Michael Montez Online

http://www.pepsiedge.com
http://www.cokec2.com

Much like the cold war, the cola wars of the 1980’s have diminished. The marketplace consistently gets broken down into more and more specialized segments. The newest segment for cola manufactures is “Low-Carb” soda.

Different than diet soda, which is no-carb, low carb keeps some of the sugar and uses Aspartame, a sugar substitute made from sugar. Because Aspartame taste like sugar and not a chemical, it allows the cola to maintain a non-chemical taste (i.e. Diet Coke/Pepsi). The final product attempts to taste like full-sugar soda with only half the calories and sugar.

Pepsi Edge
Pepsi Edge does not taste like regular Pepsi; in fact it’s not even close. Aspartame doesn’t seem to meet the sweetness requirement of regular Pepsi. In fact, Edge has a completely different flavor and only half the sweetness. Having said that, Edge is still very tasty. It’s better than Diet Pepsi and has half the calories of regular Pepsi. Of course your taste buds may vary, so give it a try. Me, I will be spending my $0.60 on C2.

Coca Cola C2
C2, has all the flavor of regular Coke and half the calories. It is a pretty accurate representation of Coca Cola. The cola taste is bold, it’s not overly carbonated, and it has just the right amount of sweetness. It taste tens times better than Diet Coke and has a slight taste edge over Pepsi Edge. For my money, this is the low-carb cola drink for me.

Side note
I still prefer Diet Mountain Dew to both Edge and C2. So if the good people at Pepsi Distribution would like to send me a lifetime supply, let me know.

Tomorrow I fly to Vegas to celebrate Page’s last days as a bachelor. We have some things planned and I’m sure we will all have a great time.

So for those of you who care, here is my itinerary for the weekend:

• Thursday - haircut at 11am, buy a second pair of pants, leave for airport at 2pm, arrive at 4pm, check-in, get show tickets and make reservations for dinner on Fri and Sat night, play craps!
• Friday - cabana at the Flamingo, massage at 2pm, dinner at 8pm, gentleman痴 club at 11p
• Saturday - poker satellite at the Mirage, show at 8pm, dinner at 9pm.
• Sunday - fly home, Meet with maid (Christina) at Noon.

Now I know where the author of RightOnBro.com has been spending his time. Mr Jung has been moonlighting at Otis. Click here. You almost got away with it Mr. Jung, almost.

Today, Apple announced the next generation of the iPod. It’s a hair smaller, has a new firmware, moved the controls around a bit, and is cheaper. Jon, time to buy one. I thought about selling mine, but I am not. Instead, I am going to continue to baby it and hope that it brakes down one month before the Apple Care Protection Plan expiries. If you see me walking around with a blue haze, it’s me, holding my breath, waiting for that to happen.

The New iPod - Article in NewsWeek
iPod Nation - Article in NewsWeek

Quite a weekend. I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday (after leaving work early) and then I picked up Brian at the house. We went to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to attend the after party at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. Good food, open bar, live salsa band, and Caroline, what else could I need?

[SIDENOTE] Don’t be afraid to bargain with parking attendants. As Brian and I were bargaining with the parking guy, somebody who was parked on the street left. We took that spot instead. [END SIDENOTE]

Saturday, Kelly, Caroline, Brian, Kelly’s parents and I went to the beach. There was no parking in Venice and Brain and I were considering bicycles (start singing Queen song now) as an alternate form of transportation during the summer months. We laid out for about two hours, ate pizza from The Abby and drank warm Squirt and Dr. Pepper.

Saturday night turned into game night at 81st Street. The reluctant Brian Buller ended up bitch slapping the house in a game of Star Wars Episode 1 Monopoly - Deluxe Edition. It was the shortest game of Monopoly every played in any Galaxy. Since we were not satisfied after that show of dominance, we played a $5 buy-in hold’em poker game. Caroline joined us for that game. But it was all about the Bulldog. He cleaned up and took us all down. Congrats to Brian.

Sunday was Toby’s birthday celebration. 9 of us took Toby to the House of Blues for the Gospel Brunch. I don’t have much to say about it except that the music was energizing (especially after loading up on crabs and having your blood-sugar levels crash), the food was terrific, and the parking was affordable ($5 for valet).

After we got home, it was tie for another house trip. This time, we went to the Skechers store in Manhattan Beach. Matt’s replacement, Eugene, is working for Skechers in the marketing department and this weekend was their employee, friends and family 50%-off sale. Five guys bought eight pairs of shoes. Thanks again Eugene. I picked up one pair of SKECHERS SPORT - Premium - Bullseye (style: 50171).

Roberto’s back in town. Toby, Jon, and I went to play poker with the guys at UCLA. After a few hours of getting beat worse than Rodney King (yeah, I used a King reference, BITCH) we went to Norms from some breakfast. While there Roberto told us many stories of his days in Japan (he goes back in a few weeks). Among them, the following: While teaching a class in Japanese he asked a young girl to guess his age. Out of respect, she declined. He asked again. Again she declined. He became more animated and said, in English, “Come on Guess, GUESS!” After hearing this, the little girl broke into tears and ran out of the room. It turns out that the pronunciation of ‘GUESS’ in Japanese translates to ‘cunt’ or ‘whore’. Sweetness!

So it finally happened. All the Sin in Las Vegas has finally caught up with the people. Las Vegas has paid, public, mono-rail transportation. Now you can glide from the Sahara to the MGM in under 15 minutes for $5. I say it makes staying at the Sahara, Hilton, Stardust or Stratosphere totally do-able affair. You spend less on cabs and tips, and its faster than taking the bus. Good job Vegas!

In other Vegas news, I will be there on Thurs. Let me know if you need any sports bets placed. Perhaps a Miami Heat to win the Super Bowl bet or a Detroit Tigers to win the World Series. My bet will be the Clippers to win anything.

http://www.bodyworlds.com
http://www.californiasciencecenter.org
The California Science Center currently has an exhibit highlighting the Human Body. The exhibit is unlike any human body exhibit you have ever seen. The exhibit, BodyWorlds, allows viewing the human body in amazing and detailed ways. Through the use of Plastination, human and animal bodies live in a perpetual state of freeze tag. The skin is removed and organs, tumors, and even blood vessels are left intact and viewable. Imagine a skeleton standing next to the muscles, standing next to the organs, standing next to the blood vessels, all from the same body.

The exhibit runs until January 23rd, 2005.