Medical Marijuana in Arizona – Prop 203 Passes

November 18th, 2010

Prop 203 passes in Arizona and this is a major leap for those users of medical marijuana. Arizonans have been fighting for this for years and it has finally passed! We’re waiting on our legislature to organize and finalize the law. This should be a major opportunity for new business owners.

Prop. 203 allows Arizona citizens to register with the Arizona Department of Health Services and obtain up to two-and-a-half ounces of medical marijuana every two weeks for medical illnesses. If you happen to live far away from a dispensary you can now grow your own medical marijuana so that you’re not burdened with the long haul to a dispensary. This medical marijuana is intended for use solely to treat and/or alleviate symptoms associated with what the state deems as a “debilitating medical condition.” Though the list of conditions is vast, it includes and is not limited to: Agitation of Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, Cancer, Crohn’s Disease, Glaucoma, Hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, Nail Patella, Cachexia or Wasting Syndrome, Severe Nausea, Severe & Chronic Pain, Seizures and Severe Muscle Spasms.

April of 2011 is when most Arizonans should start seeing dispensaries around town. Phoenix is a large area and consist of many cities including Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, Cave Creek, Peoria, Sun City, and tons of others. These cities should have quite a few Arizona Dispensaries based on the amount of people that live in the Phoenix area.

Allowing Arizona citizens to medicate themselves in peace is quite a big step for the State of Arizona. There are some that criticize the passing of Prop 203 – mostly accusing it of being a loophole for people to obtain and smoke marijuana for fun and not for medical use. It’s obvious that these people already obtain marijuana through other illegal methods that only contribute to the survival of the marijuana ‘black market’ and Mexican Drug Cartels. There are several other states with a long history of such laws in place, such as Colorado and California, as a foreshadowing of what will become of Arizona. The problem in these states is not with the marijuana laws, more so it has to do with the loose reigns set around physicians who are allowed to recommend marijuana to any patient who has $150 to shell out. It is the hope of most citizens that Arizona puts strict regulations on users that are using medical marijuana for fun or recreation. This will likely increase the penalties of smokers without medical marijuana cards.

We’re hoping that Arizona treats its patients and its citizens with class. The true medical marijuana user wants to use in peace. These people aren’t dealers or druggies. They’re often functional citizens with disabilities related to a medical condition.

Posted in Rants and Raves | Comments Off

iolite Portable Vaporizer

October 15th, 2010

I have seen some cool stuff in my day, but one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time is the iolite vaporizer.  This thing is just cool!   I’m a big cigar smoker, most people know that, but I occasionally try out herbal smokes because of the huge amount of variations in flavors.   One of the things I like least about cigars (probably the only thing) is that because a cigar puts off so much smoke it always gets on your clothes and in your hair and you smell like an ashtray for hours.  It’s annoying to not be able to smoke a cigar late at night and crawl into bed without a shower.   I assume most herbal smokers feel the same way as some herbs tend to also have aromas associated with them.  Enter the vaporizer – the solution to all smoke-related problems!

Buy the iolite for $!69.99

With the invention of the e-cig, smokeless nicotine indulgence has been in the media and has been spammed all over the internet.  Sure you’ve seen a commercial or ad for an e-cig.  The E-cig came from an idea that has been in existence for quite some time – the Vaporizer!   A vaporizer works differently from rolling papers, bongs, cigarettes, pipes, etc.   Vaporizers actually create an enormous amount of heat that vaporizes the herb without leaving any smoke.   No smoke means no smell! It also means no harmful smoke enters your lungs.   One of the newest and best vaporizers available today is the iolite portable vaporizer.

iolite has come up with an awesome idea for a portable vaporizer. Why is the iolite vaporizer so neat? Well, it’s portable first of all and it features all the performance of a table-based vaporizer. It heats up to nearly 380 degrees and instantly transforms your herbs into an inhaled indulgence.

Overall, it’s an awesome little portable vaporizer and I’d recommend it to nearly anyone that likes to smoke herbs and doesn’t want to smell like smoke (or whatever herb they are smoking).

My suggestions to buyers:
1. Buy it online! You can save a lot of money. A few sites I found sell them for less than $170 That’s nearly 1/2 the retail price.
2. Get some herbal mixtures to try with the vaporizer. There are a lot of great flavors of herbs and they’re are also a lot of benefits from herbal blends.
3. Don’t expect this portable vaporizer to be the end-all of vaporizing. It’s pretty dang neat, but it’s intended for short hits and to be portable. It isn’t going to fill up an entire bag for long-term use.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Macbook Air (1st Gen) and Active MP SSD HD

October 9th, 2010

I installed Windows 7 on my Macbook Air (1st Gen) and it ran okay, but I could tell the HD was dying with the infamous clicking noise laptop HDs make when they’re about to crash. There is a distinct click associated with a system pause or temporary freeze-up that will tell you that you better back up your system because the HD is about to crash. Long story short, my HD eventually died and my system wouldn’t boot.  I figured that i would install Mac OSX on it until it died completely.   3 weeks later it was completely dead.  Mission Accomplished!

Because I’m often a procrastinator I didn’t bother to look for a replacement HD until after my HD died.  After looking long and hard on the internet for a replacement HD (Samsung HS082HB – 4200 RPM) I was stuck with either paying an arm and a leg for a new one ($250) or about $125 for a used one made in early 2008. Neither of these options particularly interested me. With some research I found out that other electronics – like the iPod Video – use the same Samsung HD.  I investigated picking up a iPod Video cheap on Craiglist and taking the HD out of it, but I was still going to end up with a rather slow, used HD. After further research I ran across a google ad for the Active MP 64GB SSD.  It was a long shot, but I checked into it.  Guess what?  It’s perfect!  It even has the necessary ZIF connector that you will NEED to replace your old HD in the Macbook Air with a bad-ass, fast SSD. I got my AMP SSD at a reasonable price and had it shipped immediately (overnight, of course).

NOTE:  You MUST get a SSD with the ZIF Connection!  The MacBook Air has a specific ZIF connection cable that goes from the SSD to the motherboard.

Tips on Replacing old Macbook Air HD with new Active Media Products (AMP) SSD:
There are a few sites out there that already show you step by step on how to remove your old HD from the Macbook Air 1st Gen so I won’t repeat that information here. What I will do is let you know that the AMP SSD doesn’t come with a ZIF cable so you have to re-use the one that comes with your Samsung HD. The connection of the cable to the old HD is done with some black tape in order to hold the ZIF cable in place (wtf?). Cut this tape carefully so that you can remove the ZIF Cable from the old HD.  DO NOT CUT THE CABLE.  Pay attention to what you’re doing!  If you don’t know exactly what to cut, ask someone or e-mail me!  After you cut the tape the cable should slide out easily and you should see some golden leads on the end of it.   Follow the instructions on installing that cable on your new SSD.  It should be a relatively easy thing to do – probably consisting of sliding the ZIF cable into the new SSD.   Doesn’t get much easier than that.   I did have a problem keeping the ZIF cable in place so I used some Electric Tape (MacGyver Style, Mothafucka!)   At any rate, it works perfectly.  Boot your system, install the OS, and away you go!

Things I noticed about the replacement:
I’m not sure if this goes for all Macbooks, but some of the screws were incredibly difficult to remove.  In fact, I ended up stripping one of them that held the old HD in the rubber case and ended up having to drill it out.  Be careful when removing the screws!  I had to use gloves just to hold the tiny screwdriver in place without ripping the skin off my fingers.  I also had to use pliers to turn the screwdriver.  Did I mention the screws are hard to get out?  They are.  Pliers and gloves hard.

The SSD took an incredibly long time to load Mac OSX 10, which was surprising to me because I thought SSDs were supposed to be really fast.  There’s a possibility that my External USB DVD-ROM is incredibly slow.  Though the install said 34 minutes initially, it took well over an hour. I don’t remember how long it took with my old HD because I typically set the system to install and go get lunch or something, but I watched the install this time and it was like watching grass grow.  If you experience a fairly quick install please comment and let me know so that I can check out my system.

The system boots incredibly FAST now!   It takes about 20 seconds from the time I press the on button until the system is up and running.  Also, copying files and installing stuff to applications is crazy fast.   Could it be that I’m only impressed because my old HD was dying the entire time?  Maybe.  Regardless, the SSD is fast.

————-UPDATE!————

I’ve been using the SSD for about two weeks now and I’ve found it to be far superior to the HD that came with the Macbook Air. It is WAY faster and makes my entire system run faster. Big program installs like Photoshop are a breeze. The Laptop runs quieter, cooler, and faster.

————-UPDATE 2 (December 6)————
I had quite a few problems with my OS crashing and would not boot after restart. Instead, the flashing folder would appear. After a few days I find out that when I moved my laptop around it was more likely to crash. Then I had an extremely odd situation where my laptop would boot after taking the case apart and when I put it back together it wouldn’t work again. It was almost like I had a short somewhere. After 4 hours of tinkering I realized that apparently when the laptop is put back together the case doesn’t hold the new SSD in place and once the SSD moves around the system would freak out. I had to secure the SSD so that it didn’t move at all once the case is back together.

Mike commented on this below about the ZIF connector. Read the comments below for helpful tips on the install of the SSD.

Posted in Computers | 15 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »