Broken Forum Secret Santa 2012 -- opening thread!

So I knew the package was waiting for me. I didn't have a chance to snag it before I left from work, and I ended up going to see the Hobbit. I got home about an hour ago and it was waiting on the dining room table.


(It actually had a student loan bill sitting on top of it :( Womp womp)

So I grabbed my X-acto knife and cut that bitch open


(Fuck yes foam)

I opened the card, and perhaps the greatest gift ever given to me comes out. Now what Jason Pace did here is nothing short of brilliant, and honestly, for the faint of heart you may want to scroll past it. It blew my mind and there's a solid chance it will blow yours.

Without further ado;



Sheer. Brilliance.

I am stunned. I knew immediately what was in the box, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to frame this. It is great.

Oh, yeah, and there was this in the box;



Six different shades of awesome. I was looking for this one at Comic-con and they didn't have it. So happy. Thank you so much Jason!

That is some amazing Photoshoppery there, Jason Pace. I can't even see the pixels.

Yeah, I felt bad that I didn't know you better, Vesper - but I -do- know pens, thanks to SwitchKnitter 's obsession with them, and when I saw that on your wishlist, I knew, just knew, that if you were a pen person, you would get many hours of enjoyment out of your Lamy. SwitchKnitter adores those things, and helped me pick out the pen accessories to go with them. I'm so glad you liked it!

It looks like she might need a new nick; may I suggest Communes With Bread.

No worries, great gift! I don't have a ton of posts here, I realized after signing up. But it's not too hard to find my posting history on another forum. :) (The MoO3 goes back to a Usenet post of my gushing about impressions at Gencon, however!)

Is it weird that I now am looking forward to writing things?

Aaron just had to post the dumbest looking picture of the lot. >.< But there will be lots of bread. And other recipes. Seriously, I am squeefully excited to start cooking. Thanks again. :) :) :) :)

Edit: Siren - you should totally come over sometime and help me test drive my new cookbooks!

Heh, unfortunately, I no longer have permission to search posts on 'another forum'. I was one of the ones ninja banned in the dead of night, at the start of the great schism. So I'm afraid what you post here is all I have access to, mon ami. That said - enjoy the pen, and it is in no way weird that you're looking forward to writing! I am given to understand that is the appropriate response.

I think that sounds like a fantastic idea!

I've had most of my pens for years, and I still look forward to writing with them. Hell, just a few minutes ago I was scribbling in my Moleskine with a nice pen, and just enjoying the feel of writing with it. I should warn you, they can be addictive. In fact, I think right now I want to write with brown ink. Time to pull out my coffee-colored Lamy... :)

For some reason when I read the card I thought it said "bear mating".

Which in all fairness is a fun project for the whole family.

I am extremely pleased you like it. I was very lucky you had photos online with your head facing all the directions that I needed. :)

And now that I know the correct packages were mailed to the correct people, I can relax.

Man, I didn't even know we had more gundam series fans up in this place. That is thoroughly awesome, and we should start a thread, or something.

The rules say Gift Opening Week, not Gift Opening Day.

Ok, my SS was Nute!! Nute stalked me quite well. He sent a card explaining his stalking procedures. Apparently, he is in Matt Bowyer's RPG campaign, which I helped provide some music for. Based on this, Nute sent me some guitar strings. He even picked a brand that I use, which is awesome! Very handy. My Ibanez thanks you!

Then, he discovered that I had never seen The Thing (80s version). This is still true, and I have not yet remedied the problem. I will now, since I own it on Blu-Ray thanks to Nute!

Finally, Nute got me a carrying case that looks like a Mashall amp head! It's awesome. He said it's because he couldn't afford a real stack, but I actually already own a Marshall half stack, so this is a perfect supplement. I'm always in need of a bag like this but for some reason have never gotten around to just buying one. I had no idea that this particular design existed however. So thanks, Nute! I love all of this!

Here is my girlfriend's monkey, guarding the package so that I don't open it prematurely:



And here are the gifts, all laid out with overuse of flash!

Glad everything was well-received! I took a guess with the strings, since that's the brand that my brother uses (I know nothing about guitars).

This was actually Option 2 for gift selection. The first, upon realizing that you're dating a younger gal, was a six-pack of Axe body spray and a copy of Don't Stand So Close To Me on vinyl.

Heh, I'm glad you liked it. I have to confess I'd never heard of thinkgeek.com until you referenced it in the Santa thread as a hint, but it's a great site.

I didn't put my name in the package because I wasn't sure if that was part of the process (this being my first online secret Santa exchange). I will keep that in mind for the future.

SO I was looking at this on my phone and the pictures were not showing up. I was sitting at the traffic light giggling like a 12 year old.

To be fair my 7 year old has better handwriting than I do. I should have had him write the card!

Elyscape I'm so glad you like you gifts! I had planned on getting some Tennessee Honey in there for you but time got away from me, and I needed to ship! At least you can now drink your scotch/whiskey/bourbon in style! The book is just plain amazing as I think you'll find as you flip through it, and done by a favorite artist of mine, and it's a fun trip to identify all of the characters in it. And of course the beer! I'd let it settle for a day or two and when you do open one, pour it slowly into a glass and leave the last quarter inch in the bottom of the bottle. Unless you enjoy drinking some active yeast, in which case go for it and don't blame me for the amount of extra gas your body produces as a result! Merry Christmas and enjoy your gifts!!!

Also, yes I do have my gifts and I'll be posting them later!

Since I am already dating her, you probably realized I have plenty of Axe already, huh? So now I need things to keep her, like guitar strings (for serenading!) and horror movies, for inducing closeness. Good call!

Also, brake hard and often when driving her around and reach your hand over her chest to shield her from flying forward.

I opened my virtual gifts yesterday, both of which are awesome and one of which will be a horrendous yet delightful time sink. Proper thanks require a bit of image-editing first and I'll probably have that done tonight.

So thanks, Secret Santa and Thanks Part 2 (with full attribution and pictures) is on its way tonight!

Ahh the classic short-stop.

Yes. Yes I really like Gundam.

It must be entitled Gundam Style.

That's MY move!

Just opened them today and I guess I am now a foot soldier for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. I approve of the gifts and thank you very much to my SS Ryan. Not sure who they are exactly as I know there is more then one ryan here, but thank you.

Hold on, what's that sharp thing?

Looks like a machete.

Yeah, either Brett updated the pic or it was cut off for some reason in my browser but I could barely see past the handle of that thing before and now I see it in it's entirety. A machete it is.

Yay! I'm so glad you like it and it arrived on time (that tracker was even more useless than I thought).
The original plan was a pillow with your cats on it because of a post in the pet thread, but my sewing skills aren't that great so I changed my mind pretty soon.
And seeing that case in your wishlist made me wish I had an iPhone. It's just so classy!

Electronic gift arrived! I would be tempted to leave it virtually wrapped per self-flagellation from my own shipping tardiness inflicting some sad-mailboxing upon my Santee, but there such things are by nature unwrapped to start with.

I am now the proud,owner of Don't Starve.

I sometimes don't take orders well, so I bet I'll be starving just in defiance. That'll show 'em.

Plus, I am assured this shall be continued with physical loot at future date. Which is awesome too!

Thank you, Dean!

I went to the post office today to check my box, and there was a package! Now, this isn't unusual right now, given that I've been ordering Giftmas presents, but this one was from the Discovery Store. I hadn't ordered anything from there, so maybe it was from my Santa! I took it home and ripped my address label off, then took this picture.




It said "FRAGILE" on it. What the hell could it be?


I decided to be civilized and open the box with a knife, instead of tearing the tape off with my fingernails. And there, in the box, were...!


MYTHBUSTERS!!! Adam and Jamie bobbleheads, to be precise. I gleefully took them out of their boxes, and discovered that they talk! At this point there may have been a little bit of jumping up and down. But only a little.


Aren't they cool? And Quat likes them as much as I do. I put them on top of the bookshelf in our den, where we spend most of our time, and we'll see the bobbleheads every time we walk in and out of the room.

So THANK YOU to my Santa. Now, who are you? There was no name in the package...

SURPRISE!!! There's more coming. I had an item all shopping carted and ready to send last week along with those and this third thing that is coming, but they would not ship it when I placed the order. I thought they were out. As it turns out, I think it may have been a P.O. Box thing. So. I proceeded to panic, which shaved two days off my time window to get it to you by opening day. So, you have one that should be at the Post Office now. Another there soonish and a fourth that basically is being held for you by the seller while I keep my money until you can PM me a better way to get it to you. :)

FOUR??? Aw, Tyjenks, you're too much! ((hug)) I'll PM you with my street address, as long as you promise not to send any hitmen after me...

Strip-o-gram, of course.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

*dissolves into fits of laughter*

*applause*