Need some help picking out some last minute gifts!
Q: What should I be looking for in a monitor these days? My girlfriend bought some ridiculous $3k+ desktop and she does a ton of photoshop/media work but she only has one monitor, a 19" Dell Ultrasharp from 7 or so years ago. I think it would be a pretty cool idea to get her a second monitor. I'd be willing to spend up to around $150 or so, a bit over is fine if it's worth it.
Q: Totally unrelated to the first question, I'm lost on what to get my sister this year. She does two things for leisure, drink and rock climb. Normally this makes shopping for her easy since she never could afford all the climbing gear she wanted. She recently got a job at a local EMS store though and she gets all the gear she wants for obscenely low prices so she bought practically everything she wanted. I can't even pay for her climbing gym pass because she gets a free lifetime membership for as long as she works at EMS.
Now, I know this would be easier if I could list out all the things she already has but honestly there is too much to list, more stuff pours in all the time, and I know jack all about climbing gear. Are there any things that climbers could always use more of? Or perhaps something a little more obscure that she might have missed?
Worse comes to worse I think I'll go fishing around for a nice bottle of wine, which I also know jack all about since I don't drink.
Have tried looking at any books on climbing? If she is really that passionate about it, there are a lot of titles on climbing technique, climbing strategy, and the overall history of the sport.
Also, if there are any outdoor climbing courses near where you live, may a pass for some summer time climbing on the real thing?
1.)Buy her starcraft, tell her not only do you need to train the body to become disciplined to rock climb, but also the mind. You will grow a lifelong starcraft bond with your sister now!
It's hard to pick out an exact gift, but I climbed for 5 years 5 days a week when i was younger. Things I wish I could've had: 1) Food to eat at the cliff- like some solid replenishment stuff they usually have these at a rock climbing shop. 2) It's nice to have some tape and bengay (tiger balm) for when you get a gnarly gash in your hand. 3) Nice pairs of climbing pants (not like spandex) find some nice prana pants to climb in. 4) If she does traditional climbing instead of sport, extra webbing is always super nice.
and if she climbs outdoor in the winter get her some kind gas space heater, those are sweet!
if she is like me, than she will want to pick out all of her own gear to taste, but there are some sure fire gifts i would recommended:
does she have a hangboard? ( a climbing hold looking thing above a doorway?) there great for training, and go for around 50 - 80 bucks. does she have climbing porn (mags...) around the house? if not then you could get her a subscription to a climbing mag. (porn...). also any climbing dvds: i would recommend this one:
@TheLardyGooser: Didn't think of a book, not a bad idea. Might look into that. And we do have a few outdoor climbing areas here but I don't think you have to pay to climb there.
@Jacobine: Very cool ideas. Tape seems fairly straight forward, I'll look up webbing, and I was thinking of picking up extra chalk perhaps.
On December 24 2010 06:12 hiro protagonist wrote: if she is like me, than she will want to pick out all of her own gear to taste, but there are some sure fire gifts i would recommended:
does she have a hangboard? ( a climbing hold looking thing above a doorway?) there great for training, and go for around 50 - 80 bucks. does she have climbing porn (mags...) around the house? if not then you could get her a subscription to a climbing mag. (porn...). also any climbing dvds: i would recommend this one:
Yeah, she does like to pick things out herself. In the past she even gave us a wish list to make things easier but since she got this job it seems like she has bought everything that comes to mind. Which is what makes it so hard. XD
Ah yes, I do remember her talking about a hangboard. Any particular models/brands you would recommend?
She does have a subscription to climbing mags and she actually has that exact climbing DVD. lol
If she's that into photography and such, 150$ is not going to get you a good monitor at all. You can get her a...whats it called. spy-bot or spy-something. Its a color corrector thing for your monitor, runs for about 150-250 depending on the model. Helps adjust for a better white balance + reds/blues and stuff.
Getting a bad monitor with bad color grading = horrible for photoshop users. To give you an idea, the dell that i'm using ran 600$ but it had top grade color grading next to NEC CRT's at the time 3 years ago.
I hope the one I picked isn't that much worse than the above... ugh, I feel terrible now. Just a quick glance at the Asus one and it appears a lot better, fuck... Thanks for the suggestion though, sadly I already ordered the Acer one with overnight shipping so it would arrive before Christmas.
You know that sinking feeling you get when you know you've fucked up and there isn't much you can do about it? Ugh...
@Milkis: I'd hope the one I picked is still at least an upgrade from hers considering her Dell is 7+ years old, it's still a 4:3 monitor.
@Seltsam: She has a wacom already. Definitely would have gotten her one if she didn't though, good call.
So, moral of the story. Crunch hours at work suck, I need to plan way better. Doing things last minute suck.
On December 24 2010 06:12 hiro protagonist wrote: if she is like me, than she will want to pick out all of her own gear to taste, but there are some sure fire gifts i would recommended:
does she have a hangboard? ( a climbing hold looking thing above a doorway?) there great for training, and go for around 50 - 80 bucks. does she have climbing porn (mags...) around the house? if not then you could get her a subscription to a climbing mag. (porn...). also any climbing dvds: i would recommend this one:
Yeah, she does like to pick things out herself. In the past she even gave us a wish list to make things easier but since she got this job it seems like she has bought everything that comes to mind. Which is what makes it so hard. XD
Ah yes, I do remember her talking about a hangboard. Any particular models/brands you would recommend?
She does have a subscription to climbing mags and she actually has that exact climbing DVD. lol
EPT
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