The Ninth Annual Mindless Diversions Unsolicited Shopping Guide

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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8 Responses

  1. fillyjonk says:

    This morning, JSTOR Plants (which I follow on Twitter) suggested houseplants as a gift (and had a list, ranging from the super-easy and low-maintenance ZZ plant up to orchids…)

    I would not have thought of that (also, I travel at Christmas, and transporting a plant back home would be difficult – hard to take a plant on the train) but yeah, for someone with an interest, a houseplant would be nice. (I treasure a Christmas cactus my mom grew for me from a cutting she took from one of hers….which was a plant that originally belonged to her grandmother).

    Someday I want to get more into raising succlents and if Lithops are to be had as a plant (legally, I mean: I have no idea if they’re endangerd in their native habitat and how widely cultivated they are), I might want one or two.

    I would also note that people who are hobbyists *tend* to welcome supplies, but check on requirements of amounts, etc. first. I got yarn from my brother and his family but it is single skeins of stuff (I think they let their daughter pick) and it’s kind of hard to find patterns for 131 yards of bulky weight, and….I don’t have anything else I can easily combine it with. But if you have a knitter or quilter in your life, more supplies are probably a welcome gift.

    I also find *most* adults welcome small fun things. One of my go-to “I need a small fun gift under $10” is a set of those glow-in-the-dark plastic stars. They come with a wall-putty so you can stick them to your wall without ruining the paint and you can reposition them. I’ve given them to a diversity of people and they are generally well-received. (Of course, I may be biased: I generally welcome toy-type items, even silly things like bouncy balls. Just because I’m 50 doesn’t mean I’ve outgrown FUN, for goodness’ sake)

    In more-serious gifts, I asked for a new barn coat (I tore my old one badly on a thorn, and it’s 30 years old anyway) and some new field boots…Report

  2. Aaron David says:

    I didn’t send you anything regarding this, as my wife and I have moved into the point in life that many things of a general nature are kinda pointless to us. Fillyjonk above has some great ideas about craft supplies and house plants, words well worth following. But, to get down to it. my wife said casually to me that I was hard to shop for.

    To which I replied: Think about the aspects of me that you love, and then find something that you feel would enhance those things. With the emphasis on you.

    I bought her a rubber chicken.

    Report

  3. PD Shaw says:

    Can’t vouch for it, but put this book on my Christmas list this year:

    Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball by Richard HershbergerReport

  4. Slade the Leveller says:

    Chris obviously has an unlimited music budget. Is he the alt account for Jeff Bezos? My one, off the top of my head musical recommendation for 2019 is Bryan Scary’s Birds. Get one for yourself while you’re at it. You won’t be disappointed.

    I gotta hook Schilling up with my wife, the queen of practical gift giving. I once received a gallon of Kilz, so I could fix and paint where our roof had leaked into the dining room.Report