The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - 2018-09-06 (page 3 of 3)

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4:00 PM

I don't have a big toy collection. I have about a dozen cheap MLP figurines (and intend to buy more, potentially some larger unauthorized plushies), plus like twenty other generic animal figurines (mostly stuffed plushies) that aren't connected to any fiction franchise, a collection of like 3000 M:tG cards, plus about a big shelf of various inanimate toys including board games and decks of card and Rubik's cubes.

user132126

My office is overflowing with action figures. I've invested quite a bit. It's my passion.

I currently have a Pinkie Pie next to my keyboard and a Pinkie Pie on my keychain in my pocket, and a duck plushie sitting in front of me.

user132126

(Which is evident if you look at the rest of my Instragram, lol)

Oh, and my best Rubik's cube in my bag next to me. This is at my office, and the duck is the only one permanently stationed there. The tiny silicone Pinkie has been on my keychain for a while, and I often bring one other figurine with me.

The rest are at home.

I think. I might be forgetting something.

user132126

I'm in numerous toy groups, have a nascent toy news blog and a separate IG for it, follow lots of toy news sites, and regularly read stuff like financial reports from Hasbro and Mattel :D

4:05 PM

On the other hand, I'm going to go to toy stores and look for toys online more now, not only because I've been an adult who can afford toys for a while, but also because I have a baby niece and can buy toys for her (or with her as an excuse), and will be able to buy way more as he grows.

Once she gets past the age when she could accidentally suffocate on or swallow objects, the possibilities suddenly get wide open.

user132126

I wish I knew more sites to point you to that have international shipping.

She still has to grow her hands after that to be able to play with a Rubik's cube (but I don't need her as an excuse to buy cubes, it's my hobby), and then she'll need to mature more to play some board games or read certain books.

Books are currently the easiest to buy with her as the excuse, because I can already give it to my brother even though they can't give the books to the baby yet.

With toys, that sort of thing is harder.

And I know lots of children's books I can buy, and will know even more as she ages.

How old is she?

If you don't mind me asking

6 months old now.

Started to crawl now, but haven't yet learned to direct her hands to reach for one of multiple toys in front of her.

Oh right, that's an actual baby then

user132126

4:10 PM

We get so many books, heh. We donate a lot of them, too. Ours don't seem to have a "favorite" for very long, so once they start sitting on the shelf (or floor) for too long, we just get rid of them.

@Jenayah I can buy toys or books somewhat in advance, they last.

It's really pleasant and relaxing really, after all the stress of what gift to give to anyone in my family, and the obverse too, family wanting to give me gifts and repeatedly asking me what I want and then telling me that they can get that but that's not a gift because I need it (duh).

To a child, I'll be able to buy a lot more things, because she won't be able to buy things for herself for a while, and doesn't yet have everything.

Sure, my brother and her wife can also buy her everything just fine, and my mother and other family also gives her gift, but still.

Which reminds me I still have to find a birthday present for my half-sister. Found the first half, don't know what to buy as second half. Last year was a "lucky find" in a store, but it was awesome ahah

I can talk to them and find unique stuff.

But I already know what to buy her next year :^)

Books are easier than toys because they live in Sweden and so I can get books in Hungarian much easier.

4:13 PM

And the other one is too small for that

user132126

Buying gifts can be such a pain.

user132126

It's harder for people to buy me gifts (namely my wife) because I just buy what I want throughout the year, lol

@WebHead Right. This is why this is such a relief.

@WebHead Exactly. I buy everything I want mysefl.

@WebHead not as much as a pain than getting people to understand you don't want anything...

user132126

We certainly spent a fair bit of money on toys for the kids that they never touched.

user132126

4:17 PM

@Jenayah Amazon gift cards!

@WebHead Can't go wrong with that.

@WebHead tried, got called "filthy" because it's "not a gift"

It was easier when I was in university with no or little income, and so I could just buy anything and allow my parents to make it retroactively their gift. That still works to some amount, especially on my grandmother, but with my mother it's hard, because she's the one who keeps giving the argument that it's not a gift if I need it.

Napoleon Wilson

@Jenayah The one for the related half or the one for the unrelated half?

@NapoleonWilson The lucky find was last year's birthday present

Napoleon Wilson

4:19 PM

@Jenayah I know, I was talking about the half for this year that you already got. For which half of your hald-sister is it?

@NapoleonWilson ahah

the bottom one, technically

My mother buys me a lot of food when I ask for it, raw or cooked by herself, and I don't pay for it directly (I give them a little money but not directly for the food), and sometimes other things, but they're never considered gifts.

They want something christmas-worthy or birthday-worthy.

Napoleon Wilson

O_O

Since it's Holland fluff slippers

But it's not a real gift since you can't do anything with it, so I'm looking for something else to go with it

Napoleon Wilson

Uh, can't you wear them? Isn't that doing something?

4:22 PM

@NapoleonWilson yeah but for kids I'd rather give them something they can actually interact with or stuff

Napoleon Wilson

Oh, it's a kid. So you mean something fun rather than clothes. ;-)

I just bought them because they looked fluffy and fluffy stuff is funny, but not really entertainiing

Yeah she's 5

Dam I hope I got the shoe size right

Took it a big bigger in case

@NapoleonWilson Clothes aren't fun?

Kinda hard to gift shoes to someone you've never met ><

@Alex Not yet to a child.

Napoleon Wilson

4:24 PM

@Alex For kids? No.

@Jenayah Yeah, I don't even think of buying clothes that come with a sizing for anyone but myself, and shoes are even more excluded, because male shoes have to be tried on to tell if they're comfortable, and I don't know anything about how women's shoes work.

It's possible to buy clothes or shoes as a gift, but you have to take the recepient with you to buy them.

My grandmother buys me clothing that way.

@b_jonas the slippers came in 4 sizes so I took the 2nd ones, it seemed okay. Well, in case it's too small the other one will get them in 3 year's time ahah

When she insists on giving me a gift, I have to figure something suitable as a gift that I have bought or want to buy soon and know where I'll buy it, and ask her if that could be the gift.

This trick is much harder on my mother.

@Jenayah Can you exchange them after they take a look at the size?

I mean, take it back where you bought and exchange it without losing the money you payed.

@b_jonas I don't think so, they're from a souvenir shop. And in any case, I'll be in France, in a different city than my sister, and the shop is here in Holland :D

Worst-case scenario, I lost 10€ and in any case the other one can get them once she grows up a bit

So no problem there

@Jenayah Sure.

4:30 PM

My problem is that I don't really know what to offer this year

Last year I wanted to buy a giant tiger/wolf/panther cuddly toy

Oh... yes, that. If my brother has a second child born, it will be much harder to buy gifts for them. Younger brothers always get hand-downs, it's hard for them.

Turned out those things are expensive as hell

I generally can't buy the same toy or same book for them.

But I found a tiger-plush backpack :D

And they'll already have everything bought for the first child.

That will be tricky.

4:31 PM

Two birds with one stone

@Jenayah amazon.com/Giant-Plush-Lying-Tiger-Mascot/dp/B00J113CZY/…

Yeah, I'll probably buy my niece plushies too, but it's not trivial because she already has many.

But on the plus side, if they have a second child, I'll be able to buy plushies for that one. They don't need the same book twice, but they need their own plushies.

user image

I also found (that was the lucky one) a little robot

Napoleon Wilson

That's a tiger, not a robot.

I was glad because I was looking for non-princess stuff and other generic toys

user132126

4:36 PM

@Jenayah :D haha

user image

On the other hand, buying toys for my niece may get harder if she grows and decides that she needs girly toys, because I don't understand those enough.

user132126

@NapoleonWilson My kids like getting new clothes.

@b_jonas introduce them to those wooden puzzles

@Jenayah Not yet.

user132126

4:37 PM

Sometimes we have to force my oldest to wear different clothes because when he gets a new shirt or pants he wants to wear them every day.

@WebHead ahaha

Well, technically, they'll soon be able to play with those puzzles where they have three blocks of different shapes and three holes and they have to insert the right block to the right hole,

like, in half a year she'll definitely be able to use that,

probably slightly earlier,

but most puzzles need a more mature mind and many need larger hands.

Even to appreciate them, not to solve them.

@b_jonas since I guess the "girly toys" would be when they're like 6-7, I was thinking of these things:

user image

You can pass one of these as girly, if they like horses, birds or stuff. In the meantime, it's not your typical no-brainer sequined pink thingy, and makes the kid think a bit

(bonus point: they're rather cheap)

Actually, I got two of those yet, but I'm still looking for something else

If anyone has ideas, I'm open to suggestions :D

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user132126

@Jenayah What age?

4:50 PM

@WebHead 5

user132126

A bubble gun and extra bubbles and batteries ;)

I don't want books since they're rather a one-time thing, I'm not big on Barbies and stuff, and I'd rather avoid "gendered" stuff

@WebHead that is not a bad idea. Will never make it past her mother's censorship on mail, but if I ever see her in person (might happen soon), I'll definitely grab one

@WebHead hey, you're an artist! Kids like to draw (I think?). Maybe you would have some stuff to recommend? Like, if you know of any of these "creation" thingies?

(Tell me if I'm "my computer doesn't work, fix it"-ing you ^^')

user132126

Creation thingies?

user132126

I've been drawing with my boy. I just bought him mechanical pencils with thicker lead, so he doesn't break them, let him have some of my old "cool" pens, and gave him one of my "special artist erasers" (just a black mars plastic eraser)

@WebHead yeah those things to get kids to draw "differently" than just your regular pencils, or these crafting stuff

@WebHead Googled that black eraser - what does it do?

user132126

5:02 PM

Vinyl erasers are just nice. They work really well, and don't tear your paper apart like hard pink erasers.

@Jenayah Is that your own phrase? I've only seen it one other time, also by you.

I mean, it looks like your everyday eraser... but black

user132126

It's vinyl, not rubber.

user132126

Rubber erasers stink.

user132126

It's like what they put at the end of mechanical pencils, not yellow wooden pencils.

5:03 PM

@WebHead oh, okay

@Alex the phrasing might be mine, but it's a common trope among anyone who works with whatever kind of code at some point in their life; someone's bound to come to you and be like, "olol, you know your way around computers and stuff. Look at these lines of writing that I don't understand! So can you get my printer to work or not?"

Aug 3 at 11:52, by Jenayah

"I can't log to the bank account, is it because of my computer or their website?" with no more info given business

@Jenayah That's not quite the same. I was thinking of:

Aug 4 at 18:59, by Jenayah

But tell me if I'm "my computer doesn't work, fix it"-ing you ^^'

Aug 3 at 11:53, by TheLethalCarrot

Gotta love the "It's not working, fix it for me" calls

@SQB Sorry, that was at 3am. No relevant deleted comments on that post

@Jenayah Not fair. You switched which quote I was responding to.

@Alex wouldn't have made sense to put them in reverse chronological order but I thought of that afterwards

Erf some of my phrasings come from stuff I watched/read/heard too

6:05 PM

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7:06 PM

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@Kevin thanks. Any comments on that situation in general?

Damn, Bandit's gone.

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/09/06/entertainment/burt-reynolds-has-died/…

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@b_jonas Duplo always works.

Then they're on the fast track to Lego.

AncientSwordRage

8:18 PM

Hi all

Would I be going to far to ask people to donate something small to my charity page?

Not at all - it wouldn't be unprecedented.

(I don't personally donate, but others do, especially for a worthy cause.)

user132126

@AncientSwordRage We asked it for Mike's lung-related GoFundMe

AncientSwordRage

justgiving.com/fundraising/craig-a-stone

It's to raise money for Alzheimer's Society

My Granddad passed away just over a year ago

3 hours later…

11:42 PM

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Sep '186

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