Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

Sword Point Sunday: New Stuff

Today, I have a new blog announcement, a favor to ask, and today's Sword Point question.

I've decided to go ahead with a political blog.  Posting will probably be irregular or very brief (or both), especially while the college semester is in progress.  The focus will be on asking questions and (shock) not in a sarcastic manner (at least, not *all* the time).

Today's post falls in the "brief" category because the main purpose was to give me something to work with so I could play around with the look of the blog.  I also wanted to bring some more attention to the video that is linked. 

Check it out and chime in: http://successwarrior.typepad.com/questionable_politics/

I have become a frequent visitor of FaceBook and have stopped in a few times a day now that more and more of my friends are joining up.  When I started it, I stopped in solely to play Risk (called "Attack" on FaceBook) with friends but over the last year, several friends around the world have become FaceBookers.

Then TypePad (my blog host) came out with this cool feature that posts a link to my blog in my FaceBook profile when I create a new blog post.  Sweet!  Except . . .

It appears that it only works if I immediately publish my blog posts.  If I set my blog to post at a certain time (say, at 8pm MST each day), those posts are not announced on FaceBook. 

FeedBurner has ever so kindly offered a solution to the problem.  People can click a link at the bottom of a post and submit my blog posts to FaceBook.  Very nice.

If you would all be so kind, I'd like to ask you to take a few seconds to click on the "Share on Facebook" link on posts from this blog that you enjoy.  Feel free to do the same on the new blog if you wish.

Today's Sword Point question is a two-parter:

1.  Tell us one of your favorite food or drink "vices".

2.  Tell us something interesting about that vice.  Why do you put it into the "vice" category?  Do you have a funny story related to it?  Do you have a favorite time or place where you take part?  Do you savor it or is it your archnemesis?  Give us insight.

One of mine is the blue Monster drinks, usually in the XXL size.

I consider it a vice just because you know these things can't be good for you. 

There are essentially two times when I drink these monsters.  One is while driving across the salt flat wasteland going to or from the city.  It's probably a habit I picked up from being tired and reading all the "Drowsy Driving Kills" signs UDOT has posted along the way.  Better safe than dead, I suppose.

The other time is when I'm going to be doing a fair bit of writing.  I enjoy sipping on one while I type.  I don't think it has any effect other than psychological but it has turned out to be one of my triggers for creativity (no, I'm not drinking one right now - just plain old water).

Last week, I drank one while driving across the wasteland going to my doctor appointment.  I considered making a different choice because I knew they would be taking my blood pressure and supposedly these things can throw off the reading.  Incidentally, I read an article yesterday that said that just the stress of going to the doctor's office can throw off the reading.  Anyway, I'm not concerned about my blog pressure or what the doctor thinks is my blood pressure so I drank one anyway.  110/70 was the reading.  Guess I'll never worry about that ever again.

Since I've answered most of the questions, I'll answer the last.  Savor.  Some people don't like these things but there is something about the blue one that I really like.  I don't drink them to get any kind of buzz.  I actually enjoy the flavor and tingling texture.

So, what's yours?

Is it possible to make High Fructose Corn Syrup worse?

Why yes, yes it is.

<------- Pretty and poisonous.

Apparently there is a process that you can use to turn high fructose corn syrup into crystalline fructose, a substance that the human body is not currently able to process.

I did read an article quite some time ago that stated that if we keep on putting these poisons into our bodies, the human body would evolve to the point where it could actually subsist on chemicals.  I'm not sure how comforting of a thought that is.

I'm not going to go into all the details of crystalline fructose in this post.  Instead I will direct you to another blog for that at the end of this post.

I just wanted to point out how devious it is to take a poisonous compound and put in a product called VitaminWater and then make it in colors attractive to children.  Kids think it's pretty.  Parents think it's healthy.  "Evil" is the only word I can think of to describe this product coupled with this marketing.

The FDA wants to expand to cover cigarettes to "protect the children" but where is it for these kinds of products?

Ali's post on crystalline fructose.

Being the guinea pig

CV Rick posted his experiences about his parents and food which made me think of a couple of experiences that I had when I was growing up.  Like Rick's mom, my mom tends toward easily prepared basics.  Unlike Rick's dad, my dad can cook.  He has more cookbooks than I have books.  He reads food magazines and tries out the recipes that he comes across in them.

And sometimes he creates his own bits of masterpiece.

When we lived in San Diego, he was trying to win some recipe contest.  I don't know the details of the contest or how it turned out.  All I know is what my dad was making.  It was a sausage and vegetable concoction in barbeque sauce put into pita bread.  Quite frankly, it was quite tasty . . . the first day.

Let me interupt here by saying that although I can cook and do quite often for my family, I don't necessarily enjoy it.  I tend toward stuff that I can whip up pretty quickly and get onto the table.  One of the reasons I am this way (besides time better spent on things other than cooking) is that I never trained myself to discern different flavors.  Subtle nuances are completely wasted on me. 

"Do you taste the hint of sage in the cream sauce?  It really brings out the flavor of the chicken."

"Uhhh, no.  What does sage taste like?  And I thought this was pork."

So, the difference between Monday's recipe and Tuesday's recipe was lost on me.  Wednesday's was pretty much the same.  Thursday's stood out because I don't know what my dad did but not even the basset hound would touch that stuff.  Learning from his mistake though, Friday's and Saturday's were back up to par but even after 30 years, I remember Monday's as being the best because let's face it, after 6 days of barbequed sausage, Top Ramen sans flavor packet would be a nice change.

My siblings were all probably too young to remember that episode but there is one that has become a hallmark in my family.

We were living in London at the time and sitting down to family dinner which we did whenever my dad wasn't out to sea.  This is one of the greatest traditions we ever had and worth a post of its own (tomorrow).  He served up cream of garlic soup.

Let me start by saying that although a little bit more runny, this stuff really did look like baby diarrhea.  It was that weird shade of green that only seems to occur in nature after something has been run through a two month old human system. 

Everyone just stared at it.  Even my dad.

A blessing was said on the food.  Looking back, an exorcism might have been more appropriate but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Amens said, everyone looked again at the food.  I don't remember who tried it first.  My impression looking back was a kind of mutual everyone trying it at the same time thing.  I don't remember what it tasted like.  The memory is probably blocked out by trauma.  I do know that it tasted like garlic.  No doubt about it.  Even someone as untrained as I am about distinguishing flavors could taste the subtle hint of garlic in this soup.

No one, not even my dad, took a second bite.  The soup was removed from the table and we moved on to the main course which oddly enough tasted like garlic but that was probably because of the residual garlic left in my mouth from the soup.

You see, my dad had somehow put in about 10 times the amount of garlic that the recipe called for.  We could have taken garlic cloves and bit off pieces and gotten less garlic in our bodies.

Most of the food was great though and events like the garlic soup are great for a laugh at the family parties.