Retail Therapy
by

by Anastasia

Greetings, my fellow consumers. Before we get started spending our hard-earned yen, we'd like to take a moment and plug our new favorite website, 100 Words. A theme is posted in the morning, then the regular contributors write 100 words on it. The variety is endless, and it's fascinating to see what they come up with each day...it's like reading an entire book of short stories in 20 minutes or less. Readers are encouraged to contribute, too. They can add their stories in the comment section of the theme post, and the contributors sometimes pluck out a worthy contributor and post them on the main page. So, after you savor the goodies detailed below, head on over there and check out 100 Words.

Well, we hope you all had a good week. We Factoid-ers spent the majority of yesterday trapped in dial-up hell, so we need a little retail therapy and you're bloody well coming along for the ride.


First, to assist in blowing off a little AOL-inspired steam, your very own duckie shooting gallery. We don't know about you, but the slaughter of virtual waterfowl always brings a smile back to our face. Well, a superior sort of smirk, anyway.


Whilst we would never recommend purchasing a gong, chime, or bell without first hearing its tones, this Metalwork Bell from (strangely enough) The Republic of Tea looks like it might be a winner. We have a similar one purchased many moons ago, that has a tone that sails directly through your sternum. Highly recommended for morning wake-ups.



While you're at the RoT site, pick up some Mango Ceylon Black Tea and Tea of Inquiry green tea with toasted rice. No replacement for our beloved Gevalia coffee, but still damned tasty.



Speaking of tasty (and extraordinarily girly), for a quick pick-me-up, we believe this Chocolate Lip Balm will do quite nicely. Just don't scoop it out with your finger and eat it, ok? That's just unseemly.



Back to our Zen sort of swing, here's a Twig Duvet Cover that makes us a little weak at the knees. Simple, clean, sharp...we like our decor like we like our steak knives. And our men, strangely enough.





And now, to our most expensive habit...photography equipment. First, we'll hit you with something easy:

Lacking in technical detail from the company, we're going to bet this little wooden camera by Olympus is utterly impractical for anything other than snaps of grandma in front of Niagara Falls. But that's hardly the point, is it? It's wood. Polished, sculpted wood. And it takes pictures. We predict they sell a billion of them.



And now, the coup de grace...

From Seitz, a new panoramic digital camera. A ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY MILLION PIXEL panoramic digital camera. Removable backs, a touchscreen controller that's bigger than some people's home computer monitors, and a dedicated image storage device more complex than most personal computers. It takes pictures that look like this, is rumored to cost around 30K, and is big enough to actually have sex with. Weep with me, won't you?






That's all for this week, poppets. Happy 401K plundering!

Anastasia does her shopping from her gadget-filled home in Florida

Comments

How much does that camera weigh? I can't imagine trying to hold that up while taking a pic.

I want that shooting gallery for work. Though it wouldn't be long before there were faces pasted over the ducks...

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Wow, both cameras are super cool, especially that last one. I'd end up losing it though.

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i want the woody.

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I like that duck thing too. Quack!

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The panoramic camera is cool, but unbelievably impractical. Who's going to buy this?

It's like having a specialized lens in your bag. You seldom need it, but you're sure happy that you have it when you do. But at that price ... Yowza!

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Hey, don't go knocking specialized lenses...my 105mm is my very favorite lens.

The major problem I see with this, other than the second mortgage type price tag, is the fact that you will certainly go broke TRAVELING to places where the view justfies the panorama. One can hardly take snapshots of downtown Smallville and justify this beast, one must have VISTAS!!!

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Oh, I'm not knocking specialized lenses. Just picked up a 10.5 mm fisheye for my office rig. But how often am I actually going to use it? But when I need it, sure am glad to have it.

And that's kind of what I mean by something like this. You're going to use it so rarely, the only people that would use it often are the kind of people that wouldn't really have to blink twice at the price of it or the trip to take the pictures.

Maybe studios ... film and high-end marketing/advertising could afford this crap.

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I want the whipstick. mmmm...flavored lip balms.

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ya. i think i'm gonna start wearing makeup.

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