What to get for my brother's 50th birthday?

For my 40th, my wife rented out a theatre and paid them to project my favourite film (2001 A Space Odyssey). It was all done in secret. My wife dropped me off in front of the theatre to look for parking (we were going shopping, or so she said), and then I noticed that the theatre had 2001 posters up with MY FACE photoshopped onto the characters. Talk about triggering an identity crisis! When I walked into the theatre with her all my friends were sitting ready to watch the movie. I am tearing up now just reminiscing :)

For my 50th my wife rented a 13th century castle for a weekend, and got my friends to come stay the first night and my parents/brothers-and-their-families for the second. It was fantastic

A friend of mine bought me a fountain pen for my birthday. I expected to have it sit in my standard pile of pens, but no. I love that thing. I'd never have bought a fountain pen otherwise.

I've since purchased an inexpensive Muji pen. It comes with garbage ink, but I replaced that with a refillable cartridge and Parker ink. It's now my second favorite pen. (I say this simply to indicate that it doesn't have to be an expensive fountain pen.)

For a buddy’s 40th we contacted as many of his friends and family as we could find, and asked them to make a short video telling a joke/story/greeting for him. Then we hired some of his favorite TV show stars to do the same via Cameo - Billy D. Williams was hilarious! We stitched it all together in iMovie and surprised him with it.

We got folks he hadn’t seen in a decade to say hi. We got poetry, jokes, even videos with painting people made him. His dad drove to their old neighborhood and took him on a short walking tour. We got his mom to give us pictures of him as a kid to cut in (gotta include that ubiquitous tub shot!).

When we showed it to him and we recorded his reaction and set that as a screen-in-screen video back to everyone who contributed, and couldn’t come to the party (darn COVID!).

It was a big lift - lots of coordination - but as you get older, old friends are harder see and older relatives begin to pass. That video lasts forever, which is cool.

Father, not brother, gifted me a guitar. Now, we're both amateur guitarists, as are some of my other brothers. In the last 5-10 years my dad has started to collect more guitars. He's nerdier than some of the tech details on guitars than I am (hardware, pickups, etc) but ... we both enjoy guitars.

My dad looked - for a long time - for a guitar that was made on my birthday.- same day and same year, then same month and year. He couldn't find anything that specific, but found something made the following month (which, in my mind, was probably being built a few days before, in my birth month).

So on my 50th birthday I was given a guitar with almost the same birthday as me. It was pretty cool :)

There may not be interests that align with that sort of timetable directly, but perhaps that can spark an idea. I just priced out some 50 year old whiskey, and... that may be too much :)

How about a flipper zero! https://flipperzero.one/

Personally I love being gifted experiences. One year I got a tandem skydiving experience for my significant other and I, it was awesome. Another year I purchased my SO and I an intro to pottering throwing class that was fun too. Perhaps you could try something like an aerial tour of the area that they live in? Seeing where you live from the sky is really fun.

Some old photos of you cats together at different stages of your lives. Put them in a nice scrap book. Write a thoughtful message at the end.

Assuming "bike' means "motorcycle": Get him time and instruction on a motorcycle track. There are non-racing focused skills based track days; i was just at one with ages of participants spanning 19 to 78(!). What a way to get your head somewhere else for a day! If you give me a region, i might be able to make some recommendations.

Probably extreme in terms of budget but maybe a Pinzgauer 710M to use as an adventure/radio truck. I know a few folks who've built these out and it's a whole lifestyle but it sounds like it might line up with what he likes.

Was he into tech as a kid? Maybe something vintage that got him interested in tech as a kid that he can share with his own kids.

Maybe some LoRa goodies. Or a book about one of those topics you mentioned that maybe your brother hasn’t actually gotten too deep into.

I don't know your brother so it would be hard to think of the perfect gift, but I do think that the best gifts are those that let us create something with them and express ourselves. It can be something as simple as a pencil or expensive as a machine. I would think what he enjoys doing and then about a gift that would help him expand his horizon.

Victorinox Cybertool

https://www.victorinox.com/global/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Kni...

Is he into standup desks? https://www.surfmouse.io/ is something that I just discovered. Mine is still in shipping (ordered 2 days ago) so I can't review (or for that matter be sure it isn't a scam...).

A mechanical keyboard if he doesn't have one. Not everyone likes them and there are lots of different switches that fans argue about which is best about. If he hasn't tried one it is a great gift.

Out of stock everywhere, but if you can get one a Fisher-Price - Chatter Telephone with Bluetooth is one of those cute things that many people will like to have on their desk (I'm not sure if anyone will use it more than once)

I'm a little over 2 years away from that point myself.

It depends on how much you want to spend or spend with a group... but a life experience is always a great gift. maybe even a course?

I know I'd get a huge kick out of something like a blacksmithing course... or something like that.

I got a set of kitchen knives, medium++ quality. That was a great gift because I occasionally cook and never have anything appropriate.

I very much like the japanese chef knive (large rectangle one).

After that I got an electric sharpener (chef choice 15xv)

Go for a hike with him. Time shared together is most valuable in my opinion.

An FPV drone!

It's kinda like racing a motorcycle and flying. Not talking about a DJI drone, but something that's amenable to hacking and fixing because you'll crash a lot when you start. It's a wide ranging hobby, and sounds like your brother could leverage some of the skills he already has.

Depending on the budget, could start with something like a tiny whoop [0] that fits in the palm of your hand or a 4" quad that has a 20km range [1].

There are a lot of sub-genres within the FPV community, from racing [2], to bandos [3] (acrobatic flying around/in abandoned structure) to long range cinematic flying [4].

You have to have quick reflexes (so it's kind of like racing) but ultimately you're flying and getting such a different perspective. Could expand into HAM radio to get truly long range flying.

The FPV industry is going through such rapid progress and it's really fun to follow.

To start, you'd need:

- goggles (to see what the camera on the drone sees)

- Transmitter (control your drone)

- The drone itself

- Batteries and charger

I recently destroyed a motor on my tiny whoop so I had to learn how to solder. Considering the motor is the size of a penny that was by far the most precise work I've done.

It's a bit daunting to figure out all the pieces, but something like a tiny hawk bundle [5] is a great way to start.

0 https://www.getfpv.com/happymodel-mobula7-1s-75mm-analog-who...

1 https://flywoo.net/products/explorer-lr-4-v2-analog?_pos=12&...

2 https://youtu.be/bZvNLuC12R0?t=659

3 https://youtu.be/wzwW5vuuK5w?t=374

4 https://youtu.be/dIP7wWY4Znw?t=89

5 https://www.getfpv.com/fpv-quad-kits/emax-tinyhawk-iii-fpv-r...

A LM5072 Texas Instruments | PMIC - Power Over Ethernet Controller

A helicopter ride for you and him (and others if they'll fit) around where he lives or likes to camp. It's one thing to see your local places from an airplane, it was a completely different experience for me in a helicopter. If you can get one where the front seats have a window in the nose/floor and have him sit in the front with the pilot, that would probably be really cool for him.

Maybe go fly by some nearby broadcast/communications towers or something, too?

Plants; favored vegetable, or tree to grow. Something ALIVE to celebrate his life!

On my wishlist ;)

Does he shave? How about something "vintage"... https://merkurshave.com/merkur-safety-razors/

if he likes cars, i'd HIGHLY recommend a 1-day course at Dirtfish up in Washington: https://drive.dirtfish.com/

caveat: i celebrated my "early" 50th this year at dirtfish. it was an absolutely incredible experience and i never realized how different car control in rally is vs on the track/street. completely mindblowing!

pro tip: if you can wait, they offer a 20% discount (+ $100 merch gift card) on black friday. :)

I know the ISS speaks to folks on Earth via ham radio - I don't know if those sessions are scheduled in any way, but talking to an Astronaut or Cosmonaut could be a treat for him.

Find out what his first 8/16 bit computer was and get him one with some peripherals and OG games. At his age, and with the bourbon reference I’d guess a Commodore 64.

If you end up making an event out of the gift, you can always surprise him with custom realistic tickets to whatever you plan from stubforge.com

Or a Massey Ferguson 7250 DI Power Up tractor

Have the same question for the weekend. I'll give him mini gold bars, like 1 gram. For his retirement!

Nixie watch

A Leatherman.

A500 Mini

An arcteryx jacket