Posts Tagged ‘gift giving’
New Essential James Taylor CD – Great Thanksgivukkah Gift
This new James Taylor double CD set is a great Chanukah / Thanksgivukkah gift. Or a gift for one of those other holidays. Christmas, I think they call it? It doesn’t get much attention from the media but I think it’s still sort of a big deal to a few people. You know. Like hockey.
Full disclosure: DaddyTips received a review copy of the new double CD, The Essential James Taylor. That said, receiving the press release announcing the new collection caused us to go on a bit of a JT shopping spree. Seriously. We took a picture. Look.
What can we say? We like James Taylor.
As for the item in question, it happens to be a great collection of JT’s music.
Even if you already own copies of “Never Die Young”, et al, you could do worse than to pop in this well-selected collection of great songs. As for gift giving, get “The Essential James Taylor” is a perfect fit for anyone on your list. (We’re assuming your list consists of people who like great music.)
Some reviewers on Amazon take issue with the “Essential” title, saying that they would have preferred one song over another. This is one of those dopey arguments that occurs with any collection from any musical artist. I happen to have a soft spot for “New Moon Shine“. Was I bothered by the fact that “Essential” doesn’t include the song The Frozen Man
Lord have mercy, of course not. (See what I did there? If not, Frozen happens to be a tune that I particularly love; I have fond memories of seeing JT do it live when he was on tour after “New Moon Shine” came out.
But once you start down that road, the one marked “Why Didn’t They Put (Fill In Song Title Here) On This 2 CD Set?”, you’ve kind of gone off the rails.
Bottom line: After listening to both discs, all I can say is that there isn’t a single bad track. How often can you say that about any collection of music?
Mimobot USB Flash Drives On Sale (DaddyDeals)
DaddyDeal for you — big sale on MIMOBOT® flash drives, including Batman (DKR, as in Dark Knight Returns, or maybe Dark Knight Rises — if it matters to you, look before you buy, which you should be doing anyway).
Look at that cute scowl. And his enormous cranium. Doesn’t it scream “buy me”?
Holiday gift giving season is coming up fast. Chanukah is on Thanksgiving. Seriously. If Chanukah is your holiday, you don’t have as much time to shop as you did last year; you might want to start shopping now.
Flash drives actually make good gifts for kids. Why? Lots of reasons.
– Older kids can use them for school.
– Younger kids can use them to move files from a computer to the flash drive and back.
– Younger siblings can stop being jealous of their older sibling’s flash drive.
All good reasons. And these particular flash drives are cute as well as useful.
Batman is listed as “almost gone”, which isn’t a big surprise considering the price is under 20 bucks as of this writing. (Pricing depends on memory size. And which character you buy. And other stuff. We just provide the link; details are at Mimobot.com.) If you don’t want Batman, Mimobot’s site has lots of other options, including Babo, Big Toe, Brickle, Emily the Strange (which we think looks a lot like Batwoman), Galacula, Galaxor2, Ice-Bat, and even Kilowog! Kilowog is “almost gone” as well. Why? Because Kilowog is AWESOME. (For those who don’t know, Kilowog is also a DC character, part of the Green Lantern Corps.)
Sale ends 10/31/13, aka Halloween. Scary! (Not actually that scary.) Hit the link below to get your favorite Mimobot on sale before it goes bye bye.
On Sale! – Save Big on Mimobot USB Flash Drives | Mimoco.
People Are Spending Less This Father’s Day
The LA Times says that people might spend a little less on Dad this year.
The article quotes Tracy Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation: “Along with the usual ties, gift-givers will be looking into items that dad can enjoy with the whole family. Retailers will offer specials on new grill sets, sporting and gardening equipment and even electronics as the holiday rolls around.”
You know what I want? For you not to spend a lot of money on anything.
Getting gifts is great. But let’s be honest. I’m an adult. When I was a child, I got all excited about my birthday. Oooo! I’m getting presents! What’d you get me? Huh? Huh?
Now that I’m older? I’d rather save the cash.
Don’t get me wrong, family o’mine. I’ll be very happy with whatever you get me. But please don’t feel like you have to get me anything, especially something that costs a lot of money. My favorite Father’s Day gift so far is a bookmark I received from my oldest son back when he was in nursery school. It’s a print of his actual foot, laminated, with a little poem on it that I can’t remember at the moment. (Getting older sucks.) But even writing about it now, I’m getting a little verklempt. (“The Spanish Inquisition was neither Spanish, nor an inquisition… discuss.”) It cost nothing. (Well, there was tuition for the nursery school. But that wasn’t explicitly for the bookmark.)
As for the suggestions from Tracy Mullin of the National Retail Federation, let say this. Ties? Nah. Any tie that fits into the category of “I can afford this” is probably not worth buying. Maybe if it’s funny. But otherwise, anyone who wears a tie on a regular basis probably knows what he likes, and unless you know what that is, don’t get involved. Even if you DO know what type of tie dad likes, what kind of present is that? Why not get him some nice boxer shorts? That’s both lame AND non-traditional.
As for “gifts the whole family can enjoy” — what is this, Homer’s bowling ball redux? (For the uninitiated, in the “Life on the Fast Lane” episode of “The Simpsons”, Homer buys Marge a bowling ball, thinking that she will give it to him because she doesn’t enjoy bowling. She responds by taking bowing lessons from a guy named Jacques, with whom she almost has an affair. Good times, good times.) A “gift for the whole family” is not a gift for dad. Can you imagine if someone said the same thing about getting gifts for mom? There woud be protests. Mommy Bloggers would be up in arms. Public apologies would be demanded, and offered. An outcry not seen since that stupid Motrin ad. Getting dad a grill is like getting mom an iron. Try that one next Mother’s Day. Then take a picture of the iron-shaped imprint on your head and send it to me.
So buy dad someting if you want to but don’t feel like you have to spend a lot of money. At the same time, don’t buy him something just because it’s cheap. If it feels like a cheap gift, if probably is. If you want to get him something nice without spending a lot, how about a day of rest and relaxation? Works for me.
Americans expected to scrimp a bit on Father’s Day | California Consumer | Los Angeles Times.
