Ok, folks, I’ve finally managed to tear myself away from Lost and I’ve got some great gift ideas for the geeks on your list.
Endless hours of fun, I tell you
9. For the gamer on your list who might be looking for fun, easy to learn games that can even suck non-gaming friends and family members in, I highly recommend Looney Labs. I was first introduced to the their games at a birthday party for friend, recent podcast guest and recent GOTW, Randy Chertcow when a fellow party guest taught me Fluxx, a game of ever changing rules, goals and actions. If you want to hit a more targeted geek-audience, they now have Zombie Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx, Pirate Fluxx, Star Fluxx, Martian Fluxx, Eco Fluxx and Family Fluxx. You gotta be able to find something in there, right?
While I love me some Fluxx, favorite game from Looney Labs is Chrononauts. Here’s the blurb from their site:
What would YOU do with a Time Machine? Would you stop the sinking of the Titanic? Prevent the assassination of JFK? Kill Hitler before WWII? These are just a few of the possibilities in Chrononauts, the award-winning card game of time travel. To win, you must change history at key points called Linchpins, so that history transforms into the Alternate Reality your character calls home. You can also win by collecting a specific set of Artifacts, such as a live dinosaur, the Mona Lisa, and an unpublished Shakespearean play. But be careful – if you create too many paradoxes, you could destroy the entire universe!
This is not a game that is easy to learn or master, however, so you might want to keep it for your more patient friends – and ones with whom you have a strong relationship. Believe me, when someone flips over your paradox, thus sending your patch into the discard pile right before you were going to play the reversal of fortune that would win you the game, you will want to punch them in the face.
10. For the lady-geeks out there with a penchant for fashion, I recommend ModCloth. You won’t find memorabilia here, but they have a lot of unique, quirky clothing and accessories that fit with a fashonista-geek lifestyle. I have to say, many of their dresses and tops are priced far too high for the quality you receive, but I find their t-shirts and accessories to be fairly priced and highly adorable. In fact, the t-shirt I am wearing in the picture of Bex and I on our Introductions page comes from ModCloth and come to find out they have a Nerdy collection! Check out their items for the home as well – super cute.
11. For the readers who like to take the world of books into their lives, anyone who hasn’t yet read A Game of Thrones really should. I was late to the game on this one, but apparently there is a whole cottage industry surrounding the Song of Ice and Fire books. You probably know HBO has adapted the first novel and is in production for the second as we speak, but did you know there are also card games, RPG games, comics and memorabilia galore? If you want to give someone a new obsession, A Game of Thrones could very well be it.
Winter is...well, actually it's already here.
12. For my final recommendation of the season, let me suggest determining what kind of geek you are dealing with and throwing a party with that theme. Walking Dead fanatic? Throw a viewing party and have everyone come as a character or zombie. I’d personally love to see someone pull of “zombie-half-lady” from season one. In Bex’s case, everyone should come dressed as Daryl Dixon, of course. You could put together a game night, maybe even one that folks commit to once a month. This way, your favorite nerd will have other nerds to nerd out with! And, I suspect you’d probably enjoy it too.
That’s it for this season, folks! Check back around Valentine’s day – we may just have a few more suggestions.
