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Yes, I'm a smoker. Have tried to quit a couple of times but can sm

Posted By: Addicted to nicotine too on 2006-09-15
In Reply to: OK, if you'll admit to it. Are you a smoker? sm - MTPuffer

never seem to get it done.  Would love some to hear success stories and how people have quit.  HELP!


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Quit before I got married. Fiance told me "no way would I marry a smoker," and I was smitten.
Marlboro Reds. I smoked all throughout high school and college before that. Was highly addicted. Had to go for a smoke break between classes.

It's been 10+ years since quitting. Cold turkey. Don't want it, don't want to smell it, won't eat at a restaurant that allows smoking. Fortunately (sorry smokers) in GA, all restaurants are smoke-free now. I like it that way. Can enjoy food better.

BUT, I have a completely different problem that is probably killing me - I'm addicted to sugar and carbs. Highly. Wake up craving it. 40+ pounds overweight. Hate every minute of it. No matter how hard I try, I absolutely cannot stop eating the "white, starchy" stuff. So, the cigarettes may not kill me now, but food might. Sad.
I type for cardio docs. EVERY patient has been a smoker or continues to smoke. Hope you'll quit
s
IT only takes me a couple times...
of eating out and  then I like  my own cooking again. Most restaurant food is too expensive, the portions are  too big and it tastes like it was made with no love! Maybe a cookbook with easy recipes would be the answer to the blahs!
I've had it a couple of times.
  Doctor gave me a sheet of exercises to do on my own which just amounted to moving my head and/or eyes around in different positions.  It can be just a horrible thing to have.  Yours is probably worse than mine if you have to "have therapy." 
tried doing that a couple of times, still didn't help - sm
thanks for the suggestion. I guess the other thing I should mention is that it is not happening on my other laptop that I use for all hospital work, just my private laptop.

any other ideas as to what it could be??
Did it again a couple times and worked now!!! Thank U!!
so much!! :)
Let your fax machine answer a couple times.
x
*washing his wash a couple of times a day* sm
no comprende!  *lol*
Or how about just a circuit around the house a couple of times?

I worked graveyards at hotels for years.  When it got really bad I'd get up and walk around the lobby, or get the security guard to watch the front desk for me so I could walk around the hotel.  Or do jumping jacks, or do something like an 8 minute Billy Blanks video.  Just something to get your blood moving again.  I have an elliptical machine that I'll get on for a minute or two or three in the middle of a shift just to get my blood going and to get some circulation to my hind end.


The other alternative is how about actually taking a 10 minute power nap?  Do you take a lunch or dinner break in the middle of your shift?  Get a little alarm clock you can set and put by your desk and just close your eyes for 10 minutes.


I had a brutal schedule for a number of years where I worked 8 am to 5 pm at one job, went home and took a nap then went to the hotel at 10:30 pm to 7:30 am, went right back to the other job until noon.  Then went home and passed out (hopefully) to go back to work at the hotel that night at 10:30.  On that first night, I'd sit in my chair around 3 am when it was the quietest and my work was done and just take a nap.  I'm really good at sleeping sitting up.  The security guard knew not to bug me between 3 and about 3:45.  I found that if I got a 30 minute nap then I was good to go for another several hours. 


Good luck. Hope you find a solution that works for you.


Task bar. I do this by accident a couple of times a year

and I fix it, but can't figure out what I've done to fix it.


I have my task bar at the bottom of my screen usually, but now it is on the far right and I can't figure out how to get it back on the bottom.  I know you normally click and drag, but I can't get it do down, just side to side.   I even push the down arrow but that doesn't seem to do it either. 


Friend works out of Monrovia - after a couple of times (sm)
of not meeting her quota they called and "chewed her out". Nothing was said about taking benefits away.
Sorry, don't have time. Gotta go run around the house a couple of times. nm
:+
A couple of times a year the suits post as
an MT.  I used to work for SS and they were so bad that I can't imagine them fixing all the problems in my lifetime. 
I've tried to quit 6 times in the past 6 years but

always went back to it. The longest I've quit was 3 weeks. My mom died from COPD and she had smoked from age 16. She really enjoyed smoking and although we kept trying, couldn't get her to quit until she was on 24 hour oxygen.  She told me if she couldn't enjoy anything in life (smoking), why live. She died 3 months later.


I started smoking at 13...you know, the "try it, you'll like it" phase. We both tried to quit when I was 19 but we only lasted a day. There was only cold turkey then.


I've tried the patch (3 weeks off cigarettes), cold turkey, herbal meds, hynosis (only lasted 5 hours), you name it. I've used all the suggestions possible to no avail.


With a cigarette dangling from my mouth, I told my boys never to start smoking because they'd never be able to quit easily. Two took my advice, one didn't. He also tried to quit smoking but failed. He was on Wellbutrin for it.


My husband started smoking at 8 while working in a coal mine. He quit cold turkey 19 years ago. He was smoking almost 4 packs a day and one day he got so disgusted with it, he  just threw them out the window of the car. Never touched one since and smoke from other people doesn't bother him.


He told me you really have to have the willpower and just get disgusted enough to quit. There's no other way. I guess I just don't have that willpower.


ask if there is a charge for local calls. I have had this happen a couple of times. I take an egg
xx
I power nap for 20-25 minutes a couple times a week - just depends
others I don't. But 2-2:30 is usually my time to have no energy, so it is nap time -- I find when I do this I can stay up later and work, on days I don't I have to go to bed by 10 or 11.
I am not a smoker, never have been
 TO YOU!!! GOOD LUCK!!! I'm sure this is a decision you will LIVE TO NOT REGRET!  I'll be thinking about ya and praying for ya!!! Way to go!!!  THREE CHEERS TO QUITTERS!!!
Smoker
Is it okay to email you? Maybe we can help each other. This is harder than I thought it would be. I'm doing the cold turkey bit, as I was advised to do so.

Grrrrr.....what's that old saying about biting 10-penny nails? I could do it, I tell ya! And, my brother told me all he wanted to do was sleep, sleep, sleep when he quit and I cannot sleep to save my life. I know that doesn't make sense, as nicotine is a stimulant.......just need someone to talk to during these rough days, I guess.
Former smoker
I quit a few years ago.  I won't lie, it was hard, but the wonderful feeling of becoming a nonsmoker is worth it.  It made me feel so good about myself and was the best thing I've ever done for.  At the time my son was a preteenager and I wanted to be an example for him.  There are more tools/groups available now than when I quit.  I contacted the Cancer Society, Lung Associatian and had them send me literature to refer to and reinforce my goal when I was feeling weak.  I also used the gum which helped.  The first time I quit unsuccessfully I was using the gum incorrectly, and really wasn't that motivated anyway.  I like our local nonsmoking phrase, "Never quit quitting."  Like myself, it takes some people more than one try at quitting, but that doesn't mean you have to give up or be too hard on yoursef.  Eventually you will succeed. 
Was a smoker, but....
I quit because I am pregnant. I do think I will not go back to smoking after the baby is born though.
Ha! I had a 2 yo smoker last night too..LOL

This doc dictated


This 52-year-old male with a 50-year smoking history.  Okay, I thought he was saying 15, I listened over and over, I had someone else listen too and he was saying 50!  I guess dude started puffing at 2 years of age! 


I have 2 middle age couple friends. One couple became pregnant from condom failure.
This is not just "irresponsible" behavior! Both couples are "fixed" now, because for them, reliable birth control was NOT. But it's an error to assume this stuff happens to people who are unmarried or irresponsible. Both these couples are raising 2nd families, now, but it wasn't "irresponsibility" that did them in!
OK, if you'll admit to it. Are you a smoker? sm
................and if you quit, how did you do it? 
I quit once for 3 years, but then started again. (Quit cold turkey when I did)


DH will be putting baby back ribs in the smoker,
grandma's potato salad, corn on the bbq, and MARGARITA'S!!
I quit two months ago. I tried to quit for over a year, but I just had to be ready.
I tried the patch, NRT gum, Zyban, everything. One morning, I woke up and just quit cold turkey. There are some good online support groups out there that can help you when you're ready.
ALSO IF THEY WERE GOING TO QUIT SE, THEY WOULD QUIT ADVERTISING TO HIRE SE
And I have seen a new ad in the magazine Advance that has a sign on bonus for SE's, maybe just better pay, let's think positive!!
Do NOT quit MT yet! & dont quit looking.Try her
x
I am a smoker! I agree with the alcohol. I use rubbing alcohol every day on my equipment. sm
I smoke, bad habit I know, but I can't stand the smell either.
hit left Shift key 3 times, then right Shift key 3 times -
nm
i take a couple but i too wonder if it's
the mind over matter thing working. i take flax oil capsules for my skin and i can definitely tell a difference if i stop taking it. grape seed plus (antioxidant), i can't tell one way or the other if it works. my neurosurgeon suggested glucosamine for the aches of joint surgery and the grape seed extract because he thought it was pretty good. i stopped the glucosamine because after 2 months i didn't feel any different.
i have been buying the least expensive or whatever is on sale so that might have a lot to do with the results. i would love to find a great energy source!!!
I use a couple..
I have two of the Olay Regenerist products. I like them. I especially like the thermal skin polisher, calls itself a "mini-peel treatment".
Also I have a couple of ESL
who spell things wrong all the time so I can't usually go by them spelling something. After they spell it and it come up when I do the spell check, I always end up having to look up the work anyway.
Yes, I do have a couple of ...
... jobs in mind and plan to put in applications for them tomorrow.  I'm single and I have been out of work in the last 2 years for 9-10 months; also have gone through my meager savings--that's gone.  I do want to work.  But as I've worked for several companies in the past (other than MT) and paid taxes for over 30 years, I feel I've earned some unemployment compensation.  Thanks for your input--
There are a couple out there.
I can't remember the name of the company but one of the owners was Tari. I think they were getting eScription work from Focus but weren't actually Focus.
here's a couple
labtestsonline.org

medilexicon.com
No, there are a couple.
x
Just a couple
For one thing, with the ESL dictators, as you may have guessed the more you type the better you get. When you're new, and especially when your testing and not under production pressure, you might be better off listening to it all the way through once or twice. The cadence and the way sentences are formed, and their syllable accents, etc. will become more clear, especially as you hear them in phrases that you can catch. Then it will be easier to go through and say things like, "Oh, yeah, this guy's E's sound like A's and he says GULLBLUTTER instead of GALLBLADDER.

It gets easier in time, to the point where now I can type with a Hindi accent without thinking about it(and even learned a few cuss words to toss at the doc at appropriate intervals). Most of the companies that I have tested for have maybe had 1 out of 4 or 5 test dictations that were ESL. I would assume that if you did swimmingly on the English speakers and even just fair on the ESL, they would give you a chance, but then again I'm just a worker bee and not very corporate at all!
Here are a couple that I use. sm
www.superpages.com
http://doctor.webmd.com/physician_finder/home.aspx?

Hope they help.
Try e-bay. There are a couple for --sm
$120+
different times
Question to a long timer. I have been transcribing for 15 years. I have been with one hospital for 10 years. I recently added a part time national using the same equipment and same format as my original account. For my original account I average 15-20 minutes an hour. After a month with second account, I am still only at about 8 minutes an hour. They do have a lot of ESL but so does my primary account (just not as bad, even when I first started them). I'm suppose to do a certain amount of minutes for this secondary acount, thinking I could do it in 2-3 hours a day, but I just can't reach my goal and I just do not have the time to work any more hours. Any advice?
Too much, several times a day.....but usually only for a
xx
End of times?
Does anyone think this unusually hot weather in practically all parts of the U.S. has anything to do with Bible predictions?
Can be done..but at times it can't...(SM)
I am never amazed at people that are in "awe" over the fact I work at home, which of course to them means I can keep my kids there and save tons of money on daycare. I have had countless people that have never touched a keyboard ask "So how do I get started doing that so I can stay at home with my kids?"....sorry..butI can't help but just giggle inside..much in "awe" of their cluelessness.

I did this job for years in house before ever finally being able to work into an at home position. I worked in house with my 1st child and was of course broke...so needless to say he was in daycare as early as they would take him. About a year and a half ago I had my 2nd child and really milked this one for all it was worth. Wanted to keep her home with me as looooong as I possibly could. I made it to 5 months and honestly, should have probably stopped at 4. The age of your child makes all the difference in the world. When she was a very young baby and slept most of the day..yeah it was fine, worked out really well. But the older they get..the more they are aware you are there but not paying them 100% attention...and the harder it starts to get. He's 19 months old now..and even if the daycare is closed for a day that I have to work we end up having to send him to my mother in law's house for the day..it's nearly impossible to get anything done with him here. He sees mommy sitting here staring at this screen and will bang on the keyboard, stand here and scream for the attention he wants to be focused on him instead. At this age..keeping him home is not a good thing. My oldest child now is in grade school..days out of school..he's fine to stay home. He can play and entertain himself and needs nowhere near the attention the baby does. If you have a schedule that you can work a couple hours here and a couple hours there and late evenings after bedtimes, then you might be able to make it work out fine. I'm an employee, not an IC...therefore I'm required to work a set schedule and keep up a required amount of production...cannot be done with a lil one interrupting that on a constant basis. Look at your schedule..look at the age of your child..look at your obligations/requirements to your employer. It can be done in some situations...others it cannot. Be realistic...be fair to your child's needs when considering this as well as yours and those of your employer..it's a whole big picture to consider. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do :)
I can't tell you how many times

feeling a touch or carress on my arm and it turns out to be a stray hair dangling from my head being blown by the fan.  I guess working remotely plays tricks on us once in awhile?


Trying times
I am in the dead center of Mississippi and after I got of church I saw cars with tags from the costal countiescoming through town.    We are in the hills and will receive 75 mph gusts.  This is serious.  New Orleans is under mandatory evacuation.  People without cars are at the superdome.  The casinos locked up Thursday.  Traffic has been one-way on the highways since noon Friday. I-10 and I-49 to get off the coast.  There are no hotel rooms in the state as of Saturday night news 10 PM report, as far as Grenada, MS (that's about 250-300 miles from Biloxi/Gulfport area).  They were good about emailing each other about vacancies.   The President has mandated that MS/LA are under a state of emergency.  Katrina is headed straight to the Big Easy.  If Katrina does not change course, there is going to be unbelievable losses in the New Orleans area.  Let us share our thoughts of faith and reflection with the people in these low lying areas.
Old times?
I am 79 years old and teach my grandchildren that peep is bad and nasty word. I don't like coming to this board only to find your nasty words. Being 79 years old, I know more than you will ever know and I KNOW what peep means. You are just being down right gross and yuck!
times 3 or x3? Which is okay? nm

Thanks.


 


8 times....
/
NY Times......sm.......
TheNew York Times" hspace=0 src=http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/logoprinter.gif" align=left border=0>




January 2, 2006


States Take Lead in Push to Raise Minimum Wages




Despite Congressional refusal for almost a decade to raise the federal minimum wage, nearly half of the civilian labor force lives in states where the pay is higher than the rate set by the federal government.


Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have acted on their own to set minimum wages that exceed the $5.15 an hour rate set by the federal government, and this year lawmakers in dozens of the remaining states will debate raising the minimum wage. Some states that already have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate will be debating further increases and adjustments for inflation.


The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was in 1997 - when it was increased from $4.75 an hour. Since then, efforts in Congress to increase the amount have been stymied largely by Republican lawmakers and business groups who argued that a higher minimum wage would drive away jobs.


Thwarted by Congress, labor unions and community groups have increasingly focused their efforts at raising the minimum wage on the states, where the issue has received more attention than in Republican-dominated Washington, said Bill Samuel, the legislative director of the national A.F.L.-C.I.O.


Opinion polls show wide public support for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which falls far short of the income needed to place a family at the federal poverty level. Even the chairman of Wal-Mart has endorsed an increase, saying that a worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford to shop at his stores.


"The public is way ahead of Washington," Mr. Samuel said. "They see this as a matter of basic fairness, the underpinning of basic labor law in this country, a floor under wages so we're not competing with Bangladesh."


The minimum wage has been the subject of fierce ideological debate since it was first established in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Business groups and conservative economists have argued that the minimum wage is an unwarranted government intrusion into the employer-employee relationship and a distortion of the marketplace for labor. An increase in the minimum wage, they say, drives up labor costs across the board and freezes unskilled and first-time workers out of the job market.


"Increasing the minimum wage is a bad move economically, philosophically and politically," said Marc Freedman, director of labor law policy for the United States Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Freedman said that any minimum wage set by the federal government was completely arbitrary and did not take local labor market costs into account.


According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, about two million American workers, 2.7 percent of the overall work force, earned the minimum hourly wage of $5.15 or less in 2004, the last year for which such statistics were available. Those workers were generally young (half were under 25, and a quarter were teenagers), unmarried and had not earned a high school diploma. About three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage worked in bars and restaurants, and many received tips to supplement their basic wages.


Advocates of an increase in the minimum wage said that inflation had so eroded the value of the minimum wage in the last nine years that it was worth less today in real terms than at any time since 1955. They also cited studies that found that raising the minimum wage did not cause job loss, as opponents argue. According to these studies, employers can absorb the higher labor costs through efficiencies, less employee turnover and higher productivity.


Tim Nesbitt, the former president of the Oregon A.F.L.-C.I.O., said that despite having one of the highest minimum wages in the country at $7.25 an hour, Oregon had had twice the rate of job growth as the rest of the country.


The 2006 battle over the minimum wage is expected to be particularly intense in Ohio, one of only two states that have a minimum wage below the federal level (the other is Kansas). The minimum wage in Ohio since 1991 has been $4.25 an hour, which applies to small employers, some farms and most restaurants. Workers at larger enterprises are generally covered by the federal minimum wage.


Efforts to get the Republican-run General Assembly to consider raising Ohio's minimum wage have gone nowhere, so labor groups and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, an advocacy group for low-income individuals and families, are planning a ballot initiative to put the issue to a popular vote in November.


Tim Burga, legislative director for the Ohio A.F.L.-C.I.O., said that 92,000 workers in the state made less than the federal minimum wage, some as little as $2 an hour. The proposed Ohio Constitutional amendment would set the state minimum wage at $6.85 an hour, indexed to future inflation, bringing an immediate raise to as many as 400,000 workers.


Former Senator John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, said in an interview that he planned to help organize the minimum wage campaign in Ohio as part of his national campaign to alleviate poverty. He called the current minimum wage a moral disgrace and a national embarrassment.


"My view is it should be $7.50 an hour, and I can make a great argument for it being a lot higher than that," Mr. Edwards said. "This is a perfect example of the Republican leadership in Congress, combined with the powerful presence of lobbies in Washington, thwarting the will of the people."


Leading the opposition to the initiative will be the Ohio Restaurant Association, which like its parent organization, the National Restaurant Association, closely monitors and vigorously opposes efforts to raise the minimum wage.


"Restaurants are a low-margin business," said Geoff Hetrick, president of the Ohio Restaurant Association. "A number of marginal operations which are more or less on the ragged edge right now might find this to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, especially in northern Ohio where they've had a significant loss in manufacturing employment that's taken a lot of disposable income out of the economy."


One of those who would be affected by the proposed minimum wage increase in Ohio is Rick Cassara, owner of John Q's Steakhouse in downtown Cleveland. He said that while all of his 55 employees currently earn more than the minimum wage, he opposed a mandated increase because it would drive up all of his labor costs. "It exerts upward pressure on all wages and prices," Mr. Cassara said. "If the minimum wage is $7 and I have to pay $8 or $9 to hire a dishwasher, then the cooks are going to say they want more. How much can I charge for that hamburger?"


Another small employer, Dan Young, owner of Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, a working farm and restaurant operation, said that more than half of his 300 workers were high school and college students, many of them in their first jobs. He said he paid many of them $5.25 an hour, just above the federal minimum wage, but most quickly won raises or earned far more than that in tips.


Mr. Young said that if Ohio enacted a Democratic proposal to raise the state's minimum wage by $1 an hour over the federal level, his labor costs would go up by $250,000 a year or more. "When you do all the math," he said, "I'll have to figure out a way to hire fewer workers, or raise prices, or both."


In 2004, voters in Nevada and Florida approved ballot initiatives raising the state minimum wage to $6.15 an hour, in both cases by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Nevada voters must vote on the measure again this year because it is a Constitutional amendment, but proponents are confident they will prevail. Lawmakers in California, which already has one of the highest rates in the nation at $6.75 an hour, approved a bill last year to increase the wage to $7.75 an hour in 2007, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it, the second time he has rejected such legislation.


Mr. Schwarzenegger said then that he believed that low-wage California workers deserved a raise, but said the legislation, which contained automatic increases tied to inflation, would be too costly to employers.


But aides to Mr. Schwarzenegger said late last week that the governor would propose a $1-an-hour increase in the California minimum wage in his State of the State address this week. If approved, the proposal would take effect over the next 18 months and would not have an automatic inflation adjustment, the aides said. The move appears designed in part to pre-empt a ballot initiative that would raise the California hourly rate an additional $1, to $8.75 an hour, and include annual cost-of-living increases.


Inflation indexing is also an issue in Oregon, where the minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour and adjusts every year for inflation under an initiative approved by voters in 2002. Each year since passage of that measure, the Oregon Restaurant Association and other business groups have pushed legislation to cancel the indexing provision or to exempt some workers from the wage law, but have so far failed. Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski, a Democrat and former labor lawyer, has vowed to veto any such measure that reaches his desk.


do you mean how many times you use them? If so sm
go to help, the statistics, and it will tell you how many Keystrokes you are saving