Christmas Bounty

Alternate title: Why Amazon Wish Lists have made Christmas so much better.*

I didn’t get anything that made me say “Why the heck would you think I might use that?” Here are the highlights:

Belkin F8Z492-P Bluetooth Music Receiver: I haven’t listened to the radio in months…probably nearly a year. I download podcasts to my Nexus One and then plug in to auxiliary jack and listen to them on my commute. I wanted this little guy to help me with a little alternator whine problem I’ve been having and generally make my dashboard appearance less cluttered (There are currently cables for my phone’s power and the 1/8″ audio coming out of the top of my AC vents). My only disappointment with this device is entirely in the marketing photos. All the photos show a single wire coming off the device while it’s in operation, leading me to believe it is powered by a rechargeable battery. It is not. You have to have an external power supply, which I’m going to make. Stay tuned 😀

Fenix E21 Flashlight: This thing is awesome. I’ve never had a “tactical flashlight” that wasn’t attached to a weapon, so I didn’t know what I was missing. I got the AA model since, well, everything else I have uses AAs. That might have been a mistake since the 2AA model is significantly longer than the more expensive CR123A model. It’s brighter than my M6 that lives on my Glock. I used it last night and this morning while walking Casey and it is really, really bright.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated): I talked about the audio version a couple of weeks ago and how I needed to get the book for reference. Really glad I got this.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work: Someone, I can’t remember who, recommended this book to me recently. My life is almost entirely digital and I have this yearning to work with my hands. It’s almost a spiritual need for me but I haven’t really done much.

Atlas Shrugged: Part One [Blu-ray]: My liberal college professor aunt bought me this. I didn’t love the movie, but I threw it on my wish list anyway for the special features and to maybe get them to finish out the series.

The Expendables (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy): I don’t care who you are, this movie was fun.

So how’d you guys make out?

*[Yes, I know Christmas is about celebrating Christ’s birth and spending time with family, but this isn’t a blog about that. As a teenager, I got really turned off by people “sneaking” proselytizing into my life and it probably delayed my acceptance of Him by a decade. If I’m going to blog about my faith here, it’ll probably be on Easter since that’s a much bigger deal to me.]