Sideblog: Orange Box!

I played Portal for the first time this weekend. Holy Crap!

If This Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right

Since you watch my wish list like a hawk (and honestly, who could blame you?) you probably noticed the things I've added to it over the last few days. Along with rearranging my (basement) office, I've decided that my next pet project will be to move gaming from the family room to the basement, where I can play later and louder into the evening without bothering Megan, and never have to worry about sharing the TV — and to do it in style.

It's a pretty significant undertaking, and it's not going to go very quickly at all. But I'm motivated!

First and foremost, I'm going to pick up a projector. I've rearranged my office so that a far wall can be used as my display, and eventually, I'll have some sort of switch where I can flip between my computer, the 360, and the Wii. I am on a budget, of course, so as nice as it would be to buy a $3,000 widescreen HD projector, it's not likely. I'm probably going to spend a tenth of that, but if I shop smartly, I should be able to get something decent enough. And with a 70-inch display in front of me, I won't notice that much difference if it's not HD.

Then there's the issue of sound. I have a fairly decent set of computer speakers with a sub woofer, and they put out a decent amount of sound, but I'm just not sure how well they'll perform with something like Rock Band, where the inclination to turn it up to 11 is ever-present. They also don't have a remote, so lurching over to hit buttons on the speakers to turn volume up and down, while really not *that* bad could get annoying quickly. This will be something that I'm going to have to wait and see how much I really need before I buy, for sure. But it's on my radar. (What's a good man-room without surround sound?)

I did say "in style," right?

Since 50% of this project is about my work space, and about 48% of it is to improve gaming immersion, (and most of that is Rock Band and Guitar Hero) I want to put in some accessories.

It's pretty difficult to find a seat that's the right height for drumming. The closest I've found yet is actually our family room coffee table, and that's a little hard on the bum. So the next big thing is a real drum throne.

They're a little more expensive than I was hoping — I've been looking at the kind that rotate to adjust height, as I'm not inclined to trust the "locking" type long term. These things very quickly get up over $100. For a stool! But it's important, and more so because I find myself on drums more often than guitar these days. So I will probably grin and bare it.

And to put it politely, the drumsticks that come with the game … are crap. And drumsticks are relatively inexpensive. So why not get some nicer ones? I've been looking at these nylon tipped anti-vibration sticks, and for under $20, they sound like just what I need. And another cheap but useful addition would be some support struts for the outer drum pads.

What about guitars? I have some spare guitar stands from when I used to collect and play real guitars, so these may be a welcome addition. But better than that? Wall mounts! How cool would that be? And I'm sure I can get some small storage hooks for cheap at a hardware store. I may also add some weight to my guitars to make them feel a little more sturdy and rock-worthy. In fact, there's lots of easy and relatively inexpensive guitar mods.

And lastly, for a true touch of style, I've got my eye on some sound activated lights. But no self respecting geek would run hot, dangerous 100-200w bulb strips. No, we use LED's! I'm still shopping around, but so far, this is the best deal I've found, and I've seen some video of them in action, and they look awesome!

Mom always said: Anything worth doing is worth doing right!

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

I'll tell you what! Talking to phone robots. Nobody likes talking to those things, and they're ridiculously imprecise. Just let me push the numbers! And what about a scenario where maybe I don't want everyone within earshot to know my social security number? But that's not even why I started this entry. No, the real problem is customer service phone routing systems that send you to a specific group of representatives based on your calling telephone number. Today I called Verizon because I heard from a friend that they're giving away free FiOS internet speed upgrades. Not only do they have an annoying phone robot that requires you to answer 5 questions deep before sending you to a person (mashing 0 gets you nowhere with this one…), but then that person can only deal with a certain set of accounts. Now I'm all for security and protecting privacy and all of that jazz. But when I spend half an hour on the phone with a CSR only to find out that she can't make any changes to my account because she can't do anything to PA accounts… I'm not a happy customer! How many YEARS have we had the option to take our phone numbers with us when we change providers or move? And we haven't run into this problem before? I'm calling BS. You're already driving me freaking batty with the phone robot, the least you can do is make it USEFUL and ask me which state I'm in. That. That's what grinds my freaking gears. Now, I'm still on hold, 45 minutes later, trying to get through to someone who can change a PA account. The first woman, who couldn't help me, hung up on me when she tried to transfer me. Nothing is really free, is it?