Believe it or not, a Christmas tree won't stay upright on its own. Instead, you need a stable Christmas tree stand that can accommodate the type and size of tree you have. We researched dozens of the best Christmas tree stands to help you find the right one for your needs, whether you have a real tree, an artificial tree, a small tree, or a behemoth. The stands in our guide have a track record of durability, performance, and easy setup. We also outline the size and type of tree each stand is meant for. Check out our guide to the best Christmas tree skirts once you've chosen the right stand for your tree. The best Christmas tree stands in 2022 Best Christmas tree stand overall: Krinner Tree Genie Christmas Tree Stand, available at Amazon, $82.79 The German-engineered Krinner Tree Genie Christmas Tree Stand is easy to set up in a couple of minutes and keeps trees up to 12 f...
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How to Avoid an Online Shopping Fail
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Photo: Kaspars Grinvalds (Shutterstock)
Ever opened up a package only to find that the sturdy, beautiful item you ordered is tissue-paper-thin, or far larger (or smaller) than it looked online? We have a few tips to help you make sure that what you receive isn’t going to be a disappointment—whether you’re buying it as a gift or for yourself.
Look at a lighter color
This excellent tip comes from Reddit, where one smart shopper advises that you shop for dark-colored shoes, bags, and clothing by looking at the lighter colorways.
Stitching, texture, material, and other details may not always show up well in photos of black, brown, dark gray, or navy items. But if the same backpack, say, is available in a light gray or beige, the photo there may offer more clues about how it’s made.
This is where you realize that part of the bag is cloth where you thought it was leather, or that it only has a one-way zipper where you were expecting the kind with two zipper pulls. On clothing, you’ll be able to notice seams in weird places, or that it doesn’t have pockets where you expect.
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Take measurements and check specs
Clothing shopping for someone else can be dicey if it requires you to know the specific size and fit of the item. But if you do have those measurements, or if you can compare to yourself or a family member of similar size, definitely make use of the size chart.
This applies to non-clothing items, too. Especially if you think you’re getting a good deal on something, measure to make sure it’s the dimensions you expect. We’ve all seen those photos from people who didn’t realize they were buying dollhouse furniture, but it can happen with other items, too. For example, I once shopped for very small weight plates to put on an Olympic bar, and then fell into a comparison-shopping rabbit hole. I didn’t realize until the package arrived that the plates had a 1" instead of a 2" hole, and didn’t fit my barbell.
So, double check the dimensions before you check out. If you’re buying doll clothes, for example, there’s a big difference between clothes for 18" dolls and clothes for 14" dolls. For some items, you may even want to trace out the measurements onto a piece of paper or cardboard to see if it’s a good size. (I’ve done this when shopping for phones.)
Look at resale websites to see how it wears
The photos on a shopping website give you the best view of the object. Someone has chosen the most flattering angles, and possibly stuffed or smoothed its shape. If it’s an item that can be worn, the model’s body type might also skew your sense of how it will look in real life.
Fortunately, there are other ways to see what the item really looks like. Some shopping sites allow customers to upload photos or videos with a review, but these still tend to be newer items, just unboxed.
For a more honest look, check out places where people sell gently used items, like Poshmark. If something fades, wears, or scuffs easily, you’ll see evidence of that. This can also help you to make a considered decision about whether you actually want to buy this item, rather than being dazzled by the way it’s packaged or photographed.
A redditor in r/MakeupRehab posted that they check out used listings of expensive makeup to see whether they still like it after seeing it mussed up. “I rarely am excited to buy it after,” they note. If you’re tempted to buy things for yourself while gift shopping, this could be a good way to temper that excitement.
I recently watched “ the greatest film of all time ,” and the most boring one. In retrospect, the title alone should have been a sufficient warning: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles . Alas, I’m old enough to be a bit nostalgic about massive telephone address books. And massive it is. Clocking over 200 minutes, Chantal Akerman's 1975 dreary drama follows three days in the monotonous routine of Jeanne, a widow, a mother, and a prostitute. I watched Jeanne’s autopilot existence, until, staring at her back as she washes dishes, I decided to fast-forward a couple of minutes, only to discover she was still at it. And Jeanne is equally thorough when she’s busy baking, cleaning, folding laundry, or shining her son’s shoes. She speaks so scarcely and mechanically, that it’s impossible to detect any emotion or volition beyond her carefully controlled chores . Watching Jeanne Dielman is what the word “painstaking” was invented for. Chantal...
Stored procedures: like functions for your SQL. A stored procedure is a batch of SQL statements created and stored on a database. You can reuse a stored procedure over and over again. A stored procedure can accept parameters, run a query, and return results. Many users can call a stored procedure and different applications can call it with different parameter values. What Are the Benefits of Using Stored Procedures? Apart from allowing multiple users and applications to reuse it, a stored procedure has other benefits. It is easy to modify. You can change a stored procedure when necessary and these updates will be reflected for all users. Furthermore, you don’t need to redeploy your application when you modify the stored procedure. It reduces network traffic because the server only passes the procedure’s name over the network and not the entire query. It improves database security since users don’t have direct access to tables. To make...
Believe it or not, a Christmas tree won't stay upright on its own. Instead, you need a stable Christmas tree stand that can accommodate the type and size of tree you have. We researched dozens of the best Christmas tree stands to help you find the right one for your needs, whether you have a real tree, an artificial tree, a small tree, or a behemoth. The stands in our guide have a track record of durability, performance, and easy setup. We also outline the size and type of tree each stand is meant for. Check out our guide to the best Christmas tree skirts once you've chosen the right stand for your tree. The best Christmas tree stands in 2022 Best Christmas tree stand overall: Krinner Tree Genie Christmas Tree Stand, available at Amazon, $82.79 The German-engineered Krinner Tree Genie Christmas Tree Stand is easy to set up in a couple of minutes and keeps trees up to 12 f...
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