi project finally finished GPT-2... and they're not releasing it due to potential for misuse.  Their name is  OPENAI!  They should release it so we know how it works, because inevitably someone else will create a better version of it.  

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I've had an account on Aliexpress for a few years now. Ordered a few things... A Raspberry Pi clone, a soldering iron... Today I tried to order parts for a homemade "helping hands" tool and parts to repair the thumbtack on my Nintendo Switch. In all, I ordered $36 worth of small stuff. I forgot to turn off my VPN... Oops! Apparently, they didn't like that my IP address did not correspond to the location of my billing address (I assume), and they locked out my ability to buy...

The problem, is they feel it's perfectly fine to demand a photo of my STATE ISSUED ID, My credit/debit card, an a copy of my BANK STATEMENTS...

NO!!!

That is so far into privacy breach territory! Holy Kraken Spawn! :0.0:

What I DID do, was to completely blur out every piece of financial, identifying, or unique data on said documents, leaving ONLY my name and address (which they already have, to ship my products), and for my card, I left the name and last four digits to be matched to the record of my payment... I blurred out the first 12 digits. All in all, the ONLY information I gave them was my name, last 4 of my card, and my address. This is data they ALREADY HAVE, and they can't see ANY OTHER INFORMATION. With what I gave them, they should be able to easily correlate my name and address across all their demanded documentation... If they accept that, then I'll proceed with the order...

If they tell me I've obfuscated too much and want me to send anything uncensored... I'm simply gonna tell them they've lost a customer, as I will NEVER give that level of privacy breaching information to a some FOREIGN CORPORATION! I wouldn't give that level of data to a LOCAL company! Yikes! I'll tell 'em exactly where they can shove their document requests! :o

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On 4/24/2019 at 4:10 PM, FleshJeb said:

I started smoking 7 years ago, back when I thought physical addiction was a silly concept. I don't think it's silly any more.

I heard that. Addiction is real, powerful and physical. You cant "think" your way out. You can both want AND not want a cigarette.

The only way out, unfortch, is suffering.

But suffering leads to the dark side so I guess Im stuck.

1fd9ad.jpg

 

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18 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

I heard that. Addiction is real, powerful and physical. You cant "think" your way out. You can both want AND not want a cigarette.

The only way out, unfortch, is suffering.

But suffering leads to the dark side so I guess Im stuck.

My dad was a pack-a-day smoker from the age of 12 for his entire life. He tried to quit multiple times. After he had his work accident he sat in his hospital bed and watched the guy in the bed next to him die of emphysema. He still couldn't quit.

My mom smoked for about two years back in the early 70s. I have no idea why she started. But then one day she decided she was done with it. so she stopped,. Just like that.

It's a strange thing, and it affects different people differently. All I know is that my dad always pleaded with me to not smoke, and I'm very glad I listened to him.

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59 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

This thing is the bane of my existence.

coin-counter-CumminsAllison-7007.jpeg

Well, count your coins yourself. ;)

Free association bonus story: When I was a kid, my dad kept a penny jar in his bedside table. He would just drop any pennies or other small change in his pocket into it every night when he was emptying his pockets. One day, when I was about six or so, it filled up. So he makes me an offer: I can have $20 or his penny jar. (Of course I would have to count and roll all of the coins so the bank would take them.) Much six-year-old research and prognosticating went on. When I had finished, I decided to take the $20. (Which was a lot of money when you were a six-year-old in the 1970s.) So my dad had to count his penny jar himself. And when he was done: It was over $50. As my grandmother used to say, "I would've liked to die." :D

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32 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Well, count your coins yourself. ;)

Oh, I'm not the user.  I'm the poor sap who has to drive over an hour one way to fix the thing when it breaks, which it likes to do monthly.  They're terrible, terrible unreliable things.

 

33 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Free association bonus story: When I was a kid, my dad kept a penny jar in his bedside table. He would just drop any pennies or other small change in his pocket into it every night when he was emptying his pockets. One day, when I was about six or so, it filled up. So he makes me an offer: I can have $20 or his penny jar. (Of course I would have to count and roll all of the coins so the bank would take them.) Much six-year-old research and prognosticating went on. When I had finished, I decided to take the $20. (Which was a lot of money when you were a six-year-old in the 1970s.) So my dad had to count his penny jar himself. And when he was done: It was over $50. As my grandmother used to say, "I would've liked to die." :D

That's right up there with "Would you rather have a million dollars, or a penny that's doubled every day for a month?"

(Assuming 30 days) I'll take the $10,737,418.24 please.

 

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1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

Oh, I'm not the user.  I'm the poor sap who has to drive over an hour one way to fix the thing when it breaks, which it likes to do monthly.  They're terrible, terrible unreliable things.

That's okay. I just sat in a meeting where grown adults with (seemingly) full control of their faculties spent ten minutes discussing how to prevent terminated employees from walking out of the building with their stand-up desks on the day they leave the organization.

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10 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

That's okay. I just sat in a meeting where grown adults with (seemingly) full control of their faculties spent ten minutes discussing how to prevent terminated employees from walking out of the building with their stand-up desks on the day they leave the organization.

That seems like an incredibly easy problem to solve..

 

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1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

Would you rather have a million dollars, or a penny that's doubled every day for a month?

And then explain to the tax inspection where did you get 107 USD in cash?
Better dollars, you don't need to exchange them.

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1 minute ago, kerbiloid said:

And then explain to the tax inspection where did you get 107 USD in cash?
Better dollars, you don't need to exchange them.

I'd rather deal with moving 1.1 tons of cash, rather than 2959 tons of coins.

And that's not even taking into the considerable storage problems.

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1 minute ago, razark said:

And that's not even taking into the considerable storage problems.

That's the bank's problem.

And, consequently, the coin-counting machine's problem.

Which will break it.

And I'll have to fix it...

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4 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

And, consequently, the coin-counting machine's problem.

Which will break it.

And I'll have to fix it...

Is it always the same part that fails or have you actually replaced everything at some point with your monthly repairs?

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1 minute ago, Delay said:

Is it always the same part that fails or have you actually replaced everything at some point with your monthly repairs?

The only thing consistent about the repairs is how stupid they are.

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