Raymond Padilla

Vaping Diaries #177: Girls Who Vape and Boobs

One of the most popular vaping-related Instagram feeds is “Girls Who Vape.” The account owner posts photos of attractive women vaping. Recently, a naughtier competitor — called “Vape and Boobs” (seriously) — launched. As you’ve probably figured out, the account owner posts photos of scantily clad women vaping. That Instagram feed has been getting a lot of buzz lately, because…you know, vape and boobs. While I fully admit that I enjoy checking out photos from “Girls Who Vape” and “Vape and Boobs,” these Instagram feeds have me thinking about gender roles in vaping.

In many ways, vaping is similar to other nerdy hobbies I enjoy (videogames, comic books, pro-wrestling). In those hobbies, women are sometimes placed on a pedestal and sometimes unfairly dismissed. On the (arguably) positive side, women that vape get the benefit of being “gamer girl hot.” If a young lady vapes or builds her own coils, vaping boys will find her exponentially more attractive. It’s the same deal as nerds encountering a woman that knows her comics and/or games — guys find it hot.

While I’ve seen guys at vape shops drool over gals that can make nice coils, I’ve also seen guys that are wary of female employees at vape shops. I asked several vape shop patrons if they would rather have a guy or a girl build their coils at a store. All of them said that they would pick the guy. There’s no sound logic behind it and many of the people I chatted with own up to that, but the assumption is that guys build better than girls. It’s like gamers automatically assuming that females are inferior videogame players or comic-book fanboys automatically assuming that a woman can’t possibly be familiar with Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.

I’ve seen female vapers get hooked up with free gear and liters of free juice. That’s totally cool. I’m all about female vapers taking advantage of being “vaper girl hot.” It’s not cool that some male vapers are dismissive of their female counterparts, automatically assuming that they know nothing about mechanical mods, can’t build decent coils, etc.

So yeah, browsing photos on the “Girls Who Vape” and “Vape and Boobs” Instagram feeds lead to this column. Ha! Anyway, if you have any stories about female vapers getting props or getting dissed, please share your experiences in the comments section.

Pro-Wrestlers vs. Zombies Trailer

As requested by RPadholic N8R, here’s the official trailer for Pro-Wrestlers vs. Zombies. Yes, it’s a real movie featuring real pro-wrestlers and real zombies! Pro-Wrestlers vs. Zombies’ cast of grapplers includes “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Kurt Angle, Matt Hardy, and more. The lovely ladies of the film include 2009 Penthouse Pet of the Year Taya Parker and former TNA Knockout Reby Sky.

As most of you know, pro-wrestling and zombies are awesome. Putting them together is…magic. It’s kind of nuts that nobody has put this combination together before. Check out the Pro-Wrestlers vs. Zombies trailer below and I’m certain that you’ll agree that this pairing is sheer genius. If you dig what you see then you can pick up the movie at the official Pro-Wrestlers vs. Zombies web site. As you patiently wait for the release of this cinematic masterpiece, kindly share your thoughts on the movie in the comments section.

Vaping Diaries #176: Vaping Utopia Ronald Cachero Interview

Vaping Utopia is a relatively new e-liquid company that has been getting a lot of buzz. The company is off to an exciting start, with its Shangri La flavor getting strong reviews. Vaping Utopia makes natural-tasting juices that are made in the USA. Its e-liquids don’t contain any preservatives and additives. The flavoring components it uses were made with inhalation in mind, as opposed to many food flavorings used in e-liquids that are made for digestion. The juices come in square glass bottles that feature designs from local artists. The artwork on the “white label” series comes together to form ~~Voltron~~ a continuous image.

I recently caught up with Vaping Utopia executive director Ronald Cachero to learn how the company got started, learn more about its juice making philosophy, get descriptions of the company’s four initial flavors, and to see what’s coming next. Full disclosure: I know Ron from the excellent CaliVapers forum and our mutual buddy Marie Alvarez.

Check out the interview above to learn what Vaping Utopia is all about and stay tuned for a review on these juices in a future Vaping Diaries. Special thanks to Vaping Ape LA for letting us hang out and film there.

[Marie Alvarez b-roll photos by https://www.facebook.com/bgatebphoto]

Coffee Talk #618: Nerd Subscriptions and You

As you know, we are living in a digital world (~~and I am a digital girl…err, scratch that~~). One of the byproducts of the digital age, particularly for people with nerdy hobbies, is that we’re spending more money on subscription services. For nerd subscriptions, Microsoft’s Xbox Live was the first monthly subscription for many geek chic. Since then, the nerd subscriptions have multiplied like Gremlins. For an endless supply of geeky media, people are dropping money every month on Xbox Live, PlayStation Plus, Netflix, Hulu, WWE Network, Marvel Unlimited, and more. I’d love to hear about your nerd subscriptions. It’ll be fun to see the services we all subscribe to…continued

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Captain Kirk drunk driving in New Zealand, your favorite sandwich getting snubbed by this list of the best sandwiches in America, or NBA excitement building up as the playoffs approach, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As for me, I’m a current subscriber to Xbox Live, PlayStation Plus, Netflix (though to be fair, it’s a comped press account), and WWE Network. While I need those services for work purposes, I think they all provide good to great value and would happily pay for them even if they weren’t tax deductible expenses. The videogame service subscriptions are necessary; I don’t really have a choice there. I’m committed to WWE Network for six months, but that would be the first one to go; I love watching classic Ric Flair matches, but from a value standpoint I want to see how live pay-per-view events perform. Netflix has so much great content, with a growing library of exclusives (Pokemon, Star War: The Clone Wars) that makes it a must-have nerd subscription.

Now it’s your turn! Kindly list your current, cancelled, and prospective nerd subscriptions in the comments section.

Vaping Diaries #175: West Coast Vapers Review

West Coast Vapers is a Santa Fe Springs, California vape shop that has its own line of juices. The company names each of its e-liquids after different West Coast cities. I recently took a tour of three West Coast Vapers cities — Chico, Monterey Park, and Rolling Hills. While none of the juices blew me away, none of them were bad. Although none of these e-liquids dazzled me, some of them could be right for you. Read on for the full details.

Chico: This Northern California town is known for its major party college, where many students major in hangover recovery and minimization. As for the juice, it’s a mint-chocolate mix, similar to an Andes Candies and York Peppermint patties. Overall, I found the flavor nondescript. Many vendors have this type of flavor and the ones that stand out have a lovely creaminess (Ahlusion, Five Pawns, etc.). The West Coast Vapers version was lacking in this department. The creaminess here was tepid, making the juice a bit bland for me.

Juics Specs: 6mg nicotine

Monterey Park: Nearly half the residents of this Los Angeles County town are of Chinese decent. Some of the best dim sum I’ve had in SoCal has been in Monterey Park. As for the juice, it’s a mix of mango and guava. I enjoyed the bittersweet guava taste West Coast Vapers used in this juice, as guava one of my favorite fruits. Mango is also one of my favorite fruits, but the flavor here was rather ordinary. Several SoCal vape shops have excellent mango e-liquids from the likes of Bamskillicious and Vape Chemist. Compared to those juices, the mango here was pedestrian. I wish this juice had a better mango flavor to accompany the interesting guava note.

Juice Specs: 0mg nicotine

Rolling Hills: This Los Angeles County town is known for an abundance of rich people and a lack of traffic lights (rich people don’t need them). As for the juice, it’s a pleasant raspberry lemonade. Out of the three West Coast Vapers juices I tried, this was my favorite. A lot of lemonade e-liquids are too sweet for me, so I enjoyed the moderate sweetness of this juice. The raspberry and lemonade have a tiny bit of tanginess on top of the sweetness.

Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine

Steeping and Review Notes (Updated December 29, 2013)
On the advice of Wlad from Ahlusion, I’ve been trying a new steeping method as of December 27, 2012. When the e-liquids arrive, I leave them uncapped for five minutes. Previously, I left them uncapped for about two days. After the liquids are given a few minutes to oxidize, the caps are put back on.

RPad.TV e-liquid reviews focus on the flavor of the e-liquids, since throat hit and vapor production can be altered by the PG/VG ratio and nicotine level selected. Each juice is vaped over a period of days in a bottom-coil silica atomizer (The Russian and Aqua), various rebuildable dripping atomizers, and a clearomizer.

Vaping Diaries #174: Biowick Cotton Wick Review

In 2013, cotton became the wick material of choice for many vapers. Some people made the switch for its clean and neutral flavor, while others claim that cotton generates more vapor. Whatever the case, to get the best results out of cotton, it needs to be boiled and dried in a clean environment. Sterile cotton is available from pharmacies, but some find the loose gauze or cotton balls tricky to work with. Biowick (available from Vapor Hub) is pretreated and pre-threaded organic cotton that offers the benefits of the en vogue material in a convenient package.

Biowick is 100-percent organic cotton that’s unbleached and uncoated. Since it’s pretreated, you don’t need to boil and dry it before using it. This is great for people that are new to cotton wicks, as well as vapers that want a quick-and-easy solution. Unlike cotton balls and cotton gauze, Biowick comes in a convenient 3mm thread. There are some concerns with nonorganic cotton that’s use with sterile cotton materials, since various chemicals are used to grow the raw product and treat the final product. With BioWick, you don’t have to worry about any of that.

I set up two dripping atomizers and The Russian with Biowick. The material is really easy to work with and the flavor is very clean. For comparison, I set up a dripper with CVS sterile cotton that’s used by several local vape shops. Biowick’s flavor was a little bit cleaner, according to my tastebuds, while the CVS cotton had a slight aftertaste. Of course everyone has different tastebuds, so your mileage may vary.

Like other forms of cotton wick, Biowick can’t be dry burned (it’ll just…uh burn-burn). For vapers that constantly change flavors, it’s not the best choice since you can’t completely get rid of the previous flavor before switching to a new one. That’s not a knock on Biowick at all — all cotton wicking materials is like that.

The one downside to Biowick is its price — currently $9.95 for 10ft at Vapor Hub. Compare that to the popular Spinrite Sugar’n Cream Yarn, which costs $14 for 14oz. Again, what you’re getting with Biowick is convenience. Sugar’n Cream Yarn should be boiled with distilled water and dried in a clean environment. Biowick is ready to go out of the bag. Sterile cotton gauze and sterile cotton balls are also very cheap, but Biowick is already threaded, making it easier for some vapers to work with. There’s also the chemical concern I mentioned earlier.

For vapers that are already on the cotton train and have no problem taking the time to properly treat it, Biowick doesn’t make much sense. The same goes for vapers that are comfortable making wicks from sterile cotton gauze or cotton balls. For people that want to experiment with cotton wicks, Biowick is a convenient way to give it a go. It can also be a good choice for vapers that enjoy cotton wicks, but don’t want to fuss around with boiling it. While quality untreated cotton is available for a much lower price, the premium cost of Biowick can be worth it to some vapers.

Coffee Talk #617: The Evolution of Facebook Comments on ESPN.com

Last year, ESPN.com caused quite a stir when the powers that be decided to switch from a proprietary commenting system to Facebook comments. As expected, the switch was met with a lots of anger and resistance. Also expected was huge drop-off in comments. Now that people have gotten acclimated to the new system, discussion on ESPN.com is arguably as vibrant as ever. However, Facebook comments have introduced an interesting element to the banter…continued

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Ke$sha rebranding herself as Kesha, giggling as you review a vaping e-liquid made with horehound, or meeting excellent pro-wrestlers that vape, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

One of the reasons websites switch to Facebook comments is to make sure real people are commenting. (Of course someone can set up a dummy account specifically for outlets that use Facebook comments, but that’s too much effort for most people.) The idea is that people are less likely to leave spam and less likely to post viciously antagonizing comments if they’re posting as themselves. For the most part, this has worked over at ESPN.com. There’s certainly less spam (though you can always count on one of those “I make $xxxx a month working from home” posts) and the discussion is generally more civilized, but when things get nasty…damn.

Since ESPN.com posters can easily access Facebook accounts of other commenters, some of the replies can get nasty. The insults are more personal now that real information about posters is easily accessible. Facebook comments have led to insults about appearance, education, jobs, ethnicity, and more. While the trolling and hating has decreased, the insults have become way more personal.

As a frequent ESPN.com reader, I appreciate that spam has decreased through the use of Facebook comments. However, it makes me wince when I see bitingly personal insults over sports teams and sports stars. You can thank Facebook comments for that as well. It kind of makes me sad.

I know that many of you are also ESPN.com readers. Now that the site has used Facebook comments for several months, what do you think of the switch? Have you noticed any changes to the discussion? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).

RPadTV 2014 Vaping Giveaway III: Win an IBTanked Halfling

The next RPadTV 2014 vaping giveaway is for an IBTanked Halfling pyrex cartomizer tank, one matching drip tip, four Halfling cartomizers, the infamous IBTanked Thingy, and extra o-rings. This is a great kit for vapers that want the ease and convenience of a carto/tank in a diminutive package. IBTanked products are made in America and are among the finest carto/tanks you can buy. For more information on the company, check out my interview with IBTanked’s Harry Gibson from Vapetoberfest 2013.

For a chance to win this IBTanked Halfling kit, all you have to do is:

Follow me on Instagram (@RPadTV)
Post this photo and use the hashtag #RPadTVGiveaway3
As always, RPadTV mod owners get an additional five entries for every 2014 Vaping Giveaway — buy yours today (please)!

Now for the boring contest rules:

Only one entry per participant (not including additional entries for RPadTV mod owners)
Contest closes on March 23, 2014 11:59PM PST
Winner will be chosen with a random number generator
Must 18 or older to participate
Must have a U.S. mailing address to be eligible
RPad Productions Inc. is not responsible for the prize being lost or damaged by USPS

RPadTV 2014 Vaping Giveaway III: Win an IBTanked Halfling

For a chance to win this IBTanked Halfling kit, all you have to do is:

Follow me on Instagram (@RPadTV)
Post this photo and use the hashtag #RPadTVGiveaway3
As always, RPadTV mod owners get an additional five entries for every 2014 Vaping Giveaway — buy yours today (please)!

Now for the boring contest rules:

Only one entry per participant (not including additional entries for RPadTV mod owners)
Contest closes on March 23, 2014 11:59PM PST
Winner will be chosen with a random number generator
Must 18 or older to participate
Must have a U.S. mailing address to be eligible
RPad Productions Inc. is not responsible for the prize being lost or damaged by USPS

Vaping Diaries #173: Five Pawns Mixology Review (Castle Long, Lucena, Sixty-Four)

Five Pawns Mixology line is comprised of a quintet of e-liquids inspired by alcoholic beverages. Similar to many of the Five Pawns juices I tried last year, several of the Mixology e-liquids are complex and unique. One of them is among the most distinct e-liquids I’ve ever tried. Five Pawns has a fervent fan base and the Mixology line broadens the company’s reach by introducing new flavors. Mixology also takes Five Panws to the next level by serving up some wonderfully complex juice. While these Five Pawns Mixology juices aren’t for everyone (and really, no juice is for everyone), they’re so unique that they’re worth trying, at the very least.

To kick off my review of Five Pawns Mixology, I’ve been vaping Castle Long, Lucena, and Sixty-Four for the last 15 days. There have been early reviews of these e-liquids that were based on store samplings. Personally, I don’t think that reviews based off of five minutes of vaping are particularly useful. I’ve vaped several milliliters of these juices using a variety of equipment. That annoyance aside, let’s get to the tasting notes on these three Five Pawns Mixology juices.

Castle Long: Based on the successful Castle Long Reserve, this juice blends coconut, almond, vanilla, brown sugar, and bourbon flavors. Castle Long Reserve is a marvelous e-liquid that was one of my favorites of 2013. Unlike the “Reserve” edition, this juice is not steeped in an oak barrel. The result is a brighter, sharper, and sweeter flavor.

While I’m a fan of the outstanding mix of flavors, I still prefer Castle Long Reserve over Castle Long — at least in a relatively fresh state. The steeping really helps the flavors come together and the oak adds an additional layer of complexity. After a few months of steeping, I imagine that Castle Long will mellow out and become similar to Castle Long Reserve. On the practical side, Castle Long is $10 cheaper than Castle Long Reserve, which will appeal to many vapers. While it doesn’t have the fanfare of the previous release, Castle Long is a tasty and complex juice that’s a fine addition to the Five Pawns Mixology line.

Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine, 50/50 PG/VG

Lucena: This is a flavorful blend of white peach and spiced rum, topped with hazelnut. The peach flavor is delicious and natural, while the spiced rum gives it a kick. For my tastebuds, the hazelnut was slight and hard to pick up when vaping with a clearomizer.

Out of the three Five Pawns Mixology juices in this review, this one was the least impressive to the friends I shared it with. All of them enjoyed it, but found it less distinct than the other two. The general sentiment was that Lucena tastes like a spicy peach cobbler; that was Five Pawns’ intent, but the flavor wasn’t as unique as the others. Personally, I really enjoyed Lucena, but would have preferred a different balance. I’m always down to vape a tasty peach e-liquid and the peach flavor in this juice is great. However, I would have preferred a stronger rum kick…which is probably a result of all the rum I’ve consumed over the years.

Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine, 50/50 PG/VG

Sixty-Four: Easily one of the most unique juices I’ve ever tried, Sixty-Four was inspired by the popular mojito beverage. The flavors in this juice include grapefruit liqueur, cognac, cucumber, mint, lemon, and dill. The blend is unique and the complexity is striking. Sixty-Four has a slight citrus sweetness that’s accompanied by a pleasantly bitter tone.

Since the flavor is so unique, some of my friends loved Sixty-Four and some of them couldn’t stand it. The cucumber and dill flavors are really distinct. While I can see how it was inspired by the mojito, it reminded me more of fancy flavored water that’s served in spas. In Southern California, the market is dominated by fruity and candied flavors. Sixty-Four is a breath of fresh air that stands out and is one of the most “adult” juices I’ve ever tried. While it’s probably the most divisive juice in the Five Pawns Mixology line, I found it to be delicious in a way that’s atypical for e-liquids.

Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine, 50/50 PG/VG