First - I don't smoke. Never have, never will. Was never even tempted (which I state only because both of my sisters were; the youngest tried one and thought it was gross, and the middle actually smoked for a short while before quitting - I have no doubt that this is because they didn't live through what I did, which was multiple hospital stays for my mother because her lungs kept collapsing and living in friends' homes so my father could stay with Mom at the hospital).

On a tangent...why is so much of my life parenthetical?

Back to the subject. My mother started smoking again when she started dating Hector many years ago. She's since tried to quit multiple times over the years and never managed it. I finally decided that I was finished with pleas and exhortations about her health and instead got very selfish and started trying to figure out how to make sure that if she wants to kill herself with her smoking (and I can say this because of her past lung health history and also because we found out over the weekend that one of her sisters has lung cancer in both lungs after smoking for 39 years), she doesn't kill me in the process. That sounds really harsh, but I just reached a point where I realized that there's nothing I can do to make her quit. But since we own and live in a duplex (she has the upper unit and I have the lower) and since said duplex shares internal systems (including the central forced-air gas heating system), her habit was affecting my health as well as hers. This was exacerbated when the not-so-ex-husband moved back in because he smokes, too.), it meant that for six-eight months out of the year, I was breathing in lots of second-hand smoke because as soon as the heat comes on, it circulates throughout the entire building. Filters on vents and on the heating system itself didn't help (of course not, but that was all I could do). I wanted some way of letting her continue her smoking without it affecting my health and wellbeing.

I had heard about the electronic cigarette from a post on LiveJournal (and I'm sorry, I can't remember whose journal - whoever you are, you have my heartfelt thanks) and wandered around on the internet taking a look at them. The nifty thing about the electronic cigarette - at least for us non-smokers? No second-hand smoke. I figured - what the hey, it couldn't hurt to have them try them and see if they work, right? I talked to my mother about it, and she was skeptical. So skeptical that I knew she would never spend the money to try them herself.

So...

I decided that I'd buy a starter kit for her. That way, she had no cost outlay for giving them a try. There are a whole heck of a lot of them out there, but I finally decided on

Blu Electronic Cigarette

because 1) a starter kit was $60. Not a lot of money to lose if they didn't work. and 2) they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. They also seemed to be one of the more popular brands out there, and the last thing I wanted to do was get a crappy brand because I knew this was a "one-shot" experiment; if the first brand I bought was cheap and lousy, my mother would never try a second.

I should note that this brand is so popular they actually had stopped taking new orders for a while; in fact, I anxiously kept checking their website so that the minute they re-opened, I could put in my order.

The end result of the experiment? They work. My mother tried it, used it, and had no cravings or other "withdrawal" type symptoms, which meant she was getting the same nicotine dosage as with her real cigarettes. Plus, since the things look and operate just like a cigarette, she also got the psychological habit of having a cigarette in her hand and puffing on it as well (something the nicotine patches don't have). My mother also liked the fact that the light was blue and not red (some of the brands out there have a red glowy light on the end) - because that makes it obvious that she's not smoking a real cigarette, which allows her to easily use the thing in places where no smoking is allowed. She deliberately used it in her doctors' offices (both in the waiting room and then in the examination room), and even showed the thing to her doctors and they agreed that if she couldn't quit smoking, this was a much better alternative.

They come in a variety of strengths - light, regular, and super - so you can get whatever the smoker is used to when it comes to nicotine dosage. They also come in a variety of flavors (the starter kit offers one pack of all of their flavors: regular tobacco, menthol, cherry, vanilla and coffee - my mother found the coffee icky, but says they rest were OK).

As it turns out, the batteries in our starter kit were faulty (they weren't holding a charge for as long as they should), so she sent them back for new batteries. Which unfortunately means that she's back to regular cigarettes until the new batteries arrive. Thus, my one piece of advice to anyone wanting to give these a try is to buy two starter kits, not one. That way, if you get some bad batteries, you can work with the batteries in one kit while sending off the others, so the smoker won't go out and buy more cigarettes.

Anyway - if you are a smoker yourself, or if you have a family member/friend who smokes, I highly recommend trying these. It can't hurt to try, and if they work for you/your family member, it can certainly improve the health and environment of anyone who has to live with them.

Since it's been kinda quiet here, I thought I'd ask all of you folks out there how you feel about various metals.

I'm particularly curious about how you feel regarding plating versus the actual metal - there's no doubt that it's much cheaper to get silver/gold plated findings than it is to get sterling/fine silver and gold-filled/gold and with things getting awfully tight for most, I have to say that the plated findings are becoming more tempting.  Does anyone out there use them and if so, what do you think of the quality?  Is it something most turn up their noses at?

Also, what about metals like brass and bronze (pretty sure bronze gets used sometimes, but I could be wrong about that) and other "base" metals?  I've yet to find a really good supplier for either brass/bronze, despite really liking the look of some of them - does anyone have any links to online suppliers?  I found Vintaj's website, and will be checking out their links to online suppliers, but there are a lot of brass companies out there that I haven't discovered yet.

Got this from popelizbet:

Oyate is a Native organization working to see that our lives and histories are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us. For Indian children, it is as important as it has ever been for them to know who they are and what they come from. For all children, it is time to know and acknowledge the truths of history. Only then will they come to have the understanding and respect for each other that now, more than ever, will be necessary for life to continue.

The great Lakota leader, Tatanka Iotanka—Sitting Bull—said, “Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children.” The great Cuban revolutionary, José Martí, said, “We work for children because children know how to love, because children are the hope of the world.” Our work is to nurture in our children a sense of self and community. Our hope is that they will grow up healthy and whole.

Our work includes critical evaluation of books and curricula with Indian themes, conducting of “Teaching Respect for Native Peoples” workshops and institutes; administration of a small resource center and reference library; and distribution of children’s, young adult, and teacher books and materials, with an emphasis on writing and illustration by Native people.

Our hope is that by making many excellent books available to encourage many more, especially from Native writers and artists. Oyate, our organiztion’s name, is the Dakota word for people. It was given to us by a Dakota friend.

Oyate has been offered a generous grant that will help them do a major website overhaul. Information on the grant and Oyate is available here. According to Beverly at Oyate, as of ten minutes until ten central time, they are now at $3,217.00 of the needed $5000. They must raise the remaining $1783.00 by Saturday, August 1 in order to receive their grant.

If you have a few dollars extra - and goodness knows in these tough times you may not - and see fit to use it to help Oyate continue to do their good work, that would be awesome. If not, and you still think they are worth supporting, maybe do what I did here and repost to boost the signal?

Tags: can't stop the signal, signal boosting

Instead of posting a long entry, I think I'm simply going to link to this rather short post, by sartorias:


This is why we have to keep talking about the subject. This is why it's not "over" as some would like to believe.

For the upcoming SJ Tucker concert tomorrow night (insert signs of squeeing here). This time, I'm taking both of my sisters, and possibly their significant others as well. If you're in the Colorado Springs - Denver - Pueblo area, you should really come on out tomorrow night!


www.skinnywhitechick.com/

Tags: music

Re-posted via one_hoopy_frood:












For more information:
PICTURES:
here and here
NEW INFORMATION:
Here - near constant updates
Here - ONTD_political live post
ON TWITTER:
@StopAhmadi, @IranElection09, @persiankiwi, @NextRevolution, @Change_for_Iran



To add a brief thought - I was absolutely outraged and disgusted by the lack of coverage by American media of this. After spending the entire day wondering what the heck was going on, I came home after work and immediately channel-surfed through all of the news channels available to me, including CNN, and aside from a ticker tape at the bottom, only ONE was talking about what was happening, and that was Hardball with Chris Matthews, and in that case, there was no actual reporting going on, but rather histrionics and hyperbole from Chris while his two "guests" sat there trying to get a word in edgewise. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the BBC with my cable subscription.

For shame, American media.

Tags: can't stop the signal, politics, signal boosting

By the by, if you're looking for some inspiration, or want a little guidance from the 'Verse, haikujaguar is taking requests for another 30 minutes! Her insight is quite amazing; if you're into divination and/or meditation, I encourage you to give it a try!

I just inserted a footnote, and instead of showing up at the bottom of the page (where I want it), it shows up at the bottom of the text box...which would be fine, except this text box is linked to a second text box which is the one that goes to the bottom of the page. I've tried changing the Footnote settings, to no avail. I've tried adding text, to see if it "bumps" the footnote, but it doesn't. The non-footnote text bumps down to the next text box just fine, while the footnote stays at the bottom of the first text box...which is NOT WHERE I WANT IT

beats head against desk

Edit the First: Obey me, you stupid program!

Edit the Second: To heck with that, let's try a single box, text-wrapped around the object.

Edit the Third: Victory is Mine!

ivan23 just called and fixed my problem, and cracked a joke about tech support. Thank you so much!

(Ivan is awesome in all sorts of ways...and he's also a sexy red-headed Viking, which makes it even better!)

ivan23  help, help, help! (Or anyone else who knows InDesign really well)

You know how, when you're in InDesign and you're sizing something, and when you meet the edge of something else, InDesign does the nifty little greeny highlight thingee to let you know you've met????  I somehow managed to turn that off (no idea how) and I want to turn it back on!!  How do I do that?

Tags: indesign