The Classy Geek » Lifestyle Tips

How to Talk to a Sommelier

Alan Henry — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:21:28 +0000

If you’ve never been out to a fancy dinner, one with wine service or table service and the whole white glove treatment, you’re not really missing much aside from the food and wine that’s usually served. I know it’s an ironic statement – “you’re not missing anything…aside from the food,” but it’s true. A lot of the pomp and circumstance and ritual that go around fancy dinners and meals are pretty silly, and often pointless aside from being an invisible rulebook to serve as an indicator of a so-called “cultured” person.

That all said, one thing that I do enjoy at one of those fancy meals is the opportunity to talk to a sommelier about the wine being served that night, or what would go best with the meal that we’re about to have. I’ve been lucky enough to have a sommelier save me from a less-than-stellar wine pairing with a meal more than once, and while in some cases I stumbled into it, in others it all came from knowing how to speak to him in an intelligent fashion. Here are a few suggestions.

Thankfully, the fine folks at Chow have some great suggestions for talking to a sommelier on their own terms, some that I can echo are invaluable if you’re in the position of asking a sommelier about the best wine for your meal. One of the first rules is to communicate your tastes and what you’re looking for as clearly as possible. Don’t just go with your passive instinct to sit back and say “bring something that works with our meal” and call it a day. Let the sommelier know what you’re interested in, or what types of wines you normally enjoy, or even if you’re in the mood for something specific. For example:

As Daniel Johnnes, wine director of Daniel Boulud’s restaurant group and one of the country’s most influential sommeliers, said to the audience on a recent panel I moderated, “I would love it when the customer would offer information: ‘You know, it’s hot out—I want something fresh and crisp and lively.’ [Customers] need to communicate and give as much info as you can.”

June Rodil, the sommelier of Austin, Texas’s Congress, agrees. “Some customers expect you to give them an experience by reading their minds,” she says. “We do our best, but the more detail they can offer up-front makes everyone happier: them and us.”

As Johnnes said, if you can articulate your own tastes even a little, it greatly helps the sommelier’s efforts to please you. What kind of a mood are you in? Do you want to gulp some lusty, full-throated, heavy red? Or are you in the mood for something lighter and punchier?

If you can’t describe what you like, one of the most valuable pieces of information a sommelier can have is what you drink at home. Some people go to restaurants to have their wine experience broadened, but many just want to drink something they’re comfortable with. Problem is, sometimes people are ashamed of, or worry about being judged by, what they drink at home. Rule one: Don’t lie. If you’re trying to impress your server and say that you drink mostly culty Napa Cabs, unless you explicitly say otherwise that’s what they may try to bring you. Rodil’s advice? “We’re seriously not here to judge you. So even if you drink Sutter Home white Zinfandel at home, that gives a huge clue as to what might make you happy.”

Good tips, all around – at the same time, I’d urge you to go to a restaurant and ask the sommelier to specifically expand your palate. If you drink Napa Cabs at home (and there’s nothing wrong with a good Napa Cab – they may be oaky, but they can be good!) let them know that, but let them know you’re interested in something with a similar flavor profile but you want to try something new and exciting that you may never have tried before.

Let them surprise you, and your palate, and experience something new and interesting that you may never have considered before. You never know, you may find something you want to buy by the case later.

The Chow folks also offer some help on one of the most sticky points when talking to a sommelier – price. I’m the type of person who’ll tell you that if you’re out for a meal at a place with a sommelier, the price of the bottle should be the last thing you’re worried about if you’re eating appetizers that are in the $20 range and full plates that are pushing $50, but still some people worry about the price of their bottle of wine. Just be honest about the price range you’re looking for, even if you’re on a date and don’t want to come off cheap. Even suggesting a few bottles in the price range you’re looking at from the wine list and asking the sommelier’s opinion is a good start:

And lastly, there’s that sticky issue of price. It’s the one basic, straightforward detail about a wine, yet it still causes so much tension. Everyone’s afraid of getting pushed over their heads on the cost of a bottle, but also fearful of seeming cheap. This can cause serious anxiety, especially as customers on a date or taking business colleagues out might be hesitant to declare out loud how much they want to spend. Sommeliers are trained to pick up signals. For instance, they’ll suggest that if you’re ordering the wine you just point to a couple of items on the wine list in the same price range to indicate what you’re comfortable spending. Or, as Johnnes recommended, “You can say, ‘We’re on the way to the movies after this,’ and it’s clear that it’s not time for the big guns.” On the other hand, Rodil says, “can we just please get over the shyness about price? We have good inexpensive bottles on the list and good expensive. There’s no embarrassment in wanting a less pricey bottle. Just blurt it out.”

Like they said before, they’re not there to judge you. While I can’t promise they won’t (I mean honestly, if you’ve ever worked service of any type in your life, you know that occasionally you do judge the people you work with, but the best part is that you’re usually so busy you can’t remember that person after 15 minutes, and you certainly won’t go home complaining about the guy who drinks Sutter Home and wanted a sub-$10 bottle of wine) I can tell you that if you’re the kind of geek I am and you go out to a fancy place and don’t know what to order or what to say, give the sommelier some basic information about what you’re going to have for dinner, what your tastes are, and let them decide.

Want extra points? Ask your date or friends at the table what they’re in the mood for, and if they have any wine preferences. That’ll get you a good ways, and it’s considerate too. Plus, the sommelier will have more information to go on, and hopefully bring you a bottle that works with both of your meals and both of your palates. Remember to thank them before you head out for the night, by the way – they may have just saved you, your meal, and your palate from an otherwise boring or worse, unappetizing evening.

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user James Williams (Wine Glass in Focus II), and Flickr user Chris (bottles)

Improve Your Health and Posture with Simple Changes and Exercises

Alan Henry — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:40:09 +0000

If you’re like most geeks – including myself – you spend a lot of time at your computer. Probably too much time. Ergonomics isn’t just some fancy catch word that a consultants use to try and get a few extra dollars out of office managers: it’s important, and when I stumbled onto this infographic over at Lifehacker that explains why sitting is actually slowly killing us, I was stunned.

After all, not only do I work full-time in technology, but I’m also a technology writer. It’s not uncommon for me to spend more time at a computer on any given day than I spend sleeping. So what can I do to make sure I’m not dying a slow and hunched-over death? Great question – it’s a question you should ask yourself, too, especially if you spend any significant amount of time at the computer.

Well, with the help of a little proper posture at your desk while working and some simple desk exercises, you can go a long way towards making sure you’re overall healthier and happier even if you have to spend the bulk of your day at a desk. That and some regular breaks to get up and walk around? You’re golden. Hit the jump to see what I mean.

Speaking of Lifehacker, last weekend I took note of some videos that Vodafone put together that remind us to sit up straight and make minor changes to our work environment that actually make a big difference in our comfort and long term health. Here’s one of those videos:

The beauty of it is that it only takes a few minor tweaks. No expensive new chair, no fancy new standing desk, just sit up straight, slide a little closer to your desk, and pay attention to the angle of your back, neck, and your elbows.

If you’re interested in taking it to the next level, over at Dumb Little Man there’s a list of great stretching exercises you can use to stave off bad posture that will help you stay limber and healthy. Some of the stretches, like the Superman, the Reverse Superman, and the Hip Flexors, are stretches you can do anywhere, at any desk, in any work environment. I wouldn’t suggest you start working the posterior chain on the floor at an office where you have to wear a suit, but hey – if your office has that kind of culture, I think a break may be in order.

The other important thing to note is that you can tweak your workspace and stretch as much as you want, but none of it is a substitution for getting up and moving around. Your body isn’t made to sit in one place for hours upon hours on end. You need to get up and move around: walk to get a glass of water or a drink, go get some face-time with a coworker you like talking to (if they’re not busy, of course,) or just walk a lap around the floor.

I keep a bottle of water at my desk for just this reason: I fill it up when I finish the coffee I bring to the office with me every day (you guys know I’m a coffee snob, so I’m not drinking from the push-pot we have in the office,) which makes me get up and head over to the water dispenser. Then when I finish the bottle, I get up and refill it almost immediately: it gives me an excuse to get up and move around.

Most ergonomics experts will tell you to take a 10 minute break from the computer every half-hour or so, but sadly most jobs would never be that lenient with time away from your desk. I say try to fit it in as often as reasonable and that doesn’t draw unwanted attention to yourself.

Between stretches, breaks, and making sure you pay attention to the way you’re seated, there are a lot of little things you can do to make big improvements in your health. Don’t write this one off, give it a try.

By the by, if you’re interested in seeing that “Sitting is Killing You” infographic, and haven’t seen the Lifehacker piece linked above, take a look here, and click to enlarge:

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

images in this post via Joe Loong (IMG_3771.)

Cinco de Mayo: How to Make Anything Taste Mexican

Alan Henry — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:45:18 +0000

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, and if you’re planning to celebrate, why not take it step beyond guzzling a bottle of cheap, nasty tequila, passing out in your foyer, and dragging yourself to work on Friday with a horrible hangover? Do something classy and geeky, and whip up a delicious meal with some Mexican flare.

The best part about the process is that it’s not as horribly difficult as you might think it is. In my kitchen, a couple of the spices required for Mexican flavor are staples. I try to make sure I keep them available at all times. That said though, it’s important to remember to keep those spices and ingredients fresh – you want your dishes to have some Mexican flare, not turn into a stop at Taco Bell.

So, with respect to Mexican food, Mexican flavors, and Mexican culture, let’s take a look at how you can satisfy your craving for Mexican food at home by modifying dishes you probably already know how to make, with ingredients you may not have known you needed.

Before we get started, let’s flash the credentials of the techniques we’re about to discuss. Straight from Kitchen Daily:

[Mexico City-native Roberto] Santibañez aims to show readers how much the seemingly disparate food of Mexico’s many regions actually has in common.

His home cook-encouraging revelation is the core of his new cookbook, Truly Mexican, which teaches fundamental Mexican flavors and techniques. And once you’ve learned how to roast, say, tomatoes and garlic-without oil-and toast dried chiles, you’re just an easy step or two away from so many dishes that you thought you’d have to travel well south of the border to find.

Now that we’re all on the same page and we understand that Roberto Santibañez actually knows what he’s on about, he gets us started with some of the basic ingredients we’ll need for our spice rack. First of all, we should pick up some dried chiles – not with the notion of adding heat to your dish, but to bring out some of the more complicated flavors you get from dried ones. Plus, a little toasting and then a soak in cold water, toss em in the blender and you have a delicious, thick chile paste to add to a stew, chili, or homemade marinade.

Also in spice rack: canela (also known as Mexican cinnamon,) Mexican orgeano, and my personal favorite, Mexican chocolate. Mexican chocolate is generally darker, unsweetened, and has a higher percentage of the chocolate that’s actually cacao than almost anything you’ll find made in the United States. The best part? Almost every grocery store – and especially those with a good wide latin food section – carries the stuff.

I’m a big fan of making sipping chocolate with Mexican chocolate: really deep, dark flavors but still deliciously rich.

Once you have the goods, there’s a good five recipes available that use at least one of the ingredients discussed, and walks you through the prep and cooking. You also get some tips on making sure you get the recipe right and bring out those authentic flavors you’re working so hard to emulate.

My tip? Try the Chile-Line Skirt Steak. It’s to die for. Enjoy, and happy Cinco de Mayo!

images in this post courtesy of the blog Network of Food and Romulo Yanes, for Kitchen Daily: (Simple Pumpkin Seed Sauce.)

How to Perfect Your French Press Technique

Alan Henry — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:45:32 +0000

I’ve mentioned before in several of my old Stalking the WIld Bean columns (which I really ought to get back to doing!) that I’m a huge fan of the French Press as a method to prepare coffee. There are lots of ways to use a French Press, but not all of them produce great coffee, to be honest.

I know I’ve also said before that I tend to prefer my coffee a bit over-extracted as well – well, I might be coming around on that point now that I’ve stumbled on a great video that walks you through preparing coffee with your French Press in a more…refined manner. Let’s take a look at the video behind the jump.

This video reminds me of a post over at Lifehacker I saw a while ago about how important it is to weigh everything and keep notes to make sure your coffee is perfect, and that every cup you prepare is better than the last. In this case, we see the preparers measuring everything by putting it all on a simple food scale – you know, the kind you should probably have anyway?

Measuring and weighing aside though, the thing I find most interesting is the specific technique of steeping the coffee open and then skimming the sludge off of the top. I hadn’t heard about this until recently, and when I tried it myself, it really did make a world of difference, and as promised it resulted in a cleaner cup of coffee.

By steeping the press open without covering it, you allow the bitter bits in the coffee to rise to the top and stay out of the water, where they’ll get over-extracted and inject their bitterness into the end-result. It also allows the aromatics and flavors to really bloom. When I did this, I noticed a lot of the darkest beans floating to the top, and the nose on my coffee was fantastic – something I hadn’t smelled quite as well, since I normally poured in the water, put the top on the press (without actually pressing it) and waited for it to steep.

The other thing I noticed from the video that I started doing – with mixed results – is the skimming. You’ll see that after the coffee has steeped, they use a pair of spoons to break the coffee that’s floated to the top, stir it up a bit, and then scoop off the foamy crema on the top. You take the top off in order to skim off the sludgy, bitter bits from the top of the press that, when you actually pressed the coffee, would wind up in your cup.

That grainy, sludgy mess on the top of the press is usually the stuff at the bottom of the cup that turns people off of the French Press entirely. By skimming it off the top, you wind up with a much cleaner tasting and smoother cup of coffee.

At the same time, the tradeoff is that you lose a little of the bitterness and earthiness that you may be accustomed to with the French Press, and if you don’t have a good, even grind, you may wind up with enough fine particles in the coffee that you still get some sludge. Still, it’s a great trick, and an easy one to do without seriously changing the way you use a French Press. Give it a try, and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

29 Ways to Stay Creative

Alan Henry — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 03:12:43 +0000

One of the best things about writing for Lifehacker these days is that I have the ability to write about some really great topics. After all, I started The Classy Geek because I wanted to build a site that was inspired by Lifehacker, but with a bit of a personal twist to the geeky and the elegant.

One of the topics I wrote about this weekend are some great simple ways to stay creative. This one kind of rang very true with me: after all, I run up against writer’s block somewhat regularly, since I spend so much time writing.

So when this piece, called 29 Ways to Stay Creative crossed my desk, I was particularly interested. Some of them are really interesting, and some of them are things I do already: things like “drink coffee.” You all know already how I feel about coffee.

Some of them, however, are particularly interesting, and helpful when it comes to staying inspired. Let’s take a look.

One of my favorites on the list is to “Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes,” which I think is particularly useful. After all, not everything is a hit: not every thing you write will get a ton of comments. Not every story you publish will make your editor happy. Not every song you write will be a hit, and not every piece of art you draw will be well received by your fans. That leads to another great one: “Get Feedback.”

Seriously – if you don’t want to hear bad things about the work you do, there’s a simple way to get around that: never publish. Getting feedback is central to producing anything, whether you’re a writer for fun or profit or you’re a paper pusher in a soulless office. One way or the other, you’ll never get better at what you do until someone helps identify what you’re doing wrong and how you can improve.

Head over to Lifehacker and take a look – think about some of the way you like to stay inspired when you’re feeling down, or you’re hitting a bad bout of writer’s block. How do you stay motivated when you’re starting to feel uninspired? Do you look for something else to do, or do you have a trick that tends to get your head in the game again?

The Proper Way to Shine Your Shoes

Alan Henry — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:02:30 +0000

I know I mentioned already that I had the opportunity to go on vacation a couple of weeks ago, but if you dive into that piece you’ll find a tidbit about packing uni-tasking items that I’m going to highlight again this week. Like I said in my article, Travel Tips for the Vacation-Bound Geek article, one of the biggest choices I had to face before I left was how many shoes and which pairs would make it into my bag. Considering I was faced with a formal dinner one night and then casual wear every other night, I struggled with the possibility of packing a pair of dress shoes, a pair of walking shoes, and a pair of slip-ons or casuals for walking around the ship.

My decision? Ultimately I didn’t pack shoes at all – I put on my pair of black semi-dress shoes that I wear to work every day and wore them the whole trip. They’re comfortable enough to walk around in, nice enough to wear with a suit (with some polish,) and casual enough to wear any other time. Note the key here: I needed to polish my shoes.

Now, when I was a young geek, the reason I learned to sew and shine shoes was because I was a cadet in an Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) for a very short period of time. We got the hand-me-down uniforms that had been retired by the service, and we got second-hand shoes. You see where this is going: we had to sew on our own unit patches, tighten up our flagging seams, and shine our own shoes to a bright and beautiful reflective glow. I was lucky in that regard – even if I didn’t go on to join the service, I’m grateful for the experience.

Still, shining shoes and sewing clothes aren’t standard issue geek know-how, and I understand that. That’s what I’m here for, to share this with you – and this beautiful video will show you the proper way to shine your shoes. Oh, and when I say proper, I mean really proper. As in, if you had all of these tools and this technique, you’d already know what you’re doing, so this video is more of a demonstration than an actual tutorial. Still, I think there’s a lot you can learn from it. Hit the jump to see what I mean.

Clearly none of us are going to have this level of equipment in our closets just to use to shine our shoes. Still, you can always pick up a KIWI Shoe Shine Valet that has everything you possibly need in it. I should also mention that this kit? I own one – and it’s never done me wrong. You get all of the polish you need, multiple cloths, a place to put your shoe while you polish it, it’s great.

At the same time, having a good shine kit – whether it’s one like the one I linked above, or your own little kit with some canvas cloths in it and some polish, or a kit without a box like this Kiwi Select Shoe Care Kit, it worth having if you have dress shoes or even semi-formal shoes for a job or for business-casual events. Just make sure you have both brown and black polish, okay?

Once you have your shoes, your kit, and you’re ready to get some life out of your shoes, bring them back from the brink of dinginess and dullness, and – hopefully – take my example and have the ability to take them anywhere and wear them for anything, then watch this video one more time and pick up a few tips. I know I learn more every time I watch it.

Travel Tips for the Vacation-Bound Geek

Alan Henry — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:20:55 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to take a much deserved vacation – I left the world I knew behind, and thanks to the fabulous folks at my girlfriend’s employer, I was treated to an all-expenses (mostly, anyway) paid cruise of the western Caribbean, with stops in Miami, Key West, and finally in Cozumel, Mexico. The journey was lovely, the cruise was fantastic, and the ports of call were all beautiful, warm, sunny, and relaxing.

The vacation itself was absolutely fablous, if you can’t tell, but if there’s anything about taking a vacation that’s stressful, it’s often the process leading up to your departure. Thankfully, this out of town trip is the latest in a series of excursions I’ve made recently, and thanks to a few simple rules the process was smooth, simple, and easy – in fact, even getting through the TSA checkpoints on the way in and out were easy once we got through the lines! I hear you now: “How is that possible? Did you get groped? How did you survive?!”

Calm down – the first thing you have to know is that with patience, you too will be able to proudly say that your travel experience wasn’t nearly as bad as you may have worried it will be. With a little more patience, a little knowledge, and some prep, you might even enjoy the experience. Here’s how.

Buy It When You Get There
There’s an saying among people who travel frequently (and even those that don’t) that goes like this: “When packing for a trip, lay out all of the clothes and all of the money you’ll need for the trip. Then pack half the clothes and twice the money.”

The saying is definitely true, but for those of us who don’t have the budget to re-buy half of their wardrobe every time they fly out of town, or who would rather wear their own comfortable clothes than pay to launder or re-purchase their belongings when they’re away from home, there’s still some merit to taking a more measured approach to the phrase.

For example – all of the TSA regulations around gels and liquids aboard aircraft are definitely a pain to work through, so why bother packing toiletries at all? If you’re flying (and I’m assuming you’re flying for this example – trains, buses, and your car don’t have ounce-limits on deodorant) just leave all of your toiletries at home instead of buying 3-ounce plastic bottles and trying to pour just a little shampoo from your big 18-ounce bottle to a small one.

Let’s be clear: you’re probably headed somewhere that you’ll have access to a convenience store and can buy your toiletries when you get there. Or you’re headed to a hotel that has them available for you – every hotel has soap, every hotel has shampoo, every hotel has conditioner. Many, if not most, hotels have deodorant and other toiletries you can request at the check-in desk, or available to purchase at least.

If you have a special need though, or you really like your brand of product, make sure you pack a little bit of it in your carry-on luggage or in a bag you don’t have to check on your flight or train or bus. This way you don’t have to run around to different stores to find the exact products you like or need, and you avoid getting to your destination stinky only to learn that the toiletries in your baggage has been lost, stolen, put on a different plane/bus/boat, etc.

Toiletries are one thing, but what about other things? Gadgets? Clothes? Sure – they apply. Your hotel may not have a pair of shorts in your size, but it might make more sense to drop by a local department store and buy a pair to take with you to the beach than pay however much you would have to to check your bag. The same applies for some surprising gadgets – cell phone chargers, for example, are notorious for being available in all shapes and sizes in lost-and-found bins at hotel desks.

Before you try and shove it in a bag or decide to check luggage, think about how much effort it would be to get on the other side when you get there. You might be better off buying when you arrive.

Carry-On Only, If Possible
With airlines charing more and more to check luggage (on our recent flight, American Airlines charged $25/bag – you didn’t even get the first one free, and they’re hardly the most egregious offenders – Delta charges by weight!) and other airlines like Southwest marketing themselves on the fact that your bags fly free (to a point,) there’s absolutely no reason to check luggage if you’re not carrying something specific, or you’re traveling for less than 5 days.

I usually snag a nice big bag with a retractable handle and wheels – medium sized because I like to pack light, but I’ve seen people board flights with much larger rolly-bags and stuff them into the overhead compartments – for my clothes and toiletries, and then pack my laptop bag, a nice Timbuk2 bag with a padded laptop sleeve that’s big enough for my gadgetry, laptop, chargers, cables, and a book or two.

You’re generally allowed two carry-on items: one bag and one “personal item,” under which a laptop bag, purse, or backpack is included. My rolling bag goes in the overhead, and my laptop bag, usually packed full of all the things I need to entertain myself on a long flight, slides under the seat in front of me.

This way no one has to touch my clothes and toiletries unless they need to be manually searched (and since they have to go through the X-Ray at TSA checkpoints and I watch the process,) there’s no possibility of my gear getting lost, put on the wrong plane when I make a connection, or stolen, since it should be in my possession at all times. I always know what I have, and I always have it available and at hand, even on the plane.

It really is an incredible sense of security knowing you always have everything you need for your trip. Every time I’ve flown or traveled recently, I’ve packed using the carry-on-only method, and sailed through TSA checkpoints, never paid baggage handling or checking fees, never had to wait at baggage claim for a carousel to bring my stuff to me, never had to deal with search stickers and tags on my luggage from customs. Try it, you won’t regret it!

Just Say No to Packing Unitaskers
Part of packing light and making sure you can carry-on if you can is minimizing the number of things you bring with you that serve one purpose. On the cruise I just returned from, there was one night where a formal, suited dinner was in order, so I packed a suit with a shirt I could wear at more than one semi-formal occasion, there was no getting around that, but then it came down to the issue of shoes.

I wanted to pack sneakers, since they would be best for walking around and general lounging. I wanted to pack dress shoes because they would look best with the suit. I wanted to pack flip-flops or sandals for above-deck chatter and poolside relaxation. I wound up compromising and packing a pair of black leather slip-ons, which I rigorously polished the night before I left.

They were shiny and sleek enough to wear with the suit even if they weren’t patent-leather, they were comfortable enough for walking off-ship, and they were casual enough to wear while reading on the deck. I figured if I really needed hiking shoes or sandals, I’d be able to get them in a port of call, but I was betting on not needing them, and I was right.

I could have wound up checking a bag and packing three pairs of shoes, but I managed to pick one that got the job done all around. This is the geeky way to think: what one solution fixes all of my problems in the best way possible, even if it’s not perfect for any of them? That’s what I’m talking about – apply those skills you’ve picked up in math, science, or technology to those real-world social problems that plague you at every turn.

The same idea works for other things too: looking to take something to entertain yourself with on the plane? Why pack your iPod Touch and your Nintendo DSi and your PSP and your iPad when you can just pack your cell phone and a battery pack to keep it juiced while you game? Or, if you must, pack your favorite of the others and your cell phone to preserve your phone’s battery while you game on the gadget of your choice.

The important thing to think about when you pack things is “when will I have the opportunity to use this?” and if you can only come up with one answer, leave it and take something that will also fill the same need as well as another.

Keep Your Gadgets In Your Carry-On
This one may sound like common sense, but it piggy-backs off of the previous one: pack light, pack only thing things that have multiple uses, and make sure you leave room in one of your carry-ons for your gear. The last thing you want is your precious iPad rolling around the cargo bay of a 747 with someone’s entire wardrobe resting right on top of the display, you dig?

Keep that stuff on you and with you at all times. Plus, if you’re on a long flight, you have the benefit of being able to use it while you’re traveling.

Look, I know that if you’re a photographer and your life is in your cameras, you’ll probably want to put them all into a Pelican Case or something similar and check them with luggage – that’s okay because those cases are virtually indestructible. If you’re an orchestra musician and you play the cello or the French horn, you’ll definitely need to check that as luggage – too big for the overhead bin.

However, if you’re a geek traveling for a week, there’s no reason to check your laptop because you think it’ll be “safer.” Trust me, it’s safer with you. There’s no reason to check your DSLR if you have a padded place to put it in your carry-on, and there’s no reason to blindly check your electronics. Those days are long over, and you’ll be happier on the other end of your trip when you find out your gear still works when you get to your destination.

Read the Rules Before You Head to the Airport
There’s no surefire way to being the classiest guy at the TSA checkpoint than to make sure you’re up to speed on what you can and can’t bring with you before you even get there, and what you should do when you arrive. Seriously – everyone else will be in awe when you pull up to the X-Ray machine, pick up exactly the number of baskets you need for your items before heading into the X-Ray area, and then speedily doing everything you know needs to be done without having to be asked or coached by a TSA official.

I say it often – take the knowledge and apply it: read the TSA travel guidelines before you hit the airport, and make sure you read Amtrak’s travel rules before hitting the train station. Pull anything you don’t need or that’s against the rules from your luggage before you hit the lines. There’s nothing more embarrassing than standing in front of an X-Ray machine while being forced to unpack items found in your bags as they went through. Make sure you have a valid photo ID or passport to show when you get there, and make sure it’s easily accessible and you don’t have to dig through your bag to get it.

My personal goal? To be able to get the entire process down to a few seconds. I walk up, put my rolling bag on the conveyor with the small flap that holds my toiletries – each in their 3-ounce bag and all of them inside a clear plastic 1-quart bag – open for easy viewing. Lift three bins, one for my jacket (if I have one,) belt, shoes, wallet, cell phone, and sunglasses. One for my laptop bag, top flap open for easy viewing. One for my laptop. Arrange items as quickly as possible and push through the X-Ray machine. If I’m really good, I’m done before the person in front of me.

When I get my stuff out of the machine, shoes go on first, belt and jacket go over my shoulder. Wallet, phone, glasses go into my pockets or into my laptop bag along with my laptop. Rolly bag is zipped shut, and away from the checkpoint we go – at least over to the area just beyond where I’m not in the way of anyone behind me. There I can put my belt back on and make sure I look sharp before continuing to the gate.

I take part of my routine – okay, a lot of it – from this Wired Article on how to Fly Through Airport Security. It might help you when you’re reviewing dos and don’ts when you get to the airport or train station, and help you breeze through security.

In all of the times I’ve traveled recently, both before and after some of the TSA’s most controversial policies, these tips have managed to get me though without issue. No full-body scans, no aggressive pat-downs, no having my bag unpacked in front of me and then left to me to pack up. In some ways, I know I’ve been lucky – the worst that’s ever happened to me is the one time a TSA agent wanted to use a chemical scanning wand on the inside of my laptop bag because it had so many pockets, but that’s about it.

The key, to be honest, is to be patient (remember, everyone else has somewhere to go too,) be early (give yourself plenty of time to get yourself packed before you leave, to get to your destination – whether it’s by plane, train, or automobile, and to get through whatever security, border crossings, or checkpoints you need to pass through,) be knowledgeable (review the rules and regulations for where you’re going and your method of travel before you leave,) and be prepared (make sure you’re packed appropriately for your trip – avoiding single-use items, keeping your gadgets nice and close, and you’re packed according to the rules for your method of travel.)

The weather’s getting nice and warm and many of you will be thinking of spring break, summer vacation, and just taking a little time away from the office to do something fun soon. Hopefully with these tips, you’ll get there quickly and without a fuss, have a great time, and your trip back won’t be a stressful experience.

images in this post courtesy of Seattle Post-Intelligencer Photographer Andy Rogers: JetBlue Airways Embraer E190 Aircraft, and CNN – Shooting Video at a TSA Checkpoint? Here’s What You Should Know.

Five (More) Tips for a Geeky (and Classy!) Valentine’s Day

Alan Henry — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:27:05 +0000

Here we are: another Valentine’s Day is right around the corner – I mean so close that it’s getting pretty difficult to get something shiny shipped in time for the event – and you’re stuck wondering what you should do for that special someone in your life.

Well, last year I shared Five Tips for a Geeky (and Classy!) Valentine’s Day, but it’s been a whole year and I want to revisit the topic – partially because there are more tips and ground to cover that might keep you from making a horrible faux pas. But remember – like I said last year, the biggest faux pas you could possibly make is to spend time in a relationship that doesn’t understand or embrace your geekiness.

Sure, you can do the traditional chocolates and flowers thing this Valentine’s Day – and frankly, there’s nothing stopping you from doing any of those things in addition to any of my suggestions, sometimes the classics work really well – but why not take you and your geeky (I hope) sweetie and do something that embraces your geeky lifestyle and pastimes, instead of burying them where no one will ever see?

This year do yourself – and your relationship – a favor, own up to the things you enjoy and love doing, and work them into the rest of your life. After all, that’s what I’m here to help you do. Here are some suggestions that will get you started.

Make An Escape
Did you know that April is one of the most affordable months to book and take a cruise all year? Part of it is that the industry is coming off of the strong winter and holiday bookings and sales of people in North America looking to get away from the cold weather, and we’re not quite yet into the summer vacationing season. This means that it’s a great time not just to take a cruise (which isn’t my specific suggestion, but hey, go for it) but to book travel in general. Why not book a nice trip somewhere special for you and your sweetheart – whether they’re as much of a geek as you or not – and put your skills to use finding the best price and a lovely location?

The springtime is also around the same time that a number of college students get out for Spring Break, so make sure that when you’re not traveling somewhere that’ll be heavily populated with coed party-goers when you arrive (that means steer clear of Cancun, or Lake Havasu, or anywhere like that, okay?)

My suggestion? Hit up Living Social Escapes for a half-price vacation package to somewhere romantic, like a Bed and Breakfast in Virginia wine country, or a lovely getaway in the French Quarter in New Orleans, or even a ski trip for two in the Rockies – all at a great price, all a complete vacation package, and all designed for just two people looking to have a good time.

It’s also worth noting that last minute travel deals are available at sites like Travelocity, Priceline.com, and HotWire if you’re interested in going somewhere a little farther away for a little longer than a weekend or a day-trip. They all give you a place to see last minute vacation packages, and by last minute they mean within the next couple of weeks – still enough time to tell your boss you’ll need some time off.

Upgrade the Chocolates
Valentine’s Day is a red letter holiday for companies like Russell Stover (makers of the iconic Whitman’s Chocolates,) Godiva, and even Ghirardelli (although I hesitate to include them because I love them so much,) but why not up the ante a little bit?

If you insist on getting chocolates for your sweetheart (and I don’t know a valentine, male or female, that doesn’t love sweets) poke around your local listings and see if you can find a local chocolatier or chocolate shop where the selection will be a little more meaningful, and you have the ability to really pick and choose the chocolates you buy. Better yet, many local chocolate shops are more than aware of the holiday, would appreciate your business, and are willing to help you put together the chocolate gift box of your partner or spouse’s dreams.

If you have to order online, go with someone who has a great online presence and really takes their chocolate seriously, like Vosges Haut Chocolat. I’ve made a point of ordering from them several times for occasions in the past, and found their customer service stellar, their shipping ridiculously fast (they ship across the US in sealed containers with dry ice inside to keep your tasty treats chilled so they don’t melt before they get to your valentine’s mouth,) and their selection of truffles, chocolate treats, chocolate bars, hot and dark chocolates, and even sipping chocolates absolutely divine.

Bonus? They’re the folks who pioneered the bacon and chocolate revolution, so no one will blame you if a bacon chocolate bar makes its way into your cart while you’re looking for a gift basket for someone you love.

Give a Geeky Gift
There’s no shortage of sites doing geeky Valentine’s Day roundups – I specifically didn’t want to rattle off a list of products that you could pick up for a Valentine that likes video games or gadgets and gear as much as you do – but a few tips never hurt. Head over to ThinkGeek’s Valentine’s Day section to see an amazing array of goodies that are perfect for the holiday – even the snarkiest among us can appreciate the give of a Valentine’s Day card for people who hate Valentine’s Day.

Alternatively, the How-To Geek’s Gift Guide is a great price-grouped list of goodies that you can pick up for your valentine, especially if they’re as geeky or more geeky than you are.

At the same time though, geeky Valentine’s Day gifts don’t have to be Valentine’s Day themed. Remember, if your valentine has been dying for a new digital music player, or thinking about picking up a set-top box to stream her favorite movies in the bedroom, go for that and save her the hassle. It doesn’t have to have hearts and stars on it and be red to be a great Valentine’s Day gift – it just has to be something he or she will enjoy and appreciate as a gift from a loved one.

Do It Yourself
If there’s ever been a holiday that’s warm to the concept of a DIY gift or DIY event, Valentine’s Day is it. Do something special or give something special that’s handmade or comes from the heart. ‘Tis the season for less than perfect gifts if they’re made with love and affection (more so than Christmas, I think) so now’s the time to go out on a limb and make someone a keepsake box full of things you associate with them, or blow up and frame some photos of the two of you together that you like.

Valentine’s Day is a holiday that – at its core – is more about self-expression of love than anything else. Now’s the time to do something incredibly over the top and romantic like lay out rose petals or cook your partner’s favorite dish and present it to them during a living room floor picnic, or get up early and bring them breakfast in bed – all so very stereotypical things, but add your own geeky flare to them to bring your personality into the mix.

Instead of breakfast in bed, why not bring your favorite (or better yet, their favorite) blend of coffee to bed? Instead of laying out rose petals, why not make a trail of Nintendo DS games on the floor, leading to the bedroom, where a shiny new DSi (or a receipt for a 3DS Pre-order, even) awaits them on their pillowcase? Why not give them a binder full of blown up printed images of novel cover art…and then as they flip through it, confused, whip out the Kindle or Nook Color they’ve been pondering? See where I’m going? You can do it all yourself, or you can combine a traditional gift with something a little heartfelt and homemade to really showcase the geek in you, the geek in them, and why you two resonate with one another so much.

Do Nothing
Well, not “nothing,” exactly – but if there’s anything I’ve learned from the relationships that I’ve been in, especially with geeks, it’s that a lot of the standard and stereotypical rules about relationships often don’t apply. When the lovely geek in your life says “Don’t fuss about it, let’s just spend the day together – nothing special,” they mean it. Don’t go all out and surprise them with a trip to a fancy restaurant that they don’t have clean formal wear to go, to or treat them to an annoyingly embarrassing serenade at a restaurant if you do go out to eat.

Sometimes – and this won’t work with everyone, so you’ll have to feel it out with your valentine to see if it will – sometimes it’s not important that you do something over the top and special for Valentine’s Day, it’s really just important that you and your valentine spend some quality time together on a special day. Stay in, watch some movies streaming on Netflix, cuddle up on the couch, and volunteer to do the cooking. Or order out and have someone bring the food to you so all the two of you have to do is relax and enjoy being in each other’s company.

Sure, sure – there’s a time and a place for big fancy dinners and dozens upon dozens of roses and fancy nights out, but in a world as busy as ours where so many of us are just tired, drained, and in some cases strongly antisocial and angsty when it comes to holidays as mass produced and manufactured as Valentine’s Day, it might be more meaningful to watch your sweetie’s favorite movie with a pair of chopsticks and some lo mein on the coffee table than anything else.

Remember also, that even if you don’t have a valentine, or have no plans with anyone special for Valentine’s Day, that the holiday is about love – not just loving someone else.

Remember to take care of yourself too – and remember to treat yourself to something special. After all, you can and should be your own valentine as much as someone else is, so make sure to do something special for yourself – whether it’s to take yourself out to eat at your favorite place, whip up your favorite food, plan an escape that’s all yours to a place you’ve wanted to go, or dive headfirst into a pet project that you’ve been meaning to do for yourself for months, Valentine’s Day is an excellent occasion to pamper yourself, too.

With that, I wish you all a very happy Valentine’s Day, even if you opt to take my last suggestion and do absolutely nothing about the holiday. Make sure it’s a happy one, a geeky one, and a classy one for you and your valentine.

Classy Resolutions to Start the New Year!

Alan Henry — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:05:03 +0000

2011 is just around the corner, and while everyone’s certainly making their own New Year’s resolutions – or at least thinking about some of the things they’d like from the new year and behaviors they’d like to change, here at The Classy Geek I decided to think hard about some of the things I’d like to do to spice up the new year as well – you know, make it a little classier, a little more sophisticated, but only in the good way. And then, of course, I wanted to share them with you.

So without any further ado, here are five classy New Year’s Resolutions from me to you – resolutions that, as I make progress on them, you’ll probably see posts about them, true to the spirit of The Classy Geek: I wade into those waters and then let you know it’s safe. And hopefully, I help you avoid the pitfalls along the way, or tell you not to walk over there because there are nettles under the water surface, or that’s where the sharks like to hang out. You know what I mean.

Get Close to Your Food

One of the best things any of us can do with the new year is make a promise to ourselves to get a little closer to the things we eat. We are what we eat after all, and hitting the drive through at McDonalds for a tasty McGriddle every morning only implies that you’re headed for a High Fructose Corn Syrup-drenched early grave, okay? Try to make yourself at home in the kitchen a little more often, and try to get familiar with some of the foods that you enjoy – it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think it is.

Head over to your local farmer’s market and peer curiously at the fresh meat, dairy, and produce that growers and local farmers have for sale – they’ll be more than happy to tell you all about them, and many of them are foodies themselves and are more than willing to tell you how to prepare their wares and what you might like if you like other kinds of foods. You know who else tends to frequent farmers markets? Foodies like me, and chefs who buy only the freshest ingredients for their restaurants.

Trust me – you know that feeling you get when you’re in an electronics store and someone’s giving horrible advice and you’re just waiting for the sales clerk to leave so you can pull the person aside and let them know everything they just heard is wrong? Foodies are the same way. You’ll learn a ton at a farmers market.

If you have some cash to burn, kick it up a notch and join a local CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture farm or co-op. These farms feed all of their members using the membership funds you pay into them, so for a few bucks a month, many of them will deliver (although most alert you when a pickup is ready) fresh fruits, veggies, dairy, and meats to your waiting arms, and everything is in season. If you really want to get in touch with your food, most of them will let you come work the fields every now and again and get your hands dirty. If that’s too much for you, it’s okay – your dues will do the work on your behalf.

Refine Your Social Networks

Now I’m not saying you should up and abandon your favorite social networks – although I’m currently fighting an urge to shutter my Facebook account completely something serious – but a new year does bring a new opportunity to take stock of the people in your life, reflect on what your loved ones mean to you, and make sure you properly appreciate them and their impact. What better way to do that than to make sure your social networks are lean, trim, and close enough to your heart that you have no problems sharing anything and everything with its members?

So one thing I wholeheartedly plan to do as soon as possible is take the axe to the social networks I use for personal purposes. You can still follow me at Twitter, don’t get me wrong – and interact with me too, but that’s the clincher. I use Twitter to meet new people, follow their thoughts and lives, and interact with them. Facebook is generally for real personal friends (the Classy Geek’s Facebook Page notwithstanding) so all of those people who never spoke to me in high school but insist on being Facebook friends? No way. People who I never even met in high school but friended me anyway? Nope.

I’ve found the best social networks are the ones that are insular enough that you don’t care what you post there because you know the people there know you well. Well enough that if you post something stupid, they’ll tell you, and that when you post something brilliant they’ll comment on it, even if they disagree. Taking an axe to your overgrown social networks is much like taking an axe to vines growing up your house and around your power lines – it’s well worth the effort, even if there’s some fallout, and you’ll be much happier being social on the Web after the fact.

Add Some Class to Your Home and Your Workspace

I’m not talking about a full-on redesign or home remodel here, but I am suggesting you take the opportunity of a brand new year to breathe some new life into the spaces where you spend the most time. A little color, a new desk chair, maybe a new desk even. Sweep away your old desk toys and bring over some of the ones that have been languishing on a shelf somewhere. Hang up the wall art you’ve been meaning to hang for the past couple of months but didn’t get around to, or switch out the posters you have over your desk or in the living room. You know where I’m going – do something daring that you’ve been thinking about.

Maybe you want to get a new couch or some easy chairs for the living room – now’s a great time to pick something that matches AND is comfortable, maybe something in a color you normally wouldn’t choose. Take the opportunity to do something new and different and explore some design options you wouldn’t normally think of. For some of us, that means ANY design option.

I know at least a few of you out there are in the “I don’t have desktop backgrounds on my computer I don’t see them anyway” camp of “function over form always,” but once you pay a little attention to form and aesthetics, you’ll be surprised how it makes you feel, and how well it can compliment form when used properly. I’m not saying you have to hire a personal designer to redo your office, but I am saying that a few posters from your favorite movies, TV shows, video games, or Anime can make you feel much more at home in your home office, even when you walk in knowing it’s time to get down to work.

Take Care When Upgrading

I’ve covered this in a couple of posts on the matter, most specifically Good Tech is Better than More Tech – Part 3: Smart Upgrades, but the lesson is always one worth remembering, and one that I specifically will have several opportunities to remember in the coming year. There’s nothing like a new year to take a good look at the things you have versus the things you want and make sure that your upgrade and technology buying plans are in line.

This is especially important since this year will likely be a bumper year for technologies like high-end smartphones and tablet computers that didn’t really exist several years ago. You’ll find yourself tempted like never before to invest in tech that does new and shiny things that you may or may not really need just to have the top-of-the-line and state-of-the-art products, with the hope that this somehow means you’ll be able to hold out longer until the next upgrade (when we both know that’s not the case.)

Remember, think before you buy, but know that thinking before buying won’t take the luster off of the new gear you get. To the contrary, you’ll probably be happier knowing you didn’t overspend to get the tech that’s absolutely perfect for you.

Digitize and Back Up

Personally, I’ve been meaning to digitize my CD collection for a long time now, and I’ve been meaning to get my old VHS and audio cassette tapes into some digital format just as long, if not longer. After all, magnetic media slowly decomposes over time even in ideal conditions, so my old VHS movies and mixtapes aren’t long for this world if I don’t do something to save them sooner rather than later, and the same is true for yours – especially all of those VHS tapes you have tossed in boxes in the basement, slowly wearing under the weight of damp, cold, dusty air.

So a new year is a good opportunity to pull out your CDs and rip them to mp3, or even better, some lossless format like FLAC or uncompressed AAC. It’s also a good time to pick up a video card you can plug that old VCR into or a soundcard you can plug your old tape deck into and start digitizing those movies and mix tapes you treasured from your youth. Make sure you have those movies available when you want to watch them, and those mixtapes you used to rock out to in the car available now on your phone or your digital music player, okay?

Here’s the clincher though – and this applies to people planning to digitize their old media and those who have no media to digitize: Back. Up. Your. Data. The worst thing that can possibly happen as soon as you’ve digitized your music and movie collections and stored them on a home server where they’re always available? A hard drive dies, or your computer goes boom, or even worse – heaven forbid – your home or apartment suffers some kind of disaster: fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, whatever.

Listen folks: hard drives will die. It’s a matter of time. Keep your data backed up digitally, safely store your analog media once you’ve backed it up, and strongly consider a paid offsite backup service like Carbonite or Mozy. Check out this PC Mag roundup of online backup services for other options.

Whatever you do though – back up your data, even if you don’t need to do any digitizing of old media. Imagine that feeling of knowing all of your data is gone, or all of your music and movies are on unrecoverable hard drives – stolen by a burglar or torched in a house fire. Now think about how you would feel if you knew all of that data was just a few clicks away, and that you’ll never need to think to yourself that all of your photos are gone forever. With me? Now get on it.

Now then – I know I’m a little heavy handed on some of these, but it’s mostly because I need to take some of this advice myself! Still, from one classy person to another (yes, I’m talking about you) we have some work to do in 2011, don’t we?

So from me here at The Classy Geek to you, have a very Happy New Year, and choose a nice sparkling wine or Prosecco to celebrate with, okay? There’s more to life than Martini and Rossi and Korbel! (Okay, I can’t resist – here are some budget holiday bubblies from Natalie MacLean, they’ll help.) Enjoy!

images in this post courtesy of flickr user busbeytheelder, (DSC_9348) and Travis Issacs, (My office, March 2008)

The Classy Geek’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide

Alan Henry — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:27:42 +0000

it’s the most wonderful time of the year, and it’s about time to start thinking about what you’ll be putting under the tree or picking up for your loved ones now that it’s gift-giving season. Also, if you find yourself shopping for a classy geek this holiday season or you just want some ideas to give the people shopping for you, or maybe you want to pick up something nice for yourself while you’re buying gifts for everyone else, let me help you find a gift that will make your recipient’s eyes light up with joy when they unwrap it. With a little thinking ahead and this list in your pocket, you can be sure that what you put under the tree this year won’t wind up under someone else’s tree next year or up on Craigslist as soon as the new year turns or spring cleaning season comes around.

Microsoft XBox 360 Slim w/ Kinect

Perhaps one of the smash hits this holiday season was just released a few weeks ago, and will likely make enough waves that you won’t be the only person asking for it when you get to your local electronics store or department store: it’s Microsoft’s new Kinect motion control system for the XBox 360 game console. Now, I’m suggesting the XBox 360 Slim with Kinect, because there are some great prices on bundles available right now from a number of retailers both on-and-offline, but if you already have an XBox 360 that you’re happy with and you’re not looking to upgrade it, you can pick up a Microsoft Kinect system for your current XBox 360.

Even so, the new XBox 360 Slim reportedly is much more stable than the old version, runs cooler, packs a more powerful processor, and is Kinect ready, meaning you don’t need extra power cables for Kinect – you can plug it easily right into the new XBox 360 Slim instead of having to connect the Kinect (see what I did there) and then plug it up to power. Regardless, the Kinect is definitely one of the best gifts you can give anyone this holiday season: the gift of having fun playing games – either alone or with you – while being simultaneously forced to get off the couch and get active.

Apple iPad

It seems like it’s been so much longer, but the Apple iPad was only announced in January of 2010 and released in April – the gadget that’s made itself a mainstay in so many people’s lives, spawned an array of peripherals, cases, stands, and generally horrible Android-based copycats, and all but defined what a tablet computer should be, has only been with us for less time than it takes to have a baby. Isn’t that scary?

Regardless, the iPad makes probably one of the most bang-for-your-buck gifts that you can give anyone this holiday season, whether they’re a technophile or a self-proclaimed luddite. Aside from being a ton of fun to use for the basics like checking e-mail, watching Web video, listening to music, surfing the Web, and keeping up with your social networks, the device is also backed by Apple’s iTunes App Store, which has literally hundreds of thousands of apps that extend its functionality beyond what it can do out of the box. Best of all, many of those apps are free, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Admittedly, the iPad is an Apple product, so there very well may be an updated version announced early next year, but there’s no way to really tell. In the interim though, the iPad makes a great gift, and if you’re the type to personalize gifts, it might be worth ninja-syncing your gift iPad with your recipient’s iTunes account (or set one up if they don’t have one) and download some apps you know they’ll like to the device so they have something fun to play with when they open it. By the way, I suggest picking up the Wi-Fi-only version, unless you know they’ll want the 3G model and you’re not handing them an unwanted monthly fee by way of a cellular service bill.

Ten One Designs Pogo Stylus

Regardless of whether you pick up an iPad for the geek in your life this holiday season, your gift receiving geek likely has a touch-screen device in use in their life somewhere, whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet. The Pogo Sketch
and the Pogo Stylus from TenOne Design both work swimmingly with capacitive touch-screens, you know the kind you have to actually touch with your finger to make work?

If you’re like me at all – or better yet, the person you’re buying for is like me – your fingertips can sometimes be a little big for those small touch-screens, especially on smartphones. The Pogo Stylus is the smaller model designed for smartphones, and the Pogo Sketch is a larger, longer model designed for tablets. Personally, I don’t find the Pogo Sketch too large to use on my smartphone, but you can decide which one will work best for the lucky geek you’re shopping for. It’s a great way to give a gift that lets someone continue to use their smartphone with solid accuracy even if their hands are in gloves, or even if they’re sitting around someplace warm and comfortable but need a little precision on their touch-screen.

Samsung Galaxy S (Multiple Carriers)
Android phones tore up the smartphone market this year, and unless you’re absolutely sold on the iPhone specifically (and you’re willing to go with AT&T for one – at least until Apple ditches them) or you’re really eager in Microsoft’s recently released and still somewhat unproven Windows Phone 7 platform, Android’s the place to be if you want a smartphone that’s functional, fun to use, feature rich, is under active development, and who’s star is rising. You won’t go wrong picking up an Android phone for someone this year – assuming, like I’ve said before – that they’re okay with inheriting a cell phone bill for the holidays along with their shiny new device.

Granted, there a re a number of Android phones on the market, and a lot of them are great devices. What tipped me over to the Samsung Galaxy S line of smartphones is the fact that Samsung did something that a number of manufacturers didn’t have the money or the desire to do: break the lock that American wireless carriers have on device by releasing slightly remade and remodeled versions of the same phone on each major carrier. You have to salute that.

For example, the Samsung Captivate has been tearing up sales on AT&T, the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon Wireless is second in power only to their flagship device (one I prefer actually,) the Motorola DROID X, the Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile is doing exceptionally well, and the Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint comes with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard, front-facing camera, and so much horsepower it’s the least like its brothers. All four are “Galaxy S” phones, so regardless of the carrier the person you’re shopping for currently uses, you can spend some cash to get them a great smartphone upgrade without forcing them to pay a termination fee and switch carriers unless they already want to.

Barnes & Noble Nook Color eBook Reader
Last year, we suggested that you pick up the Amazon Kindle eReader for the holiday season. That suggestion still stands – it’s a great device, and this year the Kindle got smaller, got smarter, got a bigger battery and a sharper screen, and overall improved a lot. The Kindle has a lot going for it, no doubt, but if you want the experience of an eReader but you also like the color screen of something like the iPad, the new Barnes and Noble Nook Color eReader was designed to strike that middle ground perfectly.

Granted, it’s still more of an eReader than it is a tablet, but it’s a remarkable eReader at that. The bright color display makes magazines (and there are lots of magazines available for it) and Web sites pop to life, and you still get the benefit of a crisp and high contrast display that’s easy to read e-books on. The display isn’t e-ink, but it is bright and clear, runs 3rd party apps developed for it, and comes in at a comfortable 7-inch portable form factor. Oh, and did I mention it comes in at $249, making it cheaper than the iPad (which makes sense, the iPad is more powerful) as well as the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which it’s more like than unlike?)

If the geek in your life this holiday season is looking for an eReader, or if you’re shopping for someone who wants something more than an eReader but less than a full-blown tablet, this is the gadget to wrap up for them.

Beats Studio by Dr. Dre – Hi-Def Noise-Canceling Headphones
Sometimes you get what you pay for, and even though the Beats Studio by Dre Noise-Canceling Headphones and their smaller, more affordable cousins the Beats Solo by Dr. Dre On-Ear Headphones were made through a partnership with Dr. Dre’s new Beats Audio program (to which a number of manufacturers have signed up) and Monster Audio – a company who’s name brings fear to the hearts of cost/benefit minded geeks everywhere – these cans deliver in a huge way.

I first had the privilege to listen to a pair at CES in January of 2010 at the Microsoft booth, where all of their Zune media players had the eadphones attached, and I fell in love. They’re by far not the cheapest active noise cancelling headphones on the market, but they’re definitely the best at both active noise cancellation and audio quality. Note I said “both.” There are headphones out there that are better at noise cancellation, and there are audiophile-level headphones better at audio quality, but if you want both of them at a premium level that doesn’t simply gut one of those features to boost another, these are the headphones to get.

The Solo keep the same look and strong audio quality and deep bass, but drop the active noise cancellation. You’ll get them a bit cheaper, but if you’re looking for a good pair of noise cancelling headphones for the classy geek on your gift list, buy the Studios. The Solos look and sound great too if you don’t want to spend the $299 retail on the Studio model.

BlueAnt Q2 Bluetooth Headset
A number of states, including the one I live in, have recently passed laws restricting use of cell phones while you’re driving unless you’re using a hands-free device. Admittedly, I still see a lot of people driving around with their phones up to their ears, but if you want to obey the law, get the most use from your cell phone, and get clear and crisp audio when you do have to take a call, the BlueAnt Q2 Headset (or its freshly released but more expensive successor the Q2 Platinum) is worth the sub-hundred dollars you’ll put into it.

Your recipient will get the best benefit if they have a smartphone that has voice commands – when paired with the Q2, the user gets access to the phone’s voice commands through the device, hears their text messages read aloud, and gets the benefit of mobile apps that help configure and control the headset. Your lucky geek will also get caller announce – meaning when you call them, the headset will tell them who it is, not just that they have an incoming call.

Perhaps most importantly, though, they’ll get some of the best call quality you can get in a Bluetooth headset and the benefit of BlueAnt’s Wind Armor technology, which makes sure they can hear clearly if they’re driving with the windows down or are outside in the wind, and that you can hear their voice clearly when they speak in those conditions. I know, I know, Aliph’s Jawbone ICON and Jawbone Prime are the mainstays in this category, but I have to admit, I have a soft spot for the Q2′s price point and the fact that you get free smartphone apps and features along with it.

Mass Effect 2

Maybe you’re looking for something to wrap up for the gamer in your life? Well, if they haven’t played this title already – one that came out at the beginning of the year to much fanfare – this should definitely make it onto your holiday shopping list. You can pick up a copy of Mass Effect 2 cheaper now than its release in January.

Mass Effect 2 is the latest chapter in an incredible sci-fi series that combines drama, incredible story, truly unique gameplay, and tons of fun and crams it all into a package that’ll make any gamer happy on any platform. from all of the customization options to the wealth of missions and storylines to follow to the intricate interpersonal relationships you cultivate in the game, Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games of the year, and definitely one that, if your lucky gamer gets it, will keep them busy well through the new year.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
I’m cheating a little bit by suggesting this title, because it’s actually not going to be released until December 7th – but when it is, oh boy will it be amazing. I partially say that because I’m a World of Warcraft player, and I completely realize that the people who will get the best benefit from the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft franchise are the people who have been playing and looking forward to it already, but if your gamer geek stopped playing sometime during the last expansion, this is the gift to get them back in.

And yes, I fully realize that even though I frown on essentially gifting someone a bill, this is a subscription-based MMO where recurring payments are required to continue play. To remedy this, I propose giving your gamer a World of Warcraft 60 Day Game Card with a little pre-paid play time to see if they like the game, and then they can decide if they want to continue. If they’ve never played, you might want to give the gift of a 10-day free trial to see if they’d really play before snagging the game and its expansions up through Cataclysm first, but trust me, with 12 million active subscribers, you can’t really go wrong.

Minecraft
Give the gift of addictive, minging, crafting, zombie-slaying, creeper-dodging, build-anything-you-can-think-of gameplay by giving the gift of Minecraft. The smash hit has made one independent developer very very happy, and for the price of less than $15 USD, it’ll make a geek on your list very happy too. There are thousands of Minecraft servers up and available all over the world, where people are building things as massive as an in-game scale model of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D to massive castles and structures to live in and more.

The game has a culture all its own, and is under incredibly heavy development, with more features, multiplayer support, and additional changes to the game base and the world on the way. You can even buy the game and roll your own Minecraft server to suit your preferences and live in it all alone, building everything you want to your hearts content, or open it up to your friends or to the world to join in on. See the possibilities? Make them real for someone on your shopping list, they’ll thank you.

The IT Crowd (Season One | Two | Three | Four)
You don’t have to be a huge fan of British comedy to appreciate The IT Crowd, but if you are, it’s even better. The television series, which just finished airing its fourth season in the UK on Channel 4, has endeared itself to geeks on both sides of the pond with its hilarious characterizations of your typical small, basement, underfunded IT department that largely escapes the watchful eyes of the rest of the company because no one thinks of them until something goes wrong.

You meet the team’s egotistical but somehow adorable manager, someone thrust into managing something she knows nothing about, and the 2-man IT team that manage to embody virtually every geek stereotype at one point or another while simultaneously getting themselves into and out of situations that would make any geek laugh, point, and say “yeah, I’ve been there.”

Best of all, the DVDs come loaded with extras, gags, behind the scenes views of the set that’s loaded down with gear from ThinkGeek and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and more. If you’re shopping for someone who’s ever worked in a corporate IT department in their lives, especially someone who’s had to work in IT support at one time or another, this is a gift they’ll treasure forever, and then show their friends.

Aeropress Coffee Maker
We’ve done enough food and drink stories that you should know by now that The Classy Geek isn’t just about technology and gadgets and gear – I mean, who doesn’t love the stuff, but sometimes we have to get our caffeine on too, and if the folks you’re shopping for this holiday season appreciate a good cup of coffee as much as I do, they’ll love the Aeropress.

The Aeropress is a portable coffeemaker that takes ground coffee, boiling water, and with the power of your hands and the miracle of emulsion, turns it into a delicious espresso-style pressed coffee drink that will fill about a cup at a time. The best thing about it is that even though it’s a little more labor intensive than a drip coffee maker, it makes fantastic coffee, and the show you put on when you use it (and the show your recipient will put on the first time they try it) is enough entertainment to make the gift worthwhile in its own right.

It’s no side-kitchen gadget either: the Aeropress may be a unitasker, but because the coffee that comes out of it is more like espresso than it is like drip, you can make more complicated coffee drinks with it, and perhaps best of all, it’s a geeky gift in an affordable package: you get to give a gift that lets your geek learn a little something, tell others when they fall in love with it, and get their caffeine fix all in the same box.

Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter
The folks at ThinkGeek outdid themselves with this, to the point where I’m so in love with it that I’ll overlook the not-quite-so-classy aspect of a pizza cutter that’s shaped like the starship Enterprise from the original Star Trek series. Here’s the clincher though – it works, it’s amazing, it’s stainless steel, it’s an officially licensed Star Trek product, and it’s something that you and every other geek on the planet have to admit you’ve thought of at some point, and even if you haven’t, you have to admit it’s pretty damned cool.

The Enterprise Pizza Cutter slices through pizza with ease, and is a geeky goodie worthy of a place of honor in your kitchen. I know, I know, it’s not easy to clean, it’s not a multi-tasker, it’s not a handy kitchen gadget that you’ll see on a gourmet’s must-have list, but work with me here: it’s the Enterprise. As a pizza cutter. Careful though, that saucer section is sharp!

Whiskey Stones
Turning up the class a notch, these handy little soapstone cubes help you avoid a cardinal sin when sipping fine liquor: diluting it with ice. Some people say a splash of water in a glass of whiskey, scotch, bourbon, or rum will help open up the flavors, but I tend to prefer my sippable liquors neat, without water or ice. At the same time, I also prefer them a little chilly, so instead of putting an ice cube in my glass of scotch, I’ll toss in a couple of these.

The stones themselves live in your freezer until you need them, and when you’re ready to have a drink, just take them out of the freezer and toss them into your glass. They’ll be as cold as ice, and when you pour your liquor of choice over them you’ll cool it off substantially. Best of both worlds – you get a nice chilled scotch, gin, or whiskey, and you don’t lose the flavor by adding water. They’re the perfect gift for the geek you know who either has a bar, or followed the advice in our Bar Essentials series!

Tulip-Style Beer Glasses
I mentioned the importance of having the right beer glasses in our feature on how the right glass or pour can make all the difference when it comes to drinking a good wine or beer, and now that it’s the holiday season and time to shop for others, do yourself a favor and get your friends who are still drinking their beer out of red plastic cups frathouse style a set of nice beer glasses. You can pick up a set of 6 tall Pilsner Beer Glasses like you can get at just about any department store or liquor store, but if you know someone who loves a good beer, loves learning about beer, and loves growing to appreciate good beer, do them a favor and get them a tulip-style beer glass set, or at least a flared imperial pub glass or two.

The benefits to the tulip style is that after the pour that bulbous space in the glass gives the aromatics a great opportunity to develop along with the head of the beer as its slowly settling down. There’s a reason they’re so popular in Belgium when you order a nice ale, now you can give the gift of a better beer for the budding beer connoisseur in your life, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to give them a gift that boosts their knowledge, benefits their taste buds, and gives them something fun to talk about the next time they share a beer with a friend.

There it is, folks – a great list of geeky goodies that will make any type of geek on your holiday shopping list happy. Regardless of if they’re a food and wine geek, a gadget fiend, a phone freak, a gamer, or all of the above, there’s something up here that will make them happy. Best of all, a number of the suggestions are budget friendly, so if your’e shopping with costs in mind you can take some of these suggestions to heart and know you’re getting something the guy or gal geek in your life will appreciate without breaking the bank to make them happy.

Granted, I’m assuming you’re shopping for someone else – if you read this over and said to yourself “wow, I wish someone would get these for me,” may I suggest sending a link to your friends or family?

And with that, let me wish you a happy, classy, and geeky holiday, whatever you celebrate!

5 Tips for a Classy Thanksgiving

Alan Henry — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:44:20 +0000

Thanksgiving is almost here (and long past for our Canadian neighbors,) and while the traditional image of a Thanksgiving holiday involves a massive dinner table packed corner to corner with food and surrounded by a huge hungry family, for many of us that’s just not how the holiday will play out. Sure, many of us will travel long distances to reunite with family after leaving our respective offices, campuses, and homes, but many others will spend the holiday perhaps with one special person, a smaller family, or even alone at home watching football or a movie on television while munching Chinese food.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these cases, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: you don’t need a massive Thanksgiving affair to have a classy and fun-filled holiday, and even if you’re headed for a major event anyway, there are a few ways you can make sure that your Thanksgiving holiday is as classy as possible.

Behind the jump, let’s take a look at five simple tips to help you make the most of your Thanksgiving; whether you’re spending it alone, with a significant other, or with family, and even if you’d really like to look forward to the holiday, but instead you’re filled with dread.

Cook Smart
Seriously, there’s no reason you should subject yourself to Chinese food or delivery pizza from the few places that will be open on Thanksgiving day. Even if you’re planning to spend the holiday alone or with a small group of one to two other people, you can still treat yourself to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, you just don’t need to spend all morning and afternoon slaving over a hot stove and oven to prepare it.

There’s this ridiculous misconception that in order to fully enjoy Thanksgiving you’ll need to spend hours prepping food, then hours more cooking it and standing watch over it as it comes to temperature, and hours more planning how you’ll serve out each meticulous course one after another. None of these things are true.

Think about what your menu is going to look like in advance, and think of things that are actually easy to cook. There’s no rule book here, so free yourself of the thought that you have to make a whole 12-pound Turkey for an intimate dinner for two, okay?

Think about other foods you can prep easily the night before your meal, or even just before you pop them in the oven: a pork tenderloin, for example, is easy marinating the night before, or you can rub it down with spices and pop it in the oven as little as a half-hour before serving time. Want something really special? Pick up a couple of Ribeye or New York Strip steaks and use my tried and true method of Cooking Steak for Apartment Dwellers. If you insist on having turkey, you can brine a couple of turkey breasts the night before in a simple salt-water mix in a plastic freezer bag, and pop them in the oven right before serving as well. Easy and simple.

Many common Thanksgiving sides keep just as well also: stuffing cooks well in advance, and the flavors have plenty of time to mingle in a fridge overnight. Then you just have to heat it up for service on Thanksgiving day. If you don’t feel like going through the trouble of making stuffing just for yourself, don’t worry – I’m not going to tell you to pick up some awful boxed mix, but why not make your starch something easily prepared like rice? Toss in some coin-sliced smoked sausage or crumbled breakfast sausage, and you have a great side dish. It won’t be your mother’s stuffing, but it’ll be delicious.

Need some green? Don’t discount how easy it is to make a salad in a few moments as opposed to stewing greens for hours at a time. Let’s be clear: it’s different, but different isn’t bad. The point is that by cooking smart and picking foods that are easy to make, require little prep even for a large party, and may even be healthier than the rich, heavy foods traditionally associated with Thanksgiving, you can prepare a scrumptious meal that goes way above and beyond what you’d make any other night.

Don’t Be Afraid of Prepared Foods
Here’s a dirty little secret that’s been pleasing people at the Thanksgiving table for me for years: the kitchen section at a nice grocery store like Whole Foods or Wegmans can mean the difference between you slaving over those sides along with the center of your meal, whether it’s a steak, tenderloin, chops, or turkey or sitting back and waiting for that part of your meal to finish up while you heat up your sides.

Most of those kitchen sections offer pre-made dish selections that you can pick up anytime from a cold case, or even pick up freshly made on the day you plan to serve. Snag a nice stuffing the day before Thanksgiving and toss it in the fridge – you can put it in a baking dish as soon as your main dish is complete without turning the oven off, and in a few minutes you’ll have a piping hot addition to your table that you didn’t have to lift a finger to make.

I know, I know, I’m not really a fan of letting someone else make your food either – frankly, you have little to no vision into what goes in it or what’s involved with making it that way – which is why I suggest turning to a grocery store or local boutique shop that you can trust; one where you’re willing to buy the prepared foods anytime, see them made fresh, or can put in an order to have something made just for you (something many of them do.) Even if you just want to pick up a pie from your grocery store bakery department, or even your favorite local bakery, it can mean the world when it comes to that feeling of dread you’ll get when you know its time to start cooking.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to get your Thanksgiving dinner catered, but spending a little money on a couple of side dishes and making the salad while your turkey breasts are in the oven will cut down on prep time and make your Thanksgiving meal easier to prep and easier to enjoy.

Buy a Nice Wine
I can’t emphasize this one enough – a lovely, fancy meal is complimented perfectly by a lovely flavorful wine, and even a mediocre meal can get the official classy seal of approval when you pair an exquisite beverage with it. The best part about this is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get something delicious and that works well with your meal.

The first thing I’m going to tell you to do though is to shake some of the traditional notions of which types of wines go with which types of food. Just because you’re having turkey doesn’t mean you have to have a white wine, or because you’re having steaks doesn’t mean you have to have a red. Some of the characteristics of reds and whites tend to blend better with the flavor profiles of certain meats and fish, but when wine selection really boils down to is picking something that pleases your palate, and if you’re adventurous like me, even challenges it.

The important thing is to pick a wine that you like. I’m not going to be upset if you make a beeline for the Yellow Tail section when you get to your local wine seller, but I am going to suggest another winery, maybe someone with different vintages and different varietals that you may not have initially chosen. Interested in Bordeaux wines? Maybe you should try a straight Malbec, since you Bordeaux may have Malbec blended in. Want something with heavy tannins that packs some robust fruit flavor that can cut through heavy, deep foods? Try a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Syrah in red, or a Chardonnay or Viognier in white. Not interested in something that heavy? Okay then, try a Sangiovese in red or a Sauvignon Blanc in white. Maybe you should go all out and have a sparkling wine like Champagne or Prosecco for Thanksgiving – too many people only drink them around New Year’s, and they’re delicious year round.

The venerable Gary Vaynerchuk, Director of Operations at Wine Library, host of Wine Library TV, and all around social media and business guru, has done a number of episodes of Wine Library TV dedicated to Thanksgiving, so you have plenty of fodder from which to pick a good wine.

If you’re looking for more suggestions, this post at SlashFood also has some great specific recommendations, but I say explore, try new things, and if you have a liquor store or wine seller that you go to frequently, see who in the store does the wine buying. They may have some very interesting recommendations for you, or at the very least can tell you what’s rushing out the door with some of the more flavor-oriented buyers as opposed to the folks buying brand names – and never fear, good wine doesn’t have to be expensive. You’ll be surprised how many great bottles cost just as much or less than the mass-produced stuff./

Leave Time for Travel
This one is important, especially for people who’ll be leaving home or school to visit family, or seeing a long-distance love for the holidays: leave plenty of time for you to get from point a to point b. It’s as simple as that.

If you’re flying and heading to the local airport, make sure you familiarize yourself with the latest TSA travel regulations, especially around what you can expect when you get to the airport and what you can and cannot carry onto a plane. Regardless of what you think about the TSA or about their screening policies (especally with the more recent furor over backscatter X-Ray scanners and intrusive pat-downs,) knowing what’s in store for you will keep you informed, calm, and keep you from getting annoyed and frustrated when you get to the airport or terminal.

If you’re planning to travel by train (which I wholeheartedly recommend you do if you can, it’s a much more civilized way of traveling) make sure you check out Amtrak’s Safety and Security page, and read up on what to expect when you get to the train station. You’ll find that traveling by train is much easier than traveling by air, and more comfortable and relaxing too (bigger seats, power outlets, even Wi-Fi,) if you can spare the time.

However, even if you’re traveling by car and plan to hit the road, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get to where you’re going – whether you’re driving there or you’re just heading to an airport or train station. If you’re headed to a mass transit station, make sure you give yourself enough time to get checked in, screened, and off to wait for your flight or train to depart. If you’re traveling by car, check your route to see if there are any construction obstacles or travel advisories. Services like AAA are invaluable for planning long car trips, and make sure you’ve got your cell phone batteries charged, your GPS charged up, the tank full of gas, and of course, your mp3 player charged or supply of car CDs all stocked up.

With just a little forethought – and I mean a few minutes to think about how you might be able to make the trip easier – you can change your travel experience from a frustrating, last-minute one to something distinctly enjoyable. If you’re not traveling at all for the holiday, relax! Enjoy yourself, and if someone’s traveling to you, try to pass along these tips, okay?

Leave Time for Yourself
Last, but certainly not least, you absolutely have to take care of yourself. So much about the holiday season is giving: giving to family, giving to friends, giving to coworkers, giving to those who are needier than you – and those are all excellent things and definitely part of what makes the holiday season special (and something we should remember year-round!) but you’re no good to any of those people if you’re burnt out, depressed, and feeling awful in general.

With the cold weather comes lowered spirits, seasonal affective disorder (SAD,) and a general malaise that comes with dreary gray skies and chilly temperatures. Make sure you carve out some time during the holidays for yourself – some time when you’re not obligated to anyone but your own interests, some time when you’re not cooking for anyone but your own palate. Make a point now, good an early in the season, to carve out a little time this holiday season that’s just for you.

Personally, I like to travel. Last year I went to New York City for the holidays to visit friends, stay in a lovely hotel, and see the holiday sights around town, like the Macy’s holiday window displays and the massive Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. I’m not saying you have to plan a vacation for yourself in the middle of the holiday season, but I am saying you should make sure you get out and do something that brings joy to your heart, regardless of whether it includes your loved ones or specifically excludes them so you have a little time to yourself.

Eat well, get as much light as you can, and remember to take yourself into account while you’re busy taking care of everyone else this Thanksgiving and all the way through the holidays. Buy yourself a little something, wrap it up, and when you put the tag on it, write that it’s from The Classy Geek, okay?

Do you have a specific wine suggestion you want to share for a Thanksgiving meal? Let’s hear it in the comments – I haven’t bought my holiday wines just yet! Any more tips you think people should take into account in order to survive Thanksgiving – or the holiday season in general? Leave a comment and make your voice heard!

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user CarbonNYC, (Thanksgiving Spread) Flickr user Firepile, (Thanksgiving Dinner) and Flickr user D Sharon Pruitt, (Casual Family Dinner Carving Thanksgiving Turkey).

Good Tech is Better than More Tech – Part 3: Smart Upgrades

Alan Henry — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:13:27 +0000

The temptation is strong to just buy anything and everything shiny that you may find and like the moment it comes out. Trust me, I understand this temptation. But resist, my friends! Resist! We’ve left the Good Tech is Better than More Tech series by the wayside for a couple of months, and in that time there have been a lot of delicious new product launches, gear releases, and gadgets that are all tempting us to spend tons of money on them.

In the first part of the series, Think Before you Buy, we talked about ways to streamline your needs and make sure you’re only buying the gear that will make a difference in the way you work and play with your tech. In the second part, Bargain Hunting, I shared some of my favorite tips and tricks for making sure you get a great deal when you’re shopping on the Web or in person.

Now, in this third segment, I’ll walk you through five ways you can make sure that the tech you’re so eager to buy will actually be a good, solid upgrade for you – the kind that you won’t look back on in a couple of months and say “you know, I really didn’t need to drop the cash on this,” which is never a good place to be – even if you like what you bought.

Is it an upgrade or a new tool?
The first question you really have to ask yourself is whether or not this is an upgrade, or does it offer some new function or utility that you don’t already have in your life. It would be best if it’s both – something that upgrades an app, gadget, or service you already have but also gives you something more for your money other than just being new. If it’s an actual upgrade though, that’s fine too, but where you run into trouble is if what you’re looking at doesn’t actually improve any aspect of your life and instead is a new gadget that will take up new space and do something new that you haven’t been doing up to this point.

Before you accuse me of going all holier-than-thou-minimalist on you, the point I’m trying to make is that when you’re considering a new purchase of an item that will fill some need or space in your life, you usually think of the purchase in terms of whether that need being fulfilled is worth the money you’re planning on spending to fill it. When you couch that purchase in terms of a non-existent “upgrade” to something that you know you’re not actually going to replace, you’re not being terribly honest with yourself, now are you?

If you let yourself rationalize that you could replace that thing over there with this new expensive shiny, if you really wanted to and then bought this over here to go with it, you’ll quickly find yourself spending money on something you may not have really needed – and may not have bought if you were thinking about it on its own merits alone instead of your dissatisfaction with whatever you need to fix or update. Thinking about your purchases and upgrades with that kind of cost/benefit mindset will help you make sure that you’re buying things that will help improve the way you work, play, or just conduct your day-to-day life.

Is the old one out of warranty/near the end of its life?
Of course, if you’re planning to buy an upgrade or a replacement for something, it’s natural to think about it in terms of whether or not the item you’re replacing really needs to be replaced. It makes sense when I say it like that, sure, but it’s remarkable how infrequently we think about things like this. For example, most of us run out and pick up a new cell phone almost the moment our contracts are up because we’re offered a discount on a new handset by our carrier, regardless of whether we actually need a new handset.

I’m discounting the phenomenon of planned obsolescence here, of course, and average lifespans for a number of products like cell phones, but one thing I’ve noticed in covering the smartphone market is that there are new handsets and products coming onto the market so frequently that the most cautious buyers are almost always punished for waiting to make sure the one they buy is right for them. We’re encouraged to stand in line for the most recent product and buy it completely un-tested in the field, because, well, it’s new! It’s shiny! It’s hot!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing against technolust here, and I’m not suggesting that you don’t go stand in line if you know that the next iPhone or Android phone or game console is the one for you. What I am saying is that if you have the luxury of time and rational thought, use it. Think about whether or not the manufacturer’s warranty is up on the 50-inch plasma television you have that has issues with one of the HDMI ports before getting sucked into Black Friday sales. If it is and you’ve been meaning to upgrade to a better model for one reason or another (good reasons, please!) then by all means, start shopping.

Think about the warranty or service plan you have for your laptop. Did you get a 3-year manufacturer service agreement and it’s nearly up? Is it woefully slow and you can admit you’ve idly spent days configuring updated models on the manufacturer’s site? It might be time to pull the trigger and make the purchase, especially if you know you’ll use and love a new model more than you use and love your older, busted version (assuming you can’t do something to give it a little refresh – you know, like I suggested in Ways to Make Use of Your Older Tech.)

Does it replace something you’re already using with something better?
This one may seem like a throwback to the first question, but I’m making a very concise point here: what are you getting rid of to make room for this item in your life? If you’re not getting rid of something entirely, what is the old thing going to do while the new one fills its need? The new thing should do the old thing’s job better than it used to – is that the case?

These questions – which assumes that you’ve determined in the first question that this is indeed an upgrade and in the second one that it’s worth purchasing a replacement, help you confirm for yourself that what you’re buying isn’t just a new version of the same thing you had that worked just fine. The key to upgrading smart is not upgrading blindly just because there’s a newer version of whatever you already have – it’s making sure that you’re upgrading to the new shiny because the new shiny gadget or service does what you need it to do better, does some more things you wished the old thing would have done, or hopefully does something else you hadn’t thought of but can really use.

In a number of ways you can really determine a smart upgrade by how many other things you currently use that will be replaced with the new item. What you don’t want to do is spend a thousand dollars on a new NAS device that does the exact same thing with no additional features over your current home server. If the new NAS has some goodies that your home server doesn’t have (hot-swappable drives, fault tolerance when you pop a drive out, portability, simple management, Web interface, etc) then it might be worth the money – but only if those new features are things you’ll really use and enjoy.

Are you saving money versus cobbling together parts or a replacement for what you have?
One of the questions I asked myself when I ditched my hand-built home server for a pre-configured Dell that I bought from a coworker (bargains are always good!) was whether or not I was actually saving money by buying this new system from him versus buying the components that I needed to get the same features in the home server I already had. The problem was that the amount that my coworker was planning to charge for his secondhand computer was fractional compared to the upkeep of the system I already had. Here’s why.

My old home server was hand-rolled, and an ancient AMD Athlon XP 2500+ with a pair of 500GB IDE drives inside and an old scavenged video card with S-Video out that I used to display video on my TV. The video card had just lost a fan, and the motherboard was starting to flake out on me. I was thinking about buying a replacement socket 939 motherboard and looking for an AGP video card that might have a HDMI port or even a decent S-Video post.

Now this old machine had been one of my first computers out of college, cobbled together out of components that were top of the line at the time. Sadly, when it came time to look for upgrades for it though, or even replacement parts to keep it running in the same way it had been up to this point, the components had gotten both cheap because they were commonplace and unused, and then with a bit more time wound up getting expensive because they started to become scarce. So that replacement motherboard and an AGP graphics card – any AGP graphics card – both amounted to more than the $150 my coworker wanted for his old secondhand computer with a pair of 500GB SATA drives in it and a built in graphics card with S-Video ports.

You’re seeing the logic here. Sometimes your components and your gear and your gadgets, even if you love them, are so old that you wind up blindly dumping money into them to keep them running and keep them functioning when you would have spent less money just replacing and recycling the original item with something newer and more functional. Make sure you pay attention to that fact when pondering an upgrade – or even looking for a reason to upgrade. Sometimes old and busted is great for the nostalgic set, and sometimes it’s even better if there simply isn’t anything newer that meets your needs better than what you have, but sometimes we hold on to things for absolutely no good reason, and worse, we spend money on it.

Is it well-reviewed/liked/anticipated?
Finally, this one should be straight forward: don’t buy something if it’s a dud. Do your research. Seriously – check out what other people are saying, check out with reviewers are saying on blogs around the Web, and this goes for more than just technology too: if you can buy it, there’s someone out there who’s probably reviewed it, even if we’re just talking about customer reviews of the item on a site like Amazon.

This also dovetails with the whole “is it end of life” question – because there’s so much technolust in the air, it’s easy to get caught up in something that’s new and shiny and comes with promises of incredible features, but it’s even more important in these cases to spend some time looking up hands-on reviews, in-depth reviews, even first impressions from people who may have had an opportunity to work with a device before it’s been released.

Check the reviews and make sure that the things you want it to do that are above and beyond what you already have actually work – that the features that make it a real upgrade are actually worth using. Actually, while you’re at it, make sure that the core features that you’re upgrading by picking up your device are improved over previous versions. If you’re replacing one product with another, like one generation of cell phone with a popular new model, see if there are comparative reviews; you might be surprised.

In the end, this item comes down to doing your homework. It’s an underrated task, and one that’s too often left undone.

If you’re a more experienced tech buyer and bargain hunter, these things come naturally to you. For a number of people though, these tips need to live in the back of your head every time you make a major tech purchase that you just swear is going to completely change the way that you work or the way that you play with your gear, or make doing whatever it is you do with the stuff you have now so, so much easier.

Yeah, you’ve said that to yourself a dozen times, I know. I say it to myself too. If you’re anything like me, you’ve said it to yourself in the past week, or even the past day, about something new. Maybe an XBox 360 slim? Perhaps it’s a new smartphone? Or maybe there’s an iPad on your wish list and you think it’ll replace your netbook or thin and light laptop?

Look, there’s nothing wrong with upgrades, and there’s nothing wrong with those lovely dreams of fancy new gadgets dancing in your head. There is, however, something wrong with looking at a big credit card bill a month after you’ve made a major tech purchase and shaking your head at the knowledge that you probably could have waited for a sale before dropping the cash, or that you probably didn’t need to replace your perfectly functional old gadget or piece of gear in the first place.

If you make sure you ask yourself the right questions before you pull the trigger and max out your charge card, your likelihood that you’ll look at your new purchase with no regrets and nothing but admiration are much higher. With a little forsight and application of your geekly know-how, you’ll enjoy the satisfaction that you’ve made an intelligent tech purchase that’s had a positive influence on your life.

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user William Hook, (Wikimedia Commons: File:Logitech G15 Keyboard.jpg) and Flickr user svensonsan, (iPhone und Motorola Milestone/Droid im Saal 2 auf der Schanze).

Show Off Your Figures the Classy Way!

Alan Henry — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:43:43 +0000

Are you a collector and have a bunch of classic action figures that are prized parts of your collection? Maybe you’re an anime fan and you have figures from some of your favorite series or characters around your house or room? Maybe you have some video game figures that came with collectors’ editions of your favorite games? Or maybe still you just love toys in general and like having them around to brighten up the place.

All in all, if you’re like most of us, myself included, you have more than a few action figures in convenient places around your home. You may have a handful or you may have a lot, but you’re probably struggling with the same types of questions: how do I display these without looking creepy or dorky? This week, I’m going to help you answer that question – and trust me, the answer is not and never will be “put them in a box and hide them.” I’ll walk you through figuring out where the best place for your figures is, what types of figures you’ll want to show off and which ones you’ll want to keep to yourself, and even come up with some ways for you to make sure you keep your “exhibit,” as it were, fresh and interesting for anyone who stops by, regardless of whether they like or collect figures themselves.

This could easily turn into a multi-part series about design elements and different ways to highlight the types of figures you have and the ways to light them and different types of furniture for your space, but we can get into those at another time. This time around though I want to focus on three major elements that are important to making sure that the toys and figures you have are clean, well-presented, and most importantly, highlighted in your preferred space.

We’ll look at ways to choose which figures are on display where, ways to display your figures, and ways to highlight your figures and draw positive attention to them. For example, if your visitors are usually members of your preferred gender and you’re worried you might scare them off with the sexy anime figures on your mantle, it might be time to put them on their own shelf…in your bedroom, where that atmosphere can benefit from something a little scandalous.

We’ll also talk about shelving and display cases, and we’ll also talk about avoiding figure overkill – something most serious collectors understand, but those of us who just buy what we like can find ourselves trapped doing before we know it. Ready? Let’s get started.

Picking the Right Figures to Display

Let’s start with overkill, because it’s such an important topic. It’s tempting to put every action figure or toy you’ve ever loved or every single figure you like up somewhere in your space, whether you live in a studio apartment or you have a home office you’d like to decorate or you have an entertainment room where you have free reign over what’s displayed where, but resist, my friends, resist!

Think of your figure collection the same way the Smithsonian thinks of its exhibits. They don’t show everything all at the same time – they have rotating exhibits that draw interest, different looks and features for different times of year or different occasions. If the Smithsonian just decided to put every artifact or object they have on display at the same time, there wouldn’t be enough space in any museum to display it all. The ability to pick and choose what should be shown and what should be retired, even if it’s only for a while, is what makes a collection – even if it’s just a grouping of items that you like or enjoy looking at – really special.

Take a look at your figure collection, and pick out a reasonable number of figures for each space you’d like to put them in. Remember, it’s okay to have some spaces that are not populated by a figure of some kind. Just because there’s an open space big enough to fit a cute little Nendroid doesn’t mean you have to fill it with one! Take a moment and pick some of your favorites – keeping in mind that you, like me and like most people who like having a few toys around, will probably buy more at some point when you see something that strikes your fancy.

Try to think, while you’re choosing those first few figures, “where will I put the next one I buy?” After all, we all know there’ll be another one soon, and you don’t want to unbox it and fall in love with it only to wonder after your wallet is that much lighter “where the hell am I going to put this thing?” Pick out the ones you want to display, and try to put them into little “exhibits” that you think makes for good showing in different areas of your space. They can be figures with a common theme, or figures that look good together, or figures you just think are nice for different places, it’s up to you!

Another thing to consider when you’re choosing your figures is where you’ll display them. You don’t have to worry about how you’ll display them, we’ll get to that later, but you’ll want something that matches the environment and atmosphere in the room. Don’t worry about colors and such, but for example, if you have a lot of video game figures you’ll probably want to put them near where you play video games – maybe on top of the entertainment center or next to the consoles.

If you have a lot of classic figures that may be worth money, like old Superman toys or mint condition Transformers, you might want to put them somewhere out of high-traffic areas (maybe your home office, where you can see and enjoy them frequently or maybe a guest room or someplace you like to escape to so you can relax), and if you have kids or have kids over to your space frequently, somewhere out of reach. After all, your action figures are your cousin’s little kids’ toys, and they’ll treat them as such. Don’t let yourself get heartbroken because you left that 1984 Generation One Optimus Prime on the bottom level of your bookshelf and little Timmy from next door got his hands on it while you were having coffee with his mother or father.

Like I mentioned above, if you’re a bachelor or bachelorette and live alone, those sexy figures can pretty much go anywhere, but don’t set yourself up to have to move a bunch of them when you have a date coming over for the evening, or your family drops by for a visit. I know you want to keep them around to look at, but if you either a: don’t traditionally date people who share your interests and tastes in geekery, or b: know your family or other friends would throw a fit if they saw a busty or bishy cast-off PVC figure square in the middle of your coffee table, save yourself the hassle and make yourself a little sexy exhibit for the bedroom.

After all, you shouldn’t have to be ashamed of your figures or your hobbies – and easing people into them by putting the fun and non-scandalous ones in the living room and keeping the salacious ones on a shelf in the bedroom until they’re ready can be fun too, and won’t freak out random guests, or your apartment’s maintenance staff when they come to change the air filter every six months.

Displaying Your Figures

This is where the fun begins, from a design perspective. Remember, you want to pick a method of display that either works with your current furniture, or if you’re a collector or connoisseur, a way that showcases your figures with an attractive display but also that keeps them safe from dust, dirt, grime, and moisture. There’s nothing worse than putting your figures on a shelf that’s near the kitchen and then frying up some bacon – only to realize 48 hours later than all of the bacon grease in the air has now settled on top of your prized Miku Hatsune VN 02 Mix figure.

Let’s be clear though – you should know how to properly clean your figures no matter where or how you display them – most of the time a little dusting will suffice, but if you’re noticing stains you may want to try a little soap and water. Make sure to use a non-abrasive and color-safe soap, nothing that’s going to pull the color out of your figures, and a little canned air to get all the water out and blow it dry after you’ve wiped them down with a towel or a bar mop (lint-free, of course!)

When you’re not cleaning them and you want to show them off, you’ll need a place to keep them. You can go the affordable route and simply line open space on your bookshelves with figures, and this is a great way to go if you don’t have a lot of space or the space you have is already dominated with furniture or shelving units. Clear out a little space for your exhibit, and go ahead and put the figures up! It’s a delicate balance to keep them close enough to keep a good group look but not so close that they essentially overlap one another and look cluttery, but you’ll know when you have it down – they’ll look good, and at just about every angle you’ll be able to appreciate the individual aspects of each figure without seeing another one in the way.

I’m a big fan of clearing off enough space to display your big figures on their own shelves or in their own space. That doesn’t mean they have to be alone, but it does mean you shouldn’t crowd them too much, especially if they’re large figures with wide stands or bases. If you have smaller figures that can sit in front of other things, like on a bookshelf in front of a row of books, go for it as long as you think you’ll continue to appreciate them in their new home.

All in all, if you’re going to use your figures as decoration for your current space, the important thing to remember is to make sure you don’t lose the sense of appreciation you have for your figures when you put it somewhere. If you put your figure in a place and immediately forget it was ever there or just can’t see it ever, you might want to move it, unless you just don’t care (in which case maybe it shouldn’t be in your exhibit?)

If you have some budget, you might consider dropping a little cash on a display case or shelving unit to keep them safe, covered, or to give them their own space. For example, you can go out and buy something simple like this traditional horizontal display case if you only have a few things to display, or alternatively you can pick up something more substantial like the IKEA Bergsbo which comes in a number of colors and gives you full glass doors that you can close in front of your figures to keep them on display, at the center of attention, but safely protected behind glass in their own display case. Or consider the really stylish IKEA Linnarp, which comes with or without glass doors depending on your budget and what you’d like to do with it. This method even works if you have a lot of books to shelve but want a way to display and protect your figures on their own shelf!

Some folks I know have made use of the gorgeously designed IKEA Expedit, which doesn’t have glass or a protective cover, but it is a gorgeous display case that fits snugly against the wall and has square cubbyholes for books, gadgets, tools, and yes – figures! I’ve seen some people use the entire Expedit just to display figures, since each cubby is large enough for a large figure or a few small ones grouped together logically. Best of all, the Expedit, unlike a lot of traditional display cases, can pull double-duty as a shelf or bookcase, so it doesn’t have to be a single-purpose piece of furniture. You know the classy way: nothing in your home or space should do one thing only unless you absolutely need something that specializes in a single purpose.

If you’re not looking to spend that much money, I can personally suggest the IKEA Billy, which comes in a wide-body variety linked here but also in an array of product types and suites that fit virtually any space and any budget.

If book cases aren’t your thing and you just want a shelf in the bedroom for one of your exhibits, or you have a small space and not much room for additional floor furniture, remember the old designer’s rule for small spaces: expand up, not out – meaning shelves on the walls above the floor level allow you to turn empty wall space into instant storage for just about anything. In these cases, especially if a nice floating shelf over your workstation or next to your bed or entertainment center makes a nice spot to display some of your figures, the IKEA Lack or just about any floating shelf you can buy from a department store or furniture store is a lifesaver. They’re small and relatively affordable, and as long as you know where the studs in your walls are, you can mount them easily.

You don’t have to break the bank to make a great display for your figures, but if you’re willing to put a little money into them, you’ll get a space that’s attractive and protective. Regardless of what you choose in the way of displaying your figures, try to make sure the ones that are special to you keep a place of honor in your space – someplace they’ll be seen and appreciated, especially by you on a day-to-day basis.

Highlighting Your Figures

Remember when we were talking about choosing select groups of figures to create an “exhibit?” This is even more important when we discuss how to highlight the figures you want to display. Rotating “exhibits” create interest in your space, whether it’s in your home office or your living room, and make for a self-highlighting display. You’ll feel as though your space is always refreshing and rejuvenating itself just by picking some figures you want to see right now, and then switching them out every couple of months, or maybe when spring cleaning time comes around you can swap out for some figures or toys that have been stored away for a while.

Additionally, when you get all of the furniture you want to use, regardless of what it is, think about which areas in your space are high traffic and high visibility. These are the spots where you want your figures to live, because they’re high visibility. Also worth considering is the point I mentioned earlier about placing figures in places that make sense. Video game figures would do well with your controllers and consoles, and toys from your favorite TV series’ would look great on the entertainment center. Still, save your best exhibits and collections for spaces where they have room to stand out and be seen.

When you have your figures in place, some good lighting helps. Nothing says “display case” like a small LED or push-light at the top of your bookshelf that you can turn on when you want to be able to see your toys or you have a guest over, and off when you’re not home or not looking. For example, the IKEA Grundtal or IKEA Hopen for a couple of examples of small spotlights that can be mounted to the floor of a display case, the back wall of a bookshelf, or the top of a bookshelf with glass doors.

You’d be surprised how well some solid placement and good lighting will go towards making your action figures and toys stand out among a wall of books, DVDs, CDs, or other items.

With a little thought, a little placement, maybe a little furniture, and maybe a little lighting, you can make sure your favorite figures are on display and well seen by the people who drop by your home and more importantly by you when you’re at home relaxing, resting, or working. Best of all, if you take the time to think about which figures you’d be happiest to display now and which figures you don’t mind stashing away for later, you can avoid overwhelming your guests and creating a massive wall of figures that all blend together indiscriminately.

If you want a single place to keep lots and lots of figures, a bookshelf or display case will definitely do the trick, and do it with style – once your figures have a home, you have the freedom to put more of them in the same space.

All it takes is a little forethought and a little class to make sure your figures look great anywhere you choose to put them. Don’t be ashamed of them, and don’t listen to designers and decorators who tell you that it’s all “clutter” and you have to put it away for a stylish and clean look. I’ve often been upset with television design shows that imply that in order to get an elegant look in your space you have to remove any semblance of personality. So bring your personality into your space: make it your own, and show off those shiny figures, toys, and action figures.

Ask The Classy Geek!

Alan Henry — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:15:18 +0000

Looking for tips on the best way to show off your action figures or anime figurines? Want some suggestions on kitchen appliances that’ll help you cook like a gourmet without breaking the bank or buying something largely useless? Interested in how you can impress your geeky Valentine without patronizing him or her? Let The Classy Geek help you out!

Part of the mission of The Classy Geek isn’t just to help you with informative articles, guides, multi-part series’, and how-tos, but also to help you – that’s right, all of you, regardless of age, gender, creed, or geekly persuasion – get your act together; to stand on your own two feet and be happier about yourself without sacrificing your geekiness in the process.

I said I was here to help, didn’t I? Well now’s your chance. Have questions you’d like answered on the blog? Maybe you have a hot tip – a killer Vodka that most people probably haven’t heard of, or maybe a great music discovery site that’s perfect for building a special playlist for someone you have a crush on – send your questions and tips my way!

Click on the “Contact” link at the top of the page or just e-mail me at [ alanhenry [at] theclassygeek [dot] com ] to send in your questions, tips, and tricks!

Alternatively, don’t forget to like The Classy Geek on Facebook and start a discussion on our Facebook Fan Page to send in your questions and tips as well!

Ties: Revisited – Picking the Right Tie: Part II

Alan Henry — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:13:58 +0000

Ever since the launch of The Classy Geek, one of the most popular articles on the site is my first: A Geek’s Guide to Picking the Right Tie. Since then, I’ve gotten comments and e-mails asking me to revisit the topic and help hammer home a few points that I didn’t address in the original piece, so let’s take another look at the topic of geeky, classy neck-wear for just about every occasion that calls for it.

In Ties: Revisited, we’ll look at different types of knots, whether or not there’s ever a case for a clip-on tie, different fabric, length, and width styles, and a few ways to make sure you’re getting not just a classy tie, but a tie that will look good, feel good, and last you until it’s out of style and you want to buy something new.

The last time we hit this topic, we talked about a few basic things – colors, patterns, and materials. They’re still important, but a number of you wanted a little more, and who am I to deny it? So let’s pretend we’re headed back to the menswear department or formalwear store one more time – yes yes, I’m happy to help – and we’ll make sure you get something that looks good and feels right at the same time. You don’t have to break the bank to do it, either, some of my best ties are ones I purchased at a standard department store.

Also, don’t forget – there’s still a few weeks left to enter The Classy Geek’s Show Us Your Workspace Contest! Here’s how to win!

So while I’m still of the mindset that the The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie is awesome and geeky (and perfect for those kind of occasions when you’re dressing like a hipster, trying to be ironic, or you’re hanging out in a casual situation with fellow geeks where it would be appreciated) it’s not ideal for the company holiday party or for a work environment where you have to wear a coat and tie every day, or anywhere else you may be where the people who’ll be observing you have more of an eye for the traditional. I think it’s pretty tough to dispute that.

Style: Fabric, Length, and Width
However, that doesn’t mean your tie needs to be devoid of personality; it should be loud, but loud in the right way – a bold color choice, or an interesting (but not too attention getting) pattern can make for a sharp looking tie.

First thing’s first though – you really don’t need to break the bank in order to make this happen. I mentioned that you should look for good materials the last time we discussed this, and part of the reason I’m such a huge proponent of silk blends is that depending on the amount of silk in the blend, you can find a tie that feels really elegant and reflects light with sophistication but won’t put you out a ton of money. Additionally, a silk blend means that your tie is easier to clean, less likely to stain, and will likely last longer because the blended silk and polyester or cotton will add a little strength to the weave. That being said, a quick search over at Amazon reveals that even some attractive 100% silk ties won’t run you more than $20-30 USD. I’m not saying steer clear of 100% silk, especially if you find something you really like – they’ll just require more care than blends will.

Another point brought up in the comments of the last piece worth looking at again are varying styles of length and width for a tie. This is something of a tricky point because length and width are such timely characteristics that it’s difficult to suggest something that will be timeless. For example, back in the 1950s and 60s the preferred style for ties were incredibly long and incredibly thin. Over the past 50 years, the prevailing style has moved from thin, simple wool or cotton solid-color ties (and a pretty heavy lean towards flat-bottomed ties instead of today’s almost entirely prevalent arrow-bottom ties) to more patterned, striped, and varied color ties. Modern ties, especially in the past 20-30 years, have also moved from being very narrow to more broad at the arrow-tip.

Width of a tie should, frankly, be relative to the width of your torso, I think. I don’t have a hard and fast rule about this, and if anyone does I would love to hear it, but I find that very thin people can get away with thin ties, but they generally don’t want to. Most common tie designs from popular and boutique retailers will suit you in the width department – it’s length that you should pay attention to.

If you’re planning to wear a coat over your shirt and tie, a handy way to tell if your tie is too short is if you put your coat on over your tie and you can see the end, or the tie starts to widen significantly before the middle button of your coat. That means for most people, your tie is long enough when the widest part comes down to your navel or just below. If it’s far below your belt, well over your zipper, or the widest part of your tie is below the waistline it’s definitely too long. If it’s resting at the end of your sternum, it’s probably too short. Follow?

The point is to make sure your tie doesn’t fall out of a coat with the middle button fastened, and doesn’t show below that fastened button on your coat. Remember the rule for three-button coats: sometimes, always, never – this means your top button should be buttoned sometimes, the middle button should always be buttoned if you have your coat closed, and the bottom button should never be buttoned, no matter what.

Knots, Clip-Ons, and Bows
Let’s get the clip-on argument out of the way right away. Unless your a local TV news anchor, planning to get a quick picture taken with a low-quality camera, or otherwise are putting on a tie but don’t expect to be in front of another human being, there’s no place for a clip-on tie. Part of me is willing to give young kids a break and let them wear clip-ons, but honestly? If your child is old enough to put on a tie, they’re old enough to start learning how to dress themselves, wouldn’t you think? Besides – a kid who can tie a Windsor knot is a kid who’ll never need to look it up on the Internet. Trust me.

Let’s hit the bow-tie topic as well: bow-ties are very difficult to pull off, and require not just a certain kind of dress but a certain kind of personality. Bow ties scream quirky, eccentric, a little weird – they’re not what I would call classy, but they definitely scream personality. So while I can’t in good conscience recommend a bow-tie for any geek who wants to put themselves in the classy and sophisticated category, I say that if you can pull off a bow-tie (the same way hipsters still manage to pull off super-narrow black ties with flat bottoms) because it works with your look and your personality (usually accompanied by a corduroy blazer, mismatched pants, and sneakers) then by all means go for it – part of being a classy geek is not being afraid to wear your geek on your sleeve if it’s who you are – you should never be ashamed of it! That being said though, it’d better work for you, or else I’m coming after you to take my advice back.

When it comes to knots, the old standard Windsor knot will suit you in almost every case. It’s also the easiest to learn, and the standard knot used for soldiers in the military and just about every other standard dress affair. If you go to a formalwear store to get fitted for a shirt and buy a matching tie, the tailor or sales associate there will almost surely put you in a shirt and then give you a tie that’s fitted around your neck with a Windsor knot. One of the biggest benefits to a Windsor knot is that once you have it tied at the right length, you can loosen and tighten it as necessary, which means you could very well never have to re-tie that knot ever again, at least until your tie requires cleaning or pressing. Yes, that’s right – keep that tie knotted and put it back on, especially if you wear a tie regularly.

That being said though, the Windsor knot isn’t the only type of knot out there, and not always the best type of knot for your shirt, even though it’s the most frequently used and works well in any situation. If you have a shirt with buttoned collars or very short collars, you might consider a Four in Hand knot, and if you want a look that’s a bit different from everyone else but a knot that’s still easily done and applicable for almost any situation, a Pratt knot is just a little different from the Windsor but still works well (especially if you like to wear ties with your top button unbuttoned for that “carefully disheveled” look, which I only suggest after the interview has turned into drinks afterward, or that important business meeting has migrated to the bar a few blocks over.)

Don’t just take it from me, though – if you need a refresher or don’t know how to tie a Windsor knot (or better yet, you’re interested in experimenting with other types of knots) I’ve included the video for how to tie a Windsor knot below, and I strongly suggest you head over to one of my constant bookmarks, Tie-a-Tie.net (even if the owner of the site and I disagree a bit on the proper length of a tie – he likes his longer than I do.)

Other Tips: Longevity and Durability
Finally, when choosing a tie, you’ll want to make sure that the tie you pick will last you a good long while – and that makes sense; even if you don’t spend a lot on your ties, a little care in selection and a little care in general can make sure that they serve you well for years to come.

First of all, as commenter “LoserGeek” mentioned in our last article, thrift stores are a perfectly good place to go looking for ties! Just make sure that – the same way as you would if you shopped for a new tie in a department store or a menswear store (as commenter “ek_man” very correctly pointed out!) – that the stitching is tight and firm and shows no sign of pulling loose on examination in the store. In thrift stores this is essentially important, because you’re essentially buying a used tie that at best you can hope has only been worn a handful of times. You’ll still need to get it cleaned before you wear it (especially if it’s all wool or something) so take that into account as well.

Also, when shopping in thrift stores, keep an eye out for contemporary look and feel. The trouble with thrift stores is that you’ll get a lot of things that are distinctly aged in style, which may work if you’re going for a look that’s a little retro, or your overall appeal is retro-modern; as in, you wear older colors and fabrics with clean lines and a modern look. Otherwise, I’d have to wave you off of the paisley ties of yesteryear. You all should know by now how I feel about paisley.

Now then, you’re looking for tight stitching, and you want to take my advice above about fabrics – the more you go to all cotton, all wool, or all silk ties, the more delicate they’ll be and the more you suffer the downsides of having a non-synthetic fabric interwoven with those stylish natural fabrics.

I know synthetics have a bad rap with the designer crowd, and someone who’s willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a tie wouldn’t take one with a single thread of polyester or rayon in theirs, but for those classy geeks living on a budget or who know the meaning of the word “value,” a little synthetics in our ties mean they’ll stick with us longer and can be stored in the closet on a coat hanger instead of in a case or on a special tie holder.

Speaking of storage, my last big longevity tip is around storage and cleaning. First of all – follow the instructions on the tag. I know, geeks like us don’t feel like we need to read the directions, but when it comes to formalwear, if your rule isn’t “take it to a dry cleaner” exclusively, then you definitely need to RTFM – and I know you know what I mean.

As for storage, I suggest something like this gorgeous Walnut Tie Hanger if you like the wide style, or if you have more ties than this and want something that’s a little more compact or circular in your closet, maybe this Twirl-a-Tie Tie Rack. If you don’t have nearly enough ties to make either of those worth the purchase, a single plastic (no wire hangers!) hanger should do the trick.

As I’ve said before, you don’t have to take my word or this, and there’s a lot more we can talk about here just on the matter of ties and menswear. I really need to get a classy geek to talk about women’s formalwear too so I don’t alienate all of my female readers (unless you’re all out there bookmarking this to send to your fashion-challenged geeky boyfriends and partners) but for the guys out there, my suggestions here are a starting point, not an end-point.

Go to your local formalwear store, like a JoS. A. Bank or a Men’s Wearhouse or a Casual Male XL and get your measurements taken before you buy anything. Don’t even buy a tie until you make sure you’re wearing dress shirts that comfortably fit your neck, and as soon as you make an investment into a suit or two and a few nice shirts, find yourself a tailor or someone who can make alterations to your body shape that you trust with your clothes, even if it’s a local dry cleaner.

Regardless of all of that now though, hopefully now you have the tools to find a good tie that will last you a good long time, regardless of whether you find it as a formalwear store or you pick up a tie you simply can’t put back down in your local thrift store. Finally. once you get that tie you simply can’t live without, hopefully I’ve given you a few more tools to help you wear it with pride, style, and class.

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user Jerry7171, (072606_16551) and Framed! (a blog). (152.jpg from post Video Game Artwork.)