This list is from a great article over on Wise Bread:

How Much Caffeine Costs

1. No Doz (0.0008 cents per mg)
2. Tetley’s Black Tea (0.0011 cents per mg
3. Excedrin Extra Strength (0.0015 cents per mg)
4. Starbucks Grande Coffee (0.0056 cents per mg)
5. Starbucks Grande Iced Coffee (w/o Ice) 0.0059 cents per mg)
6. Mountain Dew (0.0090 cents per mg)
7. Starbucks Grande Iced Coffee (w/ Ice) (0.0097 cents per mg)
8. Diet Coke/Tab (Tie) (0.0104 cents per mg)
9. Dr. Pepper (0.0111 cents per mg
10. Midol Maximum Strength (0.0113 cents per mg)
11. Sunkist Orange Soda (0.0116 cents per mg)
12. Pepsi (0.0129 cents per mg)
13. Starbucks Double Espresso (0.013 cents per mg)
14. Coke (0.0140 cents per mg)
15. Monster Energy Drink (0.0149 cents per mg)
16. Full Throttle Energy Drink (0.0159 cents per mg)
17. A & W Cream Soda (0.0169 cents per mg)
18. Starbucks Grande Latte/Single Espresso (Tie) (0.0200 cents per mg)
19. Barq’s Rootbeer (0.0213 cents per mg)
20. Starbucks Grande Tazo Chai Tea Latte (0.0355 cents per mg)
21. Rockstar Energy Drink (0.0374 cents per mg)
22. Snapple Iced Tea (0.07 cents per mg)

I’m pondering the idea of awarding experience points to my younger students. If they show up to their lessons at their regular time, they get xp. If they can play their assignment from the previous week, they get xp. If they learn something on their own, they get xp. Ask a good question? Xp.

The idea is to make is a positive motivation only. They don’t lose xp for any reason. After they get 1000xp, they level up. The xp requirement doubles for every level. I’m thinking of putting a leader board up in the lesson room.

I talked to a nine-year-old about this and he understood it immediately and dug it.

So Matt and Bryan and I all decided to do this thing where you work up to 100 push ups in six weeks. There’s a site here for you guys who are curious. We’re all doing the initial test on Saturday and starting Monday proper.

I’m telling you this because if I brag about doing it, I’ll be embarrassed if I flake out.

I think I’m going to try something different with my resolutions.

A drawing every day for 365 days

It doesn’t have to be a good drawing.

A book a week for 52 weeks

I’m going to cheat by reading all of my skinny books first.

Write and record a song every fortnight for 26 fortnights

This will give me time to actually develop and produce the song as opposed to hitting the record button and posting the first take.

Write a short story every month for 12 months

Hopefully all of the reading I’ll be doing will inspire me to write. 1000 words is enough.

A novel a year, written in November

I’m going to do it this year, dammit!

Just as I thought I was going to have a bit of money and get stuff rolling back into the black, the transmission on the jeep craps out. The fucking transmission.

So anyone who wants to commission any art or design from me, now’s the time to do it.

Making

I’m working on a redesign of a website for a freelance client. In the process, I’m learning to love CSS. There’s still a lot of ridiculous bullshit involved with getting a div tag to stretch to 100% of the browser window, but I’m resisting the urge to use a table – the way we used to do things.

Sunday night is song night. I’m going to try to write and record a song every weekend.

Reading

On the recommendation of Paul Gross, I’m finally reading the first book of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I’m trying to get at least 50 pages in a day.

Wearing

I wore my old Guitar Shoppe t-shirt from when I was in high school. Like most of my t-shirts, it has holes in it.

I really need some cool, non-offensive t-shirts.

I’m up to 3,787 words of my novel so far. I’m about 1,200 words behind where I should be, which isn’t quite a day’s recommended output. It’s funny to think that my life is much more complicated that it was last year at this time, especially considering the all-out chaos Sarah and I were experiencing.

I was telling Griffin how it feels different this year because I don’t have anything to prove. I’ve written one novel. It’s a wondrous, sprawling thing with more holes in its plot than I have in my socks. But at least I know that I have the wherewithal to finish a single project of 50k words. This year I’m going to try to do a better job without completely selling out and going that awful formula route.

If you’re interested, I’m using Q10 to write my novel and yWriter 5 to organize it and keep track of my characters.

Writing

I’m at 2497 of 50,000 for my NaNoWriMo novel. That means I’m about 800-ish words behind where I should be. I’m pretty happy where the story is taking me so far. If I’m disciplined, I should be able to catch up in a couple of days.

Reading

I’m not reading as much as I’m browsing. I’ve been snacking on stories by Tanith Lee from Tamastara, and the day before yesterday I read a couple of stories from an anthology of horror and the supernatural by Poe and Fritz Leiber.

Art

I’m working on a series of drawing tutorials for a website. When they’re published, I’ll provide a link. The site is currently targeted toward kids, but I’ve been hired to work up some tutorials appropriate for aspiring teenage and adult artists.

Last weekend I was sick. I was afraid I had the swine flu and kept myself in bed, quarantined from Parker and Sarah for three days. It was hell. Strangely, I wasn’t running a fever. I guess it was just the worst case of allergies I’ve ever had.

I had two articles published on The Dice of Life, a role-playing game blog targeted to adult gamers with jobs and families.

Josh and I played at Stephen Penley’s opening at The Albany Museum of Art. It was a 2.5 hour drive, but they loved us, want us back, and it’s nice to get paid $100 an hour for jamming with a good friend. We ate at Steak & Shake on the way home.

Mom and Sarah went to the Kid’s Clothes Connection and Mom totally spoiled Parker. He scored a new wardrobe full of clothes, tons of toys, a cool art desk, and the world’s most awesome trike.

Last night, I watched Anthony Bourdain eating Pho’ in Vietnam. This triggered a massive Pho’ craving that caused me to watch YouTube videos of people making Pho’ for the next hour and my talking about Pho’ with all of my friends who were unfortunate enough to be online (actually only John…sorry John).

Today, I spent way too much money on Pho’ ingredients. But it turned out really, really well, and now I can have Pho’ whenever I want.

I turned 34 yesterday. I can’t say it’s a tradition to look over the last year and take stock of what I’ve accomplished and what I hope to achieve before my next birthday, but it’s certainly a tendency, and one that should become a tradition.

33 was a momentous year. Most importantly, Sarah and I had our first child, Parker Clement Reece, on April 11. I managed to win NaNoWriMo (I wrote a 50,000 word novel in 30 days), despite the fact that my laptop was stolen. I only wrote and recorded 8 songs, but all 8 of them are good songs. I did 60 drawings in as many days in September and October, leading up to NaNoWriMo.

This year? I’d like to read and write and draw and play and exercise more. I need to get myself on a daily regimen for all of these things. My creative output since Parker’s birth has been little more than a trickle, and that has to change. It’s important for him to grow up around parents who are making things.