Specifically looking for nerdy knickknacks like magnetic viewing film that a fellow autist would appreciate
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I once bought our son a transparent practice lock picking set. Great fun. Not the cheapest but he has since been able to repay me many times over from the proceeds of various jewellers shop robberies & bank heists
- Rechargeable AA or AAA batteries
- Electric handwarmers
- Lotto Tickets or scratchers
- Travel Board or Card Games
- Charging accessories
- Darn Tough vs. Fun Socks
- Phone Stand
- Mini tripod
- EDC stuff like Olights
So many things…
Silly socks, a puzzle of some kind, a magic trick, some weed, a good book, fun magnets, a geode
As a girly who gets cold easily - warm fuzzy wooly socks. Oh my god. Pls I need several pairs to get me through the winter! Oh and I’ll take a couple sample sized brandys while you’re at it😁
When we were kids my parents would put some snacks & gum/mints and the biggest & juiciest apples and oranges I had ever seen, it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated sometimes. For something a little nerdier maybe a puzzle, book like a comic, novel, or almanac, or maybe a handheld synth or sampler like the teenage engineering pocket operators or stylophone or something similar.
Gyroscope
3d printed thingy
Diffraction grating film
Prism
The other sock.
Nerdy knicknacks for stockings? I guess DnD dice maybe
Candy. Hot wheels.
I almost skipped past this post, but something cheap I carry in my wallet every day is a credit card sized Fresnel magnifying lens, same size and thickness of a credit card. Suprisingly durable, and can even start fires in good sunlight.
A similar idea is a magnetic field viewing film. I have one and it’s neat to see exactly where magnets are in different things.
Thank you for this! I need to come up with some stocking stuffer ideas for my wife to get me. And I’ve been struggling. But something like this would actually be useful and fit the bill very well.
What level magnification are you getting, and is there much distortion when using it to read (or to examine objects)? The only thing I know about Fresnel lenses are lighthouses!
I’m not sure exactly, but I’d guess about 2x magnification, and text is totally legible and easier to read.
The focal point distance for sunburning/fire is about 7cm.
The lens part itself is 6cm x 5cm.
Yes I did some measuring…
My wife worked in a fancy kitchen store for a while, and has strong opinions on just about every kitchen tool or utensil you can imagine, and to her credit I agree with most of them.
A while back she ordered a Rösle vegetable peeler and due to a shipping error, instead of one single peeler we were sent, what I assume to be, one entire case’s worth of peelers.
Having now used it for several months I strongly believe this is the best vegetable peeler I have ever used. Also the blade is replaceable, which is, I think, pretty damn cool.
So since we have a bunch of them, pretty much everyone we know is getting one for Christmas.
They’re pricey if you’ve got a bunch of stockings to stuff, but not outrageously so if you only need to get one or two for people you know enjoy cooking. And they’re the kind of thing a lot of people probably wouldn’t spend the extra money on themselves. If it weren’t for my wife I’d probably have whatever the cheapest peeler in the kitchen aisle at target is, and it never would have crossed my mind that there was room for improvement.
Otherwise, I’ve never personally been disappointed to find a flashlight or pocket knife in my stocking.
My wife and I are on-and-off casual magic the gathering players, so a pack or two of that often finds its way into our stocking, substitute whatever your trading card game of choice is there.
Or various other small card or dice type games. It’s kind of nice having some little game you can carry around in your backpack or purse and bust out when you have some time to kill with friends.
Small Lego sets
Fidget toys
Snacks
Soaps, lotions, lip balm, etc.
Which style of peeler? The stabby looking one or the safety razor looking one?
They have 3 different peelers (4 if you count the left and right handed versions separately, 5 if you count the julienne peeler.
We have the swivel peeler which comes in left and right handed versions.
And on that note, think about how you peel. I tend to do long things like carrots and cucumbers in long strips away from myself, which is the opposite direction from what the right handed peeler can cut.
Round things like apples or potatoes though, I generally peel towards myself like a paring cut, which is what the right handed peeler is designed for.
If you’re splurging on a peeler for yourself, you could do like we did and just get both to cover all bases. Otherwise it may be worth taking an extra moment to consider the person you’re gifting it to’s handedness and what they’re likely to be peeling with it.
The stabby looking one should, I think, be ambidextrous. I haven’t used that one, I suspect it’s probably a cut above the cheap peeler you may have in your drawer now, but I can’t actually vouch for it. It also doesn’t look like the blade is replaceable on that one so I’d be less inclined to splurge on something that’s ultimately going to be disposable once it gets dull unless you want to get really fiddly trying to sharpen it. That said I think it’s probably going to be made of better steel than most regular peelers and will probably last a good long time before getting dull.
Or get the crosswise peeler which also has the replaceable blade. Can’t quite vouch for that one myself either, but we do have the julienne peeler which seems to be essentially the same but with a (non-replaceable) julienne blade, and I’ve been quite happy with that as well (though I do feel that it could have been designed to use the replaceable blades) the crosswise basically seems to be the julienne peeler but with the replaceable swivel peeler blades, so I’m pretty confident that it’s also a solid piece of kit, just not my preferred style of peeler.
Final note, the plain cylindrical steel handles may not be everyone’s aesthetic or ideal ergonomics. I like it just fine or even prefer it, but that’s just me.
Something I’ve always requested when anybody asked what I wanted for a gift, (and only got once from somebody who went on to be my wife) was a handwritten letter.
As somebody who buys the things I require whenever I require them, it’s something so much more personal than damn near anything else.
Edit: I gave her a box of secrets. Basically I wrote a bunch of lines or paragraphs on pieces of paper that I don’t like to talk about or have trouble expressing. The only caveat was that she could only read one per day and only when she’s not having a great day.
It’s not real exciting, but phone chargers make great stuffers. Everybody can use one more.
My wife has bought me some, but then ends up taking them and losing parts. This year we are getting color coded ones
If you know what phone they have you can get one at or a little higher than it’s top charging speed. It might end up their fastest charger. (I mention a little higher if you feel like it, since if/when they upgrade maybe that speed will go up a bit and your purchase will be even better. I wouldn’t bother doing that with chinese phones that are at 100W anyway.)
trichroic prisms, also called X Cubes, like what is inside a projector. You can get them in ebay pretty cheap, and they are just very cool to look at and play with, seeing how the light is split into three colors.
A lot of the cheap ones on eBay seem to be normal perspex cubes with different coloured stickers on each side
