I often find myself blind sided when people ask me what I want for a birthday or Christmas present. It's not that I don't look at things all the time and think they'd be nice to have, but those sorts of things just kind of filter through my stream of consciousness and then flit away off into the æther. However, I also kind of feel awkward and greedy when I consider sending out wishlists unprovoked... so it's not like I could preemptively just send one out to save myself from being blind sided. Now keep in mind, the existence of this page doesn't constitute an expectation that anything listed will be purchased and given to me, just that I have an easily accessible answer when I get blindsided in the future. Do not even feel like you have to buy me anything, gifts should always be given because you want to, not because you feel it's polite or required to do so. If for some reason you really feel obligated or must be "polite", you can also donate in my name to awesome causes like these: Planned Parenthood, and No H8 Campaign.
Please keep the following in mind if you're trying to pick something out for me that I have not asked for: If it has pink, it's very likely I'll not like it. If it's computer related, but will not work with Linux, I won't be able to use it (ie. iTunes gift cards). Purple, yellow and cerulean are my favorite colors, and penguins and spiders fascinate me. Checks are nearly impossible for me to cash, due to my choice to use a bank that doesn't have physical branches (ING Direct), so if you want to give me money, a gift card for a particular store or just a VISA, MasterCard or American Express gift card is best (If you have an American Express credit card, you can call customer service to get a gift card without any service fee).
To start, the easy stuff. I have wishlists on some websites, and all should easily pull up with either my full name or my email address.
- Think Geek
- J!nx
- Sock Dreams - This site's wishlist function is coming soon at the time of writing, but in case it's added before I have a chance to update this page again, I'm including it into the list... as I know I'll fill up a wishlist post haste when they announce it's gone live.
Some miscellaneous things which I don't have specific links for:
- A cricket bat - A proper regulation willow Cricket bat, like the ones used to actually play the game.
- I have a fantastic Timbuk2 messenger bag I absolutely love. It's primarily used as my laptop bag, and I wouldn't mind being able to customize one of their tote bags for non-laptop related uses.
- Gift cards for Half Priced Books or B&N are always welcome, as I love to read but the library and I don't get along... because I don't like having to give books back when I'm done with them.
- Staple Gun
- Pandora One subscription ($36 for a year, gift cards available @ Target)
- A sewing machine. Ideally I want one that'll do the fancy programmable stitching patterns, but I think those are all Windows only for the programming. :(
- OctopusMe has amazingly pretty jewelry, and I am taken in particular by the various tentacle earings offered. The more mismatched, the better, but any of the earing would make me most pleased.
I am a big gaming geek of the pen & paper RPG and board game sort. There are some games I'm looking to acquire a copy of, and there are others that I already own, but I would like supplements and expansions for. First I'll list the board/card games and expansions I already own, and if there are any expansions I'm looking for.
- Munchkin - I own the core set of the original card game, as well as expansions 2 - Unnatural Axe, 3 - Clerical Errors, 4 - The Need For Steed, 5 - De-Ranged, Magical Fairy Dust, & the level counter dice. I am interested in getting any other supplements, including dice, figures and such.
- Arkham Horror - This gorgeous board game is epic, well designed and pretty fun to play. I've also got the following expansions for it: The King in Yellow, The Lurker at the Threshold, The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, and The Black Goat in the Woods. I've seen very pretty dice, and very shiny miniatures available for it... as well as larger and more involved expansions. I haven't yet had the chance to try out the expansions I do have, so I'd be more interested in the minis and the dice. Especially the dice, the dice for this are very pretty.
- Mansion of Madness - I was recently given this, and haven't had the chance to play it yet. Given that it's made by the same people who made Arkham Horror, I am looking forward to giving it a play when I can get the right number of people together to give it a spin. There are expansions and accessories available for this, but I don't know anything about them yet.
- I have a couple of Treehouse sets (one set of rainbow, one set of xeno), and a set of Martian Coasters. I am interested in more of the icehouse pieces, as well as any of the various accessories needed to play any additional games past the treehouse and Martian coasters which I'm already set up for.
- I have a couple of other Steve Jackson games, Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice. Both are insanely fun, and both I can play with my niece. I already have the Cthulhu plush dice bag for Cthulhu Dice, but other than that I don't have any expansions for these yet. They're both fairly new, so there isn't much available yet.
- I also have some other games that I very much doubt have expansions available, but I'll list them to give you an idea of what else I'm into: Monopoly (The Mega edition with speed dice, skyscrapers, more properties and larger denominations of money), Pentago (this game is quick, addictive, and amazingly complex for something so simple), a Hello Kitty flavored version of Yahtzee, an old game called Luftwaffe (I received it at a white elephant gift exchange, and haven't had the chance to play but would like to), a Where the Wild Things Are themed Uno set and a Cheap Ass Game by the name of Spree.
- I also seem to have developed a collection of standard playing cards. I try to have them in matched pairs when I get something oddly sized or styled, as I have a particular fondness for playing Spite & Malice which requires two decks that can easily mix, but also be quickly separated out when done playing, such as a pair of Bicycle decks in red & blue. Pretty and/or unique sets (solo or in mixable pairs) are always welcome. I've had my eye on various transparent cards, and I've seen some very shiny Pirate themed playing cards too.
- I am looking to get into painting miniatures for the various games I play. I currently have no supplies for this specifically, though I do have a couple of nice paint brushes from other artistic efforts. I have a set of minis for Call of Cthulhu, and the minis that come with Mansion of Madness come unpainted, so if anyone's looking to get me started that way, colors suited to people and Lovecraft style monsters would be the place to start me.
As for pen & paper RPGs:
- I am always looking for pretty dice. I have a lot of sparkley purple dice, a set of solid copper dice, a couple of large d20s (one lights up, the other matches my smaller copper dice), a set of mini hematite dice that usually stay in my purse, some unique ones like one for randomly selecting the weather. Most of my dice are d6 and d10 (note for those who don't play these sorts of games, the number represents the number of sides the die has, ie. d6 means six-sided like commonly used in board games, d20 means it has 20 sides), as the two systems I enjoy the most use primarily those types of dice in large quantities. In particular, I am looking for pretty looking dice that are black in color and/or have pirate and jolly roger themes to them.
- Airship Pirates - I recently purchased the core book for this system and started running a campaign with my regular gaming group. So far it seems like fun, and it's part of the reason I'm requesting the black and pirate themed dice. Currently there's only one supplement for it, but it is cross compatible with Cubicle 7's Victoriana system and there are new supplements in the works.
- Classic World of Darkness - White Wolf is responsible for an whole large collection of RPGs of a supernatural and horror nature, ranging from Vampires to Mages to Fairies and back again, all of these lines playing in the same universe and to some degree capable of interacting. They've even rebooted this universe to release a new version to mixed results. I've played in both, I've enjoyed both, but I favor the classic version. I have core books for both Vampire and Changeling, the two flavors I'm specifically interested in... as well as having multiple supplements for Vampire. I am currently seeking the Knocker Kith book, which last I checked was most certainly out of print... but given that White Wolf is doing a 20th anniversary edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, I wouldn't be surprised if other anniversary editions of various other Classic properties were to show up.
- Call of Cthulhu - This system from Chaosium (a local company, right here in Hayward!) is pretty easy to work with and plays in the twisted world as established by H.P. Lovecraft. I have the core book, and would be interested in things like minis, supplements and the like.
- Serenity - Set in Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity universe, it was released about the time the movie came out. I've got the core book and Six Shooters & Spaceships supplement.
- Paranoia - I have copies of a couple of the classic Paranoia rule books (which I haven't read, I swear! I'm not authorized. ~_^) and had a lot of fun playing in a game at Kubla Con in the newer version of the system.