BUY
Check the e-time
The Pebble e-paper watch for iPhone and Android is the most promising of the new generation of e-watches, which are geek-cool devices that communicate with your smartphone, sending silent vibrating alerts for text messages, emails and incoming calls. The Pebble backlit e-paper display makes it readable in any light and goes easy on the battery — a single charge lasts a week. Download different watch faces, a golf course rangefinder or a GPS app that will clock your running or biking speed. It’s available for preorder now and will ship in early 2013. US$150. getpebble.com
Shop dorky
Need a quick gift for that special friend who’s outgrown lightsabers but is a little sad about it? Thinkgeek.com will set you up (and make you giggle at the same time) with a periodic table fridge magnet set (US$10), zombie family car decals (US$10) or a bar of bacon soap (US$6). To spruce up your office, pick up a USB-heated travel mug (US$15), a Star Trek electronic door chime (US$30), a Like/Dislike stamp set (US$13) or some floppy disk sticky notes (US$10). We could go on. thinkgeek.com
SEE
Hobbit up
The first installment of Peter Jackson’s three-part Hobbit movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, hits theatres mid December. You’ve been waiting for this since you were 10, and now’s the time to get ready: check out the online trailer, reread the book and make plans for opening night. Why not review episodes of the BBC’s Sherlock to check out Martin Freeman (Watson) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock)? They’ll be playing Bilbo and Smaug, respectively. thehobbit.com
Super fun
DC Comics character Green Arrow makes his lead-role debut this fall as the latest small-screen superhero in the CW series Arrow. Billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, played by Torontoborn actor Stephen Amell, goes missing after a violent shipwreck and reappears five years later with some mean new survival skills and a conscience. He moonlights as a vigilante while maintaining his jet-setting image by day. The execution is dark and contemporary — just how we comic nerds like it. Premieres October 10. Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CTV Two.
DO
BLAM!
The new Comic Book Lounge + Gallery features an unpretentious second floor space that serves as part store, part gallery and part community gathering place. Check out the rotating display of art by comic artists ($20 to $40 on average), peruse the pegboard and plastic folder displays or flip through your new purchase while enjoying a 50-cent Freezie on the couch. Come by for the store’s Halloween party — in costume if you’d like — and you’ll be rewarded with a free comic book. 587A College Street. comicbooklounge.com
Space out
The annual CBC Massey Lectures have been highlighting research and ideas by prodigious thinkers for over 50 years. This year, theoretical physicist
and cosmologist Neil Turok’s talks, titled The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos, argue that we are on the verge of another major paradigm shift — a quantum revolution that will replace our current digital age. The fifth and final installment of Turok’s Canada-wide series will be delivered in Toronto at Koerner Hall on October 24. You can also listen to the series on CBC’s Ideas from November 12 to 16, download the podcasts or buy the book from House of Anansi Press. cbc.ca/ideas/masseys, houseofanansi.com