Recently, I found out that my friend, Justin Van Gend, has a little gallery of his own on the intraweb. Most of his artwork I have already seen in person, but for those of you who aren't capable of this there is still hope of seeing his work. It's pretty cool stuff, I must say. The one with the guy's head that is peeling off and has some ambiguous mechanical parts shooting out of the back of his head is my favorite I think. So here's a taste:
And here's the link:
http://frumiousbandersnatch.carbonmade.com/
Apparently, he's available for freelance, so if you ever wanted to hire him, he'll be on the case. Quite a talented young man, that Justin.
As I begin moving away from chemistry and the senses, I will provide at least one more journey for your perceptive mechanisms. This is a video I put together from different short 10-30 second samples throughout the day while I lived in Ghana for a semester. I would like to add one recommendation: listen only first. Don't watch it the first time through. Hear the sounds and let your imagination tell you the rest of the story. Maybe when you see the video the next time around you realize, "Eh, that's exactly what I thought it was." Or, "What? That's not ninja hunting a dinosaur! I prefer my eyes-closed version much better."
This is the story of a day in Ghana. Some sort of video link.
Hello. While my chemistry of the senses class may have finished, my quest of sharing interesting things has not, and I've returned to tell you about my magical journey to miracle berry land. Recently, my younger brother, Brandon Rivera-Melo, purchased some wacky berries online after reading about them. Naturally, when he saw something this legitimate-looking on the internet he wasted no time in buying them off of the old Amazon river. The brand name is mberry.
So I visited him one weekend at his dorm in Northwestern University in Evanston. His friends were also there, and we each took a half tablet of these so-called miraculous berries. We had come prepared with a plethora of fruits and other foods. Here is what I found:
Tequila, a drink I normally find not only repulsive, but painful, was a recommendation made by the packaging of the miracle berries. I tried some beforehand, and it was just awful. It created that warm, drooly feeling you get when you drink that kind of crap. After the miracle berries, it tasted like a bottle of horrendous bile. I was disgusted to the point of pushing it away and saying, "Nathy no likey. No more."
Strawberries, when timed right, can be one of the most delicious and hassle-free fruits on this green earth. I love them. Everyone does, except for those who are allergic, and even they probably would if they didn't break out in hives. After the berries they had a more sugary taste. I even got some cotton candy flavor from them. Still delicious, but not much of an improvement.
Lemons, a sour citrus fruit that is used mostly in cooking and adding a light citric flavor to water, is not typically enjoyed by itself. They are just too sour for most people, and then they activate your salivary glands like no other mother. However, after the half berry tablet, things changed. It tasted sweet and delicious. It was like eating candy, and I didn't secrete saliva all over the inside of my mouth. It was just a great tasting lemon. Fantastic. Now we're getting somewhere.
Dillcheese, a type of cheese with the dill spice inside, was also available. It didn't really taste like anything when I ate it. In fact, all I could sense was the dill, and that was only through the miracle of smell. So, cheese, not so interesting. Alright, moving on.
Gummi Bears, an already perfectly sweet "food," tasted just like they already do. Ok, what were those doing here anyway? Waste of a taste.
Grapefruit, a fruit that a lot of people don't like for some reason, is sitting in a bag with other various fruits. I grab it out and peal it. Now, I'm a man who can actually enjoy the sweet taste of grapefruit. It's really something I like, and after these berries it became a little bit more bitter. It reminded me of that alcohol/fermented taste. It had become worse. Strange berry, what are you up to this time?
Limes, the green cousin of lemon, have pretty much the same story as lemons, but they have their own distinct taste. Well, like with lemons, they were equally delicious. I was really into those lemon segments. I was all like, "Omm, yommm,mmm,mmnnn." I practically ate the whole thing. Well done, Miracle Bs.
Stout beer, is a beer, and therefore cannot be trusted. For good reason! This was a nasty experience for both the beer and I. It wasn't good before, and it certainly wasn't better after. It's not something on my list of "drinks which taste good."
Passion fruit, an obscure tropical fruit, is one of the most underrated fruits in existence, next to cocoa fruit (the pulp). It's a hollow fruit with edible seeds and extremely sweet pulp. Normally it's a great-tasting fruit. After the berries, it was almost too much. It overwhelmed the tongue and sent my mouth to the moon on a rocket of pleasure powered by delicious juice fuel. No wonder it's called passion fruit. It was probably (and for me certainly is) an aphrodisiac. As a side note, the below example of passion fruit would suggest you cut it in half. You're going to lose all the precious fluids this way and drip all over the place and look like an idiot with passion juice all over your pants. Try explaining how you got passion juice on your pants to your mother. My recommendation? Do it like your cavemen ancestors did: smash it open, leaving a jagged hole in the top and scoop out the succulent contents. A definite winner in my book, which has not been published yet.
One passionate fruit, please.
And those are the results. Try some for yourself because you may experience something slightly different. My advise would be that a full tablet (versus the half that I took) may have more pleasing results, but some reviews have said a full tablet is unnecessary. I say go for it. Google it and see what you think. You could even tell me about it in a comment!
