The RV recommends: A mall-free holiday

I abide by a personal rule not to go inside a shopping mall between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If I have to break it (not very often), I only go on a weekday. Mall culture gets to me at the best of times.

Here are 5 suggestions that don't require you to set foot inside a mall. (Oh, and don't forget about Buy Nothing Day, November 23/24, depending on your part of the world.)

1. A photograph from Equivoque's collection. I love her blue-tinted photos, which were taken with now-defunct Polaroid Time-Zero film. (The prints for sale are reprints from scans of those originals.) More Time-Zero photos can be found here.



2. Jewelry from Anne Holman's Etsy shop. Her many cool designs include custom antique map pendants, and you know how I feel about maps. The one pictured is the one she made for me, but you can ask for a custom pendant showing literally any location on earth. Vegans note that the cord is leather, but I'm sure she would have a vegan replacement.



3. Tea from Upton's. This store offers the highest-quality tea I've seen in North America. Their sample sizes are a great idea and allow you to try a bit of that special small-estate Darjeeling that's $30/bag. (Most of their teas are very reasonably priced, though!) They also have customer-submitted reviews of each tea and a detailed picture of each tea leaf.



4. A cosy knitted item from Heyday Fashion, such as this adorable toy



for the over-3-years kid in your life or this cute hat for a friend. (This hat is vegan but some of the other ones are made with wool.)



5. Don't forget charitable contributions. Seva will let you restore sight to one person in an underdeveloped country who is blind from cataracts. The cost of sight? $50.



(Oh, and if you want to send some of the best brownies in the world that are decidedly not vegan, go here. And I'm not saying this just because I've known the brownie-makers since I was 3!)

Something old, something new

As promised, I am back. I spent a few days in a beach cottage with my better half--a welcome break after the workathon to get my condo ready to sell. There was no internet access and that was probably a good thing!

I'll post a writeup of one of our beachy meals once I find the camera USB cord. (A side effect of clearing all the clutter from my condo is that now I can't find anything.)

In the meantime, I thought I'd do something different and pass along some music recommendations. I've been listening to some older music lately and found that these have stood the test of time:

--Remember this dance? Actually, HS and I saw MC Hammer perform a few short weeks ago. For free! He brought it, that's for sure.
--A new wave classic
--There will always be a special place in my heart for britpop.

I also wanted to share the video pictured because I am massively impressed with the Pipettes' debut. It's just too bad that the CD didn't come out during the summer, since it could have been the record of summer '07 for me.

The Reluctant Vegan recommends

This is the first in an infrequent series of things (vegan or not) that I like and recommend.

The RV recommends: Saying "I understand."

I'm not gonna get all pop-psychology here, but it's amazing what saying this phrase can do. It tends to bring out the best in people.

The cashier can't give you a refund because you don't have your receipt? You understand. (And you'd be surprised how often rules can be bent.)

Someone is upset with you? You understand. Watch the situation start to get better from that point.

My UPS man wouldn't leave packages at my door because of the risk of theft. It was a major inconvenience because the UPS pickup location is 30 minutes away, but the next time I saw him in person, I said I understood. Since then, he's left packages on my balcony without being asked to.

It's important to be sincere, and not to say "I understand" in the hopes of the other person giving you what you want.