Weird Presents Anyone? 1406
g8way writes "Now that Christmas is about, it's time for presents. A joyous occasion with much drinking, fruitcake, and butt-ugly sweaters. What's the weirdest gift you've gotten so far? Personally, I got toothpaste, tic-tacs, deodorant, and a McDonalds coupon book in the same package. What's your story of Christmas present mayhem?"
I got a weird one (Score:3, Interesting)
/. subscriptions? (Score:5, Interesting)
My brothers present (Score:3, Interesting)
(On a side note: I got Band of brothers on DVD amongst other things - way cool
Weirdest... (Score:3, Interesting)
A really smart shirt from Next (clothes store in the UK, not the old UNIX company!), and a silk tie from tie rack - both of which were really smart, and totally suitable to wear to work.
I was stunned!
Bernhard Langer (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:/. subscriptions? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:/. subscriptions? (Score:3, Interesting)
Carbon Monoxide Detector (Score:2, Interesting)
Other people got wine, gadgets, chocolate...
Mind you we have a small house and we have two already detectors allready.
But, CO poisoning is serious stuff up here in the great northern state, so I guess the best way to look at it is that at LEAST one of her fellow employees would like her to survive the winter. (We had a family of five die this month from it.)
practical? (Score:2, Interesting)
Weirdest Yet.. (Score:4, Interesting)
An Amish Punching Puppet (Score:4, Interesting)
Vibrating pen (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Blow-up doll (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I got a weird one (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean.. come on..
I worked with a guy who put $10 out of each paycheck for his headstone, he wanted to have an IRC server from it and part of the money went to keep his namesake domain name renewed for a hundred years. THe town is wired with fiber so the IRC server from his headstone would be on a t3 for the next hundred years..
I thought it was a great idea..
Of course.. twenty years ago if you said "IRC server" 99% of the population would have said "huh"..
anyway.. Matt Rice.. merry christmas!
The art of gift giving (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know what's worse. Running around trying to find something meaningful for someone as a gift, or opening presents from people you care about and wondering if you ended up with some impulse item that's devoid of any insight into who you are.
I've always tried to give things to my friends that didn't fall into that impulse or heres-the-latest-gadget-even-though-i'm-not-sure-
This year I found a number of otherwise mundane items that I could make special. For friends that are into cooking, I picked up some cookbooks by a famous chef in the area, and then tracked him down and got him to sign the books to my friends. Making things for people is also a good idea. One year I made up batches of herbed olive oil. Another year I smoked a bunch of hams and turkeys myself and gave them out. For friends that are into history or science, I'd keep my eyes open for interesting, very old artifacts on ebay. Wine also makes a good gift if you know what's good. A little research can yield some inexpensive, yet exceptional wines that are otherwise hard to find.
One of the weirdest gifts I ever got was from an ex-girlfriend (who at the time wasn't an ex). A gardenia bush. That in itself might not seem that weird, except I found a book she accidently left at my place on Voodoo spells, with a "love spell" page dog-eared that required placing Gardenia bushes around the target's house as a component!
McDonalds coupons (Score:2, Interesting)
When I was five... (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a pull-out panel with a circular cutout with a green ground glass in it with concentric circles and various tiny blobs painted on the back, and behind it, an revolving black plastic circle with a radial line cut-out. When the 60 watt bulb behind it was turned-on, it looked like a sweeping radar scope.
Some toggle switches allowed to control the light, the rotator and some other blinkenlights (which were blinking christmas lights in reality).
Altough made of plywood, the whole thing was finished in that wrinkling paint which was so popular for instruments 40 years ago and it looked awfully real.
Plus there was a crystal radio with headphones built into the thing...
My father had worked several weeks with a TV-repairman friend to make it. I suppose that this gift I got was the one that was the closest ever to the true Christmas spirit: my father made it himself - never mind it was a "radar scope" instead of a rocking horse, it rocked the same... I must have played with the thing until I was 10...
My present... (Score:3, Interesting)
See, we're Hannukah people, not Christmas people. Most Christians think we celebrate Christmas with the serial numbers filed down, but it's really not like that. The presents we used to get were little things---some nifty pens, a t-shirt---certainly not the crap our fellow consumer-citizens are using to bury themselves in debt.
So, what am I missing? Twenty bucks---maximum---of various kitsch. What am I getting? A warm fuzzy. Not to mention that I already got one big-ticket item from my folks this year (a flat-panel monitor, at commencement) and getting stuff makes me feel obligated.
After all, isn't it really all about giving? Eh? Eh?
--grendel drago
coal (Score:5, Interesting)
So guess what she got in her stocking.
Made in America by Americans! (Score:2, Interesting)
Hot Chit (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I received Hot sauce called Chit. Hot Chit, Dip Chit, Spicy Chit, Mild Chit- all in a box that looks like an Outhouse.
At least it tastes good.
Wind Up Sushi and Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist (Score:5, Interesting)
Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist is a DVD, the front of which has pictures of crucified naked women and says, "First he nails you... then he NAILS you!" The back summarizes the movie as, "A schizophrenic thinks he is Jesus, and he wants payback! He crucifies and rapes the wives of his enemies. He films his deeds because he wants to make a new gospel - the Gospel of Blood!!!"
Should be... interesting.
Re:Microsoft Games Goddamnit!! (Score:5, Interesting)
I just wanted to say thanks. As a college student especially, it's easy to overlook things that really matter - I'm sure I'm not the only person you had an impact on.
My religion says that everything happens for a reason - if you believe anything like that, I hope maybe you just saw a way that your mother's unfortunate death was able to help this lowly
Thanks again, sincerly.
Re:But is it really debt? (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, excuse me. What the hell are you talking about?
Rent is paying for the use of something temporarily. Debt is being a slave to the borrower, period. You can put it in whatever PC term you choose best. If you owe someone money, they control your finances until you are relieved of this debt.
Now, if you're speaking of leases, that could be considered debt because a lease is worth the entire term of said rent. This could be considered temporary debt at best.
This guy [daveramsey.com] knows his shite. He's a pro-cash guy. And while I can't go full-tilt into his scheme, it's important to realize that rent is not debt, no matter how you see it.
Rent == Eternal debt. Where do you guys come up with this garbage?
a home-made container (Score:2, Interesting)
I got a goat (Score:3, Interesting)
My sister in laws were excitingly comparing their expensive new perfumes, and said "so what did you get?". The answer did put a slight damper on them.
I don't want to be mister "holier than thou". Sure, there's stuff I'd like. But that's all it is, stuff. It's nothing that's going to have any real impact on my life, not in the same way a goat will to the life of that family. And I don't want to be scrooge either. There's nothing wrong with presents. But let's keep things in perspective here.
A Mattel Aquarius (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Christians using Darwin (Score:2, Interesting)
This is untrue. For instance, here are Darwin's words, in his diary, on the death of his father in November 1848:
"I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlasting punished.
"And this is a damnable doctrine."
But he was not quite an atheist. In later life, he wrote in his Autobiography, intended only for the consumption of his family:
"[A] source of conviction in the existence of God ... follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capability of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting ... I deserve to be called a theist."
His beliefs wavered constantly, and for this reason he avoided making public statements on his religious beliefs, but reserved his statements to constantly stressing that evolution was compatible with theism.
In his last years, he wrote in his autobiography:
"A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life ... only to follow those impulses and instincts ... which seem to him the best ones ... I believe that I have acted rightly in steadily following and devoting my life to science."
Source of all the above:
Darwin's Diary [pbs.org]
Re:Christians using Darwin (Score:1, Interesting)
Your statement that Darwins theory of evolution has no relation to current evolution theory is ridiculous. Current evolution theory is based on Darwins theory, we just have many more years of observation and a better understanding of the acutal biological mechanisms involved. We also have better mathematical tools like complexity theory. Just because Darwin expected smoother evolution than current theory posits and that, like all early geneticists, he knew nothing about DNA, only that traits were passed on somehow.
Re:Do NOT make fun of Christians! (Score:2, Interesting)
The beliefs in souls, heaven, hell, God, Satan, demons, angels, walking on water, talking donkeys, flaming swords, flaming and flying chariots, transfirguarions, resurrections, ascencions, demon-possessions, etc, etc, etc are all superstitious, irrational beliefs. There is no evidence to support any of them.
Oh, there is the Bible, you say! I have made a hobby of rational analysis of scripture. I know scripture better than most Christians. Would you like to discuss it with me?
The life of Jesus of Nazareth is a matter of historical record, backed up by thousands of written texts
You have been listening to your preacher too much. Outside of scripture, there are very few references to the life of this "Jesus" character. Most Christians are well-trained enough to spit out "Josephus" and "Tacitus" here, but few have actually read their words which actually mention a "Jesus". There is no way that there are "thousands" of written texts, unless you are actually referring to the thousands of contradictory manuscripts from which the Bible was compiled and then choosing to impose Jesus on the Old Testament.
The Bible is widely regarded as a work of literature and a chronicle of history in addition to being divinely inspired.
Ad numeram.