Energy Drink

Today on James' Kitchen we'll be making the energy drink he uses to keep himself awake, alive, entertained, or just plain energetic. In fact, there's probably enough energy in one drink to power all Australian homes for a day, so by drinking one, you better have something planned to do. Interestingly, this drink contains absolutely NO harmful drugs (James takes them separately), like caffeine, alcohol, or guarana that are commonly found in so called "energy drinks" such as Red Bull, V, or coffee...

Let's pick a few nasty names from those "energy drinks" and see how bad I can make them sound (while keeping to 99% fact...);

Taurine (found in Red Bull and V) is a conditionally essential "amino acid." I put "amino acid" in quotes because I'm simply quoting the Red Bull website on that, yet Taurine lacks a carboxyl group to be properly called an amino acid. It was named from Latin Taurus, meaning bull or ox, as it was first extracted from ox bile in 1827. Also, despite its presence in energy drinks, Taurine has not been shown to be energy-giving.

Glucuronolactone (found in Red Bull and V), also known as (2R)-2-[(2S,3R,4S)-3,4-Dihydroxy-5-oxo-tetrahydrofuran-2-yl]-2-hydroxy-acetaldehyde, "has received some notoriety... that it was a Vietnam War-era drug manufactured by the American government." Also worth mentioning is that "it was banned due to several brain tumour-related deaths." Scary huh?

I'm sure you already know all the hype about caffeine being bad for you, so I'll just skip over that one and you can imagine all the bad things I've just said.

Acesulfame K, found in Red Bull (and probably V, couldn't get a proper ingredient list for them), is one of those artificial sweetener doodads, and you all tell me off for drinking Diet Coke cause it has fake sugar in it so RIGHT BACK AT YA!!! Only this is found in all of Red Bull products, not just the "light" version. It's so dangerous that Kraft Foods had to add another chemical to its products to mask the damage that Acesulfame K did (to your tastebuds...). It has also been noticed that the "chemical has not been studied adequately and may be carcinogenic."

Sucralose, sounding like sucrose, but it's not, so there, is also an additive to Red Bull and V. To quote Wikipedia straight for this one

"Concerns have been raised about the effect of sucralose on the thymus, an organ that is important to the immune system. A report from NICNAS cites two studies on rats, both of which found "a significant decrease in mean thymus weight" at a certain dose."

The certain dose stated is calculated to be similar to the quantity that Luke drinks Red Bull at, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't worry as "some ingested sucralose is broken down and absorbed by the body there is concern that chronic consumption may lead to thymus shrinkage or other side-effects."

Now that I've told you the nasty parts of the other drinks, you can drink mine instead, knowing that you're probably safe (that all depends on how you make it really).

You will need:

1. A mixer blender thingo... I use a milkshake maker and it works... Just...
2. A cup with can withstand freezing (i.e. the condensation on the cup I use FREEZES... That's how much energy this drink sucks up from the environment... Cool huh?).
3. About 30mL of Milk (yup, that's all).
4. Half a tin of Milo (size of the tin depends on how much energy you require).
5. Chocolate Ice-cream... The DARK chocolate ice-cream... You know the stuff...
6. Chocolate syrup... To taste...
7. Sugar (optional).

Instructions:

1. Put about 10mL of milk at the bottom of the cup; this is to prevent the Milo getting stuck down the bottom.
2. Scoop Ice-cream in small scoops into the cup, large chunks means you might blow the motor. Don't be shy, use lots!!!
3. Pour Milo in (note: I said pour, not scoop; that means use LOTS).
4. Add sugar (optional).
5. Add remaining Milk, if it will fit, to give the mixer an attempt at a chance of working in the future.
6. Stick on the mixer thing and start. You'll hear it struggle, this is normal; it will spin a little faster once the ice-cream has been whipped to hell.
7. Take off; add Chocolate Syrup until mix is getting close to the edge of cup.
8. Mix again; stand back in case it goes over the edge...
9. When you can smell the motor smoking, it's finished and you can drink it off to drink it. Tastes best straight off the mixer.

Warning: Consistency is far thicker than Hungry Jack or McDonald's thickshakes, so tipping it towards your mouth may not produce any results... If this is the case, try blending it again. If that fails, buy a new blender and invest in blender shares...

Warning: Do not drink, then forget to exercise, the energy contained in the drink may make you fat in a matter of seconds...

Warning: Do not allow parents to watch you make this, they will kill you. Do not allow pets to consume the substance, as it's probably an aphrodisiac...

Yes, I actually drink that by the way... Tastes good... Like Chocolate...

Tune in next time for something else crazy!!! That's what I'm here for!!!

Limited Information

Which pretty much sums up what photo's I can show you of Rosebud and our trip away.

Most of the pictures have been withheld, not because the actions depicted were illegal, just not required to tell a story...

So I was bartender, which was a lot of fun. Especially as Al paid for most of the alcohol... Cheers buddy... Amelia, Nick, Izzy and I went to the beach one day, which was a nice calming experience. Al and CVP stayed home to inspect the TV for subliminal messages, reports show that there several messages hidden, including a request from many for "MORE!!!"

Luke was our wonderful host, who ended up mowing the lawns himself. He didn't have to, but did it anyway... Sophie stayed a few days too, adding to our numbers, except in the mornings when she'd disappear for a few hours to check the surf. We had a water fight, and got pretty wet... We slept in, and stayed up late... We gave Al something of a male version of a make-over, with a new sleek black hair colour and a waxing of the back of his neck. Learnt some things about each other on "Truth or truth" night, cause no one could think of any dares (Though I've thought of several now that it's all over... I reckon watching Christiaan run up one of those hills would have been worth it).

Definitely a time worth remembering, plenty to take out of it...

And today we got our VCE results... Did almost exactly as I predicted, with two surprises:

One – English; I really kinda hate English, and sorta didn't try at all for it... So why the hell did I get a 39 for the subject???

Two – Electrotech; expected a little more from this one really, mainly because I know I'm better than the 43 I got. Though depending on the number of students that actually did Electrotech in the state, that 43 could still be the top grade (last year's top grade was 49, then 47, then 45, then 43).

Other subjects were really as expected, my 33 in Methods CAS got scaled up to a 40 and a 34 in Chemistry also went up to a 39.

Coupled with my subjects from last year, Biology and Geography, I pulled a solid 91.55 as my ENTER.

Which clearly fulfils my requirement of a 72.10 to get into Engineering at RMIT (it's the longest course name in the paper, if you want to know which Engineering).

Happy? Don't know... Hasn't sunk in yet... Maybe it never will... It is only four digits and a decimal place afterall... And if you don't get what you want this year, you do a year of something else and transfer... Doesn't count for anything really... Does it?

What’s that Lassie? James has been busy? We’ve gotta save him!!

Yeah, trapped down a well or something...

So I've had a bunch of exams since my last post, and I've still got a few more. Let's revise over them shall we:

• English – The one subject I viewed as the biggest waste of my time was just that, a waste of my time. The exam was easier than I thought it would be and I'm happy to announce that I did NOT study for English... In fact, I did not willingly write any essays all year. Any essays that I did write were SAC's or trial exams. I'm guessing my study sore will be about 32 or 33 in this subject, which is about what I've been hoping for...
  
• VET Electrotechnology – Ah yeah... IF you could call that an exam it was not difficult in the slightest. Please regurgitate some basic electronics, easy. Please draw lines to connect these batteries, easy. Please read this graph by telling us what happens at when the time is zero, easy. Please copy the picture above, easy. And most of those questions are worth five marks or more!!! If you're looking for an easy subject with no homework, you've found it. Estimated study score: 47+ and the Premier's Award (quite probably 50, but they didn't give one last year).
  
• Math Methods CAS Exam #1 (Tech Free) – The one exam I've feared since year nine was everything it was hyped up to be I reckon. I didn't do badly, just ran short of time. And it was a fair bit longer than I expected it to be... That's ok though because tomorrow I have:
  
• Math Methods CAS Exam #2 (Tech Active) – This will be fun, I'm looking forward to going in there, answering it all and walking out to hear everyone whine like they always do. Math is my strong point, assuming I have a fancy calculator to do all the fiddly bits on (seriously, who does that unit circle shit in their head? And why?). I'm hoping to get around 35 for Methods, remembering that it's harder to get a better score in CAS (cause more smart people do it) and I did sort of shit on the tech free, but that mark could very easily be a 39 as well. Oh, and if I haven't told you enough already, CAS is harder and hence gets scaled more, so don't tell me it's easier cause we have a fancy calc, we have to LEARN more :P
  
• Finally, Chemistry – This is my wildcard at the moment. I'd like to place this in my top four, with English, VET Electrotechnology and Biology (or Methods if it makes it) but it could quickly. Did well on my trial in comparison to everyone else, but I didn't do that well on it (if that makes sense). Need to learn that whole redox/electrochemical series stuff and how to use it, especially as half the paper will be on it. I'll read my text book Tuesday and Wednesday probably. Estimated Study Score of about 38 – 42, but could be as low as 35.
  

Also, I've got myself a job recently. I'm now a food and beverage attendant, which is a fancy name for waiter. I've worked three days now at Flemington during the races and its lots of fun but really tiring:

• Saturday 3^rd November – First day of work. This was by far the toughest day. I was working in the birdcage which is a corporate like area. Each company has this tiny footprint the size of a shoebox and builds an ultra-modern square thing in it. They then go and invite everyone they know and cram them into that tiny room they've just built. I was working in the Longines corporate shoebox, where the manager or something has some special ties with the company I was working for or something. So when a usual function has one waiter per twenty-five guests, this function had one per ten guests, to make sure the best service was offered. Longines is some overseas watch company (we think it was Swiss) and hance had boxes built into the walls to display their products to the people who were already aligned to their way of life (EVERYBODY had an accent and had just got off a first-class overseas flight that morning). My supervisor was so tight... He had a ruler out before the guests arrived and was measuring the distance of the glasses from the edge of the bar to match them perfectly on both sides... Talk about tight... So I'm given a marble platter, about 3cm thick, 40cm square, and it weighs a tonne. They go and pile it up with food, dips and some stupid decoration, tell me to carry it with one arm and place napkins arranged all decoratively in the other hand. Hold the platter out from the body and go and serve the food, don't come back till it's empty. So I spent my day in a hot, tight, crowded room with my arm shaking, yelling "excuse me" or "would you like some fresh prawn cutlets with mango and lime dip?" or some other gourmet food to the guests. I had one break, eight hours into my shift, no lunch, and no water all day...
  
• Tuesday 6^th November – Melbourne Cup. This was the complete opposite of my first day. Assigned to the Phar Lap enclosure I was expecting more loud noise and drunken people. Instead, I was blessed with a nice plasma television nearby, and a collection of old people helped by a young generation (about 25ish). I was working the buffet, which meant I got to stand there and dish out whatever crap was in the thing. "Beef, Glazed Virginia Ham, Spinach and Fetta Pie and over here we have Chicken." Of course, if you read the menu in front of you I wouldn't have had to repeat myself 400 times (800 guests, and I seemed to repeat it every couple). But I had a good work mate, a New Zealand Chef who was supposed to make the food look all fancy and fresh by cutting the meat up while I served it. I explained to him what a stubby was (I still don't think he believes me...) and together we sussed out the turf, provided the "I got a spot for you right here under the counter" commentary and did the whole "who would you fuck from that table?" thing. Heaps of fun. Plus I had dessert for lunch.
  
• Saturday 10^th November – Emirates Stakes Day. Originally I was working as a bartender in the Ascot enclosure for "Make a Wish Foundation" but then got moved after an hour of work to "The Cancer Council" tent, also in the Ascot enclosure. And after a total of 3 minutes working there, I got moved again to Trackside, which is quite literally track side. On a raised platform on the bend just after the finish line, we were within a distance to drop items onto the track, or throw them at the horses that just lost our money. The setup here was like the Longines suite, but it wasn't as corporate and everything was more spread out with more room. Again, the audience was a little older than Longines, which made life quite enjoyable. The blokes drank beer and the chicks drank champagne. The older people all drank mixed drinks. The atmosphere was light and relaxed, though I did some grazing again (damn heavy platters... these weren't as bad though). One of the younger girls (about 25) had me follow her friend around with food all day, just for fun. Another one was insistent on giving me tips for being the opposite gender presents (she was really trying to get me to spend $1000 on a Tiffany's anklet...). A group of adults kept asking me to leave the platters at their table, which I can't do, so instead I just stood there at their table chatting while they finished off a basket of dim sim's or whatever it was. Another group kept wanting me to sit and actually share a beer or two (or twelve in one hour by my count). A set of older ladies were quite impressed when I offered to cut the queue at the bar for them and bring the drinks straight to their table (when in fact it gave me an excuse to stand around for five minutes instead of carry food). And some lucky bugger in our tent spent $2 on a quinella, and won it, winning $604,000. Damn, I'm jealous...
  

So that's my recent happenings. With a few more to go exams to go and Ryan's party thing on Saturday, there should be another one of these next Sunday, but no promises... After all, there will be a new puppy which might be stealing my attention...

Periodic Table?

From Wikipedia:

Vodka usually has an alcohol content of 35% to 50% by volume. The classic Russian, Lithuanian and Polish vodka is 40% (USA 80 proof). This can be attributed to the Russian standards for vodka production introduced in 1894 by Alexander III from research undertaken by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. According to the Vodka Museum in Moscow, Mendeleev found the perfect percentage to be 38.

You mean that old guy Mendeleev we've been studying actually did something interesting other than create the periodic table?

And you thought chemistry was boring...

And I'm working on a shot for schoolies, I need a name... Vodka, Sambuca and Whiskey probably... And it burns... Like actually on fire burns... Suggestions?

Probationary...

Well I had my driving test today; I passed with only one mistake!

So now I have my new piece of plastic for my wallet. They let me keep the old license, but it has a hole in it... I could have sold it to someone who looks like me otherwise. I still could. Reckon I could find someone who looks like me and is really stupid? (I can hear your laughter from here...).

Also, the car has been transferred to my name, which means I own the car I drive around in. So if you see my little Ford Laser 1995 zipping down the streets down forget to wave, cause that's me behind the wheel!

As a result of all this stuff, I missed out on school today. This also means I missed out on one Chemistry and one Methods SAC... Oh well, do you really think I care? At least I have an English SAC tomorrow to do instead.

Finally, I plan on driving on the footpaths, my car is small enough and it has less traffic, so I recommend you start walking on the road, for your own safety...

Deadlines...

Those dates and times are fast approaching, and I'm doing my best to delay preparing for them as much as possible.

I have three math assignments that I still haven't handed in (at least I handed in the one that was due last year last week). Thankfully, there's no other overdue work (that I remember).

But exams approach. I have Chemistry on Wednesday (or is it Tuesday? :P). Thursday is a busy one, with the GAT in the morning (thankfully you can't study for it, but you can try if you're an idiot) and a Math SAC in the afternoon. And Friday is the last of my unchangeable dates with my English Oral right in the middle of the day!

And with that much work it would be logical to be studying for them or writing a speech right? Not me... The only Chemistry study I've done is the stuff we did in class, which is one practice exam. Math SAC? I was planning on none at all, hopefully natural talent will get me far. And my English Oral? Well, I do actually have to do something for it, as much as I hate English. All I've managed to do is to write an opening paragraph for my 10 min speech (I suppose if I talk reeaallllyyy slllllloooooowwllllyy).

A lot of people have asked me how I'm doing my English speech and thankfully I actually have planned something. I will talk for my 10mins about water recycling like a politician, making promises I don't plan on keeping. For those of you who think it's stupid, my English teacher thinks it's bloody brilliant!!!

For those who think I haven't left enough time on these approaching deadlines, you're probably right, but I'll do well anyway... I always do!

Oh! I also have an Electrotech assignment due first day back of normal classes, but that can be done with my eyes shut.

Have fun this week with your exams or lack thereof!

Time for an Update

Yup, it's that time again... it's time for an update:

By reading Matt's and Luke's blog you'd already know that everybody who does English Texts and English Journeys (I do Journeys, but I'm told that they are essentially the same) had a SAC (School Assessed Coursework for those of you too far away from Victoria to know) this week. I did fine; I wrote on a Part 2 topic which everybody seems to think is a huge massive crime against nature cos we haven't done them before. My middle finger salutes those who tell me off. I'll print my mark in the next few weeks when it gets back from being corrected by two, maybe three teachers, then we'll see who did better...

Also, those who do Chemistry got to complete (or not complete, depending on your speed) a SAC this week based on the gravimetric analysis of fertilizer... boring... I'd rather be practising to mix Hydrogen Sulfide, for when the end of year comes around; and that's not for the exam! Nevertheless, our results were delivered the next day unlike the English (Lazy humanities teachers... always thought they were evil with their messy desks) and the marks were varied. Out of thirty, some of the lower marks were in the single figure range; from what I can gather the average was about 17; the majority of the 'smart' people scored between 23 and 28; the top mark was 30 and was by Chris Loh, but there might be others. I scored a 28.5, which was far better than what I could have hoped, but being that close I would have preferred a 30. Next SAC for Chemistry is probably in two to three weeks, and this time on Volumetric Analysis (of Fertilizer).

So yeah... busy... and I still need to start my Electrotech proposal. I'm going to be building an 'Asian Wonder' like the ones we used in the Tattoo only it won't be DMX controlled unless I get the time and enough money... I'd rather build a second one then upgrade the first... more light. So I need to write up my proposal with a budget, timeline and a detailed description of the product. I have ideas, but I'm still not 100% sure how I want to power it... Whether I have a transformer that plugs into the wall or have one built into the light (which raises I whole new level of safety because I'm not qualified). Meh... I'll work something out...

I feel like I'm missing a subject? Ah.. Math... boring...

Write something again next week perhaps.