Day 202 of Quit

Life has thrown me a curveball lately, but by sheer luck I had the money in my account to cover some unexpected repairs on my car. Apparently a timing belt on a vehicle must be changed every 80'000 km's, at least for the model of the car I own. This one lasted 191'000 km... and by more sheer luck the valves did not get bent after the engine failed to turn over when the belt finally went. Which would have meant a new engine in a 10 year old car.

What was not sheer luck is that the bill presented to me was almost equal to an entire paycheck. Also, it was never authorized for the repairs. The garage went ahead and replaced the timing belt. I can see that it is necessary to find out if the valves were bent or not… but doing this without any consent to do this to my legal goods? I could have contested it and most likely have a case for small claims court. But I shall say live and let live… but I am giving that garage all the advertising they do not want. How? Word of mouth.

That was last week, and previous to that there was other things that have come up that delayed me from posting up my half year quit from smokig... And another week of distractions before that which prevented this post.

Which is a good thing I suppose, the not posting and needing advice… I’m getting comfortable with not smoking. The junkie thinking comes, and it’s is easily identified and dismissed of, no matter what the temptation. I’ve thrown out the last box of nicotine patches as I don’t need them to get over those sudden cravings.

I should post more often and update my blog as well, maybe with the daily practice and posting of items will get the creative juices flowing… get rid of this indifferent attitude I have towards writing as of late. So many unfinished stories on the back burner…

What else has been going on? Bunk bed madness and replacing my daughters bed, she always wanted bunk beds, and then, when we finally got them set up, the in-laws purchased a mattress… that is not built for bunkbeds. 3 flights of stairs hauling the bunk beds up, then 3 flights down the stairs. I swear if I made an economical external elevator to attach to a balcony, I’d make a mint.

I’ve also had the strangest urge to go back and try and redo some lessons I had set up for me many moons ago in Animation Master. Perhaps this is a sign that I’m getting ready for a career change? Or just more of the ‘You should really finish soon what you put off 5 years ago’… time will tell and reveal all.

Fun stuff I’ve been watching as well…
Hilarious House of Frightenstein – Like a grim version of Sesame Street, it’s been popping up on the cable channels. Nostalgia that makes me smile, except they removed the music that they had in the show.

Across the Universe – Best musical I’ve seen in such a long time. A great blending of story and song, and it may have rekindled my love for the Beatles music.

Torchwood – A more adult Doctor Who with themes that regular broadcast television. The BBC do put out some good shows, luckily being in Canada, they occasionally show it on CBC. Further notes to see if I can dig up the broadcast of Karaoke/Cold Lazarus adaptation they did by Dennis Potter.

Doctor Who season 3, ramping up towards Russel Davies next season, I’m hoping someone else can step up to the plate for the series next… Joss Whedon or Neil Gaiman would be excellent for writing the series.

Muppets Season Two – Was watching this the other night, and the episode with Candice Bergan (spelling?) from Murphy Brown was on. Didn’t realize how many of the songs that were sung by my family when I was knee high to a grasshopper came from the Muppet show. Here I thought there was this long standing tradition of singing while doing the dishes, looks like it was just a ploy to distract me and remind me of the Muppet show at the same time. I should feel cheated, but anything Muppet related rocks.

And reading… White Night by Jim Butcher. The Dresden files books are a must read if you are into detectives… with a healthy dose of magic thrown in. The tv series they had on, was an extreme light version of the books.

“Y – The Last Man” is a must read for those who enjoy the golden age of sci-fi aka the introduction of a new science or technology and impact on humankind. In this series, something kills all males on the planet, with the exception of one man. Intelligently written, and researched out very smartly too. For example, Australia ends up with the largest naval fleet, because of the sheer number of women that were already in the navy prior to the Gendercide.

Queen and Country by Greg Rucka – Now being collected into a definitive version in trade paperback. If you enjoy Bond, you’ll like this, it’s a smarter spy series and not so much as Bond’s usual infiltrate and beat/kill the bad guy up. The agents have more depth to them, they have real life problems to deal with.

And video games, (insert sigh of content here) City of Heroes is still treating me quite well so I can get my RPG fix in. I also picked up Portal from Valve studios, a must have for the game player. For those who played… the cake is a lie. For those who don’t know, just smile, nod and back away slowly.

As for the celebratory posts and achievements, I may do something larger when it comes around to 1 year, but for right now, I’m taking it one day at a time, enjoying the moment to it’s fullest. So don’t be too surprised if I don’t post for a while, if I have something profound to write, I’ll post it up. Otherwise it will come across as so much impotent masturbation on a written scale. Then again… perhaps it won’t be if I keep up the habit of writing. Once again with that writers block/apathy attitude.

But otherwise I’ve been keeping myself busy, happily so. So where am I now?

I’m still here,
Pike

I have been quit for 6 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 1 hour and 54 minutes (203 days).
I have saved $1,072.25 by not smoking 2,233 cigarettes.
I have saved 1 Week, 18 hours and 5 minutes of my life.
My Quit Date: 8/6/2007 9:20 AM

P.S. Must update blog more often...