Chris Leckness Talks Vaping

WARNING: The products discussed may contain or use nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical; in many cities and a few states, you must be 21 to purchase vaping products and/or products containing nicotine. Please familiarize yourself with and obey the law in your location.

Hello, esteemed Gear Diary readers. My name is Chris Leckness, and I am a 43-year-old certified geek. I will not bore you with the long story of geekdom that I have lived out, but I will share a little about my online life as a geek.

Chris Leckness Talks Vaping

I have been dabbling in web design and building community websites since 1997. I have created dozens of sites as a hobby, but most of them never made it far. A couple of sites, some of which you might have heard of before, that did do well were Aximsite and Mobilitysite. I no longer own these sites or any sites for that matter. I pretty much sold my entire tech site empire at the beginning of 2010. I continued to write on and off, mostly off, for Gottabemobile for a couple of years after that. I pretty much quit reviewing products and blogging in 2012. I have created a few other sites about subjects I became passionate about over the last 5 years, but never really stuck with any of them. In 2014, I found another subject I am passionate about and built a site around that passion, but gave it away when I got busy with life. I ended up selling the site to the ad agency I was using, and they never did anything with it.

Speaking to my self-proclaimed geek status, I got started in the mobile tech game after I created Aximsite, a site that grew to massive membership in 2003 after the launch of the Axim. Aximsite was a site about the Dell Axim Pocket PC and evolved beyond that into one of the largest PocketPC forums online and eventually became Mobilitysite. I started covering the smartphone arena and it was once said that I changed phones more often than I changed socks. During that time, I was award the Microsoft MVP Award for 7 years. I was awarded the MVP award for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile, but I spent 1 year as an MVP in Zune and digital media. I was also lucky enough to become a member of Mobius alongside Judie. I have written a few articles in PocketPC Magazine and iPhone Life Magazine as well.

In 2012, I went from reviewing phones to being a regular phone consumer. I purchased the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon’s network and used it exclusively for almost 2 years. This doesn’t seem like a big deal unless you know how many phones I would have gone through in that same time-frame when I was reviewing. After the Nexus, I moved over to AT&T and purchased the Samsung Galaxy S4. I used it for 18 months and finally got new phone last month, the Galaxy S6 Edge. I absolutely love it and use it along with my Motorola 360 smartwatch.

Don’t worry,  I am not here on Gear Diary to share phone and watch reviews and opinions with you. I am here for another passion, Vaping.

Judie and I have been friends for 10+ years. I still remember our first conversation where she commented about my southern voice and the way I presented devices to the public in a way that anyone could understand. We’ve had a mutual respect for each other over the years while we ran our own sites. I have told her before that I would love to share with her audience someday. I really never had that opportunity since I have always run my own sites.

About 6 months ago, Judie contacted me to learn more about electronic cigarettes since I was running a site where I was evangelizing vaping and reviewing e-cig products. Unfortunately, I was not able to help her much since the item she was trying to learn more about was a different type of vaporizer than the types I was interested in. At that time, I told her that I would love to share some e-cig knowledge with the Gear Diary readers. I haven’t had much time until now, and since I pretty much gave away the site I had created about vaping, I decided to contact Judie again.

Chris Leckness Talks Vaping

So, here I am to share some information about Electronic Cigarettes with the Gear Diary readers!

I plan to write a few informative articles to help debunk some of the negative press that vaping and e-cigarettes are getting in the mainstream media. I plan to write a few tutorials about what vaping is. I also plan to write reviews on the hottest new products for vapers. Depending on the temperature of this audience, I might even share some advocacy info as well. The government, big tobacco, and the pharmaceutical industry are trying to shut the e-cig market down, and it’s not looking good for those of use that use e-cigarettes as a safer method of nicotine delivery.

I look forward to sharing!

If you want to know more about what vaping is, check this article out.

My E-Cigarette/Vaping Story

I smoked for 27 years and I am now done! In fact, it’s been 1 year and 3 months since I have had a cigarette. I had tried to quit dozens of times. I tried the patch, I tried gum, dipping, Wellbutrin, and nothing had worked until e-cigarettes.

In 2009 at CES. I was waiting for my appointment with Palm to check out the Palm Pre and passed by a booth selling e-cigs that looked like actual cigarettes. The guy running the booth handed me a couple of samples, I took a puff and was like, “whoa… that’s bad!” I proceeded to tell this guy that I smoked menthol and he gave me a menthol version. It was bad too, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him a 2nd time. Since I was press, he handed me some additional samples to take back with me. I never used them. The experience (taste and feel) was so awful that I swore I’d never give them another chance. I don’t even remember the name of that company. It was cool how it did look like a real cig, and it even had an LED on the end to look like a real cherry.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine in Memphis, Tennessee was telling me how he quit smoking using e-cigs. I wasn’t interested. He ended up getting so excited about e-cigs that he started selling products at a flea market. Eventually, he opened one of the 1st vape shops in Memphis, Zooks Vapor. I still wasn’t ready to try them.

Last year, I ran into some contractors at work that used to smoke. All 3 of them were using e-cigs now. One of them was a guy that I’ve known for years and I said to myself, “If he can quit, so can I”. On that day, I decided I wanted to give them another try.

The 1st thing I did was to call my friend at Zooks Vapor. He told me some things to look for and some to look out for. I was going to order a kit from him but found that there was a local store where I live that had just opened 3-4 months earlier. I decided to check them out in hopes of finding what I need without having to wait a couple of days for a shipment. I headed in and the owner recommended the same device for me that my friend Todd had suggested. I purchased the MVP 2.0, a Kanger Unitank, and a couple of bottles of E-Juice and headed home to try it out.

Awesome!

I haven’t craved a real cigarette since that day.

 

DISCLAIMER:
The statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here is not meant as a substitute for or alternative to information from healthcare practitioners. Please consult your healthcare professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires this notice.

Vaping products are only intended for sale to adults 21 years or older. The reviews and information posted on this site are not intended to be used as a substitute for professional health or medical advice and/or information, as no two people are alike. You and your doctor know your body best, and you should always get professional advice that is specific to you before trying any of the suggested actions, solutions, remedies, or instructions found on this site. The owners, editors, contributors, administrators, and other staff of Gear Diary LLC and Gear Diary are not qualified medical professionals, and the materials presented here are not intended to be nor do they constitute actionable professional advice.

About the Author

Gear Diary Staff
Gear Diary was founded on September 30, 2006, with the goal to create a website that would not easily be labeled. Everyone who is part of Gear Diary is a professional who uses technology in their work and daily lives. On this site, we share our enthusiasm while exploring the gear we use — the equipment that makes our lives easier, more entertaining, more productive, and more manageable. Our hope is that Gear Diary visitors find this site to be a welcoming, friendly, and accessible place to learn about and discuss interesting topics — and not only those that are tech-related! Gear Diary is a place to discover and explore all kinds of new gear, including smartphones, computers, kitchen gadgets, Toys, EDC, camping gear, or even your next new car! You can follow us on Twitter @GearDiarySite.