You may or may not know that I have been trying to quit smoking for about a year now. I’ll stop, then start, then stop – then sometimes I’ve stopped and started at the same time. I’ll smoke three cigarettes in a day, and chew four pieces of nicotine gum – is that a victory? I was smoke-free for a good three months when I had a semi-mental breakdown and the first and ONLY thing I could think of was CIGARETTE CIGARETTE CIGARETTE. I went to the hospital – but only after I had a smoke.
I like to smoke. It gives me something to do outside the bar when everyone is drunk and social. It surrounds me with some sort of force-field protecting me from the slurry, stumbly madness that I am no longer a part of. It gives me time to think.
I just finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash – I think I liked it. There were parts of the book that were so exposition-heavy that it felt sloppy. I loved the main characters, however, especially Hiro Protagonist. Yes, that is his name, and yes, it’s totally awesome. The World’s Greatest Computer Hacker/Japanese Sword Fighter is appealing to me. I’m sure he knows some sort of Sumerian incantation that will cure me of my addiction. Or at least he could just cut my hands off.
