AGWorld of Racing

A Coke that’s not red, hmmm….

On July 27th, I wrote a quick review on my take of trying Coca-Cola Life on the Medium blogging platform. Here’s what I wrote.

Just recently at the grocery store, I spotted a different looking Coca-Cola drink. It was green and it said Coca-Cola Life. I remember seeing these on the store shelves quite while ago and now since I’ve unfortunately started drinking caffeinated drinks again, I decided to give a go and have a try of the new kind of Coke.

First and foremost a shoutout goes to Coca-Cola for choosing the type of green that’s pretty and eye catching that’s in the can. I guess you can’t think about life, without thinking of the color from trees and manicured lawn grasses. What makes this Coke different is, that it has Stevia to go along with pure cane sugar. Until trying this drink, I’ve never had a drink that had Stevia before.

The taste try

The taste of the Coca-Cola Life was more like a flat taste than in a regular Coca-Cola. For a second when testing the drink, I checked to see if the can has expired. Luckily the drink wasn’t expired. You can barely taste the carbonation of the drink. The pure cane sugar was hardly present but you can taste the Stevia at the end of each sip.

The taste of drinking Coca-Cola Life reminded me of when I tried those Red Bull’s natural cola drinks in the late 2000’s. But those colas had no carbonation in the skinny soda drinks.

The Verdict

Coca-Cola Life I guess is Coca-Cola’s attempt to make a classic Coke into a healthier drink and in my opinion, it isn’t that great so stop it right there Coca-Cola and focus on continuing making your classic red liveried drinks. I mean it’s not a bad attempt but, it’s definitely something that I most likely won’t buy again either.

No, it’s not the Rated R brother of YouTube. Haha

On July 28th, I had to say a goodbye to a new friend in YouTube Red. Due to personal budget cuts, poor YouTube Red didn’t make the cut.

YouTube Red is another one of these $7.99, $8.99 or $9.99 per month apps and services that are taking over the world. Basically, your subscription of YouTube Red is a pass where you can watch all the YouTube you want commercial free. From TV shows that people uploaded to; to binge watch videos of YouTube personalities like Jenna Marbles or my favorite, tech vlogger Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD).

Also, your subscription gives you access to their originals department “YouTube Red Originals” because that’s the popular trend these days. You have to have your own originals department. Lol.

But wait, there’s more…

Not only do you get ad-free YouTubing but, you get to save and view YouTube videos offline and listen to videos no matter in the background while checking your Facebook or whatever you are using on your phone. That’s just on the main YouTube app. You can also listen to music and watch music videos offline and online to your heart’s content on the newly created “YouTube Music” app.

I was looking at the song catalog of Robbie Williams while listening to Francesco (@imyourfm) on Google Play Music

The most important perk that one gets with YouTube Red subscription is the Google’s version of Spotify called Google Play Music. Not only do you get ad-free YouTube Video but, access to 35 million plus songs in Google Play Music store catalog and whatever music that you’ve bought and uploaded to your Google Play Music locker. That right there was worth the ten dollars per month, sign me up for those two features just alone.

My Verdict

On October 28th, YouTube Red was released to the public and anyone could sign up and try the subscription service out for a month for free. I like watching YouTube on my TV using a Roku stream stick and who doesn’t want free access to infinity songs with the Google Play Music service. So forking over the ten dollars per month fee was a great deal.

Eight months later though. Paying ten dollars per month wasn’t too worth it for the service. I wasn’t getting the value of YouTube Red warranted to continue to fork over ten dollar bills every month.

After eight months, I watch a whole heck a lot of Periscopes and Buskers than I do watching YouTube. There’re days that I don’t even watch YouTube at all. The days after I dropped the subscription, I haven’t really noticed or the ads haven’t bothered me on YouTube.

The eight months that I had YouTube Red, not once I cared about finding out what was going on YouTube Red Originals tab. To be honest with you guys, I am not interested devoting time and energy on new TV shows at this stage of my life. Every time that I do, it ends up getting canceled. So no thank you.

It was awesome in having 35 million plus songs at my disposal but, I very seldom ever used to and listened to so and so’s (insert any artist) music library/ collection. If I like a song, I’ll just purchase the song for a $1.29 at the Google Play Music store. I have no qualms in doing so.

Matter of fact, I spent more time listening to the iHeartRadio, Stitcher and Slacker Radio apps than listening to the Google Play Music app. I’ve even caught myself saying something like this, “Well, let me make Google Play Music app useful and play some so and so.” That’s basically signs that I was wasting money. Haha.

In Conclusion

YouTube Red subscription is not bad value subscription and it’s perfect if you’re a YouTube-holic and spend countless hours looking at all the Smosh, Shane Dawson videos, reaction videos and “Damnnnnnn Daniel” parody videos you want. YouTube Red subscription is also perfect if you’re an avid music fan by making the YouTube Music and Google Play Music apps really standout.

But my case usage didn’t really justify the ten dollar subscription. If I was more of an avid music fan than I say heck yes but, when you have apps like iHeartRadio taking care of your music void. Again, it just didn’t justify the subscription price.

And if you want commercial free YouTube, just get Ad Block Plus for your computer for free. Problem solved. You’re welcome! Lol.

"Ambrose has left the NASCAR building"

(my spin of the saying “Elvis has left the building”)”.

Marcos Ambrose shouldn’t have anything to have his head down, in the last quarter of his NASCAR life. I know that he drove his heart and guts out all year long (just look at his top-ten finish in the next to last race in his NASCAR career) in the shoddy and inferior No. 9 DeWalt/ Stanley Tools Ford Fusion. He definitely will be missed in the American motorsports scene.

#IndyCar Photo: Marshall Pruett’s Facebook