Category: Consumer culture

So, remember the iPod that didn’t survive the spin cycle? This week, I got my gift certificate in fulfilment of the product replacement plan with no questions asked. Last time I ever mock Beloved’s inability to purchase any electronic product without also buying extended warranty coverage!

The gift certificate was for the purchase price we paid for my 1G Nano back in the summer of 2006. Happy as I would have been to simply reacquire a replacement 1G Nano — they don’t sell them anymore. I was planning on spending a little bit out of pocket to get a 2G replacement, but they actually had the 4G Nano on sale for LESS than the price of the 2G. Go figure! (I have to laugh at this ridiculous amount of storage space when I think back to my first computer, a scant dozen years ago, that had what seemed like a ginormous 100 MG of memory… to say nothing of our first family computer, way back in the early 1980s. Remember the Sinclair ZX, with a stellar 16 KB of RAM and 16 KB of ROM? *snicker*)

So I’m now the proud owner of a “next generation” 4G Nano with a wider screen, video capability and the new “cover flow” menu. Isn’t it pretty and shiny?

And see that status bar at the bottom of the laptop screen? The blue part shows how much space I’ve used up with my existing music library. Even with everything I had on the old iPod, I still have more than 3G of available space. This is WAY too much iPod for me! (I don’t know how people with 80G iPods do it. I mean, seriously, that’s a hell of a lot of music. That may, in fact, be more music than I have ever owned in my entire life, cumulatively.)

So tell me, bloggy peeps, what music do I absolutely NEED to acquire to fill up all that empty space? (It’s worse than having money to burn, all those empty Gs just aching to be filled!) Enlighten me and my minimalistic, if not ecclectic, music collection. Name an album, an artist, a song or a genre, just help me fill my poor empty iPod.

On the first day of voting for the Weblog Awards, for a glorious (if delusional) hour or two, I was in first (!) place. Now that it’s the penultimate day for voting, I’m in penultimate place. Sigh. Vote today to make sure this insidious trend doesn’t leave me in last place tomorrow, okay?

Visiting for the first time? Welcome! Here are a few of my favourite posts, randomly selected for your bloggy pleasure:

• Our infertility and IVF stories;
• Tristan’s birth story and Simon’s birth story;
• Zed versus Zee (because I’m fiercely proud of my Canadian-ness)
• I’m outraged (because I love a good grammar debate)
• Code Blue for Daycare (because it’s one of my pet topics)
• The sweater story (because it still makes me laugh at myself)

Yesterday, we talked about the Canadian Toy Testing Council’s best toys for 2008. I had also bookmarked another “Best Toys of 2007” link a while ago, and was thinking about writing about it, but quite frankly, I didn’t find any of the toys on that list too appealing. (I have a hard time sanctioning a list that would approve the Fisher Price Smart Cycle. My 3 to 6 year olds do NOT need a stationary bike hooked up to the TV, of that I am quite sure.)

The one toy from this particular list that I had been contemplating for the boys is one of those new Aquadots sets. I’d never seen them before, but recently they’ve been everywhere and on several favourite toy lists. Now I know why. Apparently, they’re under massive recall, not because they’re a choking hazzard – which is what gave me pause – but because the little beads release a hallucinogenic drug when swallowed! No wonder it was every kids’ favourite toy last year!

Did I mention the voting thing?

(Edited to add: looking for the 2009 report? I’ve got a post about it here!)

Every year, the Canadian Toy Testing Council releases its picks for the best toys of the year, as selected by the more than 1000 families that are part of the toy testing network. The CTTC provides a full report on all the toys they test (sorted alphabetically or by age), and also provides a list of award-winners in categories like Best Bets, Children’s Choice and Great Books. They base their rankings on design, safety, battery consumption, durability, ease of assembly and “play value,” meaning whether young testers remain interested in the toy after weeks of play. I love these lists and get great ideas from them every year.

This year, “Best Bet” toys include Diego’s Animal Rescue Centre for ages 3 – 5 years, My Real Digital Camera by Little Tykes for ages 3 and up, a Thomas Making Tracks Board Game for ages 4 and up and the Big League Hockey Manager game for ages 10 and up, to name just a few. (For the full list, check out the CTTC website.)

They also give the nod to my very favourite gift for any child age 6 months to 2 years, the Playskool Busy Ball Popper. We got one of these for Simon two years ago, and both boys still love to play with it. I’ve since given at least three of them as gifts, and have at least one recipient in mind this year.

Some of the other great toys we’ve loved in the last year or so include Cranium’s Superfort , Hullaballoo and Cariboo (I totally love Cranium and am looking forward to giving the boys more Cranium stuff this year), just about anything Lego, this “fun in a drum” percussion kit, card ganes like Uno and those concentration-type matching games (we’ve cornered the market with Wiggles, Toy Story and Bob the Builder versions) and all things Star Wars.

On the other hand, we’ve been rather disappointed by a lot of our Leap Frog toys (I really wanted to like this company) including the Leap Pad and My First Leap Pad – but ours keep malfunctioning and though the boys want to play with them, the darn things work less than half the time. We thought getting the boys a DVD player-based game would be a good idea last year, but we’ve been disappointed by Zoooos. It’s simple enough to use, but maybe a little too simple – both boys were bored with it, despite the Bob the Builder and Thomas themed games. Also a bit of a disappointment was Mr Bucket, which Simon pined for between Christmas and his birthday last year, and then when we got it, it was so noisy that he was afraid to play with it.

Hmmm, favourite toys have no batteries in them and disappointing toys are all electronic. Coincidence? Maybe not!

So, bloggy peeps, the holiday buying frenzy season is upon us. I plan a few more posts on best gifts and other holiday-buying thoughts, but what have been some of the best and worst toys you’ve seen recently?

And if you’re so inclined, you still have a few days to vote!