In addition to a kick-ass t-shirt, this year I gave my husband a “Gamer Kit” for his birthday. In the kit, pictured above, I included 1600 Microsoft Points to use on XBox Live, two bags of M&Ms (his personal favorite), and a Certificate of Sandwich that read as follows:

That’s right, I vowed to make him a sandwich whenever he said “Make me a sammich!”

The expression, meant to belittle women by saying they are only useful in the kitchen, is often used by asshole sexist gamers. My husband is not an asshole, nor a sexist, so I guess that’s why I thought it would be fun to give this to him as a gift. In fact, it has made him one of the most grateful men in the multiverse!

Before presenting him with his certificate, I stocked my fridge with a bunch of his favorite cold meats, cheese slices, lettuce, tomatoes, and a delicious artisan whole grain bread from the bakery section of our local grocery store. My mission was to “make him a sammich!” anytime he asked me this week (Monday-Friday) during his video game vacation. Of course, he never used the expression because he’s too nice, but he certainly had a fun Week of Gaming where he finally played through Mass Effect 1 & 2; games he owned, but never had the time to play.

It’s been a fun week and I’m proud of the sandwiches I’ve made. They were healthy and delicious, so I thought I would share photos and descriptions of them here, in case some of you feel like going and making your own sammiches. ;)

Day One: Roast Beef and Pepper Jack

Slices of roast beef, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and Dijon mustard on La Brea whole grain bread. Served with celery, baby carrots, and hummus for dipping.

Day Two: Tuna Melt

Tuna salad with provolone cheese melted in the oven on broil, sliced tomatoes and lettuce on La Brea whole grain bread. I also suggest adding a dash of Miracle Whip as well for a little extra zing.

Day Three: Pastrami

Hot pastrami and mustard on La Brea whole grain bread grilled panini-style!

Day Four: Wait… what?!

Oops… no more homemade sammiches! We went to DisneyLand and got lazy for the rest of the week. :P

There were a few more sandwiches I was planning to make if he asked me, but we ran out of bread and started eating out after DisneyLand. A few ideas I had up my sleeve: grilled cheese; egg salad; black pepper smoked turkey breast and provolone; and a grilled chicken sandwich made with the leftovers from Fajita Night.

I hope this post has given you some ideas for your gamer… especially if that gamer is yourself. ;)

Now it’s time for me to go tell some 12 year old boys on XBox Live to make ME a sammich! Later, n00bs…

I love hearing stories about how people came up with their first internet pseudonym. It tells a lot about a person, especially when the pseudonyms are really nerdy.

My first pseudonym came from watching a lot of Star Trek: Voyager. When I was living in Edinburgh between 1997-1999, I trained in a martial art called Kuk Sool Won. My instructor Master Don Mackenzie used popular TV and movie quotes to motivate us; with many of his references coming from Highlander, Star Trek, and various superhero movies. In Star Trek: Voyager episode Drone, a Borg drone is created after a transporter incident that fuses the Doctor’s mobile emitter with some of Seven of Nine’s nanoprobes. During the course of the episode the drone asks for a designation, but since Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway are encouraging him to embrace his individuality, he selects the name One. Soon after that episode aired, Master Don started teasing/motivating me by calling me “One of One.” I loved it.

When I finally went to register my first email address I tried to get oneofone, but someone had already taken it. As they do, Yahoo suggested I add a number to the username to make it unique. So what number did I add? 5618, the Borg designation for the human species. After that, oneofone5618 was born! :P

So what was your first internet pseudonym, and what was the story behind it?