I've got some...pretty serious anxiety issues. And a bit of an aversion to pharmacologically-induced zombism, which means I'm more than hesitant to try anything a doctor would recommend. Because, really, I can't imagine that the out-of-control panic feeling could possibly be made better by anything that would make me feel even less in control of who I really am.

So, I turned to the occasional cigarette. And, wouldn't you know it, those evil little tubes bring something other than dire warnings of 'worse than heroin' addiction and slow, lingering social and literal death from the pneumonia you developed after being banished to the special smoking booth that just happens to be located under twenty feet of water in the underground, unheated pool....

Just a little bit, and I'd be able to get the shaking under control. It would force me to control my breathing, too, which isn't easy. And, sure, smoking would make me a little angry, but that comes with the 'nice, orderly thought process' benefit, and beats the living hell out of panic.

Once or twice, they even helped with minor headaches.

But, it was smoking. And smoking is bad. And something I couldn't ever allow myself to get comfortable with, even while supporting the rights of others to smoke.

...except, I've found an alternative. A nice, modern alternative. Electronic cigarettes.

They have flavours. And options. Oh, the options they have. Options that you can no longer find in the regular smoking world, unless you spend thirty to fifty on a box of nicoderm. But they don't...really count, now do they?

For example -- I can get zero nicotine chocolate liquid, fill a cartridge with it, and have the activity without the nicotine if I want to. And I just might. But, if I don't, I can get a low or medium level fluid, and have the flavour, but with nicotine. But not nearly as much as I'd likely be getting if I were smoking a real 'organic' cigarette -- as Gremlin's calling them.

...and, aside from the initial expense -- which is about the cost of a carton in most states, these days -- it's cheap. It might even be cheaper than my rather excessive Coke habit. And I'm talking about the cola variety, here.

All I can really hope for is that they don't suddenly tax and regulate this into ultra-expensive hell. They probably will, but I'm sure it'll take a while. They have to move at the speed of government, after all, even if they do decide to fake a bunch of science....

Hey. Maybe they'll get so focused on this, they'll leave your sweet and caffeinated drinks alone for another couple of years....

If you're curious about this -- maybe interested in trying it out, I can recommend the JOYE 510 -- also called the Titan, and about a thousand other names. And I can recommend Midwest Vapor and E-SmokeyTreats. There's also BluCigs, which...I can't quite recommend yet, as much as I'd like to.

The 510 is a nice little model -- and, understand, I'm saying this as someone who's never tried anything else. It's a little longer than a 100, and probably a little thicker. Definitely heavier. And it's manually controlled -- there's a button on the battery that lights up the LED [mine's blue; Gremlin has a red one] and turns on the atomiser. The atomiser heats up the liquid in the cartridge, [a little plastic thing with...y'know those fishtank things? Fluval make them? Kinda looks like that. Like cotton, but...not. That soaks up the liquid, and it just sits there.] making steam, which you inhale. Just like a cigarette. Except without the extra chemicals, including that new 'fire safe' stuff. The liquid's just Propylene Glycol or Vegetable Glycerine [PG or VG], nicotine in a level of your choosing, and flavouring [I think it's usually candy oils, or something like that]. You can buy pre-filled cartridges for whatever model you have, or, in some cases, buy blanks to fill with 'nicquid' of your choosing.

There are, obviously, risks. Nicotine is a poison, and, if you use too much, you'll get sick. Just like if you smoke too many cigarettes -- more than you usually do, that is. And, if you get any of the liquid on your skin, you should at least wipe it off, if not wash it off. It can be an irritant. And I guess you also run the risk of getting a flavour you don't like, but that can sometimes be avoided by either ordering a cheap batch of prefilled carts, or by ordering a 'taster' or 'sample', which are sometimes offered at places dealing exclusively in 'nicquid'.

You can make your own flavours, though, by getting the right ingredients. And there are communities online with people doing just that. The BluCigForum is really the only one that I can personally recommend. Some of the others might not be as welcoming or friendly....

That's really all I have right now. I'll probably be able to say more later, when I've tried more flavours, or had an incredibly positive or negative experience with some company or group of people....

And, of course, they feel the need to wedge their square little pegs into whatever non-square-shaped hole they can, just to get themselves attention. So, they're going after videogames, and making little flashgames in an attempt to...I don't know, annoy people into siding with them.

Their latest is this little...bastard lovechild of memory and a target shooting game. Without requiring either memory or shooting. Because you can't actually expect someone to remember anything, and you can't really allow shooting.

The little 'cards' flip over to reveal pictures of animals, fruit, or breasts. And they're all NES-style. And this is somehow supposed to encourage you to...I don't know, not test for breast cancer in little pink owls. Seriously. Little pink owls. Or pears. Because a lot of breast cancer research is done on pears.

I guess the game is supposed to instill an aversion to anything but breasts. Except it doesn't, really, because there's no apparent penalty for clicking on the wrong thing, or neglecting to click on the right thing. Time will run out if you neglect to click on the right thing, but that's about it.

I don't see why they insist upon cranking out such crap. Maybe PeTA supporters think it's good. Or maybe they can't actually find someone to work for them that's knowledgable and creative enough to come up with something better. Maybe those types all eat meat. I don't see why that would stop them from hiring, though. Seriously, they already have high-ranking hypocrites. What's one more?

Like, why was that one Decepticon able to pass as human? And why, exactly, does the little cube shard -- like the regular cube -- instantly make little Decepticons? Are we working on fucked up Gremlins rules here? And by that, I mean The New Batch and not the less-goofy/more-evil first movie. Do these things eventually grow up and become un-evil? I kinda always wondered about that when watching Gremlins, too, but...it was less annoying [until the sequel].

And what the fuck was the deal with the icecream truck made out of two things that suddenly was able to become two different, newer cars?

Also: who the fuck was Emperor Palpatine? I know, that sounds like a very stupid question, but, seriously, that guy that Megatron magically teleported back to...wherever to talk to...who the fuck was he, besides the Emperor?

And, on that subject, how the fuck did Megatron get there so quickly? And, if they can teleport [and it seems that they can], why don't they just do that all the time? Is it just something the Decepticons can do? Is that why the Autobots are always being air-lifted in? And why the hell does Prime need a parachute?

And why the fuck is Jetfire a crotchety old english guy with a cane?

...please, don't make a sequel just to answer these questions. That would be bad.

Also, I just had to see if they really verified names or anything. They, uh, don't.

I'm not really there for the social networking, although I have reconnected with a couple of highschool friends.

...must go play more. See if I can actually get that 100k badge while I mentally chew on this problem I'm having with the website I'm doing.

But, I fixed it. By deleting my Yahoo account and re-adding it. And, while I was doing that, I loaded up regular Yahoo messenger, and found out that I, apparently, am now a 'power user'. Which means I get a little crown, ribbon or trophy next to my name. And I get to pick from a series of really silly online/offline icons. Like this:

...so, I don't know what the hell's going on. But now everyone knows that I'm online all the time.

12:17:18 AM ahmet_zebari: <private> To hunter.the_crazychick hello iam male from turkey im 38 year old i need a cam sex if your need ? can we make to love by cam?
12:18:23 AM ahmet_zebari: <private> To hunter.the_crazychick why didnt answer me
12:18:40 AM ahmet_zebari: <private> To hunter.the_crazychick dont afraid me i dont eat you and fuck you

And then, this happened. So I decided to respond to it. And it was funny.

cjudd25* <arrives> Male
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:36:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
cjudd25: <private> Hi, can I ask you a question?
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:37:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
Hunter.the_CrazyChick : (in PM to cjudd25) What.
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:38:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
cjudd25 : (in PM to Hunter.the_CrazyChick) i have always wanted to wear a thong in front of a girl but I ahve never bought one, what color do you think I should get?
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:39:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
cjudd25* <leaves the room>
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:40:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
Hunter.the_CrazyChick : (in PM to cjudd25) Obviously, you should get Victoria's Secret Pink Cotton Thong in bz4-Rainbow Geo.
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:41:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
cjudd25 : (in PM to Hunter.the_CrazyChick) no really, do you think I should get a black one?
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:42:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
Hunter.the_CrazyChick : (in PM to cjudd25) No.
cjudd25 : (in PM to Hunter.the_CrazyChick) what then?
LOG DATA Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:43:37 Hunter.the_CrazyChick, Religion:1::1361
Hunter.the_CrazyChick : (in PM to cjudd25) I already answered that.
cjudd25 : (in PM to Hunter.the_CrazyChick) but thats a girls style
Hunter.the_CrazyChick : (in PM to cjudd25) So? You might as well go all the way with it.

...and then he disappeared. So sad. Because it could've been funny.

Milwaukee-area citizen Robert C. Braun of the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) distributed at the meeting copies of a claim for damages he and three other plaintiffs filed April 28 with the city; the complainants seek the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means the library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop. The claim also demands $120,000 in compensatory damages ($30,000 per plaintiff) for being exposed to the book in a library display, and the resignation of West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss for “allow[ing] this book to be viewed by the public.”

That's from here.

Also, here's some video.

The guy might be hard to follow. I think what he's advocating may be...people who are suffering from a terminal illness, and likely to die soon...should go into the library, steal books they find offensive, and destroy them.

...and they're suing for the right to burn a book. A book from the library.

I hate people.

...there'll be pictures eventually. Right now, I'm testing something out. Something involving glue sticks and a roll of Caution Biohazard tape....

I kinda got locked into this post title [because I'm lazy] when I noticed that there was a new version of Wordpress available. So I upgraded...and now I'm stuck with this title. Because I'd rather waste all these characters complaining about it than, y'know, click a few times and come up with a new title.

Anyway....

So, sometime last month, I ordered a bunch of stuff from DealExtreme. Again. Because my DS Lite's hinge broke, and the touch screen hasn't been calibrateable in...over a year now. And, while I was there, I decided to get a few other things that would let me do the sorts of things I've always wanted to do with my handhelds....

Which is why I've had sorta-success. See, I haven't actually gotten 'round to doing all the stuff I need to do to my DS yet, but I have been playing, uh, homebrew [yeah, that's it, homebrew] games on it with much more ease than I used to. Because I've got a different flashcart now.

I was doing that last night. And, encouraged by that little success, I installed custom firmware on my PSP this morning. Really way easier than it sounds, if you're smart enough to order a Pandora battery before getting yourself into a potential mess.

Also, I recommend a great deal of reading up on the subject, not just so you know what you're doing, but so you know which tutorial was written by a blithering fucking idiot and which one was written by someone who not only knows what they're doing, but can communicate it in a way that makes sense. Lots of the former, not many of the latter.

...then I installed custom firmware on Gremlin's PSP.

Custom firmware is nice. Now I can watch movies without having to convert them into that obnoxious string of letters and numbers -- that iPod video format works just fine! And I can play ROMs. And read pdfs. And stuff!

...when I'm done experimenting, I'll probably start 'training' for actually fixing my DS, since that really, really needs to be done.