my wish list
last updated: November 2016
Avoid the shame and embarrassment of getting me a gift I already have
or didn't want! You can be sure to please if it comes off this list!
Note that most everything here I will purchase myself eventually,
unless my tastes change.
Media
The books,
CDs, and
DVDs I want can all
be found on my Amazon.com wishlists. I also like prime numbers, so a poster
with a huge prime on it
($95) would be cool to hang in my classroom.
Also, since I have a Wii, I can always use Wii points or some
games.
Musical Equipment
I have a little home recording studio and I play live fairly often.
Also, I'm in the band at my church, so I've also got a list of
music-related things that Life Church could use.
Home
- a couple of
Monoprice
25' XLR (microphone) cables ($15 each)
Church
- a couple of electric guitar folding stands ($16 each)
- Alesis ADAT HD24 24-track hard disk recorder ($1500)
Clothes
I wear medium or large shirts, large or extra large T-shirts, size 10
shoes, pant waist 34 and pant length 30 or 32 (usually 30). For shirts for
work, I like dark greens, browns, grays, and the occasional dark red or
blue (though I already have quite a lot of blue). Usually I go for solid
colors, though checkered/plaid or the odd horizontal stripe or so would be
fine. I don't look very good in vertical stripes, though.
- slacks, khaki or otherwise. Currenly my favorite pair of slacks
is from Eddie Bauer, sized 32x30.
- some button-up short-sleeve shirts. Eddie Bauer small fit me well.
Computer
A computer isn't so much a thing as a hole into which you must
occasionally pour money.
I run Linux, so if you buy me peripherals or hardware, it's a good
idea to make sure that they're
compatible
before spending too much money.
My machine is one I built myself back in 1998, and over the years
I've upgraded parts piecemeal. Here's what is currently in there:
- Processor: Intel i7-4790K (at 4.4 GHz factory setting)
- I finally admitted to myself that I'd be CPU-bound in all my
video games without an Intel chip.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H rev 1.2 (LGA 1150, Z97)
- This is a really nice motherboard. Two gigabit Ethernet ports!
- Video adapter: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8GB
- My machine is finally powerful enough to drive a VR headset!
Just need to get an HTC Vive....
- RAM: 8 GB of G.SKILL DDR3-1600 SDRAM (PC3 12800)
- My motherboard only supports DDR3, but it does support dual-channel
up to DDR3 3200(O.C.), so maybe one of these days I'll upgrade to
fast 16 GB.
- Hard drives: 500 GB, 2 TB and 4 TB
- The smallest hard drive is an SSD and holds the OS, installed programs,
and my home directory. The 2 TB drive holds lossless digital
copies (FLACs) of part of my large music collection.
The largest drive is for backups, mostly, but also has
large files like all our wedding photos and videos.
All three drives are SATA, which is cool. Overall I now have over six terabytes
of drive space in total. Eep. Will upgrade my SSD to a M.2 NVMe version
one of these days.
- Display: Dell Gaming S2716DG
- 27", 2560x1440 at 144Hz, VESA mounts and G-Sync. Hnnngh.
- Power supply: SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze
- This is a 520W power supply that is "80 PLUS BRONZE" certified,
which also helps with my electric bill. 520W is way overkill
for what I'm running, but I couldn't get a decent modular
power supply at any lower wattage.
- Operating system: Ubuntu Linux 17.04 (Zesty Zapus)
- I'm very happy with Linux, though I do now have Windows 10 installed.
I boot into Windows every few months for something or other.
- Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
- An ergonomic keyboard is much more important to me than having
a mechanical keyboard, though if I could have both it would be
nice. This keyboard was a replacement for another Microsoft
Natural keyboard I had bought back in probably 2001!
- Optical drive: Samsung SH-S223Q 22x DVD±R DVD burner
- I'm happy with this drive, and have no immediate need to burn
Blu-ray disks or anything.
- Sound: onboard Realtek ALC889A and Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
- The Focusrite is excellent for recording and should let me
play around with MIDI.