One day off and it feels like I’ve had two weeks at the seaside. Admittedly it feels like the Antarctican seaside, but the rest has had the desired effect. I almost went to work on autopilot at one point.
Boss didn’t contact me to ask me to come in to work – this was a concern because the new mop-jockey didn’t show on Thursday night. Some problem with buses, but Boss was not at all pleased. Anyway, after the end of work (9 pm) I turned the phone back on and there it was – one new text from Boss. Uh-oh. I opened it to find it said ‘Enjoy your day off’. She scared the crap out of me – but then it’s about time she got her own back, I suppose.
So I guess new mop-jockey turned up today. Good. As long as he turns out reliable, I’ll be expecting a day off every week. At least. Once he’s trained in doing things my way I can let him take more of my hours and settle into a writing routine again. Also, once I am sure I’m leaving Boss with a reliable and equally fussy replacement, I can start looking for something new.
Today was haircut day. The last one was in early December, so you can imagine… Anyway, Local Barber did it with no anaesthetic and I came out of there feeling lighter. I no longer look like Father Jack and it was quite a load off my mind. When it gets to where you are conscious of the weight of your hair, there’s probably far too much of it.
The barber found a real hairstyle in the rat’s nest on my head and she gets to keep the rest of the hair. She can probably knit a sweater out of that lot, or weave it into a mountaineering rope.
Anyhow, feeling mellow this evening so will not be clicking on the Daily Mail tonight. Instead I am writing with intermittent loafing on Twitter (@Underdogsbiteup for anyone who hasn’t yet come across my madness on there).
Some may remember, a long time back, I tried making plastic bricks out of old plastic bottles. Never could get it to work. I had air bubbles, bottles melted together but not fused, odd shaped lumps… I gave it up as a bad idea.
Thanks to Twitter, I now know what I was doing wrong. You have to chop the plastic into little bits first, and only certain plastics work. Someone has worked out how to do it properly. I had intended using the bricks as bricks to build garden things but this guy makes things out of them as if they were wood. Unlike wood, you can then put all the shavings and offcuts back into the system and melt them back together.
The only twitch of the rage gland tonight comes from a post by Simon Clark. Apparently there are now ‘pure-blood’ vapers who want nothing at all to do with smokers – not even smokers who also use Electrofag. We dual-fuel types are ‘muggles’ now.
Well, I like Electrofag for the strange flavours. The one that doesn’t seem to be just right is ‘tobacco’ flavour and I suspect they’d have to make a range to get that right. Amber Leaf flavour, Marlboro flavour, Player’s No.6 flavour and so on. I doubt a generic ‘tobacco’ flavour will ever work unless it happens to taste like the brand of tobacco you were smoking before. That’s never going to apply to everyone.
There are, of course, many sensible vapers still – but I wonder… if teenagers are taking up vaping instead of smoking then the ‘pure-bloods’ will increase over time. Can’t rely on support from future vapers then. To them we will be ‘filthy smokers’ while they will become ‘steampunks’ to us.
In fact – why not? Vapers who don’t hate us can simply be called vapers, while we refer to antismoking vapers as steampunks. That helps differentiate, so the vapers who aren’t insane will know we aren’t talking about them.
Anyway, mellow ramble over. Back to work tomorrow although not until 4 pm. No doubt someone will get the fury going over the course of that shift, so it’ll be back to normal tomorrow night.
Enjoy the calm while it lasts. It doesn’t usually last very long.
If vapers can ‘wound’ tobacco control (preferably by holing the juggernaut below the water-line) then I support them wholeheartedly. It does not matter to me if they preach anti-smoking just as viciously as the Zealots. Actually, I see all these ‘converted souls’ – the ones who have suddenly and miraculously recovered from all the damage that 30 years of smoking is supposed to have done – in much the same way as I see ‘born again sinners’. Converted vapers are entitled to believe what they believe.
Will vapers, who hold the ‘high moral ground’, weather the storm of attacks designed to take the ‘high moral ground’ from them? I think that there is a case for vapers to call the bluff of GOVERNMENT, for there is where the power lies. The EU tobacco directive about ecigs would be DEAD, if Governments do not enact appropriate legislation. There may be only some 200,000 (or whatever) regular vapers in the UK, as compared with some 8,000,000 smokers. 200, 000 determined people far outweigh 8.000,000 if the 8,000,000 feel guilty and are afraid. The 200,000 must ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to comply with ANY laws which restrict them. They have to call the EU bluff. It isn’t numbers which matter in this equation, it is STRENGTH. Smokers have the mass of electrons, whereas vapers have the mass of protons. Vapers and smokers have the same ‘electric change’ (nicotine), but vapers have the mass of ‘harmlessness’.
Via Dick P, I ‘won’ a free sample of the ‘Puritane’ ecig, which is a ‘one-off’ ecig produced by a tobacco company. When I say ‘one-off’. I mean that you chuck it once it ‘runs out’. But I can say that it is not unpleasant in taste. That is all very well, but I must admit that, in retrospect, I should have received from Puritane a message drawing my attention to the attack on ecigs, and asking me to fight against the EU proposals. That should be automatic, for heaven’s sake!
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You have a point – vapers have the ‘harmless’ or at least ‘no real harm that anyone can possibly find’ card in their hand. Since smoking now causes everything in the medical directory, including diseases that used to be blamed on bacteria and viruses, nobody will listen to us.
Is it really only 200,000 though? Do they count those of us who use both in that figure, or just the vape-only folk?
I tried some of the ‘once only’ Electrofags from Poundland. Not terrible, the menthol one was actually pretty good but the tobacco one wasn’t very good. Still, they only cost a pound and for the price, I’d say they’re okay.
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Mudbloods and Muggles. Lovely.
Somewhere in USFC I have no doubt Reverend Glantz is grinning an evil grin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omMrWw9dGUM&feature=em
That division is exactly what the tobacco control zealots are counting on,they have always been counting on it.
They separated the cigarette smokers from the pipe and cigar smokers,the users of dip and chew from the snussers and the smokers and on and on ad nauseum.
This is how they fight ,they divide and conquer and nothing hurts everyone more than a divided group.
Imagine how strong the voice of nicotine users would be if they just stopped allowing themselves to be divided by artificial constructs.
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Raven, your quite right about division and tobacco control have been rather quiet with some very basic facts trying to cut us out from the herd.
They were warned in 1993 that nicotine was not unique to tobacco and that cotinine was not a reliable marker for tobacco smoke because of the amount of nicotine containing vegetables that everyone eats.
The nicotine users would have an even stronger voice if the daily consumers of nightshade vegetables could be made to realise that they too have a dog in this race.
Because that would include everyone and move the dispute out more to the method of cooking.
I find it odd that people didn’t know about nicotine in vegetables, I’ve known that since I was a kid, mind you, I did randomly read encyclopedias and my Mum’s pre-war gardening books, there was no need to lie about tobacco in those days and it was just something that stuck in my head as a curiosity.
I never realised how much I’d need it someday.
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Ha. I’ve just realised that I’ve paraphrased Quatermass and the Pit
“that one scrap of knowledge in minds still free to use it”
Perhaps I should go and drink more coffee.
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Oh, I love that film. Some awful effects but a great story.
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Prophetic too.
Smoking Ban in Public Places – Purging of the Martian Hives.
Now we just need a crane for when the image of Deborah Arnott appears.
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I’m amazed at how many people refuse to believe that niacin is nicotinic acid, even when it’s easy to check these days. The stuff that terrifies them is a precursor to vitamin B3!
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Surprising isn’t it? So simple and so obvious, the key was finding the industry documents, then I could finally be sure in my own mind.
Medicine: Pellagra Cure
Monday, Aug. 22, 1938
“Over 1,000,000 families in the rural South eat nothing but salt pork, corn meal and molasses. Their members are frequent victims of that painful deficiency disease, pellagra, with its attendant diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis. Physicians have known for nearly 25 years that small amounts of green vegetables and milk will forestall the disease. But still pellagra continues. In its advanced stages it has been considered incurable, since the patients are unable to ingest the necessary kinds of food.
Last week the Journal of the American Medical Association printed two articles on pellagra showing the startlingly beneficial results of a new treatment.
βNicotinic acid, a distant relative (about second cousin once removed) of tobaccoβs nicotine, is found in yeast, wheat germ and liver. When considerable quantities were fed to some 300 patients with pellagra, their sores healed, their cramps disappeared. Even patients who were violently insane dramatically regained their wits within 48 hoursβ
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788409,00.html
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That means pellagra might not work on antismokers. They are already insane. And increasingly violent.
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Their deficiency could be caused by a deficiency. There’s a challenge for you Leggy – get an Anti to take up smoking π
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ooo, now that is a challenge. I hadn’t thought of that…
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Thought that might tickle your fancy π Would be amusing, non?
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Indeed – if we all stopped calling ourselves by their divisive names and all became ‘nicotine users’ (The Nicoteenies?) there’d be a hell of a lot more of us in one group.
An old Ovaltine ad is now stuck in my head.
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I dual use, I vape throughout the day as my boss doesn’t mind me doing it doing it at my desk, I also vape in the pub and if it’s a new pub I’ll ask if I can vape. Love a few roll ups with my beer when I get home though.
The “one use” type ecigs aren’t very good, in my opinion you need a decent set up to get the best out of vaping and flavour wise I love custards mostly so not really tried any tobacco ones. I’ll ask some of the 3000+ people in a forum I’m a member of which baccy they recommend the most and maybe get you a bit to try.
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I should add that for me vaping has also become a hobby, I make my own juice and coils. I certainly spend an awful lot more than I did when a full time smoker.
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I have looked into making juice but wouldn’t have a clue how to make a coil. That would be worth knowing.
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Am I reading you right? You vape custard ecigs? lmao
Sounds like you’re creating ‘misery’ by giving those around you second hand munchies. Shame on you, evil man. Come to think of it, you might gain employment in pubs serving food by getting those around you hungry for a quick pudding.
I look forward to the grievance industry coming up with a way to link third hand custard vaping induced munchies with the cheeeeldren. They can do it, I have faith in the power of unlimited hatred linked with a desperate hunger to cash in.
BTW love the term SteamPunks
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Lol, I’d never thought of it like that. I have some apple fritter and an apple crumble steeping. I’ll move on to them next.
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Apple crumble flavour? Now you have my attention.
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I like absinthe flavour so I’m causing second hand drinky steam. Surely that should finish them off?
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I really only use Electrofag when I feel like smoking absinthe or coffee π I suspect that I’d still have to take it outside at work so don’t bother taking it there. It’s the gadgetry that attracts me mostly. The new ones look like sonic smokedrivers but the old, cig-a-likes are fun too. When someone says ‘you can’t smoke here’ and you drop an apparently lit cigarette into your shirt pocket…
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I gave away the absinthe as I didn’t like, and just checked my bottles and do apologise as it isn’t apple crumble. But on similar lines I have a caramel apple pie, hummingbird cake or apple fritters, if you fancy.
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You can make these? I’m willing to learn.
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Made with real Hummingbird? I hope.
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LOVE the steampunk idea – it’s one of the most apt descriptors I’ve come across for the almost religious ‘born-again’ zealotry displayed by some of the anti-smoker vapers. Pure and total idiots, they are – thinking they can toss the smokers under the bus and walk freely away? Pfffft!
There are probably dozens (if not hundreds) of e-liquid vendors out there, all claiming to have a tobacco flavored liquid that tastes just like the real thing – but I’ve heard good things about these guy’s ‘true-to-form’ products.
You might want to give ’em a try.
http://www.durasmoke.com/duratrue-products/
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As Raven921 said, it’s the antismoking industry that drives these wedges between various smoker/vaper groups. There are even vapers using the latest wild gadgets who scoff at vapers using last year’s model. Cigarette smokers who scoff at rollies and vice versa. I’ve even seen comments from rollup smokers who denigrate other rollup smokers’ tobacco choices.
We should all become the Nicoteenies and to hell with the differences.
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It’s a good name (as well as ‘steampunk’). Nicotine gets its name after Jean Nicot. His name is a diminutive of Nicholas, which roots back to ‘Nike’ meaning ‘victory’. Though I’m not sure it’ll help Cleggy in May.
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Hmmm… perhaps Nicholas Demdike is where the evil part connects? π
You’re probably too young to remember the prototype Nicoteenies…
‘Nicotine. Has there ever been a better way of ending the day?’
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‘Nick meaning ‘the devil’ was in use by 1640s, but the reason for it is obscure.’ So maybe π
I remember that ad. Perhaps it’s time Nicoteenies finally come of age.
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Remember the antismoking ad with ‘Nick O’Teen’? Old Nick is on the side of the antis…
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Old Nick, he’s not as fresh faced as in 2010, leads the Limp Dims and they can keep him. A smoker that lies to his kids about his smoking and then brags about it on the radio, sounds like a trustworthy character …
Nick O’Teen was an effort to poison kids’s minds from the early 80s:
http://www.comicvine.com/nick-oteen/4005-67121/
A bit ‘racist’ if you ask me π No wonder no-one wanted the credit as ‘creator’.
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Giving away cigarettes… at today’s prices, nobody will believe he does that.
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I wonder what would happen if they tried to resurrect him …
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…or if he came back as the good guy…
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What’s the difference between a demon and daemon?
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/what-is-the-difference-between-daemon-and-demon-in-a-religious-context
They’re wordies, a smith might shamble up something useful π
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I’ve written about demons a lot. Might try a daemon next.
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If it’s ever filmed, Matt Damon could be cast in it π
http://blackdogstar.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/dark-light-and-daemon-born.html
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I remember him best in ‘Team America’ π
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Fools, the whole lot of the vapors/steampunks.
They are just ‘ex-smokers’ and as such have the same probability of dying from a smoking ’caused’ disease as do smokers and never-smokers.
Doll’s 50 year long study of the mortality of British Doctors showed that all of those groups have about the same 85% probability of such a death.
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We all have a 100% probability of death. I would rather worry about the quality of the time I spend living than try to control the misery of my dying, which in all likelihood will suck regardless of what causes it.
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I want to be hollowed out, stuffed with tobacco and cremated. Not yet, obviously.
A few days later, an ad in the local paper will tell everyone what they’ve been breathing…
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Junican also took that one apart most effectively. The smoking beagles one too – it showed nothing at all. In fact, it’s beginning to look like smoking is more of a protective agent than a disease-causing one. The antismokers want us to stop because they don’t like it. No other reason is real.
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There is segregation within smokers themselves. I commonly hear “I don’t mind that pubs are non-smoking” from friends as we stand outside with a fag (I live in a more temperate zone than our host).
These fools do not realise that it is a matter of time before beer gardens are made non-smoking. Then they’ll be an exclusion zone of 10, then 20, then 50 yards around the doors of pubs. Then it will be banned from entire streets: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/8610952/Sydney-bans-smoking-on-one-side-of-the-street-but-not-the-other.html
Allowing the antis any leeway whatsoever is the same as ‘letting him put just a little bit in’. You’re going to get it – right up to the hilt.
At work, I notice the phenomenon of people vaping outside, even though they are doing so alone and in inclement weather. Our building has several nice, big stairwells that see very little traffic. It is trivial to puff away in there undetected. The idea that vaping is somehow antisocial has been inculcated into their feeble minds.
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I’ve heard that from smokers too. ‘Pubs are nicer without all the smoke’. Not to me, that’s why I don’t go there any more. I delighted in the blue haze.
As for standing outside in a -10C windchill, sod that. It’s why smoky-drinkies are so popular in this part of the country and why the ‘shed pub’ is really taking off now.
The antis will never stop. Every inch you give them, they push for another inch. Now they are going for plain packaging, a patently ridiculous idea that has been proven to be ineffective in Australia. They will be back to ‘ban smoking in homes with cheeeldren or in which cheeeldren might one day possibly live’ next.
Not my house. I’m going to haunt it forever so no antismoker will live in it. I might crawl under the floorboards to die so my tobacco-infused corpse will cause Lumps in any pompous bastard who lives here in future.
If a smoker lives here after me, I’d be quite a benign spirit. Although he might find his whisky evaporating.
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They lie in wait like wolves, the smell of blood in their nostrils. Waiting, interminably waiting, and then..
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Just after the ban was trialled on us guinea pigs in Scotchland in 2006, I was obediently (if disgruntledly) standing at the back door of a pub having a smoke with a colleague, he said he welcomed the ban as it would “help him give up” – theres just no fucking point having any discussion with folk of this kind of mindset.
I naturally asked him if he welcomed the Government dictating all aspects of his lifestyle, here the conversation ended.
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Fuck. I have also heard that one.
I tell these people that I can’t wait for Prohibition. Anyone objecting is obviously an alcoholic and must be treated with disulfiram.
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Yes I’m commenting on yesterday’s post.
They began demonizing nicotine a long time ago.
Implicating it in everything horrific that apparently has or could ever happen to anyone including the bees.
Oddly enough about those bees…..
http://www.natureworldreport.com/2015/02/19/coffee-and-cigarettes-bad-for-you-but-good-for-bees/
In some odd sort of way it proves something.
I bet you this bit of real science will be buried since it doesn’t fit with the divide conquer and lie agenda of the religion of tobacco control.
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Raven
This bit of real science has been buried.
Use of tobacco smoke against parasitic mite syndrome
EXPERIMENTAL TRIAL
βIn Spring 1995 colonies showed some delay in their build up. A lot of crawling bees had been seen in front of the hives and on the ground. Hives in two apiaries were treated with tobacco leaves. 15-20 g of leaves were burned in the smoker with the material used for making smoke. It was used during routine examinations every week or as needed, in March, April and May. These colonies were shown to have greater populations and to yield more honey compared with two control hives kept near the apiary of 50 colonies. In the apiary with 30 colonies there were another 45 colonies which were not treated with tobacco smoke.
ASSESSMENT
In early August there was a check up and comparison between the colonies that had been treated with tobacco smoke and those which had not. There was a great difference in honeybee populations; those which had been treated being more populous. The bees were more active in foraging and collecting nectar.
CONCLUSION
Whatever the disease, I believe that tobacco smoke had beneficial effect on the colonies. We know that nicotine in tobacco smoke has some anaesthetic effect on insects in general, and it might have some lethal effect on mites and therefore some beneficial effect against the condition.
We believe now that the immune system of the bees is in some way diminished. By using tobacco smoke we are either hitting the primary target, or we might be curing a secondary pathogen. In either case we are helping our bees to get better!β
http://web.archive.org/web/20100117015748/http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/info/info/disease/use-of-tobacco-smoke-agai.shtml
You might find this interesting too.
Medical Uses of Tobacco Past and Present – 1958
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ths71b00/pdf;jsessionid=906E7F6CB38CFF8DBD343AB4992B244A.tobacco04
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