It’s spring! And you know what that means… Baseball season is back.

America’s pastime is hotter than ever right now as the young, old and everyone in between are flocking to the stadiums to see their hometown teams play ball.

Even those of us in non-baseball markets can feel the excitement as the teams take the field in their effort to secure victory – each and every night.

Last year, we watched as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Rangers after a nail-biting 11^th inning walk off by none other than David Fresse.  If you didn’t know, that series had its classic moments; its important to note that future Hall-of-Famer Albert Pujols hit a whopping 3 home runs in game 3, making him only the third ever player to record such a feat in the World Series (the two others being Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth).

But enough about last year. The slates are now clean – the teams are fresh. And this year is anybody’s year.

In my hometown, the lone Canadian team, Toronto Blue Jays, will be fighting against a very tough division, starring The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Ray, and Baltimore Orioles. Since our courageous back-to-back World Series wins in the early 90’s, we haven’t exactly been competitive. But there’s something different about this year.

With a strong pitching rotation, a seemingly lethal bullpen, and the big bat of Jose Bautista and company… we may have found the team that takes us back to the playoffs for the first time in almost 20 years.

It’s been a long time coming.

And now we turn it over to you, sports fans!

What team are you supporting this season?

Comment below and tell me why you think you have a shot at the big show!

The i-Say guy needs a name. And we need your ideas.

Over the past year, we’ve noticed that we totally forgot to name him and well, what better way to do so than to turn it over to YOU!

Okay, I admit it, I think it should just be Dave (since that’s my name) but some of my coworkers don’t feel the same way.  Which is totally fair.

And since I love holding contests, this is the next logical step.

Once we have a bunch of submissions, we will be holding a contest to determine which names wins! So here’s what we need.

Hop on over to our Facebook page and post on our wall. Let us know what name you think our little i-Say guy should have.

Then, in a few weeks, we will start a contest to help us narrow them down.

Oh, and for those of us that do not use Facebook… I haven’t forgotten about you.

You can email me at isaycontests@ipsos.com and submit your ideas there.

So once again, we will be holding a new contest in the next month, but we need a bunch of really cool, creative names first.  So what are you waiting for?

Visit our Facebook page now and tell us the best name for our little i-Say guy!

Have fun!

It’s spring. You’re convinced that this year you will be doing more cooking.

Maybe you’ve seen a few different websites with delicious food and said to yourself “I’m totally going to make that.”

But then you read the ingredients…

“I don’t have that much ginger?!!?” you say.

And I’ve been there. When I first moved to the city, I got super bummed that all the recipes I wanted to try had these foreign ingredients that cost an arm and a leg.

The last thing you want to be doing is spending $5 on a jar of cardamom so you can make one dish that appealed to you on some random photo/cooking blog.

But I have a solution.

In order to make cooking easier, you need the right tools and the right ingredients. And yes, justifying a $7 bottle of organic molasses is sometimes hard to do.

But ALL of your spices can be purchased and kept safely for under $20.

AND THAT’S FOR EVERYTHING.

Read on.

Spices have a shelf life of 6 months (to a year, max) before they start to lose their flavor. So for the most part, you really don’t need an entire jar of anything. Especially those ‘rare’ spices you use once every month or so.

You also don’t need $3 glass jars with a fancy spice rack in all cases. Why not just get very basic containers? You can upgrade later if you really want to.

So here’s how it works.

Let’s start with Storage.

I know this place in China Town called Tap Phong. They sell cooking supplies for restaurants and it is ridiculously cheap.

Look for the equivalent store in your city, because it definitely exists. Otherwise hit the Dollar Store.

In this store, you will find small plastic containers (like Tupperware but much smaller). The cheapest I found were 0.65¢ each. So 15 containers cost me under $10.

Next Stop, the spice store in the market.

Let me just stop you here.

Do not go to the grocery store. Do not hit the local convenience store or even the fancy, overpriced Health Food Store.

You want the legit spice store with the big giant bulk bins. Where YOU choose how much you take.

Prepackaged spices are a rip-off.

The next part is where I’m here to help.

Chances are, unless you prepare Asian recipes from scratch on a regular basis, you will not need much Chinese 5 Spice. It also goes for Poultry Seasoning (the spice that makes things taste like Thanksgiving), or Cloves, Chili, Cardamom, etc etc.

So let’s not go wild here, okay? It’s not like you can’t whip back down ANY DAY and pickup a couple cents (literally) worth of fennel if needed.

So go grab half of half a spoon (or less!!) of some of the following spices:

Should Have:

Garlic Powder

Oregano

Basil

Paprika

Cumin

Onion Powder

Poultry Spice

Bay Leaf

Turmeric

Salt

Pepper (Whole Peppercorn if you have a grinder)

Cayenne

Thyme

Rosemary

Cinnamon

Can Have:

Mustard Seed (ground)

Curry Powder

Chinese 5 spice

Tarragon

Chili Powder

Sage

Nutmeg

Parsley

Dill

Celery Seed

Arrowroot (although great for thickening sauces)

Ground Ginger

Cloves

Nutritional Yeast

Now remember, you do not need to go overboard. You likely won’t have a recipe that calls for more than a tablespoon or two of ANY of these spices at one time. And don’t feel bad just grabbing a tablespoon or two of any weird spice if you just want to try it for one recipe. After all, it’s about experimenting, but $5 on Celery Seed does not make sense.

Grab a healthy portion of the spices that you see in a lot of recipes. For example, I use a lot of Paprika and Cumin, so I buy more of that stuff.

Then go home and pour your new array of spices into those containers (I’d suggest washing and drying them first). Label with a black permanent marker and stack!

This is your first spice rack. And now when you see those potentially intimidating recipes online, you don’t have to be worried. You’ve got this.

I never thought movies really impacted or influenced us in a bad way.
And we all know Say Anything, which influenced lovebirds all across the country when it came out in 1989.

But a recent headline from dailymail.co.uk had me wondering whether motion pictures influence people’s bad decisions.

I would normally just skip over articles like this one but I had to find out what happened.

Two young men were arrested after setting booby-traps, including a 20lb spiked ball and multiple sharp, wooden spikes, on the ground of a local Utah hiking trail. Luckily, the traps were found before anyone was injured.

The headline of the article reads: “The Real Life Hunger Games” but nowhere did it mention that the two people involved were influenced AT ALL by the movie. Hunger Games was released last month and I don’t see it as overly gory or disturbing. I have been much more grossed out by some of the horror movies that have come out in the past few decades. But maybe that’s just me.

You can read the whole article here.

Comment below and let us know your thoughts!
Oh, and let me know if you’ve seen the movie!

One of the best sites going right now is apartment therapy.

Their goal is to improve your home through neat tips and tricks, and often offer great advice by collecting ideas from their online community!

I’ve been very interested in sprucing up the i-Say office and came across a great little article about some of the smelliest plants you can use to do exactly that.

We don’t have the largest space so I was a little concerned that I’d buy something that had too much smell versus not smelly enough. Luckily, this article covers the scent of the plant as well.

From Lavender to Geraniums, Honeysuckle to Mint, your home office (or your desk at work) is the perfect place for a variety of potted plants.

And they’ll be especially handy when your coworkers bring in a pungent lunch that lingers for hours.

Personally, I’m going for the mint (since I can eat the leaves as a snack if I get hungry). What plant would you use?

You can read the full article here

We recently held a contest to find out more about YOU!

Our “I AM________” contest was all about choosing one word that best describes your personality, and showing it off to the i-Say panel. Well, the results came pouring in, and we have your winner!

Please join me in congratulating Kelvin F. from Vancouver B.C. as the winner of 10,000 i-Say points!

“This contest was fun! I am happy to be an i-Say member and looking forward to more contests!”

We’d like to also thank everyone who participated in the “I AM ________” contest.

And remember, we’re always looking for new contest ideas so keep an eye on our Facebook page (or right here on the blog). We’re going to be having a lot of fun this year!

We came across a very touching video this week on YouTube that showed us just how important music is to the soul.
The video takes place in an American Nursing Home where one man, who has fell victim to multiple seizures, becomes animated when reintroduced to the music of his generation.

The difference is night and day. Normally a hunched over, lifeless senior, Harry now sings, moves his arms, and has been able to have conversations with others.

It truly is remarkable.

Please take a moment and watch this inspiring video. Then, in the comments below, I have a question for you.

If you could only listen to one artist for the remainder of your life, what artist or band would that be?

Oh – and if you wanted to see just how people are integrating music with the latest, cutting edge technology, this little gem was released on YouTube  just over a week ago.

We’ve seen cars come a long way – but where did it all begin?

I remember my first car. It was a Topaz and it was marvelous. Well, in my mind it was. Despite the fact that it was used, it had everything I could ask for. It had a working engine so I could get from point A to Point B.  It had working windows, A/C and even a tape deck. I was in Heaven.

It lasted my quite a few years before I finally wore it down and had to send it on its way to the scrap yard. But I still own the keys. You can call it sentiment.

Do you remember your first car? What year/make/model was it? Comment below and tell us your story.

Oh, and the website Awesome-Good decided that they would create a beautiful Infographic to give a little history lesson on one of the greatest inventions of all time.  How fun is this?

To those of you in Dallas and surrounding area, please take extra precautions in the coming hours and days due to the Tornadoes touching down in Texas.

From everyone here at i-Say, our hearts and well wishes go out to you and your loved ones.

CNN is reporting live on the situation and you can follow along, here.