Geek in Heels - Page 127

Aug 12, 2010 • In Baby, Parenting, Personal, Shopping

Registry Judging [Rant]

This is a yet another post on mommy wars, specifically topic #4276: registries.

With our baby shower less than a month away, J and I have been putting the finishing touches on our registries. In my studies of review sites and message boards for advice, I have come across many women who seem to have problems with others’ baby registries.

Really?

Once again I’m forced to wonder: like mommies don’t judge each other enough already!

So herein lie the registry-related debates and my thoughts on them…

1.) Is it proper etiquette to have more than one registry?
I believe so. We decided to register at two different stores because not every store carries the items we want, and certain retailers sell different items at cheaper prices. Plus, with two registries we give our friends and family the option of shopping at the retailer of their choice (whether it be due to location, sales, coupons, etc).

2.) Is it okay to have expensive items on your registry?
We have some high-priced items on our registry (I believe the most expensive item is the Medela Breast Pump at $279.99) but we have plenty of small, less than $20 items too. Do we expect our friends and family to buy us the expensive items? No. I actually expect them not to! The main reason we decided to put the more expensive items on there is for the registry completion discounts we will receive. But hey, if someone, or a group of people, decide to purchase them for us, that’s great too!

3.) Why don’t you have _____ on your registry? Don’t you know you’ll need that?
How do you know we don’t have it already?

4.) Why do you have _____ on your registry? I found it to be a complete waste of money!
Just because you found it useless doesn’t mean everyone does.

I felt like I was getting married all over again, seeing all these judgmental women bickering over things that will never affect their own lives!

Personally, I have never judged anyone for their registry — wedding or baby. I do not know why a couple wants that $100 serving platter, nor do I really care to find out. All I know is that they chose to include it on a list of items they would like, and if I can afford it, I will buy it for them.

I also don’t “get” people who are vehemently against registries either…I understand that some may see registries as products of a greedy consumeristic society, and if you choose not to have a registry for whatever reason, that’s totally fine. But if you want to gift someone for their upcoming wedding or baby, why not purchase an item off the registry? Why not get them something that you know they need or want?

I now step off my soapbox and leave the comments open for debate. What is your thought on gift registries? Have you ever found yourself judging someone based on their registry?

How to Get 5 Million People to Read Your Website

Watch his hilarious and informative presentation by Matthew Inman, the mastermind behind one of my favorite sites, The Oatmeal. The advice isn’t anything I haven’t heard before (ie, use creative headlines, create content that anyone can relate to), but the 5-minute video is still worth watching!

Via Geeks are Sexy.

$250k Doesn’t Get You Far in Manhattan

I always said that a six-figure salary doesn’t mean much in Manhattan — it seems like everywhere I turn I run into 26-year-olds making at least $150k a year, or people younger than me buying $1.2 million apartments. (And yes, these are real example of my friends and acquaintances!)

According to the White House, the $250k salary is the mark of wealth in the U.S. However, it is obvious when taking into account cities like New York that $250k does not have the same effect in different parts of the country. CNNMoney has compiled a Google Map to show just that — in Manhattan, you would need to make $545k/year to maintain the same lifestyle as someone making $250k/year living in Missoula, Montana (where the cost of living index is exactly at 100).

Clicking through the red pointers (which marks cities whose cost of living are above average), it seems that Manhattan is the most expensive place to live in the U.S., and frankly I’m not surprised. The last time J and I went down to Baltimore, we marveled at the number of luxury, waterfront condos on sale in the $200k-$300k range and we couldn’t help but wonder if we made a mistake moving back up to NY.

How does you city compare to the rest of the nation? Are you surprised by the numbers?

Via Gothamist.

Cell Phone for Kids

I still am astonished whenever I see little kids of grade school age sporting their own mobile phones. “Did I even have anyone to call at that age?” I ask myself. “Didn’t I just go outside to play and expect to meet my friends there?”

While I still think that allowing very young children their own cell phones may be overdoing it, I understand the need for safety precautions. As such, I can get on board with cell phones that are designed specifically for kids, like this one by the Japanese company KDDI.

Mamorino is a cute, almost toy-like cell phone that has minimal functions that are limited to calls, E-mail, GPS and SECOM Rescue (which I believe to be similar to 911).

Safety features of the Mamorino include an emergency light that can be programmed to detect darkness, an earthquake alert, and the SECOM button, which when activated, does the following:

Calls and e-mails are restricted to only 4 people on the child’s contact list. You may even choose to deactivate the e-mail function altogether.

All other services that have become so rampant with cell phone use are not available. Parents do not need to worry about distractions or even the abuse of data plans with the Mamorino.

One last great feature of the Mamorino is that it is waterproof. And as you can see from the pictures of the phone, it looks to be a cinch (at least compared to other cell phones) to wipe clean.

Unfortunately, the Mamorino is currently only available in Japan and Korea. But I hope that it — or another phone like it — will make its way stateside soon!

Via Little Seouls Blog.

Redesigning the NYC Subway Map

There has been a lot of talk lately about redesigning the map of the world’s largest subway system in an effort to make it easier to read and increase ridership.

Designer Eddie Jabbour took up the challenge in a heavy redesign called NYC Subway KickMap:

The Kick Map is designed to get more people to ride New York City’s subway system. Created with clarity and ease of use, it allows riders to navigate this vast system easily and without uncertainty. The subway map is the key to understanding this most complex subway in the world, which has 26 separate lines and 468 stations. A well-designed map not only welcomes and empowers novices to use the subway but also encourages additional use for regular “home-to-work-only” commuters to use the subway for recreational destinations where they might otherwise take a car. For this reason the design of the subway map can directly influence ridership numbers and can indirectly have an effect on New York’s traffic congestion and pollution. In short, a better-designed subway map will make our subway system more open and accessible.

Unfortunately for Jabbour, the MTA rejected the new design. So he took it upon himself to upload the map to the Apple Store so that people can download it to their iPhones…and immediately garnered over a quarter of a million downloads.

Take a look at the map yourself, along with some side-by-side comparisons with the current NYC subway map:

Call me a snobby New Yorker, but I never found the current NYC subway map (and I’m talking about the version whose overall design has been in existence since the late 1970s) to be difficult to comprehend at all. Even my very first time taking the subway alone as a clueless teenager was not marred by confusion over the map.

While I have to admit that Jabbour’s design is definitely cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing, I much prefer the different lines of each color group to be merged as one when they run on the same tracks, as opposed to right next to each other as he has displayed on the KickMap. But that’s just me.

Did you ever have trouble interpreting the NYC subway map? What do you think of the KickMap?

Via Laughing Squid.

Clever Minimalist Business Card

I love it! Do you think it’s too confusing to non-geeks, as The Next Web suggests?

Star Wars X Adidas Originals: Fall 2010 Collection

I had been updating my original post on the Star Wars X Adidas Originals 2010 shoes, but I think the latest updates on the Fall 2010 collection deserve their own post.

Last month, Adidas teased us with the new Han Solo sneakers, the first to be announced as part of the Fall 2010 collection. The Han Solo SL-72 features an icy carbonite color scheme, accented with charcoal grey laces, and adorned with an image of Han Solo frozen in carbonite:

Starting this week, Adidas released images of the rest of the collection, starting with the oh-so-ugly (but necessary!) Jabba the Hutt high-tops. Just take a look at the distressed leather on the tongue which represents Jabba’s reptilian skin!

The collection continues with the Jogging Hi Chewbacca shoes (love the faux fur lining!)…

Conductor Hi Storm Trooper shoes…

The ZX 800 Boba Fett sneakers are my favorite of the collection:

And the Top Ten Low R2-D2 & C-3PO sneakers are J’s favs:

The Star Wars X Adidas Originals Fall 2010 collection also includes some fantastic apparel, including this entirely-appropriate-for-everyday-wear Chewbacca jacket:

This Storm Trooper varsity jacket, while definitely more flashy than the Chewy jacket, is still fashionably geeky:

Last, but not least is the Boba Fett leather jacket. I love everything about this jacket! I suggested to J that he should buy one so that his wife can “borrow” it all the time from time to time.

There is still no definite date on the release date(s) of these fabulous items, but most predict the collection to land sometime in late August or September.

Via Fashionably Geek and EU Kicks.

“Push Presents” — Yay or Nay?

I had never heard of “push presents” before getting pregnant, but it has come to my attention that it is another heated debate among moms (as if we don’t have enough to disagree on already!).

A “push present” (also known as a “push gift” or “baby bauble”) is a present a new father gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child. Most push presents come in the form of jewelry, whether it be a charm bracelet holding items of significance to the new family (initials, birthstones, etc), or full-on bling adorned with diamonds. However, in most recent years, push presents have started to come in all shapes and sizes, from spa certificates to DSLRs, and even new cars!

A typical push present (source)

So what exactly makes the topic of push presents so debatable?

The issue at hand is not the type of push present a new mother may receive, but whether a push present should be expected at all. Those who disapprove of push presents ask, “Isn’t the baby enough?”

I personally say to each their own. I certainly don’t expect a push present, but a gift would be nice. I wouldn’t be mad if J didn’t get me anything, because he’s been anything but super-supportive (if not spoiling me) this entire pregnancy and I feel like I should be just as thankful to him.

A few weeks ago, J asked me if I wanted a new MacBook Pro as my push present. My current MacBook Pro has been struggling in the past few months and I had been b*tching to him about it regularly (so perhaps a new laptop would serve him well too, because he wouldn’t need to hear me complaining so much). In addition, J knows that I never wear jewelry aside from my wedding set, and is well aware that new gadgets are my favorite types of gifts.

However, I refused.

As much as I would love a new MacBook Pro, I have seen firsthand what babies can do to expensive things, especially electronics. So I would rather continue to complain over my current dinky laptop than cry over a new, ruined laptop.

I asked him to pay for a new steam perm instead. Because as you can see from my weekly pregnancy updates, I am in dire need of a new perm and those suckers are expensive! (And to those who might chime in to say that getting perms while pregnant may be a waste of money because pregnant hair does not always “hold” perms, I have spoken to my stylist about this and he says he has pregnant women come in for steam perms all the time. I’ve gotten a steam perm with my previous pregnancy and it came out just fine.)

What is your stance on push presents? Do you think that a new mother deserves a gift — on top of the baby — for carrying him/her to term and successfully delivering him/her?

Social Media Monopoly

Love this! I would buy it if it were ever to be released as an actual board game, but like the Social Network map, it will probably get outdated very quickly.

My only gripe: does anyone use Photobucket anymore? I would think that Picasa Web would be a better choice…

The Board:

Mashable Cards:

Technorati Cards:

Via Bite Daily.

Minimalist Street Fighter

J and I had an extremely busy but exceptionally fulfilling day today. We are both exhausted beyond belief (and nursing the very full bellies with which we rewarded ourselves) and will probably hit the sack soon.

But I couldn’t end the day without updating my blog at least once — even if it is another “fluff” piece that I have been posting during this busy weekend — and thought this Bauhaus-inspired piece by Ashely Browning fit the bill perfectly.

Can you identify the eight original playable characters from Street Fighter II below? I got 7 out of 8 correctly and was sorely disappointed in myself for failing to recognize/remember the eighth.