2011 Gift Guides: Gifts for Geek

Unsure of what to buy for your favorite geek this Christmas? Well here is an inside look at some of the best gift ideas for geeks and nerds alike.

10. Star Trek: The Original Series 365. Sort of like a word a day calendar, though it's in a full length book form, with photos and stories from the cast and crew of the series that started the phenomena that has stretched more than 45 years through films, TV, books and more. The only problem with this book is that it's too short, every true Trekker knows that the Klingon calendar has 284.2 standard earth days.

9. Hi-Tec Art U.S. Map. Well what can I say, it's a light up map, complete with light up push pins. With this large size wall map, every geek in the house can pretend that they are going to take over the world, complete with battle plans and all.

8. The Star Wars Franchise on Blu-Ray: Sure you're average geek already owns probably two different versions of each film on DVD, and depending on their age they may own a VHS copy or three as well. However, the Blu-Ray version was just released in October, and can be purchased in one of three versions. The versions include the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy or a version with all six films. Whether you buy the two sets separately or the combined larger version the extra features are the same. Bonus gift for the Star Wars fan, a 22 minute short film called Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace was recently released to very little fanfare and your favorite geek may not even be aware of it's existence yet.

7. An Arcade Game. It could be your nerd's favorite game, but any arcade game will suffice. Word of warning here though, this gift is best for people with the space to enjoy it properly.

6. Nerf Stampede Gun. This gun is not your father's Nerf gun. The stampede comes with a shield to hide behind in case your friends also have one, this is the gatling gun of foam dart guns.

5. Star Wars Chop Sabers. Ok so Star Wars gets two entries on the list, I may be biased, but what is cooler than eating Chinese food with chop sticks that are designed to look like miniature light sabers? The answer to that will come quicker than one would think, just look down to the next gift idea.

4. Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter. The twin warp nacelles serve as a handle, and the saucer section serves as the cutting blade, complete with the call letters of the Enterprise engraved. Your favorite geek will enjoy a five year mission to explore pizzas and to discover strange new toppings while seeking out new cheeses.

3. Kindle Fire. E-Books have recently overtaken the sale of print books for the first time in history, and the Kindle Fire is the best e-reader on the market at the moment. It does everything that the older models of the Kindle did, but also has Internet access, and the capability to do hand held gaming, stream videos and do all manner of other cool things.

2. Kuru Toga Pencil. Sure, some might think it's just a pencil, but it's a highly engineered mechanical pencil that actually rotates the tip as you are using it so that the lead never never forms a chisel point.

1. RockPaperRobot Float Table. Just as it sounds, it's a table that levitates, no batteries required. Using advanced engineering and natural forces of magnetism this table is fully customizable, and just downright cool. Beware the price on this one, the simple designs start our at $2,000 before shipping is factored in.

Election Day 2011 - Recap.

 Yesterday was election day, my first election day as a political reporter. Sure it was an off year for elections, in the sense that there were no national or statewide elections, but that doesn't mean that there weren't important decisions to be made across Downriver.

Allen Park saw one of, if not the most important elections in the history of the city. Bill Matakas won the mayoral  race, while four new councilmen were elected along with two incumbents. A new treasurer was also elected. A proposal to help the city fund public safety (ie the police and fire departments). There had been a ton of debate on both sides of the issue, but it passed by a healthy margin. A second proposal for the debt reduction of the Allen Park Studio Center (formerly Unity Studios) failed by a large margin. The new mayor and council need to figure out a way to pay off that debt now without the extra money that would have generated, they have a tough road ahead.

Taylor saw Mayor Jeffrey Lamarand face a recall, and after a brutal campaign he prevailed by a large margin and will serve out the rest of his term.

In Lincoln Park, sitting Mayor Frank Vaslo was defeated by Pat Krause. I don't know a lot about the politics of that city, but our LP reporter Alan Burdziak was a bit surprised when the results rolled in.

Melvindale, the other city that I cover saw sweeping changes, as only a single incumbent was re-elected, the city will have a new mayor, clerk, treasurer, and five new council members.

Southgate, Flat Rock, and several other of our communities saw mostly no contests in their elections as most positions ran with just the requisite number of candidates to fill the offices.

Several of us worked in the office from very early in the morning, until around midnight going to polling locations, taking pictures, shooting video and generally updating the website at every opportunity. All in all it was a very fun night last night, and congratulations to all the winners.