Teel – Page 107 – Teel McClanahan

Coca-Cola Zero – product review

Eww.

Okay, okay, admittedly, I am not a big fan of any of the “Coke” products, really. Not Classic Coke, not Diet Coke, not even Vanilla Coke. I prefer Pepsi over coke, and I prefer not to drink colas, generally. Which is why pretty much every other review of a soda on Modern Evil is by Iain. He likes colas. He’ll probably review this product soon enough.

But I was shopping last night, and my local Fry’s Marketplace had 20oz bottles of Coca-Cola Zero on sale, 2 for $1. I got one. I figured I could afford 50cents, even if it wasn’t to my liking.
So, there are two main reasons I don’t like Coke. First, it is bitter and not sweet. I don’t mind a certain degree of bitterness, if it is balanced by sweetness, and I prefer just straight sweetness, but Coke just tastes bitter to me, not sweet. Second, it generally has WAY too much carbonation. I don’t like much carbonation in the first place, and often will ‘shake out’ much of the carbonation in regular soda, but for most non-coke sodas, I can at least drink the normally carbonated product without choking to death. With Coke products, there is typically enough carbonation that it detracts so much from my drinking ability that I give up.

Coca-Cola Zero has MORE carbonation than ANY Coke product I have ever tried to drink. It’s crazy. Maybe I got a ‘bad’ bottle. Maybe it’s intentional. I don’t know, but I tried several times to just take a sip of the soda, or a normal drink, and 100% of the time, the carbonation caused a choking fit. So I shook it out, until the carbonation was merely a pleasant tingling rather than an overwhelming expansive and choking monster, so that I could taste the drink without dying.

Coca-Cola Zero has a lighter flavour and mouthfeel and, to me, seems less bitter and more sweet than other Coke products. Iain always talks about aftertaste, and I’m sure he’ll have something to say about Coke Zero’s aftertaste, but … I’m not even sure I tasted one. Lighter, sweeter, less bitter, but still recognizably in the Coke family. Not something I’d generally choose to drink, but not bad.

Well, except that if I drank it at full carbonation, I’d probably die before I got through one serving’s worth, let alone 20oz. I will not buy more of this product. But if you like choking to death on carbonation, don’t like calories, and think a lighter, sweeter, less bitter Coke sounds nice, you may like Coke Zero.

another hour, another wretch like me…

Oh yeah? Well, I bought a new domain name today, too! And I could talk about mine if I wanted to, but … I don’t have anything to say about it yet. In fact, while I had a clear idea in my mind at the time of the order, what I plan to do with it has changed three or four times since then, so we’ll see. But a domain name costs about as much as one of the big, hot, fancy coffee drinks I like to order – and I stopped going out for coffee a while back, so we’ll pretend that wretched creature is just another cup of coffee, eh?

Still a bit of a cough, a hoarseness, a coarseness, a pain in my throat. Still not getting enough sleep.

I watched the streamed QT feed of the keynote tonight on my TV via the exciting new Monster cable I bought which allows me to mirror my iBook directly onto my TV with a single cable. Considering the whole thing was being downloaded live, broken into tiny little pieces flying through the air over my head and re-assembled in my iBook (ie: Airport; wireless internet), then passed through a special cable to my stereo and thus to my TV (and stereo speakers), it looked pretty darn good. A lot better than, for example, last years streamed keynote, in a much smaller window, on my iMac’s screen. What keynote, you ask? Why, the one where Apple announced that it would be switching from PowerPC to intel processors, of course.

So the question to work out between now and the end of 2007 (when Apple expects to have its entire line of products entirely switched to intel processors) is whether my next computer will be the last of its kind, and stagnant (ie: the last iMac before iMacs become intel, for example, and unable to run ‘new’ software that comes out a year or two after it is bought), or do I wait until the model I want (not clear in my mind yet, this laptop is only 7 months old, and my iMac still has legs) is intel-ized? It is a philosophical question of sorts. The computer will definitely be able to do everything it is capable of doing at the time it is purchased. The mental problem arises when we are compelled to “upgrade” and get the latest versions of things. Do we ‘need’ these new functions, was the computer simply an unsatisfactory stopgap before, or can we leave the computer the way it was, and be just as satisfied with it for years, as it continues to perform exactly as was originally expected?

I shall think on this.

i’m a little horse

Or wait, perhaps more hoarse than horse. And perhaps more silent than either of those, since it hurts to talk. Oh, and I noticed a new symptom today. Either you know what is going on there, or you don’t, and if you do, you know what my new symptom is. Probably just because my ‘sick’ diet hasn’t exactly been the best. Today I felt like I was subsisting on orange juice, generic Chloraseptic, and Halls’ cough drops. Well, except that I kept eating real (hot/warm) food, and it felt better on my throat than anything liquid, cold, or medicated. Anyway, I ought to have been sleeping hours ago.

i’m a sick boy

I feel like I’m sick with something totally different, like I’m two or three or maybe four days into a different illness altogether. Actually, this is the third distinct (maybe fourth, if two were very similar) type of cough I’ve been experiencing over the last week and a half. And my throat has been SO sore all day today (and still). Like I’m into the part of a throat infection where my own body’s immune system is systematically destroying thousands or millions of my throat cells to try to stop the spread of the virus they carry. Except with a relatively thick output from the nose and a light, unproductive cough that doesn’t burn and doesn’t seem deep, but hurts bad because of the throat pain it exacerbates. And here’s the oddest symptom I’ve had (that I can recall right now) since I started having symptoms a week and a half ago: My backside is sore. From right around the sit bones, down the backs of my legs to about the knees, like I was working out just the backs of my thighs or like I fell hard into a seat a couple days ago and the bruising is beginning to heal… except there’s no apparent bruising, and I don’t remember falling or working out. So. Weird. Weirder than the rash, which is now invisible, but which left a bit of a rough patch where it was worst… nothing major, should fade with time. No real fever. About 90 degrees right now. Oh, and lethargy. I’ve got that in spades. I”m off to bed now. Only been home half an hour or so, but I certainly shouldn’t stay up any later than I have to.

Did I mention that I woke up this morning at like, 3:30AM and couldn’t get back to sleep until a bit after 5AM? Yeah. Dumb.

Amanda Update:

Continue reading i’m a sick boy

my throat hurts

I think I talked too much today/tonight. My throat is much more sore/hoarse right now than it was yesterday, or when I woke up today. Also, I had a migraine today, and I think something in some Cold Stone Creamery ice cream my sister bought me for lunch today set it off. Stupid ice cream. Not the cold, no, brain freeze I can tell from migraines. This was a full-on ocular migraine.