Wow. Really... wow. I never would have expected a gift like this from a complete stranger. My Secret Santa managed to bring together my interests in art, technology and sci-fi quite well. Here we have:

2013 wall calendar featuring gorgeous photos of Boston, Massachusetts (US).

Western Digital 2TB My Passport USB 3.0 portable hard drive

bottle opener in the form of the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek series

When I opened the first package and saw the hard drive, I just kind of stared at it in shock, all agape, for a bit. It was probably the most expensive thing on my wish list and I didn't expect to be able to afford one for a while. It is now the largest hard drive I own and I can feel much safer about the tons of irreplaceable data I have floating around in various places.

Although I rarely drink alcohol, I'm going to have to find something I enjoy drinking from a bottle just so I have an excuse to wave around this awesome bottle opener. It's also heavy enough to use as self-defense in the event of an emergency, zombie apocalypse, etc. Any bottled drink suggestions? :D

The calendar is beautiful and as soon as I find a decent pushpin around here it's going up in the most perfect spot in my office next to the whiteboard on the wall beside me. I mentioned in my likes that something local or unique to Santa's location would be cool and he delivered. I don't really get to travel so I may not ever get to visit Boston, but I do love photography and now there's a little piece of it here with me.

For a Santa who said he'd wanted to pick out a more personalized gift but had been too busy, I think he did pretty darn well. Thank you, Santa, thank you!