I tend to fall asleep a lot during meetigs. …Okay, okay… I tend to fall asleep a lot during anything. Anyway, I’ve been trying to stay awake this week during our meetings. I have to say I’ve done a pretty good job. But I have had help.
I tried coffee the first couple of days, but it made me really have to go to the bathroom, which was difficult if someone was in the middle of an emotional speech or something. Yesterday I tried something new: a Snickers bar with caffeine and taurine and B vitamins. An energy drink candy bar?
It tasted mostly like a Snickers, but there was a sour/bitter taste to it. I recognized this odd taste from energy drinks I’ve had in the past. It was the taurine. I don’t care for it at all. I did feel the boost to my alertness though. It kept me awake like crazy. In fact, it gave me a slight headache. I did feel my mid-morning sleepiness, but I did not succumb. The candy performed as advertised. I stayed awake.
Would I buy one of these again? I don’t know. I like candy. I like staying awake when I’m supposed to. But I don’t like the taste of taurine.
I bet just having a rhinosaurous in the room would keep you awake, even without the B vitamins.
Brad, look for candy with guarana. Guarana is a caffeine-like substance from the Amazon, available in some sodas and also in some diet pills (like metabolife). On a quick search, I found these (sweetened with sorbitol, no less!) http://cgi.ebay.com.my/Vojo-Jo-Energy-Mints-Peppermint-Caffeine-Guarana-Candy_W0QQitemZ310009221185QQihZ021QQcategoryZ13915QQcmdZViewItem
ThinkGeek has piles of caffeinated candies: http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/9aab/?cpg=froogle
Good luck!
Taurine is named after the Latin taurus, which means bull or ox, as it was first isolated from ox bile in 1827 by Austrian scientists Friedrich Tiedemann and Leopold Gmelin.
Thanks wikipedia!
They say that the taurine in red bull is extracted from a bulls testicles.
Most studies say that there are no side effects of taurine, but one said, “When given to test rats in an experimental laboratory, it was found that the taurine caused anxiety, irritability, high sensitivity to noise, and self-mutilations.”
Why didn’t my comment post about caffeinated candy? Is it because of the links?
Do you suppose you’ve ingested some rhino. bile? Mmmmmm ….
And stop reading the labels. Ignorance is bliss, or so I’ve heard.
(Why is it so loud in here … be quiet … I think I’ll cut off my ears.)
I’ve heard that if you soak mulberry stains in taurine they’ll come right out.
Good one, Lauren! (Anyone betting whether Brad tries this or not?)
I say if you want to stay awake, just get the weird stomach flu. I’ve been up since yesterday morning.
Of course it has the unpleasant side-effect of barfing, but the taste of stomach bile in your mouth is probably a lot like taurine (given what it’s derived from…).
All this talk about ingesting chemicals made by other animals and body parts – oooooo, you’re starting to scare me, Neighbor. But, then, just wait until this coming fall: seven sections/day – now including sixth graders – promises to keep anyone awake through it all before slipping off into total systemic collapse at the end of each day. What a roller coater this promises to be, eh?
Somebody tell me why my italics never shut off when I tell them to??
[By the way, keeping yourself awake through eight out of nine meeting days is no small feat, Mr. Royuk - kudos to you and anyone else who managed to -- Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.]
Hey Carol, are you closing your tag properly? You have to have a The whole string will look like this (minus the extra spaces): .
Or, more completely – anyone with give you anyone.
Give it a try! I’m sure Brad won’t mind.
Dang, you couldn’t see my wonderful examples! That stinks.
Lemme try again…
You need an open caret, a forward slash, an i and an close caret to close the tag. So the entire thing would be:
open caret, i, close caret, anyone, open caret, forward slash, i, close caret.
Now you can practice.
If you’re really geeky you can <i>just type it</i>
My husband, some supergeek, here’s his ancient Chinese secret: code.
Showoff!
Karla, can you show me how to do links?
I’ll email you, since I can’t do it all fancy like Lloyd.
It works! I hope…guess we’ll see once this posts. I never knew about the slash part – no wonder I couldn’t get the italics to stop each time. Regardless, thanks, Geek Squad – send me your bill!
Yee Haa! Whoopee! Yea, me! (It’s the little things that excite us middle agers these days…)
Now there’ll be absolutely no stopping me, will there? Mwa-ha-ha…
funny but not in a ha ha way…I would add a comment but I am too busy trying to be a team player
It sounds like someone has been in post-school meetings for two weeks.
Lloyd, sometimes it felt like we were in post-school meetings for far longer than that even.
Congrats to everyone who made it out alive there….