I have several things to blog about, and I think just for fun I'll do them in "no particular order." So this is in no way chronologically primary, nor of primary importance.

It is, however, the mess I'm staring at this morning, so it gets talked about first.

I went to journalism school, and learned how to be a magazine editor, and learned what chaos ensues when someone misses a deadline. As a result, I take the "dead" part of deadline seriously. As my journalism profs used to say, the only excuse for missing a deadline is death - your own, not a family member's.

So I had a deadline yesterday and my +20 estimating skills totally failed me. I had to pull an all-nighter to get the work done anything close to on time. And because of the hectic week preceding this all-nighter (the subject of later blog posts, I promise) I needed a little chemical assistance. Usually I stay away from caffeine in anything but chocolate - partly because when I really really need it, I don't want a tollerance built up for it. You could say I use caffeine medicinally.

Anyway, since I had a long not-too-interesting night of work ahead of me, I decided to do a little taste trial of caffeine delivery systems. This is trickier than it sounds at first because I can't stand the taste of cola. I'm weird, I've heard it before. But really, I can't see how anyone can like that taste.

My first surprise was finding out how many previously-caffeinated drinks have been decaffeinated. Squirt - no longer contains caffeine. Cream Soda - not a caffeinated version in sight. So what follows is my assessment of what I did find I could stomach for those rare occaisionas I need artificial energy.

* Diet Mountain Dew - my usual choice, it does the job. Not spectacularly, but hey - nothing really obnoxious about this drink.

* Mountain Dew Code Red - at least this one isn't citrus-flavored. It's.... uh... red flavored. Good way to cleanse the pallate, but also nothing spectacular. Both traditional sodas were a little too carbonated for quick delivery.

* Sobe Energy Citrus - the winner in my little trial. Next time, this is what I'll go for first. Not carbonated so you can drink it pretty quickly when necessary and not too bitter. Also has cute lizards on bottle.

* Red Bull Sugar Free - is the full-sugar version of this any tastier? My experience with Red Bull was pretty negative. Not only is it harshly citrus, it's got a bitter aftertaste (possibly from the fake sweetener) and much to my surprise - it was the only drink in the list with a real "downer" phase. My curiosity about this brand has been thoroughly satiated. Bleagh. Oh, and the reason they sell it in an opaque can instead of glass (sobe) or plastic (mt dew) bottles is that it looks more like pee than even Mountain Dew.

One very unpleasant side effect of all these drinks - they did something awful to my taste buds. Red Bull especially (can you tell I wasn't impressed with this one?) felt like it just stripped out all the most delicate flavors from my snacks. Everything tasted too salty and plastic - even bananas.

Anyway, now you know how I entertain myself through the wee hours of the morning when sleep is not an option and the work is less than thrilling.