The 2008 Not-Gonna-Get Christmas Wish List

We’ve all been there. In fact many of us are there, now. We have things that we’d like to be gifted this holiday season, but we know we’re never going to get them because of whatever circumstances are hanging about like a little wish black cloud. Still, that doesn’t stop the dream.

Those who remember the Sears Christmas Wish Book from their childhoods will remember pouring through the children’s section (i.e. toys) and indicating with great precision those things that we desired least we die from their absence under the tree on Christmas morning. Well, the wish book concept ain’t what it used to be, for either the children or the adults with that child still in their hearts. How often do you say that you want nothing for Christmas when, in fact, you do desire things that you know you won’t get? Every year, more than likely. It’s the nature of the beast. I’m not immune, either.

I will confess that sometimes, sometimes, I’ll still indicate my Wish-Book-like desires to family. I know I’ll never get that item that easily runs into six figures, but sometimes that kid inside just has to lay claim to that one gift that opleez-opleez-opleez hastu-hastu-hastu be there after Santa’s visit because we’ve been very-very-very good this year.

But this is the age of the Internet. And I have a blog just sitting here. Why limit myself just to annoying my family for my pleas of opleez? I can broadcast to the world the avarice in my soul that extends beyond the peace on earth, good will toward men (which, as I think on it, may or may not be such a good thing…I’ll have to do a blog on that). So why not?

The Perennial Favorite

A Pool Table. Of course, I’m not talking about one of those small little time-wasters that you can pick up from Costco for a few hundred bucks. No, I’m talking about a first-class, heavy slate, eight-foot table. The sorts that start at a few thousand dollars.

Unfortunately, I’d have to butt heads with everyone else who happens to like the living room and dining room in their present, rather traditional, aspect. Me…I’d rather play pool.

The Friend

DSLR with lenses. I used to be a (sometimes) well-paid photographer. I learned on high-end equipment that would do my photographic bidding with no complaint. Bodies and lenses filled my camera bag eager for the games and events that would come our way.

Sadly, that equipment sits on the floor of my closet. It all still works. I have no complaints there. You buy quality stuff and that quality remains. Unfortunately, it’s all film-based. Film plus developing plus prints combined with my torrent of picture taking when a camera is in my hand adds up to an unsustainable expense. So, for years now, I’ve gone digital.

Don’t get me wrong, I love digital. As a photo guy, it’s made my life much easier. Unfortunately, my heart is still high-end while my camera budget is decidedly more in tune with economic reality. This is brought home every time when I’m asked to take photos. While the equipment is better than a disposable, it often lets me down because I was taught to take photographs and not snapshots. In an effort to be helpful, these consumer cameras tend to sabotage my creative variations…and they aren’t manually overridable enough.

I want (opleez-opleez-opleez) a high-end DSLR. It should have a full-frame sensor and the ability for me to attach my old, manual, non-Auto-Focus lenses (though I’m more than willing to wave that point). But since a DSLR is only as good as its accessories, I’d also like a small but useful variety of lenses from, say, 35mm to 600mm. They’d have to be “fast” lenses, of course. I’m a natural light photographer, gots to have me the expensive and oh-so-heavy fast lenses.

The Tool

Big Air Compressor and HVLP Spray Gun. I’m an airbrush artist. But, being a fine-artist, I don’t have the constant need to use big spray guns and whatnot in the every day course of my work. Since I’m not having to cover cars and trucks with coatings of base-coats or shiny urethane finishes, I didn’t have the pressing need to get a big high-volume air compressor nor a really good spray gun to snap onto it. That’s not to say the need doesn’t arise, just that it’s not a daily thing.

My feeling is that if you are going to buy, you might as well buy well. That means that I’d like the compressor to be able to handle not only a spray gun, but also all of those nifty little pneumatic tools that are available. That means the compressor needs to furnish A LOT of air very quickly. It also means that I’d have to get the electrician out to do some heavy upgrading to our electrical. As not cheap as the compressor and attachments would be, the electrical modifications would far exceed that.

The Dreams

WNBA Franchise. Like the pool table, this is sort of a yearly thing. I want a WNBA franchise in this town regardless of whether I have anything to do with it or not. Seriously, if I have the funds available (we’re talking low eight-figures) I’ll do it all myself if I have to.

UM Endowment. Of course, being that the awarding of franchises isn’t totally up to me, I’ve long had a desire to endow my alma mater with something more substantial than alumni association dues. If that eight-figure sum can’t be applied to a WNBA franchise, I’d be very happy to send it over to College Park to see if they couldn’t maybe do something with it. The non-revenue sports department (i.e. those sports not football or men’s basketball) were key in getting me started in photography, and the women’s basketball team in particular have never ceased in providing me with treasured memories. So, obviously some of the endowment goes there.

But it’s not just sports. I love learning, and I like the direction the University has been heading since the darkest days in the mid-80s. It’s become one of the “baby Ivies”. The potential was always there, but it needed vision, will, and money. Oh, to have that money to give to the place that will always have a big hunk of my heart.

The Toy Collections

This is such a broad area that I can’t limit it to one quick item. Here’s the thing…I’ve been in various fandoms since I was a kid. First, there was Star Trek. Since the show was a first-run series, I’ve been there (though, they might just lose me with the upcoming “re-imagined” movie). There was Highlander and Xena and Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars and Terminator and others less science fictiony, but no less dear to my heart.

Attached to all of these tiny obsessions are items that fans always want to get their hands on. It could be a pistol phaser (a/k/a phaser II) from Star Trek‘s original series. It could be each of the chakrams from Xena. Terminator endoskeletons are way cool, but even cooler would be the original .45 long slide with laser sighting (which is currently still in the prop department for TTSCC).

Of course the list is seemingly endless. From scripts to props to…well, the sky’s the limit. Not that I actually have any place to put all of this stuff, but it would be so cool to have.

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And for the most part, that’s what tends to stay on my want-to-have-but-it’s-too-impractical-to-get wish list. I have little doubt that at least some of it will eventually end up in my inventory, but it’s not going to be this year. Still…you never know with Santa.