Today is the ninth anniversary of me quitting smoking cigarettes. A major accomplishment considering that with the rare exception of me taking a puff or two while intoxicated at the bar, I’ve removed this habit from my life for nine years. Let me take you on a brief history of smoking in my life.

1970′s

I smoked the first two years of high school. Pretty much every weekday, sometimes on the weekends when my mom was gone with her friends. About two weeks before the end of my sophomore year, I had a bad trip on angel dust and decided to quit drinking, coke, pot, pills and smoking cigs.

1990′s

I didn’t smoke cigarettes again until late 1998 (yes, I quit for pretty much 18 years) when I took the habit back up while having some stress in my life related to job and relationship issues. At first, it was only 2 or 3 on an occasion, but then turned into a daily habit by the middle of 1999.

2000′s

I started my divorce in Feb 2000 and was already a daily smoker. I rarely smoked more than a pack a day, similar to most of my other friends I spent time with. It never bothered me that I smoked for a good 3 years. Around the beginning of 2003, I made my first attempt to quit because I became tired of the habit. I was living with a friend who smoked and would start my day inside the cold garage to have a morning smoke. Several tries later, I ended up being successful on Friday morning – May 16, 2003. I took a nice long walk instead of going for a smoke and haven’t had a full cigarette since.

As I mentioned above, there were a few puffs over the years and I enjoyed a cigar or a Prime Time (a cigarette-shaped cigar) a few times a year, but for standard tobacco cigarettes and the need or desire to have one is gone.

I seriously doubt I will ever smoke again in my life. And it’s been at least 3 years since I’ve had a cigar or PrimeTime.

Anyone else have a quitting smoking story? How many months or years has it been for you?

I saw this the other day and it hit me pretty hard because just over twenty years ago, I was starting my path into the writing world with my own newsletter. Then many, many freelance gigs for several publications for the next six years. Then my life took a turn where I focused on other things that I deemed more important.

I sit here today working my way back into a writing career and I don’t want to take a twenty year look back and wish I would have kept going.

My push for great things in 2012 continue.

NOTE: the above quote is NOT from Mark Twain, but from H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (actually his mother said it, he just published it in a book called “P.S. I Love You”) Thanks to my friend Steve Trottier for his work to find the real author of this quote.

The curtain is closed this week. Be back next week with my review of Marilyn Manson’s new album “Born Villain”

Another state takes the side of the majority and uses fear and prejudice to divide on a social and civil issue.

North Carolina became the 30th state to enshrine discrimination in it’s state constitution. I was not aware that any constitution – state or federal – could or should be used to take away or restrict the rights of it’s citizens. I was taught in school that the idea of including, not excluding, was the basis for how this country was originally founded. I guess that’s not how the majority sees it.

Never mind the fact that North Carolina – like several other states before it – already had made same-sex marriage illegal through legislation. But just to make sure it REALLY was illegal, they passed this amendment so they could show the rest of the nation and the world that “no, we don’t want anyone different than us to be married.”

Not The First Time

Original images found at North Carolina Miscellany

Of course, this wasn’t the first time they passed an amendment to ban a group of people from marriage. Back in 1875, interracial marriage was banned and didn’t get removed from the state’s constitution until it was rewritten almost 100 years later.

Waiting On History

History has shown that eventually, the minority are given the rights and civil liberties that the majority has so often taken away. So it shall be for North Carolina. I just hope they don’t have to wait almost 100 years for equality to once again write another chapter in history.

]]> http://www.banalleakage.com/2012/05/09/north-of-unequal/feed/ 4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ http://www.banalleakage.com/2012/05/07/music-monday-rip-mca-adam-yauch/ http://www.banalleakage.com/2012/05/07/music-monday-rip-mca-adam-yauch/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 18:56:15 +0000 martymankins http://www.banalleakage.com/?p=5854
RIP MCA – Original image found at US Magazine

We lost a highly talented musician this last friday. Adam Yauch, who went by his moniker MCA, died at the age of 47 from cancer.

His music will be forever remembered by many as groundbreaking. Just weeks ago, the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [he did not attend due to his health], recognizing their talent and addition to the rap and hip-hop world.

And while I’m not that big of a Coldplay fan, their tribute to Adam just hours after his death was pure class.

Any favorite Beastie Boys song? Mine is “No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn” which I’ve loved since I first heard it over 25 years ago.

Last night I hung put with some good friends at a downtown bar and had some Cinco De Mayo adult beverages

I now know what a $4 margarita tastes like

The margaritas were petty good and the company was awesome, too.

A Pacifico that is hiding out as a Bud Lite

I found out how to disguise my upgraded beer as a standard pilsner.

How was your Cinco De Mayo?

Who else visited their comic book store today?

RIP Junior

RIP Junior

Today’s sad news from the NFL world was the death of Junior Seau. I knew him as #55 on the San Diego Chargers for years as one of the best players in the game to watch. The word is he took his own life, which is even sadder to think that at 43 years old, a retired football star would be that done with his life. Regardless, may he be remembered for his glory days of making some great plays in his career.

STP

Scott Weiland – May 15, 2009 – Murray Theater, UT

Rumors are swirling about a tour as Stone Temple Pilots celebrates the 20th anniversary release of their debut album “Core” later this year. Holy shit, has it been 20 years already since “Sex Type Thing” and “Plush” came onto the music scene? I guess so. It would be cool to see STP again [I've seen them several times over the years] and to hear this album live from start to finish would make for a great show. More details will be posted as they become more official.

LEGO Minifigures Series 7

For those of us that are LEGO fans and collectors, there is yet another set of minifigures. Series 7 hit the stores a couple of weeks ago and is now available on the official LEGO online store for ordering.

While I have mostly collected the entire set of previous series, I am wondering how many more sets there will be in the future and how many LEGOs do I really need.

Now I know my wife is reading this and going, “Thank goodness!” But at the same time, I am wanting to collect all of them. There’s some cool figures in this series like the computer programmer, the bunny suit guy and the ocean king. And once they get into my collection, three figures is going to be 13 short of the full set.

And that’s a random wrap. The comment section is open for your two-cents worth of words.

• Filming and editing videos

- While the 3 remaining episodes of Scooter Sunday Season 4 are still in an state of needing to be edited, I have mounted and been using my new GoPro HERO 2 camera that will be used to film Season 5. I have posted a raw test video over on scootersunday.com that I hope will be the beginning to a great season of scooter fun.

• Writing

- The story is done for Thrice Fiction #5, but doing a fair number of edits and a few re-writes as I go through the story. Another week or so and I can submit it to RW.

- Initial story outline for a new writing gig, which I will mention here once I get the green light. Not due until the end of July, I want to get it done, edited and submitted before the middle of July.

• Screenwriting/Movie making

- No progress on the screenplay this last month. It sits in a state of defined non-active characters of a labeled rough draft.

• Reading Books

- Another month of no progress here. Same stack, same spot on the desk they sit.

• Exercise

- I am now at a total of 21 weeks* that I’ve been going to the gym with pretty much three visits a week. I’m down 4 lbs from when I started, yet looking at myself, I don’t see much gone from my chin and belly [which are my main focus areas]. Although a friend was over the other night and said I look like I’ve lost weight. So maybe a little bit has happened in the trimming department. I see myself everyday, so seeing any progress is not as noticeable.

• Golf

- I have a text I need to send to several golf buddies now that we are at least hanging into the 70′s most days.

• Blogging

- Posting is moderate, but lax both out here and on Chillywilly.org. Guess it’s time to get some more ideas for these places. I am working more on the design and initial implementation of a new blog – Adult Beverages. I’ve been tweeting more from the @adultbeverages account, just need to add a presentable web presence in the coming weeks and months.

Once again, my workout regimin has proved to be a consistent goal I am making progress in this year. I really need to start adding some of the other TINTFA goals into my day and schedule before much more time goes by.

Next update is on June 1st.

* my last exercise update mentioned 10 weeks in a row, which was incorrect as I’ve been every week since the first week of December. This update corrects the total.

This is a track from a live Frank Zappa album where Sting comes out and performs a superb version of “Murder By Numbers”, the last track on the 1983 release “Synchronicity”

It happens to be my favorite song by The Police [there are close - very close - runners up like "Message In a Bottle" and "Hungry For You"] and while the original studio recording is essentially the last released song The Police did as a band together, it stands as a very controversial song, as Sting eludes to in the opening of the above Frank Zappa track.

Pretty damn excited for this one.

While I’ve mostly sworn off soda for the last four years, I do enjoy the rare indulgence of a Monster Energy drink. I normally only drink the original Green, which is the full sugar, full carb and full calorie version. But lately, I’ve been a bit more health conscious in the food consumption. So I decided to try this version, dubbed Monster Absolutely Zero.

Not being a fan of anything diet, including carbonated beverages, I was a bit apprehensive. But a few sips and gulps into this 16oz can and it wasn’t bad. It was noticeably different the the Green Monster for sure. But not so much that I was going to start making faces and spitting this shit out.

I recommend at least trying it if you are fan of energy drinks but want to reduce sugar and calories.

As a safety measure, I bought a can of the Green Monster just in case I hated this sugar-free version. It’s waiting for me next week when I need a boost at work.