DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

The Digital Generation Gap in 3 sentences…

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Over the past couple of days, I’ve been talking about going to the cinema with my son and my parents. And it perfectly illustrates the digital divide between 3 generations of my family. And it can also be summed up in 3 sentences.

  • The day before we plan on going to see a film, my parents drove 20 minutes to the nearest cinema. And went inside to book tickets.
  • The hour before I planned on taking my son to see a film, I went online to check the local cinema times and available seats. And book and pay online via a credit or debit card.
  • My son expects to be able to get a seat for any film almost instantly just by announcing that’s what he wants to do.

It’s easy to mock my parents spending so much time on a relatively trivial task. Then again, they also had the time to incorporate a nice walk, scope out some local eateries, and have a spot of lunch.

My version is more efficient in terms of time. But less pleasaent. And also more susceptible to the risks of online payments. Plus I didn’t get a nice lunch or any fresh air.

Meanwhile my son currently relies on me to fulfill his demands when he’s staying with me. But given the rise of voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, etc), it won’t be long before his expectations may become normal. (And I should make it clear that he’s not ill-mannered, or doesn’t get there’s a finite supply of seats in a cinema – he’s just increasingly used to games, TV, music etc all being available on-demand in the modern era. So sometimes it takes reminding that spaces might be limited on an opening weekend).

The Digital Generation Gap in 3 sentences

The challenge for any business is to decide which age group they need to serve. Or how to cope with all three demands in the best possible way.

That may mean being able to provide in-person service, an amazing website and app, and also making everything as available on-demand via voice search.

Or it could be convincing me that it’s worth making the trip in person. And persuading my son that the experience is worth any waiting required…

30 Days of Vapes and Hijinks

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Yesterday marked 30 days since my last cigarette. And since then, I’ve gone through various stresses related to work and personal matters. And also managed to go on a couple of evenings in the pub. Yet, despite being in the company of various smokers, I haven’t been tempted…

I’m still noticing improvements to smell, taste, lung capacity and energy. I certainly seem to be able to exert myself more without being out of breath. And I’ve started feeling a strange urge to get more exercise. I’ve managed to avoid any worrying temptation to invest in lycra clothing, but I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out…

30 Days of Vapes and Hijinks

So as a smoking replacement/cessation method, vaping has been really working for me. And although it’s still not good for me, I’m happy with all the evidence of the risk reduced to around 90-95% of smoking. The more I think about what would happen if I had to stop vaping overnight, the more it seems likely I would just stop using anything than go back to smoking.

Which is why I’m looking forward to moving down nicotine strengths shortly. In the meantime, here are some quick scores:

  • Approximately 450 cigarettes not smoked.
  • Cost of 450 cigarettes roughly £210.
  • Cost of initial vaping kit, including back up tank: £92.
  • Cost of liquids and coils per month – approx £40.
  • Various estimates of the negative impact of cigarettes would say you lose between 5-14 minutes of life for each one you smoke. Obviously that’s an average based on typical lifespan etc, but taking it as 10 minutes, that’s 4,500 minutes, or 75 hours, per month. Or 37.5 days per year. By the time I’m around 60, that’s more than 2 years worth of potential extra days.
  • If I never stop vaping, and buy a new kit every year for the next 20 years, I’ll save:
    Cost of 20 years smoking: £50,400!
    Cost of 20 years vaping: £11,440.
    Saving: £38,960

Not rigorously scientific, but good encouragement to keep in mind. I’ve also decided that Peach flavour liquid works particularly well to compliment craft IPA, and without doing a side-by-side test, my one hangover appeared to be much less of a problem to deal with.

One other thing I’ve definitely benefitted from is using some of the money I’ve saved on relatively instant gratification (some much-needed new trainers and jeans). While it’s good to have a longterm goal for savings plans (which I also have), when you’re reinforcing a more positive habit, having some fairly quick rewards definitely makes a big difference.

For the record, I currently use:

  • An Aspire Zelos 50W kit with Nautilus 2 Tank.
  • Back-up Nautilus 2 Tank
  • Back-up Eleaf iStick 40W donated by a very nice friend.
  • 12mg eliquid (roughly 20-25ml per week)

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It’s Great When You Vape, Yeah

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So I’ve just gone past 3 weeks since my last cigarette. And I’m still surprised at how easy it’s been. When I’m low on nicotine, my foolish brain still occasionally reverts to thinking about tobacco, but it’s only around half the time. And it goes as soon as I’ve spend a few moments vaping – which is slowly becoming what my lizard brain associates with my addiction.

The plan is to continue on 12mg vape liquid until I associate any cravings with vaping rather than smoking. At which point I’m going to switch down to 6mg during the day, which means I’ll start consuming less nicotine that I would have been smoking in the past.

And I’ve managed to cope with a couple of stressful events without going back to cigarettes. When I did have to go without vaping for a couple of hours due to user error (I thought the tank/coil was faulty as I hadn’t cleared out the excess liquid enough), I managed to get by with a couple of nicotine lozenges until I could go back to my local vape shop and get some more experienced assistance. As a result, I ended up buying a spare tank, so I’m now covered whatever happens – and having learned to mop up any excess liquid from inside the coil after every refill, I’ve had no problems since.

Quick Vaping Financial Summary:

  • 23 days of smoking would have cost me around £161.
  • 23 days of vaping has cost me £128.99. That’s £70 for the kit. £22.99 for the tank, and £36 for liquid. And I still have a few more days worth of liquid left.
  • Next month I won’t need a kit or tank. So the maximum expenditure will be around £36 for liquid and possibly £4 worth of coils. And that’s how much a month should cost me until such time as I need a new box or tank.
  • So that’s £120 saved per month in future.
  • And even in the first month, I’d have saved around £30+, if I hadn’t decided to treat myself to a new pair of trainers as a reward – to be fair, I’ve needed a pair for months…

 

Vaping and my Health?

So far I’ve been breathing a lot more easily, and feeling more energised during and after exercise. And sleeping better – I don’t seem to be suffering from sleep apnea any more. Or getting as many cases of cramp. Which should mean that my circulation has improved a fair amount – it’s hard to tell given the hot weather, but my fingers and toes certainly feel warmer…

I do get a bit of a tickly cough if I overdo a vaping session – but it’s gone pretty much straight afterwards. And I’d had a throaty cough before switching – along with a chesty cough due to all the crud in my lungs. So that’s much improved, although I may have to experiment with different liquids and settings in the future to see if I can find the perfect settings for me.

The best bit so far has actually been the health of others. I always tried to be a considerate smoker, going outside and standing away from family and friends. And I take a similar approach to vaping. But in the past, smoking definitely irritate my family – and one of my parents would constantly be coughing due to an existing lung condition. Since vaping, my parents no longer rush to close any windows to the garden, and my son has told me ‘your breath smells nice’ for the first time since he was born almost a decade ago.

It's Great When You Vape, Yeah

I never looked cool when I smoked. And I don’t look cool vaping. But I have managed to avoid sinking into the world of sub-ohm DTL DIY mod boxes and other complications. I’m sticking with convenience. Plug in the box once every 1.5 days or so to charge it. Fill it up roughly once a day. And each time, make sure I’m sticking some kitchen roll into the coil and mouthpiece to mop up any excess. I should really wipe everything down each refill, but at the moment about 1 out of every 3 refills works fine for vaping without any excess gurgling/spitting issues.

So basically my entire technical support and maintence kit is a roll of cheap kitchen tissue.

What else?

I’m finding the flavours I like (Currently Peach, Strawberry with Lime and Blueberry from the Ultimate Version 2 range). And the ones I don’t enjoy as much (Thought I’d like Rhubarb and Custard much more than I did). And by switching between them, it stops me potentially getting bored of one. But I’ll have to see what else is around sometime soon for a bit of a change.

 

The Vaping/Smoking Paradox:

There is one weird thing about vaping. For some reason, it seems to make smokers go a little defensive. I used to have the same response, dismissing it as for lightweight artisan bearded hipsters. And now just wish I’d switched years ago.

Personally, I don’t actively enjoy the smell of cigarettes anymore, but I have no problem with people smoking next to me. It’d be a bit hypocritical. Plus it’s a handy test whether I’m tempted at all (And so far, I’m not). If people want to keep smoking, then they can go right ahead…

But I have noticed smokers seem keen to pick holes in vaping. Normally saying how they can’t be bothered with all the ‘paraphenalia’ (which seems odd when I can clearly remember last minute trips in the middle of the night to the petrol station for cigarettes, or desperately searching for an old box of matches when all my lighters had run out). Or my personal favourite, which is pointing out that there isn’t any longterm data on the relative health effects of vaping.

So we know that vaping definitely is less healthy than doing nothing at all. Nicotine by itself is relatively harmless in small doses and toxic in large ones. And the other vaping ingredients (propylene glycol/vegetable glycol/glycerol) are combined with flavourings – the glycol element can cause a bit of potential throat irritation, and the flavourings are the relatively unknown quantity in how they interact with the glycol when heated).

But we also know that smoking is definitely and  100% guaranteed to raise your chances of health problems long term. And a lot of that comes from the act of combusting tobacco, and the other additives in cigarettes to make them burn nicely, etc. It’s possible to smoke for years and still be healthy, but we also know it has an effect on those around you via passive smoking, and also means everything smells of stale baccy.

So it does seem remarkably weird when people say they won’t switch from smoking because there’s a potentially small chance of a longterm effect of vaping being discovered. As opposed to sticking with the one which is proven to be potentially deadly in the short, medium and longterm.

Still, at least now I can chuckle about it without coughing up a lung…

 

 

Incidentally, if you’re wondering about the strange title…