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Vaping Diaries #357: The Vape Barrel Interview

I hang out at Monster Vape Lounge frequently and have seen The Vape Barrel’s Plutonium e-liquid flying off the store’s shelves. With that in mind, I was keen to interview someone from the company at Vape Nights 2015. I spent some time with The Vape Barrel’s Rob Harrington to learn more about the company’s origins, hear some flavor descriptions, and learn about what’s coming next.

The Vape Barrel was started by three friends that have been smoking cigarettes together since high school. Tired of their corporate jobs and thrilled that vaping got them off of tobacco cigarettes, the three friends started an e-liquid company. The Vape Barrel’s flavors are layered, combining a number of different ingredients to offer a unique flavor. So far, three friends are off to a fantastic start.

As I mentioned in the intro, Plutonium is wildly popular at Monster Vape Lounge. This juice combines strawberry, mango, lemonade, and peach. As a fan of dessert e-liquids, I was drawn to Neptunium. This juice features toffee, vanilla, and Bavarian cream. The Vape Barrel has put an interesting twist on tobacco with Californium. Aimed at vapers just coming off of cigarettes, Californium is a blend of tobacco, peaches, and cream.

On a loosely related note, I want to compliment The Vape Barrel on its choice of swag. Most vaping company’s sell or give away snapback caps for promotional purposes. As a baseball fan that prefers fitted or flex-fit hats, I’m not a fan of snapback caps. (I also associate snapbacks with obnoxious younglings that use Snapchat as their primary form of communication.) Instead of the usual black snapback that most vape companies offer, The Vape Barrel has a classy grey flex-fit hat.

Thank you for indulging me on that hat tangent. To learn more about The Vape Barrel, check out my Vape Nights 2015 chat with Rob below.

Special thanks to Flavaho for sponsoring this interview.

Vaping Diaries #356: 528 Custom Vapes Interview

528 Custom Vapes has been serving up sub-ohm tanks before sub-ohm tanks were cool. While these kinds of tanks are hugely popular in the 2015 vaping world, 528 Custom Vapes has been serving them up for years. Many vapers consider the company a trailblazer and cite it as a big influence on today’s rebuildable tank atomizers. At Vape Nights 2015, I caught up with 528 Custom Vapes owner Tom Starkey to learn more about the company, hear about the Monster v3 tank, and learn about future products.

Tom told me a great story about the company’s origins. 528 Custom Vapes was initially funded by a check Tom received after wrecking his car. The company’s name was derived from the apartment he was living in at the time. Local vapers used to say, “Hey, we have to go to 528 to get out tanks customized!” 528 Custom Vapes became popular for its modified Kayfun atomizers. While the Kayfun was known for its great flavor, the vapor production left something to be desired for vapers accustomed to rebuildable dripping atomizers. Tom’s modifications drastically increased the airflow, allowing for one of the first — if not the first — tanks suitable for cloud chasers.

The modified Kayfuns went onto be known as the 528 Custom Vapes Monster. The company is currently on version three of the product. In the clip below, Tom goes over some of the features of the Monster v3. He also spoke about future products. 528 Custom Vapes is currently working on a dripper. I’m excited to see Tom’s take on a dripping atomizer.

Lastly, Tom spoke about the 528 Custom Vapes logo. It reminds many older vapers of the Thundercats cartoon from the ’80s. The symbol was actually influenced by Tom’s friends in the tattoo business, rather than the cartoon.

To learn more about 528 Custom Vapes, check out my chat with Tom Starkey below.

Special thanks to Revol Vapors for sponsoring this interview.

Vaping Diaries #355: Off the Record Liquids Interview

It was excellent hanging out with Off the Record Liquids chief alchemist George Alva at Vape Nights 2015. His company makes some complex and inventive juices. As you’ve probably figured out, Off the Record Liquids uses a musical theme and features a 45 rpm record adapter in its logo (for those of you under 30 or so, here’s info on a 45 rpm adapter). George infused his experience in the music business and love of music into his e-liquid company.

In the interview below, George told me about two Off the Record Liquids flavors. First up is Ziggy Starburst, which replicates the flavor of Hawaiian shave ice (not shaved ice!) with a big kick of jackfruit. Since George started vaping in the Philippines, he wanted to prominently feature an Asian fruit in this flavor. It’s a great choice for vapers that love candy and fruit juices. Next up, he told me about Raw Power, which is RPadholic N8R’s brother’s favorite juice. This concoction blends cigar tobacco, butterscotch, vanilla custard, and hazelnut coffee. It’s one of the more inventive tobacco blends I’ve seen from a SoCal juice maker.

One of George’s newer lines is Vapor Pudding. This line has started out with Chocolate Vanilla Swirl. If you’re a fan of Snack Packs then you’ll definitely want to check out this juice. In the future, Vapor Pudding will have at butterscotch-Butterfinger pudding.

In addition to his own Off the Record Liquids and Vapor Pudding lines, George is offering his ISO-certified lab to partners. He will manufacturer juices for companies or co-release them depending on the business relationship the client wants. For stores that want to make a house juice or DIY juice makers that want to take their mixing to the next level, it’s an interesting opportunity.

To learn more about Off the Record Liquids, Vapor Pudding, and more, kindly check out my chat with George Alva below.

Special thanks to Revol Vapors for sponsoring this interview.

Vaping Diaries #354: DTU Modz Interview

DTU Modz makes some of the best and hardest hitting unregulated box mods on the market. At Vape Nights 2015, I caught up with Mr. DTU himself, Devon Dalzell, to learn what makes his box mods stand out. In terms of performance, his box mods use solid-gauge copper wiring, eschew MOSFET switches for additional performance gains, utilize a floating 510 connector, and feature a high-amp switch. There are a glut of box mods on the market that use MOSFET and inferior wiring; if you’re looking for the highest performance then you should definitely give DTU Modz a look.

As far as color options go, DTU Modz offers a wide variety of solid colors. Among the current selections, the white and pink boxes stood out to me. In the near future, Devon said that he’ll be offering a number of splatter and camouflage options. No matter your taste, DTU Modz has a color or pattern that should make you happy.

While the new colors will land in the immediate future, a new version of the DTU Modz box will arrive later down the line. Devon showed me a prototype that he’s working on and RPadholic N8R got to film the outside of the box. The upcoming box mod is a bit sleeker than the current offering — smaller than the current DTU Modz boxes, but larger than the common Hammond 1590G boxes. It felt comfortable in my relatively small hands and I dig the way it looks. Since this box is a prototype, N8R wasn’t allowed to film the internals, but I can tell you that the wiring is very clean. While I foresee a pink DTU Modz box in my future, I’m excited for the next version as well.

To learn more about DTU Modz, check out my chat with Devon below and be sure to give him a follow on Instagram (linked above).

Special thanks to The Vapor Spot for sponsoring this interview.

Monday Housekeeping: Disqus Returns!

I’ve switched back to the Disqus commenting system. While the WordPress Jetpack commenting system looked promising, it failed on multiple levels. It wouldn’t allow comment nesting and in a few cases it ate your comments. I apologize to any of you that wrote long comments and had them obliterated by WordPress Jetpack. While I have some issues with Disqus, I know that it works and many people love it. So kindly dust off your Disqus accounts and leave a comment below to make sure this thing works with the current RPadTV theme.

A few notes:

I’m importing newer comments as I type. Hopefully the import will go smoothly and will finish by the end of the day.
I have disabled Disqus’ cookie tracking, just in case you have any privacy concerns. To double up, I recommend going into your Disqus account to make sure you’re opted out of the company’s additional tracking.

AMC Releases First Trailer For Preacher TV Series

AMC has released the first trailer for the Preacher television series. Based on the outstanding Preacher comics by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, the television show is being written and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. A wonderful combination of heady writing, bizarre characters, and grotesque violence, the comics are some of my all-time favorites. When the show was announced, I was excited and apprehensive. The trailer, embedded below, gives a clearer picture of where the show is heading, but I shall continue to temper my excitement with caution.

The clip shows Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer (the titular preacher), Joseph Gilgun as the vampiric Cassidy, and Ruth Negga as Tulip. As far as the protagonists go, Jesse and Tulip don’t really look the way the comic-book characters do in my head, but I could get used to them if they play the parts right. Cassidy seems on point, with his high-pitched voice and Irish charm. Considering that this is the first trailer for the series, not a lot was shown, but the clip did indicate that the show would be as wacky and violent as the comics were. Hopefully the next trailer has more scenes with The Saint of Killers and Arseface.

Again, since this was the first footage AMC has released, this was more of a teaser than anything else. With that in mind, it did make me more curious about the show. While Walking Dead has been a popular television show for AMC, there are some purists that are…unhappy with the liberties the showrunners have taken. I’m hoping that Rogen and Goldberg are fanboy enough to stick as close to the source material as possible while deftly adapting parts of the comics that translate poorly to television.

I have faith that Rogen and Goldberg will make a supreme effort to make Preacher nerds proud, but I also worry about the scale of the whole thing. Preacher was one of the most unique and brilliant comics ever made. Adapting it to television — without pissing off fanboys — seems like an extremely difficult task. While it was nice to finally see a trailer for Preacher, I remain apprehensively excited. How about you guys and gals? Please share your thoughts on the trailer in the comments section.

Preacher will premiere on AMC in 2016.

Coffee Talk #665: ESPN’s Closure of Grantland is Disheartening

On October 30, 2015, ESPN made the horrible decision to shut down Grantland. The website offered a fantastic combination of sports and pop-culture coverage. It quickly became my favorite website on the Internet shortly after it launched. Grantland’s writing was longer, smarter, and sharper than most of what you’ll find on the Internet. The site’s closure is disheartening on several levels.

As a reader, Grantland’s closure is disappointing because it had some of ESPN’s best writing. The site excelled at long-form articles that were informative and entertaining. It had a wide variety of writers that skillfully covered a wide variety of topics. While sports was Grantland’s emphasis, it also covered movies, music, television, pro-wrestling, and more. No matter the topic, I could always depend on a well-written article on Grantland that always entertained me and often left me a bit smarter than I was before I read it.

As a reader, I also appreciated Grantland’s simple layout. The design emphasized content and the advertising was tame by today’s standards. Grantland loaded quickly on desktop and mobile devices, unlike some of my other favorite websites (I’m looking at you, The Verge). Sadly, a website with great writing and user-friendly design is uncommon these days. That Grantland offered both was extraordinary.

As a longtime Internet writer, Grantland’s closure is depressing. It shows that corporate hacks are unwilling and/or unable to support great content creation. It’s sad that the dozens of fantastic editors and writers at Grantland no longer have jobs, while ESPN continues to pay Stephen A. Smith to act like an idiot on television. It makes me wonder what kind of support the website had from the suits, its advertisers, and its readers. Obviously something was missing. The high-quality content was there, but did the suits support it with enough marketing? Did the site not get enough ad dollars? Were people uninterested in longer articles? It’s baffling.

As a longtime ESPN.com reader, I’m amused that Grantland’s closure killed the best writing the company had to offer. I used to love ESPN.com, but it has become garbage. While the site is ESPN’s Internet flagship, the writing on Grantland and FiveThirtyEight (another ESPN-owned website) was superior to anything on the “main” website. ESPN.com has devolved in a mashup of moronic click bait, AP reposts, thoughtless opinion pieces, daily LeBron James updates, and the occasional solid article. Copyediting is, sadly, optional on ESPN.com.

Add it all up and it’s disheartening. My favorite website is gone. Another corporate overlord has pissed on the value of quality content. Instead of enjoying my daily dose of Grantland, I’ll have to read the crap on ESPN.com. Oh well, maybe it’s time to give Yahoo! Sports another look.

Coffee Talk #665: The Best Hurricanrana

Last week while I was reading about hurricane Patricia, my mind drifted and I started thinking about hurricanranas. The first time I saw the move was in a match between two Japanese wrestlers. I couldn’t believe what I saw! At the time, mat wrestling and power moves were the norm in pro-wrestling. Jimmy Snuka’s superfly splash was as dynamic as it got. Years later, Scott Steiner popularized the move on American wrestling programs; it was the same deal — lots of wrestling fans couldn’t believe the move. These days, hurricanranas are fairly common, but they still get a nice pop from the crowd. Today’s Coffee Talk is about your favorite hurricanrana. Please let me know which wrestler you think does it best and, if you can remember, your reaction to the first hurricanrana you ever saw.

As for me, I’m torn between two variations of the hurricanrana. First up is Dragon Kid’s Dragonrana. It’s a top-rope somersault into a hurricanrana. The move requires great timing from both wrestlers, particularly the receiver. In order for Dragon Kid to change momentum and make the move aesthetically appealing, the receiver has to executive a powerful flip. Check it out the Dragonrana below.

Next up is the tope con hilo hurricanrana. Part of me loves the move simply because I often refer to it as the Cornholio hurricanrana and imagine Beavis doing it. It’s similar to the Dragonrana, but the tope con hilo hurricanrana has the opponent on the floor and the executor starting inside the ring. Many fans think of it as a suicide senton into a hurricanrana. The tope con hilo hurricanrana is arguably more dynamic than the Dragonrana, but I find the former more impressive because the latter gives the receiver a few seconds to adjust for mistakes. Check out the tope con hilo hurricanrana below, performed by WWE Superstar Neville when he was known as Pac.

Now it’s your turn! Kindly let me know about your favorite hurricanrana and your first hurricanrana experience. In case you need a refresher, check out the clip below with ten excellent ‘ranas.

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash Preview (Wii U)

At E3 2015, I spent a couple of hours playing Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for Wii U. I’m a longtime fan of the series and have spent hundreds of hours playing Mario Tennis games on numerous platforms (N64, GBC, GBA, and GameCube). The earlier games did a brilliant job of imposing everything that’s adorable about the Mario universe on a solid tennis game; they’re addictive, fun to look at, and play well. Last week, I played a near-final version of Mario Tennis Ultra Smash. I was already sold on the game at E3 2015, but after playing it with more characters, I can’t wait for its release.

Unlike Mario Power Tennis for Wii, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash does not use motion controls. Instead, it offers a standard gamepad experience. While fans of flailing their arms about will be disappointed, as a longtime player of games in this series, I like the traditional controls much better.

In the E3 2015 build, there were only two playable characters — Mario and Bowser. Last week, I played a doubles match that pitted Waluigi and Peach against Donkey Kong and Rosalina. The characters have distinct movements and shots. For example, Rosalina floats around the court instead of running. I was told that Yoshi takes adorably small steps, since his legs are so short. My character, Waluigi, was lanky and focused on defense. Like the previous games, I really appreciate how the different characters have noticeably different levels of speed, power, and spin.

Confirmed playable characters include Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser, Yoshi, Boo, and Donkey Kong. In addition to the characters available from the get-go, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash will have some unlockable characters. Known unlockables include Bowser, Jr., Toadette, Dry Bowser, and Sprixie Princess. I’m looking forward to seeing what other players there are to discover and hoping there will be some nifty crossovers.

There will be a number of different courts and surfaces in Mario Tennis Ultra Smash. The real-world surfaces include clay, grass, and hard courts. Clay is the slowest and has a higher bounce. Grass is the fastest and has a lower bounce. Hard courts play fast and have a level bounce. There will also be mushroom- and water-themed courts

What makes Mario Tennis Ultra Smash different from its predecessors is its generous use of power-ups. Players can pick up mega mushrooms and grow to a ridiculous size. Naturally, this gives the powered player a ridiculous amount of power that’s difficult to handle; counter-shots have to be times more precisely when dealing with a powered-up player. Visually, players that consumer a mega mushroom temporarily grow to take up a large chunk of the television screen. While the in-game effect is fierce, the visual effect is bold and hilarious.

If you want to have a more traditional tennis experience (you know, one where players aren’t taller than buildings) then you can opt for a mode that eschews power-ups. In this mode, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash plays more like its predecessors. The exception is the new “jump shot” technique, which can be used in all modes.

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash looks like a fine addition to the Mario Tennis series. From the limited time I’ve had with the game, it looks and plays great. Like the previous installments, the developers have done a superior job at making the players and courts feel distinct. The power-ups add a new layer of fun, especially in party-game situations. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash appears to have everything I loved about its predecessors, with a new wrinkle. I can’t wait to storm the courts as Waluigi when the game hits in late November!

Coffee Talk #664: Freddy vs. Jason

Since it’s Halloween week, let’s have a horror-based column and poll in today’s Coffee Talk. I want to know which horror series you like best. In the red corner, it’s Freddy Krueger and A Nightmare on Elm Street. In the blue corner, it’s Jason Voohees and Friday the 13th. Both series have scared millions of moviegoers and have earned millions of dollars. Both have had frightful high points and unfortunate sequels that are best forgotten. Come to think of it, both series have gotten the reboot treatment as well. While A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th certainly have a lot in common, I’m certain that you guys and gals prefer one over the other. Kindly vote in the poll below and explain your choice in the comments section.

As for me, I’m going with A Nightmare on Elm Street. There are so many things that I love about the movies and, especially, its villain. The movies had several moments that were legitimately scary. The movies also had some of the earliest instances of “meta” jokes that made sense to me in my youth. I love that Freddy Krueger was portrayed by the guy that played the goofy alien in V and later by the guy that played Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears. In addition to being a fun movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street III exposed Dokken to a mainstream audience.

Most of all, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund’s version) was a charming villain. He was funny and had a warped sense of humor. There were several times when I was rooting for him to kill the Elm Street kids, which felt all kinds of wrong but is a testament to the character’s actor and writers. While Jason Voorhees certainly had a more physical and intimidating presence, he was slow and stupid. If I wanted to be entertained by slow and stupid, I’d just watch a Batista match on WWE Network (zing!).

Anyway, that’s my vote and explanation. Now let’s hear yours! Kindly take the poll and expand on your choice.

[poll id=”196″]