Older Folks and Vaping Front Porch - Part 5

[FlamingoTutu]

I'm another that's raising my nic just a bit. Been at 4mg for a long time, have just gone up to 5mg and may raise it to 6mg. Doesn't seem to have to do with stress. Sometimes the nic is too much, sometimes too little but those changes are far and few between. It works so I'm not complaining.

After years of threatening to buy some beignet juice, I finally did. Ordered 80% PG/20% VG @ 6mg. That what the bottle says too. It almost as thick as maple syrup. Think they got the PG/VG mixed up. Since I don't use flavors it tastes really strong but good even mixed one part beignet to four parts plain. If you've ever had fresh beignets & powdered sugar in NOLA, there's no comparison. It did come padded in several sheets of the The Times-Picayune for authenticity.

I suppose it is alright for car windows, but in general it is a bad idea to wipe glass dry or with anything dry until you are certain that there are no dirt particles left. You may not see the scratches at first, but they will add up over time.

Definitely always follow this rule with anything optical. Glasses, camera lenses, etc. Wet surface, wet wipe. Only use clean dry wipe after it is completely clean to get rid of smudges.

My glasses can attest to that.

that's great that they're suing, but the reasons they cited seem a bit weak.

I know.

 

[DaveP]

FWIW, yesterday was my first full day of vaping 9mg instead of 3mg juice. I used to vape two 4.5ml tanks full of 3mg juice or more each day. Yesterday vaping 9mg I vaped all day on half a Kayfun tank and switched to a 3mg tank when the Super Bowl started. I didn't want to take the chance that high nic juice might interfere with sleep right after switching strengths.

So far I think higher nic juice is going to cut my juice usage in half. We'll see how that goes. My first impression is that slightly increased throat hit enhances the flavor of my tobacco mixes.

 

[DaveP]

I coiled up my new Vandy Vape Beserker this morning. Once I figured out that the chimney was a left hand thread with a LH lock nut on top the rest was easy. Flavor is good and it vapes well. I'm on the largest air port and it's a good MTL vape, although I like for an adjustable air flow device to hit somewhere in the middle with the latitude being tighter and looser in case I need more or less draw than my typical vape.

On the largest hole the vape is about like a filter cigarette and that's optimal. I'm still breaking in the rayon wick I installed and the vape isn't bad in the first hour. It should peak soon. As usual, I primed the wick with unflavored and then filled it with Hangsen Red USA Mix. It takes a while for the wick to clear the unflavored and begin to hit peak flavor from the Hangsen juice.

ETA: It's a couple of hours later and so far the Beserker has absolutely no "dew" on the outside and there's zero leaking. It seems to be built nice and tight and the vape is good.

Later ... ETA: 5 hours later on the Beserker and it's dry as a bone on the outside. I'm liking this one,

 

[Debadoo]

I do feel for those who rely on vendor juices and shipping time but DIY isn't that hard..just intimidating until you get started just like when you sat down to make that first build.

JUP! I do tell folks it's stupid easy, but I remember when I was still intimidated by either one and folks told me it was stupid easy. Of course, the coil jigs make building much easier (at least for me) than hand winding a coil. Now my mixing tools are:
Pickle jars, fork, 30 ml syringe and a 1 ml. But next time I'll be mixing by weight since I finally got my squeezy bottles.

I vaped 24mg for years before I dropped over a few months to 3mg hoping to decrease my nic usage. What I experienced was chain vaping. I've been at 3mg for 2 or 3 years and finally realized that I'm just inhaling a lot more PG and VG and much less nic.

Yesterday, I vaped 9mg during the day and discovered that it gives me a satisfied feeling and I wasn't continually reaching for my mod and hitting the fire button. I could actually not think about vaping for a while and my mod stayed in my pocket.

I suppose that we all have a set point for nic level no matter whether we are vaping like fiends on low nic or hitting a higher nic mix just enough to satisfy the urge here and there. I experienced that when I smoked and switched from Red Marlboros to Merit Ultra Lights. That excursion took me from a PAD to 2 PAD and more. I gained nothing from dropping to low tar. I spent more money buying and burning up more cigarettes.

very well put. Jup, so many folks got focused on lowering their nic, but sometimes raising it is the thing to do.

If you've ever had fresh beignets & powdered sugar in NOLA, there's no comparison. It did come padded in several sheets of the The Times-Picayune for authenticity.

Yummmmmmm I did have fresh Beignets one time at Cafe Du Monde. My friend said another place actually had better beignets, but cafe du monde is such a famous place, I wanted to go there first, then thought another day we could hit up the other place, but we never made it to the other one. I did get a muffaletta at Central Deli. And of course we had the obligatory powdered sugar fight with the beignets! I need to see if she has those photos now that I think about it, since mine are on hard drive that broke down. I still have the hard drive, just dunno if they are retrievable or not.

Later ... ETA: 5 hours later on the Beserker and it's dry as a bone on the outside. I'm liking this one,

yay!!

 

[Alter]

JUP! I do tell folks it's stupid easy, but I remember when I was still intimidated by either one and folks told me it was stupid easy. Of course, the coil jigs make building much easier (at least for me) than hand winding a coil. Now my mixing tools are:
Pickle jars, fork, 30 ml syringe and a 1 ml. But next time I'll be mixing by weight since I finally got my squeezy bottles.

I did just fine the first couple weeks vaping then I changed the coil head in that CE4 and just about cooked my throat with YUK taste. First I had to figure out what atty I had then onto youtube. My coil heads did not look like the ones in the videos(they were a jumbled pile of wire) so started revamping the loops so they were even, not long after removing silica and replacing with new silica then onto building a new coil. Now 5 years later building coils is just habit.
I ummed and hawed DIY for months reading and deciding how to approach it. Happened on a few drams of Loranns in a bargain store looking for jars, changed some commercial juices and got my kickstart into DIY. I was lucky and bought a couple Hangsen tobac concentrates with my first DIY order and been vaping HS tobacs ever since. Best delayed decision I made was getting into DIY. I don't even enter FB juice contests any more, the last win the juice was so thick, sweet and strong I couldn't vape it unless I cut it down then contaminated the atty so bad with residue it had to be broken down cleaned the air dry for months and still whisp enough of juice smell after all that.

 

[DavidOck]

I still have the hard drive, just dunno if they are retrievable or not.

Why was it taken out of service? If due to some other system failure, it's likely the drive is fine. With a suitable adapter you can connect it to another (running) computer via USB. Slow, but works to retrieve your stuff.

 

[Alter]

I need to see if she has those photos now that I think about it, since mine are on hard drive that broke down. I still have the hard drive, just dunno if they are retrievable or not.

Take the drive to a comp shop they might be able to retrieve the data or some of it . I had a RAID fail many years ago that could have cost me loosing everything cause I used 1 drive to run my comp along with holding all my stuff. The comp shop retrieved and saved my stuff.... luckily......
I have since smartened up by having a 160gig holding my entire C drive(OS) and nothing else, I don't have "My Documents" or "my Pictures" on the C drive either, their on another separate drive. Other drives holding sensitive info so if failure occurs in the 160, the OS and programs are easy to replace. I have a 2 tarabyte external drive that holds all my personal data, music, movies and everything else I wanna keep so if any drive fails in my comp then its no big deal cause everything else is replaceable or copies.

 

[Debadoo]

I don't even enter FB juice contests any more

I don't do FB at all, but yeah I don't enter em here anymore.......just don't want commercial juice. I know what goes into mine, no idea what goes into theirs. Don't enter for tanks either anymore, unless I think it's one my sil or dil's mom could use or something.

Why was it taken out of service? If due to some other system failure, it's likely the drive is fine. With a suitable adapter you can connect it to another (running) computer via USB. Slow, but works to retrieve your stuff.

don't remember, but actually have two drives I've pulled outta puters that died. this is what I'm hoping, that the drives are fine.

I have since smartened up by having a 160gig holding my entire C drive(OS) and nothing else, I don't have "My Documents" or "my Pictures" on the C drive either it, their on another separate drive. Other drives holding sensitive info so if failure occurs in the 160, the OS and programs are easy to replace. I have a 2 tarabyte external drive that holds all my personal data, music, movies and everything else I wanna keep so if any drive fails in my comp then its no big deal cause everything else is replaceable or copies.

that was always a goal, just never able to get an external. Now I do have a stick thingy, so when I'm finally able to get a new laptop, I'll store stuff on it.

 

[Semiretired]

don't remember, but actually have two drives I've pulled outta puters that died. this is what I'm hoping, that the drives are fine.

I had a guy that retrieved all files off an old hard drive for me - he only charged me $30 - the adapter to do the job myself was going to cost more than that. It was an antique hard drive in computer tech lives...

 

[Alter]

Now I do have a stick thingy

If your stick thingy is a USB drive then its bad to keep info on. They easily burp if removing from the comp improperly(just pulling it out) and loose everything. The USB stickin part is easily damaged then again lost stuff. Some USB drives are beyond cheaply made and I never trust a USB stick to do nothing but hold data to transfer files to a different comp, never nothing sensitive or long term. A external drive sits on your desk, just USB into the back of the comp and sits there. Solid state HD is the way to go with no moving parts.

 

[DaveP]

In addition to cloud storage with Windows 10 I recently bought a Western Digital MyCloud 3TB backup drive. It plugs into my Netgear Nighthawk router and provides virtual backup storage drives accessible through wireless. My wife has the Y drive and mine is the Z drive.

For the price it's good backup with easy access.

Anyone familiar with Zito Media Services? They recently bought the local mom and pop cable company in our area. They are based in Pennsylvania. Right off the bat they increased our cable internet speed from 16mb to 20mb with a promise of 50mbps and 100mbps speeds coming soon. They are running fiber from Atlanta to central Ga.

 

[DavidOck]

don't remember, but actually have two drives I've pulled outta puters that died. this is what I'm hoping, that the drives are fine.

I had a guy that retrieved all files off an old hard drive for me - he only charged me $30 - the adapter to do the job myself was going to cost more than that. It was an antique hard drive in computer tech lives...

Times have changed

Something like this (lots to choose from, at varying price points) Amazon.com: Mosuch SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive / 5 inch Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter: Computers & Accessories will let you connect just about any type of hard drive to a USB port. Provides power and data connections, for IDE (old), SATA, different physical size drives.

 

[CMD-Ky]

Very helpful, David, thanks.

Times have changed

Something like this (lots to choose from, at varying price points) Amazon.com: Mosuch SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive / 5 inch Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter: Computers & Accessories will let you connect just about any type of hard drive to a USB port. Provides power and data connections, for IDE (old), SATA, different physical size drives.

 

[DavidOck]

While not eliminating the need for a good backup strategy (just like vaping! ) being able to access the drive from an otherwise dead machine can be handy at times. First time I used my adapter (different make and model, same concept) was when my C drive was ailing, serious end of life ailing. Put a new drive of same size in the box and the old one on the adapter, "cloned" it over and was back in good shape. Took about the same time as restoring the previous drive image backup would have, and didn't even lose anything since that had been done. (I do a manual drive image monthly, automated file back up weekly to different media. Any gaps in backups are small.)

 

[CMD-Ky]

What is your preferred image program?

While not eliminating the need for a good backup strategy (just like vaping! ) being able to access the drive from an otherwise dead machine can be handy at times. First time I used my adapter (different make and model, same concept) was when my C drive was ailing, serious end of life ailing. Put a new drive of same size in the box and the old one on the adapter, "cloned" it over and was back in good shape. Took about the same time as restoring the previous drive image backup would have, and didn't even lose anything since that had been done. (I do a manual drive image monthly, automated file back up weekly to different media. Any gaps in backups are small.)

 

[Iffy]

Mosuch SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive / 5 inch Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter: Computers & Accessories

Might look fer an USB 3 adapter instead...

 

[DavidOck]

What is your preferred image program?

Been using Acronis True Image for many years, but have started looking at Easus (free) recently.

Might look fer an USB 3 adapter instead...

Yep, as said, a lot of different makes and models. I got mine before USB 3 was out, and don't need it often enough to replace it. And the destination computer does need to have native (or card adapter) USB 3. But, since most new machines now do have USB3, even if one's present computer doesn't, it would make sense for "future-proofing", and they are all pretty much backward compatible. (I.e. the USB3 adapter will "fall back" to USB 2 if that's what it gets plugged into.)

 

[englishmick]

What is your preferred image program?

I use IDrive. It does a nightly backup of files from my computer and the wife's to cloud storage. The initial backup took 3 days, but after that it's quite fast because it only uploads files that have changed. I also do a weekly file backup to an external drive, and disk clone copies to a larger external drive once in a while.

Quite cheap and it had good reviews.

You're never 100% safe unless you do multiple copies and keep disks at a different location and all that stuff, but you can get pretty close without too much effort.

 

[Iffy]

Gotta ask, anyone using da Melo III on TC?

 

[DavidOck]

No, not even on, well, anything

But it ought to be fine with the appropriate head, yes?