Anybody who's ever been a long time (as in twenty years or more) smoker can tell you that when you've had the habit for that long it's really difficult to break.

James had such a problem. He's been smoking since he was sixteen and that was thirty five years ago. His doctor, his wife and a number of his family and friends had been after him to quit for a long time.

Many of them thought that it should be as simple as "just stop doing it". They don't understand how addictive the things are and just how very hard it can be for a lifelong smoker like that to quit.

For a long time James tried every so-called stop smoking trick and system there is. None of them worked for more than a few days. Then he hit on an idea. He switched from cigarettes to Swisher Sweets. I know that sounds counter productive but think about it. They're stronger than cigarettes and James didn't feel the need to smoke as often.

Getting used to smoking less frequently helped him a lot. Not only that but he wasn't spending as much money on them. After a week, he stepped back how often he had the little cigars. The next week he stepped it back again. When he got to the point where he only had one cigar a week, he quit.

He's been a non-smoker ever since.

This may or may not work for you, your mileage may vary but it worked for James

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I made a big mistake yesterday. I said the words "I need a vacation" where Mr. Helpful could hear me. I know better than to do things like that. In the past it's caused me no end of aggravation and delays in getting work done. Yet I did it anyway. In my defense I have to say that I didn't see him come in and sit down in the booth behind me at the Nutjob Hills diner.

Anyway, the words came out and within ten minutes I'm trying to enjoy the apple pie I'd ordered for desert while Mr. Helpful is explaining that I can easily rent one of his families Outer Banks homes for a decent price and be able to just get away from it all. (Including You? I tried really hard to not ask out loud.)

I had to explain to him that the work I do needs me to be at my office where everything I need is. While it is mostly online work I still can't just pick it up and go and there's no way I can just put it off until later. I've got deadlines that I've agreed to meet and they're not just gonna sit and wait while I get away from it all and unwind. Regardless of how much I need to.

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A guy on the next block has proven my opinion that the rich are kinda weird most of the time.

In this case he had a set of hot tubs installed in his over sized backyard (it's about half the size of a football field). He couldn't just be like everybody else and put in one hot tub. I mean seriously, there's never anybody there but him, his wife and one or two of their kids.

Never being one to let common sense stop him, he went ahead and put in four complete hot tub setups. Now his wife is all over town looking in every shop around for miles to come up with the perfect material and pattern for a matching set of themed spa covers. They can't be just plain old ordinary spa covers. No. They have to be themed and look just so. I personally don't get the point. I mean when the covers are on nobody's going to pay attention to them and when there are people using the hot tubs the covers aren't going to be on.

At least I wouldn't expect them to be on. Though it's also true that in Nutjob Hills you never know what people will do.

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Slimes aren't spawning so it's time to start farming them

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I'm having good results with the branch mine and I've decided on a couple of projects I want to do. Before I can do them however I need to have a LOT of TNT to blast the underground space clear that I need to use for those projects.

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After wandering the world and ending up well over 1800 blocks from spawn, I've found a new place to call home.

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I just got news from Samantha Stevens down the street. She's been watching the goings on at the previously empty house between her house and mind.

She just called to say that kids might not be a problem after all because she hasn't seen them move any kids stuff in yet. She did however see them unload not one but four Palatino Bass guitars, several saxophones and (please let this be wrong!) a set of drums.

I like music (instrumental that is, can't understand the crap that passes for lyrics these days, especially since they don't sing 'em anymore, they scream 'em.) But what I don't need is a bunch of teens gathering to all hours of the night screaming their alleged "music".

I mean seriously, it's hard enough to concentrate with all of the assorted interruptions I'm constantly plagued with, I don't need this go with it.

**Update**

Just got off the phone with Sam again, she says that they've got kids after all. Apparently a whole carload of them just drove up. I can only hope that they've just got one and ten of his or her friends are showing up to see the new house.

Time to invest in some ear plugs just in case.

Maybe I should put a sign in my front yard, "Danger: Crotchety old fart lives here, eats stray kids for breakfast"

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It's looking like I might be in for some new neighbors.

On one side of my house is a family of four that moved in a few months ago. They're mostly quiet except when working on vehicles, watching football or screaming at their two kids. Not exactly wonderful but I've had worse neighbors by far.

On the other side is a house that's been empty for well over five years. I've enjoyed that time, the people who lived there before were among the loudest, strangest people I've ever seen. They moved out by throwing everything in the house out through one of the bedroom windows.

This morning somebody was there mowing the lawn for the first time in three years without the city first issuing a ticket and threatening to fine them an obscene amount of money for leaving it go so long.

Along with the guy doing the mowing there was a truck from smith equipment unloading some large boxes and storing them in the garage. I can't help but wonder why anybody would need stuff like that in a residential area. Then of course I remember Jakob around the block. He's building a rocket engine in his back yard. Says he'll be able to get to the moon with it when he's done.

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Somebody told me recently that while being sick is miserable I could at least expect to lose a few extra pounds during that time.

Well, sadly it's not to be. Apparently they were thinking that by 'sick' I was doing a lot of throwing up and not much eating. This couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm not throwing up at all and my appetite, while dulled a little, is fairly normal. So when, just for grins, I got on my scale and checked my weight it had actually gone UP a few pounds. The reason of course for that is that due to being sick I'm not being nearly as active as normally. (Think lots of sleep)

So no, being sick does NOT automatically mean you're going to lose weight... unless you're hardly eating and doing a bunch of throwing up.

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Some time spent waiting for Ocelots to appear but apparently I'm not patient enough just yet.

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