Well, let's see. I'm 29...I've been smoking for 14 years, and I HATE it. I've decided to start a lil' blogeroo (as evidenced by this first post thereof) to explore e-smoking and let you read a bit about my experiences with it.
Since I don't actually have an e-cigarette yet, I'm on a little short on commentary. I can tell you what led up to my decision to purchase one from a shady Chinese supplier of "electronics goods of questionable quality" at a bargain discount, though.
I know what you're probably thinking: Why a lousy wholesaler instead of a reputable e-cig supplier? Well, I'm cheap. Plus, while I'm fairly certain that this is going to be the end of my analog smoking, I'm not 100% certain. If e-smoking suits me (and I'm pretty sure it will unless I'm allergic to PG), there's a mall kiosk in town that sells them, or I could try to order them from a solid supplier and take my chances in the mail.
I ordered what is referred to on the forums as a "Health e-Cigarette;" specifically the 11211 model. It has a moderate failure rate and fairly cheap carts (which no one complained tasted like cat piss). I also ordered 4 10-packs of cartridges. One of the "benefits" of this particular aspect of the product is that you can't choose your cart strength; you get either high, medium or low. Probably. Many of the reviewers (on the seller's site) stated that the carts last for about as long as a pack of analogs would...we'll see about that when I get it -- I'll post an objective review.
I have a nasty habit of researching things ad nauseum before involving myself with them. For example: I drove to Idaho last weekend to buy my first Powerball ticket ever (I spent $20 and lost, thank you) -- I had spent about 5-7 hours just researching Powerball and reading every square inch of the website. Honestly, I find it relaxing to learn things. Of course, sometimes I feel like I'm filling my head with garbage (and sometimes I am), but at least I'll have a better shot at Millionaire's esoteric questions. Needless to say, I've spent over 100 hours reading every available resource on the topic of e-cigs since I found out about them on the 10th.
Funny story, that, actually. (Oh, geez - here he goes...) So, this buddy of mine at work sent me this really paranoid link about big tobacco messing with my Camels. Apparently, they've been in the process of getting legislature passed behind everyone's backs which requires cigarette manufacturers to conform to new "Fire-Safe Cigarettes" standards. Here's the link for it if you want to take a look for yourself:
http://www.firesafecigarettes.org/
I'd noticed about 2-3 months prior to hearing this story that my cigarettes were different somehow...I just didn't realize how. I sent my manufacturer an email requesting they disclose what they were doing to the cigarettes, and this is what they sent back: [FONT="]
"The material used in the bands on our FSC cigarette paper is a proprietary formulation developed by our paper supplier. We signed a confidentiality agreement with our paper supplier so we are not at liberty to give out specific information. However, we can tell you that the “banded” cigarette paper uses a food grade extract from a natural plant material and our bands are similar to those used by other cigarette manufacturers."
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[/FONT]I used to respond to email for a living -- this is a template. I then turned my thoughts to the monstrous quantities of cold medicine I'd been taking of late, as well as the strange taste of the smokes and the nasty, sicky feeling I'd been having. Knowing that something wasn't right, I set about my normal copius amounts of internet research. What I turned up was that MANY people had noticed something was wrong with their cigarettes, and they were getting sick, too. Mass hysteria? Hypochondria? I tried on the spot to quit cold turkey...and I made it 5 hours.
I'm honestly not sure how I stumbled across the e-cigarette. I'd love to say it was this website, but I think it was a distributor. They had a couple of vaproizers for sale in the $80-$120 range, and there were plenty of typos on the page, which prompted me to head out to good ol' Google and, well, the rest is history. Future history.
There was a point at which I was a little concerned about the quality control coming from the East. I weighed the pain points: indeterminate "food-grade" paper treatment or indeterminate chemical solution in dodgy looking cartridge. In the end, I broke down, chose the cartridge, and ordered my first e-cig. Yes, the cheap one (well, two of them).
This is probably a bad time to be getting into e-smoking, but I'm desparate to stop smoking these nasty cigarettes. I know the e-cig isn't designed to help me quit smoking (or, scientificaly, not really anything at all), but I've read too many stories from many, many people here and elsewhere to deny that I have to try. As it's said, it's can't be worse for me than smoking an analog. And what's the worst that can happen? I could get cancer and die. Well, gee. I think that's already going to happen, so I haven't much to lose, huh? Plus, it's the smoking that I enjoy...the act of smoking that I really crave. Not the tobacco.
My order shipped in two parts (yay Hong Kong!)...the first part left HK Air Centre on the 25th (it took 5 days to leave), and the other part left yesterday. No idea which is which. I also ordered an outlet dealy for converting whatever the hell this thing has on the end of it to what we have here in the States. They still have to ship that piece. You can believe, though, that my local electronics retailer would be happy to gouge me over the price. And he will...I'll let him.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment and subscribe (comments are moderated to avoid the spams, not for censorship reasons).
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Since I don't actually have an e-cigarette yet, I'm on a little short on commentary. I can tell you what led up to my decision to purchase one from a shady Chinese supplier of "electronics goods of questionable quality" at a bargain discount, though.
I know what you're probably thinking: Why a lousy wholesaler instead of a reputable e-cig supplier? Well, I'm cheap. Plus, while I'm fairly certain that this is going to be the end of my analog smoking, I'm not 100% certain. If e-smoking suits me (and I'm pretty sure it will unless I'm allergic to PG), there's a mall kiosk in town that sells them, or I could try to order them from a solid supplier and take my chances in the mail.
I ordered what is referred to on the forums as a "Health e-Cigarette;" specifically the 11211 model. It has a moderate failure rate and fairly cheap carts (which no one complained tasted like cat piss). I also ordered 4 10-packs of cartridges. One of the "benefits" of this particular aspect of the product is that you can't choose your cart strength; you get either high, medium or low. Probably. Many of the reviewers (on the seller's site) stated that the carts last for about as long as a pack of analogs would...we'll see about that when I get it -- I'll post an objective review.
I have a nasty habit of researching things ad nauseum before involving myself with them. For example: I drove to Idaho last weekend to buy my first Powerball ticket ever (I spent $20 and lost, thank you) -- I had spent about 5-7 hours just researching Powerball and reading every square inch of the website. Honestly, I find it relaxing to learn things. Of course, sometimes I feel like I'm filling my head with garbage (and sometimes I am), but at least I'll have a better shot at Millionaire's esoteric questions. Needless to say, I've spent over 100 hours reading every available resource on the topic of e-cigs since I found out about them on the 10th.
Funny story, that, actually. (Oh, geez - here he goes...) So, this buddy of mine at work sent me this really paranoid link about big tobacco messing with my Camels. Apparently, they've been in the process of getting legislature passed behind everyone's backs which requires cigarette manufacturers to conform to new "Fire-Safe Cigarettes" standards. Here's the link for it if you want to take a look for yourself:
http://www.firesafecigarettes.org/
I'd noticed about 2-3 months prior to hearing this story that my cigarettes were different somehow...I just didn't realize how. I sent my manufacturer an email requesting they disclose what they were doing to the cigarettes, and this is what they sent back: [FONT="]
"The material used in the bands on our FSC cigarette paper is a proprietary formulation developed by our paper supplier. We signed a confidentiality agreement with our paper supplier so we are not at liberty to give out specific information. However, we can tell you that the “banded” cigarette paper uses a food grade extract from a natural plant material and our bands are similar to those used by other cigarette manufacturers."
[FONT="]
[/FONT]I used to respond to email for a living -- this is a template. I then turned my thoughts to the monstrous quantities of cold medicine I'd been taking of late, as well as the strange taste of the smokes and the nasty, sicky feeling I'd been having. Knowing that something wasn't right, I set about my normal copius amounts of internet research. What I turned up was that MANY people had noticed something was wrong with their cigarettes, and they were getting sick, too. Mass hysteria? Hypochondria? I tried on the spot to quit cold turkey...and I made it 5 hours.
I'm honestly not sure how I stumbled across the e-cigarette. I'd love to say it was this website, but I think it was a distributor. They had a couple of vaproizers for sale in the $80-$120 range, and there were plenty of typos on the page, which prompted me to head out to good ol' Google and, well, the rest is history. Future history.
There was a point at which I was a little concerned about the quality control coming from the East. I weighed the pain points: indeterminate "food-grade" paper treatment or indeterminate chemical solution in dodgy looking cartridge. In the end, I broke down, chose the cartridge, and ordered my first e-cig. Yes, the cheap one (well, two of them).
This is probably a bad time to be getting into e-smoking, but I'm desparate to stop smoking these nasty cigarettes. I know the e-cig isn't designed to help me quit smoking (or, scientificaly, not really anything at all), but I've read too many stories from many, many people here and elsewhere to deny that I have to try. As it's said, it's can't be worse for me than smoking an analog. And what's the worst that can happen? I could get cancer and die. Well, gee. I think that's already going to happen, so I haven't much to lose, huh? Plus, it's the smoking that I enjoy...the act of smoking that I really crave. Not the tobacco.
My order shipped in two parts (yay Hong Kong!)...the first part left HK Air Centre on the 25th (it took 5 days to leave), and the other part left yesterday. No idea which is which.
I also ordered an outlet dealy for converting whatever the hell this thing has on the end of it to what we have here in the States. They still have to ship that piece. You can believe, though, that my local electronics retailer would be happy to gouge me over the price. And he will...I'll let him.Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment and subscribe (comments are moderated to avoid the spams, not for censorship reasons).
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