TELEGIVE

A Gift of "Environment?"

Sometimes giving a great gift may involve nothing more than creating an "environment" for another person.  At least that's the theory 

"But an environment for what?" you might ask.  

Well, did you know that in LA there are hundreds of storefront shops that sell medical marijuana?      

Yes, it's for medical purposes only and no, you can't just drive to LA from Nevada, complain of constant, severe back pain and get an order for 8 oz of pot filled.  

You have to prove that you reside within California and it certainly makes sense to actually have a medical condition for which a physician might, in accordance with state law, reasonably prescribe marijuana for treatment    

So, let's discuss a theoretical scenario in which a person lives in LA and is legitimately receiving a prescription for medical marijuana.  The person has a card from the state and so forth; everything is above board.

The person's friends fly in to LAX and he/she picks them up and show them the sites.  And of course, the person also smokes his/her medicine from time to time.

Well, of course, whenever the person takes said medicine he/she experiences a degree of memory loss and also has difficulty performing mathematical calculations.  Often times he/she falls in to a peaceful sleep and may occasionally find it difficult to keep track of how much grass he/she started with. 

Now I am not saying this creates an "environment" in which the out of town friends might safely dip in to the person's prescribed medicine bag without the person being aware of this fact or without him/her easily being held legally liable for this fact.  But it might.  At least that's the theory.

Gifts For First-Job Finders or Job-Changers, Especially Dudes

Let's say you know somebody who just got their first job.  Or say somebody who is retiring from one job and picking up a different line of work.  What kind of gift do I like to get those people? 

Well for me, I kind of associate the idea of work with music or audio or similar sound-oriented themes.  I think, "whistle while you work."  Or I think of bands playing while football teams clash or drummers and fife players marching alongside soldiers in historic battles.

Human endeavor and music go together quite nicely, kind of like peanut butter and chocolate or oysters and cocktail sauce or an action movie with a great sound-track.  And most would certainly describe their occupations as "endeavors!"

So for those on their first jobs or for those retiring and doing something else, I think I would buy something audio in-theme.  Not albums or things of that sort.  But probably more like, say, a new set of top-flight speakers for a recipients truck.  Or a new IPod Touch or high-end, IPod headphones for the young urban worker.  Or a new Bose Wave system for an office space.  Or a new set of high-end speakers for a computer. 

I'd especially, if I was you, consider the idea of speakers and headphones as possible gifts.  Both are prone to decline in their ability to reproduce sound as their years of use increase.  So if your recipient has had, say a high end stereo for 5 years that he plays regularly, the speakers for it are probably not where they were at day 1.  So you will be giving him something that has a lot of immediately recognizable value to him.

However, I would definitely advise that if speakers and headphones are not your thing, that you go to or contact a decent retailer or two and get some advice on "what's what." in consumer audio.  A good stereo retailer or "e-tailer" will ask what you are buying the speakers or headphones for and also ask some various questions about the electronics themselves such as brand, model #, recipient and so on.  That way they can advise you on what speakers or headphones will best work with the recipient's audio gear.  

The e-tailer, crutchfield.com, for example is exceptional at this kind of customer service and I'd highly recommend them if you are buying a gift such as high-end speakers or head-phones.  I have used them myself numerous times in the past and, in fact, recently purchased two pair of high-end car speakers from them  for gift-giving purposes. 

 

Personalized Domain Names and Email Addresses: Gifts That Keep On Giving

A great gift for a person?  Amongst other things, I'd say get that guy or gal in your life their own personalized domain name (If it's still not registered already)   

Like say, if you have a friend and he/she goes by the name "Brophy Carmichael," then you buy him/her "brophycarmichael.com"   (Yeah I know a few female "Brophys" believe it or not)

Then your old "bud"/"budette," Brophy, can also take that domain name and set up his/her own personalized email address:  "brophy@brophycarmichael.com."   

Having such a personalized domain name and personalized email address may not seem like a big deal or it may seem like some cheesy vanity present.

But in reality, a personalized domain/email address is a colossal marketing asset for the recipient, regardless of his/her age and occupation.  

Think about it:  Anybody who knows the recipient's name can reach him/her.  He or she no longer has to say, "my email address is 'popworld1290@GMail.com,'"  that kind of (un-memorable) thing. 

When you buy it for him or her, you are going to pay a registration fee that varies by domain registrar. Cost of registration for a single domain name will -- in 2009 -- run between $10 - $35  a year.  So if you buy the personalized domain for the person, it's very important that you inform him/her that the domain must be renewed annually.    

Adding an email account to the personalized domain costs an additional annual fee also. Just a tip: When I give a personalized domain name as a present, I typically register the domain for a year and also pay for an email account on that domain name for a year with the same registrar.  

As for registrars I have used and like, I'd recommend Register.com and perhaps Dotster.com or MyDomain.com.  But there are probably dozens of domain registrars out there that would work well for you.

I've personally used Register.com for my own personalized domain registration and email accounts for the last decade (Right, since 1999).  Register.com is an easy service to use, they have strong customer service and excellent features associated with their personalized email accounts.  

They have also recently upgraded their email account so that it provides the user a monumental 10GB(!) of storage!   This is a striking amount of storage to us because we believe we originally received 50MB or 1/2000th of 10GB when we began with Register.com.  But then, you were mostly talking text based emails, no photos, videos, etc.  

Also, believe it or not, the price of Register.com email accounts have stayed constant for the last 10 years -- at least as far as I can determine.   

As I said, Dotster.com and MyDomain.com are also good registrars.  However I use them for purposes other than personalized domain registration and personalized email accounts.  However, I am aware that both Dotster.com and MyDomain.com do, in addition to personalized domain registration, offer personalized email service too.  So you may want to shop them also.

I say Personalized Domain Names and Email Address are "gifts that keep on giving" (provided they are renewed).   For a relatively small fee -- say $25 to register the personalized domain for a year and $25 for the personalized email account for a year using said domain -- you give a person a gift that may be worth thousands or more in value over his/her lifetime.