Overly Positive

The holidays really keep a lot of folks busy. I know that I’ve definitely been running around this holiday weekend, whether that is braving the cold and the brutality of shoppers for after-Christmas sales, running errands for family affairs, and generally trying to get in a breath to receive gifts and be thankful for being as fortunate as I am.

I’m curious to see how my fellow geeks have worked out in terms of what they received or even bought for themselves for the holidays, so if you have a blog and you’re reading this, I’d like to know what you got that relates to the geek arts. Games, tech, media, anything. There’s a certain sort of fascination that geekery has with new toys, and the holidays are a prime time to see if some of those fascinations were realized this year. If you don’t have a blog or don’t update as often, leave a comment here so I can read.

With that being said, here’s what I received this year that had to do with geek stuff:

• A new computer - I’ve been on the same machine for 2.5 years, and with a side business in videography and gaming-related obligations calling, I’ve been hurting for an upgrade for a while. This holiday, I received it in the form of a new Dell XPS Studio 9000, with an i7 processor, 6 GB of RAM, and more hard drive space than I’ve ever had. Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t build a system. Well, I needed the parts and support security that comes with vendor-made machines, having built (and broke) my fair share of the last 3 boxes I’ve had.
• A new monitor – After sitting at work with a dual monitor setup I found myself wanting for one at home, so using a bunch of Best Buy gift cards (my friends know where I shop) I purchased a 24-inch widescreen Samsung monitor. I’ve always been impressed with Samsung’s image quality and find this new setup conducive to cutting off mind-numbing grind with watching videos or chatting on my other screen. I can’t really complain about the bright, vibrant imagery I’m getting, too.

That’s pretty much it – they’re big ticket items, but they are things I needed. So how’d the rest of you work out?