Mountain Dew A.M. is truly liquid crack

Leave it up to the most disgusting fast food chain, Taco Bell, to serve the equivalent of breakfast time liquid crack -- a disgusting mix of Mountain Dew and orange juice. Hey, at least they're both shades of yellow and orange but shouldn't orange juice in the morning be reserved for mixing with champagne or vodka. And who the hell eats at Taco Bell for breakfast anyway? Unless you are so drunk that you haven't gone to bed yet. Anyhow, Mountain Dew A.M. is served until 11 AM at Taco Bell locations which offer a breakfast menu.

The evolution of Sierra Mist

I remember the first time I had a drink of Sierra Mist. For whatever reason (I suppose it was on sale) my mom arrived home from the grocery store with a two liter of this new soda. Being adventurous, I poured myself a glass of it after a proper amount of time spent chilling in the refrigerator. That first drink sealed the deal for me. I never wanted to drink that bile, tasteless shit ever again. I remember it as sludgy and syrupy. I practically yearned for Pepsi to bring back Crystal Pepsi rather than have my fellow Americans subjected to this form of punishment.

Was this some kind of elaborate joke? Did America really need a third variation of Lemon-Lime soda?

As time went on, this disgusting brand of nasty obvious gained a certain amount of market share, otherwise it would have been pulled from the shelves faster than Surge (remember that one?).

Whatever the case, Sierra Mist still exists but after looking at the logos through the soda's mere ten year history you'd quickly realize that PepsiCo would have been better off sticking with Lemon Lime Slice. Honestly, how do you expect to build brand recognition with a logo revision or outright overhaul every 30 months on average? That only works if your original product and its subsuquent alterations were straight-up shit. That's obviously the case as I'd rather drink water from my workplace's toilet than have another sip of Sierra Mist.

Oh, and if you haven't figured out what I though about the first time I drank Sierra Mist, I didn't like it very much.

Alright, move along and check out MinnPics and the stunning collection of photos from all across Minnesota - it's celebrating its second birthday today!

My problem with soda prices

I am an unabashed fan of soda. I don't overconsume the crap - and yes it is crap - but I do love the sugary treat on a daily basis. I typically limit myself to one 12 oz. can per day and I'm happy after that. I don't know whether it's the sugary goodness of it or that I am a caffeine addict. Whatever the case, I do spend a certain amount of our household grocery budget on the worthless sugary crap. Lately, though, the prices have come to piss me off.

I remember when I was a new full-time employee at my first job. Nearly every day as I returned to the office after lunch I would stop at a friendly convenience store and plop down a cool dollar and even with tax I'd be the temporary owner of a 20 oz. bottle of sugary, delicious soda.

I reluctantly accepted a price hike from 94 cents to 99 cents per bottle. That left the plus-tax price at $1.05 for a 20 oz. bottle.

Fast forward a decade and a 20 oz. bottle of soda at a convenience store can now cost upwards of $1.59! Did production costs of the sugary crap truly increase over 50% in a mere ten years? I doubt that because a less-than-portable two liter bottle of soda (more than three-times the size of its 20 oz. counterpart) can easily be found for one dollar.

Is the convenience and portability of the 20 oz. bottles in our rush-rush world of today the reason for the rather insane price hikes of soda or is there something more going on here? Would we be better off making our own soda from some bizarre online recipe or should we resort to drinking nothing but water? And what price is the breaking point? At what price will you say "no thanks" to 20 oz. bottles of soda?

Check out MinnPics - it's full of photos from across the great state of Minnesota.

Phlegm and energy drinks

It is unbelievable what interrupted sleep does to a guy. Granted, I wasn't awake for 90 minutes like my old lady was but even the 30 minutes in which I was awake and the 30 minutes early I had to wake up takes it toll.

It all started Saturday night. The baby was coughing alot. She even managed to turn it in to a game. With each cough, regardless of its intensity, she'd physically remove her pacifier and throw it. This was because it happened without her help one time that she coughed but I congratulated her on making a cough at least entertaining for herself. She eventually hacked up a puddle of phlegm. Thankfully we have hardwood floors in her bedroom.

But last night her coughing was a bit more consistent. Her tiny coughs shook her body. Her face turned red and she cried... alot. The only difference was that, before putting her to bed, she hadn't hacked up any phlegm. We took this as a good sign.

And it was a good sign until I was awakened at 3:55 AM by my old lady asking if I planned on doing anything. That is when she informed me that she had already been up for an hour and that the baby was sitting up in the corner of her crib crying and hacking. I slowly stumbled out of bed and picked up the little ball of rage and made my way down stairs to make her a bottle to at least soothe her somewhat.

Upon returning upstairs and her successfully hacking up a tiny pool of phlegm, I noticed something in her hair just above her ear. It was phlegm. Yes, the baby had managed, during her hacking, to launch some lung snot into her brown hair.

So, after all that, and her sleeping in our bed last night, here I am. Sleep deprived, unfocused and with a slight headache. I dread returning home after work because I know that my old lady will be crabby. And I know that plenty of other parents have much worse ordeals with their children but this is out of the ordinary. The baby is almost perfect. She always sleeps all night and is rarely a hand full. She's even rather drink from a galss like an adult.

But to get through the day, I have a 16 oz. can of Plasma Fusion Energy drink waiting in the refrigerator for me. It's from a company based just up the road (or down the road, or across town) in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. And it has real cane sugar in it. I'm thinking that it's worthy of its own review this week.

If I make it through the day, expect updated photographic goodness at MinnPics.

Pepsi vs. Coke in logos

I'm not some sort of soda junkie but I do pay attention to the logo, design and marketing trends of the "big guys". I don't really see much in the way of a true cola war because, let's face it, you aren't going to change anyone's opinion. Flavor is a subjective thing and one person's opinion isn't going to change that of another.

The logos, though, are what intrigue me. Pepsi (Pepsi-cola) has has an always evolving string of logos since their inception. Coke (Coca-Cola) on the other hand has stayed the course. Sure, Coke has changed the design of their cans by adding a sprinkling of yellow for a time but they recently went back to a simplistic red motif that harkens back to their roots. It's almost like Coke realizes that they have a deep and strong heritage and both rely and build on that. Pepsi seems to be going in the exact opposite direction. They have thrown away any shred of heritage in favor of being trendy. I personally feel that Pepsi's first few iterations of their logo were merely minor tweaks in the typography. The basic idea was still the same and those, if they had stuck with it, could have been even more iconic than Coke's unchanging logo.



The ultimate lesson here is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it and by that I can assume that Pepsi is broken.



Now that you're visually aware, visit MinnPics and see what you missed this past weekend and find out what you shouldn't miss next weekend!

I have a new love

I'm sure that, by now, you've all seen at least head that Pepsi and Mountain Dew have released throwback versions of their sodas. What that boils down to is a retro logo and original ingredients - mainly - gasp - real sugar.

And to the spoilsports out there who dig in their heels and staunchly proclaim that "a sweetener is a sweetener - high fructose corn syrup is just the same as sugar" I'd like to knock their teeth out with a baseball bat. I am not a fan of Pepsi products but will take Mountain Dew if I'm in a restaurant where real soda (Coke) isn't available. Due to a coupon at Cub Foods last week, I tried a 20 oz. bottle of the Mountain Dew throwback and it's good. If ever a sugar-filled drink could be called crisp and clean, this is the one.

Corn Syrup is what it is. It makes everything taste ultra-sweet and sludgy. It' obvious devoid of any texture because it's nothing more than a gelatinous blob and you can tell when you're poisoning yourself by drinking it that it's a syrup. I don't chug pancake syrup (which also contains that crap) so why would I want to do the same with soda filled with corn syrup?

It proves that large, multi-national food companies can still turn a profit using natural sugar so why not make the Pepsi and Mountain Dew throwbacks the new classics? Coke learned their lesson with their new formula about 25 years ago so be the leader Pepsi. Lead us to a new generation of sugar-sweetened soda.

You can still get your FREE Dr. Pepper

Yes, even though I missed what was supposed to be the only day to get my free 20 oz. bottle of delicious Dr. Pepper, I — along with the rest of America can still grab the soda until 6 PM EST today (Monday, Nov. 24, 2008).

It seems a logical decision to extend the offer due to Dr. Pepper's website being beyond slammed throughout the day Sunday (and today as I cannot get my free soda). Whether the traffic was actually far too much to handle or Dr. Pepper came into this stunt woefully underprepared may never be seen. Hell, maybe they really don't want to make good with this rather costly promotion. Ah, I love a good conspiracy theory.

Oh, and about that Guns 'n Roses Chinese Democracy disc, even after letting that shit age for 14 years it's still just that, shit.

And Dr. Pepper isn't the only thing that is free. MinnPics, home of all things great in Minnesota photography, remains free because that's how I roll.

Checkout line conversations

Do you ever find yourself trapped in the oft-dreaded checkout conversation or am I the only one who actually reaches out for these bizarre interactions with actual living, breathing humans?

Sure, there was the incident a few weeks back as I purchased two 24-packs of oh-so-delicious Coca-Cola Classic at an area Cub Foods store. This kid was either the extremely outgoing type or one of those borderline "I ride the short bus" types that was integrated into society and hired as sort of a community outreach by the grocery giant.

The conversation itself was rather brief but weird nonetheless. Desperate for human interaction himself, he commented on the packaging of my 48 can purchase of Coca-Cola Classic. Noting that before Halloween the pressed cardboard packaging was adorned with the newest Christmas packaging scheme rolled out by the Atlanta-based soda conglomerate.

"Wow, Christmas already? It isn't even Halloween", the teenager stated.

As I absorbed a rather normal but extremely observant statement from the kid, I snapped back "Yeah, this kind of crap is insane but I work in advertising so it pays the bills. I look at it as selling my soul for Coke."

I stood as I pulled out my check card glancing periodically at the now perplexed face sported by this checker whose previous human interaction was likely a Magic: The Gathering fansite. I thought about explaining the selling my soul line but it just wasn't worth it.

I had reached out to a kid in need of some tried and true humor and he didn't catch it. I walked to the end of the black rubber belted checkout and grabbed my purchases wondering if about ten minutes later, after rehashing the conversation over and over something would finally click and he'd bust out laughing. I then wondered if he'd be laughing at the admittedly weak joke or laughing at me. Then I realized that I truly didn't give a damn. There would be other encounters for sure. The one Thursday at a Pamida (yes, I said Pamida) store was another conversation for the record books.