[Giveway] CM NOVATOUCH - Spread the Holiday Spirit around!

[Novus]

Holiday Spirit Giveaway: CM NOVATOUCH

Embrace the holiday spirit, spread some Christmas cheer, do something good for others and kickstart 2015 the right way with the future of topre.



I'm giving away a CM NOVATOUCH TKL.

To Enter:
Tell us a little about yourself and what you've done to help others and spread the holiday joy.

Eligibility and other things:

• Must be an active member.
• Shipping within the US will be covered by me.
• If applicable, international shipping costs will be passed to you
• I ask that you don't use this CM Novatouch for personal gain beyond its intended use (such as selling it or trading it for something else), of course, this doesn't mean you can't pass it on to a friend or relative if you wish!

Happy Holidays!

[iAmAhab]

This be one mighty fine giveaway!
This child is blessed.

[Firebolt1914]

Hey geekhack, I enjoy keyboards, and I want to be able to use this keyboard, and then pass down one of my other keyboards (only if I win). A bit about myself: I'm an azn and tthat's basically it.

Anyways, thanks for doing this contest

[asdfjkl36]

Very nice giveaway!

I just got my Novatouch yesterday and i'm loving it. My girlfriend gave it a go and she like it as well so i'm thinking about getting her one.

Just wanted to stop by and say thanks for the givaway and show my love for that Novatouch


Happy Holidays all, and good luck!

[iamtootallforthis]

This is awesome and it wasn't just me but my fraternity as a whole just completed our yearly toy drive and delivered presents to the students at the local public school. I can provide more details if you would like in a PM but it would give away too many identities if I posted pictures and the like.

[munch]

whoa is this for real? damn.

the only thing I'm doing to spread the holiday cheers is to stress because I'm moving back to Canada right around Christmas. so I guess if people here in Sweden don't like me, I'm making their life nicer by leaving! yay!

but in all honesty, I didn't like my HHKB pro2 or RF switches, so I don't think I'll make the best use of this KB if it is any similar (all 45g).

may the best skidaddler win, this is a seriously legit giveaway.

[Puddsy]

I invented the Illuminati. That deserves a prize.

[noisyturtle]

Hmm, well I've never gave thorp a legitimate try - only spent a few weeks with the 104UG HP which I didn't like. Maybe you can make a conversion... not likely to outpace lubed ergo-clears though.

People who know me know I'm often broke, but when I can I've given out free games, sent switches/caps/pizza/candy to members in need. Plus where would off-topic be without my Voice Of Truth? I'd be all tp4 threads, not that there's anything wong with that.

Aside from that I volunteer at a The St. Jerome Hospital For Terminal Children And Dying Puppies by baking gluten-free paleo friendly all organic free range tofu bars which have no flavor or nutritional value so as to not offend any pansexual alt-goth otherkin cruelty-free justice warriors, because lord knows they are doing their best!

[mr.squishy]

Might as well try, if I don't try I can't win   

Alright, so I'm an aspiring noob to this community, I currently do not own any mechanical keyboards but recognize their superiourity and wish to join in on the fun  The only reason I don't have a mechanical keyboard as of now is because I exhausted the last of my savings on my PC that I just built, and I unfortunately ran out of money after I had everything BUT the keyboard  Anyway, I'd love to have a Novatouch be my first mechanical keyboard of many. 
This year the biggest thing I've done to help others has been helping my grandmother through the last few days of her life (she died 12/7/14, but I'm not too sad because of my religious beliefs) and also helping notify my Grandmothers friends and just generally helping the family through the process of having someone die.
As far as spreading holiday joy, I love to go Christmas caroling in nursing homes. A lot of the Nursing home residents don't have any family left, so bringing them joy in the form of Christmas carols makes them really happy. And of course I always sit down and listen to the elderly talk about their pasts. I really enjoy listening to the older generation, they are always extremely interesting.
Anyways, I had some fun putting that down, and I wish everybody else luck in this giveaway as well as their efforts to stay cheerful during the often stressful holidays. Thanks for the awesome giveaway, and good luck!

[Synjin]

Great giveaway for such a great Holiday man.

I'm quite new to GH (Less than 6 months) but over the short duration of time I've been here, I was able to learn pretty much everything i know now since I have never owned any Mechanical Keyboard prior to this. I want to say that what you are doing currently is great for the community especially for people who have never typed on a topre before as I was one of them until recently. I was just wishing everyone here luck in winning this as I already have a novatouch taht I acquired just to replace the sliders on my newly purchased HHKB from about a month ago.
 

[Sygaldry]

Hello and thanks for doing this!

I'm pretty much your average young adult (straddling the boundary between Generation X and Y) going through a bit of a quarter life crisis. I'm currently in the middle of a career change, despite having only been in the work force for a couple of years. A few months ago I quit my job at the state prosecutors office and now I'm back in school trying my darndest to learn how to become a programmer.

My friends and I were on vacation in Taipei a couple winters back (while we were studying at the University of Hong Kong) and we felt homesick because Christmas just isn't the same in Asia without family or close friends (we were a motley crew of US, UK, AUS, Japanese, and Canadian students).

To liven up our spirits and to share our cheer with others, we decided to stop by a Carrefour (kind of like CostCo) to buy some toys and necessities and headed straight for an orphanage to donate the stuff we bought. We spent the evening (Christmas Eve) playing with the kids and teaching them to sing carols in English and Japanese.

[frosty]

Hello general word of thanks for the give away.

Some thing about myself? Hehe I am a student as of now (which means tight budget damn). I live in the tiny country named Singapore!

To share the holiday spirit, I have been donating old clothes to the homeless in Korea when I went there, but lots of people there are doing it there too haha. May be visiting the old folks home in Taipei in near future to celebrate Christmas with them!

Thanks

[swill]

Wow this is awesome.  I really do want to give this board a shot to see if it really is as awesome as it should be.  I would love a chance to own this.

Stuff I have done for others hu?  Lets see...

- I gave some sip sockets to adrl the other day.
- When VesperSAINT became a US citizen I gave him my 'murica' tri-color V2 BB for any BB in his collection of his choosing.
- I gave 61 vintage black switches to User 18 for a little over the cost of shipping for his next build project.
- I bought some SA caps from noisyturtle, not because I needed them, but because he needed to pay his rent.   I then gave them away.
- I gave jdcarpe a full sized filco on credit.  He ended up giving me a JD40 in return.
- I later gave the JD40 away to Melvang with the original case as well as a prototype silicon case I made for it and caps (when R4 finally ships) for some Enabler PCBs.
- A guy at work fell in love with mechs (especially the 60% format) after I brought him one of my boards to use for a while, so I built him a Sprit 60% board for the cost of the switches (probably doesn't count because he is not a member).

Its 1AM here now and I can't think anymore, so I think thats what I got... 

Good luck everyone.  Thanks for doing this.  The Christmas spirit is alive and well this year...

[Badwrench]

Wow!  Where to start?

First a little about me:  I am a pretty average mid-thirties white guy.  I have an amazing Wife that I am thankful for everyday and a pair of amazing daughters (1 1/2 y.o. and 15 y.o).  Growing up in the 80's has resulted in me loving cartoons and video games of that era.  I collected Transformers for years and still get all giddy when I see some new iteration of my beloved series 1s.  Michael Bays version can melt on the sun.  I grew up riding dirt bikes and loving anything with an engine.  My father used to make me work on everything and figure out how it works - resulted in my nickname which I have had since middle school (being the one who is not afraid to work on stuff resulted in some broken bolts on a friends CR250 that were rusted on  ).  All this tinkering led me into the Computer arena and I started building my own and other peoples around 6 years ago.  This makes me the official first call for anyone in my family that has a techie question which I am fine with.  The computers led me to this amazing hobby.   


As far as the Christmas spirit, I guess it comes from my love of kids and computers.  For the last few years I have been buying spare parts to fix old computers up to gift to kids as their first computers.  Most of these old rigs were the old parts that I replaced with new builds (that was my payment for the building of the new computers) and the parts purchased were to fix them.  The last one I did I gave to a couple kids in the apartment upstairs from me (5 and 7 year olds). I loaded it up with a bunch of learning programs and showed them how to start it up.  The looks on their face was priceless.  This was the families first computer and it made my Christmas for sure.  This all came from building a computer with my oldest daughter about 4 years ago for Christmas.  I got all the parts and had a giant pile of packages under the tree.  We opened them all up on Christmas morning and put the computer together right there in the living room.  It was awesome showing her all the parts and how they go together and what they all do.  My wife (who was my girlfriend at the time even got her a couple orange led Xigmatek fans for the build since that is my daughters favorite color). 

Here is the 2 of us on Christmas 4 years ago building it:


And setting up Bios:

[Synjin]

Wow this is awesome.  I really do want to give this board a shot to see if it really is as awesome as it should be.  I would love a chance to own this.

Stuff I have done for others hu?  Lets see...

- I gave some sip sockets to adrl the other day.
- When VesperSAINT became a US citizen I gave him my 'murica' tri-color V2 BB for any BB in his collection of his choosing.
- I gave 61 vintage black switches to User 18 for a little over the cost of shipping for his next build project.
- I bought some SA caps from noisyturtle, not because I needed them, but because he needed to pay his rent.   I then gave them away.
- I gave jdcarpe a full sized filco on credit.  He ended up giving me a JD40 in return.
- I later gave the JD40 away to Melvang with the original case as well as a prototype silicon case I made for it and caps (when R4 finally ships) for some Enabler PCBs.
- A guy at work fell in love with mechs (especially the 60% format) after I brought him one of my boards to use for a while, so I built him a Sprit 60% board for the cost of the switches (probably doesn't count because he is not a member).

Its 1AM here now and I can't think anymore, so I think thats what I got... 

Good luck everyone.  Thanks for doing this.  The Christmas spirit is alive and well this year...

OMG dude I jsut became a citizen this year as well Howcome u no give me MURICA!!!!!!!!!!

[Jersern]

 This is so very kind of you! I'd love an opportunity to try out this lovely little keyboard! 

I am a pretty average male high school student here in Australia, though a bit bank rolled for one! (I work a few part time jobs to earn enough for my various interests). I like many Australians love out door activities and I enjoy going out on the weekends for one day hikes in the bush. I also do volunteering both in and out of school. I drink far too much coffee, probably in the super unhealthy area (lol) ). My friend even gave me a mug that says, "but first coffee" which I am adopting as my motto lol. I enjoy engineering, maths and science. (Well basically 70%+ of the people at my school like those subjects lol). I do most of the housework at home due to my father being very busy. I enjoy cooking and I don't mind cleaning the toilets.  I help out with charities and the school environment group when I have time as part of my volunteering. I helped my father with computers a long time ago and now has become the "family IT hotline". I don't mind since it usually does not involve much more than, "have you tried turning it off than on again?" I unfortunately aren't allowed to have a desktop tower due to how cramped my apartment is (There isn't much space under my desk). I instead use a mac but I build computers and repair for others as a bit of fun and change! I am part of the school peer support program so I advise and guide the new juniors. I helped with a neighbour of mine with his mechkb with some broken switches which was really simple but he insisted it is not fair if he doesn't pay. I sucked a close friend of mine into the mechkb world so I am giving him a totally refurbished and basically completely rebuilt from the group up (minus the PCB) FILCO of mine. I had it for about 1 year now and since it wasn't being used, I thought it would be a great idea to give it to someone who would actually use and treasure it! It's not late here in Sydney but I am getting tired (caffeine low.............................) so I think that will be all for now.

[Ngt]

Thank you for the gift you are doing to this community. I didn’t know people were doing that. It is really nice of you considering the fact that you only know most of us from the virtual world and not in real life.

I am a 24 years-old IT engineer. I graduated this year and I’m now in the process of creating my own company with 2 friends of mine. I share a flat with them for 3 years now. I don’t have any caffeine problem and I prefer tea to coffee. I’m writing this while drinking a chaï tea whose spices had been brought back from India by my girlfriend a month ago. If you haven’t tried it already I advise you to do so, it is delicious and easy to do! For those that may be interested I can PM you the recipe.

Over the past month I have been dithering whether I should get a Novatouch or a RealForce as I want to meddle in the Topre world. I decided to give a go to the NT but I haven’t acquired one yet. Your gift would be the perfect opportunity for me as I want an ANSI layout and not an ISO one but buying goods from the US to EU is just too expensive. I like to think that it will be well received as it will become my main driver and I intend on modding it with Spicebar's silencing mod plus some good keycaps too (waiting to see what Uniqey has to offer).

Considering Christmas I haven’t done anything particular apart from buying gifts for my family. I also consider giving my 6-months old Ducky DK2108SZ to one of my flat mate who wants to get a new keyboard but he doesn’t have the money to do so. In regards of helping others last month I voluntary worked for a local association which I’m part of. We did a food bank. I collected the food and I gave some myself as well. The food is then given to the needy. This association is also working for the upholding of the small farmer agriculture. They put in contact people and local farmers so that they can buy good quality products like vegetables, fruits, dairy products (ooohhhh yeah cheese!!) and bread at a fair price for both the farmer and the consumer. I support that aspect as well both financially and voluntary-wise.

I don’t think that I deserve this keyboard more than anybody else who posted in this thread. Most of them did really nice things even better than what I did. I wish you all good luck on the giveaway and Merry Christmas in advance  . However don’t forget that supporting each other is something that should be done through the whole year and not only during Christmas. Help and kindness to each other is the way to better our world.

As a good Christmas cheer, I have an anecdote that I’d like to share with you. Every year in December there is a big festival called “Fête des Lumières” in my city. It has a religious meaning because this is a celebration for the time when the Holy Mary saved the city from the plague even though I think not everyone knows it nowadays (learned it from a religious friend). Every year the city is filled with lighty art and a lot of people come for it. But there was a particular one that did really strike me. In the city there is a hill and at the top of it they built a giant light beam. Here is a picture of it:



This beam was used to send Morse code into the sky. They created a free smartphone application that people could download. Using that app people could write messages that were sent to the beam and it would convert them in Morse code to print them in the sky. One of the guys in charge at the place told me that some children used it to send their gift list to Santa Claus because they couldn’t do it earlier. One little girl also sent a Merry Christmas cheer to her dead brother so he could read it from heaven.

Thanks again for what you do for this community.

Merry Christmas in advance.

[Evo_Spec]

Wow! awesome giveaway! The love around here is crazy!

I know there's definitely better candidates than me and i've already felt a lot of love from this community but i'd love to give a shot at a Topre board!
I'm definitely planning on giving back once i get a job and have the extra money to ship things out on my expense and i actually already have a box of stuff (not much) that I'm looking to do giveaways and such to give back to this community when that time comes. 
I also plan on being a Japanese proxy for this community when i'm comfortable with shipping and everything.

Again, awesome of you to do this!

[MOZ]

IDK, I want to participate, and I can write about myself, however I feel awkward writing about what or how I've helped. I'd rather nominate someone else I know who has helped me/others directly/indirectly.

[Geroximo]

Hi,
m/23/student.
I'm trying to help people on internet forums. That's pretty much it.
Can I join the giveaway? 
Thank you the1onewolf and good luck everyone!

mfw typing on Topre:

[nubbinator]

Oh, and yesterday was my two year anniversary here, I can't believe it's been that long already.  Geekhack was a kind of refuge of sanity for me when I was without a job for a year.  It was a place that let me express my creativity and supported me throughout it.  If it hadn't been for everyone here, that year would have been miserable.  I was able to explore more woodworking, cable making, and casting all thanks to you guys.  After finally getting a job, I found myself hooked and have been here ever since.  Compared to my job, the drama and craziness here is nothing.

Much like Moz, I don't want to brag about the things I've done on here, instead, I'd like to throw the names of a few awesome people into the ring who may otherwise not put themselves in the running.  After all, the holidays are about giving, not receiving and there are some very deserving and under-recognized people. 

Here are a few, but I know I could come up with more if I really went digging.


MOZ

Moz has the heart of a true tinkerer.  When he showed up a year and a half ago, he pulled no punches.  He dove head first into a bunch of projects, not expecting to get something from the community, just wanting to do some fun projects, tinker, share his love with the community, and help people.  People were hesitant about him at first, but he quickly won people over and helped produce a ton of affordable things for people.

Ever since then, he has been helping people out where he can on projects.  Not only does he really dig into the projects trying to predict potential problems and find elegant solutions before they arise, but he makes everything he does either open source or available to people when they ask.  Never once have I seen him do something expecting to make a bunch of money off the project, instead, he's just helping make keyboards, especially custom projects, more accessible to people.

He also faced a fire not too long ago that torched most everything.  While he stayed away for a bit following that, he's back and helping people again.  The most recent one I've seen is him helping out with swill's automated switch plate template he's been working on.


Photekq

Photekq is a true bro who has maturity beyond his years and who does a lot of cool things for people behind the scenes.  Most recently he's been helping me get a case idea I had off the ground and ready for production.  He took on the project in his tiny bit of free time without asking for a thing.  Never once did he expect to get something out of it, just his kindness.  I've been trying to repay his generosity in small ways (like sending him a pair of Checkeys), but never once did he expect or ask a thing for the project.

Behind the scenes, he's offering words of advice to people wanting to follow in his footsteps with the TEK-80 and he has made his projects available to people as well.

I know there's a ton of other things about him that I don't know about, but I won't go on.


billnye29

billnye has been an awesome guy ever since he showed up.  He's been nothing short of kind and generous to people and has, more recently, stepped up in a big way.  He stepped in and took over a floundering group buy, organizing and executing in a few short weeks what had been stuck for months.  He's someone who sees the real meaning of community and is sharing himself with the community in a big way.


...even if they are mostly snapchat nudes.



Kidding about that last part, but he has seriously been a massive help to the community.

Dustinhxc

Dustin was one of the first people to support me in my work.  He's out there supporting every new artisan it seems like and is constantly giving stuff away or selling it at more than a fair price behind the scenes.  Most recently he's been giving away some awesome artisan caps that he's acquired, but wanted to pass on to the community.

Badwrench

Badwrench is one of the friendliest, nicest, down to earth people I know on the forum.  He does everything because he has a deep seated passion.  Not only is that passion a passion for keyboards and computers, but it's a passion to do the right thing, to help people out, and to be an all around awesome person. 

He's also not a person with a ton of spending money, but what he does have, he's willing to give to help others around him.  It's rare to meet someone with a heart of giving like him and it's nice to give that kind of person something nice from time to time, especially when you know they wouldn't give it to themselves because they see other ways that money can be doing good.

[bueller]

I'm in. Done some proxying for several people over the year I've been here and also ran a giveaway for some stuff earlier this year. Good luck everyone.

[Binge]

As much as I really REALLY want to say I don't want this CM board.  I do- there may be others who deserve this more, and I want to thank the1onewolf for giving myself and others the opportunity to talk about themselves, or rather what has made this holiday special.

The best project I've been involved with this year on Geekhack was a small giveaway meant to stimulate a bit of holiday writing.  The contest ended early to show my thanks for the few who participated and made them all winners.  I'm glad that I did because I loved each entry.  The events leading up to this giveaway have spanned the entire year starting when my job changed at the start of 2014.

Lots of my time has been eaten up with acclimating to a new job, and a new home in which my wife and I moved into this year just before getting married.

The entire experience of marriage and home ownership really opened my eyes to the people in my life who were going to be there regardless of the ups and downs.

Family and friends were usually considered but never really formally addressed in previous years with even the most simple things like a holiday card.  Really I figured the time of year was played out, and the energy of it was so contrived.  I've missed my family and friends so much after moving, leaving everything behind, and I think geekhack really felt that from about 2013 to now as the e-persona Binge has delighted and equally offended others.  This longing for comfortable, more familiar, scenery was partially cured by the events earlier this year.  It really touched me in a good way.

Coming up to the present CPTBadAss had shown a lot of interest in writing, and I bit into collecting some pens/ink in order to force myself to write to all of the amazing people I've come to know.  The aforementioned giveaway was a culmination of this year's positive feelings.  I was sure some hackers out there were getting pretty festive and some may even want to share their thanks with important family/friends.  The idea was to get people to write home, or to a friend and tell someone why that person meant so much to them.  If you'd like you can read the responses starting here,

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=59329.msg1546379#msg1546379

So yeah-- spreadin' joy.  If you'll consider me that's great, but if not also take a look at all of the folks who took the time to take part in this giveaway.  There's a lot of giving going on in Geekhack this time of year and I love it

[swill]

Oh, and yesterday was my two year anniversary here, I can't believe it's been that long already.  Geekhack was a kind of refuge of sanity for me when I was without a job for a year.  It was a place that let me express my creativity and supported me throughout it.  If it hadn't been for everyone here, that year would have been miserable.  I was able to explore more woodworking, cable making, and casting all thanks to you guys.  After finally getting a job, I found myself hooked and have been here ever since.  Compared to my job, the drama and craziness here is nothing.

Much like Moz, I don't want to brag about the things I've done on here, instead, I'd like to throw the names of a few awesome people into the ring who may otherwise not put themselves in the running.  After all, the holidays are about giving, not receiving and there are some very deserving and under-recognized people. 

Here are a few, but I know I could come up with more if I really went digging.


MOZ

Moz has the heart of a true tinkerer.  When he showed up a year and a half ago, he pulled no punches.  He dove head first into a bunch of projects, not expecting to get something from the community, just wanting to do some fun projects, tinker, share his love with the community, and help people.  People were hesitant about him at first, but he quickly won people over and helped produce a ton of affordable things for people.

Ever since then, he has been helping people out where he can on projects.  Not only does he really dig into the projects trying to predict potential problems and find elegant solutions before they arise, but he makes everything he does either open source or available to people when they ask.  Never once have I seen him do something expecting to make a bunch of money off the project, instead, he's just helping make keyboards, especially custom projects, more accessible to people.

He also faced a fire not too long ago that torched most everything.  While he stayed away for a bit following that, he's back and helping people again.  The most recent one I've seen is him helping out with swill's automated switch plate template he's been working on.


Photekq

Photekq is a true bro who has maturity beyond his years and who does a lot of cool things for people behind the scenes.  Most recently he's been helping me get a case idea I had off the ground and ready for production.  He took on the project in his tiny bit of free time without asking for a thing.  Never once did he expect to get something out of it, just his kindness.  I've been trying to repay his generosity in small ways (like sending him a pair of Checkeys), but never once did he expect or ask a thing for the project.

Behind the scenes, he's offering words of advice to people wanting to follow in his footsteps with the TEK-80 and he has made his projects available to people as well.

I know there's a ton of other things about him that I don't know about, but I won't go on.


billnye29

billnye has been an awesome guy ever since he showed up.  He's been nothing short of kind and generous to people and has, more recently, stepped up in a big way.  He stepped in and took over a floundering group buy, organizing and executing in a few short weeks what had been stuck for months.  He's someone who sees the real meaning of community and is sharing himself with the community in a big way.


...even if they are mostly snapchat nudes.



Kidding about that last part, but he has seriously been a massive help to the community.

Dustinhxc

Dustin was one of the first people to support me in my work.  He's out there supporting every new artisan it seems like and is constantly giving stuff away or selling it at more than a fair price behind the scenes.  Most recently he's been giving away some awesome artisan caps that he's acquired, but wanted to pass on to the community.

Badwrench

Badwrench is one of the friendliest, nicest, down to earth people I know on the forum.  He does everything because he has a deep seated passion.  Not only is that passion a passion for keyboards and computers, but it's a passion to do the right thing, to help people out, and to be an all around awesome person. 

He's also not a person with a ton of spending money, but what he does have, he's willing to give to help others around him.  It's rare to meet someone with a heart of giving like him and it's nice to give that kind of person something nice from time to time, especially when you know they wouldn't give it to themselves because they see other ways that money can be doing good.

+1  this is an awesome entry because he is actively doing a nice thing for people.

I agree that it feels strange to write about yourself and why you should win.  Because of that, I would also like to nominate MOZ. He has been very helpful in every single project I have taken on. He has excellent feedback and is super quick to help. Thanks MOZ, you have been awesome.

I think jdcarpe needs an entry in this too. He has been very supportive of all my projects and has helped me out a lot. Thanks JD. 

[MOZ]

Thank you very much guys, I'm touched. I'm just heading out for work, so I'm just gonna quickly thank you and say I'm nominating JDCarpe and Infiniti and maybe a couple of other guys. I'm gonna write my wall of text once I get to the office.

EDIT: Finally some free time at the office, everything below is part of the edit.

I'm 23, male, student of computer science, Indian residing in Johannesburg.

I'm gonna start of by saying somethings about myself and my time on GeekHack. I joined about a year and half back, looking for recommendations to replace my faulty BlackWidow. Once I got them, I didn't come here much until after I got my Ducky Zero and it was faulty, and I was looking for a fix, when I read about SmallFry. The way this forum (I choose this term over community because that's what it was for me till then) reacted to the news was eye-opening to me, I had never expected an online forum to be in such a way and that is when I realised, I had missed something big, which you never realise until you experience it, and that is when I understood the meaning of an online community. This was a particularly hard time for me as I had just moved away from my parents who have been my best friend since ever becuase their jobs meant constantly moving between places so I never had too many real friends.

This is when I found my place in this community, granted I acted immaturely initially, but certain things changed me and I am thankful to those people (Big shout out to mkawa). I saw in MiTo a Moz from a year and half back and that is why I wished for him to see more than the things on the surface, oh well. After that I had one of my best years ever and thoroughly enjoyed the projects, collaborations and the community spirit. I'm not well-off at all and have little to spend, that is why I couldn't afford the K-customs, however still I found my footing in making stuff and started makings stuff with locally available resources.

Everything was merry up until this summer, one of my GBs went bad because of an accident at my place, I lost a lot of people's money. The community however was behind me and supported me, they understood my situation and to be honest I think  I was let-off quick easily. Things in real life spiralled out of control and with the GB thing happening I wasn't comfortable be active much. Things went out of control around September this year. I then started to visit the site more frequently and I read about Alessandro, and I was going through a difficult phase myself, I talked to a few people, and geekhack helped me out of tough times a second time through. There is just so much to appreciate and for me personally to be thankful to geekhack for that I can't imagine life without it. This holiday season is special to me, because after quite a long time, things have started to look better for me in life, and even if not, I'm happy with what is ahppening around me.

There's so many helpful guys that it's hard to count, however I am going to mention a few people who ave been really helpful to me and the community.

JDCarpe - I consider JDCarpe somewhat as my first mentor, I started of tinkering by designing cases and plates, and JD has always been helpful to each and everyone when it comes to 2D CAD and designing plates and layouts. He was especially helpful when I was designing the switch stickers. He was been helpful not only to me but to all the members on geekhack ever since I've been here and probably before as well. He is such an awesome guy.

Infiniti - Inifiniti and I bonded when I was designing my TKL case and from there, we became great friends. I've seen him helping around the forum with his guides, and new members and he is such a cheery guide, never read a negative post from him. He sent a real swag Geekhack cap with my nick on it (I need to take a photo and post it) when I was really down this summer to cheer me up.

Dorkvader - Where do I even begin, we have so many things common going on with our life, it's scary, and yet he is so positive. The abundance of knowledge that he has on everything keyboard related is highly admirable, and what is more admirable is his keen-ness to share it with us all. He's actively participating in the making stuff section and Q&A's and anything to do with vintage boards. Immense respect for this guy.

There are MANY more guys who are so helpful and make this community so great and what it is, I haven't even scratched the surface, I can already think of atleast 10 more guys I can mention and write so much about, however I'm going to keep it down to three and allow others to contribute.

PS. I'm sorry wolf if I've taken your thread off track, if you feel so, please get Hoffy to move the posts to a new thread (Please do not delete them)

[Sturmfrau]

I'm 21, and am a beginner in the keyboard community. I'm a Software Developer for a Japanese company based in the Philippines and if I do win, the keyboard will surely be heavily used and loved.

Things I've done:
>Did some shopping for my younger cousins (aged: 7, 6, and 2). Since I'm actually a fresh grad and working my first job, it feels so nice to be able to give gifts now.
>Actually gonna cook for christmas! I don't know how to cook but I do like to eat so yeah, for this christmas, I learned how to make my own burgers and am gonna cook for my family.
>Currently preparing a presentation for our company's christmas party. :3 So nervous at the momment. Its in 3 days XD
>Not really spreading the christmas spirit, but I currently am spreading the keyboard addiction to my friends hahaha I let them try my HHKB and they be like -> O.O

I do nominate infiniti if he enters. He's giving me a right angled connector for free! So nice of him!

[baldgye]

Alright, I'll stick my nose in this one. Never owned or even tried a torpe board and would love the chance to spend some time with one.

Holiday spirit? Well I'm not really sure, on here I've not done much of anything except badger people about Miami Keysets and colour schemes. Outside of this I've been working 5days a week over weekends and then in my spare time trying to see my gf and trying to organise two xmas's (effectively) one in Scotland which I had last weekend (8hour drive the night before a full day of work not recommended) and then another in Italy before I have to come back for work!
I've also been screwed out of a course that I paid a lot of money for that has started as the college hasn't actually got a tutor for and now they are messing me around refusing to give me a refund...

I'm not sure much of that really counts but that's been my December so far!

Good luck everyone!

[mr.squishy]

Has a winner been picked yet?

[Firebolt1914]

Has a winner been picked yet?

I feel this giveaway is ded.

[Ngt]

Maybe lonewolf is away for the holiday. Give him time.

[rowdy]

Rowdy is, but few words.

Very cheer with many happy posting.

And compliments of the season, however you celebrate it

[JDorfler]

I'd love to get this not for myself, but to give away to one lucky US Soldier out here where I work.  The only keyboards you can buy at the PX here are Logitech crappy boards.  The soldiers can't even go to downtown Kuwait and buy a Razer or Roccat at the mall.  In fact, I have some nice peripherals I'd add into the pot to add to the giveaway.  I have two Razer Blackwidows (2014), Razer Orbweaver, Logitech G502 Proteus, and possibly a few other items I could give away.  (Have a habit of buying from NewEgg.com and find something better via this website and/or other places that I like better.)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's too late, but who knows?

[drewba]

I'll assume a winner has already been picked but I got my first mechanical keyboard (KUL ES-87 w/browns) two days ago and I'm in the mood to type! I'm a noob in the keyboard world but have always been a huge fan of technology, namely computers but anything that can be tinkered with. I used to play competitive paintball and got to a point where I couldn't wait to play just so that I could break everyones gun down afterwards and do maintenance/make upgrades. I started building my own computers around age 15 and fell in love with the ability to customize and build things. So, I start learning about keyboards and my mind is blown that there is another level of tech that is easy to approach and I can dive head first into. Some day I will get in to audio, but the price points for that stuff can be preeeeety high 

As far as spreading holiday cheer, I was able to spread the wealth with my girlfriend's younger sister & her husband who had a baby girl one month ago. The husband recently lost his job and weren't spending a dime on themselves to make sure they could provide for their daughter. While that's understandable and admirable, we wanted them to do something for themselves because they're the most gracious & generous people. We got the family together, pooled a bunch of cash and gave it to them on Christmas Eve. They'll probably spend it on their daughter but that's ok too! I hope everyone's holidays were great and that everyone stays safe on New Years!