We have our winners! Fiber One Pkg Giveaway

Alright guys, we have our winners for the Fiber One gift packages including a Fit & Healthy food journal, a water bottle, a food scale, a
heart-shaped pedometer, and a coupon redeemable for a free Fiber One
yogurt.

I'm especially excited about 'who' won them, too! I wanted you all the win, of course, but the first two people are bloggers I've known for a while. The very first number that was generated by Random.org was 45.

Looks like it paid off for you to go blog about it and come back with the link, Sadie!

The next two numbers were 81 and 62.

That's Erika Jean for following me on Twitter and Judy Brittle (nice to meet you!) for wanting to try the vanilla, hehe.

Shoot me an email with your shipping address and I'll start the shipping process ASAP. :D

National Something on a Stick Day

Now this is one that didn't come pre-marked on my calendar....how sad!

To celebrate National Something on a Stick Day (tomorrow, March 28), Hungry Girl took it a step further than just lollipops and created 3 tasty (and healthy) dishes to eat: Good Chick Lollipops, Veggie Supreme Pizza on a Stick, and Pig on a Stick in a Bacon-Wrapped Blanket.

Find her recipes here or make up your own silly variations. After all, I suppose you could put just about anything on a stick, so have some fun.

It takes more than medication. Be brave.

This was posted over at daysgoby and had her commentators crying, so you might want to wait until you're alone if that's a possibility for you. It really is quite touching....about being brave when confronted with major illness.

The heart of the message? "To be truly healthy, it takes more than medication."

And yet, it's quirky. It's different. It's a message you don't usually see on TV and it's done in a way that you're not really expecting the ending.
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Chocolate keyboard -- the ultimate excuse

On all those days where I simply didn't get around to blogging any, this is my excuse. I ran out of back up keyboards to satisfy both my chocolate desires and typing needs. ;-)

(Found on Gizmodo)

Just a couple more websites....really!

This is exactly how it goes for me. I get it set in my head that I'm going to write up a couple dozens posts for QJ, and the next thing I know, it's 3 in the morning and all I have to show for my night are a million more tabs and bookmarks. Gah!

I see pink elephants...do you?

Once upon a time, it was a regular occurrence for me to speak of the pink and purple polka dotted elephants that were climbing in the trees.

Well it isn't purple or polka dotted, but it is most definitely pink!!  And this time, people aren't going to look at me like I'm crazy for it. You can see it yourself!

Here's a bit more information about the little pink guy:

A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.

Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.

They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival - the
blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the
calf.

Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming
for a BBC wildlife programme, said: "We only saw it for a couple of
minutes as the herd crossed the river.


"This was a really exciting moment for everyone in camp. We knew it was a rare sighting - no-one could believe their eyes."

Documented evidence

Albino elephants are not usually white, but instead they have more of a reddish-brown or pink hue.

While albinism is thought to be fairly common in Asian elephants, it is much less common in the larger African species.

Isn't it cute? And I know I'm not just imagining pink elephants because the news hit internationally, hehe.

Fiber One Package Giveaway! (Yogurt, food scale, journal, pedometer, water bottle, weee!)

(Skip to the bottom of the post if you only want to know how to win your own gift package!)

Yep, I've been given the chance to giveaway three of these Fiber One gift packages! I got mine in the mail a couple days ago and it's all just awesome!

Included is a Fit & Healthy food journal, a water bottle, a food scale, a heart-shaped pedometer, and a coupon redeemable for a free Fiber One yogurt (wouldn't want them actually shipping you the yogurt, of course, hehe).

Now I'm not one to think about my fiber intake, much less actually watch how many grams I'm getting throughout the day. Many other people do, though, and this package is great regardless.

I also had a bit of fun with the Fiber Friend Face-Off where I played a little game of picking the correct foods to reach 25g of fiber. It was followed by a quiz which showed me that I pretty much know nothing about the daily requirements of fiber or how much people generally get, lol. Even if you don't want to play the game, check out the link to enter the Fiber One sweepstakes and print off a coupon. :)

Regardless, I had a bit of fun creating my Face-Off Friend avatar:

Come on, it's not called Quirky Jessi for me to pass up a perfectly good clown nose! :P

I really don't think Kim knew what she had coming to her when she faced my mad fiber picking skills. She looked really tough, but it was no match for my quirkiness. ;-)

Alright, alright, let's get to the contest rules. If you've read this far, you must be one of my regular readers and either get a kick out of me playing a fiber game.....or enjoy pigtails and clown nose combos.

When I enter other people's contests, it's much more inviting when they have several ways to enter instead of just one or two ways. Keep in mind that although Fiber One is the sponsor for this, there's much more to the package than just fiber....who couldn't get some use out of a pedometer, food scale, journal, or a water bottle?

Contest Rules

Required entry: Comment below. (How else would I get in touch with you, after all? Comments are open and you can comment anonymously, but I need a valid email address or I won't be able to contact you if you're a winner.)

Ways to get more entries:
(For each entry, please leave a separate comment below letting me know what you did. If you're already a subscriber, just leave a comment saying so. If you follow me on Twitter or tweet about the contest, tell me your username in a new comment.)

-- Subscribe to Quirky Jessi (lots of ways....using RSS, through Blogger, or even by email)

-- Follow me on Twitter (Quirky Jessi)

-- Tweet about the contest -- can be done up to 2 times for 2 entries

-- Blog about the contest (link back to this post and leave the URL in comments below)

-- Answer one or more of these questions -- each worth a separate entry, so put them in separate comments:

-- What is your favorite Fiber One product?
-- If you've tried Fiber One yogurt, what did you like about it or what's your favorite flavor? If you haven't tried it, what flavor will you try if you win? (flavors can be found here)
-- Do you know how much fiber you're getting?

-- Play the Friend Face-Off game and tell me how much fiber you got

-- Talk about this giveaway somewhere else -- up to 2 separate entries (post on a forum? use Facebook? another site you love? just be sure to leave the link in the comments)

Remember to put each entry in a separate comment so they'll all be counted. :)

~Contest ends at midnight EST, March 27th~

"Personal cleansers" -- Or rather, just fancy-shaped gaming soaps

Bet you thought it was going to be Nintendo, huh? Today, going with Play Station instead, although there actually 'are' NES controllers made out of soap as well, along with keyboards, phones, computer monitors, computer chips.....and amongst the mix, even a cup of hot cocoa and a pizza. Perfect for gaming days!

Stevia, Fructevia, Truvia, Freaktevia, Meektevia, Sneaktevia...

Okay, so maybe I got carried away with the -evias? hehe

Yep, another review, although this one won't be nearly as long as the last one. ~Edit~ I think I may have underestimated how much I wanted to say about it, oops! ~~

Stevia is a product that I was already well aware of actually. Many years ago when my grandpa was diagnosed with diabetes right before Thanksgiving, I headed off to my health food store....privately owned by a couple who I swear knew practically everything about every herb, spice, tree, plant, vitamin, mineral, nutrition, body issue, whatever out there (and if they didn't, they'd consult every resource they had), and who refused to carry anything in the store that they didn't support or wouldn't use themselves.

Moving on past the really long, run-on sentences to make the story a bit shorter, one of the things I was introduced to was Stevia. It's an all-natural, insanely sweet sugar substitute. Stevia in its raw forms comes herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family and has up to 300 times the sweetness of common table sugar that you probably use.

I was certainly skeptical when I first tried it. I was raised to be dead set against sugar substitues like Sweet 'N' Low and Equal that so many dieters use and considering both my Mom and I found we were sensitive to some of the funky chemicals they use in place of sugar nowadays, it was all the more reason to not ever want to use them. Stevia was another story, though, and when I baked with it the first time, I was shocked that it didn't have any negative effect on how the food turned out. Seeing as how my grandpa is very old-fashioned and would roll his eyes at my grandma's use of Sweet 'N' Low, he too was shocked when my "sugar-free" items served that Thanksgiving, didn't taste sugar-free at all!

Since then, I've moved many times (far away from my beloved health food store) and long ago lost the need for spending money on stevia to sweeten foods for someone else's dietary needs. I was happy to see that the FDA finally approved Stevia a few years ago (it's been used since at least the 1800s), but even more excited to see that the "dietary supplement" I was sent to try out, was actually 3 different forms of stevia!

What you'll see on store shelves now is generally going to be Truvia and Fructevia. Fructevia is a natural blend of fructose, FOS (extracted from artichokes), stevia, and magnesium carbonate (a natural mineral used to keep it from caking) and is about 2x as sweet as sugar, so when I tried it out, I was able to use half as much in my recipes without losing any sweetness. It's available in both large bags for cooking, and also little packets that are great for sweetening drinks on the go.

Fructose doesn't affect blood sugar levels like refined sugar does, so Fructevia is safe for both diabetes I and II sufferers, along with low-carb and low-glycemic dieters, and those suffering from hypoglycemia. Steviva (the brand of stevia I tried) guarantees that it'll taste just like the sugar you're used to, too!

Don't tell anyone, but as soon as I opened the bag, I licked a finger and stuck it in. If I was going to be reviewing it, then it better taste like sugar, ya know!?  Shockingly, it tasted just like powdered sugar (the granules are a bit smaller than table sugar).

My next biggest concern was that when it came to baking, if I was only using half as much, then wasn't it going to throw off the consistency and texture? I baked a loaf of bread with it, though, and it turned out just like it always does, though, so happily, no effect there!

I also used it a couple times in various drinks and they tasted great. Price-wise, it's definitely more expensive than sugar and I have no intentions of switching over to just using it because I'd go broke! lol On that same note, though, if you're someone who uses artificial sweeteners, buying this is probably going to cut your bill down instead. The tiny 1.3 oz (8 oz. by volume) bottle of Steviva stevia powder (no fillers) they sent me contains 370 servings. Holy cow, lol.

They are running some *huge* sales right now, though, so if you're even slightly interested (or already use it), be sure to check out the main site. There are some "super duper" specials where you can get a couple different products for a pretty hefty discount and then have it shipped for free even! You can get more information about the various products and blends they offer, and about stevia itself, along with a section of recipes to try out.

Anywho, I think I've said more than my fair share.....I already approve of stevia products and Steviva's blends seem to be really good. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll do my best to answer. I have quite a bit of the product samples left (did I mention 370 servings in a tiny bottle?? lol), so I'll keep trying it in different recipes and update this if I have anything more to say. I'm still kind of nervous about trying it in a batch of something like cookies that seem to rely more on the texture of sugar, but they're on my list to try!

Mario Kart Love Song

You can still play your old NES and Super Nintendo games!

Yeah, yeah, "geek week" is turning out to be more like "let's play Nintendo! please, please, please??"

What can I say? I liked the original Nintendo systems and still have at least 3 in my closet at the moment, along with dozens of games. Unfortunately, the last working system I have requires a well-placed butterknife to be slid in on top of the game juuusssttt right, and you can't even so much as breathe the wrong way while playing or it'll lose connection. Yes, it's sad, but I couldn't bear to risk losing the only playable systems for all those games.

Well now there's the Retro Duo NES/SNES Game System on Think Geek. *Drools* Not only is this thing a beauty, but it's functional 'and' cheap. It plays both NES and SNES games, both of which are top loading. As Jeff says over at CNET:

"That means no more trial and error playing "Legend of Zelda" or "Super
Mario Brothers 3." No more taking the cartridge back out, blowing on it
furiously, slamming it back in the console and powering up, hoping
you're not greeted with a screen of wavy lines or misformed game
sprites only to once again take Mario's name in vain."

Oh so true! And at roughly 50 bucks, it's well worth it to put all those old games back to use. Did I mention how stylish, chic, and amazingly drool-worthy it is, too? Yeah? Okay, just making sure. You can even use your old controllers or stick with the ones included with the system. Choices, choices. Can you say Duck Hunt gun??

(And yes, I know there are other retro-type systems out there that claim to offer the same experience, but they're usually not-so-cool, require game chips, etc....not the same as this at all!)

Mugs for coffee and tea "enthusiasts"

Coffee geeks. No, not the guy who has a cup of coffee every morning or the woman who makes 15 trips to Starbucks every week. Not the ones who bite off chicken heads with their coffee either. I'm talking about the people who grind their own, can name a million varieties and where the beans were grown, and buckle at the knees at the mere mention of their favorite brew.

Combine this sort of obsession love and adoration for coffee with any other form of geekiness, and you wind up with people who would love these coffee mugs.

Okay, so maybe the coffee addiction isn't even required. I don't like coffee....at all....and I love these mugs! I want, I want, I want. I'm just trying to cover it up by writing them off as things only for coffee and/or tea lovers. :( :(

Again, there are 11 on the site, but here are just a few of my favorites:


(Yes, temperature activated!)


(Gotta love that even the tagline is bitter, hehe)









Sigh, fiiinnneeee. So I made the mistake of mentioning to a true coffee geek that I was taking a crack at coffee freaks...er...geeks...and was immediately told to be sure that I gave a shout out to CoffeeGeek.com. This was then followed by a quick blurb about how I should talk to Mark for some more info. Yikes!

So long story short, for you 'true' coffee geeks out there (not just those that might enjoy a little artsy mug here or there), the site really does look amazing. And because my novice opinion doesn't really count for much in the coffee world given that I don't drink it, it does come highly recommended from someone who lives, breathes, sleeps coffee...for the flavor and process, not the caffeine!

The meaning of geek

Nowadays, the definition of "geek" is somewhat varied, often times used interchangeably with nerd, so I went off looking for a definition that fit what I was going to write about -- people who are overly obsessed with certain genres, subjects, items, foods, etc. Something along the lines of the third definition I found "an enthusiast or expert," such as in a technological field (computer geek anyone?), worked perfectly.

Instead, what I found first in the Merriam-Webster dictionary was "a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake."

Wait. What? Say that again. A carnival wild man who bites the head off live chickens or snakes? Erm. Not quite what I was looking for, heh. Just goes to show that I don't know nearly enough words and their appropriate definitions. Darn.

(I'll spare you the findings of the pictures I found when I went looking for an image to go with this post, too. Search at your own risk, hehe.)

How to pronounce names correctly

How to say that name

I'm sure I could come up with some quirky story of how I mispronounced such-n-such name or hearing an embarrassing pronunciation here or there, but hey, we've all been there, I'm sure.

This site has a humongous database that can be searched in several different ways, and includes several languages. It loads really quick, so it's great to have on hand when you're making phones calls at work, for example, and don't want to mess up someone's name.

Birmingham says no more apostrophes -- Language fanatics outraged!

This is month-old news, but still worth mentioning. I may not be a huge language, grammar, spelling geek, but I do find it silly that Birmingham would remove a key punctuation mark from all the signs, simply because it might "confuse" people.

Sorry, but the entire English language is filled with confusing stuff, but we certainly don't just go dropping it left and right.....at least not from official items! I also don't think it takes a high school diploma to be able to figure out what a word is. *shakes head*

Here's the full article so you know what I'm talking about (yes, blatantly copied/pasted because news articles tend to be removed rather quickly and then I'm left with broken links and posts without full information....no fun)

LONDON - On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.

England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.

But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark.

It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as "St. Pauls Square" or
"Acocks Green."

This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all.

Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city's transport scrutiny committee,
said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether "Kings Heath," a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe.

"I had to make a final decision on this," he said Friday. "We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do."

'They confuse people' Mullaney hopes to stop public campaigns to restore the apostrophe that would tell passers-by that "Kings Heath" was once owned by the monarchy.

"Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed," he said. "More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don't want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it."

But grammarians say apostrophes enrich the English language.

"They are such sweet-looking things that play a crucial role in the English language," said Marie Clair of the Plain English Society, which campaigns for the use of simple English. "It's always worth taking the effort to understand them, instead of ignoring them."

Mullaney claimed apostrophes confuse GPS units, including those used by emergency services. But Jenny Hodge, a spokeswoman for satellite navigation equipment manufacturer TomTom, said most users of their systems navigate through Britain's sometime confusing streets by entering a postal code rather than a street address.

She said that if someone preferred to use a street name — with or without an apostrophe — punctuation wouldn't be an issue. By the time the first few letters of the street were entered, a list of matching choices would pop up and the user would choose the destination.

Grammarians revolt
A test by The Associated Press backed this up. In a search for London street St. Mary's Road, the name popped up before the apostrophe had to be entered.

There is no national body responsible for regulating place names in Britain. Its main mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, which provides data for emergency services, takes its information from local governments and each one is free to decide how it uses punctuation.

"If councils decide to add or drop an apostrophe to a place name, we just update our data," said Ordnance Survey spokesman Paul Beauchamp. "We've never heard of any confusion arising from their existence."

To sticklers, a missing or misplaced apostrophe can be a major offense.

British grammarians have railed for decades against storekeepers' signs advertising the sale of "apple's and pear's," or pubs offering "chip's and pea's."

In her best-selling book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," Lynne Truss recorded her fury at the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy "Two Weeks Notice," insisting it should be "Two Weeks' Notice."

"Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended," she wrote.

Creative 404 Page Not Found Pages

Although I hate clicking a link and finding myself faced with a nasty 404 error, announcing that the page I wanted to see, isn't actually there after all.....I love when people get creative with those pages. It kinda softens the blow, if nothing else, and sometimes makes me giggle.

Here's a collection of really great 404 customizations (which also has some links to some more great error pages, so enjoy!). There's even some great animated ones that were really.....interesting, hehe.