Gray has been advocating Buffy to me for years, but now Hyatt is recommending Buffy as well. It’s not that I disregarded Buffy when Gray first mentioned it; in fact, I gave it a try. But, I recall that the particular expisode that I saw at the time seemed kinda cheesy, with stereotypical characters (the school principal antagonist, for instance) and lots of gratuitous vampires (yes, I realize that “Vampire” is in the title, but there were more than I expected <g>). But, maybe I’ll have to give it another chance.
Author: Ashley Bischoff
Used Bookseller
Through the Symphony X mailing list, of all places, I've discovered the used bookseller Abe. Just doing a cursory check, their prices aren't bad and shipping is also fairly reasonable ($2/first book, $0.75 each additional).
Though books are good for gifts, I try to buy new books in those cases. All the same, Abe could be handy for when I buy books for myself.
Marmite
The other day, I made some Marmite-on-bread (with butter, of course) for Jason, out of one of the otherwise-useless bread-ends (not that all bread-ends are useless, but this one was particularly puny). Being an American, Jason didn't like it (not surprisingly). I believe "gross" was the word he used ;). Marmite is quite popular in Britain, but most Americans are appalled by it, for some reason.
Marmite is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it type of food. I fall into the former category while Jason falls into the latter. But, come on, it's a by-product of beer sludge — what's not to like? <g>
French Open Finals (Spoilers)
If you don’t want to know who wins the French Open men's finals, then read no further ;).
So, anyhow, I finished watching the men’s finals. I was rooting for Ferrero, but he was playing like Tyson for those first two sets. He showed signs of recovery in the third set, but just couldn’t get out of his funk. Costa regained his domination in the fourth set and won, deservedly.
Vanilla Coke
While at the Dallas Anime Club this afternoon, I tried Vanilla Coke. It was definitely less-bad than I expected it to be — sure, the vanilla flavor was there, but not overwhelmingly. In fact, if you were to guzzle it, you may not even notice that it wasn’t regular Coke.
Interestingly, this reporter had just the opposite experience:
The verdict? Not so thrilling. Vanilla is prevalent, for sure. In fact, it's so present that it's all you taste. It coats that delightful, battery-acid kick Coke is known for.
At any rate, I think I'll stick with non-sugared soda made with Splenda (“Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar”). Seriously, if haven't tried Diet RC/Diet Rite, give them a chance (both use Splenda, but the latter has no caffeine). They don’t taste exactly like Coke but, then again, regular RC doesn’t taste exactly like Coke either ;).