thought i should also introduce myself

[2love2live]

That must be a name that you apply to every bloke (male) because you've forgotten his real name???

my name happens to be joe - average joe

thanks Loh - you vivid illustration of the damaged lungs is quite educational. - now i start to think all the time how screwed up my lungs can be now since though i quite already i used to be a quite heavy smoker

hope it will not come into my dreams tonight

[FEND.]

Welcome to the forum! Just hope the dreams don't haunt you at night

[Cheung]

if you are ethnic Chinese i will find it's hard to believe that you don't even / never play any MahJong? or Ma Jiang? hehe, yeah i play doubles more than singles.

haha. I never play MJ and play singles more than doubles (on a badminton court).. And I am chinese

In fact, I'm not even sure I have ever played a complete game of MJ in my life. RAther be playing badminotn..........

[Cengsc]

Hi Joe,

Thks a lot. will buy if go there.

ceng

what i can recall is 'aeroplane' or Hang Kong in Chinese. but it's kinda expensive, see here : http://www.bbesports.com/index_shuttle.htm, not HongKong casual players play this brand because it's durable and kinda lasts longer for them comparatively.

[Anatolii]

nice meeting you here too anatolii

.. but you haven't enlightened me yet on why teens these days, educated/well-informed as they are, choose to smoke. ..

and bytheway, i think playing mahjong is a really interesting activity (though i've never played.. and i've witnessed how they played only once). i plan to take on the game when i'm in the old folks home and incapable of swinging a racquet anymore.

[Pete LSD]

Have you tried nicotine pads? Then again . . . the environment you live in perpetuate and promote smoking as a lifestyle.

to all: yeah i know smoking kills - thanks for the advices and thanks to the excessive production of phlegm, i quit smoking about 3 years ago, i used to be travelling all around, and I used to cough so much that every morning when i woke up in the hotel the first thing i did was to spend several minutes clearing my throat! scary - those yellowish phlegm - disgusting ...


to taneepak: this is SCARY! thank goodness i quit already, we have believers here though thinking smoking definitely kills sperm. and many also believe coke kills sperms!!!!

but you know what - quit smoking is some project if not mission impossible.

[Pete LSD]

If you don't speak Shanghainese, you will be at a disadvantage. The locals will pick on you when you buy goods: namely, the goodies will be charged at a much higher rate than say the blok who speaks the dialect.

I think you've got 3 loves, not 2, and only 1 life, not 2.

Welcome onboard!

Haven't been to Shanghai since many, many years ago. But now when I see images of Shanghai on the TV, the place doesn't look Chinese anymore. It's like you're in NY or any other modern cities in the world!

[2love2live]

.. but you haven't enlightened me yet on why teens these days, educated/well-informed as they are, choose to smoke. ..

and bytheway, i think playing mahjong is a really interesting activity (though i've never played.. and i've witnessed how they played only once). i plan to take on the game when i'm in the old folks home and incapable of swinging a racquet anymore.

let's see -

I have to first make it clear here - my impression - China is a "smoked" country that's for sure , but recently I've noticed that less and less young generation people choose to smoke, especially in relatively developed areas of China, which I myself think - is a good thing.

the reason I started smoking -

we actually had this debate when I was in college on whether people should smoke, and why people smoke, I could not remember how this debate ended, but I started smoking in senior year because at that time I started to fell in love with programming and my mentor who was/is a programming genius was at the same time a "smoking ghost" - we used to play with computers together all day and night and smoking and drinking very thick tea were among the methods we adopted to keep us awake.

interesting thing happened to me regarding mahjong and smoking -

I once played mahjong with friends for a straight 40 hours ! We killed 8 packs of cigarette in these 40 hours, and during the last several hours we were out of supply and it was about 4 o'clock in the morning so no where to buy new - we were so tired but still wanted to keep playing so we ended up hunting for not-completely-finished-cigarette-butts in the trash ! hahaha - crazy things again happen in college


now -

I quit smoking already. I play casual mahjong with friends for fun.

[2love2live]

If you don't speak Shanghainese, you will be at a disadvantage. The locals will pick on you when you buy goods: namely, the goodies will be charged at a much higher rate than say the blok who speaks the dialect.

true! and the taxi driver will take you through a wrong (usually longer) way hehe, once my friend called this "foreigners' tax" haha. that's among one of the things I hate this city.

but i have ways to avoid that

but you know what once I was in HongKong and I don't speak the language, one taxi driver did the same thing as shanghai taxi driver will do to non-local travellers to me!

can't help but - you know what - I guess it's all about money.

[2love2live]

Have you tried nicotine pads? Then again . . . the environment you live in perpetuate and promote smoking as a lifestyle.

thanks pete i quit already guess i have a stronger will than most people - hehe bragging again did you notice that less and less younger generation people in china do - against the 'environment' - choose not to smoke

[Anatolii]

thanks pete i quit already guess i have a stronger will than most people - hehe bragging again did you notice that less and less younger generation people in china do - against the 'environment' - choose not to smoke

haha good for them, they obviously have stronger will than you (to not consider smoking in the first place) my two uncles had successfully quited smoking too. so there, two more stronger willed people for you

[wood_22_chuck]

haha good for them, they obviously have stronger will than you (to not consider smoking in the first place) my two uncles had successfully quited smoking too. so there, two more stronger willed people for you

It's not about competition to quit smoking. Kudos to all who choose not to smoke, and to those who choose to quit smoking.

-dave

[2love2live]

it amazes / confuses me smoking can be this resented around the globe.
Can I know the reasons you hate smoking?

health / look / smell / gesture / environmental protection / world peace?

seems China still has a long way to go ...

[LazyBuddy]

it amazes / confuses me smoking can be this resented around the globe.
Can I know the reasons you hate smoking?

health / look / smell / gesture / environmental protection / world peace?

seems China still has a long way to go ...

I think i have allergy to smoke. Therefore, once ppl smoke, either I kick them out of the room, or I leave.

[cooler]

it amazes / confuses me smoking can be this resented around the globe.
Can I know the reasons you hate smoking?

health / look / smell / gesture / environmental protection / world peace?

seems China still has a long way to go ...

excuse me for being so graphicl so here it goes.

cigarette smoke is proven to be carcinogen.
most smoker already know smoking is bad but they do it anyway.

we resent smokers because
1. i have to breath in deadly air, which will certainly shorten my life span.
2. i dont care if smoker is inconsiderate to their own body but being inconsiderate to other people's health reveal that smoker's personality.
3. it stinks up my clothing and hair
4. even when not smoking, smoker's body odor reeks.
5. only 5% smoker use ashtray. Other 95% discard their butts in public places.
6. I'm force to subsidize their healthcare bills
7. I'm jealous of them for taking extra sick days off work. While at work, they take freeby breaks like 15 minutes each time, at least 4 times a day. That's ~260 hrs/yr of wage for doing no work.
8. They get to pollute the air penalty free while emission control in cars are mandatory costing thousands $/car

2lov2liv, sounds like your smoking is confined to your space but most smokers don't give a care about people around them, including children, seniors, or even the fetus of pregnant women.

[cappy75]

2love2live,

What I like about China is that because of its growing industrial pollutions, its government has been very progressive in going after alternative renewable energy (or green) technologies... much more than other industrialized countries (namely the US). With the encroachment of the Gobi desert in the north, industrial smogs and other environmental issues the Chinese government has seriously considered and moving towards green power more than traditional energy resources for their growing needs. Kudos to China for setting a good example for other countries to follow. China's still a bad polluter, but it's moving in the right direction.

As for smokers, I really don't mind how they choose their poison to kill themselves as long as they're not doing it in the same room as I am in.
Anyway, welcome to BadmintonForum and enjoy your stay here!

[Loh]

it amazes / confuses me smoking can be this resented around the globe.
Can I know the reasons you hate smoking?

health / look / smell / gesture / environmental protection / world peace?

seems China still has a long way to go ...

This subject of Smoking versus Non-smoking has been rather sensitive.

Smokers claim that it is their inherent right in a Democracy to smoke as 'freedom' is one of the hallmarks of a democracy. But they have forgotten that right comes with responsibily!

When the exercising of that right conflicts with the interest of the general public, then obviously that right will not be allowed to go rampant, without controls. Healthwise, smoking is not for good for the public because the inhaling of cigarette smoke (indirect smoking) is even worse than smoking itself. Therefore, children are the most innocent victims if their parents smoke at home.

Many years ago, cigarette manufacturers challenged this as untrue but over the years, as evidence accumulated, it became apparent that smoking (direct and indirect) is really harmful to health, lung cancer being the most common result of heavy and prolonged smoking. Cigarette companies have to pay damages in the millions of dollars, are restricted in advertising their products and conditions are set on their packaging, eg to print clearly on the packets that "smoking is harmful to health".

Apart from being a health hazard, which is the most significant point, as annually, many young people die prematurely (other than the older folks) from smoking-related diseases, smoking is also as what you hace described, an anti-social behaviour. A non-smoker can easily detect the presence of a smoker because of the uninviting smell of cigarette odour all over the former's body. Some smokers throw the butts indiscriminately and it has been known that fires (including forest fires) have been caused as a result.

In Singapore, we went through a long period of adjustment and it has now resulted in a bill (maybe a law by now) that penalizes smoking in restaurants, bars and where there are many people gathered, such as in a stadium, a bus stop, etc. We used to hear arguments that you can't divorce smoking from drinking (in bars) or in gambling places, etc. But the law takes care of it now. And, being a non-smoker myself, I welcome such a move!