True, this isnt exactly a rant but my soapbox is the best place I could put it because if it went in the Personal section, it wouldnt show up as a recent writing.

Well this year i have made it easy for *cough*cough* Santa and his Elves. Since the elves no longer build toys but rather get stuff from stores and especially online for old people, I have broken down my wish list into three price categories and attempted to provide as much information as possible and a lot of selections so that there are plenty of choices. I dont know about you, but I am all for gifts that a person will use that still fit the budget, eh? I bet those cheery elves feel the same way.

I mean really, who wants to be the elf to tell santa that you cant bring him more hot cocoa just because some dude spent too much in the workshop?

Cornerstone Gifts (Over $50)

Reconditioned / Used XBox Gaming System
Lauren and I love to play video games and the only system we have right now is a Nintendo... thats right an ORIGINAL Nintendo. It would be cool to get some games to go with it but... one thing at a time.
Amazon.com - $129 (No Bundled Games)
EB Games - $119 (Includes a Game)
GameStop - $129 (Includes a Game)
Ebay - Price, Quality, and Inclusion Varies

Samurai Blue Computer Case
This case is freaking AWESOME and would be a great cornerstone to build my next computer off of.
NewEgg - $139

Kodak EasyShare CX6330 Digital Camera
I have scads of photos that I have taken but cant put on the web because they are all paper. And my digital camera is only VGA resolution with NO flash and NO zoom. A camera like this would mean i can stop taking regular pictures.
TigerDirect - $139

ATI Radeon 9800 Video Card
This is a component for mine and Lauren's computer that will allow us to play games at a better quality. Right now, the card that we share in the computer we play games with is several years old and struggles with today's games.
BestbargainPC.com - $133

Buslink L40 40GB External Drive
This is an actual external drive which can be connected to a PC to store a large amount of information portably. This would make an excellent backup drive or a drive for me to save stuff from old CDs and so forth on. Right now, the data drive that I have is only 15GB and its about 5 years old. This drive would almost triple that capacity.
Amazon.com - $86

The Midrange ($16 to $50)

SMC SMC2802W 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter
This is a card that goes in my computer that allows me to keep a wireless connection on my desktop and to attach custom antennas to it for increased power/range.
TigerDirect - $35

Monopoly: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition
I LOVE monopoly. I LOVE Lord of the Rings. Need I say more? This is a game that both lauren and I enjoy and were playing almost a game a week when we had Lauren's sister's game of this.
Walmart.com - $19.99
Amazon.com - $29.99

Trendware TEW-424 USB 802.11g Wireless USB Adapter
This is a small device that plugs into my computer and lets me have high speed access to wireless networks. While not as powerful as the PCI version above, I can plug this into virtually any computer I use and have a connection.
TigerDirect - $35

HP ScanJet 3300Cse Flatbed Scanner
I have more than a hundred photos taken of myself and lauren and from when I moved here and some old pictures from middle school... all of which I cant put on the web because I cant scan them! This is a decent but inexpensive scanner that would serve well.
Amazon.com - $30

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition DVD
This was an awesome movie and due to financial difficulties, I have not been able to purchase a copy yet, unlike the first two when I was able to pre-order a copy of each edition before they came out.
Amazon.com - $23.99
Walmart.com - $23.88

Subscription to PC Gamer Magazine
PC Gamer is a gaming magazine that covers the latest games and hardware for the PC platform.
Direct - $25

Wireless CANtennea
When combined with the PCI wireless card above, the cantennea provides a huge boost to wireless range and reception. It is pretty much a consumer version of long-range multi-mile wireless transmitters that commercial telecom companies use.
ThinkGeek - $45

Small but USEFUL Stuff (Under $16)

EP Memory 64MB USB Mini Flash Drive (MY13868)
I constantly have to transfer information to and from the office. This would be an excelent method to do so and would save me from having to transfer that information over the internet every time.
Amazon.com - $15.04

Farberware Classic 12 Inch Nonstick Deep Skillet
I know this looks funny on my list but we are always needing a pan at the house and we only have one that is a decent size... AND its not that deep. 50% of the time, the pan is dirty or the stuff wont fit in it. IM sure you can understand how annoying that is.
Amazon.com - $14.95

Man Woman T-Shirt (XXL)
99% of humanity wont understand this tshirt, its a a geek joke. The command "man" is a keyword in UNIX to display a help file. Hence "man woman" is to try and look up the manual on women. A segmentation fault is when a program cant run and just freaks out. The joke here is that a sysadmin tried to get a manual on women and the computer couldnt do it.
ThinkGeek - $16

Theres no place like ::1 T-Shirt (XXL)
Again another geek joke tshirt. ::1 is IPv6 for the local computer. Its like saying theres no place like home.
Think Geek - $16

/dev/pillow
This is another one of those geeky things. Its a pillow with pillow written on it in binary. Anything under /dev/ in a certain type of computer is considered a device. This is a device of type "Pillow".
ThinkGeek - $14.99

Teamwork Poster
The poster on this teamwork poster reads "A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction." Excellent for my area at the office.
ThinkGeek - $15.99