To my smokers:

You won't quit until you find a reason deemed worthy by your own understanding of the world and your own beliefs. If you think, “It's my life, if I want to die early thats my right”, then you are absolutely right. If you think, “I'm young my body will not be damaged as much as when I'm older, so let me enjoy it now” you would also be right. But because you have the liberty to do something doesn't mean you have to abuse that liberty. Everything has a limit. Everything should be enjoyed in moderation.

But when you know just how badly it affects your body, how can you still continue to smoke as heavily? You think you are young AND invincible. There are many other dangers in life that can kill you, might as well enjoy what you can. True. But wouldn't you rather the way you die be something not in your control? Yes, have a smoke, but don't do it so much that you accelerate your conversion into a machine-dependent body.

Courtesy ALA Web site
 www.lungusa.org

Starting 2005, Medicare Plan B covered individual tobacco cessation treatment. And in 2010 part of the health care reforms included all Medicare patients. Especially those with tobacco-related illnesses or second-hand smoking problems. So even the government is doing their part in encouraging quitting. According to the American Lung Association, about 47 percent of smokers try to quit every year, and of those only 4 to 7 percent actually quit. And most people need several attempts to quit.

One of the only times a young man quits cold turkey is when they are about to become parents or when their children convince them. So why do they have to wait till that late of a stage in their lives? The human mind has the strength to convince us to do just about anything. Our willpower is stronger than we can understand. So why don't we abuse that liberty to do better things for our body and the world instead?

Everyone has their faults, but we are all capable of handling them.

Improper Imbalance

There is nothing new about this. It's been happening for a while....maybe since the time of the creation of Egyptian pyramids. The poor earn nothing, and do the most work. The rich earn the most, and do the least physical work.

Hand Pressing Dollar  Button
by tungphoto

At the top of the food chain, the empire, the king, the CEO, all delegate tasks while sitting on their thrones, within their chambers, or out on a yacht. A basketball player earns millions for playing ball, and has someone massage him, feed him water, and wipe the sweat off his forehead. A burger flipper earns barely enough to stay alive, but they help to feed millions a day surrounded by a flaming heat and greasy air.

It was a realization after I got my job and started looking around at estimates for annual salaries. Compared to my engineering friends I will always make less than one-third their annual salary. And the ones I know sit online all day and chat. Ugh! The part time job I had paid more than I'll earn as an entry-level reporter. Craziness. But I love writing more than my former job, so I am not going to complain. It's just an annoying realization.

The struggling writer

"If the advantages for you outweigh the benefit the publication receives, then it is justified," said the editor of a local newspaper during my interview. But some publications exist that make the writer work for no pay, and no other benefit than they get their name published.

I have worked for one such magazine recently. I did not want it to count towards my credits, but the internship was flexible and unpaid. Just what a part-time-working, full-time student needed. I thought I was getting a pretty sweet deal at the time, since my only aim was to collect bylines. But what I thought ideal was proclaimed flawed.

I was being interviewed by an editor of a newspaper and without saying so he made me understand my work was crap. I agree.

The magazine was full of community stories. Which was fine. But the way in which the company worked and profited was questionable. They made donations to local organizations and wrote articles about the organization. They were paid for ad space and in turn wrote a piece about the business. But it had to be written in AP style.

I thought that would be enough to impress prospective employers. Turns out my AK-47 was just a BB gun. That sucked.

So even though it was my choice not to take the internship for credit, turns out they can get in trouble for that since the were profiting immensely from it.

Recently this debate reached the ears of higher authorities and clear definitions were written:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/labor-dept-defines-rules-criteria-for-unpaid-internships/1