Random Rants ΟΔ: broken record

[Cutlass]

To what end?

I have to ask, because I have seen smokers confronted by such realities, and it is seldom pretty and less often effective for causing any change in their behavior.

Anecdotal case in point:

Spoiler :

When I was in the navy I had to plan on being at sea for up to ninety days. My personal space was different because I had an outboard rack, but for most people their space consisted of their bunk, 6'3" long and 26" wide, plus a "locker" called a bunk pan, which was about four inches deep and accessed by lifting the hinged lid that you slept on. In case we pull in somewhere a minimum of civilian jeans and a tee shirt, plus maybe a sweater, packed in airtight packaging to avoid picking up boat smell is a necessity. Boots, dungaree pants and shirt, are required uniform for pulling out and pulling back in, so gotta have a minimum of one copy of that. Underway coveralls, tennis shoes, and underwear obviously required, and extras nice. Don't want to be stuck wearing boots if you destroy your shoes early on.

So, I had numerous friends who brought two coveralls, maybe three tee shirts and pairs of boxers, no extra shoes, only one set of civvies which they planned to wear their underway shoes with, and committed to doing laundry as much as every other day for the entire time at sea because they left port with three quarters of their bunk pan filled with cigarettes.

Ah, the wisdom of allowing people to smoke in an environment which was sealed from the outside world for months at a time...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Ah, the wisdom of allowing people to smoke in an environment which was sealed from the outside world for months at a time...

We considered it a win if we managed to go to sea and get back to port without having to break up any stress induced fistfights. Telling the smokers to go cold turkey for the duration would have lowered the goal to just getting back without any murdered corpses.

 

[Cutlass]

We considered it a win if we managed to go to sea and get back to port without having to break up any stress induced fistfights. Telling the smokers to go cold turkey for the duration would have lowered the goal to just getting back without any murdered corpses.

They would have eventually become non-smokers.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

They would have eventually become non-smokers.

One way or another...but we really couldn't afford the casualties.

 

[Cutlass]

Teach them in training that they won't be able to smoke deployed. Wash out those who don't learn it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Teach them in training that they won't be able to smoke deployed. Wash out those who don't learn it.

I went through a school that at the time (1980s) cost something north of a hundred thousand dollars per student and already washed out over fifty percent, making the cost per graduate close to a quarter million in 1980 dollars...and you want to wash out half of those because they smoke?

 

[Birdjaguar]

To what end?

I have to ask, because I have seen smokers confronted by such realities, and it is seldom pretty and less often effective for causing any change in their behavior.

Anecdotal case in point:

Spoiler :

When I was in the navy I had to plan on being at sea for up to ninety days. My personal space was different because I had an outboard rack, but for most people their space consisted of their bunk, 6'3" long and 26" wide, plus a "locker" called a bunk pan, which was about four inches deep and accessed by lifting the hinged lid that you slept on. In case we pull in somewhere a minimum of civilian jeans and a tee shirt, plus maybe a sweater, packed in airtight packaging to avoid picking up boat smell is a necessity. Boots, dungaree pants and shirt, are required uniform for pulling out and pulling back in, so gotta have a minimum of one copy of that. Underway coveralls, tennis shoes, and underwear obviously required, and extras nice. Don't want to be stuck wearing boots if you destroy your shoes early on.

So, I had numerous friends who brought two coveralls, maybe three tee shirts and pairs of boxers, no extra shoes, only one set of civvies which they planned to wear their underway shoes with, and committed to doing laundry as much as every other day for the entire time at sea because they left port with three quarters of their bunk pan filled with cigarettes.

The end being that any discussion of spending in her family may boiling down to money spent on cigarettes. My suggestion is one way to shift the conversation away from smoking (which is too difficult) to money which could be an easier conversation. Presenting the data on the cost of smoking rather than discussing smoking itself may keep things more civil. Smoking is her mother's problem, lack of money affects both of them. There is anecdotal evidence to support every kind of smoking related intervention just as there is anecdotal evidence to support their ineffectiveness.

 

[Cutlass]

I went through a school that at the time (1980s) cost something north of a hundred thousand dollars per student and already washed out over fifty percent, making the cost per graduate close to a quarter million in 1980 dollars...and you want to wash out half of those because they smoke?

If they wanted to stay they could have quit.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm not wondering so much about your mom at this point, as I am wondering about where you could possibly have found a new book for less than $10 (bargain table at Chapters/Coles?). If it was a second-hand book, that makes her complaints even more spiteful.

It was second-hand, and the price also included the shipping as I purchased it online. It was total just a little over eight dollars.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If they wanted to stay they could have quit.

Yeah, but no one wanted to stay. When the Navy first started using random urinalysis to hunt down marijuana smokers they came up with what was called the 'drug exempt' program. All you had to do was 'admit to a problem' before you got caught and you would get treatment without disciplinary action. However, the Naval Nuclear Power program had its own policies that were negotiated with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and drug treatment programs were a disqualifier for nuclear power billets...meaning that going drug exempt had no disciplinary consequences but offered an escape from nuclear power. It took less than a week for the navy to update the drug exempt policy to exclude anyone with a nuclear NEC, and in that time just about every nuclear powered ship that was in port at the time lost so much of its engineering department that it couldn't put to sea.

"Yes, I graduated from the naval nuclear power program and was later disqualified because I smoke cigarettes" would have provided immediate employment in any civilian nuclear power plant in the country. Heck, if smoking would have gotten me off the boat I'd have taken it up.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It was second-hand, and the price also included the shipping as I purchased it online. It was total just a little over eight dollars.

Amazon Marketplace?

That's where a lot of my books come from nowadays. I've got several novels and biographies picked out for my Christmas present to myself.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yes. I only recently realized that I'm able to use my debit card with it, so I ordered a book that I used to have but either got lost or water-damaged to the point of needing to be thrown out (I can't recall which).

 

[Takhisis]

I went through a school that at the time (1980s) cost something north of a hundred thousand dollars per student and already washed out over fifty percent, making the cost per graduate close to a quarter million in 1980 dollars...and you want to wash out half of those because they smoke?

I'm beginning to wonder whether I couldn't write a biography of you that became a minor hit.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'm beginning to wonder whether I couldn't write a biography of you that became a minor hit.

I've lived a bit, and kept my sense of humor.

 

[Takhisis]

Which would make you, possibly, an interviewable subject.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

My parents have been in Bosnia for the past three months and are now coming back to Germany.
Of course they didn't tell anyone before and now I have to organise their ride home.
They never plan ahead and everything always turns into an emergency.
No wonder I'm so disorganised and put off everything until the last minute considering who raised me.
Sometimes I think I have learned/inherited each and every one of my numerous character flaws from them.

Btw: I had to get up before 5 am today because of them and have to work the late shift today. Started the day tired and cranky and will probably end it furious and exhausted.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm beginning to wonder whether I couldn't write a biography of you that became a minor hit.

It would. He would interview well and you could even quote some of his many posts here.

 

[r16]

dear British Aerospace

your troll in Turkey has apparently placed a warning on some thread elsewhere that went nuts when ı was about to rant Spanish were fully supporting LHD programme and whatever and connection went nuts. No doubt to be aware , it keeps acting unnatural so that can't download once again . Is this how it is going to happen , Washington to hint that you should be good boys and stop ? Claiming you are not responsible for actions of stuff ? Or am ı to finally learn a lesson ?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Alberta Health Services has apparently decided between last year and this year that email consent is insufficient for my dad to have a flu shot. I got an email saying, "download this form, sign it, and fax it back."

Where do they think I live, in an office?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Apparently faxes are preferred over emails because of privacy reasons. I thought that's what PGP was for?