My daughter gave me an Elgato Stream Deck which I am using as a Macro Board. I love this thing. I can open Games, Websites, Control my Music Player it is wonderful. I am going to try using it at work where I can speed up a lot of repetitive actions.
My son gave me a copy of Azul which we may try out today. I gave him a copy of The Crew a cooperative card trick taking game which is all the rage these days.
My wife got a great laugh from the digital magnifying glass I purchased for her so we can now read our prescription bottles. The regular magnifying glass is no longer doing it for us.
The other great gift my wife loves is the Aura Carver Digital Frame. When I told her that our kids can send pics of our grandkids directly to the frame her smile grew three sizes today! She has already told our daughter-in-laws who constantly feed us pictures of the little ones. She is planning on getting her parents one now.
The one gift I gave her that I was unsure about was an adult coloring by number book and Prismata Coloring Pencils. She loved that too! I never knew this was a thing until I found some YouTube stuff on it by accident I figured she can color and hang the pics at work (she takes care of babies).
I got a nice comfy sweatshirt that is classy looking, a book (H is for Hawk) that is well-regarded, a disc golf back pack and some new discs, and a year long unlimited golf (traditional golf) at a nearby public course. It’s free golf for a year if I walk, which is how I prefer to play. It sounds expensive but it was only $125. I’m sure it’s an easy course, flat and short, but that’s ok. I just want to tee it up and keep whacking the ball until I get it in the cup.
Oh, and some fancy drink holder thing that’s supposed to keep my can of whatever cold all day and a box of golf balls that alleges they fly farther, straighter, and land softer than other golf balls.
I assume you are using it for Streaming effects. Have you found anything else interesting to use it for besides the basic including opening Websites, Apps, etc?
I am trying to teach myself uses for a non streamer. Like one useful hotkey was to set it to bring up Snagit selection tool. I also have it set to mute my headset mic and it toggles a different icon depending if the mic muted or not (much easier to hit the button on the stream deck than trying to find the headset mute button itself). I also made a button to mute the sound so I can hear my wife when she taps on my shoulder rather than lift an ear piece.
This device is sparking some deep geek creativity in me!
I’m using it to switch between scenes, go live, and such. It can do a lot. One button, for example, puts up my “pre-live” screen, which has some music and mutes my mic. Another button starts the stream and changes my twttier handle to add “Live Now”. The next button turns on studio mode. The next set of buttons switches between my primary scenes (which are either full screen capture, window capture or display caprture). The final button, once I’m all set up, switches scenes in studio mode from pre-live to live, closes studio mode, unmutes my mic and, in some cases, begins recording if I need it.
So I have a whole workflow of macro buttons to go from the coming soon to live, and it’s amazing. I also have separate setups for the podcast and local recording. It’s such a wonderful piece of kit.
So my big haul was a Switch Pro controller to go with the new Switch we got a month or so ago. So far I’ve only played Ring Fit Adventure on the Switch, so I’ll have to get some other game on it to test it out. I was also made a Up-style “Our Adventure Book” with pics of my cats and such. Totally made me cry.
My wife got some sort of Snuggie thing, which is adorable, a bunch of makeup, and a new roasting pan, which is good because she destroyed our old one. The cats got some catnip toys that they LUUUUURRVE.
Overall a pretty dang good haul. Merry Christmas y’all!
This was a really good Christmas for us. We got to stay home and relax instead of rushing off to both of our families for the first time in 10+ years. Our dinner was great with leg of lamb, apple bread, green beans with bacon and onions, pineapple scallop, some Christmas cookies - yum. We got my son an iPhone and I’ve never seen him express so much genuine joy from a gift. It was great.
I got two great gifts - an elliptical machine, so I can drastically reduce my running. I’ve started having more and more foot / ankle issues so I don’t think my body can handle running 5-6 times a week. Heck when I injured it last time I was only running 3 times a week. In any case here it is…
The other gift I bought myself with money Christmas money from my Mom and inlaws, and it is partly from my son - an Oculus Quest 2. It’s not arriving until early to mid January but I’m excited.
I also got another Fire TV stick so I can actually watch the tv in our basement while I exercise.
It’s fun to see what others got for Christmas, I love this thread. Some cool ideas in it so far, as well. I need me a Darksaber.
We did our family Christmas this morning and it was a lot of fun, I managed to get some pretty cool stuff.
Critical Role Vox Machina Origins - a gorgeous, hardbound collection of the comic book based on the Critical Role podcast (campaign 1) that I’m a big fan of.
An assortment of “endless matches” that are basically a zippo lighter if it it was a reusable match stick instead, super clever. My wife didn’t know which one I’d like best so she got me 4.
I also got a few brushes and paint supplies that I was looking forward to!
And for some crazy reason, my father-in-law cut everyone checks for a ludicrous amount of money. Beyond generous. Once I can find one, he effectively bought me a PS5 for Christmas. I gave him a painting, so I … er, hope he really likes it!
Otherwise, we had the boy down from college and he and I played Magic and watched our shows, took turns Spelunky 2’in, and we all went to the theater and watched Wonder Woman 84 which was a solid second tier super hero film but it was really, really good to be back in the theater again. A good day, for sure.
I owe a huge thank you to @Tin_Wisdom and @Tman for giving me this idea! This year my big Christmas present for the family (aka myself) was a crokinole board. I got us a steamed beech and cherry board from Woodestic in Hungary and it’s a total beaut and I love it.
We didn’t have enough time to learn the rules and scoring, but we got the basics and had fun flicking the discs around and getting a feel for the game. And the gliss powder. We will be playing more tomorrow!
My wife got me some stupid clip-on Peloton shoes so I can maybe ride the Peloton bike she bought herself for Christmas.
She also got me a whiskey set with spherical ice cube molds and, as a matter of fact, I am trying it out right now! I’ve gotta say, always thought these were a little silly, but it makes a real difference not melting too fast or touching my lips when I sip. I like it.
You and your family are going to have so much fun!
But you really need to thank @arrendek as he’s the one that got the ball rolling on the Crokinole boards. I only got on board when he mentioned it. I had never heard of it until him!
