Toy World

April 13th, 2026

Happy Homestuck Day. I’ve been thinking about toys a lot again. I have a pretty expansive definition of what a ‘toy’ is, really just any object that’s fun to use. Last week I went to Ikea, to help Paul by a sofa, and also to just do literally anything outside of my house during week 5 of a depressive episode. I expected walking through the showroom to be a test of patience at best, but walking through the life-size dollhouses actually brought me a lot of joy that day. I was having blissful, childlike fun playing around in the Ikea showroom, which of course means they got me to spend my money while I was there.

Ikea logo shirt with retroreflective print was designed specifically to get me.

When I was in college, I briefly had a stint as a product design major. I ended up not going through with that because it was too politically fraught for me to imagine going into that industry as a career. But, I still really give a damn about what we call the ‘applied arts’, even if the consequences of mass production keep me up at night.

I wanted to show off what I call my ‘nugget collection’, the handheld electronics I carry around with me most days. I guess this fits in with the whole ‘analog trend’ I’ve seen people talk about online, even though only one of these devices is actually analog. I was born in ‘98, so I’m young enough to have had a smartphone and all of its wonderfully convenient and compulsory services from the older half of my adolescence onward. But, I’m also old enough to have owned a phone with a flip-out keyboard, several mp3 players, and many a Kodak point-and-shoot camera. Owning and using gadgets like this is nearly always an intentional divestment from ‘big tech’. It’s that way for me, but it’s also just about using the tech literacy skills I have from a different time to make life more enjoyable. These devices will, materially, be around forever — so we may as well use them!

A three-inch-long smartphone in a clear rubber case, with a wrist strap connected to the bottom.

The Unihertz Jelly Star, with case and wrist strap included.

This is the thing that gets the most comments: my tiny phone. I bought this last fall and have been using it as my one and only smartphone since then. I had been looking for a smaller alternative to the current smartphone models because my hands are TINY and even the smallest iPhone they make was giving me chronic carpal tunnel syndrome. My friend Rodo, who coincidentally has the same size hands as me, was using this phone and gave me his advice on how to get started with it. When I bought one, I decided to take the tiny phone lifestyle a step further and outfit it with LineageOS, an AOSP operating system that removes a ton of Google bloatware and gives more options for managing privacy. Lou helped me with the whole ordeal of setting it up. I remember I asked many friends more tech savvy than I if it would be a good idea, to which they all said no — but Loud said, “sounds like fun!”

The most frequent comments I get on this thing are: “Is that a Tamagotchi?” “How do you make a call?” “Does the keyboard slide out?”

I’m really satisfied with this guy since it gives me a good balance of ‘dumb phone’ friction with all the amenities of a normal android phone. I think I would only switch to something else if the size became a chronic problem, or if something else comes along that feels like an even better balance of silly and practical.

Front and back view of the iPod mini, a rectangular mp3 player a little over three inches tall with a two-color display and click wheel controls.

My life affirming personal electronic device, the 2005 iPod Mini.

This was my birthday gift for myself last year. As part of the itch to ditch my iPhone, I was looking for the best ways to move my music collection back onto an iPod. I watched some videos on modding the Mini, and decided it would be a good challenge for me to try messing around with electronics for the first time.

I changed out the battery and put in a flash storage adapter with 128gb of storage. The upper limit of storage on these is way higher than that, but my music collection at this moment hasn’t even brought me below 100gb of free space, so I’m chilling.

This thing is just pure fun. I get excited just anticipating getting to use it. Sometimes I try to listen to relaxing music before bed, but the iPod just gets me so hyped that I lose all progress and stay up another hour. I’m in the process of changing out the stereo system in my car so I can have an aux cord to play music off of it.

A black, plastic point and shoot film camera with a neon red strap connected to it.

The SHOW Camera by Dubblefilm, a Spanish company that also produces specialty film stock.

This is the newest toy, I bought it this past December around Christmas. Since I no longer had an iPhone to take nice pictures of my friends with, I started concerning myself more with my relationship to photography, and what I wanted out of it. I was in a local film developing shop looking at options for instant cameras, and saw this. It’s meant to be a reusable version of the disposable point-and-shoot cameras I took to summer camp as a kid. It’s full auto focus, no real control aside from turning the flash on and off. I love it for bringing to parties and hangouts with friends. I’ve shot Kodak Portra 200 and Ilford HP 400, and both are great.

two fursuiters, a handsome cat and a cute, droopy-faced coyote, posing affectionately with each other in a darkened bar scene.

Example of Portra 200, shot in a dark interior with flash.

two peoples' heads and hands seen from behind, working on a sudoku puzzle in a magazine that is surrounded by bottles and knick knacks on a coffee table.

Example of Ilford HP 400, once again shot in a dark interior with flash.

My friend Thomas offered to make prints of my photos in exchange for me buying the paper. Having the physical pictures to give away - even if it’s several weeks or months after the fact - is my favorite part of this thing. I hang them up around my house, I love seeing them in other people’s homes, and I’m glad to know that folks will be able to remember good days for years into the future.

This is the only actually analog device I have, and the design aesthetic of it definitely reflects that. I’ve actually worn this camera as an accessory before, just hanging around my neck. Very versatile!

The last nugget is not pictured, but it’s the digital point-and-shoot camera I used to take all of these photos. It’s a Sony DSC-HX80. What’s funny is that in the past when I’ve carried in around, I’ve actually had comments from people saying “ooh, so retro!” — for a camera that was made in 2017. Just goofy to me.

For the nearly 10 years I’ve owned this, I only ever used the auto modes it comes with, since I’m really not a photographer, and only know the minimum about taking pictures to document my art. I recently actually decided to learn how to use my camera in full manual mode, and it’s made a huge difference in the quality of my photos. Once again, I have a ton of fun using this thing, and it’s making me take more considered photos wherever I am.

Not much of a conclusion here. This was fun to write. Talk to you later.