SMV 2014: DEADLINE EXTENDED

[AKKOLADE]

This is our eighth year of "Secret Santa," renamed after everyone's favorite formerly really angry quiz bowler.

There are only three rules:

* Buy your partner a gift, preferably costing no more than $20. Make sure it's a good present; "comedy" bad presents are, almost always, just terrible presents.
* If you sign up, give your partner a gift. Failure to do so will result in open mocking of you.
* Don't give your partner an inappropriate gift. This is a site that is, in large part, aimed towards high schoolers. Don't be stupid.

When you sign up, include 3 to 5 presents you'd like - I'm going to advise that you be somewhat general with this. "Video games" isn't too useful; "PS2 games" is better; "PS2 RPGs" is also better. I'd say "FFX" is less than optimal, because of possible issues with this and the lack of creativity it allows for. (note how hilariously out of date this is in terms of consoles, and how lazy I am! ENJOY THE HOLIDAY MIRTH) (double note how this is a blatant copy & paste from last year AND I BARELY CARE)

(UPDATE: i actually don't care at all)

If, for some reason, you don't want to be partnered with a person you really don't like, email me about it (don't post, because if there's drama in this thread, then I'll hate you). My email is [email protected].

FOR EASE OF USE: Use the following template to sign up!

Name:
Email:
Present requests:

So, for example:

Name: Nate Silver
Email:[email protected]
Present requests: 1) Burritos
2) Burritos shared with friendly cops
3) Limited access to my Twitter account

ALSO - for everyone else's enjoyment, if you would like to post a short story about a memorable holiday incident you had with a past winter holiday, please feel free. If it's wacky present, bad present, the time your wacky cousing kidnapped your boss in a confused but well meaning attempt to help you out, etc., go for it.

That's it! Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy Festivus/Happy Decemberween!

[1992 in spaceflight]

Name: Jacob O'Rourke
Email: jacob.orourke.7 at gmail.com
Present Requests: 1) A V.S. Naipaul novel
2) A DVD of an Akira Kurosawa movie
3) A book about English history
4) A mythological text other than the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid.

As for an amusing story, the closest thing I have is that I accidentally drank from my aunt's beer can when I was 6 because I thought it was my soda can at a Christmas Eve party.

[Cody]

Cody Voight.
[email protected]

1. books about film. Preferably more serious things like "The Czechoslovak New Wave" (Hames) rather than something like "Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies, 1956-1984".
2. Criterion DVDs or Blu-rays of French/Soviet/other art/classic film. These are usually over $20, but it seems like there is always a deal on these somewhere or another that drives the price under $20. Avoid Godard; anything else should fly.
3. Books out of which I can write science questions.

[Rococo A Go Go]

Nick Conder
[email protected]

1. Winter clothing is always nice, especially a nice scarf or a pair of gloves.
2. A documentary DVD of some kind, preferably something historically and/or politically themed.
3. Something to hang on my wall, perhaps a poster makes the most sense, but if you find something else cool for under $20 that would be nice.

When I was kid I knocked over the Santa Claus decoration that my aunt had in her yard one year, and my parents played a trick on me and told me that Santa was bringing me coal because of it. The next morning I reached into my stocking and really did find a lump of coal, and I was upset for about 15 seconds before I figured out it had been a joke since my stocking was full of other things. I'm not sure what I did with the coal, which unsurprisingly is not very useful to a child.

[dtaylor4]

Donald Taylor

[email protected]

1. An interesting tie that is not indecent.
2. Something related to rugby.
3. Something related to non-European mythology. Past SMV gifts have included tomes on Georgian and Scots/Irish myth.

[Charbroil]

Charles Hang
[email protected]

Edit: I just realized that I'd really enjoy some audiobooks on CD. I'd enjoy both audiobooks of well known novels (the kind of things that come up at ACF Fall) as well as Great Courses lectures audiobooks. If you're giving me the latter and want to go the extra mile, I'd certainly be delighted if you email me beforehand, since I have some incomplete Great Courses lectures that I'd like to have complete editions of, and I'd certainly be grateful to any SMV giver who wants to help me with that.

The stuff below is fine also.

(Also copied from last year):

1/ I like cross-disciplinary history books. Examples that I've read recently include Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman.
2/ I also like books that go deeper into well known topics/events/people. For example, I'm listening to an audiobook biography of Abraham Lincoln right now.
3/ I also enjoy biographies of business people and companies. Preferably, they should focus on a person or company who became well known at least 20 years ago. I especially like industrialists and bankers (and, correspondingly, heavy industry companies and banks).

The first time my family ever baked a turkey for Thanksgiving was my sophomore year of high school, so I uploaded some photos of the turkey to Facebook. My friends were befuddled why I had done that.

[ThisIsMyUsername]

In all these years, I've never done this, but there's a first time for everything

John Y. Lawrence
[email protected]

1. Any of Michel Roux's cookbooks, except for Sauces
2. A book by Robert Nozick or John Searle that isn't Anarchy, State, and Utopia or Mind: A Brief Introduction
3. Beethoven recordings by Pierre Monteux, André Cluytens, or Carl Schuricht

At 6:30 AM last Christmas morning, I awoke from a nightmare that ended with me and my companions being pursued up a staircase and eaten alive by neon green ostriches that each had the head of the English poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Of course, I had no idea what Beddoes looked like, and when I looked him up on Wikipedia first thing that morning, I found that I had indeed mentally falsified his image in the dream. The heads on those creatures far more closely resembled that of John Keats. Nonetheless, in the dream, I somehow knew that the creatures attacking us were forms of Beddoes, a fact confirmed by the woman next to me screaming "Aaah! Thomas Lovell Beddoes!" shortly before one fatally savaged her. His appearance in my dream was utterly inexplicable to me, because I have never read any poetry by Beddoes, and had not thought about him at all in the months leading up to Christmas.

[Auks Ran Ova]

Rob Carson
[email protected]

1. Mainstream movies from the last three or so years on blu-ray (or DVD, I suppose). I constantly think "oh man, I should go see that!" and then never do, so the opportunity to catch up is welcome.
2. Cool or unusual foods, ingredients, candies, drinks (alcoholic or non-). I love trying new things, enjoy most flavors, and will at least try the ones I don't, so if you're going to send me salmiakki, don't send a lot.
3. Art prints (need something to put in between the bookshelves). I don't have, and might like, anything by Magritte, Altdorfer, Alma-Tadema, de Chirico, David, or Sargent, so there's a start if you go this route.

At 6:30 AM last Christmas morning, I awoke from a nightmare that ended with me and my companions being pursued up a staircase and eaten alive by neon green ostriches that each had the head of the English poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Of course, I had no idea what Beddoes looked like, and when I looked him up on Wikipedia first thing that morning, I found that I had indeed mentally falsified his image in the dream. The heads on those creatures far more closely resembled that of John Keats. Nonetheless, in the dream, I somehow knew that the creatures attacking us were forms of Beddoes, a fact confirmed by the woman next to me screaming "Aaah! Thomas Lovell Beddoes!" shortly before one fatally savaged her. His appearance in my dream was utterly inexplicable to me, because I have never read any poetry by Beddoes, and had not thought about him at all in the months leading up to Christmas.

Same.

[theMoMA]

I can only assume that this story will be set to music on the forthcoming A John Lawrence Christmas.

[Fado Alexandrino]

Name: Joe Su
Email: joesu235 gmail.com

1. A quizbowl relevant book that doesn't deal with Science or Fine Art
2. Anything by Karajan that's not Beethoven
3. Nerdy (in the academic, not the gaming/movie/comic/etc sense) apparel not from the XKCD store

(Honestly, surprise me, I think the best stuff I've received have been things I haven't actively wanted)

Story: During the 2010-11 winter break, my girlfriend at the time, who dislikes all forms of buzzer based competition, wrote me a series of (obviously poorly written) tossups about our relationship. I felt it was amusing at the time, but I don't remember where I put them or even if I took them with me when I left her house that day, because I was too busy reading the almanac she also gave me.

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

Name: Ben Zhang
Email: [email protected]
Present requests:

1. A functional, moderately challenging model kit (e.g. a rubber-powered balsa-and-paper airplane)
2. A book on an interesting, popular, preferably science/history-oriented topic (e.g. What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, The Signal and the Noise)
3. An office toy or gadget, such as a Newton's cradle, a gyroscope, or a pocket solar lighter.

Because my life is so boring, I have no recollection of anything I did during winter holidays, except that one time 2 years ago when I spent $14 on McChickens (I don't remember for whom or why).

[armitage]

Name: Richard Yu
Email: [email protected]
Present requests:

1. I'm also partial to Criterion Collection movies
2. stuff published by NYRB
3. Coffee paraphernalia

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

Name: Dylan Minarik
e-mail: [email protected]

Gifts I'd Like:

1) A lesser-known but still excellent JRPG for the Wii, GameCube, PS2, or DS
2) An art or music-related poster
3) A 12-Pack of SURGE Cola from Amazon OR as much delicious craft soda as you can get for $20

[Mike Bentley]

Name: Mike Bentley
E-mail: [email protected]

Gift ideas:
-Interesting history books - anything on this list (except the war books) seems pretty good: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... -2014.html
-I'll steal Rob's idea and say Art prints are cool
-Any chiptunes music that I don't already own at https://bandcamp.com/michaelbentley
-Some clever quizbowl related t-shirt (Men's medium)

It's not really Christmas, but I got an N64 on launch day (9/29/96 I believe). Somehow I decided that I wanted this system but had seen pretty much no previews of Mario 64 beforehand. It was a Sunday and I had to wait until my dad got back from the Jersey shore to go to the local game store. They didn't do pre-orders so I kept calling (probably 10 times that day) to make sure that they still had one. When I finally got it and took it home and saw Mario's mutable face for the first time, it blew my mind. I was only able to play through the level with the pirate ship before I needed to go do schoolwork, but this was a pretty life changing experience.

[Sima Guang Hater]

Name: Eric Mukherjee
Email: [email protected]
Present requests:

1. Math, history, or philosophy books, esp 20th century history. I'm particularly looking for a good philosophy encyclopedia or reader that covers large swathes of the discipline (something like a phil of mind reader or a cambridge companion, or if you can find me a PDF of http://www.springer.com/philosophy/phil ... 020-9728-7 I'd find it particularly awesome)

2. Nintendo 3DS games, esp RPGs, that are highly rated (I already have Fire Emblem)

Christmas Story: When I was 5, my uncle bought me a Super Nintendo and my parents hid it in the fireplace to pretend that Santa brought it. Exactly 20 years later, my uncle bought me a Wii U with a similar setup.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Name: Eric Douglass
Email: [email protected]
Present Requests:

Anything, book-wise. I'd like more literature, so a novel (especially from non-Western countries) would be cool.

[Tejas]

Name: Tejas Raje
Email: [email protected]

Requests:
1. I'll steal Mike's book list, anything but the Shakespeare one.
2. Any good JRPG for PS1-3, Wii or 3DS except FF, Persona and Tales of Symphonia.

[The Ununtiable Twine]

Name: Jake Sundberg
Email: [email protected]

Present requests:

1.) A graduate-level graph theory textbook that you find on sale or in a pile somewhere.

2.) A non-Final Fantasy III or IV/Dragon Quest IV, V or IX/Golden Sun: Dark Dawn/Radiant Historia/Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time/Chrono Trigger DS DS RPG that is good, or a non-Phantasy Star IV/Shining Force II Genesis JRPG/strategy RPG that is good, or maybe even a non-Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door/Evolution Worlds/Skies of Arcadia: Legends/Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles/Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (although you can surely get me another copy!)/Tales of Symphonia/Lost Kingdoms GameCube JRPG or strategy RPG that is good. Sorry for being so listy on what I don't want here - the basic idea is that I would like to play a JRPG/strategy game on a console that I own but really don't already own a lot of those types of games on.

3.) 2-3 cheap non-Inter Ice Age 4/Woman in the Dunes/The Ark Sakura Kobo Abe paperbacks.

Christmas story: My mom bought a SNES for us in 1991 but lied and said it belonged to the video game store, so supposedly she had to return it after some time. She let my brother and I play Super Mario World, but only if we did not play on file 1, because "that file belonged to the lady who owned the rental place"...or something. That was also untrue. But hey, 23 years later, the SNES is still mine and I own like $1600 worth of SNES games so I'm not complaining.

[Golran]

Name: Ian Drayer
E-mail: [email protected]

Requests:

1) Board/Card game either in the strategy genre like Settlers of Catan, or humor/party genre like Cards Against Humanity.

2) A trinket to put on my desk at my new job, in a similar vein to the Newton's Cradle.

Obligatory Holiday Story/Favorite Gift:

For the 8 nights of Chanukah when I was in 3rd grade, my parents gave me a share of stock in a different company which really got me interested in business and how the stock market worked. This led to various trips to shareholder meetings around the northeast, where I even asked a question to the CEO at the time of Rite-Aid.

[at your pleasure]

Name: Douglas Graebner

email: [email protected]

Requests:

1. A book, preferably on art history, mesoamerica, ancient history, or late antiquity.
2. A nice poster
3. A surprise, if you happen to be someone who knows me enough to think of something else I might like.

Holiday story: I am torn between "the time some friends of mine and I got together and ate blueberry pancakes, then went to MoMA and were delighted to see free candy in an art museum' and having maple-flavored drinks on New Year's while watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ6dhh9-rWM

[RexSueciae]

Name: Vasa Clarke
Email: vasa.rex.sueciae[at]gmail.com
Present requests:

1. A book or books (potentially but not limited to one of the following: history, Utilitarian philosophy, or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon)
2. An autograph, memento, or corporeal relic of someone who has had a significantly positive effect on the felicific calculus
3. Prodigious quantities of chocolate or other confections

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I'd like to submit the following photograph (taken on December 26, 2013) in lieu of a funny Christmas anecdote: http://i.imgur.com/eroR4Gp.jpg

[Auroni]

Auroni Gupta
[email protected]

1) I'll second Eric's request for some kind of philosophy or intellectual thought encyclopedia/overview.
2) Any DVDs of great films; I haven't seen most of them.
3) An American history or art-related audiobook that surveys a well-defined time period. For example, a book covering the leadup to the Civil War will be fine, but a monograph specifically about the Shore's Landing Massacre will not.

[AKKOLADE]

You've got one week to sign up

I HAD TO DELETE MY TERRIBLE JOKE FROM THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD SO MAKE IT WORTHWHILE GUYS

[Auks Ran Ova]

I HAD TO DELETE MY TERRIBLE JOKE FROM THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD SO MAKE IT WORTHWHILE GUYS

I'm pressing F right now.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

Name: Will Alston
Email: gamegeek2[at]gmail.com
Present requests:

1) A survey of modern art of some kind
2) A "thought" overview ala Eric or Auroni's requests
3) A good book on French, Italian, or Central European history

[Muriel Axon]

Name: Shan Kothari (but don't you know that already?)
Email: quercusacerifolia at gmail
Present requests:
1. Cool books about nature or natural history.
2. Send me your favorite oddball-ish music. Doesn't matter what kind. But no Metal Machine Music, please.
3. Help me become more Minnesotan by sending me something that relates to Minnesota. Flannel apparel, winter sports accessories, lefse recipe books - they're all good.
4. Do you know me better than I know myself? Then send me something you think I'd like.

[naturalistic phallacy]

Name: Bernadette Spencer
Email Address: [email protected]
Present Requests: random food stuffs (spices, flavored bitters, snacks etc....), books about crime (especially things like The Journalist and the Murderer), posters of random philosophers that are not Kant, macaroni portraits of Don DeLillo etc....

My youngest brother is going to be 14 five days before Christmas. What should I get him as a gag gift this year?

[Alejandro]

Name: Alejandro Lopez-Lago
Email: alopezlago .a.t. hmc.edu

Present requests:
1) Some sort of DVD. I've generally liked Criterion Collection DVDs, with stuff by Kobayashi and Jean-Pierre Melville being the most memorable.
2) An indie game with an interesting concept on either the PC or PS3. For example, The Swapper is something I've played that I've greatly enjoyed.
3) Something related to Mystery Science Theater 3000

[AKKOLADE]

Hey! I'm going to extend the deadline until about 9 a.m. ET tomorrow. If you haven't signed up yet, this is your last second chance to do so!

[AKKOLADE]

I just emailed everyone from this. As soon as I have some addresses, I can start mailing out assignments!

[AKKOLADE]

Had familial obligations today; assignments will all be mailed out by tomorrow.

If you have not given me your mailing address yet, DO THAT ASAP PLEASE

[Charbroil]

I've purchased my gifts; my SMV recipient should receive both of them some time in the next couple of weeks.

[Auks Ran Ova]

Neither B nor I have gotten assignments yet.

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

I also have not gotten an assignment.

[1992 in spaceflight]

I haven't gotten an assignment as well.

[AKKOLADE]

I FEEL ASLEEP

Assignments are going out today, sorry. A long week of prepping for and hosting Turkey Day wore me out but good, and yesterday became my catch up day.

[1992 in spaceflight]

I FEEL ASLEEP

Assignments are going out today, sorry. A long week of prepping for and hosting Turkey Day wore me out but good, and yesterday became my catch up day.

No worries, Fred. We were just a bit confused. (or at least, I was)

[AKKOLADE]

I'm still waiting on three addresses, but I'm sending out email notifications for everyone now.

[1992 in spaceflight]

My gift's been purchased. My SMV recipient should be receiving their gift sometime in between December 9th through the 19th.

[at your pleasure]

My gift is brought and shipped; it should arrive at its destination in the next week or two.

[armitage]

I received Zweig's Chess Story and a book of Daphne Du Maurier stories from Cody Voight. Thanks!

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

My gift arrived today. Thank you to my mysterious benefactor for a copy of Ragnarok for the Nintendo DS!

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

I just ordered my gift; my partner should receive his gift in two days.

[Auks Ran Ova]

Our apartment received a confusingly-addressed package that almost certainly came from Charles Hang and definitely contained a blu-ray copy of Gravity. Thank you!

[dtaylor4]

Placed my order today, and came home to a copy of the Popul Vuh. A John Lawrence Christmas was not included, but thanks!

[RexSueciae]

To whomever received my name, I gave Fred an address that may not quite work out. If you've already sent the thing, it might be returned to you (my bad); if you haven't sent it yet, I sent Fred the address that I should have said, so contact him (sorry).

I will definitely send a present to the person whose name I received as soon as exams are over.

[Charbroil]

Our apartment received a confusingly-addressed package that almost certainly came from Charles Hang and definitely contained a blu-ray copy of Gravity. Thank you!

You're welcome! You still have another confusingly addressed* package to look forward to, so I hope you enjoy that one as well.

* I had at least one person also send me a SMV gift addressed to them but at my address, which I thought was an nice way of telling the recipient who the sender was, so I adopted the practice.

[1992 in spaceflight]

I received a copy of The Classic of Mountains and Rivers, which is a Chinese mythological text. Thanks to whoever sent this to me!

[Golran]

My gift was just ordered through Amazon with 2 day shipping, so I'd expect it to get to its recipient by Tuesday.

[Mike Bentley]

My gift arrived today. Thank you to my mysterious benefactor for a copy of Ragnarok for the Nintendo DS!

You're welcome.