Red Bull Energy Drink … still waiting for the kick

September 28th, 2005 admin

Today was the last day to use the $2 coupon at the cafeteria. I had gotten my lunch from home. I was strolling through the cafeteria looking for the best way to spend my two bucks, when I noticed a few of these Red Bull cans sitting in an ice bucket. Having never tried this drink, I picked one up, hoping it would be a little over a buck and thus covered by the coupon. It turned out to be 2.13$ for this tiny 250ml can. “It better be good”, I thought. I popped the cap and tasted it on my way back to my office. It was certainly audacious of the company to sell such bad tasting stuff, for over two bucks! “This stuff must be real effective”, I thought, to be able to pull off something like this. I had my lunch about a half hour ago at my desk and then drank the potion. Execpecting miraculous, magic-potion-of-Asterix-like changes, I read some about the drink. It is made in Austria. It has taurine. Sounds bullish, but I learnt everything in the drink is manufactured in a lab. It has a few other ingredients that supposedly “vitalize the body and mind”. The website claimed that having this drink at times when you need to concentrate, or be highly reactive and enthusiastic, like before taking a mid-term examination, can be highly effective. Well its been more than a half hour. The only transformation I feel is the cough-syrup taste in my mouth is finally gone and I feel a little wiser. “Red Bull” (“read bull”), is 8.3 Fl Oz of wisdom.

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Labor Day 2005 and the mini-reunion in Chicago

September 10th, 2005 admin

I would like to thank Kavita for typing up most of this journal from my handwritten and scanned notes, and my friend Praveen for motivating me to write about this trip.

Illinois is a place I visit often. Kavita and I look forward to meeting up on long weekends because they are a whole day longer than a regular weekend. The plan is always to meet up and spend time with each other. The way it ends up is we spend time with friends or family. And fortunately, both of us enjoy and work best in that mode.

For this September, the plans had been drawn over a long period of time – several hours spread over several weeks. That’s a big part of the fun; planning what we would do, once together. The plans, like I said earlier, always include meeting with friends and spending time with them, other than going some place nice and of course, some small doses of shopping.

The plans for this Labor Day, however, included an unusually enthusiastic attempt at meeting with many of my undergraduate schoolmates who studied with me at IIT Guwahati and now lived in or close to Illinois. The surprise was that I met up with all those friends I planned to meet, and more. Kavita, who enjoys being around people, loved every minute of it. And I loved it all the more. I was thrilled to see these wonderful people, and seeing Kavita’s delight doubled the effect. Read the rest of this entry »

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