Pumpkin Carves Itself--Happy Halloween!!

^ Really cool video of a pumpkin carving itself. Watch as the plot thickens and goes for an unexpected twist.

Yes. It has a plot. Just watch, lol

Gumball Machine Belt Buckle

Long story short:

1. Person says he/she doesn't like food blogs.
2. HAWK says said person won't be visiting my blog because of my (at the time, most current) post about popcorn s'mores.
3. I retaliate about how I'm not a food blog.
4. HAWK notices my next post is about gum/mint keychains.
5. I retaliate again how I post more about products than food.
6. I want to be silly and retaliate further by posting yet another "food"-related product post (Gum isn't food anyway! Hehe).

This one's for you, Hawk. ;-)

The image above is of the Gumball Machine Belt Buckle. For $13.99 + shipping, this bad boy can be yours.....but just the buckle, so don't forget to make sure you have a belt to attach it to (and if you don't, the site offers those, too).

The great thing about this is that it's refillable. Virginia Lee brought up a good point in the comments about the gum/mint keychains---if they don't taste good or they don't have a special attribute (like being organic), then people won't buy them.

I don't know if the mint keychain is easily refillable, but I'm pretty sure the gum one would be difficult to. These belt buckles can be refilled with your own favorite gum balls, though, so it's totally versatile. Add just one or two colors to match your outfit perfectly or mix it up to add a splash of color and quirkiness to the simplest of outfits.

Now my question is, how many people actually want to wear their gum? I suppose if they have a gum addiction, this could be just right for them....

Clip 'N' Go Mints and Gum

The picture above shows the mint version, but for those who aren't big mint fans or would rather avoid the extra noise they'd make, jingling on your already crowded keyring, they come in gum form, too:
Personally, I'm not a huge gum/mint user at all. In fact, I pretty much only have either of them when someone offers one to me. I know people who eat mints or chew gum almost constantly and obsessively, though, so this seemed like a great idea to me!

They have a special pink version out for this month, too, so hurry if you're interested! (I can't find an online order form, but you should keep an eye out for the new EraBrands Aura Clip 'n' Go variations.)

(I should seriously get paid for the free advertising I do for these different companies, lol....they might consider it if they even knew I existed!)

Popcorn Gone Crazy--Creative Popcorn Variations

I don't eat popcorn and I don't generally advocate eating it because your stomach has a hard time digesting the kernels, not to mention that a naturally low-on-the-bad-food scale is generally eaten in a way that makes it horrible for people....but I've gotta make an exception here.

This site is awesome when it comes to things you can do to liven up your popcorn. The first one I opened was Popcorn S'mores, and from there, I knew I'd have to blog about the site so others could discover the fun variations.

When I first clicked the link that took me there, I assumed it'd be a site of all the things you could add to a bag of popcorn (you know, add cheese powder or this season or that), but it wasn't. There are actual recipes to use the popcorn, too. The picture above is of the popcorn s'mores...don't they look yummy? And they can't be any worse for you than the original s'mores combo, so it sounds like a great excuse to me to play around with popcorn, teddy grahams, chocolate chips, and marshmallows, and less messy. A really good recipe to do with the kids. They'll love it!

DDR Child Prodigy

This kid is absolutely amazing. He's only five and has incredible speed and skill. I'm in awe just watching him. (The video is only 2 minutes long, so take the time to go ahead and play it....it's worth it.)

Amerideutsch Has Left the Blogging World Without a Trace

So Amerideutsch is gone. I don't know why. I don't know what sparked it. And I don't know if she'll ever be back....but it doesn't look like it. I can't link to her because the site is completely gone....not even archives are left and the post I saw last night that briefly told that it was over and she was headed back to reality has even disappeared by this evening. I'm glad I saw it or I wouldn't know what was up and I'd just assume the site was down and would be back shortly. Sadly, that is not the case.

Here's the first time I mentioned her (and the second when I give her a shout out).....the first time I randomly linked to someone and was shocked to find them commenting on my post within days. I was kind of embarassed because I really didn't think she'd follow me back...after all, I hadn't contacted her....but I was new to blogging and she was the first blogging 'friend', of sorts, that I checked in on frequently and we often commented back and forth on each other's pages. Of course, neither of us really knew one another and we never spoke outside blog comments, but it's disheartening, nonetheless.

I suppose the most shocking part is that there was no warning. There was no post about how she wasn't sure she'd want to continue blogging. In fact, she'd just posted about how she'd signed up for NaBloPoMo....which meant she'd be posting for 30 days straight, starting in a couple weeks. And now the site is completely gone without a trace of her ever being there or a hint at what happened. This isn't just a blog that gets tossed into my hiatus blog folder to be checked back in on in a few months.....it's gone. And it's sad. Bye bye Lisa. ;-(

Blog Surfing

So for the four hours of my shift at work, I've been blog surfing. Not only did I check every single one of the blogs that I have listed in my bookmarks and in RSS feeds, but I also spent much of the last 2 hours flipping through last year's NaBloPoMo Randomizer.

I'm posting here sparingly at the moment because I have so many ideas and would like to save some of them for November....but that, of course, means the anticipation is slightly getting to me and I'm browsing everyone else's blogs twice as much, lol. I've found a few new additions to my regular readers, but I'm not sure that's a good thing....how will I find the time??

Anywho, just a quick meaningless update to warn you of the time-draining blog surfing addiction. Be careful!

More Blogaversary Fun Part II--Visitor Facts

Hey, my blog birthday/anniversary only comes once a year, so I might as well use the time to see how it went this last year. Here are some facts about the people who visited Quirky:

• Depending on which site I check, there were approximately 4000 'different' people who clicked in. (The highest quote was for 6100 different people, so who knows?)
  
• 51% of those were Firefox users. Woohoo Firefox!!
  
• 1 visitor used the browser "gzip" which I've never heard of, heh.
• 9 unlikely visitors were actually still on dial-up. I wasn't even sure if that was still around. I'm sorry for all the graphics that probably lagged up this minority like crazy, lol.
• 1% of the visits were made by users with Linux, and almost 8% from Mac users. I'll never understand Mac users, but I love the quirky ads they put out and the strange loyalty is almost worth investigation. 4100 visitors were using Windows XP. Yes, that's more than the 4k unique visitors quoted in the first one, but the stats were from different places and I took the lower number for the visitors, lol. There's no way of knowing who to believe!
  
• 3 visits were made on a computer running only 8-bit color. Um, which 8 colors are those? :P
  
• Over a third of people's resolutions are set for 1024x768, but there were actually 6% who were using 800x600.
  
• An overwhelming amount of visitors were from the United States. I'm not feeling much foreign love. :(

Okay, I think I'm done with the stat exploring, hehe.

More Blogaversary Fun--A Year of Strange Searchers

I used to post every so often about the weird search topics that brought people here, so now that I've hit the one mark, I thought I'd list some of the oddest searches.

• "see my panties"
• "a portmanteau of the phrase snide remark "
• "college student" +"instant noodle" +statistic
• "opposite of italicized"
• "pink elephants and lemonade" meaning
• "let go of my ears" tattoo
• 7bdef5f98fd316a934e1408d31a08a28b029d27908a2b8b1
• a torso pops out!
• all the participants in world toilet expo 2006 in thailand, email addresses and fax numbersare ramen noodles poisonous
• craving carrots all of a sudden
• diethylene glycol antifreeze ice cream
• emoticon bra clip
• fizzy pamplemousse
• grandma got swallowed by the internet
• hobo symbol for kind lady
• how many chairs fit around 76" dining room table
• my sandwiches smell like bananaspie selling: whole or slice
• sex in the 60s
• shakespeare beer joke
• take care of a virtual pet that's a mammal.
• under the desk you will see a rusty razor blade and a bottle of scotch. remove your own appendix.
• "i told my mom what i had just seen. then my mom got scared, she"

I was going to make a comment on each one, but for the most part, my reaction is simply WTF? I have no idea what some people were looking for when they searched for these things and mistakenly ran across my site, lol.

NaBloPoMo Again Already....and I'm Doing It!

Okay, so I did it. I signed up to participate in NaBloPoMo. If you were with me last year, then you heard me ramble about it a few times. Basically, a bunch of bloggers sign on to blog every day of the month, and that month just happens to be November. It may not seem like much, but it's a difficult task and takes lots of commitment. There's no cheating allowed....no skipping a day and making it up by posting twice the next day. Nope. Every day. Period.

Along with meeting lots of great people and stumbling across tons of new fascinating blogs thanks to a randomizer feature (Half of the current blogs I read are a result of browsing through them last year and it'll greatly hinder my performance this year, especially considering how many other things I have going on to deal with).....there are also prizes offered.

I had a lot of fun last year browsing through everyone else's fun, so this year, I thought I'd give it a go. I figure it might just be the kick in the butt I need to sort through all this crap I have sitting here, waiting to be blogged...but I'm not blogging! We'll see, right? I'll have a huge research project, midterms, finals prep, work, and life in general to deal with next month, so who knows if I'll actually have the time and dedication to put into it.

Who am I kidding? Blogging is so much more important than ace-ing my classes, hehe.

Happy Blogaversary Quirky!!

Yep, it's been a whole year. Looking back, here are some of the entries from my first month:

• Blurry vs. Focused--a photo with a baby jaguar and a little boy
• Revenge of the Flip Flops--Dun, dun, dun. I've referenced this post a few times since then, and the fact still remains that I hate flip flops. Um, and to spoil my own morals and fun, I just happen to be wearing a pair now that were forced on me over the summer...and I saw the price tag, so I'm certainly going to get the money out of them, even if that means using them to kill flies and spiders, hehe.
• Post Secret--a long entry about some of the postcards from that week. I still visit the site weekly. I find it ironic that I posted it on my birthday considering how sad many of the postcards were, and how un-sad I was at the time....at least I think I was. Who knows? But hey, it means my birthday is in 2 days...woohoo!
• Never Too Young--My first mini-rant, this time about someone who claimed that one is 'never' too young to grow up. I begged to differ when the person at the heart of the conversation was a preteen who had to step up and take care of children younger than herself. She 'is' too young to be forced to literally grow up and possibly miss many parts of her own childhood.
• What is a Friend?--My first analysis of a concept here. Man, I used to get deep here, guys! Lol. Boy did QuirkyJessi become a different place....it became....quirkier! And a whole lot more fun!
• Gangbanged Duck--Yep, duck rape. Literally. *giggles*
• Econ Problem Part One-The Box--*Giggles again* This was me defying 'the box' and making a point to go against what my econ class was trying to teach me. I defiantly sat cross-legged on top of the box instead of staying inside.
• Econ Problem Part Two--The Dog--And 'this' was me going above and beyond what everyone expected and turning the 'mere dog' used as a factual object in an econ problem and turning it into a sentimental creature that created tons of problems because they objectified it. Good times. Lots of cute pictures to illustrate, too, hehe.
• Hippo Dentist Bill--The big guy featured above and a quick comment about him.

Yep, it's been fun, but QuirkyJ certainly has changed a bit with time. I wouldn't post half of that stuff now, mainly because I don't take the time to write long drawn out stuff now. It's still tons of fun, though. Here's to another year. *Raises one of the gangbanged ducks into the air* Cheers!

I've Gone Pink!! Incredibly Pink!! (Breast Cancer Awareness Month)

I don't like the color pink. At all. I don't know what it is about the color, but it tends to make me uncomfortable. If I try to wear a pink shirt, or god forbid, pink underwear, that's all I can think about all day. I become acutely aware of the fact that there is something pink attached to me and it gets weird. It's just another color and I don't care, but it happens no matter how much I try to forget about it.

This month, though, I'm breaking my own rules of comfort and changing my blog colors to pink. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and everyone's familiar with the color connection (well, it was either for this or Victoria's Secret's Pink line, but I wouldn't do that, now would I?). Most of us know someone who has been effected by breast cancer whether directly or indirectly, so why not join us? It's for a good cause.

Check out PinkforOctober.org for logos like the one I have above, some stories, and links to other sites who have gone pink. Here's the link to other places that have info about breast cancer. Remember, awareness is the whole point, so take a few minutes and educate yourself a bit more. Like....did you know that breast cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death worldwide and *third* in the United States? Exactly....go check out the facts.