Results tagged “gift ideas” from Overlooked

The other day I was browsing through the website for Toomey's, a novelty underwear store, when I came across something that I'd vaguely heard about, but never actually seen: the "panty cap".

Panty Cap

You may ask yourself, "What use have I for such a backwards unmentionable?" I asked myself the same question, and have since been wondering why such a cap is necessary. Of course, as promised, KGB had the answer (and I didn't even have to text them).

Through the brain fart commercials, I have noticed that an increasing number of people have been suffering from "involuntary releases of ignorance" (as KGB terms it). This recent phenomenon of not knowing an answer to a question has sent the world into a panic, and because we have inexplicably forgotten that we can turn to Google, iPhones, or even other more knowledgeable people (like teachers), these brain farts are moving forward with their destruction. By the time I reached the following commercial, I began to see the validity of these strange-looking panty caps, because I can only conclude that the next step after college-level brain farting is nothing short of leakage.

Until KGB can rush to restore you from your stupefaction, please wear your panty cap at all times. I cannot imagine what it would be like if every time we needed an answer, we began to leak ignorance into the street. It would be chaos.

The number one reason for the creation of the Zaky (the disembodied hand pillows pictured below) is really touching. This reason, described by the inventor on the official website, goes exactly like this: "Zachary was born weighing less than 2 lbs. His mom wished she could cut off her hand to leave her loving touch, scent, warmth, and protection with him, so she invented the Zaky". Wow, what dedication! Dedication or delusion, you take your pick, since cutting off your hand would help your premature baby's health by about a none-shot.

Prior to creating the current list, I did consider writing 10 things I liked about the Zaky; unfortunately, I got stuck after "plushy exterior", and could not go any farther. So we're just going to have to stick with the original theme:

10 Things I Hate About The Zaky

1. It violates The Addams Family copyrights. How? By copying the character makeup of Gomez's close friend, "Thing" (and I'm not entirely sure the whole hand design isn't poking fun at Things' bodiless handicap...not cool, Zaky, not cool).

2. There will be confusion between human hands and mommy simulating baby pillows. Although this confusion may not inhibit the child's early years, it will cause a slew of issues throughout adulthood. These issues include (but are not limited to): suckling your bosses handshake and offering pillowcases as gloves.

3. Why Mommy, what big hands you have! I am baffled by the design of the Zaky. It is supposed to simulate a parent's hand, but I do not know any person whose hands are the size of a human baby. The Zaky looks like an allergic hand with a bee sting.

4. It makes parents less involved. This is only beneficial to the child if the parent is a pushy stage mom, or Britney Spears.

5. It has hand fetish written all over it. Like strange, want to suck your (preferably fuzzy!) hands, fetish. Good thing the Zaky is a hand and not a foot, as if we needed more foot fetishes in the world.

6. It makes children dependent. I doubt it is good for the child's mental health to have a warm hand on his bum 24/7. I mean, what is going to happen when the kid reaches school age? Will he still need to be reassured by this warm hand? What about when he is an adult? Will he make his wife stick her hand up his bum so that he can sleep comfortably?

7. A child who uses the Zaky will grow up to want a marital relationship with the Snuggie. This is obviously problematic.

8. It will mold your newborn's impressionable head... into a hand-print.

9. It is a whole mountain's worth of creepy. Just look at those hands, and tell me you won't have nightmares about them tonight. The Zaky deserves its own B-Movie.

10. It ensures that your child will always enjoy the scent, warmth, and protection... of the padded walls and sugar free jello in a psychiatric ward.

No good can come of this.

Gift basket, actually. But look at all that sausage...

Are you looking to get ahead in business? Are you just itching to win that promotion, to finally get that raise, to really make an impression on your superiors? Now, you could do things the traditional way: being the first in and the last to leave, slaving for hours and hours in your cubicle, and getting your vitamin D daily allowance from a table lamp.

Sure, that's all well and good, but don't count on any results. No, friends, the road to success comes at a much more affordable price than that. The next time you really want to make an impression, look no further than the Sea Monkeys Executive Set.

In elegant and understated black and gold, it is the perfect accessory to your CEO's stately desk and tastefully-decorated office. Furthermore, you'll be thanked a hundred times over when subsequent blood pressure results come back significantly lower. Trust us. We gave one to Rory and every day since, there has been a spring in his step and a sparkle in his eye (and curiously, bits of brine shrimp stuck between his teeth, hmm).

So the next time you're up for a promotion, relax and take off early! With the Sea Monkeys Executive Set, you'll know your raise is in the bag. Guaranteed.

I'm not sure what the kids are up to these days, what with their fancy portable video game consoles and expensive cell phones, but back in my time, we had a calling. And that calling was to be the sole purveyor of addictive confectionary treats that were only available for a few months out of the year.

For one glorious month during first grade, I joined the ranks of those prized citizens known only as the Girl Scouts. It was a whirlwind of badges and after-school meetings and sit-upons. As previously mentioned, I was a shy child (that's right, Steve, I'm calling you out again!), and it was nice to be a part of a social group. However, as was often the case with much of my hypoglycemic childhood, things were about to take a dark turn.

It all started with the stupid dance badge. I was timid and didn't want to dance, and yet I still wanted the badge. Was that too much to ask? Apparently it was, for I never received said badge, a fact which my injured six-year-old self has never forgotten. But this was not incentive enough to quit (though nor was it incentive enough to try harder in manner of countless movies centered around underprivileged youth for whom dance is their only outlet).

No, that incentive came perhaps a week later, following that year's cookie sales. Aimee, one of my fellow Girl Scouts, one of the sisters, made fun of me for only having sold cookies to my family. I'm pretty sure it was that very day that I packed it up and told my mother I didn't want to go back. As a practical and un-soccer-mom-like mother, she had no objections and asked few questions (the cookies were already ordered anyway: her sweet tooth was guaranteed sustenance for at least the next few months).

It is for these very traumatic reasons that I prevent the newest Next Big Thing in hipster fashions: The Girl Scout Sash. I'm sure there are scads and scads of twentysomethings who are still trying to get over their scouting days, and what better way to do that by embracing the very thing that caused you pain in the first place? Furthermore, the Girl Scout Sash is fully customizable: it can be decorated with the normal badges (I can finally have that dancing badge after all!) or with all manner of ironic buttons.

Remember, hipsters: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Are you a frazzled parent struggling to properly clean your house? Have your children gotten too comfortable with their pampered existence? Why should they have it so good, anyway? Look at them, sitting there, watching reality television and gobbling down snacks while you ruin your knees vacuuming up crumbs and cat hair.

Why, when you were a kid, you had to walk 10 miles to school - in the snow, uphill both ways, and barefoot. Those ungrateful little bastards should be thankful they even have these microfiber cleaning slippers attached to their fat, privileged little feet. As long as they're walking that well-worn path to the refrigerator, they might as well pick up a few dust bunnies along the way.

Break the cycle. In the end, they'll thank you for all that character they've developed.

What most makes a house a home? Is it sitting around a roaring fireplace with your loved ones, watching the light flicker over their smiling faces? Is it your loyal golden retriever bringing you your slippers as you recline into your easy chair? Is it seeing the glee in your children's eyes as you carve the family turkey at Thanksgiving?

Surely you jest!

Everyone knows homes are officially made with novelty toilet seats. Read on to find our top picks that will give your home that certain je ne sais quoi.

At ShopWiki, there's a saying by which we all live: you're nobody until you're honored on a commemorative plate or an iron-on heat transfer. By this credo, Queen Elizabeth and the boys of 98 Degrees might be the most important people in the known galaxy, but I digress.

The point is, despite Kristi Yamaguchi's skating medals and recent perfect score with Mark Ballas on "Dancing with the Stars", she only matters to us because of this little baby at left.

No matter how much Len Goodman wants to eat her up ("It was like a buffet — a tasty morsel there, a delicious move over there. Some clever choreography, yum, yum. It was a smorgasbord of dance. I loved it.”), without a gaudy dose of gold leaf, she'd be nothing.

Thankfully for Kristi, she has indeed been immortalized in acrylic paint and glaze for all the world to enjoy. We here at the office have already bought two (they're flanking our Pete Rose collection) in preparation for her inevitable big win.

Stay strong, Kristi, we're all rooting for you (unless a Mario commemorative plate comes out between now and then, in which case we're in a bit of a pickle)!

You know those annoying friends that always have a camera with them and snap away despite your best protests? That's totally me. Thanks to the digital age, my habit has become something of a problem, given that I no longer have to buy film or wait for it to be developed. On my recent 10-day vacation, I took approximately 500 photos, and had I not been limited by battery power, there surely would have been more. You get the picture (har!!!).

Unfortunately, despite my love for photography, I have never had formal training - I dropped the class in high school because the lens on the family camera would basically come off in my hands. Furthermore, these days, it's far too easy to be lazy and let the machine do all the work: there's virtually no need to learn about apertures or F-stops. Even though I have grandiose visions of myself wielding a high-powered model, there is so much to know, and I am intimidated by artistic and financial failures of epic proportions.

My compromise to myself was this little baby above, the Lomography Diana+, a reproduction of the 1960's cult classic. The medium format (120 film) camera is crafted entirely of plastic and was originally considered as a toy, but its dreamy images and unpredictability quickly made it a favorite among art students. Since it has three different aperture settings, variable shutter speeds, and a pinhole option, it seemed an appropriate way to learn a bit more without breaking the bank.

So far, I can say with complete certainty that it's true love. The learning curve is not steep at all: I took one practice roll before leaving for vacation to get accustomed to the manual shutter, and on the very next shoot, I was able to capture the image at left (like what I did there with the egotism bit?). A lot of the images on the film are vignetted, evocative of the silent film era, but the camera is also prone to light leaks, which can either enchant or annoy, depending on your aesthetic (they can be prevented by covering the seams of the camera in black electrical tape). The camera also does tend to advance by itself, so if you don't want double exposures, you'll probably want a protective bag.

The only other difficulty is finding 120 film. In New York City, I have only been able to find it at photographic equipment stores, most of which have limited hours. I either have to plan ahead or order online and wait for delivery. Sadly, I was planning on snapping some photos this past weekend at the stunningly decrepit Coney Island but was not able to get to the shop on time.

In spite of any inconveniences, I think the Diana+ is pretty wonderful. I'm a nostalgist at heart, so loading film and hearing the crank of the manual film advance is just so marvelously novel to me, and the images really do make you feel like you're looking back in time. If you've never used a toy camera and you're curious to learn more about the photographic process, the Diana+ or the Holga 120N are both an excellent place to start.

I'm sure that it is abundantly clear by now that we here at ShopWiki are what you may call "hunk enthusiasts". We love our hunks, and we love celebrating them, but what we do not love is the exclusion factor. For one hunk to be chosen means a different hunk has been ignored, and some Fridays, it is a veritable Sophie's choice to pick a sole stud from the multitudes of choice candidates. Often, I end up sobbing at my desk from the horrible injustice of it all.

Had I known what I was getting myself into, I might have thought twice before embarking on this journey. But ah! To give this up would be giving a piece of myself up as well; it would be to ignore my true calling.

Today, however, I need a brief respite from decision-making. Therefore, instead of selecting one particular hunk, I would like to celebrate the entire pantheon of hunkdom. I have found a number of products that honor beefcakes, studs, man candy, lotharios, and heartbreakers, and I encourage all of you to shout it from the mountaintops with us: we love hunks!

Sometimes I have to sit down because I am just so overwhelmed by the mass quantities of nun merchandise that have saturated the market. I get the sweats and my head starts to spin just thinking about all I have yet to collect. It's kinda like that Socrates quote about the wiser you get the dumber you realize you are - the more nun memorabilia you collect, the more you realize is out there. Or something like that. I dunno, I didn't really pay much attention in philosophy.

Anyway, this is on my short list to collect. I personally think you can never be too thin*, too rich, or have too many nun artifacts lying around the house, and you would do well to follow my example.

Nunzilla's got a bad habit and she's not afraid to show it! Get her wound up and watch the sparks fly out of her mouth! But beware of her trusty ruler - if she gets you, it's 40 Hail Marys under her watchful eye. In the original Latin. And in the pig Latin of that. If you flee the country, she will find you.

Sisters are doing it for themselves! For those of you who would have enjoyed the TV series "Bosom Buddies" had it not been for the secular overtones, I propose this film, a delightful romp of a story where two bank robbers disguise themselves as nuns to avoid the police. Ancient studio legend has it that "Nuns on the Run" was the first film in which the title was created first - the story being only secondary. However, skeptics postulate that many a project is based around a punny name, so don't be ridiculous.

In this corner, weighing in at a slight 107 pounds, Sister Mary Lazarus is ready to defend her title as light-weight champion of the world. Fortified on a steady diet of manna and sacramental wine, her speed will amaze you as she crusades against Sister Mary Roberta, a Mother Superior with a mother of a superiority complex. Who will win? Who will win?

The product description says it best: "Sitcoms from the late sixties taught everybody an important lesson: nuns are built to fly". Sally Field herself never reached the great heights that these streamlined sisters will, not even when she won the Oscar for Norma Rae. In fact, the only way this product could be better would be if it were really NunChuck Norris.

*This statement does not reflect the views of Shopwiki, Overlooked, or its partners. Eat something, will you? Start with some Communion wafers.

(A conversation between lengli's & Renee's 4-year-old selves)

4-year-old lengli: I love My Little Pony! This one is named Merriweather and she's a Sparkle Pony and she's my favorite because she can fly. I like to pretend the bathtub is a pool and then we have a pool party. She's the most beautifulest pony I've ever seen and I love her.

I hate dolls! And I hate babies! My grandma once gave me a doll for my birthday and I told her I hated it, yuck! They're ugly and stupid. Animals are better because they're pretty. My neighbor's cat sleeps in our sink. It's funny.

4-year-old Renee: Nuh uhhh! How come your ponies are always naked? You don't get cool clothes to put on them...that's BOR-ING. No one likes naked things. My mom says I can't be outside naked and she tells me not to play with my Barbies when they're naked. She bought me lots of clothes for them. Even little Barbie clothes hangers! Besides my Barbie can ride your Pony so that means it's better. Mom says I shouldn't let the Pony ride my Barbie though. Especially if they're both naked. And Ponies are always naked. Ew.

I love my Barbies. I hate your Ponies. But I like being naked. Mom said I should stop saying that.

Is it just me, or is this completely the opposite of everything that a snow globe is supposed to represent? When I think of snow globes, I think of a lovely little scene - perhaps the Eiffel Tower, the North Pole, or Cleveland - that is instantly made magical by the light dusting of newly-fallen snow.

Instead we get to shake up the globe and see Freddy's newest victim have her vision obstructed by all the random crap that's swirling through the air as he lays in wait, pondering the perfect moment to strike.

Despite my reservations, I'm tagging this as a gift idea because we all have those occasions where you just want to completely alienate someone. Pestery great-aunt keeps sending you socks for your birthday? Send her one of these babies for hers and she'll soon realize you aren't worth the trouble. Ex-boyfriends or girlfriends keep calling? FedEx this over and wait for the restraining orders to come in!* Or maybe you just have a horror film enthusiast in your life, in which case this actually is the perfect gift. But if you ask me, you might want to reconsider that particular friendship. For your own good.

*Neither Overlooked nor ShopWiki condone this sort of behavior, you sick, sick bastard.

About the time when girls were bringing Caboodles makeup cases to sleepovers and wearing slap-wrap bracelets, best friends everywhere finally found the perfect avenue with which to express their devotion: the Best Friends Necklace.

Two half-heart pendants that when put together form a single heart, the best friend necklace was the elementary school equivalent of a wedding ring. It bonded you and your best pal for the entirety of that school year (at least!) and it let others know to back off - you were taken. A shy and withdrawn child ever since Steve B. pulled up my skirt in kindergarten while I was handing out snacks to the other students (you hear that, Steve? I'm publicly outing you!!), I in particular felt the sting of not having a best friend with whom to share the necklace, which in my mind was the ultimate declaration of friendship.

Based on my experience, which I'm sure was one shared by many, I would like to state here today my theory for the Next Big Thing in fashion: the resurrection of the Best Friends Necklace. Given the hipster tendency towards irony and the fact that true hipsters are traditionally characterized by a sense of alienation from society, I can see few other more perfect means for them to display not only the omnipresent love of nostalgia, but also, if you were to wear both halves of the necklace at once, the sentiment of being perfectly outside society!

Just remember, when they start selling them at Urban Outfitters, you heard it here first.

Who doesn't hate when their umbrella gets flipped inside out? Thankfully, the good folks at Windbrella devised a solution to this problem. The magic is the vented slots between the upper and lower canopy. This allows the wind to effortlessly pass through your umbrella while it wreaks havoc on those lesser models.

Check out this picture. Notice that one guy has a Windbrella (you can tell by the divide between the upper & lower canopy) and one guy doesn't? Guess which one showed up for work drier.

Sure, it's a bit more expensive than the $5 umbrellas for sale on every street-corner, but trust me this is well worth it. I own one and must say its an essential accessory for any rainy day. It's not the most exciting gift you can give this holiday season, but it's certainly one of the most practical.

One more time, just because I can.