Smoking is stupid.

Can we discuss this for a minute? From an anthropological standpoint? You have tobacco rolled up in paper and people lighting this and inhaling it. Why? Because it looks cool. Because it's calming? Because they're stupid? Yeah, that one.

From a financial standpoint, smoking is idiotic. An average pack of cigarettes right now is $7. I asked two of my smoker friends, so if that number is wrong (it sounded high to me), forgive me. So you smoke a pack a day. For a month. For 12 months. A year. You're spending a lot of money. Ok, its me, I'll be more specific. Thats $2,604. A year. It's $217 a month. That's enough for almost 22 subscriptions to XBox live PER MONTH. That's one of my televisions PER MONTH. That's a brand new VAIO® TT Series laptop per year (a finger print sensor?! le sigh! Someone quit smoking and buy me one!). That's the difference between "Oh, thanks! You got me a sweater that smells like cigarettes for Christmas!" and "OH MY GOD MY VERY OWN HORSE!!! DADDY I LOVE YOU!!!" ...Every year. And since you weren't spending that money on anything before, you won't feel like you have to save it or anything. It's win/win, really.

Ok. So say you have a kid. Say you didn't smoke while he was in the womb, so now that he's 18, he's only a little brain-dead and happens to get into a University. Now, that university is out of state, and costs you $40,000 a year. In the 18 years since you had him, you've spent $46,872. Enough for a year. Assume your husband/wife is also a smoker, you now have 2 years. Now you only have to pay half tuition.

So I'm asking, nay, telling every smoker reading this to take the money you'd be spending on cigarettes and put it in a college scholarship fund.

"Oh, AlternativeFuel, you so 'cracy. Don'cha know cigarettes only used to cost a little?" Yes. Shut up. Inflation, guys? A can of Coke used to cost $0.05. Now? $1.25. If you're lucky. So if you put that much money into the bank, it would be worth approximately the same now. Pretty much. Sort of. Plus, if they got you hooked back when it was $3 a pack, they can slowly raise it as much as they want. They know you'll keep buying it. Which sucks, really.

Cigarettes litter streets, add to our tons and tons of waste generated every minute, cause fires and fire alarms to go off an hour before you were supposed to wake up (Really, not cool). Cigarettes add a dependency on a material object or habit that, as humans, is unhealthy no matter what kind of addiction we're talking about. Addiction to anything is bad. Especially to the internet. (Shameless plug: Go out and play in the leaves)  

Barack Obama smokes/quit smoking (Someone get back to me if you know), Alexander Graham Bell smoked, Bill Clinton smoked the occasional cigar (which, I'm sure, George Bush has as well), Oscar Wilde smoked, Whoopi Goldberg, James Dean, Claudia Schiffer, And Lucky Luke all smoke. This information is of course according to http://www.jusonline.nl/smokers/index.html this website, although they also have Pavoratti with a cigar in his mouth, something that was pretty obviously taken as a promo for an opera. Try smoking and having his breath control. I dare you. (Try just having his breath control. Period.)

I'm not going to list the dangers medically. You know them. The silly Truth ads on TV? Yeah. Those. I'm sure smokers have their life expectancy told to them pretty much every day of their lives. It is pretty amazing how it can affect your body, though. Surprising. Really.

Smoking looks very cool. Anyone who smokes immediately seems more badass and just plain cooler than you. I figured it out today. It's because if you don't care about yourself enough to smoke, you have enough apathy to make you cool. Apathy is cool. If you insult someone and they just shrug, that's cool. People who dress weird because they don't care what people will think are cool. However, people need to know that it's not cool to not care. At all.

Which brings me to my next point: There's literally a facebook group called "I don't care about Sarah Palin, stop sending me stuff." And their point is that they don't care if she messes up in an interview or even if she inspires little girls to be president. They honestly don't care. And I think that's disgusting.

You know what else is disgusting? Smoking. Who would want to smoke? I'm watching some poor girl shivering outside my window. It was snowing earlier today, that can't be fun for her. She must have to leave longer classes early because if she doesn't get her fix, she'll freak out. She probably is paying more for those cigarettes in one year than all of her textbooks for all 4 years of college. College probably won't matter to her, as she's probably going to die very young and won't be able to reap the benefits of a college education, and all the extra money she's going to earn with that diploma is going to go straight to cigarettes and health bills. I want to tell her that she's crazy for smoking. But that's the thing; smokers are too cool to care what I think, and therefore this entire entry has been wasted.

(Word to people who don't smoke: Meditation calms the heart rate, just sit somewhere quiet and be tranquil. It's very addicting. I found that out this week in the Buddhist garden on campus.)

As a high school senior and average student, I am exposed to a lot of "college talks". You know, the studying doesn't stop when you graduate high school, don't do drugs, don't drink, don't spend nights in a boy's dorm room, etc. Don't worry Mom, I'm going to a woman's college.

But the most lectured-on argument is the expense. The aforementioned woman's college I'm attending next year is costing as much as a brand new 2008 BMW M3 with all the accoutrement. You know, one for each year I'm away. Sucks? Yes. Worth it? I hope so.

The Times had an article about this today, which is partially the reason it's on my mind. It pretty much said how Harvard and Yale have billions of dollars collecting millions in interest, none of which is being used to reduce tuition. I think they're overlooking the fact that these uber colleges are businesses when it comes down to it. Starbucks probably makes billions of dollars that aren't being used to lower their drink costs, and I'm spending like 4 bones for a tall java chip frappe.

So what is a college-bound senior to do? Of course, I'm not attending Harvard or Yale, but this says that 74 colleges are with Harvard and Yale in the over $1billion endowment mark. So it probably affects little people like me. Now we're still buying four BMW M3's? In such frustration, the same thoughts cross everyone's mind: My parents are going to go bankrupt. I'm going to flunk out and think of all the money I'll have wasted. I'll be paying off loans until I'm 60.

All we can hope for is that we make this money back after we receive an education on how to do so. Most of us hope we double it, so we can have our children do the same thing. Right now, that seems like a complete stretch. I have $10 in my back pocket at this moment, and I believe that's all I have to my name. I have to have $200,000 in 25 years?? How am I supposed to do that? Plus inflation? I'm looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars that I have yet to make.

The future is super-scary.