What to get for your man's birthday

Today I saw a posting on Miss Addie's blog where she bought her hubby a 17" ACER LCD. I was thinking, "That was really nice (I want one too). How could she have known?” Let's explore some conventional gift options and what is wrong with them:

• Tie. Unless your man is a big time corporate person, don't buy him tie. How often do we wear tie in this hot tropical country? (Unless it is compulsory during office hours). Even when you have bought one for office wear, if might not suit his taste (unless you knows him like the worm in your stomach). Besides, I just don't find tie useful nor have any emotional attachment to it. Unless he is a tie person or tie freak.
  
• The usual wearable - shirt, pant, belt and perhaps, shoe. Perhaps you can't go very wrong with shirt, but I don't think it is a good gift either. Just in case you bought something, which we absolutely don't like, we have to wear it as well with an unwilling heart (sob sob!). "Dear, why are you not wearing the shirt I bought for you ar?". Spare us! The same goes with pant, belt and shoe.
  
• Small little goodies - cute figure, picture frame, pencil holder, mug, and etc. These things might be nice to look at, but it just doesn't have much impact. Those are more like normal gifts given by friends, unless you do something creative and personal with them. Probably a nice couple photo of you two with a few lines of personal writings might do the trick.

So, what go guys really want? Toys for big boys, gadgets and gizmos, muahahaha. On top of my head, I could think of quite a few things:

• Lego Mindstorms: cool programmable lego toys.
• XBOX 360 or PS3: the ultimate gaming consoles, and it would be PERFECT if both of you could play together
• iPod (the original, nano, shuffle - probably there is better and cheaper alternative than shuffle): the coolest mp3 player
• Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard: the most ergonomics and high quality keyboard, protect your men from RSI.
• 17" LCD Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster perhaps? 17" is just nice, where 19" have too much screen real estates to look at.
  
• Any other cool gizmos

It all these toys sounds a bit on the pricy side, try the following alternatives:

• Cook a nice meal of Italian good, followed by watching DVD under dim light environment
• If you can't cook, pack his favorite food home, warm it up using the microwave, and proceed with DVD watching
• If you are more adventurous, perhaps a Thai or Balinese massage, together with aroma scents and soothing music
• Anything else which don't require us to get out of the house.
  

Disclaimer: If your man don't use much computers, don't go online, don't play games, please ignore this posting entirely.