I finally tried my DBV about a week ago for the first time. It was also the first time I'd consumed herb in 15 months... It worked great, is really easy to use and I'm totally happy with the product itself, but for the first high in such a long time it was fairly underwhelming compared to the last time I got high after a long break. I realize this is nothing to do with the DBV and I think next time it will be better after breaking the sobriety spell last week.
I actually smoked first using a glass pipe I bought a few months ago, as I was a smoker for years before starting to vape in late 2011 and I thought it'd be better to do that first rather than use something totally new to me for the first high in that long. The smoke was ridiculously harsh and really not pleasant so I can't imagine I'll ever use that (or any) pipe again.
I did get quite stoned (smoking what I believe to be a pure indica) but it wasn't exactly the mind blowing experience I'd hoped it would be - pretty anticlimactic actually, at least compared to the last time I got high after not smoking for about 22 months, smoked a joint of some very weak weed and had one of the most incredible, euphoric highs ever. I tried not to expect anything like that but was still a bit disappointed at first, but in hindsight it makes sense. So much (mostly bad shit) has happened in my life since I last smoked so I think it was always going to feel a bit weird the first time I did it in so long whether vaping or smoking. It really felt more like I just hadn't smoked in a couple of weeks rather than more than a year, but anyway it wasn't all bad (and keep in mind I hadn't even used the Buddha at this point).
A huge factor in why it was this way is that my dog was prescribed antibiotics for an ear infection two days before I smoked. I thought the antibiotics were having an adverse effect on her when I first gave them to her but expected her to kind of adjust to them, and as she hadn't done anything like vomited or broke out in hives (i.e. allergic reaction) I wasn't overly concerned, and I often worry about her health so was kind of trying to stop being like that, as 9 out of 10 times that I take her to the vet, they say she's pretty much fine. After I'd gotten high, her not quite being herself seemed so much more apparent to me and I started to worry a lot (I had another dog since 1998 who died in May last year and this may have something to do with how much of a hypochondriac I've been about my dog's health since), thinking she was seriously ill and feeling guilty and regretful for getting high at all, even though I'd put it off for about 6 weeks longer than I really needed to and felt like waiting another few weeks would be a waste of time.
The final 8 days my golden retriever Molly was alive, I spent almost the whole time with her and it was easily the most emotional/painful thing I've ever went through, I probably shed more tears in those 8 days than I had in the previous 8 years. So lying there next to my not-likely-to-die-anytime-soon-yay dog who was somewhat unwell may have stirred up some uncomfortable feelings/memories also, as tends to happen to me when stoned. Anyway, looking back, I probably should have just waited another week or two for her to get back to normal as I realize now that there was no way I could ever fully enjoy the effects of the herb with her not being at 100%. I pretty much just felt like I'd much rather be sober and my dog not be sick like on any other day... At one point I thought that she had eaten a snail in my backyard as I'd seen 5 snails stuck together on the grass earlier that day (I moved them out of the area with a shovel in case she would eat them) and then I heard this "crunch" sound when she was out there that night, so I googled shit like "snail poisoning symptoms dogs" "can snail poisoning be fatal" etc for about half an hour. I think it's actually snail bait that is poisonous to dogs, not snails themselves, but that didn't seem to matter at the time.
I also may have actually smoked too little considering it was from a pipe rather than a bong or vape, trying to be on the safe side and not overdo it...
About 3 and a half hours after smoking, I decided to give the DBV a go. Used the same (likely pure indica) weed and fired it up. It was incredibly easy to use for someone who had only used the MFLB and VG before. Set it to around 11 and may have moved it up to around 12 at one point. Herb was still basically green when I was done, so thankfully I didn't come close to overdoing it, though I rarely combusted even with the VG so wasn't too worried about it. I was definitely quite high but still feeling guilty about my dog (also, she used to live with my parents which is where I lived for 5 of the 7 years we've had her, I have only had her living with me away from family for the past 4-5 months, so I'd never gotten high with her here before, so maybe it was normal that it'd feel a bit weird at first as I'm not used to being around anyone high, human or otherwise...). It actually felt like she was disapproving of what I was doing for the first few minutes after I'd vaped and I think in the future I'll have to do it in a different room from her to avoid ridiculous irrational notions like that.
I have the DBV set up all the time right next to my PC and monitor speakers so it's super convenient. One thing I found slightly bothersome was that I didn't really know what to do with the whip when I was finished. I kind of stood around just holding it for 2 whole minutes, feeling unusually self conscious around my dog... then I just went into the other bedroom and simply placed it on the floor (after blowing the ABV into a coffee jar) just so I could forget about it. Just gently put it on a random spot on the floor and felt this massive sense of relief that I didn't have to worry about it anymore.
Also, I was surprised how harsh the vapor was especially at a pretty low temp (11 on the dial most of the time). I guess that is almost entirely to do with the herb itself though. I didn't see a huge amount of visible vapor in the whip as I was vaping, but blew out quite a lot as I couldn't hold it in for more than like 3 seconds due to the harshness of the herb.
Ahem, this post probably didn't need to be this long, ah well. I think next time I'll try the other herb I have, very likely a sativa dominant hybrid (someone here actually warned me against vaping sativa for the first time in so long due to my paranoid/anxious/panicky tendencies, but smoking/vaping the other stuff I have was a reminder that indica can fuck with my head too, probably because it's more commonly found in Australia than sativa and it's what I would have been smoking most of the time years ago when I first started to develop feelings of anxiety etc after smoking). In the future, if I'm going to smoke at all, I'll vape first earlier in the day and then smoke in the evening for the stronger relaxation/sleep benefits. I think 9 times out of 10 I'll be vaping though.
My dog still isn't better, I stopped giving her the antibiotics on the vet's instructions last Tuesday but she hasn't quite recovered from whatever the tablets did to her gastrointestinal system - we had her at the vet today and they said she should be fine in about a week hopefully. I definitely won't be getting high again until she's back to normal. In the past, whenever I have a slightly disappointing herb experience like this, the next time I do it is always amazing, don't know why it works that way but yeah, next time should almost definitely be awesome though I'll try not to consciously expect it to be.
tl;dr Da Buddha is awesome, and I am fucked in the head...
so i decided that i don't need the portability, and after a lot of research, i got a black Da Buddha 
the hits are so much smoother than the mflb hits that i didn't notice i was gettin anything. i figured i just had to adjust the temp, till hit #6 when i saw a lil vapor. pretty soon after that i was blazed as hell lol it's an amazing vape! i have a question though. i wanna store it in it's bag, and would like to keep the hose in its pouch and the glass pieces in their respective pouches. how do i disconnect the hose from the mouthpeice/wand? i know i can just pull really hard and do it but is there a trick to it? i mean i can coil the hose in the bag and put each piece in its pouch, but then the hose is in the bag (no big deal really but i'd like to be able to get it perfect). what do you guys think? it's fantastic so far, and if this is the only issue then i'll be pretty damn happy 
so I ought to know. However if I wish to walk about after 3 feet the NO2 gets much better reviews. NO2 is more interested in delivering medicine than in throwing a party. Which is correct? Depends on you.
instead of comfortable. Practice makes perfect, as they say... so I must practice, practice practice!
. I was fucked after this dab lol
