Vaping – futuristic smoking or puffers on steroids?

Legal Notice to Youngsters!

If you are under 18, sorry, but you aren’t legally allowed to do what I am preparing to write about, so don’t try. No really… don’t do it. Don’t waste your money. Go to college, get a good partner for life, visit Europe and Fiji and get a nice paying job and never ever EVER start smoking or vaping or chewing or snuffing. In fact, if you’re under 18, you have to leave now. Don’t read this blog entry. Shoo. Go do some homework, or wash a car, or have a taco, or something.

 

For years, people have been bugging me to quit smoking. My parents, my children, my friends, strangers (Not that I give a rat’s ass about some strange citizen giving me lifestyle suggestions. Pretty ballsy, actually. Quite rude, come to think of it. And kind of invasive, in a semi-fascist sorta way).

So, as I notice my hairline slowly creeping back, millimeter by millimeter, and my body isn’t quite as indestructible as it used to be, I have attempted to stop smoking (not “quit” – Nobody likes a quitter) on several occasions. My longest stretch was 2 years. My current job was actually what drove me back to smoking. Frelling stressful… working with a bunch of juvenile, illogical, unschooled monkeys.

Anyway, now my 3 year old grandson lives with us (I’m too young to have grandchildren! Gah!). And it occurs to me that I need to be around a lot longer than I previously thought I would be. I am basically his entire financial world, same as my youngest children that still live with me. So, I need to be around (acts of random chaos not withstanding) as long as possible. With that being said, I decided, after some discussion at length with a guildmate in the XIIIth Legion (SWTOR – Ebon Hawk), to try “vaping”.

Vaping is ‘smoking’ e-cigs, more or less. They have other mediums for vaping than just the electronic cigarette, but I wanted something to replace the feel and hit and taste of a traditional cigarette (or “analog” as they are referred to in the vaping realm).

After much deliberation and research, with a dash of trial and error, I decided upon Vapor 4 Life (http://www.vapor4life.com) , instead of Blu (http://www.blucigs.com) or eGo (by Joye) (http://www.joyetech.com/product/details.php?gno=7  )

I reached this choice only via the most stringent empirical means possible – because a friend gave it to me.  😛

So, Wunderbar! Now I’m vaping.

It’s different. I am still trying to make up my mind about it.

I enjoy smoking, I really do. I know it makes a person smell like smoke and slowly kills their lungs and other organs and has a terrible effect on the cardio-pulmonary system and even though it gives a fair neurological boost (via the nicotine) during the early years it ultimately begins to degrade and damage your grey matter en toto. Yes, I made that run-on sentence on purpose. Don’t make me do it again.

But smoking is enjoyable… before the ugly end, anyway.

So, since I like to smoke, I’m trying Vaping as a surrogate.

First thing I have realized, after the bitch of choosing what System to use (btw, I am thinking of switching to the eGO because it has a tank for the ejuices, and the cartomizers my system uses SUCK)… where was I… oh yeah, so, I have my system of delivery.

 

Next comes choosing what ejuices to buy and from whom.

I’ll tell ya Right now. Don’t get them from V4L. First and only order and they frelled it all up. In addition, the product tastes like shite. I tried several different flavors. Yuck yuck and Yuck.

Currently, I am buying from FreedomSmokeUSA (http://freedomsmokeusa.com) and Alien Visions (http://www.avejuice.com).

FreedomSmoke has a large selection (The coffee flavors are my favs), and the flavors are not bad at all (Except for “Cam-Blend”! YUCK! Tastes like your smoking a rank perfume. OMFG it’s bad!). I just have a hard time mixing them to get the right, well, Mixture, for maximum ‘smoke’ effect. Which is a Big part of the reason I smoke. When I take a big drag off of something and I feel it hit in my throat and taste the flavor and the heat of it, but then blow out… nothing? Yeah, that’s a suck-ass downfall for me. I would rather have something with little to no taste but makes Lots of smoke (or vapor, as it were). It is just as much a psychological as it is a physical habit for me. No smoke = no habit satisfying hocus pocus.

Alien Visions is a good company, too. They have a smaller selection, but make a solid attempt to perfect what they make. I gotta say, they have come closer (than any other type of ejuice flavor I have tried) to an actual Tobacco flavor. Their C&D, Flue-Cured, and Blend 4 flavors are very nice. The Gorilla Juice flavor is just fun. Tobacco with a spalash of banana? Weeeeird, but fun. Just not all the time, at least for me.

Boba’s Bounty flavor is… not sure… Not bad, but kinda… raisin bran flavored? Not sure how I feel about it. Not disgusting. But not a show stopper. And does No justice to the mighty Fett, for sure.

 

So… as far as the mixing & prepping, here is what I noticed.

 

 

First… if you overfill your cartomizer, you will get Dick for smoke. Nada. Just a lot of heating/popping noise, like sizzling water drops on a hot skillet. You’ll also get some ejuice leakage out the bottom or even out of the top airhole, which then gets in your mouth and yeah… this shite ain’t meant to be drank. *makes yuck face*

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second… if you Underfill, you will vape a dozen times and then suddenly you make a LOT of smoke and your vapor tastes like antifreeze. That means you’ve run dry. STOP Vaping and refill, or you will destroy your cart and fill your lungs with burnt (whateverthefucktheymakecartomizerwicksoutof) antifreeze flavored yuckies.

**Here’s a link  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfGMqzC_h4)  to a video that helped me figure out the Easiest way to refill my cartomizers (carts, for short). Thanx Kultflixxxster, for all your time and patience with the newbie vapers.

 

 

Third… Make sure your batteries/atomizers are charged up. Otherwise, if they are too weak to heat the ejuice, you will see weak to zero results. I charge mine daily, and rotate through them with each time I change carts. This method may be different for the other styles of vaping devices, such as the eGO or the REOs, which appear to have larger batteries.

**Tidbit about the batteries for V4L…  Ecigarette Reviewer 3 months ago  “Just so you know, Vapor4Life is compatible with V2Cigs, Vapor4life, Premium, White Cloud, EonSmoke, AIO, SmokeTip… they all use the same type of battery and threading called KR808D-1 so if you don’t like flavors from one you can try another and keep the same batteries ;)”

 

**Good reviews, advice, and of course random trolling:   http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum

Fourth… Get your mix right. This took some doing, and I am still not a master, but I am getting better. The basic formula parameters is (are?) more PG = more flavor and more VG = more smoke (vapor). PG is thinner, more watery and stands for propylene glycol. VG is thicker, oilier and means vegetable glycerin. (You can read more on the differences here – http://vapegrl.com/pg-vg-e-liquids)

So, depending on who makes the ejuice and what the flavor is, you may swing from 20%PG/80%VG to 50/50 or to 80%PG/20%VG.

Currently, I am between 50/50 and 20/80, because I have noticed that the PG gives me a headache. And vaping too much of the 50/50 tends to make me a bit light-headed. Not cool.

So, I am trying to find the right mix of smokeage with no dizzage and no weird aftertasteage.

I have read that some people do not react well to the PG. So… if you start feeling weird, or like your face is puffy, or you have a hard time breathing, or you get dizzy, then STOP VAPING. For a day or two, til it passes. Then, stay away from the PG stuff for good. If the VG stuff does it, too, then you need to NOT vape at all, and you might want to see your doctor, cuz they’re might be something already going on with your lungs that you are not aware of.

Also, if you have any lung, heart, or asthma problems… then I strongly recommend you do NOT start vaping (or smoking, for that matter). Just bite the bullet, quit cold turkey, and buy a pack of gum. Don’t screw around with an already broken oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange system.

Oh yeah… one last thing. The (USA) FDA deems the use of VG and PG as safe, but only in areas they have tested it. Those areas do NOT include inhaling. So, though many people consider it safer than smoking, there are no long term studies for this stuff. That means WE are all guinea pigs, ladies and gents. So, in 43 years, when our hair turns neon yellow and our genitals fall off, chances are we’ll know the effects.

Seriously, though. Becareful vaping. Even though many many forums say you can Vape all day and it’s just fine… you CAN overdose on nicotine. It’s called nicotine poisoning. Do it in moderation or buy the ejuices that have less than 8mg nicotine, so you do not overdo it. For people like me (using 24mg ejuices), we need to moderate ourselves or risk a stopped heart.

Be cool.