christmas list

Gift Ideas for Mike in no particular order:

1. A cool business card holder.
2. Kitchen scale.  An old fashioned scientific balance beam scale would be nerdtastique, but of course a simple digital scale works better, which is also, um, nerdtastic.  Either way, I'd be happy.  No doubt Christopher Kimble has caustically expressed a firm opinion about which model is the best.  Unlike Jeremy Clarkson, he's probably right.
   
3. A small toaster.  The bachelor pad's appliance garage is small, but something set to scale and retro-cool would be sweet.  Bonus points if it's the Alfa-Romeo of toasters and occasionally burning your fingers is part of the charm because it's so sexy.  Double infinity points if it is an Alfa-Romeo. Then again, please see the note above about C.K. and his kitchen gadget opinions.
   
4. One of them new fangled magick mice.  Yes, it's spendy, but so was Steve Job's new kidney liver.
5. Some more Miles Davis Quintet to listen to while I tool around in my Lamborghini Miura.  Incidentally, like-new used CD's on Amazon are the best thing for buying music ever.
   
6. I have lusted after a Vaja Wallet for awhile but just haven't pulled the trigger.
7. Tasteful ties (long). I like silk brocades with their contrasting textures and finishes.
8. DVD's:  The Royal Tenenbaums.  Or some Hitchcock: To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, or Vertigo.
9. Edward Tufte's latest, or a good coffee table book: Infrastructure: A field guide to the industrial landscape.
   
10. A nice basic Timex calendar watch with a black leather strap.
    
11. A nice art print - I've been thinking about Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Winter painting (or for more $ a really nice print of his Summer Harvester).
12. A stacked Japenese lacquere box to store my remote controls out of sight.  These seem surprisingly hard to find online.

FAIL

I don't know quite why, but the latest update of Firefox (3.0.5?) broke my computer something hard, with a string of BSOD's (Blue Screens of Death) and gory reboots.

I've been running XP on this sucker without the need for rebooting for years, and so I was gravely concerned that my trusty Fujitsu might be finally giving up the ghost. I'm now writing this via Opera, and so I can jury rig my way to a few more years of lightweight web surfing. Yea!

Feliz Navidad!

Mexican Shoppers Go North, Seeking Bargains.
By JOHN DOUGHERTY
Published: December 23, 2008

TUCSON — Mexican shoppers with fists full of cash and long Christmas lists are pouring across the border into hotels, restaurants and shopping malls here, providing an economic boost in a downward spiraling economy.

All I want for Christmas

Airblown Animated Santa in Helicopter: Little valves in the rotors cause them to spin. I saw this out front of a shop in Alexandria last week, and it was awesome.

(My interest in this signals my eventual ascent into becoming that guy in the neighborhood who puts up a million lights, starting sometime in October. Along with the absolutely requisite Santa Kneeling at the Baby Manger. This vision also involves driving a pickup truck with skinny tires and dog-dish hubcaps, and a baseball cap with an absolutely straight bill, a la Lou Pinella)