Today I stopped smoking!

... well, the tobacco anyways *ahem*

On Monday (Sept 18th) I was delivered a book on stopping smoking, by last night I had completed reading it (it is only 150-200 pages, and pretty quick to get through) and stumped out my last cigarette.  That was it.  None of this hardness over giving up, the 'stress' etc.  Just stopped.

The book is called "The EASY WAY To Stop Smoking" written by Allan Carr (EASY WAY being the name of the 'method' he describes).

• at amazon.co.uk
• at amazon.com

If you are a smoker, and you want to quit it, then have a read and see if you feel the book makes sense to you.  He has been doing this for over 20 years now, and reckons his clinics and book alike have around a 90% success rate!  Pretty impressive.

I'm happy to say I am one of the 90% now.

There is no trick, no magic, no real hardship at all ... Just a new way of looking at the whole smoking thing.

I'll keep this blog up to date over the next 3 weeks - a time period in which, after much feed back over 12 years from his success stories, it seems the maximum amount of time for the 'cravings' (for what they are worth) to fully vanish.

Posted by chilm @ 4:39 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

As I near 30 ...

Painted by a British dude I met on Chromehounds, and wiile waiting for a few of the squad to get on, we ended up chatting a while and, as you do, I discovered he was a painter.  He mainly does nudes as they sell better than most others, and I asked to him to send me a link when he next eBay'd them.  He did so, and soon after I bought these two pieces.

Best thing is, he takes commissions, so I'll be sending hima few choice pictures to paint up as soon as I have a lttle spare cash ... and have decided on what exactly I want painted.

The one my Lady chose



... and my one



This one will be the first of, hopefully, around 6 or so pieces that I will place in my 'one day to be made' bachelor room.  Essentially the garage attached to the house will be converted into a room for me; Half dedicated to my weights, bench, bike, rowing machine etc. The other half to a couch, a TV, a stereo my computer and of course my consoles.  I figured, as I am getting older, that instead of plastering the walls with posters and the like, I would invest in a little art instead.

Posted by chilm @ 9:55 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Thank the lordy for my NDS!

My Lady pretty much detest gaming machines - it goes back some time with her and her mothers now husband (we don't use the 'step-father' term) and his general obsession with gaming.  As such, the attitude has impacted somewhat on our relationship over the last 5 or so years.  No real biggie, just the occasional scuffle over it ...

However, now she has discovered the new Mario on my NDS and is pretty addicted to it! Whoop!  She scratched the surface with Brain game, but did not manage to keep up any daily brain workout (I only managed a couple of months), but Mario seems to have sucked her in!  She used to play the Mario many, many years ago and I guess it is a leap back to her younger days ...

All in all, it means that every now and agagin, I can squeeze in an extra hour or two on my 360!  Sweet!

Posted by chilm @ 5:33 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Day The World Changed

There is a theory called the 6 (or is it 7?) Degrees of Seperation - a concept that says that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else through 6 (or 7) leaps from person to person.  Even though I did not know anyone directly involved in the Twin Towers destruction, I do have a connection as close as 2 degrees from myself, and that is close enough to appreciate the pain it caused just that little more.

On the day itself, the whole thing seemed like a movie, being trasmitted live.  Something so alien and fantastic it was akin to the fake broadcasts of 'The War of The Worlds' many decades ago - a show that threw people into panic believing it to be real ... Only this time, it was the reverse - we knew it was real, we just could not believe it.  It was not until the one year memorial that the gravity of the whole thing really hit me hard.  I am not ashmed to say I shed a few tears that evening when I was watching the news.

My thouhgts go out to all those affected by that horrific day 5 years ago.

Posted by chilm @ 2:36 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Oh, and ...

A few initial blog bookmarks for special reasons

MikeJames for inviting me here in the first place - thanks again mate!

DSmooth for helping with my dumb as shit questions on how to get this going in the first place - cheers dude.

DantezINFERNO for his great LAN video! Really enjoyed that! (I really hope I got the right dude here my memory sucks generally)

... and finally, as she is the current blog flavour of the month and I am fascinated by female coders (having only ever met 3, and one is 'retired') gamerchicklet!

Posted by chilm @ 8:35 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments