Archive for August, 2008

Grace: I’ve mentioned before how much I love tea, and I’m always looking for new ways to drink it. You may be thinking that tea is tea; it comes in a bag, you put it in hot water and it’s done, how else would you drink it?

In my opinion, however, loose tea tastes much better than teabags, but when I’m at school I don’t usually have a strainer or a teapot with a built in strainer. I could just wait for the tea to settle at the bottom of the cup, but even then it’s kind of messy and there’s always a few tea leaves that just won’t settle.

Luckily for me, my roommate last year was also a tea fanatic, and she received this Tea Stick Infuser as a gift and loved it. The tea stick saved all the flavor of loose tea, but it was so much easier to clean up. It measures just one cup of tea, perfect for when you’re not entertaining anyone. I would highly recommend considering this as a gift for an avid tea drinker instead of just buying them tea (although that’s also just as well appreciated!).

Dan: The tea stick infuser is a great gift idea for any and all avid tea lovers.  I love to drink tea, but unfortunately I have never taken the time to learn the art of making great tea myself.  I either go with the simple bags or buy some while walking to class.  However, I am convinced and intrigued by this gift idea and might just check it out myself!  Great gift idea!

Dan: Hi everyone! I just spent the weekend in West Philadelphia helping my sister move into a new apartment. I now return to you with a new gift idea! A lot of people today (at least in the United States) get around in the car. However, if you live in a congested area like my sister does, it costs an arm and a leg to even get a parking space in a garage. Pretty much said, my sister has no good use for having a car. Sometimes this can be a hassle for her since she cannot easily escape the city whenever she wants to. Luckily, there are options for her to get around the city more quickly than just walking.

A great gift idea for her, and many other city dwellers, would be a bicycle. Not only a bike, but long boards, unicycles, etc are also great transportation gift ideas. The bike does not have to be the greatest made, but there are specifications to consider. Different bikes are designed to handle different conditions. You may assume that a “road bike” is the best gift choice for someone like my sister because she is located in a concrete jungle. However, knowing my sister, she may not be comfortable sharing the road with ruckus drivers. Therefore, I would probably get her a mountain bike or combination bike that features road bike comfort and thicker, more sturdy tires and tubes allowing her to venture onto the sidewalk.

I would personally recommend a combination bike because they usually work for most types of terrain no matter your location. They also usually have a wide array of different gears unlike certain “recreational” combination bikes found around beach communities. Give the gift of exercise and transportation! I would personally recommend Schwinn bikes due to my previous experience with them and their durability.

Grace: Dan, this is a really great gift idea! At school there is really no point in having a car because our campus is so small, but at the same time, it’s annoying to have to walk everywhere. A bike would make my life so much easier! This is the case with many college students, and a bike would make a great graduation gift for an incoming freshman. As Dan also mentioned, bikes are useful outside of college too. For example, at home I live close enough to the center of town that it seems a waste to drive there, but it’s too far to walk; a bike would really settle the difference and I’d be getting exercise and helping the environment!

Dan: Grace’s last gift recommendation triggered my mind about this great photo scanning service. The website is called scanmyphotos.com . The service is very easy to use! All you have to do is collect all of the photos that you want to be saved. You mail them the photos and they scan all the photos onto a DVD(s) for $0.04 a photo. It is really hard to find a better deal than the one here. Gifts that are thoughtful are the best gifts!

You can take photos that are meaningful to you and the person or persons that you want to give the gift to. Have them scanned onto a DVD and gift it as a gift! For and extra fee they will even make photo slideshows for you and enhance them with personal music selections. They can even convert old VHS film videos onto a DVD just like the photos. Not only can the service provide a meaningful avenue for gift giving, it is something that all people should do anyways either on their own or through a service like this. You never know when your old photos can be destroyed or weather out. It is important to keep your memories safe and sound on electronic media. If you really want to be safe, make multiple copies and store them in different places to diversify the risk. Also, you can get your old photos back! I strongly recommend this task as a meaningful gift idea and for your own well being.

PS: Here is a link to a great forum where people discuss different avenues for backing up everything from video to professional files!

Grace: This is a really great and creative gift idea!  In addition to getting into digital photography, my dad has also recently started to get into either restoring or preserving some of our old pictures, and this would be a great gift for him!  Unfortunately, I am behind the times and don’t own a scanner and probably never will because I am that lazy.  For someone like me who would only use a scanner to digitally preserve photos, this service is a lot cheaper and easier than buying a scanner.  I love the idea of giving people gifts that they can look back on and reminisce, so I think this is a great, affordable idea!

Grace: One of those weird Asian genes I happened to inherit is my obsession with taking pictures of EVERYTHING! Before my camera completely died on me, I would literally take it anywhere and everywhere because you never knew when it would come in handy!

Now that my camera is officially dead, I’ve been on the lookout for a new one. I think a reliable yet fairly inexpensive digital camera is a great thing for everyone to have. I know how difficult it is to find the perfect digital camera (there are just too many!) but I think the best approach to buying one as a gift is to think of the person’s needs. For example, if I we’re buying a camera for someone who is not a professional photographer but still very dedicated, such as my dad, I would probably buy a more high end digital camera and a nice standard zoom lens too.

However, if you are shopping for someone younger, perhaps a college or high school student, something smaller and cheaper would be better, especially since cameras tend to get replaced every few years. Personally, I would want my digital camera to take clear pictures regardless of the situation (I hate when the pictures I take at night or at museums don’t turn out well), but I’d also want it to be small and easy to carry around. From what I’ve seen, the Canon PowerShot digital cameras take very nice pictures, but I find them to be a little bulky. I also like the Fujifilm FinePix because it takes quality pictures, but it’s slimmer than the PowerShot.

Whatever you decide on, don’t fret too much about it. I would make a list of what I know I want in a camera, and then do some research and read both professional and customer reviews. As long as the camera does its job, it’s sure to be a well loved and well used gift.

Dan: A digital camera is a great gift idea Grace! When we just went to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk my camera came in real handy. Digital cameras these days have unlimited capabilities, I was able to take A LOT of video and at least thirty pictures of frogs, fish and crazy toothed sharks. In the past I always hated people who walked around filming their lives on camera. I would think to myself, “enjoy the moment don’t record the moment”, but it really is wonderful to have the ability to reflect on great experiences. I also recommend taking lots of short films because they truly re-live the moment unlike photos.

Grace: A couple of days ago I trekked into New York City to go visit the American Museum of Natural History. I hadn’t been there since I was in middle school, and it was nice to go to a place that I remember so fondly.

I am fossilized yet somewhat cute; come visit me!

In addition to checking out the fossils and the planetarium, of course I had to stop by the gift shop. While I was looking around, I found this little science lab kit for kids. I remember having something like this when I was younger and it was SO much fun! Maybe it’s just because I’m a bit of a science nerd (chemistry was one of my favorite classes in high school), but I loved that kit. All the experiments used household items and it wasn’t very dangerous at all, because trust me, if it was dangerous, I would have found a way to blow up the neighborhood; I was “that kid”.

I personally think it’s a great idea to get kids excited about learning and science at a young age, and with this kit, they won’t even know they’re learning!

Dan: I too love the museum of natural history in New York City. My sister lives in Philadelphia and we went museum touring one day and none of them, especially the Franklin Institute could not compare. When I was younger I thought that dinosaurs were the only group of species that predated humans. I was in awe when I saw fossilized saber tooth tigers and giant turtles like the one above. Now that I look back at it, it really was a wonderful and vivid moment of my childhood. Every time I go back there still I feel like a child again. The science kit gift idea from the museum shop is a wonderful one. Who says learning has to be boring? In addition to the science kit, museum shops like the one at the natural history museum, have a large assortment of really great children (and adult) gifts.

Dan: I cannot get enough of the Olympics! Unfortunately, the games are late at night having recorded and live segments between 8 and midnight on the east coast, but I stay up. Sports can either be beneficial or terrible to kids and adults. It can be viewed as something that is an avenue for winning or as something where people can compete and gain confidence and self esteem. I truly believe in the second but I personally feel that the first is a more common viewpoint.

The point of the Olympics is for athletes to represent their countries in honest sport. However, I cannot go anywhere without hearing the Phelps saga and how he does not even know where his gold medals are anymore. I feel as if the media has drawn away from the true competitive nature of the Olympics and why Olympians are truly there.

My gift recommendation to parents are to get your kids involved in sports. Either through lessons or on a local club and please teach them that winning is not the greatest part of sport.

Grace: Hmmm, I’m kind of on the fence about this gift idea. I agree that kids should be encouraged to play sports and learn all about being part of a team and whatnot, but at the same time, I definitely wouldn’t force my child into it. I’ve never really liked playing sports all that much because of their overly competitive nature. Not to mention, sometimes teammates can be very cruel to each other. My parents pushed lots of sports on me when I was younger, but the only one I really took to was one that I’d loved all my life and found on my own, horseback riding (which, ironically, I received as a birthday gift!) Even then there were times where the competition between riders was ridiculous and cruel, such as sabotaging others riding equipment and even horse. For this gift, I would recommend really listening to your child because this could either be a great experience or it could be traumatic.

Grace: As silly as it sounds, one of the most memorable gifts I received recently was from one of my violin students. She didn’t buy me anything expensive or give me a gift certificate, but rather, she gave me something she spent time growing herself; vegetables!

It’s a strange gift, but I remember spending my summers in Yamanashi, Japan when I was younger and my grandma’s neighbor would always come over (always through the window, never the door) to give us freshly grown eggplants. There’s something very sentimental about receiving a gift that someone took time to grown and nurture. Not to mention, it’s delicious!

I realize that it’s not very practical to grow a garden just for the sake of giving a gift, but a cute alternative, especially for children, would be a gardening kit, complete with seeds. I remember how much fun it was to plant my own seeds and watch my vegetables grow. Not to mention, this gift is also eco-friendly and promotes sustainability. These days kids are spending too much time indoors and aren’t getting the health benefits from being outside. This gift encourages kids to go outside and play around in the world in addition to growing beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables!

Dan: What do you mean no video games! Just kidding…this is a wonderful gift idea that is more than just a food item. When I was younger doing the yard work was an order and not a gift. It was…plant those bushes or you cannot go out with your friends instead of something positive. I’ve come to realize that yard work and growing plants is an excellent way to pass the time and is really fun. Planting enables you to not only get outside, but to bring out your creative self. The arrangement and placement of a garden is the most fun part because the finished product will look exactly like you imagined. This is a great gift idea. There is one seed superstore called Burpee that offers all kinds of plant seed including edible vegetables and offers them at fair value.

Dan: I am currently a Junior at the University of Delaware and I must admit that I am an avid UD football fanatic. Joe Flacco…first round pick…Baltimore Ravens…we’re lucky. At a lot of colleges, student life revolves around football every weekend. A game represents more than just a game, it is a bonding experience and a chance to have a really great time before and after the game. I personally exude a yearning to go home once my work really starts to pile up. A gift idea that can be either simple or slightly complicated depending on the university is football tickets. Either from the rest of the family or the student, going to the game brings the family back together for a weekend and really is a great time to be had.

My family came to a game last year and it was the best game/weekend of my fall. Even though it was a mutual gift, it was one of the best gifts that I have ever been a part of. My parents treated me this year on a UD vs. James Madison game and I cannot wait!

Sometimes the best gifts are ones that can be shared. The best gift is not always the newest video game or fashion trend, but quality family time. If this type of gift cannot work for you, go ahead and bend the rules…the tickets don’t have to be to a football game !

Grace: I think this is a really sweet gift idea!  I know my family misses me just as much as I miss them but they don’t want to be too intrusive.  If I went to a bigger school that held large sports events (I’m not sure Hamilton even charges, ever!), I would definitely buy my family tickets.  Even tickets to concert events would be a great idea!  I know that the Hamilton Music Department brings in great orchestras and chamber groups and my family would love to see some of those performances.  I would just check to make sure the dates work out properly before buying the tickets.

Dan: I’m back! I was just on vacation in Farmington, Maine staying at a camp on Clearwater Lake. It is amazing what a little fresh air can do. Having grown up in an urban area, getting the chance to escape somewhere that has clean air and a cool breeze is really refreshing. Since being away Grace has come up with some really great gift ideas. My favorite being the latest with the Lord of the Rings trilogy!

It must be no wonder having just come back from Maine to suggest pure Maine maple syrup as a gift idea. To be honest I have never tried it before my vacation and it is amazing. Most “syrups” that you can buy at the grocery store are just a culmination of artificial flavoring and corn syrup. When you really take the time to look at the back of the bottle, it’s haunting to realize what you are about to consume.

Pancakes before real syrup…ok, after…awesome

Waffles before real syrup…ok, after…delicious

Not only is Maine maple syrup organic and better tasting, you can really admire its value when looking at the process of turning the sap into a tasty topping. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. In order to make a reasonable amount of syrup that will last you and your family a long time, multiple trees need to be tapped. The process of making syrup is very involved, so hopefully this University of Maine guide should help if you want to try it yourself. However, it is much easier to buy a bottle for yourself or as a tasty gift! Trust me, I will never go back to Aunt Jemima or any other “fake” syrup.

Grace: Mmmm, there is no such thing as too much sugar, or at least I think so. I haven’t had maple syrup in a while, but I remember vacationing in Vermont and bringing back TONS of it because it was just so good! I’m not really sure what the difference between Vermont maple syrup and Maine maple syrup is, but I’m sure Maine’s version is just as delicious! Natural maple syrup is definitely a luxurious yet completely unique gift. I also really liked the gift basket with the natural maple syrup and the organic honey.  I think Dan came up with a great gift idea; maybe he should go on vacation more often?

Grace: Much to my boyfriend’s chagrin, I have to admit that I am a huge geek. I practically grew up watching Star Wars and reading Lord of the Rings. I remember reading The Hobbit in third grade and loving it so much that I was off the wall ecstatic when I received The Lord of the Rings trilogy a few years later. I still own my original set and I’m surprise they’ve held up over the years since I’ve read those books so many times.

Even if your child doesn’t have a fondness for all things fantasy and science fiction, I would highly recommend buying a Lord of the Rings box set as a gift. I don’t actually like to read science fiction or fantasy novels, but this trilogy is completely different. Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, who was famous for his critical essay on Beowulf (it’s still used today and if you study Beowulf, which you probably will, you’ll end up reading this essay), The Lord of the Rings completely creates a new world. I remember getting lost in Tolkien’s Middle Earth because he was so detail oriented; he even wrote other books and short stories that built up Middle Earth’s history, almost as if it were real.

I know that is is very difficult to get kids to read these days, especially with the temptation of video games and television, but reading is critical to a child’s development. According to the National Institute for Literacy, children ages 9-17 who read for fun could had a much higher literacy and comprehension level than children who did not read outside the classroom.

I would highly recommend The Lord of the Rings trilogy set not only because it was an essential part of my childhood, but because it’s a gift that has longevity. Clothes, toys, and other gadgets are used for maybe a year, but books, especially the classics, can be read and used for years to come.

Dan: I am OBSESSED with Lord of the Rings (LOTR for us fans)! I could not agree more with your gift recommendation. When I was younger, all I did was watch television and really hated reading to be honest. It was not until I was immersed into Lord of the Rings by my older sister that I started to turn the tube off. A lot of people assume that the series is just another mindless science fiction story with monsters and elves and the like; but it really is not. Lord of the Rings is written in a tone of greater difficulty than a beach novel and really provides an array of symbolism and metaphors that can be found in other great classics such as The Great Gatsby and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think I am going to go pick up Return of the King right now and immerse myself in the world of Middle Earth for the afternoon!