The DewMocracy Flavor Taste Test

After having an online contest called DEWmocracy in which individuals come up with new tastes, Mountain Dew has come out with three new flavors. They are letting their customer's decide which flavor they like best and are, accordingly, keeping the flavor that is most popular. I discovered this while stopping off at Rite Aid after work today, and decided to buy all three. I tasted all three and will share my insights into the nuances of their flavor differences. The first new flavor is:

SuperNova

Now the bottle says that it is "DEW With a Blast of Strawberry Melon Flavor and Ginseng," but there is not even a hint of ginseng. As I take a sip and swirl it around my mouth I realize that there is more carbonation in this beverage then traditional Mountain Dew. Its sweet, but not too sweet. As far as the strawberry melon flavors go, this drink leaves something to be desired. Drinking this is like drinking a very carbonated, slightly watered down strawberry Crush soda. I would say that it is enjoyable, but not something I would ever pay for again. In other words, if it is at a party I would drink it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I never see it on shelves again. The next new flavor is called:



Revolution

Now I am not sure if this is aimed at a rebellious youth, but I definitely do not feel compelled to march on Washington after tasting it. The bottle says that it's contents have "Dew Infused With Wild Berry Fruit Flavor and Ginseng." After allowing a few drops of this pale blue fluid into my mouth, I can assure you there is nothing wild about this flavor. It has the feel of soda-water with the taste of one of those blue ice pops that you let sit in your freezer for to long. It just does not have what it takes to be called Wild. Nor does it have what it takes for me to ever drink this again, free or not. I would rate Revolution less tasty than SuperNova, and would not recommend it to anyone. The next flavor is by far the best and called:

Voltage

Much tastier than the previous two, Voltage has a label that says it's brighter blue insides are "Charged With Raspberry Citrus Flavor and Ginseng," and yes it did say "Raspberry." If that is a typo or not I do not know, but I would not put it past the Mountain Dew brand to do this in the name of being edgy and different. Now, back to the taste test. As I take a large sip of the soda it is very clear that there is significantly less carbonation, a good thing. The raspberry has a distinct citrus flavor, as the label suggests. I can taste the same citusy tangy flavor that makes it's lemon/lime brother so popular. I would have to call this one... regular Mountain Dew but with the lemons and limes swapped out for Raspberries. Now seeing as I greatly enjoy the lemon/lime Mountain Dew that you see everywhere, I will label this both the best flavor of the three and my third favorite Mountain Dew flavor, behind my second favorite: Code Red

Let me know what flavors you think are best, wither you agree or disagree

Evaluations and Progress Meetings

So, I got an email from Clarkson the other day that said they wanted an "initial evaluation form" filled out and sent to them from both me and my supervisor. I definitly thought that mine would be useful, but not my boss's since I never work with him. Anyway, it turned out fine. He emailed me the form to email to Clarkson, I have no idea why, and I took a look at it. Mostly said that I was doing "very good" and that it was too soon to tell if I had a few of the character traits the forms wanted to know about.
I, however, was not so nice in my evaluation form. Lets just say that since this coop is placed in the middle of nowhere and also since they haven't given me a real project yet, they didn't score very well. Now, this job is by far the best one I've ever had, but I was promised a project and I haven't been given one.

Which makes my meeting this evening at 3:30 pm very difficult. I, and all of the other coops, have to get up in front of the senior engineers and talk about what we have been doing so far. Now it is only a few slides, but if I haven't been given a project then I am just going to have to blabber on about the short little assignments I have been given.

Life is soo tough for a twenty year old white guy working as an engineering aid...

(just kidding)

I was a seething couldren of anger

No joke...

Why you may ask? Well I'll tell you why, but I'm going to take the scenic route so strap in. Alright, so about a day ago (thursday) I made a trip down to Walmart and bought myself a Tom-Tom GPS navigation device. I was thrilled to no end as I put it in my car and let it tell me the directions I already knew, back to my apartment.

All in all, it has some great features. It tells you your current speed. The names of all the roads around you. It tells you the current time aswell as the time of arrival given the distance and your current speed. It has maps of both the continental U.S. and Canada stored in it, and can grab signals from seven satilites on average.

Now why would I be upset at a wonderful device such as this? What could possible cause me, the techno nerd, to be upset at this delightful piece of machinery?

Let me take a deep breath...

After leaving work on friday I had my car all packed and ready to go. I had my back up maps in the car, just in case, and gave the device plenty of time to calculate my route to ashli in poughkeepsie, for the weekend. After doing all of this it told me a way to go that Google Maps did not. I shrugged my shoulders and went where it told me to go. I got about half way to ashli's (2 hours) when it apparently decided that it would be a good idea to take me back to my apartment.

Why?, I will never now. But let me tell you, when after four hours I saw the sign that was supposed to read "Welcome to Poughkeepsie" say "You have entered historic Greene" I was seething, as the title suggests. I was cursing and pounding my driver's wheel with force that I was sure would break it. I was so upset that I had just spent four hours driving in a huge circle around New York that when I hit the breaks to make a turn onto my road, I hydroplaned and barely skidded to a stop in front of three very nervous drivers.

"This is quite enough," I said to no one in particular as I got out of my car in the driveway of my apartment building. I understood that I was far to upset and nerved-up to drive, so I took a cleansing walk. After about twenty minutes and a quick trip to the bank to get some money that I would need to refill my tank, I was calm.

I sat in the car, prayed for strength, and struck out again. Four very stressful hours later I made it to her house, unscathed. Even though I basically made a huge four hour circle around New York,

the anger has passed and I am now as placid as a hindu cow.

Chums and Bums

I've really settled into my job, and have met some cool guys that work there. I say this because today me, two other guys, and this really cool woman/lab technician just jammered on in the lab for over an hour, barely completing our work. It was probably the most fun I have had since there since I started this job.

Also, I got a bit of interesting information concerning a meeting I have to attend on Tuesday next week. Apparently I have to make a short presentation of my project work thus far for all of the senior engineers. While I am not alone, becuase all of the other coops have to do this, it does not detract from the fact that I have had no project given to me since I started. I have only been doing engineering aid work, as they like to call it. So, for this nice little meet and great I get to tell everyone that for the last five weeks I have been doing odd jobs that barely occupy my time.

Well, at least something good came out of this. My boss sent me an email that said quote "We've got to get this guy a project." So after a short conversation he said I would have it at latest by Tuesday. Which is... oh yeah the day of the presentation.

Fun stuff.