Bath too hot? The 'fro will show

This guy's locks are heat sensitive and will change from brown to yellow if the water is too hot to bathe in. I would think this would be great for kids, but I can't find anywhere what temperature it changes at. What's cool enough for me is most definitely not cool enough for a child, so I'm left wondering.

This monkey rockin' the golden locks is only $2.63 at DealExtreme...and that's with free shipping! If you check the site, you can click on the pictures and it'll show you the difference between the yellow and brown hair colors.

(As usual, no, I'm not getting paid for talking about any of these funky products. I just think they're quirky.)

Generation T teaches you to turn your old t-shirts into new fun

You can thank @khorre for showing me the Generation T site. The idea behind the site is simple but creative:

Everybody has a stash of old T-shirts won at sporting events, brought home from rock concerts, gathered at thrift stores, or saved as a random leftover of a relationship that didn’t quite work out (hey, he never came back to claim his Clash T-shirt?—it’s yours). Each T-shirt has a story, and it would be, sentimentally speaking, out of the question to get rid of it. So, in the spirit of environmentalism and anti-consumerism, Megan resuscitates, recycles, and refashions them.

Starting back in 2005, she has a couple books out by now, too, and the site is going strong. You'll find lots of do-it-yourself projects to turn your old tees into new clothing and accessories. Some are really easy, only involving a few cuts and maybe a thread and needle. Others are a bit more complex.



If you have an old collection of t-shirts or a kid who is already racking up the tees from all his/her sporting and school events, this is a fun way to downsize while still holding onto the treasures. Or if you just have some old shirts that you've outgrown or are too worn to wear any more, recycle them into something entirely new!


Easy Halloween fun, hehe.

Creepy matching cat toilet seat cover set

The perfect gift for the cat lady in your life...?

Then again, the "toilet mug" coffee seat cover one isn't really any better.

Young Me, Now Me - Side-by-side comparisons

Young Me/Now Me is an adorable, refreshing, funny site that has old pictures mimicked by current versions side by side. I really wish they had an RSS feed so I could subscribe and see new additions. There are tons of photos already there and it's fun to browse through regardless, though. Have fun checking it out!

Yoplait Greek Yogurt "Nourish Your Inner Goddess" Giveaway

I'll admit, when I got the email offering to host a Yoplait Inner Goddess giveaway, my first thought was "more yogurt? really?" Now I like yogurt, but how many yogurt giveaways are there every single month? Maybe you guys don't read many blogs that have them, but I've hosted a few myself and they're all over in the mommy blogger world.

But my mom loves Greek yogurt and I've only had it once or twice myself, so I figured if I was going to form a real opinion of this style of yogurt, I might as well go with a quality brand like Yoplait, right?

And when the box arrived, I'd forgotten all about the rest of the "Nourish Your Inner Goddess" part of the campaign! Slippers, a soft comfy wrap-around robe, and a full bath kit....it was such a nice treat.

So now it's your turn. You get the above, including two coupons to try out their Greek yogurt. It comes in four flavors....strawberry, blueberry, honey vanilla, and plain. Here's how to win*:

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

-- Subscribe to Quirky Cookery

-- Comment on Quirky Cookery (any post is fine, just remember to come back and tell me you commented here for the contest)

-- Tell me what flavor(s) of Yoplait Greek yogurt you would try first.

-- Tell me how you get in touch with your "inner goddess." ;)

--Follow me on Twitter (Quirky Jessi) and tweet about the contest


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

Contest ends midnight EST May 3rd. Sponsored by MyBlogSparkTM and Yoplait Greek yogurt who provided both my gift pack and that to be given to a winner of this giveaway.

*This coupon offer for a free cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Tennessee. Bummer.

Realistic sculptures stare in a creepy manner

Realistic representations in art aren't that uncommon, but this particular guy's work stands out when it comes to lifelike human sculptures. There's an extensive collection of pictures of his various pieces on Man-Sport-Shoes.

No Frills Airline - Is the seat belt really worth the price?

Here's another old video, although it's still worth a laugh. With Spring Breaks being taken everywhere and summer travel right around the corner, maybe it will cheer you up about what you 'do' get with airlines. Then again, maybe it'll remind you that you should stay home instead.

Bill Murray will deny it and no one will ever believe you

Muahaha.

Erm.

Anyway, this is one of the stranger sites I've linked to in a while. It's full of wild stories that center around Bill Murray in some way or another, but are so drastically out there that Bill Murray would never admit to them himself, and no one will ever believe you.

Check out this one about Whopcorn at the movies to scare you a little. Or this one for a much shorter story that makes a lot less sense.

Mario saves the princess, but then....

A bit of a twist on the standard "Mario saves the princess" setup.

Kiss? Think Twice - Interesting kissing laws in Dubai (Guest)

Here's another guest post. This one is from Sarah and she's certainly done her research on the "quirky" kissing laws in Dubai.

Sometimes laws just don’t make sense. That or we just don’t understand them. For example, did you know that you it’s illegal to harvest cotton with an elephant in North Carolina? The ones that are the most difficult for anyone to understand are the ones that restrict behavior that feels natural for us.

Take, for example, Ayman Najafi, 24, and Charlotte Adams, 25. In November, they were convicted of violating decency laws in Dubai. For kissing, they say, on the cheek, a common greeting in Great Britain which is where they are from. They have been sentenced to a month in prison, deportation after the sentence is carried out, and fined 1,000 dirhams (about $400.) A local woman laid accusations against them after her children told her about the kissing (she didn’t see them herself.) Her kids said they kissed on the mouth, which is against the decency laws.

Najafi and Adams lost their first appeal. They contend that since they kissed on the cheek, they didn’t break any laws. The judge spoke entirely in Arabic while he dismissed their appeal and upheld their sentence. Their defense attorney had to explain to them what happened. They have 30 days to file another appeal. The troublesome part is that the evidence is already contradictory, and the court has not called on any of the defense witnesses who contend that it didn’t happen.

Najafi, while Muslim, grew up in the UK and is used to western style greetings. His mother, Maida, thinks the court might be being particularly harsh knowing that Najafi is a Muslim and “should know better.”

Dubai, while a tourist attraction, has a conservative Muslim culture. For example, alcohol is highly restricted. There are only a few places you can find it, and that’s mainly for the tourists. Technically, it’s illegal. All foreign affairs offices give warnings to anyone traveling to Dubai. It’s a part of the United Arab Emirates. You absolutely must be aware of local customs, as they may very well be legally mandated. Alcohol consumption, kissing on the mouth, bad language, rude gestures… All are illegal offenses. Decency laws exist. Whether you agree with them or not, it’s up to you to make sure you’re not ignorant before you travel. If you don’t – you just might find yourself in jail for kissing your wife!

Sarah Harris is the Marketing Manager for Adiamor, a diamond jewelry website. Adiamor offers a large selection of engagement rings, loose diamonds, and other fine diamond jewelry at affordable prices.

It's all in the title - Play it safe or eat a bacon sandwich?

It's pretty obvious that I stumble across a lot of weird, funky, messed up....quirky?...stuff. Everything you see me post here, doesn't even add up to 1% of what I see. Along the way, there's a lot of stuff I surely miss, too, because it just doesn't grab my attention immediately, even if what's inside that next link, video, or site could be fabulous.

I'll admit, a lot of times I judge a book/site/picture/video intro/whatever by its cover or I require something attention-grabbing in order to waste even 20 seconds of my time. Other times, though, I find things when I'm least expecting them.

In this case, I followed a link to Flowing Data, and while there's plenty of interesting stuff on the site and it's worthy of being followed, it's also an insanely boring layout. Standard white theme with boxes of content and thumbnail images. I glanced over it, saw nothing that jumped out, and moved on. After all, it was just tons of text with most of the images being graphs of some sort (just the sort of thing I'd expect from Flowing Data really).



(Image Source - Cheesy bacon oatmeal from Live Well 360)

But at the last split second as the page shifted to another site, my eye caught a glimpse of "safe or bacon" among the "data visualization," heat maps, and engineers' guides.

Of course, the real title actually said "Understanding risk - play it safe or eat a bacon sandwich?" I went back to read the full title immediately and then clicked the link because, come on, why wouldn't I? Who makes a comparison like that??

David Spiegelhalter does, that's who. And in the video at the link, he explains "we have a risky side (the part of you that says it's okay to eat a pound of bacon every day) and a cautious side (the part that says to eat some oatmeal in place of bacon)." The video itself isn't anything insanely weird and is actually quite logical, but the examples he uses are great and his sense of humor shines through at some unexpected times.

Thanks Professor Risk!

100 Phenomenal Pieces of Paper Art

Now of course, I'm not going to post all 100 here because someone else has done that for you. And that'd be stealing. :P

So this is where you click a link and check out the collection gathered from 13 artists.

Steel wool creates realistic storm clouds

See that? That's steel wool. Nope, not a photo manipulation or digital creation. Check out the larger pictures on this site and you'll be able to see it better.



This one isn't a real volcano either. Artist Matthew Albanese made it out of grout, cotton, and phosphorous ink. You'll want to check out the rest of his work, too, to find lots of interesting landscapes created out of household materials, including the Paprika Mars mentioned below in his explanation of how it all started:

‘One day I knocked over a tub of paprika and as I was cleaning up the mess I began to daydream,’ he said.

‘I thought it was a great shade of red and reminded me of Mars, an exotic place I could only dream of seeing.

‘So
I figured I would bring Mars to me. I went out and bought 5kg of the
pungent spice and created my first landscape – Paprika Mars.’

Ironing is no longer a chore - Hmm, is it a sport instead? (Guest)

Bringing you another guest post here. This one is from James over at "I Should Do Some Homework."  If you like wasting away your time here with silly stuff, you'll love his site, too.

I hate ironing. It's boring, it's tedious and it normally results in me burning or melting something! BUT there's a group of people who have been pushing the boundaries of what is possible with an ironing board, and who've made this chore into something really rather exciting:

In 1997, in the heart of the England, Philip Shaw came home from a hard days work to find a humongous pile of ironing waiting for him. Not wanting to stay in to perform this intolerable chore and miss out on his planned evening rock climbing with friends he decided (in a moment of sheer genius/madness) to combine these two very different activities. Extreme Ironing was born!

Extreme Ironing according to extremeironing.com 'is the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt". It sees sportsmen and women taking their trusty iron and ironing board all over the world to press their favourite shirt whilst doing something a little out of the ordinary.

Phil (who has the amazingly cool nickname of 'Steam') took his sport on a tour of the world in 1998 and founded the Extreme Ironing Bureau with some German tourists that he met in New Zealand. Today, there are estimated to be almost 1000 extreme ironists worldwide who hold a number of world records, these include: the highest altitude ironing at 5550m on Kala Pataar, Nepal and the most number of ironers underwater in a 10 minute period (86!). Every year they hold a world championship where the year's ironing achievements are showcased, here are some of the amazing stunts they have achieved in the sport's relatively short history:

 (Please Note: Using the shirt pressing methods below will not get you in on time for your 9am meeting!)

I'm not sure if the shirts are in a wearable condition after, but who cares?! It's a mountain of fun!

More spring flowers - Create your own magnificent petals

Make your own flower

The possibilities are endless really. You can create your own or browse through other people's. There are some really awesome ones. Some of the flowers are pretty traditional looking ones....or creatively complex, at their simplest. Others aren't really "flowers" so much as they are interesting drawings that were created like the bunnies and carrots above....or I saw a really cool coffee mug one. Considering you're given limited shapes and they are copied around a central point on the screen, those people had to put in some real effort, to say the least!

"Wheel-Skates" take the best of bikes and skates

I don't know. I'm not a skater or biker, so I can't really say much but the Wheel-skates from Chariot Skates look rather ridiculous and I don't know how much they'd really be an improvement over either.

I 'can' see the benefit of being able to go off-road a bit without having to be on a bike, but then again, these don't even come with brakes, so...?  Maybe I'm just missing something. Here's a brief description that explains it better than I could:

"....radical roller skates that seem to breach the gap and take skating closer to skiing and cycling. Finished in about 5.5 pounds (each skate) of carbon fiber, the skates roll smoother and provide better maneuverability, as if you’re skiing, in comparison to their conventional or even contemporary counterparts. Strapping your foot just below the axle of the (knee-high) main wheel, the Chariot skate also integrates a smaller wheel near your heel for extra support on rough terrains or grassy slopes."