Category: My Stuff

It’s All Broken

Things got broke

You know, just once I’d like something to work. I spent a lot of time planning the migration of this site from wordpress.com to self-hosted. I mean, a lot. Many days and nights of head scratching (splinters included), poking around under the hood, figuring out why this or that didn’t behave.

Then came the testing. Would it actually work? Well, all the dry-runs and simulations counted for diddly squat. I still ended up with broken images.

Damn.

Moving Home

Moving Home

After almost two years of this blog laying dormant in the digital world – gathering lots, and lots of dust and, of course, draining my bank balance – I figured it was time it was moved.

Don’t get me wrong, where this humble site was hosted (wordpress.com if you wanted to know) was absolutely fine. I had no complaints about the hosting. It’s just that, with times getting tougher (for everyone), I couldn’t justify the cost any longer.

So, I upped my digital sticks and self-hosted. After all, I couldn’t let this blog be deleted now.

Could I?

And because it has been so long, everything in the backend has changed so there’s going to be broken links and other funny business for a while. Plus, getting used to the new-fangled post editor.

Yay.

Image credit: Photo by SHVETS production

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

I know it has been pretty quiet on this blog for *checks posts* the last year (give or take a month) but, quite frankly, I’ve been too busy to post anything. This is despite a list of topics I had in mind to cover.

Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to devote much, if any, time to posting on here for the foreseeable future. Due to this lack of time to do anything on here, or conduct my own research into the topics I wanted to cover I began questioning whether or not to continue posting at all.

I look back at the few years of posts and I can clearly see how my journey evolved from being utterly pro-vaping-only – as misguided as that was – to discovering the true tobacco harm reduction argument along with all the lies and utter bollocks from ‘tobacco control’. Along the way I did pick up a number of loyal readers and made a number of friends. Even managed to encourage a few to become more active and vocal.

The vaping community, such as it was when I became a part of it back in 2014 was a vibrant place and I’m glad to have been a, relatively small, part of it. Fast forward a mere six years and it is completely different. Whether it is due to the divisive politics of the day or something else entirely, it is now a completely different place. Few of the folk that were there when I started are now gone – for various reasons.

So now, I am faced with a choice. Keep this blog open in the hopes that, at some point in the future, I can find both the time and the motivation to post something which people will read and either disagree with or spread far and wide. I have to say that, over the years seeing my scribblings being read in far flung places and being discussed in a variety of places was, indeed, satisfying. But, I never wanted the attention. I simply posted my thoughts and, in some cases, layman analysis of some particular dubious “science”.

I often found that diving into the more contentious topics – such as heat-not-burn as the prime example – led to more and more division. That’s totally fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. I may make fun of you for holding a contrary opinion, but I don’t go out of my way to be downright unpleasant.

So, back to my choice. For much of the same reasoning that I left the New Nicotine Alliance – piss-poor life/work balance (i.e. I didn’t have a life) – these pages won’t be updated after today.

I’m not done with the tobacco harm reduction debate, I just won’t be visible.

It’s been fun.

Showing support for #WorldLungCancerDay

It isn’t often that I post about things that are completely unrelated to vaping, but sometimes things happen that social media just doesn’t give enough space for me to comment with the entirety of my thoughts, hence the blog.

Today, 1st August 2015 is #WorldLungCancerDay and the subject of lung cancer, and cancer in general is one I hold near and dear to my heart simply because I lost both of my parents to forms of cancer. I donate on a regular basis to charities that are active in bringing the varying forms of cancer to the attention of the masses. The work these charities and organisations do is incredibly valuable in raising awareness and much-needed funding for the ongoing research into the varying forms of cancer, both for treatment and detection for the sufferer and for the families.

As we know, smoking is one of the leading causes of lung, throat and mouth cancers. One of the leading causes, not the cause. There are of course many factors that can lead to the development of the various cancers so it comes as absolutely no surprise that some organisations took the opportunity to push their own agenda.

Of course, I thoroughly despise any organisation or individual that makes use of a particular social media campaign to push their own agenda so imagine my delight when Faces of Lung Cancer replied to the CDC.

Effectively telling them to back off, but the CDC weren’t the only ones told to go away or at least not to push their own agenda.

FacesOfLungCancer2

 

In no uncertain terms, Faces of Lung Cancer didn’t want any association with smoking, which is absolutely correct. I even responded to the Blackwell tweet thanking Faces of Lung Cancer for insisting it.

I even tweeted out my own memories.

It isn’t something I do often, nor do I undertake it lightly as it is deeply personal, but I wanted to express my support to raise awareness, help end the stigma associated with lung cancer, and maybe even help raise some funding for a much needed cause. It wasn’t to be.

FacesOfLungCancer

For reasons, at the time that were unknown to me I ended up being blocked by the Faces of Lung Cancer twitter account. Needless to say I was thoroughly shocked by this, and truly upset. After all I had shown nothing but support, shared my personal story. It upset me to the point that I tweeted:

The support from my close friends on Twitter was amazing and unusually for me, I’m finding it difficult to find the words to express how truly grateful and thankful I am.

The reason I, and many others got blocked?

So because one called them a “fuckwit” all vapers are now blocked. I don’t think that is entirely appropriate, have they blocked the CDC?

Oddly enough, the exchange between Lorien and Faces of Lung Cancer earned Lorien a block too, for asking why I’d been blocked.

Stay classy Faces of Lung Cancer, you’ve just lost the support of someone directly affected by the effects of losing someone through lung cancer.

Update: I woke up this morning (4th August 2015) to find that I had some replies from Faces Of Lung Cancer

Replies

Oddly enough, only one of them seems to exist, but thanks to Tweetdeck I’ve been able to catch both responses. To be honest, I know how easy it is to overreact to a particular situation, especially if it affects me personally. As I mention in the comments below this post, this blog was written in direct response to being blocked so you could say that I overreacted to the block. Maybe I did, fact is, my support of causes such as this won’t waver.

Thank you, Faces of Lung Cancer for the apology, we are after all on the same side, just approaching it from different angles.

Going smokefree? Gone smokefree

I posted this as a guest on the Vapers In Power blog yesterday:

Break out the party balloons, those crazy assed poppers where you find the streamer stuff and end caps for years afterwards. Let’s have some jelly and ice-cream, trifle, and maybe, just maybe we’ll have some beers or cider if you prefer.

It is time for a little celebration! Why am I in such a good mood? Well, grab a drink and I’ll tell you. Might want to turn the music down a bit first. Continue reading “Going smokefree? Gone smokefree”

Batteries not included

Well now it has been over a week since I last posted anything, and there’s a reason for that. I went on holiday. The first actual “going away from home for longer than a weekend” type holiday in almost twenty years. Gah, saying it like that makes me sound like some crazy hermit that only stays at home.  I’m not by the way.

By now, you’re probably backing away from this post slowly and to be fair, I can’t really blame you.  I’m still on that holiday buzz which will probably end with a crash when my alarm goes off in the morning to get my sorry ass back to work. Continue reading “Batteries not included”

The Remote Of Life: Pause

Well so much for not writing another difficult post.  This is another one of those that has been at the back of my mind, more so since the start of the month.

I started this blog back in October 2014.  Initially, it was just my virtual dumping ground for me to let off some steam after reading all the bullshit being pushed about e-cigs.  It has since become something much, much more than that.  I changed my writing style a little for the first truly public post (Why I Vape), since then I’ve strived to balance the content of my posts so they aren’t all along the same ranty theme.

It has now been 12 months since I lost my sole remaining parent.  Mum had been diagnosed with COPD a little over 6 years ago, a two years later lung cancer.  Having already beaten breast cancer over 15 years previously.  Three years ago, mum had treatment for the cancer, and it seemed that it had been successful.  Complications with chest infections (over the next two years) and some damage to the lung tissue coupled with COPD caused her oxygen levels to steadily drop to the point where the hospital wouldn’t increase the oxygen flow for fear of doing more harm.

These last twelve months have been incredibly tough, none more so than last month – March. 23rd March 1944 my mum was born. 4th April 2014 she passed away.

March 15th 2015 was the first Mothering Sunday without her.  She would have been 71 years old this year.

April 25th 2014 was the day I truly said goodbye, and tried to begin the healing process. Twelve days from today will be the “anniversary” of saying goodbye.

You might wonder why I’m telling you this.  Since I started vaping, and later advocating for e-cigs I threw myself into it with a vengeance.  Pretty much my entire waking day is spent either working or advocating, so much so that I’ve not really had any time for myself or the things I need to do.  I spent so long “catching up” with all the rubbish, and learning exactly what stuff like the FDA Deeming and the TPD actually means, that I neglected other parts of my life.

I’m not looking for pity, or sympathy.  Just patience and understanding.

All those that read this blog, my little corner of the virtual world you will always have my sincere thanks.  Those that share these posts, you humble me.  To think that my blatherings are worthy of being shared.  For my advocate friends, you know who you are.  You all mean a lot more to me than I’m willing to admit.  It is always nice to see your names  pop up in the various social media feeds.

For now, I’ll be slowing down a heck of a lot.  Rebalance my life a little.  There’s a good chance I’ll be inactive for a short while, but I’ll pick up messages.

Vape on!