Post a controversial opinion

Lol yeah I need to take it easy man

Surely the amount of gas stations is market driven rather than part of a municipal program

There's at least 4 gas stations within about a dozen blocks of my place here in Vancouver.

Actually more like 7 now I think about it.

can we rewind the track....eesh, dunno, i'm from the country, probably just trash iirc.

My province just elected Doug Ford's PCs to government. I'm not exactly sympathizing.

lol yeah I was already seriously pondering a move to Vancouver

rent/renovictions are fairly bad here tho

not sure how they are over there.

was in Vancouver in Decemeber and saw plenty of gas stations

i hate when they make granville pedestrian street fucking up all the bus routes

Simon if you move out here, drinks on me

Vancouver rents are pricey but affordable/better compared to la

Isn’t Vancouver like the most expensive city in North America right now

Big fat no

I rent in LA right now and looking for a place in Vancouver so ya

rent is still way cheaper than bay area

comparable to toronto

Way cheaper than the desirable American coastal cities but bad for household earnings vs average rent sort of thing.

There's also plenty gas stations (other than on the downtown peninsula where there are none)

Price of single family homes pretty crazy tho

The Boston rents I posted on the Cdn politics thread are way worse than Vancouver.

The Boston rents I posted on the Cdn politics thread are way worse than Vancouver.

Especially since you have to live in Boston.

last i heard poverty line in vancouver is 19-20 dollars a hour, which is insane

I can deal w no gas stations in downtown Vancouver, but no gas stations in downtown LA is the worse thing ever considering you’re always driving

Single family home prices are insane in LA

Just choose a number over 1 mil and you can find a home for that price (highest I’ve physically seen is 20 mil — tho 10 mil houses seem to be popping up more and more)

Also driving any time from 3:30pm ish to 6:30pm ish west of the 405 (santa monica/west la area) is the worst hell on earth i have ever had the misfortune of enduring

Takes probably 45 minutes to drive what? 5 miles (8 km)?

About to have a cigarette. Going to double down on my earlier controp and say that not smoking is bad for you.

I've tried it both ways, smoking and not. Smoking had its attractions and it is an underrated drug imo, but its a cumulative process. the longer you smoke, the more the returns diminish and the cost soars. From personal experience, over the long term, I endorse not smoking over smoking. Just not worth it after about six or eight years, but by then you're on the hook and being reeled in like a fish to the net.

how many cigarettes per day did you smoke on avg?

i smoke a pack a day - get performative coughs every day from vancouverites. I know y'all are health conscious but it drives me nuts feeling like an exiled person

I was about a pack a day. I rolled my own for the first seven years, then switched to filterless Camels for a couple of years. then I started tapering down to half a pack, trying to quit, which took me another three years to accomplish.

btw, quitting is a long term process, even after you stop lighting up. it took me about five years for the desire to abate to where I rarely thought about it any more.

word. i smoke 5 most days, 10 at most if i'm out. never gotten close to pack a day

quitting smoking sounds horrible so i'll just smoke until i die

aimless, smoking yer own rolled ones is way better - also using matches gets a better smoke goin' but lighters obviously are easier to use. I quit for 3 years and started again 5 months ago, once a smoker...as they say.

a cigarette tastes much better lit with a match

it's the sulfer from the matchead

I’ll stick to playing with matches.

Smoked for 15 years, quit 16 years ago, dgaf if I never smoke again. I have missed it maybe 3-5 times in that 16 year stretch. I was able to give up because I felt it wasn't "me". While I still felt like "I" smoked and I was giving up because of good reasons, it never lasted. But as soon as I realised I wanted to not need cigarettes it was easy. I got to a pack a day but tapered to 3-5.

first 3 days are hell ime, 21 days later and ya done

Downtown Vancouver has gas stations eg. corner of davie & burrard st. Sorry to be so local but this stuff is overstated perhaps by people with no car who don't recall where gas stations are because they don't use them?

I’ve never tried to quit smoking, so I don’t know how hard it would be. I smoke filterless roll ups, but then never tried a cigarette until I was 22. But my grandfather died of lung cancer (maybe work related) and my dad has one lung (smoking related). But I’m much more likely to die because of mental illness - and a crazy amount of people with bipolar disorder smoke. I think it’s because manic episodes make it impossible to maintain. I quit drinking for six months once, but first manic episode I was off the wagon again.

newly controversial opinion

dont smoke, ppl

its awful

I have no problem saying people shouldn’t smoke - it is terrible! But people with bipolar disorder are 2-3 times more likely to smoke. I’ve even seen claims of up to 60%! Not that that is an excuse, but it is harder (I hear - again, I’ve never tried to quit - perhaps that requires a vision of your future that I don’t have?)

for the last 5 years i've more or less stopped except when i drink, and i think part of the raging scary anxiety i get during hangovers is a result of suddenly chain-smoking rolls all night since i'm less used to the nicotine nowadays. i still wish i could maintain a steady low-ish roll-up habit tbh but the effects on my mental, maybe physical health are just getting too gnarly. can't promise right now that i'll never have another tho.

Watching two immediate relatives die horribly from smoking-related illness (one protracted, one shockingly quick) pretty decisively snuffed any lingering romantic appeal the notion may have ever had for me.

Just remember, kids:

http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_web/images/tobacco_ads/infants_children/school/large/school_03.jpg

I should have thought most people know someone or have a relative who've died horribly from a smoking-related illness, don't they?

I guess not since people continue to smoke. My dad's death was enough to make my brother quit cold turkey, thank god.

My uncle died from cancer. Aimless is right up thread to say the negatives outweigh the good. A pack a day is 12-15 bucks which could be money used for food. I would never recommend anyone smoke but as mentioned those with bipolar (and mental illness in general tbh) benefit from it relaxation wise. Hell Lynch smokes like a chimney and he clearly has had to work on toxic anger issues. It can feel meditative. I’m not big on vapes tho as an alternative, unlsss I’d actually reduces your smoking. My buddy says he used to smoke 40 a day but replaced it with a vape. He puffs it 24-7 with tobacco cartridges. Dunno, why not just smoke a cigarette then.