We have a winner in the Worst Gift Ever contest for the $100 JCPenney gift card. Thanks to everyone who shared their stories.

It was close, but John, who bought his wife a manure spreader for Mother’s Day, just edged out Jean, whose husband gave her a faucet for their anniversary while she gifted him with a weekend spa package. I have some HP Photo Books on hand from a previous project so two are on their way to Jean as second prize.

John says he’s learned his lesson and plans to give the gift card directly to his wife. Good call John!

It’s a not-so-little secret that most people have regifted at one time or another. Why not? If you receive something that isn’t quite right for you, whether style or fit or utility, and for whatever reason, you can’t return it, there isn’t anything wrong with giving it in turn to someone who would like it or be able to use it.

Within the limits of good taste of course. It’s generally not wise to regift something back to the person who gave it to you or in a situation where the original giver might awkwardly become aware of the regift.

Or to announce at the top of your lungs that it is a regift.

A lesson my son has yet to learn alas. Last fall, we found a craft kit more suitable for younger children in the closet. It was a rainy day emergency gift that my mom had picked up when Douglas was in pre-school. He is far too old for it now, so together we decided to give it to my husband’s four year old grandson T. as one of his Christmas gifts from Douglas. Yes, that would make him Doug’s nephew but he adamantly resists that label and I respect his wishes.

The day after Christmas my step-daughter and her son came over to the house to exchange gifts. When T. got to the afore-mentioned regift, Douglas cheerfully announced to all in the room that the kit was something someone got for him but he was too old for it now so he gave it to T.

It could have been extremely mortifying. Luckily, although my mom was there, I had warned her beforehand and she was fine with it. My step-daughter also had just finished telling us some of her holiday regifting strategies; while I won’t go into details, let’s just say she has embraced the tactic to a far greater and deeper extent than we have.

What do I regift? Not much really, but there are a few things that are almost guaranteed to hit the regift pile.

Red wine. Unless we drink it during your visit, it’s going to go on the wine rack, and next time we have to bring a bottle of wine somewhere, it’s very likely to be regifted. I prefer white or champagne, and Dave isn’t that crazy for wine in the first place. But I’ll put it in a really nice fabric sleeve that the recipient can use next time she brings a bottle of wine to someone. I even won’t be offended if the sleeve ends up coming back to me someday. It’s what’s in the bottle that matters 

Photo albums and some photo frames. These make great dog show trophies and I’m always stockpiling them.

Books we already have or will never read. Luckily most folks that bought my son “On the day you were born” didn’t write an inscription.

During the holidays, boxed chocolates. It comes into the house, it goes out as fast as we possibly can. We still have some chocolates up in Vermont from Christmas 2007 that we will never eat.

Duplicates. More than one of the same toy or knick knack or whatever. The dupe goes in the gift closet.

Regifting rules?

You have to truly believe that the recipient will like the item. Otherwise, you are just passing on your junk. If it’s really that horrible, put it in the basement. It will either break, get lost or your kids will find it and think it’s a treasure.

The item should be new and unused. Want to give something that you’ve used? By all means, but it’s a wee bit tacky to wrap it up and present it as new. Just give it already. Note: this does not mean you can’t find lovely gifts for family and friends at flea markets and yard sales. I only deplore the practice when it’s your used item and you are implicitly passing it off as new. Not good.

Think long and hard about regifting anything received from your immediate family. Especially your young children. No matter how kitschy. Gifts from your young children are sacrosanct. As they get older, and begin to appreciate the benefits of regifting, the situation changes. Be honest though. Tell them beforehand. Even if they don’t live with you, they might come to visit and notice the absence of whatever it is.

As noted in the outset, keep track of who you received the item from and when. That way you won’t regift it to the original giver or in the presence of the original giver.

What was the most awful gift you’ve ever received? Did you regift it? The above-pictured chicken lamp was actually a dog show trophy we won years ago, and it still makes me shake my head. It had to be a regift. There’s no other explanation for a chicken lamp as a conformation dog show trophy.

The folks at JCPenney, in conjunction with their Doghouse campaign, have given me a $100 gift card to award to one of my readers. All you have to do is tell us about the worst gift you ever gave or received. I’ll even take third-party stories, as in “my friend once…” On a post on your blog or here in the comments, either is fine. Just be sure to leave a comment on this post or on my original post, which has more details about the contest and Penney’s campaign. My brother is the judge. Contest ends midnight EST February 7th. All the usual applies, void where prohibited, etc. etc.

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A quick follow-up on last week’s post about President Obama. Jonathan Pontell wrote an editorial in yesterday’s USA Today that brought up many of the same points:  Stuck in the middle.

JC Penney has been running a campaign called Beware of the Doghouse that highlights the consequences for men who buy inappropriate holiday gifts for their wives and girlfriends.

I wrote about this campaign from a marketing point of view over on Marketing Roadmaps. Mostly positive, a few criticisms.

I’ve gotten to know one of Penney’s agencies through some of the other topics I write about, and they offered me a $100 gift card for a contest prize for my readers.

That’s ONE gift card, folks, but it’s enough to buy a nice Valentine’s gift for your significant other. Or let’s face it, clothes for the kids or new towels.

Now, I happen to think jewelry, the JCP product pitched in this campaign, is actually a pretty nice gift. Once your partner understands the type of jewelry you like, it always fits and you never have to wait in return lines after the holidays.

Seriously, think about Christmas. I can think of no better argument for jewelry as a gift than the following exhibits:

So, here’s my contest. Write a post about the worst gift you ever gave or got from a significant other. Please link to this post and leave a comment here as well so my other readers find your story.

My brother has graciously agreed to be my judge, so he will review all the stories and pick his favorite. You don’t have to link to the JC Penney video to be entered, but it’s pretty funny, so you make the call.

Contest ends at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, February 7, 2009. Void where prohibited and all that jazz.

UPDATE 1/29/09: It has been gently pointed out to me that people may not want to get in trouble with a significant other by calling out a gift as awful, so I have decided to expand the scope to any giver/receiver. You can also relate a third-person tale if you wish. Also, since some folks don’t have blogs, you can leave your story in the comments or write your own post, whichever you prefer. Just make sure that something ends up in the comments to this post as that’s where we will pull the entries from.

Well, I finally had time to mess around with video so here is my contribution to the documentation of last Friday’s parent blogger karaoke meet-up in New York. I had a few more clips than the ones in this movie, but my video skilz were even more pathetic in those, so I decided to spare you.

Thanks again to Liz from Cool Mom Picks for getting us all together. See more pics and video at Joy Unexpected and Petroville.

On another note, folks seem to have had their say about the character of Daniel Jackson on SG-1 in my action figure giveaway — all good — so feel free to wax poetic on any of the other characters. Just be sure to leave the comment on my Ark of Truth review post by the end of the month. So far, we have enough comments that the Mitchell figure will be going to a new home on May 1st, but Vala and the Prior will still be stuck in my storage closet.

Tomorrow in SciFi Sunday, Speed Racer news, thoughts on the new Sarah Jane Adventures and my grade of Friday’s Battlestar Galactica.

Technorati Tags: Stargate SG-1, Cool Mom Picks, parent bloggers, karaoke

Okay, let’s get this out of the way right away. I liked Ark of Truth. It wasn’t great art. It wasn’t even great science fiction.

But it was good science fiction, a reasonable way to spend a couple hours and my son enjoyed it.

What was good about it?

Ben Browder and Claudia Black performing together, always a plus. Chemistry? Uhm, yeah. Even when mebbe there isn’t supposed to be…. I started watching Stargate SG-1 when Browder joined the cast and stayed with it for him and Black. Before that, I just couldn’t get into the show. Perhaps because it started at a time when I did not have cable, and so I just wasn’t in the habit. But mostly I think because I could not get invested in the characters. I didn’t dislike them per se, and the performances were fine, but O’Neill, Carter, Teal’c and Jackson as characters. Mostly left me cold.

Especially, and still, Jackson. Don’t shoot me – enter my action figure giveaway instead and tell me why I should care about this character. Because I don’t dislike the character and I appreciate Michael Shanks as an actor. I just find I cannot care about the character of Daniel Jackson. But many of you do. Tell me, tell me.

More goodness. The performances of Currie Graham as IOA bad guy Merrick and Tim Guinee as Ori warrior and former Vala spouse Tomin. There is a scene with Tomin and Teal’c that I think sums up both characters in the Stargate arc, and that says a lot, given that Teal’c was part of it from the beginning. Kudos to the writers and the actors.

More chemistry. Ben Browder has great chemistry with Amanda Tapping (Carter) here too. Something we did not see on Stargate Atlantis with Carter and any of the characters on that show, including Sheppard, played by Joe Flanigan, a character and actor I really like. Fault of the actors? No. I think it is a combination of the fact that Browder could have chemistry with a broomstick, and that Sheppard/Joe Flanigan had such great chemistry with the axed Weir character played by Torri Higginson that nothing else quite measures up. Are you listening, PTB?

Walter. Played by Gary Jones. What else can I say….

About half way through the film, the film splits into two main stories. Daniel, Vala, Tomin and Teal’c continue the search for the Ark of Truth, and Carter and Mitchell deal with a Replicator threat. I think this was a good choice. This allows all the characters their “moment in the sun.”

Some additional observations:

• The wormhole F/X when the Odyssey goes through the Super Gate, especially at the beginning, are awesome.
• I had never seen the Replicator storyline on SG-1, only the humaniform Asuran storyline on SGA, so I found the little mechanical Replicators quite unnerving
• The score when Teal’c is hiking through the mountains was very majestic.
• There’s one scene, late in the film, where Vala is brought into a room and daughter/Ori/Ascended Being Adria joins her. My dog Reva growled. Not sure whether it was the music or something in the scene that disturbed her, but she was pissed.
• Weirdness: The jumpsuits the people wear on Odyssey (and Daedalus for that matter) are just weird. Aren’t pants and shirts more convenient. You know…..

The DVD extras are okay. I don’t tend to buy DVDs for the extras, but I know many do. If you are looking for a lot on that score, you’ll probably be disappointed. The main extras are a commentary, the usual “filming of,” and a Stargate panel from last year’s Comic Con. Chris Judge (Teal’c) is particularly amusing on the Comic Con panel.

Bottom line: if you are a Stargate fan, you’ll enjoy it. If you aren’t, but you’d like to dip your toe into the franchise, it sounds like this summer’s Continuum might be the better bet.

Purchasing links:

DVD: Stargate – The Ark of Truth

Download: Stargate: The Ark of Truth

The giveaway:

Long story short, I have some extra SG-1 action figures. Mitchell, Vala and the Ori Prior. I’m going to give away one of each at the end of April and the remaining three when the second film, Continuum, is released this summer.

How to enter: As I admitted above, I had a hard time getting into the SG-1 characters until Ben Browder and Claudia Black joined the cast. Especially Daniel Jackson. I don’t dislike the character, and the actor Michael Shanks does a fine job. I just find that I don’t really care what happens to the character, and I need that to remember to tune in week after week.

So, in the comments on this post, tell me why I should like Daniel. Are there specific episodes to watch that you think would “bring me over?” Or if you happen to have the same problem I do, share. Why do you have a hard time connecting with the character of Daniel Jackson? Is he really that much of a cold fish?

To enter the April giveaway:

• Leave a comment on my SciFi Sunday: Ark of Truth review. Tell me why I should give Daniel a chance. Or not.
• I’d be thrilled if you shared this giveaway with friends or readers of your own blog if you wish, but it is NOT a requirement to enter.
• I will give away one figure for every 10 comments on the blog. In other words, I will give away ONLY the Mitchell figure if I get 10 or less comments. 20 or less comments, Mitchell and Vala. Anything over 21 comments, I’ll give away all three figures in the first giveaway in April. Same rules will apply for the later giveaway.

Entries will close on Wednesday April 30, 2008 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Winners will be selected using a random number generator and announced on Snapshot Chronicles on May 1. Using the relevant number limits as above, the first comment selected will get the Mitchell figure, the second, the Vala figure and the third, the Prior figure.

Giveaway open to adult residents, 18 years or older, of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Void where prohibited.

Questions? Email sgetgood@getgood.com

COMMENTS ON THIS POST ARE NOW CLOSED 

Technorati Tags: Stargate SG-1, Ark of Truth, science fiction, giveaway, action figures, Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge