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Shipping label feature fixed!!

It seems to have fixed itself, which is somewhat unsettling to me, I like to know as much as I can about the technologies I rely on.  At least its working again.  I have been very busy writing code and learning new things about serverless technologies the past couple of weeks, and will continue on this path for as long as it takes.  Estimated time before v1 launch is still at least a month away.  Now that I can print labels here again the preferred method of ordering is going to be to use this site, the fees etsy collects are rather high, more than %10 plus a small listing fee of 20 cents per listing per month.

Unfortunately the super cheap USPS shipping option for $5 has been far too slow lately.   Shipping to Texas has taken as long as 2 weeks when using ‘Ground Advantage’ from USPS, on several separate occasions as well so I don’t think it will get better.  As of today shipping via USPS for only $5 has been discontinued permanently and is being replaced with ‘USPS Priority’ which is $10.

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Upcoming giveaway

Hello again,

I will be giving away small sample bottles again coming soon, awaiting on delivery of some foil stick on seals, the day after they arrive I will ship the samples out.  I only ask that the shipping costs and a small handling fee are paid (to cover the cost of gel ice packs and thermal mailers all orders now ship with).  For 7$ I will send 1 or 2 small bottles (5ml) of product to try out.  These are the old bottles the ones I very first started out with, I still have several hundred of them and need to get rid of them.  I will do my best on packaging them and hope that they are not handled too roughly as the orgional bottles are much thinner than the ones I use for regular orders.  As long as they are not stepped on or thrown against a hard floor they should be ok.  They will be vacuum sealed and then in a zip lock baggie so leaks ought to be minimal to nonexistent.

Thanks, D

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Results of heat tests

Edit: SOME of the heat issues have been solved, and leaks are now non-existent.  Given your package DOES NOT sit out in the sun for more than 4 hours, it will arrive unscathed and just as potent as it was when I put it into the mailbox.  If however your package is exposed to high temperatures (above 100 degrees Fahrenheit) it will cause the vacuum sealed package to inflate like a balloon, if it inflates too much it may pop and/or the liquid may leak and potency is lost very quickly at this point.  SO KEEP IT OUT OF THE SUN AND HEAT.

I managed to do some rather extensive testing last week, with a combination of electrical tape, baking soda, and vacuum sealing, I have managed to make the product survive a minimum of 4 hours in direct sunlight on the hood of a car.  The bag puffed out nearly to the point where it might pop, but no liquid leaked out at all!  There was a very slight dampness under some of the electrical tape from condensation I believe because there was no smell to it.  But I marked the fluid level with a paint marker and it did not go down at all!  Also the popper seemed significantly stronger than it was before the heat test, no scientific measurements were taken so this really could have just been due to my excitement that it didn’t leak at all.  I’m not even sure how one could go about measuring the effects strength in a scientific way… I guess one could record the length of time effects last but other than that I don’t know.

Interesting fact: the strength of hallucinogenic compounds given to lab rats used to be ranked by how many violent head twitches per minute the mice expressed after getting dosed up.  (source)

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Server upgrades, may have caused severe glitches about an hour ago (6am central time)

The site was running on the cheapest instance type and was getting overloaded several times throughout the day this past week.  So an upgrade was definitely overdue.  Unfortunately it really was not much of an upgrade, just changing the instance type of a still single server will only go so far, to get real performance at the lowest costs possible I will need to figure out how to move from lightsail to a more ‘real’ type of configuration.  I’m going to have to choose to go serverless or start learning how to wrangle ec2 instances.  Dealing with ec2 and the like is becoming a thing of the past and I already have some experience with serverless structures, but not with serverless wordpress sites!  I’m not even sure if its possible to run wordpress serverless… I don’t think it is.  I’m not even sure if it can have multiple application servers. At best it can proabbly only support a database server, one app server, maybe a memcached server, and a cdn.  Ok well I don’t have to choose serverless or not then because its not an option afaik. I would have to rewrite the entire codebase, which would take a rather long time I think if I was to try and reproduce every single feature the site currently uses.

Well hopefully lightsail holds up for a while longer, there are a few more larger instance types that the current one anyways but they are getting kind of expensive.  Started out at only 5$ a month.  Its going to be at least 25$ a month now.

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Awaiting new glassware, current batch ships out monday afternoon

I’m afraid I broke a crucial piece of glassware, separating funnel.  Current batch is complete and will be shipped out Monday afternoon, but must wait until I get the new piece of glassware before I can continue manufacturing more product.  I hope it arrives soon but could take a week or so as its coming from china.  Will keep everyone updated.

EDIT: I found a workaround so I can continue production without any degradation to product.  The new glassware (whenever it gets here..) will make things a lot faster and easier to do larger batches at one time is all.  Thank you all for your patience and support during the early phase of this business!  Things will only get better from here on out!  🙂

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Worldwide FedEx shipping now available! Also lowered rates for ALL USPS shipping!

I’m very happy to announce that worldwide shipping  via FedEx is now available to all customers!  I have also decreased the flat rate USPS shipping costs for all items.  Old cost for 1-3 bottles was $7, its now $5.  Old cost for small box (1-10 bottles) was $15, its now $10.  Old cost for medium USPS box was $20, its now $15.  USPS large box was $25 now its $20.  All changes are effective immediately.

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Shipping issues and continued email problems

Hello all,

Its getting warmer out, this is bad news when it comes to shipping poppers, as they degrade rapidly in higher temperatures and are prone to leakage.  The high temps cause the popper liquid to expand, so full bottles can leak out to nearly half empty.  To combat this I will be (temporally at least) splitting each popper into two bottles but each bottle will only be halfway full.  I may try and require all shipments be in boxes and every box labeled with a ‘this side up’ sticker but I highly doubt that mail carriers will follow it strictly (or at all…) during shipping.  This would be the only way to really prevent leaking altogether.

Also I expect some materials to arrive shortly that will extend the life of the poppers, this coupled with the half full double bottles I hope will allow the product to arrive at its destination as potent as possible.  If you have any issues with your order, please do not hesitate to contact me at donwillcow at gmail dot com and I will have your order replaced ASAP.

Thank you for your business, we appreciate it (and you) very much!

Yours truly,

Don W.

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Alright, here we go again! (Best kind of bottles arrived today!!)

I finally got the ‘good’ bottles.  The glass is much thicker and they have a cone type plastic seal built into the cap!  If these don’t hold the juice in then nothing will.  Once again satisfaction is guaranteed or product will be replaced or you will be refunded*!  (*I will have to take shipping cost out if the refund, which varies from ~$4 and up depending on your location and quantity ordered).  I’ve been doing this entire business out of my own pocket so far and this is the only way to at least do my best to not starve and keep water running and lights on.  And my cats will probably kill me if I run out of money for litter again this month.

I am updating product descriptions and pictures and prices right now, note that these new bottles hold 3 times the amount of one of the old ones but I will only be doubling the price, so your basically getting one bottle for free.