Quitting Things is More About the Replacement Habits Than the Quitting

Sick brag in 3...2...I have only purchased 4 packs of cigarettes in 2015.

I do vape, though. 

Trying to wean myself off that. 

I want to look into the literature and therapy out there for cigarette smoking cessation.

I never gave it much credit; I still don't.

But I need to know if they at least address my two major problems with the very question of cessation.

1.) Do groups like Smokers' Anonymous (or whatever the major groups are) admit the obvious value of the cigarette, of smoking, even beyond the nicotine?

2.) Do groups like that (and I also mean, the books, the doctors that speak on the issue, etc) ever explain that quitting is never a complete definition of the problem at hand? This is to say, quitting is part of the problem, but the easier of the two parts. Do they ever deal with the more difficult part of the problem: the filling in with new habits?

***
THURSDAY - FEB 25 - 2010 (Journal entry.)

Peeling back addictions is or feels like becoming "purer"
?
I'll take it
(?)
So much to do so much to do
cigarettes just aren't going to work for me
I'll take it
working hard is becoming more fun
I'll
Barthes gives me mental boner
total asshole & wrong in the end (I think) but
mmm post-structuralism
the rustle of language makes me feel like I'm doing god's work
thinking the right thoughts making similar connections it's times like these I get the (false) hope that there is anything resembling an answer to any of the big metaphysical questions

Psychic Vampirism (Journal: February 24, 2010)

I found a bit of an indirect progress report. Which is to say, an old journal entry displaying some troubles from five years ago, some of which have been dealt with, some others not so much...

Dave P has been here a lot. Sometimes I blame my own lack of productivity on PSYCHIC VAMPIRISM -- his negative energy and laziness have become mine, &c.

Guess I shouldn't do that.

Lately been asking myself, "What's wrong with me?" -- again with the negativity -- I live with the knowledge that I have made certain beds and that I must lie in them --

Yet -- in the end there really is so much work to be done, so much work that isn't getting finished, for myriad reasons --

I can only work hard and stay out of people's way -- play nice as they say --

I just want to get my work on and whoever wants to work hard alongside me is more than welcome.

Silly Ego

Eckhart Tolle writes:

Is it wrong then to be proud of one's possessions or to feel resentful toward people who have more than you? Not at all. That sense of pride, of needing to stand out, the apparent enhancement of one's self through "more than" and diminishment through "less than" is neither right nor wrong -- it is the ego.

The ego isn't wrong; it's just unconscious.

When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it. Don't take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile.

At times you may even laugh.*

How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long? Above all, know that the ego isn't personal. It isn't who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that's just more ego.

***


*It's not working for me right now, but nearly every time when I set my mind on arriving at presence in the Now, it arrives with a tiny chuckle. It's more of a release than anything. That, I get every time, without fail, to the point that the two are the same thing to me now. 

Presence equals release, borderline hilarity.

What else could it feel like, to unburden yourself of the weight of the past and the future?

Nothing is Foolproof Because Fools Are Ingenious

New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik writes:

When there's easy agreement, it's fine, & when there's widespread disagreement on values or facts, as with say, the origins of capitalism, it's fine too; you get both sides.

The trouble comes when one side is right & the other side is wrong & doesn't know it.

The Shakespeare authorship [Wikipedia] page & the Shroud of Turin page are scenes of constant conflict & are packed with unreliable information. Creationists crowd cyberspace every bit as effectively as evolutionists, & extend their minds just as fully.

Our trouble is not the overall absence of smartness but the intractable power of pure stupidity.

Modern social networks are fraught with dull old dysfunction & wonderfully new opportunities.

Slow Down & be Patient.

Shipping one awesome project is worth half a million half finished ideas.

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.

  Said Charles Richards.

Slow down & be Patient.

Slow down & be Patient.

Walkin In San Diego

Nov 4th. Think I'm going to stop the Streak of Doing More Records & Streaks Than The Day Before Streak.

Yup. It's official now. After that last deliberation.

Coming up on four miles, walking. Going to attempt to keep my ab streaks going as well as some other stuff.

Also going to get to work on some graphs & charts, re: this whole thing.

I have set 4 Beatles' Rock Band records today. If I have the energy later for another 30, I'll consider extending the streak with an asterisk.

PS - Why did Rock Band just disappear? Why do I have to confront my Rock Band shame every time I pull my old Wii out of the closet to strum my fake guitar or if I still had my drums, drum my fake but kinda real actually drums that apparently aren't that much different from real drums(?). It was such a communal game, too, so much better with people, but even for me, I guess a staleness or cheesiness would always threaten to creep in.

Nov 3 Records And Streaks

P.S. - The Ab Pullup Streak died yesterday at 7 days. It was a good one; jacked that record up good.



1. Earliest on treadmill: 9 am.

2. Buttkicks, single: 46.

3. Right handed 2 ball juggle: 955!

4. Abs, single: 200.

5. Ab streak ++

6. Buttkicks, total: 140.
7. Buttkicks Streak ++
8. More Curls Than Day Before (25)
9. More Curls Streak ++
10. Ankle Weight Streak ++
11. Ankle Weight Walk, single: 18.
12. More Pushups Than Day Before (25)
13. Pushups Streak ++
14. Abs, total: 500.
15. Poker Blitz, single: 30 min.
16. Pokerwalking, single: 56 min.
17. Blog streak ++
18. Shoulder Press, single: 31.
19. Press Streak++
20. Shoulder Shrug, single: 71.
21. Shrug Streak ++
22. Hamstring stretch, single: 5m, 20
23. Total, 5m20
24. Streak++
25. Back bend, single: 1m1s.
26. Total: 1m1s.
27. Shoulder Shrug total: 141
28. Forearms, single: 53 (please don't do tomorrow)
29. Forearm Streak ++
30. Obliques, single: 53.
31. Oblique Streak ++
32. More Yoga Streak ++
33. Walk More Than Day Before ++
34. Earliest recorded poker: 2:59 PM
35. Ab Twist, single: 3min, 33.
36. Ab Twist, total:
37. Ab Twist Streak ++
38. Pec-aerobics, single: 19m30s
39. Pec-aerobics streak ++
40. Most records, day
41. Most records, 7 days
42. Most records, 14 days
43. Most records, 28 days
44. More records than day before++
45. No Alcohol Streak (7)
46. No Video Games Streak (3)