darkoshi | Entries tagged with toys

Doing a search on Amazon, I got annoyed that it doesn't let you exclude certain words from the results. (I want chewable vegan vitamins that are NOT gummies!) So I ended up including a few profanities in my ever-lengthening search string.

The results made me laugh.

Yodelling Pickle Musical Toy, Fun for all Ages, Great Gift
"Are you sick and tired of trying to teach your pickles to yodel? Pickles can be so stubborn. At last, the yodeling pickle you've been waiting for. With a mere press of a button (yes, it has a button) this little pickle will yodel its heart out. You'll think you're in the Swiss Alps listening to a yodeling pickle!"

Mugs with witty things written on them:

Mug: "Of course I talk to myself. Sometimes I need expert advice"

(Amazon seems to be telling me, "With a search string like that, you must talk to yourself a lot")

Mug: "i before e. Except after C and also when you heinously seize your feisty foreign neighbor's conceited beige heifer from the ceiling. Weird."

(now I can't even remember any i-before-e words other than retrieve and believe/belief... sieve...)

Mug: "I Shall Purchase a Large Sword | and name it Kindness | and Kill People With Kindness"

Current Mood: amused

My 2 year old grand-niece reminds me of baby Groot sometimes. They must have modeled Groot on a toddler. Unlike baby Groot, she's going through a learning-language phase where she makes a lot of conversation sounds, all the right kinds of intonations like someone having a long discussion on the phone, without saying actual words most of the time.

She has a small toy shopping cart with assorted (empty) toy food boxes in it, as well as a few plastic fruits. Also a wind-up fish toy that twirls its flippers.

She's come to me with the shopping cart 2 evenings in a row. I was trying to finish up work, but oh well. It's not nice to ignore a two-year-old. The first time she took each item out of the cart and put it on the table. Then put them back into the cart. Then out on the table again. Etc. Back then I was still trying to avoid touching her or her toys to prevent spreading germs. So I only talked with her, discussing the toy grocery items. Later she tried winding up the fish toy but was having trouble. I gave up and helped her wind it up. Eventually she took the items out of the cart again, this time putting them on the desk right next to me. I unflattened some of the boxes. We stacked a few of them. I counted them out loud. I juggled two fruits, which she then tried to emulate. Etc etc.

Only today with her not here, did it finally occur to me that maybe she expected me to play the cashier, to scan the items and put them back into the shopping cart. I slightly recall someone else saying "beep", simulating a check-out scanner... maybe they were playing that with her before.

This would have been neat to see. I wonder if I ever *have* seen something like that, though surely not that many in a row and not so close together, and thought it was simply a military exercise, some kind of formation flying.

Watch on YouTube

Video title: SpaceX Starlink Satellites Spotted Over Netherlands
Posted by: VideoFromSpace
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytUygPqjXEc
Date posted: May 24, 2019

Whenever I see a bright star in the sky, I think to myself, that is Jupiter, or Venus, or Saturn. Whenever my mom sees a bright star in the sky, she tells me it's a satellite and won't believe otherwise. Maybe she's right some of the time after all.

This is amazing. So so so many dominoes that you might actually get impatient waiting for them all to finish falling down.

Watch on YouTube

Video title: 128,000 Dominoes Falling into past a journey around the world 2 Guinness World Records) YouTub
Posted by: Ahmed Samir
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRjiiAawGg
Date posted: Aug 24, 2013

Last weekend I went to a free concert in Finlay park, downtown. The band was Loose Ends featuring Jane Eugene, an R&B group from the 80s. I didn't recognize their name, but when I looked up some songs of theirs beforehand, at least one brought back nostalgic memories of my youth. So I thought I might enjoy the concert, and I very much did. They even had a meet'n'greet afterwards where audience members could buy CDs and get autographs and photos taken with the band.

I have a short clip of one of the songs that turned out pretty good audio-wise. I'll post it when I have time, if YouTube lets me.

I was at the concert with a family friend - it was her idea to go in the first place. After that concert was over, we met up with my mom and walked to the (tail end) of the Latin Festival which was taking place a few blocks away. We got to hear one or two songs over there before its last band wrapped up for the night. I bought a multi-colored flashing LED baton-type toy from a stall, yay!

The Wikipedia page for Loose Ends mentions several changes to the band members over the years, and seems to indicate that Jane is no longer with the group. That along with the "featuring Jane Eugene" part of the band name made me think that the other musicians playing with her here weren't original band-members, but I wasn't sure. I'm aware that band-members who have split up sometimes continue to perform separately under some variation of the original group name. Jane has a Twitter page and Loose Ends has a Facebook page, but looking at them, I was still confused.

Today I finally found an answer on this page:
https://citywinery.com/philadelphia/loose-ends-featuring-jane-eugene-11-7-2019.html
It lists the names of the musicians who perform with her; they aren't original band members, although Steve Nichol does occasionally make guest appearances.

There's a bit more info at the end of this page:
http://dance2.webdj.co/loose-ends-watching-you/
Carl McIntosh currently performs under the name 'Loose Ends Experience' or 'Loose Ends'...

"Loose Ends - Slow Down" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Loose Ends - Slow Down
Posted by: koollatter
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKdnCSeJwQ

1986 Soul Train performance of Slow Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdPynoroCg

"Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)
Posted by: 80's & 90's Forever
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WWHoVH4QM

This is an update on the package of toys/gifts that I sent to Germany for my 2 cousins' kids. My cousins see each other regularly, so I sent all the items in a single package to reduce the shipping costs.

After handing off the package at my local post office on Dec 12, the USPS tracking page showed no information (other than "Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS" dated Dec. 11 from when I bought the pre-paid label to put on the package) until this week. During that time I worried that the package had been stolen/mislaid/lost, but reassured myself that the tracking system was most likely unreliable - as I had seen them scan the label at the post office and not even that was shown in the tracking.

On Jan 8 the page finally showed something: "Processed Through Sort Facility", "Customs Clearance", and "Customs clearance processing complete" activity in Germany.

Yay! This relieved me, and I expected the package to surely be delivered in the next few days.

But yesterday to my great disgruntlement, the tracking was updated with "Payment of charges - Item being held, addressee being notified".

I come to find out that in Germany, packages - even gifts - worth 45 euros or more are charged an import duty.

I can't figure out how much of a fee is charged however, as the above page mentions duty fees and import tax and value added tax, and it's not clear to me which ones are applicable and which ones not. It sounds like at minimum, a VAT of 17.5% is charged.

The way the 2 pinpressions toys rattled, they sounded like pills in bottles - something that would raise the suspicions of customs officials. (I remember long ago when my mom sent my aunt some supplements that my aunt had requested, they were confiscated by customs). So I put cardboard on them to reduce the rattling, but wasn't entirely successful. Maybe that has something to do with why the package is being held.

On the customs label for the package, I had estimated the value of the contents at $100 which currently equates to 84.37 euros. If I had shipped the gifts separately in 2 packages, each one would have been worth 42 euros, under the 45 euro limit.

If I had known that, I would have done that and paid the higher postage to avoid my cousins being inconvenienced. I don't want them to have to pay a fee just to get their gifts! I mean really: "You've got some gifts. But you can't have them until you pay a fee."

Update: My cousin contacted me to let me know that she received the package. She did have to go to the customs office in a nearby town to pick it up. They made her open it while there to check the contents, but at least they did not charge her a fee, after all.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/592929.html

After sending those yoyos to cousin-kiddos, I got my old butterfly yoyo out. The string isn't in good shape. It's probably 30 years old. At some point I cut it off and tied/knotted it back to the axle. This prevents it from sleeping and from being able to do tricks. I never learned how to do sleeping tricks with a yoyo to begin with, so I didn't know that the string was supposed to be loose on the axle until I read the packaging that came with the new yoyos for cousin-kiddos.

Now, after taking the old string off my old yoyo, I see that the axle is rusty too. So that would need to be replaced too.

Then I got to reading about yoyos, and learned that mine is a fixed-axle yoyo. More modern ones are made with ball bearings in the center, which allow them to sleep for longer periods than fixed-axle ones do.

Hunh. The ones I bought for cousin-kiddos are the ball-bearing kind, and I didn't even realize it.

.

And this is why, not only does it take me 2 hours to order a simple replacement yoyo string, but that in the end I decide not to even get it. I may as well get a new yoyo instead.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/589498.html

I decided to send my cousins' kids in Germany some gifts for Christmas. So I stopped by Target and bought some neat stuff. 4 different cute little hats. A pseudo-bag (with a carrying handle and a tiny zipper compartment) in the shape of a "My Little Pony" with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. An orange yo-yo. Some stickers. 2 little toy cars. A "Pinpressions" toy.

I bought a red light saber for myself and Qiao. It lights up, has a motion sensor, and makes light-sabery noises! I couldn't resist.

After getting home, I realized that I had lost the yo-yo on the way to the checkout counter. It wasn't in my bags nor listed on the receipt. So yesterday I went back and bought 2 yo-yos (so that both older kids can have one; can a 6 year old handle a yo-yo?), another PinPressions toy (because they are so much fun), another My Little Pony bag (this one yellow with a pink mane)(because so cute), and another 2 little toy cars (so each kid could potentially have one).

I combed the one pony's mane as it was tangled. I'd like to try out the cars, as I didn't have any of those when I was a kid. Taking them out of their packages would reduce the shipping weight (excuse). I already took the yo-yos out of their packages. I'm tempted to try on the hats, but won't, to avoid stretching them out of shape.

Now if I would stop playing with the toys and actually pack them, the kids might possibly get them before January.

I was debating how to avoid gendering the gifts. Giving the boys My Little Pony bags might not go over so well, while giving them only to the girls could be unfair. The kids are still fairly young - 3 to 10 years old, and I don't know them well enough to know what kind of things they like. Two of the hats were from the boys' section, and two were from the girls' section. But the girls might not necessarily prefer the girl hats or vice versa.

The solution I decided on was to let the kids choose which items they want. Oldest kid can choose one item first, then younger kid can choose 1, and so on until everything is taken.