27 December 2008

KUDOS!!!! NJOY Alternative Smoking Device

[mirror post from Kudos & Kudzu]

I am happy to report that my newest purchase regarding my health has proved an effective and outstanding solution.

I speak of the NJoy Alternative Smoking device. This was my Xmas gift to myself. I knew that one of my biggest obstacles with quitting was my oral fixation. Yes, I'm orally fixated. My pleasure-center is my mouth. I like to talk, smoke, laugh, sing, drink coffee, have a beverage all the time, wear flavored lip balms, kiss, (and other intimate things)...to name a few examples. What i missed more than anything else whenever I tried to quit smoking in the past, was the actual ACT of smoking. There was no substitute for that behavior.

In the early 90's I recognized this fact and used it for a speech class wherein we had to develop a product and give a presentation. Unfortunately, I had some deadbeat (younger) classmates on my team. I had to do most of the work. I came up with the product (LifeLight, Vitamist) and presented it. It was an alternative smoking device that produced MIST or VAPOR rather than smoke, and worked electronically, providing the same pleasurable sensation, but also added healthy ingredients and flavors. I even had vitamins and herbal supplements in mine. But alas, I did not have the capital to patent or develop and market it.

Well, NJoy has a product like this, though they don't yet offer vitamins. They do have flavors (Apple, Vanilla. They also come in menthol and non-menthol).

It consists of a cartridge with a smoking tip (like a Tiparillo) and a rechargeable tube. The NCIG Burgundy Starter kit cost $74.99 and then I paid $19.99 for the extra cartridges. So for a little over $100, I was on my way to being a non-smoker. The kit comes with two rechargeable tube/batteries and the charger, plus the sample cartridges, but I ordered the extra box of 5 cartridges. They come in menthol and non-menthol, with or without nicotine, and in different strengths. So you can start with the nicotine, while avoiding the 300 toxins that are in most cigarettes, and then wean yourself off the nicotine by going lower and then to the nicotine-free cartridges. Or not. You'll still be doing yourself a HUGE health favor, by getting rid of the smoke and toxins.

Another perk? Cost. According to the literature, the cartridges are supposed to be equivalent to one pack or perhaps one and a half. I was delighted to discover that they last twice as long, or more, for me. I think they might even last 3 or 4 days. I'll keep track of that. So, that $125 per month I was paying for a pack a day habit--now will drop to about $40, maybe less. And I will always have the option of ceasing use of the NJoy. But I probably won't for reasons mentioned before regarding my fixation.

I've been using my NJoy for 5 days now, and NEVER WANTED TO SMOKE A CIGARETTE. I have three packs sitting on the corner of my desk and never once felt the need to open one of them. It has been amazingly successful. It has been the easiest QUIT ever. And I feel very strongly that it will remain easy, and I won't ever want to go back. No more smelly clothes or smoky house; no more ashtrays, no more cigarette burns, no more being banished outdoors to smoke, no more rejection from non-smokers, whether as friends or potential dates, no more health risk, no more huge expense, no more FEAR of cancer from smoking, no more tight chest and coughing, and no more continual underlying anxiety that goes along with doing something you know is flirting with your own early-mortality.

My best friend also ordered a kit and she is having the same wonderful results. Both of us have tried for years to quit and could barely get past the first few days. I have a feeling this is different. For one thing, I DON'T SEEM TO CARE about having a cigarette anymore.

Another good thing--we can smoke our NJoys ANYWHERE. Since it's vapor, and not smoke, there are no restrictions. We might have to pull out the explanation card provided by the company to explain to those who would banish us for smoking, but it's obvious there are no laws of rules that prohibit us from creating vapor. And I still get to enjoy my oral fixation. And I love sitting in a coffeehouse or restaurant and "smoking" while chatting over coffee. Now I can still do that. And it harms no one, not even me.

As I did years ago with my own version of this idea, I still believe it can revolutionize the health care industry as there can be fewer and fewer smokers, and thus, fewer deaths, and costs.

I checked into being an Independent sales Rep for them, but they require you to spend about $500 in getting stock, first, and I'm not willing to do that, since I'm trying to save money all the way around--for my relocation to Colorado. I wrote to them to tell them my thoughts about that. Maybe that will change. Because I do know that I will tell everyone who smokes and who asks, that they can be happy non-smokers without all the fuss.

KUDOS!!!!!!!


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16 December 2008

What I'm Getting Myself for Xmas.


When I was in college during the early part of the 90's, (my second foray into academia) I had to do one of those presentations for speech in which your group invents a product and then does the sales pitch to the class. I ended up with a bunch of dead beats in my group who didn't want to work on it because they had a party to get to, beer to drink, etc. Most people who've been to college, know that drill....

So--I did most of the work. I came up with a product called "Life Light" which was a smokeless cigarette. (I use the idea in my novel Quintessence too, under the name VitaMist). The idea was that it would ignite through some chemical or electronic process, and what you would be inhaling was VAPOR, not smoke. Any smoker will tell you that one reason it's so hard to quit, is there's no substitute. When a drinker quits alcohol, her or she can still drink other beverages, even that fake beer stuff, and this at least helps. But there is no other thing smokers do that includes pulling smoke into the lungs and holding it and lighting it, etc. I knew this would address all those issues and provide society with a revolutionary alternative.

And there were different flavors and extra cartridges that could also include a delivery system for vitamins, minerals, herbs. In other words, it was a HEALTHY cigarette. And you could smoke it anywhere and blow it safely in a baby's face. I knew the idea could revolutionize the industry and send us into better health status as a society. (And of course, make me a target of tobacco industry assassins).

But finally, it would allow smokers to quit, without really quitting. I even wrote a jingle for it.

But of course, I didn't have the money to get a patent, nor the connections to find venture capital. Thus, a great idea withered on the vine...

But now...the vine has re-blossomed, and there are several products like my idea on the market. Though not imbued with vitamins, they are available without nicotine, and it's not smoke, along with the 300 toxins in a normal cigarette. And I love the fact that I will no longer worry about the stink on clothes and in my home, won't worry about finding a date because most of the types of women I'm interested in, don't smoke and won't date a smoker. The most recent (and best) smokeless/UN-cigarette I found is almost EXACTLY like the one I invented. Njoy

So, even though I am bitter that it didn't make ME rich, instead of THEM, it's still what I'm getting myself for Xmas. I just ordered the starter kit. I am so excited. I'll post back after i start using it.

Happy Holidays.



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09 December 2008

Gun-Toting Sleepy-head

Sound. Sound. Bad sound. Door. Opening door. Danger.

I sat up in bed, suddenly awake, my pulse pushing at my neck. I did hear the door. The shlink of the deadbolt, to be precise.

Someone had broken in.

I reached down to the space between my bed and nightstand for the automatic I kept there. Thumbing the safety off, I crept out of bed to investigate. Halfway down the hall, I realized I didn't have my glasses on. I worried I would not be able to see who it was. I'd hate to shoot my best friend who surprised me with a midnight visit. But then, my best friend doesn't visit me at midnight without calling first, and she certainly wouldn't let herself in, unless I left the door unlocked. I gave her a key, but she can't seem to identify it amid the other mélange of keys on her keyring-cum-lethal weapon. I was wishing I had her keyring right about now. It might do more damage to a prowler than this .25 slug. I've heard countless tales of small handgun wounds merely pissing the intruder off so that if they had no intention of hurting you, they would, after that.

Okay, so it wasn't going to be my best friend. But I would see a blurred figure, only, without my glasses, and that might not be the ideal situation. Shoot first, ask questions later?

Too late. I was down the stairs and staring at the front door.

That noise again.

It was coming from the bathroom.

The prowler had picked my lock, secured the deadbolt after coming inside, and then decided to have a potty break before attacking me in my sleep?

Maybe he was a rapist, and he was in there putting on a condom.

A condom? That's rude. I don't have any communicable diseases. Now I'm frightened, angry, and insulted, too.

As I peeked around the corner I saw the bathroom door open and the light still off. He could still be in there, though. Maybe he heard me coming down the stairs. He wouldn't have, if my landlord would ever fix all those squeaking boards in the floor.

My attention back on the bathroom doorway, I lifted the pistol with one hand, and flipped on the hall light with the other.

No one.

Stepping into the bathroom, I heard the sound again, and looked up. I realized it was the exhaust fan on the roof. Squeaking in the wind. It sounded uncannily like the shlink of a deadbolt.

Sighing, I started back into the hall. After all that creeping around, with my heart pounding in my ears, I was so disappointed.

I went next door and shot my neighbor.

I mean, I was already up.

And he DOES play his stereo too loud.

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*DISCLAIMER: I didn't really shoot my neighbor.
*ADDENDUM: Smothered him with a pillow.

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