GasBandit
Staff member
The taste of "diet" became its own brand. So any other reduced calorie offering has to be its own distinct thing or else we end up with the "new coke" debacle all over again.
GasBandit
Staff member
Next you'll be saying madness like "vitamin water" should actually be healthy.
While I agree, I very clearly taste the difference between, say, coke zero and diet coke.
To be perfectly honest, Dr Pepper Zero is the bomb diggity, actually prefer it to the regular DP.
I can't even get either anymore. I miss Diet and Zero. Stupid ass pandemic.
I hardly ever drink soft drinks, and I now think most are way too sweet - I much prefer coke zero because it isn't as sticky as regular for example.
Yet Dr. Pepper, which is somehow even sweeter and stickier than pure molten sugar, is one I still like and prefer in enz original taste. Dunno why.
It's not just you, which is why diet drinks are the preferred ones to use for those Mentos-type videos.
--Patrick
That's kind of what I've been noticing for a lot of my re-branded/remade drinks: Rockstar Recoveries have gone from 10 to 25 calories, Zeros from 0 to 20 calories. There's a big shift in the industry over the last year and I don't know if it's just about consumer tastes or if it's just harder to get the artificial sweeteners for the zero calorie experience now.
Diet is the best Coke.
Never come to Belgium - Diet Coke doesn't exist here. (there's Zero, Light, Light Taste, Energy and Mixer as far "normal" cola's go. Cherry and Vanilla are fairly rare here, and most if not all of those are also available decaf. I still say decaf coke zero is just drinking water with extra steps, but hey).
That would be unfortunate for me as it’s pretty much my blood type by this point.
Cola light is just the european name for Diet Coke since they can't name a soft drink like a diet product. However the formular used here is different so maybe it is a different product?
figmentPez
Staff member
For less sweet soda I really like Dry Soda, which has enough sugar to be flavorful, but not so much that it's all you taste. While they have unusual flavors like lavender and cucumber, there's also more common flavors like cherry, orange, and vanilla.
Sometimes I'll add sugar or stevia to flavored seltzer. Contrary to popular belief, flavored seltzer doesn't skimp on the added flavor, it's just that, in general, humans don't perceive much of the flavor in absence of sugar (and possibly other tastes/sensations).
GasBandit
Staff member
I've actually gotten off of carbonated beverages entirely, excepting the sprite I mix with Tito's (and that only happens occasionally).
I've found that Mio Fruit Punch water enhancer (or Mio Energy Blue Citrus, when I need caffeine) gives me that flavor fix I crave when I drink, with 0 calories and 0 sugar added. So, if anybody is trying to kick the sugar habit but doesn't like the taste of diet soda... might consider this a viable alternative. It basically let me switch off of 3-6 cans of soda a day cold turkey with no withdrawal/cravings.
I've found that Mio Fruit Punch water enhancer (or Mio Energy Blue Citrus, when I need caffeine) gives me that flavor fix I crave when I drink, with 0 calories and 0 sugar added. So, if anybody is trying to kick the sugar habit but doesn't like the taste of diet soda... might consider this a viable alternative. It basically let me switch off of 3-6 cans of soda a day cold turkey with no withdrawal/cravings.
figmentPez
Staff member
This isn't about any specific, current incident, so I'll put it here:
But holy fuck is this true.
To most people I seem like I'm doing my best when I'm in the middle of acting in a show. Going to rehearsals, being with people, having responsibility, doing something I'm good at... it is all very good for me. I'm happier, I'm more engaged with the world, but I'm also burning the candle at both ends to accomplish something most other people involved do on top of living full lives. "You do so well when you're acting, why don't you find more shows to do?" Because I collapse at the end of every show run, and it's not just because there are two shows on Sunday.
I'm not a very good swimmer. I float pretty well, and I love being in the water, but I'm a very slow swimmer. I have short limbs, small hands, terrible form, and breathing problems. I swim fastest completely under water, I think this is true for most people, but it's definitely true for me. For me doing something like acting in a play, or pretty much any other attempt at a normal life, feels like swimming underwater. I'm fast for a little while, but there's absolutely no way I could keep it up indefinitely. Only no one can fucking see that I can't breathe while I'm doing it. I'm holding my breath hoping that I can keep going underwater long enough to finish, and everyone around me is asking why I can't swim this fast all the time.
But holy fuck is this true.
To most people I seem like I'm doing my best when I'm in the middle of acting in a show. Going to rehearsals, being with people, having responsibility, doing something I'm good at... it is all very good for me. I'm happier, I'm more engaged with the world, but I'm also burning the candle at both ends to accomplish something most other people involved do on top of living full lives. "You do so well when you're acting, why don't you find more shows to do?" Because I collapse at the end of every show run, and it's not just because there are two shows on Sunday.
I'm not a very good swimmer. I float pretty well, and I love being in the water, but I'm a very slow swimmer. I have short limbs, small hands, terrible form, and breathing problems. I swim fastest completely under water, I think this is true for most people, but it's definitely true for me. For me doing something like acting in a play, or pretty much any other attempt at a normal life, feels like swimming underwater. I'm fast for a little while, but there's absolutely no way I could keep it up indefinitely. Only no one can fucking see that I can't breathe while I'm doing it. I'm holding my breath hoping that I can keep going underwater long enough to finish, and everyone around me is asking why I can't swim this fast all the time.
My daughter: Don't worry Dad, I don't get involved in all that drama at school. I don't care about any of it.
Also my daughter (1-2 days later): Ugh, I don't talk to her anymore. One time my friend and I both walked up to her at the same time, and she said hi to my friend first even though she's known me longer. *eyeroll*
Also my daughter (1-2 days later): Ugh, I don't talk to her anymore. One time my friend and I both walked up to her at the same time, and she said hi to my friend first even though she's known me longer. *eyeroll*
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It may be Friday afternoon speaking, or some other issues at play, but today, customers can all just go jump off a high cliff into a shallow pool.
If you make your request through improper channels, and I STILL somehow manage to check everything, create a case, escalate it to another team, get feedback from that team AND provide you with a response, all within my SLA of 1 hour (and, technically, the way it came in - 24 hours!), AND while I was in a meeting, you do NOT get to reply with "why wasn't it handled faster, this is unacceptable, what happened, why haven't you solved it yet". Fuck off, you inattentive, impatient little piece of dried out gum.
If you make your request through improper channels, and I STILL somehow manage to check everything, create a case, escalate it to another team, get feedback from that team AND provide you with a response, all within my SLA of 1 hour (and, technically, the way it came in - 24 hours!), AND while I was in a meeting, you do NOT get to reply with "why wasn't it handled faster, this is unacceptable, what happened, why haven't you solved it yet". Fuck off, you inattentive, impatient little piece of dried out gum.
I guess the people last night only looked for a blockage that needed an immediate fix. A urologist looked at her results and found that she has a kindey stone. Its small enough that she doesn't need surgery (hence the thread downgrade) but man, this was a pretty horrendous weekend.
Because the hits keep coming and I need to write this out because I'm just full of rage:
As mentioned in the prior thread, my grandpa died last weekend. I haven't posted about it but this has been a pretty bad ordeal. Him, my mom, and my grandma went on vacation a few weeks ago and while on the trip, he broke his hip and needed emergency surgery. Then when they were about to come back to the states, they all tested positive for covid and weren't allowed to fly until they finished a quarantine. Then he died. So on top of all the usual terribleness that goes along with this, they're in a foreign country and have to deal with the logistics of getting a body flown back to the US.
The day he died, my mom changed her profile picture on facebook to a picture of her and my grandpa. So my fiancee's mom posted a long message which basically just said "sorry for your loss." My mom deleted the comment, as well as another similar one by someone else. I didn't understand why she would do something attention-grabbing like change her profile picture to that but not want people talking about it on Facebook, but ok.
Meanwhile, as I've mentioned before I haven't really been in communication with them for awhile. From the time that my grandpa broke his hip to when he died, I talked to my mom once and she mentioned that he was resting. She spoke to my dad numerous times throughout the ordeal and made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk to anyone else. Even when they were quarantining in an apartment with nothing to do all day: nothing. She called the night he died and we talked for a bit, but thats been it. Two short phone calls in 3 weeks.
So imagine my surprise that today, she calls me out of the blue, to let me know that now my fiancee's grandmother texted her to offer condolences. Where she tells me that because of all the stuff going on with the body, she doesn't want people knowing that he died. I basically told her that its absurd to expect that I wouldn't tell my fiancee (she was literally with me when I got the call) and it would've been incredibly rude to not tell her family because they knew about the situation and were regularly asking how he was doing. But she tells my that not only can nobody post on facebook about it, but she doesn't want anyone contacting her in any way because that could interfere with getting the body back (which makes zero sense). Three weeks of basically 0 communication and she calls me within 2 minutes of getting that text.
I called my dad and asked him what the hell was going on, and the long and short of it was that my mom and grandma are concerned about what is going to happen to his business (he was the owner and still working and nobody in the family is capable of running it) and they don't want people to find out that he's died because it could cause problems. I'm not even sure if his employees know, including the ones who have been working for him literally longer than I've been alive and get treated like family. They called me on Friday (before he died) to ask what was going on because they had heard rumors and weren't sure what was going on (which is incredibly shitty that nobody let them know this whole time).
So basically, my mom is treating this like a military secret because she's concerned about the money aspect, lied to me about it, and told me that I had to tell everyone in my fiancee's family to not contact her at all to offer condolences or anything, in public or private. Which I had my fiancee do, and not her grandma is upset because of course she is and basically my fiancee's family now dislikes my mom and doesn't want to talk to her anymore, and I can't say I blame them. I'd chalk it up to just her being upset about my grandpa and not acting rationally, but she does this kind of shit regularly, including to my fiancee's family. This is just the latest escalation of it. My mom and grandma are finally going to come home this week and I was looking forward to seeing them because its been a super-shitty time, and now I just want to yell at my mom for how shitty she's been acting.
As mentioned in the prior thread, my grandpa died last weekend. I haven't posted about it but this has been a pretty bad ordeal. Him, my mom, and my grandma went on vacation a few weeks ago and while on the trip, he broke his hip and needed emergency surgery. Then when they were about to come back to the states, they all tested positive for covid and weren't allowed to fly until they finished a quarantine. Then he died. So on top of all the usual terribleness that goes along with this, they're in a foreign country and have to deal with the logistics of getting a body flown back to the US.
The day he died, my mom changed her profile picture on facebook to a picture of her and my grandpa. So my fiancee's mom posted a long message which basically just said "sorry for your loss." My mom deleted the comment, as well as another similar one by someone else. I didn't understand why she would do something attention-grabbing like change her profile picture to that but not want people talking about it on Facebook, but ok.
Meanwhile, as I've mentioned before I haven't really been in communication with them for awhile. From the time that my grandpa broke his hip to when he died, I talked to my mom once and she mentioned that he was resting. She spoke to my dad numerous times throughout the ordeal and made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk to anyone else. Even when they were quarantining in an apartment with nothing to do all day: nothing. She called the night he died and we talked for a bit, but thats been it. Two short phone calls in 3 weeks.
So imagine my surprise that today, she calls me out of the blue, to let me know that now my fiancee's grandmother texted her to offer condolences. Where she tells me that because of all the stuff going on with the body, she doesn't want people knowing that he died. I basically told her that its absurd to expect that I wouldn't tell my fiancee (she was literally with me when I got the call) and it would've been incredibly rude to not tell her family because they knew about the situation and were regularly asking how he was doing. But she tells my that not only can nobody post on facebook about it, but she doesn't want anyone contacting her in any way because that could interfere with getting the body back (which makes zero sense). Three weeks of basically 0 communication and she calls me within 2 minutes of getting that text.
I called my dad and asked him what the hell was going on, and the long and short of it was that my mom and grandma are concerned about what is going to happen to his business (he was the owner and still working and nobody in the family is capable of running it) and they don't want people to find out that he's died because it could cause problems. I'm not even sure if his employees know, including the ones who have been working for him literally longer than I've been alive and get treated like family. They called me on Friday (before he died) to ask what was going on because they had heard rumors and weren't sure what was going on (which is incredibly shitty that nobody let them know this whole time).
So basically, my mom is treating this like a military secret because she's concerned about the money aspect, lied to me about it, and told me that I had to tell everyone in my fiancee's family to not contact her at all to offer condolences or anything, in public or private. Which I had my fiancee do, and not her grandma is upset because of course she is and basically my fiancee's family now dislikes my mom and doesn't want to talk to her anymore, and I can't say I blame them. I'd chalk it up to just her being upset about my grandpa and not acting rationally, but she does this kind of shit regularly, including to my fiancee's family. This is just the latest escalation of it. My mom and grandma are finally going to come home this week and I was looking forward to seeing them because its been a super-shitty time, and now I just want to yell at my mom for how shitty she's been acting.
At this point I have to assume your mom plans to weekend-at-Bernies your granddad back into his business... By which I mean she plans to commit fraud
Yeah, "we hid the fact our CEO/manager/director/president DIED for weeks" is not good for business or the numbers either. It's ridiculous. I mean, sure, Elon Musk having an accident would crater Tesla, so I'd understand them trying to avoid panic. But if he's actually dead, trying to hide it is kind of illegal and definitely bad.
Dave
Staff member
Plus the longer you wait the harder it will be to fix anything that needs to be fixed. They need to get off their asses ASAP and make sure the business can carry on - if that's their goal. Since they still own it, it would behoove them to find someone who has worked there forever and make them basically in charge. Otherwise they will face potential losses of personnel, productivity, or maybe even legal issues if the shit hits the fan in any way.
I know denial is a terrible thing and when people die those around them act exceedingly strange sometimes, but if they can't handle it they need to find someone who can quickly.
I know denial is a terrible thing and when people die those around them act exceedingly strange sometimes, but if they can't handle it they need to find someone who can quickly.
Follow-up:
My mom and grandma are home and I’m inclined to think my mom was just (understandably) overstressed from everything that was going on. Everything seems fine now.
The bad part is that despite being two weeks since he died, the body still isn’t in the US and it’s a daily ordeal of talking to different bureaucrats to try to make it happen. We still don’t have a funeral date in sight and it’s just causing a massive layer of stress on top of everything else.
I don't know if you've tried yet, but call your Congressional representatives. When my Great Uncle died abroad that's what it took. And as much as I dislike the man and everything he did/stood for, Strom Thurmond did get through the red tape and got my uncle's body home.
I just failed the Amazon coding test so hard. Didn't even get one of the two done, which is mind boggling to me. All I do is code, and code fast, and somehow in this one instance I just froze at the top. Eventually my brain kicked in, but it wouldn't have mattered. It wasn't until there was only fifteen minutes left that I decided to print the input at the start, only to discover it wasn't the input it was supposed to be, so even if I coded it perfectly, it would never have worked. I honestly have no idea what to do with that.