I’ll be turning 25 next week, and as is tradition, I’ve started poking around to see what I want as a present for this go around. When I was little, I’d run up to my dad with a particular flyer or advertisement, pointing out exactly what I wanted to accompany the candles on the cake. Sometimes I’d get what I wanted, other times I’d end up with yet another sweater from grandma.

Now that I’m a little older and I work full-time as a freelance writer, I can largely purchase my own birthday presents. I can treat myself to something if that’s what I want to do. The first small gift that I gave myself was a new fighting games blog. Depending on the ebb and flow of Internet income, I may buy myself another gift. We’ll see. But that shouldn’t stop you from buying me a present! 🙂

Here are three items that I want for my birthday:


As much as I like the 12x optical zoom on my Canon S3 IS, I’d like to have something a little more compact to carry around for everyday shooting. For something like that, I’d consider the Canon PowerShot S500 digital camera. I’m most comfortable with the Canon user interface, for better or for worse, so it’s easiest if I just stick with their family of cameras. Although the PowerShot S500 only packs a 5.3 megapixel sensor and 3x optical zoom, I feel this is perfectly adequate for me anyways, because I’m unlikely to ever produce a physical print. Five megapixels produces an image that measures 2592 x 1944 pixels.


Given my technological tendencies, it may be somewhat surprising to hear that I do not own a standalone GPS navigation unit. I spend most of my time in the Vancouver area, but when I venture outside of this familiar territory, I’d prefer to use a handy gadget over a clumsy paper map. I love the slim styling of the Garmin nuvi 660 and I hear that Garmin produces some of the best personal navigation devices on the market. It’s powered by a trusty SiRFStar III GPS receiver, so I’m sure it’ll be accurate too. The Garmin nuvi 660 also has voice prompts and Bluetooth.


As much as I enjoy my Nintendo Wii, I sometimes need a more traditional video game experience. For times like those, I hit up the PlayStation 3 for titles like Virtua Fighter 5 and NHL 08. One game that I’ve been eyeing for a while now is Heavenly Sword, an epic action game that some have compared to God of War. After playing the very short demo, I’m hooked. Looks like crazy fun.

I know. These gifts are a little pricey. Of course, a few beers couldn’t hurt either. 🙂