5 Last Minute or Belated Christmas Present Ideas.

Let's just get right to it.

For the RPG lover who also loves inside jokes:

The Bag of Holding

This was an easy choice for me.  I was raised on Dungeons and Dragons, and one of the most useful items in the game is the Bag of Holding.  ThinkGeek was smart enough to make one for us when we're not rolling dice at the gaming table.  This messenger bag comes with 6 useful compartments, that can hold everything from your laptop to your character sheet.  It practically is a transdimensional space that will hold everything you need.  I personally asked for this for Christmas.  This is great for nerdy college students or business geeks who don't like briefcases.  You can buy it here, and if you haven't explore thinkgeek.com I suggest you do.  There's something on that site for everyone.  I'm serious, the last two years I got my family's presents there.  Then again, I was raised by some serious nerds.

For the gadget geek that needs more than just a phone:

The Blackberry Storm

I'm not going to lie, I'm not the biggest gadget person.  That's more of my mom's thing.  But if I were to get her a touch screen phone, I'd get her this one.

Personally, I am an Apple fan.  But I don't think the iPhone is the be-all-end-all of phones.  It looks sexy and is a good product.  I refuse to get one though because I've had horrible experiences with AT&T all my life.  The Blackberry Storm is great if you don't want to go the iPhone route.  First of all it does everything the iPhone does, but its more user friendly with its touch interface.  When you touch a key it will be highlighted and it will click without actually responding.  Just hold your touch or double-click for the button to respond.  This saves a lot of time and you don't have as many errors when you text, when you're editing documents (more on that) or even just navigating through the main screen.  

This is even better if you're a business person, because you can view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint documents on it.  Need to read that report before you board the plane?  Need to edit your presentation before you send it to your project leader?  No problem.  It's great for quick fixes like that.  Heck, as a student I know of times when I have needed something like that.  I'm a simple phone woman myself, but if I were to get an all-in-one product, I would go with the Blackberry Storm.  Also,  the Storm is sold through Verizon who, in my experience, has been a lot more reliable than the other phone companies I've dealt with.

For the girlfriend who doesn't get video games:

Boom Blox

Okay, not just girlfriends, but you know what I mean.  Every geek has that one friend who just doesn't get video games.  She doesn't understand why you can spend hours playing WoW and not feel guilty about wasting your time.  She doesn't get how fun it is to try to unlock every achievement or to take on a boss with almost no health left.  You try to show her, let her play Call of Duty on easy, or even talk her through Super Mario Galaxy.  I mean everyone loves Nintendo as a non-gamer, right?  But she still doesn't get it, and she just walks away frustrated, throwing the controller down and storming off to do... well whatever people do when they don't have video games.  I haven't quite figured out what that is yet.

(p.s., I know there are guys like this too.  Don't worry, I'm not a horrible sexist.)

Boom Blox is a great bridge for that gap.  First of all, it has a very simple interface and is a great example of when the Wiimote's advantages are best utilized.  Second, the goals in the game are easy to obtain and don't require the same hand-eye coordination that an FPS or a Platformer might.  All you do is move around blocks, either by throwing balls or pulling blocks out Jenga style.  It's fun with groups, but also has a great story mode.  I love this game for its simple sense of what's fun and being able to bean the blox dudes on the side when I'm tired knocking down blocks.  With the added bonus of being able to make your own levels, this game is hours of fun.  

For the hardcore gamer who's been living under a rock:

Fallout 3

 

If you love an FPS with a great story and a tons character choices, and you haven't played this game, what's wrong with you?  The overall experience of this game is great.  The post-apocalyptic landscape of Washington, D.C. serves as a great terrain for your character who has only seen daylight at age 19.  You play a person who has lived in a vault, and was planning on staying there too if your dad didn't run away to the wasteland outside.  As any good child you go to try and find him while discovering what happened to America after the nuclear holocaust from years ago.  In almost the same vain as Mass Effect, you're able to shape you character from day one, and continue to throughout the game, by the choices you make and who you decide to align with.  

Just play it already.  If you haven't, why not?

For the fanboy who loves the color black

The Dark Knight

I'm not a comic book person.  I didn't grow up with Batman.  I was more of a TNMT kid.  Yet I love The Dark Knight.  I would have this movie's bastard children if such a thing was biologically possible.  Christopher Nolan has served us a great moral play for the modern audience.  Even though it's a sequel it stand on its own.  (Although, if you haven't seen Batman Begins, you should.  Right now.  I mean it.)  Its a well written script with great acting all around.  Heath Ledger's last performance is fantastic, but you can't forget Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman... everyone delivered in my opinion.  Rarely do you get a movie this good in American cinema that also just literally kicks ass.  To top it off, it was shot in my hometown of Chicago, which fits the Gotham setting perfectly.  In all honesty, you could get this DVD for almost anyone and they would love it.  It's just that good of a story.

If none of that helped you...

Bonus idea

For the geek who you have no idea what to get:

Dice

I hope you all know that I'm serious.

If you are getting a gift for a RPG lover, this is useful, and it will appreciated.

The weird thing about dice is that they are kind of fascinating, even if you don't game.  They come in so many shapes and sizes and colors.  A lot of them have different functions too, for example there are dice out there with different smiley faces on each side.  Those are NPC mood dice, which are usually used by GMs who are particularly lazy about figuring out the mood of their flavor characters.  If you don't know half of what I said in the last sentence, it doesn't matter anyway because that is still a fun thing to play with if you don't game.  Think about it.  Your boos gives you some bad news, you don't know how to react.  Roll the dice and see what mood to be in!  Okay, that's actually bad business advice, but this is a nerd blog, not a how-to-keep-your-job blog.  

The point is that the variety of dice out there make it easy to pick out any combination of which someone will at least find interesting enough as a gift.  I find that my dice are a conversation piece amongst a lot of people who don't get gaming, and it turns out a lot of people think its kind of neat that I collect them.  So at least you're getting that person who you have no idea what to get something that's "kind of neat".