Sculpting society

I am old. In my life, I have seen how clever the manipulation of public opinion has become. Of course, getting your minions to do as they are told, is nothing new. It has happened throughout history, But the delivery of the message has always been slow - word of mouth, town criers, priests, rumour, legend, war. The first half of the 1900's we had movies - a good way to spread propaganda and the emerging of science and drug companies. Now we have the Internet - and science  and drug companies are omniscient. 

We think we think, are of an opinion, or changing our minds all of our own accord. But we are simply sculpted society. We think as we are led to think. We are no less infected by modern dogma and creed than vassals under a medieval lord. Science proves and disproves stuff hourly as the media reports.  Governments confer with medical and scientific quangos or lobby groups that we support with our taxes, as much as they ever did with Archbishops, or Popes.

We have found new big-sticks to punish people with, that produce as much shame, fear and deference as the old ones did. And we conform.

Take smoking. The habit of smoking is now despised by people who have been educated during the course of my life to believe it is not normal, is foolish and selfish.  Smokers have now been downgraded and filed into the folder called" Idiots". My generation or earlier are the "modern" smokers, sculpted by the Tobacco Companies - for profit. An example of sculpted society. 

It is a fact that since the earliest times, humans have smoked - something.

As we go into the future I am not going to be ashamed to say that I am a smoker who now vapes. The reason I won't be ashamed is that inhaling something, to some, has always been a pleasurable occupation.  I can see myself sitting in a cave chucking a datura leaf onto the fire thousands of years ago, and inhaling deeply. 

I am a smoker that vapes because vaping is not essentially different to smoking. We are satisfying the desire to inhale that has come down with us through the mists of time.


I AM a smoker who smokes vapour because I prefer the whole experience and the freedom to inhale to my pleasure. If I didn't, I'd still be smoking.

We ARE smokers!

This might be a touchy point for all vapers who feel holier-than-thou over those poor souls who still smoke. I know, I sometimes wonder why smokers don't vape - I feel cleaner, better, fitter and and internally delighted that I don't have to go outside and stand in the rain to have my fix. I can vape anywhere - even in taboo places - by vaping in the loo. That's an advantage over smokers. There are advantages that vapers have over smokers - but that is ALL they are, advantages and not indications we are in any way better than smokers.

I watch how smokers are persecuted. I place myself firmly against anti-smoking witch hunting. I will not do it myself - I am a smoker who vapes. What happens to smokers is very important to me, watching how the persecution is rolled out, gives us vapers foreknowledge of what might happen to us. We ARE smokers!

To my dentist

Dear Emily,

Thank you so much for stopping the pain in my tooth yesterday. I had a great nights sleep.

But today, you disappointed me on my regular checkup, which just happened to fall the day after my emergency appointment with you yesterday. The last time you commented on the state of my gums and teeth, you said there was room for "improvement" so you gave me some tiddly little brushes to stick between my teeth and my gums daily. When you asked, today, if I'd used them, I had to be honest and say no, I hadn't. You looked like a school teacher whose pupil admitted to not doing their homework. I know the feeling, I was a teacher.

I was disappointed in you because, every time I asked a question (yesterday too), you replied "I'll tell you as soon as I've finished my clinical work". Well I AM your clinical work, and I want to know FIRST what you are doing to me and why. If you ever say that to me again, I will not be opening my mouth untill you answer me first. I just wanted to let you know.

I was even more disappointed, because, even though I hadn't done your homework, you loomed over me and told me my gums had improved!  I told you it was because I was vaping and not smoking, and instead of being amazed that I have not smoked for 10 months, you simply handed me more of your tiddly little homework brushes!

I could have told you where to stick them, but I took them like the small child I felt. I punished you by vaping all the way home in my car and eating Caramel Wafers simultaneously.

At 67, going on 68, I will not be bullied by a snip of a girl like you.

I will see you again in December and I expect I will make you behave better.

Yours sincerely,

Me

Dentist's Lip

Thank god for dentists! Dentists make miracles happen even quicker than doctors do. All the pain killers on the market have not eased my terrible toothache and I have spent long lonely nights sitting upright in my lounge chair suffering. Vaping has been a comfort.

But today, my dentist is back!  It took a half an hour emergency appointment and the pain is gone - just like that...

Vaping feels extra good, even with a dentist's lip.

Easy Chair Lonely vaping

Good blogs should be written regularly I hear. I have taken time out to do other stuff - like suffer! Due to a horrible twist of fate, I have been unable to get to my proper dentist  - long story! But the fact is, our dentist is at a practice that is also a teaching facility and MY dentist has been away. My tooth is driving me crazy with pain, but its a "special job tooth" and, due to total lack of courage and confidence in undergoing treatment by some unknown student dentist, I am waiting - and suffering - until MY dentist gets back.

Nighttime is the worst! About half an hour after putting my head on the pillow I "hear" the niggle in my tooth like a newborn in the night that goes "ahuh" and you KNOW it no good lying there hoping the sound will go away because it won't. The twinge just increases to full blown suffering. I have to sleep sitting up and because I'm up and down, up and down, I usually take myself off to the guest room where I can prop myself up into sitting position on the sofa-bed.

But last night, I came downstairs and slept in a chair with my feet on another chair. The chairs, newly acquired through freegle (free stuff) are called "easy chairs", pink, old fashioned, well made and - would you believe it - comfortable! I ate cherries and a banana and drank half a cup of milk with a massive dose of painkillers. And for a while I sat there in the partial dark, thinking about all the others in the world somewhere making their own lonely pain vigil in the night. I vaped.

And then I slept soundly for a whole wonderful three hours.

Father's day

In the old days when everybody smoked, my husband used to walk around with his pack of thirties and a lighter in his hand. He was known for that. Then he got flu and went to bed for a week with a copy of Lord of the Rings. He stopped smoking.

That just left me. I soldiered on with smoking for at least another thirty years. I found that more enjoyable than reading Lord of the Rings! I am not a fan.

Since then, I have had the idea that if you could just get through Lord of the Rings, you could give up smoking - maybe it's about true grit? I couldn't do it.

I just became a vaper instead. I feel sad I can't get the kids to give their dad a device for Father's day. I think he's missing out - and he could pass it on to me!

Weeee! - tank-mania

I suppose you could say I'm suffering from tank-mania. This is a psychological condition that affects vapers who are still learning. Having found something that appeals to them, they play about with it in vape-heaven-on-earth whilst weighing up, tasting, listening, and descerning the benefits of this aspect and the drawbacks of some other aspect. This is an essential part of learning about vaping.

Tank-mania has affected me quite significantly. I have come to know that you DON'T have to hear the tank gurgling to, in fact, have a satisfactory draw. A tank needs not be noisy. Crackling does not indicate a good tank - only a noisy one!

Some of the best vapes I am having on my tanks, are quite silent and no eyes would turn in my direction in a crowd if I vaped with it.

Some of the best vapes with tanks - not of the dual-coil kind, can be had on a small 650 mAh battery pushing out less volts. The flavour is what it really is all about. Some e liquid needs to be gently heated rather than blasted to get the best flavour. Different batteries can give a different perfect flavours - the poor man's variable voltage practise.

A big tank is not better than a small tank - but a translucent tank is better than one you can't see into.

Tank technology is bounding forward - what I thought was the bees knees two months ago, I now consider antediluvian. Wow - watch my hair fly back as we move into tank future! I like what's happening to me now - the future's going to be fascinating.

Shriek!

A while back, we heard a yell from a visitor staying with us, as she wandered into the bathroom for her morning ablutions. She'd squelched onto a rabbit carcase in her bare feet. Now we warn all visitors of the dangers of stepping onto mouse livers at the door, or bluetit gizzards on the stairs.

This morning, as I sauntered into the bathroom carrying my PV for my usual comforting vape whilst communing with nature, it happened to me. No, there was no carcass and I did not step on anything. I settled down and drew in deeply on my favourite morning flavour. Heaven. Comforting. Comfortable. Happy. Until my gaze encountered a dissected bunny-eyeball at my feet with its pupil focused on me!

Were is the rest of the bunny? Well, inside the cat I suppose.

Uh- uh -no more parping around

I am finding out what like and what I couldn't be parping around with any more.

I LIKE tanks. I have been using tanks exclusively because I couldn't be bothered to parp about filling cartomisers any more - or constantly wondering if they need a few more drops or not.

I don't drip - I would be constantly rummaging around with e liquid and, although he hasn't complained, I rummage enough with my vaping things that I'm amazed my poor husband hasn't said anything.

I LIKE tanks because you can see the future in them. If they are full, that means you have a future.

I like tanks that don't LEAK whilst filling them. I have such excellent tanks at the moment that I have forgotten how messy filling a tank was in the past. I just resurrected one of my first tanks. Uh - uh - what a mess! I had to scratch around to find my tissues and baby wipes which I haven't used for weeks, to clear up the drizzle and get the greasy feel off my battery.

Uh- uh -no more parping around for me They can be relegated to my vaping museum, there's much better stuff around.

Not the boss.

Oh heck - sometimes I hate my computer! It has horrible habits! Just when I am bright eyed and bushy tailed after breakfast, with a tank filled with my favourite vape, and I log on to watch all the new videos posted, new blogs and reviews that I follow, I find the whole operating system s-l-o-w-s  r-i-g-h-t  d-o-w-n, v-i-d-e-os b-u-f-f-e-r  and my curser is not responsive but l-a-g-s. The damn computer is doing a virus update or scanning my computer! Every time it happens (and that is every day) I remember I should set the time to do these things at some hour that suits ME. After all, I am supposed to be the boss. Or am I?  I'm using Windows, and with Microsoft, there's only one boss - and it certainly isn't me!

Advancing technology - listen up!

I very much fear that the kinds of electronic cigarettes being sold in outlets like Tescos, Asda and Spar are already out of date in technology. They certainly can't give an unsuspecting user who buys them a really good experience of vaping. In fact they are just as likely to put smokers off vaping for life!

The same applies to any electronic cigarette trying to pass stringent regulations for use as smoking cessation devices. It takes so long in all the hoo-ha of trials, and applications to authority, that it is quite possible that newer technology will make them a laughingstock.

I would hate that. I do hate that. I hate the fact that lots of stuff advertised as "UK's best" or "UK's most popular" or "UK's best selling" simply makes me ashamed.

My very first experience with an antediluvian product in 2009, put me off vaping for two years! What I see being sold in some shops are no better than that.

Listen up people - get up-to-date with what you offer for sale - I want to feel happy about it.

Less free

 I enjoyed this post   The next chapter

 It made me think of "human rights".

We need to be alert to the danger of the righteous interfering with things we do and habits we practice. We should monitor what is happening to smokers, drinkers, the sedentary and the obese.  The "Next Chapter" for vapers - us - might be the call to stop us, because we interfere with someone's "human rights".

I've been thinking about this strange modern phenomenon of interfering so intimately in our lives. I see it clearly here in the UK. We are nagged constantly on exactly how we should behave - and even what we may say - and worse - think. We are truly brainwashed - drip, drip, drip - until we conform.

We are entitled to our "human rights" the righteous coo (except for smokers, drinkers, the obese and the sedentary, of course)!  Yet as we demand more and more of our "human rights" many of us get less free. 

 

JACtanks

At last I have a CE4+ so that I can compare JACVapour's tanks with them. There is no doubt that the two are not the same.  The JACtank is at least a centimeter shorter and, for me, size matters! On a dog walk or gardening, the best setup I have is the 650 Vgo Automatic with a JACtank on it. It's short, it doesn't poke me in the-you-know-what when I'm bending down to pot a perennial, nor when I climb over a style. Also, it has no button, so I don't have to realise I forgot to switch the battery off before I put it in my pocket when I hear it sizzling there. One of the most annoying experiences is to hear the sizzle whilst you are performing some exotic physical feat.

I haven't yet filled my CE4+ with my newly mixed e liquids which are deeelicious - but I filled my JACtank with JACVapour's "coffee" - nice good straight coffee. How easy to have a coffeebreak out in the good old fresh air when it's not actually raining!

You can't do that smoking a rolly.

Oooh I feel better....

I've been feeling a bit down about the effort it involves to object to things like massive telecommunications masts being allowed (probably) in places that are supposedly governed by strict conservation National Parks rules.

This morning I remembered when we wanted to fell the most hideous hedge of overgrown Leilandii, we had to ask permission. We were only given permission if we agreed to plant five trees dictated to us by the National Park Authorities! I felt that was a bit rich meddling in things in my own garden....

So now, their planning officer FAVOURS!!!! a ruddy huge mast just down the road. Well, unfortunately, according to the new UK law, no area anywhere in England can object in any way to such "advances" in technology. Can you believe that? This is a democracy? Well, no actually.

So, I was fantasizing. When the mast goes up - which is surely will - we protesters could simply lie in the road and stop the construction of it, yes?  That would get in the press surely? I'd take along several fully charged egos and some tanks, enough to last a few days in prison.

So at that point, the doorbell rings and the postie delivers my order from cloud9vaping.  Inside it is a gift! It's a Vivi Nova tank set with two spare atties. Yeah! Looks great. I can't wait to try it. Thanks Lisa!

Oooh I feel better....

I wish it had nothing to do with me

I wish this damn telecommunications pole about to be erected on our back doorstep had nothing to do with me. I wish I could just sit on my couch and watch telly and vape!

Trouble is, if we all did that, no protests would ever happen. It's a bother. It's an intrusion. It's a nuisance - but I offered my help. I hate it when the big animals eat the little animals, offering them "consultaions" so the little animals can raise objections and then just ignoring the objections as if no one lived here and no one was affected - as if we had all been digested already.

When this great intrusive, ugly mast has been erected in this place which is supposed to be a place of great beauty supposedly protected by the National Park - the agent of this action and NOT protecting us at all, I can say I did something.

Sitting on my couch, watching telly and vaping is just not enough.

Imagination

I should be consulted when new devices are designed!

I have ideas.

Devices could have sounds you could trigger to find them when they are lost.

You could have mobile phone devices.

Devices could be squared off so they don't roll off surfaces.

They could store mirrors and lipstick or credit cards.

Cameras in devices could be good.

Self charging solar devices would be "green".

What about a swiss army pv for men?

And a Swiss army type ladies pv for us ladies?

Ha

How amazing is that?

My husband has re done our kitchen. What a mess! But it's all over now. Not only that, but our daughter is moving out (again) back to her new flat in preparation for her last year at university. All this to-ing and fro-ing has meant numerous visits into the attic to find things.

So with the traffic pretty heavy up there in the roof, I thought I'd go up too and search for my summer clothes which have got lost. Each year, I pack them away in a suitcase to over-winter. I can't imagine where they are because the suitcase I usually use is empty!

I scrummaged about for a good long time and found a bag in which were all my old smoking things. What a surprise. I forgot I'd put them up there. There were rolling papers, filters and almost half a pouch of my favourite tobacco. What a find! Was I tempted? I'm astonished to say that the idea of having a smoke never even popped into my head. I sat on a little stool we have up there and vaped instead.

How amazing is that?

Black 'n silver - my new cool

Recently I decorated some plain old black, boring batteries. What do you think of these? Cool hey?