Valentine’s Day is a great time to show someone you care. For a lot of us though, it can be hard to come up with a good gift. Well, to jump start your creativity and shopping skills, here’s a handy little guide!
For the Geek in Your Life
Let’s face it ladies. William and Mary is full of geeky guys—and honestly, that’s kind of awesome. Geeky guys are just guys who are passionate about something they think is cool and are confident enough to not feel like they have to hide their love of something—whether it’s science or science fiction. Does your guy love superheroes? Is he a film nut? Does he love quirky, weird things? Is he one of those cool musician types? Does he love anything that fits in the category “gadget?” Maybe you should get a geeky gift to reflect the crazy, fun, quirky personality that you love. Sites like Thinkgeek.com, Spoonsisters.com, and X-tremegeek.com have really cool, fun, quirky gifts. Their sites feature a quick link for Gifts for Guys to make your search simpler! Also try searching his interests on etsy.com and support a real person who makes things by hand instead of a company in china. You can get the above Tardis Kindle Touch Skin for your Whovian boyfriend for $15. Available here!
For the Sophisticated Traveler
Maybe your guy loves to travel. Maybe he dreams of studying abroad. Maybe he’s an IR major or pumped for his spring break trip to New York. Well, Moleskine, the makers of the ultimate notebooks, makes a line of city notebooks where anyone can make their own guide to the city. Mark cool restaurants and cafes, take notes on cool places and experiences, draw, make notes, and just chronicle your stay in an amazing city. Moleskine has a variety of cities in this line from the big ones like London, Beijing, and Paris, to ones in the states like New York, DC, and Chicago, to other lovely and popular destinations abroad like Torino, Kyoto, and Vienna. Your worldly guy is sure to love the chance to record his amazing experiences in the city, whether he’s a local or a one-time visitor. You can buy them for $18 at moleskineus.com
For the Gamer
Fact of gaming: everything is better with kick-ass audio. While some games are engrossing for their sheer simplicity of objective (pong, angry birds, tetris, bejeweled) many games are awesome simply because they draw you in and seem so real. Even if there are made up lands and creatures, there are certain things that just make you feel like you are in that world. Awesome graphics, interesting story line, and ease of control are a few of these things that make it easy for a gamer to get into the game. Sadly, there is very little you can do about those things—but what you can make more awesome is the audio quality by getting him a nice pair of headphones. A good pair of headphones can even alert a gamer to an enemy out of view. Some headphones can set you back hundreds of dollars, but some makers will have options that are more budget friendly. CNET rated the Koss Porta Pro line excellent and among the top budget-friendly headphones at only $40-50. Available from koss.com
For the Practical Man
This is the kind of guy who believes in always being prepared. He’s Mr. Fix-it and he likes it that way. He always wants to help out and may not understand the value of anything described as “decorative.” He believes that form is not even in the same ballpark as function and maybe when you look at his room, it shows. His favorite word is “useful” followed by “efficient,” “done,” “effective,” and “my girlfriend” (may or may not be in that order). For this kind of guy, you’re going to want to get him something that’s useful and will stay useful for a very long time. So get him a tool set that will serve him well for years, even decades! Try this Denali 115 piece tool set available on Amazon for just $52 and comes with free shipping!
For the Film Nut
He knows everything about the big movies—Pulp Fiction, Gone with the Wind, Titanic, the Godfather, the Back to the Future Trilogy, The Karate Kid, The Goonies, and the Princess Bride. For a girl like you with a guy like him, it’s impossible it figure out what he has or hasn’t seen, or which movies he does or doesn’t own. But what could he possibly love more than movies? So let’s take the guess work out of it and let him decide. The popular movie service Netflix allows you to give the gift of a netflix subscription. You can get you guy anywhere from a month to a year’s worth of service! Aww yeah! Available at Netflix.com/gift
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