3 Years
I have this old iPhone XR that I turn on every once in while to check the stats on this app I used to use called “My Last Cigarette”. I turned the phone on today and realized that thanks to leap year, it’s technically been 3 years as of yesterday, since I had my last cigarette. The app still exists but has been enshitified, so instead of installing it on my new phone, I keep this old version around.
I’ve restarted the clock on this app so many times that I can’t even count. I used to wake up some days determined to never smoke again, reset the timer on the app, stare at the dashboard imagining how good it would feel to look back on it 1,5,10 years from then and be proud of myself. Then a day, or sometimes a week, and once even 3 months would go by before I crumbled and gave into the addiction.
I never imagined I would break free. Then three years ago something clicked, and the app keeps ticking away, I hope forever.

3 Years 32,000 + cigarettes not smoked $16,000 saved
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Microblog
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
- Programming
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- The contagion of fear from The Observation Deck
- The revolt of the reader from The Observation Deck
- Deeper dive: Were Touch Bar’s problems software rather than hardware? from Unsung
- Joining Cursor from Fatih Arslan
- Pluralistic: Digital sewer socialism (08 Aug 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- Pluralistic: Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs go global (29 Jul 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making from Ludicity
- The default person from https://popagandhi.com/
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
“From digital mischief to outright destruction”
The 1980s and 1990s PC viruses were a special breed. The MS-DOS operating system wasn’t particularly secure – few home computer operating systems were back then – so viruses could spread quickly, and many did. Some of the viruses focused more on actually w...
via Unsung November 11, 2026The villa of Ormen
As a child, I was never a fan of any actor or singer. David Bowie is the closest thing to a “music idol” I’ve ever had. I never had a poster of him on my wall, or a T-shirt with his face on it, but he was a constant presence in my playlists, to the point w...
via Personal Site of Andrei N. Ciobanu November 11, 2026Candidate Statement for the 2026 W3C TAG Election
Group photo of the W3C TAG in July 2022 with me to the left of Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web and TAG chair emeritus). Photo credit: Dan Appelquist I had the great honor of being elected to the TAG by the W3C membership in 2020 and again in 2022,...
via Lea Verou’s blog November 11, 2026Generated by openring