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Smokin'!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DrFrylock, Mar 30, 2011.

  1. Rumble

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    Ha, that reminds me.

    When I first moved to Calgary, before smoking was banned, it was perfectly OK to smoke inside of bars but as soon as you stepped outside on the patio... no way... you weren't allowed to light up because it was considered a public area. I appreciate the sentiment of the whole no smoking in public thing, but I thought that that was totally ass-backwards.
     
  2. Disgustipated

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    I'm a firm believer in people having the right to do anything they like as long as it doesn't negatively impact on other people. In practical terms, smoking is just not one of those things.

    I don't like it and never have. I've never tried one, but have had enough second hand smoking to last me a lifetime. Both of my parents smoked all their lives, until my mother died of metastasized lung cancer. Dad, who has now buried two wives to cancer, stopped. Until then, they were unashamed smokers and had no compunction exposing my brother or myself to it (and my brother feels the same way about it). I used to dread going anywhere with dad as he had an old, single cab pickup. He'd smoke heavies and I wasn't allowed to so much as crack a window for fresh air.

    He'd also smoke in the toilet, and if you went in there any time within a half hour after he'd been you'd be gagging and retching from the combined stench.

    Regardless, if people want to do it and subject themselves to it - go for it. However, I get greatly pissed off at:

    - Employees who think it is their right to take as many breaks during the day as they like to stand outside and talk while indulging their habit, and then get pissed off when you chew them out about it (we have two serial offenders at work);
    - Said employees who, after smoking, come and talk to you; stinking so much like an ashtray that the fumes coming out of them make my head swim;
    - Dickheads in office buildings who can't wait until they're out the door to light up, going so far as to get everything ready in the elevator; which leads in to
    - Bigger dickheads who congregate around the entrance of buildings despite being required to be back a certain distance - thereby necessitating I stagger through their fetid cloud to get into the place. Even when they're not their, the entrance smells like a cesspit;
    - Drivers who flick ash and butts out the window while driving. That's why you have ashtrays in your cars, morons. Every set of traffic lights has several hundred butts lying around, and they can cause fires. Plus, there's been one or two occasions where I've been hit in the face while on my bike, because some careless smoker's pitched their still burning butt out the window; and
    - Self-entitled asses who think it's acceptable to light up while standing in a crowd and then proceed to breathe a cloud of smoke to everyone around them....

    ... and so on, ad infinitum.
     
  3. Kubla Kahn

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    I fucking hated this shit and is one of the major contributors of me being fired at my last barbacking gig. Even during rushes you could have the bar stocked enough as to leave it alone for a while mainly just keeping the fuck out of the bartenders way. My coworkers would just take smoke breaks 90 times a night and since the managers did too they had no fucking problem with it. I on the other hand would go to the front and bullshit with the bouncers or hit on girls (a common bar practice). I got into a huge argument with one of the managers who tried to claim I was slacking off. Somehow standing outside sucking on cigarettes constituted not slacking off and what I was doing was. He wouldn't give an inch and claimed that I should be doing something at all times at the bar. When I pointed out that taking smoke breaks didn't amount to doing shit he shrugged it off and claimed that was just the way it was. He was promoted a few weeks later and fired me.
     
  4. Frank

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    See, this doesn't bother me, it's the EMPLOYERS that allow this behavior that piss me off (not accusing you personally since you are obviously in their grill about it). Like Kubla said it's stupidly unfair to give one group of people 5 minute breaks whenever they feel like it while expecting everyone else to work continuously. A friend of mine (non smoker) use to bum cigarettes from her manager so she could get breaks. She would just throw it out and not smoke it, but her manager wouldn't just giver her 5 minutes to herself to relax, so that was the only way.

    As much as I bitched about my job in the call center, there wasn't a time off button called "smoke break" so smokers had to use personal time to light up, which affected their bonuses. Surprise surprise, non-smokers always got the better bonuses. A company we work with makes smokers punch out when they take their breaks too, which I think is pretty cool. But in most lines of work, being a smoker gives you additional time off for no real reason, just silly.

    Maybe this is an American thing, but don't most modern cars not have ashtrays? I love that mentallity "if we take the ashtrays out of the cars, no one will smoke while driving! It's bulletproof!"
     
  5. Durbanite

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    We're pretty strict on anti-smoking in S.A.. - we had two consecutive national Health Ministers make it their business to kill the smoking industry. They succeeded, to a large degree, since every publicly accessible building is non-smoking. However, restaurants, bars and businesses are allowed to have smoking areas, which are usually on an outside balcony. The bar I usually frequent on a Friday night is a smoking bar and most of the patrons know I'm asthmatic (since I've been going there for three years) and thus make an effort to not blow smoke in my direction.

    On the whole, I don't care if you smoke, just don't do it near me because I prefer having my lungs being open and not closed thanks to your smoke. My first girlfriend was a smoker, and she really did taste like an ashtray. Gross.
     
  6. Trakiel

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    Yet they still have cigarette lighters - labeled as such - so I guess smokers are supposed to flick their butts out the window. (Although I'm presuming that the lighters have remained so people can power electronic devices.)

    Focus: Smoking is a filthy disgusting habit and the sooner it goes away the better. A friend of mine doesn't even smoke yet when he comes over to my place he smells like a fucking ashtray because he lives with smokers; it's nasty. Furthermore, comparing smoking to eating junkfood is bullshit. It would be a more apt comparison if everyone who ate junkfood smelled awful because they had bits of junk food and stains all over their clothes and their breath stank of it, they always had to carry a bag of chips around wherever they went because of "cravings", and they were always wheezing and belching because of their habit (aka smoker's cough). Anyone like that would be considered a worthless, disgusting, slob, and would likely be universally shunned.

    Honestly though, as long as smokers are able to keep the smell and their smoke away from me, I really don't have a problem with it. Do whatever you want to your body as long as it doesn't negatively impact me.
     
  7. Frank

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    I have a 2002 Honda with no ash tray and the "lighter" is labeled as a power outlet. It doesn't even have the actual lighter, just a cover to plug it, same with my 2004 Toyota. Do the American/European made cars still have the actual lighters but no ash tray? It's not something I would notice, but that would be hilarious.
     
  8. JC62

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    I have multiple Audi and Volkswagen vehicles and they still have ashtrays and cigarette lighters. The also have the 12 volt "power outlet". My wife's Toyota on the other hand only has power outlets. It must be a European thing.
     
  9. Trakiel

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    Call me Caitlyn. Got any cake?

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    Yup, I was thinking of my car when I posted that. It's a 2004 Dodge, and the lighter has a little icon of a lit cigarette on it, but no ashtrays in the car.
     
  10. joule_thief

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    Wouldn't that be a browneye for a pinkeye?

    That would probably be the end result anyway.


    On topic: I am decidedly a non-smoker. Both of my grandfathers died of cancer and my father has it currently.

    That said, I do enjoy a good cigar 3-4 times a year.
     
  11. lust4life

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    I called for a sin tax on all junk food, not just fast food, as poor diet is a central component to obesity. Perhaps you should reread my original post for better clarity. As for the economic impact of smoking vs. obesity, the CDC reports smoking as costing $193 billion annually in both direct and indirect costs, and $147 billion for obesity.

    When I lived in NJ, I witnessed mothers purchasing sacks of junk food with food stamps, but one instance stands out. When one woman's last item was rung up, her total exceed the amount she had in food stamps by a few dollars. She asked her kid if she should put the chicken or the milk back. Kid says, "I gotta milk with my HoHos!" Sarcastically, I suggested, "Replace the HoHo's and milk with chocolate milk and save a buck or two." She thought it was a stroke of genius, completely missing the sarcasm.

    The "we can't afford to eat healthy" and "we're just too busy to cook" arguments are just bullshit. It's rationalizing laziness. My wife works, I work and go to school full time, yet we still manage to put out a home cooked meal 6 nights/week. We plan a menu for the week, grocery shop on Sat., and cook 2-3 meals on Sunday for the week that just need to be heated or are >50% prepared and will be ready in less than an hour (or ready upon arrival if using the crock pot), and in most cases, the meal will cost less than the drive-thru or something out of the frozen food section, and they're definitely healthier.
     
  12. Frank

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    This. My girlfriend and I eat rather extravagantly when we cook at home, but when you add up the costs and add in the fact that we'll get multiple meals out of a dish, we're on par with, or even cheaper than going to McD's for each meal. A good trick is to get a bunch of chicken breasts on sale, marinate them in something neutral flavor wise (I use Italian dressing as the base) for a day and grill them. BAM, fucking delicious $1.99/pound chicken for meals for the rest of the week.

    On the topic of smoking, I just got back from Florida with my cousins who all smoke like fucking chimneys. They called me a bitch all weekend for not wanting to be anywhere near the card table while they were smoking, I tried to counter by ripping nasty farts but they just high fived me for it, assholes.

    But seriously, if you're a smoker, how can you not process that people may not want to be around you? I feel like this is a white collar/blue collar thing because they all work with smokers, whereas my white collar friends that smoke know to excuse themselves from non-smokers, not light up in the middle of a circle. Also, my cousins without kids all smoke inside whereas my desk job friends wouldn't even think about smoking in their own homes. I'm sure there are exceptions, but there's got to be a correlation.
     
  13. PIMPTRESS

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    I quit my pack and a half a day habit two and a half years ago and I feel better than ever.

    This is quite a long thread, so forgive me if someone has made this point, but I noticed someone commenting on why anyone would start given all of those Truth campaigns, doctors and nosy people on the street who are compelled to lecture.

    I "knew" that there was risk involved when I started. I also secretly believed that I was going to live forever by dying young, that I would never have to pay for the habit. As I got older, I started feeling a bit differently about my life, about my body, especially when I was feeling the effects of smoking.

    So I decided to quit, I really had enough of the little bastards. I was tired of the smell, the taste, the limits placed on my lungs, the scrounging for change when I was broke...and I replaced it with running. Talk about hacking up some horrible shit, which solidified my choice.

    I am starting to think the greenery needs to be cut back a little. Yikes.
     
  14. Frank

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    How old were you when you started? Do you remember the reason you first started? I was one of the "why the fuck?" people, but I totally get it if you're young and want to be cool or want to experiment and think you're impervious to addiction.
     
  15. PIMPTRESS

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    I was around 22. I have never wanted to be cool. Some things just happen (cough, cough).
     
  16. lust4life

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    Process it? Hell, in many instances, I count on it.
     
  17. captainjackass

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    Personally, I don't give a shit about smoking legislation. Smelling smoke is about as annoying as a woman walking by wearing a metric fuck-ton of her Paris Hilton
    CheapWhore TM perfume. It's annoying, but I'll get on with my life, thank you.

    But uh, scientific consensus as strong as the theory of gravity has concluded that yes, secondhand smoke has important health effects and does cause deaths. Even a cursory glance at Google Scholar results when typing in "secondhand smoke" will reveal thousands of articles on the significant health effects and deaths per year of secondhand smoke.

    Eh, I've done some reading on this before for a report, and usually, it's only relevant with frequent exposure and generally enclosed spaces. In other words, some guy smoking outside is not going to take any minutes off of your life.

    However, I hate it when people smoke in cars - it's just too fucking enclosed. Personally I can do without the make-your-own-gas-chamber experience. I know you have irresistible urges to light up and put a fag in your mouth. I myself have frequent urges to start masturbating throughout the day, but I find a way to exercise self-control on long car rides or work shifts.
     
  18. shegirl

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    The bar I frequent allowed smoking until Jan of 2009 I believe. It is set up so that there is a 4 ft high wall with openings at each end "separating" the dining area and bar area. When the ban went into effect (outside and 10 ft from entrances) the kids appeared. The owner brought in "kid friendly" video games.

    I've seen the little shits playing pool, banging the cues on the table and floor, they are just obnoxious as are their parents. You want to have a nice family lunch? GO TO RED ROBIN, or any of the assloads of other places that are specifically there for and cater to you and families like yours. And were not just talking kid kids, were talking BABIES. What the fuck?

    If I had spawn there is no way in hell I'd ever take them there. There are a bunch of old loud bastards that don't give a shit if their foul language reaches little Jimmy's ears. And it will.

    These parents are also the same people that give the smokers stink eye when they pass by the entrance, even though they are much of the time, more than 10 ft back.

    I'd take the smoking over the brats that are there every weekend any day.
     
  19. Trakiel

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    Call me Caitlyn. Got any cake?

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    I don't mean to call anyone out but it really floors me how common this complaint is; at least measured by the numerous posts people have made about it. Y'all make it seem like screaming kids in restaurants is the norm, while personally I see kids when I eat out or go shopping all the time and I can't even remember an incident of out of control kids. I can recall being subjected to a crying baby once or twice but never have I ever seen little kids running around out of control. Where are you all going that this is such a problem?

    Edit: Actually, the only time I can remember kids being a detriment was when a friend and I were looking for a place to eat and walked into either a Fudrucker's or Chuck E. Cheese (I can't remember which, I think it was Fudrucker's) and the entire place was filled with noisy kids. We pretty much turned right the fuck around and decided to look for somewhere else to eat.
     
  20. shegirl

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    Dude, this is a bar with about 6 booths and the same amount of tables in the "dining area". What kind of parent would take their child to a place like that in the first place? The kind that lets them run around. The kind that doesn't care about the loud cussing bastards. The kind that is there for themselves for whatever reason. You cannot tell me the kids would rather be in a dim lit old bar with next to nothing to do than a bright and entertaining Red Robin that has a room full of games and TVs running cartoons in the floor.