Ever Have to Pretend to be Impressed by a Light that was Given to You?

Last night a friend of mine gave me a B-day present. He decided that since I was into flashlights, he thought he would buy me a "nice" one. He got me one from a local sporting goods store, and when I saw it in the package, I thought, "Well, maybe this will turn out to be pretty nice." because I saw that it was at least powered by CR123s. He hands it to me and says, "Wait til you see how bright this sucker is!"

"StanSport" is the brand name and it came with a nylon holster, a lanyard and two Duracell CR123s. First thing I noticed was the aspherical lens, then I realized it looked familiar...it looked just like my River Rock 2AA, and when I clicked it on, it REALLY looked familiar! It has that same crappy "moon" beam the RR 2AA has! I looked at the package and sure enough, it has the same "1.5 Watt" Nichia LED the RR has.

Don't get me wrong, I really do appreciate the gift. But it wasn't easy acting like it was one of the brightest lights I've ever seen, especially while I have my 6P W/M60 in my jeans pocket! Needless to say, I didn't pull my Malkoff out last night while I was with my friend!

Bless his non-Flashaholic heart!

LIR2032 powered crank light for Christmas....

One just like this:

Yup.....
Last Xmas my GF gave me a minimag as a stocking stuffer, apparently I did a horrible job of pretending to like it..... I still feel bad about that.

OMG.. I have that same cranklight still in package. I got it for Christmas and yes, I had to pretend that it was neato!

I even told people to not get me any lights.

300winmag said:

Yup.....
Last Xmas my GF gave me a minimag as a stocking stuffer, apparently I did a horrible job of pretending to like it..... I still feel bad about that.

Click to expand...

Funny you mention that...my GF gave me a new Multi-level Rebel LED MiniMag for my B-day the other day! And I was way more impressed with that light, than I was the one my friend got me! Hell, it's a lot more useful than my friend's gift is! I really hope he didn't spend too much money on it...:shakehead

I think the trick is to put yourself in someone else's shoes and to be gracious about the gesture and intent of the gift, rather than the gift itself.

Grox said:

I think the trick is to put yourself in someone else's shoes and to be gracious about the gesture and intent of the gift, rather than the gift itself.

Click to expand...

Definitely. I really appreciate the thought he put into it and it's important to me that he thinks I love it. And it is one of my favorite lights...I will just rarely use it.

Mod it!

Toohotruk said:

Definitely. I really appreciate the thought he put into it and it's important to me that he thinks I love it. And it is one of my favorite lights...I will just rarely use it.

Click to expand...

Exactly

My ladyfriend got me one of those emergency hand cranked LED flashlight with radio. It was pretty poorly made, but I appreciated the gift nonetheless. She doesn't know anything about flashlights, so to her knowledge comes from what's written on the box. I was happy with it though. It was a very thoughtful gift. It doesn't get any usage, but I keep it by my bedside.

Luckily I have never had to pretend. I've never been given a light because my wife knows I am particular about my stuff and she in turn advises others. I have had to pretend for other gift however...

For my 50th surprise birthday party, everyone was asked to bring a flashlight of some kind. Aside from the behemoth hand-cranked emergency radio/flashlight and a few "screeching" animal-shaped flashlights, most everything was standard inexpensive hardware store issue. It was a lot of fun in the context of the party because each light spoke volumes about the "giftor's" personality. We all had a good laugh at the expense of the less creative choices. So I didn't have to pretend to enjoy receiving any of the lights, no matter the usefullness. Sadly, those presents see little if any use.

buickid said:

Mod it!

Click to expand...

Might have to think about that...which LED would work best with an aspheric lens, Cree or SSC?

You just have to remember that its the thought that counts. :thumbsup:

I had the opposite once. My girlfriend gave me my birthday present and when I unwrapped it looked like a presentation box for a pen. I was all set to fake pleasure but when I opened it there was a laser pointer inside. This was about 15 years ago when NOBODY had a laser pointer or had even heard of them. Must have cost her a fortune. Just imagine, a little red dot appears on the board at work now and everyone says " Who's doing that". Back in those days it was " What the hell is that? Where did it come from ? ". It was so unknown that after a few weeks, when people found out what I had, one of the women at work who was pregnant asked me not to use it when she was around because she didn't want her baby to be affected by the 'radiation'.

I still think it was one of the best presents that I have ever received.

My wife got me this little crank light a couple years ago. It's actually not horrible, has five LEDs, and charges up okay. Never got the DC output to produce much.



Geoff

Rather than fake being impressed by the output or otherwise lying, I look for something good to say about the gift. Even if it's not that great of a light, you can usually find some useful purpose for it. I usually make them a dedicated purpose or prestaged light. Even if a light has poor output, I'll say something like "This will be a good light to put by the door in the shed for when I need to get something out of there at night." OK, so I'm likely to use one of my other lights on most trips to the shed, and that gift light will likely have dead batteries if I did need it, but the person giving me the gift doesn't need to know that.

And sometimes, you'll find decent uses for those lights. Several years ago, I got one of those Stanley 369 lights with six 5mm LEDs. Put it in the truck as a backup light and the one time I tried to use it the batteries were dead. But when I later got a telescope, I swapped out the white LEDs for red ones and now it's a nice little area light staged with my telescope.

I did that too...I told him that it was a good looking light, which it is, and I told him that it was well built, which it also is. It's just the output and general nature of the beam, that I have a problem with.

I couldn't think of a good purpose for it, but I think it was a believable performance overall.

That act is nothing new though...when I think about it, he's given me a lot of stuff over the last few decades that was not necessarily crap, but fell short in some aspect. Like when he gave me a very nice leather tool belt...thing is, I never wear a tool belt and he knew that, at least I thought he did. That thing has been sitting in a corner of my shed, loaded with old tools I had lying around that never get used, gathering dust and cobwebs for the last ten years.

He does come through on occasion too, I have to admit. He has given me some cool knives. :naughty: