1. SURVIVE: Dec. 21, 2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar and possibly Doomsday, the apocalypse, the end of the world, or whatever else you’d like to call it. To celebrate our final days—and also to celebrate our survival—there are both end-of-the-world and post-apocalypse survivor parties scheduled. And if you’re not sure when exactly the end is going to hit, stop by Nag’s Head Ale House in Huntington. Our friends over at the bar have a digital down-to-the-second countdown of our final moments. Good luck—and God speed!
2. TURN YOURSELF INTO A SUPER HERO: The UK novelty company Firebox is offering personalized action figures that they create from your photos. Choose from five bodies—Superman, Batman, Batgirl, Wonder Woman and The Joker. How do they do it? Firebox says it best: “Using advanced 3-D printing technology, your photographs will be turned into a fully-formed 3-D version of your noggin—including eye color, skin tone, hair style (or as close as possible) and hair color. Accurate? It’ll be like looking in a teaspoon.”
3. GIVE BLOOD, GET METS TIX: Long Island hospitals require almost 800 pints of blood per day to meet routine needs, and our region also suffers from a shortage of local blood donors, especially in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. And if you donate at the William H. Rogers Building in Hauppauge between 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Dec. 27, you’ll be rewarded with two free Mets tickets. Your neighbors need you and, quite frankly, the Mets could use all the support they can get even if you have to bleed for it.
4. GOOGLE “DIRTY CAR ART”: Using dusty car windows as his canvas, artist Scott Wade has taken the “Wash Me” prank to a whole other level. So, next time you put off washing your car, you may be in for a surprise in the morning—Mona Lisa or Albert Einstein might be staring back at you. Check out Wade’s windshield masterpieces at DirtyCarArt.com.
5. TRACK SANTA: NORAD (NoradSanta.org) lets you follow St. Nick using Google Earth as he makes his way around the globe on Christmas Eve. And since this is 2012, not only can you track Santa online, but you can even sign up for text message updates, so there’s no excuse not to remember to leave out those cookies.
6. SUBSCRIBE TO ROB BREZSNY’S HOROSCOPES: For all of you who say horoscopes are a waste of time, you obviously haven’t read Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology, chock full of metaphorical wisdom so spot on, it will make you a believer in the New Year. Subscribe to his free newsletter at FreeWillAstrology.com, and you’ll have your future delivered straight to your inbox every week in 2013.
7. GIVE A PRANK PACK: Tired of headphones that cover your ears? Fed up with wires bumping against your body? Enter: ToeTunes. These slippers with speakers aren’t real, but your friends and family don’t have to know that. Visit PrankPack.com for all kinds of fake boxes to put your real gifts inside of this Christmas.
8. CHECK OUT THE OSTRICH OFFICE SLEEPING BAG: The Ostrich Office Sleeping Bag designed by Kawamura Ganjavian (Studio-KG.com/Ostrich) “offers a micro environment in which to take a warm and comfortable power nap at ease. Its soothing cave-like interior shelters and isolates our head and hands (mind, senses and body) for a few minutes, without needing to leave our desk.” In other words, it’s a smaller version of a padded room.
9. CHECK OUT THE BANANA BUNKER: If you go to BananaBunker.com, you can see a short clip of this extremely durable, magical device. Durable as in: “Watch this man drop a banana enclosed in plastic off a 30-foot-high fire escape.” You know, you’re standing on the fire escape, about to eat a banana, but then it slips out of your hands, plummets to the cold, unforgiving ground, and your day is ruined. We can’t tell you how many times this has happened to us.
10. HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS! For a complete list of Christmas events on Long Island visit LongIslandPress.com/Christmas!
