Vaping: New Tank, Anyvape Gamma

For awhile now, like most new vapers, I have been using what is known as a "Kanger-style" tank.

"Kanger-style" products are very prolific, easy to use, and able to be rebuilt, for a low-cost.  I have enjoyed using the Davide tank from Anyvape Products for a little over a month, my first glass tank.

The Davide is great, I love that it holds a lot of juice, 3ml, enough to last me about a day and a half or so.  When needed, changing the coil was simply a matter of unscrewing the housing with the burnt wick and screwing in the new wick.

I was bothered though, the flavors of the juice, no matter type of tank I used, were not consistent.  Sometimes the flavor was strong, at other times it tasted like chemicals.  I tried switching to cotton wicks.  The chemical taste, mostly, went away.  Unfortunately, it was replaced with a taste similar to the smell of a burnt t-shirt.  Not always present, I thought I was just burning through the wicks too fast.  Not the case.

So I started thinking about "dripping."  Dripping is a process of vaping where you, literally, drip a few drops onto the wick and atomizer, take a few hits, and rinse repeat til you are satisfied.  I had the opportunity to read posts online from drippers relating to the full-bodied tastes of their juice.

With my previous curiosity regarding dripping, and some of the research I performed online, looking for mods that are a sort of hybrid between the easy-to-use Kanger-style and the dripping method.

A new shop opened up close to where I work, I had heard many good things about the owners first vaping store in a nearby town, so I definitely wanted to check it out.

I went in a couple days after the opening of the new store.  Had a chance to taste a few new flavors and talk about hardware.

The Kraken, from Vicious Ant, is what one of the employees was using.  One of the wonderful features of the Davide, and the Kraken, is that the mouthpiece is removable.  This allows you to use your own mouthpiece to sample flavors and mobs from other people with similar tanks.

The Kraken hit smooth, very smooth, and produced wonderful flavor.  It was a little on the uncomfortably-priced side, so I went with the Anyvape Gamma, a similar tank about $10 on the more-comfortable side.

The Gamma, until you find the sweet-spot, will hit like a train.  With the easily manipulated airflow regulator, finding that sweet-spot is not hard.  Simply, a twist with the thumb will cover or uncover the airholes.

The flavor from the dual-coil atomizer is great, the vape is great.  Absolutely loving it so far.  Taking a bit of time to get used to firing it for a second or three before taking the hit, but that will fade.  And, like the Kraken and the Davide, the mouthpiece is removable!

Three days in with this tank and I have very few complaints.

1. Hard to fill: The fill hole is very small and although with practice you can get it filled somewhat quickly, it is not as easy as the Kanger Style tanks to fill.
2. Hard to empty: I had a new flavor in the tank, and I wanted to find out what my old flavor tasted like.  Removing the juice from the Davide is simple, take the top off the bottle and pour it out.  Removing the juice from the Gamma, due to the small fill hole, is more a matter of sucking it out with the bottle, if there is an easier way, I am currently unaware.

Those are my only issues with this tank, I may have more in the coming weeks, as I burn through the wick, but as of now I love it!

RPG: Music for Inspiration and Atmosphere

The question was posed on Talislanta FB page regarding how we use music in our gaming sessions.

I understood that this would be a post way to long for FB, so I am putting my reply here.

The questions presented:

1) a) how many of you use music when you run a game? and; b) if you do use music, do you mainly play it in the background, or do you use certain pieces/albums/artists for specific purposes or moments in a game?
2)what CDs/bands/composers do you listen to either while gaming, or for inspiration before gaming?

I have used music in the past at the gaming table. The second part of the question, and question #2 I want to elaborate on.

While running WEG Star Wars the main theme would be used to get the players on track, and while it was playing I would recap previous events, much like the beginning of the movie with the synopsis scroll.

Since 1993, the game I have run the most often was SLA Industries, a gritty sci-fi urban horror game.

For inspiration in SLA Industries I would use anything that brought to mind corruption, rain, city life, dreams of money and fame, etc. Some of the music I had on my driving CD at the time:

Faster Pussycat - Ship Rolls In, City has no Heart
Metallica - Master of Puppets, Disposable Heroes, Damage Inc
Duran Duran - Girls on Film, A View to a Kill, Skin Trade

And many others.

During the sessions I was able to play music for background it was important to match the music with the game.

Star Wars soundtrack while running Star Wars, a given.

While playtesting Midnight Realms for Talislanta, and a few Cannibal Sector missions for SLA Industries, I had the Black Angels CD from Kronos Quartet playing, just at the audible level. Some of the violin strikes were startling, and completely appropriately timed (players and GM alike jumped at one point, lol).

Music definitely brings a new dimension to the gaming table, even if low in the background.

The main problem I ever had with using music for specific scenes was having to stop the game to get the correct track playing, or you might be stuck running a dramatic, dark scene with something upbeat.

Not sure Alien would have had the same feel with the Indiana Jones Soundtrack, lol

Vaping: MO to restrict to 18+

News from Missouri, go ahead, read it, it is short.

  Missouri Legislature Approves E-Cigarette Legislation

Notice anything?

This legislation will restrict purchases of Vaping products to people who are 18 yrs of age or older.  That is great news!

But even better news is in that article:

"But the legislation passed on Thursday would also exempt those products from the state’s tobacco taxes, which opponents say would allow the nicotine products to be sold with fewer restrictions."

The current taxes on tobacco products are ridiculous, because legislators can get away with it.  Taxing tobacco for health care revenue, schools (why are schools mentioned in every tax?), and any additional taxes for the 'issue of the week.'

Everybody wants people to stop using tobacco products (except the tobacco companies, of course), but they seem to want to get rid of any acceptable alternative at the same time.

Another thing I would like to point out from the article:

"Supporters say taxing the products would prevent the measure from passing the Republican-led Legislature."

What?  REPUBLICAN-LED?  Additional taxes would PREVENT it from passing?

But the media tells me that Republicans are all about big business, and they are evil facists...

True story, folks, the media lies.

And all the "product research" that has been done and resulted in negative results, (you know, the very few reports from 5 or 6 years ago that make sweeping generalizations based on an e-cig that was 5 years old at the time...) are all paid for by the tobacco companies, the people that will lose business as more and more people start vaping.

Vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking, MUCH healthier.

Kudo's to the MO Legislature for passing this bill, and not adding in additional taxes.  Common sense, E-Juice is not tobacco, so it cannot be taxed as tobacco.