Caffeine ADVENTURE!

Go-Go Gadget Adventure!!

Fig 1.  This is what caffeine looks like when you draw
 out all the chemical bonds and such, very sciency!! (A)

Introduction:

     Caffeine.  It's our greatest ally and the best method of staying focused while studying for that big test that you completely forgot about until the night before (at least for me!).  Caffeine is a legal stimulant drug, that will make you feel more focused and happy.  It is found naturally in many plants and is thought to have evolved as a natural pesticide, because it paralyzes and kills certain insects.  In humans it effects the central nervous system to spread a nice happy feeling, especially in the morning after you wrecked yourself the night before.  It also acts as a diuretic for infrequent users, which means you're probably going to have an uncontrollable need to pee and sometimes poop(at least in my experience).  Approximately 90% of adults in North America consume caffeine daily (C).  If you consume a boat ton of caffeine, you're probably going to have a bad time, mostly because you're going to get really sick or die.  It can cause a central nervous system over-stimulation or caffeine intoxication, the median lethal dose is estimated at 150-200mg per kilogram of body mass (about 80-100 cups of coffee for an avg adult) (C).  The main reason why it acts so quickly on people is because it is both fat and water soluble, which means it can easily cross the blood/brain barrier and directly effect the brain (G).  Early caffeine consumption was seen first by the Mayans in a drink called Xocolatl and was believed to fight fatigue, present day examples include coffee, soft drinks, and a modern concoction termed "Go-Go Juice."

Fig 2.  I don't know what's going on with Mamma's face
 or Honey's Claw, but I kind of love it (B).

     If you’re anything like me you’ve been seeing a lot of “hullabaloo” about a certain program called, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”   It's a TV show on The Learning Channel (TLC), it follows around a child pageant participant named Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson and her family Mama, Pumpkin, Chickadee, Chubbs, and Sugar Bear (1).  Apparently the "learning" that occurs is related to how to best present oneself as a redneck.  One of the secrets, especially while preparing for a pageant, is a little concoction known as “go-go juice”. This mix provides the necessary components for the girls to focus on their performance and keeps those smiles nice and big and gives them a lot of energy. I decided it would be fun to make this drink and test its effect on my own physiology and behavior in the most unscientific rednecky way possible!

Materials and Methods:

Fig 3.  My legal drug paraphernalia

-1 part Energy Drink
-1 part Mountain Dew
-1 Pixie Stick

Fig 4.  Mix it all! 

1. Mix all ingredients together and consume.

Fig 5.  Looks a little cloudy.  PS-The pills are for the dogs not for me!

Testing Procedure

Test #1: Talent Portion:  Three dance songs performed from Dance Central 2 pre and post go-go juice.
Test #2:  The Interview Portion:  I will answer several questions from the list “Top Ten Pageant Interview Questions (2,3)”  All answers will be kept in their natural state to better observe caffeine's effect on my grammar and spelling.
 Test #3:  Evening wear Portion: Let’s see where this takes us!

All of these tests shall be performed while watching TLC's "Toddlers and Tiaras" to provide inspiration.

Results:

Test  #1: Talent

Pre-Go-Go Juice Score-272,688(Satellite) + 209,431(Toxic) + 490,249 (Run)+ 449,703 (Baby Got Back)
Post-Go-Go Juice Score- 539,648 (satellite) + 296,421 (Toxic) + 412,274 (Run) + 657,218 (Baby Got Back)

Test #2: The Interview

1)   If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

 Definitely not Go-Go Juice because it tastes a lot like a dreamsicle and I always disliked those.  I mean I was usually so excited because Fred Flintstone was on the cover and I loved cartoons, so I figured iced cream plus flinstones, win-win right? Wrong!  It’s more like orange flavored ice :L(  Alright back to the real question. If I had to eat only one food for the rest of my life I think it would be pizza, because you can really bring variety to each pie like you could make it a dessert pizza with the blink of an eye if you wanted to, or you could load it with anything else.  I guess pizza is kinda the poser way out because you could totally put so much on it that it’s not even a pizza anymore.  Like a taco salad where it’s a whole bunch of toppings and like two strips of lettuce.  PS- who eats the bottom of lettuce, I got a side salad at a restaurant yesterday and it totally had the whole bottom half of the lettuce head.  I mean come on people how much can you save not throwing that away?

2)      Which Family member do you have the most in common with?

 I believe I have the most in common with one of my cousins, she’s totally one of the black sheep in our family.  She shot her husband, allegedly, (non-fatally) and got away with it and now is a lesbian with a pierced nose and tattoos (very maverickey in our family where some of our relatives get all bajiggity when a boy grows his hair out long), I guess I like the crazier side of our family because they have some of the greatest stories.  

Fig 5.  He made his own latte art too in the shape of a
 shrugging can of PBR so he's like an ultra hipster.

3)      What is your favorite food?

Well I’ll tell you what my least favorite food is, self that wrote this question before my exposure to massive amounts of sugar and caffeine, and that’s bacon.  It just thinks it’s so much better than every other food.  It’s basically the hipster foods (I’ve drawn a picture to illustrate).  It’s all like I can ALWAYS make your food taste better so I’m going to be in everything sticking my big ol’salty nose in it.  My favorite food is birthday cake because it’s sweet and full of carbs, my favorite is to mix it with ice cream because then you get your daily serving of calcium, I’m just keeping it healthy ya’ll or is it y’all, I guess it’s a conjunction of you and all so is it more proper as y’all then?  I don’t know I’m not super up to date in my hoe-down grammar (you’d better redneckognize!).

4)      Compare yourself to your favorite fictional character?

 One of my favorite fictional characters is Barney the Purple Dinosaur.  We both love hugs and sharing.  Am I the only person who thinks it’s a bad idea to have a T-Rex hosting a children’s show? I mean I just imagine him singing all about love and then just scarfing those kids down like popcorn, but I’m sure he’d share with the other dinosaurs because he always has to teach a lesson, but I guess what better lesson could there be than not to mess with an apex predator when you’re a small child and obviously outmatched even with his ridiculously small arms. I have a confession to make, I totally just lied about my favorite fictional character so I could write about a beloved host of a children’s program going rogue, like when I would watch the Teletubbies and I swore that creepy ass  baby in the sun was going to go supernova and burn up teletubby land aka the shire.  So I guess my actual favorite fictional character is Wesley Crusher, because he was into science and totally nerdy before it was cool!

5)      Name the three most important qualities of a friend.

Sassy, Nerdy, and Fun.  Basically my friends are awesome, look at my friends and take their qualities and that’s what I like in a friend, geeze if they didn’t have it I wouldn’t like them, I’m pretty obvious with my feelings J

6)      Do you think our political leaders should utilize social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to promote their platforms and etc?

 They should if they want to win.  It’s an easy way to reach a lot of people, especially if you want the younger vote.  If you avoid social media at all costs then you appear out of touch or technophobic and that would be terrible.

7)      What makes you very angry?

 The word moist, there are so many other words to describe how things taste or feel and it would just be so much better if people used them.  Moist is just such a weird word it makes me uncomfortable.  I just imagine people sitting in a puddle of their own excretions…yuck.  

8)      What have you learned about yourself today?

 I have learned that after a month or two of caffeine abstinence a large amount of caffeine hits you very quickly.  I’ve also learned I cannot have Toddler’s and Tiara’s on while trying to type stuff up.  It is like a train wreck, I just stare at the screen with my mouth wide open, agog if you will!!  Also I’ve learned this keyboard’s space bar sticks which is super annoying. I started this experiment at about 10:30pm, it is about 11:55pm and I can definitely feel myself crashing.  It’s like I was flying high and now dooooown I go!  Look out ground here I come!!!

Evening Gown Section:  A sudden wave of tiredness has overtaken me and now I must retire..it will only be in my dreams!  I am definitely doing my best pageant walk to the bed though!!

Discussion:

Wow...so I was just researching more about caffeine and I found that the symptoms of an overdose include  fidgeting, excitement, insomnia, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, mania, disinhibition, and hallucinations (D,E). I can totally attest to several of those, as illustrated by my excited ramblings, the disinhibition (which totally sounds like a made up word, science), can be seen in the video I took of myself performing the first test, which will, most likely, never again see the light of day. Although it did show that when high on caffeine I like to DANCE as opposed to just regular dancing. I most certainly felt an increase in energy and randomness, almost to superhero proportions, I think that my lack of caffeine before I performed my experiment made the effects much more pronounced.  I didn't find any mention of uncontrollable urges to draw crayon pictures anywhere, but that's most likely due to a lack of research on the topic.   The next day, when I woke up, I had the strangest craving for some sghetti and a tank top.  

Literature Cited:

A) www.mhhe.com

B) global.christianpost.com

C) Lovett, Richard (2005-09-24). "Coffee: The demon drink?". New Scientist (2518). 

D)Caffeine overdose". MedlinePlus. 2006-04-04. Retrieved 2009-08-03.

E) Verkhratsky, A. (2005). "Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Calcium Store in the Endoplasmic Reticulum of Neurons". Physiological Reviews 85: 571–2. 

G)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#cite_note-65

1)   www.tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/here-comes-honey-boo-boo
2)  http://smileymomof5.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-ten-pageant-interview-questions.html
3) www.from-beauty-pagents-2-local-modeling.com/pafeant-interview-questions.html

Truffle ADVENTURE

Fig 1.  The shuffle to summon the truffles

Chocolate Truffle Shuffles (Aka little balls of evil deliciousness)

Introduction:

     If you're anything like me, and I know you wish you were, then you friggin' love friggin' chocolate. Well, yesterday I was strolling through the grocery store, and I got a bee in my bonnet (it was a very festive bonnet and a very large bee) to make something from the label of something, that may not make a lot of sense, but that's how I write when going through chocolate withdrawals (I got the hippy hippy shakes).  Basically when you buy a product sometimes they have recipes on the back and I wanted to pick one from the shelf and make it (It was a weird day). Therefore, I went to my favorite aisle in the store, the baking aisle, (specifically the chocolate part of the baking aisle, which is probably totally cheating but who cares?!) the dark chocolate cooking bars were totally calling my name, which is odd because usually only the gummi bears do that to me, also dark chocolate is totally good for you, so eat up! 

     The recipe I chose was for chocolate truffles, although technically I don’t think you can call them truffles because they aren't filled with anything and they aren't mushrooms.  Oddly enough the etymology of the word truffle come from the Latin term tuber meaning “swelling” or “lump” (1), which really takes the air out of the elitist chocolate treat when you consider the name translates to the lazy sounding “chocolate lump.”  It was first created by Antoine Dufour in France (insert horrible French accent here, “Hee hee hee! ho ho ho!”),  quick trivia for ya my favorite French chef is the one from the Little Mermaid who sings “Les Poissons,” all he wanted to do was to catch crabs (2)!  Personally who cares about the history of these things!  The sooner I make them the sooner I can eat them!

Fig 2.  CACAO! Such a weird word, so ritzy,
I pronounce it ca-ca-o because I'm fancy!

Materials and Methods-

1 3/4 cups Cacao Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Chips(cacao)/bar pieces
1/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1.  In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer, add the butter and stir until melted.

Fig 3.  Butter "pieces" may appear larger in your web browser
because I may have forgotten about that part.

2.  Stir until melted, add chocolate chips, stir until completely melted and smooth.  

Fig 4.  Mmmmmmmm chocolate chunks.

3.  Transfer into a shallow bowl, cool, cover, and refrigerate until firm (~2 hours, if you spend this time doing the truffle shuffle you'll probably burn enough calories to eat the entire batch!!).

Fig 5. It took all of my willpower to not dive
in with a spoon at this point.

4.  Spoon out and roll into balls, roll each ball in the cocoa.

Fig 6.  I like rolling balls in assorted powders!
Fun for the whole family!!!

 5) Enjoy IMMEDIATELY or refrigerate for later!!

Fig. 7.  Your balls may be a little lumpy like mine, but no worries,
they're special in their own...well special way! Just put them in your mouth!

Results and Discussion:

      DELICIOUS!  Mmmmmm chocolate is goooood.  I brought these over to my parent's house to see what they thought.   They really seemed to like them, but let’s face it I am their son so they’re somewhat obligated to like whatever I make for them!  I tasted them as well and found they were melt in your mouth tasty!  I give them three chocolate lumps out of four! 

Supplemental Information:

     I haven't been super good about updating my blog, but that is due to my putting together and breaking down of my Halloween decorations.  As an added treat I'm going to include the footage of my display!! HUZZAH! Enjoy!

Lights off:

Lights on:

Literature Cited:
1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_truffle
2.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o1AIMofVHU&feature=related

WORM Adventure!!

Worms

Abstract:  WORMS, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!

Introduction:  

Fig 1.  (Not pictured: this man's dignity)

      Worms can be defined as any of the various invertebrates that have elongate, sometimes flattened (platy flaties) bodies often without appendages (1).  They are a very important part of our ecosystem and take on much of the duties of decomposition to make fertile soil (2).  They are often used by the show Fear Factor to freak people out, usually with placement on the body, typically with the addition of dirt. This combination of slimy and slithery tends to freak people out.  The slime is actually excreted by the worm because it needs to stay moist so it can breath (3).  

     Well, that's all well and good, but if you're anything like me (and I know that's the case), you totally love Halloween (TWIST!).  Well it is just around the corner and I am just tickled orange and black about it!!  So, this lead me to the line of thinking as follows, "Me?" "Yes Me?"  "What would be a good snack on Halloween?" "I don't know, you should ask someone who drinks a lot to maybe combine alcohol and worms."  "What a fantastic idea!"  That is preciously what I did and thus the idea of alcoholic gummi worms was born.  I decided I must make them and perform an experiment to find the best alcohol/gummi combination!!

Materials:

Fig 2.  I have accumulated quite a bit of liquor!

- A plethora of different Alcohol (I chose little airplane bottles because they're so cute!)

- Gummi related paraphernalia 

Methods:

1)  Set up gummi objects in booze as follows:

Fig 3. A-C:  Various gummi set ups, they all looked pretty much like this, but I included the one's that I thought looked the best/had sassy pictures on the label.

        (A)                                                                (B)                                                            (C)

     A)  Tequila Gummi Worms

     B)  Courvoisier Gummi Worms

     C)  Gin Gummi Worms

     D)  Brandy Gummi Worms

     E)  Captain Morgan Gummi Worms

     F)  Pear Vodka Gummi Worms

     G)  Vodka Gummi Worms

     H)  Sugar Cane Rum Gummi Worms

     I)  Whipped Cream Vodka Gummi Worms

     J)  Vodka Sour Gummi Worms

     H)  Vodka Sour Patch Kids

2)  Cover and allow to marinate for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

Fig 4.  This is my fridge, chill out and don't judge me!

3)  CONSUME/get crunk!

Results and Discussion:

Fig 5.  I'd say they about doubled in size, this would have been a perfect time to get a comparison shot of before and after, but I didn't so now we both have to live with that!

     The worms really expanded in size, I hadn't realized before that the heads were so round!  Would that make them more gummi snakes than worms? I would recommend completely submerging the worms next time as some had crunchy bits in them, which was somewhat distracting to the palate.

     For this experiment I required the assistance of my lovely and talented friend Kate.  She is a professional food taster (allegedly) and works with alcohol.  The following are the comments and score for each combo.

     Fig 6.  Me (left) and Kate (right) about to seriously masticate/drink (drasticate?) some worms!

A)  Tequila Gummi Worms-  Similar to a margarita, Ole!  Although Kate found them "somewhat offensive" (Kate- 7/10; Me- 6/10)

B)  Courvoisier Gummi Worms-  Reminds me of the Nineties with that rapper song, "Pass the Courvoisier." Things were all going deliciously until I swallowed and then it had a big ol' aftertaste.  (Kate-3/10; Me: 3/10)

C)  Gin Gummi Worms-  Just like Christmas time, sugarplums and pine trees...ahhh.  Kate's take:  When it hits the bitter portion of my tongue...things go to hell.  (Kate-4/10;  Matt-5/10)

D)  Brandy Gummi Worms-  We both agreed they were not very remarkable and not entirely unpleasant.  (Kate- 5/10; Me- 5/10)

E)  Captain Morgan Gummi Worms-  I enjoy a little bit of Capt in me now and again and this worm was no different!  Kate's take:  The spiciness is good, more of a "people pleaser", definitely better than the brandy. (Kate- 6/10; Me- 5/10)

F)  Pear Vodka Gummi Worms-  Nothing really offensive about it, not really blown away by the flavor combo.  (Kate-5/10; Me- 5/10)

G)  Vodka Gummi Worms-  These really maintained the gummi flavor and were quite pleasant. Kate's take:  They have a pleasant alcohol burn no weird flavors. (Kate- 8/10; Me-9/10)

H)  Sugar Cane Rum Gummi Worms- These had a lot of an alcohol kick and didn't have too bad of a flavor.  (Kate- 7.5/10.25; Me- 7.75/10)

I)  Whipped Cream Vodka Gummi Worms-  These were very nice and creamy tasting, you really couldn't taste the alcohol, which is very dangerous.  Kate's take:  If you want a booty call you get your booty call to eat some of these, than you find a dark corner and... (Kate- 7/10; Me- 8/10)

(A)         (B)
Fig 7.  A)  My "ruminating" face B) Kate likes it!

J)  Vodka Sour Gummi Worms-  Soft and tender texture, somewhat gritty.  Kate's take:  As disappointing as "Mr. Softy."   (Kate- 0/10; Me- 1/10)

(A)      (B)

Fig 8.  A-B.  We did not enjoy the sour gummi worm monstrosities, these are our "dissapointed" faces, take note, it may help you in the future!

H)  Vodka Sour Patch Kids-  Pretty tasty, although the texture was all wrong, very mealy.  Kate's take:  What happened friends? (Kate- 1/10; Matt- 2/10)

(A)    (B)

                                  Fig 9. A)  Before, looks somewhat suspicious  B) Gross Kate...Gross.

     Our favorites that we thought would be the best party snack food were the regular vodka worms and the tequila ones.  You'll notice as the sampling went on the notes became somewhat more confusing, this is mainly due to the fact that you can't really tell how much alcohol they absorb.  All I can say is we were feeling fine by the end of our tasting.

Literature Cited:

1)  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/WORM

2)  My Brain

3) http://www.worm-farming.com/worm-facts.html

Rainbow ADVENTURE

Rainbow Roses
(1)

Introduction

I was on my weekly shopping constitutional when I spotted several pots of gaily colored flowers not normally found in nature.  I was immediately overcome with an irresistible urge, so I quickly went to use the bathroom, and then decided I needed to make some pretty plants myself, and what’s prettier than a rainbow?

Many retailers have taken advantage of the method vascular plants use to take up water and some nutrients termed transpiration.  This process, common to all vascular plants, is where evaporating water on the surface of the plant causes water (and some other nutrients or dyes if you add them) to be drawn up through the roots and the xylem of the plant, ultimately ending at the surface of the leaves and flowers (2).  The most popular flower plants that are colored with this method are chrysanthemums, carnations, hydrangeas, some species of orchid, and roses.
The ability to make colored flowers has been known for millennium, however in 2005 Dutch grower Peter van de Werken used a special combination of 7 dyes with roses to create the first Rainbow Rose (3).

Materials

Figure One:  So few things required! This one will be a breeze!

1) Budding white roses (I totally used an old-ass white rose from Cub, because it was only a couple of bucks as opposed to a 15 dollar bunch!  What difference could it make right?!)
2) Dye of some sort (I used food coloring because it was sitting on my spice rack!)
3) Some way to contain the dye while being able to insert the plant into it (I had many great ideas including glass vials from work, but I didn't want to worry about disinfecting them and who wants roses filled with unknown protein? My luck I’d probably create mutant roses that would take over the world… I've seen “Little Shop of Horrors” I know how that ends… (Sorry that thought kind of got away from me, I used zip-lock bags, because I bought them from Costco and now I’ll never ever run out!))
4) Sharp implements (Like scissors)

Methods

1)    Take rose and cut the stem into as many slits as colors you are going to use, I forgot I was making a rainbow and used four colors, because rainbows in my world are not so showy. 

Figure Two:  It took me about a thousand shots to actually get this in focus because I have ADD and therefore cannot FOCUS oh my goodness is that some dude walking his dog?! PS- I have been diagnosed as making up having ADD in order to get out of tricky situations. Please make a note of it. PPS- When writing figure notes they should probably only relate to the picture and not include PS's in them.

2) Put dye in each baggie/receptacle and insert stem portion into them.

Figure Three: Ohhhhhhhhhhh so pretty!  Maybe I should just decorate with bags of food coloring!  But then they would probably just dry out and be all crusty which would not be cute at all!

3)  I secured each bag with those plastic strip things people always use in TV shows to keep people restrained while they’re kidnapping/interrogating them.  The fact I have so many is not to insinuate I’m doing any aforementioned kidnapping or interrogating, but as an ex-boy scout I always try to be prepared…just in case.  Ok  I’m not saying I've thought that that situation would actually arise, but you never know...This train of thought brought to you by the “Supernatural” marathon I've been watching.

Figure Four:  Zip-ties used to secure each part of the stem into the bag, totally not to interrogate the rose.  Although I'm sure that would be a "thorny" situation (tee hee)

3)  Wait for about a week and BAM! You have Rainbow Roses...kinda

Figure Five.  OH MY GOD IT'S SO AMAZING IT BURNED THE CONES IN YOUR EYES OUT SO ALL YOU SEE IS WHITE WHERE YOU SHOULD SEE BEAUTIFUL COLORS! You'd better get yourself to a doctor ASAP!

Results and Discussion

Well the lesson I learned this week is that attempting to make rainbow roses using an older rose does not work very well. 

I was hoping for a result something like this:

What I got was more like this:

Lesson learned!  Making multicolored flowers was much more difficult than I thought, and in the hopes that it would look better I let it sit forever until it started disintegrating and all the petals fell off.  Some may call it being too stubborn to admit that maybe the experiment wasn't working, but I chose to call it determination.  May all your flowers be more rainbowey than mine!

Literature Cited:

1. http://cdn3.blogs.babble.com/being-pregnant/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/pFc4jkWyd4QXeRtdG.jpg
2.  Peter A. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn (1999). Biology of Plants. W.H. Freeman and Company. pp. 576–577.
3.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_rose