- Hi, I'm Parris, back with another video
of Valentine's advice and suggestions.
Last week, I covered advice
for the man on budget
who has $5 to go to the dollar store,
wants to buy stuff to look like at least $25.
I think that was pretty successful.
This week, an even more complicated topic,
this is gifts for the geeky and nerdy.
Now, I do have some suggestions here I'll talk about,
but I also have a couple big ticket item suggestions
that are sure to be a hit.
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Let's start with what's the essence
of buying a gift for a geeky or nerdy person.
Everyone knows they're difficult to shop for,
and they're the last person you want to go by the drugstore
at the last minute, pick up a card off the shelf
and a $10 bottle of perfume or cologne.
Here, Happy Valentine's Day.
Not going to work.
Well, ask your self this,
what did you like about this geeky or nerdy person
when you first met them?
Probably that they weren't like everyone else.
They were unique and different,
and so you're going to have to find a gift
that's unique and different as well.
Okay, now, one of the things you'll have to figure out,
first off, is the specific areas of geekiness.
What is it that the person is into?
Because it's not,
again, it's a unique thing,
it's not a generic thing.
If you like Star Wars, you're going to like Star Trek.
No!
In fact, there seems to be a great divide
between the Star Wars people and the Star Trek people.
And I don't know if it's age or personality characteristics,
like the kind of people who like cats
versus the kind of people who like dogs,
but it's something like that, I think.
So I will give you suggestions here
about some specific items,
but you'll have to tailor the gift
into this specific genre of geekiness of that person
if you really want to make it something they'll like.
We'll start out with inexpensive, cutesy gifts
like a little plush animal.
But not a teddy bear.
No, we're not going there.
We're going with something like this that's $10 or so,
and it shows that you know what they're interested in
and that they would find something like this cute.
Now, we also have the plastic figures.
This one is a Walking Dead,
a show that I actually don't know much about,
but I know it's very popular,
so here's a character from Walking Dead.
This is also a good gift.
For a little more money, there are items like this.
Roxanna got this for Christmas.
This is the car,
well, it's a scale model of the car from Supernatural
that Sam and Dean drive around in.
And she was so concerned with even getting a scratch
in the plastic showcase that it's enclosed in
that she still has the wrapper on.
This is about $30.
Found it over on Amazon.
I looked at some craft stores where they sell models,
but I couldn't find one this nice.
So, this is one of the things she got for Christmas.
I'll put a link to this specific item down below this video.
Another good geeky, nerdy gift idea is T-shirts
that have the theme of whatever it is
the person is interested in.
You'll notice the Star Wars theme here,
but a little bit different take on it.
Very cute, generally up to around $20.
Now, if you don't want something you find over
at Hot Topic, that sort of thing,
you want something more unique,
you can go,
and a lot of people are doing this,
setting up online stores to sell their T-shirts,
artists that do the design themselves
and then they'll go to a store like CafePress
or Society6 and will make available their designs
on mugs and mouse pads, T-shirts and so forth,
going that route, you'll be getting something,
that though it isn't one of a kind,
it's a limited production run,
and so the person you give it to is very likely
to be standing in line at an event
and see somebody wearing the very same shirt
in front of them and behind them.
For example, this one's a little wrinkly.
Sorry, Judith, for not showing it to best effect.
A long time viewer of our channel and a good friend
in Spain, Judith, does interesting designs like this.
I really like the things she comes up with.
This is one of her skeletal cupcakes.
Now she has a Society6 store,
and I'll link to that down below this video,
and I'll show you a couple more of her designs
here in a minute.
Perhaps, you're a big spender,
looking to spend closer to $100.
Well, a couple more items you might consider.
(chuckles)
Star Wars Furbacca.
This is a Furby that's, as you can see,
in the style of Chewbacca.
There is an app that goes with this,
so even if you don't have other Furbies
to talk to this Furby, you can play with this Furby
with your app.
Maybe the person you're with is into retro technology.
Well, there isn't much more interesting
than an old style just like Polaroid camera.
This is the Instax mini 8 which uses film
that actually develops right in the camera,
and it spits it out,
and you shake it a little bit,
and you get an actual picture.
Let me show you a couple from the album.
It's a fun way to actually have pictures
for yourself from an event you've attended
that was interesting and you can take an extra picture
and give the other person a copy.
They usually think that's pretty cool.
Is this an anniversary Valentine's for you?
First year anniversary?
Five year anniversary?
Something like that?
Okay, you might want to think a little bit bigger.
Now, one step up from these would be $150, $200 or so,
and that's a couple tickets
to go to your city's next Comic con.
If that's not for a couple months,
well you can buy the tickets in advance,
print that up, put it into the nice unique Valentine card
that you're getting them,
and when they open it up and see
that you've gotten them tickets to go to Comic con
with them, that's a pretty great gift.
Now, if they say, oh, can we maybe spend another $300
so I can take a picture with Sam and Dean
at the Comic con and get an autograph,
I'd say no.
Because you know that picture's going under their pillow.
They are gonna be spending their nights dreaming
of being off gacking things with Sam and Dean.
And the gacking dreams, that's just the start of it.
You'll be looking for something
in their night table
and you'll find Bobby Singer's Diary and Guide to Hunting.
This is what they're up reading late a night.
By the way, Roxanna's really enjoying this book,
and I'll link to this also, down below this video.
And lastly, the ultimate gift you can give
to a geeky, nerdy person,
and it's this year and this year only,
at least in the United States,
is this.
Now you could give them this to hint at what's coming,
the big gift, that you're giving to them.
These are eclipse shades.
I think I'm gonna look like the Blues Brothers here.
I can see absolutely nothing.
These are used for looking at a solar eclipse,
and if you haven't heard, there is a solar eclipse
this year in North America.
It's actually going across 14 states,
starting at the Pacific Ocean
going all the way across the country
to the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, a solar eclipse is when the sun goes,
is completely blacked out by the moon,
so it's like nighttime in the middle of the day.
I've experienced one before.
It was the one in the United States in 1979.
I went with two friends from high school,
we got up in the middle of the night
and drove the eastern Washington to a place
that was supposed to be sunny with no clouds
and we saw that eclipse,
and I remember so many details of that day,
and if you take someone to see a total solar eclipse,
it's something they'll remember
for the rest of their life, too.
Now, the reason it's going to cost you money,
should you decide to do this,
is the swath of complete darkness
that the totality of the eclipse is only
about 70 miles north to south.
Now that's going to move all the way across the country,
but if you're very far north of that
or very far south of that,
you're going to have to travel to see it,
and you're probably going to want to get there
at least the day before,
you're going to want to stay in a hotel.
So there's some preparation required,
and I'll be doing some additional videos coming up soon
on this for people who think this is so neat like it is,
and are planning to go see it this summer.
It's on August 21st, 2017.
So you can let them know that a day without them in it
is like two minutes and 47 seconds
in the middle of the afternoon on August 21st, 2017
when the sun disappears from the sky.
And if you are going to be watching the eclipse,
even if not in the path of totality,
you're off to the side where the moon will half cover
the sun or something, do not look at the sun
without the proper eye protection.
Needless to say, I'm going to see that eclipse.
Geeks of the world, I'll see you there.
Okay, now second to the last thing,
and for some of these, it'll be very important
if you're just getting something for a future event,
You need a nice unique card.
Again, the standard Hallmark issued card at the store
probably isn't going to have a unique enough message.
You might get lucky and find something
with the right theme on it.
I found, at Barnes and Noble, the bookstore,
they have the regular cards,
but then they have one section of very unique cards
that tend to be very clever.
You might find something good there as well
or you can search online.
Again, the shops that artists have set up
to sell T-shirts and other goods with their designs on it,
they also, these are from Judith as well, sell cards.
These are not your typical Valentine cards,
but keep in mind the person you're giving
to them isn't typical either.
See more of Judith's designs of cards and T-shirts
and all the other stuff at her Society6 page
which I've linked to down below this video.
So what's left?
Well, some nice presentation.
You don't have to wrap the gifts, necessarily.
Gift bags are popular these days,
so I would recommend one like this.
The R2-D2 gift bag with little tag that says.
(bag beeps)
That's Happy Valentine's Day in machine language.
I hope I was able to provide you with some useful gift ideas
as many of these items as I can find links for
I will link to down right below this video.
Next week, I'll tackle another Valentine's Day topic.
You can keep checking back for that video
and future reviews or you can click
that subscribe button down below,
you'll get notified when our videos go up.
See you on the next review.
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