Cigarette Butts

I went shopping for my niece's birthday after work today. It was actually a rather refreshing experience for me. Being big and tall, it is very frustrating for me to go clothes shopping, since I am limited to a handful of stores and basically none of the specialty shops have anything. But for my niece, I didn't have to worry about sizes. Also, I didn't really have to worry about if anything matched because they were little outfits.

Anyway, the real reason for this blog isn't shopping for my niece. Because after I went shopping, I went to dinner, which was good but still not the subject of the story. It is what happened as I was walking out of the restaurant. There was a guy taking off the top of one of those cigarette disposal poles. About 2 inches wide column with holes on the sides that flares down at the bottom. Anyway the guy was searching through the disposed of cigarettes for something to smoke.

I have seen homeless people, at least that's how they look, in the past pick up cigarettes from the street and smoking them. But this seemed worse that than. I suppose it's pretty much the same in reality, but it is still a bit disturbing. Kind of like an alcoholic drinking the dregs of other people's drinks at a bar. Anyway, it made me wonder if he's driven to it entirely from the addiction to cigarettes or for the enjoyment he gets from the smoking. Similarly for the homeless people who spend their nickels and dimes to buy alcohol instead of food. Are they that strongly addicted, or do they crave the escape the alcohol gives them.

Another thing that I was reminded of was an old math problem. A man figures out a way to unroll cigarette butts and combine them together to form new cigarettes. It takes five cigarettes to create a new cigarette. If they man finds 25 cigarette butts, how many cigarettes can he smoke?

Future Me

Last night while drifting in and out of sleep, I was thinking about the past. Specifically, I was wondering where in my past I would go to have a talk with myself about the past me's future which would be my present. What pivotal time could I arrive and give myself the advise I needed. I quickly identified times in my life where small changes would have the most profound far reaching effects. I was pondering what I would say to make sure those effects were to my benefit.

That's when future me showed up. "Past-me," he said, "I'm current-me, but you can call me future-me." He looked like me, only he wasn't quite me. There was something in his eye that held a little more regret, and a little more hope. I asked future-me what happened to me in the future, but future-me didn't want to talk about his past, he wanted to talk about my future.

"But future-me, my future is your past," I said.

He shook his head and said, "It doesn't have to be. There are a few pivotal times in a person's life when small changes can have a large impact on the future. Just by talking to you today, I have ensured that when I go back to my current time, my life will be profoundly different. I'm just here to give you the advise you need to make sure the current I go back to is better than the current I left."

"So future-me, what advise will make sure that happens?"

"Past-me," he said, "you were just coming up with a list of advise for your past-me, weren't you?"

"Yes, actually I was."

"Follow it."