Never Underestimate Radical Vision

Well it has been a busy 5 or so days. We are about 5 weeks from moving into our new house in the south-side (Briarbrook for you non-Carl Junctionites). Yesterday my wife went on a selling spree. She sold our kitchen table and kitchen hutch. I say kitchen hutch because we also have a dining room table and dining room hutch (still trying to figure out how I got talked into two hutches (what is the plural for hutch, is it hutches or just hutch, oh well)). She also sold our daybed, whicker desk and chair, lighthouse paraphernalia, daybed bedding, basically everything in our spare bedroom. Even the great pool table with ping-pong table conversion top was sold. Now my so caring brother informs me now that since we got rid of the spa and the pool table we don’t have a fun house anymore. I guess that means he won’t be over to leech my homemade SURGE and my cappuccino anymore.

On a new music purchase note, I highly recommend the purchase of the new Starflyer 50 album “I Am the Portuguese Blues.” It is on more vain of their “Americana” album. It is definitely more rocky but in that old style classic rock vain. This is an excellent listen and would recommend it to anyone; yet, I am a little biased since they are my favorite band. Go to cdnow.com (ie, amazon.com) and take a listen to the samples, here.

For those .NET technical types I recommend listening to .NET Rocks, http://www.franklins.net/dotnetrocks. It is a great show and you can even win prizes like Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition with 25 client licenses. Now that is a kick butt prize. It is a great show and provides more than just technical info but more info on just the life an culture on the developer. Take a listen I think you will enjoy.

All for today

“Looks don’t matter it is what is on the inside.” Isn’t this the line we get feed all the time by women? Aren’t we told a woman wants someone who will communicate, be romantic, listen, share hopes and dreams, etc? Well I think this has finally been proven slightly wrong. First women want looks and then use the other stuff to weed out the others. Now I am not saying guys are any different but at least we don’t fool ourselves into thinking looks don’t matter. They absolutely matter and they matter big time. Giving a choice between two women, one that is attractive but maybe a little bit of a ditz or one that is really sweet, smart, caring but just not very attractive, the guy is going to give the nod to the attractive women. Now I know what you are thinking, “Thanks for this little rant Captain Obvious!” Yet, there is a reason for my little rant.

I watched the finale of Average Joe 2 last night. If you don’t know the premise of the show let me explain. A very attractive woman is brought on the show and told she is going to meet a group of guys. She is to weed them out till she finds the one that she could continue a relationship with. This is really a setup like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette except for the fact that the first group of guys that step off the bus are just average guys. They are average or below average in many aspects of their appearance. Later in the show a group of studs are brought in to compete against the average Joes for the heart of the beauty. She has to eliminate guys from each group until she comes down to one from each group. She then has to choose the one for her.

Now what really chapped my hide about this finale was whom she chose. Throughout the whole process she was telling us how she needs someone romantic, someone who listens, someone who will open up and share their heart with her, someone with a great personality, etc. These were the MOST important qualities that she was looking for. And as you could guess, the average Joe had all these qualities but was only average in looks. The stud was very guarded, didn’t open up, had the personality of a dead squirrel and may have had arterial motives but was very handsome. She winded up picking the stud and let the average Joe go. Then later on their little romantic, tropical get away she reveals to the stud that her ex-boyfriend was Fabio and he winds up getting mad and leaving her high and dry. It really was sweet justice.

Now I am not upset that she would pick the stud even though the other man would have treated her like a queen. It was the fact that she tried to fool herself and us into thinking that looks don’t matter. Just admit it! Looks matter! Not only that but looks matter first and foremost! I am not saying the other things are not important, but you use those other things as weed out criteria when a choice comes between two people that are comparable in looks. This is no great revelation. I just was reminded how guys don’t lie to themselves and that most woman do (for whatever reasons). I guess nice guys always do finish last.

What are your thoughts?

Ahhhh, the refreshing taste of SURGE. This soda has many memories for me. Most of the memories are connected to college and going to concerts in Bartlesville, OK at The Wherehouse (great place to see a concert, thanks to Mike and Jake). I will never forget the sight of a preppy boy named Ryan Pierce stage diving to some Stavesacre rock. Anyway, most of these trips involved crazy stunts with SURGE or just some casual drinking because it was such a superior beverage. Many a ping-pong match incorporated the drink in some way or another, either as a reward or recuperation method.

Unfortunately, Coca-Cola did not feel the same way about SURGE as I did. They stopped distributing the drink a few years back, although you can still get it in a few select fountain locations across the country. There is even a website savesurge.org dedicated to having the company bring back this ultimate thirst refreshment. You can go there and help our cause by filling out the petition or calling your local Coke distributor. You can find SURGE sightings, as well as, paraphernalia on the site. The other interesting subject is recipes. These are user donated recipes trying to recreate the beautiful taste of SURGE using different techniques.

Now I tried a few of the recipes and came to the conclusion that they were close, being that I have not tasted the beverage for at least a year and a half, but not right on. So I combined some of the ingredients of the separate recipes to make my own. And I must say that I think I hit the nail right on the head. Look for my recipe to appear on savesurge.org shortly. I had a couple people taste it to make sure that I was not coming right out of left field and they concurred with me that I might have just nailed it. Then they subsequently drank my short supply, punks.

So here it is for your recreation (this is not an exact science and may take a little playing to get it just they way you remember, but here goes). You will need the following items:

Mello Yellow
Squirt
Sunny Delight Original flavor
dnL (SevenUp Upside Down)

Now since Coke replaced the poor selling Mello Yellow with SURGE and then turned around and replaced SURGE with Mellow Yellow I figured that they have a lot in common. So I used Mellow Yellow as the base. You about 1 ¾ parts Mellow Yellow. Then to bring in that tangy hint of lime you use 1 ¼ part dnL. To finish it off with that classic SURGE aftertaste and bite use ½ part Squirt and ½ part Sunny Delight. I may be a little off on the parts, but the important thing is to use more Mellow Yellow than the rest. The other ingredients add to Mellow Yellow what it is lacking to be SURGE. Try it out and enjoy. Take that trip down memory lane with me and send me comments on how close I got.

btw, expired 12 pack cases of SURGE on eBay are going for anywhere between 80 and 120 dollars. There is a demand, lets bring it back!

Later,