Eat enough of that dip, and you'll be praying for a cyan circle!

Vertical smoker, the fuel box must come out of the bottom (smoke box) completely to light using the method you describe (which I do more or less). The issue is with getting lit fuel back in without dumping a bunch of unlit on the ground. 
 

if I could lite in situ, it would be much better. It’s too difficult to light a small amount wax cube inside the box. 
live never seen a torch used before so the details of how to do it and how long it takes would be useful to me I think. 

Agreed.  For my smoker, I probably light a bit less than a quarter of the coals in my chimney and dump them on the rest of the unlit coals.  Give about 10-15 minutes for the unlit coals to start catching and then you are pretty much ready to go.

I've trued every method of starting lump charcoal (I'm a Kamado Joe fan), and finally have settled on an electric starter, super easy.   Plug it in, crack a cold one, and when I finish the cold one, remove the electric starter and close the top to let the coals set.  Highly recommend for ease.

https://www.kamadojoe.com/products/quick-igniting-electric-starter?variant=17057170653235&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjwn8SLBhAyEiwAHNTJbX8RPvun9B3Ow1bqN5glB4z9XAO1CYSnuATcu3IJz7Uj_7RWQeYMYxoCaMQQAvD_BwE

warm fruit (not in pies) is gross.

Or if you're like me and you live in a place where your grill goes on a deck and it's gas grills only per building rules and you already have a very nice gas grill that can do indirect, you can get a smoker tube or box. Those are very cheap, like 20, 30 bucks. Not as good as an actual smoker but again, doesn't require a big upgrade or large new equipment and is cheap. It won't smoke the entire cook for a brisket or pork shoulder but smoke in the earlier part of the cook is most important anyway. Then spend the money on a good leave-in thermometer setup (e.g., from Thermoworks) where you can monitor grill temp and internal temp remotely (really you want something like this no matter how you're smoking or cooking indirect, every time you open the grill to check the temp you're also losing the indirect heat and it takes time to get back up to cook temp, so every check makes your cook take longer). 

This is definitely a good queso recipe for making at a tailgate on the grill, and smoked potato chips is next level awesome. For queso at home on the stove, I have exited the use of Velveeta and now do the sodium citrate method a la Modernist Cuisine (sodium citrate is one of the things that makes Velveeta work in the first place). This is great because you can actually make a queso that is still flowable at room temp, i.e., you can bring it to a party or tailgate and don't need something to keep it warm, and you can pick your cheese(s). So if you wanted smoked flavor, you could grab smoked cheddar or smoked gouda or both. Or get some canned chipotle peppers in adobo and chop up the chipotles and stir them in at the end. 

Yinka has a great suggestion below if you're 'apartment limited' on what you can have as a grill.  But if you can, I recommend a Masterbuilt Gravity series grill (Char Grillr makes one now, also).  These are offset charcoal grills with a digital controller - you start the charcoal on the bottom of the coal chute, and gravity will feed coals down as they burn away (a full chute lasts ~10 hours for low & slow smoking).  You set the temp on the controller (like a pellet grill) and walk away.  You can still use wood for various smoke flavors, and they can get much hotter than pellets (and certainly more smokey).  Its sort of like having a charcoal/wood powered oven!  They can be acquired pretty cheap right now (end of season sales) at Walmart, and other such places where MB stuff is peddled.

I have an electric smoker and it works great.  Temp stays consistent and meat turns out great.  However, I also have a Weber grill that can be used as a smoker as well.  I'll place a foil pan in the bottom for drippings and place the charcoal around the pan to create the non-direct heat.  I put the meat on the middle of the grill over the drip pan.  

Thanks I'll check it out. $200 isn't that bad

The Chicken lollipops from like 6 years ago is one of my favorites.  A pain (literally, sharp bones!) but so very very good.

Well, that sucks.  Sorry to hear of anyone dying, regardless of reason.  Give him our sympathies, please.  He is forgiven this week, and maybe next week, too.

Hard to hear that - times are still trying for everyone and this place shouldn't be a *burden* to anyone (although there are days when...)

We can all use a little more levity these days and Opponent Watch certainly helps that.