The primary purpose of this page is to help me remember the things I want to buy for myself… something of a personal wish list. (I’m terrible with remembering this type of stuff.) I opted to keep this list here so that I could access it from anywhere, but also so that you, dear friend, could have some guidance to the desires of my heart should you want to purchase me a gift. But first a primer…
Probably the primary thing to know about me is that I’m something of a geek. That doesn’t mean that I have a hankering for video games, iPods or other such entertainment devices. Instead I find more entertainment in education, science, et cetera. I like to measure stuff, build stuff, take stuff apart and, ultimately, learn how things work. If you’re looking to find a “thoughtful” gift, anything that will allow me to do those things would be thoroughly enjoyed. Here’s a list of subjects I find interest in that may guide your shopping: aviation, photography, weapons, radio, space and astronomy, computing, travel, sports, camping and hiking, so on and so forth. A complete list of my interests would be entirely too long, almost defeating the purpose of even listing them.
So here it is… my personal shopping list.
Books
- Sam Harris
- Christopher Hitchens
- Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Chomsky Reader by Noam Chomsky
- Andrew Bacevich’s The New American Militarism
- Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams
- Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance by Nouriel Roubini
- The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven
- alcohol
Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest DrinkThank you, Nancy!- more to come…
- Charles Pierce’s Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free
- Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the Matrix Trilogy by Matt Lawrence
- textbooks (yeah… I’m not kidding)
- science: physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy
- math: algebra, trigonometry, geometry, statistics, calculus
- economics: macro and micro
- computing: advanced SQL, database security, data structures, algorithms
- The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century from former British foreign diplomat Carne Ross. Basically, the current form of democracy is broken and this is a researched blueprint outlining how we will do away with the current form of politics.
- The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
Outdoor and Sports Gear
mountain bikea quality, 10′ jump rope- internal frame backpack
- Powerblock’s U-90 Stage I
- handheld GPS
- weightlifting rack
- Fat Gripz
Automotive Kit
mechanic’s tool setfloor jack and jackstands
Photography
- 75-300mm zoom lens
- 100mm macro lens
- new flash
- new tripod
- motorized equatorial camera tripod for astrophotography
- white balance cards
Electronic Gear
- a 2TB NAS
- 2.1-channel home theatre system
- Grundig G6 AVIATOR Portable radio
- simple audio mixer
Guns
- CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical
- Remington Model 870 Express Tactical
- Remington 700 SPS Tactical
- an M-4 Carbine
- gun safe
Other
- authentic wooden propeller… like from a Sopwith or a Jenny
- an authentic kilt