flexagon | Jun. 5th, 2015

I am really excited about my birthday present from

heisenbug. He's been agonizing over what to give me, and this morning I finally thought of and asked for the right thing: a decision on what computer I should buy to replace my POS desktop at home. This is obviously a gift of time and research, and it's going to unblock me on something that's been creating a vortex of resentful energy around my office desk for many months. I'm going to boot that thing out the window and replace it with a dockable, travel-worthy laptop that's got higher specs than my old desktop and is lighter than my work lappie. EXCITED, I tell you. :-)

I'm also pretty excited about my birthday present to

heisenbug a couple of weeks ago: large quantities of high-quality exotic-meat sausages, because he likes sausage.

As most of you know, I'm a minimalist; not a crazy 100-thing devotee, but I like to do "one in, one out" and I will very possibly pass on your gift to me once it has fulfilled its purpose of being accepted. And even non-minimalist adults already have the material items they need. And as not all of you know,

heisenbug is kind of a time-commitment minimalist, so I try not to give him books or time-consuming games or other massive time-sucks.

So here are some gift ideas for things that don't take up space or time forever, most of which reflect things I've given or gotten over the years:

Classes, as long as they're one-offs and not too time-sucky. Circus classes, music classes, pour-over coffee classes?

Magazine subscriptions. I give The Atlantic a lot. Someone gave me Redbook once.

Food can be a subscription; for anything there's an "X of the month club", though I feel I should warn you all that the "bacon of the month" clubs I've found seem to focus on weird flavored bacon.

Gourmet food. Duh. But other consumables can be fun... if you have nerve, try giving makeup. Really nice primer matches everyone's skin tone, and nail polish doesn't need to.

Tickets to an event(Cirque du Soleil works well).

Anything practical that the person uses or eats all the time, but in quantity. This is a fun one. I once saw a guy give a girl a dozen Gatorades for Valentine's Day in her favorite flavor, and she loved it. For me, how about a crate of Triscuits? I'd also accept a hundred lip balms of the proper variety.

Getting something serviced or repaired. One year I got heisenbug 's bike tuned up and also put a mirror into an empty frame he had. I think his picking out a new computer for me almost falls into this category, since whatever he picks will replace something broken.