This is a public service announcement. Due to my previous usage of smokeless tobacco, I had to have a lesion removed from my cheek, lip and gum on Friday. Needless to say, since then I haven't done many tactics problems, the daze from Vicadin was a bit too much to study tactics through. I hope to get back on track tonight.
Anyway, don't smoke and don't chew or snuff. Its bad for you, and the operations (trust me, I only had a very minor one) to repair the damage the tobacco does to you, hurts like a son-of-a-gun. I wasted thousands of dollars on tobacco, and in the end I got to pay a doctor to cut a whole in my face.
Back to blog stuff, I will be out of town next week on business so after this weekend it may slow down around here a bit again. I also won't be able to work with PCT while I'm gone, but I will be taking my Palm and solving problems from 1001 Winning Chess Combinations and Sacrifices.
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What is smokeless tobacco? When I used to smoke cigars I had to paint my ceiling every half year:)
It's chewing tobacco. Skoal, Copenhagen, or my brand of choice, Kodiak.
Its finely ground tobacco, usually mixed with molasses and mint to make it sweet and "wintergreen". Many of the manufacturers added fine grains of fiberglass into the mix to make micro cuts in your gums to speed up the nicoteen into your blood stream.
I used about a can a day for 20 years. Most of my adult life the only times I didn't have chew in my mouth I was sleeping or eating.
Its bad stuff. At least as bad as smoking, although there isn't as much uproar about it.
Sorry to hear it came to that. I chew on an off, usually when I am going on long car rides and need to stay awake.
I started it as a teenager in Virginia (Kodiak). Recently, my preferences have drifted to the new fruity Skoal flavors, such as apple. I am kind of an idiot: I start using it on long car rides (by 'long' I mean at least 3 or 4 days of driving). Then, it takes me like a month to quit! :) There is something so satisfying about being on the open road, spitting into a cup, with that nicotine buzz going full tilt. It makes me feel very manly, I think.
It is freakin' hard to quit, though, so my hat's off to you for stopping after so long with your nervous system marinating in nicotine. Quitting must have been as bad as the surgery!
Yikes! Hope you feel better quick.
Quitting was an experience. It wasn't overly hard... but the first week sucked, and the first day was worse than that. I went through alot of hard candies, and gum. I couldn't sleep for a month after I quit. I would wake up every hour. Eating sucked too, because the nicotine cravings after I ate were tremendous.
I didn't quit because something was wrong by the way. I discovered that after I had quit. I know exactly what you mean about driving down the road with a dip. That was what kept me doing it so long. I had known I should quit for 15 years but I didn't quit because "I liked it".
I'm just lucky I don't have more wrong with me than I do.
I used to dip (chew) Kodiak and Copenhagen. That was back in my military days. One day, my dentist told me my gums had started to recede on the side of my mouth where I usually put the tobacco. I never dipped again.
Now, I have a co-worker who quit dipping tobacco for about 6 years. Well, recently, with the stress of a promotion to a higher stress position, he's taken it back up again.
A good stock of chewing gum is key for me.
Also, my wife found some spearmint, non-tobacco dip that helps satisfy the urge to have something in the mouth and spit (man this must sound gross to those who haven't done it, but if you are a guy and know the urge to spit off a bridge, then you can probably understand). Has anyone tried it? They have a web site here. With my luck, I'd get cavities from that because of the sugar content. I haven't tried it yet: it is hard to find.
I usually stop once my gums start to bleed.
Man, that sounds so f-ed up. What a crazy habit. I'm not doing it now, but I know I'll start up again next time I drive across the country!
Steve: I have Chess Genius installed, because I had some HotSynching issues with HIARCS that I intended to use. So I just use .PGN files and Chess Genius.
BDK: I've tried the mintsnuff stuff. Personally when I quit I knew I couldn't use anything like that because I would just get POed and go get a can of real Chew. I had to break the whole packing, pinching, dipping habit as much as I did the tobacco habit. I still chew a peice of gum here and there but after getting over the initial cravings I'm basically just living without the habit now.
Dude, now i know how i got that draw. Hope it heals quick.
I have to confess, tobacco is not really chewed in europe, though personnaly i have difficulty understanding why anyone would want to do it.
Any activity with tobacco is to be refrained from. big time. Why so many Europeans smoke is also a mystery to me. Ive been lucky i guess in that, that particular vice has never attracted me.
Be comforted that there are far worse things you could be chewing.
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