SUSAN KAYE QUINN

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Gifts for Geeks

I’m a geek (of the science and Star Trek varieties). My husband is a geek (of the engineering and model rocket flavor). We’ve spawned three miniature geeks (small, medium, and large).

Even though I now consider myself a WORD NERD, we still have a lot of geek gifts of Christmases-past in our house, including barometric pressure gages, enough rocketry explosives in the basement to alarm an ATF official, and a museum worthy collection of computers, computer parts, and electronics of unknown origin.

If you’re feeling generous towards your geek beloved, you could invest in a Zombie Proof House. If you’re being silly you could write a love letter entirely in Elvish. But if you seriously need a gift for the geek in your life, try one of these:

A Big Old Hunk of Gallium

From Robert Turner (along with a bunch of other cool stuff), this block of gallium will melt in your hand, not in your mouth:

Gallium is a silvery metal with atomic number 31. It’s used in semiconductors and LEDs, but the cool thing about it is its melting point, which is only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. If you hold a solid gallium crystal in your hand, your body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silvery metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it freezes back into a solid. While you probably shouldn’t lick your fingers after playing with it, gallium isn’t toxic and won’t make you crazy like mercury does. And if you get tired of it, you can melt it onto glass and make yourself a mirror.

Han Solo Carbonite Ice Cube Tray

Oh, c’mon, you know you want this! From our friends at Think Geek: “Crystal clear, not scruffy looking.” 🙂 Also useful for CHOCOLATE! Enuf said.

Tesla Party Package
Includes mini-tesla plasma ball (USB powered) and a Tesla vs. Edison throw-down t-shirt. But the best is Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius by Bob Iannini (not recommended for anyone with a large stockpile of rocketry explosives in their basement).

Accio Big Bang Theory!

If your geek is of the Hogwarts loving flavor, you can’t miss with a wand that acts like a remote control (see page 9).  If I could only get it to clean the kitchen, like Mrs. Weasley does.

R2, Could You Save That?

If your geek is of the Star Wars persuasion, an R2D2 USB drive is flat awesome. I wish I could get one with that little electrical arm attachment just to zap anyone who thinks about taking my flash drive (this happens more than you might think in my house. I’m looking at you Worm Burner).

Retro Gamer Alert

This desktop arcade game is iPad + Atari = Geeksplosion. AND it has a controller. Just in case you get tired of playing Angry Birds.

Geek Humor XKCD style

For serious brainiac, spit-out-your-tea humor, you can’t beat XKCD comics. BONUS: you’ll gain some profound insights into the geek brain, for better (and worse).

If none of these fit your geek gift recipient, try Think Geek – they even have a whole category for Geek Kids (personally I think all kids are born geeks; it’s just that the world beats it out of them).

Happy Weekend (and shopping)!

UPDATE:
Holy Dark City, Batman!

For the gaming geeks out there, courtesy of Eliza of Girls PWN, I bring you the Dark Knight in Batman: Arkham City. I know nothing of gaming (seriously, Atari and Angry Birds are the limits of my gaming universe), but anything with The Batman is FTW. If the nerd you’re buying for is a comic book nerd and lives in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, then the chances are they’re a big batman fan (visit my source here) so again, this one is a winner! Thanks Eliza!

Comments

  2. @Eliza Thanks! I was trying to come up with a good gamer gift, but I'm not enough of a gamer, so the best I could do was Retro Atari. If you have any gamer gift suggestions, leave them in the comments!! 🙂

  4. I fall in with Hogwarts geeks and got excited just reading about the wand. On several occasions, I have been called a geek for correcting our friends, when they say Potter character names and spells wrong.
    I can't wait to go to Harry Potter land someday.
    M.

  6. @Magan Alien Hats FTW!

    @Bryan If you make Skynet jokes about a transition metal, I think you become a bullet-proof Geek Professor. Just sayin'.

  11. LOL, I was going to link to the Tesla v. Edison tee yesterday but I figured you'd already seen it. 😉

    Gallium, awesome! My husband might think that was cool (he's such a big kid). He loves magnets, too, so last year I got him three packs of Bucky Balls.

    Love this geek gift guide. I'm more of a Trek fan, but the Solo ice cube tray is pretty ingenious. Thanks again, Susan!

  13. Where do you find this stuff???? It's AWESOME!!!! I want that ice cube tray and my wife would absolutely swoon over the Harry Potter remote!

  20. hi miss susan! for sure i could like a hunk of that gallium. i wonder if that what that terminator was made of cause he could melt down and come back together solid. cool stuff for geeks. we get that think geek catalog too and for sure its got the most cool stuff in it.
    …hugs from lenny

About Susan

Susan Kaye Quinn is PhD Environmental Engineer turned spec fic author who writes hopeful climate fiction & solarpunk.
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