Getting a smoker to quit...

[Joushou]

I just got the news that she was coughing all the way to school... And she's not ill.
Great... Just great... (Mutual friends a good for this kind of stuff... :P)

I'm going to try talking to her again, when she's done gaming... I'd like to spare my hand! ^_^

[cmonkey]

... and with a judicious amount of explosives, you can probably get him to stop drinking altogether! .

In my youth, I went to a summer camp, where my room mate would occasionally smoke. He was kind of wishy washy about quitting, so me and some friends found a great way to dissuade him from smoking.

EXPLOSIVES!

We managed to stick little tiny fire crackers into his cigarettes (they were designed specifically for pranking smokers so it was perfectly safe). We managed to prep a few (of his brand) in advance, and when he'd crack open a new pack, we'd distract him, and either switch out the whole open pack or just a few. Eventually his anxiety over exploding cigarettes made him quit. It was not so much the exploding, but every time he'd light up, we'd all nudge each other and stare at him in anticipation, and sometimes we try to have him catch us purposely ignoring him. He never knew which ones were loaded!

He quit after about a month!

Since explosives are not PC these days, make a game out of it.... if she lights up in front of you, just start shooting rubber bands at the cigarette.

Photographs and blackmail are always another option

No matter what, the decision is still hers.

Good luck in your efforts.

[gbrandwood]

Kenny - you are a smart guy. But suggesting you burn yourself with a cigarette is totally crazy. Please do not do it. I appreciate you care for your girlfriend - but self harming is not the way to go. Even thinking of that scares me a little. I feel the plan would backfire anyway, either because it creeps her out or she feels you are trying to control her.

Whether she smokes or not is her decision. Make your POV very clear to her but ultimately it is her decision. Then you decide if you can live with it or not. Sometimes you have to accept people's vices.

[Joushou]

Oh yes, the plan is insane... No need to tell me it's scary!

But i get my hands and arms burned, electrocuted and scared so often that it wouldn't be any different than my usual day job.

It just makes me feel like one of those emo kids... ._.

I don't like controlling her either. If she wants to smoke, let her smoke!.. But then i think of the people i know who are smoking. They don't even smoke a whole lot, but damn. I know she doesn't want to end like those. And i know it's already making her cough.

It was also my idea not to actually control her directly. She could keep on smoking if she wanted to. The mark on my hand would just be maintained while she does it. An attempt to give smoking a more instant consequence. A serious one, but ne she could still ignore if she wanted to.

cmonkey:
Hahah, nice method!.. I just can't do the same, unless i grow arms over 10000km/6300mi long.

I'm hoping she stopped by herself... I got a few people keeping an eye on her, and i'll of course try to educate her again before doing anything stupid.

[KSagal]

Originally Posted by Joushou

Oh yes, the plan is insane... No need to tell me it's scary!

But i get my hands and arms burned, electrocuted and scared so often that it wouldn't be any different than my usual day job.

It just makes me feel like one of those emo kids... ._.

I don't like controlling her either. If she wants to smoke, let her smoke!.. But then i think of the people i know who are smoking. They don't even smoke a whole lot, but damn. I know she doesn't want to end like those. And i know it's already making her cough.

It was also my idea not to actually control her directly. She could keep on smoking if she wanted to. The mark on my hand would just be maintained while she does it. An attempt to give smoking a more instant consequence. A serious one, but ne she could still ignore if she wanted to.

cmonkey:
Hahah, nice method!.. I just can't do the same, unless i grow arms over 10000km/6300mi long.

I'm hoping she stopped by herself... I got a few people keeping an eye on her, and i'll of course try to educate her again before doing anything stupid.

First off, as an electromechanical engineer, I have to say that if you regularly burn or electrocute your hands in the performance of your job, you may want to either look into a good pair of gloves, a number of safety practices that you must not be using, or perhaps a career that allows your apparently clumsy use of your hands less damage. I am not saying that you will not hurt your hands from time to time, but it should not be a regular thing, and especially not with the reflexes of a common 17 year old... Use your head a bit more, and your hands will pay a bit less.

Next, while loading her cigarettes with explosive charges may be beyond your reach, this may be a great chance for you to stretch your capacities, and come up with some creative alternative.

An example of a rubber band shot at the cigarette was made. Good example. Use your obvious big and active brain to work from there. You can make an internet video surveillance network, work with drone model helicopters that are outfitted with rubber band shooters, and go on from there...

Don't stop at the web cam on her computer... Tap into the traffic surveillance cameras on the corners, use the security cameras at her place of business...

Be creative, and make it so she will never know when one of your tiny helicopter (of course equipped with their own video) will fly in the window and whack her cigarette with a rubber band. At work, at night in the restaurant, just walking in the park...

She might just be impressed with your resolve to stop her and stop smoking... Of course, she might be even more freaked out, and you will have to spend some time in jail for stalking, but that is a small price to pay for this effort.

Be sure to U-Tube the videos, and link them here on this forum, before you get sent to prison.

[Joushou]

It's not clumsy. But sometimes there's only 0.5" between your arm, and the next phase... And, we run 230v per phase, meaning that leaves you with a nice 400v shock.

Why do the other electricians not get electrocuted like that? Because they got apprentices like me for that. It's illegal, yes, but there's not much i can do about it. And if i as much as complain, i can expect to get the REALLY crappy jobs.

Luckily, I'm out of that company next year, around March. I have never really wanted to be an electrician, so i can't wait till i'm done with the education, so i can continue onto becoming an engineer as well... I don't want to tear my body apart to do my everyday job, like i do now.


Autonomous helicopters would be fun... I would just have to stretch the battery capacity to some extremes, and the stabilization system would have to be rather complex. After all, it would have to cross the atlantic ocean without crashing in a storm, and still have enough battery left to stalk her!

Another problem would be the target lock... I would have to have a very very complex visual recognition running on it. It would have to be able to recognize her face (Which is possible, iPhoto on my Mac recognizes her face almost every time, and asks "Is this Firstname Surname?"), and after that, i would have to track the cigarette.

It would be bothersome... But it would be a fun project! (And, how would they know it was me? It's not like i'd write my name on 'em! )

[Joushou]

It seems like she listened... I couldn't be happier!

^_^

We could always keep the discussion going... Do you know any stories of people doing crazy stuff to get people to stop smoking? Or people doing crazy stuff to get their hands on the cigarettes?

[Gihgehls]

I hope she doesn't feel like she is required to change herself to be with you. That's emotional blackmail

[Joushou]

Oh no, I wouldn't want that either. I want her as is. I just want her to live a long and healthy life as well.

(Hmm... Next time, there's no need to say "A friend", "this girl"... They'll figure it out... :P)

[cmonkey]

You'll need some BBs, and a few glass jars. Label the jars, The Past, The Future and The End.

For her demographic, find out how long she's going to live (statisticly speaking). and then multiply that age by 52 (weeks in a year).

For example if it's 79 years, that's 4108 weekends.

Buy a box or two of BBs, and send her 4108 BBs.

Then have her count out how many weeks she's been alive, multiply by 52, and remove from the 'future' jar and put them in the 'past' jar...

Here's some food for thought. For all the BBs that are left in the 'future' jar, tell her these are the weekends that she has left; for every pack she smoked and will smoke, she can put a BB in the jar labeled 'The End.

Then let her know that these are the last weekends of her life that could be impacted by her smoking.

I've done this exercise, and, applied to anything, it's a very interesting way to put life into perspective.

I ran into someone who did this with marbles (but just for the remaining years in his life) and for every year left of his life, he put in two black marbles. They were his special vacation marbles, and it was a promise to himself to at least take two weeks or weekends each year to do something special that he would have otherwise put off.

He's a very happy person.