Christmas presents

[opt2not]

Wool socks and a good bottle of scotch.
Nothing beats the comfort of a warm belly and cosy feet during the long Canadian winter nights.

[lilshawn]

I have far too much disposable income, thus whenever I need or want anything i've always just gone out and got it.

When the holidays roll around and the topic of presents comes up I always just shrug my shoulders.

Quite honestly I need nothing, and want even less. althoughh the "seek thermal imaging camera" looks pretty neat and is super cheap compared to a flir camera.

http://www.amazon.ca/Seek-Thermal-Camera-for-Android/dp/B00XC774BG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448659851&sr=8-3&keywords=seek+thermal+xr

What I really want is for it to just friggin snow a dump already so I can bust out the snowblower. Shovelling an inch here and and inch there of this crap is getting on my nerves.

[HaRuMaN]

I have far too much disposable income

Sounds like you need some bartops

[lilshawn]

I have far too much disposable income

Sounds like you need some bartops

I've been building cocktail tables for resale to other vendors in the area for the last 6 or 8 months. did just under a dozen last 2 months... got another 3 that will be 100% done by the end of today and another 5 started. I'm getting cabinet'ed out. 

[ark_ader]

I bought myself three warm sweaters and Battle Front.  All wrapped and under the tree, I made sure I took the activation card out of Battle Front 

Everyone buys me the wrong stuff.  Not this year.

[Locke141]

Tanzanite?  Damn, son.

Tanzanite only can be found in Tanzania.

[eds1275]

I want my wife to stop being crazy. She's sick in the head due to reactions to anti deppressants. I'm fed up with it.

Other than that, I'd like Alien Isolation, the story mode for The Long Dark to be released, another Xbox One controller, some vodka/whiskey/scotch/beer. Everything else I want is super expensive. But if anyone wanted to buy me a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar I would be grateful

[pbj]

Gibson?  Lol.  Not in this lifetime.  You get Yamaha.

[lcmgadgets]

Me and a bunch of fellow roller skating enthusiasts are trying to create a roller rink in our city. We have almost everything we need--a detailed business plan, a pro shop & stock, rental skates, staff (including an owner/manager of a long closed rink), even a hard wood floor (in storage). What we need is MONEY. We've come up with incentives for people to invest, & many like our ideas. My Christmas wish is that enough of them take a chance, come forward & help make the dream come true (I'm still the only investor so far).

[CCM]

Me and a bunch of fellow roller skating enthusiasts are trying to create a roller rink in our city. We have almost everything we need--a detailed business plan, a pro shop & stock, rental skates, staff (including an owner/manager of a long closed rink), even a hard wood floor (in storage). What we need is MONEY. We've come up with incentives for people to invest, & many like our ideas. My Christmas wish is that enough of them take a chance, come forward & help make the dream come true (I'm still the only investor so far).

This has 'Christopher Guest movie' written all over it.

[eds1275]

This has 'Christopher Guest movie' written all over it.

pistachio nut, red pistachio nut, pine nut...

Gibson?  Lol.  Not in this lifetime.  You get Yamaha.

Yeah I don't expect people to drop that kind of coin on me. I have 3 gibson electrics but really I have had my heart set on a hummingbird for about 15 years. I actually went to buy one once, and the store couldn't find the keys to the glass display case it was in. While they were looking, I picked up a guild that was $2k cheaper and decided on that. It's a fantastic guitar, but I have regretted that ever since.

[lcmgadgets]

Omg--that just might be brilliant.

'THIS IS SKATELAND'

[pbj]

Yeah I don't expect people to drop that kind of coin on me. I have 3 gibson electrics but really I have had my heart set on a hummingbird for about 15 years. I actually went to buy one once, and the store couldn't find the keys to the glass display case it was in. While they were looking, I picked up a guild that was $2k cheaper and decided on that. It's a fantastic guitar, but I have regretted that ever since.

I went to the Gibson 'factory' at that mall in Nashville.  Figured I'd buy something for my wife.  There wasn't a single thing in there below $6k, which was about double my max on that adventure.  There also wasn't a single customer in there besides my peasant ass.

In the years since, I've heard rumblings of all kinds of financial and quality problems.

[eds1275]

Definitely. You have to try like 30 instruments before you get a good one, but the good ones are super nice. Most other people my age try to tell me that gibsons are for "rich old men with more money than sense." I admit it, I'm kind of a whore for them. They are very nice once you sift through the crap.

[Aceldamor]

a soul for pbj - so LEDs can illuminate his heart 

[Howard_Casto]

Hey he has a soul.... he showed me the Barry White album himself. 
*crickets*


....

So eds... I guess you wouldn't be a fan of my Kmart "Rok Axe" then?  Guaranteed to produce a sound of some kind when strumming the strings!

[opt2not]

[thomas_surles]

according to my paypal, my wife ordered me an everdrive 64

[BadMouth]

Hey he has a soul.... he showed me the Barry White album himself. 

I hear he collects both country AND western.
*crickets*

[SavannahLion]

Looks like it's been decided on a crazy shopping binge this past weekend.

A Wii U with Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario builder or whatever that game is.
An iPad Air
Three laptops and Minecraft for each
A new 28 inch TV for the mother unit
A guitar (Frozen)
Nerf gun
Fitbit

Notice... there's nothing there for me.

I should've guessed something when I heard my wallet scream a horrible death cry, shrivel up, and catch on fire.

[JMB]

Definitely. You have to try like 30 instruments before you get a good one, but the good ones are super nice. Most other people my age try to tell me that gibsons are for "rich old men with more money than sense." I admit it, I'm kind of a whore for them. They are very nice once you sift through the crap.

For years a "real" Les Paul was my most coveted guitar. After seeing all the issues a good friend has had with his "Made in the USA" Gibson I know I will never bother owning one now. Quality has just gone so far downhill. If I do get one it would be something older. Beyond that I would just take the Gibson cost and get something custom made. So many amazing small luthiers out there now making some great guitars.

[pbj]

So far I've gotten jewelry and cash.  Thus begins the bizarre cycle where I am given Christmas and birthday presents around Thanksgiving and the money is subsequently used to buy those people gifts with the money.

[vwalbridge]

Thus begins the bizarre cycle where I am given Christmas and birthday presents around Thanksgiving and the money is subsequently used to buy those people gifts with the money.

A couple of years ago I had an epiphany and suggested to my family we stop the madness of constantly buying each other gift cards for birthdays and holidays. At the end of the year we were all essentially trading money. We agreed to stop buying each other gifts. No exceptions.

We have never looked back.

[pbj]

Gift cards.... they were standing in line at the gas station and remembered they needed to get you a present....

Hate the damn things.  Well, I take that back, I've randomly gotten a few over the years because it had been regifted 10 times and it eventually was randomly shoved into my hands.  I've enjoyed those.

Those aside, cash is king in my family.

[dkersten]

I will begin my shopping for others on about Dec 20th.  Amazon Prime or I'm not getting it, and I will have it all here before X-Mas day. 

I fleshed out my gifts to myself with a new AV receiver, a new 48" TV for my bedroom, and now finishing out some of the whole house audio (new volume controls for some rooms, using the old AV receiver to replace the old one I have been using to feed the whole house audio).  Might still pull the trigger on a new sub for the theater but I think the 34" widescreen G-sync is off the list.  Computer room is coming apart for a renovation anyway so my computer gaming will be curbed for a few months.

It's nice having the GF moving in (and helping with the mortgage) and a son paying rent.. between that and the books the extra income allows me a few new toys this time of year.

[Howard_Casto]

Hey he has a soul.... he showed me the Barry White album himself. 

I hear he collects both country AND western.
*crickets*

I got it man.  Let's listen to the theme from raw hide for 8 hours in memorium. 


Hey what about these fiio mp3 players? 

They look like some strange hybrid between a zune and an ipod.... you know, what apple SHOULD have released instead of going completely off the rails, dropping the ipod and releasing crippled smart phones instead.  I just don't know if they are worth the ridiculous price of 80 dollars for a mp3 player in 2015. 

[Blackfoot]

A Dillon 650

[thomas_surles]

Hey he has a soul.... he showed me the Barry White album himself. 

I hear he collects both country AND western.
*crickets*

I got it man.  Let's listen to the theme from raw hide for 8 hours in memorium. 


Hey what about these fiio mp3 players? 

They look like some strange hybrid between a zune and an ipod.... you know, what apple SHOULD have released instead of going completely off the rails, dropping the ipod and releasing crippled smart phones instead.  I just don't know if they are worth the ridiculous price of 80 dollars for a mp3 player in 2015.

well I sold an 80gb iPod classic on eBay for 90 bucks this year, but I think everyone just stores their music on a smartphone now because it's more convinent. Until some was calls you while you are listening to a song while you have your phone plugged into the aux in the car because you don't have blutooth and you have to unplug it to answer.

[Howard_Casto]

Jack of all trades, master of none.  I still keep dedicated cameras and music players. 

[lilshawn]

well, it does a pretty good job as a phone though.

[BadMouth]

I got to the point where building and maintaining a large collection of MP3s and playlists felt like too much work. 

These days I rent my music.  I pay Rhapsody $10 a month, but it's less than I spent on music before and I never have buyer's remorse over a bad album.
I can build playlists while listening at work and then bring them up on my home theater receiver, phone, other computers, etc without having to transfer any files.
It's in the cloud, but you also have the option of download the songs to the phone or some mp3 players.

[pbj]

I just stream music 95% of the time.  My tastes aren't very popular so I rely on those stations to keep me up to date anyway.

[tomstewdevine]

If anybody ever had a valid reason for making a four-player MAME cab, it was me.

And I didn't.

This is so f'n funny.

[jennifer]

I just stream music 95% of the time.  My tastes aren't very popular so I rely on those stations to keep me up to date anyway.

I just watched "Little Lover" and Coca Cola was edited out and replaced with Lemonade. What?, Bon would just die if he saw that (And Jenn is so not happy)....I refuse to be party to their anymore. 3O years after the fact, and suddenly history needs to be modified? Old school vinyl for me now and ever!

[lilshawn]

Old school vinyl for me now and ever!

hipster.

 

[pbj]

Meh, I lived in the 80s.  I remember the universal stampede to get rid of records as quickly as humanly possible.  When it comes to music, you can't even give away physical media these days.

[HaRuMaN]

Meh, I lived in the 80s.  I remember the universal stampede to get rid of records as quickly as humanly possible.  When it comes to music, you can't even give away physical media these days.

I wish that were the case with some of the albums I want to get my hands on.  Pricey, even stupidly so. 

[dkersten]

I keep enough songs on my phone to be able to cast music to a BT speaker if I find myself somewhere without internet and needing music.  Otherwise, I like Pandora - simple to use, playlists are already there, and everything plays Pandora.

My latest challenge: Tie my whole house audio into my HT and other misc BT speakers and be able to sync them all up and control from one easy source that my technologically challenged GF can operate without having to call me first.  MusicCast from Yamaha is GREAT on the AV receiver, but from what I read the BT speakers and devices to tie it together with existing stuff is sketchy and unreliable.  Sonos would work if I want to drop about $3500, but I don't.  It's looking like Chromecast Audio is the way to go, but I want to wait until the Party Mode comes out first to make sure it works.. supposed to be out any day now but I can't find ANYTHING on it yet.  The desire to have one app that can select any or all zones and cast music from DLNA/Plex server or stream from Pandora/Spotify all using one app that is simple to use is what drives me, but so far there is no working model.  Chromecast Audio units are cheap ($35 each), use Wi-Fi instead of BT (better bandwidth and less compression), have an optical out if you really insist on having the best D/A converter, and Chromecast is integrated into hundreds of apps now.  Only problem is all my devices outside my phones are Kindle Fire and I use Prime, so it doesn't make as much sense to use Chromecast for the TV's (Fire TV makes better sense).  My brother is really into using his Echo, but otherwise he is ALL about Google (all his audio, video, tv is now Google based), so he is struggling because he is starting to add to Echo with lighting and the such, but it will never cast to Chrome stuff...

Technology is getting awesome but we are still just that last step away from a complete package that all works together without costing 100 times too much and without being overcomplicated.  Some day...

[BadMouth]

About 12 years ago I listened to the 4 channel mix of Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl.
The guy who owned the setup wasn't an audiophile or anything, he'd just owned it since the 70's or whenever and never stopped using it.
It was the best sounding thing I've ever heard.

For years I tried to recreate the experience on a 5.1 home theater setup and fell short.
It turns out that the mixes I was playing weren't the same.  They had some guy remix it for 5.1 SACD and the stereo mix was also different than the 4 channel mix.
The original 4 channel mix was finally released in 2011 as part of the Immersion box set.
I've been too cheap to buy the entire box set just to get it though.

[lilshawn]

Meh, I lived in the 80s.  I remember the universal stampede to get rid of records as quickly as humanly possible.  When it comes to music, you can't even give away physical media these days.

my car doesn't even have a slot for a CD. it's AM/FM/SAT USB or Bluetooth.

physical media is done like disco. even console games these days don't even really use media except for physical copyright. you plunk the game in...oh a 2 gig update? okay.