:: it's a scary world: rants from a chemically imbalanced mind ::

:: Friday, August 03, 2007 ::

ok, i'm back. after a more extended absence than i had intended.... since i last wrote, i've stopped smoking. i know, i know. you think i'm a lying bastard. but no... really. i haven't had a cigarette in two weeks as of today. not even one of those "oh shit i gotta have one" cigarettes.... which are the ones that have always ruined it for me every other time i've stopped. so yea. smokeless...... hrmm. well, you know what i mean. poor rj reynolds. think of all the money they'll be losing. on the upside, look at the money i'll be gaining. from my nearest guestimates, i will save approximately $2350.00 a year. that's JUST from my smoking. that's at the rate of 2.3 packs a day and assuming 28.00 a carton. which is actually low-balling it on both sides of the equation. so between 2300 and 2600. that's FUCKing scary. 84 cartons a year. EIGHTY FOUR CARTONS. shit. that's a lotta leaves. by the by, i'm using chantix, the new wonder drug. yes, it definitely helps. basically, it blankets the nicotine receptor in the brain so when you smoke, you get nothing from it. no nicotine rush, no relaxing feeling, etc etc. and the longer you smoke on this stuff, the more it occurs to you that this tastes like shit with no payoff in return. so after a week or two on the pills (yer choice.. i took 2), you lay down the smokes and go from there. and the pills do their job well. very well. within four days, i was noticing that i didn't crave them as much - though i still did crave them. and by that point, i was getting nothing FROM the ciggy in respect to nicotine. i smoked normally the first week then dropped back to 10-15 a day the second week... which i found surprisingly easy... then that friday put them down after a last binge that evening hehehehe. and here we are two weeks later. not sure yet how this will go long term AFTER i've jumped off the chantix pills. i do still want one, to a degree. i still do immediately think of one after i eat. i've finally gotten away from thinking of a smoke first thing in the morning. now i jump up, get coffee, brush teeth and head straight into the shower. same thing on the weekends, for the most part. whereas before it was ten minutes of smoking before i did ANYthing in the morning and on the weekends, a minimum of one hour of drinking coffee and chain smoking before showering. and of course, the usual apply - i can breath MUCH better and haven't coughed in days. i don't struggle for deep breaths when i yawn now. i can smell sooo much better which is NOT a blessing, let me tell you. i am catching smells i NEVER did before. and in some cases, smell things i never wanted to smell. i can smell a smoker from 10 feet. a heavy smoker from 20. and that's NOT a joke. i understand now what non-smokers gripe about when they cry about getting smoke smells in their clothes. (whiny bitches.) i don't sympathize, by any means.. but i do understand perfectly. i can walk thru an area and tell you if someone has smoked there in the last 10 minutes. and it's scary how much i still enjoy the smell of it hehehe i make sure i go out with my smoker friend's to bask in their carcinogens. and this is just after two weeks. BUT will it work long term? we'll see. (wow. that was some seriously long winded shit.)

ok, this actually started out as a chance for me to pass along a couple of new tv season pilot reviews.... if yer into the bittorrent, you probably already know this but if not - a slew of new tv show pilot/premiere episodes from the upcoming 07/08 season SOMEhow leaked out onto the bittorrent network (this reeks of planted material from the networks to generate early buzz, but that's just my opinion) and the stack includes chuck, reaper, pushing daisies, cavemen, terminator: the sarah connor chronicles and the bionic woman. of the two and a half i've watched so far, pushing daisies is easily my favorite and my pick for the hot newcomer of the year. mark my words. it's inheriting the old lost spot on wednesdays at 8p on abc and i'm predicting big numbers. think dead like me meets pee wee's big adventure. more structural and set-type pee wee. kinda that semi-surreal feel all around. maybe i should label it dead like me meets tim burton. hmm. that might work too. without giving away too much, the basic premise is this - young guy can bring the dead back to life with a touch. but if he touches them again, they go back to dead. but if he DOESN'T touch them within 60 seconds, someone in the vicinity randomly dies. there are rules to these things, after all. and that's all i'll say. WONderful show. lee pace is perfect as ned, the piemaker. and the whole relationship between ned and chuck rawks. the set design is magnificent... very quirky and cool to look at. and the story was second to none. great snappy dialogue. if you enjoyed dead like me, you will love this series. i also watched cavemen. word is the original pilot was soooo bad that they scrapped the entire thing and did a rewrite. i can only PRAY that's the case. what i just finished watching was so bland and pointless it need not ever have seen the light of day. ok, there might have been a moment of laughter or two. and one of the three cavemen actors made an excellent radical left wing caveman. but on the whole, i need not have even wasted the 22 minutes. let's hope the reshoot is better because i really had high hopes for this one. i love the geico spots... though everyone i know hates them hehehe... and finally, the 1/2 - reaper, the kevin smith directed pilot. basically, a couple have a baby. they sell the babies soul to the devil, due when the boy turns 21. he does. devil shows up to claim soul, makes boy his bounty hunter for escaped souls. it's a classic tale. older than time. (actually, it HAS been told before - it was called brimstone and starred peter horton. but it was man makes bad judgement call, man's soul is damned, devil makes him his bounty hunter. amazing series. lasted 13 episodes. only the good die young. meanwhile, laverne and shirley breathed life for eight seasons. life IS unfair. but then again what's your basis for comparison. of fair, that is.) but i've moved away from my point - after watching about half of the episode, i can give it a resounding recommendation. i like. now maybe it's just the fact that i love smith as a director but i think it more than anything it's the actors and the writing. tyler whatsisname (always plays the beefy sidekick) is a hoot... the door/dog thing pulled a big snort from me. i'll finish watching it later tonight and let you know if the second half turns to shit but i'm kinda doubting that'll be the case. and on a final note, while i've been typing this, i've been watching the latest sandra bullock flick, premonition.... it's holding my interest..... so far... though it's convoluted as shit in places. and i don't mean that in a good way. (45 minutes later)... okay, that was utter shite. if i hadn't been spending my time constructively during the viewing, i'd be really pissed off right about now. reallllly pissed off.

:: Shaman 8/03/2007 08:20:00 PM [+] ::
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