Month: November 2005

Let me just say I was *floored* by the amount of cool stuff out there. And I hardly left Target's website. Pull up a chair. This is going to be a long one…

Kids

I've felt for a long time that digital cameras were perfect for kids. You get all the fun of a film camera but with instant gratification and no cost developing. They can, of course, use the family's camera, but it may be nice for them to have their own. The one pictured here is $110 at Target and shoots movies as well as 3 MP digital photos. Hello Kitty, Barbie, Bratz, and Scooby Doo also have lower cost digital camera options.

Continue reading “Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 4”

Having covered the fairer sex, now I move on to the err … not so fair sex? Dunno.

Stereotypical Guys

I was nosing around Red Envelope one day when this “digital sound bag” caught my eye. I had dreamed up a similar invention when I was little and it was amusing to see my kiddie dreams come to life. Anyhoo, that aside, this would make an excellent gift for any audiophile. You plug your MP3 player into the built-in speakers and you've got built in sound. The pocket lets you see and press the buttons on your MP3 player. It comes in 3 colors and has lots of great pockets for your other stuff. $70.

Continue reading “Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 3”

I wanted to do guides for guys and girls, but I didn't want to be too stereotypical. Then it hit me.

Stereotypical Girl Gifties

Maybe not as cute, but certainly more affordable, the Dell Ditty comes in at $100. It holds quite a bit of music in a small fairly cheap package and you can customize it with different colored caps (for the USB port).

I probably cannot stress this enough: bags. They always fit. They come in every color, shape, size imaginable and they're so damned practical. The one I've shown here is a laptop bag from Target that I thought was neat. Other bag sources that I dig include: ebags, Title 9 (for gym bags), and great indie designers Poise and cut+paste just to name a few.

Continue reading “Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 2”

Ani tagged me. Here are my answers.

2 names you go by
1. Jess
2. Baby

2 parts of your heritage
1. mostly German
2. Coloradan … hehe

2 things that scare you
1. Richard Simmons
2. Jerry Fallwell Continue reading “Two.”

Civilization has been one of the best computer game franchises around. I started playing the games with the original CIV games (running on 486) and have bought every version since. So, when a release date for CIV IV was announced, I preordered the game from Amazon. What I didn’t do was select quick shipping, I selected the free option. Well it took about a week for the game to arrive. I was annoyed at first, but it truns out that I’m really glad I waited.

Why, cause well, Firaxis shipped the game with, lets call it a compatibility problem. Turns out if you are running an ATI video card (about ½ the people out there) and not using the absolute latest drives the game won’t start. Well, my drivers weren’t up to date, and even after upgrading them I still cound not start the game. Fortunatly, the week between the game’s release and me getting it enabled Firaxis to find a fix. I was looking around Firaxis’s site and found this work around. I finally got the game running and I’m happy with it now. Unfortunately for Firaxis, a lot of their fans are really pissed. All I can say is they should have put a little more into QA. Continue reading “The Value of QA”

Well the holiday season is upon us. Hobby Lobby made it official last night by playing the first bit of Christmas music I'd heard so far this year. To help all you folks out, I thought I'd do a multiple part series on gift-giving. Today kicks that off with my first installment, Gifts $25 and Under.

Tickle Me Freud, available at Uncommon Goods would make a lovely gift for your shrink, your little brother who's a psych major, or your loopy aunt. An excellent converstaion piece and always good for a (manical) laugh. Freudian slippers are also available.

The new parents, and their sprout, too, would love one of these cool bibs from MyRetroBaby. They velcro for ease, have a soak-proof lining and come in a wide array of patterns. $18.

Continue reading “Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 1”

I think I have my dad to thank for my savings nerd gene. He loves putting money away in neat little piles and watching it grow. The older I get, the more I appreciate this gene. It makes things easy when savings is a really fun game to me. A while back, I blogged about Money Matters and soonafter, I started my love affair with ING Direct.

Their company philosophy is that “saving money should be as easy as getting a cup of coffee” and my experience thus far has been just that. Easy. Simple. Hassle-free. This is paticularly amazing since my browser CRASHED while I was setting up my account. A quick (and I do mean quick – less than 3 minutes) phone call assured me that my account info that I'd carefully entered was in tact and gave me access to my account.

Now I've got my accounts all set up, and I can put money in or take it out at the touch of a button and it gets to earn a tidy 3.4%. Continue reading “Seeing Orange”