I’d like to talk about something that changed since I became a non-smoker.

I stopped saying I had no options anymore, because in fact, I had began the journey of finding solutions in life, not a drag from a smoke. Cigarettes are a drug, we all know that. In my opinion the pathology of a smoker is this:

1. Trouble starts.
2. I need a smoke to deal with the initial shock.
3. While sitting down I realize something else I forgot to do because of #2 & 1
4. While I got my buzz, I forgot about #2 & #1 trouble
5. Then I realized that I can put off the other problem until later, it’s not too bad.
6. My judgment by now is cloudy, I’ve just pulled the needle out of my arm.
7. I need a victory smoke.
8. Repeat.
9. Eventually between repeats a problem gets solved.

With a non-smoker, the problems start like this:

1. Trouble starts.
2. I deal with the problem right then and there.
3. I don’t need a smoke to deal with the problem before I fix it.
4. Afterwards, no victory smoke needed.

See? I’ve just saved 4 steps, maybe 20 minutes due to removing smoking from my day.
Do I need to make a phone call? No need to smoke up before the call. Was the call a success? No victory smoke needed.

Smokers create more problems by the habit than the habit seems to have solved for them.
Chantix helped me through that vicious cycle. Why puff on something that tasks like crap for a victory smoke or to clear my head?

So when the whole FCC ignore two out of four google demands, so that it will bid on the 700mhz auction debacle happened, a lot of people wondered if they’d stick to it. It seems they just may go ahead and bid after all on 700mhz.

It still begs to question, will google still push for open access? It’s their right to do with it how they wish. I’ve pondered however if google can allow people to put up their own licensed transmitters if they are FCC approved?

I’d be ok with the wholesale of the data, but the problem is that like the article states, the spectrum cost is nothing compared to the rollout cost. I’m sure the gurus at google will figure it out.

It’s official, the count is in.

379 days ago, I started taking a medication that had nearly double the success rate at smoking cessation than any other method.  Chantix was new to the United States, and the controversy hasn’t died down since then, even though it’s been slightly over a year since it was put on sale.

365 days ago, I put down my cigarettes and started a trip that I’m glad I am still on. I was up to two packs a day at that time, one more per day than when I started Chantix… I was desperate, I wanted a nicotine buzz, but none was to be found. After two weeks, I didn’t need to give up, I was disgusted by this habit, fully aware that it was killing me, I put down the smokes and never yearned for another one.

I had dreams of smoking, but never entertained the idea in the waking world. I wrote about the wonders of Chantix in my blog and have nearly made 1/4 of the money back I spent on it. I’ve had others email and post comments in my blog saying that while they had some trouble, it was worth it.

In the last year I’ve learned so much more about our bodies and the way that cigarettes affect us. In that time, the lies we tell ourselves about cigarettes is all to clear, and that to some, smoking is doing more help than harm, and no medicine is more dangerous than the ones that doctors prescribe. Knowing these things, I’ve struggled with ignorance from every angle.

I’ve got a friend who double specialized to be a lung doctor, brash and young out of college do nothing but discuss the horrors of what he’s seen in school. I’ve had other friends say they know it’s killing them, but posses some nature that now, I’m unable to understand. In that year, I’ve also met a doctor who knows it’s killing him, but does say he’s quitting again with the help of Chantix.

In the last year, I’ve seen my lung function improve a staggering 20-30% depending on which measurements and medicines you look at, and am near normal for my age and the amount I smoked. I’m no longer worried about the prospect of oxygen tanks, lung cancer, or the breath I would lose doing simple things.

So now, 365 days later I look back. Was it worth it? Do I feel better? Did I save money? Have I saved any of my life?
YES!

Now, 365 days later, after going through many tests, chest xrays and lab work, can I say smoking is worth it at all?
NO!

At the end of the day, I trust 5 doctors, two of whom I’ve known for over 10 years. Chantix works, and nothing has shown Chantix alters mood but a guess and the fact that you’ve quit over 4,000 other chemicals at the same time you started Chantix.

When it does finally boil down, and you don’t trust doctors, I trust the people who make more money than them: Insurance Companies.

My rate for life insurance being a smoker at current cholesterol, weight, age: $55 a month.
My rate at current cholesterol, weight, age and non-smoking status: $17 a month.

I’m content knowing that they believe I won’t die of smoking in the next 10 years, and if you can trust anyone, it’s bean counters.

I read this story about Michael Vick’s jerseys being sent into the Humane Society.

I’m sorry, it’s so fitting. I hope more people send them in.

Today, 3 men died trying to rescue fellow workers from a mine cave in. While it doesn’t matter really what caused either cave in, mountain bumps, or just plain dangerous mining, (Let’s face it, it’s all dangerous), the first loss of life has occurred for sure.

Rescuing is the highest form of regard for human life, when the protective instincts for your own safety are removed in the hunt for someone lost. It’s a role that at it’s base means those mean didn’t intend to get caught in a cave in, but did. The rescuers knew there was possibly more dangerous conditions now, and they went in anyway.

My hats to you, your bravery, and god speed.

I read this article about the 700mhz auction, and was just taken aback.

I quote:
It’s absurd to say that the conditions urged by Google and others would have ushered the creation of a third broadband alternative on par with high-speed DSL and cable modem connections.

I enter ‘absurd’ land:
It’s absurd to say that without considering some new 900mhz gear that reaches up to 54mbps theoretical speed, that 700mhz couldn’t achieve 3/4 of that speed. Couple that speed, with the ability to lower your transmit power, provide smaller cells, and back haul using a higher licensed frequency and it’s not absurd.

Last mile problems are getting through the home, trees, boats, cars, and that pesky next door neighbor’s roof, one that even a close 2.4ghz repeater won’t save. 700mhz is a dream solution due to the lessoning of errors on that last 1-3 miles of service.

Seeing 900mhz in action, is foreplay to what 700mhz would provide. Providing service to hundreds of users in a small area (less than 5-8 miles), with 900mhz and 2.4ghz you see that it’s not absurd. If you live in a dense downtown area, you have fiber and dense access point, and it’s still not absurd.

That 700mhz spectrum was key, and the focal point in allowing the mom and pop geniuses to go the full 9 yards. Now, you get limited services, for a huge amount of money, unless that is… Google goes ahead opens the spectrum when they win the auction.

Now, to really beat it into the ground, consider speed tests that are pushing 1 GBPS at 5ghz
Glen, it’s just the start, but you say it’s absurd.

Absurd:
That said, because the signal from a single Wi-Fi transmitter can only travel hundreds of feet, it’s harder to use the technology to provide the sort of blanket wireless reception you get with a cellular network.

Reality:
4 miles in our town (20,000), with over 300 competing wireless networks, and we have 98% uptime. It’s time for the equipment that’s installed to get cheaper, but it’s a reality that 2.4ghz works.

Reality:
900mhz works in over 95% of the entire area mobile, and if the output power was increased to a paltry 1 watt, it would work in 100% of the indoor market.

I’m glad that you realize some good things would happen with a more open network, but you refuse to think that Google being the first innovator to push the open networks would really be the key here. You won’t speculate for just a moment about why Google really wants that spectrum open, and realize it’s just business as usual, and either way: Google wins.

1. Google puts up the towers with all the cash they have.
2. We sell 700mhz service
3. We use the same google home pages that bring us income already
4. Everybody wins except AT&T

Glenn, I’m glad you are so knowledgeable on things you can kick back and twiddle knobs with. Get out in the field, climb a tower, install 900mhz gear and make a blanket statement like you did.

No, you didn’t hear me. YOU get up on a TOWER and hand install and tune the gear. Don’t talk to a guy about it, and don’t write a free article about it, and you’ll see it in a different light. I might be seeing you wrong as a freelance journalist, you write about things as a black box, but I didn’t find one thing with you talking about actually running a business doing it.

So Glenn, you’re the one that’s absurd. I’m glad you get to write for the New York Times, but out of 100+ entries I’ve read/articles, I didn’t learn a single thing.

I’ve had billionaire’s tell me to get a clue, and I’m happy to be told so in this case because they were irked about what I said. You’re wrong in your assumptions.