Friday, September 28, 2007
In the interest of expanding my life experiences and getting “my game on” I decided to try the much hyped Gamer fuel, Mountain Dew’s new Halo 3 themed “Dew with an invigorating blast of citrus cherry flavor” featuring 170 calories of sugar and 73mg of caffeine.
Initial impressions:
Upon opening the can I was struck by a fizzing fruity bouquet, with hints of pine. The smell reminds me of a mix between kool-aid and pine-sol. I poured a slight bit into a glass to inspect the rich red-orange colors. While in the white cup it looks suspiciously like very thin orange-ish fake blood from a great number of movies I watched as a child.
The first sip:
Pine-sol and kool-aid suspicions confirmed. The flavor is very artificial and tastes just like it smelled: lime and cherry kool-aid packets mixed with a pine-needle whisk. My mouth instantly got dry and gummy - the sheer amount of sugar in a sip is likely more than I usually consume in a day. Never being one to shy away from the challenge I take a big gulp.
The big sip was a mistake - my teeth started hurting, and shortly after swallowing my stomach followed suit. Now 10 minutes and 1/4th of a can later I feel like laying down and taking a nap. My mouth feels and tastes like a gummy bear crawled in, died, and is now decomposing slowly in the back of my throat. What have you done to me Gamer Fuel?
The verdict:
What freakish executive at Pepsi approved this hyper-sweet monstrosity? Why is it selling? Should I buy stock in companies producing medical equipment for diabetics?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Yesterday brought the marriage of Akiva and Shae in a beautiful ceremony. Attending was an interesting experience for me as this is the first Jewish wedding I’ve ever attended. While I didn’t directly understand any of the Hebrew prayers or blessings it was still fun to observe. I was very touched by how emotional Akiva got - he was shaking during the ceremony, and you could tell it really was a bit overwhelming for him.
The photo above is my favorite couples shot. I also really liked this shot of Eric, my capture of Shawna’s back, and this trippy twin-like shot of Troy. For all photos from the wedding check out my Flickr set of their wedding, or check out their Flickr wedding pool where hopefully other guests will also post some of their photos.
Congrats guys - myself and all your friends are wishing you the brightest of futures and the best of lives together!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
I had a few errands to run on my way home today and I happened to pass by a McDonalds, only to be stricken with a horrible craving for a Big Mac. I semi-reluctantly stopped in for dinner, and I do have to say for the record that my Big Mac Extra Value Meal was salty, fatty, and delicious.
Now three hours later I remember why I haven’t eaten at McDonalds in the last 3 years: I feel like absolute shit. My body is rebelling in the face of a giant lump of fat, salt, carbs, and preservatives is now slowly working its way through my gut, sapping me of every last shred of vibrancy and humanity.
Remember folks: when the craving comes just say no!
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later: I turned 26 and I’m now in the last year of my mid-twenties. 26 doesn’t seem any different from 25 was, or even the year before. Change in my life seems more gradual these days, a side effect of getting older I suppose; each year being less tumultuous and seeming shorter given it’s comparative length is shorting as my life experiences lengthen.
My actual birthday was last week, but I didn’t celebrate too much on that day so as not to make the next day at work not be a living nightmare. Brien bought me 300 on HD-DVD and took me out for a nice dinner. I did crack a tooth at dinner (on Pad Thai no less?!) which did manage to put a bit of a damper on things, but overall it was a great end to the first quarter century of my life.
Yesterday was my annual birthday movie marathon. Some very good friends came by to have a drink, watch movies (this years theme was Action!), and celebrate the passing of another year. After a number of flicks (and much berating of Judge Dredd - how blasphemous) we dined and I went home to snuggle in bed with Skype.
This morning I took a photo walk with my lensbaby while in quite the strange mood. All of my shots today feel very experimental for me - not what I would typically look for in shots. I like what I got - check out the the all of todays photos, or see my two favorites below.
This poor abandoned TV got quite a few treatments and this ended up being my favorite. Blur effect done entirely in camera with the Lensbaby. I keep feeling like this photo makes some profound statement about the grand life-cycle of technology, but capturing that statement and writing it down eludes me.
“Televised” by sparktography
This shot is another in my sticker series. I’m highly amused by this angry little cloud. It was taken on the side of a Seattle Weekly newspaper box, and recently it looks like someone spilled some bright red/orange paint down the side putting this poor sticker in jail.
“Cloud in jail” by sparktography
After discovering its existence a mere week ago on Boing Boing I decided I had to purchase Presto Pizzazz Pizza Maker from Amazon. It’s the best of “Buy now from TV” come to life - nearly instant pizza, with no muss, no fuss. It’s designed to cook 7 to 12 inch pizzas from start to finish in under 15 minutes and does a damn fine job of it.
How sad is it that I cook frozen pizza frequently enough that it’s worth spending nearly $50 on a device aimed at cooking pizza faster (and better) with less cleanup when I have a perfectly servicable oven. Heck - as you can see from the above in-process photos I even put the Pizzazz on my oven to cook it.
I wrote a review of the Pizzazz on Gear Live if you want to learn more about my experience.
“Pizzazz process” by sparktography
My cousin Heather was in town this evening with one of her friends so we went out to hit the town. Her 23rd birthday is tomorrow so I took her out for some Sushi and a birthday drink at Blue C. It was good to see her, and a good start to a family-tastic weekend: tomorrow morning I’m headed up to Abbotsford to see my Grandpa, Uncle, Aunts, and other cousins. Sadly Grandpa has not been doing as well, so I think it will be good for the family to get to hang out with him for a while.
In technology news I’ve been on one heck of a spending spree - I need to stop! In two days I’ve purchased both a GPS unit for my car, and one of the new Apple TV’s. The GPS unit is cool (and might help keep me from getting lost), and makes up for one of the two missing features in the A6. The other missing feature is rain sensor wipers and I doubt if there is a way to hack that in after market.
In a way I’m looking forward to the drive tomorrow as it will be my first long haul in the A6 (now affectionately named the PimpMobile (in honor of Bender)), and a great chance to play with the GPS unit. I already asked it to calculate the route up to Abbotsford and it is a different one than I’m familiar with. Looking at the details in Google Earth it actually looks to be a faster and shorter way there so I think I’ll give it a go.
The Apple TV is great so far. Exceptional and simple out of box experience (like all Apple products in recent years), and the initial setup was a breeze. I plugged it in to the wall and to HDMI and I was off. After selecting my 802.11n network, entering the WPA password, and selecting the computer I wanted to sync with it was ready to use. Total time from plugging it in to me watching an episode of the Colbert Report: 2 minutes.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
My friend Alissa (pictured above - another shot is here) has a crepes brunch at her house today. It was simply delightful! I got to meet a lot of her friends, as well as hang out with my old recruiting buddy Ron for a while. Everyone brought a crepes topping and we all talked, took photos, and played Settlers of Catan for about four hours.
After the brunch I had Mike and company over for some video games, bad movies, and pizza - all in all a very satisfying end to my weekend. We played some Crackdown and watched the worst movie in history: Mazes and Monsters.
Speaking of Crackdown it’s a fantastic - if not short - game. I beat the final boss today and discovered it’s twist of an evening. I kind of wish they had delayed the launch slightly and added more content - but that can’t be helped. It was well worth the money I spent on it to get a week of fun running around on the rooftops causing chaos.
“Sultry Alissa 02” by sparktography
