Category Archives: Links of Note

Hello World!

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This weekend, I celebrated my 46th birthday. Celebrated might be the wrong word. Maybe “made note of” or “observed the passing of” would be more accurate. Not that I get bummed out about getting another year older. I don’t. I’m actually one of those weirdos who gets excited and happy about being a year older. I think it’s awesome I’ve been on this planet for 46 years and have clear memories of life on Earth that go all the way back to when I was four years old in 1969. The world has changed a lot in my lifetime, and it feels like an accomplishment to still be here taking part in it all. LOL!

Things didn’t go quite as planned for my birthday. The universe decided the thing I most needed for my birthday was a break in my menopausal state after two years of of not feeling like utter and complete crap one week a month. Seriously, is that the best the universe could come up with for a gift?! Making me a bloated, crampy, hormonally induced emotional wreck with a migraine and a face full of zits?! Thanks, universe. That was just what I wanted … NOT!† Could it at least have waited until after my birthday? Grrr.

We’d had a pretty low-key day planned anyway though. When I have been working on some creative project for a while and then it’s over, there’s always a few days of total downtime during which I let go of that project, clear my head for the next, and catch up on mental rest. Even something as simple as knitting a tree sweater requires the downtime. I focus intensely on all creative projects, and they rattle around in my brain during the entire time they are in progress, even when I am not actively working on them. It doesn’t feel draining at the time, but once the thing is declared finished and the studio area cleared for the next project, I feel it. Since my birthday was going to fall during this downtime, I decided I just wanted to go hang out with my mom and go eat out and just sit around her house chatting.

So that’s what we did. To be honest, I didn’t even feel like doing that much, but I didn’t want to call off the plans either. I’d been looking forward to my low-key plans and the trip to Mom’s! We got there a little later than usual, because I was moving at a snail’s pace, so by the time we arrived at her house, we were all starving and needed to eat. The usual eating places were brought up as suggestions for the birthday brunch, but I really wanted to go somewhere new and different. With it being a Sunday, all the usual places would have been packed with locals getting out of church anyway. These places are the “usual places” because all the locals go to them. I didn’t want to wait an hour to get a table, and well, I like trying new places!

I looked through the Fritztown visitor’s guide, picked a place I’d never heard of that was just around the corner from Mom’s house, and then checked it out on Yelp. Yelp gave it fabulous reviews, so off we went to Sunset Grill. All I can say is that Yelp did not lie. It’s a tiny little bistro with world class cuisine at affordable prices. The three of us had mimosas, appetizers, and giant plates of incredible well-prepared food for under $50. It reminded me a lot of some of the really trendy (and pricier) places in Austin, and I will be eating there again in the future. It’s been added to the list of “usual places” for me.

I had orginally ordered Crab Cake Benedict, but they ran out of crab cakes. I was only mildly disappointed when the owner came out to inform me of this. He suggested the Smoked Salmon Benedict instead, and that had been my second choice anyway.

English muffins layered with West Coast Smoked Salmon, poached eggs, cream cheese, chopped red onions and capers and finished with our herb infused hollandaise. Your choice or either hash browns or home fries.

I kid you not, it was the best meal I have eaten in a restaurant in ages. Simply sublime. An almost transcendental dining experience. Every mouthful a delight. It was, in a word, perfectly prepared. I don’t often go on about meals in restaurants, but this one was worth going crazy over. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Sunset Grill, you have GOT to eat there! It’s off the main drag enough that only the smartest tourists will find it too, which is always a bonus. I’m sure eventually it will become a madhouse one has to wait an hour to get a table in, but for now, it’s still an out-of-the-way and somewhat hidden gem.

So the meal went well, and we were all so stuffed from the HUGE plates of tasty food, we decided to just go back to the house and sit around being lazy. That had sort of been my plan anyway, since I was feeling poorly, so that worked out well. First we got down to the present opening. I hadn’t given my mom any clues as to what to get me, because I really don’t have any needs or wants right now. I’d have been fine with her not getting me anything (which is what I told her), but she can’t let a gift-giving event pass without some kind of gift. Amazingly, she gave me something I had actually been fondling in the store the other day and considering buying: a collapsible wire colander useful for all manner of kitchen duties. Mom thought it was a stupid gift, but I assured her it wasn’t. I’d have likely bought it myself next week when I do the shopping, because it had caught my eye and look really, really useful.

She also passed on to me a necklace and earring set her mom (Mam’O, my grandmother) had given her when she turned seventeen. I remember seeing it in my mom’s jewelry box when I was a little kid, and it was one of those things she never even let me touch. It’s a nice heavy cut glass choker with matching slip-on earrings, and I look forward to wearing it on special occasions. So lovely and so old and precious with a lot of family history behind it. I’m really pleased to have it, and I can’t wait to find excuses to wear it.

The only disappointment on my birthday was the lack of a birthday cake. This would be the first year ever without one, and I suppose I really have no one to blame but myself. For later reference, when I say “No, no, don’t bother making a cake. It’ll be such a fuss.” this must be run through the Middle-Aged Jewess filter. It will translate directly into “My gods, how can there be a birthday without a cake! Of course there has to be a cake!!!” But like I said, my own damn fault for not saying what I mean and just expecting people to read my mind. In the end, it wasn’t totally horrible not having a cake, because I ate so much at brunch, I wasn’t hungry until the next day anyway. But still … no cake. Wah! LOL!

The entire rest of the day was just sitting and talking (and Lin did some snoozing). I don’t even know what all we talked about. All manner of things! No politics for religion though, because I’d informed everyone that was forbidden on my birthday. A lot of the talk was about art … and my dad … and a little of the plans to move my mom to Austin. All in all, just a really relaxed day. That was really what I needed and wanted, and that’s what I got, so it was a very nice birthday.

Then we drove home and got back to doing my post-project vegetating, and I continued that all day yesterday. Don’t even ask me what I did yesterday, because I have no idea. I slept late, ate lunch, and ran to the store for a couple of things. Other than that, I don’t recall doing anything at all. I suspect I mostly sat on the couch staring at the TV without really watching it and snoozing. Yes, when I turn my brain off, I really turn my brain off. It always amazes me how an entire day can go by without me doing anything that I remember doing. It’s really refreshing though, and it’s sometimes necessary. I slept late again today, but I’m starting to feel like I have caught up on resting both brain and body, and I’m also starting to feel a little better. I imagine by tomorrow I’ll be back running at full-steam-ahead and getting on with the next art project. Right after I do a ton of housework. I’ve been ignoring the housework just a wee bit too much, and boy, does it show!

But I’m going to give myself the rest of today to be a total brain-dead bum, because I deserve it (and probably need it). After I hit the post button on this, my first order of business is a nice cup of coffee, and then I’m going to pick out which video game Lin is going to give me for my birthday. He said he wanted to get me one, but he wasn’t sure which, so it’s better for me to just pick it out (since I’m picky about games). After that … nothing but more vegetating and laziness is on the agenda!

Footnotes
  1. † Though I have to say that my body suddenly deciding to pretend it’s still fertile did make me sit and think about how very, very nice the last two years have been without all that. My gods, I swear I don’t know how I got through feeling like this every month. It reminded me that I am stronger than I think I am, and that lately I have been getting soft and lazy. I mean, I used to get things done even though I felt like crap, and I used to be able to control the hormonally induced emotions, but this week, I’m getting nothing whatsoever done (just can’t – no energy at all, and I hurt all over), and I’ll start blubbering and crying for no reason at all. I’ll be hibernating until it’s over. I am unfit to be out in civilized society. [↩]

I Am Not…

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I am not my hair.
I am not this skin.
I am not your expectations.

I am not my hair.
I am not this skin.
I am the soul that lives within.

Perfect time for a reminder: 43 days until I shave my head in support of childhood cancer research! Donate today and help us conquer childhood cancer!

My Sacrifice

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I’m really cranky about the rolling blackouts that left me spending most of my day sitting in the dark, huddled by the stove for warmth. Starting at about 6:30 am and continuing into afternoon, I’d get about ten minutes of power followed by 40-50 minutes of no power. I finally just crawled into bed and slept with the cats. No sense sitting around awake and miserable now is there?

I was in the “dark” as to why the power kept going off and on, until almost noon. Yes, it’s cold and some parts of Texas are seeing ice and snow, but we’ve had much, MUCH worse storms before and not had the power act so erratic. The first clue I had came from a friend in Dallas who said Texas was having an energy crisis and the rolling blackouts were the result. I still thought it was odd that the “rolling” part was so regular. It felt to me like someone was turning the stuff off and on, and at one point the cable box booted up quickly enough for me to catch a few minutes of local news before the power dropped off again. Why, yes … someone was turning the power off and on. These blackouts were a planned response to a power shortage.

This was the first anyone seemed to have heard of this plan, and it still seemed odd that of all the many people I know in Austin, only myself and one other household was experiencing any kind of power failure. Austin’s a big place. If these blackouts were “rolling” around, why only so few neighborhoods being without power? And what caused the power crisis in the first place? Surely we use just as much power when it’s 110º outside during the summer! The more information I managed to piece together, the less pleased and more cranky I found myself.

Then I read this post on the utility company’s blog. It’s an explanation of how the circuits were selected to have their power cut.

Austin Energy has 350 circuits that deliver power throughout our community. For the purposes of rotating blackouts, circuits that serve hospitals and emergency resources are excluded. In addition, circuits that serve large industrial customers and downtown Austin are excluded because the electrical loads are very large and therefore very difficult to bring back up. Also excluded are about 125 circuits with special equipment that provides the framework ensuring a stable system frequency of the Austin Energy electric system. Dip into that framework and you increase the risk of bringing the Austin Energy system down. This leaves about 50-75 circuits available for rotating blackouts. The load shedding requirement Austin Energy had to initially meet required rotating blackouts for 35-40 circuits. This necessitated repetition of this smaller number of available circuits to meet the load shedding requirements. As a result, some streets or neighborhoods experiencing outages were in some cases literally next door to others that did not.

The part I highlighted in bold is the most interesting and infuriating. Once they removed from consideration all circuits of importance to society, that left them with 50-75 they could leave without power for 40 minutes at a time. Yet they didn’t rotate through all of them. They used a smaller number and JUST KEPT ROLLING THE POWER OFF AND ON ALL DAY, instead of possibly using all the circuits they could so more people would suffer a little rather than a few people suffering a lot. Well, thank you VERY much. I’m thrilled to have made this all important sacrifice for my society. NOT!

So now, I’m not really any less cranky. I don’t mind doing things for the good of all, but I do ask that the suffering be spread around as equally and fairly as possible. I suspect very strongly it wasn’t. But wait! There’s even more making me cranky now! Seriously, it just gets better!

They’ve already announced that rolling blackouts will probably be necessary tonight and tomorrow again. Someone sent a Tweet to the utility company’s Twitter account a little while ago asking if it was going to be the same circuits being hit again, and yes … YES, IT IS! They are going to rotate through the same 35-40 circuits once more, rather than maybe a) use some different ones or b) switch through all 50-75 available circuits. I guess I’ll be having another cold and dark day tomorrow, if they decide they need to do it again. That pretty much grinds my last nerve down to a very raw little nub.

And everyone in Texas can now begin thanking me for my sacrifice –I accept cash, checks, money orders, and tasty foodstuffs– which apparently enabled the entirety of the state to have electricity, except, you know, those of us who didn’t. :angry:

Oh, and I haven’t even told you what caused this mess in the first place! The winter storm would seem to be the first suspect to point at, but not so fast! Not everything is as it seems!

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said late this morning that a broken pipe and a frozen pipe at two Central Texas electric generating plants helped trigger a statewide power emergency that forced rolling blackouts in Austin and across Texas.

and…

At the same time as the two plants were down early today, Dewhurst said other power plants were off-line from Texas’ utility grid, and pressure drops in natural gas supply lines caused by the freezing temperatures were causing problems at other plants.

The storm may have been the actual catalyst, but it seems to me the real problem –the thing that was the most direct cause of my sitting around a cold and dark house for a day– was, in fact, utter and complete stupidity combined with crappy infrastructure. Pipes freezing and bursting bringing down power plants?! Dewhurst was quite correct when he said “This should not happen.”

It really shouldn’t. I mean, it’s pretty damn stupid to not know that in the face of the lowest temperatures we’ve seen in quite a long while, pipes freeze and burst, and furthermore, one would hope taking down a power plant would require more than taking out a PIPE filled with water. Add crappy infrastructure security to my list of complaints. Let’s hope no terrorists are taking notes on how damn easy it is to knock out the power grid in Texas.

And before I run off to bed to catch a few hours of sleep, I also want to thank Mexico for sending in some electricity. Their electrons are coming in to do the jobs our electrons won’t. LOL!

I have a feeling I am not going to be a happy camper tomorrow.

Link Dump!

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I have an odd collection of links open in my browser, and I’m tired of looking at them but can’t bring myself to just close the tabs, so … link dump!

At times quotations are offered as though simply saying them lends complete authority to the speaker. If one argues that it is important to “speak truth to power,” for instance, it doesn’t inherently mean that what is being spoken is either true or necessarily a critique or contradiction of dominant ideology. It seems that, more often than not, when a writer urges others to have an “open mind,” what he or she is really saying is “stop thinking the way you do and agree with me.”
–Louis Black, Page Two: Quotation Nation – Taking issue with citations, Austin Chronicle

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I invite you to look over the artwork of Badanna Zack from Canada.

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The blog of artist author Keri Smith is an interesting read.

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Nanotechnology is changing how we think about food. More than just an exploration of new recipes, food science includes manipulating matter at the atomic level — changing the chemical compositions and altering molecular structures.
–Five Things You Need to Know About Nanofoods

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Oak Springs Elementary School is “the little school that could.”

Like the storied little blue train engine, the elementary school has pulled itself over a mountain of obstacles to reach its destination.

Though its train cars are carrying a cargo of poor minority students, which typically weigh a school down, Oak Springs earned the highest grade on the state’s 2010 report card — exemplary. That is a milestone for the school, which never before achieved that kind of success.

Naturally, AISD intends to close this school and some others just like it. Yes … let’s close all the exemplary schools, especially if they are in minority neighborhoods!

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An Alabama law firm is suing Taco Bell…

“The complaint alleges that what Taco Bell calls “beef” doesn’t meet the minimum requirements set by the USDA to be called “beef” or “seasoned ground beef” or anything of the kind.

“Rather than beef, these food items are actually made with a substance known as “taco meat filling,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that Taco Bell should refer to its product as “taco meat filling” because it contains mostly “extenders” and other non-meat substances.

Not that anyone who has ever eaten at a Taco Bell needs to be told the stuff passing itself off as beef is merely beef-like brown stuff, but I hope this suit succeeds. I think it might, seeing as it’s a fact that Taco Bell’s “meat” is labeled “taco meat filling” on the boxes it comes in and only contains 36% actual meat. To then advertise it as actually being beef is indeed false advertising.

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HEB (my favorite grocery store chain) has put up a simple guide to food label reading. There’s more that could be added, but it’s a nice place to start learning to look at labels for those who never have.

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The United States of Shame: am easy to read chart displaying in which area each state most completely sucks.

Me and My Hair

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I’ve been thinking a lot about my hair lately. It’s gotten long. Really, really long. While I do actually love my long hair (so does Lin), it’s a major pain in the butt to maintain … and unless I wear it up all the time, it gets into everything. The naturally occurring thought to solve these problems is to cut my hair short. It’s not like

I am not new to the concept of having short hair. I kept it in a chin-length bob for many years, and once in college I had it cut into a pixie cut that was only about two inches long. So yeah, I know what I look like with short hair, and fact of the matter is, I never really meant to grow such long hair in the first place. It started with my hairdresser moving away. Then there really wasn’t any money to spend on getting my hair cut all the time (and short hair does require that kind of maintenance). Then … it was long, and I got a little attached to it. OK, I got a LOT attached to it. I started to like having long hair. Since I don’t wear makeup or get into too many really feminine fashions, it was the one thing about me that made me feel like a girly-girl.

But … it’s a pain in the butt, it’s heavy, it’s hot, and I think I want it to go away. The last time I felt this way, I’d just turned 18, and my hair was down to my hips. Mom cut it into a chin-length bob, and I never once regretted doing that. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t regret it this time either, but all the same, major changes to appearance are a scary thing. Especially so because the shorter my hair, the more androgynous I look. I used to consider that a feature and not a bug, but I’m older now, and I’m not sure how I will feel about looking boy-like at the age of 45.

So I’ve been doing some soul searching and trying to decide how short I want to go. Normally, I would never consider going any shorter than my old standard chin-length bob, but I have so much hair, and it’s so healthy, that I want to cut as much off as possible to donate to Locks of Love. It’s plenty long to do that, and it makes me a little teary-eyed to think of some poor kid losing their hair during cancer treatment getting a pretty wig to wear made from my hair. I’m sappy that way!

To do that and give as much as I can means getting it cut really, really short, and then it popped into my head that there’s an event every year called St. Baldrick’s during which people shave their heads to raise funds for cancer research for kids. It’s another thing I have always wanted to do, but oi … shaving my head terrifies me beyond belief! I have no idea how hideous my skull may actually be. I might have the ugliest head on the planet! But there’s not much difference between two inch long hair and no hair at all. My hair … it grows an insane amount each month (and I can make it grow even faster if I drink gelatin). I doubt it would take me more than 6 months to get all the way back to a chin-length bob. I know this, because the short bangs I cut for myself this summer are already well past my chin again. Yeah, my hair GROWS. So really, as scary as having a bald head may be, I doubt it would be terribly bald for too terribly long, and it would happen for a good cause.

Doesn’t mean doing both of these things doesn’t freak me out. It does. I love having long hair, because, well, I guess I had it put in my head at an early age it was something for girls to be proud of having. I’ve struggled a long time with my desire to have the easy care of short hair (oh so wash-and-go) and the versatility and well, pride-factor of having long hair. But if I am going to cut my hair, I might as well go all the way and give as much of myself as I can for two really good causes (well, kid’s cancer for both of them, so really one cause). Who knows? Maybe I’ll like not having any hair at all. Maybe I will have the most beautiful head anyone has ever seen, and going all Sinead O’Conner might be the most fashionable thing I have ever done. LOL!

And … sometime before the event, I will start pestering people to sponsor me and donate for St. Baldrick’s. You’ve been warned! I promise not to be too obnoxious about it, but I will be mentioning from time to time that it’d be nice if I could not only hand over my hair but also a nice sum of money to a worthy charity.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately, and what have I been doing other than not posting on my blog? Continuing to clean and organize and declutter the house, working on artwork, and generally being Little Miss Domestic Bliss. Oh, and going crazy due to holiday party planning and gift shopping and the usual end-of-year family madness! My life gets nuts this time of year every year, and it’s a little more nuts this year owing to me finally deciding to make a huge push to get rid of bunches of material goods I don’t need in my life anymore (and getting the ones I do into some sort of order). I’m making good progress, and the decluttering and organizing seems to be keeping me sane. You know my family makes me insane with the holiday stuff. Doesn’t everyone’s family do that? LOL!

Well, it’s time for lunch, and then I need to maybe go run some errands and work in the garden a bit and get back to the bedroom closet work and make some family phone calls and maybe try to find something to wear to this weekend’s party (and on and on and on). Orb is a busy bee! Not complaining either. I’d rather be busy than bored.

Where There’s Smoke?

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It’s time to report on my opinion of e-cigarettes! The short story? Best thing ever invented, and I’ll never touch an analog cigarette again. Inhaling burning leaves is so last century! Now for the long story:

I have so few personal vices I am always loath to have to give one up, especially when it’s one I have always enjoyed … like the consumption of nicotine in the form of cigarettes, cigars, and cigarillos. I have long enjoyed the act of smoking and the self-medication aspects of nicotine, but as we all know, smoking can and will put a person in an early grave (or at least make their final years more miserable than necessary). I’ve quit a few times over the years, and each time it wasn’t so much the desire for nicotine that had me running back into the arms of the Cancer Sticks, it was the fact I enjoyed the act of smoking (not that I don’t also enjoy the calming aspect of nicotine too). But all good things –especially good things that are actually bad things– must come to an end, and I’ve known for a while that I needed to quit smoking once and for all.

Enter the e-cigarette!

My Vaping Kit

While we were on vacation, Lin bought a disposable e-cig. Vanilla flavor, if I recall. He’d heard about them and wanted to try one, and it seemed like a good way to get our nic fix in situations where smoking wasn’t allowed … like inside his mom’s house. The experience was good, and it seemed like something worth looking into, and so he did. About a month ago, he bought a starter kit for himself and began weaning himself off of analog cigarettes. I fell in love with the idea of “vaping” and began whining about wanting my own. Smoking real smokes was no longer fun at all. A couple weeks later, he bought some more hardware for himself and got me my very own! It took me about two days to never want to touch an analog cigarette again. I switched easily. The lack of stale smoke smell, the cleanliness of the vaping experience, and the fact I was consuming far fewer nasty chemicals than are found in every cigarette out there, while simultaneously getting my desired level of nicotine and enjoying the act of smoking, was –in a word– wonderful.†

The next thing we had to do was find a “juice” we liked. The sky is the limit on flavors. Just about any flavor one would want can be found or created. We ordered a variety of things from various vendors, being careful to only order from companies that used materials sourced in the USA (yeah, totally not inhaling anything made in China, thank you very much). There were some hits and misses, and while a couple of them were really nice and enjoyable to vape, none of them were The One Juice to Rule Them All. Either the flavor wasn’t quite right or the nicotine level was too low or they were lacking in some other non-specific way. Still, I was happy to be off the Cancer Sticks, and even vaping a less than perfect juice was better than inhaling burning leaves coated in thousands of chemicals (and that leaves my clothing, truck, and home reeking of an ashtray).

Still searching for my every day and all day juice, I read more reviews and visited more web sites. Last week I found one everyone was raving about, and since the flavor I wanted was on sale, I convinced Lin that one more juice order was necessary before we called a moratorium on ordering more juice. I am ever so thankful I made that order! It arrived yesterday, and from puff one, I knew that Kretek from Tasty Vapor was going to be one of my go-to juices!†† It precisely replicates the experience of smoking a clove cigarette. I used to love clove cigarettes, but on the scale of smoking implements that will kill you, they will kill you more quickly than most. Seriously, clove cigarettes are harsh on the body, and I had to give them up a long time ago. Now I can enjoy them again without all the added and excessive danger of massive lung damage! I’m not kidding, Kretek is awesome!†††

Now all I need to find is some sort of really sickly sweet juice to satiate my sweet tooth. We have one flavor called Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream that is rather nice††††, but it isn’t quite what I am looking for in the realm of sweet. Close, but no cigar (snort, giggle, snort). But for now, I’ll be vaping what we have already, because at this point, we’ve invested quite enough money in juices. LOL! But I have a few things picked out at Tasty Vapor I’ll be ordering as soon as I finish off some of the ones we already have (and when I have the spare cash). I’m thinking something with honey and vanilla may just fill my sweet juice bill.

If you aren’t already a smoker, the fact there may now be a safer way to inhale nicotine is no reason to start doing so now. No one really knows the health effects of long-term inhalation of e-juice. What I do know at this point in time is that for people who currently smoke, e-cigarettes are by far a better option than old-style cigarettes (and without a doubt better than actual clove smokes). I am already noticing some health benefits in the way of my lungs feeling much better and clearer than they have in a long time and fewer of those little annoying headaches I used to get almost daily (especially when stressed out and smoking too much). In addition to that, there’s also the benefit of my home, vehicle, and self not smelling like stale smoke (and nicotine and smoke residue coating everything in the house – still have a lot of surfaces to wipe down) … and not having to have nasty, stinky ashtrays sitting around the house (and ashes everywhere, everywhere, everywhere). So to my smoking friends I say go find a disposable one and give them a try! I think you’ll be glad you did. I didn’t expect to make the switch so easily, but it was so easy to stop smoking the real thing once I put my e-cig to my lips and started seeing the good that came of it.

Additionally, while my intention is not to stop using nicotine any time in the near future, I can see that if I wanted to do so, putting away the e-cig and never inhaling again would be possible by stepping down the nicotine level over time. In fact, I suspect that I could switch to the zero nicotine solution, and within a week be done with the cravings once and for all, while still getting to “smoke” something flavorful and enjoyable. I may just do that in the future, if my blood pressure and health status demands it††††† … but that won’t be any time soon. I do love my nicotine. Keeps me sane, and it goes well with my caffeine. LOL!

In closing, I’m in love with my electronic cigarette, and I don’t miss smoking real cigarettes at all. Switching to an e-cig has been a huge blessing, and finally getting my nicotine fix is a thoroughly enjoyable and far safer activity (and less stinky and nasty). I can’t suggest strongly enough that my smoking friends look into them and consider them as an option to either get off the Cancer Sticks while still getting their nic fix or to quit the entire process entirely. Your body, your friends, your family, and your pets will thank you for it. Seriously, I am now a hardcore e-cig advocate.

Oh, and one last thing … it’s cheaper than analog cigarettes. We haven’t worked out exactly how much cheaper it’s going to be for us (we’ve spent a bit much trying to find just the right juices), but it is definitely going to be far, FAR cheaper than buying a carton or two of smokes every week. I can totally get behind anything that saves money. Cheaper, cleaner, healthier and more enjoyable … what’s not to love?!

I do want to note that having bottles of flavored nicotine-filled liquids sitting around one’s home is a little dangerous to pets and children. Nicotine is a poison, and it can kill even an adult human. I have enough of the stuff sitting on my desk right now to off about two people and who knows how many cats and kids. So some care does need to be taken to make sure that pets and kids can’t drink the stuff. I’ll assume adult humans are smart enough not to do so (though perhaps I shouldn’t). Just thought I should mention this, because I’m not sure how many people know it only takes 30-60 mg of nicotine to kill an adult human. That’s quite a bit, really, and I’d think someone who spilled that much on them would be running for the shower anyway, but pets and children being much smaller can be sickened or killed with far less than that, so … do be careful with the juices.

Footnotes
  1. † For those who want to know, we both use the Joye 510. I use manual batteries with an activation button, and Lin uses both a manual and an automatic. I can’t say with any authority if this is the best e-cig out there, but I love mine. The battery life is a little short, if one uses it a lot (which is why we each have two of the rechargeable batteries), but it’s small, light, and looks cool, so I’m really happy with it. [↩]
  2. †† I am also quite fond of Johnson Creek‘s Original and Arctic Menthol, but the Original is very light in flavor (tastes like a nice, sweetish, light cigarette), and the Menthol is far too harsh to vape much of. Still, they are quality products and worth buying and using. [↩]
  3. ††† For those who want to know, I ordered the 24 mg nicotine level with 80% PG and 20% VG and added sweetener. Just enough nicotine to keep me from feeling the need to sit and chain vape, sweet enough to take the edge off the spiciness, and creates excellent plumes of vapor. [↩]
  4. †††† The vanilla ice cream juice is from DFW Vapor. Their product is of good quality, but aside from this one flavor, we weren’t thrilled with our order. Not knocking them, as we’ll probably order some from them again (great, fast service), as they do have some interesting and unique flavors we haven’t seen elsewhere. [↩]
  5. ††††† As it is now, my blood pressure is always so damn low that something bumping my pressure up isn’t any kind of problem for me. Nor is high cholesterol a problem for me. So I’ll be enjoying my nicotine until I absolutely have to give it up. [↩]

Outside the Lines

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Outside the Lines is a pilot comedy show based around four very different art school students. Filmed in a mockumentary style, the show examines the dynamics of young artists’ minds, perceptions, hopes, dreams, and mishaps.

It’s pretty funny in that “I think I’ve known silly people like this” kind of way. Worth watching, maybe especially if one is an artist or has gone to art school (or knows any artists). Hope they make more!