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New to Tampa hookah enthusiast here... take time and research what you're looking for. Ordering online might not be a bad idea. If you're looking to share with a group, one that rotates is a great idea, otherwise you might end up having a friend you've known from highschool burn holes in your carpet as she stumbles after an intense drinking game in which she only drank vodka and sprite.

Smaller ones are nice if it's just you or you and an SO, and you can find tiny hookahs for about $20 at the tobacco store near K-Mart in... Lutz? Land O' Lakes? Still learning the lay of the land. Also, not sure if that hookah's any good. Sometimes they're a bit of a gamble.

Also, try a bunch of different flavors. Al Fakher and Fantasia are two of mine... Al Fakher being great on flavor and smoke, Fantasia having lots of molasses and an unusual assortment of flavors. Haven't had a lot of luck with Starbreeze, but some friends swear by it. I highly recommend Fantasia's Mai Tai and Rainbow and Al Fakher's Grape with Berry. They're usually crowd pleasers.

In regards to coals, we used the quick light coals for a long time but ended up switching to Coco Nara coconut shell coals. I highly, highly recommend Coco Nara. They need to be lit on a stove, but they burn forever, don't taste as 'burny' as the quick lights, burn forever and leave a much smaller mess. You can buy these at Raa's Specialty Foods on 54 (I think that's where it is), near Bosco's Italian.

As for the bowl, couple of tips... if you can find a bowl and metal screen combo that fit together, get that. It's nicer and less wasteful than aluminum foil. Make sure when you pack the bowl the shisha isn't touching the screen/foil above it, otherwise it'll burn and taste like Satan is violating your throat. If you use foil, poke lots of little holes but a few large ones that go through the shisha.

A couple of neat accessories are ice tips, which will require a special hose (sadly, we don't have these yet... need a job first. lol), but let you freeze them ahead of time for a crazy smooth smoke. It also kills the flavor of some of the shisha you'll find, so experiment.

Of course, always use fresh water each time. We've tried things like sangria and flavored waters before, and they're... weird. Not bad, but very mild. A handful of mint leaves is nice though.

Anywho, sorry to rant, but I love meeting other hookah enthusiasts. I had a lot of bumpy starts getting used to using hookah, but it's become a favorite thing of ours in the evening while we're writing or watching tv.

If you have any questions, by all means feel free to shoot me a PM. And if you find any awesome hookah places, please tell me!

We just moved to Tampa, so we aren't really settled, but maybe we'll see you around sometime!

EDIT: Also, make sure you get extra grommets for the bowl and maybe a few for where the hose meets the body, just to ensure a snug fit. They can melt if you have the hookah burning for too many consecutive bowls.

TL:DR Why name a Chinese food restaurant 'Ichiban'?

Most of it doess fit kind of tight. I have found bealls to have a reasonable selection of clothing for men that does well in the florida heat. Think golf shirts and or slacks, A pair of good lightweight golf slacks will be light and breathable and weigh next to nothng comapared to a normal pair of slacks. I have fishing shirts also that i dont know what they are made of but they are very lightweight, dry fast, comfortable, and a loose fit. I know for sure they are not 100% cotton.

I have also found linen shirts to be pretty comfortable and those are loose fitting most times. I have a few different mexican wedding shirtss or Guayabera made of different materials and they all are pretty comfortable in the florida heat, even the 100% cotton one i own. I just find the cotton one takes way longer to dry and if i sweat in it i get to wear a damp shirt where the ones made of other thing would dry out and be comfortable again much faster. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WTZ69Y/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_4_w

Yeah it is a long drive, but just get up early and drive out there, takes a couple hours, and trust me, it's worth it. In Ocala, you can hike all day, then setup camp, and then walk over and go swimming in a spring, two nights in a row. But you need to either hike with a partner and self shuttle, or pay someone to drop you off on the other end of the trail. But definitely you want some easier overnights under your belt. I think Hillsborough and Starkey would be good shakedown hikes.

1. Water. There's a million ways to make water, this way is one of the best. Get two smartwater bottles, 1 or 1.5L each, and a sawyer squeeze, and a tornado tube. The tornado tube lets you mate any standard water/soda bottle or bladder onto both ends of the sawyer filter. Just fill up the bladder with dirty water, and roll the bag to force water through the filter. Clean, drinkable water comes out the other side into your smartwater bottles. 3L is plenty of capacity for this area. Most times you will only need one bottle, but it's nice to have the second so you can fill it up before getting into camp. You can also add to this kit a 20oz water or soda bottle with the top cut off. This is a cheap, light "scoop", that let's you scoop up standing water and pour it into the sawyer bladder. you'll find it's hard to fill that bladder otherwise if you're trying to use water that isn't moving. (Remember, you can boil water to purify it, but this is florida and boiled swamp water is still swamp water, you'll want to filter it for it to be palatable.)
   
   
2. I am guessing you have a backpacking stove. If not, get one, and you'll need a ultralight cookpot. To start, a msr pocket rocket or micro-rocket is a good beginner's system. (I use alcohol stove, but you can work up to that later). You'll also need a cookpot. My lightweight, cheap option of choice is the imusa 12cm pot, which you can find at walmart for about $8. Bring a bandana or something to hold it though, because it gets HOT. You'll use this to boil water for cooking foods. I've had every one of these recipes, and they are all solid, and cheap to make from common grocery store items. The portions and cooking instructions are all dialed in too. http://andrewskurka.com/section/how-to/food-nutrition/meal-recipes/
   
   
   Edit: alcohol is cheaper, and since you're student, if you want advice on making an alcohol stove, you can start here: http://andrewskurka.com/2011/how-to-make-a-fancy-feast-alcohol-stove/

The pirate boat invasion is cool, but expect a long wait until the actual parade starts. This wait can be filled with drinking, but seriously pace yourself. Don't expect to just go over the bridge anytime you want to get to the bayshore side. I used to say that the Bayshore blvd side was the better side, but the downtown side is getting better each year. It really depends just how Bro you are. If you are true Bro then stay on the Bayshore side and hit up SOHO after the parade. Less Bro like then stay on the downtown side.

I highly recommend buying a soft backpack cooler and filling it with beer and water and a few cold packs. I like the igloo backpack one from target the best but I know some people that have this one.
http://www.amazon.com/OAGear-COOLER-SPORTS-Sports-Cooler/dp/B0080IQERC. Bring toilet paper for the lady. Sun screen.

No problem. I'm so annoyed with these cable/internet companies I feel like setting up an organization just to let everyone know how to best to work around them.

So I called WOW. I'm only getting internet, so I'm not sure what the bundle regular rate would be. But for their Internet 100 (100 mbps) they said my rate would only increase by $10. So after 24 months I'd go to paying $49.99 a month.

Another tip; if you do want to go with WOW or really any other company, you can save the monthly rental fee for the modem/router if you buy your own. (This is why I only have to pay $39.99 right now). It'll pay for itself in less than a year and then when you need to switch companies again (because it's definitely going to happen again) you don't have to deal with returning their equipment. This is the one I'm getting for WOW, I called and checked and they said it would be compatible. According to the reviews it seems to work with most companies.

Welcome (almost)! You'll love it down here. Check the sidebar about places to live, that's a good place to start. As for getting a job, I can't speak too much about it, but I'd say start early, and send resumes with abandon.

When we moved here a bit over 5 years ago, my wife sent resumes out from our place in Nashville, and got a job offer 4 weeks before we moved down. It can definitely happen. She followed a job search method from the book "48 Days to the Work You Love" (http://amzn.to/2fCE2U9), would highly recommend that approach to snagging something down here.

Tampa is growing at a rapid clip, it's an exciting time to be in the city!

And keep a light source around.

Here are my recommendations for a cheap but good lantern:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C5QSENQ

They light up a room, they don't kill the batteries quickly, they run off 3 AAs (which you probably have lying around), and then even come with batteries already. I lit up my house with these after Irma, and then gave them to my friends for Xmas when they all loved them.

Wow, you aren't kidding! Just checked Amazon and THESE "SUNOCULARS" were the cheapest thing I could find.....

Apparently they are very hard to find in the Tampa area according to This Article

However, you could try looking for welding goggles with level 13 filter as the article suggests. I tried looking on Amazon but apparently the filter level isn't something that's easily searchable there and I'm not going to click through every one.

The good news is that you DON"T NEED SPECIAL GLASSES, you can DIY your own safe way to watch the eclipse!!

I wiah I could but a couple years ago I basically did the same thing. I used this kinda stuff to help calm my older cat. He originally couldn't stand the kitten but after a couple of months he tolerated the kitten. Now you can catch them grooming each other at times but the younger cat is boisterous so the older cat tends to keep away.

Good luck!

I've been meaning to build a better DIY antenna, but with these basic rabbit ears, I get the major stations reasonably well most of the time from Carrollwood. We still get glitches and there are some times when we can't get a decent signal strength. We do have to tune it to get a good signal especially with WFLA Channel 8. One caveat is that the antenna is on the south side of our house with a conservation area behind us so there's less junk in the direction of all the transmitters than most houses.

Thanks for the link! Also, a really great book on the Lutz/Land O Lakes area: http://www.amazon.com/Citrus-Sawmills-Critters-Crackers-Central/dp/1879852586

It has tons of pictures and stories about the area back when it was settled. The LOL Library has a copy if you want to check it out.

I haven't actually tried it but I have heard super good reviews about the green tea mattress on Amazon

If you have a friend that lives in the area with service, offer to wire up the opposing ISP they already have so their house has both services (i.e. if they have Frontier, then order Spectrum). Another option, if there is a community house or common building for the development you could perhaps talk to managers / HOA to work out a deal. This is to get you a dedicated ISP line in your name, although you could share someone's line with the solution I propose.


Then get a point-to-point solution like this:

https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Bridge-Lite-EZBR-0214-Outdoor-Wireless-System/dp/B002K683V0


Since you need broadband for work, that is the quickest solution until you get it run to your house.


Of the two services, Spectrum is worse on speed and Frontier is unbelievably bad from accurate billing / customer service perspective. I've had both in the Tampa area. Finally settled on Frontier since I need the better upstream. Took over 3 months and a dozen phone calls to get billing correct with them.

I'm not what one would call 'artistic' so putting one together myself would come out looking like it was done in arts & crafts time at a special ed school. Do you know someone that would commission one? I find it's much easier to pay people that know what they're doing than dicking it up myself and feeling shame

Edit: Is something like this decent? or are there better ones? http://www.amazon.com/EFX-Star-Stormtrooper-Helmet-Replica/dp/B005J35PG2

Also, If you want to support a local Tampa dog treat company you can purchase your treats from Yumster. They have all organic vegan and grain free dog treats if your dog has grain allergies.


https://www.amazon.com/Yumster-Baked-Dog-Treats-Love/dp/B07JYQHV16/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=yumster&qid=1558749363&s=gateway&sr=8-3

There's not much to it. Have you considered just buying one and doing it yourself? I bought this one for both of our personal cars as well as my company vehicle:

https://www.amazon.com/R2-4K-Dashboard-Camera-Recorder-Vision/dp/B074JT3698

At the time, it was on-sale for about $30 less. Bought this memory card:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B984HJ5/

Physical install took five minutes. Another five minutes to format the memory card, set the time, options, etc. It comes with a little plastic tool so you can tuck the wire up along the top edge of the windshield, down the a-pillar to the dash.

You should know...EVERYTIME you use a URL shortener on reddit, your post will go directly to the spam folder and sit there. In the future, follow the "formatting help" to embedded the link behind test like this to hide a long URL.

I've approved your post.