Very cool. I found V4L before ECF, but always wondered why people spoke so fondly of the past on here (I think it's pretty good today). Anyway, enough with the warm and fuzzies.
I'm Lee, 33 years old (feel at least twice that). A New Jerseyan by birth but a New Yorker by heart (and a current resident of Brooklyn, with my much better half and a sharpei-beagle mix named Penny). I started smoking when I was 16 (it's tough being a portly, underage college freshman and I did what I had to). I hated smoking, but could never quit for more than a few weeks at a time. I first heard about e-cigs on the Howard Stern Show, when Howard was berating one of his guys about looking like a tool with the light-up thing hanging out of his mouth.
They sounded cool, but I didn't try them until last year, when I started a quest to become less unhealthy before I got married (to a Chicagoan, whose chain smoking parents I'm
begging to stop by the smokeless lounge). I got engaged on Christmas Eve 2011, started this "quest" in April and got married in October. Over those six months, I dropped 40 pounds (kept 30 of them off), but more importantly I switched to vaping, which has since become more of a hobby and a passion than an attempted substitute for cigarettes during one of the most stressful times of my life. I started blogging my efforts to get healthy for the wedding and although the target date has come and gone, I still write (mostly about vape stuff).
In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I "slipped" a couple of times (smoked 2 packs when I went to China last June for business, and had a couple in the days leading up to the wedding when Brooklyn was overcome by midwesterners), but I'm proud to say that the last time I lit up was an hour before my parents dragged me down the aisle (nerves dealt with using copious amounts of alcohol...it had nothing to do with second thoughts). I honestly can't remember the last time I even wanted one, and although my beautiful wife isn't crazy about the clutter (smoking involved a pack or two of marlboros, some matches and maybe a lighter, all in my briefcase, whereas I now have a vape drawer with around a dozen batteries, chargers, cartos, syringes and more liquids than I can count), switching was probably the third best decision I've made in my life (#1 = asking this one to marry me, #2 = divorcing my youthful mistake when I was still young enough to start over).
Um...yeah...that's about it. I'd love to share some of my reviews with you folks (my latest, the auto DAV, includes a contest for a free pizza) but not sure what ECF's policies are about posting links. If any of you are interested though, just check out the V4L page on Mr. Zuckerberg's social network. I spam my links all over that place
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