* How to write and H.O.F. speech.

[hydro]

How to write an H.O.F. SpeechÃ,…Ã,…Ã,….

ThatÃ,’s what we are all here for isnÃ,’t itÃ,….to reach 100 days quit so Chewie will let us post an H.O.F speech right ? YepÃ,….thatÃ,’s the goal. ChewieÃ,….thank you for the opportunity to do this. Some day I hope to repay you with a homebrew. 'Have a beer'

So here is how I did itÃ,…..

The first step: H.O.F Speech Pre-requisite

Start chewing. YepÃ,…you heard meÃ,…first you gotta start chewing. Every self respecting H.O.F. speech has the history of how a successful quitter started chewing. So I did thatÃ,….23 years ago. And I did it wellÃ,…Ã,….a can of Skoal fine cut every day for 23 years.

The second step: Quit Chewing

Quit chewing. YepÃ,…Ã,…you heard me again. You canÃ,’t write an H.O.F speech unless youÃ,’ve quit chewing for 100 days. See in order to quit chewing you have to start chewing but we already covered that in Step 1.

The third step: H.O.F. Speech Material Gathering

ThatÃ,’s where it gets interestingÃ,…Ã,…..you gotta gather a lot of information and material to write a good H.O.F speech. You can definitely get all you need in your very own quit group during the first 30 days. In factÃ,…Ã,…there is a wealth of information in those first 30 days. When I hit the hall I went back and Ã,“bumpedÃ,” a bunch of posts from the first 30 days. ItÃ,’s amazing the stuff that we sayÃ,…..think Ã,….and feel for the first 30 days. But if you are not actively engaged for the first 30 days then youÃ,’re gonna miss all this great stuff. So stay VERY ACTIVE EVERY DAY. A typical day for me went kinda like thisÃ,…Ã,…Ã,…

6:00-7:00amÃ,….get up and grab a cup of coffee. Then in between trying to take breakfast orders from my 5 and 8 year olds I try to get over to be the first to post roll callÃ,…..only to find that DPJ1168 beat my ass by 10 minutes. DoesnÃ,’t matterÃ,…post at 6:20 and DPJ posts at 6:10. Post at 6:45Ã,…DPJ posts at 6:35. Fine. Then head on over to post in some other groups. I tried to do this quick because Mule seems to wait for me to eerily post right next to meÃ,….every dayÃ,…..thanks DPJ and Mule, both of you were constants in my morning roll posting ritual. MuleÃ,…very few people have called me Heidi and lived to tell about itÃ,….. B)

NextÃ,…..grab a cup of coffee. But wait. Before you drink any of it you gotta grab your cell phoneÃ,…take a picture of it and send it to Animal. YouÃ,’ll promptly get back a Ã,“Hell yeah itÃ,’s a beautiful day to be quit oh yeah nothing better than an aged french press blended cup of joe the sun is up im quit hell yeahÃ,”. IÃ,’m gonna get Animal a book on punctuationÃ,…Ã,…Ã,….Dean, thanks for the morning coffee my friend.

8:00-ishÃ,….OKÃ,…once you get to the office you gotta grab another cup of coffee and read through all of BBJÃ,’s quotes. DoesnÃ,’t really matter what kinda day youÃ,’re havingÃ,…Ã,….read through enough quit groups and BBJ will have a quote that makes you feel better. Thank you Brother Jack. IÃ,’m gonna run that Tri with you in 2010. 'moto'

ThenÃ,….get on with your day. But during that first 30 days you gotta get back on the boards when the cravings start to hit. Lots of good information for an H.O.F. speech there. In fact one of the best places for some good information is the March 09 group roll callÃ,…..right after Hydro's post. ThatÃ,’s where you will find the latest G40Ã,’ism......or words of profound wisdom. Or at least new words...... 'winker'

Greg40 provided me with more laughsÃ,…and new vocabulary wordsÃ,…both on the boardsÃ,…in the public chatÃ,…and in the private chat box than I can possibly list here. Thanks Greg. I look forward to sharing an entire homebrew keg with you soon. Very soon. 'Sing and Drink'

Later on in your 30 days youÃ,’re gonna start to recognize habits. YouÃ,’ll see two people post roll at damn near the same time every day and both look for the otherÃ,…like Professor Pinch and Foreman Scotty. Thanks to both of you. As soon as I get to the office I checked to make sure you both were thereÃ,…and you always were. That was more important to my quit than you know. Later on youÃ,’ll get to know some of the other guysÃ,….like Scooter and NoplacelikethemiddleofnowwhereÃ,…I mean neb. Thanks guys. ScooterÃ,…thank you not only for your insightful posts but also for changing from your first Avatar !!! YouÃ,’ll also work your way into a couple lesser known groups. CJÃ,….thanks for the Ã,“sceneryÃ,”. And Raymwii. Thanks for the conversations. Congratulations on the new baby and keep getting outÃ,…remember 20 minutesÃ,….turn around and head backÃ,….works for me.

Then if you are lucky you have somebody who quit on the same day as you. Wallace the DogÃ,…aka Wallydog. Thanks. I saw you logged on during countless occasions but not posting roll? WhatÃ,’s upÃ,…..panic starts. This guy canÃ,’t quit. HeÃ,’s on my day. ThatÃ,’s bad for me right. SoÃ,…send a text to wallydogÃ,…see him postÃ,…get a replyÃ,…sorry got busy. See I never let that bother meÃ,…..Wally was probably off saving someones life from a burning inferno I figured. Probably he was a few of those daysÃ,….but my money is most days he could not figure out what the hell day he was on so he was waiting for me to postÃ,…..thanks Wallace. In the early days just knowing somebody else quit on the same day as me kept me going. If you could do itÃ,…I could do it. Raven..UCRick..FinnÃ,….all of you were there every day. Thanks. IÃ,’m proud to say I was a member of March 09.

So around 10:00-ish or soÃ,…check back in and see that some dumb-ass changed your group name. Again. Yep. Who-Dey was here. Look back on your first 30 daysÃ,….youÃ,’ll post a goofy face :angry: and call Who-Dey a name. HeÃ,’ll fire back with 65 emoticons of youÃ,…. :asskiss: and wellÃ,….letÃ,’s leave it at that. Around the third week of your quit youÃ,’ll figure out that if you hit the Ã,“show allÃ,” button on the emoticons you get the whole list. And I though he had them in a special place. WellÃ,….maybe he doesÃ,…..thanks WhoDey. You make an easy and fun target while a new quitter is still in the fog.

Get through the dayÃ,….get homeÃ,…have dinnerÃ,….read the kids a storyÃ,….they all seem like Alice  Wonderland the adult version the first 30 days but you get through them. Then head on into chat. There youÃ,’ll find JustQuit and Ricko and KD4JetÃ,….and even Jpine (thanks JP). I learned to speak Latin in the chat rooms watching my friend Ricko type. And I learned how to pounce on new quitters from JustQuit. JQ can talk anybody into quitting. Right Wildcat, Mr. Rodgers and NMC ?? You guys are doing great. IÃ,’m proud to watch each of you beat the nic-bitch down in your own way. Just look outÃ,….SmokeyG is back. Thanks for the early messages Smokey. And Ready.

You also get a lot in chat early on from the Ã,“old timersÃ,”. HellÃ,…Ã,…guys a couple months before youÃ,….like those Ã,“manuaryÃ,” boys (Thanks BC  Copefiend)Ã,…they are doing the impossible. If they can do it with a dancing emoticonÃ,…..we can do it with a Shamrock...at least that was what I kept telling myself. Look back a couple months and read through the groups just ahead of youÃ,…..they are still activeÃ,…..and they are posting and dealing with all the problems you are gonna be dealing with. Why not read them and get a head start on the solution? Got a questionÃ,…ask them. An early group is eager to help. Just leave off the dancing Ã,“manuariesÃ,”. 'dance'

Then after the first 30 days you settle in. HellÃ,…roll call gets to be fun. You get to watch the Ã,“train wrecksÃ,” in the new groups around 9:00 when 23 new quitters try to post at the same time. WhoDey described it best as a Ã,“crack addicts forumÃ,”. Best 20 minutes youÃ,’ll ever spendÃ,…Ã,….youÃ,’ll even get some good episodes from your own Ã,“rageÃ,”. I found throwing garbage cans was most effective. 'bang head' Some days youÃ,’ll feel like crap and guys like Mike1228 will hang out Ã,‘till you feel better.

Then a bunch of those train wreck survivors emerge in the newer groups and you can learn a lot for your own HOF speech from them. In my case there is a clear winner. Rkymtnman. Most of you know him as Ricky Martin Man. Thanks Jeff. For the last 20 years. Enough Said.

Watch the newer groupsÃ,…..you learn a lot about yourself in watching somebody go through what you did. WeÃ,’re all the same in many ways. None of us liked day 3. All of us are true quitters. WeÃ,’re all different too. Some take the tough loveÃ,…hard-ass approachÃ,…Ã,….others take the Ã,“show respect get respect approachÃ,”. Choose your path. But continue walking on it. DonÃ,’t stop. The journey does not end. And for those who choose the hard-ass approachÃ,…..youÃ,’ll get to many cross-roads which give you the opportunity to run down the "show respect path" a bitÃ,…give it a try. You might like it.

The fourth step: Close the Door.

Many people talk about this. I am sure it is different for everyone. I, like my friend G40, was fortunate. I found this site. This, and many of the people reading this, helped me to close the door on my first attempt at quitting. I closed the door very early. I just did not know it. I closed it when I chose to be active on the boards and in chat. I thought I would close the door on my quit after I reached the hall. But I actually started closing it when I tried to beat DPJ to roll call each day. I closed further it when I sent Animal a picture of a cup of coffee every day. I closed it when I got a text from a new guy like Mr. Rogers asking me to post roll because he was on the road.

Your job is to find what it takes to close the door for you.

You see itÃ,’s kinda like summer camp. You knowÃ,….you dread having to go for a week and not knowing anyone. Who will like you? Will everyone pick on you? Will your parents remember to pick you up? Will they want to? 'help'

Then after a little while you make some friends and donÃ,’t want to leave. YouÃ,’ll never have as much fun again in your life you sayÃ,….YouÃ,’ll never see these friends againÃ,…..kinda like the games the nic-bitch plays on you. But we all went home from that summer camp. We had even better times. We moved onÃ,….had better and better experiences.

Closing the door on quitting is like leaving summer camp. We were scared as hell to go. We didnÃ,’t want to leaveÃ,…Ã,…againÃ,…like the nic-bitchÃ,…...but once we didÃ,….we moved on with our lives and it got better and better. Once we realize that we can leave campÃ,…and nicotineÃ,…Ã,…and we finally understand that there WILL be better times ahead we can close the door.

And once you close the door my friendsÃ,…Ã,…you have everything you need to write an HOF speech. I look forward to reading them. 'Popcorn'


Dave / hydro