The Glade 4.0

Hmmm mine was a warm fuzzy blanket that my grandmother knitted just for me. I keep it with me where ever I go.

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Entertainment value - Mass Effect 2
Productivity - Wacom Intuos4
Sentiment - Not sure I can pick one

Before my grandmother died, she got me a statue of a wolf chasing a rabbit around a tree into a hole. Certainly the one that stands out in my mind.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

A friend

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Holy shitsnacks!

This year I got a really early Christmas present.

I have had the chance to renew a relationship with my biological father. Everything else is secondary.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Last year for Christmas my wife gave me a Millennium Falcon, the big one. Always had wanted one when I was a kid but my parents couldn't afford it.

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~Tolyn~

"A penny for your thoughts; $20 to act it out."

My parents paid for my airfare to Tokyo last year

11 years old, just shy of 12.......I received my only sibling and brother AND a dirt bike (suzuki 50cc) for Christmas. It was a grand time.

1 week later, I gifted my parents who were already under stress due to the newborn, a great case of pneumonia from riding my dirt bike every waking moment.

I felt really bad for my dad as he had run me to the hospital every morning at 7am for 2 weeks for breathing treatments, and also had to stay with mom post child birth in the hospital because she had complications due to having a child later in life.

The poor guy had a tough time during that Xmas season. He is a great dad.

What seems like a million years ago, when I was in my very early 20's, I moved cross country to Arizona from the east coast. After setting up shop, and having been there for a few months I was complete broke as the Christmas season rolled around. I had resigned myself to spending the holiday alone, 3000 miles away from everyone I loved. That's when I got a call from my brothers and sister. They had saved up the money to fly me home for Christmas, and informed me that my flight was leaving in about 5 hours so I needed to get packed and get my *** to the airport. It was easily one of the happiest moments of my life, and hands down my best Christmas presents ever.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

My mother gets me the new Drizzt book every year since "The Silent Blade" It is a very important tradition, especially when I lived farther from home.

And I have a homemade "sock monkey" from my Grandmother when I was little. My mother had the foresight to keep him after I outgrew the phase of his constant companionship. Gram restitched him a couple years before she passed on, and he sits on the shelf in my parents' basement.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Here's my own little taleof Ralphie-like neurotic holiday crisis: The one I got the most excited about was an electronic spaceship called the Starbird. It made electronic pewpew noises at the push of a button, but it also made engine noises that changed pitch depending on if it was tilted up or down. I thought it was the coolest thing ever when I first saw the commercial on Saturday morning during cartoons.

I pestered my parents about it for the longest time. I grabbed the box at the store and drooled on multiple occasions. I was as annoying as a fixated 8 year old could possibly be.

When Christmastime came around, presents soon began appearing under the tree, and I carefully scrutinized each new arrival. But nothing for me was the right size box. But then again, there was always Santa, I told myself...

But then one day there were 2 new presents for me under the tree...and BOTH were the right size! I shook them...they both rattled like the boxes I'd fondled at the store so many times! They couldn't both be my precious Starbird! I didn't need 2! I HAD to know!

There was no other option...I was gonna peek. But I knew that I would suffer The Wrath of Mom if I was obvious about it. So I ever so carefully lifted up the edge of the paper on the side of one of the boxes...

Wrong color. It was something else entirely. So I carefully put back the corner and smoothed down the tape. Looked perfect, as if I'd never touched it.

So I grabbed the second box, looked around to make sure the coast was clear, and slowly, carefully lifted up on the seam...and it was the right color! I saw the edge of the logo! YES!!!

Riiiiiiiiiiiiip went the paper as I twitched in victory! It wasn't a huge rip, but it was obviously not whole...and there was no way in hell I could hide the imperfection. My mom was a professional-grade gift wrapper, and I was nowhere near her league. So I tried to hide the gift in the pile, and I might have gotten away with it if my mom hadn't needed to rearrange the presents after she made another wrapping run.

But nothing happened. I didn't get in trouble. But I knew what it was, and although I was still excited to get it, and fooled no one with my less than Oscar worthy performance when I opened it. My mom even called me on it then.

I still loved the toy, but opening it just wasn't the same as when I got something I really wanted but didn't know for sure I was getting. I learned that anticipation was part of the magic of the whole experience, especially when I did the inevitable switch from Getting to Giving at Christmastime.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Blast from the past Colphax..

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

Awesome, Hokanu!

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Oh man! Memories...

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

When I was 12 or 13, my parents let a couple of new puppies into my bedroom to wake me up on Christmas morning. I've gotten a lot of great Christmas gifts (both tangible and intangible) over the years, but I think that's the one that drew the greatest immediate emotional response.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

After thinking about it, I don't think I've ever had a gift generate a significant emotional response. As a geek I unfortunately fall into the "get him a gift card to Best Buy" category more often than not. Of course I shop at Newegg.. but rarely does anyone bother to find that out.

My mother keeps buying me can cozies. o.O

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

Best gift I ever gave:

This year I made arrangements (renting equipment, etc) for my parents/grandparents to interview each other for the StoryCorps project and have their interviews archived in the Library of Congress.

Love giving gifts that bring people to (happy) tears