Good things come to those who wait, sometimes even when you aren't aware of hte wait! Redditor OMGparty got a particularly awesome toy for Christmas this year. See, in 1981 or ’82, he was a little boy who loved Star wars action figures. His mother bought him one for Christmas that was overlooked in the wrapping process when it was hidden in a drawer. I’ve done that before. When she found it later, she decided to hold onto it and give it to him at an appropriate time. One thing led to another, and before you know it, it’s 2015. It was time.

The X-Wing fighter pilot Luke is one of a series of Star Wars action figures produced by the Kenner toy company between 1978–1985. Fans refer to this as "the vintage line." The X-Wing version of Luke originally debuted with Kenner's X-Wing model before getting his own box and costume in 1979. As action figures go, this one is pretty iconic.

Since OMGparty's gift is still in its original packaging, known as a 20/21 back card, it's considerably more valuable as a collector's item than any of the millions of similar X-wing pilot Lukes that have been taken out and played with. (In collectors' jargon, these toys are "loose.") And since it features a special promotion for Return of the Jedi, it could easily be worth several hundred dollars.

The package still has the original price tag from Kmart. It was $2.50. OMGparty isn’t planning to sell it -it’s too special after his mother held onto it for three decades for him. Read the whole story at The Daily Dot. See more pictures at imgur.

A story about a talking animal from 80 years ago is still intriguing today. You may dismiss it as hokum or maybe even mental illness, but the way it played out leaves us with more questions than answers even today. A family once lived with a mongoose that talked. Or at least, it said it was a mongoose. The rest of the story makes about as much sense.  

One morning in the early 1930s, James Irving of the village of Dalby on the Isle of Man was getting ready to open his daily newspaper when a high-pitched disembodied voice called out impatiently, “Read it out, you fat-headed gnome!” The voice didn’t belong to Irving’s wife Margaret or his teenage daughter Voirrey—the only humans likely to be in the remote farmhouse—but though Irving may have been offended, he wasn’t surprised. He knew the voice belonged to a strange creature called Gef, who, for some time, had been living, largely unseen, in his family’s home.

The mysterious creature first showed up in the Irving residence sometime in 1931, and, according to the accounts of James, Margaret, and Voirrey, initially lived in the walls and, not yet able to speak, imitated a range of animal noises. Quickly, the unseen entity started to pick up human language from the Irvings, and, before long, introduced itself to the family: His name, he said, was “Gef” (pronounced “Jeff”), and he was a mongoose from India.

Yeah, that’s likely. But the story of Gef made it to the newspapers quite a few times. Journalists visited the farm, and one reporter even claimed to have seen the animal. One magazine sent a paranormal investigator out. That investigation found the evidence to be suspect, but is quite lacking in detail compared to what would be done today. Why would anyone concoct so weird a story? Why did newspapers jump on such an unbelievable account? And why did the mongoose say such stupid things? Read about Gef the mongoose at mental_floss.

Daniel Musashi (Flowarrior) and David Barron (Mr E) show us slick moves with lightsabers in the lovely setting of Vancouver’s Stanley Park.  

(YouTube link)

The producers at Kuma Films said,

We're huge fans of Star Wars and stoked to Star Wars The Force Awakens. We shot this over 2 days in Vancouver BC Canada in Stanley Park. We've been wanting to do this video for awhile ever since we met David Barron and saw his crazy contact sword skills and thought he looked like a Jedi using the force to move the swords around his body so we figured why not make a Star Wars themed video out of it.

Mad skills and the light that makes the weapons easy to see combine to make a thoroughly enjoyable demonstration video. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Canoramic Bathroom Reader.

(Image credit: Fisker Auto)

Think this story is going to be about fruit? The investors who financed the Fisker Karma probably wish it had been that kind of lemon. Their experience was bitter… but citrus had nothing to do with it.

A HEAD OF THE CURB

In August 2007, a Danish car designer named Henrik Fisker founded a company called Fisker Automotive and set out to design and build one of the world’s first plug-in hybrid cars. Called the Karma, the car would be powered by two electric motors fed by a bank of onboard batteries. If the car was driven beyond the range of the electric batteries, a gasoline-powered engine would spring to life, generating electricity to power the car and recharge the batteries. The batteries could also be recharged in as little as six hours by plugging the car into a conventional wall outlet.

On paper, the yet-to-be-built Karma was more advanced than any car on the market in 2007. The Chevy Volt, which would use similar technology, was still four years off. And though the Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid car, had been around since 1997, it used a different technology. It wasn’t a plug-in hybrid, so you couldn’t recharge the batteries by plugging the car into a wall outlet. And the Prius could drive for only seven miles on its electric batteries before they were exhausted and the gasoline engine had to take over.

OUT OF GAS

The Karma’s batteries, by comparison, promised a range of up to 50 miles. If you were one of the 78 percent of American commuters who drove fewer than 40 miles to work and back, that meant you could make your daily commute without using any gasoline at all and without generating any air pollution. Then when you got home, you could plug your car in overnight and do it again the next day. As long as you drove fewer than 40 miles a day, there was no limit to how long you could go without using any gas.

Although it’s been strangely warm lately, we all know it can’t last, and sooner or later, we’ll see winter weather. The worst storm I remember was in February of 1998, when my town got 14 inches of wet snow that brought down power lines and left us without power for two weeks. I burned anything I could find in the fireplace until the roads cleared enough for us to go stay elsewhere. But that doesn’t hold a candle to the ten biggest snowstorms ever. The Blizzard of 1888 was devastating.

The storm struck in early March and started out as a serious rain storm. From Sunday night to Monday morning, the temperature plummeted and the rain turned to snow. In the end, New York City received 22 inches (56 centimeters) of snow, shutting the city down and causing floods when the snow melted. Other places received much more: 58 inches (1.5 meters) of snow in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and 45 inches (1.14 m) in New Haven, Conn. Snow drifts as high as 50 or 60 feet (15.2 to 18.3 m) were reported on Long Island, and wind gusts were reported as fast as 80 mph (128.7 kph).

What’s worse, more than 400 people died due to that storm. And it only ranks as number ten on the list! However, storms vary in area covered, amount of snow, amount of damage, number of people affected, and other conditions, so it’s difficult to rank the “worst.” Still, these ten will make you feel lucky to have avoided them. 

The Unipiper (Brian Kidd) gets into the spirit of The Force Awakens by trading in his unicycle for a BB-8 torso. The balance is strong with him. Not only is he staying upright on that thing in the rain, he’s also playing his flaming bagpipes while wearing a Kylo Ren getup!

(YouTube link)

As usual, he’s doing his best to keep Portland weird. -via Digg

The Force is strong in this run. But how strong? The Force was so strong that it drove @g_ianni to join me on this run to crush all 15.5 miles without any proper training. THAT strong. Come and feel the Force of the Darkside. The turn-by-turn directions are up in my bio and can also be accessed at bit.ly/Darth_PDX. May the Force be with you! #darthvader #theforcemademedoit #theforceawakens #runwars #starwars #hypebeast #traveloregon #force1612 @rgaofficial #nikerunning #nikeplus #theartawakens

A photo posted by Gene Lu (@genelu) on Dec 16, 2015 at 10:34am PST

Gene Lu is a runner who uses the Nike+ running app. It has a GPS tracking feature that plots your running route. Lu plotted his to render images of characters and spaceships and things from the Star Wars universe. He started off with a TIE Fighter. 

For the Empire! To run for the Dark Side, use the Force. And a phone. I’ve compiled the turn-by-turn directions, which you can find in my bio or at bit.ly/ATAT_PDX. Load up the directions before your next run and prepare for lightspeed. The run starts on SE 6th Ave and SE Stark St in Portland, OR. May the Force be with you! #theforceawakens #atatwalker #mediumblaster #heavylasercannon #rundraw #runwars #starwars #theforceawakens #traveloregon #bestoforegon #exploregon #hypebeast #force1612 #nikeplus #theartawakens

A photo posted by Gene Lu (@genelu) on Dec 12, 2015 at 10:53am PST

While the system was probably developed to measure your route and to keep you from getting lost, creative people will always find another cool use for technology. Check out the Stormtrooper as well. Each picture has a link to the directions. There may be more routes coming to Lu’s Instagram page. -via The Daily Dot

I made a huge holiday feast for Christmas Eve, and then went to my mother’s house for another on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, I made four kinds of candy to give away as gifts (with leftovers) and received gifts of candy and cookies. One or two furious days of cooking mean that I won’t be cooking at all for the next week. If anyone gets tired of leftovers, they can bring home takeout, I won’t mind. I hope your Christmas feasting was just as nice. This comic is from Sarah Andersen at Sarah’s Scribbles.

A new Star Wars movie with new characters means new cosplay! Redditor samartypants got ahead of this year’s cons by dressing as Rey for her family’s Boxing Day party. Now, Boxing Day isn’t normally a costume event, but her family began the tradition 13 years ago for themselves. Cool idea. She also showed us a closeup of the stick she made. The entire costume was created from things she found around the house the night before the party.

GoPro cameras are small and extremely versatile. You can attach them to helmets, animals, selfie sticks, and drones, among other things. They also take high-quality video, so it’s no wonder we love to see the POV clips people take with them.

(YouTube link)

The company put together this compilation of the best POV clips from GoPro videos posted in 2015. It’s a whirlwind of activity and may induce vertigo. Come along for a wild ride! -via Tastefully Offensive

If you had fun trying to find the panda among the snowmen, you’ll get a kick trying to find him among all the metalheads in this illustration by Westum. It also makes you realize that the musicians, while trying to make themselves up to look skull-like and scary, actually end up resembling adorable endangered giant pandas.  -via reddit

Donny and Miranda Goeb came home from Pearl Harbor (where he’s serving with the Air Force) to visit Donny’s family for Christmas. What Donny’s mom got was the biggest surprise ever -a new granddaughter for Christmas!

(YouTube link)

How was grandma surprised by this? The new baby, Lily, was adopted as a newborn. She knew the Goebs were trying to adopt, but that’s only been since October, and when it happened, it was out of the blue as far as she knew. -via Buzzfeed

Last week, Souderton High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, had a fundraiser during lunch that featured teachers doing karaoke Christmas songs in the cafeteria. One of the participants was a lunch lady. Becky Alderfer sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and as she sang, someone finally had the presence of mind to record the last few lines.

(YouTube link)

Alderfer’s boss knew of her talent. After all, she’s the music director at her church. But the students were surprised and delighted to hear their lunch lady belt it out like that. She couldn't stop to sign autographs, though -she had to get back to washing trays. -via Viral Viral Videos

There are certain tasks in life that you need to do every once in a while, but so seldom that it’s easy to forget. Or to just put it off indefinitely. While we are getting ready to turn another calendar year would be a good time to do some of them -or at plan to. Have you bought a new calendar yet? Maybe you can mark it up by assigning those yearly tasks to different months of 2016, to remind you to get it done. What tasks? Here’s a couple you may not ever think of.

5. DRAIN YOUR HOT WATER HEATER.

The next few annual check ups are related to the home. If your household has one or two people in it, your hot water heater needs to be checked every six months and drained at least every 12 months. Draining it will help it last longer by eliminating any minerals or debris that have built up and could cause the unit to break down. It’s a job you can do yourself with a little time and a hose, so pick a Saturday, read the instructions, and hop to it.

12. TRASH YOUR BEAUTY STASH.

Not all of it, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on beauty products and stay diligent when it comes to refreshing the supply—this stuff is going on your body, after all, often in highly sensitive areas. In particular, nail polish, sunscreen, hair products, lipsticks and liners, eyeliner, brow pencils, face creams, foundation, cream eyeshadows and blushes, cleansers, and other like items should not sit on your shelf for more than a year. Many of these you’ll be using with enough frequency that they won’t last long anyway, but pay attention to those items that might accidentally stick around longer than they should.

I must admit that there are quite a few on the list that I haven’t ever done. I’m afraid to see what’s on the bottom of my water heaters, since I don’t know how old they were when I got them! But in my previous house, I had one completely fall apart, so it’s worth a try. Read the rest of the list at mental_floss.

NASA has had many spacesuit designs, depending on what they need to do. First, it was to protect an astronaut from the unknown. Later, we knew what space was like, but we also started doing new things, like spacewalks and traipsing around the moon (yes, we really did). Now they are working on a suit that can withstand the rigors of a trip to Mars, which must be flexible enough for an astronauts to do every kind of tasks.  

(YouTube link)

There’s a lot that goes into such designs, and NASA is always striving to improve them. Protection, comfort, utility, and durability -all are necessary for a suit that goes to Mars. -via Geeks Are Sexy