The Holiday Loot Thread

I just drink water -- I was buying at least a case a week of half liter bottles, and that was adding up. (I drink 2-4 liters of water a day.) I think I tried all the syrups when I first got it (they give you a variety pack when you first get one) and the only one that tasted good (to me) was their fake red bull.

You can just as easily buy Torani syrups, or any other kind of syrup out there to make your own soda, which would probably cut down on price.

I think I've been on the fence about Sodastream as long as I have been about getting a Blu-ray player. SPEAKING OF WHICH, the reason I came here in the first place.

LOOOOOT!



Not pictured is the money set aside so I can buy new shoes, some other soaps, a couple beers I already drank, a set of toy cars, a pair of beer-bottle patterned pajama pants, and the cooking with beer book. Hooray!

Thanks to SwitchKnitter and Kalle for their wonderful holiday gifts!

My SodaStream taught me that only The Coca Cola Company of AMERICA can make a sugar free carbonated drink that may at one time have contained cocaine that I want to drink.

Just carbonated water is vile.

The machine saved me nothing and takes up valuable space. We hates it.

Dibs if I pay for shipping? lol

I think I have that exact same knife.

I used to think so, but over a process of a couple of years, I weaned myself to drinking it. It's all a matter of getting the carbonated water with the fruit essence first -- to cover the odd taste of plain carbonation.

At least, that's what worked for me.

Thus far, only the root beer appeals to me. Everything else is a terrible imitation. I still need to try just the slightly flavored water route with lemon and such.

I don't get root beer. Granted its been about 20 years or so since I've seen here, and that was in macdonalds, but my memory of it is fizzy toothpaste.

Almost half the pop I drink is diet A&W. Love that shit.

Your toothpaste must have been AWESOME.

Root beer is gross. So is carbonated water.

Half the time, it tastes really good to me. the other half, it tastes like chemicals. I can never tell which will happen beforehand. So weird.

I don't get a lot for Xmas these days, which is fine since I much prefer giving gifts to getting them. Always a couple of people on my list that I work hard to find the perfect thing for, and that makes the season kind of worthwhile for me.

But I did get some awesome history books, a desperately needed new dress shirt, some cash and the hockey mask seen in the Secret Santa thread. And I got to see my family and hang out with relatives that were not my mother for a good portion of it. Children are a lot of fun.

On RC Helicopters, I've received two of them over the last several years. They're great toys, but I was kind of disappointed in how difficult both were to control. I splurged and spent $100 on an E-Flite Blade RTF heli (I think the mCX one is their current base model at $80) and it's just plain amazing. I play with it at least once a week, and its taken numerous beatings without lasting damage.

Now, on to the loot. This was a good year for me. I'd told my wife that we should have a spending limit. Apparently she took this as a lower bound. She got me a Nikon D5100, a pullman loaf pan, and a baguette pan. The kids got me AC3. Beyond that I received about six huge cookbooks (including the King Arthur Baker's Companion and How to Cook Everything), a Nerf N-Strike Elite Hail-Fire, a Zojirushi rice cooker, and some other odds and ends I can't remember at the moment.

Having tried out a few of the sample syrups included with my SodaStream, I'm going to give a tentative thumbs-up to their root beer and orange soda flavors. Unless I can get them on sale, though, I think I'm going to find other sources of flavored syrup.

Yep. The limit was supposed to be $150.

I was very happy to get a soldering iron and four of these:



nobody thought my amazon list was real.

I'm gonna have to try a real RC copter. I ordered an IR-controlled one that's supposed to be really good for the price, but I find that it's just too hard to maintain communication between the controller and the chopper. If the chopper turns AT ALL, it falls because the rear-situated receiver loses sight of the transmitter. It works slightly better in a darker room, but not much.

It's a bit of a jump to move from that to the $80 mCX but if it's something you're really into, that's not much more than the price of a video game. The RTF just means it's already bound to an included transmitter and Ready To Fly. This is a good example of what you can do with it once you get the controls down:



I've noticed that the people who pick it up quickly are usually gamers. Dual-stick practice translates pretty well. It took me about two minutes to get it up and moving without much trouble. Another ten minutes and I could fairly reliably land it on my hand.

I'm getting ready to spend the money I got for Christmas. I have a basket full of makeup that's ready to go once the shop goes online.* Then I'll be shaving my beard off and seeing if I look pretty all made-up.

*Online shop, but they seem to have removed order functionality until everyone's back from Christmas.

Whoa, is that a branded Jamma arcade control panel or is it some kind of embedded game device?

It's a 360 arcade stick, but with a little solder and love, they can be used very well for a steambox/mame setup.

ThinkGeek was having a post-Christmas sale, and I ordered a couple of small things, including a pack of Mass Effect playing cards.

I kid you not, they included Miranda's ass in her card. All the other characters are facing forward. Miranda is ass-towards-camera, and turning around to shoot over her shoulder. What the fucking fuck.

This.



It is bright pink and I love it so much. also a fix-it felix bbyfigure and vanellope + car figures.
i think the bf might just know what things i like i dunno.

Are you sure you didn't buy the Ass Effect trading cards?

We demand pictures of this ass, you know, for science. Aeon221 demands it too.

As requested...

I'll be in my bunk.

Ewww.

No FemShep?

(Thumbnail)

Excellent belated gifts to ourselves: WALKIE-TALKIES. Walkie-talkie karaoke helped me get through the night drive in New Mexico.

I highly recommend them to anyone ever travelling in separate vehicles together.

Or to anyone who knows what fun is, really.

Where you local to now?

People who wait on line for something are going to spend a lot of time waiting while I'm in line and getting my shit.

Fuck you Day by Daaa.. wait, someone else draws that improbable pose, too?

http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/tagged/boobs_and_butt_pose

It's an epidemic.

Edit: this was totally supposed to go in funny/clever images. Summer Glau as Mara Jade? Yes please. But I guess it also kinda fits with the context of the boob-butt pose discussion.

I saw that picture, was slightly confused, then glanced back at the thread title. I admit I was momentarily jealous that you apparently got Summer Glau for Christmas before logic kicked in.

The Christmas of my dreams.

I love me some Summer Glau, but there's no way her bustline wasn't shopped.