A couple days ago, my dad bought a giant, Costco-sized container of stawberries. Big, plump, deep red; they look absolutely delicious. But when you take them out of the case and put them in your mouth, they're very bland and flavorless. It's not that they aren't ripe; they are. The taste in them is just very dull.

He said he'd like me to eat as many as I can before they go bad, because he can't possibly eat them all himself. So I've taken to the practice of dipping them in sugar. This makes them much more palatable. With a generous coating of little white grains, they taste almost as good as a good strawberry would. But not nearly as nutritious, I'm sure.

I think they must be genetically modified, because they're absolutely huge. This prompts the question: If they could be genetically modified to grow so large, could they not also be genetically modified to taste like actual strawberries? Though size may matter, in this case it obviously should not be used as a deciding factor. Case closed.

Last night after arriving back from my meditation class, on a whim, I wandered over to the 7-Eleven dumpster to see if anything remotely of value might await me. The pickings were slim. I did find a rack of not-quite-empty bulk containers of "Big Gulp" beverage concentrate.

For the hell of it, and as an experiment, I took one. The cherry flavor. It was still nearly 1/4th full of liquid goop. I quickly packed it away in a box and whisked it back to the apartment for further analysis.

Despite not being intended for direct sale to consumers, it did have an ingredients list printed on the back. Unsurprisingly, the first ingredient was high fructose corn syrup. The second ingredient, merely "corn syrup". Water was the third. After that, the usual batch of more minute amounts of artifical flavors, colors, and preservative chemicals.

I used the little pump to eject some into a glass. I tried making a mixture consisting of 1 part concentrate, 2 parts water. It tasted more or less like the cheap fruit punch imitation it was, although it was a little watery. I would guess a 1:1 concentrate to water ratio would be more a more typical service.

This got me thinking. If we can assume that the overwhelming volume of the concentrate consists of the 3 top ingredients so as to render the remaining ones insignificant, then the concentrate itself must be made up of at least 66% corn syrup. Maybe more. If a normal serving contains 50% concentrate and 50% pure water, then this would mean that around 33% of the finished product is corn syrup. Goopy, runny, sugary corn syrup.

One might further hypothesize that most soft drinks of the non-diet variety would employ a similar ratio to achieve desired flavor. If so, this would mean that out of a standard 12 ounce can of Pepsi, roughly 4 ounces are gloppy syrup, more concentrated and fattening than the stuff you put on your pancakes. Yummy!

I drank most of the cup I had mixed, and dumped the rest down the sink. I've contemplated using the remainder of my corn syrup to make something to drink on the road trip tomorrow, but I'm honestly not sure I want to do that to my stomach now. My doubt comes not from the fact that it came from a dumpster, but when one comes face to face with the truth behind the illusion, drinking colored syrup with the water just doesn't seem all that appealing anymore.

For the sake of my health, I think I need to find a better dumpster to satisfy these scavenging urges.

I contemplate my readiness for tomorrow's trip. I think I'll be set. It remains to be seen how well the combined traveling/festing possessions of Jaeger, Kiesa, and myself will fit into Tobias. Considering past experience with Yoda (who has comparable storage capacities), I think we'll do alright. I plan to pack relatively light, while still bringing along a few goodies.

This might very well end up being the last pre-departure rambling. If so, I'll see you all on the other side.