So, I know it’s cutting it a little close, but if you’re one of those last minute shoppers at a loss for what to get the men in your life or your friends, Part 2 of the Ho-Ho-Holiday Gift Guide is here to help you out! If you haven’t done any shopping yet, you might want to check out Part 1 too, for tips on what to get the ladies you love and pets. After all, there’s still time for expedited shipping!

Your Ho-Ho-Holiday Gift Guide – For Men (& Friends)

Your Dad – Everyone likes getting their dad a tie for Christmas, right? And your dad loves getting one even more than you love cluelessly picking one out – WRONG. Look, your dad has enough ties, okay? I don’t know about you, but my dad doesn’t even wear a tie unless he’s going to a funeral, so he’s pretty much set in the tie department. This year, get him a gift he won’t throw in the back of his closet, never to see again for the next twenty years – like a solar powered LED light cap for his Nalgene bottle. Dads love LED lights – they’re super bright, require very little power, are long lasting, and emit very little heat – what’s not to love? The Lightcap 200 lets Dad turn his wide-mouth Nalgene bottle into a bright and eco-friendly lantern, no batteries required! The solar panel on the top of the cap, when fully charged, provides enough power for 8 hours of bright LED light from the inside of the cap, and features an on/off button and a light sensor, so the LEDs only turn on when it’s dark. Pretty awesome! $19.95 at LLBean.com.

Your Brother – Whether your brother is 13 or 30, I’m guessing he wears T-shirts at least one day of the week. So why not add to his collection with a super cool shirt from Threadless? At Threadless.com you can vote on designs submitted by artists and get them made into shirts. This means you can literally buy your broseph a wearable work of art! Browse their online catalog for a unique shirt that suits your sibs’ personality perfectly. Because there is such a huge range of designs submitted, you can find a tee to fit any taste… even for the squid lovers on your list! All tees are only $10 until Christmas!

Your Boyfriend – As Dane Cook once put it, everyone likes movies – no one answers the question “Hey, you wanna go see a movie?” with “Fuck that and fuck you, movies! It’s ridiculous, the whole idea of it! It’s just wrong and fake and no!” Just because you may not have the same taste in movies as your beau, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like them. So let him enjoy HIS kind of movie watching in peace with a subscription to Netflix. You can buy your guy up to six months or a whole year of movies, with plans that offer one, two or three DVDs at a time and unlimited rentals per month. He adds movies to his queue, they ship in one business day, and he can keep them for as long as he likes, with no late fees. Also included in a subscription is unlimited viewing of over 12,000 movies and TV shows available to watch instantly on his computer, so he can keep himself occupied while he waits for the next DVD in his queue to ship. Plans start as low as $8.99 a month and are available in one, two, three, six or 12 month subscriptions.

Your Friends – Friends can be hard to shop for. First, do you even know if you’re exchanging gifts? What if you get them a gift but they don’t get you one and you make them feel guilty – or worse, what if they get you a gift and you don’t have anything for them? Second, what is the spending limit? It’s easy to get your friend a generic $5 gift they’ll never use but it’s harder to put some thought – and cash – into it and come up with something they’re guaranteed to like. So give a friend the gift that keeps on giving – a book. Books are great because chances are, your friends read (and if they don’t, it doesn’t hurt to encourage them to), and they’re easy to personalize – just look for a book you think your friend would like to read, and tell them that! Broaden their horizons with a novel you think they’d never pick out for themselves (but would still enjoy), or expand their knowledge with a non-fiction book on a subject they’re interested in. Books are also inexpensive and easily accessible, so even if your friend didn’t get you a gift in return, it’s not big deal – you just got them a book! Anywhere from $5-30 at a bookstore or even better, Amazon.com.

To all my dear Cephaloblog readers – have a happy holiday and a very merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy getting your gifts just as much as you enjoy giving them!

Congrats, Ammre!

My friend Ammre (you may remember her from A Day in the Life of a GTA, and as an oft contributor of squid-related content to Cephaloblog) – one of the most active, talented, inspiring people I know – has been rendered virtually bedridden for several months now because of a back injury. Fortunately, she’s gotten fixed! Thanks to the generosity of the many people who have contributed to her PayPal fund, she has had surgery on her spine, and is now healing. I hope this will be a life-changing surgery for her and she’ll be able to get back to her fire-hooping self again! That being said, with no insurance and no work during her recovery, I have no doubt she will continue to have countless medical bills and other financial obligations that will be hard for her to meet. If you’re able to spare anything at all to donate to her PayPal fund, I know she’ll be overwhelmingly appreciative. Every little bit helps – so help please Ammre if you can!